”Who champions the little guy now that Trump is gone?
Sir Andrew Cook, chairman of leading British manufacturer William Cook Group, bemoans the fact that the parties of the left no longer stand up for the little guy”
Not sure you can just go blabbing that somebody is a spy of one of our allies. Remember Boris got in loads of trouble for blabbing before about the identity of one of our spies.
”Who champions the little guy now that Trump is gone?
Sir Andrew Cook, chairman of leading British manufacturer William Cook Group, bemoans the fact that the parties of the left no longer stand up for the little guy”
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
No. That's shit.
But its not on the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary to reveal the identity of American spies. In fact if they had done, that'd be something more likely to result in them needing to be locked up surely?
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
If she can’t even drive on the right side of the fecking road, she was probably a seriously rubbish spy.
I mean, how hard would it have been to blend in just by driving on the left like a normal person?
Depends what they mean by "spy". They aren't all like James Bond. Lots and lots of I guess what the media would throw about as a spy, are actually spending their days infront of a computer doing things like intelligence gathering on the internet.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
And I know some people in their early 20s, Conservatives, who are very anti woke.
I dont doubt your anecdote is more the norm, but we can all find people who would embody the other view.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
No. That's shit.
But its not on the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary to reveal the identity of American spies. In fact if they had done, that'd be something more likely to result in them needing to be locked up surely?
If it had been a British spook killing an American teen, you can just imagine the MAGA crowd storming the nearest UK consulate with noose and gallows!
The Prime Minister has never spoken to Harry’s grieving parents, even after repeated requests for a meeting or a call.
This is very poor form, but realistically there is nothing really he can do. They will ask what is he going to do, well he can't do anything. The Americans aren't going to hand his lady over.
They will ask if he can confirm if this individual was a spy, he can't, if they had diplomatic immunity, he can neither confirm nor deny it, etc.
And they will come out of the meeting and say the PM was unhelpful and was unable to answer any of their questions.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
And I know some people in their early 20s, Conservatives, who are very anti woke.
I dont doubt your anecdote is more the norm, but we can all find people who would embody the other view.
Oh of course. There's no monolithic viewpoint. I was just countering @Leon's constant ramping.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
10,000 people living in parts of Manchester were urged to get tested as soon as possible - after cases of the E484K mutation were found in two unconnected households.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
If she can’t even drive on the right side of the fecking road, she was probably a seriously rubbish spy.
I mean, how hard would it have been to blend in just by driving on the left like a normal person?
Depends what they mean by "spy". They aren't all like James Bond. Lots and lots of I guess what the media would throw about as a spy, are actually spending their days infront of a computer doing things like intelligence gathering on the internet.
And somebody who doesn’t know left from right is going to be able to see intelligence when she looks at it?
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
And I know some people in their early 20s, Conservatives, who are very anti woke.
I dont doubt your anecdote is more the norm, but we can all find people who would embody the other view.
I think @Leon may have a ladyfriend in her 20s too, so I'm sure he'll comment soon.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
If she can’t even drive on the right side of the fecking road, she was probably a seriously rubbish spy.
I mean, how hard would it have been to blend in just by driving on the left like a normal person?
Depends what they mean by "spy". They aren't all like James Bond. Lots and lots of I guess what the media would throw about as a spy, are actually spending their days infront of a computer doing things like intelligence gathering on the internet.
And somebody who doesn’t know left from right is going to be able to see intelligence when she looks at it?
A good friend of mine from uni was hired by GCHQ, and literally disappeared off the face of the earth, so fairly obvious what they do now..
In terms of every day tasks at uni, total disaster. The sort of idiot who would mix their colours and white in the washing machine and stick it on at 80o, then looked shocked at the result.
You put them in front of a computer, absolute whizz. Brain totally wired differently to us normies.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
No. That's shit.
But its not on the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary to reveal the identity of American spies. In fact if they had done, that'd be something more likely to result in them needing to be locked up surely?
If it had been a British spook killing an American teen, you can just imagine the MAGA crowd storming the nearest UK consulate with noose and gallows!
Quite probably.
