Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
I have seen his original grave site, on St. Helena.
Tiny. And as remote as you can get on St. Helena.
Very jealous. I LOVE remote islands, the remoter the better.
What is it like on St Helena?! Is it moody?
Easter Island is incredibly spooky. Also the Solovetskys and St Kilda. All haunted in different ways
Always fancied Kerguelen. Had a world map on the wall as a kid. And it was there at eye level. Like a crocodile. First thing I saw in the morning. Am in training for the weather recently, too.
A friend of mine took the doctors job on the Chatham Islands, South East of NZ. When the weather was good all the locals went fishing, when it was bad, they would come into the dispensary out of boredom.
The toughest part of the job was catching the hospital cow for the nurses to milk. Once he had to drain a brain haematoma, using woodwork tools and a Wellington neurosurgeon giving instructions over the radio, as the weather was too foul for evacuation. He is a GP in Stamford Lincs now.
You - or he - would enjoy the Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick MD. Although trepanning was introduced to American medicine in the Indian Wars, so a few years earlier.
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
I was impressed by Estonia's Seaplane Harbour Museum which includes EML Lembit, a minelaying submarine built in Barrow.
Although this one is a bit more basic
USS Texas is the last surviving Dreadnought (as opposed to "fast battleships" of the Iowa Class).
This is not USS Texas! Hope SP realizes this!
Yours truly has visited USS Texas which is moored (or whatever) at San Jacinto, Texas the site of the battle that secured Texican independence from Mexico.
Took part in the Tampico Incident, served in both WW1 and WW2, with major roles in Operation Torch and Overlord.
I have seen his original grave site, on St. Helena.
Tiny. And as remote as you can get on St. Helena.
Very jealous. I LOVE remote islands, the remoter the better.
What is it like on St Helena?! Is it moody?
Easter Island is incredibly spooky. Also the Solovetskys and St Kilda. All haunted in different ways
It is wonderfully craggy and sheer on the coast, with lots of big whales and dolphins. It still feels like 1820 in the main street. They clearly had a lot of surplus cannon. The jail holds perhaps two people.
Then you get to the inside of the island, and it feels like the Home Counties. From a Marple.
The Napoleon stuff is wonderful - his iconic coat and hat on a chaise longue at Longwood House feel as if it was just placed down moments ago. But the real treat is the house he first stayed at, Briar's Pavilion, by the heart-shaped waterfall. It was gifted as French territory. If they continue to play silly buggers over Jersey, we should annex it.
Gawd. Sounds great, I'd love to go
Have you done Pitcairn or Tristan?
I haven't, but I hear they are spectacularly strange. Easter Island is one of the few places in the world where I've nearly lost my shit because it's so spooky. People forget all moai - the statues - were hurled down in a great iconoclasm, as the civilisation collapsed - no one is sure why, possibly deforestation inducing climate change inducing horror
At the far east end of the island (where no one lives) you can stand on a high cliff and look out to sea and know there is no one looking back at you for thousands and thousands of miles. It is not a *nice* feeling. It is disquieting in the extreme. And the weird noises....
Jared Diamond's Collapse has a whole section on Easter Island. It's a great story.
Yeah, quite a pretty child though. Hope she doesn't get eaten.
Nicola is protecting her from hungry Tories.
Nah, she's teaching the chant, William Wallace, William Wallace, Independent Scotland, Independent Scotland. Can't start too young. Indyref7 #the decider will need her vote.
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Been 0-5 for me since 1999 for me, except when I am on the road.
I have seen his original grave site, on St. Helena.
Tiny. And as remote as you can get on St. Helena.
Very jealous. I LOVE remote islands, the remoter the better.
What is it like on St Helena?! Is it moody?
Easter Island is incredibly spooky. Also the Solovetskys and St Kilda. All haunted in different ways
Napoleon wasn't too keen on the island.
Although the alternative was to be shot by firing squad.
They were very kid gloves with him. What would've happened after a second escape/100 days? Tasmania?
There was never going to be a second escape. We nicked Ascension Island from the Dutch, to rob any plotters of the only practical base from which to launch a raid to free him. And all the while he was alive there, we had four warships circling the island - two going clockwise, two anti-clockwise.
St. Helena really was thought to be the most secure place on the planet.
Moronic. Scottish independence = 20 more years of Labour opposition. But they still cannot redirect their guns towards the correct enemy. Labour make the placing of the guns on Singapore look strategic.
If Carlsberg were running the Scottish Conservative's election campaign, even they could not have come up with something as helpful as this on the eve of the election where they are pushing #peachvoteTory tomorrow.
Unfortunately instead of a rather well run beer company we have Douglas Ross. Back to the drawing board I am afraid.
One of the fun facts I enjoy informing Americans of is the reason they’ve got a “New Jersey” and not a “New Guernsey” is that during the English Civil War, Jersey remained loyal to the Crown while Guernsey sided with Parliament- so after the restoration Jersey’s nobility was awarded with favours while Guernsey’s wasn’t. Nice to have your state named after a monarchy supporting island!
But their IS a Guernsey County, Ohio, county seat Cambridge, hometown of John Glenn; also has Cambridge Township AND Oxford Twp, plus Londonderry Twp and hamlets named Birmingham and Kipling.
While Baltimore is named after Francis Calvert, Lord Baltimore… and Boston is AB abbreviation of St Botolph’s
I have just found out that the Labour candidate for the mayor of Tees Valley is actually really fit. Why didn't anyone tell me this before?
Err… yer wot?
Posted without comment.
I have no wish to be uncharitable… but I feel vindicated. Needless to say I am spoilt with my wife, and as a resident of LA you would appreciate the charms if a Socal girl
One of the fun facts I enjoy informing Americans of is the reason they’ve got a “New Jersey” and not a “New Guernsey” is that during the English Civil War, Jersey remained loyal to the Crown while Guernsey sided with Parliament- so after the restoration Jersey’s nobility was awarded with favours while Guernsey’s wasn’t. Nice to have your state named after a monarchy supporting island!
But their IS a Guernsey County, Ohio, county seat Cambridge, hometown of John Glenn; also has Cambridge Township AND Oxford Twp, plus Londonderry Twp and hamlets named Birmingham and Kipling.
While Baltimore is named after Francis Calvert, Lord Baltimore… and Boston is AB abbreviation of St Botolph’s
Baltimore, in MD, where there are also Calvert, Cecil and Carroll counties which all celebrate members of the family
I have just found out that the Labour candidate for the mayor of Tees Valley is actually really fit. Why didn't anyone tell me this before?
Err… yer wot?
Posted without comment.
