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On the day that a Times poll has the Tories 13% ahead it will be Mail that will get the most attenti

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,983
    Pulpstar said:

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    It can’t be lag, because we know most areas of London are calling up the 50s and some the 40s already. It must be a mix of missing people and refusals.
    The London data is very difficult as an estimated 700k have left town during the pandemic. Presumably they are still on GP lists, which would have been less accurate than most of the rest of the country in the first place due to the high turnover of people coming and going. Numbers from London might not be very reflective of whats actually happening.
    I also wonder how they are doing the sums.

    I know several Londoners down here doing a SeanT for the lockdown, who were initially offered appointments in London, but managed to get them rebooked down here.

    It’s possible that once they are done, they are added to the London stats and so the figures are correct.

    It’s also possible that the stats in that map are worked out by dividing the number of vaccinations given in a particular area by the number of people registered on the list in that same area. Which would overestimate the proportion ‘done’ in the rural areas that people have fled to during the pandemic, and understate the proportion for the cities they have deserted.
    We should have some 100%+ areas if that's the case ?
    We do
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    MaxPB said:

    tlg86 said:

    MaxPB said:

    Hmm, so one of our guys has a theory on why there isn't a funding/tax shortfall in the budget. The actuarial savings from 150k old people dying with a massive proportion in social care is huge but it's hidden in the detail. It could be around £8-10bn per year saved which is about the same as the predicted shortfall. It makes sense that the government won't advertise it though.

    It's £1.5bn apparently. I think that was posted on here during the budget.
    That's just pension savings iirc. There's also NHS and social care savings that aren't so visible.
    A billion here and a billion there and soon it adds up to real money.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,300
    Roger said:

    Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1367809830044467206

    BoZo gave £40 grand a year to Dominic cummings. Let's give it to the NHS instead...

    A big improvement. Traditionally budgets that are instantly popular end up being an open goal for the opposition. This one might be an exception because he's printing more money than anyone knows what to do with
    That is a fair point Roger that could be applied to the quarter of a million pounds wallpaper. It is not public money, it is borrowed money that we have no hope in hell of ever paying back. So no loss to the public purse...
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,835
    Today it’s been 582 days since the last parliamentary by-election, breaking a post-war record for the longest gap.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,837
    MaxPB said:

    Hmm, so one of our guys has a theory on why there isn't a funding/tax shortfall in the budget. The actuarial savings from 150k old people dying with a massive proportion in social care is huge but it's hidden in the detail. It could be around £8-10bn per year saved which is about the same as the predicted shortfall. It makes sense that the government won't advertise it though.

    I can't think why that wouldn't make it onto the side of a campaign bus somewhere.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,681
    IanB2 said:

    Today it’s been 582 days since the last parliamentary by-election, breaking a post-war record for the longest gap.

    Which is incredible when you consider the age profile of MPs and the age profile of people who die of COVID.
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,741
    felix said:

    I see the panic has doed down a little on here after that awful poll for Labour yesterday sent the spinners into a frenzied panic attack on all things Tory and Boris. Meanwhile a local election in Scotland saw the Tory vote up 10%, Labour up 2% and the SNP up 5.5%. Happy days. Not quite sure how it happened but it produced a Labour gain from the SNP as an added bonus.

    Part of the reason for the Tory rise is that a separate Unionist candidate stood last time, but didn't this time. All the same, it's a reassuring result for them and miles higher than they used to do in this part of North Lanarkshire. And for Sarwar, the top line is Lab GAIN from SNP which is nae bad and steadies the nerves.
  • BromBrom Posts: 3,760
    IanB2 said:

    Brom said:

    Labour's response to the budget appears to be 48 hours too late and the public have already made their minds up. With everything leaked you wonder why Starmer couldn't have responded like this on Wednesday.