But I wouldn't expect the POTUS to be egging on the crowd. I'd expect him to maintain confidentiality on the identity of our spooks.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
It's very Victorian isn't it? Like changing 'chicken breast' to 'white meat' and 'chicken leg' to 'drumstick'. It will be richly laughed at in the future as a vulgar excess of early 21st century mores.
There seems little doubt that most Republican Congressman at the least think the rioters were justified, they just feel awkward it got out of hand. That's the big problem.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
My wife was on a work call with someone who has just returned to work after 3 weeks ill with Covid and is still feeling rough.
Age - around 20.
I'm not sure how surprising this is. I reckon the most ill I've felt was when I was 21. Whatever I picked up knocked me out for three weeks. Annoyingly it was in the run up to my finals at university.
My wife was on a work call with someone who has just returned to work after 3 weeks ill with Covid and is still feeling rough.
Age - around 20.
For sure, we all know it happens. My boss was laid low with it for a fortnight IIRC, and was complaining of fatigue for a while after he returned to work. He can't be very much older than about 30.
I still wonder if the episode when I came down with a high temperature and was hit for six all over the Christmas holidays in 2019 was Covid, but I'll never know.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
There seems little doubt that most Republican Congressman at the least think the rioters were justified, they just feel awkward it got out of hand. That's the big problem.
Trumps video after the breach is one of the more damning things.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Are you aware of the concept of allies?
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
I am suggesting that unless they're working with or for the British authorities (I haven't heard that this is the case here), no foreign spies automatically warrant the British authorities protecting their cover.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
You're really showing your ignorance tonight.
Only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
Do you even read what you type before posting?
Do you even read what you wrote above?
"Only an idiot would say "personfriend"." - @Gallowgate
By that logic, I can argue "Only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!".
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Your PERSONFriend, surely!
Only an idiot would say "personfriend".
Really? In that case, only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
You're really showing your ignorance tonight.
Only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!
Do you even read what you type before posting?
Do you even read what you wrote above?
"Only an idiot would say "personfriend"." - @Gallowgate
By that logic, I can argue "Only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!".
Like I said, do you even read what you type before posting?
Nothing you are saying is making any sense what so ever.
My wife was on a work call with someone who has just returned to work after 3 weeks ill with Covid and is still feeling rough.
Age - around 20.
For sure, we all know it happens. My boss was laid low with it for a fortnight IIRC, and was complaining of fatigue for a while after he returned to work. He can't be very much older than about 30.
I still wonder if the episode when I came down with a high temperature and was hit for six all over the Christmas holidays in 2019 was Covid, but I'll never know.
I reckon there was a buffet of bastard bugs around at the back-end of 2019.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
Can you defend her driving the wrong side of a UK road?
If she can’t even drive on the right side of the fecking road, she was probably a seriously rubbish spy.
I mean, how hard would it have been to blend in just by driving on the left like a normal person?
Depends what they mean by "spy". They aren't all like James Bond. Lots and lots of I guess what the media would throw about as a spy, are actually spending their days infront of a computer doing things like intelligence gathering on the internet.
In that Amazon Jack Ryan he was working on financial tracking then they made him do gun stuff - I want to see a show where they stick with the sitting at a desk.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Are you aware of the concept of allies?
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
I am suggesting that unless they're working with or for the British authorities (I haven't heard that this is the case here), no foreign spies automatically warrant the British authorities protecting their cover.
Again have you heard of Five Eyes?
Of course American spies based in the UK will be "working with or for the British authorities". That's literally the whole point of Five Eyes and why we have American spooks working in this country with our consent. 🤦🏻♂️
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Who was she spying on?
She hasn't confided in me, but British people is a wild guess given that she was stationed here.
You dingbat.
GCHQ are based here too. Who do you think they're spying on?
I wanted to be kind after your last excrescence of a post, and just leave it to see if the quality improved, but obviously it hasn't. Please don't hurl names at people when they're having a discussion with you. It wouldn't be warranted even if your posts were as clever as you clearly think they are.
Ah, asthma treatments! Husband's asthmatic. I'm sure he was telling me a few weeks ago that there was some report in the press suggesting that many fewer asthmatics than expected had become seriously ill with Covid. Would be nice to think that inhalers had a useful effect on the Plague.