And may I say it’s lovely to see this tidy young lady standing next to a free Palestine poster. It’s a cause close to the hearts of everyone on Teeside and I’m so glad a prospective Labour politician has finally decided to speak out about it. I’m sure the people of Hartlepool and Redcar will do the right thing and tomorrow and send a real message to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
As a pro flint knapper who knows lots of other pros, I can genuinely say you only need to do 2-3 hours of intense creative work - and the day is done. That's all you CAN do if it is creation ex nihilo.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
I genuinely feel for lefties with these polls. They must look at them and despair. We are 11 years into Tory governance and we've had a badly botched Brexit and Boris has personally slaughtered 150,000 Brits in a plague.
Mother in law says she’s voting for recall and the probably for Cox.
Apparently she’s still a republican but it’s getting really embarrassing to admit it
Thanks for the report from the front!
Not to surprising given where she's coming from. And not inconsistent with Newsom winning the recall election statewide, as polls clearly indicate. Right now, anyway.
Just saw this on Politico.com, with pix of "John Cox, Republican recall candidate for California governor, begins his statewide "Meet the Beast" bus tour on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, with Tag, a Kodiak brown bear, at Miller Regional Park in Sacramento"
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
As a pro flint knapper who knows lots of other pros, I can genuinely say you only need to do 2-3 hours of intense creative work - and the day is done. That's all you CAN do if it is creation ex nihilo.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
Just do your 150 minutes, you're good
I've always found 150 a stretch. Little wonder I've been sacked from every office job, nay, employed status position, over a long and varied 30+ year career. I work for myself. And boy, would I ever fire me, too. I just can't find a satisfactory replacement.
One of the fun facts I enjoy informing Americans of is the reason they’ve got a “New Jersey” and not a “New Guernsey” is that during the English Civil War, Jersey remained loyal to the Crown while Guernsey sided with Parliament- so after the restoration Jersey’s nobility was awarded with favours while Guernsey’s wasn’t. Nice to have your state named after a monarchy supporting island!
But their IS a Guernsey County, Ohio, county seat Cambridge, hometown of John Glenn; also has Cambridge Township AND Oxford Twp, plus Londonderry Twp and hamlets named Birmingham and Kipling.
While Baltimore is named after Francis Calvert, Lord Baltimore… and Boston is AB abbreviation of St Botolph’s
Baltimore, in MD, where there are also Calvert, Cecil and Carroll counties which all celebrate members of the family
You mean Cecil Co, MD was NOT named in honor of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent?
(Which btw tells you how most Americans pronounce "Cecil")
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
As a pro flint knapper who knows lots of other pros, I can genuinely say you only need to do 2-3 hours of intense creative work - and the day is done. That's all you CAN do if it is creation ex nihilo.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
Just do your 150 minutes, you're good
I've always found 150 a stretch. Little wonder I've been sacked from every office job, nay, employed status position, over a long and varied 30+ year career. I work for myself. And boy, would I ever fire me, too. I just can't find a satisfactory replacement.
Yeah, to be honest I often knock off after about 100 minutes
Weirdly - and this is true - anthropologists have discovered that this is roughly the amount of work hunter-gatherers do, to support the tribe. 2 hours a day. 14 hours a week. The rest is spent chilling out or looking at rock art porn
9-5 (plus commute?) is an abomination, we are not meant to do this shit
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
As a pro flint knapper who knows lots of other pros, I can genuinely say you only need to do 2-3 hours of intense creative work - and the day is done. That's all you CAN do if it is creation ex nihilo.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
Just do your 150 minutes, you're good
I've always found 150 a stretch. Little wonder I've been sacked from every office job, nay, employed status position, over a long and varied 30+ year career. I work for myself. And boy, would I ever fire me, too. I just can't find a satisfactory replacement.
Yeah, to be honest I often knock off after about 100 minutes
Weirdly - and this is true - anthropologists have discovered that this is roughly the amount of work hunter-gatherers do, to support the tribe. 2 hours a day. 14 hours a week. The rest is spent chilling out or looking at rock art porn
9-5 (plus commute?) is an abomination, we are not meant to do this shit
I must be the only PBer who couldn’t give a flying F about the ‘local’ elections tomorrow. Who cares if the Tories win Butt-Fuck Nowhere? Why do I care if Labour sneak into Bumpkin-on-the-Wold? I know I should give a shit. But I don’t.
I must be the only PBer who couldn’t give a flying F about the ‘local’ elections tomorrow. Who cares if the Tories win Butt-Fuck Nowhere? Why do I care if Labour sneak into Bumpkin-on-the-Wold? I know I should give a shit. But I don’t.
Nope not the only one. I won't be going to the polling station and I didn't bother to organise a postal vote.
Google's chief executive has sent an email to employees encouraging them to return to work in the office for at least three days a week as lockdowns ease.
I can see this becoming the new norm.
85% plus of our employees indicate they want a maximum of 3 days in office a week post covid.
Also government advise remains to WAH if you can - we will not be back until late June at earliest
A majority in our department want to return to the office 'as late as possible'.
This came as a bit of a surprise to our boss.
Ultimately, 2-3 or 3-2 will be the new normal for most of us. 1-4 or 0-5 for me.
Half eleven would suit me fine. And home at 2. With an hour for lunch, natch.
In all seriousness I'd much rather work 11-7 than 9-5.
2 till 10. I've always been a night owl. I only stop yawning at half nine at night.
As a pro flint knapper who knows lots of other pros, I can genuinely say you only need to do 2-3 hours of intense creative work - and the day is done. That's all you CAN do if it is creation ex nihilo.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
Just do your 150 minutes, you're good
Like you, I am in a ‘creative’ profession and to some extent I agree. 150 minutes per day is a lot in terms of crafting. Other stuff more than easily fills one’s day, it’s mostly noise but still slows one down.
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
Its as if there is a far bigger stories going on, like 10,000+ people a day dying of COVID in India....yet some people are spending day and night talking about if Boris' cushions are from John Lewis or not.
The thing is as well, I don't think the public care much about things like this is they aren't paying. Where it does hurt a government is like the trace aspect of test and trace that was so bad for so long and costing us all a lot of money (and the head of it is a relation with poor track record) or the MP expenses where we were paying for their cushion, curtains, moat cleaning etc.
I don't think many of the public think that donors to political parties do it solely out of the goodness of their hearts.
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
Its as if there is a far bigger stories going on, like 10,000+ people a day dying of COVID in India....yet some people are spending day and night talking about if Boris' cushions are from John Lewis or not.
The thing is as well, I don't think the public care much about things like this is they aren't paying. Where it does hurt a government is like the trace aspect of test and trace that was so bad for so long and costing us all a lot of money (and the head of it is a relation with poor track record) or the MP expenses where we were paying for their cushion, curtains, moat cleaning etc.
