Can we do anything in the UK without it taking 10 20 years....
500km of railway, 20+ years. China, 50000km, 10 years. They built a bloody 20 million person world class city from scratch in 30 years. Are we still talking about new garden cities (that aren't really new cities), haven't they been in the works for 15 years???
China isn't necessarily tge best example to follow. They have 80 million empty houses because they built far too many because it made the GDP figure go up; their trains ferry around a lot of empty air, and their infrastructure is quite fally-downy
I’m genuinely shocked that Davos is FILLED with thousands of journalists - Politico & Bloomberg have entire headquarters on the high street. And I was the only person to confront Witkoff about his Russia $ deals. The media is a completely broken club. https://x.com/CaolanReports/status/2014440773450650019
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
🚨 SUMMARY: The major policing reforms set to be outlined by the Home Secretary next week:
- The number of police forces in England and Wales will be cut from 43 to around 12 "mega forces" from 2034
Police Scotland has been quite a shambles up here and a definite step back from the regional forces we had before.
Plus, we all know that the Met SMT will demand to run the MegaForce that covers London. So we will have an even bigger version of the Met.
What could possibly go wrong?
I guess we’ll also say goodbye to the distinctive City of London police.
It wont happen. The target date is 2034.
Millions will be pissed up walls by consultants analysing this for the government and then dropped.
LOL.
2034...you are having a giraffe.....its like the claim of being "fighting ready by 2035".
Ajax, you say ?
Details regarding the safety of the Army’s Ajax armoured vehicles were withheld from ministers, a review has found. In a ministerial statement today, Luke Pollard said: “To say that I am angry… is an understatement.” 1/2
Mr Pollard continues: “It demonstrates that people were raising issues with this programme, but they were not being elevated to an appropriate level.”
If I was on the NEC I would just say no, as quickly as possible. I understand the argument for removing Kier but let's just play this out.
All the way to the by-election you've got stories about Labour splits, followed by a circus where everyone else is running and you've gone and made it a high-profile race. This will go on for - weeks? months? If Burnham loses you have all the Burnham-inclined people blaming it on the Starmer faction and any other faction and a whole load of enduring rancour that's probably even worse than if they just said "you've already got a job, you're not running". If he wins you then have a leadership contest which either Burnham wins and you have some rather sub-optimal non-Starmer leadership or Starmer wins but a load of his MPs have voted against him so he looks bad. This also makes it harder to replace him later if you actually need to do that.
Not to mention presumably you have a vacancy for Burnham's current job so you get the whole divisive circus again.
Just say no.
Don't underestimate the value of making the narrative all about them. When the alternative is being eclipsed on the left, on the right and in the centre, replicating the Tories from 2019-2024 might look like a good option.
If they can match Sunak's 23.7% in the next election, they'll be doing well.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Isn't the Bad Sex Prize for bad writing about sex, rather than writing about bad sex?
Can we do anything in the UK without it taking 10 20 years....
500km of railway, 20+ years. China, 50000km, 10 years. They built a bloody 20 million person world class city from scratch in 30 years. Are we still talking about new garden cities (that aren't really new cities), haven't they been in the works for 15 years???
The key reform that will unlock all this growth is to decree that all the land in the country belongs to its local authority. For example all the land in Suffolk belongs to Suffolk County Council.
You should also underfund the local authorities but give them lots more responsibilities, for example make it their job to pay teachers but don't give them enough money to do that, so at any given time many teachers haven't been paid for months.
This gives them incredible incentives to cut through red tape and get stuff built.
Can we do anything in the UK without it taking 10 20 years....
500km of railway, 20+ years. China, 50000km, 10 years. They built a bloody 20 million person world class city from scratch in 30 years. Are we still talking about new garden cities (that aren't really new cities), haven't they been in the works for 15 years???
China isn't necessarily tge best example to follow. They have 80 million empty houses because they built far too many because it made the GDP figure go up; their trains ferry around a lot of empty air, and their infrastructure is quite fally-downy
If you don't like China, you can have Singapore.
But having been in China for a month, I can tell you for instance "trains ferry a lot of empty air" isn't true, certainly not in Eastern China. The 1000 person trains were full. And the bullet trains are miles ahead of the rest of the world now in every aspect and they can make more in a year than the rest of the world combined x10. They have production lined train manufacture in a similar way to cars, but in a way no other company has. The train lines in the far north are the criticism for empty air, but it kinda of irrevelant in the grand scheme. There is politics / "control" in play, but also engineering testing for high speed in very cold temps and high desert, as they are exporting high speed to rest of the world now.
