He always was a bit strange. Rather like Michael Fabricant but with less of an intellect (and since Michael Fabricant believes electrical trains are noisier than diesel ones, that's saying quite something) or Alun Davies but more of a sycophant (if that were possible).
He's a very strange choice as Labour candidate. A failed political journalist who has never actually done a meaningful job, has no experience of management, whose political career was a joke and whom everyone despises is not whom I would have chosen. Steve Bedser would have been a far more formidable choice - but the ballot wasn't even close. Very odd.
That Sky News report on the Scottish poll suggests that Nicola has seriously overreached with her demands regarding a future referendum. The journos who reported how she'd ambushed May etc etc also have egg on face. Adam Boulton in yesterday's Sunday Times was claiming Nicola had "comprehensively outplayed" May on the referendum. Maybe not eh Adam?
Scotland is slowly polarising into the SNP v the Tories.
The latest panelbase has both 55+ and ABC1 - the people most likely to vote - nearly neck and neck. . The Tories are ahead with Leavers.
Obviously, there will be no-go areas for the Tory vote - the East Ham's and Bootle's of Scotland, but it looks competitive beyond.
I wonder what Scotland's VI (excl Glasgow) looks like?
Jon Craig - Sky - said that the journalist had been in the corridor where the labour party were holding their meeting. Everyone in the corridor could hear them shouting at each other, Mr Watson apparently had a face like thunder, at one point the MPs rounded on Corbyn, Ian Austin told him to look in the mirror, Wes Streeting said he was leading the party off a cliff, Emily Thornberry shouted at Sweeting to calm down, Pat McFadden told the leader he was useless, Lord Watson told Seamus Milne he was a disgrace and one official said the mood in the meeting was brutal and not prettty.
Mandleson came out and said the atmosphere was like 1985 when militant tendency where attempting a takeover, Neil Kinnock came out and said it was worse than that.
Complete breakup of labour must be coming
This is not even news. They will all just fight each other to the death to get control of the labour party. For the Corbynites a party with 50 MP's is preferable to being expelled and having no parliamentary platform. The moderates and right wing element of the party have too much tribal loyalty to the labour party brand to split or create a new party. It is just a battle of mutually assured destruction.
Here's a Brighton and Hove Councillor who seems to be lacking in tribal loyalty:
You get these councillor resignations all the time, its not really news. There have been no co-ordinated resignations of councillors in the labour party, which is very suprising given that in many cases their local parties have been overtaken by Momentum and they are under threat of deselection.
They say that you learn more from defeat than victory. But, there is no inkling of greater knowledge in the thoughts of Don Brind, and other Remainers.
I did well out of the EU. I received substantial grants from them. Others did well out if the EU, mainly middle-class professionals.
But, we were heavily outnumbered by the people who did badly out of the EU, faced increased competition for housing, increased competition for jobs and so on. By and large, these were poor people.
The claim is that Wales did well out of the EU, and so it did in one sense. Funding for an Arts Centre here and there, Swansea University's Bay campus, restoration of heritage sites, and so on. But, there was precious little to improve the life of someone without a job living in a damp terrace in a decaying Valley town. In fact, they saw their factories relocate to Eastern Europe from the Valleys.
Bertolt Brecht could have told Don Brind why Remain lost: "You've forgotten what an immense number of poor people there are".
"You've forgotten what an immense number of poor people there are".
Every Remainer should repeat it until they have learnt it.
I do wonder how much the much vaunted EU regional funding actually reached where it was meant to go and how much instead went to quangocrats in Cardiff, Bristol, Newcastle etc.
Compared to domestic public spending, EU funding is peanuts in poorer areas of the UK.
Certainly but that doesn't stop the EU having their logo and boasts about funding provided on big boards by development sites around the country.
And its interesting how many people are panicky about the loss of EU handouts - I suspect they benefit rather more than the average local.
A high proportion would go to people who are good at delivering presentations, writing policy papers, drafting action plans etc.
They can, but the Intercity 125 was not designed for such purposes so I understand that it's not much fun. Furthermore, property prices on the Crossrail route has been going up a lot in the Thames Valley. It feels like Essex is the final frontier and the lines into Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street are the ones with the highest passenger growth at the moment.
Different line but I have friends who commute in who have lost their jobs due to Southern Fail and I knew a few who only hung on by the skin of their teeth.
I also have friends who live on the outskirts of London my age and on my salary and who are bringing up their kids in a tiny two bed shoebox and spending every penny they earn on childcare.
My point was never 'poor me, I can't afford kids', it was simply to point out that my parents were on much more modest salaries and afforded me a better standard of living than I ever could for my own kids, as expressed by others here, those of us in the middle are "just about managing" and see the system as broken. Those on lower salaries must surely be in a far worse spot and therefore truly have nothing to lose.
Publicly no-one in my industry will own up to voting leave but privately many have expressed those sentiments to me.
While I find a ten quid bottle of wine to be 99% as good as most sixty quid ones, there is more to living than "just about managing".
O reason not the need, and all that.
I think if I'd lost my job because of Southern Rail I'd be inclined to sue the DfT and GTR.
The new franchise for the South Western Mainline has provisions for DOO so it could be coming my way in the next couple of years so that won't be much fun.
I'm not economist or demographer, but I still think that we're going through the difficult phase of life expectancy increasing and the baby boomers reaching their 70s. Over the next decade or so we could start to get a steady flow of property becoming available which could ease the situation. The people I worry about are those like my friends who have taken out big mortgages plus government loans as part of help to buy. They could go through a really painful time over the next few years.
@kyf_100 - one of the stranger things about the referendum is that, in my opinion, those working in London and the South East have more to complain about than the provinces. I only work in London because I can live with my parents and commute from Woking, but if that option wasn't available I'd be long gone. At some point, people will begin to vote with their feet.
I have always thought how does London keep going .As the place needs all the ordinary jobs doing .Where do all the nurses postal workers cleaners poliice fire service etc live or afford to travel in ?
London accounts for a quarter of the UK's housing benefit bill.
It's fairly easy to rent a one bed flat for £1,000 a month in a reasonable suburb in London. The issue is starting a family and buying a property.
Only the pretty well off and the benefits class can afford a family. Mr and Mrs Average in the middle are stuffed.
Miliband was right with the squeezed middle, but failed to acknowledge both sides of the squeeze.
As you say there aren't many areas in London where you can still find a lot of lower-middle class families.
Hillingdon Harrow Havering Redbridge Bexley Bromley Sutton Chingford South Croydon
Areas which have a much higher number of Conservative and Leave voters.
I'm not sure what class has to do with it, let alone what it means any more, but I do know that a 3 bed terraced house in Redbridge or Chingford costs £500k for something ordinary.
A pretty good one will cost at least a million. Top of the range will be £2m-£3m.
@kyf_100 - one of the stranger things about the referendum is that, in my opinion, those working in London and the South East have more to complain about than the provinces. I only work in London because I can live with my parents and commute from Woking, but if that option wasn't available I'd be long gone. At some point, people will begin to vote with their feet.
