politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Ipsos Mori April Political Monitor is out
Labour will be delighted that the budget bounce other pollsters have shown hasn’t happened here as their share of the vote is up 2 and their lead has doubled from 3 to 6.
Love this (from everyone's favourite columnist Dan Hodges):
Sajid Javid’s father arrived at Heathrow airport in 1961, with £1 in his pocket. He worked in a cotton mill, as a bus driver, and on a market stall. Javid himself was born less than a year after Enoch Powell delivered his Rivers of Blood speech. He grew up in Rochdale, and then moved to Bristol. He went to a local comprehensive school, then university then embarked on a successful career in finance. Then, at the height of his success, he quit his £3 million-a-year job to enter public service. He became an MP earning £65,000 a year. With no dodgy expenses. And then yesterday he became the first ever Asian Secretary of State.
At which point the Labour party – the Labour Party – attacked him. Because the think he’s too rich. And worked for a bank.
What the hell is going on here? How has the Labour Party – the party of equality, the party of the worker, the party that wants a politics that reflects modern Britain – got itself into the position that it’s running down the first working-class Asian kid to hold the seals of office?
There’s also a boost George Osborne whose approval is the best for a Tory Chancellor since Nigel Lawson in 1987, which was followed by a Tory landslide a few months later.
There’s also a boost George Osborne whose approval is the best for a Tory Chancellor since Nigel Lawson in 1987, which was followed by a Tory landslide a few months later.
"Page 27 of the Coalition Agreement boasts that "We will bring forward early legislation to introduce a power of recall". Four years on, the public is still waiting. Mr Clegg's revised solution – to give recall powers to standards committees – is a fudge. As the latest expenses scandal reminds us, there is nothing that the public loathes more than politicians policing themselves."
Clegg agreeing to these debates has to be the greatest blunder since Hannibal thought he was good enough to give Scipio Africanus the hiding of his life.
Clegg agreeing to these debates has to be the greatest blunder since Hannibal thought he was good enough to give Scipio Africanus the hiding of his life.
Its worse than that! He didn't accept the challenge, he threw down the gauntlet!
There’s also a boost George Osborne whose approval is the best for a Tory Chancellor since Nigel Lawson in 1987, which was followed by a Tory landslide a few months later.
Clegg agreeing to these debates has to be the greatest blunder since Hannibal thought he was good enough to give Scipio Africanus the hiding of his life.
That can't be right - Haven't we had a dozen articles claiming every one but Clegg would be the loser?
"I'm not nearly as worried as you are, in one sense anyway, as a lot of the stuff in the media is obviously deliberate disinformation.
Irrespective of the personal proclivities and language of PBers, what is becoming very obvious is that the No Campaign have been orchestrating/encouraging lots of mostly made up/biased stories about nasty cybernats in recent weeks. And Labour activists have started talking (again) about the danger of violence [emended to amend memory hiccup], as well as Labour MPs making up stories about their offices being vandalised. I was criticised here for posting Wings over Scotland's analysus of this last, and the Scotsman's resulting first page story (which BTW did not make the Herald, which still has some pretensions to quality, and that is very significant). But the point was that if the No campaign can seemingly make up frnt page stories about some old neds' spray slogans and the odd Yes sticker on the window, then what does that say about their morality, truthfulness, and reliability more generally?"
Thank you for that enlightening and utterly disinterested analysis or as others far less charitable than I might put it - getting your excuses in early.
That's an outrageous slur, and just after that Labour leaflet too. The centre-left establishment is clearly getting panicked by UKIP's rise and is just trying to throw as much dirt at them as they can.
Perhaps a hint for Bettertogether and the PB Eunuchs, attacking the SNP & Salmond while hoping SLAB and their voters will save you isn't really much of a strategy.
That's an outrageous slur, and just after that Labour leaflet too. The centre-left establishment is clearly getting panicked by UKIP's rise and is just trying to throw as much dirt at them as they can.
It's pretty incredible. If he was interviewing Nick Griffin it would have been a cheap and immature shot. The whole interview, supposedly about Maria Miller and the right of recall, was just an attack on Farage and UKIP.
It was only yesterday, I believe, that people on here were saying UKIP don't come under the same scrutiny as the other three parties wasnt it?
Luckily enough he batted it away without a problem
Why do people always play the race card when they are losing an argument? So last century!
It's an excellent article. He is spot-on, as so often.
The only thing I'd take issue with is his phrase "just how far Labour has fallen in the four years since its election defeat.". The slide into nasty class-warfare started much earlier than that.