These seems to be a number of inhaler based preventions and treatments that seem promising.
This is what is perplexing me. With all the obviously important concentration on and publicity of vaccines, surely an equally important part of the equation is treatment and cure. If we can treat and cure Covid infection then surely most of the issues go away. Why is treatment a poor cousin and why the hell aren't this kind of thing being more widely used? If it seems to work and the treatment won't make things worse why not use it wholescale for God's sake?
Dodgy bad news will always trump good news. The media have no idea what they will do when this pandemic ends, so they want it to last as long as they can milk it.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Are you aware of the concept of allies?
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
I am suggesting that unless they're working with or for the British authorities (I haven't heard that this is the case here), no foreign spies automatically warrant the British authorities protecting their cover.
Again have you heard of Five Eyes?
Of course American spies based in the UK will be "working with or for the British authorities". That's literally the whole point of Five Eyes and why we have American spooks working in this country with our consent. 🤦🏻♂️
These seems to be a number of inhaler based preventions and treatments that seem promising.
This is what is perplexing me. With all the obviously important concentration on and publicity of vaccines, surely an equally important part of the equation is treatment and cure. If we can treat and cure Covid infection then surely most of the issues go away. Why is treatment a poor cousin and why the hell aren't this kind of thing being more widely used? If it seems to work and the treatment won't make things worse why not use it wholescale for God's sake?
Ha!
Yours truly raised the issue of whether asthma inhalers might help with Covid at the very beginning of this - I felt it would be a good thing to include in a home 'covid treatment kit' that could be dropped through peoples' doors following diagnosis - to try and keep people out of hospital.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Who was she spying on?
She hasn't confided in me, but British people is a wild guess given that she was stationed here.
You dingbat.
GCHQ are based here too. Who do you think they're spying on?
I wanted to be kind after your last excrescence of a post, and just leave it to see if the quality improved, but obviously it hasn't. Please don't hurl names at people when they're having a discussion with you. It wouldn't be warranted even if your posts were as clever as you clearly think they are.
I apologise for calling yo a dingbat but it takes an astonishing level of ignorance to suggest that American spooks in the UK would not be working with the UK. I ask again: are you aware of Five Eyes? Do you know what it is?
Our allies working with us in this country are not our enemy.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Are you aware of the concept of allies?
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
I am suggesting that unless they're working with or for the British authorities (I haven't heard that this is the case here), no foreign spies automatically warrant the British authorities protecting their cover.
Again have you heard of Five Eyes?
Of course American spies based in the UK will be "working with or for the British authorities". That's literally the whole point of Five Eyes and why we have American spooks working in this country with our consent. 🤦🏻♂️
Do you think the reverse is true?
Yes, of course.
The UK has spies working with the Americans on American soil, of course we do. That is the entire point of alliances.
These seems to be a number of inhaler based preventions and treatments that seem promising.
This is what is perplexing me. With all the obviously important concentration on and publicity of vaccines, surely an equally important part of the equation is treatment and cure. If we can treat and cure Covid infection then surely most of the issues go away. Why is treatment a poor cousin and why the hell aren't this kind of thing being more widely used? If it seems to work and the treatment won't make things worse why not use it wholescale for God's sake?
I wonder if it's a combination of medical caution, expense and possibly difficulty of manufacture/consequent scarcity of many of these treatments. The first two factors at least certainly apply in the case of budesonide. Husband tells me that (a) it's a powerful steroid - the inhalers are, therefore, only given to severe asthmatics - and (b) that they would cost a bomb to buy if it wasn't for the magic of NHS prescriptions.
That budesonide might have a positive effect in Covid patients comes as no surprise. Doctors have been describing Covid-19 as an inflammatory illness since the early days of the pandemic, IIRC. Budesonide inhalers are an anti-inflammatory treatment for the lungs.
The way HMG has treated the Dunns has been quite disgraceful...
No.
What happened to the Dunns was a terrible accident. Absolutely dreadful.
But she did have diplomatic immunity and that is the end of the matter legally. The rest is politics. I think the people keeping the Dunns hopes of "justice" alive are the ones acting disgracefully, they know its not going to happen, it can't happen and false hope is the worst kind of hope.
