Could you put that into something comprehensible, like Weegie?
*stuck*
I'm not fluent in jargonese, but I believe the gist of it is that this supposed Titan of Tech given access to government systems and confidential databases hasn't a fcking clue.
Worse, Elon's finest might be contemplating feeding confidential data into public or even Chinese LLMs (AI machines).
“Put you money where you mouth is. Reform will be looking for shoo-in candidates. A celebrity Spectator columnist? Drinks all round!”
*****
I am a tiny bit tempted, TBH
Obvs I don’t want to do any of the boring shit like actually meet constituents or care about poor people or spend much time in crappy old provincial Britain - esp November-March - but if I could find some vaguely agreeably constituency which is very easily won and where I can RFA - rule from abroad - I might be inclined
They already have Farage for that, and you're too old to be a replacement.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
That’s why someone like @Leon should stand for Reform, and be part of the cabinet.
Exactly. I don’t want to do this but I am a patriot - I will never ever EVER forsake my beloved homeland outside the winter months and late autumn. If Britain summons me (after February 28th) I shall always ALWAYS answer unless I have a commission to go somewhere nice with a pool
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
First they came for the librarians And I did nothing...
They refused to speak up.
I just collected a free tree from my library provided by Surrey County Council. I picked a crab apple tree. It is a green project. I think it is a plan to grow your own books and you have to be at the start of the process.
Not sure this is a good use of tax payers money. I'm guessing the only people collecting them are people who would go down to the garden centre to buy them anyway.
5. Other schools may have even higher overhead rates. Harvard's is around 69%.
This new order slashes that percentage to a maximum of 15%. This means cutting one of the most important sources of university funding nationwide by 75% or more.
Universities cannot function with this scale of cut.
6. The policy does not just affect funding going forward. All existing NIH grants will have their indirect rates cut to 15% as of today, the date of issuance.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
Has Reform hit its ceiling? Could the electorate remember the Lib Dems exist?
The media are only interested in promoting Reform. That’s the Lib Dems’ problem.
Also, it feels as though Reform are very much 'angrier than thou'.
And that seems to be what (some) voters want at the moment.
It's very tempting, as a voter, to think "I really, really hate this lot - I will vote for the people who are shoutiest about them and/or the people who most annoy them." That isn't necessarily rational.
Couldn't agree more. It reminds me of @DavidL's rather plaintive 'who the hell do I vote for' question yesterday.
It is even possible to feel that the current government are really quite crap but still see them as the least worst of the available options. I *think* that's where I still am. It's not that I don't want to just drive the lot of them into the sea. It's just that it seems irresponsible to join the stampede without considering what will fill the vacuum that is left afterwards.
Reform. You vote for Reform
I feel fairly confident that @DavidL is never going to vote Reform. Why? Because he is sensible and has a brain.
"A federal judge early Saturday temporarily restricted access by Elon Musk’s government efficiency program to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems, saying there was a risk of “irreparable harm.” "
NY Times
Hearing on the 14th. Clear implication that Musk is acting ultra vires. It ought not to be a hard case to decide.
5. Other schools may have even higher overhead rates. Harvard's is around 69%.
This new order slashes that percentage to a maximum of 15%. This means cutting one of the most important sources of university funding nationwide by 75% or more.
Universities cannot function with this scale of cut.
6. The policy does not just affect funding going forward. All existing NIH grants will have their indirect rates cut to 15% as of today, the date of issuance.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
That’s why someone like @Leon should stand for Reform, and be part of the cabinet.
Exactly. I don’t want to do this but I am a patriot - I will never ever EVER forsake my beloved homeland outside the winter months and late autumn. If Britain summons me (after February 28th) I shall always ALWAYS answer unless I have a commission to go somewhere nice with a pool
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
I fancy Foreign Secretary
You do realise there's a Cabinet meeting to attend every Tuesday in...erm... grey drizzle drenched freezing London?
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
That’s why someone like @Leon should stand for Reform, and be part of the cabinet.
Exactly. I don’t want to do this but I am a patriot - I will never ever EVER forsake my beloved homeland outside the winter months and late autumn. If Britain summons me (after February 28th) I shall always ALWAYS answer unless I have a commission to go somewhere nice with a pool
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 1h There must be a good chance now that we'll see Reform polling over 30% within weeks. Most people will see supporting Reform as the natural way to stick two fingers up to all this.
This is a good short (20 minutes) video running through the current legal cases resulting from Trump's Executive Orders, and the impact so far of such action.
It also shows well the problems and opportunities of the USA's politicised Judicial System, as it is now, and the strategies being used.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
That's because the last government was so crap for so long that I'm willing to give Labour more than 6 months before writing them off.
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
The Bigg Market Hooters will be the first where the staff wear more clothes than the customers.
A couple of things:
1 - It seems to be run by the same people who have the Nottingham one. They got around the need for a full licensing application there by transferring an existing license.
2 - I don't see how they get around UK Employment Law to have purely female wait-staff who are a floor show. Discrimination is allowed in law, but it is very circumscribed.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
Not at present. Looking ahead, potential and power work in the customary way. If they look like wielding power in any form then people who both like power and have some degree of experience in it will engage with them. Some may even not be nuts. Wait and see.
Listening to people who denounced Trump - including his VP - both joining the show and also becoming fellow travellers, Prof Niall Ferguson is a recent example I have just noticed, is illustrative and exemplary.
Wonder how the good professor feels now they are gutting US university research?
Probably that it serves the universities right for being incubators of the woke mind virus. That true intellectual progress comes from scholarly gentleman of independent means. Et cetera.
The issue is the UK is now in long term ABSOLUTE decline. We are getting steadily poorer and one of the major - but not solitary - drivers of this is
BREXIT
We were getting steadily poorer *before* Brexit. Why can't you see this? Brexit has accelerated the decline, that's hard to deny, but the idea that we just rejoin and everything is fixed is laughable.
Deep structural issues in our economy which easier trade with the EU did not address.
Quite so. Look at all the charts and it began in 2008
We were overreliant on finance and London and we’ve still not worked out how to fix that. Mass migration has been tried again and again and again and weirdly that hasn’t worked
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
That's because the last government was so crap for so long that I'm willing to give Labour more than 6 months before writing them off.
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
So you're happy the government is giving away £18bn and territory to a hostile foreign power in league with China? You're also happy with the prospect of the government opening the door to hundreds of billions in liability for reparations?
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
Not at present. Looking ahead, potential and power work in the customary way. If they look like wielding power in any form then people who both like power and have some degree of experience in it will engage with them. Some may even not be nuts. Wait and see.
Listening to people who denounced Trump - including his VP - both joining the show and also becoming fellow travellers, Prof Niall Ferguson is a recent example I have just noticed, is illustrative and exemplary.
Is he the learned one who is managing to compare Trump2 to FDR and the New Deal?
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
There aren't a lot of realistic options for many councils, and they are usually determined by lack of money or the law, so any damage from 'newbies' may be constrained as ideology doesn't have as much chance to come through even when there are multiple choices.
But that's not to say the idiotic or corrupt cannot still manage to mess things up significantly, just look at places like Tower Hamlets.
Though being unable to work together at all may be a more pressing problem potentially. If they priortise people who fell out with previous parties that can cause issues.
This is a good short (20 minutes) video running through the current legal cases resulting from Trump's Executive Orders, and the impact so far of such action.
It also shows well the problems and opportunities of the USA's politicised Judicial System, as it is now, and the strategies being used.
It was always clear that the most litigious society on earth was going to have loads of cases generated by Trump's executive orders - as listed in the above.
The next question is one of the most significant ones facing the USA and the world at this time: Will the USA government obey the court orders, or will they go the next stage of fascism and simple ignore them if necessary using force to do so.
I hope USA's democracy loving liberals are watching this with care. Any news will be received with interest by some of us on PB.
Has Reform hit its ceiling? Could the electorate remember the Lib Dems exist?
The media are only interested in promoting Reform. That’s the Lib Dems’ problem.
Also, it feels as though Reform are very much 'angrier than thou'.
And that seems to be what (some) voters want at the moment.
It's very tempting, as a voter, to think "I really, really hate this lot - I will vote for the people who are shoutiest about them and/or the people who most annoy them." That isn't necessarily rational.
Couldn't agree more. It reminds me of @DavidL's rather plaintive 'who the hell do I vote for' question yesterday.
