Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
The vast majority of the negative comments from the left about Priti Patel are because she is a right-wing, dog-whistle blowing authoritarian, not because she is female and Asian.
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
It’s not been mentioned so far, but the fact that the rise of the SNP means the LDs are now only the fourth party in Parliament, does make a huge difference to their coverage.
As third largest party, they would always get called as second question to the government minister, and have two questions as PMQs, but that formal role now falls to the Scottish Nationalists.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
So the most racist abuse received by any politician over the last 10 years wasn't coming from conservatives? Glad we've cleared that up, now to pin down who these nasty racist abusers really are..
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
So criticism of Abbot was because she was “innumerate and illiterate”, but criticism of Patel is because of racism.
The "controversial sticker" at the centre of the now much mocked tweet deleted by @KirkcaldyPolice - they are on lamp posts in one specific street in town.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
Is she any nastier a piece of work as Home Secretary than Theresa May?
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
The vast majority of the negative comments from the left about Priti Patel are because she is a right-wing, dog-whistle blowing authoritarian, not because she is female and Asian.
Surprising that you don't seem to read much left-wing commentary. The left is in constant paroxysms of rage because a 'child of immigrants' dares to disagree with their ideology on immigration; compare their shrieking vituperation over the Sewell Report, likewise penned by members of minority groups whose conclusions happened to dissent from left-wing orthodoxy. Some of the more notable loons tried to pretend that Tony Sewell didn’t even have the doctorate he earned...
The danger was much less known back in March 2020.
According to China less than 3k had died from covid at the beginning of March.
In Italy a couple of dozen, in Spain zero.
The first reported death in the UK was only on the 6th March.
By the 12th of March (when Boris had the wash your hands but absolutely no restrictions to be put in place press conference) a thousand had died in Italy. By the 16th when the first tentative restrictions were put in place in the UK Italy had had over 2000 deaths. By the 23rd Italy had had 6000 deaths.
And how many deaths had the UK on those dates ?
Think back to what we were saying on PB at that time - Catholic Mass was believed to be a major spreader as was Italian multi-generational homes (that was likely true) while air pollution in Lombardy was studied in detail.
There needs to be a sense of threat for behavioural attitudes to change.
Even when Boris told people not to go to pubs there were PBers subsequently going to pubs.
Errr, you were saying Italy had had a couple of dozen deaths. Off by a couple of orders of magnitude.
I said that Italy had a couple of dozen deaths at the beginning of March.
Which is correct.
No, they were already up to 50 on the 1st of march
These say 29 on the 29th February and 52 on 2nd March:
So your argument then is we shouldn't have done anything on the 12th of March because Italy had less than 50 deaths on the 1st of March?
That's taking captain Hindsight to whole new levels.
"Hmm just seen deaths grow in Italy 30 fold in under two weeks? Well they were low 12 days ago so best do nothing"
No, my argument is that people tend to put off difficult decisions until forced to and this is especially true when it is an unprecedented situation - normalcy bias comes into play.
I've also said that imposing unprecedented domestic restrictions is even harder when the government is still allowing unrestricted foreign travel.
Were the government too slow to act in March 2020 ? Almost certainly.
But there was no way any government was going to lockdown the country two weeks earlier when deaths in the UK were in single figures and while people were still flying to the Canaries and from China.
If you want to look at the catastrophic mistake from that time you need to start at WHO's opposition to restrictions on international travel.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
Is she any nastier a piece of work as Home Secretary than Theresa May?
May was more complicated that Brexiters now allow. It’s weird that because May is now denounced as a “Remainer” that Brexiters ally with the left to attack May, but it is testimony I suppose to the essentially fabulist underpinnings of Brexit ideology.
She took a stand against the police which was absolutely necessary, and had some interesting initiatives notably around modern slavery. She was a control freak by instinct, but not I think “nasty”.
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish, nor a return to hanging and flogging, not grotesque attempts to cosy up to Rupert Murdoch while sitting on a report which points to corrupt media-cop collusion in a murder case.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
So criticism of Abbot was because she was “innumerate and illiterate”, but criticism of Patel is because of racism.
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
It’s not been mentioned so far, but the fact that the rise of the SNP means the LDs are now only the fourth party in Parliament, does make a huge difference to their coverage.
As third largest party, they would always get called as second question to the government minister, and have two questions as PMQs, but that formal role now falls to the Scottish Nationalists.
So you could say Cameron also screwed the LibDems by facilitating the rise of the SNP.
And further back the narrow SNP lead over Labour in 2007:
It seems curious that there has been little scrutiny of Independent Sage.
Its founder, Sir David King, was Chief Scientific Officer from October 2000 to 31 December 2007, under prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
So, his opinion was no doubt sought on the famous claims of Sadaam's all powerful, 45 minute WMDs, before we all headed off to war at Blair's and Bush's behest in the Middle East.
Somehow, when the moment was really ripe for Sir David King as Chief Scientific Officer of the Government to utter some words of scientific advice in defiance of the prevailing Government orthodoxy, he failed.
(It is true he later became critical of the Iraq War, but not AFAIK at the time).
Why would the Chief Scientist be in the loop for Saddam's WMDs?
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
And a hypocrite (private education for her offspring) and comments about what ‘black mothers do’ that would be slammed if a white person said it about white mothers.
The danger was much less known back in March 2020.
According to China less than 3k had died from covid at the beginning of March.
In Italy a couple of dozen, in Spain zero.
The first reported death in the UK was only on the 6th March.
By the 12th of March (when Boris had the wash your hands but absolutely no restrictions to be put in place press conference) a thousand had died in Italy. By the 16th when the first tentative restrictions were put in place in the UK Italy had had over 2000 deaths. By the 23rd Italy had had 6000 deaths.
And how many deaths had the UK on those dates ?