They should be allowed to grieve and mourn in peace rather than cruelly tormented like this by cruel lawyers and others cashing in on their grief.
Dodgy bad news will always trump good news. The media have no idea what they will do when this pandemic ends, so they want it to last as long as they can milk it.
They can move onto the economic disaster. Probably not even pause for breath.
These seems to be a number of inhaler based preventions and treatments that seem promising.
This is what is perplexing me. With all the obviously important concentration on and publicity of vaccines, surely an equally important part of the equation is treatment and cure. If we can treat and cure Covid infection then surely most of the issues go away. Why is treatment a poor cousin and why the hell aren't this kind of thing being more widely used? If it seems to work and the treatment won't make things worse why not use it wholescale for God's sake?
Ha!
Yours truly raised the issue of whether asthma inhalers might help with Covid at the very beginning of this - I felt it would be a good thing to include in a home 'covid treatment kit' that could be dropped through peoples' doors following diagnosis - to try and keep people out of hospital.
Why don't they just get me to handle this?
Very sensible.
Ordinarily prevention is better than cure, but in this case I don't think we're ever going to prevent it. It'll be whack-a-mole for ever, chasing mutants of mutants. Surely it's much more efficient to treat and cure the fucker if someone gets it - than spend billions on a never ending stream of temporarily effective vaccines?
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
I actually disagree with OGH here. Moreover, I'm a layer of Starmer as next PM at current prices.
Labour's problems go far deeper than Corbyn, and being "Not Corbyn" is an insufficient answer to them for the reasons I explored on Sunday.
Corbyn was a symptom as well as a cause; a denial of the reasons Labour won office, and then lost it, in the first place. The bigger problem is the deeply-tarnished Labour brand, what it stands for, what it's learnt, and what it will do in office. Corbyn just made it much worse, and added some fantastical delusions into the mix as well.
Starmer is personally likeable and has drawn-level with Johnson as "Best PM" in the past; the trouble is that he's been shrinking in those leads and there's a huge pool of undecideds on him, now, that are starting to firm up.
He won't be Corbyn Mark II, but he could easily become Miliband Mark II.
Starmer's mountain is far too high to climb in one go. We're talking overturning an 80 seat majority with a majority of his own. He has a battle on multiple fronts to win back the red-wall whilst also winning the Swindon Norths and Nuneaton's (now with huge Con majorites) whilst simultaneously hanging on to his metropolitan seats. He's no Blair. That is evident - a little too stained with Corbyn dog-dirt, with little or no young pizazz that Blair effortlessly showed.
A hung parliament with SNP support is his worst nightmare for a myriad of reasons, and one which would lead to another election very quickly.
Labour would be best aiming at two pushes. And by the second Labour may have worked out who will need to lead them.
Maybe but Heath overturned a Labour majority of 100 in 1970 to a conservative majority of 30.
Hmmm.
In 1966 the Tories were 110 seats behind Labour.
In 2019 Labour were 163 seats behind the Tories.
The rise of a substantial third party (in 1966 the third party were the Liberals with twelve seats) means the electoral dynamic is less favourable to the second placed party even if the headline majority is smaller.
Or to put it another way - if Labour match the 77 seats Heath gained, or even the 96 (notional) Cameron gained, they will still be not merely short of an overall majority but actually not quite hit 300. They would barely squeak over it with the 108 gains Cameron actually made.
Even if they secure a reversal on the scale of 1997, 145 seats gained only gets them a majority of around 40.
And that’s before any boundary changes, particularly in Wales.
Starmer faces a major challenge. Not an impossible one, but a tough one.
A Labour majority without Scotland is a very tall order.
How do you anticipate the Tories will outmanoeuvre the forthcoming World economic depression? I know Johnson's genius knows no bounds, but I just can't see how he beats this issue.
Take part in the forthcoming World economic boom instead.
I like the sound of your parallel universe. Can I challenge you to a unicorn race?
Much of the world followed the Spanish Flu with the Roaring Twenties. No unicorns required.
I foresee a very short-lived boom.
Once we have blown our furlough money at Sytner BMW and Mays Travel, we will remember we have been made redundant and the mortgage payment is due.
