Khan does look pretty unstoppable, even more so than I’d assumed. My only query is whether there’s any sort of formal nomination process for him to go through that might be subject to Momentum games?
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
It all boils down to this, Richard: there is no evidence of institutional anti-Semitism in the Labour party that apologists for institutional anti-Semitism in the Labour party will ever accept. If you think it is bad now, wait for the reaction to the EHRC report.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
It is difficult to square Austin's position on racism with support for a Conservative Party which has rolled out a member of an ethnic minority (James Cleverly) to argue that the Conservatives are not racist as Islamophobia is not racist since Islam is not a race - an argument previously limited to the BNP (even UKIP shunned it).
... Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
The evidence is that the British are amongst the least xenophobic on the planet. Concern about immigration and other issues like that are lower in the UK than in almost every other EU nation and have fallen in the UK post-Brexit.
Strange then that so many people seem to feel unsettled and insecure with many leaving. Or maybe those 3m that have no idea whether to stay or go are just Home Office fantasies
Obviously the Windrush scandal never happened in the Thompson universe, and Jewish people have no reason to be worried either. The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises, universities struggling to fill posts with highly skilled foreign staff, etc, etc.
We are seen as xenophobes and those who have choices about where to take their skills are avoiding us. No doubt you will say that plenty still want to come here and you would be right but they do not tend to be the highly educated, highly skilled people that the Brexiteers told us they would permit to enter the Brexit Paradise.
Perhaps you could put some numbers to those statements you make ?
How about starting with The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises ?
Given that employment in the NHS has increased by over a hundred thousand in the last three years:
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
Khan does look pretty unstoppable, even more so than I’d assumed. My only query is whether there’s any sort of formal nomination process for him to go through that might be subject to Momentum games?
Sadiq Khan has already been reselected as the official Labour candidate. I mentioned yesterday that you can still get 1.5 on him (1/2 in old money) from Wm Hill, which surely is a spiffing bet.
... Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
Strange then that so many people seem to feel unsettled and insecure with many leaving. Or maybe those 3m that have no idea whether to stay or go are just Home Office fantasies
Obviously the Windrush scandal never happened in the Thompson universe, and Jewish people have no reason to be worried either. The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises, universities struggling to fill posts with highly skilled foreign staff, etc, etc.
We are seen as xenophobes and those who have choices about where to take their skills are avoiding us. No doubt you will say that plenty still want to come here and you would be right but they do not tend to be the highly educated, highly skilled people that the Brexiteers told us they would permit to enter the Brexit Paradise.
I realise you want a Brexity rant but statements such as "We are seen as xenophobes" just arent true
" the EU’s own agency for fundame depressing trend across the continent."
I agree the UK is clearly less xenophobic and racist than most countries.
However Brexit has made minorities, not just Europeans here, feel that they are not valued or as welcome here as they thought they were.
Both statements can be true at the same time.
Two statements can be true but one can also be substantially more important than the other and the UK by any international measure is not a racist country.
I agree it is not a racist country in relative terms. The reality of how the people impacted think is not "is the UK more or less racist than Belgium" but "am I getting more racist abuse or being made to feel less welcome than I did five years ago".
On current evidence the number of EU residents in the UK continues to rise. The rate of increase has slowed partly as a result of Brexit residence uncertainties but imo more likley because the exchange rate no longer makes it as economically rewading to come here.
... Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
Strange then that so many people seem to feel unsettled and insecure with many leaving. Or maybe those 3m that have no idea whether to stay or go are just Home Office fantasies
Obviously the Windrush scandal never happened in the Thompson universe, and Jewish people have no reason to be worried either. The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises, universities struggling to fill posts with highly skilled foreign staff, etc, etc.
We are seen as xenophobes and those who have choices about where to take their skills are avoiding us. No doubt you will say that plenty still want to come here and you would be right but they do not tend to be the highly educated, highly skilled people that the Brexiteers told us they would permit to enter the Brexit Paradise.
I realise you want a Brexity rant but statements such as "We are seen as xenophobes" just arent true
" the EU’s own agency for fundame depressing trend across the continent."
I agree the UK is clearly less xenophobic and racist than most countries.
However Brexit has made minorities, not just Europeans here, feel that they are not valued or as welcome here as they thought they were.
Both statements can be true at the same time.
Two statements can be true but one can also be substantially more important than the other and the UK by any international measure is not a racist country.
I agree five years ago".
On current evidence the number of EU residents in the UK continues to rise. The rate of increase has slowed partly as a result of Brexit residence uncertainties but imo more likley because the exchange rate no longer makes it as economically rewading to come here.
Yes, devaluing the pound is a most effective way of reducing immigration levels. In this respect, Brexit has done a sterling job!
The election proclamation sets the first meeting of the new Parliament as Tuesday 17th. Given the business that day will be election of a Speaker and rest of the week swearing in of members of both houses, we're surely not going to have a State Opening on 23rd/24th December?
Won't HMQ be in Balmoral for Christmas by then?
She goes to Sandringham for Christmas. But I can't see her best pleased even if it's a low key affair like 2017. The Household Cavalry have already had their Christmas leave cancelled.
What terrible timing...Not just the UK GE, but Disney+ launches next week, with new stars wars show etc.
Not in the UK though, Disney+ isn't launching in the UK until H1 2020.
I blame Brexit for the delay!
Is the fault of Sky.
There's a non compete clause that was created when they launched the Sky Disney channel, which expires in 2020.
I see. I did wonder why they would delay it in the age of the interwebs and the fact that by the time they launch all those in the UK that really want to see the new Star Wars stuff will have found it online.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
It is difficult to square Austin's position on racism with support for a Conservative Party which has rolled out a member of an ethnic minority (James Cleverly) to argue that the Conservatives are not racist as Islamophobia is not racist since Islam is not a race - an argument previously limited to the BNP (even UKIP shunned it).
Islam is a religion.
Be interested to see where Cleverly has made that argument.
Having looked at most of them, I would say that the initial claims by MCB last year were quite disingenuous - they were stating "things emerging every week" when many of them were back as far as 2010 and disciplinary action had been taken years before.
The more recent ones have some traction, but are far less serious than the stuff that is around Corbyn - much of which is to do with the commanding heights of the party.
... Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
Strange then that so many people seem to feel unsettled and insecure with many leaving. Or maybe those 3m that have no idea whether to stay or go are just Home Office fantasies
Obviously the Windrush scandal never happened in the Thompson universe, and Jewish people have no reason to be worried either. The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises, universities struggling to fill posts with highly skilled foreign staff, etc, etc.
I realise you want a Brexity rant but statements such as "We are seen as xenophobes" just arent true
" the EU’s own agency for fundame depressing trend across the continent."
