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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » PB Video Analysis: The Future’s Bright. The Future’s Not Coal.

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Comments

  • On Topic - Having grown up in North Notts, the landscape will look radically different minus the power stations at Cottam and West Burton. They can't be described at pretty, but they are certainly impressive structures, especially on a clear frosty winter morning.

    Of all the nationalised industries, the CEGB is the one we miss the most, especially the R&D capabilities which mean we now have to rely on the French state and China to build new nuclear plant.
  • AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sandpit said:

    Cyclefree said:



    I can't speak for @Cyclefree but personally I would set fire to my ballot paper and drop it in the ballot box.

    Ha! I couldn’t vote for either Corbyn or Boris. I’d probably be a wuss and still vote Lib Dem. Last time my constituency was exactly as you described it and as I liked the Lib Dem candidate I felt he needed some reward for his efforts. And the Lib Dems are probably the closest - if not very close - to my own views, though we also occasionally vote Green in the Cyclefree household.

    But setting my vote on fire is appealing more and more. It’s quite a Boris-like way for @AlistairM to abstain in person though.
    Setting *your* vote on fire isn’t the problem though (and it would be a great protest), it’s setting the rest of the ballot box on fire that may cause you to be in a little trouble.
    I will have @AlistairM to defend me ......
    Surely he will be a co-defendant in the great ballot box arson trial of 2022.
    As a way to end my legal career, it has a certain panache.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    Tony said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.

    Here in Cumbria we are ca. 200 feet above sea level so we should be safe. The beach hut may not survive though..... :(

    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    Exactly, you couldn't script a better example of the disconnect between the Westminster/media bubble and the electorate than the Boris row.

    I'd expect over 75% of the public would completely agree with Boris and the attacks on him just reignite positive poll ratings for him. Every day it's in the news adds a few % to his rating as next PM.

    My advice to him would be to follow up with the only person who should be apologising is May for the shambles she's made of Brexit piece.

    Tory MP's will vote for someone who can win, when polls start showing an even greater lead for Boris than any other PM candidate he'll walk into the members vote.
    Sure, Niqabs and Burkas are unpopular, and I do not like them. I have no problem with hijabs as even the queen sometimes wears a headscarf, and they were unremarkeable in my childhood in Wigan. Insulting the wearer is not likely to get progress on the issue though, particularly if it isolates those pressured into compliance by friends and family. I see it as intrinsically misogynist, but do not want it banned nationally. I would be happy though for workplaces to be able to ban it as part of employee dress code. That is already possible, such as my hospital dress code.

    If Tories want to go down the route of shallow populism led by a narcisstic buffoon with no attention or administrative ability, then I am happy to let them get on with it.

  • DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    On Topic - Having grown up in North Notts, the landscape will look radically different minus the power stations at Cottam and West Burton. They can't be described at pretty, but they are certainly impressive structures, especially on a clear frosty winter morning.

    Of all the nationalised industries, the CEGB is the one we miss the most, especially the R&D capabilities which mean we now have to rely on the French state and China to build new nuclear plant.

    During the privatisation debates, Mrs Thatcher claimed that it was private enterprise that had built the first power stations. In fact, almost all of them were built by local authorities. These days, councils are barely trusted to regulate traffic speeds outside primary schools.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,683
    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,778

    Sandpit said:

    What will LibDems do when 1000s of radical and far right activists join them in order to game the leadership election?

    Surely every other party has learned from what happened with Labour “opening up the debate”?

    The LDs would end up either taken over by the #FBPE Twittermob who spend all day talking to each other, or a bunch of student anarchists who are always in the news for the wrong reasons.

    Luckily the leader has to be an MP, so they’ve 11 to choose from once Uncle Vince stands down.
    Werent' they changing the rules to open it up more.

    Seems like a dangerous game to play here. Politics is being dominated by extremists of all sides.
    To repeat. This is insanity. Bonkers. Madness. Every word you can think of to do with unhinged state of mind.

    Has Vince totally lost it?
  • DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    Thanks for both the video and the discussion: advantages and disadvantages of different sources of energy is one of the drier topics at GCSE, so any additional information will help. Now all I need to do is remember it in a months time when I start teaching again.

    I love August.

    When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Uncertainty-Principle-Goes-11/dp/1944648526

    How to explain heavy metal to 15-year-olds is left as an exercise for the physics teacher.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,628

    Sandpit said:

    What will LibDems do when 1000s of radical and far right activists join them in order to game the leadership election?

    Surely every other party has learned from what happened with Labour “opening up the debate”?

    The LDs would end up either taken over by the #FBPE Twittermob who spend all day talking to each other, or a bunch of student anarchists who are always in the news for the wrong reasons.

    Luckily the leader has to be an MP, so they’ve 11 to choose from once Uncle Vince stands down.
    Werent' they changing the rules to open it up more.

    Seems like a dangerous game to play here. Politics is being dominated by extremists of all sides.
    To repeat. This is insanity. Bonkers. Madness. Every word you can think of to do with unhinged state of mind.

    Has Vince totally lost it?
    Maybe he realises the LibDem brand is completely Ratnered, so he will allow its new broader membership to park it in the Sidings of Obscurity - as he legs it to the new United party.....
  • TonyTony Posts: 159

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    Just what Edinburgh needs in August. A ******* politician blocking up the streets. As if they were not cluttered with enough pond life already.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,633
    .