I have always thought how does London keep going .As the place needs all the ordinary jobs doing .Where do all the nurses postal workers cleaners poliice fire service etc live or afford to travel in ?
London accounts for a quarter of the UK's housing benefit bill.
It's fairly easy to rent a one bed flat for £1,000 a month in a reasonable suburb in London. The issue is starting a family and buying a property.
Only the pretty well off and the benefits class can afford a family. Mr and Mrs Average in the middle are stuffed.
Miliband was right with the squeezed middle, but failed to acknowledge both sides of the squeeze.
As you say there aren't many areas in London where you can still find a lot of lower-middle class families.
Hillingdon Harrow Havering Redbridge Bexley Bromley Sutton Chingford South Croydon
Areas which have a much higher number of Conservative and Leave voters.
People outside London make the mistake that owning a house with a high price makes you upper middle class. It doesn't. Dad house worth £500k......he's a bus driver.......
Presumably that's a different Lutfur Rahman to the one that's banned from office until 2021... though how many people by that name can there be...
I went to the Collombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence last Thursday and some one said several Manchester Councillors were there having been to Cannes to study ideas for the Northern Powerhouse. I'd like to believe it but it sounded a bit far fetched even for councillors (though there was a large table of English men)
That would be MIPIM. Surprised you pretend to be unaware of it.
Macron wakes up against Le Pen over the burkini. Melenchon and Le Pen going at it as well. Fillon struggling to get a word in.
What is macrons view on the burkini?
He basically said it was a mistake to be debating it, it was a trap to divide the French, and that the burkini is a question of public order not ideology.
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine can be an effective debater. No doubt. But the effectiveness of an argument is not measured by how impressed those who agree with the argument are but how well you are able to persuade those who oppose you or are not convinced.
Too many on the Remain side were talking to themselves or - and this is very common, particularly amongst lawyers and other professionals - thought that the rationality of their argument would be enough. Big mistake that. Persuasion is as much about emotion and about saying something that makes sense to those you are seeking to persuade. And to persuade you need to understand what motivates your audience. You need first to listen.
There is a case - a good one - to be made for immigration, for immigration from the EU and free movement within it. I could make it. But it was notable how few on the Remain side sought to make it or did so as if it was something that needed to be endured or did so in a way which contrived to insult its audience. If no-one was listening to the audience which needed persuading, why on earth should they listen to Heseltine and his rational arguments. No amount of rationality will compensate for de haut en bas condescension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He stayed fairly quiet I think until after the referendum. (He probably finds reafforesting 40 acres of Northamptonshire - as he's been doing since 1976 - a lot more interesting than debating the EU. He's a lot more coherent than Thatcher was at 83.)
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
@kyf_100 - one of the stranger things about the referendum is that, in my opinion, those working in London and the South East have more to complain about than the provinces. I only work in London because I can live with my parents and commute from Woking, but if that option wasn't available I'd be long gone. At some point, people will begin to vote with their feet.
I have always thought how does London keep going .As the place needs all the ordinary jobs doing .Where do all the nurses postal workers cleaners poliice fire service etc live or afford to travel in ?
London accounts for a quarter of the UK's housing benefit bill.
It's fairly easy to rent a one bed flat for £1,000 a month in a reasonable suburb in London. The issue is starting a family and buying a property.
Only the pretty well off and the benefits class can afford a family. Mr and Mrs Average in the middle are stuffed.
Miliband was right with the squeezed middle, but failed to acknowledge both sides of the squeeze.
As you say there aren't many areas in London where you can still find a lot of lower-middle class families.
Hillingdon Harrow Havering Redbridge Bexley Bromley Sutton Chingford South Croydon
Areas which have a much higher number of Conservative and Leave voters.
I'm not sure what class has to do with it, let alone what it means any more, but I do know that a 3 bed terraced house in Redbridge or Chingford costs £500k for something ordinary.
A pretty good one will cost at least a million. Top of the range will be £2m-£3m.
Bexley, Newham, Enfield, Havering, Waltham Forest and Barking are cheaper than that though some may prefer to move out of London to the Home Counties anyway and get more bang for their buck
Presumably that's a different Lutfur Rahman to the one that's banned from office until 2021... though how many people by that name can there be...
I went to the Collombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence last Thursday and some one said several Manchester Councillors were there having been to Cannes to study ideas for the Northern Powerhouse. I'd like to believe it but it sounded a bit far fetched even for councillors (though there was a large table of English men)
(By the way, I know your a Mancunian exile: you really should follow Place North West to get a feel of what's going on in development in Manchester and Liverpool right now. There's more growth currently going on in Manchester than any time since the industrial revolution. An astonishing time to be Mancunian.)
Macron wakes up against Le Pen over the burkini. Melenchon and Le Pen going at it as well. Fillon struggling to get a word in.
What is macrons view on the burkini?
He basically said it was a mistake to be debating it, it was a trap to divide the French, and that the burkini is a question of public order not ideology.
How is it a public order issue? It's 100% to do with idealogy regardless of if you agree with or against a ban. Idealogy of the individual and idealogy of the public at large.
They say that you learn more from defeat than victory. But, there is no inkling of greater knowledge in the thoughts of Don Brind, and other Remainers.
I did well out of the EU. I received substantial grants from them. Others did well out if the EU, mainly middle-class professionals.
But, we were heavily outnumbered by the people who did badly out of the EU, faced increased competition for housing, increased competition for jobs and so on. By and large, these were poor people.
The claim is that Wales did well out of the EU, and so it did in one sense. Funding for an Arts Centre here and there, Swansea University's Bay campus, restoration of heritage sites, and so on. But, there was precious little to improve the life of someone without a job living in a damp terrace in a decaying Valley town. In fact, they saw their factories relocate to Eastern Europe from the Valleys.
Bertolt Brecht could have told Don Brind why Remain lost: "You've forgotten what an immense number of poor people there are".
"You've forgotten what an immense number of poor people there are".
Every Remainer should repeat it until they have learnt it.
I do wonder how much the much vaunted EU regional funding actually reached where it was meant to go and how much instead went to quangocrats in Cardiff, Bristol, Newcastle etc.
Compared to domestic public spending, EU funding is peanuts in poorer areas of the UK.
And the UK as a whole is a net contributor EU coffers - to the tune of £8.5 billion net in 2015.
Le Pen attacking Macron above all, Hamon attacking Macron, Macron attacking Fillon and Le Pen, Melenchon attacking Le Pen, Fillon barely present.
Melenchon is enjoying himself here, probably the best so far (but obviously too extreme a programme for this to help his chances). Le Pen is god, Macron getting a bit shrill. If Corbyn had a bit of Melenchon's oompf, perhaps Labour wouldn't be doing quite as badly!
Presumably that's a different Lutfur Rahman to the one that's banned from office until 2021... though how many people by that name can there be...