I agree the UK is clearly less xenophobic and racist than most countries.
However Brexit has made minorities, not just Europeans here, feel that they are not valued or as welcome here as they thought they were.
Both statements can be true at the same time.
Two statements can be true but one can also be substantially more important than the other and the UK by any international measure is not a racist country.
I agree it is not a racist country in relative terms. The reality of how the people impacted think is not "is the UK more or less racist than Belgium" but "am I getting more racist abuse or being made to feel less welcome than I did five years ago".
On current evidence the number of EU residents in the UK continues to rise. The rate of increase has slowed partly as a result of Brexit residence uncertainties but imo more likley because the exchange rate no longer makes it as economically rewading to come here.
Yes of course people will still want to come here, there are better jobs available here than most of Southern and Eastern Europe, English is one of the most common second languages and the UK is a good place to live. That is all true, but as a country we should be aware that many feel less welcome than they did and seek to change that.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
Your argument is analogous to this:
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting Shit sandwiches are disgusting Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles and shit sandwiches are equally disgusting.
In the real world, people know which they would prefer to eat.
Talking of the Dundee Courier there was a column in it by Jenny Hajul yesterday hinting that the Tories might stand aside in Ross, Skye & Lochaber to give the Lib Dems a real run at Blackford. I would have found this hard to believe (not least because the Tory actually came 2nd last time out) but I note that Wiki still does not list a Tory candidate for the seat.
A deal whereby the Tories stood aside there and the Lib Dems did the same in North Perthshire or Argyll would make both seats very interesting.
Doubt they will stand down but airing the possibility is sending a strong message in RSL and PNP. Removing Blackford and Wishart would, to say the least, remove the gilt from Nicola's gingerbread. And definitely do-able if Unionists vote tactically.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
'Deploying BNP arguments' is just about the most feeble of all the feeble arguments I've seen. The BNP argued for renationalisation of monopoly utilities and services and worker share-ownership. I understand that the most senior members of the Labour Party argue for the same things. Am I supposed to be shocked that Labour deploy a BNP argument?
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
It is difficult to square Austin's position on racism with support for a Conservative Party which has rolled out a member of an ethnic minority (James Cleverly) to argue that the Conservatives are not racist as Islamophobia is not racist since Islam is not a race - an argument previously limited to the BNP (even UKIP shunned it).
Islam is a religion.
Islam is also covered by the UK law outlawing hate crime. Do not try to defend the indefensible. Labour are rotten to the core and so are the Conservatives. And in both cases it is a huge shame that the vast majority of their members, who are decent people, are led and represented by bigots or those with so little moral compass that they will defend bigots.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
The Conservatives clearly have problems and it should not be ignored, but with the exception of Boris Johnson stupidly using Edwardian language in his newspaper articles in an apparent attempt to appear funny, the Tory leadership is not racist. Jeremy Corbyn, , is strongly suspected to be an Anti-Semite, and the evidence is very strong, particularly his reluctance to rein in his party-within-a-party activists aka Momentum. Trying to equate the two problems is just plain silly, and although I have many problems with Johnson and the Tories and will not be voting for them, the Momentum Party (as it should be renamed) has a major racism issue, period.
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
How (if at all) significant could this be?
I have no idea how malleable or homogenous the Indian Hindu vote is to suggestion, pressure, coercion or if it is full of free spirits, independent action and thought.
I also have no idea how the Indian Hindu vote has voted in the past or how it is distributed.
I hope this lack of knowledge doesn't make me racist, especially as I'm off to India soon!
I wonder if he was raped or sexually assaulted, would he be so forgiving? Trust me on this, women are well aware that some men just do not hear "No". Why do you think that many women are wary of being alone with a man?
And before anyone points out that it is a minority of men, I agree that it is, but they do not wear badges or stickers to separate the good from the bad and sometimes, the ones you think are safe to be around give you a very nasty surprise.
I wonder how many more people in the Tories to say stuff like this for them to get the kind of reputation the GOP had back during the Obama years. Especially if people start talking about Johnson and his mistresses and children.
... Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
Strange then that so many people seem to feel unsettled and insecure with many leaving. Or maybe those 3m that have no idea whether to stay or go are just Home Office fantasies
Obviously the Windrush scandal never happened in the Thompson universe, and Jewish people have no reason to be worried either. The European medical staff that are fleeing the NHS and causing staffing crises, universities struggling to fill posts with highly skilled foreign staff, etc, etc.
I realise you want a Brexity rant but statements such as "We are seen as xenophobes" just arent true
" the EU’s own agency for fundame depressing trend across the continent."
I agree the UK is clearly less xenophobic and racist than most countries.
However Brexit has made minorities, not just Europeans here, feel that they are not valued or as welcome here as they thought they were.
Both statements can be true at the same time.
Two statements can be true but one can also be substantially more important than the other and the UK by any international measure is not a racist country.
I agree it is not a racist country in relative ter I did five years ago".
On current evidence the number of EU residents in the UK continues to rise. The rate of increase has slowed partly as a result of Brexit residence uncertainties but imo more likley because the exchange rate no longer makes it as economically rewading to come here.
Yes of course people will still want to come here, there are better jobs available here than most of Southern and Eastern Europe, English is one of the most common second languages and the UK is a good place to live. That is all true, but as a country we should be aware that many feel less welcome than they did and seek to change that.
well youre hardly going to create that feel good factor by saying were fundamentally a bunch of xenophobes, This is simply dog whistling politics.
The election proclamation sets the first meeting of the new Parliament as Tuesday 17th. Given the business that day will be election of a Speaker and rest of the week swearing in of members of both houses, we're surely not going to have a State Opening on 23rd/24th December?
Won't HMQ be in Balmoral for Christmas by then?
She goes to Sandringham for Christmas. But I can't see her best pleased even if it's a low key affair like 2017. The Household Cavalry have already had their Christmas leave cancelled.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
Your argument is analogous to this:
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting Shit sandwiches are disgusting Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles and shit sandwiches are equally disgusting.
In the real world, people know which they would prefer to eat.
No. The comparison is between dog shit sandwiches and cat shit sandwiches. It is those like you who seek to excuse the Conservatives from behaviour which is rightly condemned when seen in Labour that bring Conservatism a bad name. Hypocrites.
The front page of the Jewish Chronicle is devastating for Labour. The Jezza/IRA stuff is getting buried by even bigger concerns
Its readership is predominantly Conservative and Pro-Leave.
That’s like saying the miners newsletter was predominantly anti Thatcher - there is a reason behind it.
The JC reflects Jewish political opinion in much the same way as The Daily Mail reflects English political opinion.
