"David Cameron has 'no intention' of apologising to Donald Trump for calling him stupid"
Yet another sign that Dave isn't intending to stick around as Prime Minister for very much longer? You simply can't say things like that about a potential incoming US President, even if you think them.
What's happened to him? Until this EU ref business kicked off, he was the model of good manners except at PMQs. Now he's being unprofessionally rude, boorish and childish. I'm embarrassed at him insulting a potential future POTUS.
On the contrary, I (and others I suspect) have gained respect for Cameron for refusing to pretend he has respect for a divisive demagogue just because he's a presidential candidate.
Anyway, the Leave campaign have assured us that it doesn't matter what the US president thinks of us
Its not as if Trump is shy about insulting people himself!
Off to vote in the PCC election before work. It is our only election locally, and nothing from any candidate. A very poor show.
We’re in the same situation here. Just have to hope that Kippers aren’t motivated. Bob Spink as a PCC!!!!!!
Here is something that I just thought of, if the mayoral result is close, as in very close, could Zac force a rerun given that Barnet is probably his strongest borough and having voters turned away there hurts him more than any other candidate.
I think it's unlikely ti come to that. Sadiq will win easily.
Agree, and even if it were close and a rerun forced, then the electorate would punish Zac for causing a kerfuffle and making them vote twice!
Off topic, went leafleting last night. Mainly on what appeared to be an ex-local authority / housing association estate.
I live in a wealthy part of the village, so the contrast was interesting.
What struck me the most is that a lot of people just don't seem to have any money. I saw lots of old second-hand cars, untended wild gardens (that looked a mess) and properties in bad need of renovation. Lots of rubbish and detritus around too in people's yards; quite a few kids bikes. Conversely, most seemed to have a decent telly, and quite a few homes had several kids inside of various ages.
I couldn't help but get the impression that many not only wouldn't vote but it wouldn't even occur to them.
Also went onto a small private estate: two rather rude people (out of 150 homes leafleted) - one put his teenage son in front of the letterbox so I couldn't deliver to it (I didn't realise this at the time and just thought he was waiting so politely asked if I could put it through the door) and then it immediately came straight back out again onto his porch floor, the rather angry father being just inside.
I also had another women follow me down the street with a leaflet after I'd delivered to her: "I don't want THIS", and didn't make eye contact with me or smile.
On the other hand, a few other people I met at the doorstep were smiley, friendly and polite.
Perhaps election fatigue is kicking in.
Last year I knocked on thousands of doors, it was fascinating and completely changed my view of things. The sneering of Thornberry and 1 or 2 on here is nauseating, as you point out, life for millions is a struggle for a myriad of reasons.
I'd a very similar experience to Casino last time I leafleted. It was usually middle class LDs who got all arsey. Labour voters were more 'no point luv'.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Dogs are the worst. I remember a door literally bulging as baskerville's big brother howled to the moon. And then I heard the chain being taken off. Time for a quick exit...
Banning all Muslims from the U.S. is a stupid policy, given the huge administrative cost, but it is not racist. Islam is a voluntary belief system. It is the equivalent of banning communists, which I believe the U.S. already does.
Banning Muslims would be illegal due to that whole Constitution thing they have.
Nice try Layne, but treating people differently solely because of their race is exactly what racism is...
He said on the basis of religion not race, also wrong, but not racism.
It's also indirect discrimination on the grounds of race.
No, it is not. Which race would it be discriminating against? White Albanians, black Nigerians or Asian Indonesians?
Arabs, for one.
Some Arabs. There are quite a lot of Arab Christians. Arab and Muslim are not identical.
Whether a ban is workable is a different question to whether it's constitutional! I agree that once they're on US soil then the constitution applies. There is an argument that the far side of customs is 'international', hence duty-free sales, so they're not on 'US soil' until they've cleared customs. It's not an argument I'd accept on balance but there is at least a case. Presumably the carriers would be required to enforce the ban at the embarkation point as part of their licence to operate, or some such arrangement.
I think Trump's entry ban is going to morph into a ban on immigration anyway which is much easier to enforce as immigration requires people to apply, which can be rejected.
Banning all Muslims from the U.S. is a stupid policy, given the huge administrative cost, but it is not racist. Islam is a voluntary belief system. It is the equivalent of banning communists, which I believe the U.S. already does.
Banning Muslims would be illegal due to that whole Constitution thing they have.
Nice try Layne, but treating people differently solely because of their race is exactly what racism is...
He said on the basis of religion not race, also wrong, but not racism.
It's also indirect discrimination on the grounds of race.
No, it is not. Which race would it be discriminating against? White Albanians, black Nigerians or Asian Indonesians?
Arabs, for one.
Some Arabs. There are quite a lot of Arab Christians. Arab and Muslim are not identical.