It is even possible to feel that the current government are really quite crap but still see them as the least worst of the available options. I *think* that's where I still am. It's not that I don't want to just drive the lot of them into the sea. It's just that it seems irresponsible to join the stampede without considering what will fill the vacuum that is left afterwards.
Reform. You vote for Reform
I feel fairly confident that @DavidL is never going to vote Reform. Why? Because he is sensible and has a brain.
He supports Manchester United.
Such a choice is usually made as a child for life, so we cannot hold that against him, he's worked hard to redeem himself since that mistake.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
Yep. Total shower. But perhaps they'll hook up with a British equivalent of Elon Musk. There must be one.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
That’s why someone like @Leon should stand for Reform, and be part of the cabinet.
Exactly. I don’t want to do this but I am a patriot - I will never ever EVER forsake my beloved homeland outside the winter months and late autumn. If Britain summons me (after February 28th) I shall always ALWAYS answer unless I have a commission to go somewhere nice with a pool
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
I fancy Foreign Secretary
You do realise there's a Cabinet meeting to attend every Tuesday in...erm... grey drizzle drenched freezing London?
The Foreign Secretary has important international business in Tahiti or the Maldives, he will have to join via Zoom.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
The next round of local elections is going to be a bit of a damp squib anyway, it is mostly only counties and some of those will be cancelled due to being in the first wave of "devolution" (eg Hampshire). On the other hand, that could help smaller parties by helping them concentrate their resources in a few key areas
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
Yes, they might do some performative motions - the kind of which you get at some councils already - and have some loudmouths trying to pretend the local council is akin to Westminster - ditto - but avoid constant infighting and people would not see massive differences.
I have known since my early 20's that both I and my brother have Protein Factor C deficiency which is associated with blood clotting. I've had 2 DVT's before. I have to take blood thinning drugs after operations and had to do so during my pregnancies. So I suspected what might have happened. Have been checked out for diabetes and no don't have it.
Blood tests are not consistent with infection, according to doctor. Plus it's been bloody cold so have been wearing trousers or thick tights. And it most definitely has not been gardening weather. Cat kneads me on chest when coming for her daily cuddle but not so as to scratch or puncture. She mostly damages my jumper!
Anyway thanks for the good wishes.
Having a sleep now. Am reaching the coma stage .....
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
The next round of local elections is going to be a bit of a damp squib anyway, it is mostly only counties and some of those will be cancelled due to being in the first wave of "devolution" (eg Hampshire). On the other hand, that could help smaller parties by helping them concentrate their resources in a few key areas
And very few seats for Labour to lose in most of those areas!
Has Reform hit its ceiling? Could the electorate remember the Lib Dems exist?
The media are only interested in promoting Reform. That’s the Lib Dems’ problem.
Also, it feels as though Reform are very much 'angrier than thou'.
And that seems to be what (some) voters want at the moment.
It's very tempting, as a voter, to think "I really, really hate this lot - I will vote for the people who are shoutiest about them and/or the people who most annoy them." That isn't necessarily rational.
Couldn't agree more. It reminds me of @DavidL's rather plaintive 'who the hell do I vote for' question yesterday.
It is even possible to feel that the current government are really quite crap but still see them as the least worst of the available options. I *think* that's where I still am. It's not that I don't want to just drive the lot of them into the sea. It's just that it seems irresponsible to join the stampede without considering what will fill the vacuum that is left afterwards.
Reform. You vote for Reform
I feel fairly confident that @DavidL is never going to vote Reform. Why? Because he is sensible and has a brain.
He supports Manchester United.
Such a choice is usually made as a child for life, so we cannot hold that against him, he's worked hard to redeem himself since that mistake.
True. And I guess it speaks to his moral fibre that he has stuck with them these last few years. A lesser man would have bailed.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
That's because the last government was so crap for so long that I'm willing to give Labour more than 6 months before writing them off.
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
So you're happy the government is giving away £18bn and territory to a hostile foreign power in league with China? You're also happy with the prospect of the government opening the door to hundreds of billions in liability for reparations?
I guess it's a view.
I don't care about giving away small legacy colonial territories in a part of the world we have no geopolitical or military influence.
I also don't have a strong view on £90m pa being paid for leasing a military base for the Americans, where presumably we get various quid quo pros with them elsewhere in military terms.
I don't believe we will ever pay any reparations and it's all talk. There's no money left, whatever the politics or it. I will care if they are paid. Until that point, I don't care about talking.
I understand many on here yet excited by it. But I'm much more interested as to whether their positive noise on planning reform and building come to fruition. That was always going to take longer than 6 months to get right.
I recall the Reform manifesto (sorry, their 'contract with you') being decently put together in that it was mercifully short on waffle and had sections on 'immediate' actions they would theoretically take, alongside longer term actions. Sadly the brevity meant a lot of the proposals were very vague, not massively unusual in manifestos, but it's not like it was outright crazy like the SDP manifesto, and it didn't really jump out to me as 'these people will do things massively differently to the big 2.5 parties'. So the idea there would be lots of change under them I don't get.
8 pictures of Farage in 28 pages may have been a bit of overkill, but the Starmer picture count was pretty high in Labour's I think).
IIRC the contract document made a few small nods to conspiracy theory, a thing they need to jettison fast if they want normal people on board.. Its costings and economics were rubbish, but not so much worse than all the others.
But there is thing its opponents are in total denial about. Whatever the underlying Reform powers privately think their public documented face is thus:
Reform supports in a traditional form the 1950s post war social democratic deal: law and order, cradle to grave welfare, pensions, safety net for the unfortunate, free education to 18, NHS free at delivery, NATO, progressive taxation, regulated private enterprise, international trade, low inward migration.
If they can stick to that and put the loonies in a box and stop sympathising with violent thugs and make it clear that all law abiding people currently lawfully in the UK are us and not 'them' they can do well.
Whether they can actually run UK plc well I have no idea, butr no-one else can.
Both they and the Greens had costings that were completely laughable. The big three parties weren't great but were not so obviously ludicrous. But then if you want Farage as PM it's not out of prudence, it's a cry to smash things up and see where the pieces land.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
The LDs have been around for quite some time now, yet there are plenty of Labour supporters even who do act like LDs not automatically supporting Labour is a kind of betrayal.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 1h There must be a good chance now that we'll see Reform polling over 30% within weeks. Most people will see supporting Reform as the natural way to stick two fingers up to all this.
Topping some polls barely a month before nominations for elections open. It's good timing for Reform to get some additional 'screw them' protest support on top of the other factors already at play.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
The next round of local elections is going to be a bit of a damp squib anyway, it is mostly only counties and some of those will be cancelled due to being in the first wave of "devolution" (eg Hampshire). On the other hand, that could help smaller parties by helping them concentrate their resources in a few key areas
And very few seats for Labour to lose in most of those areas!
As an aside, I have always wondered why local elections are all on the same day. Was this always the case? Why can't they set their own dates, as long as the fall into the correct electoral cycle?
I have known since my early 20's that both I and my brother have Protein Factor C deficiency which is associated with blood clotting. I've had 2 DVT's before. I have to take blood thinning drugs after operations and had to do so during my pregnancies. So I suspected what might have happened. Have been checked out for diabetes and no don't have it.
Blood tests are not consistent with infection, according to doctor. Plus it's been bloody cold so have been wearing trousers or thick tights. And it most definitely has not been gardening weather. Cat kneads me on chest when coming for her daily cuddle but not so as to scratch or puncture. She mostly damages my jumper!
Anyway thanks for the good wishes.
Having a sleep now. Am reaching the coma stage .....
I've recently got a cat for the first time. Great for the mood. Very soothing.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
That’s why someone like @Leon should stand for Reform, and be part of the cabinet.
Exactly. I don’t want to do this but I am a patriot - I will never ever EVER forsake my beloved homeland outside the winter months and late autumn. If Britain summons me (after February 28th) I shall always ALWAYS answer unless I have a commission to go somewhere nice with a pool
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
I fancy Foreign Secretary
You do realise there's a Cabinet meeting to attend every Tuesday in...erm... grey drizzle drenched freezing London?
The trade off for a high profile celebrity journalist/columnist Right Honourable MP is probably Cabinet by Teams/Zoom. PM Nigel will more than likely be running the show from Mar a Lago anyway.
This is a good short (20 minutes) video running through the current legal cases resulting from Trump's Executive Orders, and the impact so far of such action.
It also shows well the problems and opportunities of the USA's politicised Judicial System, as it is now, and the strategies being used.