I don't think many of the public think that donors to political parties do it solely out of the goodness of their hearts.
This was a massive misjudgement by Labour, to make a fuss about Boris's wallpaper.
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
Its as if there is a far bigger stories going on, like 10,000+ people a day dying of COVID in India....yet some people are spending day and night talking about if Boris' cushions are from John Lewis or not.
The thing is as well, I don't think the public care much about things like this is they aren't paying. Where it does hurt a government is like the trace aspect of test and trace that was so bad for so long and costing us all a lot of money (and the head of it is a relation with poor track record) or the MP expenses where we were paying for their cushion, curtains, moat cleaning etc.
I don't think many of the public think that donors to political parties do it solely out of the goodness of their hearts.
This was a massive misjudgement by Labour, to make a fuss about Boris's wallpaper.
It totally distracted from more harmful stories and they did so just as India was melting down. It was literally Labour screaming about his wallpaper, then cut to 100s of bodies burning in India....totally out of touch. And lets not forget the UK has a huge Indian population, many people will have had relatives dying, yet the party of the working man was totally obsessed with interior decor.
One of the fun facts I enjoy informing Americans of is the reason they’ve got a “New Jersey” and not a “New Guernsey” is that during the English Civil War, Jersey remained loyal to the Crown while Guernsey sided with Parliament- so after the restoration Jersey’s nobility was awarded with favours while Guernsey’s wasn’t. Nice to have your state named after a monarchy supporting island!
But their IS a Guernsey County, Ohio, county seat Cambridge, hometown of John Glenn; also has Cambridge Township AND Oxford Twp, plus Londonderry Twp and hamlets named Birmingham and Kipling.
While Baltimore is named after Francis Calvert, Lord Baltimore… and Boston is AB abbreviation of St Botolph’s
Baltimore, in MD, where there are also Calvert, Cecil and Carroll counties which all celebrate members of the family
Maryland also has a Harford County, named in honor of Henry Harford, the last Proprietor of Maryland and the illegitimate of the 6th Baron Baltimore; consequently he inherited his father vast estate, but NOT his title.
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
It's interesting how much more of an ideological divide there is on this question in the UK and US compared with France and Germany and how much the left reject national pride.
It's interesting how much more of an ideological divide there is on this question in the UK and US compared with France and Germany and how much the left reject national pride.
One of the things that I've always admired about France is their willingness to be proud of their country, and to fly their flag.
I'm reminded of a great line from Roots by Show of Hands - "it's my flag too and I want it back" - which is a reminded to the extent that the Union Jack has been hijacked by extremists.
It's interesting how much more of an ideological divide there is on this question in the UK and US compared with France and Germany and how much the left reject national pride.
One of the things that I've always admired about France is their willingness to be proud of their country, and to fly their flag.
I'm reminded of a great line from Roots by Show of Hands - "it's my flag too and I want it back" - which is a reminded to the extent that the Union Jack has been hijacked by extremists.
Macron attitude to all the statue toppling colonalism stuff....basically we are France, its what makes us French, and we should be proud of the country we have become.
And it appears generally that was that. No analyzing every word said or written by somebody 300 years ago or what companies they held shares in, looking for any reason to cancel them.
Politico.com - Yang falls behind Adams for first time in New York mayor’s race poll
NEW YORK — Eric Adams is leading the field of mayoral candidates in a new poll, marking the first time Andrew Yang is not the top contender since he shook up the race with his unexpected entry in mid-January.
Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president, was the first-place pick for 21 percent of the respondents in a three-day survey conducted by Washington, D.C.-based firm GQR, according to a copy of the survey obtained by POLITICO. Yang followed at 18 percent, and City Comptroller Scott Stringer had 15 percent support.
The poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted over the course of three days last week, during which Stringer’s campaign was rocked by a 20-year-old accusation of sexual assault.
No other candidate cracked double digits, and 11 percent of those polled reported being undecided ahead of the June 22 primary to replace outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio. . . .
. . . Adams, who has yet to spend any of his $7.9 million campaign war chest on TV ads, typically gets the second-highest amount of media attention . . .
A former police officer who speaks openly about being assaulted by police officers when he was a teenager, Adams has been almost singularly focused on the rise in gun violence across the city. Where Yang is looking to capture the mood of an electorate anxious for New York to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, Adams is positioning himself as the candidate vowing to tackle a steady spike in crime.
Adams dominated with Black voters, garnering 47 percent of their support, compared to 11 percent of whites and 8 percent of Hispanics polled. Yang, by comparison, polled best with Hispanics — 22 percent — compared to 17 percent of white voters and 12 percent of Black voters.
Stringer did best of the eight candidates polled among white voters, seizing 24 percent, even as his campaign became embroiled in responding to an allegation that he groped a campaign volunteer in 2001. Though he denied the accusation, many of his left-leaning supporters quickly abandoned his bid. He has said he has no intention of abandoning his mayoral run. . . .
The results are disappointing for the two candidates who have spent the most on TV ads — Shaun Donovan and Ray McGuire — who are at 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Between their own campaigns and multimillion-dollar expenditures on their behalf, each has been on air consistently in recent months, advertising their life stories and policy chops. . . .
Of those polled, 55 percent identified themselves as liberal, 27 percent as moderate and 14 percent as conservative. Both Adams and Yang are running on relatively moderate messages, and both have been identified as concerns for a political action committee fundraising to elect a progressive mayor.
Forty percent of those polled were white; 30 percent Black; 19 percent Hispanic; and 7 percent Asian.
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
Labour should have done what the Conservatives did back in 2005, taken a chance and elected a fresh new Labour Leader as the Conservatives did when they elected Cameron. Like the Conservatives back then, Labour had the same luxury of time to embed and build up support for a new leader before another GE. But unfortunately, they elected the Conservative equivalent of David Davis instead, and Keir Starmer was already carrying so much baggage due to his high profile role in Corbyn's dysfunctional shadow Cabinet on the issue of Brexit during the chaotic couple of years after Theresa May lost her majority. As it stands now, Labour are probable going to have to have another Leadership election before the next GE. I also fully expect the Conservatives to be on their fouth Leader/PM by the time the next GE is called.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests. I should add that there is a problem facing both parties in recent years when it comes to electing new Leaders, there is a very clear risk aversion strategy not just among their party memberships, but also among some of the more talented backbenchers who should have thrown their hats in the ring even if it meant abject failure.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
Re: NYC Mayor's race, in not-so-distant past there is form for front-runners fading and someone emerging from further back in the pack to win. That's what Bill DeBlasio did..
