Mr. W, no, but he did originate the widespread practice of mutilating rival emperors. It was practically his only lasting legacy. [And his coup against Maurice precipitated a massive war with Persia which exhausted both empires and enabled Islam to make rapid military gains].
Mr. B, I intend to subscribe to numerical orthodoxy.
The number of the books shall be three, and three shall be the number of the books.
I argued yesterday that Cameron was primarily motivated by simply wanting to go out with a big win. But the way things are going, a side-effect (intended or not) may be to marginalise the whole idea of Euroscepticism, which would significantly change British political dynamics.
That's what happened for a while after 1975. Euroscepticism was associated with Benn and Powell, and had been handsomely defeated. For the following 20 years, politicians were wary of touching it - like saying they believed in homeopathy or an imminent Second Coming, it self-labelled them as eccentric.
That changed in recent years, as resentment over various aspects of the EU built up and UKIP became a significant force. But Leave's campaign so far, as Hodge caustically points out, is encouraging the impression that being Eurosceptic is a little embarrassing. IMO they need to curb Boris and use Gove more - like him or not, he is clearly an intelligent, serious politician with a bit of gravitas, and the rest of the team are mostly not.
Mr. Daodao, I agree 60/40 remains (ahem) eminently plausible. However, that's the country. The Conservative split may well be similar, but in favour of Leaving, and Cameron's not made the party enamoured with his antics.
More Tory MPs support Remain than Leave. The Spectator on 16/2/16 reported that 163 were for Remain, 131 for Leave and 36 Don't Know.
Tory MPs and activists differ.
More generally, if the Remainders do indeed win it will be through the votes of women, Celts and Londoners. Quite why white males in the English shires should want to be told what to do by those groups is beyond me.
The REMAIN lead will widen as many men realize they enjoy the discipline instilled by women .... apparently it's been trailed in the media recently.
Mr. W, no, but he did originate the widespread practice of mutilating rival emperors. It was practically his only lasting legacy. [And his coup against Maurice precipitated a massive war with Persia which exhausted both empires and enabled Islam to make rapid military gains].
Mr. B, I intend to subscribe to numerical orthodoxy.
The number of the books shall be three, and three shall be the number of the books.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
More polling on Obama's condescension would be of use.
It might be new to you but we've had over 7 years of it.
Obnoxious, isn't he?
I don't think most Briton's agree. I read yesterday that he's the most popular politician in the world and twice as popular as any of our own leaders.I doubt the same could have been said of any other recent US presidents
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
Clinton pretty much owns the black vote. However - and I forget the specifics - she has problems with younger women, who do not like her. It does not follow that they will vote for Trump instead.
It was apparent before the outset of the campaign that Leave would be the most atrocious losers if they lost. They would conclude that the public got it wrong and they were cheated. The idea that they might have put a hopelessly incoherent case and frankly appeared a bit mad would not occur to them. So they will carry on with a guerrilla war.
Unless it is close, I don't think they'll have the numbers or momentum to unseat David Cameron. They will have the numbers to make the Conservative party ungovernable.
That will not be to the long term advantage of Leavers, as the public simply look for a party that can hold together, if it can find one.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
Clinton pretty much owns the black vote. However - and I forget the specifics - she has problems with younger women, who do not like her. It does not follow that they will vote for Trump instead.
Will you vote for Trump in November or sit on your hands?
That will not be to the long term advantage of Leavers, as the public simply look for a party that can hold together, if it can find one.
Con and Lab both organizationally broken, Lib brand toxic, Greens not really set up for the whole "holding things together" slot. Time to try the SDP again. Any volunteers for leader?
Apprentice host and former Labour peer Lord Sugar has launched a blistering attack on the party's front-runner to be London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The billionaire businessman accused Mr Khan of being personally responsible for wrecking the Labour Party as Lord Sugar branded the City Hall favourite and Jeremy Corbyn the "Laurel and Hardy" of politics.
Lord Sugar, who quit Labour to become a non-affiliated peer in protest at what he called its anti-business stance under Ed Miliband, warned Mr Khan would be a disaster for London if he wins the May 5 showdown with Tory Zac Goldsmith.
Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned.
"I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times.
"Khan ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country's largest employers as 'predators', as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain's businesses the real enemy.
"Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan's endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot.
"Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s - union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms," the peer said.
But, will the Labour, SNP, Lib dem and Green voters turn out and vote for a campaign fronted by Cameron? If June 23rd is against a backdrop of an unpopular Govt, then Cameron and Osborne will be a negative.
Of course they will turn out, it's a huge issue, it's not just all about the Tories. All the Remain parties are more focussed on May elections, their GOTV campaigns will get going after that. Dislike of Cameron won't be that big a motivator on the left-centre as he has announced he is going anyway and all the Leave options (Boris/Gove/IDS) are equally, if not more, disliked.
I know PB is predominantly populated by right wingers and therefore views everything through that prism, what the other half of the country might be thinking only gets a passing mention.