Need to go out soon, but from reading the description, I'm sure I can expect a fair and balanced analysis!
It's partisan certainly, but it is clear about it's position, and also illustrates how the system works in the USA.
It's the opposite side of the strategies Republicans have been pursuing for decades:
1 - Get a sympathetic District Judge to make a nationwide-until-contradicted-on-appeal ruling, ideally a single-judge Hicksville court so you have no risk of getting the wrong judge. 2 - Do it in an appeal circuit with similar sympathies. 3 - Do it in a circuit where the Appeals to the Supreme Court, which are filtered through a single SC Justice, go through a sympathetic judge. 4 - Rely on the SCOTUS only taking small numbers of cases.
The USA Judicial system is politically Balkanised, and that is how it works. That's just how it is until one hopes it is brought out of the 18C.
In Trump term 1, there were 2000 lawsuits, of which his administration lost 80% - that is a measure of their willingness to ignore law.
As I see it, these pro-democracy (I agree with that line) campaigners see this as the last chance to avoid USA democracy being rubbed out, as a tactic to run interference to protect Constitutional Rule from Trump and his oligarchs.
At this point, such campaigns are perhaps the only bulwark left in the USA system to protect against a criminal regime. And I think niceties such as "but ... it's not balanced reporting" are off the table.
I think one thing they are perhaps missing is a strategy for the risk that Trump's puppets win the mid-term elections.
First they came for the librarians And I did nothing...
They refused to speak up.
I just collected a free tree from my library provided by Surrey County Council. I picked a crab apple tree. It is a green project. I think it is a plan to grow your own books and you have to be at the start of the process.
Not sure this is a good use of tax payers money. I'm guessing the only people collecting them are people who would go down to the garden centre to buy them anyway.
The queue was very long.
If every house in your street had a single fruit tree, it would technically be an orchard. Which is nice...
The guy that owned my parents' house apparently bought a tree for every house in the street (not fruit) in the 1930s. Their house is only one where those trees are still standing.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
Not necessarily
You could be 100% aligned with Labour’s values but like the perceived independence that comes from voting LibDem
I have known since my early 20's that both I and my brother have Protein Factor C deficiency which is associated with blood clotting. I've had 2 DVT's before. I have to take blood thinning drugs after operations and had to do so during my pregnancies. So I suspected what might have happened. Have been checked out for diabetes and no don't have it.
Blood tests are not consistent with infection, according to doctor. Plus it's been bloody cold so have been wearing trousers or thick tights. And it most definitely has not been gardening weather. Cat kneads me on chest when coming for her daily cuddle but not so as to scratch or puncture. She mostly damages my jumper!
Anyway thanks for the good wishes.
Having a sleep now. Am reaching the coma stage .....
I've recently got a cat for the first time. Great for the mood. Very soothing.
Hope you're better soon.
We got our two kittens (well, rapidly becoming cats...) a few months before we had a really, really bad end to 2024. The presence of the kittens really helped us through the bad times. Particularly for Mrs J, who has always resisted getting cats because she is worried about becoming a Mad Cat Lady.
(I eventually persuaded her to get one... and she came back with two. But they are sisters, and I think two cats is very nice, as they play with each other and give each other company.)
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
The next round of local elections is going to be a bit of a damp squib anyway, it is mostly only counties and some of those will be cancelled due to being in the first wave of "devolution" (eg Hampshire). On the other hand, that could help smaller parties by helping them concentrate their resources in a few key areas
And very few seats for Labour to lose in most of those areas!
As an aside, I have always wondered why local elections are all on the same day. Was this always the case? Why can't they set their own dates, as long as the fall into the correct electoral cycle?
The power of convention?
The legislation sets the terms as 4 years, so whenever your first election day was you will (absent other legislation) always have to have those on your cycle have elections at the exact same day 4 years later?
I don't really know how it was decided what cycle various councils were on though, which is confused by those electing by thirds as well (I've heard you can elect by halves, but I don't know if anywhere does).
You take office on the 4th day after election though, so I like Thursdays so you start early the next week (so Wednesdays would also work ok).
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
This is a good short (20 minutes) video running through the current legal cases resulting from Trump's Executive Orders, and the impact so far of such action.
It also shows well the problems and opportunities of the USA's politicised Judicial System, as it is now, and the strategies being used.
Need to go out soon, but from reading the description, I'm sure I can expect a fair and balanced analysis!
It's partisan certainly, but it is clear about it's position, and also illustrates how the system works in the USA.
It's the opposite side of the strategies Republicans have been pursuing for decades:
1 - Get a sympathetic district Judge to make a nationwide-until-contradicted-on-appeal ruling, ideally a single-judge Hicksville court so you have no risk of getting the wrong judge. 2 - Do it in an appeal circuit with similar sympathies. 3 - Do it in a circuit where the Appeals to the Supreme Court, which are filtered through a single SC Judge, go through a sympathetic judge.
The USA Judicial system is politically Balkanised, and that is how it works. That's just how it is until one hopes it is brought out of the 18C.
In Trump term 1, there were 2000 lawsuits, of which his administration lost 80% - that is a measure of their willingness to ignore law.
As I see it, these pro-democracy (I agree with that line) campaigners see this as the last chance to avoid USA democracy being rubbed out, as a tactic to run interference to protect Constitutional Rule from Trump and his oligarchs.
At this point, such campaigns are perhaps the only bulwark left in the USA to protect against a criminal regime. And I think niceties such as "but ... it's not balanced reporting" are off the table.
I think one thing they are perhaps missing is a strategy for the risk that Trump's puppets win the mid-term elections.
As I see it, they are currently in the stages of removing impediments, checks and balances to implement a dictatorship should they wish; that's the playbook. In European terms, I'd say we are at the stage where the right wing press - Mail, Spectator and so on - were backing Mussolini, and before they realised what they were doing and flipped.
The clearest interview I have head on it was Anne Applabaum the other day, who of course has extensively studied Eastern European regimes and China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvNimQcdVZ8
I have known since my early 20's that both I and my brother have Protein Factor C deficiency which is associated with blood clotting. I've had 2 DVT's before. I have to take blood thinning drugs after operations and had to do so during my pregnancies. So I suspected what might have happened. Have been checked out for diabetes and no don't have it.
Blood tests are not consistent with infection, according to doctor. Plus it's been bloody cold so have been wearing trousers or thick tights. And it most definitely has not been gardening weather. Cat kneads me on chest when coming for her daily cuddle but not so as to scratch or puncture. She mostly damages my jumper!
Anyway thanks for the good wishes.
Having a sleep now. Am reaching the coma stage .....
Rest well. Presumably the CRP test results weren’t elevated?
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
That's because the last government was so crap for so long that I'm willing to give Labour more than 6 months before writing them off.
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
So you're happy the government is giving away £18bn and territory to a hostile foreign power in league with China? You're also happy with the prospect of the government opening the door to hundreds of billions in liability for reparations?
I guess it's a view.
Question - if its an outrageous Labour thing to do that, why did this start *under the Tories*?
Its like you're trying to embarrass yourselves and bring the party further into the gutter by advancing this argument. People aren't as stupid as you might like them to be - and the ones who are vote Reform already.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
This is a good short (20 minutes) video running through the current legal cases resulting from Trump's Executive Orders, and the impact so far of such action.
It also shows well the problems and opportunities of the USA's politicised Judicial System, as it is now, and the strategies being used.
Need to go out soon, but from reading the description, I'm sure I can expect a fair and balanced analysis!
It's partisan certainly, but it is clear about it's position, and also illustrates how the system works in the USA.
It's the opposite side of the strategies Republicans have been pursuing for decades:
1 - Get a sympathetic District Judge to make a nationwide-until-contradicted-on-appeal ruling, ideally a single-judge Hicksville court so you have no risk of getting the wrong judge. 2 - Do it in an appeal circuit with similar sympathies. 3 - Do it in a circuit where the Appeals to the Supreme Court, which are filtered through a single SC Justice, go through a sympathetic judge. 4 - Rely on the SCOTUS only taking small numbers of cases.
The USA Judicial system is politically Balkanised, and that is how it works. That's just how it is until one hopes it is brought out of the 18C.
In Trump term 1, there were 2000 lawsuits, of which his administration lost 80% - that is a measure of their willingness to ignore law.
As I see it, these pro-democracy (I agree with that line) campaigners see this as the last chance to avoid USA democracy being rubbed out, as a tactic to run interference to protect Constitutional Rule from Trump and his oligarchs.