I think on this it fairly reflects the vast majority of jewish people in the uk, which is supported by the evidence. Its astonishing and disgraceful that such a piece needed to he printed. Labour as they are currently constituted are a cancer
What terrible timing...Not just the UK GE, but Disney+ launches next week, with new stars wars show etc.
Not in the UK though, Disney+ isn't launching in the UK until H1 2020.
I blame Brexit for the delay!
Is the fault of Sky.
There's a non compete clause that was created when they launched the Sky Disney channel, which expires in 2020.
I see. I did wonder why they would delay it in the age of the interwebs and the fact that by the time they launch all those in the UK that really want to see the new Star Wars stuff will have found it online.
There's talk that they may integrate Disney+ on to Sky Q boxes in the way they did with Netflix but that took nearly a year's worth of testing.
There's also talk that Disney may follow HBO's lead and not launch HBO Max in countries with Sky but do a deal to broadcast their content on Sky (Atlantic) but I suspect Disney want to be platform neutral.
Interesting piece, as is Stuart's, but could posters refrain from using colloquial descriptions of candidates that most of us won't recognise? I've no idea who "the fat Laird" and "Charles" and "cousin Jamie" are, making this post difficult to follow. I'd include in-jokes too like OGH and Mike's supposed painted nails.
Blackford, Kennedy, Stone. Clear from the context, and working it out will keep the Alzheimers away.
What matters is, not misleading the site on betting sensitive matters, like you did for weeks in 2015.
Many years ago I read an alternative history (I'm a big fan) called Thaxted, which has a certain Margaret Roberts brought up in Thaxted as a socialist rather than Grantham. The author flatly refused to call anyone by their real name, so it was a real struggle working out who was supposed to be who.
We had: Peggy Wedgewood-Benn (Margaret Thatcher) Lyn, Bob and Bobby (Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara and Robert Kennedy) Brenda (HM Elizabeth II) Woy (Roy Jenkins) Sunny Jim (Callaghan) And a multitude of 'Johns', and trying to work out whether this was Cleese, Lennon or J. Enoch Powell; it didn't help that he decided to have Cleese in the Beatles(!) instead of a bitter, twisted Lennon. Even the final chapter had the new PM (A Conservative) called 'Anthony' married to 'Nigella' who were clearly Tony Blair and Lawson.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
I always enjoy Southam's contributions, but his diagnosis of Boris as a racist is wrongheaded. Just read his books. He's too bright and self-aware. The quotes are taken out of context and the phrasing is an outcome of a journalist's colourful turn of phrase which is something of an addiction with Boris but not evidence of him being a Nick Griffin manque.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
It is difficult to square Austin's position on racism with support for a Conservative Party which has rolled out a member of an ethnic minority (James Cleverly) to argue that the Conservatives are not racist as Islamophobia is not racist since Islam is not a race - an argument previously limited to the BNP (even UKIP shunned it).
Islam is a religion.
Be interested to see where Cleverly has made that argument.
Having looked at most of them, I would say that the initial claims by MCB last year were quite disingenuous - they were stating "things emerging every week" when many of them were back as far as 2010 and disciplinary action had been taken years before.
The more recent ones have some traction, but are far less serious than the stuff that is around Corbyn - much of which is to do with the commanding heights of the party.
I was not aware that James Cleverley had made that argument.
That keen political animal, Mrs Stodge, has opined on the GE. Now, despite being married to an LD, I'm pretty sure she's no LD - I think in the past she's voted Labour but we genuinely don't talk politics as a couple apart from the very local stuff where her perception of and my knowledge of how local Government functions often collide.
Yesterday, she suddenly piped up she had no one to vote for at the GE and wasn't going to bother. She told me she couldn't vote for that "lunatic" Corbyn and as a LEAVE voter couldn't back the LDs and was going to vote for Johnson until she read up on the changes to IR35 introduced by Philip Hammond which, as a contractor in financial services, are going to make life much harder for her and cost her money.
I advised her she could still go to the polling station and spoil her ballot paper and I advised her as to the best way of doing it (or rather what not to do).
So that's one fewer vote for the Conservatives not that it makes much difference in East Ham but it reminds me it's not all about Brexit and other policy areas can affect people's voting intentions.
It's also got me thinking about numbers of spoilt ballot papers - in East Ham in 2017 56,633 votes were cast and 179 papers were rejected. That's 0.3% of the total and I don't know if that's a representative share for the UK as a whole. I think there could be a lot more spoilt papers but I suspect there's no market. Any thoughts?
Funnily enough Mrs Nemtynakht has said the same thing. We would normally both vote Libdem in a south-west former marginal that has gone from 8k lib majority to a 13k Tory majority. We both voted remain, yet we don’t like the revoke policy for the Lib Dem’s. Neither of us like Corbyn, and Mrs N cannot stand Boris. She can’t think of who to vote for and might vote Green. If we had a good local Tory or Labour candidate and they had better leaders I would vote for either Tory or Labour but will probably stick with libdems despite their flagship policy.
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
This isn't a Corbyn thing however it's presented for tactical reasons. Labour is traditionally allied with Congress in India in the same way as we work with the SPD in Germany. The Tories are close to the nationalist BJP under Modi (and were quite successful last time in getting some ethnic Indian votes as a result).
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
Yes - though I wonder what influence the BJP have in the UK? Is this likely to have an impact on British Indians? Genuinely don't know. Are there any marginals where a British - Indian Con-Lab swing might be significant? And does the preaence ofthe BJP in the campaign have an influence in shoring up the Islamic vote for Labour?
There was a few comments yesterday. Yes - there is a lot of local colour and internecine politics. Much fun.
Personally I am calling it for a majority (could be a big majority) for the Independents on the basis of:
1 - They have 30 out of 35 Councillors, and are well organised - unlike say Bolsover. 2 - The won 65-70% of the vote at the locals. 3 - They have not yet given any honking reasons why they should not be supported since that vote. 3 - There is a "not Corbyn" tendency amongst some Labour voters (probably from anti-military not anrisemitism). 4 - The Tory candidate is Gloria de Piero's former office manager who as a very popular councillor with a strong personal vote crossed the floor. May drive 3 towards the Indies. Bad call by the Tories I suspect. 5 - Lib Dems have vanished. I believe the branch has merged with Mansfield. Independents seem to have inherited their infrastructure including the shopfront in the High Street. Lib Dems are a not-Corbyn option that is very obviously a wasted vote. 6 - The Lab Candidate is running a locally based campaign - "one of Ashfield's own", and I do not see that outdoing the Independents on that theme.
(But I am not betting any amounts above £10 this time, having got the Tories the wrong way on the spreads in 2017 and taken a small hiding).
Personally, I suspect that Zadrozny has this constituency for as long as he wants and does not make a huge mistake, Black Swans excepted.