When I read a lot of the Leaver posts I find myself thinking OK but what about everyone else. If Leave is ever going to build a comfortable majority it is going to have to widen its appeal outside the right wing of UK politics and is failing to do that at the moment. Leave does not have one major leader that appeals to anyone left of centre. So far the battle has been mainly between the centre-right and hard-right with everyone else on the sidelines looking on. In the real world it won't stay that way till June.
One of the most interesting aspects of this referendum campaign is David Cameron ignoring Harold Wilson’s precedent of sitting out an In/Out EC/EU referendum. The reason for the breaking this precedent might be that Remain doesn’t have anyone of the stature or relative popularity of David Cameron to front them. It is a less than a year since Cameron’s party received more votes than any other party in a general election this century, for which much of that is down to CameronEd Miliband and Alex Salmond.
This Century ? Donnez moi un break. You mean better that three other elections in which he was a competitor in one of them.
But, will the Labour, SNP, Lib dem and Green voters turn out and vote for a campaign fronted by Cameron? If June 23rd is against a backdrop of an unpopular Govt, then Cameron and Osborne will be a negative.
Of course they will turn out, it's a huge issue,
Really? That's not what the Europhile left (eg Smithson) have been telling us for the last decade.
One of the most interesting aspects of this referendum campaign is David Cameron ignoring Harold Wilson’s precedent of sitting out an In/Out EC/EU referendum. The reason for the breaking this precedent might be that Remain doesn’t have anyone of the stature or relative popularity of David Cameron to front them. It is a less than a year since Cameron’s party received more votes than any other party in a general election this century, for which much of that is down to CameronEd Miliband and Alex Salmond.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
Clinton pretty much owns the black vote. However - and I forget the specifics - she has problems with younger women, who do not like her. It does not follow that they will vote for Trump instead.
Will you vote for Trump in November or sit on your hands?
My preferred candidate would be Kasich, but he's a Washington insider and too far behind. Cruz is too extreme and impossible to like.
Which leaves Trump. I imagine most Republicans are as thrilled about him as the Dems are about Hillary.
However, if the Remainers wax triumphalist, and the EU makes an immediate push for further integration, this will alienate those Remainers who believed they were voting for the status quo. Support for the EU would fall, and there'd be calls for another referendum pretty soon.
If there is any move to "transfer powers" we get another referendum anyway by law
Listening to the interview with Obama on Marr this morning he seemed more measured but did say that no trade deals will happen before the one with the EU and that a deal with UK will take up to 10 years. His intervention over the last three days has been extraordinary and there is some suspicion that Boris's ill measured remarks on his ancestry infuriated him and hardened his message which he has ramped up over three days. It will be an irony if Boris's inept comments lost leave any chance of winning and at the same time lost him his succession to PM. Also Obama is going to an European meeting in Germany tomorrow with UK, Germany, France, and Italy which will inevitably feature in the media demonstrating the close co-operation of the US and Europe. I was very surprised at the Mail on Sunday for the first time favouring remain
However, if the Remainers wax triumphalist, and the EU makes an immediate push for further integration, this will alienate those Remainers who believed they were voting for the status quo. Support for the EU would fall, and there'd be calls for another referendum pretty soon.
If there is any move to "transfer powers" we get another referendum anyway by law
Assuming we even did, it would be decided in exactly the same way as this, anyone objecting branded a 'snivelling little Englander' in a media onslaught, the method already tested and honed to perfection. But you know that already.
Disagree, the pro-EU side would have a very hard time winning a "change" referendum. They'd be much more likely not to hold one. Parliament has to pass a law if they want to ratify a treaty, so there's nothing to stop them putting a thing in it saying, "This change doesn't need a referendum, the old law suggesting it does is hereby amended".
And there we have it. This voting and democracy business is largely a sham. But we knew that already.
Folks here are realizing for the first time that the process by which both Republicans and Democrats select their presidential candidate is utterly undemocratic. It's not going down well.
Like the immigration issue, it was raised by Donald Trump, who paradoxically has a greater percentage of delegates than votes.
I've been astonished by the bent voting, half polling stations shut, states handing delegates out without a vote at all and on and on.
Mr. Daodao, I agree 60/40 remains (ahem) eminently plausible. However, that's the country. The Conservative split may well be similar, but in favour of Leaving, and Cameron's not made the party enamoured with his antics.
More Tory MPs support Remain than Leave. The Spectator on 16/2/16 reported that 163 were for Remain, 131 for Leave and 36 Don't Know.
Tory MPs and activists differ.
More generally, if the Remainders do indeed win it will be through the votes of women, Celts and Londoners. Quite why white males in the English shires should want to be told what to do by those groups is beyond me.
Party memberships have dwindled and are now out of kilter with their own voters let alone the country at large. The consequences for UK politics is not benign because of the role they have in choosing the leaders. Labour members are very far to the left making it pretty certain that any leader they choose will be unelectable and it is why toppling Corbyn is pointless as things stand. Tory membership is dominated by superannuated rightwing old dears who are totally out of touch with the modern world.