At this point, such campaigns are perhaps the only bulwark left in the USA system to protect against a criminal regime. And I think niceties such as "but ... it's not balanced reporting" are off the table.
I think one thing they are perhaps missing is a strategy for the risk that Trump's puppets win the mid-term elections.
I don't think this ts particularly partisan in a legal sense. Musk is quite clearly acting ultra vires.
The Bigg Market Hooters will be the first where the staff wear more clothes than the customers.
A couple of things:
1 - It seems to be run by the same people who have the Nottingham one. They got around the need for a full licensing application there by transferring an existing license.
2 - I don't see how they get around UK Employment Law to have purely female wait-staff who are a floor show. Discrimination is allowed in law, but it is very circumscribed.
Suspect @dixiedean was making a joke about Friday nights in Newcastle in the winter.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
Not really
Their whole pitch is "the darkies are the issue", just as it always has been
The Bigg Market Hooters will be the first where the staff wear more clothes than the customers.
A couple of things:
1 - It seems to be run by the same people who have the Nottingham one. They got around the need for a full licensing application there by transferring an existing license.
2 - I don't see how they get around UK Employment Law to have purely female wait-staff who are a floor show. Discrimination is allowed in law, but it is very circumscribed.
Suspect @dixiedean was making a joke about Friday nights in Newcastle in the winter.
I'm sure he was, but those are still questions I find interesting.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Can you imagine a Reform cabinet? That c-nt who got locked up for knocking the shit out of his ex will probably be CoE. Tice But Dim as Foreign Sec and Rupert Lowe as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Beyond Farage, who is a scheming opportunist sans pareil, they have less than nothing.
It is the absence of talent and any underlying political philosophy that means the locals are dangerous for Reform at Westminster. Dozens of councils run by unvetted newbies who agree on nothing except what they once read on the side of a bus might destroy the party.
Except they can blame the stingy Government for everything that goes wrong. It's exactly the same formula as the SNP has always tried to use - anything good comes from local initiative, anything bad is due to underfunding and incompetence by Westminster - and it has a good chance of working because it has more than a grain of truth to it.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
The next round of local elections is going to be a bit of a damp squib anyway, it is mostly only counties and some of those will be cancelled due to being in the first wave of "devolution" (eg Hampshire). On the other hand, that could help smaller parties by helping them concentrate their resources in a few key areas
And very few seats for Labour to lose in most of those areas!
As an aside, I have always wondered why local elections are all on the same day. Was this always the case? Why can't they set their own dates, as long as the fall into the correct electoral cycle?
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
Not really
Their whole pitch is "the darkies are the issue", just as it always has been
His manifesto is very much based on the Trump playbook. "Everything is bad and it's all the fault of people who I don't like".
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Thats certainly at the heart of the pitch they make, but they do go beyond that. Farage on the NHS - maintain free at the point of access but accept the current model is broken.
It shouldn't be that outrageous a point to advance that the current model is broken when it patently is
First they came for the librarians And I did nothing...
They refused to speak up.
I just collected a free tree from my library provided by Surrey County Council. I picked a crab apple tree. It is a green project. I think it is a plan to grow your own books and you have to be at the start of the process.
Not sure this is a good use of tax payers money. I'm guessing the only people collecting them are people who would go down to the garden centre to buy them anyway.
The queue was very long.
If every house in your street had a single fruit tree, it would technically be an orchard. Which is nice...
The guy that owned my parents' house apparently bought a tree for every house in the street (not fruit) in the 1930s. Their house is only one where those trees are still standing.
When my dad was laying out estates for Sutton-in-Ashfield Urban District Council around 1970, where serviced plots were sold off, he put it in the deeds that every purchaser was required to plant a tree.
A small thing, but it made it leafier, and it shows to an extent even now.
One mistake that you can still see is that they went for small plots, with the intention that purchasers wanting a bigger house would buy 2 or 3. What happened was that - Brit style - they bought one and put the bigger house on it anyway.
(Here one he laid out was the fork-pattern cul de sac called Springwood View Close.)
Mr. 43, I can see the moral case for returning the island to the islanders.
I can see the pragmatic case for holding onto it.
There's no case whatsoever to hand it over to somewhere whose only link is administrative convenience during the British Empire. If that's the rationale, we might as well get Mauritius back.
Personally I don't care one way or the other about Chagos apart from a vague feeling that the islanders were shabbily treated. I do challenge the idea widely spread on here that the UK has the right to the islands under international law without a binding treaty with Mauritius. The case has been adjudicated in Mauritius favour by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. Slam Dunk.
You might say, so what? But we rely on the same institutions when we say, for example, that China is illegally occupying the South China Sea. We can make the legal problem go away through a treaty in exchange for hard cash. Which is what we would have to do anyway if we accepted the islands weren't ours. The question is how much money is worth it, which in turn partly depends on how much respect you have for international law.
Asking the islanders what they want is clearly the most important thing but the one the Government has refused to do. Instead it is giving the islands to a different colonial power and paying for the privilege. This just seems insane.
The Chagos should be sold to Dodgy Donald for $1 million $100 Billion.
Good morning!
Just hand it back to Mauritius and let the Americans sort out the lease for the base. It's not really a UK problem.
Based on that logic we should give up our Security Council seat as well.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Thats certainly at the heart of the pitch they make, but they do go beyond that. Farage on the NHS - maintain free at the point of access but accept the current model is broken.
It shouldn't be that outrageous a point to advance that the current model is broken when it patently is
I don't disagree that the NHS is broken and a dialogue of how we move forward is needed. Within that dialogue the unthinkable needs to be though. Should we ration healthcare? Probably yes, so who do we ration it to? The old or the poor, well the old of course. The old vote and the poor don't.
Farage has always been good at diagnosing problems, although his remedies have always been shit. See Brexit!
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Thats certainly at the heart of the pitch they make, but they do go beyond that. Farage on the NHS - maintain free at the point of access but accept the current model is broken.
It shouldn't be that outrageous a point to advance that the current model is broken when it patently is
But that's not what he believes; it's just his current marketing pitch.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Wages will go up and rents will come down. A policy to vote for if you are young or don’t usually vote.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
Classic example of those on benefits making a rational economic decision. Stay somewhere warm, with care and get fed rather than trying to exist day to day on benefits. People will criticise and make comments but each individual makes their own choices i.e. they have agency.
So to move people on to create space/beds you have the issue of applying the law (expensive); changing the law (very slow); or increasing the incentive to move out. However none of these will happen and politicians will simply use examples of these for their political ends (taking the mickey ...) rather than trying to solve the issues.
We get the politicians we vote for - good, bad or Trump fanbois
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I haven't been a member of the Labour Party since the early days of Ed. I remember the general date because I foolishly voted for the wrong Miliband. I was never particularly left wing, but I certainly remain left of Centre. I would be happy to vote centrist Labour, LD or even one nation Conservative (of the Dominic Grieve, Spreadsheet Phil variety). Although I have voted for almost everyone else I have never voted Tory ( or extreme Tory). I do have a visceral hatred for Jenrick Tories and Reform. I would rather vote Islamic -Corbyn (or whatever he calls his cabal) than soil myself by voting fash or fash-lite.
I've got a growing admiration for Reform. I dislike the whole "lets blame the darkies" vibe, and they don't have any ideas about how to fix stuff, but at least they're willing to face up to the issues.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Although that is Farage's basic premise and has been for the last 30 years. "It's all the fault of the "foreign"! If we leave the EU we can kick out the "foreign". OK we kicked out the "foreign" but we didn't kick out enough "foreign". If we kick out the rest of the "foreign" everything will be fine. OK, so without the "foreign" there will be no NHS, so we can ration healthcare to those who can pay. Remember that is the fault of the "foreign". And if you don't like that "look squirrel" it's all the fault of the "foreign", look small boats! Look death-penalty*-knife-crime-foreign!"
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
Wages will go up and rents will come down. A policy to vote for if you are young or don’t usually vote.
That's like Truss (and to an extent Reeves's remedy) say "growth" lots of times and "growth" appears. Likewise increased wages and lower rents. The economics of supply and demand suggest otherwise, unless of course Reform are planning to intervene in the free market. Doesn't that look like socialism? Heavens forbid!
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
That's because the last government was so crap for so long that I'm willing to give Labour more than 6 months before writing them off.
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
So you're happy the government is giving away £18bn and territory to a hostile foreign power in league with China? You're also happy with the prospect of the government opening the door to hundreds of billions in liability for reparations?