It will discriminate against Arabs as a group, as it will disproportionately affect them.
I see the PM has voted this morning. Does that mean the PM has the choice between voting in his constituency (I see there are no locals in Witney today) or in London?
I believe that you can vote in both/all elections providing that they don't overlap i.e. if you're on the electoral roll in Norfolk and Yorkshire, you could vote in local elections in both (assuming they have them on the given day), but in a general election it would have to be one or the other.
I'm not 100% sure on this but remember being surprised when I was told it in the past.
If you are paying council tax in two locations you get votes in council matters including PCCs in those locations.
Not if they overlap, surely? If I still had my house in Shipley as well as the one in Wakefield then I could vote for Bradford and Wakefield councils but I could only cast one vote for the W Yorks PCC?
Going out soon to buy a new electric kettle. My old one died the death this morning.
Will it be one of those low power Kettles that takes like 10 minutes to boil thanks to David Camerons beloved EU?
There would be no point in mandating a maximum power level for a kettle. In fact, the higher power, the better, since it would heat the water more quickly and waste less heat overall.
That's what I always thought. Surely a kettle that takes a long time to slowly boil will use more energy than one that does it quickly?
Still, Cameron's beloved EU Bureaucrats know best....
Scientifically, it should take the same amount of power to boil the water....I presume that the fast boil kettles allow more heat to escape and thus more inefficient than slowly raising the temperature, but I bet the difference in the grand scheme of things is totally insignificant.
If the kettle were fully thermally insulated, it'd use the same amount of energy regardless of the power rating of the kettle. However, since this is not the case, it makes sense to heat the water as quickly as possible so as to minimise the amount of heat lost. The ideal kettle, from an environmental point of view, has a high power rating and is made of a thermally insulating material with a low specific heat capacity, such as plastic.
I doubt very much that the EU has mandated a power limit for kettles; it's far more likely that GIN1138 is telling fibs.
Off topic, went leafleting last night. Mainly on what appeared to be an ex-local authority / housing association estate.
I live in a wealthy part of the village, so the contrast was interesting.
What struck me the most is that a lot of people just don't seem to have any money. I saw lots of old second-hand cars, untended wild gardens (that looked a mess) and properties in bad need of renovation. Lots of rubbish and detritus around too in people's yards; quite a few kids bikes. Conversely, most seemed to have a decent telly, and quite a few homes had several kids inside of various ages.
I couldn't help but get the impression that many not only wouldn't vote but it wouldn't even occur to them.
Also went onto a small private estate: two rather rude people (out of 150 homes leafleted) - one put his teenage son in front of the letterbox so I couldn't deliver to it (I didn't realise this at the time and just thought he was waiting so politely asked if I could put it through the door) and then it immediately came straight back out again onto his porch floor, the rather angry father being just inside.
I also had another women follow me down the street with a leaflet after I'd delivered to her: "I don't want THIS", and didn't make eye contact with me or smile.
On the other hand, a few other people I met at the doorstep were smiley, friendly and polite.
Perhaps election fatigue is kicking in.
Last year I knocked on thousands of doors, it was fascinating and completely changed my view of things. The sneering of Thornberry and 1 or 2 on here is nauseating, as you point out, life for millions is a struggle for a myriad of reasons.
I'd a very similar experience to Casino last time I leafleted. It was usually middle class LDs who got all arsey. Labour voters were more 'no point luv'.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Dogs are the worst. I remember a door literally bulging as baskerville's big brother howled to the moon. And then I heard the chain being taken off. Time for a quick exit...
Jesus. I had to leap over a wall once to escape.. No, really!
To those who may be put off by this, I assure you this is *very* rare.
I see the PM has voted this morning. Does that mean the PM has the choice between voting in his constituency (I see there are no locals in Witney today) or in London?
I believe that you can vote in both/all elections providing that they don't overlap i.e. if you're on the electoral roll in Norfolk and Yorkshire, you could vote in local elections in both (assuming they have them on the given day), but in a general election it would have to be one or the other.
I'm not 100% sure on this but remember being surprised when I was told it in the past.
If you are paying council tax in two locations you get votes in council matters including PCCs in those locations.
Not if they overlap, surely? If I still had my house in Shipley as well as the one in Wakefield then I could vote for Bradford and Wakefield councils but I could only cast one vote for the W Yorks PCC?
Ah no I'm pretty sure not if they are in the same area, or overlap.
Going out soon to buy a new electric kettle. My old one died the death this morning.
Will it be one of those low power Kettles that takes like 10 minutes to boil thanks to David Camerons beloved EU?
There would be no point in mandating a maximum power level for a kettle. In fact, the higher power, the better, since it would heat the water more quickly and waste less heat overall.
