Kemi Badenoch is taking my advice – politicalbetting.com

System · August 4

Kemi Badenoch is taking my advice – politicalbetting.com

This is significant not so much for the attack on Starmer (par for the course party politics) but instead the indirect criticism of the mini budget. The furthest the Tories have gone on that and indicative that they think if they go on the economy they have to distance from 2022 https://t.co/wpINJzPjdt

Read the full story here

TheScreamingEagles · August 4

Kemi is the best.

OldKingCole · August 4

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.

Best what?

TheScreamingEagles · August 4

OldKingCole said:

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.
Best what?

For taking my advice, it is a sign of brilliance and excellent judgment.

DecrepiterJohnL · August 4

Repudiating their predecessors is SOP for Conservative leaders. Thatcher did it to Heath. Major did it to Thatcher. And so on through Cameron, May, Boris, Liz Truss and Rishi. What Kemi needs is to find and expound a positive reason for putting your cross in the blue box.

SirNorfolkPassmore · August 4

Badenoch shouldn't try to move Truss into defection - she should expel her from the Conservative Party.

Overall it helped Starmer with Corbyn in terms of drawing a line. I know he's making a nuisance of himself now, but Corbyn was always a more popular figure than Truss, or at least he had a loyal fanbase. There isn't really a Truss fanbase in the Conservative Party, so she's entirely dispensible and it'd make a point.

nunu2 · August 4

We won't be able to trust GDP figures from America soon:

HASSETT SIGNALS STRUCTURAL SHAKE-UP OF ECONOMIC REPORTING — MORE WHITE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMING

kinabalu · August 4

SirNorfolkPassmore said:
Badenoch shouldn't try to move Truss into defection - she should expel her from the Conservative Party.

Overall it helped Starmer with Corbyn in terms of drawing a line. I know he's making a nuisance of himself now, but Corbyn was always a more popular figure than Truss, or at least he had a loyal fanbase. There isn't really a Truss fanbase in the Conservative Party, so she's entirely dispensible and it'd make a point.

Yes, why on earth not.

HYUFD · August 4

Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them

SirNorfolkPassmore · August 4

DecrepiterJohnL said:
Repudiating their predecessors is SOP for Conservative leaders. Thatcher did it to Heath. Major did it to Thatcher. And so on through Cameron, May, Boris, Liz Truss and Rishi. What Kemi needs is to find and expound a positive reason for putting your cross in the blue box.

Those examples are rather questionable in some cases.

Major sought to differentiate himself in terms of style from Thatcher, and obviously dropped the Poll Tax. But "repudiation" is too strong a word - he was broadly the continuity candidate against Heseltine.

Similarly, Cameron was pretty close to Howard, May was a fairly moderate continuity choice given the Brexiteers on offer, and Truss made a point of staying loyal to Johnson when others resigned en masse from his Cabinet.

I don't think a bit of "I'm my own person" is repudiation, nor is it specific to Tory leaders.

Nigelb · August 4

nunu2 said:
We won't be able to trust GDP figures from America soon:

HASSETT SIGNALS STRUCTURAL SHAKE-UP OF ECONOMIC REPORTING — MORE WHITE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMING

I always thought Trump was a bit too fond of the N Korean setup.

SirNorfolkPassmore · August 4

nunu2 said:
We won't be able to trust GDP figures from America soon:

HASSETT SIGNALS STRUCTURAL SHAKE-UP OF ECONOMIC REPORTING — MORE WHITE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMING

At last Trump will be able to put the truth out there on wonderful advances in tractor production numbers.

Scott_xP · August 4

@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today

Scott_xP · August 4

SirNorfolkPassmore said:

nunu2 said:
We won't be able to trust GDP figures from America soon:

HASSETT SIGNALS STRUCTURAL SHAKE-UP OF ECONOMIC REPORTING — MORE WHITE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMING
At last Trump will be able to put the truth out there on wonderful advances in tractor production numbers.

@petridishes.bsky.social‬

and speaking of things you can alter by simply ignoring what’s really going on I hear we’re switching to more of a clap-if-you-believe-in-it model for statistics too

https://bsky.app/profile/petridishes.bsky.social/post/3lvlg3cl3zs2f

StillWaters · August 4

I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.

Mexicanpete · August 4

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today

In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.

StillWaters · August 4

OldKingCole said:

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.
Best what?

Nigerian origin leader of the opposition in history!!!!

Scott_xP · August 4

StillWaters said:
I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.

My numbers are more patriotic than yours...

StillWaters · August 4

Scott_xP said:

StillWaters said:
I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.
My numbers are more patriotic than yours...

I just went with the numbers from Scot.gov

I assume that’s run by the Scottish government?

Leon · August 4

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.

Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website

No_Offence_Alan · August 4

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them

Defending Winter Fuel Payments and keeping the inheritance tax break for wealthy farmers hardly smacks of fiscal discipline.

Mexicanpete · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website

Nah, she's all yours mate!

Luckyguy1983 · August 4

I don't really see this as a repudiation of Truss. It's certainly not an endorsement of Truss, but positioning Starmer and his noxious mess of a Government as worse (which it is, several times worse) than Truss is actually rather in that ladies' favour.

KnightOut · August 4

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them

The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.

Leon · August 4

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!

You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

HYUFD · August 4

No_Offence_Alan said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
Defending Winter Fuel Payments and keeping the inheritance tax break for wealthy farmers hardly smacks of fiscal discipline.

The spending cuts will be to help fund reversal of the disgusting family farms tax which has led to farmers even taking suicide to protect their generations old family farms before the tax change comes in next year.

Kemi even said she was willing to means test the state pension triple lock at one point

HYUFD · August 4

KnightOut said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.

Even Reagan only did his Reaganomics tax cuts on a gradual basis not all at once and he also cut non defence spending

bondegezou · August 4

KnightOut said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.

The markets know that tax cuts usually don't lead to increased revenue and doubted the government's ability to push through the required spending cuts.

sarissa · August 4

StillWaters said:
I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.