Think back to what we were saying on PB at that time - Catholic Mass was believed to be a major spreader as was Italian multi-generational homes (that was likely true) while air pollution in Lombardy was studied in detail.
There needs to be a sense of threat for behavioural attitudes to change.
Even when Boris told people not to go to pubs there were PBers subsequently going to pubs.
Errr, you were saying Italy had had a couple of dozen deaths. Off by a couple of orders of magnitude.
I said that Italy had a couple of dozen deaths at the beginning of March.
Which is correct.
No, they were already up to 50 on the 1st of march
These say 29 on the 29th February and 52 on 2nd March:
So your argument then is we shouldn't have done anything on the 12th of March because Italy had less than 50 deaths on the 1st of March?
That's taking captain Hindsight to whole new levels.
"Hmm just seen deaths grow in Italy 30 fold in under two weeks? Well they were low 12 days ago so best do nothing"
No, my argument is that people tend to put off difficult decisions until forced to and this is especially true when it is an unprecedented situation - normalcy bias comes into play.
I've also said that imposing unprecedented domestic restrictions is even harder when the government is still allowing unrestricted foreign travel.
Were the government too slow to act in March 2020 ? Almost certainly.
But there was no way any government was going to lockdown the country two weeks earlier when deaths in the UK were in single figures and while people were still flying to the Canaries and from China.
If you want to look at the catastrophic mistake from that time you need to start at WHO's opposition to restrictions on international travel.
The WHO fucked up quite spectacularly on transmission and travel. Two pieces of dogma that have killed hundreds of thousands of people
Apart from renaming themselves the Green Liberals (or the Liberal Greens), Ed Davey should also announce that effectively he and Daisy Cooper are *co-leaders* of the party.
Nobody seems to have commented on Theresa May's utterly wretched local elections in 2019 breathing life back into the LibDem corpse. Without those 704 gains, they would be smashed.
It also means the LibDems have a huge number of defences next time out. The results in 2019 were on the basis of Conservatives 28%, LibDems 19%. Boris could easily take another big bite out of them with polling anything like current numbers.
Apart from renaming themselves the Green Liberals (or the Liberal Greens), Ed Davey should also announce that effectively he and Daisy Cooper are *co-leaders* of the party.
Daisy has an appeal which, sadly, Davey lacks.
folk said that about J Swinson.....
To be fair, I think only J Swinson ever said that....
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
Like any right thinking fellow I of course deplore Scotch subsamples, but yesterday's Yougov does provide some groovy images
Apart from renaming themselves the Green Liberals (or the Liberal Greens), Ed Davey should also announce that effectively he and Daisy Cooper are *co-leaders* of the party.
Daisy has an appeal which, sadly, Davey lacks.
folk said that about J Swinson.....
Not me. I always puzzled at her anointed status inside the LDs.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Planning reform must be something that the Lib Dems can build support by opposing, certainly in the leafier parts of the shire counties?
I mean, what are the Lib Dems for, if they can’t attract the NIMBYs?
The Green Party are beating them to iit. There’s a real opportunity here for the greens. But they need to be less like XRs political,wing.
I have long thought that the Greens now provide strong competition to the LDs as the NOTA option. I voted Green at the 2019 GE - and in 2010 - as well as at local elections from time to time. Here in my Norwich ward the elections due on 6th May have been deferred to 17th June following the death of the Tory candidate. I have been seriously considering supporting the Greens again this year - though their recent decision to enter an Alliance with the Tories et al for the London Assembly - and Lancaster council - has made that much less likely.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
Indeed.
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
Tom Watson was part of the problem not the solution. His actions led to injustice. His grandstanding and pushing of Exaro was utterly reprehensible. He gave cover for the police to behave in ways which were at worst illegal, at best utterly unprofessional.
Priti Patel is wrong to hold back the Morgan report.
But the police acted appallingly over Midland. The IOPC also behaved appallingly. The Henriques Report needs to be implemented not ignored and if she makes sure it is then I will cheer that.
The lack of professionalism in the police has been a menace for years. It is an Augean Stable which needs clearing out. A start needs to be made somewhere. If Labour had even the ghost of an instinct on how to do politics it would be focusing on this not bloody wallpaper. But it isn't so it will have to be Priti.
And don't worry I will hold her feet to the fire on this if she doesn't.
Watson wasn't part of the problem. He was the problem.
Let's not forget how honest Watson was over the plan to oust Blair .. he was only taking presents to Brown's children. How we sniggered at the lying little so and so.
Planning reform must be something that the Lib Dems can build support by opposing, certainly in the leafier parts of the shire counties?
I mean, what are the Lib Dems for, if they can’t attract the NIMBYs?
The Green Party are beating them to iit. There’s a real opportunity here for the greens. But they need to be less like XRs political,wing.
I have long thought that the Greens now provide strong competition to the LDs as the NOTA option. I voted Green at the 2019 GE - and in 2010 - as well as at local elections from time to time. Here in my Norwich ward the elections due on 6th May have been deferred to 17th June following the death of the Tory candidate. I have been seriously considering supporting the Greens again this year - though their recent decision to enter an Alliance with the Tories et al for the London Assembly - and Lancaster council - has made that much less likely.
The greens need to stop doing local deals with the LD’s “to stop the tories”
Be a serious party.
They could be a serious force in Westminster at the next election.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
Weirdly, Rishi doesn’t get the same treatment. Ergo; your theory is bollocks.
Patel is hated because she’s a nasty piece of work.
He absolutely has been....it has been called an uncle tom and no idea what it is really like to be an ethnic minority as he isn't a proper asian. Same with the likes of javid and Badenoch
Rishi Sunak ‘looks like Prince Charles in brownface’, says BBC guest sparking race row
There’s a certain section of the commentariat, who really dislike conservatives from ethnic minority backgrounds. It’s lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
You may be right, but equally there are sections of the commentariat who really dislike socialists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Diane Abbott has received more (racist) abuse than any other politician over the last 10 years. It's lazy racism, and needs to be called out as such.