Who's "we?" Not nearly everyone has been made redundant or stands to be imminently.
A large chunk of the population will get through this episode in perfectly good financial shape, and many of those will be sitting on more disposable cash than they've ever had in their lives. There's only so much food and so many pieces of random tat off Amazon that one is likely to wish to buy.
Inequality will probably get substantially worse, but I think it unlikely that all the people who are sitting on piles of cash will, once the nightmare ends, go to the local restaurant once or twice and then revert to sitting at home watching Netflix for the rest of their lives.
*IF* we manage to get out of this lockdown and not fall back into repeated cycles of new ones, then consumerism will be right back in fashion, and is likely to be so for some time.
Case in point, my wife and I saved more money over the last 12 months than we have since we started living together. We've spent it all on a house, but that's a step change for our circumstances and will lead to a huge amount of money being spent on painting, decorating and all sorts of other things that come with owning a house rather than a flat.
There are tens of millions in the country who are in the best financial position they've experienced in recent history. They will spend their money on going out and enjoying life for quite a while. I expect this summer to be massive for hospitality as the restrictions come off. It will be massive for home refurbishment as well once people feel safe having workers in their homes and it will lead to businesses unlocking billions in investment. On the latter I know companies that are sitting on walls of cash simply waiting this out.
The government is going to have a lot of choices this budget to get ahead of the game given our prodigious vaccine position. It's up to them and us not to waste this opportunity.
Are British Prime Ministers in the habit of revealing American spies identities? 🤔
I'm not immediately sure why they should be obliged to protect them - they are foreign spies.
Are you aware of the concept of allies?
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
I am suggesting that unless they're working with or for the British authorities (I haven't heard that this is the case here), no foreign spies automatically warrant the British authorities protecting their cover.
Again have you heard of Five Eyes?
Of course American spies based in the UK will be "working with or for the British authorities". That's literally the whole point of Five Eyes and why we have American spooks working in this country with our consent. 🤦🏻♂️
Do you think the reverse is true?
Yes, of course.
The UK has spies working with the Americans on American soil, of course we do. That is the entire point of alliances.
Do you think its not true?
No, I think it's true. I just wonder whether if a wife of a uk operative could leave the country as easily if God forbid the reverse happened.
My wife was on a work call with someone who has just returned to work after 3 weeks ill with Covid and is still feeling rough.
Age - around 20.
I'm not sure how surprising this is. I reckon the most ill I've felt was when I was 21. Whatever I picked up knocked me out for three weeks. Annoyingly it was in the run up to my finals at university.
Glandular fever? A traditional disease of the undergraduate. Totally pole-axed me when I was about 20. And came back for more
I actually disagree with OGH here. Moreover, I'm a layer of Starmer as next PM at current prices.
Labour's problems go far deeper than Corbyn, and being "Not Corbyn" is an insufficient answer to them for the reasons I explored on Sunday.
Corbyn was a symptom as well as a cause; a denial of the reasons Labour won office, and then lost it, in the first place. The bigger problem is the deeply-tarnished Labour brand, what it stands for, what it's learnt, and what it will do in office. Corbyn just made it much worse, and added some fantastical delusions into the mix as well.
Starmer is personally likeable and has drawn-level with Johnson as "Best PM" in the past; the trouble is that he's been shrinking in those leads and there's a huge pool of undecideds on him, now, that are starting to firm up.
He won't be Corbyn Mark II, but he could easily become Miliband Mark II.
Starmer's mountain is far too high to climb in one go. We're talking overturning an 80 seat majority with a majority of his own. He has a battle on multiple fronts to win back the red-wall whilst also winning the Swindon Norths and Nuneaton's (now with huge Con majorites) whilst simultaneously hanging on to his metropolitan seats. He's no Blair. That is evident - a little too stained with Corbyn dog-dirt, with little or no young pizazz that Blair effortlessly showed.
A hung parliament with SNP support is his worst nightmare for a myriad of reasons, and one which would lead to another election very quickly.
Labour would be best aiming at two pushes. And by the second Labour may have worked out who will need to lead them.
Maybe but Heath overturned a Labour majority of 100 in 1970 to a conservative majority of 30.