    A nurses strike after the last year would get massive public support. The government isn’t going to be able to take that.
    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/when-the-government-does-a-u-turn

    Of course it could all be engineered by Boris. In the end when he does give the payrise he gets all the credit.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,681
    TOPPING said:

    MaxPB said:

    Hmm, so one of our guys has a theory on why there isn't a funding/tax shortfall in the budget. The actuarial savings from 150k old people dying with a massive proportion in social care is huge but it's hidden in the detail. It could be around £8-10bn per year saved which is about the same as the predicted shortfall. It makes sense that the government won't advertise it though.

    I can't think why that wouldn't make it onto the side of a campaign bus somewhere.
    Why spent £200m per week on social care, let's COVID instead?
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,741
    Roger said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    If asked if their tax should double to pay for it those numbers would be sub 30K pronto. People are always happy to be generous until they have to pay for it.
    Apart from his predilection for Sindy, Malc is invariably the voice of reason.

    BTW, Malc, has Eck got anything left after the Sturgeon masterclass in obfuscation?
    I am hoping he has some more for sure, or maybe someone overseas will publish the evidence. Hard to see how the other inquiry can let her off given he has Aberdein's evidence as well as all the rest of the stuff. If he let's her off we know it really is a whitewash of epic proportions. Mind you she may still brass it out even so. The other one is packed with SNP stooges and Wightman who is standing on list in H&I as independent and will want to pick up some SNP list votes and so will be a complete whitewash.
    I thought Nicola's humiliation of Ruth Davidson in the Scottish parliament yesterday was as effective as I've seen. Up there with Geoffrey Howe's cricket bat.

    If there were transfer fees for politicians Labour should break the bank for her
    Not sure about that Rog. Sturge was like a spitting snake. Not very likeable and tends to reinforce the impression that the tearful performance at the inquiry was the bit of acting that it assuredly was.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,835

    felix said:

    I see the panic has doed down a little on here after that awful poll for Labour yesterday sent the spinners into a frenzied panic attack on all things Tory and Boris. Meanwhile a local election in Scotland saw the Tory vote up 10%, Labour up 2% and the SNP up 5.5%. Happy days. Not quite sure how it happened but it produced a Labour gain from the SNP as an added bonus.

    Part of the reason for the Tory rise is that a separate Unionist candidate stood last time, but didn't this time. All the same, it's a reassuring result for them and miles higher than they used to do in this part of North Lanarkshire. And for Sarwar, the top line is Lab GAIN from SNP which is nae bad and steadies the nerves.
    Except that it’s an AV by-election in an STV seat and, despite its notional gain, the electoral swing was from Labour to SNP and Tory
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,741
    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    I see the panic has doed down a little on here after that awful poll for Labour yesterday sent the spinners into a frenzied panic attack on all things Tory and Boris. Meanwhile a local election in Scotland saw the Tory vote up 10%, Labour up 2% and the SNP up 5.5%. Happy days. Not quite sure how it happened but it produced a Labour gain from the SNP as an added bonus.

    Part of the reason for the Tory rise is that a separate Unionist candidate stood last time, but didn't this time. All the same, it's a reassuring result for them and miles higher than they used to do in this part of North Lanarkshire. And for Sarwar, the top line is Lab GAIN from SNP which is nae bad and steadies the nerves.
    Except that it’s an AV by-election in an STV seat and, despite its notional gain, the electoral swing was from Labour to SNP and Tory
    Oh, yes, agree. All the same, the optics are not so bad for Labour. Shows they are still in the fight, sort of.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,704
    malcolmg said:

    It was hardly heart surgery , it was a procedure.
    He may well have had a new stent or a valve replaced. I think that counts as heart surgery.. they just don't want the world to.know what he had done and I don't blame them either
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,994
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Even if it is 200k why doesn't Boris pay for it himself ?

    After he leaves politics he'll be able to 'earn' that much by giving a speech or two.

    Boris Johnson is not a man of sound personal finances.

    Remember back in 2008 when Ken Livingstone challenged Boris Johnson to publish his tax returns hoping to find tax dodges only to find that Johnson was on PAYE for everything and paying way more tax than he should than if he went limited liability.