    Thanks for both the video and the discussion: advantages and disadvantages of different sources of energy is one of the drier topics at GCSE, so any additional information will help. Now all I need to do is remember it in a months time when I start teaching again.

    I love August.

    When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Uncertainty-Principle-Goes-11/dp/1944648526

    How to explain heavy metal to 15-year-olds is left as an exercise for the physics teacher.
    Motörhead?
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=pWB5JZRGl0U
  • logical_songlogical_song Posts: 9,914
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892
    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,414
    Foxy said:

    Tony said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.

    Here in Cumbria we are ca. 200 feet above sea level so we should be safe. The beach hut may not survive though..... :(

    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    Exactly, you couldn't script a better example of the disconnect between the Westminster/media bubble and the electorate than the Boris row.

    I'd expect over 75% of the public would completely agree with Boris and the attacks on him just reignite positive poll ratings for him. Every day it's in the news adds a few % to his rating as next PM.

    My advice to him would be to follow up with the only person who should be apologising is May for the shambles she's made of Brexit piece.

    Tory MP's will vote for someone who can win, when polls start showing an even greater lead for Boris than any other PM candidate he'll walk into the members vote.
    Sure, Niqabs and Burkas are unpopular, and I do not like them. I have no problem with hijabs as even the queen sometimes wears a headscarf, and they were unremarkeable in my childhood in Wigan. Insulting the wearer is not likely to get progress on the issue though, particularly if it isolates those pressured into compliance by friends and family. I see it as intrinsically misogynist, but do not want it banned nationally. I would be happy though for workplaces to be able to ban it as part of employee dress code. That is already possible, such as my hospital dress code.

    If Tories want to go down the route of shallow populism led by a narcisstic buffoon with no attention or administrative ability, then I am happy to let them get on with it.

    You are a Wiganer Foxy? And yes it was unusual to see an adult woman without a headscarf in Lancashire a surprisingly short time ago.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,868
    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    Careful or the remainers might start frothing about how the lights might turn off if there's a no deal Brexit.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,628
    DavidL said:

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    Just what Edinburgh needs in August. A ******* politician blocking up the streets. As if they were not cluttered with enough pond life already.
    Perhaps Mrs May could sell tickets to her Fringe event - The Joys of The Chequers Proposal.

    Wouldn't need to be a big venue.....
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,414
    Scott_P said:
    Ironically, their policies will be to keep everything pretty much the same. And they'll end up squabbling.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892
    MaxPB said:

    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    Careful or the remainers might start frothing about how the lights might turn off if there's a no deal Brexit.
    And we are buying another GW from the Dutch too. Thankfully the imports from Eire have stopped for the time being. The complete failure to commission any energy plants during most of the Blair/Brown years has really come back to haunt us.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,628
    Tony said:

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
    You can see why they run scared of Boris. He pretty much single-handedly f*cked up the Referendum result for them. And now he's going to f*ck up BINO for them too.

    Which is a lot of misplaced fear, if he is as much of a clown as they keep telling us he is....
  • DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    We are importing 2GW from France because France is selling the unwanted power from its nukes very cheaply, as it always does in the summer when demand is low. We could quite easily generate it ourselves if we wanted to, but it simply makes sense to buy spare French electricity in the summer.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    You are Ken Livingstone and I claim my £5.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,683
    edited August 2018
    Tony said:

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
    Brexit aside, it's patently obvious that Boris is planning to relaunch his career on a Trumpite agenda of easy populism, shock-and-awe quick fixes and dark hints about the non-native. I wouldn't expect Tory One-Nation types to endorse that even if Boris had been a Remainer. The soul of the Tory party is up for grabs. Will Boris be able to seize it?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426
    Anorak said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    You are Ken Livingstone and I claim my £5.
    Actually technically that would make me David Irving.

    Speer' comments on this - the fact that Hitler didn't usually give direct, written orders, just made himself clear in a 'nudge, nudge, wink, win,' kind of way - were one of his steps towards partial rehabilitation.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,389
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    What holocaust?
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,016

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    If you're implying that ol' Boris is held in some regard in Edinburgh, I have some beans to sell you.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,814
    Mr. L, energy policy was a horrendous failure of the Labour Government and the Coalition didn't do much better.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426
    edited August 2018

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    If you're implying that ol' Boris is held in some regard in Edinburgh, I have some beans to sell you.
    Nah, the Forth Road Bridge. A sixties throwback that cracked under the pressure of the modern world and needed replacing with something new and better that took ages to sort out.
  • TonyTony Posts: 159

    Tony said:

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
    Brexit aside, it patently obvious that Boris is planning to relaunch his career on a Trumpite agenda of easy populism, shock-and-awe quick fixes and dark hints about the non-native. I wouldn't expect Tory One-Nation types to endorse that even if Boris had been an Remainer. The soul of the Tory party is up for grabs. Will Boris be able to seize it?
    Yup, I think we're heading for a bad place with Boris v Corbyn the choice in 2019.

    No deal Brexit, May falls.
    Boris becomes PM .
    Handful of ultra Remainers join new party.
    Boris calls general election due to lost majority.

    Who do you vote for :(
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,814
    Mr. Anorak, O'Brien might have a point if the membership fees of the WTO equalled or exceeded those of the EU, if the WTO sought to have the same degree of control as the EU, if it were building an army etc etc.

