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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » On the Betfair exchange its now a 69% chance the the UK WON’T

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  • rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    Probably because their names both start with Layla M
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871
    edited January 2019
    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    I suggest we accept the explanation and move on. It's not about confusing individuals, but about the habit of normally following a particular forename with a particular surname. Sometimes the mind does work like autocorrect.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,237

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    It was late. He was tired?
    The comment was Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood.

    Isn't that just a bit odd? Why would you compare a LibDem MP to a Labour BME officer?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,237

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    Probably because their names both start with Layla M
    I accept your explanation. And I'm sorry I brought it up again.

    And anyone who calls me "Roger" will be banned.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,362

    And wee Owen is now ranting on Twitter,

    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1083522347620020225

    The whole point of the Spectator is to provide a platform for thought-provoking articles on contentious political and cultural topics that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It makes you think whether you’re for, or against, or neither, or just think the author has an axe to grind. It can often publish articles from the opposite point of view, in response, the following week.

    Taki, and Rod Little, have zero time for any form of political correctness and like to provoke to make their points. So did Toby Young at one point, but he’s understandably dialled it back now.

    It is quite typical of Owen Jones to simplify and then exaggerate, because he sees some useful political ammunition for his big target there.
    Hmmm....I was a Spectator subscriber for 20+ years. I did not always agree with things in it and it occasionally published some very odd things but overall it was somewhere that ideas were examined and often then challenged in the following edition. You could ignore Taki by not reading him as he was always unpleasant. I had to cancel in 2016 - under the current ownership and editorship it basically went mad.

    At the start of the referendum you could feel Fraser Nelson wrestling with his conscience- he - a Scot-has a Swedish wife and might be a pragmatic pro european Tory in another life. I guess he wanted to keep the job so convinced himself he was doing the right thing. Having been a broad church its contributors shrank with one or two exceptions into a fairly rabid group. It slipped like the Tory party into the arms of English nationalism. Very sad as I miss the old magazine.
    Another Tory balloon only interested in filling his own pockets, principles and morals free as long as he is coining it in. Truth never crosses these asses minds.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,626
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    It was late. He was tired?
    The comment was Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood.

    Isn't that just a bit odd? Why would you compare a LibDem MP to a Labour BME officer?
    The guy has said it was a genuine mistake. Why take it further? Let it go.

    It's not like there aren't enough deliberate comments on the internet to get het up about!
  • rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    It was late. He was tired?
    The comment was Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood.

    Isn't that just a bit odd? Why would you compare a LibDem MP to a Labour BME officer?
    What's even odder is that I only realised how I'd got confused when I saw a post from her on facebook this morning which she'd put up last night just after I posted her name by mistake.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871
    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    His conclusion is strong and clear, and only 'grudging' in the sense that rather than promoting the deal on his merits, he argues the logic that if leavers don't back the deal they put the future of their own project at risk.
  • TheJezziahTheJezziah Posts: 3,840
    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    I do word swapping when writing something and thinking of something else sometimes.

    I'm sure we have all wrote sentences that our mind has clearly has clearly got confused and mixed up part of the way through the sentence.

    Noticed the ^ mistake when checking after, seems fitting so left it in.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,176
    Sean_F said:

    IanB2 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    I saw it and thought you were trying to make some sort of unpleasant point, but chose to ignore you. I am pleased it was instead a cock up. I did that once in a press release, referring to Wes Streeting (who is openly gay) as Wes Sweeting, because I had a constituent I knew fairly well called Sweeting. The paper rang up to ask what point I was trying to score, and I had to try and explain it was simply a slip.
    I once posted Carol Shaw as Carol Shag. These things happen.
    An old colleague of mine once referred to the former rail minister Claire Perry as Katy Perry. Of course, after that, everyone referred to her as Katy Perry.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,626
    TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.
  • AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    As someone who bricks himself every time I write Vince Cable's name for fear that I write Vince Clarke, I'll give someone the benefit of the doubt for a lapsus manus unless there's the clearest evidence to the contrary.
  • AnazinaAnazina Posts: 3,487

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    Probably because their names both start with Layla M
    Fair enough, no worries. My beef was with the often intolerable Casino, who was very keen to jump in with his usual sanctimonious garbage.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.
    Yep. That sort of comment disqualifies you from being taken seriously when discussing this.
  • TOPPING said:

    And wee Owen is now ranting on Twitter,

    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1083522347620020225

    The whole point of the Spectator is to provide a platform for thought-provoking articles on contentious political and cultural topics that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It makes you think whether you’re for, or against, or neither, or just think the author has an axe to grind. It can often publish articles from the opposite point of view, in response, the following week.