What was the last Mori? Meanwhile, I have piled on Poults. I have a dreadful record in golf betting so avoid him unless you like losing money.
Oh dear - I read Infallible Jack's prediction that Poulter would come at least in the top 5 and have risked £5 ew too.
I fear my dear Icky that after Bobafett put the black spot on Poulter that our money is doomed and you'll need to dust down your old placards suitably amended to :
It's an excellent article. He is spot-on, as so often.
The only thing I'd take issue with is his phrase "just how far Labour has fallen in the four years since its election defeat.". The slide into nasty class-warfare started much earlier than that.
What class warfare? Labour seems to be courting the middle classes. The attacks on OEs and chums come mainly from the right.
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
"The passenger forecasts: The original forecasts made for HS1 were three times as high as the numbers which materialised. Those for HS2 require eighteen 1,100-seat trains per hour, an extraordinary thing not yet achieved on any high speed network in the world."
"I'm not nearly as worried as you are, in one sense anyway, as a lot of the stuff in the media is obviously deliberate disinformation.
Irrespective of the personal proclivities and language of PBers, what is becoming very obvious is that the No Campaign have been orchestrating/encouraging lots of mostly made up/biased stories about nasty cybernats in recent weeks. And Labour activists have started talking (again) about the danger of violence [emended to amend memory hiccup], as well as Labour MPs making up stories about their offices being vandalised. I was criticised here for posting Wings over Scotland's analysus of this last, and the Scotsman's resulting first page story (which BTW did not make the Herald, which still has some pretensions to quality, and that is very significant). But the point was that if the No campaign can seemingly make up frnt page stories about some old neds' spray slogans and the odd Yes sticker on the window, then what does that say about their morality, truthfulness, and reliability more generally?"
Thank you for that enlightening and utterly disinterested analysis or as others far less charitable than I might put it - getting your excuses in early.
What an extraordinary thing to say.
But in the spirit of the Yes Campaign I will simply comment, constructively if belatedly, that there was one factor missing from the discussion you and others had about the high turnout for the indyref on the last thread. It is that it would bring in a major element of the DKs: the Labour (Old Style) voters who are at the moment scunnered with the Unionists and with Labour (London HQ variety) for various reasons (e.g being in bed with the Tories, and increasingly merged with them like Flann O'Brien's policeman and his bike) but who have not made the jump to Yes.
Yet.
This was one of the most interesting findings from the crowdsourced polling commissioned by Wings over Scotland last year, and I wouldn't bet the house on them all going for No. I don't know if the most recent poll data throw any light on this.
Add the ratchet effect of people voting for Yes once they become more familiar with the pros and cons (some evidence for this in the recent data) and the effect of turnout is anyone's guess.
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
Bob Cratchit's hovel is now a wildly desirable property, only available to the very seriously wealthy.
Great Expectations wasn't as good as I thought it would be
Actually I can't stand a lot of Dickens! Great Expectations is indeed unreadable, Oliver Twist is superbly written but the plot is full of holes (you can see he wrote it in weekly chunks - you can see the cracks).
Christmas Carol is timelessly brilliant tho. Just a lightning bolt of genius. Apparently he wrote it in less that 2 months, and then self published.
Ah that was a bit of a lame joke by me! (Great Expectations/ Not as good as I thought)
I have "Great Expectations" but I am not really a great reader of fiction, read the first chapter and didn't really get into it. Saw an interpretation of "A Tale of Two Cities" in a pub on Upper St last year, and it kind of went over my head.. one of those plays were 5 actors play the whole cast, a bit confusing
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
"...people voting for Yes once they become more familiar with the pros and cons [of inedpendence]"
Are there any cons? Mr. G. has spent months on here telling us that every possible downside was a scare story dreamt up by nasty men (who are also cowards and fools).
I am happy to be corrected, Mr. Fett. I confess I tend to skip over a lot of Mr. G.'s posts these days so I have missed the troughers and drunks labels.
By the way, going back to an earlier thread what was the proportion of undergraduates from C2DE groups before the current student loans?
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
Bob Cratchit's hovel is now a wildly desirable property, only available to the very seriously wealthy.
I'm back for a few mins before I have to get back to some real work (tm).
Given your dislike of the HS2<>HS1 link, I was amused a few days ago to skim-read Dickens' Dombey and Sons, which features the chaos caused by the construction of the railways in the Camden area.
