Don’t push too far, your dreams are China in your hand – politicalbetting.com
Don’t push too far, your dreams are China in your hand – politicalbetting.com
With the government's role in the collapsed China spy case being questioned by the Conservatives and Lib Dems, just 14% of Britons say they are paying close attention to the storyVery / fairly closely: 14%Not very / not at all closely: 53%Not aware: 33%yougov.co.uk/topics/socie…
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Are Reform pushing the story particularly strongly through their social media?
Even so, that result perhaps tells us something about the YouGov sample more than the actual public.
Has Jackson Lamb said who's guilty of spying yet?
Labour stops a trial against people who are accused of spying for China.
Said accused worked for Tory MPs.
I wonder why.
What I don’t understand is why that is the case? It seems an oddly specific requirement. And the failure appears to be on the CPS not saying, “We need these exact words.”
Top story was ADHD diagnoses and fat jabs driving up waiting lists.
Then there was the GDP numbers, prefaced as good news.
Final story was Kim Kardashian and Kanye.
Neither/none of the China scandals was anywhere.
You're up to date.
Goog morning, everybody.
Headline Voting Intention (likely voters vs 2021 Senedd elections)
Base: All those likely to vote with undecided squeezed and those still undecided and refused removed
If the by-election were held today:
Llŷr Tomos Powell – Reform UK: 42% (+40)
Lindsay Whittle – Plaid Cymru: 38% (+10)
Richard Tunnicliffe – Labour: 12% (-34)
Gareth John Potter – Conservative: 4% (-14)
Steve Aicheler – Liberal Democrat: 1% (-1)
Gareth Hughes – Green Party: 3% (+3)
Everyone needs to understand that China is a massive threat to national security, the biggest threat we’ve faced since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
My point is why does the criminal case require such a precise wording and why did the CPS not clearly communicate this need to government?
https://wellhub.com/en-us/blog/organizational-development/manager-appreciation-day/
Russia never seriously challenged the west economically; China threatens to match us, and in some sectors clearly has already.
The contest is less a military one (though they present a serious threat to the region, and perhaps globally) than it is to show that liberal democracies can overmatch them economically while retaining their freedoms.
What am I missing here?
Their plan is to stop selling us things that we might really need, such as EV batteries, so they can instead sell us their cars by denying European and American manufacturers the batteries - because Europe and America don’t have the technology to produce the new improved batteries the Chinese are now making.
This is why Trump is talking about 100% tariffs on China, and other Western nations face the same dilemma.
https://x.com/adambienkov/status/1978719652143378473?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
MURICA - Batteries are ANTIFA
UK - Ah, Yes, Brugh, BRITVOLT, er, right, oh
EU - we want to make profit from the engines we already make
Electrification is here and it can't be stopped. What the rage baiters foaming on about EVs don't get is that most people don't care that much about cars. Offer them a new one thats easier to drive cheaper to maintain and more reliable and they'll take it. And they are, with EV sales continuing to rise.
ICE is on its way out, and China will rule the world unless the west wakes up and starts investing serious money.
Obviously it needs dealing with when we catch them, but I struggle to get particularly interested in it and can see why the public are indifferent.
https://davidallengreen.com/2025/10/trying-to-make-sense-of-the-nonsensical-decision-to-drop-the-chinese-spying-prosecutions/
His conclusion - obvious to all really:
The more one knows about this case, the more confusing it becomes.
The CPS insists on further evidence it does not require, and the government insists it could not give that evidence, even though it could.
Neither side makes sense, and together they make no sense absolutely.
So either the CPS and the government simultaneously get themselves into an utter muddle on a major espionage prosecution.
And such concurrent cock-ups are conceivable.
Or there is another explanation.
John Rentoul
@JohnRentoul
Labour vote collapsing in next week’s Senedd by-election: @Survation
poll https://mailchi.mp/survation/new-caerphilly-by-election-polling-11043340?e=ab8a7e86d7
https://x.com/JohnRentoul/status/1978719071127392688
1) A speech about building batteries isn’t building batteries.
2) A report on building batteries isn’t building batteries.
3) A policy on building batteries isn’t building batteries.
Building fuck off gigantic factories building batteries *is* building batteries.
From the opposition politicians point of view. Great opportunity to pretend I'd do differently, when I'd really do the same.
Though on the Epstein case this makes interesting reading. Very sad.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-abuse-epstein-maxwell?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
There is a short-term hit from any such export controls for other countries. But medium-term it 1) accelerates the need for countries to diversity the source of key components - either reshoring or locating to developing nations; and 2) tariffs are inevitable on products like Chinese cars that are defacto subsidies by other Chinese trade policies.
Given how little manufacturing the UK has left to protect, we might end up just importing lots of cheap Chinese cars etc as one of the only major economies without tariffs.
We have abundant renewable sources, with so much energy flowing that we have to pay the companies to dump it as we can't transmit it and we can't consume it quickly enough. The obvious solution is better transmission - needed anyway as so little money has been spent by the private sector - and battery storage. And not just at big sites - local generation and storage.