I think a lot of the poor quality stuff ends up being linked to corruption in lower tier cities. The Tier 1 cities are better than basically every Western city now.
Yes China keep their GDP up by doing effectively Keynsian ecomics of building in the down times and have overbuilt housing. But the point was they get shit done....the West, particularly the UK, don't get shit done, its more shit stuff gets done.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Isn't the Bad Sex Prize for bad writing about sex, rather than writing about bad sex?
If I was on the NEC I would just say no, as quickly as possible. I understand the argument for removing Kier but let's just play this out.
All the way to the by-election you've got stories about Labour splits, followed by a circus where everyone else is running and you've gone and made it a high-profile race. This will go on for - weeks? months? If Burnham loses you have all the Burnham-inclined people blaming it on the Starmer faction and any other faction and a whole load of enduring rancour that's probably even worse than if they just said "you've already got a job, you're not running". If he wins you then have a leadership contest which either Burnham wins and you have some rather sub-optimal non-Starmer leadership or Starmer wins but a load of his MPs have voted against him so he looks bad. This also makes it harder to replace him later if you actually need to do that.
Not to mention presumably you have a vacancy for Burnham's current job so you get the whole divisive circus again.
Just say no.
I agree, there is no good outcome if Burnham stands.
If Burnham stands and wins Manchester becomes a fash-run region. So the NEC green lighting Burnham would be insane.
Talking of insane I'm watching Maria Bartiromo* low balling Trump post Davos and Trump failing to deal with Maria's low ball questions.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Surely a Tech Bro takes out his remarkable in a situation like that?
If I was on the NEC I would just say no, as quickly as possible. I understand the argument for removing Kier but let's just play this out.
All the way to the by-election you've got stories about Labour splits, followed by a circus where everyone else is running and you've gone and made it a high-profile race. This will go on for - weeks? months? If Burnham loses you have all the Burnham-inclined people blaming it on the Starmer faction and any other faction and a whole load of enduring rancour that's probably even worse than if they just said "you've already got a job, you're not running". If he wins you then have a leadership contest which either Burnham wins and you have some rather sub-optimal non-Starmer leadership or Starmer wins but a load of his MPs have voted against him so he looks bad. This also makes it harder to replace him later if you actually need to do that.
Not to mention presumably you have a vacancy for Burnham's current job so you get the whole divisive circus again.
Just say no.
I agree, there is no good outcome if Burnham stands.
If Burnham stands and wins Manchester becomes a fash-run region. So the NEC green lighting Burnham would be insane.
Talking of insane I'm watching Maria Bartiromo* low balling Trump post Davos and Trump failing to deal with Maria's low ball questions.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Surely a Tech Bro takes out his remarkable in a situation like that?
It's rather sad that I know a ReMarkable is a competitor to a Kindle.
If I was on the NEC I would just say no, as quickly as possible. I understand the argument for removing Kier but let's just play this out.
All the way to the by-election you've got stories about Labour splits, followed by a circus where everyone else is running and you've gone and made it a high-profile race. This will go on for - weeks? months? If Burnham loses you have all the Burnham-inclined people blaming it on the Starmer faction and any other faction and a whole load of enduring rancour that's probably even worse than if they just said "you've already got a job, you're not running". If he wins you then have a leadership contest which either Burnham wins and you have some rather sub-optimal non-Starmer leadership or Starmer wins but a load of his MPs have voted against him so he looks bad. This also makes it harder to replace him later if you actually need to do that.
Not to mention presumably you have a vacancy for Burnham's current job so you get the whole divisive circus again.
Just say no.
I don't really care what I'd do on the NEC (other than reevaluate my life choices) all I know is these odds for Starmer leaving in 2026 are crackers and in keeping with the point of site it's just a cracking cracking bet. And you can probably keep laying him at better than evens when this sort of opportunity occurs all the way till May.
Speculation already mounting that Zack Polanski could stand in the upcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton.
Would make sense if Burnham is barred from running. Greens are polling on 24% there currently, behind Labour on 29% and Reform on 27%. Considering national polling, wouldn’t be surprised if some progressive voters who would have backed Burnham, back Polanski when the time comes.
Would be worth doing even if Burnham does not run? Maybe he loses, but still a good profile and there's not really an expectation Greens would win in such a situation so no harm to his reputation (which is doing pretty well right now), and if Burnham did run and he still beat the great Labour hope, think of the blow to Labour morale?