    The idea that not wanting to be in the EU means one must either by a hypocrite or oppose every multilateral organisation is like claiming a man who doesn't want goat soup wants to starve to death. Refusing a particular dish doesn't mean renouncing all food.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    What holocaust?
    :) - isn't that , near as dammit Labour party policy now?
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,016
    ydoethur said:

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    If you're implying that ol' Boris is held in some regard in Edinburgh, I have some beans to sell you.
    Nah, the Forth Road Bridge. A sixties throwback that cracked under the pressure of the modern world and needed replacing with something new and better that took ages to sort out.
    Call me picky, but I'm not sure if something built in the sixties can really be called a sixties throwback.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,683
    Anorak said:
    Is WTO now even an acceptable option? The last I heard it was a racket for corrupt third-world regimes, and we should just fling open our borders and see what happens.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892

    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    We are importing 2GW from France because France is selling the unwanted power from its nukes very cheaply, as it always does in the summer when demand is low. We could quite easily generate it ourselves if we wanted to, but it simply makes sense to buy spare French electricity in the summer.
    We are importing more than 10% of our power needs, even although they are not particularly high at the moment. You don't think that is indicative of an underlying problem? We will have to agree to differ.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677

    Tony said:

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
    Brexit aside, it's patently obvious that Boris is planning to relaunch his career on a Trumpite agenda of easy populism, shock-and-awe quick fixes and dark hints about the non-native. I wouldn't expect Tory One-Nation types to endorse that even if Boris had been a Remainer. The soul of the Tory party is up for grabs. Will Boris be able to seize it?
    Boris doesn't have the manic energy required for Trump scale broad spectrum disruption. I'm sure a combination of Bannon, Russian bot nets and the demented moiety of the tory party membership will get him over the line though.
  • Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    It’s the contradiction in his so called liberalism.

    I’m such a liberal that I’m going to ban some people from wearing certain outfits.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    edited August 2018
    Dura_Ace said:


    Boris doesn't have the manic energy required for Trump scale broad spectrum disruption. I'm sure a combination of Bannon, Russian bot nets and the demented moiety of the tory party membership will get him over the line though.

    "Moiety" is an underused and underappreciated word.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,683
    Operation 'Save Boris' is in full swing it seems. Sorry, but Boris is the most high-profile politician in the land and quite possibly the next PM. He should be fighting his own battles. The idea of the BBC stepping in to extol his virtues - like the Russian media with Putin - is chilling to say the least.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426

    ydoethur said:

    As I recall PB Tories have a somewhat fluid position on pols getting booed: Osbo getting booed at the Olympics a bad thing until you decided he was a c***, Boris being booed outside the French Embassty a bad thing, Salmond getting booed always a good thing.

    https://twitter.com/ladyhaja/status/1026887705505001472

    INCREDIBLE reaction for Theresa May here in Edinburgh. Had no idea she Boris was so popular.

    Fixed.
    If you're implying that ol' Boris is held in some regard in Edinburgh, I have some beans to sell you.
    Nah, the Forth Road Bridge. A sixties throwback that cracked under the pressure of the modern world and needed replacing with something new and better that took ages to sort out.
    Call me picky, but I'm not sure if something built in the sixties can really be called a sixties throwback.
    So is Boris not a 'sixties throwback' either given he was born the year it opened? :smile:

    (Answer - maybe the 1860s meet the case and we could compare to Edward Stanley.)
  • DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    felix said:

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    What holocaust?
    :) - isn't that , near as dammit Labour party policy now?
    Careful -- Boris compared the EU to Nazis. I think he got away with it but he's having to keep a low profile for a few months.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    dixiedean said:

    Foxy said:

    Tony said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.

    Here in Cumbria we are ca. 200 feet above sea level so we should be safe. The beach hut may not survive though..... :(

    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    Exactly, you couldn't script a better example of the disconnect between the Westminster/media bubble and the electorate than the Boris row.

    I'd expect over 75% of
    Sure, Niqabs and Burkas are unpopular, and I do not like them. I have no problem with hijabs as even the queen sometimes wears a headscarf, and they were unremarkeable in my childhood in Wigan. Insulting the wearer is not likely to get progress on the issue though, particularly if it isolates those pressured into compliance by friends and family. I see it as intrinsically misogynist, but do not want it banned nationally. I would be happy though for workplaces to be able to ban it as part of employee dress code. That is already possible, such as my hospital dress code.

    If Tories want to go down the route of shallow populism led by a narcisstic buffoon with no attention or administrative ability, then I am happy to let them get on with it.

    You are a Wiganer Foxy? And yes it was unusual to see an adult woman without a headscarf in Lancashire a surprisingly short time ago.
    Yes, a Wiganer by birth but my family moved South when I was young. I have gone native in the East Midlands after 25 years here, but moved every couple of years until then.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,868
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426
    MaxPB said:
    Nah, he meant Burgers. It was an attack on McDonalds for stealing the pub trade with trashy so called 'food.'
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,778
    MaxPB said:
    I gave up on Today months and months ago. Bring back Naughtie.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871
    Anorak said:
    Having lived under the actually existing socialism Corbyn has only celebrated in speeches, most people in this part of the world are allergic to the Labour leader’s Marxist bromides
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,778
    Foxy said:

    dixiedean said:

    Foxy said:

    Tony said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.

