On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
The changes go back to March. most in the last month, though.
Very useful, and so the daily deaths in all settings is below 60?
Yes
I find it interesting that no many times people point out that reporting date data is not useful for the current situation... we have people commenting on that days reporting date data.
I like to think in terms of a bank account statement. Your statement may have a certain date, but the transactions don't all occur on that same day.
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Easy, a raise in the higher rate of income tax. Only 15% of taxpayers pay that.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Driving through Darwen, Bolton and Leigh earlier in the week I was surprised, no shocked, at the number of Union flags and flags of St George on display.
Johnson, because of his well known disdain for the excesses of the EU and flowery dog-whistle adjectives when it comes to decribing ethnic groups, is seen as a patriot.
The Labour Party with their hand wringing have been painted (possibly correctly) as foreign-enemy (the EU, Russia, China, Syrian refugees) backing and backed subversives, who are more interested in the welfare of lazy EU scroungers and Rochdale cabbies than they are about the good old English Tommy! I meet people who believe this regularly.
I would like to think what I have written in the last two paragraphs is bollocks, but I really don't think it is. I suspect it is the way many of the self-perceived dispossessed, particularly of England and Wales feel about life in 2020 Blighty.
This is a big problem for Labour. The forthcoming economic catastrophe might also not be of as much help as they think either, particularly if the downturn can be painted as the fault of scapegoat groups (maybe, the Chinese, Bangladeshi sweat shop workers in Leicester, farm Labourers in Herefordshire from Romania).
When it comes to scapegoating, Johnson is a genius, and people love him more for it. Sunak will not have that midas touch. So Labour's best hope is Johnson falls.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Easy, a raise in the higher rate of income tax. Only 15% of taxpayers pay that.
Ok. But the Tories might not oppose. And I thought you were in the camp of high taxes hit wealth creation and thus do not benefit anybody let alone most of the population.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Renationalise the railways?
Would that benefit 80% of the country though?
Maybe not 80%, but quite a lot I think, and it's something that would be very popular and opposed by the Tories.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Easy, a raise in the higher rate of income tax. Only 15% of taxpayers pay that.
Labour is already committed to restoring the 50p top rate of income tax
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Easy, a raise in the higher rate of income tax. Only 15% of taxpayers pay that.
Labour is already committed to restoring the 50p top rate of income tax
So today we have 16 deaths in English hospitals and 114 in all settings. So 98 who did not die in an English hospital. As English hospitals are empty where are these people dying?
Most of these people died ages ago and the reporting is very late. It's something the government is failing to make clear. Loads of people believe that 114 people died yesterday, the figure is more like 60 at the moment, but it has stopped falling, probably because of the lockdown easing and opening shops.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
That used to be easy to answer. Better schools, better hospitals, better education and health outcomes. The Tories talked the talk on public services at the last GE. Where they fail to deliver we have to hold them to account and demonstrate what we would do better.
I also believe that constitutional reform will benefit the majority, but that fails the 'bread and butter' test.
I've updated the thread header now and removed the duplicate text. Apologies for any confusion.
Speaking of confusion, how are you coming along with the brief re: my claim, on behalf of the Great State of West West Virginia? I entrusted this legal work to you, yet have heard nothing for years - is this common practice at the English Bar (or is it Pub)?
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
So today we have 16 deaths in English hospitals and 114 in all settings. So 98 who did not die in an English hospital. As English hospitals are empty where are these people dying?
Most of these people died ages ago and the reporting is very late. It's something the government is failing to make clear. Loads of people believe that 114 people died yesterday, the figure is more like 60 at the moment, but it has stopped falling, probably because of the lockdown easing and opening shops.
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
That used to be easy to answer. Better schools, better hospitals, better education and health outcomes. The Tories talked the talk on public services at the last GE. Where they fail to deliver we have to hold them to account and demonstrate what we would do better.
I also believe that constitutional reform will benefit the majority, but that fails the 'bread and butter' test.
How much rate of return do you get with better schools and better hospitals ?
I'd say there was plenty which could be done on public health - nutrition, exercise, even teaching people to wash their hands properly - which would benefit the 80%. But how many votes would that shift ?
Likewise more 'practical' education and training would be good for the 80% but would people vote for it, would the vested interests oppose it and would it be applied in practice ?
And what is Labour going to do about student debt ? Continue Corbyn's promise to write it off or say it will have to be paid or reduce the number going to university in the first place ?
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
The Iraq war was bad. But as an electoral issue? In 2005 we had a choice of a Labour government who backed the war or a Tory government who backed the war. Don't forget that Blair still won a thumping voctory in 2005 despite the war.
New Labour absolutely did the everyman position. The problem was that underneath the shiny words and warm feelings there wasn't a lot of policy. Too many people felt that they were slipping backwards every year no matter how hard they worked - the red wall went blue because for too long they've been told nothing can change for the better.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Renationalise the railways?
Would that benefit 80% of the country though?
Maybe not 80%, but quite a lot I think, and it's something that would be very popular and opposed by the Tories.
OK that's in. And so is higher top rate tax.
My general point is that Sandy's 80% is too wide to be meaningful.