The vast majority of the negative comments from conservatives about Diane Abbot, were because she was innumerate and illiterate, not because she was female or black.
The vast majority of the negative comments from the left about Priti Patel are because she is a right-wing, dog-whistle blowing authoritarian, not because she is female and Asian.
Surprising that you don't seem to read much left-wing commentary. The left is in constant paroxysms of rage because a 'child of immigrants' dares to disagree with their ideology on immigration; compare their shrieking vituperation over the Sewell Report, likewise penned by members of minority groups whose conclusions happened to dissent from left-wing orthodoxy. Some of the more notable loons tried to pretend that Tony Sewell didn’t even have the doctorate he earned...
I'm more interested in accuracy of analysis than in left-wing (or right-wing) orthodoxy. Commentators on both sides are sometimes insightful, sometimes not. As it happens I think the Sewell Report fails the test of 'is this a good, dispassionate academic analysis?'. It's a pretty poor, insubstantial piece of work whatever one's opinions of the findings (debatable) and recommendations (weak). Have you read it?
The LDs have emerged as a centre left party, in place of the party that could be all things to all people. The Remain thing consolidates this.
Therefore they have lost most centre right and/or Brexity interest - they are not on the possibles list.
And they have joined the internal fight for votes within a split centre left. Yesterdays poll gave Lab 28, G/LD 16. An OK result (44%) if it is all for one party; 1983 territory if split 3 ways.
Reorganisation of centre left politics is essential.
The decision to enter a Tory -led coalition makes the LDs far less acceptable to left of centre voters. Indeed many now see them as centre-right - a sense encouraged by Johnson's lurch to the left on economic policy and the apparent reluctance of many LDs to go along with such policies. Gladstonian Liberalism is not likely to be viewed as left wing in today's world - indeed much more akin to free market Thatcherism.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
That is nonsense.
Ms. Patel scares me because she is comfortable operating her own parallel Israeli foreign policy, is someone who is happy to gerrymander and she is a hanger and flogger. I am not nervous of her because she is of a particular descent or drops her 'g's.
I am unsure how this article could be written without even a passing reference to the dangers to the Lib Dems from the Green Party.
In Solihull, which had a Lib Dem MP elected in 2005 and 2010, the Lib Dems are now reduced to 3 seats on the council, whereas the Green Party now have 15 and are the main opposition to the Tories on 30.
Nick Clegg's idiotic management of the Lib Dems was just a further example of feckless strategic management to which the defeated Jo Swinson added the pure fantasy of her forthcoming premiership.
Though it would be wrong to overlook the fact that the Lib Dems went soft on the Green Party in their attempt to forge a working coalition over Brexit.
This may have been correct viewed as short-term objetives. However, it clearly gave too much encouragement to the Green Party and sympathetic commentators to think they were doing well under their own steam.
I don't think the Lib Dems will make that mistake again.
In passing, in my division in the recent elections, the Green Party candidate seemed to be in favour of creating a feminist dictatorship above everything else.
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Because the paper and the “significant issues” she refers to suggested that Ireland would face food shortages.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
In passing, in my division in the recent elections, the Green Party candidate seemed to be in favour of creating a feminist dictatorship above everything else.
The sneaky buggers, eh - stealing LibDem policies....
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
That is nonsense.
Ms. Patel scares me because she is comfortable operating her own parallel Israeli foreign policy, is someone who is happy to gerrymander and she is a hanger and flogger. I am not nervous of her because she is of a particular descent or drops her 'g's.
Not to mention the fact that her bullying MO (which has been notable in every department she has operated in) led to a massive payout to civil servants.
The LDs have emerged as a centre left party, in place of the party that could be all things to all people. The Remain thing consolidates this.
Therefore they have lost most centre right and/or Brexity interest - they are not on the possibles list.
And they have joined the internal fight for votes within a split centre left. Yesterdays poll gave Lab 28, G/LD 16. An OK result (44%) if it is all for one party; 1983 territory if split 3 ways.
Reorganisation of centre left politics is essential.
What does that actually mean. Lots of talk of so called progressive alliances but his really seems to be about getting a labour minority govt which would then change the electoral system. If the parties really all have the same vision and politics, or largely the same, they should merge.
It's almost a necessity under FPTP. If all the left wing voters could unify around one party and leader then it could do a lot better. Problem is that leader would probably have to have politics a lot closer to the right of labour than Corbyn if it were to attract the swing voters. Swing voters are more important than attracting the crazies at the extremes as they are worth two votes. One more for you one less for your opponent.
Labour is too far left for the swing voters. The Lib Dems are hamstrung by association with left-wing Labour. If Labour moderates, it insults the crazies and bleeds votes to the Greens. They all suck the life out of each other.
More likely to be hamstrung by their association witha Tory - led government!
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Because the paper and the “significant issues” she refers to suggested that Ireland would face food shortages.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
How is that different to the EU and Ireland using the threat of no deal as leverage against the UK?
Planning reform must be something that the Lib Dems can build support by opposing, certainly in the leafier parts of the shire counties?
I mean, what are the Lib Dems for, if they can’t attract the NIMBYs?
The Green Party are beating them to iit. There’s a real opportunity here for the greens. But they need to be less like XRs political,wing.
I have long thought that the Greens now provide strong competition to the LDs as the NOTA option. I voted Green at the 2019 GE - and in 2010 - as well as at local elections from time to time. Here in my Norwich ward the elections due on 6th May have been deferred to 17th June following the death of the Tory candidate. I have been seriously considering supporting the Greens again this year - though their recent decision to enter an Alliance with the Tories et al for the London Assembly - and Lancaster council - has made that much less likely.
