I think it will be Wes. He is just the strongest candidate and I think will win over the membership when he goes up against the rest of the field. I don't think it makes sense to choose someone like Ed Miliband who has already lost an election. The only worry with Wes is over his own seat, but if he can turn Labour's fortunes around then he should be able to save his own seat in the process.
He is probably the one who could best sell a Labour message to the wider electorate. But to members won't it be easy for a rival candidate to pitch to his left without going full Corbynite?
Streeting seems like he could host This Morning quite easily, he seems quite a natural on tv rather than a stuffy politician. If it wasn’t for that erroneous tweet about the Downing St parties I don’t think I’d have much bad to say about him
Got him as a small loser though
I've had a look at the timing of that Tweet.
So it was a couple of days before the story broke about Number 10 staffers partying the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.
The Westminster rumour mill was in overdrive at that moment, both OGH and myself heard independently that there was going to be a new story going to break that in the words of my contact 'Boris Johnson's going to get Gough Whitlam'd by the Queen.'
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Wes Streeting heard the same rumours and it kinda fitted with his timeline, gets diagnosed in March/April 2021.
No, he tweeted the day the news of the Downing St party in May 2020 broke, using the specific date of his surgery to suggest those attending the party would be hungover as he was waiting to be operated on. If the party had been the day before his surgery, it would have been a very effective point. But it was 366 days before. It is madness to suggest he wasn’t referring to the massive breaking news of the day, it couldn’t be clearer
A mistake, it happens, but he should acknowledge it. I’m sure he will if it’s brought up during a leadership campaign
Why should he acknowledge it, it was years ago, what does it matter now?
Who exactly is going to bring it up, during a Labour leadership campaign?
You were overly critical of Boris is not going to be harmful to a Labour leadership campaign.
Politicians are asked all sorts of questions about the veracity of things they’ve previously said or done, look at Rachel Reeves now. She’s getting stories written about chess tournaments from the mid 90s. Farage is being asked about things he said at school in the 70s. So I don’t see why Streeting wouldn’t be asked about an erroneous tweet from 2022
I don’t really care if he becomes Labour leader or not, and I don’t particularly dislike him, I’m just a pedant like many others on here, although some are choosing not to be on this matter!
Farage is being asked about things that suit accusations about him being a racist to date, but the only people who really care are people who already dislike him anyway.
Reeves has faced accusations about sexing up her CV, but the only people who really care are those who dislike her anyway.
Being critical of a Tory PM, even slightly erroneously, is not going to harm any Labour leadership candidate.
I mostly agree, but I think the Farage stuff does cut through a bit. There is plenty of the electorate who think immigration was too high, but aren’t on board with singing Hitler songs.
Done as a teenager forty years ago could be overlooked, perhaps. The bigger flaw is the repeated denial in the face of multiple witnesses and lashing out at the media in response.
What would such a leader do with the Post Office Scandal or Hillsborough?
slightly different cirumstances , bit liek comparing someone of 13 pinching a sweetie out of a bag to an adult robbing a bank. Regrettable or not that was de rigeur 40-50 years ago. Are we supposed to go back to Roman times and check the outcomes next. FFS in Scotland now they avoid jailing people under 25 as their brains are not supposed to be fully developed before that.
Was it really? Hissing at Jews?
When I was at school "gay" was a common insult - but never at someone who was actually gay. Happily any use of it has ended (or so I'm told by teacher friends).
My experience of school in the eighties was that we sang lots of football songs on the bus home, some of them pretty offensive as we lived in a West Ham area at the height of football hooliganism, but none of my friends bullied other kids or taunted them/singled them out personally. That said, there weren’t many nonwhite/non nominally Christian kids there. The only two black and Asian kids I can remember knocked about with us anyway.
But my point is there is a big difference between genuine banter, which is kids normally just repeating stuff out loud they’ve probably heard from adults, and it seems what Farage is claiming he did, and cruelly singling out/picking on kids individually because of race or religion, which he is accused of. I’d say everyone I know has done the former and none the latter, they’re very different things
Agree with that. If Farage is guilty of the former, as many are, I think he'd best fess up, assert that it was never acceptable in the first place, express regret.
He's usually quite good at that kind of sorrowful reflection - indeed he frames a lot of his immigration rhetoric in that way. Not sure why he feels incapable in this instance, which makes me suspect he'd have to apologise for a lot more than the kind of playground chat we are more familiar with. No one likes a bully.
According to my sources he was using language, and displaying altitudes, like that thirty or so years ago in the City.
My recent trip to Brussels for the @NATO Ministerial meeting left me with one overriding impression: the US has long failed to address the glaring inconsistency between its relations with NATO and the EU. These are almost all the same countries in both organizations. When these countries wear their NATO hats, they insist that Transatlantic cooperation is the cornerstone of our mutual security. But when these countries wear their EU hats, they pursue all sorts of agendas that are often utterly adverse to US interests and security—including censorship, economic suicide/climate fanaticism, open borders, disdain for national sovereignty/promotion of multilateral governance and taxation, support for Communist Cuba, etc etc. This inconsistency cannot continue. Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization that we inherited from them or they are not. But we cannot pretend that we are partners while those nations allow the EU’s unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative bureaucracy in Brussels to pursue policies of civilizational suicide.
These lunatics need to shut up and fuck right off.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
The most common betting mistake is to back what you think *should* happen and not consider what the people who will actually take the decision might be thinking.
In this case, Streeting would inflame the situation with the Left further. Not unite the party.
I don’t see the membership voting for that.
The Performative Rightist Sounding stuff has been a disaster for Starmer. It hasn’t won any plaudits from Right voters and has turned off lots of Left ones. While delivering nothing of consequence.
It’s is perfectly possible to come up with policies that would appeal to the Left and not be utterly insane/unworkable. People confuse Left Populism with the whole of the Left. Just as Right Populism isn’t the whole of the Right.