I see that Shagger really wants people to go back to normal. Train travel formally no longer essential journeys only a big change. But as its mask up its got to put people off. Heavily laden trains / tubes are bad enough without a mask, with one in the summer you're going to have people dropping from the heat in their droves.
And leisure travel? I've looked at a few trips I could do. But with a mask on? I'll drive thanks. I know that we need the masks. But personally I hate the things, and that means avoiding situations where I have to wear one as much as possible.
Nice piece (but as noted below, some text appears twice). It's a tough one. But if the Tories can persuade ex miners that Boris Johnson has their best interests at heart then it shouldn't be impossible for Labour to find a way to assemble an election-winning coalition.
I don't believe any ex-miners thought Johnson has their best interests at heart. What they did know was that Corbyn was not for them. They thought a clown better than a Marxist. A crap choice, but one that had to be made.
Ironic then, that they should side with Mr Putin's Russian trolls.
Indeed. Putin has been having lots of laughs at us over the last few years. It is a massive irony that so many people who voted for Leave believe themselves to be patriotic, when in reality they were advancing the foreign policy agenda of a hostile power.
Even a broken clock can be right.
Just because what suits us also suits our enemy does not mean we shouldn't do it.
Good attempt Philip, but no, that doesn't wash. 52% of the population, including yourself are useful idiots. You can't call yourself patriots because you have done the bidding of a foreign despot who is most definitely hostile. The same bunch of idiots have also been very useful to another bunch of non-military hostile nationalists- those of the Scottish variety. Our enemies must love you. You are the equivalents of the appeasers of the 1930s.
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
I'm not sure there was that much 'good stuff' especially given the fortuitous period Blair was PM in.
So today we have 16 deaths in English hospitals and 114 in all settings. So 98 who did not die in an English hospital. As English hospitals are empty where are these people dying?
Haven't we established that, for instance, if an apparently healthy person has a heart attack in their home and then tests positive for Covid-19 they get included in the statistics? That would explain something like the 98 figure.
I’d like to see general numbers though. Are they mostly care homes?
The issue is though that on average care home residents die within 12 months of admission to a care home.
This flaw in the data will be massively inflating care home deaths.
People who caught the virus in a care home and recovered will still be due to die before long because they are sick and very old which is why they are in a care home and not their own home.
There will be a very large number of people, potentially hundreds or thousands, who caught the virus in a care home, recovered from the virus completely and later died due to other causes. Regrettably and realistically almost all of those who have tested positive and recovered do not have much life expectancy left anyway and are at high risk of death before long . . . and will falsely be recorded as a COVID care home death when the inevitable happens.
So our Government really could have done a fantastic job after all. It's a theory I suppose, but how do we explain excess deaths?
I'm talking about the present situation.
There are no excess deaths at the minute to explain. The last excess deaths were (from memory) recorded over a month ago now. We have negative excess now and have for weeks.
So the lockdown is preventing other deaths, not just COVID ones?
Yes. It is preventing eg accidental deaths from RTAs etc
But it is likely going to longterm risk other deaths due to eg delayed cancer diagnosis but they won't show up in the lockdown figures.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
The events of September 11th 2001 would have transformed any and every Government. It was a pivotal day in our history and perhaps the end of that brief interregnum of optimism which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After a decade of peace and significant defence reductions via the "Peace Dividend", we had a new threat but of a very different nature to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact and against which new methods were required.
Sept 2001 began the journey to Iraq which as you say blighted Blair and his reputation and the cost of which, I think, led to the Global Financial Crash as the economic model of the centre-left unravelled.
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Is that another outbreak in Herefordshire or a continuation of the same one ?
So today we have 16 deaths in English hospitals and 114 in all settings. So 98 who did not die in an English hospital. As English hospitals are empty where are these people dying?
Haven't we established that, for instance, if an apparently healthy person has a heart attack in their home and then tests positive for Covid-19 they get included in the statistics? That would explain something like the 98 figure.
I’d like to see general numbers though. Are they mostly care homes?
The issue is though that on average care home residents die within 12 months of admission to a care home.
This flaw in the data will be massively inflating care home deaths.
People who caught the virus in a care home and recovered will still be due to die before long because they are sick and very old which is why they are in a care home and not their own home.
There will be a very large number of people, potentially hundreds or thousands, who caught the virus in a care home, recovered from the virus completely and later died due to other causes. Regrettably and realistically almost all of those who have tested positive and recovered do not have much life expectancy left anyway and are at high risk of death before long . . . and will falsely be recorded as a COVID care home death when the inevitable happens.
So our Government really could have done a fantastic job after all. It's a theory I suppose, but how do we explain excess deaths?
I'm talking about the present situation.
There are no excess deaths at the minute to explain. The last excess deaths were (from memory) recorded over a month ago now. We have negative excess now and have for weeks.
So the lockdown is preventing other deaths, not just COVID ones?
I seem to recall predictions of a surge of deaths due to folk not seeking/receiving treatment for conditions other than Covid during the lockdown. Presumably they've been put away for another day?
Certainly preventing treatment, 6 months since my wife has been able to see her consultant and appointment cancelled again as the queue for CT scans is big.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
The events of September 11th 2001 would have transformed any and every Government. It was a pivotal day in our history and perhaps the end of that brief interregnum of optimism which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After a decade of peace and significant defence reductions via the "Peace Dividend", we had a new threat but of a very different nature to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact and against which new methods were required.
