You know that might actually be right.. the political currents that go through the Bengali community are a bit of a mystery. [I voted in BG and Bow rather than Devon]. I'd imagine the non-Muslim part of the electorate will favour Labour but Tower Hamlets is gentrifying at a phenomenal rate.
Interesting insight. Looking forward to the Tory, UKIP, LD and SNP threads when they're published.
Given the overwhelming majority of comments on the site are from Tories there is no need. Don provides a touch of balance.
I think the last survey of how PB posters voted in 2015 had it pretty similar to the UK as a whole but with slightly more LDs and slightly fewer UKIP voters
Which survey was that?
I can't remember exactly but as Foxinsox says it had PB Tories a shade under 40% and PB Labour around 30%, PB LDs were around 10% and PB UKIP in single figures (Plus of course the Nats like Scotslass and MalcG)
I think LDs, Lab and Con were all in the 20-30 range, and a sprinkling of others. It might have been an informal thing.
The allegiance of frequent posters may be different to the occasional posters and lurkers. There are usually around several hundred entries in prediction contests, many from seldom posters.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
As I said on the previous thread, I hope to be wrong and if I am you can all point and laugh at me.
Too many unexpected and strange things have been happening in politics in recent years to be entirely comfortable.
And even if the Tories win, even if they win big, really, has anyone been impressed by how May - and the rest of the Cabinet - have conducted themselves? Anyone?
Corbyn has lied, Abbott has behaved like a very slow dim 4 year old, McDonnell - yuk - but they've all been remarkably focused on making some sort of case for voting Labour, however away with the fairies that case might be.
Whereas as far as Brexit is concerned, we're no wiser now than 7 weeks ago at what May will do or ask for or say when she sits down in 9 days time with EU negotiators. So what will it all have been for, then? What mandate will anyone have given her
There were also many polls which showed Leave ahead and of course the LA Times and IBID had Trump ahead nationally and Trafalgar Group in Florida and Michigan and Pennsylvania, no poll has had Corbyn ahead the entire campaign
Interesting insight. Looking forward to the Tory, UKIP, LD and SNP threads when they're published.
Given the overwhelming majority of comments on the site are from Tories there is no need. Don provides a touch of balance.
I think the last survey of how PB posters voted in 2015 had it pretty similar to the UK as a whole but with slightly more LDs and slightly fewer UKIP voters
Which survey was that?
I can't remember exactly but as Foxinsox says it had PB Tories a shade under 40% and PB Labour around 30%, PB LDs were around 10% and PB UKIP in single figures (Plus of course the Nats like Scotslass and MalcG)
I think LDs, Lab and Con were all in the 20-30 range, and a sprinkling of others. It might have been an informal thing.
The allegiance of frequent posters may be different to the occasional posters and lurkers. There are usually around several hundred entries in prediction contests, many from seldom posters.
A Nojam for Thursday would be appreciated!
You may be right but certainly Tories did not make up a majority of posters, only a plurality
@BilHod: Liam Gallagher once called Chris Martin a "geography teacher who makes music for bedwetters." @ArianaGrande to sort Brexit negotiations next
Saw them at Wembley last year, best stadium band by far. Brilliant musicians, some great songs, Fix You probably already a classic
I do. There are few band who are as good live as they are. I can't think of many more charismatic frontmen than Chris Martin (plus my missus wets herself every time she sees him), and I doubt there are many better guitarists than Jonny Buckland.
As a drummer myself, I also know how good Will Champion is.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Of course. I suspect that, even in the Guardian, she would get a very rough ride. An appallingly misjudged and insultingly stupid article, even as she articulates the experience rather well.
One thing is, I thought 52% of voters were moronic racist thugs. In which case you'd expect to be seeing large start-of-Frankenstein-film mobs with torches and pitchforks heading towards the mosques. Doesn't seem to be happening...
All this talk of hard and soft Brexit is just mush. We'll get the Brexit we're offered by the rest of the EU. If we're prepared to accept FoM we'll stay in the Single Market and customs union and gently and slowly tiptoe out of all the rest. That would be quite good for some but hated by others.
If we won't, we'll get what we're given at least in the short term and will spend the next decade negotiating most of the rest. Brexit may or may not turn out to be worthwhile in the medium and long term but the idea that we will know whether we have a good deal (if it is something other than the above) by March 2019 is fanciful.
Avoiding an immediate crash would be good, frankly. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks of how May operates has given me any confidence and I doubt whether EU negotiators or EU political leaders have been particularly impressed either.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
As I said on the previous thread, I hope to be wrong and if I am you can all point and laugh at me.
Too many unexpected and strange things have been happening in politics in recent years to be entirely comfortable.
And even if the Tories win, even if they win big, really, has anyone been impressed by how May - and the rest of the Cabinet - have conducted themselves? Anyone?
Corbyn has lied, Abbott has behaved like a very slow dim 4 year old, McDonnell - yuk - but they've all been remarkably focused on making some sort of case for voting Labour, however away with the fairies that case might be.