I've always thought of you as a bit of a Dickensian character ...
"The passenger forecasts: The original forecasts made for HS1 were three times as high as the numbers which materialised. Those for HS2 require eighteen 1,100-seat trains per hour, an extraordinary thing not yet achieved on any high speed network in the world."
Thanks for that; I'll have to read it later. But a quick comment: HS2 is not HS1. They are radically different projects.
Okay, I've read the first line and it uses the £80 billion cost figure.
Basically, without reading any further, it's a load of rubbish.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
Don't worry, there'll be another state of mind along in a minute.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
Bob Cratchit's hovel is now a wildly desirable property, only available to the very seriously wealthy.
I'm back for a few mins before I have to get back to some real work (tm).
Given your dislike of the HS2<>HS1 link, I was amused a few days ago to skim-read Dickens' Dombey and Sons, which features the chaos caused by the construction of the railways in the Camden area.
I've always thought of you as a bit of a Dickensian character ...
A memorable counterpart to the lithographs being made of the same railway's building at the same time.
I find Dickens an odd writer - I'm more comfortable with Scott and Trollope. However when I complained to an Eng Lit colleague about swamps of Dickensian sentiment big enough for the Crystal Palace dinosaurs (including the Megalosaurus in Bleak House), he explained ot me Dickens was not just all about sentiment: he was also aiming to compel right action as a result. I read Bleak House most recently - by complete coincidence when sorting out a relative's estate with some nasty legal traps and archaic minefields - oddly consoling to do rather better than the one in the novel. But it's still a weird book with some odd undercurrents and anomalies.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England.
Ah, so no debate then. Fair enough, I expected no less.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
One bad poll and the gnashing of teeth reaches gnu levels.
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all-time favourite books.
You may also enjoy the Aubrey and Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien [adapted into a somewhat dodgy film], or the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell* [adapted into a rather excellent TV series].
* Trivia - the recipe I use for Christmas Cake is that of Mr Cornwell's daughter.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
One bad poll and the gnashing of teeth reaches gnu levels.
John Curtice:
However, this is the second poll in a row – following Panelbase’s poll for Wings over Scotland published on Sunday – to show that the winter’s increase in Yes support may have come to a halt now that spring finally seems to be with us.
That is not the impression the Yes side would like to see created. They would prefer to see their support increase month on month – a movement with apparent sufficient momentum to take them past the winning post by September. They must fear that while the winter’s gains may have been consolidated, their further progress is now stalled.
I've been doing some local research: Dickens used to live in Bayham Street, Camden, as a little boy. He described Camden thus: "as shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see" (I know some pb-ers will agree, still).
He then used his house on 16 Bayham Street as the explicit model for Bob Cratchit's humble home in A Christmas Carol - Cratchit lives "in Camden Town".
You can now by an identical house to Bob Cratchit's (in the very same stretch of Bayham Street) for.... £1.65 million.
Bob Cratchit's hovel is now a wildly desirable property, only available to the very seriously wealthy.
Great Expectations wasn't as good as I thought it would be
Actually I can't stand a lot of Dickens! Great Expectations is indeed unreadable, Oliver Twist is superbly written but the plot is full of holes (you can see he wrote it in weekly chunks - you can see the cracks).
Christmas Carol is timelessly brilliant tho. Just a lightning bolt of genius. Apparently he wrote it in less that 2 months, and then self published.
I must agree that Dickens is highly unreadable; the unwieldy descriptive pieces are a case in point. Christmas Carol is a gem, however. Did he get ghost writer (female) to write the book for him? I've always wondered.
But what's this "pb eunuchs" stuff? You really are dyspeptic. Which tells me you are worried you are losing.
You're daily roller coaster of views on the referendum certainly tells me very little.
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Given that after independence you're still pathetically hoping to use English currency, keep an English queen, house England's Trident, tag along with English universities, join the Bank of England, adopt English interest rates, use English fiscal rules, mirror English taxes, use the English language, and keep an open border with England despite having a different immigration policy, I'd say that as an Englishman I have a fairly significant interest in what an "independent Scotland" intends to do seeing as it will be little more than a parasitical appendage of England, only with its own Eurovision contestant.
That quote should be thrown back in the face of every PB Scottish Nat, as they sneeringly attempt to exclude other PBers from debate.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
One bad poll and the gnashing of teeth reaches gnu levels.
How are your own gnashers?
You must be gratified that some of your favourite journos are getting plaudits.
'Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford said: “Our list wasn’t based on the number of followers journalists had, but on who – in the opinion of the judges and our readers – was the best reporter on Twitter and social media. “So we were looking for journalists who embrace social media technology to use it as a medium in its own right to communicate the news....
Press Gazette has named the top 10 choices in hierarchical order and then provides the rest of the top-50 arranged alphabetically. Ponsford added: “We could have done a hierarchical top 50 but that felt a bit too arbitrary. These are 50 reporters who use social media well and are well worth following.”
3 Alex Thomson – @Alextomo – Chief correspondent and presenter Channel 4 News
10 Phil Mac Giolla Bhain – @Pmacgiollabhain – Journalist and writer living on the west coast of Ireland
Stuart Campbell - @Wingsscotland – Editor of pro Scottish Independence news website Wings Over Scotland'
But The Telegraph reports that they intend to pass powers over justice and home affairs to the EU after the elections "the date being pencilled in for a Commons vote is on July 22"
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all-time favourite books.
You may also enjoy the Aubrey and Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien [adapted into a somewhat dodgy film], or the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell* [adapted into a rather excellent TV series].
* Trivia - the recipe I use for Christmas Cake is that of Mr Cornwell's daughter.
Thanks! Oh I love the joke personally of course!
Thanks also for the recommendations, I will no doubt buy them on Amazon and never read them like most other books I purchase. A well stocked bookcase makes me look clever though!
"...people voting for Yes once they become more familiar with the pros and cons [of inedpendence]"
Are there any cons? Mr. G. has spent months on here telling us that every possible downside was a scare story dreamt up by nasty men (who are also cowards and fools).
Hurst, I have yet to hear any unionist put forward a positive for the union , not one. They just jeer, insult Alex Salmond , haggis , etc etc. I do not believe I will see one before the vote.
The attacks on the new Culture Secretary by Labour are rank hypocrisy on their part, especially given that they have amongst their ranks people like Chuka Ummuna, grandson of a High Court judge, with a privileged background and who worked at one of the top City firms, Herbert Smith, a firm that advises the banks that Labour apparently so despises.
This presumption that Labour have - or should have - some sort of stranglehold over "minorities" is insulting and despicable
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
Unfair to blame her, I think. It's one thing to report a possible very serious crime to the police, quite another for the police and CPS, having investigated, to decide to prosecute.
You may also enjoy the Aubrey and Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien [adapted into a somewhat dodgy film]
I thought the film was much better than the books. It takes all sorts!
Which did you see/read first?
My daughter and I have this ongiong discussion about whether it is best to read the book or watch the film first - I tend to get disappointed by films if I have read the book first, but she tends to get confused a bit by books when she has seen the film first.
Needless to say, I read the Aubrey and Maturin books before seeing the film, and saw the [modern] film of the Count of Monte Cristo before reading the book.
It's not the rebels embarrassing David Cameron. He's embarrassing himself. Opting back into the EAW is crazy. Why on earth would we want to hand over British citizens to the corrupt judicial systems of places like Romania and Italy, or the undemocratic government of Hungary?
FPT. "Also from the Polling Observatory piece linked to below, some important observations about how public opinion moves"
@antifrank thanks for that link, it was a very interesting article on polling trends. IIRC, despite Brown's 10p tax con in his last budget as Chancellor being picked up and widely reported by the media almost instantly. It was only when many of those actually effected by this tax change opened their wage packets a year later that they realised what Brown had done despite the intense media coverage of this change in the first 48 hours after that budget. I suspect that on hindsight, the slow steady erosion of the Labour lead in the polls over the last year will be traced right back to the start of the ever more visible recovery in the UK economy in much the same way.
You may also enjoy the Aubrey and Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien [adapted into a somewhat dodgy film]
I thought the film was much better than the books. It takes all sorts!
Which did you see/read first?
My daughter and I have this ongiong discussion about whether it is best to read the book or watch the film first - I tend to get disappointed by films if I have read the book first, but she tends to get confused a bit by books when she has seen the film first.
Needless to say, I read the Aubrey and Maturin books before seeing the film, and saw the [modern] film of the Count of Monte Cristo before reading the book.
I could barely bring myself to watch the Monte Cristo film, and the change in ending, although I guess necessary to make sense to a 21st Century audience, was horrific to someone who loved the book in the ridiculously obsessive way I do!
Is the common thread that they are all obsessed by Scottish matters but none of them live there ?
Just like you!
