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  • weejonnieweejonnie Posts: 3,820

    As predicted last night, one lucky SPAD is about to get the very safe Tory seat of Kensington.

    Johnson B?

  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Rifkind seems quite adamant he's done nothing wrong in his daily politics interview
  • weejonnie said:

    As predicted last night, one lucky SPAD is about to get the very safe Tory seat of Kensington.

    Johnson B?

    He's already got Uxbridge
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,411
    Can't find Hills 7-4.
  • Mr. Eagles, huzzah!

    Excellent spot by Mr. Smithson.
  • antifrank said:

    antifrank said:

    I wonder how long those 6/4 odds on Malcolm Rifkind not being the Conservative candidate in Kensington will last now? They still seem to be available.

    They'll last longer with Hills offering 7/4
    Grrr I can't get on Hills at work. Life is full of unfairnesses.
    Phone them
  • antifrank said:

    antifrank said:

    I wonder how long those 6/4 odds on Malcolm Rifkind not being the Conservative candidate in Kensington will last now? They still seem to be available.

    They'll last longer with Hills offering 7/4
    Grrr I can't get on Hills at work. Life is full of unfairnesses.
    They only offered to lay £5
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,064
    Got the 7/4 as well. Thanks everyone!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited February 2015
    Maybe Rifkind will, in a fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.
  • The bookies seem to have forgotten Howard Flight syndrome, where otherwise forgiveable* misdemeanours become capital offences in the run-up to the election.

    *By other politicians.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,928
    antifrank said:

    Indigo said:

    antifrank said:

    Charles said:

    antifrank said:

    That's not such a stupid position. Constitutional change in many countries, including Australia and the USA, requires more than just a simple majority. By any measure, leaving the EU would be a constitutional change.

    Or if we were more imaginative, perhaps we could have a hokey-cokey settlement with the EU, with Scotland in and other parts of the UK out.
    Although it does give a veto to 4% of the voters (or arguably 2%+1). Hardly democratic.
    We are living in a country that is slowly and asymmetrically federalising. We need to think through how we protect the interests of the smaller parts of that emerging federation if it is to survive. Perhaps the Australian system of needing a national majority and a majority in a majority of the component parts might work.
    I cant see that working, its too asymmetrically to feel fair to England.

    3.6m Scots + 1.2m Northern Irish + 1.4m Welsh = 6.2m voters agaist
    39.4m England voters are in favor

    and an idea is dropped ?

    The English need to decide to what extent they are prepared to recognise the differences in the political cultures in each of northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales from England. The solution may lie in still further decentralisation, allowing some component parts to go in very different directions from others.
    Is it really about different cultures though? It seems to me to be a game by which you work out how to maximise the advantage for your particular region of the UK. Ideally that involves greater devolution without losing powers at the national level. I'm sympathetic to the idea of Thomas Paine that England is still run as if it were a Norman colony. I don't know how they do these things in other countries but we seem to be in a mess.
  • Reading this, am I the only one wondering if Dan Hannan is about to defect?

    http://www.capx.co/defeat-of-varoufakis-will-embolden-the-eurocrats-to-con-cameron/

    It reads like he's just disappointed Syriza has folded to me.
  • Looks like Sir Malcolm's daily consultancy will be available at a knock-down price.
  • Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    He's very Pro-European isn't he?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,064
    edited February 2015
    antifrank said:

    antifrank said:

    I wonder how long those 6/4 odds on Malcolm Rifkind not being the Conservative candidate in Kensington will last now? They still seem to be available.

    They'll last longer with Hills offering 7/4
    Grrr I can't get on Hills at work. Life is full of unfairnesses.
    You won't be able to get more than a trivial amount on so don't worry about it too much.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    isam said:

    Rifkind seems quite adamant he's done nothing wrong in his daily politics interview

    He seems to think he will be the candidate at the election... Spoke well IMO and for about ten minutes.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,411
    Graham Sharpe having a good look at my £20...
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,411

    antifrank said:

    antifrank said:

    I wonder how long those 6/4 odds on Malcolm Rifkind not being the Conservative candidate in Kensington will last now? They still seem to be available.