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
Better than usual article by Liam Halligan on the Treasury 'study' of Brexit
'Rather than Her Majesty’s Treasury, this document could have been produced by Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Unusually for a newspaper pundit, perhaps, I’m a trained economist. And in all my many years of studying official economic documents – budgets, comprehensive spending reviews and the like – through all that sifting and weighing of fine-print, I’ve never come across methodology and assumptions so blatantly rigged.'
On the calculation of the headline figure
'This is not only incredibly dishonest, but plain wrong'
' the extent to which we are “poorer”, a “fact” wielded many times by the Chancellor and to be used many times again, is a bogus calculation of what is anyway a bogus concept. And, on top of that, it is driven by differing GDP projections that are, in themselves, deeply dishonest'
More polling on Obama's condescension would be of use.
It might be new to you but we've had over 7 years of it.
Obnoxious, isn't he?
I don't think most Briton's agree. I read yesterday that he's the most popular politician in the world and twice as popular as any of our own leaders.I doubt the same could have been said of any other recent US presidents
You must remember that TimB thinks any Democrat president or potential president is incompetent , evil or a crook if not all three so will not get the views of a normal US citizen from his posts .
But, will the Labour, SNP, Lib dem and Green voters turn out and vote for a campaign fronted by Cameron? If June 23rd is against a backdrop of an unpopular Govt, then Cameron and Osborne will be a negative.
Of course they will turn out, it's a huge issue,
Really? That's not what the Europhile left (eg Smithson) have been telling us for the last decade.
Who knows what left or right is any more. Seeing this fight through the prism of the house of commons is a little misleading.
There are four million UKIP voters with little or no representation. I bet they turn out.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
Clinton pretty much owns the black vote. However - and I forget the specifics - she has problems with younger women, who do not like her. It does not follow that they will vote for Trump instead.
Will you vote for Trump in November or sit on your hands?
My preferred candidate would be Kasich, but he's a Washington insider and too far behind. Cruz is too extreme and impossible to like.
Which leaves Trump. I imagine most Republicans are as thrilled about him as the Dems are about Hillary.
But, will the Labour, SNP, Lib dem and Green voters turn out and vote for a campaign fronted by Cameron? If June 23rd is against a backdrop of an unpopular Govt, then Cameron and Osborne will be a negative.
Of course they will turn out, it's a huge issue,
Really? That's not what the Europhile left (eg Smithson) have been telling us for the last decade.
The referendum is a big issue that does not equate with most people not giving a high priority for the rest of the time. If Remain win it won't stop the zealots banging on and on and on but most people will return to ignoring it and giving it a low priority
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
Its worth remembering that the government was there before this vote and will be there after it. Leave has been hastily and haphazardly cobbled together and will be gone in a few weeks.
If you this stuff really means something to you, you have to play the long game. And that means voting UKIP. Will older, more conservative tories, who vote like dervishes, turn? that's the big question.
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
I admire your confidence. Never thought they could do it, but thought it might be close. Looks like that is a forlorn hope.
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
May's elections may give us a clue? I'll be looking at UKIP's performance in Wales, for example. They are trying to make a push.
Reading the Sunday papers there's quite a few Leavers who have given up the fight, this has been a shite week for them.
I haven't seen the articles but i'm not surprised. It's not the incoherence which they can recover from it's lining up behind Boris Johnson who has not only shown himself to be inept but really quite unpleasant. The contrast with Obama's refined cool has been so striking I'd be surprised if they don't ditch him this week
Reading the Sunday papers there's quite a few Leavers who have given up the fight, this has been a shite week for them.
I haven't seen the articles but i'm not surprised. It's not the incoherence which they can recover from it's lining up behind Boris Johnson who has not only shown himself to be inept but really quite unpleasant. The contrast with Obama's refined cool has been so striking I'd be surprised if they don't ditch him this week
Here's one
Some privately admitted they fear they are heading for defeat in the referendum on June 23.
Prominent pro-'Leave' Tory MP Peter Bone said: 'Our message is being drowned out by the Government.'
And one 'Leave' official said: 'We had no idea Boris was going to attack Obama so provocatively. It was a misjudgment. He must stop going off-piste.'
Obama's intervention is seen as a potential game-changer in the referendum campaign, with some 'Remain' supporters predicting a decisive 60-40 victory.
Polling shows a (to my mind, surprising) degree of unhappiness with President Obama's intervention. It may well be that Boris Johnson's comments are resonating with more of the voters than commentators want to believe.
I certainly think that Remain are being premature in celebrating victory before it's happened.
Apprentice host and former Labour peer Lord Sugar has launched a blistering attack on the party's front-runner to be London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The billionaire businessman accused Mr Khan of being personally responsible for wrecking the Labour Party as Lord Sugar branded the City Hall favourite and Jeremy Corbyn the "Laurel and Hardy" of politics.
Lord Sugar, who quit Labour to become a non-affiliated peer in protest at what he called its anti-business stance under Ed Miliband, warned Mr Khan would be a disaster for London if he wins the May 5 showdown with Tory Zac Goldsmith.
Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned.
"I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times.
"Khan ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country's largest employers as 'predators', as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain's businesses the real enemy.
"Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan's endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot.
"Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s - union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms," the peer said.
It was apparent before the outset of the campaign that Leave would be the most atrocious losers if they lost. They would conclude that the public got it wrong and they were cheated. The idea that they might have put a hopelessly incoherent case and frankly appeared a bit mad would not occur to them. So they will carry on with a guerrilla war.
Unless it is close, I don't think they'll have the numbers or momentum to unseat David Cameron. They will have the numbers to make the Conservative party ungovernable.
That will not be to the long term advantage of Leavers, as the public simply look for a party that can hold together, if it can find one.
Did you miss the 'Corbyn insured' Tory victory in 2020 posts?
The gloating and goading of Remain towards Leave is guaranteeing that the latter will not bother acting for the long term. Reconciliation by 3020.
Cameron will likely win the battle, but the Tory party look set to lose the war in 4 years time.
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
May's elections may give us a clue? I'll be looking at UKIP's performance in Wales, for example. They are trying to make a push.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
I do not think that is correct but nor do I agree with the other refutations on pb this morning. Really, the remarkable thing about Leave is not that it expected a different fight but that it expected no fight at all.
It is like Nick Clegg with the AV referendum, or Gove at Education. They regard their view on Europe (or schools or AV) as so self-evidently correct that there is no need to campaign for it. They literally do not understand how others might take a different view or, even more mystifying, have no opinion at all. Disagreement can only come from traitors or those with a vested interest -- just as only "the blob" might question Gove's initiatives. (Whatever happened to Gove's anti-blob bagman, Dominic Cummings? *innocent face*)
Presumably the next Tory leader being in favour of a Brexit was Boris's calculation I am not so sure. We might well see even more of a UKIP effect with more Leavers following the likes of SeanF out of the party leaving a different electorate behind.
I take it that Andrew Marr didn't ask Obama whether the back of the queue was any place to put the largest foreign investor in US business and a country whose companies employ over 1m Americans?
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
What the country are seeing is the shambles that we would face if this bunch took over the reins of power. Nothing to do with staying in or getting out of the EU just understanding how to run a campaign.
At the moment no one in the Leave camp look like they're capable of running a whelk stall. If Cameron wins well I'm sure he'll cull them all. If any of them had any ability they would have seen it coming. It's not over for Leave but they need a serious rethink.
Apprentice host and former Labour peer Lord Sugar has launched a blistering attack on the party's front-runner to be London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The billionaire businessman accused Mr Khan of being personally responsible for wrecking the Labour Party as Lord Sugar branded the City Hall favourite and Jeremy Corbyn the "Laurel and Hardy" of politics.
Lord Sugar, who quit Labour to become a non-affiliated peer in protest at what he called its anti-business stance under Ed Miliband, warned Mr Khan would be a disaster for London if he wins the May 5 showdown with Tory Zac Goldsmith.
Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned.
"I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times.
"Khan ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country's largest employers as 'predators', as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain's businesses the real enemy.
"Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan's endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot.
"Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s - union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms," the peer said.
Polling shows a (to my mind, surprising) degree of unhappiness with President Obama's intervention. It may well be that Boris Johnson's comments are resonating with more of the voters than commentators want to believe.
I certainly think that Remain are being premature in celebrating victory before it's happened.
I agree that initial polling does show an unhappiness with his intervention but this is only the start of the campaign and the agenda has been set by remain and everyone seems to be rightly turning on Boris. He is now as a much a liability for leave as Farage. On the far right Teresa May was asked by Marr if she would ban Le Pen coming to UK towards the end of the campaign. Is Le Pen really going to intervene
I think the Leave campaign needs to shut up for a while and let this Obama stuff blow over, the response from Boris was about as bad as it gets.
What Leave needs to do is start concentrating on the crooked relationship between Erdogan and Merkel/EU. Previously I was in the camp of "it will never happen" wrt to EU membership, but lately there have been moves by the EU and nations in the EU which have made me reconsider. They may not get full EU membership, but they may get full free movement and settlement rights sooner than most expect. That will be a very strong attack line IMO and with Dave nominally in favour of Turkey's membership it will put Remain on the defensive. Forget the "70m Turkish migrants" or whatever but begin to point out how the EU has given in on all points with a dictator and they will give him whatever he asks for.
As I mentioned yesterday, it seems the German leader of the Pirate Party was arrested in Berlin for citing the satirist's poem outside the Turkish embassy.
Apprentice host and former Labour peer Lord Sugar has launched a blistering attack on the party's front-runner to be London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The billionaire businessman accused Mr Khan of being personally responsible for wrecking the Labour Party as Lord Sugar branded the City Hall favourite and Jeremy Corbyn the "Laurel and Hardy" of politics.