Sept 2001 began the journey to Iraq which as you say blighted Blair and his reputation and the cost of which, I think, led to the Global Financial Crash as the economic model of the centre-left unravelled.
I see that Shagger really wants people to go back to normal. Train travel formally no longer essential journeys only a big change. But as its mask up its got to put people off. Heavily laden trains / tubes are bad enough without a mask, with one in the summer you're going to have people dropping from the heat in their droves.
And leisure travel? I've looked at a few trips I could do. But with a mask on? I'll drive thanks. I know that we need the masks. But personally I hate the things, and that means avoiding situations where I have to wear one as much as possible.
Some of us are non-motorists and must therefore endure the masks. The good news, however, is that all the people such as yourself who have the car option available and will use it (because they hate the masks, are still too afraid of the trains, or both) should contribute to ongoing reduced public transport use, which ought hopefully to make the trains quite empty and not too stuffy.
Of course, none of this helps on the Tube, which (particularly in the case of the deep level tunnels) is hot in Winter and a reeking furnace in Summer. Just one more good reason for commuters to ignore Johnson's entreaties to go back to the office. I, for one, expect that I shall stick to Cambridge or perhaps Ely for day excursions and (except when forced to go to Paddington for the train to Wales) will be avoiding London for a long, long time.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
Easy, a raise in the higher rate of income tax. Only 15% of taxpayers pay that.
On topic, yes, this is where we need to focus as a party.
We need to wake up and realise that we have drifted further and further away from the people we are supposed to represent and stand up for.
I don't really have anything against the stereotypical hand wringer types who now dominate the Labour Party. Their hearts are in the right place and they mean well. However, too many are totally out of touch with 'life in a northern town' and have a vision of a better society that means nothing to those voters we have lost.
Bread and butter issues. (And that's a sliced white not an organic artisan ciabatta).
And focus on the middle 80%. Don't be focused on the 10% at either end.
I could bang on all evening on this, but I'll leave it there.
P.S. The 'blue' is for blue collar, not Tory-lite.
Can you float me a specific policy which iyo would benefit 80% of the country and which the Tories would oppose?
That used to be easy to answer. Better schools, better hospitals, better education and health outcomes. The Tories talked the talk on public services at the last GE. Where they fail to deliver we have to hold them to account and demonstrate what we would do better.
I also believe that constitutional reform will benefit the majority, but that fails the 'bread and butter' test.
Nothing wrong with being open about wanting constitutional reform, and doing it, it just cannot be the central thesis as only wonks care.
To be fair, we had the war in Yugoslavia so it wasn't peaceful but as you say there was a sense we had turned a page and international relations would be simpler.
I suppose the notion of a Pax Americana wasn't wholly unattractive to many in the UK though for other parts in the world it was less appealing.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
The events of September 11th 2001 would have transformed any and every Government. It was a pivotal day in our history and perhaps the end of that brief interregnum of optimism which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After a decade of peace and significant defence reductions via the "Peace Dividend", we had a new threat but of a very different nature to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact and against which new methods were required.
Sept 2001 began the journey to Iraq which as you say blighted Blair and his reputation and the cost of which, I think, led to the Global Financial Crash as the economic model of the centre-left unravelled.
The 1990s was the decade of optimism.
1990-97: thwarted optimism 1997-2001: diminuendo yay 2001-: fcuk
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
I'm not sure there was that much 'good stuff' especially given the fortuitous period Blair was PM in.
Ah, but there was the promise of good stuff, hence the New Labour landslide victories of 1997 and 2001. I agree delivery was lacking in many ways.
Do note though that the Conservatives got elected in 2019 on a similar list of promises, not least that Brexit is the answer to the economic woes of the purple wall. I have no doubt that there will also be a failure of delivery there too.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
My first trip to North Island for over four months. Lunchtime in North London, I’d say half, perhaps slightly more, of people out and about were wearing masks, but a lot of people passing without making much effort to keep their distance. This evening in the Cotswolds, mask usage maybe 25% - still higher than at home but, like on the island, people are pretty good at taking care not to walk too close.
The tragedy of 9/11 is that it could have been so easily avoided, if the Americans had had proper security for internal flights at the time, and also if their defence forces had had a plan for stopping unauthorised flights approaching the New York City area.
Some of us are non-motorists and must therefore endure the masks. The good news, however, is that all the people such as yourself who have the car option available and will use it (because they hate the masks, are still too afraid of the trains, or both) should contribute to ongoing reduced public transport use, which ought hopefully to make the trains quite empty and not too stuffy.
Of course, none of this helps on the Tube, which (particularly in the case of the deep level tunnels) is hot in Winter and a reeking furnace in Summer. Just one more good reason for commuters to ignore Johnson's entreaties to go back to the office. I, for one, expect that I shall stick to Cambridge or perhaps Ely for day excursions and (except when forced to go to Paddington for the train to Wales) will be avoiding London for a long, long time.
As I explained earlier, while the rules on social distancing exist, pre-Covid office life is going to be impossible for many organisations.