This is your monthly reminder that the word 'estimate' or derivatives of it appears 135 times in the GERS report. Just because the estimate is 'official' doesn't make it accurate.

TimS · August 4

For most of the population I expect the best advice is never kiss a member of a political party.

Which reminds me that I indirectly triggered the second worst row of some friends’ marriage when I persuaded the man to join the Lib Dems and his wife was upset that he’d done something so momentous based on a random conversation with a school dad without consulting her first (I think she’s Labour).

JosiasJessop · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

Yeah, I would. Looks aren't everything, and she seems like she'd be rather high maintenance.

I was lucky in getting a beautiful lady who is genuinely highly intelligent and can design a mean circuit. Best of all, she puts up with me...

MarqueeMark · August 4

TheScreamingEagles said:

OldKingCole said:

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.
Best what?
For taking my advice, it is a sign of brilliance and excellent judgment.

On footwear?

MarqueeMark · August 4

sarissa said:

StillWaters said:
I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.
This is your monthly reminder that the word 'estimate' or derivatives of it appears 135 times in the GERS report. Just because the estimate is 'official' doesn't make it accurate.

For that accuracy you have to wait for the revisions over the coming months.

In TrumpWorld, it's the accuracy that gets you fired.

JosiasJessop · August 4

sarissa said:

StillWaters said:
I see are Scottish friends on the previous thread are taking Trump’s approach: I don’t like what the numbers say so they must be biased.

Here are my unskewed numbers for your reading pleasure.
This is your monthly reminder that the word 'estimate' or derivatives of it appears 135 times in the GERS report. Just because the estimate is 'official' doesn't make it accurate.

Is there a more accurate alternative report?

Roger · August 4

GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running

TheScreamingEagles · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

OldKingCole said:

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.
Best what?
For taking my advice, it is a sign of brilliance and excellent judgment.
On footwear?

Political strategy.

Sandpit · August 4

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today

That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.

OldKingCole · August 4

TimS said:
For most of the population I expect the best advice is never kiss a member of a political party.

Which reminds me that I indirectly triggered the second worst row of some friends’ marriage when I persuaded the man to join the Lib Dems and his wife was upset that he’d done something so momentous based on a random conversation with a school dad without consulting her first (I think she’s Labour).

In my youth I briefly attended a Young Conservative meeting in the hope of converting some nubile young woman.

There weren't any I fancied, so I made an excuse and left!

MarqueeMark · August 4

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

OldKingCole said:

TheScreamingEagles said:
Kemi is the best.
Best what?
For taking my advice, it is a sign of brilliance and excellent judgment.
On footwear?
Political strategy.

Well, if it gets the Tories back to 30%, she'll be safe...

MarqueeMark · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...

PoodleInASlipstream · August 4

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running

They've been bleeding money since launch, but have deep-pocketed backers. A broadcast news channel is mostly a vanity project now.

Luckyguy1983 · August 4

KnightOut said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.

An excellent post.

TOPPING · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...

Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running

They have 2m followers on YouTube with 2.2 billion views...a lot more than your fictional influencer.

Even oldies are now watching loads of YouTube rather than OTA tv.

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

PoodleInASlipstream said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
They've been bleeding money since launch, but have deep-pocketed backers. A broadcast news channel is mostly a vanity project now.

In the same reports that talked about viewership said they are now break even.

However, from the get go it was obviously there is no massive pot of gold like in the US for tv news, it has never got massive viewership outside those 30 mins primetime slots on BBC / ITV. We aren't like the US were Fox can get 3 million viewers for a late night satire show.

The big loser in all this is Sky News, they are getting absolutely hammered.

TOPPING · August 4

PoodleInASlipstream said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
They've been bleeding money since launch, but have deep-pocketed backers. A broadcast news channel is mostly a vanity project now.

They are following the tried and tested business model of selling a dollar for 80 cents until the point arrives whereby people are hooked and then the price goes up to $1.20.

Nigelb · August 4

LOL

UN report finds United Nations reports are not widely read
https://www.reuters.com/world/un-report-finds-united-nations-reports-are-not-widely-read-2025-08-01/

MarqueeMark · August 4

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.

Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

bondegezou · August 4

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.

The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.

JosiasJessop · August 4

FrancisUrquhart said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
They have 2m followers on YouTube with 2.2 billion views...a lot more than your fictional influencer.

I'm always suspicious about such figures for YT. If you spend money, you can buy views and subs.

KnightOut · August 4

Luckyguy1983 said:

KnightOut said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.
An excellent post.

/scans for sarcasm/

/scans for sarcasm again/

Thank you?

Sandpit · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

“Trival moral reason like you’re married…” Umm, that’s not trivial, it’s rather fundamental.

Sadly for her some of us are married, and therefore totally out of Miss Sweeney’s league!

Whoever runs American Eagle’s marketing campaign has earned their bonus this week though, a thousand times over.

They found the perfect model, in a good-looking young actress who comes across as the girl next door (rather than the recent trend for excessive surgery and makeup in role models) who you’d happily invite to meet your parents.

TOPPING · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

All in the eye of the beholders, ofc. Plus what are we trying to prove here. That Sydney Sweeney is not objectively the most beautiful woman in the world? Did anyone say that?

bondegezou · August 4

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running

This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

Part of the marketing push around Sydney Sweeney is that in addition to her "assets" that she isn't a super model stick thin unique looker, she is actually an attractive woman that is perhaps somebody you might see around. The "girl next door" vibe as they used to say or in her case they lean into being a more outdoorsy type who likes shooting guns.

Whoever is managing her career is absolutely smashing it.

Mexicanpete · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

I am not holding out for the phonecall, although you'd be surprised to hear I get lots of Instagram invites from scantily clad nubiles inviting me to their OnlyFans sites. I decline of course.

Sandpit · August 4

OldKingCole said:

TimS said:
For most of the population I expect the best advice is never kiss a member of a political party.

