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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Tonight’s NEW PB/ Polling Matters podcast: What drives how we vote + public opinion on a customs union & a united Ireland
On this week’s PB/Polling Matters podcast, Keiran Pedley and Leo Barasi look at the demographic and ideological trends shaping our politics and how they drive voting intention.
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barred at the NI border.
Not being imaginative enough to think up different shits to compare Jewish people to than the shits that actually tried to exterminate them all is pretty fucking insulting.
That would be fine for a transition, before a full FTA. But that transition needs to have a sunset clause.
Everything west and south of Newton Abbot
Exeter to Barnstaple
Exeter to Exmouth
Yeovil to Weymouth
Craven Arms to Knighton
Retford to Barnetby via Brigg
Habrough to Barton-on-Humber
Stockport to Guide Bridge
Clitheroe to Hellifield
Darlington to Bishop Auckland
Darlington to Eaglescliffe to Saltburn
Middlesbrough to Whitby
Barrow to Carlisle
On your point, as you say, Israel seem to lack any kind of strategy here. It is worse than a crime, it is an error. In the long run, brute force is not going to be enough.
The Swiss Federal Railways are impressive. They didn't have a 'Beeching' and the tracks are 100% electrified.
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Not quite, some narrow gauge lines are diesel (eg. Chur to Arosa).
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Maybe the online sources have rounded it up from '>99' to 100%. It's somewhere in that range.
It would be nice for the UK to be able to have an argument whether its figure is 99% or 100%, not a pathetic debate whether to electrify busy main lines west of London which would still only take the figure up to about 60% (passenger km).
For some others it's a deliberately offensive insult.
And for yet some others it's a way of delegitimising the very concept of Israel, of a home for Jews. If that Jewish home is no better than Nazis, why would we want it to exist any more than we would want Nazism to exist?
Distinguishing between the unimaginatively offensive and those who have an agenda is increasingly tiresome.
There are plenty of good reasons for criticising what Israel does without needing to make hyperbolic, insulting and usually wholly untrue statements which tend to reflect badly on those making them and detract from the force or otherwise of the criticism.
But those who do the whole "Israel is the new Nazi Germany" shtick are following the dictum of that infamous Nazi, Goebbels, - "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
I think though Mr Tyndall is wrong in what he says: Israel - the land of Israel (rather than any political state) - is pretty central to Judaism, Jewish ceremonies and key Jewish religious remembrance days. Asking Jews to pretend that this is not so is like asking Muslims to pretend that Mecca is not central to their religion.
And, from the previous thread, on what has been happening in Gaza in recent days -
Even if most of those killed were members of Hamas Israel's actions seem to me (based only on what I have been reading) to be disproportionate, possibly crimes and foolish since they do nothing to calm an already inflamed and difficult situation and perpetuate a vicious cycle of grievance, martyrdom, reaction, defensiveness, aggression and fear.
I do not hold with the seemingly fashionable view that Israel is wholly to blame and wholly evil and the Palestinians are purely innocent victims. The situation is much more complicated. But Israel does not seem to me to have an intelligent long-term strategy and, as the stronger party, is behaving in a way which, quite apart from any other considerations, risks weakening its long-term position.
https://twitter.com/JewishChron/status/996311309162557441
From the Israeli perspective they have an opponent who still challenges their right to exist.
I can quite see why they think that, until Hamas is willing to enter into meaningful negotiations, then to show (what they would view as) weakness is a mistake.
I would have thought (without being any more than an armchair general) it would be possible to control a demonstration with non-lethal forms of crowd control. But for 50 of the 62 fatalities to be members of Hamas (i.e. active terrorists) is a high strike rate.
Edit: And Paris commuter trains do actually make ours look good.
Now I didn't make that point on the last thread because I agree with it. I am in no position to judge these things. But I did want to make it clear that criticism of Israel in no way equates with criticism of Judaism. Indeed there are plenty of Jews criticising Israel right now.
A good example is the closure of the Wycombe railway from Bourne End to High Wycombe. It is only about 5 miles so can't have cost very much but would be a very useful link between the Greast West and Chiltern mainlines.