Lord Sugar, who quit Labour to become a non-affiliated peer in protest at what he called its anti-business stance under Ed Miliband, warned Mr Khan would be a disaster for London if he wins the May 5 showdown with Tory Zac Goldsmith.
Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned.
"I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times.
"Khan ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country's largest employers as 'predators', as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain's businesses the real enemy.
"Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan's endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot.
"Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s - union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms," the peer said.
Better than usual article by Liam Halligan on the Treasury 'study' of Brexit
'Rather than Her Majesty’s Treasury, this document could have been produced by Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Unusually for a newspaper pundit, perhaps, I’m a trained economist. And in all my many years of studying official economic documents – budgets, comprehensive spending reviews and the like – through all that sifting and weighing of fine-print, I’ve never come across methodology and assumptions so blatantly rigged.'
On the calculation of the headline figure
'This is not only incredibly dishonest, but plain wrong'
' the extent to which we are “poorer”, a “fact” wielded many times by the Chancellor and to be used many times again, is a bogus calculation of what is anyway a bogus concept. And, on top of that, it is driven by differing GDP projections that are, in themselves, deeply dishonest'
In comparison Osborne has been utterly silent about the actual economic facts revealed during the last few weeks:
£172bn overborrowing Largest current account deficit on record Lowest savings ratio on record A 'March of the Makers' which has been a march backwards Stagnant Productivity
Orwell would have a field day on the government's economic 'facts' and unfacts.
Has Lord Sugar's intervention affected the betting markets for the London mayoralty?
Does anyone have any demographic stats for the number of Jewish voters in London? They don't seem to be particularly enamoured with Mr Khan as a candidate.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
I do not think that is correct but nor do I agree with the other refutations on pb this morning. Really, the remarkable thing about Leave is not that it expected a different fight but that it expected no fight at all.
It is like Nick Clegg with the AV referendum, or Gove at Education. They regard their view on Europe (or schools or AV) as so self-evidently correct that there is no need to campaign for it. They literally do not understand how others might take a different view or, even more mystifying, have no opinion at all. Disagreement can only come from traitors or those with a vested interest -- just as only "the blob" might question Gove's initiatives. (Whatever happened to Gove's anti-blob bagman, Dominic Cummings? *innocent face*)
That sounds about right to me. Leavers are so convinced that they simply cannot understand the undecideds point of view. With the slightest questioning, they go into full on rant mode and the undecided start to back away.
Cummings was a very poor choice as campaign director for this very reason.
Polling shows a (to my mind, surprising) degree of unhappiness with President Obama's intervention. It may well be that Boris Johnson's comments are resonating with more of the voters than commentators want to believe.
I certainly think that Remain are being premature in celebrating victory before it's happened.
I agree that initial polling does show an unhappiness with his intervention but this is only the start of the campaign and the agenda has been set by remain and everyone seems to be rightly turning on Boris. He is now as a much a liability for leave as Farage. On the far right Teresa May was asked by Marr if she would ban Le Pen coming to UK towards the end of the campaign. Is Le Pen really going to intervene
I wonder if Boris Johnson's comments about Obama will turn out to be like Michael Fallon's comments about Ed Milliband, during a week when Labour seemed to be pulling ahead in the polls.
It's a curious feature of this campaign that all the people who are fronting it - on each side - have negative ratings with the public, some of them very negative.
Presumably the next Tory leader being in favour of a Brexit was Boris's calculation I am not so sure. We might well see even more of a UKIP effect with more Leavers following the likes of SeanF out of the party leaving a different electorate behind.
I take it that Andrew Marr didn't ask Obama whether the back of the queue was any place to put the largest foreign investor in US business and a country whose companies employ over 1m Americans?
Thought not.
Given current UK investment in the US why prioritise a deal? There's no urgency required.
Has Lord Sugar's intervention affected the betting markets for the London mayoralty?
Does anyone have any demographic stats for the number of Jewish voters in London? They don't seem to be particularly enamoured with Mr Khan as a candidate.
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
What the country are seeing is the shambles that we would face if this bunch took over the reins of power. Nothing to do with staying in or getting out of the EU just understanding how to run a campaign.
At the moment no one in the Leave camp look like they're capable of running a whelk stall. If Cameron wins well I'm sure he'll cull them all. If any of them had any ability they would have seen it coming. It's not over for Leave but they need a serious rethink.
Pardon my ignorance but I didn't think that LEAVE were campaigning for political power/ Did I miss something?
Presumably the next Tory leader being in favour of a Brexit was Boris's calculation I am not so sure. We might well see even more of a UKIP effect with more Leavers following the likes of SeanF out of the party leaving a different electorate behind.
I take it that Andrew Marr didn't ask Obama whether the back of the queue was any place to put the largest foreign investor in US business and a country whose companies employ over 1m Americans?
Thought not.
Given current UK investment in the US why prioritise a deal? There's no urgency required.
True. We don't need a deal either. We sell more than $4bn of goods to the US every month as it is. Not bad for a country that is supposedly not good at making things. They don't sell quite so much to us so unlike those with whom we have a free trade agreement we actually run a surplus with the US.