I went to the Collombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence last Thursday and some one said several Manchester Councillors were there having been to Cannes to study ideas for the Northern Powerhouse. I'd like to believe it but it sounded a bit far fetched even for councillors (though there was a large table of English men)
(By the way, I know your a Mancunian exile: you really should follow Place North West to get a feel of what's going on in development in Manchester and Liverpool right now. There's more growth currently going on in Manchester than any time since the industrial revolution. An astonishing time to be Mancunian.)
Not so much an exile. I have some of my closest family in Manchester and have an apartment in Didsbury. Someone on my table wanted to get a picture of Bernstein (if he was there) to send to the newspapers.
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
Mrs May comes across as 'ordinary', whatever that means. She's not ultra-polished or obviously silver-spoon. So it's easier for 'ordinary' people to relate to her.
Le Pen attacking Macron above all, Hamon attacking Macron, Macron attacking Fillon and Le Pen, Melenchon attacking Le Pen, Fillon barely present.
Melenchon is enjoying himself here, probably the best so far (but obviously too extreme a programme for this to help his chances). Le Pen is god, Macron getting a bit shrill. If Corbyn had a bit of Melenchon's oompf, perhaps Labour wouldn't be doing quite as badly!
@kyf_100 - one of the stranger things about the referendum is that, in my opinion, those working in London and the South East have more to complain about than the provinces. I only work in London because I can live with my parents and commute from Woking, but if that option wasn't available I'd be long gone. At some point, people will begin to vote with their feet.
I have always thought how does London keep going .As the place needs all the ordinary jobs doing .Where do all the nurses postal workers cleaners poliice fire service etc live or afford to travel in ?
London accounts for a quarter of the UK's housing benefit bill.
It's fairly easy to rent a one bed flat for £1,000 a month in a reasonable suburb in London. The issue is starting a family and buying a property.
Only the pretty well off and the benefits class can afford a family. Mr and Mrs Average in the middle are stuffed.
Miliband was right with the squeezed middle, but failed to acknowledge both sides of the squeeze.
As you say there aren't many areas in London where you can still find a lot of lower-middle class families.
Hillingdon Harrow Havering Redbridge Bexley Bromley Sutton Chingford South Croydon
Areas which have a much higher number of Conservative and Leave voters.
I'm not sure what class has to do with it, let alone what it means any more, but I do know that a 3 bed terraced house in Redbridge or Chingford costs £500k for something ordinary.
A pretty good one will cost at least a million. Top of the range will be £2m-£3m.
Bexley, Newham, Enfield, Havering, Waltham Forest and Barking are cheaper than that though some may prefer to move out of London to the Home Counties anyway and get more bang for their buck
South of the water is usually cheaper, but take a step out in Emerson Park (Havering) or Bush Hill (Enfield)
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
Maybe this is a 'natural' level of support for a Tory leader and Dave just got people's backs up?
Early signs Nicola may have made a big misjudged of the mood.
I cannot remember when a UK PM was more popular than any Scots leader
Tony Blair v Jack McConnell
The Sky reports that Sturgeon was very reluctant to call for a referendum, but was pushed into it by Salmond, et al, seem ever more perceptive.
Sturgeon is smart. She's seen the polls. She knows that most Scots do not want a vote now. Only a hardcore 30% want a vote pre-Brexit (i.e. before 2019). 50% or more don't want a vote for many years.
Calling for a vote was a massive risk, and bound to provoke people, including some of her own supporters - softer Nats who think the time is not right. It was also against her correct instinct to only go for indy, again, when the polls have been consistently and solidly pro-indy for a year. The most recent polls show 10 point advantages for NO.
But Salmond is a vain, arrogant, late middle aged man in a hurry, who sees the only chance of indy happening while he is politically active, fast disappearing.
He has pushed Sturgeon into a significant error. They misjudged the Scottish mood, they misjudged TMay.
Unlike some i wont shout BOOM with a good poll or sell my sterling with a bad poll. Two years out, lot's to play for.
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
We made a terrible error. Heseltine is of the generation that rightly saw that. Where he and his ilk went wrong is the idea that joining in 1973, on very bad terms, was the solution, when the EEC was already set on a French-directed course inimical to us, and which we would find increasingly irksome.
Moreover, the Heseltine generation, and all europhiles, are guilty of the greatest sin: denying us a vote time and again, when we wanted to halt integration.
If we'd been allowed a vote on anything from Maastricht, the Constitution, to Lisbon (as they lyingly promised, before breaking their promises) we would have voted down integration, Europe would have taken a different course, and Brexit would never have been necessary.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
@kyf_100 - one of the stranger things about the referendum is that, in my opinion, those working in London and the South East have more to complain about than the provinces. I only work in London because I can live with my parents and commute from Woking, but if that option wasn't available I'd be long gone. At some point, people will begin to vote with their feet.
I have always thought how does London keep going .As the place needs all the ordinary jobs doing .Where do all the nurses postal workers cleaners poliice fire service etc live or afford to travel in ?
London accounts for a quarter of the UK's housing benefit bill.
It's fairly easy to rent a one bed flat for £1,000 a month in a reasonable suburb in London. The issue is starting a family and buying a property.
Only the pretty well off and the benefits class can afford a family. Mr and Mrs Average in the middle are stuffed.
Miliband was right with the squeezed middle, but failed to acknowledge both sides of the squeeze.
As you say there aren't many areas in London where you can still find a lot of lower-middle class families.
Hillingdon Harrow Havering Redbridge Bexley Bromley Sutton Chingford South Croydon
Areas which have a much higher number of Conservative and Leave voters.
I'm not sure what class has to do with it, let alone what it means any more, but I do know that a 3 bed terraced house in Redbridge or Chingford costs £500k for something ordinary.
A pretty good one will cost at least a million. Top of the range will be £2m-£3m.
Bexley, Newham, Enfield, Havering, Waltham Forest and Barking are cheaper than that though some may prefer to move out of London to the Home Counties anyway and get more bang for their buck
South of the water is usually cheaper, but take a step out in Emerson Park (Havering) or Bush Hill (Enfield)
You can find expensive houses anywhere (even the North) but in general the areas I mentioned are not only cheaper than the London average but most of Surrey and other plusher parts of the Home Counties like Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Beaconsfield
TMay is usually quite unappealing to me - visually and emotionally (and, often, politically). She seems gawky, angular, and awkward. Her way of speaking is stilted. She has bad posture. Her dress sense is odd, sometimes alarmingly so.
But that's a truly brilliant photo. It gives her a humanity. A likeable personality.
What's wrong with the 1950's - I fear that's where we seem to be headed at the moment !!
Presumably that's a different Lutfur Rahman to the one that's banned from office until 2021... though how many people by that name can there be...
I went to the Collombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence last Thursday and some one said several Manchester Councillors were there having been to Cannes to study ideas for the Northern Powerhouse. I'd like to believe it but it sounded a bit far fetched even for councillors (though there was a large table of English men)
That would be MIPIM. Surprised you pretend to be unaware of it.
MIPIM? Never heard of it. Should I have done....I'll go and look it up
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
It's not Favourability, it's good job rating.