And Indy will reverse this brain drain ? Still we know where the "knuckledraggers" lingo comes from now - how long until the "H" word is trotted out ?
'Hopelessly' in the red?
Can't say that you've entirely convinced me that there's a lot of drained brain that has to be sooked back out of the plughole.
Correct- the man who even the Sun described as being "tarred with a sickening sectarian brush" has left for the blighted isle - no loss was it ? Why did he leave again ??
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
To be fair to her, I think it would have been wrong of her not to pass on a complaint that a serious criminal offence had been committed.
The extraordinary thing is bringing charges where the alleged victim (who is also the witness) states that they do not think an offence was comited and that they don't want charges to be made against Evans.
The CPS is almost asking to be disbanded and the powers placed elsewhere in a body that can use them in a snsible way.
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
Unfair to blame her, I think. It's one thing to report a possible very serious crime to the police, quite another for the police and CPS, having investigated, to decide to prosecute.
Of all the people to come out of this badly (and few are entirely blameless) it would seem strange to pick on her as the central villain.
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
Unfair to blame her, I think. It's one thing to report a possible very serious crime to the police, quite another for the police and CPS, having investigated, to decide to prosecute.
Hear, hear. If you have two people complain about a sexual assault, I would always advise them to speak to the police about it.
Is the common thread that they are all obsessed by Scottish matters but none of them live there ?
Just like you!
And Indy will reverse this brain drain ? Still we know where the "knuckledraggers" lingo comes from now - how long until the "H" word is trotted out ?
'Hopelessly' in the red?
Can't say that you've entirely convinced me that there's a lot of drained brain that has to be sooked back out of the plughole.
Correct- the man who even the Sun described as being "tarred with a sickening sectarian brush" has left for the blighted isle - no loss was it ? Why did he leave again ??
Ah, the fearless Sun.
'After Scottish Sun journalist Simon Houston allegedly received a threatening email and an angry and negative response from Rangers supporters "jammed the switchboards" of local radio station sports broadcasts, the editor of The Scottish Sun cancelled the serialisation. The paper envisaged a boycott from Rangers fans, similar to that experienced in Merseyside by the English edition of the paper by Liverpool FC fans after coverage of the Hillsborough Tragedy.'
The 'blighted isle' that you'll welcome back to the UK fold? Very noble of you.
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
To be fair to her, I think it would have been wrong of her not to pass on a complaint that a serious criminal offence had been committed.
The extraordinary thing is bringing charges where the alleged victim (who is also the witness) states that they do not think an offence was comited and that they don't want charges to be made against Evans.
The CPS is almost asking to be disbanded and the powers placed elsewhere in a body that can use them in a snsible way.
Is that accurate? There were multiple alleged victims, and the most serious one, I would have thought, is the one for the alleged rape. He certainly didn't say an offence wasn't committed.
Is the common thread that they are all obsessed by Scottish matters but none of them live there ?
Just like you!
And Indy will reverse this brain drain ? Still we know where the "knuckledraggers" lingo comes from now - how long until the "H" word is trotted out ?
'Hopelessly' in the red?
Can't say that you've entirely convinced me that there's a lot of drained brain that has to be sooked back out of the plughole.
Correct- the man who even the Sun described as being "tarred with a sickening sectarian brush" has left for the blighted isle - no loss was it ? Why did he leave again ??
"the man who even the Sun described as being "tarred with a sickening sectarian brush" has left for"
Ah,
divvie - if that's the company you want to keep - fill your boots. Ugh.
I imagine Sarah Wollaston MP is going to find Westminster a less friendly place in future.
To be fair to her, I think it would have been wrong of her not to pass on a complaint that a serious criminal offence had been committed.
The extraordinary thing is bringing charges where the alleged victim (who is also the witness) states that they do not think an offence was comited and that they don't want charges to be made against Evans.
The CPS is almost asking to be disbanded and the powers placed elsewhere in a body that can use them in a snsible way.
I wonder if it would ever have gone to court if the defendant hadn't been a high profile Tory?
Comments
By the way, did anyone see Jon Snow's pathetic attempt to smear Nigel Farage as a racist on Ch4 yesterday?
It was along the lines of "I hesitate to use the word black in conversation with you, but isn't this a bit like the pot calling the kettle black?"
EDIT: Here is the clip.. its at 7:45 and I amaze myself with my memory!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTo5cfaUSNA
There’s also a boost George Osborne whose approval is the best for a Tory Chancellor since Nigel Lawson in 1987, which was followed by a Tory landslide a few months later.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timwigmore/100267244/until-cameron-champions-parliamentary-recall-voters-will-keep-running-to-ukip/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Clearly great minds think alike.