> Asians will break heavily for Yang, but at just 7% of the electorate not much there there; but could be significant IF Yang can add there support to that from other groups
> Latinos with 19% share are bigger deal, and will almost certainly skew toward Yang rather than Adams, which again will help AY if the gap is big enough, but may not be enough, in part because
> Black voters at 30% will be strong block for Adams, no doubt about it, but given his relative weakness to Yang with Asians & Latinos, the key to the race will almost certainly be
> White voters at 40% the largest ethnicity, with the unelectable Stringer holding on to 24% of it in the poll, the leading candidate here; maddeningly the Politico story does NOT say what the White % is for Yang or Adams. Yang's probably ahead, but Adams is within striking distance; he does NOT need to beat Yang with Whites, just not lose 'em by too much.
Looking at the ideological split
> Conservatives at 14% , who are overwhelmingly White, will tend to splinter among the also-rans at the back of the pack; those who don't will tend to split between Yang and Adams.
> Moderates at 30% are a bigger block, and both Adams & Yang are making big plays for their support via their messages; the split here could be crucial.
> Liberals at 55% are the Big Kahuna in the Big Apple, there is a gaggle of progressive hopefuls vying for this key block, including the hapless Stringer who clearly still holds good chuck (mostly Jewish?) for now. X factor may be 2nd choices of voters who stick with Stringer as 1st choice. Important for both Adams and Yang NOT to be skunked by the liberal element, it's just too big to write off for ANY candidate who has expectations of actually winning.
Two factors in Adams favor are 1) A's been elected to major city office before, as Brooklyn Borough President. 2) Hence he's been vetted AND is knowledgeable on the ins & outs of city government & policy. 3) A's got a huge war chest, in particular a LOT of cash on hand to spend on TV,
From Yang's perspective 1) Y's is a political newcomer, of the top tier the one who can best claim to be a fresh face and NOT your average politico 2) Y's presidential race gave him considerable campaign experience and some credibility 3) Y's bid for POTUS gives him a national fundraising base which he can continue tapping.
Have focused on Adams & Yang because I feel one OR the other is odd-on favorite to win. IF I had to bet on it right now, would put money on Adams, because of his cash-on-hand horde AND because I think that a Black crimefighter is a pretty good & focused message, superior (again at the moment) to Yangs which is a bit diffuse and likely too focused on COVID.
Am I the only one who thinks the Loonies have lost the plot? They haven't advanced (or changed) a bit it seems since the sad demise of Screaming Lord Sutch. Get the impression that Howlin' Lord Hope is as Stalinist at running the show as SLS, but just not as good at it, lacking (for sure) his predecessor's personal charisma and (perhaps) organisational skills.
Last OFRMLP candidate I gave a rat's hindquarters about was Mad Cow Girl. She was also the last that I know of with a truly amusing moniker!
1) what do you think is gonna happen in Scotland tomorrow, across the board AND in you own neck of the woods (not too far from Drumthwaket; which btw gave it's name to the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumthwacket
2) does your nom de PB mean that you are a Pilates teacher or Zumba instructor?
1) what do you think is gonna happen in Scotland tomorrow, across the board AND in you own neck of the woods (not too far from Drumthwaket; which btw gave it's name to the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumthwacket
2) does your nom de PB mean that you are a Pilates teacher or Zumba instructor?
To quote Donald Rumsfeld 'Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.'
I genuinely believe that this Holyrood election is totally unpredictable due to the voting system, turnout and the sheer level of tactical voting going on in all directions on both the constituency and list votes despite the current Scottish polling picture. It is not like a GE where FPTP cuts out all the noise, this time the added minor parties on the list could make the difference when it comes to that vital few seats either side of the political argument.
As for my nom de PB, blame my hubbys Aberdeen sense of humour.
1) what do you think is gonna happen in Scotland tomorrow, across the board AND in you own neck of the woods (not too far from Drumthwaket; which btw gave it's name to the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumthwacket
2) does your nom de PB mean that you are a Pilates teacher or Zumba instructor?
To quote Donald Rumsfeld 'Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.'
I genuinely believe that this Holyrood election is totally unpredictable due to the voting system, turnout and the sheer level of tactical voting going on in all directions on both the constituency and list votes despite the current Scottish polling picture. It is not like a GE where FPTP cuts out all the noise, this time the added minor parties on the list could make the difference when it comes to that vital few seats either side of the political argument.
As for my nom de PB, blame my hubbys Aberdeen sense of humour.
F, your answers are as cryptic as those provided back in the day by the Oracle of Delphi!
Re: the election, might I suggest that you take one of your local sheep (an unlucky one obviously), turn it inside out, then read the entrails in approved Druidic fashion.
Then, after you have said sooth, take the remains and serve up a nice feast of haggis, to be enjoyed (?) by you & yours during the looooong hours of the count(s).
It's interesting how much more of an ideological divide there is on this question in the UK and US compared with France and Germany and how much the left reject national pride.
One of the things that I've always admired about France is their willingness to be proud of their country, and to fly their flag.
I'm reminded of a great line from Roots by Show of Hands - "it's my flag too and I want it back" - which is a reminded to the extent that the Union Jack has been hijacked by extremists.
Macron attitude to all the statue toppling colonalism stuff....basically we are France, its what makes us French, and we should be proud of the country we have become.
And it appears generally that was that. No analyzing every word said or written by somebody 300 years ago or what companies they held shares in, looking for any reason to cancel them.
Macron manages to combine things that I really admire: being honest to people about how the French state can't support their business, and handling France's past and multiculturalism.
With some genuinely mad stuff, such as the absurd statements about the efficacy of AstraZeneca for older people.
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
Labour should have done what the Conservatives did back in 2005, taken a chance and elected a fresh new Labour Leader as the Conservatives did when they elected Cameron. Like the Conservatives back then, Labour had the same luxury of time to embed and build up support for a new leader before another GE. But unfortunately, they elected the Conservative equivalent of David Davis instead, and Keir Starmer was already carrying so much baggage due to his high profile role in Corbyn's dysfunctional shadow Cabinet on the issue of Brexit during the chaotic couple of years after Theresa May lost her majority. As it stands now, Labour are probable going to have to have another Leadership election before the next GE. I also fully expect the Conservatives to be on their fouth Leader/PM by the time the next GE is called.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests. I should add that there is a problem facing both parties in recent years when it comes to electing new Leaders, there is a very clear risk aversion strategy not just among their party memberships, but also among some of the more talented backbenchers who should have thrown their hats in the ring even if it meant abject failure.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
In some ways Labour's £3 leadership vote were an well meaning attempt to engage the public but anecdotally (I have no evidence) it was hijacked by the left.... thats the trouble with Labour's grassroots - they aint electable
Election Manifesto of Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, ORMLP candidate for Hartlepool:
> The Houses of Parliament will be relocated next to Hartlepool Marina.