Given that her opposition and the person who she is effectively rated against is Corbyn it is not he most onerous scale to climb.
TMay is usually quite unappealing to me - visually and emotionally (and, often, politically). She seems gawky, angular, and awkward. Her way of speaking is stilted. She has bad posture. Her dress sense is odd, sometimes alarmingly so.
But that's a truly brilliant photo. It gives her a humanity. A likeable personality.
What's wrong with the 1950's - I fear that's where we seem to be headed at the moment !!
The Treaty of Rome (the precursor to your beloved EU) dates from the 1950s! 1957 to be precise!
You can find expensive houses anyway (even the North) but in general the areas I mentioned are not only cheaper than the London average but most of Surrey and other plusher parts of the Home Counties like Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Beaconsfield
Yes, that's true to a degree.
The point I was originally making though was that even in places generally considered as dumps in London, the buying prices are vast multiples of an average salary.
I have accumulated two sets of in laws over the years, and both lived in areas that were deemed pretty undesirable. Their property is worth over £5m these days. It's mad but I like to see bus drivers, machinists, dinner ladies and carpenters suddenly realise they are multi-millionaires.
Early signs Nicola may have made a big misjudged of the mood.
I cannot remember when a UK PM was more popular than any Scots leader
Tony Blair v Jack McConnell
The Sky reports that Sturgeon was very reluctant to call for a referendum, but was pushed into it by Salmond, et al, seem ever more perceptive.
Sturgeon is smart. She's seen the polls. She knows that most Scots do not want a vote now. Only a hardcore 30% want a vote pre-Brexit (i.e. before 2019). 50% or more don't want a vote for many years.
Calling for a vote was a massive risk, and bound to provoke people, including some of her own supporters - softer Nats who think the time is not right. It was also against her correct instinct to only go for indy, again, when the polls have been consistently and solidly pro-indy for a year. The most recent polls show 10 point advantages for NO.
But Salmond is a vain, arrogant, late middle aged man in a hurry, who sees the only chance of indy happening while he is politically active, fast disappearing.
He has pushed Sturgeon into a significant error. They misjudged the Scottish mood, they misjudged TMay.
Just compare the downcast images of Salmond being driven away in that car after losing the Indy Ref and a very relaxed and cheerful Nicola Sturgeon at the Glasgow count before and after the result was announced. And then remember it was actually Sturgeon who ran the SNP Yes campaign, only to be rewarded with the SNP Leadership and post of FM without so much as a contest when it was lost. The minute that Salmond threw his hat in the ring for the Westminster Gordon seat, he was back on manoeuvres. And I doubt that either Sturgeon or Robertson were particularly chuffed that he decided to hang around in front line politics.
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
I'm pretty sure we would have been welcomed as founder members. De Gaulle's veto came later
Who knows but De Gaulle never felt the UK was truly European, at least not in the continental sense, EFTA was where we really belonged along with Scandinavia, Iceland and Switzerland
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
I'm pretty sure we would have been welcomed as founder members. De Gaulle's veto came later
Who knows but De Gaulle never felt the UK was truly European, at least in the continental sense, EFTA was where we really belonged along with most of Scandinavia, Iceland and Switzerland
And every true British patriot should take their cue from De Gaulle?
You're wrong anyway. His veto was a thinly veiled response to the UK shifting away from an independent foreign policy in the wake of Suez.
You can find expensive houses anyway (even the North) but in general the areas I mentioned are not only cheaper than the London average but most of Surrey and other plusher parts of the Home Counties like Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Beaconsfield
Yes, that's true to a degree.
The point I was originally making though was that even in places generally considered as dumps in London, the buying prices are vast multiples of an average salary.
I have accumulated two sets of in laws over the years, and both lived in areas that were deemed pretty undesirable. Their property is worth over £5m these days. It's mad but I like to see bus drivers, machinists, dinner ladies and carpenters suddenly realise they are multi-millionaires.
Which is why most Londoners now rent and if they want to buy they move right out to the Outer Suburbs or the Home Counties and both partners work in afford to pay the mortgage. Certainly as you say those who bought in London 30 years ago have made a killing
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
We made a terrible error. Heseltine is of the generation that rightly saw that. Where he and his ilk went wrong is the idea that joining in 1973, on very bad terms, was the solution, when the EEC was already set on a French-directed course inimical to us, and which we would find increasingly irksome.
Moreover, the Heseltine generation, and all europhiles, are guilty of the greatest sin: denying us a vote time and again, when we wanted to halt integration.
If we'd been allowed a vote on anything from Maastricht, the Constitution, to Lisbon (as they lyingly promised, before breaking their promises) we would have voted down integration, Europe would have taken a different course, and Brexit would never have been necessary.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
Nah he was a racist arse who hated the English. Just read up on how he behaved in Syria
Where do people get the money for the deposit from though? Let's assume 10% which is circa 45k. It's perfectly possible for me to save a grand more a month on my salary but it certainly wasn't possible for me to save more than a hundred quid a month five or six years ago and most of the time that got eaten up by landlords not paying back deposits et cetera.
I have a colleague buying his first place on help to buy (5% deposit), it's a one bed, practically a studio, zone 4 I think, 350k. I know how much he earns - around 45-50k - and I know how eye-watering the fees on the govt top up (of 40% of the home's value) are once the 5 year grace period is up - on top of the mortgage. I can't see it ending well.
The property market must be nearing its peak - my flat has barely budged this year compared to gains of 10-15% in years past and I fear a lot of people, many of them families with young kids, will be the worst affected when it goes pop.
Ironically help to buy did nothing but accelerate the property boom as far as I can tell, pushing house prices even further out of ordinary people's reach.
While this is a bit tangential to Brexit you have to feel that the huge numbers of people flocking to the UK and in particular London has done more harm than good. I used to rent a truly grim one bedroom flat in my twenties (at just shy of a grand a month) and the flat above was occupied by six, count 'em, six immigrants - all in a space that was barely fit for one.
Those people can always go home but this is and always has been my home and I'm not bloody going anywhere. To borrow the slogan, I and many like me voted to "take back control".
Hate us if you like but there were 52% of us, and we won.
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
I'm pretty sure we would have been welcomed as founder members. De Gaulle's veto came later
Who knows but De Gaulle never felt the UK was truly European, at least in the continental sense, EFTA was where we really belonged along with most of Scandinavia, Iceland and Switzerland
And every true British patriot should take their cue from De Gaulle?
You're wrong anyway. His veto was a thinly veiled response to the UK shifting away from an independent foreign policy in the wake of Suez.
Ask your fellow drinkers who's winning the debate, would you.
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
At a time where everything is chaos politically, and everyone else is trying to fire up division through outrage and sensationalism, she is calm, willing to listen to people she disagrees with and doing what she feels the country wants
Early signs Nicola may have made a big misjudged of the mood.