    Remember Johnson has two ex wives and countless kids to support.

    I suspect every future bit of income is already spoken for.
    He will make TRILLIONS for his memoirs tho. That is his pension, and it is huge.

    Imagine the stories. He was the politician who delivered the Brexit referendum and as prime minister delivered the final version of Brexit. AND he has been PM during Covid. World shaking things. Add in the rest of his extremely colourful life, journalism, the Spectator, London mayor, scandals, womanising, gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary.... and of course he is a very gifted writer, unlike 90% of political memoirists.

    He will get many millions for these memoirs, in the UK, USA and elsewhere. I imagine they will do two or three volumes, given the amount of material

    He is destined to be extremely comfortable.
    How much are you willing to stake on Boris Johnson on making trillions for his memoirs?
    More seriously I reckon he could earn £10m from them. Worldwide. He is the first British Prime Minister since Thatcher with a global profile - recognisable around the world. And he has an incredible, once-in-a-century insider story to tell. Brexit and the Plague. AND he is an excellent and entertaining writer. Ker-CHING
    Are you sure? His Churchill book was pants.
    Presumably because he is not a good historian or at analysing history?

    Memoirs would be selling himself, and defending himself - he can do that.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,047
    edited March 2021

    kinabalu said:

    Iain Dale in ConHome:

    The EU has no interest in Northern Ireland’s future prosperity. It just sees it as a mechanism to exert its power. It is a constitutional outrage that British companies are not free to trade without restriction to all parts of the sovereign United Kingdom. The checks that are now being demanded by the EU are so disproportionate as to be totally unreasonable. The British government bent over backwards to make a compromise to meet EU concerns that the Single Market could be compromised, but its goodwill has been exploited at every turn.

    At some point this has to stop, and the unilateral extension of the grace period is the inevitable consequence of EU inflexibility. It is not, as the Irish government unhelpfully says, a breach of international law. What it is, is a sign that Britain’s patience with the EU on this issue is about to expire.


    https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2021/03/iain-dale-the-eu-has-no-interest-in-northern-irelands-future-prosperity-it-just-sees-it-as-a-mechanism-to-exert-its-power.html

    Bollox. It is the compromise arrangement that we insisted on. It is the trade deal that we negotiated. It is the operational model we signed. The EU had no interest at all in interjecting itself into the internal matters of a post-EU UK, where anyone with a brain can see that a GB-NI border is bonkers.

    So, we are back to the unsolvable issue of the intra-Irish border. It must be open and unimpeded, but has to provide the hard border between the EU and UK demanded by our government. They proposed that we stay in the customs union and aligned to EU standards until a technology solution could be found. No, WE LEAVE NOW we demanded. Which means the only other place for the border is the Irish Sea.

    Why do you think the Boris Burrows all lead to the Isle of Man? We have to put the customs post for the Boris Border somewhere, and the IoM fancies running duty free stores.
    No. Just don't have a hard border anywhere, problem solved. Fudge is the spirit of the GFA.
    Protecting the integrity of the SM was the EU's one and only true red line. That violates it.
    That's their problem. Ours is protecting the integrity of the UK.

    We should do whatever it takes, upto and including A16, to do our priority.
    But the deal respected that red line of theirs. They wouldn't have done it otherwise.

    We are Great Britain not a second hand car dealer.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,485
    kinabalu said:

    algarkirk said:

    kinabalu said:

    algarkirk said:

    I see the hashtag #toryscum is trending. I wonder if the angry of Islington will ever realise that most people even they think something is wrong don't live in a perpetual state of outrage and hatred all the time, and this is actually putting the average person off.

    To win Labour have two big jobs, neither close to being done yet: They have to explain convincingly what they are for when we have a Heseltine + Brexit+ populist style government spending money like water.

    And they have to convince millions of people currently inclined to vote Tory that they don't believe that they are 'scum', 'vermin' etc but that they are bright centrists who vote both with their hearts and heads.