Give them 20 or 30 years with no remission and it will kill it stone dead.
Double inheritance tax on their parents' estates.
That is what they want even more socialism than this Labour government is pushing 'The group said it carried out the stunt to demand the UK government establishes a permanent citizen's assembly - a "House of the People" - with the power to "tax extreme wealth and fix Britain".
Funny how these 'citizens assemblies' never seem to include any rightwingers, presumably why they think democracy is 'broken' as it allows non socialists to vote!
My recent trip to Brussels for the @NATO Ministerial meeting left me with one overriding impression: the US has long failed to address the glaring inconsistency between its relations with NATO and the EU. These are almost all the same countries in both organizations. When these countries wear their NATO hats, they insist that Transatlantic cooperation is the cornerstone of our mutual security. But when these countries wear their EU hats, they pursue all sorts of agendas that are often utterly adverse to US interests and security—including censorship, economic suicide/climate fanaticism, open borders, disdain for national sovereignty/promotion of multilateral governance and taxation, support for Communist Cuba, etc etc. This inconsistency cannot continue. Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization that we inherited from them or they are not. But we cannot pretend that we are partners while those nations allow the EU’s unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative bureaucracy in Brussels to pursue policies of civilizational suicide.
These lunatics need to shut up and fuck right off.
Wow, that told them.
This is little different to the attitude of Dubya and his team in office. Europe and the USA have both been happy for the USA to be the major funder of defence. That has to change. We need to spend more on defence, less on benefits and pensions, and take some ownership.
Your view on Kemi seems to sum up what is wrong with the Conservative Party. They are willing to accept someone with a poor track record for reasons that are unknown to those outside the party - hence May, Boris and Truss. Cameron and Sunak at least had a track record of success outside parliament though they both had a leg up to get there.
I can only suppose they are searching for a Maggie surrogate.
The most common betting mistake is to back what you think *should* happen and not consider what the people who will actually take the decision might be thinking.
In this case, Streeting would inflame the situation with the Left further. Not unite the party.
I don’t see the membership voting for that.
The Performative Rightist Sounding stuff has been a disaster for Starmer. It hasn’t won any plaudits from Right voters and has turned off lots of Left ones. While delivering nothing of consequence.
It’s is perfectly possible to come up with policies that would appeal to the Left and not be utterly insane/unworkable. People confuse Left Populism with the whole of the Left. Just as Right Populism isn’t the whole of the Right.
That was essentially my point. I remain probably the only person (with my running mates) to have beaten Streeting in an actual election, and I knew him personally when the idea that he might be in the running for next PM would have seemed an incredible dream (for him).
Which, to be fair, would be true of anyone - who meets someone in their 30s and, despite their being an able councillor, imagines they might become PM fifteen or twenty years later? His extraordinary self-belief was perhaps a clue, but that can often be weakness as well as strength, and from his back story it isnt obvious from where his confidence derives.
The country wants someone to set us a clear course, different from what has gone before, in which we can believe. Despite Streeting’s considerable communication skills, those have mostly been aimed at persuading us that the status quo isn’t really so bad. Quite possibly, he’s right - but is that what the electorate will be wanting to hear?
I think it will be Wes. He is just the strongest candidate and I think will win over the membership when he goes up against the rest of the field. I don't think it makes sense to choose someone like Ed Miliband who has already lost an election. The only worry with Wes is over his own seat, but if he can turn Labour's fortunes around then he should be able to save his own seat in the process.
He is probably the one who could best sell a Labour message to the wider electorate. But to members won't it be easy for a rival candidate to pitch to his left without going full Corbynite?
Maybe I am projecting, but don't other Labour members also want someone who can appeal to the electorate as a whole and win an election? I just think Wes is so far ahead of the other candidates as a political communicator that it will become obvious that he is the best choice.
I think we need to pick a shortllist who we're basically OK with before considering electoral appeal, which is elusive and often transitory, and leads to embarrassment even when it works in electoral terms. Essentially a Labour leader needs to both command at least broad acceptance in the party and in the public, and there's no point in choosing a leader who goes out of his way to pick fights with much of the membership. That's why I would struggle to accept Streeting as leader, whether he won an election or not, whereas I'd accept a moderate centrist even if I often disagreed with them. My basic requirement is a broadly acceptable medium-term strategy, and my main criticism of Starmer, who seems pleasant enough, is that he doesn't seem to have a medium-term strategy at all, evem one I'd personally disagree with.
Doesn't that just make you part of Labour's problems ? (TBF, I note you are anyway considering joining a different party.)
Perhaps (part of the problems), though I've decided against changing party for the forseeable future. I think however that it's generally true that party leaders need both acceptance by the membership and acceptance by the electorate. It doesn't need to be wild enthusiasm by either, but if either is turned off then the project isn't going to work. Nor should it - if the electorate doesn't like you, basic democracy requires that you don't win, and if the membership doesn't like you, you're not suited to lead it. I think that British political problems are partly caused by over-emphasis on winning at all costs, with actual ambitions to achieve anything in particular seen as secondary. You can't achieve anything unless you win, but you shouldn't even stand if you don't know what you're trying to achieve.
That’s fair - but what I think is missing from this is any kind of appreciation that parties of government (or that aspire to government) under a two party system are necessarily coalitions. if you’re insisting on ideological purity, then you’re wanting something that’s essentially undemocratic- seeking majority rule for a set of views which don’t have majority approval.
I’m happy to recognise that you can make similar criticisms of those holding other particular political views, but your “whether he won an election or not” comment is what struck me.
Yes, and I've been a member of Labour for over 50 years as a result of accepting that people will have varying views in detail - insisting on purity ultimately comes down to only accepting yourself. It's a balance, but leadership needs to include some acceptable medium- to longterm perspectives of what we're trying to achieve, as otherwise it's at best negative ("stop maniac X") and at worst a waste of time.