Whereas as far as Brexit is concerned, we're no wiser now than 7 weeks ago at what May will do or ask for or say when she sits down in 9 days time with EU negotiators. So what will it all have been for, then? What mandate will anyone have given her?
Very true. When she wins she won't be able to claim that she has achieved any sort of mandate for anything to do with Brexit.
Immaterial in the event of a three-figure majority. May will be able to do what she likes. Within reason (i.e. provided she refrains from declaring herself Queen, or declaring war on Peru) she will have untrammelled authority. Any possible Tory rebellion wouldn't be large enough to result in a Parliamentary defeat.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
I, as a Lib Dem member, would not be happy if we put Corbyn in Downing Street.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
With his great knowledge of the Labour party Mr Brind can help us all by completing this sentence. At a time of great danger Diane Abbott is uniquely qualified to become Home Secretary on Friday because..................
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
I, as a Lib Dem member, would not be happy if we put Corbyn in Downing Street.
Neither would I but I do hope for a trashing of labour that leads to a new future for the left but I'm osiibly smoking the wrong tobacco
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
I, as a Lib Dem member, would not be happy if we put Corbyn in Downing Street.
Fear not. Labour are going to be decimated on Thursday night.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
if she gets a clear majority no one will give shit
however PMQs could be more interesting if Jezza has found his mojo
Having spent much of last week panicking about a Tory majority in the low twenties or even NOM, I am now of the opinion it will be closer to a landslide.
It may be nothing more than platitudes but "enough is enough" is the line people will remember in the polling booth and the line that will convince former kippers, especially traditional Labour seats, who may have last week been returning home, to vote Conservative instead.
I think the youth turnout will be high, but it will not be concentrated in the key marginals where the battle is really fought and once again the young will scratch their heads and wonder how they could have lost. ESPECIALLY if they actually get out and vote this time.
Here's my theory: It's not age that determines whether or not you vote. It's missed opportunity.
People start voting once they've had the opportunity to vote a couple of times, have chosen not to, and seen the other side win and use that win to enact policies they don't like.
Usually this takes 10, maybe even 15 years. But with two elections and a referendum in just a little over two years, the young have grown up fast, so to speak. And I think they will vote.
This election is more 1992 than 1983.
How many more years until Labour are ready for a Blair-like figure?
Surely he could equally be argued a majority of 100 gives May room to avoid being boxed in by anti EU rebels?
Is there any evidence that TMay wants a hard Brexit? Sure she's talking tough for the gallery but I have no idea what her idea of the best Brexit might be. And maybe that's part of the problem because it allows her opponents to paint her views with their own brush.
If she gets a majority of 100 and then promptly makes Ben Gummer Brexit Secretary and replaces Boris with Davis as the Times has suggested it may indeed be she is more willing to compromise with the EU than first appeared before the election
And that would be unsurprising. May's position on Brexit is not as it is sometimes portrayed. She's left herself a lot of room to compromise on money, and there's no particular reason to suppose that the Government couldn't get away with entering into any number of transition arrangements, provided that these are not completely open-ended.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
No she will know she is crap , only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular, a cardboard cut out would beat her. It will end in tears, her mediocrity will mean disaster for teh country and her personally, she will resign on health grounds and challenge Dave "Barrow Boy" Cameron as duffest Tory PM ever.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
I, as a Lib Dem member, would not be happy if we put Corbyn in Downing Street.
Fear not. Labour are going to be decimated on Thursday night.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
It will cut short her chances of running in 2022, although who knows how strong they were anyway.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
I have caught up with you, out on bail.
What were you in for malc ? Hows your confidence level for our bet ?
Harry, framed for something , no idea what. Still confident though I cannot even remember what we ended up betting on. PS: Probably because I questioned someones intelligence levels robustly, they had to use sweary words etc I remained a Gentleman.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
No she will know she is crap , only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular, a cardboard cut out would beat her. It will end in tears, her mediocrity will mean disaster for teh country and her personally, she will resign on health grounds and challenge Dave "Barrow Boy" Cameron as duffest Tory PM ever.
only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular
Coldplay fan who also saw them at Wembley.. easily the most impressive show I've ever seen. How many bands can play over twenty songs at a concert?
Hmm. I think it is a generational thing. I saw your posting and my first thought was if I saw a band that played less than 20 songs I would feel cheated. But most of the bands I watch have been around for decades. Of those I have seen in the last couple of years
Springsteen regularly does 30 plus songs - 33 when I saw him at Coventry last year Fleetwood Mac did 23 at Leeds in 2015 The Eagles did 27 at Leeds the year before ELO did 20 at Nottingham
Even the young upstarts Suede did 27 at Leeds last year.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Are you saying that Tory MPs would vote through tax rises specially to pay a Brexit bill? I'd have thought Benjamin Netanyahu is more likely to come out for Jezza myself but it takes all sorts..
If the majority was 100+ there's very little she couldn't have forced through, realistically.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
No, he needs to be considerably closer than that. TMay will get all the Unionists, because they loathe Corbyn. I'm also really not sure the LDs would want to be tainted by Corbyn, in a government likely to fall apart in a few months, as the SNP and Labour fall out (which they would, and they could both be badly damaged by the association).