> To halt the spread of new Covid variants all international travel will be by paddle steamer.
> We will enrol the Hartlepool ‘Victoria Arms’ darts team to speed up the pace of the vaccination program.
> Hartlepool Golf Club will be re-developed into an intergalactic space port.
> Visiting EU officials in Brexit trade talks with the UK will be required to wear a Darlington football strip. This will ruin their game.
> Return the British currency to pounds, shillings, pence, farthings and groats. Rural villages such as Hart can resume trade in shiny beads.
> The Official Monster Raving Loony Party would create fifty trillion pounds through quantitative easing and give all voters free lunch and complimentary drinks for ever.
> The Loony Party will issue ‘looncoin’ a crypto currency based on ‘bitcoin’ as a reserve currency just in case the fifty trillion pounds quantitative easing doesn’t work.
> All our remaining gold reserves will be placed on the last race at the Sedgefield Races in a bid to reduce the national debt.
> Coastal fishing will be made a spectator sport by introducing saltwater crocodiles into Hartlepool Bay.
Re: Loony Hartlepoole manifesto, frankly think that PBers could do (and frequently does) a BETTER job at political satire than 21st century edition of ORMLP.
I see that YouGov have the tories on a 10 point lead.
I think now that sleaze has dropped off the front pages we're back to where we were a month ago. It was a tumbleweed trend. But I do agree with something Nick Palmer wrote: that each time we get a week like we had it will dent Boris. It will cut a little deeper.
For now though the tories are riding high. They are going to have stellar results today, comparatively. And their new blue Labour supporters up north are going to love the 'Boris sends in the navy' headlines this morning. Even I cheered.
As for Labour I think they're in the wilderness. They need a Moses to lead them into the promised land and I'm afraid I don't think it's Sir Keir, decent though he is.
It will HAVE to be a northerner (or a Scot). Someone who can speak the language of the blue Labour voters. A genuine patriot.
But, frankly, much more of this kind of situation this morning with vaccine bounces, bashing the Froggies and all-English Champions League finals and Boris will have another landslide next time around. His undoing, eventually, will be his own character failings but he has been underestimated far too frequently.
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
Labour should have done what the Conservatives did back in 2005, taken a chance and elected a fresh new Labour Leader as the Conservatives did when they elected Cameron. Like the Conservatives back then, Labour had the same luxury of time to embed and build up support for a new leader before another GE. But unfortunately, they elected the Conservative equivalent of David Davis instead, and Keir Starmer was already carrying so much baggage due to his high profile role in Corbyn's dysfunctional shadow Cabinet on the issue of Brexit during the chaotic couple of years after Theresa May lost her majority. As it stands now, Labour are probable going to have to have another Leadership election before the next GE. I also fully expect the Conservatives to be on their fouth Leader/PM by the time the next GE is called.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests. I should add that there is a problem facing both parties in recent years when it comes to electing new Leaders, there is a very clear risk aversion strategy not just among their party memberships, but also among some of the more talented backbenchers who should have thrown their hats in the ring even if it meant abject failure.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
In some ways Labour's £3 leadership vote were an well meaning attempt to engage the public but anecdotally (I have no evidence) it was hijacked by the left.... thats the trouble with Labour's grassroots - they aint electable
Except it still did not engage the public, not only was it hijacked by the left, it was also hijacked by their opponents.
Very gloomy article from the Guardian about Labour expectations across the country
"Labour MPs across England contacted by the Guardian about the mood on the doorstep warned of “apathy” among voters. Some complained about Labour’s lack of concrete proposals to sell to a sceptical electorate. “There is zero policy,” said one frontbencher.
“People don’t really know what we stand for, so we’re having to fall back on the time-honoured tradition of anti-Tory sentiment,” complained another MP.
“The focus of getting people to vote Labour who did previously and don’t any more is the right one – but it’s the way they’ve done it,” said a leftwing backbencher. “They’ve approached it in a way which is a caricature of northern, working-class people: beer, fish and chips and flags.”
Several warned that the Green party were eating into Labour’s support in some areas, ...'
Seems a bit excessive to me - expectations management?
Either that or Boris has taken a part-time job with Deliveroo in order to buy more wallpaper.
Anecdata based on overheard conversations: although SKS seems to have been setting traps over wallpapergate, in the short term it just adds to the public's sense that it is a lot of fuss about £50,000 which Boris paid anyway. In the long term, it might bring Boris down but today's votes will be cast in the short term.
Very gloomy article from the Guardian about Labour expectations across the country
"Labour MPs across England contacted by the Guardian about the mood on the doorstep warned of “apathy” among voters. Some complained about Labour’s lack of concrete proposals to sell to a sceptical electorate. “There is zero policy,” said one frontbencher.
“People don’t really know what we stand for, so we’re having to fall back on the time-honoured tradition of anti-Tory sentiment,” complained another MP.
“The focus of getting people to vote Labour who did previously and don’t any more is the right one – but it’s the way they’ve done it,” said a leftwing backbencher. “They’ve approached it in a way which is a caricature of northern, working-class people: beer, fish and chips and flags.”
Several warned that the Green party were eating into Labour’s support in some areas, ...'
Seems a bit excessive to me - expectations management?
The left of centre space does appear more crowded than ever: LDs, Greens, Labour all fighting over a centre & left ground and in Wales throw in PC as well n- all sustained by social media. It may be nothing new (remember Euros 1989) but but it all makes Labour's job that bit harder
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
Far more have than I thought... is that the base Labour vote paying attention,? Love the Mail and Express headlines in todays paper. Gunboat Diplomacy Lol....
Very gloomy article from the Guardian about Labour expectations across the country
"Labour MPs across England contacted by the Guardian about the mood on the doorstep warned of “apathy” among voters. Some complained about Labour’s lack of concrete proposals to sell to a sceptical electorate. “There is zero policy,” said one frontbencher.
“People don’t really know what we stand for, so we’re having to fall back on the time-honoured tradition of anti-Tory sentiment,” complained another MP.
“The focus of getting people to vote Labour who did previously and don’t any more is the right one – but it’s the way they’ve done it,” said a leftwing backbencher. “They’ve approached it in a way which is a caricature of northern, working-class people: beer, fish and chips and flags.”
Several warned that the Green party were eating into Labour’s support in some areas, ...'
Seems a bit excessive to me - expectations management?
As I have been saying for weeks - what on earth is the incentive for Labour supporters to go out today? Wallpaper....Tory scum....that's it. Sure, you still find some natural Tories who are anti-Boris - as you did in 2019. But the much wider sentiment you hear expressed is that there is no alternative to the Conservatives right now.