Give them 20 or 30 years with no remission and it will kill it stone dead.
Double inheritance tax on their parents' estates.
That is what they want even more socialism than this Labour government is pushing 'The group said it carried out the stunt to demand the UK government establishes a permanent citizen's assembly - a "House of the People" - with the power to "tax extreme wealth and fix Britain".
Funny how these 'citizens assemblies' never seem to include any rightwingers, presumably why they think democracy is 'broken' as it allows non socialists to vote!
Lock them up in the tower of London, I kind of poetic justice.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
I think it will be Wes. He is just the strongest candidate and I think will win over the membership when he goes up against the rest of the field. I don't think it makes sense to choose someone like Ed Miliband who has already lost an election. The only worry with Wes is over his own seat, but if he can turn Labour's fortunes around then he should be able to save his own seat in the process.
He is probably the one who could best sell a Labour message to the wider electorate. But to members won't it be easy for a rival candidate to pitch to his left without going full Corbynite?
Maybe I am projecting, but don't other Labour members also want someone who can appeal to the electorate as a whole and win an election? I just think Wes is so far ahead of the other candidates as a political communicator that it will become obvious that he is the best choice.
I think we need to pick a shortllist who we're basically OK with before considering electoral appeal, which is elusive and often transitory, and leads to embarrassment even when it works in electoral terms. Essentially a Labour leader needs to both command at least broad acceptance in the party and in the public, and there's no point in choosing a leader who goes out of his way to pick fights with much of the membership. That's why I would struggle to accept Streeting as leader, whether he won an election or not, whereas I'd accept a moderate centrist even if I often disagreed with them. My basic requirement is a broadly acceptable medium-term strategy, and my main criticism of Starmer, who seems pleasant enough, is that he doesn't seem to have a medium-term strategy at all, evem one I'd personally disagree with.
Doesn't that just make you part of Labour's problems ? (TBF, I note you are anyway considering joining a different party.)
Perhaps (part of the problems), though I've decided against changing party for the forseeable future. I think however that it's generally true that party leaders need both acceptance by the membership and acceptance by the electorate. It doesn't need to be wild enthusiasm by either, but if either is turned off then the project isn't going to work. Nor should it - if the electorate doesn't like you, basic democracy requires that you don't win, and if the membership doesn't like you, you're not suited to lead it. I think that British political problems are partly caused by over-emphasis on winning at all costs, with actual ambitions to achieve anything in particular seen as secondary. You can't achieve anything unless you win, but you shouldn't even stand if you don't know what you're trying to achieve.
That’s fair - but what I think is missing from this is any kind of appreciation that parties of government (or that aspire to government) under a two party system are necessarily coalitions. if you’re insisting on ideological purity, then you’re wanting something that’s essentially undemocratic- seeking majority rule for a set of views which don’t have majority approval.
I’m happy to recognise that you can make similar criticisms of those holding other particular political views, but your “whether he won an election or not” comment is what struck me.
Yes, and I've been a member of Labour for over 50 years as a result of accepting that people will have varying views in detail - insisting on purity ultimately comes down to only accepting yourself. It's a balance, but leadership needs to include some acceptable medium- to longterm perspectives of what we're trying to achieve, as otherwise it's at best negative ("stop maniac X") and at worst a waste of time.
Labour’s mistake, I suspect, will come to be seen as having raised relatively small, if still annoying, amounts of extra taxation and directing it almost entirely toward extra spending on benefits, rather than having been much bolder on taxation and then directed it toward delivering visible improvements in public services for us all.
"Liz Truss for Labour leader" is less insane than The Liz Truss Show was
If you accept Liz Truss is suffering from PTSD then it all makes sense.
We've all had personal and professional disasters but none of us quite so publicly and quite so humiliatingly.
Yebbut... she was already totally bat-shit before being unceremoniously dumped from No. 10.
I'd argue that the very fact she is completely mad has protected her from the traumas any ordinary person would feel after experience such ignominy - Truss seems totally unable to feel shame or remorse.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
At the time there were even recordings of them saying it. Obviously they didn't know they were being recorded. I could even give 4 or 5 names.
"Liz Truss for Labour leader" is less insane than The Liz Truss Show was
If you accept Liz Truss is suffering from PTSD then it all makes sense.
We've all had personal and professional disasters but none of us quite so publicly and quite so humiliatingly.
Yebbut... she was already totally bat-shit before being unceremoniously dumped from No. 10.
I'd argue that the very fact she is completely mad has protected her from the traumas any ordinary person would feel after experience such ignominy - Truss seems totally unable to feel shame or remorse.
Given that our current PM is polling significantly lower in VI, personal approval, and any measure you care to mention than Liz Truss, do you think he feels shame or remorse?
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
At the time there were even recordings of them saying it. Obviously they didn't know they were being recorded. I could even give 4 or 5 names.
Ed Miliband is popular with Labour members, though a September Yougov poll had Streeting narrowly beating Miliband head to head with Labour members. If Streeting united on a joint ticket with Rayner that would also bring together the Blairite and left wings of the party.
Plus given Ed Miliband is the only Labour leader not to win a majority or even get a hung parliament at a general election he is hardly the nirvana of electability for the party
Good morning everyone. IIRC, although Ed M didn’t manage an overall majority he did gain seats (?seat) . It was the Conservative’s successful attack on their coalition partners which resulted in the 2015 Cameron government.
And neither Kinnock or Smith won an election.
Kinnock in 1992 won about 40 more Labour MPs than Ed Miliband in 2015. Smith had he lived would have won the 1997 general election
Having come back to this discussion, Ed’s problem, as was pointed out upthread, was the sweeping gains by the SNP.
And gains by Nationalists are going to be the joker in the pack are, I suspect, for the next two or three elections.