    Here in Cumbria we are ca. 200 feet above sea level so we should be safe. The beach hut may not survive though..... :(

    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    Exactly, you couldn't script a better example of the disconnect between the Westminster/media bubble and the electorate than the Boris row.

    I'd expect over 75% of
    snip

    If Tories want to go down the route of shallow populism led by a narcisstic buffoon with no attention or administrative ability, then I am happy to let them get on with it.

    You are a Wiganer Foxy? And yes it was unusual to see an adult woman without a headscarf in Lancashire a surprisingly short time ago.
    Yes, a Wiganer by birth but my family moved South when I was young. I have gone native in the East Midlands after 25 years here, but moved every couple of years until then.
    There was a fantastic documentary on BBC 4 about six months ago about the fishing fleet in Hull (a place I know from childhood) in 60s and 70s, and the strike/protest by fishmen's wives over safety.

    Every single one of them, just about, wore a headscarf.
  • FeersumEnjineeyaFeersumEnjineeya Posts: 4,447
    edited August 2018
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    We are importing 2GW from France because France is selling the unwanted power from its nukes very cheaply, as it always does in the summer when demand is low. We could quite easily generate it ourselves if we wanted to, but it simply makes sense to buy spare French electricity in the summer.
    We are importing more than 10% of our power needs, even although they are not particularly high at the moment. You don't think that is indicative of an underlying problem? We will have to agree to differ.
    No, it is not indicative of an underlying problem. Our gas-powered generators are only running at about half capacity at the moment, and hardly any coal-fired generating capacity is being used. It simply makes economic sense to buy very cheap surplus French power in the summer instead of burning gas or coal to generate it ourselves.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871
    dixiedean said:

    Scott_P said:
    Ironically, their policies will be to keep everything pretty much the same. And they'll end up squabbling.
    A rather bizarre launch of a front page that asks people to register an interest without containing an iota of information as to what it might be about.

    Ashdown's More United initiative seems to have got nowhere and died a death; it will be interesting to see whether and how this is any different from that.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sandpit said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.


    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is unquesrionably good at is getting headlines about himself - which, remember, is precisely the quality which propelled Trump to the Wihte House. He makes his riuvals look pallid and obscure by comparison. He is also everything you say - and, I'd add from personal working acquaintance - lazy too. But do most Tory members care about that, or do they simply want someone to beat Corbyn (as HYUFD seems to feel to be the main criterion), even if he turned out to be dreadful?

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    I can't speak for @Cyclefree but personally I would set fire to my ballot paper and drop it in the ballot box.
    Ha! I couldn’t vote for either Corbyn or Boris. I’d probably be a wuss and still vote Lib Dem. Last time my constituency was exactly as you described it and as I liked the Lib Dem candidate I felt he needed some reward for his efforts. And the Lib Dems are probably the closest - if not very close - to my own views, though we also occasionally vote Green in the Cyclefree household.

    But setting my vote on fire is appealing more and more. It’s quite a Boris-like way for @AlistairM to abstain in person though.
    Setting *your* vote on fire isn’t the problem though (and it would be a great protest), it’s setting the rest of the ballot box on fire that may cause you to be in a little trouble.
    I will have @AlistairM to defend me ......
    Surely he will be a co-defendant in the great ballot box arson trial of 2022.
    Damn! I will have to rely on PB’ers to give me a character reference .......


  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,633

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    We are importing 2GW from France because France is selling the unwanted power from its nukes very cheaply, as it always does in the summer when demand is low. We could quite easily generate it ourselves if we wanted to, but it simply makes sense to buy spare French electricity in the summer.
    We are importing more than 10% of our power needs, even although they are not particularly high at the moment. You don't think that is indicative of an underlying problem? We will have to agree to differ.
    No, it is not indicative of an underlying problem. Our gas-powered generators are only running at about half capacity at the moment, and hardly any coal-fired generating capacity is being used. It simply makes economic sense to buy very cheap surplus French power in the summer instead of burning gas or coal to generate it ourselves.
    Quite. If the French can get all their nuclear plants online at the same time then they're going to be giving away energy, which we should welcome with open arms.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892
    Cyclefree said:

    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sandpit said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:




    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).

    What Boris is unquesrionably good at is getting headlines about himself - which, remember, is precisely the quality which propelled Trump to the Wihte House. He makes his riuvals look pallid and obscure by comparison. He is also everything you say - and, I'd add from personal working acquaintance - lazy too. But do most Tory members care about that, or do they simply want someone to beat Corbyn (as HYUFD seems to feel to be the main criterion), even if he turned out to be dreadful?

    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    I can't speak for @Cyclefree but personally I would set fire to my ballot paper and drop it in the ballot box.
    Ha! I couldn’t vote for either Corbyn or Boris. I’d probably be a wuss and still vote Lib Dem. Last time my constituency was exactly as you described it and as I liked the Lib Dem candidate I felt he needed some reward for his efforts. And the Lib Dems are probably the closest - if not very close - to my own views, though we also occasionally vote Green in the Cyclefree household.

    But setting my vote on fire is appealing more and more. It’s quite a Boris-like way for @AlistairM to abstain in person though.
    Setting *your* vote on fire isn’t the problem though (and it would be a great protest), it’s setting the rest of the ballot box on fire that may cause you to be in a little trouble.
    I will have @AlistairM to defend me ......
    Surely he will be a co-defendant in the great ballot box arson trial of 2022.
    Damn! I will have to rely on PB’ers to give me a character reference .......