That's what I always thought. Surely a kettle that takes a long time to slowly boil will use more energy than one that does it quickly?
Still, Cameron's beloved EU Bureaucrats know best....
Scientifically, it should take the same amount of power to boil the water....I presume that the fast boil kettles allow more heat to escape and thus more inefficient than slowly raising the temperature, but I bet the difference in the grand scheme of things is totally insignificant.
But your "insignificant" is significant enough to keep a troupe of Eurocrats in gainful employment
Banning all Muslims from the U.S. is a stupid policy, given the huge administrative cost, but it is not racist. Islam is a voluntary belief system. It is the equivalent of banning communists, which I believe the U.S. already does.
Banning Muslims would be illegal due to that whole Constitution thing they have.
Nice try Layne, but treating people differently solely because of their race is exactly what racism is...
He said on the basis of religion not race, also wrong, but not racism.
It's also indirect discrimination on the grounds of race.
No, it is not. Which race would it be discriminating against? White Albanians, black Nigerians or Asian Indonesians?
Arabs, for one.
Some Arabs. There are quite a lot of Arab Christians. Arab and Muslim are not identical.
So if a far right government banned immigration from Africa, that wouldn't be racist because there are some white people living in Africa?
Whether a ban is workable is a different question to whether it's constitutional! I agree that once they're on US soil then the constitution applies. There is an argument that the far side of customs is 'international', hence duty-free sales, so they're not on 'US soil' until they've cleared customs. It's not an argument I'd accept on balance but there is at least a case. Presumably the carriers would be required to enforce the ban at the embarkation point as part of their licence to operate, or some such arrangement.
I think Trump's entry ban is going to morph into a ban on immigration anyway which is much easier to enforce as immigration requires people to apply, which can be rejected.
I have forgotten the business term but it is just a negotiating tactic, that also plays well to a certain demographic. It will just morph into stricter immigration rules & more background checks & easier deportation...with particular "profiling" of those deemed from "high risk" countries.
I see the PM has voted this morning. Does that mean the PM has the choice between voting in his constituency (I see there are no locals in Witney today) or in London?
I believe that you can vote in both/all elections providing that they don't overlap i.e. if you're on the electoral roll in Norfolk and Yorkshire, you could vote in local elections in both (assuming they have them on the given day), but in a general election it would have to be one or the other.
I'm not 100% sure on this but remember being surprised when I was told it in the past.
If you are paying council tax in two locations you get votes in council matters including PCCs in those locations.
In theory you can be registered in say 10 different council areas and have 10 different votes in council elections held on the same day . Only 1 GE vote though . An interesting question though is if there were 2 parliamentary by elections held on the same day could you vote in both if you were eligible . You certainly can if they were held on different days .
Banning all Muslims from the U.S. is a stupid policy, given the huge administrative cost, but it is not racist. Islam is a voluntary belief system. It is the equivalent of banning communists, which I believe the U.S. already does.
Banning Muslims would be illegal due to that whole Constitution thing they have.
Nice try Layne, but treating people differently solely because of their race is exactly what racism is...
He said on the basis of religion not race, also wrong, but not racism.
It's also indirect discrimination on the grounds of race.
No, it is not. Which race would it be discriminating against? White Albanians, black Nigerians or Asian Indonesians?
Arabs, for one.
Some Arabs. There are quite a lot of Arab Christians. Arab and Muslim are not identical.
It will discriminate against Arabs as a group, as it will disproportionately affect them.
The countries whose citizens are able to apply for an ESTA are disproportionately white. According to your logic the US already has a racist travel policy.
I quite like Trump but if Cameron thinks he's stupid he should stand by it.
Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend where faux outrage and looking to be insulted on behalf of others dies out.
I think Cameron is divisive, I don't think he's stupid, I'm not going to apologise.
Wasn't it that Cameron said that Trump's *policy* re muslims enterin the country was stupid, divisive and wrong? Which it is. He might have worded it clumsily but it's obvious that was the meaning.
Even that is playing with fire, better to say nothing and let your outriders take any pot shots that seem appropriate, so that you can disown the comment if it becomes an embarrassment. With thousands of returning ISIS fighters we have an unknown future as far as islamic terrorism in the UK.
Cameron is right to stand up for the right of law-abiding British muslims to enjoy the same immigration rights as any other British citizen. We should not collude in other countries' racist policies.
I hold no brief for Trump's policy. But Muslims are not a race. If Trump announced that he would ban all Catholics from entering the US it would be utterly deplorable but it would not be racist.
Sorry to be pedantic about this. But I dislike the way - and I don't think it leads to clear thinking - the word "racism" is being used to mean anything the speaker/writer doesn't like.
It would be indirectly discriminatory against various racial groups without justification.