I cannot remember when a UK PM was more popular than any Scots leader
Tony Blair v Jack McConnell
The Sky reports that Sturgeon was very reluctant to call for a referendum, but was pushed into it by Salmond, et al, seem ever more perceptive.
Sturgeon is smart. She's seen the polls. She knows that most Scots do not want a vote now. Only a hardcore 30% want a vote pre-Brexit (i.e. before 2019). 50% or more don't want a vote for many years.
Calling for a vote was a massive risk, and bound to provoke people, including some of her own supporters - softer Nats who think the time is not right. It was also against her correct instinct to only go for indy, again, when the polls have been consistently and solidly pro-indy for a year. The most recent polls show 10 point advantages for NO.
But Salmond is a vain, arrogant, late middle aged man in a hurry, who sees the only chance of indy happening while he is politically active, fast disappearing.
He has pushed Sturgeon into a significant error. They misjudged the Scottish mood, they misjudged TMay.
And then remember it was actually Sturgeon who ran the SNP Yes campaign, only to be rewarded with the SNP Leadership and post of FM without so much as a contest when it was lost.
Fascinating.
'On 19 November 2014, Salmond formally resigned as First Minister of Scotland and the election for the new First Minister took place the following day. Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, stood for election. Sturgeon received 66 votes, Davidson received 15 and there were 39 abstentions.'
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
De Gaulle vetoed our original attempt at entry, as far as he was concerned we were a maritime, Anglo-Saxon nation who would dilute the European ideal
I'm pretty sure we would have been welcomed as founder members. De Gaulle's veto came later
Who
And every true British patriot should take their cue from De Gaulle?
You're wrong anyway. His veto was a thinly veiled response to the UK shifting away from an independent foreign policy in the wake of Suez.
‘England in effect is insular, she is maritime, she is linked through her interactions, her markets and her supply lines to the most diverse and often the most distant countries; she pursues essentially industrial and commercial activities, and only slight agricultural ones. She has, in all her doings, very marked and very original habits and traditions' https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/de-gaulle-knew-it-britain-does-not-belong-in-the-eu/
When did I mention in my lifetime. I said that I coudn't remember when the UKPM outpolled the First Minister.
The thing that is quite surprising is that this Scots poll is today following the weekend SNP conference and puts Nicola at minus 12 and Theresa +1 and Ruth + 6..
Also the epetition to stop the referendum is closing in on 200,000 and the map is very interesting showing the individual constituency support
Scotland "could be an independent country" but would risk taking a hit to its public finances, the ex-governor of the Bank of England has said.
Lord King told BBC Newsnight that while questions had been raised over which currency an independent Scotland would use, he did not see "major problems".
But he said it could be a challenge to borrow on the international markets.''
Scotland "could be an independent country" but would risk taking a hit to its public finances, the ex-governor of the Bank of England has said.
Lord King told BBC Newsnight that while questions had been raised over which currency an independent Scotland would use, he did not see "major problems".
But he said it could be a challenge to borrow on the international markets.''
When did I mention in my lifetime. I said that I coudn't remember when the UKPM outpolled the First Minister.
The thing that is quite surprising is that this Scots poll is today following the weekend SNP conference and puts Nicola at minus 12 and Theresa +1 and Ruth + 6..
Also the epetition to stop the referendum is closing in on 200,000 and the map is very interesting showing the individual constituency support
When did I mention in my lifetime. I said that I coudn't remember when the UKPM outpolled the First Minister.
The thing that is quite surprising is that this Scots poll is today following the weekend SNP conference and puts Nicola at minus 12 and Theresa +1 and Ruth + 6..
Also the epetition to stop the referendum is closing in on 200,000 and the map is very interesting showing the individual constituency support
Ok how about Brown v Salmond? Brown polled better at least once.
Moreover, the Heseltine generation, and all europhiles, are guilty of the greatest sin: denying us a vote time and again, when we wanted to halt integration.
If we'd been allowed a vote on anything from Maastricht, the Constitution, to Lisbon (as they lyingly promised, before breaking their promises) we would have voted down integration, Europe would have taken a different course, and Brexit would never have been necessary.
I dunno. I've been thinking about this quite a lot lately, from an alternative history point of view.
There were was very, very strong political will for deeper integration in the rest of Europe (even if the desire was not widespread among the European demoi - and I use demoi rather than demos for a reason). The British public have obviously had little truck for all this, and UK politicians have have been sufficiently wary not to sign up for The Full Programme as a result. But this doesn't resolve the ultimate problem of Britain's place in Europe, which is the direction of travel and what kind of fit the UK would be when the rest reach a state of quasi-federal union. If you don't share the common aims of the majority of members, your interests are going to diverge from the rest of the club in the end. Just a matter of time. And if the others coalesce, so do their interests, which gives precariously little leverage to whoever is the odd one left out.
I also think Maastricht, or even Lisbon (possibly with a couple more opt-outs for the UK) would have been a winnable referendum for the government. The Constitution I don't think would have been salable, on name alone, but if its core articles had been rebadged, I think it may just have got through. Experience of referenda in other countries suggests a way around would have been found. The idea that an earlier British referendum would have "killed European integration stone dead" seems fanciful to me.
As a result I'm not sure that the pressure valve of a referendum - even one won by anti-federalist forces - would have ultimately averted Brexit. But then, I'm not certain whether Brexit was an inevitably either, though I think it was always very likely in the long run.
There are only a few other paths I can see as having been potentially viable, given my belief that the ad hoc, half-in, half-opted-out, Schrödinger's membership of the EU would prove to be unstable. One possibility is we could have ended up in a formally structured associate membership - in market Europe, not inside political Europe, so far as those politics strayed beyond trading issues. This seems contrary to the philosophy or driving forces of the EU, though, so may never have been realistic (much as I thought that Cameron missed a trick by not even trying to negotiate something like this), and from a domestic point of view, may not have satisfied voters on the immigration issue.
Alternatively we could have teetered along our half-arsed European course, perhaps surviving a couple of referendum scares, until two generations come along who share Don's vision of "our European future" (and not a parochial one, nor a global one, in its stead). Then demographic changes plus a suitable trigger (some currency scare, for example) might push us into the full-blooded Eurozone, eurofederalist fold.
But pre-Brexit, did young'uns here share similar levels of European identity to those in core EU states? The massive drop-off in Modern Foreign Languages qualifications (and British ones are so low-level as to hardly be indications of either linguistic fluency or more general cultural, political or business interchange) means this would surprise me.
Where do people get the money for the deposit from though? Let's assume 10% which is circa 45k. It's perfectly possible for me to save a grand more a month on my salary but it certainly wasn't possible for me to save more than a hundred quid a month five or six years ago and most of the time that got eaten up by landlords not paying back deposits et cetera.
I have a colleague buying his first place on help to buy (5% deposit), it's a one bed, practically a studio, zone 4 I think, 350k. I know how much he earns - around 45-50k - and I know how eye-watering the fees on the govt top up (of 40% of the home's value) are once the 5 year grace period is up - on top of the mortgage. I can't see it ending well.