It really would be a Coalition of Chaos. Lab + SNP + Plaid (maybe). At least they would be united in their hatred of Britain.
LOL, you wobbling again Sean. It would be a hoot , much better than 5 years hard labour under the Tories.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
It will cut short her chances of running in 2022, although who knows how strong they were anyway.
Now the members have the final say the men in grey suits are less influential unless they can get all MPs to agree on a replacement candidate as when they replaced IDS with Howard, otherwise they risk replacing May with Leadsom
"Focus on the polling average — Conservatives ahead by 7 points — rather than only the polls you like. But assume there’s a wide range of outcomes and that the errors are equally likely to come in either direction. Given the poor historical accuracy of U.K. polls, in fact, the true margin of error on the Labour-Conservative margin is plus or minus 10 points. That would imply that anything from a 17-point Conservative win to a 3-point Labour win is possible. And even an average polling error would make the difference between May expanding her majority and losing it."
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
No, he needs to be considerably closer than that. TMay will get all the Unionists, because they loathe Corbyn. I'm also really not sure the LDs would want to be tainted by Corbyn, in a government likely to fall apart in a few months, as the SNP and Labour fall out (which they would, and they could both be badly damaged by the association).
It really would be a Coalition of Chaos. Lab + SNP + Plaid (maybe). At least they would be united in their hatred of Britain.
Imagine a Corbyn government in real practical terms rather than a remote possibility. Propped up by Sturgeon and the other riff raff, he would be pulled to pieces by them and indeed his own party.
Sturgeon would eat him for breakfast, and he would start chucking concessions out like confetti. Imagine the reaction of the Unions. They would have more power than they did in the 60s and 70s, and Corbyn would be cowed by them.
The markets would tank, and business confidence and investment would drain out of this country overnight.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
I have caught up with you, out on bail.
What were you in for malc ? Hows your confidence level for our bet ?
Harry, framed for something , no idea what. Still confident though I cannot even remember what we ended up betting on. PS: Probably because I questioned someones intelligence levels robustly, they had to use sweary words etc I remained a Gentleman.
Were you the Cooler King with the baseball or the Alabama lifer with the harmonica and tin cup rattling the bars?
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
No she will know she is crap , only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular, a cardboard cut out would beat her. It will end in tears, her mediocrity will mean disaster for teh country and her personally, she will resign on health grounds and challenge Dave "Barrow Boy" Cameron as duffest Tory PM ever.
only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular
Nicola Sturgeon presumably
I am not rising to the bait , just thinking what I will spend my winnings on.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
I have caught up with you, out on bail.
What were you in for malc ? Hows your confidence level for our bet ?
Harry, framed for something , no idea what. Still confident though I cannot even remember what we ended up betting on. PS: Probably because I questioned someones intelligence levels robustly, they had to use sweary words etc I remained a Gentleman.
Were you the Cooler King with the baseball or the Alabama lifer with the harmonica and tin cup rattling the bars?
I guess too few people round here play poker or have benefited from negotiation skills training. In the utterly brutal, real world of international politics, and holding the economic and political future of the entire country in her hands, why the eff would Mrs May or any other PM say a single word about their negotiating positions in public?
(Note to PM: Schtum, please. Please.)
In any event, the complex-to-the-max negotiations will necessitate constant changes and rethinks, fancy footwork and hard bargaining. It will not be a trip to the shops, shooting fish in barrels or a game of spoof. It's the highest possible stakes poker, those stakes being the livelihood and security of millions. Actually, hundreds of millions.
May and the Brexit team must give no hostages to fortune but must show close-mouthed courage and fortitude, keep their knowledge and wits about them and cards close to chests.
As for those armchair experts who think nothing Brexity has been happening in Whitehall since the referendum, a couple of questions.
1. How the eff would you know?
2. How would *you* have spent the months between then and now? Looking at the hundreds of thousand of legal positions to be raised? Preparing yourself, possibly? Boning up on your facts? Sizing up the enemy? Hiring people smarter than you? You know, any of that stuff?
Coldplay fan who also saw them at Wembley.. easily the most impressive show I've ever seen. How many bands can play over twenty songs at a concert?
Hmm. I think it is a generational thing. I saw your posting and my first thought was if I saw a band that played less than 20 songs I would feel cheated. But most of the bands I watch have been around for decades. Of those I have seen in the last couple of years
Springsteen regularly does 30 plus songs - 33 when I saw him at Coventry last year Fleetwood Mac did 23 at Leeds in 2015 The Eagles did 27 at Leeds the year before ELO did 20 at Nottingham
Even the young upstarts Suede did 27 at Leeds last year.
Springsteen played 8pm-12:30am in Rome at the Circus Maximus - I think he played damn near his whole back catalogue...
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
No she will know she is crap , only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular, a cardboard cut out would beat her. It will end in tears, her mediocrity will mean disaster for teh country and her personally, she will resign on health grounds and challenge Dave "Barrow Boy" Cameron as duffest Tory PM ever.
only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular
Nicola Sturgeon presumably
I am not rising to the bait , just thinking what I will spend my winnings on.