Layne might not think indirect discrimination is a thing, but in this country, it is.
However in America, the place under discussion, it mostly isn't.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
Going out soon to buy a new electric kettle. My old one died the death this morning.
Will it be one of those low power Kettles that takes like 10 minutes to boil thanks to David Camerons beloved EU?
There would be no point in mandating a maximum power level for a kettle. In fact, the higher power, the better, since it would heat the water more quickly and waste less heat overall.
That's what I always thought. Surely a kettle that takes a long time to slowly boil will use more energy than one that does it quickly?
Still, Cameron's beloved EU Bureaucrats know best....
Scientifically, it should take the same amount of power to boil the water....I presume that the fast boil kettles allow more heat to escape and thus more inefficient than slowly raising the temperature, but I bet the difference in the grand scheme of things is totally insignificant.
But your "insignificant" is significant enough to keep a troupe of Eurocrats in gainful employment
Well & it is nonsense...I have forgotten the percentage but for example in the UK domestic electricity consumption is a small percentage of.overall demand. Chemical industry uses a huge percentage. So if you would be better trying to find a tiny efficiency in certain chemical production processes...
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
OK, here's the latest on Kettlegate - It seems the EU have "paused" the ban on high performance kettles because they feared it could drive tea loving Brits to Brexit:
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
67 would be very close to knife-edge. It'd only take the odd mess-up / tactical vote to drop it to 65, though as you say, even on 41%, it's probable they'd pick up some list seats, probably in the South if the Tories took four overall. Still, the poll itself has a MoE (though my expectation is that this is probably low-side anyway).
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
When in a group of Tory canvassers, it is a badge of honour to be the first to be told to "F@ck off!"
And when delivering leaflets. a plastic spatula is the only thing you should venture into a letter box to push your leaflet through...
Off topic, went leafleting last night. Mainly on what appeared to be an ex-local authority / housing association estate.
I LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last year I knocked on thousands of doors, it was fascinating and completely changed my view of things. The sneering of Thornberry and 1 or 2 on here is nauseating, as you point out, life for millions is a struggle for a myriad of reasons.
I'd a very similar experience to Casino last time I leafleted. It was usually middle class LDs who got all arsey. Labour voters were more 'no point luv'.
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Dogs are the worst. I remember a door literally bulging as baskerville's big brother howled to the moon. And then I heard the chain being taken off. Time for a quick exit...
Jesus. I had to leap over a wall once to escape.. No, really!
To those who may be put off by this, I assure you this is *very* rare.
I hear the EU is going to mandate minimum fitness standards for political canvassers...
“Hugh Bonneville ditches his safe family man image for a performance packed with passion and desire as he fights to reveal a corrosive secret in his first return to the stage in more than a decade… Bonneville, who recently spoke on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs of his deep love for wife of 18 years Lulu, plays brilliant Dr Stockmann… Why should he hide the truth, he demands. “Too many people already know about it,” he rants. “You think you can silence me and the truth but things are not going to go as smoothly as you think”
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
67 would be very close to knife-edge. It'd only take the odd mess-up / tactical vote to drop it to 65, though as you say, even on 41%, it's probable they'd pick up some list seats, probably in the South if the Tories took four overall. Still, the poll itself has a MoE (though my expectation is that this is probably low-side anyway).
At the rate of attrition of elected SNP members, their majority might not last the summer...
Cameron doesn't need to apologise to Trump, he just needs not to repeat the insulting tone now trump is going to be the nominee. Apologising just makes him seem weak, draws attention to the insult. Provably shouldn't have done in the first place, but having done so just move on, he should not repeat such rudeness, but the can deflect if so done tries. And trump is probably unlikely to care - his stock in trade is insults, he probably understands why it was made.
He is weak as ditch water though , his tongue will be being prepared as we speak.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
When in a group of Tory canvassers, it is a badge of honour to be the first to be told to "F@ck off!"
And when delivering leaflets. a plastic spatula is the only thing you should venture into a letter box to push your leaflet through...
I normally invite Tory canvassers in for tea and a chat. Preferably a nice long chat.
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
67 would be very close to knife-edge. It'd only take the odd mess-up / tactical vote to drop it to 65, though as you say, even on 41%, it's probable they'd pick up some list seats, probably in the South if the Tories took four overall. Still, the poll itself has a MoE (though my expectation is that this is probably low-side anyway).
Yes they will definitely get 1 or more (depending on Dumfriesshire) list seats in the south and probably 1 or maybe 2 in the north (depending on how the Lib Dems do). At the moment they have 69 seats. My guess is that will go up by a couple.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
When in a group of Tory canvassers, it is a badge of honour to be the first to be told to "F@ck off!"