Is the independent candidate Brexity or Remainy (obviously Ashfield was heavily Brexit.)
Does anyone expect this Remain Alliance stuff to matter? I ran it through my model and it gave the Lib Dems and PC one more seat each and subtracted one from the Tories and one from Labour.
That keen political animal, Mrs Stodge, has opined on the GE. Now, despite being married to an LD, I'm pretty sure she's no LD - I think in the past she's voted Labour but we genuinely don't talk politics as a couple apart from the very local stuff where her perception of and my knowledge of how local Government functions often collide.
Yesterday, she suddenly piped up she had no one to vote for at the GE and wasn't going to bother. She told me she couldn't vote for that "lunatic" Corbyn and as a LEAVE voter couldn't back the LDs and was going to vote for Johnson until she read up on the changes to IR35 introduced by Philip Hammond which, as a contractor in financial services, are going to make life much harder for her and cost her money.
I advised her she could still go to the polling station and spoil her ballot paper and I advised her as to the best way of doing it (or rather what not to do).
So that's one fewer vote for the Conservatives not that it makes much difference in East Ham but it reminds me it's not all about Brexit and other policy areas can affect people's voting intentions.
It's also got me thinking about numbers of spoilt ballot papers - in East Ham in 2017 56,633 votes were cast and 179 papers were rejected. That's 0.3% of the total and I don't know if that's a representative share for the UK as a whole. I think there could be a lot more spoilt papers but I suspect there's no market. Any thoughts?
I like the idea of spoilt ballot papers. It demonstrates that the person can be bothered to go to polling booth, so is therefore not apathetic. However, I personally think you should vote for the party that most closely reflects your values even if there are aspects you don't like. If you decide a party has shifted away from those values you look elsewhere (as I have moved away form the party once known as Conservative). If you really can't decide spoiling is the last resort.
Chris Williamson has called on the Labour Party not to field a candidate against him in the general election.
I'd like to call on the National Westminster Bank to deposit a million quid into my current account, and there's probably more chance of that happening.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
Your argument is analogous to this:
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting Shit sandwiches are disgusting Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles and shit sandwiches are equally disgusting.
In the real world, people know which they would prefer to eat.
No. The comparison is between dog shit sandwiches and cat shit sandwiches. It is those like you who seek to excuse the Conservatives from behaviour which is rightly condemned when seen in Labour that bring Conservatism a bad name. Hypocrites.
Cat shit sandwiches are obviously superior, as cats leave more nutrient in their faeces them than dogs do. Dog shit sandwiches have very little benefit.
Corbyn spouting the "£500 billion being given to US Drug companies" which Andrew Neil demolished as garbage on his show last night.
It has obviously polled well as he uses it all the time and if the Tories carry on the way they are with a totally disastrous campaign, it will stick, like the lies from the last GE that the Tories didn't bother to try and combat.
Don't know whether anyone has mentioned Newton Abbot constituency. I saw in the recent Focus that the LDs have chosen Martin Wrigley. He's a local District Councillor here in Teignbridge and as far as I know he's well regarded.
James Cleverly is as senior as you get - and he deploys an argument from the BNP - and you say the Conservative Party is not as rotten as Labour? Pull the other one.
The mental gymnastics that people like you go to to try to excuse Labour from the inexcusable are wondrous to behold. Rather than scurrying around trying to find the tiniest chink of an argument which, against all logic or common-sense, you can pretend shows the Conserviatves are as bad as Corbyn's Labour in this respect, you'd do better to ask yourself why it is that the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, Lord Jonathan Sacks, the Jewish Labour Movement, the Labour Friends of Israel, and many, many others, think there is a major problem in the Labour Party, and why the ECHR is investigating it.
Do you have a problem with language or are you just a Conservative apologist? I said 'as rotten as Labour'. I am not here to defend Labour who have an obvious problem. This is unlike you, since you are clearly prepared to defend even the most senior Conservatives deploying BNP arguments to excuse their racism.
The Conservatives clearly have problems and it should not be ignored, but with the exception of Boris Johnson stupidly using Edwardian language in his newspaper articles in an apparent attempt to appear funny, the Tory leadership is not racist. Jeremy Corbyn, , is strongly suspected to be an Anti-Semite, and the evidence is very strong, particularly his reluctance to rein in his party-within-a-party activists aka Momentum. Trying to equate the two problems is just plain silly, and although I have many problems with Johnson and the Tories and will not be voting for them, the Momentum Party (as it should be renamed) has a major racism issue, period.
Good summary, people need to make an honest attempt to compare the scale of things. Corbyn is a krank ideologist (and is surrounded by others of a similar ilk). His poor man's Leninist "anti-imperialism" has led him to support all manner of murderous bastards and utterly reactionary movements as long as they are struggling against the US or western powers. Throw in an obsession with the middle east and the fact that Labour is letting in all and sundry "leftists" and you have a recipe for disaster. The disaster is either going to be for the LP or for the rest of us if they achieve a majority. I think it is time for the LDs to address the nature of current labour leadership btw. Total tragedy as there are many well meaning fold in the LP or voting for it who are blind to the reality.
Personally, I suspect that Zadrozny has this constituency for as long as he wants and does not make a huge mistake, Black Swans excepted.
Zadrozny is an interesting guy, but hugely polarising. I suspect the Ashfield election will hinge on what people currently think of him more than any national consideration at all.
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
Yes - though I wonder what influence the BJP have in the UK? Is this likely to have an impact on British Indians? Genuinely don't know. Are there any marginals where a British - Indian Con-Lab swing might be significant? And does the preaence ofthe BJP in the campaign have an influence in shoring up the Islamic vote for Labour?
We have several British Hindu clients and members of staff and this has been a burning issue for a while. The outright anger at Corbyn (and indeed Watson) shown is sometimes over this issue very surprising.
I shared the Sky link with one of them and its apparent it might get a lot of support.
Anecdote obviously and our clients/staffers are middle-class affluent Hindu's with mostly dual British/Indian nationality.
Chris Williamson has called on the Labour Party not to field a candidate against him in the general election.
He’s not taking it well, is he? 🙂
is it really such a nicely split labour vote to make it inevitable con gain as HY said? How many votes will he actually get?
The splitter should f*** off and join the Tories.
Language Timothy.
This splitter is not a Tory though. He’s labour with a grudge against Jewish lobbying. It’s a big lesson for labour in this story. Start with Labour’s very pro Palestinian stance, allow it spill into anger and hatred at Israeli actions, a political response in return from Israel and Jewish lobby is perfectly fair and natural. And the Chris type response to that response is the wrong one.