    Taki, and Rod Little, have zero time for any form of political correctness and like to provoke to make their points. So did Toby Young at one point, but he’s understandably dialled it back now.

    It is quite typical of Owen Jones to simplify and then exaggerate, because he sees some useful political ammunition for his big target there.
    Hmmm....I was a Spectator subscriber for 20+ years. I did not always agree with things in it and it occasionally published some very odd things but overall it was somewhere that ideas were examined and often then challenged in the following edition. You could ignore Taki by not reading him as he was always unpleasant. I had to cancel in 2016 - under the current ownership and editorship it basically went mad.

    At the start of the referendum you could feel Fraser Nelson wrestling with his conscience- he - a Scot-has a Swedish wife and might be a pragmatic pro european Tory in another life. I guess he wanted to keep the job so convinced himself he was doing the right thing. Having been a broad church its contributors shrank with one or two exceptions into a fairly rabid group. It slipped like the Tory party into the arms of English nationalism. Very sad as I miss the old magazine.
    Same here - I liked some of it but had to give up my subscription after one too many UKIP-lite, bigoted, small-minded Little Englander articles and editorials.
    Also taking the Tele into account (which I occasionally used to buy for a Saturday read at work), is it symptomatic of the intellectual degradation of the right in the UK? Happy to concede that there may have been a similar degradation of the left and more generally, but since it's the Spectator being discussed...
  • TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.

    And thus most of British manufacturing would have begun its relocation and mothballing planning a whole lot earlier.

  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,876
    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,876

    Morning all. Wouldn't want to turn this into a constant stream of retweets, but this is potentially big news, is it not?

    https://twitter.com/doug_parr/status/1083626177850421248

    Makes the decision not to proceed with the Swansea and Cardiff tidal barrages even more crass.....
    Indeed it does.

    Still, sometime soon one of our governments will finally realise we need to invest seriously in tidal power - reliable, predictable, plentiful and perpetual.
    And not requiring imports which is important. Our energy policy should not add strain to our serious trade deficit problem. If there are indigenous resources we should use them (so let's get fracking, btw).
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Vince Clarke ought to get an OBE for services to 80s synth music.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-9Sj55BHw
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    The absolute maddest thing I read about UC was that families would be having their UC payment reduced over Christmas if they got their wages paid early in December - as the UC payment calculation assumes any early wages are extra pay.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,012
    edited January 2019
    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    And more importantly made a lot of people's already miserable lives more miserable than they needed to be.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,626
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.
    Yep. That sort of comment disqualifies you from being taken seriously when discussing this.
    So you were in Northern Ireland, I gather. That could mean you were fighting the 'Ra - or perhaps you were in charge of the squaddies' latrines. Given your ability to shovel shit on here, that would at least suggest you had found your calling in life.

    Have a nice day.
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    The essential point is correct -- Swinson is more impressive than Moran.

    (At the moment, I don’t see either of them returning the LibDems to an electoral force, and nor do I see Euro-philia as being the cause to reinvigorate them).
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,876
    Alistair said:

    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    The absolute maddest thing I read about UC was that families would be having their UC payment reduced over Christmas if they got their wages paid early in December - as the UC payment calculation assumes any early wages are extra pay.
    Its a tough field. Not giving money to pay for extra innocent children is right up there as was making people who applied wait excessive periods for their first payment when they might be hungry. At the risk of sounding slightly paternalistic I also think that if the State is going to pay peoples' rent for them ensuring that the rent gets paid by paying landlords direct was a much better policy. The Tories just can't help themselves sometimes. The lack of compassion for those in need is the most distasteful part of a party I generally support.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.
    Yep. That sort of comment disqualifies you from being taken seriously when discussing this.
    So you were in Northern Ireland, I gather. That could mean you were fighting the 'Ra - or perhaps you were in charge of the squaddies' latrines. Given your ability to shovel shit on here, that would at least suggest you had found your calling in life.