Ed Miliband got a lower voteshare in 2015 than Corbyn did twice and Kinnock did even in 1987, it certainly wasn't just Scotland, England rejected him too and in Wales he didn't do much better
"Liz Truss for Labour leader" is less insane than The Liz Truss Show was
If you accept Liz Truss is suffering from PTSD then it all makes sense.
We've all had personal and professional disasters but none of us quite so publicly and quite so humiliatingly.
Yebbut... she was already totally bat-shit before being unceremoniously dumped from No. 10.
I'd argue that the very fact she is completely mad has protected her from the traumas any ordinary person would feel after experience such ignominy - Truss seems totally unable to feel shame or remorse.
Given that our current PM is polling significantly lower in VI, personal approval, and any measure you care to mention than Liz Truss, do you think he feels shame or remorse?
Pay attention. I clearly meant, in the context of @TSE's mention of PTSD, the shame and remorse you'd expect any normal person to feel from being dumped from office within 50 days of becoming PM.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
Yep I find that story very hard to believe. We have been an inclusive party for as long as I can remember. It even goes against the very wording that appears on every membership card. Although no longer produced I am looking at mine from 2017. We have a large number of gay councillors and MPs. Anyone doing that while canvassing would not have been tolerated and it is not as if it would have gone unreported.
I guess having posted that someone will bring up the 'straight choice' reference used in the Bermondsey by-election. Something the LD have used all the time, just like 'two horse race' to squeeze other parties. I have used it myself when an agent in a Tory/LD marginal and the LD candidate was openly gay and the Tory candidate wasn't, so hardly logical if being bigoted.
But if people want to read stuff into things or believe these stories what can you do? And you have to wonder about the bias of someone who refers to LDs as 'hard left'.
I'll give the Liz Truss show 7/10. I thought Matt Goodwin was a good interview choice, and the others were OK. Liz Truss isn't a top draw interviewer because she's awkward - but that may improve. What was interesting is that she tried to tease real answers from her interviewees - criticising them for using phrases like 'We need to have a national conversation'. She wasn't doing it to trap them - I think she really wants to use these sessions to formulate radical policies.
My recent trip to Brussels for the @NATO Ministerial meeting left me with one overriding impression: the US has long failed to address the glaring inconsistency between its relations with NATO and the EU. These are almost all the same countries in both organizations. When these countries wear their NATO hats, they insist that Transatlantic cooperation is the cornerstone of our mutual security. But when these countries wear their EU hats, they pursue all sorts of agendas that are often utterly adverse to US interests and security—including censorship, economic suicide/climate fanaticism, open borders, disdain for national sovereignty/promotion of multilateral governance and taxation, support for Communist Cuba, etc etc. This inconsistency cannot continue. Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization that we inherited from them or they are not. But we cannot pretend that we are partners while those nations allow the EU’s unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative bureaucracy in Brussels to pursue policies of civilizational suicide.
These lunatics need to shut up and fuck right off.
Quite. Not even one year of Trumpism and the US is losing the plot and all of its friends.
NATO and the EU are, and should be, alliances of free partners and not an Imperium of subservient colonies. If the USA now believes that common values are not enough, and that the European allies should obey the United States regardless of their own interests, then it will have neither allies nor even partners. The collapse of common defence procurement - eg the F-35- is already happening, at a cost to the US set to be in the trillions. Further expression of American contempt for the values of the Atlantic charter will lead to the end of the Alliance and the isolation of Washington- especially after the fall of Putin, which may not be that far away.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
PB is wonderful. Reform can be abused as much as they like. reFUKKers is a standard term from the demented. Same with Labour and the Tories
But have a negative view of the piss diamonds and you’re being ‘spiteful’
Reform skimming the quality cream even in Scotland. If Offord creeps into a list seat next May it’ll be the first (semi) elected position he’ll have held in his long and not particularly illustrious political career.
"Liz Truss for Labour leader" is less insane than The Liz Truss Show was
If you accept Liz Truss is suffering from PTSD then it all makes sense.
We've all had personal and professional disasters but none of us quite so publicly and quite so humiliatingly.
Yebbut... she was already totally bat-shit before being unceremoniously dumped from No. 10.
I'd argue that the very fact she is completely mad has protected her from the traumas any ordinary person would feel after experience such ignominy - Truss seems totally unable to feel shame or remorse.
Given that our current PM is polling significantly lower in VI, personal approval, and any measure you care to mention than Liz Truss, do you think he feels shame or remorse?
Pay attention. I clearly meant, in the context of @TSE's mention of PTSD, the shame and remorse you'd expect any normal person to feel from being dumped from office within 50 days of becoming PM.
TSE is a lawyer, PBUL - the L being lawyers, is he qualified to ‘diagnose’ her so called condition.
My recent trip to Brussels for the @NATO Ministerial meeting left me with one overriding impression: the US has long failed to address the glaring inconsistency between its relations with NATO and the EU. These are almost all the same countries in both organizations. When these countries wear their NATO hats, they insist that Transatlantic cooperation is the cornerstone of our mutual security. But when these countries wear their EU hats, they pursue all sorts of agendas that are often utterly adverse to US interests and security—including censorship, economic suicide/climate fanaticism, open borders, disdain for national sovereignty/promotion of multilateral governance and taxation, support for Communist Cuba, etc etc. This inconsistency cannot continue. Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization that we inherited from them or they are not. But we cannot pretend that we are partners while those nations allow the EU’s unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative bureaucracy in Brussels to pursue policies of civilizational suicide.
These lunatics need to shut up and fuck right off.
Quite. Not even one year of Trumpism and the US is losing the plot and all of its friends.
NATO and the EU are, and should be, alliances of free partners and not an Imperium of subservient colonies. If the USA now believes that common values are not enough, and that the European allies should obey the United States regardless of their own interests, then it will have neither allies nor even partners. The collapse of common defence procurement - eg the F-35- is already happening, at a cost to the US set to be in the trillions. Further expression of American contempt for the values of the Atlantic charter will lead to the end of the Alliance and the isolation of Washington- especially after the fall of Putin, which may not be that far away.