Not least the existence of the main European financial centre inside the EU but outside of the Eurozone cannot continue.
Why not?
Because of the impact the City can have on the stability of the Eurozone.
Meaning?
Meaning we saw in 2008 how a poorly regulated financial sector can be catastrophic for economic policy. Now you may argue that the City is no longer poorly regulated but that doesn't mean that the Eurozone is necessarily going to take the chance. They will want to have as much control over all factors that can effect them as possible. They will have the City in their sights and Cameron's 'deal' will do nothing to stop them.
The leaked paper, ‘EU & International Affairs in DWP’, is marked ‘sensitive’. It dates from March 24. The report reads: ‘Net migration continues to rise at record levels and is now 336,000.
‘The biggest contributor is the increase in the long-term migration of EU citizens. This is equivalent to adding a new Coventry to the UK every year.
‘Newly arriving EEA [European Economic Area] nationals have a disproportionate impact on the UK. Numbers in employment in the UK grew by nearly 450,000 in the last year. EEA nationals secured about three quarters of that growth in employment, compared to 25 per cent for UK nationals.’
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
I do not think that is correct but nor do I agree with the other refutations on pb this morning. Really, the remarkable thing about Leave is not that it expected a different fight but that it expected no fight at all.
It is like Nick Clegg with the AV referendum, or Gove at Education. They regard their view on Europe (or schools or AV) as so self-evidently correct that there is no need to campaign for it. They literally do not understand how others might take a different view or, even more mystifying, have no opinion at all. Disagreement can only come from traitors or those with a vested interest -- just as only "the blob" might question Gove's initiatives. (Whatever happened to Gove's anti-blob bagman, Dominic Cummings? *innocent face*)
That sounds about right to me. Leavers are so convinced that they simply cannot understand the undecideds point of view. With the slightest questioning, they go into full on rant mode and the undecided start to back away.
Cummings was a very poor choice as campaign director for this very reason.
It's true of both sides, though. Remain can't comprehend how anyone could think of leaving the EU, now that the big important people have said we should stay. Remainers don't rant, but they patronise.
Good article. I think the dissatisfaction with Cameron is that he has gone so hard and early in the campaign, and appears not to care if he leaves behind a massive split in his own party as his legacy so long as the referendum is won.
I think most of those on the Leave side of the Tories expected the debate to be fought under the Queesbury Rules, which clearly hasn't happened. Oh to be Graham Brady's postman on 24th June.
I do not think that is correct but nor do I agree with the other refutations on pb this morning. Really, the remarkable thing about Leave is not that it expected a different fight but that it expected no fight at all.
It is like Nick Clegg with the AV referendum, or Gove at Education. They regard their view on Europe (or schools or AV) as so self-evidently correct that there is no need to campaign for it. They literally do not understand how others might take a different view or, even more mystifying, have no opinion at all. Disagreement can only come from traitors or those with a vested interest -- just as only "the blob" might question Gove's initiatives. (Whatever happened to Gove's anti-blob bagman, Dominic Cummings? *innocent face*)
That sounds about right to me. Leavers are so convinced that they simply cannot understand the undecideds point of view. With the slightest questioning, they go into full on rant mode and the undecided start to back away. Cummings was a very poor choice as campaign director for this very reason.
Or "That sounds about right to me. Remainers are so convinced that they simply cannot understand the undecideds point of view. With the slightest questioning, they go into full on rant mode and the undecided start to back away. Camborne was a very poor choice to front the campaign for this very reason".
No I believe today he's in Germany telling Germans how to vote and about his special relationship with Frau Merkel.
I sense a theme here.
I sense a theme here too. I'm reminded of the Salem witch trials. As the Leave campaign implodes time to burn the Kenyan. I think a more effective strategy would be to get rid of the tag team Johnson and Farage who are not only wrecking the Leave campaign but also embarrassing the UK among the rest of the world
I know he commented on Boriss comments, but otherwise farage has been pretty low key, hasn't he?
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
What the country are seeing is the shambles that we would face if this bunch took over the reins of power. Nothing to do with staying in or getting out of the EU just understanding how to run a campaign.
At the moment no one in the Leave camp look like they're capable of running a whelk stall. If Cameron wins well I'm sure he'll cull them all. If any of them had any ability they would have seen it coming. It's not over for Leave but they need a serious rethink.
The country are also seeing 2 parties attempting to sell their wares, one with an advertising budget many times larger than that of the other, and greater media access.
As a Commercials man, you should recognise the advantage. X might be the greatest product ever invented, but it has no chance if Y can swamp it under a deluge of publicity, and has bought up all the media. Happens all the time.
Has Lord Sugar's intervention affected the betting markets for the London mayoralty?
Does anyone have any demographic stats for the number of Jewish voters in London? They don't seem to be particularly enamoured with Mr Khan as a candidate.
Probably about 130,000.
Thanks. I'm trying to work out if there could be any late swing towards Zac or if 10/1 really is a fair price.