    The Labour membership have lost so many Rochdale Pioneers (see yesterday's brilliant analysis) that the remaining ones are unable to get the point that you cannot get people to vote for you by calling them scum. This alone renders them unfit to govern.

    This is hard, but the first problem - What is Labour for? - is harder.
    They do have to answer that question. My nutshell answer would be - to build a society far more equal than the one we have today.

    But the Cons have to answer the same question. They have done the one and only serious thing they were elected to do - deliver Leave - and are now devoid of any purpose other than staying in power. You could see this with that hotchpotch of a budget. Ok, all looks good for them right now, the vaccine delivering us early from the pandemic, but I predict this will change and well before the election. Difficult choices lie ahead and the government will not be able to flunk them all. Plenty of people will get pissed off and this will include some of those who voted for them last time.

    So, although I share the concerns about the current polls, and about Starmer not cutting through, Labour should imo not be panicking at this point.
    The key word is 'equal'. A sort of language SKS is fairly keen on. The trouble is that it has at least two meanings not compatible with each other: Does Labour want greater equality of opportunity or does it want greater equality of outcomes.
    For myself I will queue up early and often to vote for the first, but I am just as keen to vote against the second.

    And you can't have both.

    Equality is like (non state) pensions: You can either have defined benefits or defined contributions. You can't have both.
    The key word is "more". More equal not equal. A significant reduction in inequality. Perfect equality (of opportunity or outcome) is not a real world possibility. Nobody sane is arguing for that. It's a strawman. The goal is a significant reduction in inequality without the need for totalitarianism or the recasting of human nature. It's not some utopian pipedream.

    And no, opportunity and outcome are not separate concepts that can be silo'd. They are inextricably linked to the extent that far from being incompatible it makes no sense to talk about either in isolation. Opportunities lead to outcomes. Outcomes lead to opportunities.

    For example, if we have great inequality of outcome, this feeds through as night follows day to great inequality of opportunity - since affluent parents create superior life chances for their offspring. Who make use of these to achieve superior outcomes. Which allows them to create superior opportunities for their offspring. Etc.

    Labour should be about disrupting this cycle. Not completely breaking it, mind, please refer back to para 1, but acting against the grain of it. The goal being, as I say, a significant reduction in inequality. A degree of uncoupling of the link between birth circumstances (class, race, gender) and life prospects. A "more" equal society.

    You say you'd queue round the block to vote for equal opportunities? Almost everyone says that - because it sounds good and the opposite sounds bad - but few on the centre or right of politics really mean it. It's a platitude. I know this because when it comes to actual policies that will make a serious dent in class privilege a reason is always found why they can't or shouldn't be attempted. All we ever hear are "bring back grammar schools" or the maximum trite of "let's make state schools so good that nobody will want to go private".

    I'd be delighted for you to prove me wrong by advancing ideas other than those.
    Pretty much agree with you. Went to a comprehensive school, all my children did so as well. As to schools which you mention, there is nothing that will work as well as I would like, but it would be unwise to dismiss improvements in state schools, as academies in London testify.

    The limits on equality of opportunity will of course exist as long as children are not in a position to choose their parents.

  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,982
    Note: I see that the BBC Parliament now has the full recording of La Sturgeon's Committee appearance archive for 28 days.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,837
    MaxPB said:

    TOPPING said:

    MaxPB said:

    Hmm, so one of our guys has a theory on why there isn't a funding/tax shortfall in the budget. The actuarial savings from 150k old people dying with a massive proportion in social care is huge but it's hidden in the detail. It could be around £8-10bn per year saved which is about the same as the predicted shortfall. It makes sense that the government won't advertise it though.

    I can't think why that wouldn't make it onto the side of a campaign bus somewhere.
    Why spent £200m per week on social care, let's COVID instead?
    Better still let's get @HYUFD into the cabinet and declare war on someone.

    "We will glorify war – the world's only hygiene – militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers," - Marinetti
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,704
    New thread
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,952
    edited March 2021
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Even if it is 200k why doesn't Boris pay for it himself ?