All this talk of hard and soft Brexit is just mush. We'll get the Brexit we're offered by the rest of the EU. If we're prepared to accept FoM we'll stay in the Single Market and customs union and gently and slowly tiptoe out of all the rest. That would be quite good for some but hated by others.
If we won't, we'll get what we're given at least in the short term and will spend the next decade negotiating most of the rest. Brexit may or may not turn out to be worthwhile in the medium and long term but the idea that we will know whether we have a good deal (if it is something other than the above) by March 2019 is fanciful.
Avoiding an immediate crash would be good, frankly. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks of how May operates has given me any confidence and I doubt whether EU negotiators or EU political leaders have been particularly impressed either.
No matter what we won't stay in the Customs Union. Nor is it necessary even if we had to accept FoM. None of the EFTA countries are in the Customs Union for the very good reason that it prevents you negotiating your own trade deals.
Labour stronghold, UKIP 2nd in every Council seat GE 2015, UKIP 2nd Massive leave vote UKIP campaigning almost exclusively on anti Islam/opposing mosques etc from Day 1 Farage visited Friday Jihadis arrested in the borough Sunday and Monday Old school Labour I have asked are v reluctant to vote Tory
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
Do you think her inevitable big win will make up for disappointing on the campaign, or will the men in gray suits slowly and patiently start to weave their magic?
No she will know she is crap , only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular, a cardboard cut out would beat her. It will end in tears, her mediocrity will mean disaster for teh country and her personally, she will resign on health grounds and challenge Dave "Barrow Boy" Cameron as duffest Tory PM ever.
only lucky she is up against someone more unpopular
Nicola Sturgeon presumably
I am not rising to the bait , just thinking what I will spend my winnings on.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
FPT Ishmael: the reason that you're not seeing Muslim authorities condemning the attacks in the strongest terms isthat you're not reading/viewing the media that bother to report it. Take e.g.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or pen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
No, he needs to be considerably closer than that. TMay will e SNP and Labour fall out (which they would, and they could both be badly damaged by the association).
It really would be a Coalition of Chaos. Lab + SNP + Plaid (maybe). At least they would be united in their hatred of Britain.
Imagine a Corbyn government in real practical terms rather than a remote possibility. Propped up by Sturgeon and the other riff raff, he would be pulled to pieces by them and indeed his own party.
Sturgeon would eat him for breakfast, and he would start chucking concessions out like confetti. Imagine the reaction of the Unions. They would have more power than they did in the 60s and 70s, and Corbyn would be cowed by them.
The markets would tank, and business confidence and investment would drain out of this country overnight.
It really does not bear thinking about.
Andrew Roberts had a hilarious Sunday Times piece yesterday on the consequences of a Corbyn government including Goldman Sachs leaving London and treating Britain on a par with Guatemala, the Queen dancing with Raul Castro, Emily Thornberry as Minister for Peace, Corbyn refusing to address a future King Charles as anything other than Charles Windsor, Jacob Rees Mogg becoming Tory leader and Theresa May joining the cast of the Archers after her resignation https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/comrade-corbyns-palace-coup-53j5wvvrs
I guess too few people round here play poker or have benefited from negotiation skills training. In the utterly brutal, real world of international politics, and holding the economic and political future of the entire country in her hands, why the eff would Mrs May or any other PM say a single word about their negotiating positions in public?
(Note to PM: Schtum, please. Please.)
In any event, the complex-to-the-max negotiations will necessitate constant changes and rethinks, fancy footwork and hard bargaining. It will not be a trip to the shops, shooting fish in barrels or a game of spoof. It's the highest possible stakes poker, those stakes being the livelihood and security of millions. Actually, hundreds of millions.
May and the Brexit team must give no hostages to fortune but must show close-mouthed courage and fortitude, keep their knowledge and wits about them and cards close to chests.
As for those armchair experts who think nothing Brexity has been happening in Whitehall since the referendum, a couple of questions.
1. How the eff would you know?
2. How would *you* have spent the months between then and now? Looking at the hundreds of thousand of legal positions to be raised? Preparing yourself, possibly? Boning up on your facts? Sizing up the enemy? Hiring people smarter than you? You know, any of that stuff?
Give me a break.
That may all be fine for negotiations. But she asked for a mandate FROM us and she will have to sell whatever deal she reaches TO us.
And the EU side have said that they will make their position papers public.
However good you are at negotiating, if you don't have your client on side and cannot sell whatever you negotiate to them you will fail, no matter how much of the things you describe above you have been doing in advance.
Coldplay fan who also saw them at Wembley.. easily the most impressive show I've ever seen. How many bands can play over twenty songs at a concert?
Hmm. I think it is a generational thing. I saw your posting and my first thought was if I saw a band that played less than 20 songs I would feel cheated. But most of the bands I watch have been around for decades. Of those I have seen in the last couple of years
Springsteen regularly does 30 plus songs - 33 when I saw him at Coventry last year Fleetwood Mac did 23 at Leeds in 2015 The Eagles did 27 at Leeds the year before ELO did 20 at Nottingham
Even the young upstarts Suede did 27 at Leeds last year.