The greens need to stop doing local deals with the LD’s “to stop the tories”
Be a serious party.
They could be a serious force in Westminster at the next election.
First question to the Greens on being a serious party: are they running a candidate at Chesham and Amersham?
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Because the paper and the “significant issues” she refers to suggested that Ireland would face food shortages.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
Remainers on here (not you) have happily used fears of food shortages in Britain to argue their case.
It seems curious that there has been little scrutiny of Independent Sage.
Its founder, Sir David King, was Chief Scientific Officer from October 2000 to 31 December 2007, under prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
So, his opinion was no doubt sought on the famous claims of Sadaam's all powerful, 45 minute WMDs, before we all headed off to war at Blair's and Bush's behest in the Middle East.
Somehow, when the moment was really ripe for Sir David King as Chief Scientific Officer of the Government to utter some words of scientific advice in defiance of the prevailing Government orthodoxy, he failed.
(It is true he later became critical of the Iraq War, but not AFAIK at the time).
Why would the Chief Scientist be in the loop for Saddam's WMDs?
He's a chemist by training, IIRC his input was sought on the impact of Saddam's WMDs hitting large population centres.
Full disclosure, Sir David King was in earshot when I called Downing College a JCL college.
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
It seems curious that there has been little scrutiny of Independent Sage.
Its founder, Sir David King, was Chief Scientific Officer from October 2000 to 31 December 2007, under prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
So, his opinion was no doubt sought on the famous claims of Sadaam's all powerful, 45 minute WMDs, before we all headed off to war at Blair's and Bush's behest in the Middle East.
Somehow, when the moment was really ripe for Sir David King as Chief Scientific Officer of the Government to utter some words of scientific advice in defiance of the prevailing Government orthodoxy, he failed.
(It is true he later became critical of the Iraq War, but not AFAIK at the time).
Why would the Chief Scientist be in the loop for Saddam's WMDs?
You mean Blair's government, on discussing the threat from CHEMICAL WEAPONS, would not have even bothered to consult their Chief Scientific Officer who coincidentally was a Professor of CHEMISTRY.
Funny .. you might have though he would know more about the plausibility of the claims than Blair (who studied law) or Campbell (who studied modern languages).
But, even if not consulted, Sir David King could still have made his opinions known at the time, no?
The grand old speaker of truth to power that he is.
Planning reform must be something that the Lib Dems can build support by opposing, certainly in the leafier parts of the shire counties?
I mean, what are the Lib Dems for, if they can’t attract the NIMBYs?
The Green Party are beating them to iit. There’s a real opportunity here for the greens. But they need to be less like XRs political,wing.
I have long thought that the Greens now provide strong competition to the LDs as the NOTA option. I voted Green at the 2019 GE - and in 2010 - as well as at local elections from time to time. Here in my Norwich ward the elections due on 6th May have been deferred to 17th June following the death of the Tory candidate. I have been seriously considering supporting the Greens again this year - though their recent decision to enter an Alliance with the Tories et al for the London Assembly - and Lancaster council - has made that much less likely.
The greens need to stop doing local deals with the LD’s “to stop the tories”
Be a serious party.
They could be a serious force in Westminster at the next election.
OK, lets say it goes as well is it can do for them and its a hung parliament and LDs have 30 MPs. What on earth do they do with them?
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Because the paper and the “significant issues” she refers to suggested that Ireland would face food shortages.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
Remainers on here (not you) have happily used fears of food shortages in Britain to argue their case.
But not as an instrument of geopolitical leverage against a net importer of food, and with a certain...historical context.
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish...
Neither did Priti Patel. That story just shows how febrile the debates over Brexit were, but it wasn't an accurate characterisation of her comments.
How would you accurately characterise her comments?
The context was: - Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland - Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
Because the paper and the “significant issues” she refers to suggested that Ireland would face food shortages.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
Remainers on here (not you) have happily used fears of food shortages in Britain to argue their case.
But not as an instrument of geopolitical leverage against a net importer of food, and with a certain...historical context.
Sorry, I don't see a difference. One of the mantras of remainers on here is "but we are sovereign".
Well, this is very much a case of "but we shouldn't be".
And that's the problem. As an independent state, RoI has to take the rough with the smooth. It can't expect it's neighbour to care all that much about their interests.
Are there examples from Continental European politics of a minor party in a coalition doing relatively well compared to the major party in a coalition? Obviously, in most circumstances, a party of government eventually gets hammered as being held responsible for the discontents of the society of the day, but in the examples I am aware of (mostly in Ireland) the smaller party in a coalition appears fated to suffer out of proportion to their ability to achieve a different outcome.
I do think you can make the case that the Lib Dem's handling of tuition fees was one of the two* greatest acts of electoral self-harm in British politics in the post-war** period, but equally I think there's a case to be made that, in our political culture, it's an inevitable price that would be paid by a junior coalition partner, who are likely to have to make the greatest compromises, and have the most contrary voters least willing to accept compromises.
* No prizes for identifying the other. ** Is there any accepted way to break up what is now becoming a very long period into meaningfully distinct periods?
It was not inevitable that Nick Clegg should cave on tuition fees, thus committing, as you say, "one of the two greatest acts of electoral self-harm in British politics in the post-war period". Prima facie, since putting up tuition fees was not a crucial part of the Conservative programme – in fact, they'd pledged to abolish fees completely just five years earlier – this would not have been crucial to negotiations.
More importantly, we know that Nick Clegg was advised against reneging on his party's tuition fees pledge by none other than George Osborne.
Nick Clegg screwed LibDem voters and the LibDem Party and he did it for no readily apparent reason. He's not even Russian!
It’s very hard indeed not to think that Clegg, rather than Cameron, is the slayer of the LibDems.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
Indeed.