Hmmm.
In 1966 the Tories were 110 seats behind Labour.
In 2019 Labour were 163 seats behind the Tories.
The rise of a substantial third party (in 1966 the third party were the Liberals with twelve seats) means the electoral dynamic is less favourable to the second placed party even if the headline majority is smaller.
Or to put it another way - if Labour match the 77 seats Heath gained, or even the 96 (notional) Cameron gained, they will still be not merely short of an overall majority but actually not quite hit 300. They would barely squeak over it with the 108 gains Cameron actually made.
Even if they secure a reversal on the scale of 1997, 145 seats gained only gets them a majority of around 40.
And that’s before any boundary changes, particularly in Wales.
Starmer faces a major challenge. Not an impossible one, but a tough one.
A Labour majority without Scotland is a very tall order.
How do you anticipate the Tories will outmanoeuvre the forthcoming World economic depression? I know Johnson's genius knows no bounds, but I just can't see how he beats this issue.
Take part in the forthcoming World economic boom instead.
I like the sound of your parallel universe. Can I challenge you to a unicorn race?
Much of the world followed the Spanish Flu with the Roaring Twenties. No unicorns required.
I foresee a very short-lived boom.
Once we have blown our furlough money at Sytner BMW and Mays Travel, we will remember we have been made redundant and the mortgage payment is due.
Who's "we?" Not nearly everyone has been made redundant or stands to be imminently.
A large chunk of the population will get through this episode in perfectly good financial shape, and many of those will be sitting on more disposable cash than they've ever had in their lives. There's only so much food and so many pieces of random tat off Amazon that one is likely to wish to buy.
Inequality will probably get substantially worse, but I think it unlikely that all the people who are sitting on piles of cash will, once the nightmare ends, go to the local restaurant once or twice and then revert to sitting at home watching Netflix for the rest of their lives.
*IF* we manage to get out of this lockdown and not fall back into repeated cycles of new ones, then consumerism will be right back in fashion, and is likely to be so for some time.
Case in point, my wife and I saved more money over the last 12 months than we have since we started living together. We've spent it all on a house, but that's a step change for our circumstances and will lead to a huge amount of money being spent on painting, decorating and all sorts of other things that come with owning a house rather than a flat.
There are tens of millions in the country who are in the best financial position they've experienced in recent history. They will spend their money on going out and enjoying life for quite a while. I expect this summer to be massive for hospitality as the restrictions come off. It will be massive for home refurbishment as well once people feel safe having workers in their homes and it will lead to businesses unlocking billions in investment. On the latter I know companies that are sitting on walls of cash simply waiting this out.
The government is going to have a lot of choices this budget to get ahead of the game given our prodigious vaccine position. It's up to them and us not to waste this opportunity.
Same here. Saved a lot. But changed a lot too. Suspect we will not go back to European holidays and restaurant dinners. We seem to have different priorities now. Also, my Japanese has improved no end!
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Well, my girlfriend does, and she's 20. From Manc
We are getting ever closer to the daughter/girlfriend age crossover.
Oh and @Leon, FYI my girlfriend is 25, born and raised in Ashington deep in the red wall and never went to university, and yet her and her peer group show no signs of this "anti woke pushback" you are constantly ramping.
Well, my girlfriend does, and she's 20. From Manc
We are getting ever closer to the daughter/girlfriend age crossover.
The true definition of mid-life crisis.
I am aware of this. I may buy a very fast car and just let my hair fall out, instead. But, the alternative is quite amusing. Also, plague = death = fuck it, HEDONISM. The Dance of Death
I do believe that *when* we emerge from this there will be an orgy of pleasure-seeking.
Comments
Wendover - The Electric Vehicle Charging Problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcqJ2DclEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivVOPWrFfW4
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1359225712708886531
Sir Andrew Cook, chairman of leading British manufacturer William Cook Group, bemoans the fact that the parties of the left no longer stand up for the little guy”
https://thecritic.co.uk/now-that-trump-is-gone-who-champions-the-little-guy/
And he can do it in 2024 when he runs again.
But its not on the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary to reveal the identity of American spies. In fact if they had done, that'd be something more likely to result in them needing to be locked up surely?