Springsteen played 8pm-12:30am in Rome at the Circus Maximus - I think he played damn near his whole back catalogue...
He has so far written 314 songs and of course does a lot of covers at his shows as well. I have seen him maybe a dozen times now and he is just a phenomenal performer.
Like the Bee Gees just mentioned by SeanT, it is also surprising the songs he has written that were made famous by other people.
"Focus on the polling average — Conservatives ahead by 7 points — rather than only the polls you like. But assume there’s a wide range of outcomes and that the errors are equally likely to come in either direction. Given the poor historical accuracy of U.K. polls, in fact, the true margin of error on the Labour-Conservative margin is plus or minus 10 points. That would imply that anything from a 17-point Conservative win to a 3-point Labour win is possible. And even an average polling error would make the difference between May expanding her majority and losing it."
Of course, Silver came closer than most to getting the US presidential election right, because while his model predicted Clinton was more likely to win than Trump, it also indicated that the outcome was more uncertain than many thought.
All this talk of hard and soft Brexit is just mush. We'll get the Brexit we're offered by the rest of the EU. If we're prepared to accept FoM we'll stay in the Single Market and customs union and gently and slowly tiptoe out of all the rest. That would be quite good for some but hated by others.
If we won't, we'll get what we're given at least in the short term and will spend the next decade negotiating most of the rest. Brexit may or may not turn out to be worthwhile in the medium and long term but the idea that we will know whether we have a good deal (if it is something other than the above) by March 2019 is fanciful.
Avoiding an immediate crash would be good, frankly. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks of how May operates has given me any confidence and I doubt whether EU negotiators or EU political leaders have been particularly impressed either.
No matter what we won't stay in the Customs Union. Nor is it necessary even if we had to accept FoM. None of the EFTA countries are in the Customs Union for the very good reason that it prevents you negotiating your own trade deals.
I would not be at all surprised if TM decides that the final deal should be agreed by a referendum with or without remaing in the EU an option. It shifts the blame squarely on the people.
On thread, I pretty much agree with Don - I'll be delighted but surprised if we actually win, but the recovery from 20 points behind a month ago has been awesome, and I think Theresa's hope for a multiple blank cheque (let us negotiate something with unspecified priorities which will cost an unspecified amount which you'll pay for with unspecified tax rises) is going to be quite rightly denied.
Ah Nick: I thought you might join me in my lonely eyrie as someone prepared to say that Corbyn might just do it.
Have absolutely no model or basis for this. Only that when someone surprises on the upside, does not fall over or make any appalling gaffes and appears reasonable (however unjustifiable in reality this may be), their opponent does the opposite and the mood is for change, then strange (and to me unwelcome) things can happen.
There hasn't been one poll showing Corbyn with a plurality of seats, let alone a majority.
If he becomes PM it will be the biggest polling failure in the history of modern western politics.
Corbyn doesn't need a plurality of seats ..... he simply needs to get within 40ish seats of the Tories and Nicola will see him through the front door of Downing Street. she as good as said as much, plus he'll also receive support from the LibDems, Plaid and the Greens.
No, he needs to be considerably closer than that. TMay will get all the Unionists, because they loathe Corbyn. I'm also really not sure the LDs would want to be tainted by Corbyn, in a government likely to fall apart in a few months, as the SNP and Labour fall out (which they would, and they could both be badly damaged by the association).
It really would be a Coalition of Chaos. Lab + SNP + Plaid (maybe). At least they would be united in their hatred of Britain.
Imagine a Corbyn government in real practical terms rather than a remote possibility. Propped up by Sturgeon and the other riff raff, he would be pulled to pieces by them and indeed his own party.
Sturgeon would eat him for breakfast, and he would start chucking concessions out like confetti. Imagine the reaction of the Unions. They would have more power than they did in the 60s and 70s, and Corbyn would be cowed by them.
The markets would tank, and business confidence and investment would drain out of this country overnight.
It really does not bear thinking about.
All the evidence is that Jezza is as stubborn as a mule, and not a pushover. Frankly, it is near impossible to pressure him into doing something that he doesn't want to do! Indeed his inflexibility may be an issue.
While Theresa seems rather likely to bend with the wind.
You know that might actually be right.. the political currents that go through the Bengali community are a bit of a mystery. [I voted in BG and Bow rather than Devon]. I'd imagine the non-Muslim part of the electorate will favour Labour but Tower Hamlets is gentrifying at a phenomenal rate.
I was at University with Rushanara Ali.
Although I can't pretend to have know her at all... my wife did a little.
There has been little change in the favourites for each constituency in the constituency betting markets-only Hyndburn has flip-flopped from a Tory gain to a Labour gain,making the Corals under/over market on the button at 378.5 Con seats..Depressing as it is from my point of view,we are still in Tory landslide territory if the polls are disregarded and the bookies are correct.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
If the EU were to dig their heels in and say "It's hard Brexit or no Brexit" what would your response be?