Which reminds me that I indirectly triggered the second worst row of some friends’ marriage when I persuaded the man to join the Lib Dems and his wife was upset that he’d done something so momentous based on a random conversation with a school dad without consulting her first (I think she’s Labour).
In my youth I briefly attended a Young Conservative meeting in the hope of converting some nubile young woman.

There weren't any I fancied, so I made an excuse and left!

Before the internet, the local Con Club was half a political party and half a dating service for the adult children of the members!

ydoethur · August 4

bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?

Reform would demand repeal of the Online Safety Act even more loudly?

OldKingCole · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

What a waste!

TOPPING · August 4

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.

While it was manna from heaven for the UK leftwing media.

ydoethur · August 4

OldKingCole said:

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

What a waste!

He didn't mention that part of her.

DecrepiterJohnL · August 4

SirNorfolkPassmore said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:
Repudiating their predecessors is SOP for Conservative leaders. Thatcher did it to Heath. Major did it to Thatcher. And so on through Cameron, May, Boris, Liz Truss and Rishi. What Kemi needs is to find and expound a positive reason for putting your cross in the blue box.
Those examples are rather questionable in some cases.

Major sought to differentiate himself in terms of style from Thatcher, and obviously dropped the Poll Tax. But "repudiation" is too strong a word - he was broadly the continuity candidate against Heseltine.

Similarly, Cameron was pretty close to Howard, May was a fairly moderate continuity choice given the Brexiteers on offer, and Truss made a point of staying loyal to Johnson when others resigned en masse from his Cabinet.

I don't think a bit of "I'm my own person" is repudiation, nor is it specific to Tory leaders.

I'm talking in policy terms not personal animosity. For instance, Major ditched Thatcher's two headline policies of poll tax and war with ~~Eastasia~~ Europe, and Cameron wanted to save seals and hug hoodies whereas Howard wanted to lock 'em up.

TheScreamingEagles · August 4

Sandpit said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
“Trival moral reason like you’re married…” Umm, that’s not trivial, it’s rather fundamental.

Sadly for her some of us are married, and therefore totally out of Miss Sweeney’s league!

Whoever runs American Eagle’s marketing campaign has earned their bonus this week though, a thousand times over.

They found the perfect model, in a good-looking young actress who comes across as the girl next door (rather than the recent trend for excessive surgery and makeup in role models) who you’d happily invite to meet your parents.

Monogamy is too cruel a rule.

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

JosiasJessop said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
They have 2m followers on YouTube with 2.2 billion views...a lot more than your fictional influencer.
I'm always suspicious about such figures for YT. If you spend money, you can buy views and subs.

I was initially sus and they may well have done to start with, although YouTube are very hot on that now and as a business you get caught doing that you are in big trouble.

But go and look at their videos now, its varies, but 50k-100k views per video is quite normal (some go viral with 100ks of views), and they have lots of interactions in the comments sections. Also, they put out a lot of videos (75k videos so far), that would be costing them insane amounts of money to fake 2bn views.

This it isn't how people trying to boost viewer count do it, they just do it on a handful of videos.

Luckyguy1983 · August 4

KnightOut said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

KnightOut said:

HYUFD said:
Kemi is right, she is proposing big spending cuts in order to be able to reverse Labour's tax rises.

Truss' problem was she proposed big tax cuts without the spending cuts to fund them
The spending cuts were always part of the plan and key to the underlying ideology - Truss and Kwarteng just made a conscious decision to do the tax cutting bit first on the basis that it /should/ lead to short-term popularity and *might* result in really impressive stimulus and growth. An 'events offset' is how I might describe it, were I trying to pitch the idea.

The problem was that they didn't get sufficient buy-in from the institutions that matter and who had the power to scupper their every move. They were caught out by the ruthless lack of hesitancy and clearly lacked salesmanship and spin doctory

I still maintain that if the Truss administration had been given a couple of years to do their thing, the country would likely be in a far, far better place now.

In Liz we failed to Truss. That was the problem. I'd expect the British 'sense of fair play' to kick in at some point, but it never did. Not only is Liz now unreasonably castigated and villified for something she literally didn't (get to) do, but she's become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of other irrelevant St Judean lost causes.
An excellent post.
/scans for sarcasm/

/scans for sarcasm again/

Thank you?

No sarcasm intended.

bondegezou · August 4

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.
While it was manna from heaven for the UK leftwing media.

2 articles in the Guardian is not running hard. Let's look at Fox News's coverage:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-sydney-sweeney-ad-epstein-b2801328.html

the network has spent over 85 minutes across at least 20 segments through Thursday afternoon discussing the commercial and the discourse surrounding it.

At the same time, since Monday, Fox News has only talked about the latest developments in the Epstein saga a total of three minutes, despite the fact that Trump recently claimed that Epstein “stole” the late Virginia Giuffre [...] from Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s remarks raised additional questions about his knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and have led to Giuffre’s family demanding more answers from the administration.

The president sparked additional headlines when he reiterated this week that he’s “allowed” to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, [...]

Media Matters found that since Monday, Fox News has mentioned Sweeney 62 times on air compared to just 14 for Epstein.

What about other right and left-leaning news sources in the US?

While MAGA competitor Newsmax has also given ample coverage to the Sweeney ad, the channel has also frequently discussed the Epstein situation – mentioning it four times more than the American Eagle commercial.

MSNBC, which has yet to mention Sweeney on air this week, has brought up Epstein 756 times, while CNN has mentioned the disgraced financier 638 times, compared to just six references to the Sweeney ad.

Sandpit · August 4

FrancisUrquhart said:

PoodleInASlipstream said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
They've been bleeding money since launch, but have deep-pocketed backers. A broadcast news channel is mostly a vanity project now.
In the same reports that talked about viewership said they are now break even.

However, from the get go it was obviously there is no massive pot of gold like in the US for tv news, it has never got massive viewership outside those 30 mins primetime slots on BBC / ITV. We aren't like the US were Fox can get 3 million viewers for a late night satire show.