I expect that getting the Labour vote out today will be a big challenge. They will see a sizeable vote drifting off to the Can't Be Arsed Party, with an honorable mention to the Greens where they stand. But the Can't Be Arsed Party have one huge advantage - they stand in EVERY seat.
"Is Sadiq Khan’s lead narrowing in London? Labour and Conservative sources both believe that the race to be London’s next mayor is closer than thought. BY STEPHEN BUSH
Sadiq Khan’s lead has narrowed in the final set of polls before election day, meaning the London Mayor may no longer avoid a second round run-off against his Conservative opponent Shaun Bailey. In a further blow, Khan’s staff and well-placed Tories both believe that the polls are underestimating the fall in the mayor’s support as a combination of complacency among voters and anxiety about Covid-19 hurts the Labour incumbent’s chances."
"The many syllabled name of Jessie Joe Jacobs’ grandfather tumbles almost magically from her lips.
“Moses Majekodunmi,” she says, with a smile. “He ended up with a mayoral role in Nigeria after they got independence in 1960. He was a brilliant man by all accounts and had a political role at such a significant time – he went to America and met JFK.”
She only really became aware of her grandfather’s achievements in her teens, of how he started as a doctor but was appointed to run the west of Nigeria in a time of political crisis. She met him once, shortly before he died in 2012 at the age of 95, and it reinforced her desire to seek political change."
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
Labour should have done what the Conservatives did back in 2005, taken a chance and elected a fresh new Labour Leader as the Conservatives did when they elected Cameron. Like the Conservatives back then, Labour had the same luxury of time to embed and build up support for a new leader before another GE. But unfortunately, they elected the Conservative equivalent of David Davis instead, and Keir Starmer was already carrying so much baggage due to his high profile role in Corbyn's dysfunctional shadow Cabinet on the issue of Brexit during the chaotic couple of years after Theresa May lost her majority. As it stands now, Labour are probable going to have to have another Leadership election before the next GE. I also fully expect the Conservatives to be on their fouth Leader/PM by the time the next GE is called.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
Two problems with your thesis. Starmer polls or at least polled well. Labour is in a very, very different position to the Conservatives in 2005. Cameron would not have been elected if, say, John Redwood or Norman Tebbitt had been leader for 5 years.
The time for a detailed discussion about all this starts at 10pm. But for now, good luck to all those standing.
"Is Sadiq Khan’s lead narrowing in London? Labour and Conservative sources both believe that the race to be London’s next mayor is closer than thought. BY STEPHEN BUSH
Sadiq Khan’s lead has narrowed in the final set of polls before election day, meaning the London Mayor may no longer avoid a second round run-off against his Conservative opponent Shaun Bailey. In a further blow, Khan’s staff and well-placed Tories both believe that the polls are underestimating the fall in the mayor’s support as a combination of complacency among voters and anxiety about Covid-19 hurts the Labour incumbent’s chances."
If Khan ends up in a runoff against Shaun Bailey - of all people - Labour will have had a very bad night even if they somehow squeak Hartlepool and second place at Holyrood.
Although election days aren’t the same without an early morning delivery finishing about now.
Good morning everyone.
Agree, Mr B2; no organising the first tellers nowadays, either. It is bight and sunny here though; reminds me of two beautiful mornings in early May 1997; May 1st and 2nd! Ah, memories!
If Labour do badly tomorrow everyone's going to blame Keir Starmer. But I think they'd probably be doing even worse with anyone else. He's the best choice available at the moment.
Labour should have done what the Conservatives did back in 2005, taken a chance and elected a fresh new Labour Leader as the Conservatives did when they elected Cameron. Like the Conservatives back then, Labour had the same luxury of time to embed and build up support for a new leader before another GE. But unfortunately, they elected the Conservative equivalent of David Davis instead, and Keir Starmer was already carrying so much baggage due to his high profile role in Corbyn's dysfunctional shadow Cabinet on the issue of Brexit during the chaotic couple of years after Theresa May lost her majority. As it stands now, Labour are probable going to have to have another Leadership election before the next GE. I also fully expect the Conservatives to be on their fouth Leader/PM by the time the next GE is called.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
Two problems with your thesis. Starmer polls or at least polled well. Labour is in a very, very different position to the Conservatives in 2005. Cameron would not have been elected if, say, John Redwood or Norman Tebbitt had been leader for 5 years.
The time for a detailed discussion about all this starts at 10pm. But for now, good luck to all those standing.
Since 1979 apart from John Smith, how many decent Labour leaders have there been? My answer would be zero, Blair being discounted because of IRAQ... and the millions of deaths that have happened as a result.
I was impressed by Estonia's Seaplane Harbour Museum which includes EML Lembit, a minelaying submarine built in Barrow.
Although this one is a bit more basic
USS Texas is the last surviving Dreadnought (as opposed to "fast battleships" of the Iowa Class).
This is not USS Texas! Hope SP realizes this!
Yours truly has visited USS Texas which is moored (or whatever) at San Jacinto, Texas the site of the battle that secured Texican independence from Mexico.
Took part in the Tampico Incident, served in both WW1 and WW2, with major roles in Operation Torch and Overlord.
Comments
https://www.civilwarmed.org
Yours truly has visited USS Texas which is moored (or whatever) at San Jacinto, Texas the site of the battle that secured Texican independence from Mexico.
Took part in the Tampico Incident, served in both WW1 and WW2, with major roles in Operation Torch and Overlord.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)
However, their honey is quite accessible.
https://www.government.pn/shop/honey.php
Apparently she’s still a republican but it’s getting really embarrassing to admit it
https://twitter.com/TmorrowsPapers/status/1390062561836601346?s=19
Con 43%
Lab 33%
51% credit success of vaccine rollout to Boris Johnson.
The rest of the day can be frittered away harmlessly with admin, emails, PBing, parenting, laundry, a walk, the gym, a wank, a fuck, seventy bottles of Cretan beer, whatever
Just do your 150 minutes, you're good
Result? 10 point Tory lead
Not to surprising given where she's coming from. And not inconsistent with Newsom winning the recall election statewide, as polls clearly indicate. Right now, anyway.
Just saw this on Politico.com, with pix of "John Cox, Republican recall candidate for California governor, begins his statewide "Meet the Beast" bus tour on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, with Tag, a Kodiak brown bear, at Miller Regional Park in Sacramento"
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/05/04/california-recall-goes-into-circus-mode-1380199
EDIT - Bet ya Yogi (or is the name Maga?) would like some of that Pitcairn honey!
Just look at what he was able to do with (and to) the Liberal Party!
Leon of the parish MUST have an affinity for Gladstone, as the GOM was based in Flintshire!
Little wonder I've been sacked from every office job, nay, employed status position, over a long and varied 30+ year career.
I work for myself. And boy, would I ever fire me, too.