    They'll last longer with Hills offering 7/4
    Grrr I can't get on Hills at work. Life is full of unfairnesses.
    They only offered to lay £5
    I was allowed £20.
  • Reading this, am I the only one wondering if Dan Hannan is about to defect?

    http://www.capx.co/defeat-of-varoufakis-will-embolden-the-eurocrats-to-con-cameron/

    It reads like he's just disappointed Syriza has folded to me.
    He gets top marks for quoting Byron.
  • Reading this, am I the only one wondering if Dan Hannan is about to defect?

    http://www.capx.co/defeat-of-varoufakis-will-embolden-the-eurocrats-to-con-cameron/

    It reads like he's just disappointed Syriza has folded to me.
    Cheers, I'm just worried, as I'd be really gutted and worried if he defected.

    It was this bit that stood out

    Indeed, EU leaders will now be more confident about being able to get away with the essentially optical concessions that David Cameron is asking for.
  • Can we all take a moment and think of former PBer, Nuala.
  • @paulwaugh: That sound you can hear? It's the rush of Tory wannabe MPs drafting CVs to stress lifelong links with Kensington & Chelsea
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262
    Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in a fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    His 'personal incumbency' now lies in the gutter, like the victim of a Nicholas Scott car accident.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,963
    edited February 2015
    Before we all spend our winnings

    @AndrewSparrow: Cameron suggests Tories will decide Rifkind's fate quickly, in time for him to stand again at election if cleared -

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/feb/23/jack-straw-and-malcolm-rifkind-respond-to-cash-for-access-allegations-politics-live-blog#block-54eb18e7e4b0396c3e2b1dd1
  • Mr. Eagles, perhaps he'll get kicked upstairs?
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @PickardJE: Jack Straw must be praying that Tony Blair doesn't vouch his moral integrity. Oh. Too late.
  • @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be
  • Missed this beauty from Nick Cohen earlier:

    Nick Cohen ‏@NickCohen4

    Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw have made a terrible mistake. If only they had advertised in the Telegraph, none of this would have happened.
  • Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in a fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    His 'personal incumbency' now lies in the gutter, like the victim of a Nicholas Scott car accident.
    ...unless it turns out he hasn't really been a naughty boy and this is a media stitch up. He was putting out a good case on telly earlier apparently. Who knows. Prescott survived punching a voter. Blair survived lying to take us to war. An ex-minister telling someone he can get them an invite to meet an ambassador isn't exactly Iran/Contra level skullduggery...
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,928

    Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    He's very Pro-European isn't he?
    I doubt K&C is very pro-Ukip is it? I'd have thought it's full of bankers who on the whole probably want to stay in the EU. Hedge fund managers may be a separate issue. Perhaps the closest Cameron has to a core vote.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471
    Charles said:

    TGOHF said:

    Scott_P said:

    Meanwhile Ladbrokes now offering 6/4 that Rifkind won't be CON candidate in K&C at GE

    @tnewtondunn: Reasonably clear now that Rifkind will not be a Tory MP by the end of today.

    Free money?

    Ideal for Boris ?
    He's already got Uxbridge.
    Which is to the Conservative Party's shame. Boris already has a job that is supposed to be meaningful: trying to be an MP as well demeans both the 'job' of Mayor of London and Boris himself.

    If I was a Londoner, I would not vote for the Conservative candidate in the next mayoral election for exactly that reason. Thankfully, I'm not a Londoner...
    Does trying to be Foreign Secretary and an MP demean both the job and William Hague? How about Chancellor of the Exchequer?

    Boris in the past has compared the duties of Mayor as being comparable to a mid-level Cabinet post. I think he's spot on.
    I'm sorry to say I have to disagree, Charles. When you vote for a candidate at a GE, it is clear that, if the party does well, the person you elect might get selected to do extra work *for the country*.