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
Now there's a recipe for argument, yah-boo-sucksery and further disillusionment with, if not denigration of the political process.
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
Disagree there re national responsibilities - Counter Terrorism/Royalty/Diplomatic Protection et al are much better served by a single set of teams co-located in one place. Sandringham is the only royal household that isn't under Met protection, that belongs to Norfolk plod.
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
Now there's a recipe for argument, yah-boo-sucksery and further disillusionment with, if not denigration of the political process.
OK, here's the latest on Kettlegate - It seems the EU have "paused" the ban on high performance kettles because they feared it could drive tea loving Brits to Brexit:
A senior EU official has reportedly said that the commission has paused plans to introduce the rules to be “sensitive to the British obsession with water kettles.”
Thereby managing to be patronising and dirigiste in the same sentence... is Alistair not telling us about his real day job
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
Disagree there re national responsibilities - Counter Terrorism/Royalty/Diplomatic Protection et al are much better served by a single set of teams co-located in one place. Sandringham is the only royal household that isn't under Met protection, that belongs to Norfolk plod.
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
When in a group of Tory canvassers, it is a badge of honour to be the first to be told to "F@ck off!"
Labour has suspended a key member of the Momentum activist group borne out of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign over allegations of anti-Semitism.
Jacqueline Walker, the vice-chairwoman of the group's national steering committee, has claimed the toxic row over anti-Semitism was a 'witch hunt' against the Labour leader.
Ms Walker was the sixth Labour member to be suspended over anti-Semitism allegations this week.
I just saw the Vogue pictures of Kate. Worst pictures ever. Honestly, it isn't an easy job to make someone so naturally good looking ugly in pictures. Somehow Vogue have managed it.
For those of use just electing Police and Crime commissioners it doesn't feel all that exciting.
I would like to have my say in choosing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
It ought to be the mayor. On the flip-side, the Met Commissioner should simply be the Chief Constable of London, without national responsibilities which should be co-ordinated by the Home Office.
Disagree there re national responsibilities - Counter Terrorism/Royalty/Diplomatic Protection et al are much better served by a single set of teams co-located in one place. Sandringham is the only royal household that isn't under Met protection, that belongs to Norfolk plod.
Balmoral?
Surely, the Queen is so beloved in Scotland, she couldn't possibly need police protection?
LDs are the worst. They are usually very keen for you to know it too.
To be honest the main negative for me on the poorer estates is I'm constantly on edge about the hounds: a handful of people do seem to have some truly terrifying dogs that they let roam free, or are secretly silently lying prone by the letterbox ready to rip up anything that comes through it.
How do postmen do it?
And I could swear the votes of some are influenced by how their dog reacts to you.
Last May in Eastbourne I was leafletting a row of terraced houses, and at one of them I couldn't get the leaflet through the letter box, which seemed to be jammed. As I tried to post the leaflet through it, there was a fearsome barking on the other side and the door opened to reveal a rough-looking chap with lots of tattoos and with various bits of metal adorning him, holding a vicious-looking bull terrier. I thought I was about to get a torrent of abuse or worse, but instead the chap just pointed to the side of the door where there was a postbox and a sign saying 'please post mail here'.
Yup. I've had that too - a scary looking guy just like that, who was actually quite friendly. People never cease to surprise me.
Abuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
When in a group of Tory canvassers, it is a badge of honour to be the first to be told to "F@ck off!"
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
67 would be very close to knife-edge. It'd only take the odd mess-up / tactical vote to drop it to 65, though as you say, even on 41%, it's probable they'd pick up some list seats, probably in the South if the Tories took four overall. Still, the poll itself has a MoE (though my expectation is that this is probably low-side anyway).
Yes they will definitely get 1 or more (depending on Dumfriesshire) list seats in the south and probably 1 or maybe 2 in the north (depending on how the Lib Dems do). At the moment they have 69 seats. My guess is that will go up by a couple.
The daft unionist sharing list vote may explode in their faces and Labour could lose enough to RISE and Greens to help SNP on the list or at worst burst Labour even more. Pretty sad that all we will hear tomorrow is that either Labour or Tories are winners with a handful of seats. The unionist parties have such low expectations nowadays it is frightening.
Ladbrokes are still offering 8/1 on a Scottish NOM. Given that latest YouGov poll provides NOM on at least one seat calculator, that seems a very fair price.
And so the EU has accepted Turkey’s abominable treatment of Kurds. It has ignored the ongoing illegal occupation of north Cyprus. And it has ignored every single one of its own putative ‘criteria’. In trying to avoid millions more migrants, the EU has opened the doors to 75 million Turks. It’s quite possible that Ergodan doesn’t even want EU membership, that he just enjoys lording it over Europe and showing Turks how he can make a continent (or at least its leaders) quiver. Now Europe is behaving like a man so fearful of death that he chooses to commit suicide.