The right thing? Return to the Yes, Minister episode on Israel Arab conflict. Hacker apologises to the Israel ambassador for how UK voted against them at UN, the ambassador sanguine, civil service has always been pro Arab Long before you became PM. Labour leadership can have its Palestinian cause, but it cannot turn a blind eye where this ferments from cause to anger and hatred and anti semitism among its members, or else the headaches that causes them are totally fair and legitimate.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
I always enjoy Southam's contributions, but his diagnosis of Boris as a racist is wrongheaded. Just read his books. He's too bright and self-aware. The quotes are taken out of context and the phrasing is an outcome of a journalist's colourful turn of phrase which is something of an addiction with Boris but not evidence of him being a Nick Griffin manque.
I can buy that, Burgess, but the Tory Party is morphing into The Brexit Party whose links to the far right are well known and well documented. It jars therefore when an ex-Labour MP leaves one Party because of its racist connections and advocates a vote for another with similar credentials.
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting Shit sandwiches are disgusting Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles and shit sandwiches are equally disgusting.
In the real world, people know which they would prefer to eat.
If you are going to use a syllogism, surely your argument should be:
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting Sh*t sandwiches are disgusting Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are sh*t
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I doubt anyone would want BJP as friends currently. The BJP is a broad church, but includes severe racist, culturally-inflammatory, oppressive, and homphobic policies. Including against migrants and poor Indian nationals who have no ID.
Don't know whether anyone has mentioned Newton Abbot constituency. I saw in the recent Focus that the LDs have chosen Martin Wrigley. He's a local District Councillor here in Teignbridge and as far as I know he's well regarded.
Good morning everyone.
Morning Anne. Thanks for that.
Yes, the Abbot has been mentioned occasionally. It's generally filed under 'interesting but unlikely' amongst the LD possibles.
Devastating, clearly heartfelt stuff, from Ian Austin this morning. While I agree with his analysis of Corbyn, I totally disagree on voting for Boris Johnson. Voting Tory is voting for a party led by a man who has pandered to racists for his entire adult life.
You don’t write, publish and say what Johnson has written, published and said so consistently for so long without believing certain types of people are inherently inferior to other types of people. Delivering your racism with a wink does not make you any less racist.
It's also absolutely clear to me that Johnson would ally with anyone and do anything - including selling out his country - for personal political gain.
However, such is Corbyn’s toxicity that many traditional Labour voters will do as Austin says. It is utterly shameful that Labour members have put millions of good, decent people in this position. Their selfishness will never, ever be forgiven. And never should be.
It is difficult to square Austin's position on racism with support for a Conservative Party which has rolled out a member of an ethnic minority (James Cleverly) to argue that the Conservatives are not racist as Islamophobia is not racist since Islam is not a race - an argument previously limited to the BNP (even UKIP shunned it).
Islam is a religion.
Islam is also covered by the UK law outlawing hate crime. Do not try to defend the indefensible. Labour are rotten to the core and so are the Conservatives. And in both cases it is a huge shame that the vast majority of their members, who are decent people, are led and represented by bigots or those with so little moral compass that they will defend bigots.
This really is nonsense. As I posted earlier the anti-Jew and anti-Islam stuff has existed at the edges of the two main parties for a long time. The main issue is that Corbyn being made leader, and bringing his far left acolytes with him has brought that centrally to the Labour Party. The EHRC do not open investigations lightly.
Go and read the Wikipedia entries on Antisemitism in Labour and Conservative parties and islamophobia in conservative parties. If you cannot see how the issue change by an order of magnitude under the current labour leadership after reading that then I think you are not holding the labour leadership to the correct level of account. Now I understand why some want to do this. Whilst sceptical about the issue, the key issues of Brexit or society might trump that.
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
This isn't a Corbyn thing however it's presented for tactical reasons. Labour is traditionally allied with Congress in India in the same way as we work with the SPD in Germany. The Tories are close to the nationalist BJP under Modi (and were quite successful last time in getting some ethnic Indian votes as a result).
Awfully popular at the moment, that Modi. Very much on its arse at the moment the Congress. Very keen to comment on foreign affairs that tickle them up the wrong way, this Labour leadership.
I've just skimmed the thread and seen the question of whether Yvette Cooper is standing again. I live in Pontefract and I received a letter from her office on Tuesday and she's all over it, so I assume she is. Haven't heard anything on the grapevine that she won't be standing again.
"At every opportunity, he backs our country's enemies."
That's potent. Focusses the minds of a lot of wavering Tories.
That is how most Tories know Corbyn, but coming from Ian Austin that is a home truth addressed to Labour supporters.
While I share Austin’s analysis, it may have less force than it might otherwise when we have had reports that Trump, the current Tory party’s best friend, did not believe that Putin was behind the Skripal affair.
Personally, I find it deeply saddening that in Britain in 2019, there should have to be a plea on the front page of a newspaper for voters to pay regard to the fears of a small minority group when casting their vote, to say “Please don’t forget us. Our fears are real.” It is utterly shaming.
And it is not just Jews who feel like that. Far right extremism is on the rise, according to reports. EU citizens who have lived here for years feel uncertain and worried.
Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
I honestly don't know. I do know that my parents and others they knew and around whom I grew up embodied a decency and politeness which seems quaintly old-fashioned now. I do know that in the area of London where I have lived most of my life, when I was young, you did not have guards outside synagogues; when I went to Barmitzvahs for Jewish friends you did not have your bag searched. And yet, when my children reached the same age and I took them to such events, as my parents did, guards were needed and bags were searched because - well, because, it was no longer inconceivable that people who were often the children or grandchildren of those who had fled here from persecution might face the sorts of attacks which their parents/grand-parents had fled from.
We have all these events commemorating historical events, all these lessons and films and lachrymose "Never Agains" and yet at an every day level all kinds of people feel it's OK to talk about fellow human beings, whether Jewish or Muslim or foreign or different in some way, in awful terms and instead of feeling ashamed when this is pointed out, they are proud of it and try and justify it. It often seems to me that the more we elevate anti-racism in the abstract, the less we practice decent polite behaviour to real people in our everyday lives.
Maybe people have always been like this and maybe we have to keep relearning these lessons in every generation. I should not be surprised. It is what happens in finance after all. But it is still saddening.
I suspect that the LDs will get less than 40 seats this time but more than 80 in the next general election later next year.
The LDs will get many second places this time which will help tactical voting next time.
Two scenarios
Scenario A. 45% chance. A Tory government with a small majority. Gets the WAB through so we leave the EU. Hits the buffers again in May/June over asking for an extension of the transition period or crashing out at end 2020. Deja vue all over again as sufficient Tory MPS will not countenance No Deal. Johnson asks for a two year extension or there is a general election on No FTA.