The property market must be nearing its peak - my flat has barely budged this year compared to gains of 10-15% in years past and I fear a lot of people, many of them families with young kids, will be the worst affected when it goes pop.
Ironically help to buy did nothing but accelerate the property boom as far as I can tell, pushing house prices even further out of ordinary people's reach.
While this is a bit tangential to Brexit you have to feel that the huge numbers of people flocking to the UK and in particular London has done more harm than good. I used to rent a truly grim one bedroom flat in my twenties (at just shy of a grand a month) and the flat above was occupied by six, count 'em, six immigrants - all in a space that was barely fit for one.
Those people can always go home but this is and always has been my home and I'm not bloody going anywhere. To borrow the slogan, I and many like me voted to "take back control".
Hate us if you like but there were 52% of us, and we won.
I'm with you, not against.
I hope Brexit triggers a fall in the London property market. I hope BTL landlords exploiting housing benefit are screwed. I hope that subsidised immigration is ended.
I was on the verge of voting UKIP in 2014 having walked out of a home in east London having seen a Lithuanian woman pulling in £40k in welfare to get a three bed house in return for 16 hours work. I pulled back in the booth because I loathe Farage.
I don't blame the woman. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? I blame the fools that designed the free movement system and the non-prejudicial rules on welfare.
They are idiots . They are the architects of Brexit.
The only one I heard Was lord Hesseltine on Any Questions and the power of his argument was impressive. The hypocrisy and stupidity of Villiers Stuartis a rare joy in these black days leading up to Brexit
Heseltine caension and lofty indifference to your concerns.
Heseltine is an incoherent, doddery old twat, as well as a traitor who brought down Thatcher. People like him should have shut the F up years ago, and maybe Remain *might* have won.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5) forming EFTA, attracting six other members then saying 'sod EFTA' joining the EU dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links leaving EFTA with very few members most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
I agree with much of your analysis (perhaps to your surprise). We *should* have joined the EEC from the start, as the moral leaders of post war Europe, and the wartime victors, and the strongest economic and military power, facing a ruined continent, we could have shaped it to our wishes, and kept the French down, and allied with Germany. It would have been a very British EEC.
We made a terrible error. Heseltine is of the generation that rightly saw that. Where he and his ilk went wrong is the idea that joining in 1973, on very bad terms, was the solution, when the EEC was already set on a French-directed course inimical to us, and which we would find increasingly irksome.
Moreover, the Heseltine generation, and all europhiles, are guilty of the greatest sin: denying us a vote time and again, when we wanted to halt integration.
If we'd been allowed a vote on anything from Maastricht, the Constitution, to Lisbon (as they lyingly promised, before breaking their promises) we would have voted down integration, Europe would have taken a different course, and Brexit would never have been necessary.
The guilty men are the anti-democratic europhiles, from Heseltine to Major. This is why they should fuck off now. They are the REASON for Brexit. They are detestable.
There was one politician who wanted to join at first, then realised that by 73 it was too late and a terrible idea...
Except that the SKY data poll isn't a real opinion poll at all poll just a survey of their viewers. There was however a real poll on leadership last week (YouGov) where Sturgeon had the highest rating and the second highest positive rating ie STURGEON 50 +18, MAY 37 -10 AND DAVIDSON 47 +18.
Scotland "could be an independent country" but would risk taking a hit to its public finances, the ex-governor of the Bank of England has said.
Lord King told BBC Newsnight that while questions had been raised over which currency an independent Scotland would use, he did not see "major problems".
But he said it could be a challenge to borrow on the international markets.''
Alternatively we could have teetered along our half-arsed European course, perhaps surviving a couple of referendum scares, until two generations come along who share Don's vision of "our European future" (and not a parochial one, nor a global one, in its stead). Then demographic changes plus a suitable trigger (some currency scare, for example) might push us into the full-blooded Eurozone, eurofederalist fold.
But pre-Brexit, did young'uns here share similar levels of European identity to those in core EU states? The massive drop-off in Modern Foreign Languages qualifications (and British ones are so low-level as to hardly be indications of either linguistic fluency or more general cultural, political or business interchange) means this would surprise me.
Harold Wood properties... the new ones in the hospital site look good
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
At a time where everything is chaos politically, and everyone else is trying to fire up division through outrage and sensationalism, she is calm, willing to listen to people she disagrees with and doing what she feels the country wants
I don't think she is likeable; indeed I foresee a potential that she could become quite disliked. But people do recognise she has a very difficult job not of her own making; deep down most people understand we could so easily have done a lot worse, and so long as she appears to be more or less in charge, and buckles to any issue where there is significant discontent, most people are prepared to give her a go, in the absence of any obviously credible alternatives, Tory or otherwise.
Nevertheless I think things could quickly change if things do take a turn for the worse. Most people aren't paying attention and are happy so long as the world continues to spin. If it starts to go dark, she'll get the blame, sure enough.
Fillon and Macron attack Le Pen's opposition to the Euro, Le Pen said 'great what was done in the UK', Macron says 'conservatives will have to deal with the results'
I'm no fan of Le Pen but she's maybe the only one who looks remotely "presidential"
Fillon looks weaselly
Macron is vacuous
This leftwing guy is quasi-Corbyn
"I'm no fan of Le Pen.." this seasons "no one has less time for Trump than me..."? ☺
lol. I really DON'T want Le Pen to win. Trump was funny, I'm unalarmed that he won (as I predicted, he's not half as bad in reality: constrained by the US Constitution). But Le Pen is different.
God knows I would like European politicians to be more realistic, and hostile to, radical Islam. It will happen, it has to happen, it will happen. But Le Pen's party is still poisoned by racism of all kinds, including anti-Semitism. The woman herself is a good politician, but you can't divorce her from her party, and her Dad is a nasty piece of work.
It is a shame the pro immigrationists wait for the elastic band to snap before realising the people telling them it will break aren't being nasty.
When did I mention in my lifetime. I said that I coudn't remember when the UKPM outpolled the First Minister.
The thing that is quite surprising is that this Scots poll is today following the weekend SNP conference and puts Nicola at minus 12 and Theresa +1 and Ruth + 6..
Also the epetition to stop the referendum is closing in on 200,000 and the map is very interesting showing the individual constituency support
I'm intrigued as to what follows 'You s'..
I promise you it would not have been swearing or insulting but sometimes my seriously bent arthritic fingers cause me keyboard problems
Scotland "could be an independent country" but would risk taking a hit to its public finances, the ex-governor of the Bank of England has said.
Lord King told BBC Newsnight that while questions had been raised over which currency an independent Scotland would use, he did not see "major problems".
But he said it could be a challenge to borrow on the international markets.''
My own view is that an independent Scotland would face a tough decade or so, but it would certainly be economically viable in the long run. Scotch whisky on it's own generates £4bn a year in exports.
Fillon and Macron attack Le Pen's opposition to the Euro, Le Pen said 'great what was done in the UK', Macron says 'conservatives will have to deal with the results'
I doubt we're going to have a conclusion on Brexit before the French election! Which means sentiment, which will be confirmation bias.