The big loser in all this is Sky News, they are getting absolutely hammered.

Gutfeld’s show is aimed straight at the Colberts and Fallons, and beats them all in the ratings.

There’s only two American late-night shows really worth watching these days, Gutfeld and Bill Maher, who understand that the first rule of comedy is that it has to be funny, and aren’t afraid to go after their own side when justified. The rest are all totally one-sided propagandists, working a time slot when most people want to have a laugh and disconnect from the world.

Sandpit · August 4

bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?

There was a cable channel in the ‘90s that did that!

Nigelb · August 4

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.

Wouldn't be a huge surprise if a good proportion of the "crazed leftists" were bots amplifying the story for just that reason.

Mexicanpete · August 4

...

bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?

Nurse! Mind bleach please.

TOPPING · August 4

bondegezou said:

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.
While it was manna from heaven for the UK leftwing media.
2 articles in the Guardian is not running hard. Let's look at Fox News's coverage:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-sydney-sweeney-ad-epstein-b2801328.html

the network has spent over 85 minutes across at least 20 segments through Thursday afternoon discussing the commercial and the discourse surrounding it.

At the same time, since Monday, Fox News has only talked about the latest developments in the Epstein saga a total of three minutes, despite the fact that Trump recently claimed that Epstein “stole” the late Virginia Giuffre [...] from Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s remarks raised additional questions about his knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and have led to Giuffre’s family demanding more answers from the administration.

The president sparked additional headlines when he reiterated this week that he’s “allowed” to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, [...]

Media Matters found that since Monday, Fox News has mentioned Sweeney 62 times on air compared to just 14 for Epstein.

What about other right and left-leaning news sources in the US?

While MAGA competitor Newsmax has also given ample coverage to the Sweeney ad, the channel has also frequently discussed the Epstein situation – mentioning it four times more than the American Eagle commercial.

MSNBC, which has yet to mention Sweeney on air this week, has brought up Epstein 756 times, while CNN has mentioned the disgraced financier 638 times, compared to just six references to the Sweeney ad.

Not sure what you're trying to prove. Did I say anything about US coverage. I just pointed to my google of SS to find that there were several articles about her not from the Daily Mail (I'm sure there are plenty), but from the UK leftwing media.

TheScreamingEagles · August 4

bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?

I have a photograph of one GB News presenter which is kinda like him in lingerie.

I have used it in some PB headers.

Sunil_Prasannan · August 4

Mexicanpete said:
...
bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?
Nurse! Mind bleach please.

Bev Turner

TOPPING · August 4

Sandpit said:

OldKingCole said:

TimS said:
For most of the population I expect the best advice is never kiss a member of a political party.

Which reminds me that I indirectly triggered the second worst row of some friends’ marriage when I persuaded the man to join the Lib Dems and his wife was upset that he’d done something so momentous based on a random conversation with a school dad without consulting her first (I think she’s Labour).
In my youth I briefly attended a Young Conservative meeting in the hope of converting some nubile young woman.

There weren't any I fancied, so I made an excuse and left!
Before the internet, the local Con Club was half a political party and half a dating service for the adult children of the members!

I believe that back in the day the Young Chelsea Bridge Club was quite a meeting place.

TOPPING · August 4

Nigelb said:

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.
Wouldn't be a huge surprise if a good proportion of the "crazed leftists" were bots amplifying the story for just that reason.

That first Graun article on Google looks typically mean-spiritied ("it will end in tears..."). I imagine the Graun is not yet resorting to bots.

Sunil_Prasannan · August 4

TheScreamingEagles said:

Sandpit said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
“Trival moral reason like you’re married…” Umm, that’s not trivial, it’s rather fundamental.

Sadly for her some of us are married, and therefore totally out of Miss Sweeney’s league!

Whoever runs American Eagle’s marketing campaign has earned their bonus this week though, a thousand times over.

They found the perfect model, in a good-looking young actress who comes across as the girl next door (rather than the recent trend for excessive surgery and makeup in role models) who you’d happily invite to meet your parents.
Monogamy is too cruel a rule.

God never married the mother of His only begotten son.

Sunil_Prasannan · August 4

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)

She's not even pretty. Soz but them's the breaks.

stodge · August 4

Afternoon all

Well, I've just sat through 1 minute 20 seconds of Kemi Badenoch's platitudes and that's 80 seconds I won't be getting back.

As always, long on generalities and short on specifics - what would she and Stride cut, what does she think Reeves should cut and by how much?

I'm happy to see borrowing and the deficit reduced - there may be some relief IF we can cut interest rates in the autumn but with inflation stubborn that looks incrwasingly unlikely.

So, what do we cut and by how much? Defence, perhaps, pensions I'm told, the Police maybe? Presumably we'll need to keep some funds for all the migrants we're going to deport and the foreign nationals in our jails?

Nigelb · August 4

Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288

Mexicanpete · August 4

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Mexicanpete said:
...
bondegezou said:

Roger said:
GB News have 80,000 viewers on average and that's the most watched news service?

I met a girl yesterday who's an influencer who models and sells lingerie online and she has 220,000 followers.

I'm surprised GB News on those figures can keep running
This raises the question of what would happen if the GB News presenters just wore lingerie?
Nurse! Mind bleach please.
Bev Turner

Vile.

I heard her ask the most disingenuous question to Trump in Starmer's presence re; the Online Safety Act. She mischievously asked Trump what he thought now Starmer had now blocked Truth Social. And Trump almost bit. Now whatever the rights and wrongs of the Online Safety Act, trying to humiliate the Prime Minister and the nation with a misleading question to an unhinged President of the USA is not on. It could have resulted in Trump declaring war on the UK.

Anyway in answer to the earlier statement, Eamonn Holmes popped into my head, and that is a thought no one wants.

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

Nigelb said:
Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288

Taps mic...FAKKKKE NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....YOUR FIRED.