Our Prime Minister has been true to his word. Even while Erdogan’s government has done everything it could to demonstrate why it has no place in the EU, Cameron has insisted on extending the borders of Europe to Syria and Iraq. Only a few months ago in the Commons, he reconfirmed his government’s commitment to Turkish entry. Of course, now that the referendum is upon him, he says that it doesn’t matter what he thinks because the French will not allow Turkey to join. This puts the British Prime Minister in the strange position of citing the French government as the only force capable of saving him from his own views.
OK, here's the latest on Kettlegate - It seems the EU have "paused" the ban on high performance kettles because they feared it could drive tea loving Brits to Brexit:
A senior EU official has reportedly said that the commission has paused plans to introduce the rules to be “sensitive to the British obsession with water kettles.”
Thereby managing to be patronising and dirigiste in the same sentence... is Alistair not telling us about his real day job
"A senior EU official has reportedly said..."
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
The eulogy to the failed political candidate: "didn't you used to be Zac Goldsmith?"
I imagine he will recover from the shock quite fast, what with being as rich as Croesus in his own right and married into the Rothschild's, it will just be time to move on to a new hobby.
Banning all Muslims from the U.S. is a stupid policy, given the huge administrative cost, but it is not racist. Islam is a voluntary belief system. It is the equivalent of banning communists, which I believe the U.S. already does.
Banning Muslims would be illegal due to that whole Constitution thing they have.
Nice try Layne, but treating people differently solely because of their race is exactly what racism is...
He said on the basis of religion not race, also wrong, but not racism.
It's also indirect discrimination on the grounds of race.
No, it is not. Which race would it be discriminating against? White Albanians, black Nigerians or Asian Indonesians?
Arabs, for one.
Some Arabs. There are quite a lot of Arab Christians. Arab and Muslim are not identical.
It will discriminate against Arabs as a group, as it will disproportionately affect them.
It will affect people who are Muslims. Islam is a religion not a race. A religion is a set of beliefs. It is not something you are born with. It is not something that you can never change or abandon. Choosing to discriminate against someone on the basis of their religion may or may not be necessary, deplorable or whatever. But it is not the same as discriminating against someone on the basis of an unalterable characteristic such as their skin colour.
"Racism" is a word that is now being used simply as a boo word. It risks being rendered devoid of any real meaning. The same might also be said about the word "discrimination". Not all discrimination is bad: a person with a discriminating taste is someone who is able to make a judgment between what is worth while and what isn't. Discrimination on the basis of irrelevant matters is wrong and silly. But discrimination on the basis of relevant matters is neither, indeed may be sensible in some circumstances.
And at the risk of having a bucket load of sh*t thrown at me now, given the issues we currently have with Islamist terrorism and terrorism emanating from the Middle East, consideration of people's countries of origin and/or religion may well be a relevant factor to consider in countries' immigration policies.
About as representative as Godfrey Bloom on PB's side of the spectrum, though I suppose they've never won as big an election.
Not sure what your point is. This kind of crap needs to be exposed, debunked and stamped out, however "unrepresentative" it is.
My point is that PB and Guido are happy to present hate as a unilateral broadside inflicted by the left (other people) on normal people (us). It's hardly a morally courageous stance, now.
I hold no brief for Trump's policy. But Muslims are not a race. If Trump announced that he would ban all Catholics from entering the US it would be utterly deplorable but it would not be racist.
Sorry to be pedantic about this. But I dislike the way - and I don't think it leads to clear thinking - the word "racism" is being used to mean anything the speaker/writer doesn't like.
Presumably the same construction could be applied to Judaism. Are Ashkenazi, Falasha, Cochin and Kaifeng Jews all part of the same race?
About as representative as Godfrey Bloom on PB's side of the spectrum, though I suppose they've never won as big an election.
Not sure what your point is. This kind of crap needs to be exposed, debunked and stamped out, however "unrepresentative" it is.
My point is that PB and Guido are happy to present hate as a unilateral broadside inflicted by the left (other people) on normal people (us). It's hardly a morally courageous stance, now.
Nope, I am afraid I am too stupid to understand your point. The link is nothing to do with left vs right. It is an example of regressive misrepresentation of religious teaching, which is being spread by a small minority and enslaves women to a small geographical area, in a country which the vast vast majority want to be free and equal.
Lol at what? The findings or the results if they're right? Wouldn't 41% list combined with 48% constituency leave the SNP very much on the edge of minority/majority position?
No, it would almost certainly given them a majority. There are 73 constituency seats. If they do well the Tories might win 4. The Lib Dems might hold onto 2, more likely 1. My guess is Labour win none but they might just hold on somewhere. I really struggle to see the SNP winning less than 67 constituencies which is a majority. They may get one or two list MSPs to top up but it really doesn't matter other than for the size of the majority.