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
Let her rest in peace, ffs.
Piers Morgan has been frothing at the mouth over how the BBC would be all over the tabloids if the roles were reversed.
Burrell also made the point that she ditched her security detail in 1993 due to trust issues well before Bashir was on the scene. No doubt certain people will be looking to re-write history and claim the BBC was responsible for the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage. Did Bashir allege to Diana that Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles?
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
Like any right thinking fellow I of course deplore Scotch subsamples, but yesterday's Yougov does provide some groovy images
My assumption, when the LibDems went into the coalition, was that around a year before the next election they would stab Cameron in the back (ie, withdraw over some issue, bringing down the government). I expected this as I thought they would need to in order to retain their credentials as a party of protest, sorry I mean a party of principles, and retain their voter base. I've always wondered why they didn't. Maybe they just didn't have a game-plan after AV didn't get through?
Planning reform must be something that the Lib Dems can build support by opposing, certainly in the leafier parts of the shire counties?
I mean, what are the Lib Dems for, if they can’t attract the NIMBYs?
The Green Party are beating them to iit. There’s a real opportunity here for the greens. But they need to be less like XRs political,wing.
I have long thought that the Greens now provide strong competition to the LDs as the NOTA option. I voted Green at the 2019 GE - and in 2010 - as well as at local elections from time to time. Here in my Norwich ward the elections due on 6th May have been deferred to 17th June following the death of the Tory candidate. I have been seriously considering supporting the Greens again this year - though their recent decision to enter an Alliance with the Tories et al for the London Assembly - and Lancaster council - has made that much less likely.
The greens need to stop doing local deals with the LD’s “to stop the tories”
Be a serious party.
They could be a serious force in Westminster at the next election.
Very unlikely - indeed entering alliances with the Tories could well cost them left wing support in Brighton Pavilion.
My assumption, when the LibDems went into the coalition, was that around a year before the next election they would stab Cameron in the back (ie, withdraw over some issue, bringing down the government). I expected this as I thought they would need to in order to retain their credentials as a party of protest, sorry I mean a party of principles, and retain their voter base. I've always wondered why they didn't. Maybe they just didn't have a game-plan after AV didn't get through?
Id imagine it was simply because the senior team enjoyed the cabinet responsibilities, thought the coalition govt was quite good so did not want it to end and also to an extent liked Cameron. They were essentially good at governing, terrible at politics and political intrigue, the opposite to the current government.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
That is nonsense.
Ms. Patel scares me because she is comfortable operating her own parallel Israeli foreign policy, is someone who is happy to gerrymander and she is a hanger and flogger. I am not nervous of her because she is of a particular descent or drops her 'g's.
Not to mention the fact that her bullying MO (which has been notable in every department she has operated in) led to a massive payout to civil servants.
Her witterings today, about "independent" external editorial control of the BBC in light of Bashir (26 years ago) may excite the fanbois, but it looks ominous to me. Who appoints these independents, Boris, Carrie, the great and the good of the Conservative Party (Bridgen, Philip Davies, Francois, Chope)?
On topic. We need Cleggy and the LDs back on board to curb the excesses of the Conservative Party in government.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
Indeed.
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
Let her rest in peace, ffs.
Piers Morgan has been frothing at the mouth over how the BBC would be all over the tabloids if the roles were reversed.
Burrell also made the point that she ditched her security detail in 1993 due to trust issues well before Bashir was on the scene. No doubt certain people will be looking to re-write history and claim the BBC was responsible for the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage. Did Bashir allege to Diana that Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles?
It is a murky business .... but it is also very hard not to think that most of the blame really lies with Prince Charles, who married someone he did not love, while telling her the contrary.
That is absolutely unforgiveable, at a personal level.
I have no time for Prince Charles & he is completely unfit to serve as the monarch.
That said, the BBC have had a number of very serious scandals & cover-ups ("How's About than Then").
It would be foolish to deny that the organisation has very serious systemic problems, & it needs urgent reform.
My assumption, when the LibDems went into the coalition, was that around a year before the next election they would stab Cameron in the back (ie, withdraw over some issue, bringing down the government). I expected this as I thought they would need to in order to retain their credentials as a party of protest, sorry I mean a party of principles, and retain their voter base. I've always wondered why they didn't. Maybe they just didn't have a game-plan after AV didn't get through?
Clegg wasn’t actually very good, although electable.
The more cunning Lib Dem shits, like Huhne and Hughes were, for various reasons, on the outer.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
Indeed.
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
Let her rest in peace, ffs.
Piers Morgan has been frothing at the mouth over how the BBC would be all over the tabloids if the roles were reversed.
Burrell also made the point that she ditched her security detail in 1993 due to trust issues well before Bashir was on the scene. No doubt certain people will be looking to re-write history and claim the BBC was responsible for the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage. Did Bashir allege to Diana that Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles?
It is a murky business .... but it is also very hard not to think that most of the blame really lies with Prince Charles, who married someone he did not love, while telling her the contrary.
That is absolutely unforgiveable, at a personal level.
I have no time for Prince Charles & he is completely unfit to serve as the monarch.
That said, the BBC have had a number of very serious scandals & cover-ups ("How's About than Then").
It would be foolish to deny that the organisation has very serious systemic problems, & it needs urgent reform.
That's the reason I turned down an arranged marriage.
Priti Patel tells #Marr the reputation of the BBC has been damaged. Says we are in “multi-media age” now, says this is the “Netflix generation”. “How relevant is the BBC?” she asks. https://twitter.com/SophiaSleigh/status/1396385830680281089
Interesting to see the fallout from the live streaming of the #Glastonbury event last night. People complain about the license fee but the BBC coverage of Glastonbury is always amazing. https://twitter.com/sallybogg/status/1396382996568084482
Was she challenged on the report she is sitting on that may indicate malpractice in News International?