    When the good people of London chose Boris for the second time, they'd have no idea he'd ponce off to do a more interesting job (or actually one that better fits his personal ambition), which has f-all to do with his real job.

    I like Boris, but this decision dismayed me.

    Either the MoL is a full-time job, or it should be abolished. And he earns £143,000 to do it - a little bit more than the PM gets for all his official work, I think.

    If he thinks it's the same as a mid-level Cabinet post, he should get just the ministerial supplementary salary of 30,000 or so. ;-)
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Ukip odds on in Grimsby at FarageBet


    Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ)
    23/02/2015 12:25
    Farage asked about Mitchell re Grimsby: "Lab seats now inhabited by Westminster bubble types. Grimsby is top target, Ukip has 50%+ chance".
  • Mr. Eagles, surely Cameron as Waitrose and Farage as Lidl/Aldi is a given?

    Clegg as Tesco, once popular, now easily mocked.

    Miliband = Co-op. Surely?
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,173
    Patrick said:

    Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in a fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    His 'personal incumbency' now lies in the gutter, like the victim of a Nicholas Scott car accident.
    ...unless it turns out he hasn't really been a naughty boy and this is a media stitch up. He was putting out a good case on telly earlier apparently. Who knows. Prescott survived punching a voter. Blair survived lying to take us to war. An ex-minister telling someone he can get them an invite to meet an ambassador isn't exactly Iran/Contra level skullduggery...
    I suspect neither have done anything that merits today's rabid response. They're victims of the age we live in, where you're accused, tried, convicted and condemned by the media. Whatever one's political views it's all pretty ridiculous.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,963
    edited February 2015

    Mr. Eagles, surely Cameron as Waitrose and Farage as Lidl/Aldi is a given?

    Clegg as Tesco, once popular, now easily mocked.

    Miliband = Co-op. Surely?

    Nah, Lidl/Aldi are Johnny Foreigners immigrants from the EU damaging the prospect of the natives.

    Tesco are still the market leaders, so not Clegg
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,500

    Mr. G, soon Scots will be able to determine their own income tax rates and get a say over England's. It's indefensible.

    Mr. Me, bugger that. England isn't the property of today's political pygmies to be carved up into shitty little fiefdoms. Not to mention that we can only have equality if we have a full English Parliament.

    Or are you supposing such regions would get the power to vary income tax? Set independent health and education policies? Alter VAT or corporation tax?

    With those powers you'd be institutionalising division and putting in a wedge that would break up England. Without them, we would not have equality with Scotland.

    The only sustainable solution is an English Parliament.

    MD , that is not true, they can tinker round the edges very poorly and changing tax alone would be suicide. Any change means a budget change overall so it means absolutely nothing and will never ever be possible that it could be used. It is a joke.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    edited February 2015

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Cameron = Waitrose (natch)
    Clegg = M&S (once much-loved, now struggling to retain customers)
    Miliband = Co-op
    Farage = Morrisons (straight-talking, very English)
    Bennett = Holland and Barrett
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,975
    edited February 2015
    "Well I'm not sure if this will be a help or hindrance


    @HuffPostUKPol: Tony Blair wades in to defend Jack Straw's integrity after cash for access sting http://t.co/FQmi2QLKcs http://t.co/zgl9y62imQ"

    About as much as Ian Huntly speaking up for the Rotherham Councillors....

    Apropos of nothing .....Where my Grandparents are buried in Edinburgh there are lines of Rifkinds. He has an enormous family apparently.