Richard_Tyndall · August 4

FPT

OldKingCole said:

JosiasJessop said:

theProle said:

RochdalePioneers said:
I've been down an interesting rabbit hole with FUKers and Dump Net Zero policy.

They're against wind and all cite the same data to prove that its more expensive than anything else. And they want it switched off tomorrow.

As Wind is a third of our generating capacity, we'd need to replace that with something else.

The best suggestion I've been told by one of their self-proclaimed energy experts? COAL. Specifically domestic coal.

Thing is, back when we had coal being dug from profitable pits, the imported stuff was cheaper, so we closed the pits. Now - so I am told - we can just reopen the pits and burn coal.

OK, lets imagine that we scrap planning laws so no cost from enquiries or any of that. Buy the land. Dig the holes. Erect the surface infrastructure, buy machinery and train men. Just to be able to access coal which used to be more expensive than imports when there was no access costs.

Coal. Is that really what they think can be done? And I used to mock Boris Johnson for "crayon policies". This lot are a whole new level of stupid.
Trouble is that they are half right. In £/Kwh for dispatachable generation* (ignoring taxes and subsidies) coal is cheaper than anything else by a country mile.

We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent), and we are still digging ourselves into an expensive energy hole rather than getting ourselves out of it - eg licensing offshore wind with strike prices greater than the current grid price.

That said, we are where we are now - local deep mined coal isn't coming back at scale - far too expensive to reopen, although there is still some opencast to be had.

Throwing up some big coal fired baseload plants and running on imported coal would probably be the straight up cheapest way forward, if we are determined to get electricity prices down. It's the only realistic way to decouple prices from the gas price any time soon. But I don't see Reform doing it.

What they might do is windfall tax all the CFD cash back - that would reduce prices (or at least, provide a big pile of cash that could be used to reduce prices). But the downside would be that no one would touch another government contract of this sort with someone else's barge pole for a very long time - and we still need people to build some sort of generating capacity.

*dispatchable - ie available when you need it, like after dark on a still winter night. Perfectly technically achievable with wind/solar + batteries, or more cheaply with wind/solar + gas backup, but all of this is more expensive than coal.
"We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent)"

Infrastructure does not last forever. A thermal power station generally has a 25-30 design life; that can be extended, but at increasing cost and reduced reliability. Most coal-fired power stations were at, or past, their lives when they were switched off and replaced (mostly) by CCGT. Mothballing is expensive as well, as is recommissioning afterwards. Any coal power station switched off more than a decade ago, and which has not been properly mothballed, would just be scrap now.

Coal is also *terrible* environmentally. The worst of the worst. The idea of going back to coal is insane. I have nothing against CCGT, though.
Were not most (if not all) coal mines closed down as uneconomic, though. Back in the 90's most of them, so any miners would now be at least in their 40's. Would they really fancy going back down the pit?

This is only partially true.

Yes they were uneconomic compared to importing coal from Poland or elsewhere in the world. But that of course depends on a secure supply and the price of the imported product not shooting through the roof. As with, for example, German gas supplies.

And yes they were uneconomic compared to home grown gas. But again that depends on the supply of home grown gas being secure - which is clearly not the case in the medium term - or on imported gas being both secure and reasonably priced. Again see German gas supplies.

That is not to say I think we should reopen the pits. But coal gasification is certainly something we should look at as part of a spread of energy supply methods.

bondegezou · August 4

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.
While it was manna from heaven for the UK leftwing media.
2 articles in the Guardian is not running hard. Let's look at Fox News's coverage:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-sydney-sweeney-ad-epstein-b2801328.html

the network has spent over 85 minutes across at least 20 segments through Thursday afternoon discussing the commercial and the discourse surrounding it.

At the same time, since Monday, Fox News has only talked about the latest developments in the Epstein saga a total of three minutes, despite the fact that Trump recently claimed that Epstein “stole” the late Virginia Giuffre [...] from Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s remarks raised additional questions about his knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and have led to Giuffre’s family demanding more answers from the administration.

The president sparked additional headlines when he reiterated this week that he’s “allowed” to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, [...]

Media Matters found that since Monday, Fox News has mentioned Sweeney 62 times on air compared to just 14 for Epstein.

What about other right and left-leaning news sources in the US?

While MAGA competitor Newsmax has also given ample coverage to the Sweeney ad, the channel has also frequently discussed the Epstein situation – mentioning it four times more than the American Eagle commercial.

MSNBC, which has yet to mention Sweeney on air this week, has brought up Epstein 756 times, while CNN has mentioned the disgraced financier 638 times, compared to just six references to the Sweeney ad.
Not sure what you're trying to prove. Did I say anything about US coverage. I just pointed to my google of SS to find that there were several articles about her not from the Daily Mail (I'm sure there are plenty), but from the UK leftwing media.

What I'm saying is that the right in the US have exaggerated the claim that leftists are outraged by the ad. It's a confected storm because they're trying to find something to talk about other than the topic that still dominates US political discourse, Epstein.

MarqueeMark · August 4

FrancisUrquhart said:

Nigelb said:
Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288
Taps mic...FAKKKKE NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....YOUR FIRED.

No risk of being fired for the guy causing the economy to crash and burn...

TOPPING · August 4

bondegezou said:

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

TOPPING said:

bondegezou said:

Sandpit said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
That’s such a funny story.

A few dozen crazed leftists on TikTok decided that a jeans/genes pun made an attractive young actress a literal Nazi, the US mainstream media picked up the ‘backlash’ and ran with it hard, including showing the ad dozens of times, and now American Eagle has had hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity and hundreds of millions more in increased market cap.

It’s Bud Light in reverse. Get woke, go broke.