    Hmmm...What was your view of chocolate on a cappuccino again?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871
    Anazina said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    Scott_P said:
    Is this one going to be as dead on arrival as James Chapman’s personal live-Tweeted mental breakdown on holiday efforts last year?
    The leader in the Lords will be Lord Adonis.

    Because sometimes, there just isn't anyone unpopular enough.
    So they’re “United for Change” in being against and trying to stop the huge change we voted for a couple of years ago?

    Maybe they can recruit Blair and Bad Al Campbell to help them out?
    Are you lot frit? You are exhibiting the traits of those who are.

    United is a good name, I think.
    Calling any sort of political movement "United" is asking for trouble. Unless it is run with an iron fist by a dictator, I guess.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    Off topic: Has anyone seen The Expanse on Netflix. One of the best SF series I've seen for a very long time. [relatively!] realistic depictions of space travel and physics, solid and believable characters, and excellent politics.

    I tried to read the books a few years ago and gave up part way through book two. Perhaps I shall try again.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,752
    Dura_Ace said:

    Tony said:

    Anorak said:

    Guido's tweeting like a coked-up baboon flinging shit about Boris and burqas.

    Rattled to extent I don't quite understand.

    Boris has become a kind of mystical personification of Brexit. Attack him and you're threatening the very moral fabric of the cosmos. To the BorLievers, their man and his works must remain unsullied at all costs.
    Likewise it always pays to look at those attacking Boris and where they stood on the referendum. You couldn't get a more europhile Tory than Aliaster Burt for example. Boris drives Remainers mad, they are desperate to defenestrate him, every misstep is blow out of all proportion. Imagine if he had made the Hunt gaffe in China, the calls for resignation would have been never ending.
    Brexit aside, it's patently obvious that Boris is planning to relaunch his career on a Trumpite agenda of easy populism, shock-and-awe quick fixes and dark hints about the non-native. I wouldn't expect Tory One-Nation types to endorse that even if Boris had been a Remainer. The soul of the Tory party is up for grabs. Will Boris be able to seize it?
    Boris doesn't have the manic energy required for Trump scale broad spectrum disruption. I'm sure a combination of Bannon, Russian bot nets and the demented moiety of the tory party membership will get him over the line though.
    One of the worst takes on Trump is the idea that the danger will come when ‘real’ politicians copy his methods. It completely underestimates what kind of skills it takes to do what Trump’s done week in, week out in a 24hr media environment. Most politicians would fall flat on their face if they tried and many have down so.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,504
    MaxPB said:
    Cardiff, Humphrys home town has, or had a significant Somali population. Maybe they have different habits to other Moslems?

    I’m not sure about the burqa and niqab, but I think the hijab looks very good.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    DavidL said:

    We are still importing 2GW from France by the way, even although solar is now up to 13.2%. We are simply not generating enough power for ourselves.

    Or French nuclear is very cheap (at the margin).
    Both statements can, of course, be true.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,504

    felix said:

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    What holocaust?
    :) - isn't that , near as dammit Labour party policy now?
    Careful -- Boris compared the EU to Nazis. I think he got away with it but he's having to keep a low profile for a few months.
    Boris.... low profile? Where have you been?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,892
    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,220
    Anorak said:

    Off topic: Has anyone seen The Expanse on Netflix. One of the best SF series I've seen for a very long time. [relatively!] realistic depictions of space travel and physics, solid and believable characters, and excellent politics.

    I tried to read the books a few years ago and gave up part way through book two. Perhaps I shall try again.

    Watching through it - as an aside you're not Ryan Kennedy on the SpaceX group are you ?
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,780

    MaxPB said:
    I gave up on Today months and months ago. Bring back Naughtie.
    Why do we pay the BBC to employ Humphries to legitimise such uninformed drivel? The last place you would expect to see a burka is in the pub, because the strict Muslim faith and alcohol don't mix. There is a perfectly legitimate debate to be had over whether people should be concerned or even offended over the sight of women in 21st century Britain feeling that it is necessary to veil themselves from head to toe, but Humphries as usual just trivialises the whole thing. Today is a much better programme when he is absent from it.

    Johnson as often happens let his overblown language get in the way of a perfectly good point. The values of this country are such that we do not dictate how other people must dress, but that does not mean that we must feel comfortable with their choices, whether that involves extreme coverage or extreme exposure.

    More generally, it is deplorable that the threat of disciplinary proceedings is now being routinely wheeled out as a convenient tool to try and bring to heel those who are seen to be a threat to their respective party leaderships. May would do well to desist from following Corbyn further down that road.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,016
    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    Cyclefree said:

    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sandpit said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.


    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).


    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    I can't speak for @Cyclefree but personally I would set fire to my ballot paper and drop it in the ballot box.
    Ha! I couldn’t vote for either Corbyn or Boris. I’d probably be a wuss and still vote Lib Dem. Last time my constituency was exactly as you described it and as I liked the Lib Dem candidate I felt he needed some reward for his efforts. And the Lib Dems are probably the closest - if not very close - to my own views, though we also occasionally vote Green in the Cyclefree household.