Ms Patel is a most infuriating politician. I have a sneaking regard for her, despite everything. She is often awful. But every so often she has the right instincts and tries to do the right thing. For instance, she is now consulting Sir Richard Henriques, the judge, who wrote the excoriating report on what the police got wrong in Operation Midland, on what needs to be done to put matters right.
I hope she overcomes resistance from the Home Office and the police on this. The police need their arses kicked - and hard - on this.
I'm not a great fan of the Home Secretary but much of the flak directed her way seems personally rather than politically offensive: she is too short to see over the lectern; she drops her g's; her backside is too broad. Her critics play the woman, not the ball.
Ms Patel is hated because she has strayed off the left's plantation.
People of Asian descent are to be represented, and have their ambitions interpreted, exclusively by white middle class daughters of university lecturers or other senior public sector role occupiers.
That is nonsense.
Ms. Patel scares me because she is comfortable operating her own parallel Israeli foreign policy, is someone who is happy to gerrymander and she is a hanger and flogger. I am not nervous of her because she is of a particular descent or drops her 'g's.
Not to mention the fact that her bullying MO (which has been notable in every department she has operated in) led to a massive payout to civil servants.
Her witterings today, about "independent" external editorial control of the BBC in light of Bashir (26 years ago) may excite the fanbois, but it looks ominous to me. Who appoints these independents, Boris, Carrie, the great and the good of the Conservative Party (Bridgen, Philip Davies, Francois, Chope)?
On topic. We need Cleggy and the LDs back on board to curb the excesses of the Conservative Party in government.
Boris has already appointed various poachers to BBC and media gameskeeping.
Meanwhile, Priti Patel went to Rupert Murdoch’s wedding. She is currently sitting on a report which discusses corrupt collusion between the Met and News International.
On topic I think that we are heading towards a situation where our 4th largest party (after the SNP, sadly) will become the Greens. In Scotland this has already happened and the Lib Dems are struggling to maintain a foothold in Wales. I expect it to be the same in England all too soon. I really struggle to see any kind of a future for them.
After listening to the dross Rennie comes out with is it any surprise David, they make labour sound intelligent and that is some task.
49/ Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396446748202225665
Cummings is off again. Perhaps he read my post of 11:56 this morning where I criticised the “Chief Nurse”.
Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously.
49/ Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396446748202225665
Critical as I am of the PM in all sorts of ways, it's vital to understand the disaster was not just his fault: the official plan was disastrously misconceived, DHSC/CABOFF did not understand this or why, & a PlanB had to be bodged amid total & utter chaos
I am getting the sense that Prof Big Dom when sitting in on the SAGE meeting as an observer will be claiming that he was not have been in full agreement with their approach.
The mask thing was weird. Even JVT spun the line of no to masks. I can only presume they worried about a run on them like bog roll, but still why tell people as they did in the end "make your own".
Obviously some of us got ourselves N95 respirator masks without waiting.
Good article on the Lab Leak hypothesis, and how everyone is quietly pretending they believed it all along. They didn’t
‘At the start of the pandemic, prestige US media outlets were quick to dismiss the hypothesis as a Dangerous Republican Lie. “The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it pants on fire,” ruled the Pointer Institute’s notionally nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking operation, Politifact, on the lab leak hypothesis. The Washington Post accused Senator Tom Cotton of spreading “conspiracy theories” for wanting to investigate the theory. NPR enthusiastically “debunked” the claim.’
‘Articles are edited, tweets are deleted, excuses are readied and yet there is little evidence of any soul searching. Because they know they’ll get away with it.’
The mask thing was weird. Even JVT spun the line of no to masks. I can only presume they worried about a run on them like bog roll, but still why tell people as they did in the end "make your own".
Obviously some of us got ourselves N95 respirator masks without waiting.
No. Plenty of them really BELIEVED masks were useless, even dangerous. They had not grasped the basic fact that they stop transmission to others. They just thought about it from the perspective of the wearer. A notable failure of intelligence. JVT is one of these dolts
Interesting article on COVID vaccinations in the US. I had missed that the Biden Administration had set 70% of the adult population having had at least one shot as being a major milestone on the road to normalcy. The UK must already be there?
49/ Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396446748202225665
Critical as I am of the PM in all sorts of ways, it's vital to understand the disaster was not just his fault: the official plan was disastrously misconceived, DHSC/CABOFF did not understand this or why, & a PlanB had to be bodged amid total & utter chaos
I am getting the sense that Prof Big Dom when sitting in on the SAGE meeting as an observer will be claiming that he was not have been in full agreement with their claims.
"Critical as I am of the PM"? Has "Brittas" become PM and I didn't notice?
You are on my list of Johnson uber-loyalists, so Johnson can't be the PM of whom you are critical.
Cummings is off again. Perhaps he read my post of 11:56 this morning where I criticised the “Chief Nurse”.
Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously.
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Note the author. Who does not disclose her conflict of interest in promoting iSage arguments.
How can it be a conflict of interest? It's not a state or corporate body such as a political party or charity, but a grouping brought together to discuss just such arguments.
49/ Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396446748202225665
Critical as I am of the PM in all sorts of ways, it's vital to understand the disaster was not just his fault: the official plan was disastrously misconceived, DHSC/CABOFF did not understand this or why, & a PlanB had to be bodged amid total & utter chaos
I am getting the sense that Prof Big Dom when sitting in on the SAGE meeting as an observer will be claiming that he was not have been in full agreement with their claims.
"Critical as I am of the PM"? Has "Brittas" become PM and I didn't notice?
You are on my list of Johnson uber-loyalists, so Johnson can't be the PM of whom you are critical.
That's a quote from Big Dom tweet.