@Carnyx said:
"I'm not nearly as worried as you are, in one sense anyway, as a lot of the stuff in the media is obviously deliberate disinformation.
Irrespective of the personal proclivities and language of PBers, what is becoming very obvious is that the No Campaign have been orchestrating/encouraging lots of mostly made up/biased stories about nasty cybernats in recent weeks. And Labour activists have started talking (again) about the danger of violence [emended to amend memory hiccup], as well as Labour MPs making up stories about their offices being vandalised. I was criticised here for posting Wings over Scotland's analysus of this last, and the Scotsman's resulting first page story (which BTW did not make the Herald, which still has some pretensions to quality, and that is very significant). But the point was that if the No campaign can seemingly make up frnt page stories about some old neds' spray slogans and the odd Yes sticker on the window, then what does that say about their morality, truthfulness, and reliability more generally?"
...................................................................................................
Thank you for that enlightening and utterly disinterested analysis or as others far less charitable than I might put it - getting your excuses in early.
Meanwhile, I have piled on Poults. I have a dreadful record in golf betting so avoid him unless you like losing money.
That's an outrageous slur, and just after that Labour leaflet too. The centre-left establishment is clearly getting panicked by UKIP's rise and is just trying to throw as much dirt at them as they can.
I'm sorry I can't amend the thread header as I'm off into a meeting for a bit and Mike is also busy.
SNP: 44.9 (+0.3) List: 40.6 (+0.7)
Labour: 32.1 (-1.9) List: 25.1 (-3.1)
Conservative: 13.5 (+0.5) List:12.2 (+1.1)
Liberal Democrats: 5.7(+0.7) List: 9.0 (+2.3)
Greens: List: 7.3 (-1.1)
http://tinyurl.com/p939kn3
Perhaps a hint for Bettertogether and the PB Eunuchs, attacking the SNP & Salmond while hoping SLAB and their voters will save you isn't really much of a strategy.
Free bet in play to £10 - though the offer will be gone now.
It was only yesterday, I believe, that people on here were saying UKIP don't come under the same scrutiny as the other three parties wasnt it?
Luckily enough he batted it away without a problem
Why do people always play the race card when they are losing an argument? So last century!
The only thing I'd take issue with is his phrase "just how far Labour has fallen in the four years since its election defeat.". The slide into nasty class-warfare started much earlier than that.
Oh dear - I read Infallible Jack's prediction that Poulter would come at least in the top 5 and have risked £5 ew too.
"Not Winning Here"
Bugger ....
Backed £15 e/w (£30) with Victor. Best odds available.
@JackW
My apologies. All invoices to 1 Richmond Crescent, London N1.
http://transportwatch.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/hs2-summary-case-against/
A snippet to whet the appetite:
"The passenger forecasts: The original forecasts made for HS1 were three times as high as the numbers which materialised. Those for HS2 require eighteen 1,100-seat trains per hour, an extraordinary thing not yet achieved on any high speed network in the world."
But in the spirit of the Yes Campaign I will simply comment, constructively if belatedly, that there was one factor missing from the discussion you and others had about the high turnout for the indyref on the last thread. It is that it would bring in a major element of the DKs: the Labour (Old Style) voters who are at the moment scunnered with the Unionists and with Labour (London HQ variety) for various reasons (e.g being in bed with the Tories, and increasingly merged with them like Flann O'Brien's policeman and his bike) but who have not made the jump to Yes.
Yet.
This was one of the most interesting findings from the crowdsourced polling commissioned by Wings over Scotland last year, and I wouldn't bet the house on them all going for No. I don't know if the most recent poll data throw any light on this.
Add the ratchet effect of people voting for Yes once they become more familiar with the pros and cons (some evidence for this in the recent data) and the effect of turnout is anyone's guess.
Hopefully Hunter Mahan can play well.
I have "Great Expectations" but I am not really a great reader of fiction, read the first chapter and didn't really get into it. Saw an interpretation of "A Tale of Two Cities" in a pub on Upper St last year, and it kind of went over my head.. one of those plays were 5 actors play the whole cast, a bit confusing
Best three books I have read are
The Count Of Monte Cristo
East Of Eden
1984
A PB Eunuch: someone who despite not having a vote in the referendum or influence on the result and with very little knowledge of Scotland, its politics or people, insists on commenting endlessly on the subject (often while claiming utter disinterest). I anoint you Cappo di Castrati.