I guess it's a view.
I don't care about giving away small legacy colonial territories in a part of the world we have no geopolitical or military influence.
I also don't have a strong view on £90m pa being paid for leasing a military base for the Americans, where presumably we get various quid quo pros with them elsewhere in military terms.
I don't believe we will ever pay any reparations and it's all talk. There's no money left, whatever the politics or it. I will care if they are paid. Until that point, I don't care about talking.
I understand many on here yet excited by it. But I'm much more interested as to whether their positive noise on planning reform and building come to fruition. That was always going to take longer than 6 months to get right.
“I don't care about giving away small legacy colonial territories in a part of the world we have no geopolitical or military influence.”
I don’t agree with that line at all. Looking at the next hundred years, it’s part of the world that is growing economic powerhouse, which means we hold a key strategic security interest in it.
What is key about this Chagos work around, which none of you, the MSM nor LOTO seems to appreciate, is India likes it - Moldy telling Trump his like for it, is what imo seals Trump Admin backing. Through India is a key economic and strategic security interest in the region.
What US and UK are trying to do here is cuddle in with India - so India, with our backing, owns these waters in face of any Chinese future claims (that aren’t really there at the moment) but balanced with how things have shifted at the UN, against what we done to secure this set up in 1960s - which might have been a bit “clunky” measured against different standards for behaviour 60 years later.
There’s plenty around quick to call it a surrender, in which case the question I ask you is: who are we surrendering too? Definitely not the Chagouns we ethnically cleansed from Chagos, we are not even talking to them. So the nub of what sticks in the “Populist craw” is idea we are unnecessarily and pointlessly, without any reason or benefit, “surrendering” to what the UN is telling us what to do.
However, those saying just ignore the UN - if these people were actually in power in UK themselves, would they answer “what, in the round, does the UN actually do for us?” differently than the the simple black and white answer “just ignore it”? Finding themselves in a more complex and grey world of International power games - influence in UN we don’t yet wish to walk away from, for how being lead players and play callers in UN is in our strategic interest too. It doesn’t come with no consequence or harm does it - to your influence, by undermine the rules and required cooperation of members, the more you say: do as I say, not as I do, in clubs your are a senior and influential member of.
The US and UK Chagos deal is a future looking piece of necessary legal tidying up. We should support it for all my reasoning posted here.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
Not necessarily
You could be 100% aligned with Labour’s values but like the perceived independence that comes from voting LibDem
You could be anything you like. I have come across people whose views are completely at odds with how they vote. However I'm just making the point that the original post was idiotic and liked by those completely out of tune with reality and were slagging the Labour Govt off within minutes of coming into office, before they had done or not done anything which demonstrates their bias. It was a ludicrous partisan post (the first one not yours).
My view is the Labour government has been exceedingly disappointing and bereft of ideas. They also painted themselves into a corner on tax resulting in the employer NI increases which have the opposite effect on growth they claimed to be aiming for.
I have yet to see a LD poster here supporting them. However we haven't gone in for the ridiculous stuff some have done and apparently that makes us Labour lickspittles. Pathetic and childish.
Hats off to the 8%. The only ones who answered honestly.
At the moment, the key thing is that nobody knows anything. Even the "reduced growth forecast" is a bit misleading;
All of the disappointment happened in 2024, though, so this is in no way a forecast. The forward looking bit of the BoE's actual forecast is stronger than it was in November as this levels chart we put on the FT's Monetary Policy Radar shows on.ft.com/3CJ1paG
Normally I'd say that low expectations has the potential to make distinctly meh performance look quite good in the end. But Reeves Derangement Syndrome is so intense on the RefCon side of things (look at those "a lot worse" figures) that I doubt it will affect the politics much.
I would not be sure how to answer that question. I am expecting a shallow recession but growth over the year as a whole (if not quite at the giddy heights of 0.75%). Does that make it better or worse? Per capita it will be worse but GDP will go up (as will taxes, whatever Reeves promises).
So, is that better or worse? I think the answer depends on compared with what? Growth won't match the modest growth achieved under the Conservatives but there will be growth. The more you think about it, the more meaningless the question becomes.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
Classic example of those on benefits making a rational economic decision. Stay somewhere warm, with care and get fed rather than trying to exist day to day on benefits. People will criticise and make comments but each individual makes their own choices i.e. they have agency.
So to move people on to create space/beds you have the issue of applying the law (expensive); changing the law (very slow); or increasing the incentive to move out. However none of these will happen and politicians will simply use examples of these for their political ends (taking the mickey ...) rather than trying to solve the issues.
We get the politicians we vote for - good, bad or Trump fanbois
Ummm - if you actually read the story, she wasn't on benefits and that isn't what happened.
Essentially there seems to have been a failure of the care system, not helped by a simultaneous failure of the legal system, which left everybody stuck.
Mind you as most voters think the economy will get worse if taxes are not raised and unemployment and inflation and interest rates do not go up either they may be pleasantly surprised.
However based on Reeves' statements and further tariffs expected from Trump that is unlikely
Mind you as most voters think the economy will get worse if taxes are not raised and unemployment and inflation and interest rates do not go up either they may be pleasantly surprised.
However based on Reeves' statements and further tariffs expected from Trump that is unlikely
I suspect the last election was certainly an election to not win, with the benefit of US Presidential Election hindsight.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
There always have been and always will be a number of people requiring some sort of permanent support/care 'in the community' or elsewhere. This divvies up between prison, children's services, mental health, learning difficulties support, other medical and a few other things. Much support comes from families. Occasionally it goes drastically wrong. Like here. It's a mark of a wealthy civilised community that they are looked after properly.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
The LDs have been around for quite some time now, yet there are plenty of Labour supporters even who do act like LDs not automatically supporting Labour is a kind of betrayal.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
When seats like Surrey Heath, Dorking, the South Cotswolds etc etc, are now comfortably Lib Dem, then you can see that the Lib Dems certainly are appealing to erstwhile Tories. Ed Davey, Mark Pack and the rest of the party leadership have progressive, even radical instincts, but actually so do a considerable section of the Tories- which is why Cameron was successful, at least for a while. Going to the kind of F*ck You politics of Trump or Farage will keep the Tories in an unelectable ghetto (and Farage will also ultimately crash and burn in my opinion too).
Trump is not a model, he´s a terrible warning, so the Fash-curious on this site may feel triumphant today, but they will see their performance cruelty politics fail both in the US and in the UK. Let us hope that the West has not shot its bolt with this betrayal of the principles of democracy and justice. Breaking the rule of law may seem like cutting the Gordian knot, but in fact it undermines the entire basis of our freedom and our prosperity.
This is why quite a lot of us will fight tooth and nail against the self serving and unprincipled media vermin trying to sell these crims as "our only hope" or some such crap.
With no publicity or media shove the Lib Dems vote is more than holding up and they can probably , as things stand, and with their expert targeting techniques expect in excess 0f 100 seats next time round.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
The LDs have been around for quite some time now, yet there are plenty of Labour supporters even who do act like LDs not automatically supporting Labour is a kind of betrayal.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
Yougov last month found that while most LD voters obviously preferred Davey as PM, 22% of LD voters said Starmer would be best PM compared to 19% of voters overall and just 8% of LD voters said Farage would be best PM compared to 20% of voters overall.
So LD supporters on a forced choice are slightly more pro Labour than the average voter and significantly more anti Farage and Reform than the average voter.
They were slightly less pro Kemi than the national average too but the gap was much smaller than the Farage gap. Indeed more LD voters thought Kemi would make the best PM than Reform voters did
Hats off to the 8%. The only ones who answered honestly.
At the moment, the key thing is that nobody knows anything. Even the "reduced growth forecast" is a bit misleading;
All of the disappointment happened in 2024, though, so this is in no way a forecast. The forward looking bit of the BoE's actual forecast is stronger than it was in November as this levels chart we put on the FT's Monetary Policy Radar shows on.ft.com/3CJ1paG
Normally I'd say that low expectations has the potential to make distinctly meh performance look quite good in the end. But Reeves Derangement Syndrome is so intense on the RefCon side of things (look at those "a lot worse" figures) that I doubt it will affect the politics much.
The anger on here since the election loss is quite remarkable and the Telegraph has been in pole position.
FWIW I am disappointed in the Government. The "no new taxes" pre election promise was absurd and unsustainable. There has been no discernable improvement in social care, crime, local authority funding and the cleanliness of our rivers. Or if there has they haven't told us about it.