Scenario B. 55% chance. A minority Labour government 60-90 seats short of a majority. LDs and SNP cooperate with Labour to get a second referendum which Remains wins. Revoke. But Labour cannot then govern and a VONC triggers another general election.
Does anyone expect this Remain Alliance stuff to matter? I ran it through my model and it gave the Lib Dems and PC one more seat each and subtracted one from the Tories and one from Labour.
Gives potentially Greens: Bristol West, Plaid: Ynys Mon and a whole host of second places to work on in future. And I would suggest the move changes the narrative for electors in seats such as Cheltenham, Isle of Wight, Stroud, Llanelli and numerous LD seats - thus it's more than the sum of the parts, it's also about the 'optics'. We'll see...
I did say yesterday that he was a disastrous pick.
Yeah I remember. It didn’t take long for this to happen.
So if you knew it, why couldn’t those who anointed him?
One would assume in this day and age that even Conservative Associations have a working internet connection, and the ability to use Google.
Almost looks like they knew, but didn't care.
The very fact that he was selected after Alun Cairns had to resign shows you that the people selecting him are idiots.
My wife works in local government and if the political types she has to deal with are in any way representative then they are probably 60+ and not IT literate.
I think all parties should be employing centrally resource to review historic social media. If they don’t their opponents will.
" the EU’s own agency for fundame depressing trend across the continent."
I agree the UK is clearly less xenophobic and racist than most countries.
However Brexit has made minorities, not just Europeans here, feel that they are not valued or as welcome here as they thought they were.
Both statements can be true at the same time.
Two statements can be true but one can also be substantially more important than the other and the UK by any international measure is not a racist country.
I agree it is not a racist country in relative ter I did five years ago".
On current evidence the number of EU residents in the UK continues to rise. The rate of increase has slowed partly as a result of Brexit residence uncertainties but imo more likley because the exchange rate no longer makes it as economically rewading to come here.
Yes of course people will still want to come here, there are better jobs available here than most of Southern and Eastern Europe, English is one of the most common second languages and the UK is a good place to live. That is all true, but as a country we should be aware that many feel less welcome than they did and seek to change that.
well youre hardly going to create that feel good factor by saying were fundamentally a bunch of xenophobes, This is simply dog whistling politics.
Err, I keep saying the UK is less racist than most and a good place to live for immigrants. If you interpret that as me saying the UK is fundamentally a bunch of xenophobes then there is nothing more I can do.
Re mental health - poor tactics to announce policy on day of another party launch. Labour played it well by contrast
The mental health policy is great. Really impressed. They need to repeat it again when there is more air space.
snip
One of the biggest challenges for Psychiatry is the difficulty in getting graduates to apply. It has one of the lowest competition ratios of all specialities. The reasons are complex, but seemingly intractable. Not least is the absence of funding for inpatient units. Having suicidal patients but no possibility of admission is extremely common and extremely stressful for family and professional alike.
There was an interesting article in the Dundee Courier recently looking at some of the statistics behind our desperate record on drug deaths. The one that really stood out for me (our statistics were worse than the Scottish average in every category bar 1) was mental health. From memory 64% of those who died of a drug overdose in Dundee had a diagnosed mental health problem The Scottish average was just over 50%.
What this screamed out to me was that if we wished to reduce the carnage caused by drugs in our city we really, really have to improve our mental health services. The local specialist unit has a poor reputation both in terms of quality of service and also in its attitude to drug users. People from areas of multiple deprivation with a mental health problem self medicating = death.
The funding and general condition of mental health is an absolute disgrace. I have direct family experience of all this. I am totally with the LibDems on this one (and hats off to Norman Lamb).
As just one example in thousand, the NewStatesman recently featured (in a GP's regular column) a case of a woman with extreme and dangerous psychosis in Devon who had to be sent to an adult mental health bed in Nottingham. It was the only bed available that night in the whole of England and Wales!!
I have similar family experiences. Their policy on mental health is possibly the best reason for voting for the Lib Dems. It is not enough to have badges and talks and HR days about mental health etc, nice as this all is. Real effective help for those suffering - and their families - is what's needed and if you're ever unlucky enough to find yourself in such a situation it is such a lottery and you can feel so frightened and alone trying to navigate your way through to get help, any help. I would not wish such an experience on my worst enemy.
The election proclamation sets the first meeting of the new Parliament as Tuesday 17th. Given the business that day will be election of a Speaker and rest of the week swearing in of members of both houses, we're surely not going to have a State Opening on 23rd/24th December?
Won't HMQ be in Balmoral for Christmas by then?
She goes to Sandringham for Christmas. But I can't see her best pleased even if it's a low key affair like 2017. The Household Cavalry have already had their Christmas leave cancelled.
That is a good point!
I think Boris will say, everyone have a break now, see your families, recharge, get your oomph back. See you first week of January.
If he gets a majority and doesn’t say that, I will see it as a mistake.
Yes and there is loads we can do, we are already good at science. Replace geography with environment at school. We could make degrees related to environment tech and science free, or even give small bursaries for them. We could exempt firms in those sectors from various taxes for the next 20 years and give them easy access to work permits for foreign scientists to allow them to build, recruit and flourish.
Replacing geography with environmental studies seems extremely retrograde to me. One of the issues we have is that environmental studies are seen too much in isolation from all other aspects of both human and physical geography and to be successful in understanding environmental impacts our students need that grounding in basic geographic principles.
Saying the study of geography should be replaced with the study of environment is like saying the study of chemistry should be replaced by the study of only hydrocarbons.
Labour with their friends across the world there, winning here
I’d forgotten that Corbyn had waded into the Kashmir conflict. Someone should have had a word a long time ago about self inflicted wounds
This isn't a Corbyn thing however it's presented for tactical reasons. Labour is traditionally allied with Congress in India in the same way as we work with the SPD in Germany. The Tories are close to the nationalist BJP under Modi (and were quite successful last time in getting some ethnic Indian votes as a result).
"At every opportunity, he backs our country's enemies."
That's potent. Focusses the minds of a lot of wavering Tories.
What do we think the chances are that somebody is going to leak that Russian interference report during the campaign?
More likely than not? 60%-80%?
I'd have thought so. Which begs the question: why doesn't the government release it now and get it out of the way so that it will be forgotten by 12th Dec?
Sadly the answer may be because they are a bit dim.
Sadly the answer is likely to be they will release it on December 13th when we are stuck with them for another 5 years and it will matter not a jot whether they are shown to be Putin's Little Helpers because it will be too late to anything about it.
It won't now get released until the middle of next year.
I know - in a professional capacity - some of the people involved and some of their activities. The impact of dirty Eastern European (see, especially, Ukrainian) and Russian money in Britain has been going on for a decade at least, to my knowledge. No-one has a great interest in stopping it, whatever they say, because money talks - see also the influence bought by the Saudis and Qataris and now the Chinese.