Are there any cons? Mr. G. has spent months on here telling us that every possible downside was a scare story dreamt up by nasty men (who are also cowards and fools).
Dickens' portrayal of the french revolutionary terror is utterly riveting.
Its also a ratling good thriller.
Hard times is good for different reasons.
At his best Dickens is a man completely furious with the Victorians for their confidence, ebullience, success and hypocrisy.
Correction: cowards, fools, troughers and drunks
By the way, going back to an earlier thread what was the proportion of undergraduates from C2DE groups before the current student loans?
Given your dislike of the HS2<>HS1 link, I was amused a few days ago to skim-read Dickens' Dombey and Sons, which features the chaos caused by the construction of the railways in the Camden area.
I've always thought of you as a bit of a Dickensian character ...
Adam Smith Institute @ASI
Yvette Cooper's progressive approach to immigration looks a lot like the conservative one: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/politics-government/the-progressive-approach-to-immigration-looks-a-lot-like-the-conservative …
Okay, I've read the first line and it uses the £80 billion cost figure.
Basically, without reading any further, it's a load of rubbish.
Don't worry, there'll be another state of mind along in a minute.
Do tell me how a poster 'excludes' another poster from debate? I'd imagine moderators who ban posters and links to their sites are the only ones who can do that.
I find Dickens an odd writer - I'm more comfortable with Scott and Trollope. However when I complained to an Eng Lit colleague about swamps of Dickensian sentiment big enough for the Crystal Palace dinosaurs (including the Megalosaurus in Bleak House), he explained ot me Dickens was not just all about sentiment: he was also aiming to compel right action as a result. I read Bleak House most recently - by complete coincidence when sorting out a relative's estate with some nasty legal traps and archaic minefields - oddly consoling to do rather better than the one in the novel. But it's still a weird book with some odd undercurrents and anomalies.
One bad poll and the gnashing of teeth reaches gnu levels.
You may also enjoy the Aubrey and Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien [adapted into a somewhat dodgy film], or the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell* [adapted into a rather excellent TV series].
* Trivia - the recipe I use for Christmas Cake is that of Mr Cornwell's daughter.
N/G on ALL COUNTS.
No b/e....
However, this is the second poll in a row – following Panelbase’s poll for Wings over Scotland published on Sunday – to show that the winter’s increase in Yes support may have come to a halt now that spring finally seems to be with us.
That is not the impression the Yes side would like to see created. They would prefer to see their support increase month on month – a movement with apparent sufficient momentum to take them past the winning post by September. They must fear that while the winter’s gains may have been consolidated, their further progress is now stalled.
http://blog.whatscotlandthinks.org/2014/04/has-the-yes-sides-progress-stalled/
You must be gratified that some of your favourite journos are getting plaudits.
'Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford said: “Our list wasn’t based on the number of followers journalists had, but on who – in the opinion of the judges and our readers – was the best reporter on Twitter and social media.
“So we were looking for journalists who embrace social media technology to use it as a medium in its own right to communicate the news....
Press Gazette has named the top 10 choices in hierarchical order and then provides the rest of the top-50 arranged alphabetically.
Ponsford added: “We could have done a hierarchical top 50 but that felt a bit too arbitrary. These are 50 reporters who use social media well and are well worth following.”
3
Alex Thomson – @Alextomo – Chief correspondent and presenter Channel 4 News
10
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain – @Pmacgiollabhain – Journalist and writer living on the west coast of Ireland
Stuart Campbell - @Wingsscotland – Editor of pro Scottish Independence news website Wings Over Scotland'
http://tinyurl.com/pws939z
It's a conspiracy I tell ya.
Point 6 of their EU "plan" is to "take back control of criminal justice"
http://www.conservatives.com/Landing_Pages/European_Election.aspx
But The Telegraph reports that they intend to pass powers over justice and home affairs to the EU after the elections "the date being pencilled in for a Commons vote is on July 22"
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100260182/the-next-tory-plot-to-embarrass-david-cameron-on-europe-is-already-taking-shape/
Thanks also for the recommendations, I will no doubt buy them on Amazon and never read them like most other books I purchase. A well stocked bookcase makes me look clever though!