For the Telegraph and PB Brexiteers to bang on about £18b squandered on the Chagos deal (surely there is some explanation other than incompetence) after their support for the £700m Rwanda debacle and the billions wasted on BREXIT they can just f*** right off.
From the figures last week, had they been delivered under a RefCon Government they would have been celebrated on here and in the media as a relief for hard pressed mortgage holders. Of course the people who would have made this assumption also deluded themselves that the Conservatives left a golden legacy.
You are an angry that the opposition opposes.
I am reminded of Norman Tebbit vs Brian Redhead on Radio 4.
At the start of the interview Tebbit asked why the news bulletin proceeding hadn’t included the unemployment figures. They always used to when unemployment was going up. And the monthly figures had just been released.
Politely he kept on asking, until Redhead audibly lost his temper and growled - “So what are the unemployment figures then?”
Tebbit said they were down again, as they had been going down, monthly, for the last 18 months.
Norman Tebbit was polite?
Bloody hell.
That should have been front page news and the lead on every bulletin.
He had/has quite a bit of old fashioned politeness when he wanted to use it.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
The LDs have been around for quite some time now, yet there are plenty of Labour supporters even who do act like LDs not automatically supporting Labour is a kind of betrayal.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
When seats like Surrey Heath, Dorking, the South Cotswolds etc etc, are now comfortably Lib Dem, then you can see that the Lib Dems certainly are appealing to erstwhile Tories. Ed Davey, Mark Pack and the rest of the party leadership have progressive, even radical instincts, but actually so do a considerable section of the Tories- which is why Cameron was successful, at least for a while. Going to the kind of F*ck You politics of Trump or Farage will keep the Tories in an unelectable ghetto (and Farage will also ultimately crash and burn in my opinion too).
Trump is not a model, he´s a terrible warning, so the Fash-curious on this site may feel triumphant today, but they will see their performance cruelty politics fail both in the US and in the UK. Let us hope that the West has not shot its bolt with this betrayal of the principles of democracy and justice. Breaking the rule of law may seem like cutting the Gordian knot, but in fact it undermines the entire basis of our freedom and our prosperity.
This is why quite a lot of us will fight tooth and nail against the self serving and unprincipled media vermin trying to sell these crims as "our only hope" or some such crap.
Big day in Estonia today, I see, finally disconnecting from the Putinista grid and joining the EU one.
“Put you money where you mouth is. Reform will be looking for shoo-in candidates. A celebrity Spectator columnist? Drinks all round!”
*****
I am a tiny bit tempted, TBH
Obvs I don’t want to do any of the boring shit like actually meet constituents or care about poor people or spend much time in crappy old provincial Britain - esp November-March - but if I could find some vaguely agreeably constituency which is very easily won and where I can RFA - rule from abroad - I might be inclined
You would still be allowed to continue in your day job. Much like Farage. Like Farage with Clacton you would never be required to go to Hereford to meet your constituents once elected.
I wonder if parts of Cornwall might go Reform
I saw that massive marginal poll and it had Labour clinging on to two mid Cornwall seats. This seems unlikely to me
The anger about Labour is visceral down there, but the Tories are still likewise hated. The usual Cornish choice in this situation is to go Lib Dem
Has Reform hit its ceiling? Could the electorate remember the Lib Dems exist?
The media are only interested in promoting Reform. That’s the Lib Dems’ problem.
Also, it feels as though Reform are very much 'angrier than thou'.
And that seems to be what (some) voters want at the moment.
It's very tempting, as a voter, to think "I really, really hate this lot - I will vote for the people who are shoutiest about them and/or the people who most annoy them." That isn't necessarily rational.
Couldn't agree more. It reminds me of @DavidL's rather plaintive 'who the hell do I vote for' question yesterday.
It is even possible to feel that the current government are really quite crap but still see them as the least worst of the available options. I *think* that's where I still am. It's not that I don't want to just drive the lot of them into the sea. It's just that it seems irresponsible to join the stampede without considering what will fill the vacuum that is left afterwards.
Reform. You vote for Reform
Your´re a propagandist and you still won´t put your money where your mouth is. Pretty pathetic.
"Propagandist" is a bit off for our @Leon . My Venn Diagram quota:
Looking at it, that's also 4 out of the 5 Reform MPs, with the exception that Lee Anderson is 58.
For them, the "Hall of Fairground Mirrors" may change if they get a policy platform out of whatever rabbit hole they are currently lost in.
Anderson fits the Farage mould of looking quite a bit older than he is (although I think Farage has kind of grown into his age, since he's looked about 60 for about 10 years).
The 38 year old one is interesting. Smallest majority too. Real odd man out, I wonder how well he gets on with the others on a personal level.
He has a majority of 98, his girlfriend-beating past which is a negative, and so to stay in place he needs to follow the Ed Davey 1997 (maj: couple of hundred) playbook of building a personal vote.
It can be done, but can he do it given what he stands for in that constituency (Basildon / Thurrock).
What's least surprising here is that Lib Dem voters are nothing more than Labour lickspittles. We see it on here all the time where Lib Dems try their hardest to stick up for this shit government despite all of the evidence.
Absolutely deluded and very much not surprised by the likes you got. Amazing bias.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
The LDs have been around for quite some time now, yet there are plenty of Labour supporters even who do act like LDs not automatically supporting Labour is a kind of betrayal.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
When seats like Surrey Heath, Dorking, the South Cotswolds etc etc, are now comfortably Lib Dem, then you can see that the Lib Dems certainly are appealing to erstwhile Tories. Ed Davey, Mark Pack and the rest of the party leadership have progressive, even radical instincts, but actually so do a considerable section of the Tories- which is why Cameron was successful, at least for a while. Going to the kind of F*ck You politics of Trump or Farage will keep the Tories in an unelectable ghetto (and Farage will also ultimately crash and burn in my opinion too).
Trump is not a model, he´s a terrible warning, so the Fash-curious on this site may feel triumphant today, but they will see their performance cruelty politics fail both in the US and in the UK. Let us hope that the West has not shot its bolt with this betrayal of the principles of democracy and justice. Breaking the rule of law may seem like cutting the Gordian knot, but in fact it undermines the entire basis of our freedom and our prosperity.
This is why quite a lot of us will fight tooth and nail against the self serving and unprincipled media vermin trying to sell these crims as "our only hope" or some such crap.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
Classic example of those on benefits making a rational economic decision. Stay somewhere warm, with care and get fed rather than trying to exist day to day on benefits. People will criticise and make comments but each individual makes their own choices i.e. they have agency.
So to move people on to create space/beds you have the issue of applying the law (expensive); changing the law (very slow); or increasing the incentive to move out. However none of these will happen and politicians will simply use examples of these for their political ends (taking the mickey ...) rather than trying to solve the issues.
We get the politicians we vote for - good, bad or Trump fanbois
And then greater the number whose rational economic choice is not to work but to subsist of others the greater the amount of tax which has to raised on those who do work.
Which in turn incentivises some of those who do work a rational economic choice to stop working.
“Put you money where you mouth is. Reform will be looking for shoo-in candidates. A celebrity Spectator columnist? Drinks all round!”
*****
I am a tiny bit tempted, TBH
Obvs I don’t want to do any of the boring shit like actually meet constituents or care about poor people or spend much time in crappy old provincial Britain - esp November-March - but if I could find some vaguely agreeably constituency which is very easily won and where I can RFA - rule from abroad - I might be inclined
You would still be allowed to continue in your day job. Much like Farage. Like Farage with Clacton you would never be required to go to Hereford to meet your constituents once elected.
I wonder if parts of Cornwall might go Reform
I saw that massive marginal poll and it had Labour clinging on to two mid Cornwall seats. This seems unlikely to me
The anger about Labour is visceral down there, but the Tories are still likewise hated. The usual Cornish choice in this situation is to go Lib Dem
But the mood is really not “Lib Demmy”
Cornwall was also strong for UKIP
Mind bleach at the ready.
I do wonder as Trump crashes the World the obvious traces of excrement around Farage's bouche will work against Reform and also that branch of the Tories who likewise indulged in ri.ming Trump.
Do we have any Despots who were shoved in the attic as in Jane Eyre?
Perhaps we are back to Kaiser Bill playing with battleships in his bathtub.
Ironically, Basil II (arguably the greatest emperor) was just a figurehead for both Nikephorus Phokas and John Tzimiskes, but that was during his childhood. However, his early sole rule saw a chap called Basil (Lekapenos, I think) mostly running things.