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
At a time where everything is chaos politically, and everyone else is trying to fire up division through outrage and sensationalism, she is calm, willing to listen to people she disagrees with and doing what she feels the country wants
I don't think she is likeable; indeed I foresee a potential that she becomes quite disliked. But people do recognise she has a very difficult job not of her own making; deep down most people understand we could so easily have done a lot worse, and so long as she appears to be more or less in charge, and buckles to any issue where there is significant discontent, most people are prepared to give her a go, in the absence of any obviously credible alternatives, Tory or otherwise.
Nevertheless I think things could quickly change if things do take a turn for the worse. Most people aren't paying attention and are happy so long as the world continues to spin. If it starts to go dark, she'll get the blame, sure enough.
I think a big part of May's continuing popularity is people MAKING themselves believe that she's good, because of how serious the situation is right now: people WANT to believe we've got an iron-willed titan at the helm who will make the EU leaders give us a good deal. The alternative (that she's not got the ability to negotiate a successful Brexit) is too scary for Joe Public to contemplate, and so therefore they're not going to contemplate it unless/until necessary.
Fillon and Macron attack Le Pen's opposition to the Euro, Le Pen said 'great what was done in the UK', Macron says 'conservatives will have to deal with the results'
I doubt we're going to have a conclusion on Brexit before the French election! Which means sentiment, which will be confirmation bias.
Indeed but Le Pen is the only pro Brexit candidate in this debate
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
At a time where everything is chaos politically, and everyone else is trying to fire up division through outrage and sensationalism, she is calm, willing to listen to people she disagrees with and doing what she feels the country wants
May to me gives the impression of someone who will listen calmly to your arguments .... then ignore them completely, because of what she (or her inner core of very close advisers) actually wanted to do all along.
She also seems calm and steely, which count as pluses at times like this. For times that require more common touch or televisually-transmissible empathy (or the Oscar-deserving semblance thereof) she wouldn't be so well-suited, but I reckon this is as close to Her Time as her script-writer might have constructed for her.
May just genuinely seems to be popular. Honeymoon continues.
I just dont get it. There is nothing particularly likeable about mays public persona, comes across the technocrats technocrat. I get why people like Boris despite being a bonking bungler or blair, but may there is nothing to really like or really hate.
At a time where everything is chaos politically, and everyone else is trying to fire up division through outrage and sensationalism, she is calm, willing to listen to people she disagrees with and doing what she feels the country wants
I don't think she is likeable; indeed I foresee a potential that she becomes quite disliked. But people do recognise she has a very difficult job not of her own making; deep down most people understand we could so easily have done a lot worse, and so long as she appears to be more or less in charge, and buckles to any issue where there is significant discontent, most people are prepared to give her a go, in the absence of any obviously credible alternatives, Tory or otherwise.
Nevertheless I think things could quickly change if things do take a turn for the worse. Most people aren't paying attention and are happy so long as the world continues to spin. If it starts to go dark, she'll get the blame, sure enough.
I think a big part of May's continuing popularity is people MAKING themselves believe that she's good, because of how serious the situation is right now: people WANT to believe we've got an iron-willed titan at the helm who will make the EU leaders give us a good deal. The alternative (that she's not going to be able to pull off the seemingly impossible task of a successful Brexit) is too scary for Joe Public to contemplate, and so therefore they're not going to contemplate it unless/until necessary.
I don't think extreme Remainers realise how bad they look to people that aren't into politics (i.e. Most) especially when a referendum was just won because people feel politicians don't listen to them.
Someone getting in w the job w minimum fuss looks good by contrast, esp as she campaigned for the losing side
Maybe I am naive, but I never for a minute thought that, should Leave win, MPs would have to debate terms of departure, obviously that's the PMs job. But they can't help themselves
I was reflecting on how panicky Sean T and Fitalass sound.
First Sean T knows nothing about the relationship between Salmond and Sturgeon and . If anything Salmond is more pragmatic than Nicola which is why anyone with any knowledge knew the breathless Kay Burley nonsense on Sky was total mince.
Fitalass is back with her hatred of Salmond. Trouble for her , of course, is that Salmond resigned as First Minister with dignity and a positive leadership rating of +35% on MORI!!!
That Sky News report on the Scottish poll suggests that Nicola has seriously overreached with her demands regarding a future referendum. The journos who reported how she'd ambushed May etc etc also have egg on face. Adam Boulton in yesterday's Sunday Times was claiming Nicola had "comprehensively outplayed" May on the referendum. Maybe not eh Adam?
I was reflecting on how panicky Sean T and Fitalass sound.
First Sean T knows nothing about the relationship between Salmond and Sturgeon and . If anything Salmond is more pragmatic than Nicola which is why anyone with any knowledge knew the breathless Kay Burley nonsense on Sky was total mince.
Fitalass is back with her hatred of Salmond. Trouble for her , of course, is that Salmond resigned as First Minister with dignity and a positive leadership rating of +35% on MORI!!!
Her and Carlotta are two cheeks of the same ars*, like broken records.
Comments
He's a very strange choice as Labour candidate. A failed political journalist who has never actually done a meaningful job, has no experience of management, whose political career was a joke and whom everyone despises is not whom I would have chosen. Steve Bedser would have been a far more formidable choice - but the ballot wasn't even close. Very odd.
On the narrow point you are almost certainly correct of course, but talk about setting the bar low.
The new franchise for the South Western Mainline has provisions for DOO so it could be coming my way in the next couple of years so that won't be much fun.
I'm not economist or demographer, but I still think that we're going through the difficult phase of life expectancy increasing and the baby boomers reaching their 70s. Over the next decade or so we could start to get a steady flow of property becoming available which could ease the situation. The people I worry about are those like my friends who have taken out big mortgages plus government loans as part of help to buy. They could go through a really painful time over the next few years.
A pretty good one will cost at least a million. Top of the range will be £2m-£3m.
He seems to be saying, like Ken Clarke, that he isn't prepared to change views on the key importance of EU membership to the UK which he's held for over 40 years.
He's old enough to have seen the absurd UK antics of
refusing to join the early EU, so France wrote most of the rules, with the Low Countries mostly saying OK and Germany and Italy having no real choice (I don't remember this as I was probably 4-5)
forming EFTA, attracting six other members
then saying 'sod EFTA'
joining the EU
dragging Denmark and Ireland with it into the EU as they didn't want to lose their historic trade links
leaving EFTA with very few members
most of which then applied for EU membership (if you can't beat them, join them...)
She just cocked a smile.. he was not happy.