It would be a bit of a turn up if we had regime change in Moscow and liberals suddently started looking to Russia for leadership instead of America.
As is the case for about 90% of England test matches in Ashes series in Australia in my lifetime. You can't even watch them live on Freeview anyway now which is probably just as well
The Ashes in Australia have hardly ever been available live on UK free TV. There seems to have been some trial in 1983 where the BBC baulked at paying £25k per day, and the coverage was such that they promised "at least the first two hours of play"......
Serious thought. The word "Bazball" has become a distraction. A smokescreen for what we're really watching. Average bowling, reckless batting, terrible catching. It doesn't need a funky label; call it what it is, rank bad cricket
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
Yep I find that story very hard to believe. We have been an inclusive party for as long as I can remember. It even goes against the very wording that appears on every membership card. Although no longer produced I am looking at mine from 2017. We have a large number of gay councillors and MPs. Anyone doing that while canvassing would not have been tolerated and it is not as if it would have gone unreported.
I guess having posted that someone will bring up the 'straight choice' reference used in the Bermondsey by-election. Something the LD have used all the time, just like 'two horse race' to squeeze other parties. I have used it myself when an agent in a Tory/LD marginal and the LD candidate was openly gay and the Tory candidate wasn't, so hardly logical if being bigoted.
But if people want to read stuff into things or believe these stories what can you do? And you have to wonder about the bias of someone who refers to LDs as 'hard left'.
given the tatchell by-election I can well believe it tbh
Serious thought. The word "Bazball" has become a distraction. A smokescreen for what we're really watching. Average bowling, reckless batting, terrible catching. It doesn't need a funky label; call it what it is, rank bad cricket
The problem is who else could England pick e.g. Bethell is pure bazball and played virtually no red ball cricket. The likes of Potts, Robinson, Woakes wouldnt do any better with the ball. Back to the likes of Foakes, Hameed, who are now late stage career?
I'll give the Liz Truss show 7/10. I thought Matt Goodwin was a good interview choice, and the others were OK. Liz Truss isn't a top draw interviewer because she's awkward - but that may improve. What was interesting is that she tried to tease real answers from her interviewees - criticising them for using phrases like 'We need to have a national conversation'. She wasn't doing it to trap them - I think she really wants to use these sessions to formulate radical policies.
GPs are under pressure to diagnose everything and have always been.
Also - what the GP is saying is not what 99% of people would conclude from the headline/URL. The doc is saying that diagnosis takes a long time and there isn't enough time in the day to do the complex diagnosis - either way, I'd add - of medical illnesses [edit] properly: not the same as overdiagnosis (which can be a consequence, but is not the same thing).
I'll give the Liz Truss show 7/10. I thought Matt Goodwin was a good interview choice, and the others were OK. Liz Truss isn't a top draw interviewer because she's awkward - but that may improve. What was interesting is that she tried to tease real answers from her interviewees - criticising them for using phrases like 'We need to have a national conversation'. She wasn't doing it to trap them - I think she really wants to use these sessions to formulate radical policies.
Truss Unchained?
Ungagged?
Are we venturing towards the Finland story @Leon teased about and I still haven’t the foggiest what it’s about
I'll give the Liz Truss show 7/10. I thought Matt Goodwin was a good interview choice, and the others were OK. Liz Truss isn't a top draw interviewer because she's awkward - but that may improve. What was interesting is that she tried to tease real answers from her interviewees - criticising them for using phrases like 'We need to have a national conversation'. She wasn't doing it to trap them - I think she really wants to use these sessions to formulate radical policies.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
PB is wonderful. Reform can be abused as much as they like. reFUKKers is a standard term from the demented. Same with Labour and the Tories
But have a negative view of the piss diamonds and you’re being ‘spiteful’
Glorious.
Hmmm no. I don't abuse other parties. And that accusation wasn't exactly just using a rude word to describe an opponent. It was an accusation that required some evidence as it seemed outrageously false.
And the tone of the post and previous ones demonstrated an irrational hatred eg describing LDs as hard left is clearly delusional.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
Yep I find that story very hard to believe. We have been an inclusive party for as long as I can remember. It even goes against the very wording that appears on every membership card. Although no longer produced I am looking at mine from 2017. We have a large number of gay councillors and MPs. Anyone doing that while canvassing would not have been tolerated and it is not as if it would have gone unreported.
I guess having posted that someone will bring up the 'straight choice' reference used in the Bermondsey by-election. Something the LD have used all the time, just like 'two horse race' to squeeze other parties. I have used it myself when an agent in a Tory/LD marginal and the LD candidate was openly gay and the Tory candidate wasn't, so hardly logical if being bigoted.
But if people want to read stuff into things or believe these stories what can you do? And you have to wonder about the bias of someone who refers to LDs as 'hard left'.
given the tatchell by-election I can well believe it tbh
Wasn't a lot of the really nasty stuff linked to the "Real Bermondsey Labour" campaign? Which is definitely not what would evolve into Blue Labour, oh no no no.
But yeah- there are a number of Liberal campaigners who are so ruthless and determined to win that they go beyond the lines of what's proper in an election campaign. Same as every other party. However, at the very least it feels worse when Liberals do it.
It kind of goes back to the point Nick P was making earlier- parties so engrossed in the "how" of winning elections that the "why" gets drowned out. Liberals aren't the only ones doing that, they aren't the only ones responsible- but one of the roots was the early days of Focus Grumblesheets.
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
Yep I find that story very hard to believe. We have been an inclusive party for as long as I can remember. It even goes against the very wording that appears on every membership card. Although no longer produced I am looking at mine from 2017. We have a large number of gay councillors and MPs. Anyone doing that while canvassing would not have been tolerated and it is not as if it would have gone unreported.