(1) As a democrat, and the people have spoken, it will be a hard Brexit. (2) As a fanatical remainer, I would settle for no Brexit. Who cares about democracy when it's the wrong sort? (3) The Jezza response - we will negotiate until we force us to give in.
I suspect that will be the EU offer if they think option 2 is on.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
100 million views. 100 million! And rightly so. A genius song.
Yep. I used to refer to the Bee Gees as one of my guilty pleasures. Now they are just a pleasure and I don't care who knows it.
ABBA are the prime example of this phenomonen.
I can see why people like Coldplay. They're perfectly agreeable. But I can't see why people absolutely love them. But I have nothing against them and have no issue for those whose boat is well and truly floated by that sort of thing. Abba I entirely get the enthusiasm for, but I can take no more than two and a half songs by them. Far, far too shiny. I need to go and listen to something shouty and discordant by the Fall or some such to recover.
But neither Abba nor Coldplay should be felt guilty about. TSE's tastes, on the other hand...
I have a theory on the youth impact on polling and the potential for it to influence the result. In crude terms we can split that age group into two different groups, roughly equal. One half is slightly more intelligent, more engaged with politics, willing to take part in polls and likes the freebies on offer.
Struggling to reconcile "intelligent" and "like the freebies on offer"
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Anyone else looking forward to the weekend and having this dismal excuse for a campaign behind us.
Theresa May I should think
I have caught up with you, out on bail.
What were you in for malc ? Hows your confidence level for our bet ?
Harry, framed for something , no idea what. Still confident though I cannot even remember what we ended up betting on. PS: Probably because I questioned someones intelligence levels robustly, they had to use sweary words etc I remained a Gentleman.
Were you the Cooler King with the baseball or the Alabama lifer with the harmonica and tin cup rattling the bars?
LOL
I'd watch it though. Some of the screws are a bit evil. Look out for the one with the Eagle tattoo on his chest. You can tell him by his Cuban Heels and the way he swings his hips as he walks the landings.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
100 million views. 100 million! And rightly so. A genius song.
This insecure seeker after coolness (so very cutting from a secure personality like yersel') always liked the Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever is a great movie, and so is the the soundtrack.
Surely he could equally be argued a majority of 100 gives May room to avoid being boxed in by anti EU rebels?
Is there any evidence that TMay wants a hard Brexit? Sure she's talking tough for the gallery but I have no idea what her idea of the best Brexit might be. And maybe that's part of the problem because it allows her opponents to paint her views with their own brush.
If she gets a majority of 100 and then promptly makes Ben Gummer Brexit Secretary and replaces Boris with Davis as the Times has suggested it may indeed be she is more willing to compromise with the EU than first appeared before the election
And that would be unsurprising. May's position on Brexit is not as it is sometimes portrayed. She's left herself a lot of room to compromise on money, and there's no particular reason to suppose that the Government couldn't get away with entering into any number of transition arrangements, provided that these are not completely open-ended.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
100 million views. 100 million! And rightly so. A genius song.
Yep. I used to refer to the Bee Gees as one of my guilty pleasures. Now they are just a pleasure and I don't care who knows it.
ABBA are the prime example of this phenomonen.
I can see why people like Coldplay. They're perfectly agreeable. But I can't see why people absolutely love them. But I have nothing against them and have no issue for those whose boat is well and truly floated by that sort of thing. Abba I entirely get the enthusiasm for, but I can take no more than two and a half songs by them. Far, far too shiny. I need to go and listen to something shouty and discordant by the Fall or some such to recover.
But neither Abba nor Coldplay should be felt guilty about. TSE's tastes, on the other hand...
+1
If anything Coldplay are just a bit of a disappointment. Good first album, then got comfortable churning out the same songs with the odd note changed. Muse exactly the same.
It is possible to make popular music and having massive success and still keep trying to do something interesting. The Arcade Fire won the best Album grammy then came back with something completely different and just as good.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Labour stronghold, UKIP 2nd in every Council seat GE 2015, UKIP 2nd Massive leave vote UKIP campaigning almost exclusively on anti Islam/opposing mosques etc from Day 1 Farage visited Friday Jihadis arrested in the borough Sunday and Monday Old school Labour I have asked are v reluctant to vote Tory
33/1 the Kippers is value
Labour should hold it with Cruddas standing again for them. If they had a crap candidate they'd lose it to the Tories.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Go for it.
Perhaps a moment of silence/reflection at the start...?
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Carrying on as normal is the best tribute to the fallen. Vogue did shoots in the rubble of the East End during the Blitz. Take your inspiration from them!
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Exactly. I've left instructions that if I'm ever in a coma, Abba should be played on a loop in the background - if that doesn't perk me up, switch me off.
On the office party, I think you should go ahead. The meriier the better. There's the obvious point about not letting the terrorists win, and slightly more subtly, if you were a victim, wouldn't you like the party to go ahead anyway?
Mirror PoliticsVerified account @MirrorPolitics 1h1 hour ago More Theresa May claims she's raised the number of armed police - but there's just one problem
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Go for it.
Perhaps a moment of silence/reflection at the start...?