67 would be very close to knife-edge. It'd only take the odd mess-up / tactical vote to drop it to 65, though as you say, even on 41%, it's probable they'd pick up some list seats, probably in the South if the Tories took four overall. Still, the poll itself has a MoE (though my expectation is that this is probably low-side anyway).
Yes they will definitely get 1 or more (depending on Dumfriesshire) list seats in the south and probably 1 or maybe 2 in the north (depending on how the Lib Dems do). At the moment they have 69 seats. My guess is that will go up by a couple.
The daft unionist sharing list vote may explode in their faces and Labour could lose enough to RISE and Greens to help SNP on the list or at worst burst Labour even more. Pretty sad that all we will hear tomorrow is that either Labour or Tories are winners with a handful of seats. The unionist parties have such low expectations nowadays it is frightening.
My guess is that the Greens will be up a couple and the Lib Dems down 1 but I don't think RISE will win a seat unless Labour have a total melt down. Labour's result in 2011 was their worst in Scotland (until 2015) but it is going to look stellar this time around. The Tories will have more seats in the Scottish Parliament than ever before but not, I think, quite enough to claim second.
I would disagree with Alastair about the 8/1 for NOM being value. It is way more unlikely than that.
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
The impressive thing about this is that not only do the British press get an anti-EU story about the thing they made up, they manage to get another anti-EU story out of the EU not actually doing the thing they made up.
I hold no brief for Trump's policy. But Muslims are not a race. If Trump announced that he would ban all Catholics from entering the US it would be utterly deplorable but it would not be racist.
Sorry to be pedantic about this. But I dislike the way - and I don't think it leads to clear thinking - the word "racism" is being used to mean anything the speaker/writer doesn't like.
Presumably the same construction could be applied to Judaism. Are Ashkenazi, Falasha, Cochin and Kaifeng Jews all part of the same race?
I genuinely have no idea. I hadn't even heard of some of these groups until now.
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
The impressive thing about this is that not only do the British press get an anti-EU story about the thing they made up, they manage to get another anti-EU story out of the EU not actually doing the thing they made up.
It was originally broken by those well knows europhobes, the FT
The eulogy to the failed political candidate: "didn't you used to be Zac Goldsmith?"
I imagine he will recover from the shock quite fast, what with being as rich as Croesus in his own right and married into the Rothschild's, it will just be time to move on to a new hobby.
I think a bye election is pretty much nailed on as soon as the Heathrow result is announced. He won't be missed.
OK, here's the latest on Kettlegate - It seems the EU have "paused" the ban on high performance kettles because they feared it could drive tea loving Brits to Brexit:
A senior EU official has reportedly said that the commission has paused plans to introduce the rules to be “sensitive to the British obsession with water kettles.”
Thereby managing to be patronising and dirigiste in the same sentence... is Alistair not telling us about his real day job
"A senior EU official has reportedly said..."
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
Having low-power kettles is stupid because they take more energy to heat up. Low power vacuum cleaners are stupid because you have to go over the carpet more times (taking more energy) to get them to pick up the same amount of fluff - not to mention forcing housepeople to burn off more calories (producing heat). EU regulators are stupid because they don't know anything about science.
And at the risk of having a bucket load of sh*t thrown at me now, given the issues we currently have with Islamist terrorism and terrorism emanating from the Middle East, consideration of people's countries of origin and/or religion may well be a relevant factor to consider in countries' immigration policies
Leave the hand wringers to it. Sooner or later something horrific will happen in say Oxford Street and all of a sudden the British public will have not the slightest interest in liberalism and wooly headedness, it will become an imperative to do something now.
Mr. Divvie, Sikhism and Judaism are also considered ethnicities.
Being Catholic definitely has some ethnic-like qualities that the Protestant sects don't have. Then there are religions that hardly ever cross the ethnic border, like Taoism and Shinto.
I hold no brief for Trump's policy. But Muslims are not a race. If Trump announced that he would ban all Catholics from entering the US it would be utterly deplorable but it would not be racist.
Sorry to be pedantic about this. But I dislike the way - and I don't think it leads to clear thinking - the word "racism" is being used to mean anything the speaker/writer doesn't like.
Presumably the same construction could be applied to Judaism. Are Ashkenazi, Falasha, Cochin and Kaifeng Jews all part of the same race?
Civic Nationalist Salmond has called on Scotch-Americans to reject Trump. Do you see a contradiction there ?
I think a bye election is pretty much nailed on as soon as the Heathrow result is announced. He won't be missed.