I guess having posted that someone will bring up the 'straight choice' reference used in the Bermondsey by-election. Something the LD have used all the time, just like 'two horse race' to squeeze other parties. I have used it myself when an agent in a Tory/LD marginal and the LD candidate was openly gay and the Tory candidate wasn't, so hardly logical if being bigoted.
But if people want to read stuff into things or believe these stories what can you do? And you have to wonder about the bias of someone who refers to LDs as 'hard left'.
given the tatchell by-election I can well believe it tbh
There once was a Tory councillor in Kendal who was VERY good at representing his ward. But come the next election the Lib Dems went around and on every doorstep where the voters expressed approval of their excellent sitting councillor they began with "You know he's a puff ?" Inevitably he lost his seat.
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
Aah so that's why you have a spiteful view if the libdems. Do you have any proof of this slur?
PB is wonderful. Reform can be abused as much as they like. reFUKKers is a standard term from the demented. Same with Labour and the Tories
But have a negative view of the piss diamonds and you’re being ‘spiteful’
Glorious.
Hmmm no. I don't abuse other parties. And that accusation wasn't exactly just using a rude word to describe an opponent. It was an accusation that required some evidence as it seemed outrageously false.
And the tone of the post and previous ones demonstrated an irrational hatred eg describing LDs as hard left is clearly delusional.
The Lib Dems are not hard left, I’d say soft left/centrist.
However I stand by my comment on double standards here.
PB usually froths with rage when American politicians interfere in UK politics.
Oddly nothing about this moron and her comments about the MC Hammer crew on Hunger strike. She seems to think they are political prisoners.
‘I'm deeply concerned for the health and safety of the brave anti-genocide political prisoners on hunger strike across the UK. I call on the UK government to act to ensure their wellbeing and to meet their basic, moral demands.’
Reform skimming the quality cream even in Scotland. If Offord creeps into a list seat next May it’ll be the first (semi) elected position he’ll have held in his long and not particularly illustrious political career.
My recent trip to Brussels for the @NATO Ministerial meeting left me with one overriding impression: the US has long failed to address the glaring inconsistency between its relations with NATO and the EU. These are almost all the same countries in both organizations. When these countries wear their NATO hats, they insist that Transatlantic cooperation is the cornerstone of our mutual security. But when these countries wear their EU hats, they pursue all sorts of agendas that are often utterly adverse to US interests and security—including censorship, economic suicide/climate fanaticism, open borders, disdain for national sovereignty/promotion of multilateral governance and taxation, support for Communist Cuba, etc etc. This inconsistency cannot continue. Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization that we inherited from them or they are not. But we cannot pretend that we are partners while those nations allow the EU’s unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative bureaucracy in Brussels to pursue policies of civilizational suicide.
These lunatics need to shut up and fuck right off.
Quite. Not even one year of Trumpism and the US is losing the plot and all of its friends.
NATO and the EU are, and should be, alliances of free partners and not an Imperium of subservient colonies. If the USA now believes that common values are not enough, and that the European allies should obey the United States regardless of their own interests, then it will have neither allies nor even partners. The collapse of common defence procurement - eg the F-35- is already happening, at a cost to the US set to be in the trillions. Further expression of American contempt for the values of the Atlantic charter will lead to the end of the Alliance and the isolation of Washington- especially after the fall of Putin, which may not be that far away.
It would be a bit of a turn up if we had regime change in Moscow and liberals suddently started looking to Russia for leadership instead of America.
Seems an unlikely prospect. There isn't a huge market for liberal politics in Russia and in particular colonialist attitudes towards the other parts of the former Russian empire/ Soviet Union and Eastern Europe more broadly are widespread among the population. In short, Russia is unlikely to be our friend any time soon.
I think it will be Wes. He is just the strongest candidate and I think will win over the membership when he goes up against the rest of the field. I don't think it makes sense to choose someone like Ed Miliband who has already lost an election. The only worry with Wes is over his own seat, but if he can turn Labour's fortunes around then he should be able to save his own seat in the process.
He is probably the one who could best sell a Labour message to the wider electorate. But to members won't it be easy for a rival candidate to pitch to his left without going full Corbynite?
Streeting seems like he could host This Morning quite easily, he seems quite a natural on tv rather than a stuffy politician. If it wasn’t for that erroneous tweet about the Downing St parties I don’t think I’d have much bad to say about him
Got him as a small loser though
I've had a look at the timing of that Tweet.
So it was a couple of days before the story broke about Number 10 staffers partying the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.
The Westminster rumour mill was in overdrive at that moment, both OGH and myself heard independently that there was going to be a new story going to break that in the words of my contact 'Boris Johnson's going to get Gough Whitlam'd by the Queen.'
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Wes Streeting heard the same rumours and it kinda fitted with his timeline, gets diagnosed in March/April 2021.
No, he tweeted the day the news of the Downing St party in May 2020 broke, using the specific date of his surgery to suggest those attending the party would be hungover as he was waiting to be operated on. If the party had been the day before his surgery, it would have been a very effective point. But it was 366 days before. It is madness to suggest he wasn’t referring to the massive breaking news of the day, it couldn’t be clearer
A mistake, it happens, but he should acknowledge it. I’m sure he will if it’s brought up during a leadership campaign
Why should he acknowledge it, it was years ago, what does it matter now?
Who exactly is going to bring it up, during a Labour leadership campaign?
You were overly critical of Boris is not going to be harmful to a Labour leadership campaign.
Politicians are asked all sorts of questions about the veracity of things they’ve previously said or done, look at Rachel Reeves now. She’s getting stories written about chess tournaments from the mid 90s. Farage is being asked about things he said at school in the 70s. So I don’t see why Streeting wouldn’t be asked about an erroneous tweet from 2022
I don’t really care if he becomes Labour leader or not, and I don’t particularly dislike him, I’m just a pedant like many others on here, although some are choosing not to be on this matter!
Farage is being asked about things that suit accusations about him being a racist to date, but the only people who really care are people who already dislike him anyway.