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
I would say do it. This really is a classic example of life having to go on so the bastards don't win. Appreciate your dilemma though.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Go. I doubt those grieving or injured will be offended. And who cares what the terrorists think. And those businesses are providing jobs and need your custom.
Do not be afraid. Pope John Paul II said that when he became Pope and again in Poland under Soviet control.
Regardless of who said it, it's a great way of living your life.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
Coldplay, the Theresa May of 'rock' music.
Prediction: in ten years Coldplay will be seen as unquestionably great. Their problem is they just got too popular, so insecure people (such as yourself, it seems) feel forced to prove their coolness - to separate themselves from the plebs - by sneering at them.
This process happens time and again in pop music. The Bee Gees are an excellent example. Became massively famous, became as reviled as Coldplay. Now no one doubts their enormous talent.
100 million views. 100 million! And rightly so. A genius song.
May is not the Bee Gees. She is not Coldplay. Both wrote their own tunes and demonstrated not only popularity ,but creativity.
If May were a band, she would be Jive Bunny. Popular initially with her nostalgic remixes, but ultimately with nothing much to say.
I agree! i never made the comparison. I was just pointing out that people like to sneer at very popular acts, but these acts are often - usually - very popular because they are very talented.
Though I'm not sure TMay is *quite* as bad as Jive Bunny.
I genuinely can't think of anything original from May. Nothing at all. Mostly carries on what Dave started. Borrows from Ed. Borrows from Nigel. Evokes Maggie through her gender. But offers nothing really of her own at all.
It's remarkable really when you think about it. Not a single idea. Even John Major had his cones hotline.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Go for it.
Perhaps a moment of silence/reflection at the start...?
Followed by four or five hours of noise. Happy noise. Appropriate, absolutely.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Carry on for me.
Is that the one where Barbara Windsors Tartan Bra pops off
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
They say we will not change our way of life which is rubbish.Just by your concern they are changing us.
A genuine dilemma: it's a long-time colleague's leaving do on Friday. A long lunch followed by a booze up has been planned. In Borough Market, right by the company office. Part of me says we should carry on as normal, another part says it would be wholly inappropriate. Thoughts?
Go and celebrate
Yep, that's most likely. We'll see how it looks when they let us back in (looks like Wednesday at the earliest now). Celebrating next to makeshift shrines for the victims and police tape seems crass and insensitive, no matter how important it is to carry on as normal.
He can only be doing this so they can post videos online of him getting large crowds for his speeches....but then only hardcore fans would watch them.
It makes more sense if you think that Corbyn and his pals are running a cult and not a political party. Lots of videos of adoring crowds which can be used in recruitment videos, "persecution" by the powers that be (msm) and a focus on grooming young people.
That last point is my explanation for Labour's decision to promise £11bn to impressionable students instead of improving conditions for actual poor people. It's an investment in the future.
I wonder where they'll build their temple? Land in Islington is expensive.
Comments
The allegiance of frequent posters may be different to the occasional posters and lurkers. There are usually around several hundred entries in prediction contests, many from seldom posters.
A Nojam for Thursday would be appreciated!
As a drummer myself, I also know how good Will Champion is.
I also know the sneering and snobbery aimed at Coldplay is rather pathetic.
If we won't, we'll get what we're given at least in the short term and will spend the next decade negotiating most of the rest. Brexit may or may not turn out to be worthwhile in the medium and long term but the idea that we will know whether we have a good deal (if it is something other than the above) by March 2019 is fanciful.
Avoiding an immediate crash would be good, frankly. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks of how May operates has given me any confidence and I doubt whether EU negotiators or EU political leaders have been particularly impressed either.
however PMQs could be more interesting if Jezza has found his mojo
It may be nothing more than platitudes but "enough is enough" is the line people will remember in the polling booth and the line that will convince former kippers, especially traditional Labour seats, who may have last week been returning home, to vote Conservative instead.
I think the youth turnout will be high, but it will not be concentrated in the key marginals where the battle is really fought and once again the young will scratch their heads and wonder how they could have lost. ESPECIALLY if they actually get out and vote this time.
Here's my theory: It's not age that determines whether or not you vote. It's missed opportunity.
People start voting once they've had the opportunity to vote a couple of times, have chosen not to, and seen the other side win and use that win to enact policies they don't like.
Usually this takes 10, maybe even 15 years. But with two elections and a referendum in just a little over two years, the young have grown up fast, so to speak. And I think they will vote.
This election is more 1992 than 1983.
How many more years until Labour are ready for a Blair-like figure?
https://twitter.com/MichaelLCrick/status/871744304695443458
PS: Probably because I questioned someones intelligence levels robustly, they had to use sweary words etc I remained a Gentleman.
Nicola Sturgeon presumably
Springsteen regularly does 30 plus songs - 33 when I saw him at Coventry last year
Fleetwood Mac did 23 at Leeds in 2015
The Eagles did 27 at Leeds the year before
ELO did 20 at Nottingham
Even the young upstarts Suede did 27 at Leeds last year.
Nate Silver does UK GE post.