I think the plan was to coordinate with Article 50 being triggered. I'm around Town next Wednesday. How does that suit others?
http://www.mipim.com/
https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/themes-from-mipim/
(By the way, I know your a Mancunian exile: you really should follow Place North West to get a feel of what's going on in development in Manchester and Liverpool right now. There's more growth currently going on in Manchester than any time since the industrial revolution. An astonishing time to be Mancunian.)
https://twitter.com/MrKenShabby/status/843867610911510530
Melenchon is enjoying himself here, probably the best so far (but obviously too extreme a programme for this to help his chances). Le Pen is god, Macron getting a bit shrill. If Corbyn had a bit of Melenchon's oompf, perhaps Labour wouldn't be doing quite as badly!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Emerson-Park.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION^79760&insId=1&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=&
Two years out, lot's to play for.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/15/theresa-may-and-ruth-davidson-more-popular-than-nicola-sturgeon/
Given that her opposition and the person who she is effectively rated against is Corbyn it is not he most onerous scale to climb.
The point I was originally making though was that even in places generally considered as dumps in London, the buying prices are vast multiples of an average salary.
I have accumulated two sets of in laws over the years, and both lived in areas that were deemed pretty undesirable. Their property is worth over £5m these days. It's mad but I like to see bus drivers, machinists, dinner ladies and carpenters suddenly realise they are multi-millionaires.
You're wrong anyway. His veto was a thinly veiled response to the UK shifting away from an independent foreign policy in the wake of Suez.
I have a colleague buying his first place on help to buy (5% deposit), it's a one bed, practically a studio, zone 4 I think, 350k. I know how much he earns - around 45-50k - and I know how eye-watering the fees on the govt top up (of 40% of the home's value) are once the 5 year grace period is up - on top of the mortgage. I can't see it ending well.
The property market must be nearing its peak - my flat has barely budged this year compared to gains of 10-15% in years past and I fear a lot of people, many of them families with young kids, will be the worst affected when it goes pop.
Ironically help to buy did nothing but accelerate the property boom as far as I can tell, pushing house prices even further out of ordinary people's reach.
While this is a bit tangential to Brexit you have to feel that the huge numbers of people flocking to the UK and in particular London has done more harm than good. I used to rent a truly grim one bedroom flat in my twenties (at just shy of a grand a month) and the flat above was occupied by six, count 'em, six immigrants - all in a space that was barely fit for one.
Those people can always go home but this is and always has been my home and I'm not bloody going anywhere. To borrow the slogan, I and many like me voted to "take back control".
Hate us if you like but there were 52% of us, and we won.
Introducing Marine Le Pen and the Hideous Centrists.
Not 5 days ago Nicola Sturgeon had a +14 good job rating and May a -10 rating with You Gov. Now according to Sky Sturgeon is on -12 and may on -1.
Truly astonishing. The cross tabs will be revelatory.
'On 19 November 2014, Salmond formally resigned as First Minister of Scotland and the election for the new First Minister took place the following day. Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, stood for election. Sturgeon received 66 votes, Davidson received 15 and there were 39 abstentions.'
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/de-gaulle-knew-it-britain-does-not-belong-in-the-eu/
The thing that is quite surprising is that this Scots poll is today following the weekend SNP conference and puts Nicola at minus 12 and Theresa +1 and Ruth + 6..
Also the epetition to stop the referendum is closing in on 200,000 and the map is very interesting showing the individual constituency support
Scotland "could be an independent country" but would risk taking a hit to its public finances, the ex-governor of the Bank of England has said.
Lord King told BBC Newsnight that while questions had been raised over which currency an independent Scotland would use, he did not see "major problems".
But he said it could be a challenge to borrow on the international markets.''
http://tinyurl.com/mq82kr6
http://labourlist.org/2017/03/gorton-selection-longlist-revealed/
Nearly all pretty local.
There were was very, very strong political will for deeper integration in the rest of Europe (even if the desire was not widespread among the European demoi - and I use demoi rather than demos for a reason). The British public have obviously had little truck for all this, and UK politicians have have been sufficiently wary not to sign up for The Full Programme as a result. But this doesn't resolve the ultimate problem of Britain's place in Europe, which is the direction of travel and what kind of fit the UK would be when the rest reach a state of quasi-federal union. If you don't share the common aims of the majority of members, your interests are going to diverge from the rest of the club in the end. Just a matter of time. And if the others coalesce, so do their interests, which gives precariously little leverage to whoever is the odd one left out.
I also think Maastricht, or even Lisbon (possibly with a couple more opt-outs for the UK) would have been a winnable referendum for the government. The Constitution I don't think would have been salable, on name alone, but if its core articles had been rebadged, I think it may just have got through. Experience of referenda in other countries suggests a way around would have been found. The idea that an earlier British referendum would have "killed European integration stone dead" seems fanciful to me.
As a result I'm not sure that the pressure valve of a referendum - even one won by anti-federalist forces - would have ultimately averted Brexit. But then, I'm not certain whether Brexit was an inevitably either, though I think it was always very likely in the long run.
There are only a few other paths I can see as having been potentially viable, given my belief that the ad hoc, half-in, half-opted-out, Schrödinger's membership of the EU would prove to be unstable. One possibility is we could have ended up in a formally structured associate membership - in market Europe, not inside political Europe, so far as those politics strayed beyond trading issues. This seems contrary to the philosophy or driving forces of the EU, though, so may never have been realistic (much as I thought that Cameron missed a trick by not even trying to negotiate something like this), and from a domestic point of view, may not have satisfied voters on the immigration issue.
But pre-Brexit, did young'uns here share similar levels of European identity to those in core EU states? The massive drop-off in Modern Foreign Languages qualifications (and British ones are so low-level as to hardly be indications of either linguistic fluency or more general cultural, political or business interchange) means this would surprise me.
I hope Brexit triggers a fall in the London property market. I hope BTL landlords exploiting housing benefit are screwed. I hope that subsidised immigration is ended.
I was on the verge of voting UKIP in 2014 having walked out of a home in east London having seen a Lithuanian woman pulling in £40k in welfare to get a three bed house in return for 16 hours work. I pulled back in the booth because I loathe Farage.
I don't blame the woman. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? I blame the fools that designed the free movement system and the non-prejudicial rules on welfare.
They are idiots . They are the architects of Brexit.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^11937&index=24
Nevertheless I think things could quickly change if things do take a turn for the worse. Most people aren't paying attention and are happy so long as the world continues to spin. If it starts to go dark, she'll get the blame, sure enough.
She also seems calm and steely, which count as pluses at times like this. For times that require more common touch or televisually-transmissible empathy (or the Oscar-deserving semblance thereof) she wouldn't be so well-suited, but I reckon this is as close to Her Time as her script-writer might have constructed for her.
Someone getting in w the job w minimum fuss looks good by contrast, esp as she campaigned for the losing side
Maybe I am naive, but I never for a minute thought that, should Leave win, MPs would have to debate terms of departure, obviously that's the PMs job. But they can't help themselves
First Sean T knows nothing about the relationship between Salmond and Sturgeon and . If anything Salmond is more pragmatic than Nicola which is why anyone with any knowledge knew the breathless Kay Burley nonsense on Sky was total mince.
Fitalass is back with her hatred of Salmond. Trouble for her , of course, is that Salmond resigned as First Minister with dignity and a positive leadership rating of +35% on MORI!!!