As for me personally, you will struggle to find many posts where I say much positive about Boris. I have repeatedly said he is ill suited to be PM on so many levels. You obviously missed my repeated FFS why haven't we locked down yet, FFS close the f##king border, etc. His instincts have been repeatedly wrong during this pandemic.
Good article on the Lab Leak hypothesis, and how everyone is quietly pretending they believed it all along. They didn’t
‘At the start of the pandemic, prestige US media outlets were quick to dismiss the hypothesis as a Dangerous Republican Lie. “The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it pants on fire,” ruled the Pointer Institute’s notionally nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking operation, Politifact, on the lab leak hypothesis. The Washington Post accused Senator Tom Cotton of spreading “conspiracy theories” for wanting to investigate the theory. NPR enthusiastically “debunked” the claim.’
‘Articles are edited, tweets are deleted, excuses are readied and yet there is little evidence of any soul searching. Because they know they’ll get away with it.’
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Note the author. Who does not disclose her conflict of interest in promoting iSage arguments.
How can it be a conflict of interest? It's not a state or corporate body such as a political party or charity, but a grouping brought together to discuss just such arguments.
You’re happy that someone employed by an organisation presents herself as an objective reporter uncritically parroting its views?
Cummings is off again. Perhaps he read my post of 11:56 this morning where I criticised the “Chief Nurse”.
Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously.
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Note the author. Who does not disclose her conflict of interest in promoting iSage arguments.
How can it be a conflict of interest? It's not a state or corporate body such as a political party or charity, but a grouping brought together to discuss just such arguments.
You’re happy that someone employed by an organisation presents herself as an objective reporter uncritically parroting its views?
Is she a paid employee?I thought she was simply a member. It's not illegal for me to write and publish an article on, say, PTSD in UK ex-servicemen if I also happen to be a member of Help for Heroes.
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Note the author. Who does not disclose her conflict of interest in promoting iSage arguments.
How can it be a conflict of interest? It's not a state or corporate body such as a political party or charity, but a grouping brought together to discuss just such arguments.
You’re happy that someone employed by an organisation presents herself as an objective reporter uncritically parroting its views?
Is she a paid employee?I thought she was simply a member. It's not illegal for me to write and publish an article on, say, PTSD in UK ex-servicemen if I also happen to be a member of Help for Heroes.
She's their media advisor. She's done nothing illegal but it's most certainly unethical.
So Priti Patel wasn't challenged on the Daniel Morgan report in spite of his family's public statement. I presume that was a precondition of her agreeing to be interviewed.
Cyclefree - perhaps. But remember it was Labour's Tom Watson who really went after that issue and the targets of the police investigation were the rich and powerful. Not quite sure what that means for Priti's 'values.'
He really went after the *Conservative politicians* who were named by that lying idiot.
Strangely, although a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet was allegedly also implicated and interviewed, that name has never been released, and the one report on it (in the Independent, FWIW) was taken down. Possibly they were told it wasn’t correct. But that didn’t stop Watson naming everyone else, all of whom appear to have been completely innocent.
Afaik he’s never apologised either.
It was party politics at its most brutal, and thoroughly unedifying. One of the more uncomfortable and concerning things among many in Labour’s antisemitism scandal was that it was so bad even Watson couldn’t stomach it. But truthfully he’s no loss to public life.
In passing, have you seen this? (just in case you have missed it)
Note the author. Who does not disclose her conflict of interest in promoting iSage arguments.
How can it be a conflict of interest? It's not a state or corporate body such as a political party or charity, but a grouping brought together to discuss just such arguments.
You’re happy that someone employed by an organisation presents herself as an objective reporter uncritically parroting its views?
Is she a paid employee?I thought she was simply a member. It's not illegal for me to write and publish an article on, say, PTSD in UK ex-servicemen if I also happen to be a member of Help for Heroes.
She's their media advisor. She's done nothing illegal but it's most certainly unethical.
And she now has a reputation for being rather economical with the truth....more retractions and corrections than the dodgy Dr who runs Tory Fibs.
You can get a feeling for how trust in her claims are with the rest of the media now...nobody else is giving her exclusive any real airtime. So much so, they are taking Big Doms claims much more seriously.
Glad we've finally cleared up the Diana case. It was the BBC and the devious Bashir what killed her and it had absolutely nothing to do with being hunted by the private sector paparazzi and tabloid press.
Indeed.
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
Let her rest in peace, ffs.
Piers Morgan has been frothing at the mouth over how the BBC would be all over the tabloids if the roles were reversed.
Burrell also made the point that she ditched her security detail in 1993 due to trust issues well before Bashir was on the scene. No doubt certain people will be looking to re-write history and claim the BBC was responsible for the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage. Did Bashir allege to Diana that Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles?
It is a murky business .... but it is also very hard not to think that most of the blame really lies with Prince Charles, who married someone he did not love, while telling her the contrary.
That is absolutely unforgiveable, at a personal level.
I have no time for Prince Charles & he is completely unfit to serve as the monarch.
That said, the BBC have had a number of very serious scandals & cover-ups ("How's About than Then").
It would be foolish to deny that the organisation has very serious systemic problems, & it needs urgent reform.
Now then, now then....but Charles is the Prince of Wales, our Prince, the Prince of Hearts.
Luckily the Saville and Bashir scandals fell on Johnson,'s and Patel's watch. I can't think of two politicians better placed to drain the swamp.
Curtains? What colour would you prefer? Israeli Foreign Policy? Official or unofficial?
Comments
As third largest party, they would always get called as second question to the government minister, and have two questions as PMQs, but that formal role now falls to the Scottish Nationalists.
The "controversial sticker" at the centre of the now much mocked tweet deleted by @KirkcaldyPolice - they are on lamp posts in one specific street in town.
https://twitter.com/FifeFreePressEd/status/1396211616295882757?s=20
I've also said that imposing unprecedented domestic restrictions is even harder when the government is still allowing unrestricted foreign travel.