Reeves has faced accusations about sexing up her CV, but the only people who really care are those who dislike her anyway.
Being critical of a Tory PM, even slightly erroneously, is not going to harm any Labour leadership candidate.
I mostly agree, but I think the Farage stuff does cut through a bit. There is plenty of the electorate who think immigration was too high, but aren’t on board with singing Hitler songs.
Done as a teenager forty years ago could be overlooked, perhaps. The bigger flaw is the repeated denial in the face of multiple witnesses and lashing out at the media in response.
What would such a leader do with the Post Office Scandal or Hillsborough?
slightly different cirumstances , bit liek comparing someone of 13 pinching a sweetie out of a bag to an adult robbing a bank. Regrettable or not that was de rigeur 40-50 years ago. Are we supposed to go back to Roman times and check the outcomes next. FFS in Scotland now they avoid jailing people under 25 as their brains are not supposed to be fully developed before that.
Was it really? Hissing at Jews?
When I was at school "gay" was a common insult - but never at someone who was actually gay. Happily any use of it has ended (or so I'm told by teacher friends).
My experience of school in the eighties was that we sang lots of football songs on the bus home, some of them pretty offensive as we lived in a West Ham area at the height of football hooliganism, but none of my friends bullied other kids or taunted them/singled them out personally. That said, there weren’t many nonwhite/non nominally Christian kids there. The only two black and Asian kids I can remember knocked about with us anyway.
But my point is there is a big difference between genuine banter, which is kids normally just repeating stuff out loud they’ve probably heard from adults, and it seems what Farage is claiming he did, and cruelly singling out/picking on kids individually because of race or religion, which he is accused of. I’d say everyone I know has done the former and none the latter, they’re very different things
Agree with that. If Farage is guilty of the former, as many are, I think he'd best fess up, assert that it was never acceptable in the first place, express regret.
He's usually quite good at that kind of sorrowful reflection - indeed he frames a lot of his immigration rhetoric in that way. Not sure why he feels incapable in this instance, which makes me suspect he'd have to apologise for a lot more than the kind of playground chat we are more familiar with. No one likes a bully.
According to my sources he was using language, and displaying altitudes, like that thirty or so years ago in the City.
My first job was about thirty years ago, on the LIFFE floor. There was outright racism going on there, it wasn't really frowned upon. One broker saw a black bloke in our back office and said "Oh we're not employing ****s now are we?". He got suspended for three months, but that was probably only because the person was actually a client not staff
I was a bit of a student lefty at the time, never got my head around the capitalist "greed is good" side of things, and used be put out that there were 3000 of us working on the floor, and 90% of the black employees were the cleaners in the cafe. I remember one bloke deliberately spilling his food on the floor and telling one of the cleaners to pick it up.
So the rumours about Farage may well be true, but not really out of place in the zeitgeist
Informal discussions have taken place inside No 10 on rejoining customs union as quickest way to boost growth
We won't rejoin THE Customs Union or THE Single Market... Not yet, anyway. But an arrangement with a Single Customs Area and/or a United Market probably would be good for growth. It will leave the UK people with less control than they had in 2015, but beggars can't be choosers.
And going back to the theme of the header, the next Labour leader won't get the job without showing quite a lot of leg on the matter.
The objective here is to consolidate the left-wing vote in an environment where Labour is bleeding heavily to the Greens and Lib Dems, and in the next election its base alone might put it in contention in a 4-way fight. It isn't to win over "floating voters" to Reform/Tories, and non-Labour voters rooting for Wes Streeting are like non-Tory voters rooting for Rory Stewart.
The objective here is to consolidate the left-wing vote in an environment where Labour is bleeding heavily to the Greens and Lib Dems, and in the next election its base alone might put it in contention in a 4-way fight. It isn't to win over "floating voters" to Reform/Tories, and non-Labour voters rooting for Wes Streeting are like non-Tory voters rooting for Rory Stewart.
So, I'd say Ed Miliband has a real chance.
Labour would be better served by worrying about the Greens and piss diamonds than Reform.
Polanski was not good on QT. His ‘let’s get migrants over to do the jobs we don’t want to do’ is not the winning line he thought it was. As Kelly Osborne found out in the USA.
Informal discussions have taken place inside No 10 on rejoining customs union as quickest way to boost growth
Would that include free movement ?
Why, are you planning to leave the country?
(Others know more, but I don't think so. Customs Union roughly equals giving up trade deal freedom, single market is the one that includes FoM. It almost got over the line in the indicative votes.)
Comments
Roll on a few years and suddenly inclusion was the buzzword of the hard left Lib Dems. So in full council there was voted through a vomit inducing motion as to how we were to stand up for equality. And the very same councillors who had gone from door to door saying "You know he's a puff ?" were all outdoing each other in their condemnation of anything but inclusivity. I was very close to throwing up, I must admit.
All this about Farage is just the same confected indignation. And just like the "inclusive" Lib Dem councillors who were the real homophobes it takes an extra level of Racism to imbue comments made 50 years ago with a hatred they did not intend or imply at the time.
I don’t see the membership voting for that.
The Performative Rightist Sounding stuff has been a disaster for Starmer. It hasn’t won any plaudits from Right voters and has turned off lots of Left ones. While delivering nothing of consequence.
It’s is perfectly possible to come up with policies that would appeal to the Left and not be utterly insane/unworkable. People confuse Left Populism with the whole of the Left. Just as Right Populism isn’t the whole of the Right.
Funny how these 'citizens assemblies' never seem to include any rightwingers, presumably why they think democracy is 'broken' as it allows non socialists to vote!
This is little different to the attitude of Dubya and his team in office. Europe and the USA have both been happy for the USA to be the major funder of defence. That has to change. We need to spend more on defence, less on benefits and pensions, and take some ownership.