Zac hasn't said that he wouldn't stand in any by-election he triggers, has he? He could either stand as an independent or as a Conservative, asking for a mandate from the good burghers of Richmond to continue with the stance he has taken.
Mr. EPG, those are astute observations on Taoism/Shinto. I think one has to be born Hindu, although leaving it it possible (I think).
Mr. Jonathan, I sense you're asking that tongue-in-cheek, but I do know (or did) some people who put Yorkshire as their ethnicity, and/or religion in the last census.
The eulogy to the failed political candidate: "didn't you used to be Zac Goldsmith?"
I imagine he will recover from the shock quite fast, what with being as rich as Croesus in his own right and married into the Rothschild's, it will just be time to move on to a new hobby.
I think a bye election is pretty much nailed on as soon as the Heathrow result is announced. He won't be missed.
Probably true. Can't help thinking he would be better inside the tent pissing out. If his sort of money, even the sort of amount he loses down the back of the sofa were to be spent supporting anti-Heathrow protests and legal chicanery it could become something of an annoyance.
Comments
Labour source says party has received as many emails attacking John Mann as it has condemning anti-Semitism.
I doubt very much that the EU has mandated a power limit for kettles; it's far more likely that GIN1138 is telling fibs.
To those who may be put off by this, I assure you this is *very* rare.
gainfulemploymentAbuse is extremely rare. Rudeness slightly less so.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/47unzr/eu_pauses_plans_to_ban_superstrength_kettles_out/
So @MikeK is safe for now!.
And when delivering leaflets. a plastic spatula is the only thing you should venture into a letter box to push your leaflet through...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/7128263/Downton-Abbeys-Hugh-plays-hero-in-new-play-about-press-freedom.html
Sounds like a good play.
Jacqueline Walker, the vice-chairwoman of the group's national steering committee, has claimed the toxic row over anti-Semitism was a 'witch hunt' against the Labour leader.
Ms Walker was the sixth Labour member to be suspended over anti-Semitism allegations this week.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3574712/Labour-suspends-key-Corbyn-ally-anti-Semitism-allegations-poll-shows-support-party-British-Jews-collapsed-just-8-5-cent.html
Sadiq Khan: 43% (-5)
Zac Goldsmith: 32% (nc)
After 2nd prefs
Khan: 57% (-3)
Goldsmith: 43% (+3)
RIP.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/04/women-should-not-travel-more-than-48-miles-without-a-male-escort/
"A senior EU official has reportedly said..."
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
"Racism" is a word that is now being used simply as a boo word. It risks being rendered devoid of any real meaning. The same might also be said about the word "discrimination". Not all discrimination is bad: a person with a discriminating taste is someone who is able to make a judgment between what is worth while and what isn't. Discrimination on the basis of irrelevant matters is wrong and silly. But discrimination on the basis of relevant matters is neither, indeed may be sensible in some circumstances.
And at the risk of having a bucket load of sh*t thrown at me now, given the issues we currently have with Islamist terrorism and terrorism emanating from the Middle East, consideration of people's countries of origin and/or religion may well be a relevant factor to consider in countries' immigration policies.
I would disagree with Alastair about the 8/1 for NOM being value. It is way more unlikely than that.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/36642906-dc0e-11e5-9ba8-3abc1e7247e4.html
Yeah, right. There were never any plans to limit the power rating of kettles. It's just more anti-EU scaremongering.
There are, of course, moves under way to limit the electricity consumption of domestic appliances in general (domestic demand accounts for about 36% of total electricity demand), but it makes no sense to limit the power rating of kettles. That's why the EU isn't doing so.
This was old news in February http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-pauses-plans-to-ban-super-strength-kettles-out-of-fear-it-would-drive-tea-loving-britons-towards-a6899551.html
Having low-power kettles is stupid because they take more energy to heat up. Low power vacuum cleaners are stupid because you have to go over the carpet more times (taking more energy) to get them to pick up the same amount of fluff - not to mention forcing housepeople to burn off more calories (producing heat). EU regulators are stupid because they don't know anything about science.
On this day 195 years ago Napoleon died.
Also 18 years ago my youngest was born.
A big day for him today (and for me, as I need no longer be a responsible mother......
http://order-order.com/2016/05/05/celeb-corbynistas-abandon-labour/
Then there are religions that hardly ever cross the ethnic border, like Taoism and Shinto.
"and for me, as I need no longer be a responsible mother......
He'll always be your little boy no matter how old he is.
On the EU, I'm less concerned by kettles than the EU Army.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36211449
Mr. EPG, those are astute observations on Taoism/Shinto. I think one has to be born Hindu, although leaving it it possible (I think).
Mr. Jonathan, I sense you're asking that tongue-in-cheek, but I do know (or did) some people who put Yorkshire as their ethnicity, and/or religion in the last census.