I just can't find a satisfactory replacement.
(Which btw tells you how most Americans pronounce "Cecil")
Weirdly - and this is true - anthropologists have discovered that this is roughly the amount of work hunter-gatherers do, to support the tribe. 2 hours a day. 14 hours a week. The rest is spent chilling out or looking at rock art porn
9-5 (plus commute?) is an abomination, we are not meant to do this shit
No way to live.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/05/arizona-republican-audit-bamboo-ballots-china.html
https://twitter.com/itvpeston/status/1390069315035148292
"Seven in ten voters say they have not closely followed claims that a Conservative donor helped to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s flat."
The thing is as well, I don't think the public care much about things like this is they aren't paying. Where it does hurt a government is like the trace aspect of test and trace that was so bad for so long and costing us all a lot of money (and the head of it is a relation with poor track record) or the MP expenses where we were paying for their cushion, curtains, moat cleaning etc.
I don't think many of the public think that donors to political parties do it solely out of the goodness of their hearts.
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1390079015495651331
I'm reminded of a great line from Roots by Show of Hands - "it's my flag too and I want it back" - which is a reminded to the extent that the Union Jack has been hijacked by extremists.
And it appears generally that was that. No analyzing every word said or written by somebody 300 years ago or what companies they held shares in, looking for any reason to cancel them.
There's a by-election in Chessington South (Kingston) on the 6th May.
There are 19 candidates vying for 1 seat.
The Monster Raving Loony Party (
@Official_MRLP
) have stood 13 of those candidates...
KPMG has told its 16,000 staff they can leave early one day a week as part of a move towards more flexible working after lockdown.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57001914
NEW YORK — Eric Adams is leading the field of mayoral candidates in a new poll, marking the first time Andrew Yang is not the top contender since he shook up the race with his unexpected entry in mid-January.
Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president, was the first-place pick for 21 percent of the respondents in a three-day survey conducted by Washington, D.C.-based firm GQR, according to a copy of the survey obtained by POLITICO. Yang followed at 18 percent, and City Comptroller Scott Stringer had 15 percent support.
The poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted over the course of three days last week, during which Stringer’s campaign was rocked by a 20-year-old accusation of sexual assault.
No other candidate cracked double digits, and 11 percent of those polled reported being undecided ahead of the June 22 primary to replace outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio. . . .
. . . Adams, who has yet to spend any of his $7.9 million campaign war chest on TV ads, typically gets the second-highest amount of media attention . . .
A former police officer who speaks openly about being assaulted by police officers when he was a teenager, Adams has been almost singularly focused on the rise in gun violence across the city. Where Yang is looking to capture the mood of an electorate anxious for New York to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, Adams is positioning himself as the candidate vowing to tackle a steady spike in crime.
Adams dominated with Black voters, garnering 47 percent of their support, compared to 11 percent of whites and 8 percent of Hispanics polled. Yang, by comparison, polled best with Hispanics — 22 percent — compared to 17 percent of white voters and 12 percent of Black voters.
Stringer did best of the eight candidates polled among white voters, seizing 24 percent, even as his campaign became embroiled in responding to an allegation that he groped a campaign volunteer in 2001. Though he denied the accusation, many of his left-leaning supporters quickly abandoned his bid. He has said he has no intention of abandoning his mayoral run. . . .
The results are disappointing for the two candidates who have spent the most on TV ads — Shaun Donovan and Ray McGuire — who are at 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Between their own campaigns and multimillion-dollar expenditures on their behalf, each has been on air consistently in recent months, advertising their life stories and policy chops. . . .
Of those polled, 55 percent identified themselves as liberal, 27 percent as moderate and 14 percent as conservative. Both Adams and Yang are running on relatively moderate messages, and both have been identified as concerns for a political action committee fundraising to elect a progressive mayor.
Forty percent of those polled were white; 30 percent Black; 19 percent Hispanic; and 7 percent Asian.
It's just not going to be a Boris Johnson vs Keir Starmer fight at the next GE, it will come down to which party picks the right leadership successor along with how the public judge the Conservatives guidence of the country through the post pandemic economic recovery and the timing of the contests. I should add that there is a problem facing both parties in recent years when it comes to electing new Leaders, there is a very clear risk aversion strategy not just among their party memberships, but also among some of the more talented backbenchers who should have thrown their hats in the ring even if it meant abject failure.
Who remembers the early days of that 2005 Conservative leadership contest when David Davis was the nailed on favourite to win while Cameron was regarded as an also ran among far bigger political beasts? The culmination of that Leadership contest whereby the various candidates had to address Conference with a speech should have become a template for future leadership contests in political parties, yet it didn't and the Labour party are still no where near regaining power eleven years after they lost the 2010 GE because they keep making the same mistake of choosing a Labour leader that will appeal to the membership rather than one that will appeal to the voters outside the Labour party and who are vital to them getting elected. That is why the public turned off during the last three Labour leadership contests, they were not invited to the debate so were not interested in the outcome. But that Conservative leadership contest in 2005 did the opposite, it got the public interested, and then the Conservative party ditched the favourite and went for the candidate the public showed some interest in, the rest is history.
> Asians will break heavily for Yang, but at just 7% of the electorate not much there there; but could be significant IF Yang can add there support to that from other groups
> Latinos with 19% share are bigger deal, and will almost certainly skew toward Yang rather than Adams, which again will help AY if the gap is big enough, but may not be enough, in part because
> Black voters at 30% will be strong block for Adams, no doubt about it, but given his relative weakness to Yang with Asians & Latinos, the key to the race will almost certainly be
> White voters at 40% the largest ethnicity, with the unelectable Stringer holding on to 24% of it in the poll, the leading candidate here; maddeningly the Politico story does NOT say what the White % is for Yang or Adams. Yang's probably ahead, but Adams is within striking distance; he does NOT need to beat Yang with Whites, just not lose 'em by too much.
Looking at the ideological split
> Conservatives at 14% , who are overwhelmingly White, will tend to splinter among the also-rans at the back of the pack; those who don't will tend to split between Yang and Adams.
> Moderates at 30% are a bigger block, and both Adams & Yang are making big plays for their support via their messages; the split here could be crucial.
> Liberals at 55% are the Big Kahuna in the Big Apple, there is a gaggle of progressive hopefuls vying for this key block, including the hapless Stringer who clearly still holds good chuck (mostly Jewish?) for now. X factor may be 2nd choices of voters who stick with Stringer as 1st choice. Important for both Adams and Yang NOT to be skunked by the liberal element, it's just too big to write off for ANY candidate who has expectations of actually winning.
Two factors in Adams favor are
1) A's been elected to major city office before, as Brooklyn Borough President.