Burnham would win it easily but if Polanski stands and Burnham is not allowed to could split the left of centre vote and let Reform win instead
It will demonstrate how organised a not Reform candidate can be - especially when it's a none of the above option.
If Burnham doesn't stand it will be essential that the Green Party get a poll demonstrating that it's only them that can beat Reform... As that poll is usually the catalyst for the rest of the vote to swing in the correct direction.
A danger for Starmer is that egregiously blocking Burnham turns this into a Reform/Green contest, with Labour squeezed out and him getting the blame. Not ideal. Probably better off letting Burnham get on with it.
Why would Starmer care about the Greens gaining one more seat if he survives?
Zack (Who is from Manchester) just put out this PPB.
If I were Starmer, I would be worried about him more than Burnham.
Not his best. Painting these bleak pictures is not a great idea in my opinion. He was much better when he went after racists. Something most of us could get behind.
A very keen observer of politics just messaged me about this by-election.
'Two words. George Galloway.'
Even an MP for Gorton and living in Malaysia will most likely visit both the HoC and his constituency more often than Farage has managed to find Parliament and Clacton.
Roger, he has to go because the media and the PB massiv hate him.
Take all the criticism of Starmer today about not yet banning under 16s from social media. The media are fully behind Badenoch's promotion of the idea.
Imagine if a Labour Government had promoted a nanny state banning of social media for children and the Conservatives were against it. The Government would be hung out to dry.
So damned if they do, damned if they don't.
FWIW I have no particular view on ban or no ban. However I'm probably more inclined to the Tory nanny state narrative rather than Labour's wait and see.
Starmer has to work on his strengths. He's starting to look like the grown up in the room. It's going to take a while but his opponents are starting to look pretty disparate. He needs to get a grip and choose a direction which he's sort of doing. He doesn't need to worry about media critics. Trump is inadvertently doing him a lot of good There's nothing like a common enemy to rally the troops
I wonder who the Fukkers will grace us with as a candidate for this by-election. Danczuk? That chavvy woman who got locked up for spouting shit on Twitter? Zahawi? The possibilities are endless and all shit.
The Ukrainians say that their 50 most effective drone units (out of 400) are responsible for 70% of successful strikes. The new Defence minister is determined to get the other 350 units up to scratch, and he's brought a long-time critic of the Defence ministry in to help him do it.
I wonder who the Fukkers will grace us with as a candidate for this by-election. Danczuk? That chavvy woman who got locked up for spouting shit on Twitter? Zahawi? The possibilities are endless and all shit.
The chav's still on tag. Does that prevent election with the post Bobby Sands reforms? IDK.
She's a southener though iirc so that should rule her out.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Isn't the Bad Sex Prize for bad writing about sex, rather than writing about bad sex?
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Isn't the Bad Sex Prize for bad writing about sex, rather than writing about bad sex?
If only pb had its own in-house novelist who has won a Bad Sex award. Oh wait... it does, and he features in viewcode's opus.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Isn't the Bad Sex Prize for bad writing about sex, rather than writing about bad sex?
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Surely a Tech Bro takes out his remarkable in a situation like that?
You need to capitalize Remarkable, and probably provide a link, so that that people know what you're talking about.
Given the scale of the US build up around Iran, one has to consider the old maxim that the amount and type of assets are notably in excess of that required for sabre rattling. You'd have to assume, therefore, that the intent is to use it.
What is the realistic play? Do a Maduro / Bin Laden style kidnapping or assassination?
I don't think Starmer's that ruthless: I think he'll just try and block the nomination.
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Surely a Tech Bro takes out his remarkable in a situation like that?
You need to capitalize Remarkable, and probably provide a link, so that that people know what you're talking about.
Remarkable is technology for those who can't work a sheet of scrap paper and a phone.
I just read DavidL's critique of Carney's speech on the last thread. He's got it spot on. He's right that Starmer's boasting about getting a 5% better deal than the Europeans wasn't something to boast about. It made him seem small
("Love Actually 2", written by Richard Curtis, coming to you Xmas 2026)
Go on. It would be nice to have 2 PBers with a Bad Sex award.