"Focus on the polling average — Conservatives ahead by 7 points — rather than only the polls you like. But assume there’s a wide range of outcomes and that the errors are equally likely to come in either direction. Given the poor historical accuracy of U.K. polls, in fact, the true margin of error on the Labour-Conservative margin is plus or minus 10 points. That would imply that anything from a 17-point Conservative win to a 3-point Labour win is possible. And even an average polling error would make the difference between May expanding her majority and losing it."
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-the-u-k-polls-skewed/
I have predicted 156.
Sturgeon would eat him for breakfast, and he would start chucking concessions out like confetti. Imagine the reaction of the Unions. They would have more power than they did in the 60s and 70s, and Corbyn would be cowed by them.
The markets would tank, and business confidence and investment would drain out of this country overnight.
It really does not bear thinking about.
Equally if the Tories have a tiny majority, one if those is Ken Clarke.
I guess too few people round here play poker or have benefited from negotiation skills training. In the utterly brutal, real world of international politics, and holding the economic and political future of the entire country in her hands, why the eff would Mrs May or any other PM say a single word about their negotiating positions in public?
(Note to PM: Schtum, please. Please.)
In any event, the complex-to-the-max negotiations will necessitate constant changes and rethinks, fancy footwork and hard bargaining. It will not be a trip to the shops, shooting fish in barrels or a game of spoof. It's the highest possible stakes poker, those stakes being the livelihood and security of millions. Actually, hundreds of millions.
May and the Brexit team must give no hostages to fortune but must show close-mouthed courage and fortitude, keep their knowledge and wits about them and cards close to chests.
As for those armchair experts who think nothing Brexity has been happening in Whitehall since the referendum, a couple of questions.
1. How the eff would you know?
2. How would *you* have spent the months between then and now? Looking at the hundreds of thousand of legal positions to be raised? Preparing yourself, possibly? Boning up on your facts? Sizing up the enemy? Hiring people smarter than you? You know, any of that stuff?
Give me a break.
Labour stronghold, UKIP 2nd in every Council seat
GE 2015, UKIP 2nd
Massive leave vote
UKIP campaigning almost exclusively on anti Islam/opposing mosques etc from Day 1
Farage visited Friday
Jihadis arrested in the borough Sunday and Monday
Old school Labour I have asked are v reluctant to vote Tory
33/1 the Kippers is value
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/comrade-corbyns-palace-coup-53j5wvvrs
And the EU side have said that they will make their position papers public.
However good you are at negotiating, if you don't have your client on side and cannot sell whatever you negotiate to them you will fail, no matter how much of the things you describe above you have been doing in advance.
Like the Bee Gees just mentioned by SeanT, it is also surprising the songs he has written that were made famous by other people.
Mind you given the general standard of Labour posts on social media I think we should all be grateful.
For example
https://twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant/status/871699538473623552
Of course, Silver came closer than most to getting the US presidential election right, because while his model predicted Clinton was more likely to win than Trump, it also indicated that the outcome was more uncertain than many thought.
While Theresa seems rather likely to bend with the wind.
Although I can't pretend to have know her at all... my wife did a little.
She will not lose, needless to say!
He can only be doing this so they can post videos online of him getting large crowds for his speeches....but then only hardcore fans would watch them.
If May were a band, she would be Jive Bunny. Popular initially with her nostalgic remixes, but ultimately with nothing much to say.
If the EU were to dig their heels in and say "It's hard Brexit or no Brexit" what would your response be?
(1) As a democrat, and the people have spoken, it will be a hard Brexit.
(2) As a fanatical remainer, I would settle for no Brexit. Who cares about democracy when it's the wrong sort?
(3) The Jezza response - we will negotiate until we force us to give in.
I suspect that will be the EU offer if they think option 2 is on.
Abba I entirely get the enthusiasm for, but I can take no more than two and a half songs by them. Far, far too shiny. I need to go and listen to something shouty and discordant by the Fall or some such to recover.
But neither Abba nor Coldplay should be felt guilty about. TSE's tastes, on the other hand...
Doesn't add up literally or metaphorically...
Coldplay are still pish.
If anything Coldplay are just a bit of a disappointment. Good first album, then got comfortable churning out the same songs with the odd note changed. Muse exactly the same.
It is possible to make popular music and having massive success and still keep trying to do something interesting. The Arcade Fire won the best Album grammy then came back with something completely different and just as good.
https://twitter.com/samuelcoates/status/871790471126941696
On the office party, I think you should go ahead. The meriier the better. There's the obvious point about not letting the terrorists win, and slightly more subtly, if you were a victim, wouldn't you like the party to go ahead anyway?
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Theresa May claims she's raised the number of armed police - but there's just one problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxN1STgQXW8
Do not be afraid. Pope John Paul II said that when he became Pope and again in Poland under Soviet control.
Regardless of who said it, it's a great way of living your life.
It's remarkable really when you think about it. Not a single idea. Even John Major had his cones hotline.
That last point is my explanation for Labour's decision to promise £11bn to impressionable students instead of improving conditions for actual poor people. It's an investment in the future.
I wonder where they'll build their temple? Land in Islington is expensive.
WillS.