    After he leaves politics he'll be able to 'earn' that much by giving a speech or two.

    Boris Johnson is not a man of sound personal finances.

    Remember back in 2008 when Ken Livingstone challenged Boris Johnson to publish his tax returns hoping to find tax dodges only to find that Johnson was on PAYE for everything and paying way more tax than he should than if he went limited liability.

    Remember Johnson has two ex wives and countless kids to support.

    I suspect every future bit of income is already spoken for.
    He will make TRILLIONS for his memoirs tho. That is his pension, and it is huge.

    Imagine the stories. He was the politician who delivered the Brexit referendum and as prime minister delivered the final version of Brexit. AND he has been PM during Covid. World shaking things. Add in the rest of his extremely colourful life, journalism, the Spectator, London mayor, scandals, womanising, gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary.... and of course he is a very gifted writer, unlike 90% of political memoirists.

    He will get many millions for these memoirs, in the UK, USA and elsewhere. I imagine they will do two or three volumes, given the amount of material

    He is destined to be extremely comfortable.
    How much are you willing to stake on Boris Johnson on making trillions for his memoirs?
    More seriously I reckon he could earn £10m from them. Worldwide. He is the first British Prime Minister since Thatcher with a global profile - recognisable around the world. And he has an incredible, once-in-a-century insider story to tell. Brexit and the Plague. AND he is an excellent and entertaining writer. Ker-CHING
    Are you sure? His Churchill book was pants.
    Yes I am sure. As others have said, the true figure could be well north of £10m. He was also prime minister for the end of Trump. The most colourful & remarkable period in British and western history since World War 2, and he had the best view. So he has an incredible and unique story. Moreover, he really is a good writer. I know it pains people to admit it, but he is.

    I am sure he does chuck out duff books from time to time, but that's because he can be lazy, and blase

    The memoirs will be his chance to tell THE story: HIS story. He won't knock 'em out in a fortnight. He will take his time and get it right, not least for all those ££££££

  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,994
    kingbongo said:

    Charles said:

    Foxy said:

    Iain Dale in ConHome:

    The EU has no interest in Northern Ireland’s future prosperity. It just sees it as a mechanism to exert its power. It is a constitutional outrage that British companies are not free to trade without restriction to all parts of the sovereign United Kingdom. The checks that are now being demanded by the EU are so disproportionate as to be totally unreasonable. The British government bent over backwards to make a compromise to meet EU concerns that the Single Market could be compromised, but its goodwill has been exploited at every turn.

    At some point this has to stop, and the unilateral extension of the grace period is the inevitable consequence of EU inflexibility. It is not, as the Irish government unhelpfully says, a breach of international law. What it is, is a sign that Britain’s patience with the EU on this issue is about to expire.


    https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2021/03/iain-dale-the-eu-has-no-interest-in-northern-irelands-future-prosperity-it-just-sees-it-as-a-mechanism-to-exert-its-power.html

    Bollox. It is the compromise arrangement that we insisted on. It is the trade deal that we negotiated. It is the operational model we signed. The EU had no interest at all in interjecting itself into the internal matters of a post-EU UK, where anyone with a brain can see that a GB-NI border is bonkers.

    So, we are back to the unsolvable issue of the intra-Irish border. It must be open and unimpeded, but has to provide the hard border between the EU and UK demanded by our government. They proposed that we stay in the customs union and aligned to EU standards until a technology solution could be found. No, WE LEAVE NOW we demanded. Which means the only other place for the border is the Irish Sea.

    Why do you think the Boris Burrows all lead to the Isle of Man? We have to put the customs post for the Boris Border somewhere, and the IoM fancies running duty free stores.
    No. Just don't have a hard border anywhere, problem solved. Fudge is the spirit of the GFA.
    Fudge cannot be law.

    It is Brexit that created that border, and the Brexiteers who decided to put it in the Irish Sea.