/ @oflynndirector BBC panels should be Tory, Labour and a 3rd, alternating between Lib Dems and UKIP #clarifyingtweet
3
Alex Thomson – @Alextomo – Chief correspondent and presenter Channel 4 News
10
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain – @Pmacgiollabhain – Journalist and writer living on the west coast of Ireland
Stuart Campbell - @Wingsscotland – Editor of pro Scottish Independence news website Wings Over Scotland'
http://tinyurl.com/pws939z
It's a conspiracy I tell ya.
Is the common thread that they are all obsessed by Scottish matters but none of them live there ?
I don't think Thomson has commented on many Scottish matters other than the club that used to be Rangers.
This presumption that Labour have - or should have - some sort of stranglehold over "minorities" is insulting and despicable
First rule of PB - If there is a poll that is good for the Tory Party , it gets numerous posts and is sub sectioned to an inch of it's life.
Second rule of PB - If it is not a good poll for the Tory Paty ....look squirrel.
Third rule of PB - Go back to the first rule.
Any other party.....meh!
(Central forecast)
Con vote lead 7.4%
Con seat lead 59 seats
(10000 Monte Carlo simulations)
Chance of Tory vote lead: 100.0%
Chance of a Tory seat lead: 97.8%
Chance of a Hung Parliament: 61.7%
Chance of a Tory majority: 38.3%
Chance of a Labour majority: 0.0%
More or less where its been since May 2013...
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/10/how-case-against-nigel-evans-fell-apart?CMP=twt_gu
Nicholas Watt is good on the background:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/10/nigel-evans-trial-profile
(Pony Juice forecast)
Con vote lead 197.4%
Con seat lead 259 seats
(10000 Brighton swimming baths simulations)
Chance of Tory vote lead: 300.0%
Chance of a Tory seat lead: 297.8%
Chance of a Hung Parliament:0.7%
Chance of a Tory majority: 338.3%
Chance of a Labour majority: -40.0%
You still sticking to 1 May crossover or is it 31 May - it's hard to keep up...
Well, there's a surprise.
Interesting blog and report tonight on Channel 4 news about Labour's crutch.
Will he want to?
Can Evans' accusers be charged with perjury?
My daughter and I have this ongiong discussion about whether it is best to read the book or watch the film first - I tend to get disappointed by films if I have read the book first, but she tends to get confused a bit by books when she has seen the film first.
Needless to say, I read the Aubrey and Maturin books before seeing the film, and saw the [modern] film of the Count of Monte Cristo before reading the book.
Can't say that you've entirely convinced me that there's a lot of drained brain that has to be sooked back out of the plughole.
Madness.
You cannot make up for not prosecuting Jimmy Savile by picking on other people.
@antifrank thanks for that link, it was a very interesting article on polling trends. IIRC, despite Brown's 10p tax con in his last budget as Chancellor being picked up and widely reported by the media almost instantly. It was only when many of those actually effected by this tax change opened their wage packets a year later that they realised what Brown had done despite the intense media coverage of this change in the first 48 hours after that budget. I suspect that on hindsight, the slow steady erosion of the Labour lead in the polls over the last year will be traced right back to the start of the ever more visible recovery in the UK economy in much the same way.
Dave still more popular than Ed as well....
Ignoring splash screens, I think UKIP, Plaid and the Greens have the best home pages.
Greens
http://www.greenparty.org.uk
Plaid
http://www.partyofwales.org/?force=1
UKIP
http://www.ukip.org
I think the Greens edge it with their "help in your community" option.
The other party websites don't seem to have done much cross browser testing, as many of their options are below the fold for me.
Conservatives
http://www.conservatives.com
Labour
http://www.labour.org.uk/home
LD
http://www.libdems.org.uk
SNP
http://www.snp.org
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char buffer[100];
snprintf (buffer. sizeof(buffer), "Singback, Crossover" );
while (true)
{
puts(buffer);
}
}
The CPS is almost asking to be disbanded and the powers placed elsewhere in a body that can use them in a snsible way.
I'll throw in One Day as, erm, a starter for ten. Great book - utterly dire film that completely misses the point of the book.
'After Scottish Sun journalist Simon Houston allegedly received a threatening email and an angry and negative response from Rangers supporters "jammed the switchboards" of local radio station sports broadcasts, the editor of The Scottish Sun cancelled the serialisation. The paper envisaged a boycott from Rangers fans, similar to that experienced in Merseyside by the English edition of the paper by Liverpool FC fans after coverage of the Hillsborough Tragedy.'
The 'blighted isle' that you'll welcome back to the UK fold? Very noble of you.
A blog on Ha'aretz says he is:
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.584979