I suspect Johnson is going to drop ALL social distancing at the end of next month and tell us it is our "civic duty" to go back to our offices and desks.
While there are some on here who assert they and everyone they know are champing at the bit to get back to commuting and the office, my suspicion is that isn't a widely held view and companies will be looking in the autumn at empty commercial premises and starting to ask some searching questions about the viability of their estate.
As it stands, Huddersfield all but saving themselves from relegation, at the expense of promoting Leeds.
If you're going to comment on football please use the proper name for Leeds United, 'Dirty Leeds'.
I thought you'd had the good grace to amend this to "Don Revie's Dirty Leeds" in acknowledgement of Bielsa's new regime? Anyway, 12 minutes from promotion as I write.......
The main problem Labour have is that they're an economic disaster. I'd actually go further, far further, and suggest that the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline over the last hundred years.
Starmer might just march his army out of this land altogether. Blair told us he had done so, but somehow the actual march never took place - we got left with the steaming toad that was Brown.
Blue Labour perhaps, but more significantly there may be a chance that we have Labour politicians that are actually a good thing for the country - that'll be a first.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
Krastev & Holmes analyse this in some detail, and posit some more psychological explanations.
My first trip to North Island for over four months. Lunchtime in North London, I’d say half, perhaps slightly more, of people out and about were wearing masks, but a lot of people passing without making much effort to keep their distance. This evening in the Cotswolds, mask usage maybe 25% - still higher than at home but, like on the island, people are pretty good at taking care not to walk too close.
I was surprised how much of the Island had stayed closed, and seemed in no hurry to reopen, speaking to folk at some of my regular haunts there.
One of my favourite restaurants was planning to open Saturdays only in August, and had cut back to a husband (cook) and wife (front of house) team. They didn't see much worthwhile in the meal voucher scheme or VAT cut. The limiting factor was not price, but rather safety, and the economics of a reduced number of tables.
The main problem Labour have is that they're an economic disaster. I'd actually go further, far further, and suggest that the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline over the last hundred years.
Starmer might just march his army out of this land altogether. Blair told us he had done so, but somehow the actual march never took place - we got left with the steaming toad that was Brown.
Blue Labour perhaps, but more significantly there may be a chance that we have Labour politicians that are actually a good thing for the country - that'll be a first.
'the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline'
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
Do we still get much in the way of posts from Russia?
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
The events of September 11th 2001 would have transformed any and every Government. It was a pivotal day in our history and perhaps the end of that brief interregnum of optimism which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After a decade of peace and significant defence reductions via the "Peace Dividend", we had a new threat but of a very different nature to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact and against which new methods were required.
Sept 2001 began the journey to Iraq which as you say blighted Blair and his reputation and the cost of which, I think, led to the Global Financial Crash as the economic model of the centre-left unravelled.
The GFC was caused by an abdication of risk management in pursuit of untrammelled greed.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
Krastev & Holmes analyse this in some detail, and posit some more psychological explanations.
Oh yes, Putin saying that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the twentieth century gives away a lot of the playbook.
We forget but the wave of terrorism that Europe saw in the 1970s and early 1980s was funded, and encouraged, by the Soviet Union. They paid for the IRA. They supplied them with bombs and with guns. They printed propaganda. They funded the Red Brigades in Italy and in Germany. They also propped up neofascist groupings.
Essentially, Russia and the Soviet Union have always wanted to be the top dog in Europe, and their policy is that it is easier to weaken the West, than to get their own house in order.
Which works until it doesn't work. Who follows Putin?
The main problem Labour have is that they're an economic disaster. I'd actually go further, far further, and suggest that the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline over the last hundred years.
Starmer might just march his army out of this land altogether. Blair told us he had done so, but somehow the actual march never took place - we got left with the steaming toad that was Brown.
Blue Labour perhaps, but more significantly there may be a chance that we have Labour politicians that are actually a good thing for the country - that'll be a first.
Bearing in mind that Labour have been in power for only 31 of the years of the last century, you must have a pretty broad definition of the left which encompasses a lot of apparently Conservative governments!
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Is that another outbreak in Herefordshire or a continuation of the same one ?
I'm sure I've seen reports in the last couple of days of more confirmed cases from that farm outbreak, so I'd imagine it's the same one.
Speaking more broadly, the local authority numbers that @Malmesbury collates are some of the more useful data available at the moment, simply because they show us that (a) the virus appears to have faded away to background levels in most of England and (b) the bulk of the really stubborn remaining hotspots are in local authorities with substantial populations of South Asian descent (so, you're combining the strong suggestion from the hospital and death data that non-white people are more vulnerable to the virus with an atypically high percentage of multi-generational households.) This is useful to the Government and councils alike, because it gives them a good idea of where to look for new infection spikes and where to target interventions to nip them in the bud.
As it stands, Huddersfield all but saving themselves from relegation, at the expense of promoting Leeds.
If you're going to comment on football please use the proper name for Leeds United, 'Dirty Leeds'.
I thought you'd had the good grace to amend this to "Don Revie's Dirty Leeds" in acknowledgement of Bielsa's new regime? Anyway, 12 minutes from promotion as I write.......
Congratulations to Marco Biesla's Leeds on their promotion.
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Is that another outbreak in Herefordshire or a continuation of the same one ?