    That is what we agreed to in the "oven ready deal".
    A border in the Irish Sea breaches the Good Friday Agreement as much as one on the island of Ireland.

    There was a transitory thrill of Schadenfreude at seeing the DUP get shafted by Johnson, but we all have to deal with the consequences now.

    With hindsight, the 2016 referendum should have been in England alone on English independence from the UK and the EU. That's the movement that's taken us to this point - an England not willing to bind itself to commitments to its neighbours in Europe, or the islands of Britain and Ireland.

    My preference would be for an England comfortable with playing a collaborative role in European and British Unions - but those English politicians not signed up to that should have the courage to take their convictions to their logical conclusion - and work for a transition to English independence.

    It's irresponsible to allow an English Nationalist delusion to cause damage to others.
    The fundamental problem is that the GFA was designed in a world where the UK and Ireland were both in the EU

    The UK’s proposal was to take the objective of the GFA and design a new structure for a new world

    The EU said the GFA must not change despite a core assumption not being valid any longer.

    And people wonder why it is under strain?
    The big problem I have noticed is the idea that there can be no border at the border because the IRA wouldn't like it . All the talk is the danger of a return to republican violence - the EU still seem blithely unaware that the IRA and its chums are not the only nutters in NI - the threat of so-called loyalist violence is real.

    Simply braying 'Boris signed up to it suck it up, you won' is a silly refrain from some on this board that takes us no further in solving the very real problem of a border inside the UK. The solution can be mutually agreed but I still don't see why protecting the EU single market is principally the job of the UK - if the EU really thinks the risks are that high put the checks at the Irish ports and the ferries to France. Joint action on anything genuinely damaging to the integrity of the SM could be undertaken even a new jointly staffed Trade Protection Force with polo shirts, cagoules and maybe some Toyata Hiluxes could be formed.
    Sensible post. His mess or not it's a mess that needs addressing
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,783
    Just done the census, and for the work questions it asks for answers that are applicable for covid. Doesnt seem much use for planning for the next 10 years or comparison with previous decades. Why not ask for both current and normal work patterns?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,994
    Scott_xP said:

    IanB2 said:

    A nurses strike after the last year would get massive public support. The government isn’t going to be able to take that.

    https://twitter.com/lucrezianews/status/1367823011412344835
    Wait, that interview still hasn't been shown yet? Gods, theres building anticipation and then theres 'get on with it'.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,260

    malcolmg said:

    It was hardly heart surgery , it was a procedure.
    He may well have had a new stent or a valve replaced. I think that counts as heart surgery.. they just don't want the world to.know what he had done and I don't blame them either
    Think stents etc are procedures, though not an expert. Given the low intellect journalists nowadays , they would not know the difference.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,304
    malcolmg said:

    It was hardly heart surgery , it was a procedure.
    It was a euphemism...
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,982

    "Scots Tory leader Douglas Ross 'deeply regrets' comments about gypsy travellers"

    https://tinyurl.com/rkx58ees

    I deeply regret that my comment about tougher enforcement on Gypsy Travellers being my number 1 priority if I was pm has been interpreted as meaning that tougher enforcement on Gypsy Travellers would be my number 1 priority if I was pm.

    Too brief /glib to be clear, and "Gypsy Travellers" is a strange term to choose. Better planning enforcement is quite reasonable. Perhaps he should have mentioned Dale Farm.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,886

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Even if it is 200k why doesn't Boris pay for it himself ?

    After he leaves politics he'll be able to 'earn' that much by giving a speech or two.

    Boris Johnson is not a man of sound personal finances.

    Remember back in 2008 when Ken Livingstone challenged Boris Johnson to publish his tax returns hoping to find tax dodges only to find that Johnson was on PAYE for everything and paying way more tax than he should than if he went limited liability.

    Remember Johnson has two ex wives and countless kids to support.

    I suspect every future bit of income is already spoken for.
    He will make TRILLIONS for his memoirs tho. That is his pension, and it is huge.