2) Hence he's been vetted AND is knowledgeable on the ins & outs of city government & policy.
3) A's got a huge war chest, in particular a LOT of cash on hand to spend on TV,
From Yang's perspective
1) Y's is a political newcomer, of the top tier the one who can best claim to be a fresh face and NOT your average politico
2) Y's presidential race gave him considerable campaign experience and some credibility
3) Y's bid for POTUS gives him a national fundraising base which he can continue tapping.
Have focused on Adams & Yang because I feel one OR the other is odd-on favorite to win. IF I had to bet on it right now, would put money on Adams, because of his cash-on-hand horde AND because I think that a Black crimefighter is a pretty good & focused message, superior (again at the moment) to Yangs which is a bit diffuse and likely too focused on COVID.
Last OFRMLP candidate I gave a rat's hindquarters about was Mad Cow Girl. She was also the last that I know of with a truly amusing moniker!
Two questions, if you've still got yer ears on:
1) what do you think is gonna happen in Scotland tomorrow, across the board AND in you own neck of the woods (not too far from Drumthwaket; which btw gave it's name to the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumthwacket
2) does your nom de PB mean that you are a Pilates teacher or Zumba instructor?
Yes: 2.04 / 2.08
No: 1.92 / 1.96
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/politics/market/1.180100927
I genuinely believe that this Holyrood election is totally unpredictable due to the voting system, turnout and the sheer level of tactical voting going on in all directions on both the constituency and list votes despite the current Scottish polling picture. It is not like a GE where FPTP cuts out all the noise, this time the added minor parties on the list could make the difference when it comes to that vital few seats either side of the political argument.
As for my nom de PB, blame my hubbys Aberdeen sense of humour.
Re: the election, might I suggest that you take one of your local sheep (an unlucky one obviously), turn it inside out, then read the entrails in approved Druidic fashion.
Then, after you have said sooth, take the remains and serve up a nice feast of haggis, to be enjoyed (?) by you & yours during the looooong hours of the count(s).
With some genuinely mad stuff, such as the absurd statements about the efficacy of AstraZeneca for older people.
> The Houses of Parliament will be relocated next to Hartlepool Marina.
> To halt the spread of new Covid variants all international travel will be by paddle steamer.
> We will enrol the Hartlepool ‘Victoria Arms’ darts team to speed up the pace of the vaccination program.
> Hartlepool Golf Club will be re-developed into an intergalactic space port.
> Visiting EU officials in Brexit trade talks with the UK will be required to wear a Darlington football strip. This will ruin their game.
> Return the British currency to pounds, shillings, pence, farthings and groats. Rural villages such as Hart can resume trade in shiny beads.
> The Official Monster Raving Loony Party would create fifty trillion pounds through quantitative easing and give all voters free lunch and complimentary drinks for ever.
> The Loony Party will issue ‘looncoin’ a crypto currency based on ‘bitcoin’ as a reserve currency just in case the fifty trillion pounds quantitative easing doesn’t work.
> All our remaining gold reserves will be placed on the last race at the Sedgefield Races in a bid to reduce the national debt.
> Coastal fishing will be made a spectator sport by introducing saltwater crocodiles into Hartlepool Bay.
I think now that sleaze has dropped off the front pages we're back to where we were a month ago. It was a tumbleweed trend. But I do agree with something Nick Palmer wrote: that each time we get a week like we had it will dent Boris. It will cut a little deeper.
For now though the tories are riding high. They are going to have stellar results today, comparatively. And their new blue Labour supporters up north are going to love the 'Boris sends in the navy' headlines this morning. Even I cheered.
It will HAVE to be a northerner (or a Scot). Someone who can speak the language of the blue Labour voters. A genuine patriot.
But, frankly, much more of this kind of situation this morning with vaccine bounces, bashing the Froggies and all-English Champions League finals and Boris will have another landslide next time around. His undoing, eventually, will be his own character failings but he has been underestimated far too frequently.
Labour 1.02 / 1.03
Conservative 30 / 46"
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/politics/market/1.181129913
"Labour MPs across England contacted by the Guardian about the mood on the doorstep warned of “apathy” among voters. Some complained about Labour’s lack of concrete proposals to sell to a sceptical electorate. “There is zero policy,” said one frontbencher.
“People don’t really know what we stand for, so we’re having to fall back on the time-honoured tradition of anti-Tory sentiment,” complained another MP.
“The focus of getting people to vote Labour who did previously and don’t any more is the right one – but it’s the way they’ve done it,” said a leftwing backbencher. “They’ve approached it in a way which is a caricature of northern, working-class people: beer, fish and chips and flags.”
Several warned that the Green party were eating into Labour’s support in some areas, ...'
Seems a bit excessive to me - expectations management?
Anecdata based on overheard conversations: although SKS seems to have been setting traps over wallpapergate, in the short term it just adds to the public's sense that it is a lot of fuss about £50,000 which Boris paid anyway. In the long term, it might bring Boris down but today's votes will be cast in the short term.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19269310.labours-tees-valley-mayoral-candidate-jessie-joe-jacobs-says-she-born-this/
Best of luck to any PBers standing in the many local elections, may the best candidates win!
I expect that getting the Labour vote out today will be a big challenge. They will see a sizeable vote drifting off to the Can't Be Arsed Party, with an honorable mention to the Greens where they stand. But the Can't Be Arsed Party have one huge advantage - they stand in EVERY seat.
Labour and Conservative sources both believe that the race to be London’s next mayor is closer than thought.
BY STEPHEN BUSH
Sadiq Khan’s lead has narrowed in the final set of polls before election day, meaning the London Mayor may no longer avoid a second round run-off against his Conservative opponent Shaun Bailey.
In a further blow, Khan’s staff and well-placed Tories both believe that the polls are underestimating the fall in the mayor’s support as a combination of complacency among voters and anxiety about Covid-19 hurts the Labour incumbent’s chances."
https://www.newstatesman.com/uk
“Moses Majekodunmi,” she says, with a smile. “He ended up with a mayoral role in Nigeria after they got independence in 1960. He was a brilliant man by all accounts and had a political role at such a significant time – he went to America and met JFK.”
She only really became aware of her grandfather’s achievements in her teens, of how he started as a doctor but was appointed to run the west of Nigeria in a time of political crisis. She met him once, shortly before he died in 2012 at the age of 95, and it reinforced her desire to seek political change."
The time for a detailed discussion about all this starts at 10pm. But for now, good luck to all those standing.
Although election days aren’t the same without an early morning delivery finishing about now.
Agree, Mr B2; no organising the first tellers nowadays, either.
It is bight and sunny here though; reminds me of two beautiful mornings in early May 1997; May 1st and 2nd!
Ah, memories!