Edit: even funnier, with some internet digging it turns out that this young lady’s family lives on a rural farm, she can drive a car with a ‘stick’ and even change the oil. She now lives in Florida and is apparently a registered Republican.
The US mainstream media didn't run with it hard. Fox News and other right-leaning sources ran with it hard, desperate for anything to talk about other than Epstein.
While it was manna from heaven for the UK leftwing media.
2 articles in the Guardian is not running hard. Let's look at Fox News's coverage:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-sydney-sweeney-ad-epstein-b2801328.html

the network has spent over 85 minutes across at least 20 segments through Thursday afternoon discussing the commercial and the discourse surrounding it.

At the same time, since Monday, Fox News has only talked about the latest developments in the Epstein saga a total of three minutes, despite the fact that Trump recently claimed that Epstein “stole” the late Virginia Giuffre [...] from Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s remarks raised additional questions about his knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and have led to Giuffre’s family demanding more answers from the administration.

The president sparked additional headlines when he reiterated this week that he’s “allowed” to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, [...]

Media Matters found that since Monday, Fox News has mentioned Sweeney 62 times on air compared to just 14 for Epstein.

What about other right and left-leaning news sources in the US?

While MAGA competitor Newsmax has also given ample coverage to the Sweeney ad, the channel has also frequently discussed the Epstein situation – mentioning it four times more than the American Eagle commercial.

MSNBC, which has yet to mention Sweeney on air this week, has brought up Epstein 756 times, while CNN has mentioned the disgraced financier 638 times, compared to just six references to the Sweeney ad.
Not sure what you're trying to prove. Did I say anything about US coverage. I just pointed to my google of SS to find that there were several articles about her not from the Daily Mail (I'm sure there are plenty), but from the UK leftwing media.
What I'm saying is that the right in the US have exaggerated the claim that leftists are outraged by the ad. It's a confected storm because they're trying to find something to talk about other than the topic that still dominates US political discourse, Epstein.

Maybe. Leftists in the UK (as exemplified by the Graun) seem outraged.

Mexicanpete · August 4

Nigelb said:
Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288

I think when you see the revised figures, durable goods orders will have increased 10 trillion % and factory orders will also have uncannily increased by 10 trillion %.

MarqueeMark · August 4

OldKingCole said:

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

What a waste!

The ladies don't think so!

Leon · August 4

FrancisUrquhart said:

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

Part of the marketing push around Sydney Sweeney is that in addition to her "assets" that she isn't a super model stick thin unique looker, she is actually an attractive woman that is perhaps somebody you might see around. The "girl next door" vibe as they used to say or in her case they lean into being a more outdoorsy type who likes shooting guns.

Whoever is managing her career is absolutely smashing it.

In what favoured corner of the world is Sydney Sweeney “the girl next door”??

She’s extremely pretty and curvy and blonde and petite and and and - and has that sultry sensuality as well. That come hither look

Where do you live? Coz I’d like to move next door but one

tlg86 · August 4

I bet this made the pilot's heartbeat skip a beat:

https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1952391328471359741

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Nigelb said:
Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288
Taps mic...FAKKKKE NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....YOUR FIRED.
No risk of being fired for the guy causing the economy to crash and burn...

Those independent predictions that the US will grow 2.5% despite Trump are looking very optimistic.

OldKingCole · August 4

Richard_Tyndall said:
FPT

OldKingCole said:

JosiasJessop said:

theProle said:

RochdalePioneers said:
I've been down an interesting rabbit hole with FUKers and Dump Net Zero policy.

They're against wind and all cite the same data to prove that its more expensive than anything else. And they want it switched off tomorrow.

As Wind is a third of our generating capacity, we'd need to replace that with something else.

The best suggestion I've been told by one of their self-proclaimed energy experts? COAL. Specifically domestic coal.

Thing is, back when we had coal being dug from profitable pits, the imported stuff was cheaper, so we closed the pits. Now - so I am told - we can just reopen the pits and burn coal.

OK, lets imagine that we scrap planning laws so no cost from enquiries or any of that. Buy the land. Dig the holes. Erect the surface infrastructure, buy machinery and train men. Just to be able to access coal which used to be more expensive than imports when there was no access costs.

Coal. Is that really what they think can be done? And I used to mock Boris Johnson for "crayon policies". This lot are a whole new level of stupid.
Trouble is that they are half right. In £/Kwh for dispatachable generation* (ignoring taxes and subsidies) coal is cheaper than anything else by a country mile.

We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent), and we are still digging ourselves into an expensive energy hole rather than getting ourselves out of it - eg licensing offshore wind with strike prices greater than the current grid price.

That said, we are where we are now - local deep mined coal isn't coming back at scale - far too expensive to reopen, although there is still some opencast to be had.

Throwing up some big coal fired baseload plants and running on imported coal would probably be the straight up cheapest way forward, if we are determined to get electricity prices down. It's the only realistic way to decouple prices from the gas price any time soon. But I don't see Reform doing it.

What they might do is windfall tax all the CFD cash back - that would reduce prices (or at least, provide a big pile of cash that could be used to reduce prices). But the downside would be that no one would touch another government contract of this sort with someone else's barge pole for a very long time - and we still need people to build some sort of generating capacity.

*dispatchable - ie available when you need it, like after dark on a still winter night. Perfectly technically achievable with wind/solar + batteries, or more cheaply with wind/solar + gas backup, but all of this is more expensive than coal.
"We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent)"

Infrastructure does not last forever. A thermal power station generally has a 25-30 design life; that can be extended, but at increasing cost and reduced reliability. Most coal-fired power stations were at, or past, their lives when they were switched off and replaced (mostly) by CCGT. Mothballing is expensive as well, as is recommissioning afterwards. Any coal power station switched off more than a decade ago, and which has not been properly mothballed, would just be scrap now.

Coal is also *terrible* environmentally. The worst of the worst. The idea of going back to coal is insane. I have nothing against CCGT, though.
Were not most (if not all) coal mines closed down as uneconomic, though. Back in the 90's most of them, so any miners would now be at least in their 40's. Would they really fancy going back down the pit?
This is only partially true.