    But setting my vote on fire is appealing more and more. It’s quite a Boris-like way for @AlistairM to abstain in person though.
    Setting *your* vote on fire isn’t the problem though (and it would be a great protest), it’s setting the rest of the ballot box on fire that may cause you to be in a little trouble.
    I will have @AlistairM to defend me ......
    Surely he will be a co-defendant in the great ballot box arson trial of 2022.
    Damn! I will have to rely on PB’ers to give me a character reference .......

    I'm certain that you would get plenty, but whether you'd want any of them is perhaps questionable.
  • AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,389

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426
    Sean_F said:

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
    You *REDACTED*, why did you have to give me that mental image?!!!!
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,700
    edited August 2018

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    How about an England slip fielder called Butterfingers? Apparently his nickname was 'Dawid Malan.'
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
    Even that's not as good as the junior Turkish diplomat in Moscow in 1942.
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,366
    The reaction to Bojo's not particularly funny comment shows the inevitable consequence of virtue-signalling when it becomes competitive.

    I assume we can still say that nuns look like penguins, and I say that as a Catholic.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,016
    Sean_F said:

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
    Might discourage immigrants, though may also increase the outflow of UK born folk.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426

    Sean_F said:

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
    Might discourage immigrants, though may also increase the outflow of UK born folk.
    Might encourage people to overflow rather than outflow.
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,780
    IanB2 said:

    Anorak said:
    Having lived under the actually existing socialism Corbyn has only celebrated in speeches, most people in this part of the world are allergic to the Labour leader’s Marxist bromides
    It is fascinating that the star speaker at Momentum's Labour conference event is Jean Luc Melanchon, not just because he has some history of his own on the anti-semitism front, but more generally it effectively puts two fingers up at the French Socialist Party, to whom Labour has been historically linked.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/french-jews-put-off-by-le-pen-now-worry-about-another-presidential-candidate/

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    IanB2 said:

    Anorak said:
    Having lived under the actually existing socialism Corbyn has only celebrated in speeches, most people in this part of the world are allergic to the Labour leader’s Marxist bromides
    Die Linke, who are old school Communists, do continue to poll well in East Germany. A different sort of nostalgic throwback to AfD.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,814
    Mr. F, that's a horrendous post.

    If it were*, not if it was. It's subjunctive, man, not indicative.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    Pulpstar said:

    Anorak said:

    Off topic: Has anyone seen The Expanse on Netflix. One of the best SF series I've seen for a very long time. [relatively!] realistic depictions of space travel and physics, solid and believable characters, and excellent politics.

    I tried to read the books a few years ago and gave up part way through book two. Perhaps I shall try again.

    Watching through it - as an aside you're not Ryan Kennedy on the SpaceX group are you ?
    Not knowingly, no!
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,389
    ydoethur said:

    Sean_F said:

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
    You *REDACTED*, why did you have to give me that mental image?!!!!
    In a mankini
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,206
    edited August 2018

    IanB2 said:

    Anorak said:
    Having lived under the actually existing socialism Corbyn has only celebrated in speeches, most people in this part of the world are allergic to the Labour leader’s Marxist bromides
    It is fascinating that the star speaker at Momentum's Labour conference event is Jean Luc Melanchon, not just because he has some history of his own on the anti-semitism front, but more generally it effectively puts two fingers up at the French Socialist Party, to whom Labour has been historically linked.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/french-jews-put-off-by-le-pen-now-worry-about-another-presidential-candidate/

    Corbyn has explicitly moved the Labour Party closer to populist left parties like Melenchon's or Die Linke or Syriza and Podemos than social democratic parties like the SPD or the French and Spanish socialist parties or Macron's En Marche.

    The same trend can be seen in the fact Corbyn was endorsed by Bernie Sanders but Corbynistas had not time for Hillary Clinton or in Corbyn's close friendship with the new Leftist Mexican President Lopez Obrador and his Morena coalition rather than the centrist PRI
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,426
    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sean_F said:

    Let's hope that UK pols don't take this on board as a way of deflecting from their hard right, anti immigration tendencies.

    https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1027147492461342720

    Imagine if it was Boris.
    You *REDACTED*, why did you have to give me that mental image?!!!!
    In a mankini
    :hushed::fearful::flushed:
  • logical_songlogical_song Posts: 9,914
    IanB2 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Scott_P said:
    Ironically, their policies will be to keep everything pretty much the same. And they'll end up squabbling.
    A rather bizarre launch of a front page that asks people to register an interest without containing an iota of information as to what it might be about.

    Ashdown's More United initiative seems to have got nowhere and died a death; it will be interesting to see whether and how this is any different from that.
    More United does seem to be still going, and larger than I'd expected
    "111,754 people making politics less extreme, less tribal and driven by you."
    https://www.moreunited.uk/latest
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    edited August 2018
    CD13 said:

    The reaction to Bojo's not particularly funny comment shows the inevitable consequence of virtue-signalling when it becomes competitive.

    I assume we can still say that nuns look like penguins, and I say that as a Catholic.

    I don't think that you can ignore social power dynamics when considering derogatory terms. The asymmetry of social standing does mean assymetric sensitivity. It is perfectly reasonable to debate facial veiling, but quite unnecessary to be insulting about it.