    EDIT. I guess that should be HAD
  • anotherDaveanotherDave Posts: 6,746

    Reading this, am I the only one wondering if Dan Hannan is about to defect?

    http://www.capx.co/defeat-of-varoufakis-will-embolden-the-eurocrats-to-con-cameron/

    If you trawl Mr Hannan's old articles I think his argument has been:

    1. Britain could get concessions.
    2. Britain/Cameron is not seeking concessions.
    3. Trivial points will be presented to the public as significant concessions.
  • @sharpeangle: Malcolm Rifkind backed from 7/4 to 5/4 to be rejected as Tory candidate for Kensington; 4/7 from 2/5 to stand there.
    http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb/betting/g/9035/General-Election-Specials.html
  • Before we all spend our winnings

    @AndrewSparrow: Cameron suggests Tories will decide Rifkind's fate quickly, in time for him to stand again at election if cleared -

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/feb/23/jack-straw-and-malcolm-rifkind-respond-to-cash-for-access-allegations-politics-live-blog#block-54eb18e7e4b0396c3e2b1dd1

    Indeed, it's no certainty, but odds-against seemed generous. Even if Rifkind's cleared (as seems probable, based on the rules) any of MR/his local party/DC may have had enough.
  • FlightpathFlightpath Posts: 4,012

    Reading this, am I the only one wondering if Dan Hannan is about to defect?

    http://www.capx.co/defeat-of-varoufakis-will-embolden-the-eurocrats-to-con-cameron/

    It reads like he's just disappointed Syriza has folded to me.
    Cheers, I'm just worried, as I'd be really gutted and worried if he defected.

    It was this bit that stood out

    Indeed, EU leaders will now be more confident about being able to get away with the essentially optical concessions that David Cameron is asking for.
    When did the UK join the Euro nans become a supplicant to the ECB? I must have missed that.
  • Is poundshop a supermarket?
  • Mr. G, if you're right, there'll probably be another referendum fairly soon and I suspect Yes would win.
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262
    Anorak said:

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Cameron = Waitrose (natch)
    Clegg = M&S (once much-loved, now struggling to retain customers)
    Miliband = Co-op
    Farage = Morrisons (straight-talking, very English)
    Bennett = Holland and Barrett
    Clegg = Netto.
  • Mr. Eagles, do you mean Poundland?
  • Before we all spend our winnings

    @AndrewSparrow: Cameron suggests Tories will decide Rifkind's fate quickly, in time for him to stand again at election if cleared -

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/feb/23/jack-straw-and-malcolm-rifkind-respond-to-cash-for-access-allegations-politics-live-blog#block-54eb18e7e4b0396c3e2b1dd1

    Indeed, it's no certainty, but odds-against seemed generous. Even if Rifkind's cleared (as seems probable, based on the rules) any of MR/his local party/DC may have had enough.
    In the world of politics, sometimes perceptions matter more than the facts, in this case, he's doomed.

    I expect he'll be cleared, told to stand down and get a peerage in May
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,937

    Mr. Eagles, surely Cameron as Waitrose and Farage as Lidl/Aldi is a given?

    Clegg as Tesco, once popular, now easily mocked.

    Miliband = Co-op. Surely?

    Cameron as Harrods food hall?

    Clegg as Poundland?
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983


    When the good people of London chose Boris for the second time, they'd have no idea he'd ponce off to do a more interesting job

    Those that read the Telegraph would have been well aware of how he earns most of his money.
  • Mr. Eagles, do you mean Poundland?

    I don't know, I was just thinking of Russell Brand's "Pound shop Enoch Powell" comment to Farage
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,386
    I guess Straw decided to fill hit boots in his last remaining months as an MP and before the Chilcott report comes out and makes in an unemployable, international pariah...

    VERY surprised at Sir Malcolm though...
  • Anorak said:

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Cameron = Waitrose (natch)
    Clegg = M&S (once much-loved, now struggling to retain customers)
    Miliband = Co-op
    Farage = Morrisons (straight-talking, very English)
    Bennett = Holland and Barrett
    I thought Farage was 'Poundland'.
  • Anorak said:

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Cameron = Waitrose (natch)
    Clegg = M&S (once much-loved, now struggling to retain customers)
    Miliband = Co-op
    Farage = Morrisons (straight-talking, very English)
    Bennett = Holland and Barrett
    Clegg = Netto.
    Netto are no more, they were taken over by Asda
  • Farage = Iceland

    Frozen since the 1950s
  • Ishmael_XIshmael_X Posts: 3,664

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Surely his Lordship's polls are comical enough on the actual numbers without needing to be spiced up like this?
  • Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    He's very Pro-European isn't he?
    I doubt K&C is very pro-Ukip is it? I'd have thought it's full of bankers who on the whole probably want to stay in the EU. Hedge fund managers may be a separate issue. Perhaps the closest Cameron has to a core vote.
    It's empty. Turnout was something like 57% last time.

