Ed Davey, the only Lib Dem cabinet minister from the 2010-2015 coalition still to be be an MP has now edged up to a 65% chance on the Betfair exchange on the election to choose the successor to Jo Swinson who, of course lost her to the SNP at GE2019.
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Early Docklands was something else.
They made a city out of nothing, It was utter wasteland. Now:
https://www.luxurylifestylemag.co.uk/travel/canary-wharf-what-to-do-eat-and-drink-and-where-to-stay-in-londons-bustling-business-district/
it's like Singapore.
This is why I pray that London survives the virus. Yes it gets too much money and too much attention. It is annoying. It's inhabitants vex and kvetch. Fuck bloody London.
And yet, in my lifetime, amazing regeneration has been done here, and, more to the point, this has generated enormous sums of money for the whole country
Discord entirely down at the moment.
Let the LibDems be the party of Waitrose. Labour should be the party of Lidl
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1284229376687702018?s=20
Not for services to geography anyway.
'According to the New Statesman in 2015, "Botham is an old-fashioned Englishman, he is conservative with a small and upper-case C" and "a robust monarchist". Botham is a staunch supporter of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. He was quoted: "Personally, I think that England is an island. I think that England should be England. And I think that we should keep that."'
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you
Georgia, Georgia, no peace I find
Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind
Hmm
Their fight is with the Tories. That is not an ideological point, but a purely psephological one.
Attacking this government on sound money, liberal values, internatiomalism, free trade and good governance could win sufficient votes in productive places.
The future's Orange (book).
First part futuristic, a bit like "The Jetsons" then down a long hole and up into a park/museum, then crowded little streets and finally a fun boat ride on liquid history.
For all her faults, Georgia remains a powerful, inspirational muse.
Life was so shit for Northern working class types during the Tory years.
But wait. You got out, made good down south. Why didn't everyone else?
Still, it's better than what was there before.
Like some crazy Ponzi tulip scheme.
Eventually the music had to stop. Maybe it was fading out anyways. But CV 19 has unplugged and impounded the sound system for a while perhaps.
Rave over. Go home and come down.
And maybe that is no bad thing.
Still, Headingley 81. This buys him much slack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP1DADTYq98
I guess they could have built a series of dreary suburban cul de sacs. Identikit Wimpey homes. Would you have preferred that?
Instead Thatcher went AWOL and POSTAL and thought, NAH, we will create the second biggest financial centre in Europe, after the City of London, and it will be brilliant, and it will gleam, and it will have expensive towers and extraordinary views. Some buildings will suck, some will be great, but overall it will have ENERGY
And she did it
https://twitter.com/saintmus_/status/1271835253041135617?s=20
Which is why there are left behind towns.
You know if you really want and it will help to sort out your internal strife there's nothing to stop you heading back up north to start a community centre or mentoring group or something.
The thought if him and Lord Digby Jones chortling over the subsidised bevvy does an awful lot of cancelling tho'.
But your hell of Richmond and Twickenham will be someone else's idea of heaven on earth. Especially if they bought their house there in 1975.
I think I spotted your error
Reaching voters Labour cannot, even with Starmer
Maybe if all the exiled Northerners DID move back as WFH becomes the trend it would do more for levelling up than 20 years of Boris bluster and bollocks.
It's certainly cheaper, and more aesthetically pleasing.
And much more like home.
And I have seen a lot of the world.
You have a global city on your doorstep, great natural beauty a walk away, endless enormous parks, lots of history, beautiful world-class architecture. Also bars, restaurants, etc etc
It's a gorgeous spot. I cannot think of anywhere in America that matches it.
That's why it is, now, so insanely expensive
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-93335048.html
Just that I find it curious that some on here never seem to forgive themselves for the fact that they have done well and "escaped" which seems to manifest itself as a hatred of the circumstances which allowed them to make good in the first place.
But look at us. Like a 90s dinner party talking about London property prices.
A friend of mine who is now a well known (again, -ish) boxing pundit and ex-boxer tells me he spent all his time in prison helping inmates to write letters home.
Didn't Jonathan Aitken do the same thing?
Northern working class lad got on his bike made good. And you can't seem to forgive anyone including yourself for that fact.