    Have a nice day.
    LOL!!!

    Laydeezngennlemen - I give you the searing insight and acute observations of PB.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,871

    TOPPING said:

    Sean_F said:

    I see Iain Dale has (very grudgingly ) shifted in favour of May's deal.

    If it's May's Shit Deal or no Brexit, it's May's Shit Deal. Very grudgingly is the best it could ever deserve.

    So pass May's Deal. Then boot her out - and install a leader pledged to walking away from the Treaty at the first sign of bad faith by the EU. And this time, let's have someone who will bloody plan for that as an outcome....

    Remind me you are one of those wouldn't have the backstop types, aren't you?
    Ideal world, they would have shuffled the papers, stood up and said "Piss off until you drop that utterly stupid "backstop idea.... We'll see you again then. Maybe. I have some WTO planning to do in the meantime."

    But the idiots gave it away. We are where we are. May's Shit Deal deal is an embarrassment. However, it takes us to the next stage of Brexit. Which has to be undertaken with her gone from office.
    Yes, how idiotic to have tried to reassure some of our country's biggest businesses that they should stick around and continue to invest and provide jobs.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,876

    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    And more importantly made a lot of people's already miserable lives more miserable than they needed to be.
    Yep.
  • david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,751

    And wee Owen is now ranting on Twitter,

    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1083522347620020225

    The whole point of the Spectator is to provide a platform for thought-provoking articles on contentious political and cultural topics that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It makes you think whether you’re for, or against, or neither, or just think the author has an axe to grind. It can often publish articles from the opposite point of view, in response, the following week.

    Taki, and Rod Little, have zero time for any form of political correctness and like to provoke to make their points. So did Toby Young at one point, but he’s understandably dialled it back now.

    It is quite typical of Owen Jones to simplify and then exaggerate, because he sees some useful political ammunition for his big target there.
    Hmmm....I was a Spectator subscriber for 20+ years. I did not always agree with things in it and it occasionally published some very odd things but overall it was somewhere that ideas were examined and often then challenged in the following edition. You could ignore Taki by not reading him as he was always unpleasant. I had to cancel in 2016 - under the current ownership and editorship it basically went mad.

    At the start of the referendum you could feel Fraser Nelson wrestling with his conscience- he - a Scot-has a Swedish wife and might be a pragmatic pro european Tory in another life. I guess he wanted to keep the job so convinced himself he was doing the right thing. Having been a broad church its contributors shrank with one or two exceptions into a fairly rabid group. It slipped like the Tory party into the arms of English nationalism. Very sad as I miss the old magazine.
    I've just subscribed. It's the first time I've ever subscribed to online journalism / comment.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    Anazina said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Jo Swinson is so much better than Layla Mahmood

    Faux islamifying Layla Moran's name, who is of palestinian christian decent, is hardly subtle. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Agreed. Shameful and totally ignorant
    It is rather embarrassing. Got her confused with my real life facebook friend Layla Mahmood who works as a Labour BME officer in Westminster, and whose name I see rather more often than Ms Moran's.
    Why would you get a Labour BME officer and a LibDem MP confused - especially as it was in the context of a comparison with Jo Swinson?
    Probably because their names both start with Layla M
    Fair enough, no worries. My beef was with the often intolerable Casino, who was very keen to jump in with his usual sanctimonious garbage.
    Oh the irony!
  • Andy_CookeAndy_Cooke Posts: 5,005
    AndyJS said:

    Recent polling in London is interesting. It seems to show a fairly hefty swing from Labour to the LDs.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#London

    The most recent one has Lab 40%, Con 35%, LD 15, Greens 5%, UKIP 4%.

    Changes since GE2017 would be Lab-15%, Con+2%, LD+6%, Greens+3%, UKIP+3%.

    This isn't a sub-sample from a GB YouGov poll, it looks like a dedicated London survey with 2,988 respondents.