I'm sure I've seen reports in the last couple of days of more confirmed cases from that farm outbreak, so I'd imagine it's the same one.
Speaking more broadly, the local authority numbers that @Malmesbury collates are some of the more useful data available at the moment, simply because they show us that (a) the virus appears to have faded away to background levels in most of England and (b) the bulk of the really stubborn remaining hotspots are in local authorities with substantial populations of South Asian descent (so, you're combining the strong suggestion from the hospital and death data that non-white people are more vulnerable to the virus with an atypically high percentage of multi-generational households.) This is useful to the Government and councils alike, because it gives them a good idea of where to look for new infection spikes and where to target interventions to nip them in the bud.
Some of us are non-motorists and must therefore endure the masks. The good news, however, is that all the people such as yourself who have the car option available and will use it (because they hate the masks, are still too afraid of the trains, or both) should contribute to ongoing reduced public transport use, which ought hopefully to make the trains quite empty and not too stuffy.
Of course, none of this helps on the Tube, which (particularly in the case of the deep level tunnels) is hot in Winter and a reeking furnace in Summer. Just one more good reason for commuters to ignore Johnson's entreaties to go back to the office. I, for one, expect that I shall stick to Cambridge or perhaps Ely for day excursions and (except when forced to go to Paddington for the train to Wales) will be avoiding London for a long, long time.
As I explained earlier, while the rules on social distancing exist, pre-Covid office life is going to be impossible for many organisations.
I suspect Johnson is going to drop ALL social distancing at the end of next month and tell us it is our "civic duty" to go back to our offices and desks.
While there are some on here who assert they and everyone they know are champing at the bit to get back to commuting and the office, my suspicion is that isn't a widely held view and companies will be looking in the autumn at empty commercial premises and starting to ask some searching questions about the viability of their estate.
I seem to recall it being reported, from the presser earlier today, that Johnson was suggesting November for the possible junking of social distancing. Now, I know that the Government flip-flops incessantly and that its pronouncements cannot be trusted, but all the same I'd still be surprised if it attempted to kill off social distancing in August.
Regardless, I think you're right about a fundamental reassessment of commuting and office properties. This has been a matter of much debate on here recently - my own view is that there will be a spectrum of business responses to the situation, but that full-time office working will only ever return for a minority of businesses and key worker groups. There'll probably be more businesses that dispose of their offices completely and go full WFH than are at the other end of the scale, with those in between going half-and-half, or more-or-less full-time WFH with the hiring of meeting rooms for occasional get togethers.
The net result will, presumably, be that the value of commercial property will tank, and support services like office cleaners, cafes and bars in the commercial districts will go out of business until the remaining number of firms matches the remaining number of clients.
Johnson can, of course, plead with firms and their employees to go back to work and save the urban cores from implosion, but there's nothing he can do to force them to comply.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
How would you score Russia's effectiveness out of ten at delivering this programme over the last 5-10 years?
Im going for 10/10. Even discussing it as a problem in the West divides us further as those who benefited from Russian interference think we are moaning about losing. Its amazingly effective and very hard to stop.
I've updated the thread header now and removed the duplicate text. Apologies for any confusion.
Speaking of confusion, how are you coming along with the brief re: my claim, on behalf of the Great State of West West Virginia? I entrusted this legal work to you, yet have heard nothing for years - is this common practice at the English Bar (or is it Pub)?
Did you remember to pay his retainer?
IIRC our agreement was that he'd get every other marsh in Manitoba, on contingency basis of course IF we win this landmark law suit.
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Is that another outbreak in Herefordshire or a continuation of the same one ?
I'm sure I've seen reports in the last couple of days of more confirmed cases from that farm outbreak, so I'd imagine it's the same one.
Speaking more broadly, the local authority numbers that @Malmesbury collates are some of the more useful data available at the moment, simply because they show us that (a) the virus appears to have faded away to background levels in most of England and (b) the bulk of the really stubborn remaining hotspots are in local authorities with substantial populations of South Asian descent (so, you're combining the strong suggestion from the hospital and death data that non-white people are more vulnerable to the virus with an atypically high percentage of multi-generational households.) This is useful to the Government and councils alike, because it gives them a good idea of where to look for new infection spikes and where to target interventions to nip them in the bud.
The ward level data shows that 90% of Leicester is at background level too. Hence Mayor Soulsby wanting to end the lockdown and move to a more targeted approach.
It is not purely in the BAME communities though, a significant number of white people too, particularly where whole families live in a typical Leicester 2 up and 2 down.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
Is there a word for people who unwittingly support their objectives with high-minded justifications?
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
I'm not sure there was that much 'good stuff' especially given the fortuitous period Blair was PM in.
Ah, but there was the promise of good stuff, hence the New Labour landslide victories of 1997 and 2001. I agree delivery was lacking in many ways.
Do note though that the Conservatives got elected in 2019 on a similar list of promises, not least that Brexit is the answer to the economic woes of the purple wall. I have no doubt that there will also be a failure of delivery there too.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
That delivery was lacking makes Blair's government even more culpable given the favourable circumstances it operated in.
I don't think anyone can claim that the period 1997-2007 was harder than from 2008 onwards.