    Tories won 55-0 with 2 abstentions
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,937

    Before we all spend our winnings

    @AndrewSparrow: Cameron suggests Tories will decide Rifkind's fate quickly, in time for him to stand again at election if cleared -

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/feb/23/jack-straw-and-malcolm-rifkind-respond-to-cash-for-access-allegations-politics-live-blog#block-54eb18e7e4b0396c3e2b1dd1

    Indeed, it's no certainty, but odds-against seemed generous. Even if Rifkind's cleared (as seems probable, based on the rules) any of MR/his local party/DC may have had enough.
    In the world of politics, sometimes perceptions matter more than the facts, in this case, he's doomed.

    I expect he'll be cleared, told to stand down and get a peerage in May
    Not so much a supermarket as a chain, but surely Clegg is Blockbuster, an idea overtaken by events....
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,500

    Mr. G, if you're right, there'll probably be another referendum fairly soon and I suspect Yes would win.

    MD, latest is that HMRC cannot work out how to tell what income tax can be counted as Scottish or how they will be able to work out days worked where etc count. All they will do is make up a number and then deduct that from Barnett and forever there will be fighting on the tax number and the impact it has on Scotland's budget. Will be another fudged mess that will cause problems.
    Westminster now also keeping veto on roadsign changes so the only real one has now gone as well.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,538

    Patrick said:

    Maybe Rifkind will, in fit of resentful anti CCHQ pique, defect to UKIP and run for them in K&C on his strong personal incumbency. But then again myabe Ed Miliband is not an idiot.

    He's very Pro-European isn't he?
    I doubt K&C is very pro-Ukip is it? I'd have thought it's full of bankers who on the whole probably want to stay in the EU. Hedge fund managers may be a separate issue. Perhaps the closest Cameron has to a core vote.
    K & C is about as un-UKIP as a constituency could be.
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983



    I expect he'll be cleared, told to stand down and get a peerage in May

    Would Dave want his resignation honours to be sullied by the controversy?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,411
    'I want to have a standard of living that my professional background would normally entitle me to have' hmm..
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    TGOHF said:

    Scott_P said:

    Meanwhile Ladbrokes now offering 6/4 that Rifkind won't be CON candidate in K&C at GE

    @tnewtondunn: Reasonably clear now that Rifkind will not be a Tory MP by the end of today.

    Free money?

    Ideal for Boris ?
    He's already got Uxbridge.
    Which is to the Conservative Party's shame. Boris already has a job that is supposed to be meaningful: trying to be an MP as well demeans both the 'job' of Mayor of London and Boris himself.

    If I was a Londoner, I would not vote for the Conservative candidate in the next mayoral election for exactly that reason. Thankfully, I'm not a Londoner...
    Does trying to be Foreign Secretary and an MP demean both the job and William Hague? How about Chancellor of the Exchequer?

    Boris in the past has compared the duties of Mayor as being comparable to a mid-level Cabinet post. I think he's spot on.
    I'm sorry to say I have to disagree, Charles. When you vote for a candidate at a GE, it is clear that, if the party does well, the person you elect might get selected to do extra work *for the country*.

    When the good people of London chose Boris for the second time, they'd have no idea he'd ponce off to do a more interesting job (or actually one that better fits his personal ambition), which has f-all to do with his real job.

    I like Boris, but this decision dismayed me.

    Either the MoL is a full-time job, or it should be abolished. And he earns £143,000 to do it - a little bit more than the PM gets for all his official work, I think.