    I used to work with an Irish nurse who converted to Islam when she married a Jordanian doctor. She wore hijab, and often patients refered to her as the nun. She did rather look and sound like a Father Ted cast member. She gave up hijab some years ago when she divorced.
  • sarissasarissa Posts: 1,993
    Nigelb said:

    DavidL said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On a different note, this doesn't seem to have gotten much attention on this side of the Channel:

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/will-scandal-sink-emmanuel-macron

    As an aside, I would like to make a prediction about Macron. If he survives into a second term, he will get increasingly Eurosceptic. I'm not talking Farage-like Eurosceptic, but he is a man who believes in the French executive (i.e. himself) having control. Right now, the things that stand in his way are domestic - i.e. the unions. If he succeeds in liberalising the French labour market and getting a second term, then the next set of things that stand in his way will be in Brussels. And despite everything he's said to date, I would expect him to clash meaningfully with the EU in a second term.

    Of course, this is all dependent on his reforms working, and him getting a second term.
    Macron has the traditional French belief in the EU which is that it exists mainly to spend German Euros in France. That does not involve clashing with Brussels. It means ever grander schemes like an EU air force equipped with Dassault fighters, or free camembert for refugees. Brussels gets more power and influence; France gets more money and jobs.
    We can tie this to RCS's video.

    Germany is going all green about electricity. France has lots of nuclear plants. Clearly what is needed is an EU scheme to guarantee baseload supplies across Europe rather than just buying electricity on an as-needed basis, especially after those unreliable Anglos have Brexited.

    Germany keeps its lights on; Brussels gets more bureaucrats and a bigger budget; France gets more of those lovely, lovely German euros. Oh, and you can spend a few quid cleaning up Romanian and Czech mines in order to get the East Europeans onside.
    This morning, as usual at this time of the day, 6.7% of our total energy is being supplied by the interconnector with France from their nuclear plants. We are also importing significant energy through the other interconnectors. Why do we want to import so much of our energy? It seems an unnecessary addition to our chronic balance of payment problems to me.
    Long distance interconnections will be essential to an efficient electric grid is renewables continue to grow, and the traffic won't always be one way.
    If France wish to subsidise nuclear power for our benefit, I don't see the problem.
    There are also proposals for an interconnector to bring up to 6 GW of geothermal sourced electricity from Iceland to the UK.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    sarissa said:

    Nigelb said:


    Long distance interconnections will be essential to an efficient electric grid is renewables continue to grow, and the traffic won't always be one way.
    If France wish to subsidise nuclear power for our benefit, I don't see the problem.

    There are also proposals for an interconnector to bring up to 6 GW of geothermal sourced electricity from Iceland to the UK.
    Not sure a 13 amp fuse will cover that.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,389
    ydoethur said:

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
    Even that's not as good as the junior Turkish diplomat in Moscow in 1942.
    I once met a Turk called Ferhat Anus.
  • Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
    Even that's not as good as the junior Turkish diplomat in Moscow in 1942.
    I once met a Turk called Ferhat Anus.
    Did you ever meet/deal with Anal Sheikh?
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    Did someone say it's time for lunch? I think they did. Some relaxing music to eat with...
    https://twitter.com/superdeluxe/status/885875327028809728
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,366
    Dr Fox,

    "I don't think that you can ignore social power dynamics when considering derogatory terms"

    Is that what it is? SPD for short. Pillar boxes, nuns ...? Hardly the greatest and most diabolic phrases. Grounds for instant dismissal? It seems the bar for offence-taking is getting steadily lower. Fortunately, I'm now retired.

    Jehovah, Jehovah.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    edited August 2018

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
    Even that's not as good as the junior Turkish diplomat in Moscow in 1942.
    I once met a Turk called Ferhat Anus.
    Did you ever meet/deal with Anal Sheikh?
    There was an Indian chap at uni called Anil Banga. And I worked with a Swiss chap called Willy Pfister. Both true!
  • Anorak said:

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    DavidL said:

    Chelsea have signed a Keeper called Kepa. Still not finding Mr Centre Forward though.

    There was a certain honesty about having a footballer called Immobile though. Didn't raise your expectations too high.
    I kept on hoping Ciro Immobile had a sister called Donna.
    Even that's not as good as the junior Turkish diplomat in Moscow in 1942.
    I once met a Turk called Ferhat Anus.
    Did you ever meet/deal with Anal Sheikh?
    There was an Indian chap at uni called Anil Banga. And I worked with a Swiss chap called Willy Pfister. Both true!
    I’ve had to deal with a Scotsman called ‘Willie Balloch’
  • grabcocquegrabcocque Posts: 4,234
    Almost as ridiculous as a Tory MP called Mark Reckless.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164

    felix said:

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    The only way it makes sense is if Boris thinks he can make himself so popular with the public, that Tory MPs dare not not make him leader.

    Which would be ludicrous given that MPs vote secretly so they are under no obligation to back him and have no need to fear deselection if they don't.
    Well, it's not impossible that Tory MPs will conclude that only Boris can beat Jezza. And they are terrified of Jezza.
    It's not impossible. However, fortunately most Tory MPs are more sensible than HYUFD and know that putting up a posh racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability against another posh, possibly racist populist with a dodgy past, no sense, no principles and no administrative ability is not a fight that would end well for anyone, least of all the country.
    jezza has principles alright. it is just that they are the same ones that Lenin had.
    Allegedly Lenin authorised the killing of the Russian royal family.
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-tsar-killed-on-orders-of-lenin-say-romanov-family-358024.html
    I don't think there's any 'alleged' about it. The Urals Soviet would never have dared take such a decision without at least his (or possibly Trotsky's) tacit support.
    Well there's this https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8264321/No-proof-Lenin-ordered-last-Tsars-murder.html
    By that impeccable logic there is no proof Hitler ordered the Holocaust.
    What holocaust?
    :) - isn't that , near as dammit Labour party policy now?
    Careful -- Boris compared the EU to Nazis. I think he got away with it but he's having to keep a low profile for a few months.
    Fortunately I'm not a front row contender for the leadership of any political party!
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    CD13 said:

    Dr Fox,

    "I don't think that you can ignore social power dynamics when considering derogatory terms"

    Is that what it is? SPD for short. Pillar boxes, nuns ...? Hardly the greatest and most diabolic phrases. Grounds for instant dismissal? It seems the bar for offence-taking is getting steadily lower. Fortunately, I'm now retired.