Yes they were uneconomic compared to importing coal from Poland or elsewhere in the world. But that of course depends on a secure supply and the price of the imported product not shooting through the roof. As with, for example, German gas supplies.

And yes they were uneconomic compared to home grown gas. But again that depends on the supply of home grown gas being secure - which is clearly not the case in the medium term - or on imported gas being both secure and reasonably priced. Again see German gas supplies.

That is not to say I think we should reopen the pits. But coal gasification is certainly something we should look at as part of a spread of energy supply methods.

Thanks.

Taz · August 4

Leon said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

MarqueeMark said:

TOPPING said:

MarqueeMark said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
Doesn't float my boat.

I have a colleague who is W-A-Y hotter...
Of course you do. Why every woman that every PB-er knows is far hotter than Sydney Sweeney. Of course they are.
Not every woman. But this one just is more attractive. Better body. Better hair. Husky voiced. Whip smart. Great sense of humour.

If only she weren't somewhere between the age of my daughter and grand-daughter.

And gay.

Part of the marketing push around Sydney Sweeney is that in addition to her "assets" that she isn't a super model stick thin unique looker, she is actually an attractive woman that is perhaps somebody you might see around. The "girl next door" vibe as they used to say or in her case they lean into being a more outdoorsy type who likes shooting guns.

Whoever is managing her career is absolutely smashing it.
In what favoured corner of the world is Sydney Sweeney “the girl next door”??

She’s extremely pretty and curvy and blonde and petite and and and - and has that sultry sensuality as well. That come hither look

Where do you live? Coz I’d like to move next door but one

If she was the girl next door I’d move.

Where would you move to ?

Next door.

RochdalePioneers · August 4

Hello from the dark ages, where SSE advise that we will get power restored in 24 hours...

FrancisUrquhart · August 4

"Men" in court over alleged rape of 12-year-old girl

Ahmad Mulakhil faces two rape charges, while Mohammad Kabir is accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under 13.

Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch has alleged the two men were asylum seekers, which the BBC has been unable to verify independently, and accused Warwickshire Police and the Home Office of covering up their immigration status.

Police refused to disclose further details, saying: "Once someone is charged with an offence, we follow national guidance. This guidance does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy98l9j913vo

Malmesbury · August 4

OldKingCole said:

Richard_Tyndall said:
FPT

OldKingCole said:

JosiasJessop said:

theProle said:

RochdalePioneers said:
I've been down an interesting rabbit hole with FUKers and Dump Net Zero policy.

They're against wind and all cite the same data to prove that its more expensive than anything else. And they want it switched off tomorrow.

As Wind is a third of our generating capacity, we'd need to replace that with something else.

The best suggestion I've been told by one of their self-proclaimed energy experts? COAL. Specifically domestic coal.

Thing is, back when we had coal being dug from profitable pits, the imported stuff was cheaper, so we closed the pits. Now - so I am told - we can just reopen the pits and burn coal.

OK, lets imagine that we scrap planning laws so no cost from enquiries or any of that. Buy the land. Dig the holes. Erect the surface infrastructure, buy machinery and train men. Just to be able to access coal which used to be more expensive than imports when there was no access costs.

Coal. Is that really what they think can be done? And I used to mock Boris Johnson for "crayon policies". This lot are a whole new level of stupid.
Trouble is that they are half right. In £/Kwh for dispatachable generation* (ignoring taxes and subsidies) coal is cheaper than anything else by a country mile.

We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent), and we are still digging ourselves into an expensive energy hole rather than getting ourselves out of it - eg licensing offshore wind with strike prices greater than the current grid price.

That said, we are where we are now - local deep mined coal isn't coming back at scale - far too expensive to reopen, although there is still some opencast to be had.

Throwing up some big coal fired baseload plants and running on imported coal would probably be the straight up cheapest way forward, if we are determined to get electricity prices down. It's the only realistic way to decouple prices from the gas price any time soon. But I don't see Reform doing it.

What they might do is windfall tax all the CFD cash back - that would reduce prices (or at least, provide a big pile of cash that could be used to reduce prices). But the downside would be that no one would touch another government contract of this sort with someone else's barge pole for a very long time - and we still need people to build some sort of generating capacity.

*dispatchable - ie available when you need it, like after dark on a still winter night. Perfectly technically achievable with wind/solar + batteries, or more cheaply with wind/solar + gas backup, but all of this is more expensive than coal.
"We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent)"

Infrastructure does not last forever. A thermal power station generally has a 25-30 design life; that can be extended, but at increasing cost and reduced reliability. Most coal-fired power stations were at, or past, their lives when they were switched off and replaced (mostly) by CCGT. Mothballing is expensive as well, as is recommissioning afterwards. Any coal power station switched off more than a decade ago, and which has not been properly mothballed, would just be scrap now.

Coal is also *terrible* environmentally. The worst of the worst. The idea of going back to coal is insane. I have nothing against CCGT, though.
Were not most (if not all) coal mines closed down as uneconomic, though. Back in the 90's most of them, so any miners would now be at least in their 40's. Would they really fancy going back down the pit?
This is only partially true.

Yes they were uneconomic compared to importing coal from Poland or elsewhere in the world. But that of course depends on a secure supply and the price of the imported product not shooting through the roof. As with, for example, German gas supplies.

And yes they were uneconomic compared to home grown gas. But again that depends on the supply of home grown gas being secure - which is clearly not the case in the medium term - or on imported gas being both secure and reasonably priced. Again see German gas supplies.

That is not to say I think we should reopen the pits. But coal gasification is certainly something we should look at as part of a spread of energy supply methods.

Thanks.

Coal gasification being technology that doesn't currently exist in the form that is being talked off - underground, in situ.

Among other fun things, it will lead to subsidence on a fairly massive scale. And lots of CO2, unless you spend money on pumping that back down again.

Richard_Tyndall · August 4

Malmesbury said:

OldKingCole said:

Richard_Tyndall said:
FPT

OldKingCole said:

JosiasJessop said:

theProle said:

RochdalePioneers said:
I've been down an interesting rabbit hole with FUKers and Dump Net Zero policy.