    If he thinks it's the same as a mid-level Cabinet post, he should get just the ministerial supplementary salary of 30,000 or so. ;-)
    Feel free to disagree. I won't take it personally. Although I had thought you were a man of uncommonly good sense.

    If we are going to stick to your position, though, you need to align the terms for the two jobs. Otherwise Boris won't be allowed to stand for an MP - hence we are effectively saying that Mayor of London is the end of someone political career. I'd rather have someone who is ambitious and on the up (ie with influence) than a timeserver
  • Neil said:



    I expect he'll be cleared, told to stand down and get a peerage in May

    Would Dave want his resignation honours to be sullied by the controversy?
    Nah, Dave won't be resigning until 2018 at the earliest, after he's won the referendum and kept us in Europe

    (I hope)
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Strangely they took a different view to them leaving the UK.......
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,706
    If the Tories were a brand they would probably be British Telecom.

    A public institution, ubiquitous but never loved, not what it was and struggling to find its way in the modern world against more dynamic upstarts.

    Labour is the BBC, another institution not without problems, but much more loved than BT.

    The Lib Dems are HMV. And you're right UKIP is poundland (harking back to Woolworths).


  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471
    Neil said:


    When the good people of London chose Boris for the second time, they'd have no idea he'd ponce off to do a more interesting job

    Those that read the Telegraph would have been well aware of how he earns most of his money.
    Indeed, and I'm all for MP's having second jobs as long as they fulfil their first job to their constituents and the public, and the other job(s) do not create conflicts of interest. But that's very different to the position that Boris will find himself in.

    Unless you are saying Boris spends many hours a week tortuously fiddling with his column, as beads of perspiration drip off his brow onto his laptop?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,514
    edited February 2015

    Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    You are forgetting about the free coffee offer. My local Waitrose full of bloody freeloading students....

    Just joking for any students out there. I do the same :-)
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    My first flat was above a Morrisons (well, Safeway). I now live above a Tesco. I'm clearly going up in the world...
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262

    Anorak said:

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Cameron = Waitrose (natch)
    Clegg = M&S (once much-loved, now struggling to retain customers)
    Miliband = Co-op
    Farage = Morrisons (straight-talking, very English)
    Bennett = Holland and Barrett
    Clegg = Netto.
    Netto are no more, they were taken over by Asda
    Indeed.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,937

    @LordAshcroft: Interesting Ashcroft National Poll today at 4pm plus if our leaders were supermarkets which ones would they be

    Rather hard to know what constitutes "interesting" in His Lordship's Bouncy Castle of Polling.
    Let's go with a Tory lead of 5, supporting MORI and showing last week was clearly an outlier from the inevitable Tory win in May.... UKIP 7, LibDems 4, Greens 16.

    Or something.

  • Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    You are forgetting about the free coffee offer. My local Waitrose full of bloody freeloading students....

    Just joking for any students out there. I do the same :-)
    I think the students started turning up after this unfortunate front page of the Waitrose weekend newspaper

    http://www.thepoke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Waitrose.jpeg
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471
    Charles said:


    Feel free to disagree. I won't take it personally. Although I had thought you were a man of uncommonly good sense.

    If we are going to stick to your position, though, you need to align the terms for the two jobs. Otherwise Boris won't be allowed to stand for an MP - hence we are effectively saying that Mayor of London is the end of someone political career. I'd rather have someone who is ambitious and on the up (ie with influence) than a timeserver

    It wouldn't mean the end of his career: he'd just have to wait the (three?) years for the next GE or, more likely, for someone in a safe seat to shuffle off the mortal coil or retire mid-term. If he waits, he could do something worthwhile for the public.

    As I say, I like Boris. But the MoL is meant to be an important job. If it isn't, abolish it or reduce its ludicrously high pay level to less than that of an MP.