I suspect that the LDs will get less than 40 seats this time but more than 80 in the next general election later next year.
The LDs will get many second places this time which will help tactical voting next time.
Two scenarios
Scenario A. 45% chance. A Tory government with a small majority. Gets the WAB through so we leave the EU. Hits the buffers again in May/June over asking for an extension of the transition period or crashing out at end 2020. Deja vue all over again as sufficient Tory MPS will not countenance No Deal. Johnson asks for a two year extension or there is a general election on No FTA.
Scenario B. 55% chance. A minority Labour government 60-90 seats short of a majority. LDs and SNP cooperate with Labour to get a second referendum which Remains wins. Revoke. But Labour cannot then govern and a VONC triggers another general election.
Very good summary of the position IMO.
Some impressive polling for the LDs in Wokingham and Esher - if this trend persists a Tory majority must be beyond reach even if they do well against Labour in the north.
Yes and there is loads we can do, we are already good at science. Replace geography with environment at school. We could make degrees related to environment tech and science free, or even give small bursaries for them. We could exempt firms in those sectors from various taxes for the next 20 years and give them easy access to work permits for foreign scientists to allow them to build, recruit and flourish.
Replacing geography with environmental studies seems extremely retrograde to me. One of the issues we have is that environmental studies are seen too much in isolation from all other aspects of both human and physical geography and to be successful in understanding environmental impacts our students need that grounding in basic geographic principles.
Saying the study of geography should be replaced with the study of environment is like saying the study of chemistry should be replaced by the study of only hydrocarbons.
If we were starting building a curriculum for modern day life from a blank sheet of paper there is no way geography would be in the top ten.
The question for me in this GE is not remai n or leave pacts nor anything else
This election depends on whether Boris can do a Macron and capture the country thereby securing a reasonable majority, no matter how much the opposition try to reign him in
This is not only the question that has to be answered on the 12th December but will decide Brexit itself.
Brexit can only happen with Boris capturing the mood of the natiom
Why do socialists clap themselves, it is so naff! Clapping is supposed to be an accolade by others that someone has said or done something of merit, not self-congratulations.
Yet again a chairman of a Labour event asking the audience not to be rude if they dislike questions from journalists.
"At every opportunity, he backs our country's enemies."
That's potent. Focusses the minds of a lot of wavering Tories.
That is how most Tories know Corbyn, but coming from Ian Austin that is a home truth addressed to Labour supporters.
And it is not just Jews who feel like that. Far right extremism is on the rise, according to reports. EU citizens who have lived here for years feel uncertain and worried.
Never mind unlocking Britain’s potential. A return to some old-fashioned decency would be welcome.
Was it ever there or was it just a front? Has Brexit unmasked closeted hypocrisy and shown us as we really are?
I honestly don't know. I do know that my parents and others they knew and around whom I grew up embodied a decency and politeness which seems quaintly old-fashioned now. I do know that in the area of London where I have lived most of my life, when I was young, you did not have guards outside synagogues; when I went to Barmitzvahs for Jewish friends you did not have your bag searched. And yet, when my children reached the same age and I took them to such events, as my parents did, guards were needed and bags were searched because - well, because, it was no longer inconceivable that people who were often the children or grandchildren of those who had fled here from persecution might face the sorts of attacks which their parents/grand-parents had fled from.
We have all these events commemorating historical events, all these lessons and films and lachrymose "Never Agains" and yet at an every day level all kinds of people feel it's OK to talk about fellow human beings, whether Jewish or Muslim or foreign or different in some way, in awful terms and instead of feeling ashamed when this is pointed out, they are proud of it and try and justify it. It often seems to me that the more we elevate anti-racism in the abstract, the less we practice decent polite behaviour to real people in our everyday lives.
Maybe people have always been like this and maybe we have to keep relearning these lessons in every generation. I should not be surprised. It is what happens in finance after all. But it is still saddening.
Growing up with a lot of Jews, at school in Hampstead, my impression was that anti-Semitism was viewed as an idiotic throwback. The idea of having guards outside synagogues would have been considered absurd.
Yes and there is loads we can do, we are already good at science. Replace geography with environment at school. We could make degrees related to environment tech and science free, or even give small bursaries for them. We could exempt firms in those sectors from various taxes for the next 20 years and give them easy access to work permits for foreign scientists to allow them to build, recruit and flourish.
Replacing geography with environmental studies seems extremely retrograde to me. One of the issues we have is that environmental studies are seen too much in isolation from all other aspects of both human and physical geography and to be successful in understanding environmental impacts our students need that grounding in basic geographic principles.
Saying the study of geography should be replaced with the study of environment is like saying the study of chemistry should be replaced by the study of only hydrocarbons.
Thankfully Oxford saw the error of its ways after it replaced The School of Geography with The Centre for the Environment. Now it is The School of Geography and the Environment.
I have similar family experiences. Their policy on mental health is possibly the best reason for voting for the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dem policy on special educational needs has similar significance to me (we don't have an SEN kid, but my wife is headteacher of a school with several, and my mother was an SEN teacher). The Lib Dems are the only party to admit that inclusion is not always the answer, and to commit to funding special schools properly.
Comments
How do you think Leave won? It ignored the truth and threw out simple, believable lies that people could latch on to.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50320731
What terrible timing...Not just the UK GE, but Disney+ launches next week, with new stars wars show etc.
Rarely get an election where all three main party leaders could conceivably lose, and their cabinets decimated.
Almost looks like they knew, but didn't care.
The very fact that he was selected after Alun Cairns had to resign shows you that the people selecting him are idiots.
That’s like saying the miners newsletter was predominantly anti Thatcher - there is a reason behind it.
There's a non compete clause that was created when they launched the Sky Disney channel, which expires in 2020.
is it really such a nicely split labour vote to make it inevitable con gain as HY said? How many votes will he actually get?
Having looked at most of them, I would say that the initial claims by MCB last year were quite disingenuous - they were stating "things emerging every week" when many of them were back as far as 2010 and disciplinary action had been taken years before.
The more recent ones have some traction, but are far less serious than the stuff that is around Corbyn - much of which is to do with the commanding heights of the party.
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting
Shit sandwiches are disgusting
Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles and shit sandwiches are equally disgusting.
In the real world, people know which they would prefer to eat.
If an asteroid impacts and wipes out civilisation that will be Brexit's fault too. We should not have got distracted from important stuff
If it falls one particular way, I predict a miraculous resurrection of SeanT. In fact, I'd bet on it.
I have no idea how malleable or homogenous the Indian Hindu vote is to suggestion, pressure, coercion or if it is full of free spirits, independent action and thought.