They're against wind and all cite the same data to prove that its more expensive than anything else. And they want it switched off tomorrow.

As Wind is a third of our generating capacity, we'd need to replace that with something else.

The best suggestion I've been told by one of their self-proclaimed energy experts? COAL. Specifically domestic coal.

Thing is, back when we had coal being dug from profitable pits, the imported stuff was cheaper, so we closed the pits. Now - so I am told - we can just reopen the pits and burn coal.

OK, lets imagine that we scrap planning laws so no cost from enquiries or any of that. Buy the land. Dig the holes. Erect the surface infrastructure, buy machinery and train men. Just to be able to access coal which used to be more expensive than imports when there was no access costs.

Coal. Is that really what they think can be done? And I used to mock Boris Johnson for "crayon policies". This lot are a whole new level of stupid.
Trouble is that they are half right. In £/Kwh for dispatachable generation* (ignoring taxes and subsidies) coal is cheaper than anything else by a country mile.

We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent), and we are still digging ourselves into an expensive energy hole rather than getting ourselves out of it - eg licensing offshore wind with strike prices greater than the current grid price.

That said, we are where we are now - local deep mined coal isn't coming back at scale - far too expensive to reopen, although there is still some opencast to be had.

Throwing up some big coal fired baseload plants and running on imported coal would probably be the straight up cheapest way forward, if we are determined to get electricity prices down. It's the only realistic way to decouple prices from the gas price any time soon. But I don't see Reform doing it.

What they might do is windfall tax all the CFD cash back - that would reduce prices (or at least, provide a big pile of cash that could be used to reduce prices). But the downside would be that no one would touch another government contract of this sort with someone else's barge pole for a very long time - and we still need people to build some sort of generating capacity.

*dispatchable - ie available when you need it, like after dark on a still winter night. Perfectly technically achievable with wind/solar + batteries, or more cheaply with wind/solar + gas backup, but all of this is more expensive than coal.
"We were insane to knock down all our coal burning infrastructure (all that capex already spent)"

Infrastructure does not last forever. A thermal power station generally has a 25-30 design life; that can be extended, but at increasing cost and reduced reliability. Most coal-fired power stations were at, or past, their lives when they were switched off and replaced (mostly) by CCGT. Mothballing is expensive as well, as is recommissioning afterwards. Any coal power station switched off more than a decade ago, and which has not been properly mothballed, would just be scrap now.

Coal is also *terrible* environmentally. The worst of the worst. The idea of going back to coal is insane. I have nothing against CCGT, though.
Were not most (if not all) coal mines closed down as uneconomic, though. Back in the 90's most of them, so any miners would now be at least in their 40's. Would they really fancy going back down the pit?
This is only partially true.

Yes they were uneconomic compared to importing coal from Poland or elsewhere in the world. But that of course depends on a secure supply and the price of the imported product not shooting through the roof. As with, for example, German gas supplies.

And yes they were uneconomic compared to home grown gas. But again that depends on the supply of home grown gas being secure - which is clearly not the case in the medium term - or on imported gas being both secure and reasonably priced. Again see German gas supplies.

That is not to say I think we should reopen the pits. But coal gasification is certainly something we should look at as part of a spread of energy supply methods.

Thanks.
Coal gasification being technology that doesn't currently exist in the form that is being talked off - underground, in situ.

Among other fun things, it will lead to subsidence on a fairly massive scale. And lots of CO2, unless you spend money on pumping that back down again.

A lot of UK coal reserves are offshore. Subsidance doesn't matter there.

And yes the technology does exist. It has been used successfully in trials for over 50 years. It is just that it has had no purpose until now since conventional mining and O&G provision has been sufficient to meet global needs.

Bear in mind many of the wells we drilled in the central North Sea in the 80s and 90s could not be produced with the technology that existed then because of the ultra high pressures. But once the demand for those hydrocarbons was there people actually started addressing how to produce it and now we can.

tlg86 · August 4

FrancisUrquhart said:
"Men" in court over alleged rape of 12-year-old girl

Ahmad Mulakhil faces two rape charges, while Mohammad Kabir is accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under 13.

Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch has alleged the two men were asylum seekers, which the BBC has been unable to verify independently, and accused Warwickshire Police and the Home Office of covering up their immigration status.

Police refused to disclose further details, saying: "Once someone is charged with an offence, we follow national guidance. This guidance does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy98l9j913vo

You know it's bad when the secret barrister pops up with this:

https://x.com/BarristerSecret/status/1952389559561724179

The Secret Barrister 🦋
@BarristerSecret
I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

MaxPB · August 4

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
She's not even pretty. Soz but them's the breaks.

Seriously

bondegezou · August 4

Mexicanpete said:

Nigelb said:
Who's the next stats official in the firing line ?

*US JUNE DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL 9.4% M/M

*US JUNE FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4.8% M/M\
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1952369355830055288
I think when you see the revised figures, durable goods orders will have increased 10 trillion % and factory orders will also have uncannily increased by 10 trillion %.

And drug prices will be cut by 1500%.

Nigelb · August 4

MaxPB said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
She's not even pretty. Soz but them's the breaks.

Seriously

Damn, Max, you've let yourself go.

Taz · August 4

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Leon said:

Mexicanpete said:

Scott_xP said:
@annmarie

American Eagle shares are up 13% today
In never kiss a Tory news, Sydney Sweeney is apparently a registered Republican.
Yes. I wonder now many “never kiss a republican” types would overcome their scruples if confronted by an eager Sydney sweeney - or her male equivalent

I see that the spectator article on this theme is now the most read on the spectator website
Nah, she's all yours mate!
You would not turn down Sydney Sweeney (absent some trivial moral reason like you’re married and faithful or whatever)
She's not even pretty. Soz but them's the breaks.

..

Kemi Badenoch is taking my advice – politicalbetting.com

Comments