    In fact, I stand by a suggestion I made yonks ago: no public servant should earn more than the PM. It's be worth it just for the howls of anguish. ;-)
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Charles said:

    Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    My first flat was above a Morrisons (well, Safeway). I now live above a Tesco. I'm clearly going up in the world...
    Ah I have a flat above an aldi!! Don't live there at the moment though

    Used to be too snobby to go there but it is fantastic, and we have a Waitrose just down the road for the little luxuries like Lambrusco!
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,928
    How about spitting England up along the lines of the Heptarchy? Is a country of 50m+ really going to remain one of the most centralised in the world?
  • Farage = Iceland

    Frozen since the 1950s

    Everything was better when it was Bejam.

  • peter_from_putneypeter_from_putney Posts: 6,956
    edited February 2015
    Iirc there's a record 7 seat lead from Sporting today for the Tories on a mid-spread of 283 compared with Labour's 276 ..... await the "that can't be right" yelps from the lefties.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,514
    edited February 2015
    Maybe Iceland = Farage is a very good analogy.

    Iceland are surprisingly successful, despite being hated and mocked in equal measure by the metro elite as the chavs supermarket. But growing across the country and are teflon like when it comes to bad PR....even the horse meat scandal, they ended up selling more burgers than they ever had and somehow came out of that with zero damage to their long term future.
  • DairDair Posts: 6,108
    edited February 2015

    Indigo said:

    antifrank said:

    Charles said:

    antifrank said:

    That's not such a stupid position. Constitutional change in many countries, including Australia and the USA, requires more than just a simple majority. By any measure, leaving the EU would be a constitutional change.

    Or if we were more imaginative, perhaps we could have a hokey-cokey settlement with the EU, with Scotland in and other parts of the UK out.
    Although it does give a veto to 4% of the voters (or arguably 2%+1). Hardly democratic.
    We are living in a country that is slowly and asymmetrically federalising. We need to think through how we protect the interests of the smaller parts of that emerging federation if it is to survive. Perhaps the Australian system of needing a national majority and a majority in a majority of the component parts might work.
    I cant see that working, its too asymmetrically to feel fair to England.

    3.6m Scots + 1.2m Northern Irish + 1.4m Welsh = 6.2m voters agaist
    39.4m England voters are in favor

    and an idea is dropped ?
    You could break England into constituent regions, say: Londonistan, Greater Sussex, Wessex, Cornwall, Mercia, East Anglia, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Northumbria.

    Then England would have nine separate votes in the Federal UK.
    The problem is that you only really have a viable Northumbria. The only other two subnationalities where that might have popular traction and definable - Cornwall and Cumbria are too small to be viable. The three which might be viable - York, Wessex and Mercia are not definable geographically and most of the rest of England was even more fluid before a concept of England existed.
  • Iirc there's a record 7 seat lead from Sporting today for the Tories on a mid-spread of 283 compared with Labour's 276 ..... await the "that can't be right" yelps from the lefties.

    Spread lead vis-a-vis betfair is worth keeping an eye on for future reference.

    lead 0 = 2.0 v 2.0
    lead of 7 = 1.62 v 2.64
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983

    Iirc there's a record 7 seat lead from Sporting today for the Tories on a mid-spread of 283 compared with Labour's 276 ..... await the "that can't be right" yelps from the lefties.


    Surely all punters appreciate that it's not a matter of right / wrong but value / not value?
  • Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @callummay: Just remembered @Aiannucci's Drinking Club of Jack Straw Fans. 16'20" into this from 1995. It's amazing. http://t.co/BhvKLeAhyx
  • Charles said:

    Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    My first flat was above a Morrisons (well, Safeway). I now live above a Tesco. I'm clearly going up in the world...
    Bedford Street, Covent Garden if I had to guess!
  • Tissue_PriceTissue_Price Posts: 9,039
    edited February 2015
    PADDY POWER: Will Malcolm Rifkind be ISC Chair on 1st May 2015? 2/5 Yes 7/4 No

    7/4 again value? Edit - perhaps not, is anyone going to have the heart to knife him with the election intervening one way or the other?
  • Neil said:

    Iirc there's a record 7 seat lead from Sporting today for the Tories on a mid-spread of 283 compared with Labour's 276 ..... await the "that can't be right" yelps from the lefties.