Bucks CC are now talking about a reopening but the problem is that some of the former alignment has been built on. If they had closed the routes and safeguarded the alignments there wouldn't be such a problem reopening.
"The Plan also called for Economic Union between the proposed states, and for the protection of religious and minority rights."
This is a little annoyance about Beeching: he gets blamed for all line closures, when many occurred before and after his report. Also, some lines he signalled for closure remained open, whilst others that should have remained open under his plan were closed.
He only gave recommendations, and it was up to the government to decide - and both Labour and Conservative governments did so. He was political cover.
More Brexit bad news: https://news.sky.com/story/red-warnings-for-uks-post-brexit-nuclear-safeguards-11374097
What to do ... grovel to the EU to prolong A50 until this can be done safely? Someone really should have thought of this.
BTW, when you do the Cumbrian Coast, make sure you catch the Class 37 hauled service.
The Beeching Cuts were essentially an ass-covering exercise by government. Both Labour and the Conservatives wanted the railways to stop haemorrhaging money, and either could have stopped the closures if they had desired. In fact, they did in some cases (famously the loss-making Mid Wales line, which ran through several Labour constituencies). In other cases, lines that were not in the report were closed (e.g. Matlock to Buxton).
Don't blame Beeching: he did what his political masters asked of him. Although as Richard T says below, the data on which he made his decisions was limited, generally he got it right and there are far more lines rightfully closed - even with hindsight - than were wrongly closed.
Even the Great Central closure made sense at the time, as did the Waverley.
The real shame was not keeping the routes intact so they could be reopened if necessary later - the land was often sold off piecemeal with undue haste. Witness also (allegedly) the destruction of the GC route through Nottingham. A massively wasted opportunity.
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/996764866978426880?s=20
In much of rural Britain, bus is still better at getting you from A to B than the defunct rail lines ever were.
Love it!!
I've also heard of no *serious* proposals on the Nottingham to Melton line - and users of the Lady Bay Bridge in Nottingham may not be best pleased ...
This is annoying, as all of Leicester to Burton, and most of Nottingham to Melton, are intact lines (the former for freight, the latter as a test track). If these cannot be economically reopened, there is little chance of serious re openings of lines that are not mostly extant.
I do think the Robin hood line extension (I think again partly along a test track) is the most likely of the three projects to go ahead.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11900504/New-SNP-MP-suspended-amid-property-probe.html
https://mobile.twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/996815632523059200
What an utterly ridiculous comment. Though given how the nationalised Network Rail has mucked things up recently, perhaps a Third World railway is what proponents of renationalisation really want ...
Unfortunately the big canal project in the area is facing similar problems as it is still effectively open almost all of the way from Grantham to the centre of Nottingham but where it is crossed by the new roads at West Bridgford it is impassable.
The Baltics actually want us there. It’s Russia they’re afraid of. What moral or lawful right does Russia have from preventing those countries from joining NATO?
None.
Less than none, given the record of Soviet imperialism.
Sad to see Thornberry join the far left, Putin-stooges.
In other news:
https://twitter.com/billbrowder/status/996700056471396352?s=21
Of course Michelle Thomson was found to be guilty of FA, even though she resigned the whip. Will Mr Chapman be resigning the whip after admitting his error?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44125502
I suppose the fact that most of them are incredibly ignorant about Russia helps.
Railway economics is an absolutely fascinating subject.
Actually, the Grantham Canal project is a perfect example of how not to reopen a canal/ They've done very well, but the piecemeal approach means that the sections that are open can become relatively unused and rather weed-strewn, and lack of use leads to other issues.
And it will not be properly reopened unless they also reopen the Belvoir tramway ...
That must have been a fascinating dissertation. I'm interested in the reopening of the Varsity line, and was fascinated by the analysis they did about point-to-point traffic demands for the initial decisions about the routing of the central section. I'd always reckoned they just guessed these things...
I also had a telephone interview with Norman Baker about the Lewes-Uckfield line.
Quite honestly, I was living the dream.