As it stands, Huddersfield all but saving themselves from relegation, at the expense of promoting Leeds.
If you're going to comment on football please use the proper name for Leeds United, 'Dirty Leeds'.
I thought you'd had the good grace to amend this to "Don Revie's Dirty Leeds" in acknowledgement of Bielsa's new regime? Anyway, 12 minutes from promotion as I write.......
Congratulations to Marco Biesla's Leeds on their promotion.
Great piece RB. Labour's utter disconnection from its blue collar roots goes back well before Corbyn and I don't know what they do about it. The values that I get from punters on the doors round here and those held by so many in the party are just not in the same room any more. People are pretty hard line on stuff like law and order, patriotism, community values. And a strong work ethic where giving people a fair return for good honest graft is their focus not UC benefits and the like.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
New Labour convinced the country that it was the party for everybody, and of opportunity. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime, education, education, education etc.
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
I'm not sure there was that much 'good stuff' especially given the fortuitous period Blair was PM in.
Ah, but there was the promise of good stuff, hence the New Labour landslide victories of 1997 and 2001. I agree delivery was lacking in many ways.
Do note though that the Conservatives got elected in 2019 on a similar list of promises, not least that Brexit is the answer to the economic woes of the purple wall. I have no doubt that there will also be a failure of delivery there too.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
That delivery was lacking makes Blair's government even more culpable given the favourable circumstances it operated in.
I don't think anyone can claim that the period 1997-2007 was harder than from 2008 onwards.
Yes, but that wasn't the question that I asked.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
The main problem Labour have is that they're an economic disaster. I'd actually go further, far further, and suggest that the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline over the last hundred years.
Starmer might just march his army out of this land altogether. Blair told us he had done so, but somehow the actual march never took place - we got left with the steaming toad that was Brown.
Blue Labour perhaps, but more significantly there may be a chance that we have Labour politicians that are actually a good thing for the country - that'll be a first.
Bearing in mind that Labour have been in power for only 31 of the years of the last century, you must have a pretty broad definition of the left which encompasses a lot of apparently Conservative governments!
Perhaps a 100 year 100% record of increasing unemployment every single time is a slight indicator . I think that's correct.
I am baffled as to why separating the UK from the European Union is beneficial to Russia.
What holds Putin in check is not the EU, but NATO. There is no way an independent Britain is going to renege on its commitments there any more than a UK inside the EU would.
This is not about military containment, and I think you're a little naive to think it is. Russia's meddling in the internal democracies of other countries is about three things:
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
Is there a word for people who unwittingly support their objectives with high-minded justifications?
I think it was Lenin that invented the term "useful idiots".
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Is that another outbreak in Herefordshire or a continuation of the same one ?
I'm sure I've seen reports in the last couple of days of more confirmed cases from that farm outbreak, so I'd imagine it's the same one.
Speaking more broadly, the local authority numbers that @Malmesbury collates are some of the more useful data available at the moment, simply because they show us that (a) the virus appears to have faded away to background levels in most of England and (b) the bulk of the really stubborn remaining hotspots are in local authorities with substantial populations of South Asian descent (so, you're combining the strong suggestion from the hospital and death data that non-white people are more vulnerable to the virus with an atypically high percentage of multi-generational households.) This is useful to the Government and councils alike, because it gives them a good idea of where to look for new infection spikes and where to target interventions to nip them in the bud.
The ward level data shows that 90% of Leicester is at background level too. Hence Mayor Soulsby wanting to end the lockdown and move to a more targeted approach.
It is not purely in the BAME communities though, a significant number of white people too, particularly where whole families live in a typical Leicester 2 up and 2 down.
Looks to me that more than 10% of the wards have a coloured symbol, indicating >5% positivity? Do the new powers that were just devolved allow them to make this change?
As it stands, Huddersfield all but saving themselves from relegation, at the expense of promoting Leeds.
If you're going to comment on football please use the proper name for Leeds United, 'Dirty Leeds'.
I thought you'd had the good grace to amend this to "Don Revie's Dirty Leeds" in acknowledgement of Bielsa's new regime? Anyway, 12 minutes from promotion as I write.......
Congratulations to Marco Biesla's Leeds on their promotion.
"The governor of Georgia is suing Atlanta authorities to prevent the US city from enforcing its requirement to wear masks in public, along with other coronavirus-related restrictions.
Governor Brian Kemp said Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms lacked the authority to implement the rule. Mr Kemp signed an executive order earlier this week voiding mask mandates across the state. But Ms Bottoms said this would not stop Atlanta from enforcing its ordinance."
"The governor of Georgia is suing Atlanta authorities to prevent the US city from enforcing its requirement to wear masks in public, along with other coronavirus-related restrictions.
Governor Brian Kemp said Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms lacked the authority to implement the rule. Mr Kemp signed an executive order earlier this week voiding mask mandates across the state. But Ms Bottoms said this would not stop Atlanta from enforcing its ordinance."
Comments
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/jul/17/uk-coronavirus-live-boris-johnson-3bn-plan-nhs-battle-ready-for-winter-second-wave
Last 3-5 days subject to revision. Last 5 days included for completeness.
Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts. May contain nutters. May contain trained Marxist nutters. All wrongs reserved. No resemblance between this data and anything in the universe is implied, admitted, allowed, submitted or accepted.