Numerous weak late emperors in the West were basically glove puppets for barbarian army leaders (as well as the strong Majorian, who was betrayed, tortured, and killed by Ricimer, an aforementioned barbarian).
Henry VI being dominated by his wife is another possible comparison.
Hats off to the 8%. The only ones who answered honestly.
At the moment, the key thing is that nobody knows anything. Even the "reduced growth forecast" is a bit misleading;
All of the disappointment happened in 2024, though, so this is in no way a forecast. The forward looking bit of the BoE's actual forecast is stronger than it was in November as this levels chart we put on the FT's Monetary Policy Radar shows on.ft.com/3CJ1paG
Normally I'd say that low expectations has the potential to make distinctly meh performance look quite good in the end. But Reeves Derangement Syndrome is so intense on the RefCon side of things (look at those "a lot worse" figures) that I doubt it will affect the politics much.
The anger on here since the election loss is quite remarkable and the Telegraph has been in pole position.
FWIW I am disappointed in the Government. The "no new taxes" pre election promise was absurd and unsustainable. There has been no discernable improvement in social care, crime, local authority funding and the cleanliness of our rivers. Or if there has they haven't told us about it.
For the Telegraph and PB Brexiteers to bang on about £18b squandered on the Chagos deal (surely there is some explanation other than incompetence) after their support for the £700m Rwanda debacle and the billions wasted on BREXIT they can just f*** right off.
From the figures last week, had they been delivered under a RefCon Government they would have been celebrated on here and in the media as a relief for hard pressed mortgage holders. Of course the people who would have made this assumption also deluded themselves that the Conservatives left a golden legacy.
You are an angry that the opposition opposes.
I am reminded of Norman Tebbit vs Brian Redhead on Radio 4.
At the start of the interview Tebbit asked why the news bulletin proceeding hadn’t included the unemployment figures. They always used to when unemployment was going up. And the monthly figures had just been released.
Politely he kept on asking, until Redhead audibly lost his temper and growled - “So what are the unemployment figures then?”
Tebbit said they were down again, as they had been going down, monthly, for the last 18 months.
Norman Tebbit was polite?
Bloody hell.
That should have been front page news and the lead on every bulletin.
He had/has quite a bit of old fashioned politeness when he wanted to use it.
Certainly more than his Spitting Image puppet. He was the skinhead iirc.
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
£200,000! That's 1/90,000th of the Chagos!
(18 billion is quite a lot of money)
If you assume each hospital in the UK has just 1 such patient then the cost over 90 years is about £15bn.
Keir Starmer sees Chagos Islands deal as block to China spy hubs
The prime minister thinks ceding the islands to Mauritius will create a ‘buffer zone’ around the US naval base on Diego Garcia"
There’s already a buffer zone. It’s called the British Indian Ocean Territory.
If we don’t have the balls, we should just gift the territory to the yanks. Were the ICJ to come calling I know what they would say, Republican or Democrat. It would be what we would have said once.
Comments
I’m not a shirker. Not a “plastic patriot” like so many on here. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances preventing me from serving - eg an interesting assignment in the Seychelles - I shall answer the call of Nation. That’s just who I am. Duty is all and I don’t mind admitting it
I fancy Foreign Secretary
Not sure this is a good use of tax payers money. I'm guessing the only people collecting them are people who would go down to the garden centre to buy them anyway.
The queue was very long.
An awful lot of US science is done at the not quite top universities.
Increasingly local authorities everywhere are cutting most services and throwing what money they have left at a small range of statutory responsibilities because the law forces them to do that. There's not much scope left for any future Reform councils to make unusual or risky decisions that might get them into hot water. If they're able simply to avoid factionalism and outbreaks of highly publicised internecine warfare in governing groups then they oughtn't to suffer too much loss of support.
It ought not to be a hard case to decide.
Although no doubt the judges in blue states are being inundated with legal cases on this as we speak.
Andrew Lilico
@andrew_lilico
·
1h
There must be a good chance now that we'll see Reform polling over 30% within weeks. Most people will see supporting Reform as the natural way to stick two fingers up to all this.
https://x.com/andrew_lilico
Certainly longer than that before considering the Tories the better of the two again. Again, considering how poorly (and inconsistently) they managed the economy over 12 years in power. Cancelling large projects that they started (HS2), starting with a promise to cut deficits, then leaving record national debt and cutting headline tax rates while running a large deficit outside of a recession being just two examples.
The PB Reform/Tories can criticise all they want, but they can't erase their own record. I didn't vote Labour but still happy they are in power rather than either the Tories or Reform.
1 - It seems to be run by the same people who have the Nottingham one. They got around the need for a full licensing application there by transferring an existing license.
2 - I don't see how they get around UK Employment Law to have purely female wait-staff who are a floor show. Discrimination is allowed in law, but it is very circumscribed.
I guess it's a view.
But that's not to say the idiotic or corrupt cannot still manage to mess things up significantly, just look at places like Tower Hamlets.
Though being unable to work together at all may be a more pressing problem potentially. If they priortise people who fell out with previous parties that can cause issues.
The next question is one of the most significant ones facing the USA and the world at this time: Will the USA government obey the court orders, or will they go the next stage of fascism and simple ignore them if necessary using force to do so.
I hope USA's democracy loving liberals are watching this with care. Any news will be received with interest by some of us on PB.
Go on point out where I have ever done that. Never voted Labour in my life and I'm 70!
Does it never cross your mind that if that were true we would be Labour supporters and not LD supporters.
I have known since my early 20's that both I and my brother have Protein Factor C deficiency which is associated with blood clotting. I've had 2 DVT's before. I have to take blood thinning drugs after operations and had to do so during my pregnancies. So I suspected what might have happened. Have been checked out for diabetes and no don't have it.
Blood tests are not consistent with infection, according to doctor. Plus it's been bloody cold so have been wearing trousers or thick tights. And it most definitely has not been gardening weather. Cat kneads me on chest when coming for her daily cuddle but not so as to scratch or puncture. She mostly damages my jumper!
Anyway thanks for the good wishes.
Having a sleep now. Am reaching the coma stage .....
I also don't have a strong view on £90m pa being paid for leasing a military base for the Americans, where presumably we get various quid quo pros with them elsewhere in military terms.
I don't believe we will ever pay any reparations and it's all talk. There's no money left, whatever the politics or it. I will care if they are paid. Until that point, I don't care about talking.
I understand many on here yet excited by it. But I'm much more interested as to whether their positive noise on planning reform and building come to fruition. That was always going to take longer than 6 months to get right.
The average LD supporter probably does lean more Labour than Tory at the moment if pressed, and some LD voters may not been massively fervent supporters but live in an area where Labour are nowhere, but LDs don't owe Labour anything, or vice versa. Co-operation, overt or otherwise, might sometimes be worth it, but should be case by case.
Woman stuck for 18 months on an NHS ward evicted from her hospital bed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897ew0ekp4o
An interesting example of how some 'problem people' can cause huge cost to the public services:
The most recent data, from 2020-21, suggests a standard NHS hospital bed costs £345 per day. Adjusting for inflation, this would mean Jessie's hospital stay is likely to have cost more than £200,000. We do not know how much the legal action cost.
Ten days after Jessie's final hearing, 18 months after she arrived in hospital, the police arrested her. She spent several hours at a police station before being moved to the flat in the town that holds bad memories.
Police are investigating her for a number of alleged incidents, she told us, including for sending offensive emails shortly before she was evicted in October.
Since moving, Jessie says she has self-harmed and the police have been called on three occasions - once by Jessie, twice by staff.
"They don't know what to do with me," she says.
Jessie has recently been visited by a new advocate.
Hope you're better soon.
It's the opposite side of the strategies Republicans have been pursuing for decades:
1 - Get a sympathetic District Judge to make a nationwide-until-contradicted-on-appeal ruling, ideally a single-judge Hicksville court so you have no risk of getting the wrong judge.
2 - Do it in an appeal circuit with similar sympathies.
3 - Do it in a circuit where the Appeals to the Supreme Court, which are filtered through a single SC Justice, go through a sympathetic judge.
4 - Rely on the SCOTUS only taking small numbers of cases.
The USA Judicial system is politically Balkanised, and that is how it works. That's just how it is until one hopes it is brought out of the 18C.
In Trump term 1, there were 2000 lawsuits, of which his administration lost 80% - that is a measure of their willingness to ignore law.