I mean, how hard would it have been to blend in just by driving on the left like a normal person?
I dont doubt your anecdote is more the norm, but we can all find people who would embody the other view.
They will ask if he can confirm if this individual was a spy, he can't, if they had diplomatic immunity, he can neither confirm nor deny it, etc.
And they will come out of the meeting and say the PM was unhelpful and was unable to answer any of their questions.
I only have one chest you see. Not two.
Calm down grandad. You can ask for a double-breasted suit if you want to look like Prince Charles, sure.
Double-jugged
Double-knockered
Good night.
In terms of every day tasks at uni, total disaster. The sort of idiot who would mix their colours and white in the washing machine and stick it on at 80o, then looked shocked at the result.
You put them in front of a computer, absolute whizz. Brain totally wired differently to us normies.
But I wouldn't expect the POTUS to be egging on the crowd. I'd expect him to maintain confidentiality on the identity of our spooks.
I agree double-chested suits are awful. I prefer single-breasted. Sorry chested. This is so confusing.
My wife was on a work call with someone who has just returned to work after 3 weeks ill with Covid and is still feeling rough.
Age - around 20.
Have you heard of Five Eyes?
Although you'd probably expect us to only protect the identity of Putin's spies instead.
Double breasted suits need a slim body to look good though.
I still wonder if the episode when I came down with a high temperature and was hit for six all over the Christmas holidays in 2019 was Covid, but I'll never know.
GCHQ are based here too. Who do you think they're spying on?
"Only an idiot would say "personfriend"." - @Gallowgate
By that logic, I can argue "Only an idiot would say "persons" get pregnant!".
Nothing you are saying is making any sense what so ever.
Of course American spies based in the UK will be "working with or for the British authorities". That's literally the whole point of Five Eyes and why we have American spooks working in this country with our consent. 🤦🏻♂️
The way HMG has treated the Dunns has been quite disgraceful...
Yours truly raised the issue of whether asthma inhalers might help with Covid at the very beginning of this - I felt it would be a good thing to include in a home 'covid treatment kit' that could be dropped through peoples' doors following diagnosis - to try and keep people out of hospital.
Why don't they just get me to handle this?
Our allies working with us in this country are not our enemy.
The UK has spies working with the Americans on American soil, of course we do. That is the entire point of alliances.
Do you think its not true?
That budesonide might have a positive effect in Covid patients comes as no surprise. Doctors have been describing Covid-19 as an inflammatory illness since the early days of the pandemic, IIRC. Budesonide inhalers are an anti-inflammatory treatment for the lungs.
What happened to the Dunns was a terrible accident. Absolutely dreadful.
But she did have diplomatic immunity and that is the end of the matter legally. The rest is politics. I think the people keeping the Dunns hopes of "justice" alive are the ones acting disgracefully, they know its not going to happen, it can't happen and false hope is the worst kind of hope.
They should be allowed to grieve and mourn in peace rather than cruelly tormented like this by cruel lawyers and others cashing in on their grief.
They could call it "homo-milk". As in milk from homo sapiens.
But milk comes from female animals, in nature, so maybe "milk" is sexist, or transphobic?
How about front-chest-human-bottom-juice?
Ordinarily prevention is better than cure, but in this case I don't think we're ever going to prevent it. It'll be whack-a-mole for ever, chasing mutants of mutants. Surely it's much more efficient to treat and cure the fucker if someone gets it - than spend billions on a never ending stream of temporarily effective vaccines?
There are tens of millions in the country who are in the best financial position they've experienced in recent history. They will spend their money on going out and enjoying life for quite a while. I expect this summer to be massive for hospitality as the restrictions come off. It will be massive for home refurbishment as well once people feel safe having workers in their homes and it will lead to businesses unlocking billions in investment. On the latter I know companies that are sitting on walls of cash simply waiting this out.
The government is going to have a lot of choices this budget to get ahead of the game given our prodigious vaccine position. It's up to them and us not to waste this opportunity.
The true definition of mid-life crisis.
https://twitter.com/TheScotsman/status/1359259281791549441?s=20
I do believe that *when* we emerge from this there will be an orgy of pleasure-seeking.