Driving through Darwen, Bolton and Leigh earlier in the week I was surprised, no shocked, at the number of Union flags and flags of St George on display.
Johnson, because of his well known disdain for the excesses of the EU and flowery dog-whistle adjectives when it comes to decribing ethnic groups, is seen as a patriot.
The Labour Party with their hand wringing have been painted (possibly correctly) as foreign-enemy (the EU, Russia, China, Syrian refugees) backing and backed subversives, who are more interested in the welfare of lazy EU scroungers and Rochdale cabbies than they are about the good old English Tommy! I meet people who believe this regularly.
I would like to think what I have written in the last two paragraphs is bollocks, but I really don't think it is. I suspect it is the way many of the self-perceived dispossessed, particularly of England and Wales feel about life in 2020 Blighty.
This is a big problem for Labour. The forthcoming economic catastrophe might also not be of as much help as they think either, particularly if the downturn can be painted as the fault of scapegoat groups (maybe, the Chinese, Bangladeshi sweat shop workers in Leicester, farm Labourers in Herefordshire from Romania).
When it comes to scapegoating, Johnson is a genius, and people love him more for it. Sunak will not have that midas touch. So Labour's best hope is Johnson falls.
'Get off my neck': London police officer suspended after arrest incident
Video appears to show Met officer applying pressure with his knee to suspect’s neck area
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/17/get-off-my-neck-london-police-officer-suspended-after-arrest-incident
Obviously this rozzer is too thick to realise why doing that is such a bad idea in this current climate.
The ONS COVID deaths is the gold standard IMO.
Tell me it isn’t so!
I also believe that constitutional reform will benefit the majority, but that fails the 'bread and butter' test.
Back in the 2015 election campaign it was clear that the Labour campaign was an emoty shell - plenty to say to the bottom 10% about the top 10%. For the majority in the middle, very little, and don't DARE thinking about aspiration and doing better for your kids than you had. Then Corbyn where they stopped talking to even the bottom 10%.
How about this as a starter for 10. People want to work. Focus on aspiration, on drive, on making a decent living for honest work. Then you can focus on the millions where no matter how hard they work they still can't get by, and on the forgotten tier below who can't work and are treated like they are the small number of feral feckless underclass so beloved by the Daily Mail and certain Tories when setting welfare state policies. Have to frame it all of a simple principle that work is good. I think too many Labour activists have forgotten than the Labour party is the party of labour, as in work.
Your thoughts on the doorstep and aspiration reminded me of the opening section of Gould's 'The Unfinished Revolution' which iirc described exactly that.
For England it was:
w/e 14/07 412
w/e 07/07 522
w/e 30/06 733
w/e 23/06 755
w/e 16/06 926
https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk/deaths?areaType=nation&areaName=England
Tis a pity that Blairite war mongering did in all the good stuff.
I'd say there was plenty which could be done on public health - nutrition, exercise, even teaching people to wash their hands properly - which would benefit the 80%. But how many votes would that shift ?
Likewise more 'practical' education and training would be good for the 80% but would people vote for it, would the vested interests oppose it and would it be applied in practice ?
And what is Labour going to do about student debt ? Continue Corbyn's promise to write it off or say it will have to be paid or reduce the number going to university in the first place ?
New Labour absolutely did the everyman position. The problem was that underneath the shiny words and warm feelings there wasn't a lot of policy. Too many people felt that they were slipping backwards every year no matter how hard they worked - the red wall went blue because for too long they've been told nothing can change for the better.
My general point is that Sandy's 80% is too wide to be meaningful.
But thanks for your reply @SandyRentool.
And leisure travel? I've looked at a few trips I could do. But with a mask on? I'll drive thanks. I know that we need the masks. But personally I hate the things, and that means avoiding situations where I have to wear one as much as possible.
But it is likely going to longterm risk other deaths due to eg delayed cancer diagnosis but they won't show up in the lockdown figures.
After a decade of peace and significant defence reductions via the "Peace Dividend", we had a new threat but of a very different nature to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact and against which new methods were required.
Sept 2001 began the journey to Iraq which as you say blighted Blair and his reputation and the cost of which, I think, led to the Global Financial Crash as the economic model of the centre-left unravelled.
Of course, none of this helps on the Tube, which (particularly in the case of the deep level tunnels) is hot in Winter and a reeking furnace in Summer. Just one more good reason for commuters to ignore Johnson's entreaties to go back to the office. I, for one, expect that I shall stick to Cambridge or perhaps Ely for day excursions and (except when forced to go to Paddington for the train to Wales) will be avoiding London for a long, long time.
I suppose the notion of a Pax Americana wasn't wholly unattractive to many in the UK though for other parts in the world it was less appealing.
1997-2001: diminuendo yay
2001-: fcuk
Do note though that the Conservatives got elected in 2019 on a similar list of promises, not least that Brexit is the answer to the economic woes of the purple wall. I have no doubt that there will also be a failure of delivery there too.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
All Cops Are Bastards.
I suspect Johnson is going to drop ALL social distancing at the end of next month and tell us it is our "civic duty" to go back to our offices and desks.