"...Trembling, Sunak reached up to unstrap her bra. "Cool!" thought Sunak: "I'm close to touching a boob! For the second time!". then he paused. "What's wrong?" said Reeves. "I'm worried this is outside my experiental set" he said, then paused again, bit his lip, then added "If only there was a Spectator writer with an implausibly large number of lovers who could advise". He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "Hi. Yes, it's Rishi. You know how you owe me a favour after that drug charge? With the chickens and the suspenders? Yes, Farmer Savage was very cooperative, wasn't he? Well now it's payback..." and took the notepad out of his pyjama pocket and scribbled down notes. Reeves sighed and went to make herself a sandwich as the notes piled up..."
Surely a Tech Bro takes out his remarkable in a situation like that?
You need to capitalize Remarkable, and probably provide a link, so that that people know what you're talking about.
Well done Rishi. We all knew she was a very good player. it's good to know that without fanfares he is too. I've always liked Rishi except for the way he allowed himself to be pushed around by his Party's right wing
We seem to be losing sight of why this is happening.
Because a Labour MP was a twat and has had to resign..
The chances of this being anything but a Patrick Gordon Walker humiliation for Burnham, should he roll the dice, are slim.
Yes, I'd bet against him, too.
He's caught between the government being sufficiently unpopular to make a change of leader a serious possibility, and so unpopular that contesting even the safest seat for Labour in a by election risks humiliation.
And he needs a far better narrative for why he might stand, other than "I fancy the top job"(after getting over "not even thought about it")
Burnham has a big personal vote in Greater Manchester. He has won its Mayoralty multiple terms by landslides (even in 2021 when the Conservatives won the local elections NEV comfortably nationally Burnham was re elected with 67% of the vote) and would win this by election easily.
He is unlikely to get the chance though as it looks like Starmer and the NEC will impose a woke shortlist and exclude white men like Burnham as a result
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
I think the Greens or an lefty independent could win it. The demographics aren't that great for Reform. There's also Galloway as TSE mentioned although he says he won't move back to the UK from Malaysia or wherever he is now.
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
Nowcast currently projects Gorton and Denton to be Labour 29.8%, Reform 26.9% and Green 24.1%, so a narrow Labour hold and that is on a UK wide forecast of just 86 Labour MPs
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
Nowcast currently projects Gorton and Denton to be Labour 29.8%, Reform 26.9% and Green 24.1%, so a narrow Labour hold and that is on a UK wide forecast of just 86 Labour MPs
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
Nowcast currently projects Gorton and Denton to be Labour 29.8%, Reform 26.9% and Green 24.1%, so a narrow Labour hold and that is on a UK wide forecast of just 86 Labour MPs
I just read DavidL's critique of Carney's speech on the last thread. He's got it spot on. He's right that Starmer's boasting about getting a 5% better deal than the Europeans wasn't something to boast about. It made him seem small
He still got it though. Carney for all his alleged brilliance as well as having higher tariffs on Canada from Trump than Starmer and the UK got has agreed to let lots more Chinese cars flood the Canadian market in return for a promise from Beijing to lower tariffs a bit on canola seeds
Sub-optimal result for the Greens in Cotswolds / The Rissingtons:
LD gain from Green
LD 321 Con 268 RefUK 221 Green 47
Lib Dem 37.5% (New) Conservative 31.3% (-12.1%) Reform 25.8% (New) Green 5.5% (-51.1%)
Yes Polanski is far too leftwing for the Cotswolds, rich Remainers there may be environmentally friendly and not great fans of Brexit but they aren't going to vote to see their expensive properties and cars and wealth and income hammered with tax either. Hence they have switched to Davey's LDs
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
I think the Greens or an lefty independent could win it. The demographics aren't that great for Reform. There's also Galloway as TSE mentioned although he says he won't move back to the UK from Malaysia or wherever he is now.
According to his recent online media releases, George Galloway is currently in a different country somewhere to the east of the UK. Very cryptic
He remains a list candidate for the Workers party of Great Britain for the forthcoming Holyrood election, ranked 2nd on the Glasgow list (behind his sister).
It doesn't look like Burnham will get the nod from Lab HQ to stand if he wanted to, which is just as well for him as UK politics are too volatile for Gorton to be considered a reasonably safe Labour hold right now
I note that @Andy_JS described the seat as barely winnable by Labour.
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
I think the Greens or an lefty independent could win it. The demographics aren't that great for Reform. There's also Galloway as TSE mentioned although he says he won't move back to the UK from Malaysia or wherever he is now.
According to his recent online media releases, George Galloway is currently in a different country somewhere to the east of the UK. Very cryptic
He remains a list candidate for the Workers party of Great Britain for the forthcoming Holyrood election, ranked 2nd on the Glasgow list (behind his sister).