    Wouldn't help the Lib Dems much.
    Looks like the only seat they'd get close to taking from Labour would be Bermondsey & Old Southwark, which would be recount close (albeit - on that swing - still held by Labour). They would pick up Richmond Park from the Tories, though, but that's it.

    The Tories would pick up Kensington, Battersea, Enfield Southgate, Croydon Central, Dagenham & Rainham, and Eltham from Labour.

    Leaving a change of up 1 or 2 for LDs, down 6 or 7 for Lab, up 5 for Con (Lab 49--> 42/43; Con 21-->26; LD 3--> 4/5)
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,708
    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    The Universal Credit had a lot of Brexit about it: Everybody could see they hadn't fully thought it through, the minister (IDS) kept throwing vague, contradictory requirements at them while ignoring the experts and demanding that they somehow work out the details for him so that reality matched the ideology. It's encouraging that when reality loomed big enough they belatedly decided not to crash the train.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,876

    DavidL said:

    AndyJS said:

    Another u-turn from this increasingly incompetent government.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301

    In fairness this is a sensible U-turn from a completely idiotic bordering on immoral policy. The legacy of IDS in respect of Universal Credit has been nothing short of disastrous. If I was to criticise the government on this it would only be that much of his proposals should have been abandoned faster by someone willing to bite the bullet. Instead we have been doing it inch by inch which, as you say, does not give the best impression.
    The Universal Credit had a lot of Brexit about it: Everybody could see they hadn't fully thought it through, the minister (IDS) kept throwing vague, contradictory requirements at them while ignoring the experts and demanding that they somehow work out the details for him so that reality matched the ideology. It's encouraging that when reality loomed big enough they belatedly decided not to crash the train.
    Not sure I completely see the analogy other than the fact that IDS had very fixed views (but very limited understanding) about both and is a complete idiot. To choose that man instead of Ken Clarke for leader....jeez.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,176
    NEW THREAD
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,257
    edited January 2019

    Taki is a racist. Rod Little is a bigot. Owen Jones is a hypocrite.

    Did not see TW last night. Looking forward to catching it today.

    I rate Andrew Neil very highly as a broadcaster but if OJ roughed him up a little, well good because he can be quite overbearing at times and overly fond of his 'man of the world' persona. Jones is effective. His 'angry teenager' vibe irritates the old folk, but what he comes out with is often acute and usually worth hearing.

    Taki is a horrible old geezer. Racist, misogynist, classist, you name it. Really ought not to be given a weekly column in anything, let alone the Spectator.

    Liddle? His stuff is racist, no question. And his misogyny is far worse than Taki's. Quite revolting attitude towards women. And so mean-spirited his articles are, so awfully mean-spirited. But they are often very funny. I enjoy reading him. The guy has talent.
  • StereotomyStereotomy Posts: 4,092

    And wee Owen is now ranting on Twitter,

    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1083522347620020225

    The whole point of the Spectator is to provide a platform for thought-provoking articles on contentious political and cultural topics that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It makes you think whether you’re for, or against, or neither, or just think the author has an axe to grind. It can often publish articles from the opposite point of view, in response, the following week.

    Taki, and Rod Little, have zero time for any form of political correctness and like to provoke to make their points. So did Toby Young at one point, but he’s understandably dialled it back now.

    It is quite typical of Owen Jones to simplify and then exaggerate, because he sees some useful political ammunition for his big target there.
    Hmmm....I was a Spectator subscriber for 20+ years. I did not always agree with things in it and it occasionally published some very odd things but overall it was somewhere that ideas were examined and often then challenged in the following edition. You could ignore Taki by not reading him as he was always unpleasant. I had to cancel in 2016 - under the current ownership and editorship it basically went mad.

    At the start of the referendum you could feel Fraser Nelson wrestling with his conscience- he - a Scot-has a Swedish wife and might be a pragmatic pro european Tory in another life. I guess he wanted to keep the job so convinced himself he was doing the right thing. Having been a broad church its contributors shrank with one or two exceptions into a fairly rabid group. It slipped like the Tory party into the arms of English nationalism. Very sad as I miss the old magazine.
    I've just subscribed. It's the first time I've ever subscribed to online journalism / comment.
    Nice. Now you can read the same tedious article by Rod Liddle and Douglas Murray week in week out for the rest of your life.


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