Are we expecting any London polling in the next 10 days?
@SkyHarriet: Nigel Farage: #VoteLeave two fundamental problems: Campaign just Conservative ministers and need to talk about migration issues #Murnaghan
@SkyMurnaghan: "Americans don't use the word 'queue,' they use the word 'line'" says Nigel Farage of Obama's #EUref intervention https://t.co/jt0ucLCEEJ
...apart from Netflix. Where millions of Americans use the word queue...
Comments
Mr. B, I intend to subscribe to numerical orthodoxy.
The number of the books shall be three, and three shall be the number of the books.
My daughter is working there and has to fill in the forms.
One question asks" how many children have you given birth to " ?
followed by a disclaimer that the question is for women only.
[I do wonder if Manuel, whilst a good man, missed a golden opportunity to put the Eastern Empire back on a firm footing for the long term].
That's what happened for a while after 1975. Euroscepticism was associated with Benn and Powell, and had been handsomely defeated. For the following 20 years, politicians were wary of touching it - like saying they believed in homeopathy or an imminent Second Coming, it self-labelled them as eccentric.
That changed in recent years, as resentment over various aspects of the EU built up and UKIP became a significant force. But Leave's campaign so far, as Hodge caustically points out, is encouraging the impression that being Eurosceptic is a little embarrassing. IMO they need to curb Boris and use Gove more - like him or not, he is clearly an intelligent, serious politician with a bit of gravitas, and the rest of the team are mostly not.
The books shall be one, two and five. Three! I meant three.
If this European stuff really means that much to you, that's the way you will need to vote in future.
Once the primaries are over I expect Trump will try to reinvent himself as something more Presidential and play down his populist blowhard image. Unfortunately he has alienated too many groups to put a winning coalition together and like Boris he is always one step away from saying something stupid.
Women are half the US electorate and he is going to have a hard job attacking HRC without making his position with women even worse than it already is. Sanders its his "socialist" beliefs would have been a far easier target for Trump.
There aren't enough angry non-college educated white men to take him to the White House.
Unless it is close, I don't think they'll have the numbers or momentum to unseat David Cameron. They will have the numbers to make the Conservative party ungovernable.
That will not be to the long term advantage of Leavers, as the public simply look for a party that can hold together, if it can find one.
I imagine Mandelson would be an entertaining guest. Campbell's a despicable ****, though.
Apprentice host and former Labour peer Lord Sugar has launched a blistering attack on the party's front-runner to be London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The billionaire businessman accused Mr Khan of being personally responsible for wrecking the Labour Party as Lord Sugar branded the City Hall favourite and Jeremy Corbyn the "Laurel and Hardy" of politics.
Lord Sugar, who quit Labour to become a non-affiliated peer in protest at what he called its anti-business stance under Ed Miliband, warned Mr Khan would be a disaster for London if he wins the May 5 showdown with Tory Zac Goldsmith.
Labour now welcomes anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers to its ranks, the TV star warned.
"I would say Khan has single-handedly wrecked the Labour Party, and now he's turning his finely honed judgment on the great city of London," the peer wrote in The Sunday Times.
"Khan ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He was in the room when Miliband turned on people like me, attacking the country's largest employers as 'predators', as well as Corbyn who famously called Britain's businesses the real enemy.
"Khan was one of the most senior Labour politicians to nominate Corbyn for leader. Without Khan's endorsement, Corbyn would never have made it onto the ballot.
"Under Corbyn, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. His ambition is to drag Britain back to the 1970s - union blackmail and three-day weeks, when our best and brightest were leaving the country in droves. Militants, Trots, anti-Semites and terrorist sympathisers all seem to have been welcomed into Labour with open arms," the peer said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3555732/Sadiq-Khan-single-handedly-wrecked-Labour-Party-says-Lord-Sugar.html
Of course they will turn out, it's a huge issue, it's not just all about the Tories. All the Remain parties are more focussed on May elections, their GOTV campaigns will get going after that. Dislike of Cameron won't be that big a motivator on the left-centre as he has announced he is going anyway and all the Leave options (Boris/Gove/IDS) are equally, if not more, disliked.
I know PB is predominantly populated by right wingers and therefore views everything through that prism, what the other half of the country might be thinking only gets a passing mention.
When I read a lot of the Leaver posts I find myself thinking OK but what about everyone else. If Leave is ever going to build a comfortable majority it is going to have to widen its appeal outside the right wing of UK politics and is failing to do that at the moment. Leave does not have one major leader that appeals to anyone left of centre. So far the battle has been mainly between the centre-right and hard-right with everyone else on the sidelines looking on. In the real world it won't stay that way till June.
Cameron 11,300,109 votes
Major 14,093,007 votes
Hell of a Sunday morning joke.
Which leaves Trump. I imagine most Republicans are as thrilled about him as the Dems are about Hillary.