But no, the fukers want to shut the whole thing down, import more LNG and then we're fine apparently. Asshats the lot of them, whether they turn up to selection meetings in union jack shorts or not.
https://x.com/euromaidanpress/status/1978681835405107337
Not sure how many of these the Russians have left now, they started the war with 54 of them in the whole of Russia.
It’s hellishly amusing to see an *air defence system* crippled by flying weapons, when surely the whole point of an air defence system…
My understanding is that the initial statement was thought sufficient for these purposes. After that was made there was a Court of Appeal decision which specified more clearly what had to be said but also said ultimately this was not a matter for certification by the government but determination by the Jury. The deputy security chief, who had given the original statement, gave 2 more supplementary statements which I think we will find sought to address the requirements set out by the Court of Appeal. The view then seems to have been taken that they didn't and that the prosecution could not lead evidence that would entitle a jury properly instructed to reach that conclusion so the trial collapsed.
If all of this is right then the only political question is whether the author of the statements was pressured in any way to give statements that did not meet the relevant requirements. Starmer says not but then he also said that he wants to double check that.
And yes, this puts me in the 14% of saddos paying some attention.
One Labour MP got interested in space for about 10 seconds. Then lambasted the British Government for not encouraging more launch start ups in the UK. When it was pointed out that they had personally campaigned against a particular test stand for rocket engines* in the UK - "but that's different"
If you turned up in Northumberland and said "I want to build a gigafactory", you'd be on the receiving end of a political shit storm.
Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Scheduling time to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Making a to-do list for the thing isn't doing the thing.
Telling people you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Writing a banger tweet about how you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn't doing the thing. Hating on other people who have done the thing isn't doing the thing. Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Fantasizing about all of the adoration you'll receive once you do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about how other people did the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading this essay isn't doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.
I am not the least bit surprised
The UK has massively upped its activities in, for example, the European Union, since that is what the UK government needs to know more about, and whereas we used to simply ask, now we actually need to find out covertly.
So of course China undertakes covert information operations against the UK. Unfortunately a couple of well placed sources seem to have been prepared to wittingly hand over information to Chinese intelligence. The cock up is that the prosecution have been able to argue that "China is not a threat". In fact *all* countries are a threat, so it really is abject incompetence that the case collapsed.
Meanwhile Russia, a direct and explicit *military* threat to the UK, has been successfully bribing British politicians not merely to provide information, but to work actively for them. The egregious corruption that appears in the leadership of Reform UK, and the unresolved connections not merely to Russian intelligence but Russian active subversion against the UK is far more serious than the activities of the Chinese, and the relative silence in the media about long term connections between Russia and Farage is extremely sinister..
Putin is a far greater danger than Xi, but that threat is being diminished by the courage and determination of Ukraine.
"Red sky at night, Refinery's alight"
At least surely now the courts will step in and take quick and strident action against the directors and psc's.
That's a 0.01% contraction all else being equal.
I hate the 2020's.
So poor is the UK wide coverage of the devolved areas in the UK and the poor governance or scandals I once watched an episode of Question Time where an audience member in Wales ranted about the Westminster government's poor running of NHS Wales when they had not been in charge of it for years! It was embarrassing and it should have been a huge wake up call to the UK media, but it wasn't. So excuse me if I am not in the least surprised that the conviction of a key friend and colleague of Farage in Wales for taking bribes to further the interests of Russia has been of any more interest to Reform voters UK wide than any of the rest of the UK electorate who support other parties. And that is because they have probable not even heard about it thanks to the lack of UK wide reporting while the scandal of the Westminster China Spying trial is making the frontpages UK wide.
To be fair to Newsnight, they did run a story a few years back about the ferries scandal in Scotland, but who was watching apart from political anoraks like me? I will go one better, why not ask Reform, Conservative, Labour, Libdem or any other voters on the mainland UK how many of them knew that there was no functioning devolved government at Stormont for three years? You get my point, if the UK media doesn't ever bother to scrutinise or report news from devolved areas in the way they do Westminster, don't bother trying to blame the ordinary voters from parties you don't like for not being aware of it. And I say this as a frustrated member of the Scottish Conservatives who are currently being hammered in the polls here by a faceless Scottish Reform party with no discernable leadership or policies while my party has been the most effective Opposition to the SNP and thankfully saw off the terrible GRR bill and its awful implications for women in Scotland!
Misinformation by the nats is in part why we have this comprehension mess in Scotland. They have been in office since General Wade and push so much guff in government that the bit of reporting we get is of the guff, and when you question it they say you're against Scotland.
A few years back, a friend was told that factories weren't wanted in the former Industrial North East - well, they were wanted, but not his* actual factory, and he needed to x, y and z before they would think about maybe not opposing it it too violently.