Quite sensibly, he chose Richmond upon Thames. He was always the shrewdest of the Stones.
This was his previous Richmond house
https://richmonduponthamesnotables.tumblr.com/post/49717712290/downe-house116-richmond-hillrichmondrichmond
I believe he quietly lives nearby, now
Don t do it. It is a wholly admirable and righteous intention. My father did it. And as an Adult Education professional many of my friends and colleagues did.
Someone has to.
But it doesn't have to be you.
They had some stories. My Dad was a never ending source of ways you could be burgled, assaulted, defrauded, have your car nicked.
And another one perhaps tomorrow.
The South East of England has a massively climatic advantage over the North.
It’s a different country.
That decent employment near ones friends and family simply weren't available?
I loved my time in London. And Thatcher was great for the wider South. But I would have been happier never having had to leave.
Also, to be brutal, a US lifestyle no longer looks that appealing, to a lot people outside America.
You have a poisonous racial divide (which you are trying to export: thanks), you have uniquely terrible gun violence, you live evidently shorter lives, your health system is utterly insane, and shit, you have worse poverty than anywhere in western Europe, you are led by a lunatic, about to be supplanted by a demented old man. And your precious role as world economic superpower is about to be toppled by China.
Don't get me wrong. I love America. There is still much to admire about it. eg the dominance of mighty American internet companies, from Facebook to Amazon.
But its best days are gone and I see much evidence of rampant decay, from homelessness to opioids.
This was really brought home to me on my last trip there, when I toured all around. I went to small towns where Italians, Germans, Koreans, Irish, English, Norwegians had once emigrated to, with much hope for a better life.
And I thought, would they still come? No, they would not. They would be better off at home, where life is superior, the food is better, the urbanity is kinder and they are less likely to be shot dead.
For much of the world, the American dream is over.
What put me off last time I had the urge - couple of years ago - was you had to do a year's full on training including a school placement. I got the place but pulled out due to a blinding flash of insight that I would not get through it.
Guess I'll just stay with the betting.
Now let me think.
Life in America is now, on average WORSE
This is a huge turnaround. And it is epochal. America has fucked up
But...
The centre of Atlanta is a parking lot.
It actually is.
Your comments about a demented old man, rampant decay, utterly insane and shit health system, etc, say more about you than they do about me or the US.
But prisons is the Hawaii Iron man at the end of an initial intention to get a little fitter.
Hugely satisfying, with a tremendous sense of achievement if you can stomach it.
But the vast majority can't.
QED.
https://twitter.com/moronsdimwitse1/status/1283178292707823623?s=20
I do sympathise. If this was 1966 and I were a 15 year old asked to choose between living in grey old drizzly England, sagged with its old imperial regrets, or sunny new moon-landing America, WOW, I would have chosen America OF COURSE
YAY USA
But now? No. America is not what it was, It has seriously declined, I fear, in every single way, comparatively, since then. No western European would now willingly go to America without a fecking big salary and major health insurance guaranteed (and even then they tend to come back). This is why you have migrants solely from LatAm and Africa. For them it is still better.
But you do still have great parking. No doubt about that, American parking rules the world. Heck, you demolished entire, quaint town centres to ensure you had the best PARKING in the world.
Where are you these days?
Jeez, Lady, if this crap is what you "love" about America, no wonder your appreciation is SO well hidden.
Before I slag it off too much, it should be noted that it is home to The Optimist - probably the best seafood restaurant I’ve ever visited (and one of the best restaurants full stop). A truly great place to eat (and drink).
I sometimes regret not staying in Australia, or NZ, particularly Victoria. I like America, but not enough to live there again.
It’s bollocks tho, isn’t it? I toured the Deep South last year. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama.
There is poverty there which is literally unimaginable in a civilised Western European country. Endless hamlets of trailer parks which you think are uninhabited, until you see the kids playing outside. No shops, no community, no life, but they live there.
GO FOR A FUCKING DRIVE. This is your country. You’ll find plenty of parking.
I know the stats say America is rich. And I guess it is. But wow.
They need a Blairite social democrat redistributive government for about 20 years, and they need to get rid of the mad gun laws. Otherwise, god knows.
And on that note, goodnight. And god bless America.