    Jehovah, Jehovah.

    I am not suggesting any one is dismissed or disciplined. I merely think Boris jibe is gratuitously insulting and unBritish bad manners. It detracts from what should be a reasoned legitimate debate.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    sarissa said:

    Nigelb said:

    DavidL said:

    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On a different note, this doesn't seem to have gotten much attention on this side of the Channel:

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/will-scandal-sink-emmanuel-macron



    Of course, this is all dependent on his reforms working, and him getting a second term.
    Macron has the traditional French belief in the EU which is that it exists mainly to spend German Euros in France. That does not involve clashing with Brussels. It means ever grander schemes like an EU air force equipped with Dassault fighters, or free camembert for refugees. Brussels gets more power and influence; France gets more money and jobs.
    We can tie this to RCS's video.

    Germany is going all green about electricity. France has lots of nuclear plants. Clearly what is needed is an EU scheme to guarantee baseload supplies across Europe rather than just buying electricity on an as-needed basis, especially after those unreliable Anglos have Brexited.

    Germany keeps its lights on; Brussels gets more bureaucrats and a bigger budget; France gets more of those lovely, lovely German euros. Oh, and you can spend a few quid cleaning up Romanian and Czech mines in order to get the East Europeans onside.
    This morning, as usual at this time of the day, 6.7% of our total energy is being supplied by the interconnector with France from their nuclear plants. We are also importing significant energy through the other interconnectors. Why do we want to import so much of our energy? It seems an unnecessary addition to our chronic balance of payment problems to me.
    Long distance interconnections will be essential to an efficient electric grid is renewables continue to grow, and the traffic won't always be one way.
    If France wish to subsidise nuclear power for our benefit, I don't see the problem.
    There are also proposals for an interconnector to bring up to 6 GW of geothermal sourced electricity from Iceland to the UK.
    A better investment would probably be the Dogger wind farm, which would include interconnects across the North Sea:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_Wind_Farm

    The greater the area included for a renewables grid, the less the mismatch between generation and electricity demand.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sandpit said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Re Boris:

    - he didn’t have the balls to stand in 2016;
    - he should never have been made FS;
    - he achieved nothing as FS and probably made Britain's image look worse than it already was;
    - he has done nothing useful to come up with workable Brexit proposals - despite his alleged great intelligence;
    - he picks on an unimportant issue, comes up with the wrong policy (IMO there is an arguable liberal case for banning the burqa), insults those countries who have instituted a ban and is gratuitously rude about individuals who cannot answer back thereby showing himself to be unscrupulous, wrong-headed and a bully;
    - his vote getting abilities are exaggerated, untested against Corbyn and he confuses being an outrageous loudmouth with charisma.

    There is no sensible question to which the answer is Boris. The Tories would be daft to choose him.


    Oh, do come off the fence about Boris :).


    As a matter of interest, if you were in a Con/Lab marginal with Boris and Corbyn as leaders, and an energetic but clearly hopeless LibDem campaign, what would you do?
    I can't speak for @Cyclefree but personally I would set fire to my ballot paper and drop it in the ballot box.
    Ha! I couldn’t vote for either Corbyn or Boris. I’d probably be a wuss and still vote Lib Dem. Last time my constituency was exactly as you described it and as I liked the Lib Dem candidate I felt he needed some reward for his efforts. And the Lib Dems are probably the closest - if not very close - to my own views, though we also occasionally vote Green in the Cyclefree household.

    But setting my vote on fire is appealing more and more. It’s quite a Boris-like way for @AlistairM to abstain in person though.
    Setting *your* vote on fire isn’t the problem though (and it would be a great protest), it’s setting the rest of the ballot box on fire that may cause you to be in a little trouble.
    I will have @AlistairM to defend me ......
    Surely he will be a co-defendant in the great ballot box arson trial of 2022.
    Damn! I will have to rely on PB’ers to give me a character reference .......

    I'm certain that you would get plenty, but whether you'd want any of them is perhaps questionable.
    Re-reading that, I think I ought to make it clear I was questioning the quality of the referees, rather than Cyclefree's character*.

    (*setting aside cappuccino issues)
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,366
    Dr Fox,

    "I am not suggesting any one is dismissed or disciplined. I merely think Boris jibe is gratuitously insulting and unBritish bad manners."

    I suspected that.

    And I like the phrase 'unBritish bad manners." I 'd agree. 'Boorish' perhaps?

    But hardly a sacking offence as the more hysterical have suggested (yes, I know that includes some Tory colleagues of his, but Brexit has sent some of them barmy too).
This discussion has been closed.