As I see it, these pro-democracy (I agree with that line) campaigners see this as the last chance to avoid USA democracy being rubbed out, as a tactic to run interference to protect Constitutional Rule from Trump and his oligarchs.
At this point, such campaigns are perhaps the only bulwark left in the USA system to protect against a criminal regime. And I think niceties such as "but ... it's not balanced reporting" are off the table.
I think one thing they are perhaps missing is a strategy for the risk that Trump's puppets win the mid-term elections.
The guy that owned my parents' house apparently bought a tree for every house in the street (not fruit) in the 1930s. Their house is only one where those trees are still standing.
You could be 100% aligned with Labour’s values but like the perceived independence that comes from voting LibDem
(I eventually persuaded her to get one... and she came back with two. But they are sisters, and I think two cats is very nice, as they play with each other and give each other company.)
And I hope Ms Free recovers soon.
The legislation sets the terms as 4 years, so whenever your first election day was you will (absent other legislation) always have to have those on your cycle have elections at the exact same day 4 years later?
I don't really know how it was decided what cycle various councils were on though, which is confused by those electing by thirds as well (I've heard you can elect by halves, but I don't know if anywhere does).
You take office on the 4th day after election though, so I like Thursdays so you start early the next week (so Wednesdays would also work ok).
https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
It's the opposite side of the strategies Republicans have been pursuing for decades:
1 - Get a sympathetic district Judge to make a nationwide-until-contradicted-on-appeal ruling, ideally a single-judge Hicksville court so you have no risk of getting the wrong judge.
2 - Do it in an appeal circuit with similar sympathies.
3 - Do it in a circuit where the Appeals to the Supreme Court, which are filtered through a single SC Judge, go through a sympathetic judge.
The USA Judicial system is politically Balkanised, and that is how it works. That's just how it is until one hopes it is brought out of the 18C.
In Trump term 1, there were 2000 lawsuits, of which his administration lost 80% - that is a measure of their willingness to ignore law.
As I see it, these pro-democracy (I agree with that line) campaigners see this as the last chance to avoid USA democracy being rubbed out, as a tactic to run interference to protect Constitutional Rule from Trump and his oligarchs.
At this point, such campaigns are perhaps the only bulwark left in the USA to protect against a criminal regime. And I think niceties such as "but ... it's not balanced reporting" are off the table.
I think one thing they are perhaps missing is a strategy for the risk that Trump's puppets win the mid-term elections.
As I see it, they are currently in the stages of removing impediments, checks and balances to implement a dictatorship should they wish; that's the playbook. In European terms, I'd say we are at the stage where the right wing press - Mail, Spectator and so on - were backing Mussolini, and before they realised what they were doing and flipped.
The clearest interview I have head on it was Anne Applabaum the other day, who of course has extensively studied Eastern European regimes and China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvNimQcdVZ8
Its like you're trying to embarrass yourselves and bring the party further into the gutter by advancing this argument. People aren't as stupid as you might like them to be - and the ones who are vote Reform already.
The reason the Tories continue to sink lower and lower is that they're still insisting that all was great with them. No, it wasn't.
Their whole pitch is "the darkies are the issue", just as it always has been
* I know Farage isn't a hanger, but his hangers-on are.
It shouldn't be that outrageous a point to advance that the current model is broken when it patently is
A small thing, but it made it leafier, and it shows to an extent even now.
One mistake that you can still see is that they went for small plots, with the intention that purchasers wanting a bigger house would buy 2 or 3. What happened was that - Brit style - they bought one and put the bigger house on it anyway.
(Here one he laid out was the fork-pattern cul de sac called Springwood View Close.)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dpyqoQGwDd5ppsL77
Farage has always been good at diagnosing problems, although his remedies have always been shit. See Brexit!
So to move people on to create space/beds you have the issue of applying the law (expensive); changing the law (very slow); or increasing the incentive to move out. However none of these will happen and politicians will simply use examples of these for their political ends (taking the mickey ...) rather than trying to solve the issues.
We get the politicians we vote for - good, bad or Trump fanbois
I don’t agree with that line at all. Looking at the next hundred years, it’s part of the world that is growing economic powerhouse, which means we hold a key strategic security interest in it.
What is key about this Chagos work around, which none of you, the MSM nor LOTO seems to appreciate, is India likes it - Moldy telling Trump his like for it, is what imo seals Trump Admin backing. Through India is a key economic and strategic security interest in the region.
What US and UK are trying to do here is cuddle in with India - so India, with our backing, owns these waters in face of any Chinese future claims (that aren’t really there at the moment) but balanced with how things have shifted at the UN, against what we done to secure this set up in 1960s - which might have been a bit “clunky” measured against different standards for behaviour 60 years later.
There’s plenty around quick to call it a surrender, in which case the question I ask you is: who are we surrendering too? Definitely not the Chagouns we ethnically cleansed from Chagos, we are not even talking to them. So the nub of what sticks in the “Populist craw” is idea we are unnecessarily and pointlessly, without any reason or benefit, “surrendering” to what the UN is telling us what to do.
However, those saying just ignore the UN - if these people were actually in power in UK themselves, would they answer “what, in the round, does the UN actually do for us?” differently than the the simple black and white answer “just ignore it”? Finding themselves in a more complex and grey world of International power games - influence in UN we don’t yet wish to walk away from, for how being lead players and play callers in UN is in our strategic interest too. It doesn’t come with no consequence or harm does it - to your influence, by undermine the rules and required cooperation of members, the more you say: do as I say, not as I do, in clubs your are a senior and influential member of.
The US and UK Chagos deal is a future looking piece of necessary legal tidying up. We should support it for all my reasoning posted here.
My view is the Labour government has been exceedingly disappointing and bereft of ideas. They also painted themselves into a corner on tax resulting in the employer NI increases which have the opposite effect on growth they claimed to be aiming for.
I have yet to see a LD poster here supporting them. However we haven't gone in for the ridiculous stuff some have done and apparently that makes us Labour lickspittles. Pathetic and childish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGIvJUqpu1Q
The background is that Trump is so enamoured of Time covers that he had fake ones made with him on them to go in his golf clubs.
So, is that better or worse? I think the answer depends on compared with what? Growth won't match the modest growth achieved under the Conservatives but there will be growth. The more you think about it, the more meaningless the question becomes.
Essentially there seems to have been a failure of the care system, not helped by a simultaneous failure of the legal system, which left everybody stuck.
However based on Reeves' statements and further tariffs expected from Trump that is unlikely
Trump is not a model, he´s a terrible warning, so the Fash-curious on this site may feel triumphant today, but they will see their performance cruelty politics fail both in the US and in the UK. Let us hope that the West has not shot its bolt with this betrayal of the principles of democracy and justice. Breaking the rule of law may seem like cutting the Gordian knot, but in fact it undermines the entire basis of our freedom and our prosperity.
This is why quite a lot of us will fight tooth and nail against the self serving and unprincipled media vermin trying to sell these crims as "our only hope" or some such crap.
So LD supporters on a forced choice are slightly more pro Labour than the average voter and significantly more anti Farage and Reform than the average voter.
They were slightly less pro Kemi than the national average too but the gap was much smaller than the Farage gap. Indeed more LD voters thought Kemi would make the best PM than Reform voters did
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/51412-nigel-farage-and-keir-starmer-in-close-contest-for-best-prime-minister
(18 billion is quite a lot of money)
It can be done, but can he do it given what he stands for in that constituency (Basildon / Thurrock).
They're the 'fuck you' party of the haves.
Meritus, never.
Which in turn incentivises some of those who do work a rational economic choice to stop working.
Can @Morris_Dancer come up with something classical?
Do we have any Despots who were shoved in the attic as in Jane Eyre?
Perhaps we are back to Kaiser Bill playing with battleships in his bathtub.
I do wonder as Trump crashes the World the obvious traces of excrement around Farage's bouche will work against Reform and also that branch of the Tories who likewise indulged in ri.ming Trump.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-sees-chagos-islands-deal-as-block-to-china-spy-hubs-rkmz7c7v0
Keir Starmer sees Chagos Islands deal as block to China spy hubs
The prime minister thinks ceding the islands to Mauritius will create a ‘buffer zone’ around the US naval base on Diego Garcia"
Numerous weak late emperors in the West were basically glove puppets for barbarian army leaders (as well as the strong Majorian, who was betrayed, tortured, and killed by Ricimer, an aforementioned barbarian).
Henry VI being dominated by his wife is another possible comparison.