Party memberships have dwindled and are now out of kilter with their own voters let alone the country at large. The consequences for UK politics is not benign because of the role they have in choosing the leaders. Labour members are very far to the left making it pretty certain that any leader they choose will be unelectable and it is why toppling Corbyn is pointless as things stand. Tory membership is dominated by superannuated rightwing old dears who are totally out of touch with the modern world.
Remain has the top 4 premier league politicians, going for European Champion League places.
Leave has Gove in mid table, with nothing to play for, and Boris fighting in the relegation dog fight.
Some leavers are acting like they've given up, which is not surprising as some were getting in excuses months ago, but there's a long way to go, remain don't have much new to play with from now. Leave can still do this.
https://twitter.com/Robin_Henry/status/724145630801698816
https://twitter.com/Robin_Henry/status/724161305989533696
'Rather than Her Majesty’s Treasury, this document could have been produced by Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Unusually for a newspaper pundit, perhaps, I’m a trained economist. And in all my many years of studying official economic documents – budgets, comprehensive spending reviews and the like – through all that sifting and weighing of fine-print, I’ve never come across methodology and assumptions so blatantly rigged.'
On the calculation of the headline figure
'This is not only incredibly dishonest, but plain wrong'
' the extent to which we are “poorer”, a “fact” wielded many times by the Chancellor and to be used many times again, is a bogus calculation of what is anyway a bogus concept. And, on top of that, it is driven by differing GDP projections that are, in themselves, deeply dishonest'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/23/a-pro-eu-study-straight-from-the-ministry-of-truth/
There are four million UKIP voters with little or no representation. I bet they turn out.
If you this stuff really means something to you, you have to play the long game. And that means voting UKIP. Will older, more conservative tories, who vote like dervishes, turn? that's the big question.
@SkyHarriet: Esther McVey (Vote Leave) on Boris admits: "I wouldn't have said what he said... "
Never thought they could do it, but thought it might be close.
Looks like that is a forlorn hope.
Some privately admitted they fear they are heading for defeat in the referendum on June 23.
Prominent pro-'Leave' Tory MP Peter Bone said: 'Our message is being drowned out by
the Government.'
And one 'Leave' official said: 'We had no idea Boris was going to attack Obama so provocatively. It was a misjudgment. He must stop going off-piste.'
Obama's intervention is seen as a potential game-changer in the referendum campaign, with some 'Remain' supporters predicting a decisive 60-40 victory.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3555600/Boris-rage-ridiculous-weird-Obama-Extraordinary-statement-MoS-mocks-President-trade-threats.html
I certainly think that Remain are being premature in celebrating victory before it's happened.
The gloating and goading of Remain towards Leave is guaranteeing that the latter will not bother acting for the long term. Reconciliation by 3020.
Cameron will likely win the battle, but the Tory party look set to lose the war in 4 years time.
It is like Nick Clegg with the AV referendum, or Gove at Education. They regard their view on Europe (or schools or AV) as so self-evidently correct that there is no need to campaign for it. They literally do not understand how others might take a different view or, even more mystifying, have no opinion at all. Disagreement can only come from traitors or those with a vested interest -- just as only "the blob" might question Gove's initiatives. (Whatever happened to Gove's anti-blob bagman, Dominic Cummings? *innocent face*)
I take it that Andrew Marr didn't ask Obama whether the back of the queue was any place to put the largest foreign investor in US business and a country whose companies employ over 1m Americans?
Thought not.
A week ago they were 88% and 12%.
At the moment no one in the Leave camp look like they're capable of running a whelk stall. If Cameron wins well I'm sure he'll cull them all. If any of them had any ability they would have seen it coming. It's not over for Leave but they need a serious rethink.
What Leave needs to do is start concentrating on the crooked relationship between Erdogan and Merkel/EU. Previously I was in the camp of "it will never happen" wrt to EU membership, but lately there have been moves by the EU and nations in the EU which have made me reconsider. They may not get full EU membership, but they may get full free movement and settlement rights sooner than most expect. That will be a very strong attack line IMO and with Dave nominally in favour of Turkey's membership it will put Remain on the defensive. Forget the "70m Turkish migrants" or whatever but begin to point out how the EU has given in on all points with a dictator and they will give him whatever he asks for.
As I mentioned yesterday, it seems the German leader of the Pirate Party was arrested in Berlin for citing the satirist's poem outside the Turkish embassy.
£172bn overborrowing
Largest current account deficit on record
Lowest savings ratio on record
A 'March of the Makers' which has been a march backwards
Stagnant Productivity
Orwell would have a field day on the government's economic 'facts' and unfacts.
Cummings was a very poor choice as campaign director for this very reason.
It's a curious feature of this campaign that all the people who are fronting it - on each side - have negative ratings with the public, some of them very negative.
@paulwaugh: Farage: "you don’t have to have trade deals to do business but it’s preferable if you do"
As a Commercials man, you should recognise the advantage. X might be the greatest product ever invented, but it has no chance if Y can swamp it under a deluge of publicity, and has bought up all the media. Happens all the time.
Are we expecting any London polling in the next 10 days?
...apart from Netflix. Where millions of Americans use the word queue...