So he built it in Malaysia. Where the government attitude was "Yay, factory! Here's agreements for next 20 years covering taxes, rules and regs. Here's the local union chap with a copy of the usual non-strike, negotiation setup here. Here are the 27 existing locations for factories. Here are the reps of the all the local factory construction companies.... Can we pencil you in for starting Wednesday?"
*The company he worked for.
Ranked by Muslim proportion of the population it seems to resemble the MRP, which was
Bradford West
Blackburn
Islington North
Bethnal Green and Stepney
Birmingham Ladywood
Leicester South
Birmingham Perry Barr
Dewsbury and Batley
Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley
Slough
Ilford South
Ilford North
East Ham
"London will be left with just two police stations with front counters operating 24 hours a day, as ten more are set to close under cost-cutting measures - breaking a pledge made by the Metropolitan Police and the mayor of London.
The number of front counters where the public can speak to officers will drop from 37 to 27, and be staffed between10:00 to 22:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 19:00 on weekends.
Only Lewisham and Charing Cross - where ten officers are currently under investigation by the police watchdog - will remain open 24 hours.
The Met said it would save £7m but some of its staff and victim support groups say it could leave some people at risk if they need face-to-face contact."
https://open.spotify.com/track/3NgzDpTQpAVHc2S5tGAlD0?si=nIWqUnwXRZiTN1UFSPz7zw
Labour vote 24-(Islamic Indy 24-Green 24)
Rank
6 Blackburn
8 Dewsbury & Batley
1 Bradford W
14 Leicester S
9 Birmingham PB
2 Birmingham HG & Mosely
20 Ilford N
10 Birmingham Yardley
22 Rochdale
12 Birmingham HH & SN
4 Bethnal Green
3 Birmingham Ladywood
19 Slough
18 Oldham W
33 Walsall and Bloxwich
21 Luton S
11 Ilford South
7 Bradford E
16 Luton N
38 Bradford S
26 West Ham & Beckton
35 Oldham E & Saddleworth
28 Leicester E
29 Bolton S
15 Manchester Rusholme
37 Holborn & St P
13 Poplar & Limehouse
25 Barking
5 East Ham
17 Stratford & Bow
40 Smethwick
23 Gorton & Denton
34 Hudddersfield
24 Brent E
36 Ealing N
31 Edmonton & Winchmore Hill
27 Queens Park & Maida Vale
39 Hayes & Harlington
32 Leyton & Wanstead
30 Walthamstow
and the MRP had
Bradford West
Blackburn
Islington North
Bethnal Green and Stepney
Birmingham Ladywood
Leicester South
Birmingham Perry Barr
Dewsbury and Batley
Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley
Slough
Ilford South
Ilford North
East Ham
In other news.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/meze-mangal-london-lewisham-restaurant-kitchen-fan-council-planning-rules-b1251616.html
OK So they should have got PP for the fan, but denying retrospective pp for a restaurant extractor system seems extraordinary by the council, and the penalty completely excessive.
Google search: Scottish ferry scandal bbc
About 67,200 results (0.36s)
Time they put objective Scottish commentators like FTP1690 in charge.
I read an article a couple of days ago about how BBC Scotland was struggling to invest and make enough content and as a result it was struggling to compete with streaming channels. But thanks to the pressure from the SNP Government in Scotland they launched that white elephant of a second channel and all to produce a fecking 'Scottish' evening news programme that no one watches and they were left to fill the rest of their small evening programme with mostly repeats from the BBC Scotland archives from years ago!
How many news journalists or new Scottish programming fell by the way side funding this ridiculous demand by the SNP Government. Its just yet another example of their wasteful incompetent demands in an attempt to appear a nation in waiting for Indy. And do not get me started on the wasteful 'Scottish' extortionately expensive' embassies that do sod all to promote or help Scots abroad and simple give Angus Robertson a reason to visit them on his many travels abroad!
Managed to miss the chain outlets. And the Deliveroo riders. And the place that is known to be owned by a Turkish gangster (very nasty guy)
But they managed to accident raid several places (right next to Kaiser Soze) owned by independents.
Funny that.
Scotsman - went from middle of the road to hard Unionist DT emulator, and abandoned its central Edinburgh office building for a new one opposite Holyrood which it then abandoned for some industrial estate somewhere I can't remember
Herald - ditto change from middle of the road, lost so much circulation it had to set up the National as a not very SNP-friendly way of trying to recover some of the lost income
Edit: A decade and more later, I'm still bitterly angry about the Scotsman. I grew up on it and miss it enormously.
The difference is that all the stuff people said wouldn't happen - renewables cheaper than fossil fuel; EVs cheaper than ICE cars; battery storage capable of solving daily intermittency economically etc has either now happened, or is about to be delivered within this decade.
We've not seriously planned for any of that - while China bet their future on it.
Time to end the denial.
Also, supporters of the SNP are much less transactional than those for the other parties. More like football fans. You don't stop supporting Celtic because the management is rubbish, or they keep scoring own goals.