    Surely all punters appreciate that it's not a matter of right / wrong but value / not value?
    If you want to keep the bet the whole way, yes. But we were being assured that 2.0 on Labour was good value only a few weeks ago, and those positions are substantially under water at present.
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983

    PADDY POWER: Will Malcolm Rifkind be ISC Chair on 1st May 2015? 2/5 Yes 7/4 No

    7/4 again value? Edit - perhaps not, is anyone going to have the heart to knife him with the election intervening one way or the other?

    Surely he'll want to step aside while his case is investigated by the standards commissioner? That will hardly report back before May?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,937
    Main BBC News headline? Can you guess?

    "Conservatives suspend Sir Malcolm Rifkind after 'sting'"
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,568

    Missed this beauty from Nick Cohen earlier:

    Nick Cohen ‏@NickCohen4

    Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw have made a terrible mistake. If only they had advertised in the Telegraph, none of this would have happened.

    Brilliant!

    I do think that the Telegraph in high moral tone mode is pushing credibility this week.

  • taffystaffys Posts: 9,753
    await the "that can't be right" yelps from the lefties.

    Aw don;t stop them. Its a really enjoyable read.
  • PADDY POWER: Will Malcolm Rifkind be ISC Chair on 1st May 2015? 2/5 Yes 7/4 No

    7/4 again value? Edit - perhaps not, is anyone going to have the heart to knife him with the election intervening one way or the other?

    If it was any other committee I'd agree with you.

    But given the importance and sensitivity of the role and terrorism being at the forefront....
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,568
    I see World at One says, "One former minister we spoke to this morning approached by Ch4/Telegraph told us that "it appeared dodgy from the outset."

    Why can't we be told who that was? It would do him or her nothing but good.
  • taffystaffys Posts: 9,753
    Surely all punters appreciate that it's not a matter of right / wrong but value / not value?

    The whole concept of 'value' in betting is sheer b8llocks. A bet is only value if it wins.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,041

    Main BBC News headline? Can you guess?

    "Conservatives suspend Sir Malcolm Rifkind after 'sting'"

    Given that they were both suspended, surely that should be the headline??
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    edited February 2015
    taffys said:

    Surely all punters appreciate that it's not a matter of right / wrong but value / not value?

    The whole concept of 'value' in betting is sheer b8llocks. A bet is only value if it wins.

    Really? So 10-1 on a roll of dice producing a 6 is not value, because it is likely to lose 5 times out of 6?

    Can I interest you in some bets I'd like to offer...?
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    taffys said:

    Surely all punters appreciate that it's not a matter of right / wrong but value / not value?

    The whole concept of 'value' in betting is sheer b8llocks. A bet is only value if it wins.

    Madness
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983
    taffys said:


    The whole concept of 'value' in betting is sheer b8llocks. A bet is only value if it wins.

    How long have you posted on pbc? Long enough to know how to wind up some of our regulars I guess.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,411
    Is Rifkind livid that he got caught out ?

    Or some other reason.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    edited February 2015

    Charles said:

    Can someone explain the snobbery towards Tesco? I've never understood it.

    I love Tesco, it keeps the riff raff out of my local Waitrose.

    My first flat was above a Morrisons (well, Safeway). I now live above a Tesco. I'm clearly going up in the world...
    Bedford Street, Covent Garden if I had to guess!
    Do you want to bet?
  • SmarmeronSmarmeron Posts: 5,099
    @RobD
    When did Malcolm get suspended? Jack removed himself last night i think?
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Looks like we are getting a scottish YouGov soon...

    Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB)
    23/02/2015 13:13
    @LordAshcroft phone poll due 4pm. Last week CON 31, LAB 32, LD 9, UKIP 16, GRN 8
    Other polls +YouGoov expected in next day or so
This discussion has been closed.