I also have no idea how the Indian Hindu vote has voted in the past or how it is distributed.
I hope this lack of knowledge doesn't make me racist, especially as I'm off to India soon!
Its astonishing and disgraceful that such a piece needed to he printed. Labour as they are currently constituted are a cancer
There's also talk that Disney may follow HBO's lead and not launch HBO Max in countries with Sky but do a deal to broadcast their content on Sky (Atlantic) but I suspect Disney want to be platform neutral.
We had:
Peggy Wedgewood-Benn (Margaret Thatcher)
Lyn, Bob and Bobby (Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara and Robert Kennedy)
Brenda (HM Elizabeth II)
Woy (Roy Jenkins)
Sunny Jim (Callaghan)
And a multitude of 'Johns', and trying to work out whether this was Cleese, Lennon or J. Enoch Powell; it didn't help that he decided to have Cleese in the Beatles(!) instead of a bitter, twisted Lennon.
Even the final chapter had the new PM (A Conservative) called 'Anthony' married to 'Nigella' who were clearly Tony Blair and Lawson.
Is this likely to have an impact on British Indians? Genuinely don't know. Are there any marginals where a British - Indian Con-Lab swing might be significant? And does the preaence ofthe BJP in the campaign have an influence in shoring up the Islamic vote for Labour?
See this video:
https://www.facebook.com/ashfieldindependents/videos/vb.571937449621768/2428947384061186/?type=2&theater
https://twitter.com/Roy1Batty/status/1192393707376517120?s=20
Which are the most important issues facing the country? (respondents could pick up to 3)
Brexit - 68% (+4 since the same point in GE2017 campaign)
Health - 40% (-5)
Crime - 28% (+17)
Economy - 25% (-9)
Environment - 25% (+17)
Immigration - 22% (-13)
https://t.co/2l2o1OhAac https://t.co/DhwwdNUzdU
Good morning everyone.
I shared the Sky link with one of them and its apparent it might get a lot of support.
Anecdote obviously and our clients/staffers are middle-class affluent Hindu's with mostly dual British/Indian nationality.
This splitter is not a Tory though. He’s labour with a grudge against Jewish lobbying.
It’s a big lesson for labour in this story. Start with Labour’s very pro Palestinian stance, allow it spill into anger and hatred at Israeli actions, a political response in return from Israel and Jewish lobby is perfectly fair and natural. And the Chris type response to that response is the wrong one.
The right thing? Return to the Yes, Minister episode on Israel Arab conflict. Hacker apologises to the Israel ambassador for how UK voted against them at UN, the ambassador sanguine, civil service has always been pro Arab Long before you became PM. Labour leadership can have its Palestinian cause, but it cannot turn a blind eye where this ferments from cause to anger and hatred and anti semitism among its members, or else the headaches that causes them are totally fair and legitimate.
Slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are disgusting
Sh*t sandwiches are disgusting
Therefore slightly stale cheese and onion Pringles are sh*t
Which could be correct
The BJP is a broad church, but includes severe racist, culturally-inflammatory, oppressive, and homphobic policies. Including against migrants and poor Indian nationals who have no ID.
Yes, the Abbot has been mentioned occasionally. It's generally filed under 'interesting but unlikely' amongst the LD possibles.
Go and read the Wikipedia entries on Antisemitism in Labour and Conservative parties and islamophobia in conservative parties. If you cannot see how the issue change by an order of magnitude under the current labour leadership after reading that then I think you are not holding the labour leadership to the correct level of account. Now I understand why some want to do this. Whilst sceptical about the issue, the key issues of Brexit or society might trump that.
Very much on its arse at the moment the Congress.
Very keen to comment on foreign affairs that tickle them up the wrong way, this Labour leadership.
We have all these events commemorating historical events, all these lessons and films and lachrymose "Never Agains" and yet at an every day level all kinds of people feel it's OK to talk about fellow human beings, whether Jewish or Muslim or foreign or different in some way, in awful terms and instead of feeling ashamed when this is pointed out, they are proud of it and try and justify it. It often seems to me that the more we elevate anti-racism in the abstract, the less we practice decent polite behaviour to real people in our everyday lives.
Maybe people have always been like this and maybe we have to keep relearning these lessons in every generation. I should not be surprised. It is what happens in finance after all. But it is still saddening.
The LDs will get many second places this time which will help tactical voting next time.
Two scenarios
Scenario A. 45% chance. A Tory government with a small majority. Gets the WAB through so we leave the EU. Hits the buffers again in May/June over asking for an extension of the transition period or crashing out at end 2020. Deja vue all over again as sufficient Tory MPS will not countenance No Deal. Johnson asks for a two year extension or there is a general election on No FTA.
Scenario B. 55% chance. A minority Labour government 60-90 seats short of a majority. LDs and SNP cooperate with Labour to get a second referendum which Remains wins. Revoke. But Labour cannot then govern and a VONC triggers another general election.
I think all parties should be employing centrally resource to review historic social media. If they don’t their opponents will.
If he gets a majority and doesn’t say that, I will see it as a mistake.
Saying the study of geography should be replaced with the study of environment is like saying the study of chemistry should be replaced by the study of only hydrocarbons.
https://in.news.yahoo.com/jeremy-corbyn-kashmir-tweet-embarrasses-010239686.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFKVkxqQO1-DKDCpQsxY4cnDzmn2NNBgtzW-46Y7GBzkuayn3eQJQ5c46vkWc3k5_SlIiMIDLOq3jz7DQ95u9abi4U5jAgifhxPdvrN4j1dLtaJ67wLhYYAZS-yiZHggX9y7D7-0S3wnIjq6X6WQMhKpwZinsQTkSNceF7qdEegF
I know - in a professional capacity - some of the people involved and some of their activities. The impact of dirty Eastern European (see, especially, Ukrainian) and Russian money in Britain has been going on for a decade at least, to my knowledge. No-one has a great interest in stopping it, whatever they say, because money talks - see also the influence bought by the Saudis and Qataris and now the Chinese.
There have been over 600,000 applications in the last week. Over 50% are for the under 35s. Less than 5% are for the over 65s.
That is an average of nearly 1,000 new voters per constituency. It could make a difference in several constituencies.
https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote
Some impressive polling for the LDs in Wokingham and Esher - if this trend persists a Tory majority must be beyond reach even if they do well against Labour in the north.
This election depends on whether Boris can do a Macron and capture the country thereby securing a reasonable majority, no matter how much the opposition try to reign him in
This is not only the question that has to be answered on the 12th December but will decide Brexit itself.
Brexit can only happen with Boris capturing the mood of the natiom
Yet again a chairman of a Labour event asking the audience not to be rude if they dislike questions from journalists.