It doesn't look like Burnham will get the nod from Lab HQ to stand if he wanted to, which is just as well for him as UK politics are too volatile for Gorton to be considered a reasonably safe Labour hold right now
Isn't he in Malaysia, and has vowed never to return to the UK?
Comments
I’m genuinely shocked that Davos is FILLED with thousands of journalists - Politico & Bloomberg have entire headquarters on the high street. And I was the only person to confront Witkoff about his Russia $ deals. The media is a completely broken club.
https://x.com/CaolanReports/status/2014440773450650019
.
"No longer in the role" is a bit of a giveaway.
Belle Vue Circus - Wikipedia https://share.google/oh7yj4bmAgvxDYoeP
I offer this fact free of charge for any political journalists ti torture into a metaphor.
https://youtu.be/AOtZMy9Sf_0?si=UpDBRYBvJ5PlC4Sz
(for info, no, I didn't attend Abbey Hey)
Emily Thornberry giving Trump both barrels...
If they can match Sunak's 23.7% in the next election, they'll be doing well.
"Everyone who heard about this was like: Hold on. Is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting?"
From NYT deep-dive interviewing dozens of current and former FBI agents on Director Kash Patel:
https://x.com/RobbieGramer/status/2014392422294315370
"...His staff only cared about three things.: what his meals were, when his workouts would be, and what his entertainment would be.."
You should also underfund the local authorities but give them lots more responsibilities, for example make it their job to pay teachers but don't give them enough money to do that, so at any given time many teachers haven't been paid for months.
This gives them incredible incentives to cut through red tape and get stuff built.
But having been in China for a month, I can tell you for instance "trains ferry a lot of empty air" isn't true, certainly not in Eastern China. The 1000 person trains were full. And the bullet trains are miles ahead of the rest of the world now in every aspect and they can make more in a year than the rest of the world combined x10. They have production lined train manufacture in a similar way to cars, but in a way no other company has. The train lines in the far north are the criticism for empty air, but it kinda of irrevelant in the grand scheme. There is politics / "control" in play, but also engineering testing for high speed in very cold temps and high desert, as they are exporting high speed to rest of the world now.
I think a lot of the poor quality stuff ends up being linked to corruption in lower tier cities. The Tier 1 cities are better than basically every Western city now.
Yes China keep their GDP up by doing effectively Keynsian ecomics of building in the down times and have overbuilt housing. But the point was they get shit done....the West, particularly the UK, don't get shit done, its more shit stuff gets done.
https://x.com/DesmondSwayne/status/2013979613609828684?s=20
(unclear to me what syntax is for sharing this properly and I'm too lazy to check, but it says):
Needless to say I was disgusted by what they reposted and passwords were changed immediately.
Thank you everyone who highlighted this so rapidly.
The offending "bizzare share":
Talking of insane I'm watching Maria Bartiromo* low balling Trump post Davos and Trump failing to deal with Maria's low ball questions.
*Is Maria real or a Simpsons cartoon?
But I suppose it makes a four-way split in the vote possible. So there is that.
Burnham. Galloway. Polanski. Yusuf?
They need to urgently add the earlier 15 minutes or so back on, and slow everything down.
She's a southener though iirc so that should rule her out.
Too late now.
He is unlikely to get the chance though as it looks like Starmer and the NEC will impose a woke shortlist and exclude white men like Burnham as a result
I therefore assume Labour can’t win it unless Burnham is candidate, otherwise it’s for Reform, or possibly Greens if with the right candidate.
https://electionmaps.uk/nowcast
LD gain from Green
LD 321
Con 268
RefUK 221
Green 47
Lib Dem 37.5% (New)
Conservative 31.3% (-12.1%)
Reform 25.8% (New)
Green 5.5% (-51.1%)
Reform UK gain from Lab
Reform UK 160
Ind Caruana 138
Ind Rule 135
Lab 87
Flintshire People's Voice 79
LD 68
Con 34
Ind Owen 17
Reform UK 22.28%
Ind Caruana 19.22%
Ind Rule 18.80%
Lab 12.12%
Flintshire People's Voice 11.00%
LD 9.47%
Con 4.74%
Ind Owen 2.37%
He remains a list candidate for the Workers party of Great Britain for the forthcoming Holyrood election, ranked 2nd on the Glasgow list (behind his sister).
It doesn't look like Burnham will get the nod from Lab HQ to stand if he wanted to, which is just as well for him as UK politics are too volatile for Gorton to be considered a reasonably safe Labour hold right now