    Imagine the stories. He was the politician who delivered the Brexit referendum and as prime minister delivered the final version of Brexit. AND he has been PM during Covid. World shaking things. Add in the rest of his extremely colourful life, journalism, the Spectator, London mayor, scandals, womanising, gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary.... and of course he is a very gifted writer, unlike 90% of political memoirists.

    He will get many millions for these memoirs, in the UK, USA and elsewhere. I imagine they will do two or three volumes, given the amount of material

    He is destined to be extremely comfortable.
    How much are you willing to stake on Boris Johnson on making trillions for his memoirs?
    More seriously I reckon he could earn £10m from them. Worldwide. He is the first British Prime Minister since Thatcher with a global profile - recognisable around the world. And he has an incredible, once-in-a-century insider story to tell. Brexit and the Plague. AND he is an excellent and entertaining writer. Ker-CHING
    I think that is correct.

    For a start, I don't expect his memoirs to be true.

    They will be hugely entertaining and crafted to sustain & build the Boris mythology.

    And then there will be the Netflix miniseries ....

    Global Celeb-dom. Serial shagging. Probably another couple of broken marriages and many more young mistresses.

    So, why the hell does he want to lead the Tories into the next election?

    There is so much more waiting for him.
    Something in that. However he is clearly a man who gets easily bored. Being Prime Minister is a tough job, but it is also highly exciting - full of drama and adrenaline (Thatcher talks of the compulsive quality of the job, in HER memoirs). That might keep him in Number 10 for quite a while. Fear of the relative tedium that comes after

    After he got ill, I thought he'd go this year. Now I am far from sure. He's got his mojo back, he looks better, he's high in the polls, he's relatively popular. The faithful still love him. He's redeemed himself with the vaccines.

    He might now last until the next election. Win that, then finally retire to his memoir and his mistresses and his newly minted fortune.
    For the memoirs, Boris hardly needs to bother writing them himself, as they don't need to be true.

    He just needs a ghost writer with a lively, highly-eroticised imagination.

    If only we knew where SeanT was, ....
    Churchill didn't write most of his WWII history, either,
    Made him about £30m in today's terms, I think ?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,982
    edited March 2021
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Even if it is 200k why doesn't Boris pay for it himself ?

    After he leaves politics he'll be able to 'earn' that much by giving a speech or two.

    Boris Johnson is not a man of sound personal finances.

    Remember back in 2008 when Ken Livingstone challenged Boris Johnson to publish his tax returns hoping to find tax dodges only to find that Johnson was on PAYE for everything and paying way more tax than he should than if he went limited liability.

    Remember Johnson has two ex wives and countless kids to support.

    I suspect every future bit of income is already spoken for.
    He will make TRILLIONS for his memoirs tho. That is his pension, and it is huge.

    Imagine the stories. He was the politician who delivered the Brexit referendum and as prime minister delivered the final version of Brexit. AND he has been PM during Covid. World shaking things. Add in the rest of his extremely colourful life, journalism, the Spectator, London mayor, scandals, womanising, gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary.... and of course he is a very gifted writer, unlike 90% of political memoirists.

    He will get many millions for these memoirs, in the UK, USA and elsewhere. I imagine they will do two or three volumes, given the amount of material

    He is destined to be extremely comfortable.
    How much are you willing to stake on Boris Johnson on making trillions for his memoirs?
    More seriously I reckon he could earn £10m from them. Worldwide. He is the first British Prime Minister since Thatcher with a global profile - recognisable around the world. And he has an incredible, once-in-a-century insider story to tell. Brexit and the Plague. AND he is an excellent and entertaining writer. Ker-CHING
    I think that is correct.

    For a start, I don't expect his memoirs to be true.

    They will be hugely entertaining and crafted to sustain & build the Boris mythology.

    And then there will be the Netflix miniseries ....

    Global Celeb-dom. Serial shagging. Probably another couple of broken marriages and many more young mistresses.

    So, why the hell does he want to lead the Tories into the next election?