Ah, he’s a Labour councillor so the Reform obsessives will ignore it 😂
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm28m3r7499o
I can only suppose they are searching for a Maggie surrogate.
Which, to be fair, would be true of anyone - who meets someone in their 30s and, despite their being an able councillor, imagines they might become PM fifteen or twenty years later? His extraordinary self-belief was perhaps a clue, but that can often be weakness as well as strength, and from his back story it isnt obvious from where his confidence derives.
The country wants someone to set us a clear course, different from what has gone before, in which we can believe. Despite Streeting’s considerable communication skills, those have mostly been aimed at persuading us that the status quo isn’t really so bad. Quite possibly, he’s right - but is that what the electorate will be wanting to hear?
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5395409/#Comment_5395409
I'd argue that the very fact she is completely mad has protected her from the traumas any ordinary person would feel after experience such ignominy - Truss seems totally unable to feel shame or remorse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Bermondsey_by-election
I guess having posted that someone will bring up the 'straight choice' reference used in the Bermondsey by-election. Something the LD have used all the time, just like 'two horse race' to squeeze other parties. I have used it myself when an agent in a Tory/LD marginal and the LD candidate was openly gay and the Tory candidate wasn't, so hardly logical if being bigoted.
But if people want to read stuff into things or believe these stories what can you do? And you have to wonder about the bias of someone who refers to LDs as 'hard left'.
NATO and the EU are, and should be, alliances of free partners and not an Imperium of subservient colonies. If the USA now believes that common values are not enough, and that the European allies should obey the United States regardless of their own interests, then it will have neither allies nor even partners. The collapse of common defence procurement - eg the F-35- is already happening, at a cost to the US set to be in the trillions. Further expression of American contempt for the values of the Atlantic charter will lead to the end of the Alliance and the isolation of Washington- especially after the fall of Putin, which may not be that far away.
But have a negative view of the piss diamonds and you’re being ‘spiteful’
Glorious.
If Offord creeps into a list seat next May it’ll be the first (semi) elected position he’ll have held in his long and not particularly illustrious political career.
https://x.com/andrewlearmonth/status/1997303992637096250?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Royal slaphead, Prince William claims to be a fan.
https://x.com/dannykellywords/status/1997283833457303886?s=61
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/06/gps-admit-under-pressure-overdiagnose-mental-health-issues/
Also - what the GP is saying is not what 99% of people would conclude from the headline/URL. The doc is saying that diagnosis takes a long time and there isn't enough time in the day to do the complex diagnosis - either way, I'd add - of medical illnesses [edit] properly: not the same as overdiagnosis (which can be a consequence, but is not the same thing).
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1997304860711043340
Tory Shadow Energy Minister Lord Malcom Offord has defected to Reform UK, becoming its first peer
And the tone of the post and previous ones demonstrated an irrational hatred eg describing LDs as hard left is clearly delusional.
"The former Conservative business and Scotland Office Minister, Lord Malcolm Offord, has defected to Reform UK."
But yeah- there are a number of Liberal campaigners who are so ruthless and determined to win that they go beyond the lines of what's proper in an election campaign. Same as every other party. However, at the very least it feels worse when Liberals do it.
It kind of goes back to the point Nick P was making earlier- parties so engrossed in the "how" of winning elections that the "why" gets drowned out. Liberals aren't the only ones doing that, they aren't the only ones responsible- but one of the roots was the early days of Focus Grumblesheets.
However I stand by my comment on double standards here.
Part of its appeal is NOTA.
Not a Tory tribute act for the last 14 years.
What is the world coming to?
Oddly nothing about this moron and her comments about the MC Hammer crew on Hunger strike. She seems to think they are political prisoners.
‘I'm deeply concerned for the health and safety of the brave anti-genocide political prisoners on hunger strike across the UK. I call on the UK government to act to ensure their wellbeing and to meet their basic, moral demands.’
https://x.com/reprashida/status/1997033571622756607?s=61
A draw can be seen as a win, or a victory of sorts.
‘ 🚨 WEST INDIES HAS BATTED 163.3 OVERS IN THE 4th INNINGS TO GET A DRAW IN NEW ZEALAND 🤯
Justin Greaves - 202*(388)
Shai Hope - 140(234)
Kemar Roach - 58*(233)
From 72/4 to 457/6 while chasing 531 runs...!!! There is hope in West Indies cricket.’
https://x.com/criccrazyjohns/status/1997173950368174510?s=61
Informal discussions have taken place inside No 10 on rejoining customs union as quickest way to boost growth
I had a bet with Ladbrokes that he would appear on Strictly Come Dancing before 2026. Only 4 weeks to go, and I'm not holding my breath.
I was a bit of a student lefty at the time, never got my head around the capitalist "greed is good" side of things, and used be put out that there were 3000 of us working on the floor, and 90% of the black employees were the cleaners in the cafe. I remember one bloke deliberately spilling his food on the floor and telling one of the cleaners to pick it up.
So the rumours about Farage may well be true, but not really out of place in the zeitgeist
They perform much more like the Liberal Democrats.
And going back to the theme of the header, the next Labour leader won't get the job without showing quite a lot of leg on the matter.
The objective here is to consolidate the left-wing vote in an environment where Labour is bleeding heavily to the Greens and Lib Dems, and in the next election its base alone might put it in contention in a 4-way fight. It isn't to win over "floating voters" to Reform/Tories, and non-Labour voters rooting for Wes Streeting are like non-Tory voters rooting for Rory Stewart.
So, I'd say Ed Miliband has a real chance.
He's seen as "right wing".
Competence and ability aren't the criteria here.
Polanski was not good on QT. His ‘let’s get migrants over to do the jobs we don’t want to do’ is not the winning line he thought it was. As Kelly Osborne found out in the USA.
(Others know more, but I don't think so. Customs Union roughly equals giving up trade deal freedom, single market is the one that includes FoM. It almost got over the line in the indicative votes.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Wd7TeYwDg