While there are some on here who assert they and everyone they know are champing at the bit to get back to commuting and the office, my suspicion is that isn't a widely held view and companies will be looking in the autumn at empty commercial premises and starting to ask some searching questions about the viability of their estate.
The main problem Labour have is that they're an economic disaster. I'd actually go further, far further, and suggest that the rise of the left has been the precise cause of Britain's decline over the last hundred years.
Starmer might just march his army out of this land altogether. Blair told us he had done so, but somehow the actual march never took place - we got left with the steaming toad that was Brown.
Blue Labour perhaps, but more significantly there may be a chance that we have Labour politicians that are actually a good thing for the country - that'll be a first.
1. Straight financial interest. Russia funds groups that oppose fracking, and supports politicians who have anti-fracking stances. (This was sufficiently successful that they managed to get fracking banned in Poland, which is insane, as Poland has some potentially very productive gas shales). They have also worked to spread disinformation about wind turbines, and their damage to birds and the like. The purpose here is really simple: keep countries dependent on Russian gas.
(This goes further: politicians who support Russian gas projects, and oppose non-Russian ones - like Gerhard Schroeder - end up with lucrative jobs in the Russian energy industry after retirement.)
2. Making countries weaker and more divided. Russia's dream scenario is to be to Europe and the caucuses, what the US is to the Americas. This means they want to have friendly regimes in place, ideally. For near neighbours (like Ukraine), they want to be able to directly interfere if they want. And they want to be able to use military force, without fear of response.
All these things are easier if other countries are weak and disunited. Succession movements, they love. The more (and smaller) other countries are, the more Russia will loom over them.
They therefore support Sinn Fein, and BLM and White Pride, and the Basque Nationalists. Their bots will seek to amplify AC Grayling and Nigel Farage - because a culture war means a disunited country, which neutralises other countries economic strength relative to Russia.
3. The undermining of multilateral organisations. They hate NATO, and have - again - spread disinformation about it (where do you think President Trump got his ideas from?), and support politicians who are hostile to it. But their perfect world is one where 'rules based' goes away, and the law of the jungle, where the (militarily) strong have the influence. They therefore seek to also undermine the WTO and the EU and other groupings, whenever possible.
One of my favourite restaurants was planning to open Saturdays only in August, and had cut back to a husband (cook) and wife (front of house) team. They didn't see much worthwhile in the meal voucher scheme or VAT cut. The limiting factor was not price, but rather safety, and the economics of a reduced number of tables.
I think this needs some citations.
We forget but the wave of terrorism that Europe saw in the 1970s and early 1980s was funded, and encouraged, by the Soviet Union. They paid for the IRA. They supplied them with bombs and with guns. They printed propaganda. They funded the Red Brigades in Italy and in Germany. They also propped up neofascist groupings.
Essentially, Russia and the Soviet Union have always wanted to be the top dog in Europe, and their policy is that it is easier to weaken the West, than to get their own house in order.
Which works until it doesn't work. Who follows Putin?
Speaking more broadly, the local authority numbers that @Malmesbury collates are some of the more useful data available at the moment, simply because they show us that (a) the virus appears to have faded away to background levels in most of England and (b) the bulk of the really stubborn remaining hotspots are in local authorities with substantial populations of South Asian descent (so, you're combining the strong suggestion from the hospital and death data that non-white people are more vulnerable to the virus with an atypically high percentage of multi-generational households.) This is useful to the Government and councils alike, because it gives them a good idea of where to look for new infection spikes and where to target interventions to nip them in the bud.
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1284115746595966976?s=20
"...millions of workers will see their incomes plunge 60 percent or more just a few days from now."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/opinion/coronavirus-economy-unemployment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Regardless, I think you're right about a fundamental reassessment of commuting and office properties. This has been a matter of much debate on here recently - my own view is that there will be a spectrum of business responses to the situation, but that full-time office working will only ever return for a minority of businesses and key worker groups. There'll probably be more businesses that dispose of their offices completely and go full WFH than are at the other end of the scale, with those in between going half-and-half, or more-or-less full-time WFH with the hiring of meeting rooms for occasional get togethers.
The net result will, presumably, be that the value of commercial property will tank, and support services like office cleaners, cafes and bars in the commercial districts will go out of business until the remaining number of firms matches the remaining number of clients.
Johnson can, of course, plead with firms and their employees to go back to work and save the urban cores from implosion, but there's nothing he can do to force them to comply.
Tonight's Top of the Pops' are from 14th and 21st December 1989 on BBC4 at 8pm.
Im going for 10/10. Even discussing it as a problem in the West divides us further as those who benefited from Russian interference think we are moaning about losing. Its amazingly effective and very hard to stop.
It is not purely in the BAME communities though, a significant number of white people too, particularly where whole families live in a typical Leicester 2 up and 2 down.
I don't think anyone can claim that the period 1997-2007 was harder than from 2008 onwards.
Will the state of the towns and people of the purple wall be better for GE 2024? If so, how?
Owls next. Only a matter of time.
Governor Brian Kemp said Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms lacked the authority to implement the rule. Mr Kemp signed an executive order earlier this week voiding mask mandates across the state. But Ms Bottoms said this would not stop Atlanta from enforcing its ordinance."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53429800