    There is so much more waiting for him.
    Something in that. However he is clearly a man who gets easily bored. Being Prime Minister is a tough job, but it is also highly exciting - full of drama and adrenaline (Thatcher talks of the compulsive quality of the job, in HER memoirs). That might keep him in Number 10 for quite a while. Fear of the relative tedium that comes after

    After he got ill, I thought he'd go this year. Now I am far from sure. He's got his mojo back, he looks better, he's high in the polls, he's relatively popular. The faithful still love him. He's redeemed himself with the vaccines.

    He might now last until the next election. Win that, then finally retire to his memoir and his mistresses and his newly minted fortune.
    For the memoirs, Boris hardly needs to bother writing them himself, as they don't need to be true.

    He just needs a ghost writer with a lively, highly-eroticised imagination.

    If only we knew where SeanT was, ....
    Churchill didn't write most of his WWII history, either,
    Made him about £30m in today's terms, I think ?
    Hmmm. Who in politics has written erotic scenes.

    Douglas Hurd? (*) Edwina Curry?

    Any others?

    (I think DH hass done a novel.))
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1367809830044467206

    This is more like it. The question is, is it too late?

    Lol is it? Dominic Cummings got sacked. That attack makes no sense and speaks to the twittersphere to get likes and makes no impact in the real world.
    Agree the Dominic Cummings reference looks odd. It feels a bit focus-grouped.

    He should have gone with Dido Harding, even though most people don’t know who she is.

    His audience on Twitter is not the blue wall, but opinion-makers.
    Opinion makers. Don't make me laugh any harder. Oh wait, you did. Twitter and its users don't make any opinions in the real world. If they did then Labour would have won in 2015, 2017 and 2019. They lost all three.
    You are wrong.
    Look how often Twitter is posted on here.
    See also how “quiet” Trump became after he was booted off.

    Twitter is obviously a madhouse, and a minority pursuit at that - but it is read and regurgitated by journalists and news-shapers.
  • MangoMango Posts: 1,019
    IanB2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IanB2 said:

    Late 50s and today the NHS site allowed me to book the AZN for Sunday!

    Sunday appointments are good.
    I took the first slot there was.

    The way the system seems to work is, firstly they open the site ‘on the quiet’ to an age group, and take bookings from those who go looking for them (I am guessing that is quite a few). Next they put out a general call for everyone in an age band - I am guessing the 50-59s will be called on Monday, maybe at the weekend. Finally they start contacting people individually.

    A sensible approach that minimises the number of people who need to be contacted one at a time.
    No joy for me on the NHS site. Any other tips?
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,737
    Forgoing the vaccine should be everyone’s libertarian choice. Equally it should be the taxpayers’ choice not to give them healthcare in our hospitals or their kids an education in our schools. Scared of the big bad state, well it cuts both ways matey.
  • MangoMango Posts: 1,019
    MaxPB said:



    Opinion makers. Don't make me laugh any harder. Oh wait, you did. Twitter and its users don't make any opinions in the real world. If they did then Labour would have won in 2015, 2017 and 2019. They lost all three.

    So you agree that the oligarchical press continue to set the agenda, and that the Tories will be in power for ever and ever unless Murdoch does a deal with some Crispin Conscience future labour leader who agrees to never even contemplate anything that smacks of redistribution or reform?
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    A good article on some of the factors - and politics - limiting global supply of vaccines

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/largest-vaccine-maker-warns-of-delays-as-u-s-prioritizes-pfizer
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    edited March 2021
    moonshine said:

    Forgoing the vaccine should be everyone’s libertarian choice. Equally it should be the taxpayers’ choice not to give them healthcare in our hospitals or their kids an education in our schools. Scared of the big bad state, well it cuts both ways matey.

    As a neo-libertarian, I find the issue simple. Go ahead and exercise all your libertarian rights but only to the extent that doing so does not impede someone else's right to exercise their libertarian rights. Such as the right not to be infected by a pig-headed ignoramus.
This discussion has been closed.