Were the government too slow to act in March 2020 ? Almost certainly.
But there was no way any government was going to lockdown the country two weeks earlier when deaths in the UK were in single figures and while people were still flying to the Canaries and from China.
If you want to look at the catastrophic mistake from that time you need to start at WHO's opposition to restrictions on international travel.
or
Boris Johnson, Labour Slayer?
She took a stand against the police which was absolutely necessary, and had some interesting initiatives notably around modern slavery.
She was a control freak by instinct, but not I think “nasty”.
I can’t imagine her advocating starvation for the Irish, nor a return to hanging and flogging, not grotesque attempts to cosy up to Rupert Murdoch while sitting on a report which points to corrupt media-cop collusion in a murder case.
Crikey, that feels decades old!!
All fantastic. Nothing to see here
or
It's the end of the world as we know it and the PHE is to blame
Unsurprisingly,it's neither. Just need to be cautious but not panic.
#VaccinesWork
https://twitter.com/DrNeilStone/status/1396417194788106243?s=20
And further back the narrow SNP lead over Labour in 2007:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Scottish_Parliament_election
Scotland remains in the dark however as nobody seems to be doing any studies on their effectiveness against the April02 variant.
https://twitter.com/AgentP22/status/1396432324045193216?s=20
It also means the LibDems have a huge number of defences next time out. The results in 2019 were on the basis of Conservatives 28%, LibDems 19%. Boris could easily take another big bite out of them with polling anything like current numbers.
I always puzzled at her anointed status inside the LDs.
- Grisly reports about the supposedly apocalyptic impact of No Deal on the UK and Ireland
- Ireland saying they would go for No Deal rather than renegotiate the backstop
The comment from Patel that the 'starvation' story was based on was: “This paper appears to show the Government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario. Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”
How can this be construed as advocating starvation for the Irish?
The truth, it seems, doesn’t matter.
Diana continues to be used by others to fulfil their agendas.
Let her rest in peace, ffs.
Be a serious party.
They could be a serious force in Westminster at the next election.
Ms. Patel scares me because she is comfortable operating her own parallel Israeli foreign policy, is someone who is happy to gerrymander and she is a hanger and flogger. I am not nervous of her because she is of a particular descent or drops her 'g's.
This may have been correct viewed as short-term objetives. However, it clearly gave too much encouragement to the Green Party and sympathetic commentators to think they were doing well under their own steam.
I don't think the Lib Dems will make that mistake again.
In passing, in my division in the recent elections, the Green Party candidate seemed to be in favour of creating a feminist dictatorship above everything else.
She basically suggested we use that as leverage against the Irish.
80 today.
Full disclosure, Sir David King was in earshot when I called Downing College a JCL college.
Mad news out of Belarus, where authorities forced a @Ryanair flight to land in Minsk over a bomb threat. This seems to be a pretext to arrest a founder of @nexta_tv, which was key to organizing protests against Lukashenko. He could face the death penalty!"
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1396438882074472452
There. Said it
Funny .. you might have though he would know more about the plausibility of the claims than Blair (who studied law) or Campbell (who studied modern languages).
But, even if not consulted, Sir David King could still have made his opinions known at the time, no?
The grand old speaker of truth to power that he is.
Well, this is very much a case of "but we shouldn't be".
And that's the problem. As an independent state, RoI has to take the rough with the smooth. It can't expect it's neighbour to care all that much about their interests.
Burrell also made the point that she ditched her security detail in 1993 due to trust issues well before Bashir was on the scene. No doubt certain people will be looking to re-write history and claim the BBC was responsible for the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage. Did Bashir allege to Diana that Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles?
Or maybe stained glass window.
On topic. We need Cleggy and the LDs back on board to curb the excesses of the Conservative Party in government.
(Corrected that for you.)
Verstappen’s luck is in.
That is absolutely unforgiveable, at a personal level.
I have no time for Prince Charles & he is completely unfit to serve as the monarch.
That said, the BBC have had a number of very serious scandals & cover-ups ("How's About than Then").
It would be foolish to deny that the organisation has very serious systemic problems, & it needs urgent reform.
The more cunning Lib Dem shits, like Huhne and Hughes were, for various reasons, on the outer.
I didn't want that on my conscience.
Meanwhile, Priti Patel went to Rupert Murdoch’s wedding. She is currently sitting on a report which discusses corrupt collusion between the Met and News International.
Including the Verstappen insurance one, bother it.
I like the extra r in Ferrrari.
They ought to adopt it.
https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396446748202225665
Perhaps he read my post of 11:56 this morning where I criticised the “Chief Nurse”.
Jenny Harries told us, the same week herd immunity was the official plan, masks are a 'BAD idea', 'we don't want to disrupt people’s lives’, acting ‘too early we will just pop up with another epidemic peak later’. So Whitehall has promoted her, obviously.
Dominic Cummings
@Dominic2306
https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1396441596040826880?s=20
I am getting the sense that Prof Big Dom when sitting in on the SAGE meeting as an observer will be claiming that he was not have been in full agreement with their approach.
Obviously some of us got ourselves N95 respirator masks without waiting.
I immediately went and bought some.
‘At the start of the pandemic, prestige US media outlets were quick to dismiss the hypothesis as a Dangerous Republican Lie. “The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it pants on fire,” ruled the Pointer Institute’s notionally nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking operation, Politifact, on the lab leak hypothesis. The Washington Post accused Senator Tom Cotton of spreading “conspiracy theories” for wanting to investigate the theory. NPR enthusiastically “debunked” the claim.’
‘Articles are edited, tweets are deleted, excuses are readied and yet there is little evidence of any soul searching. Because they know they’ll get away with it.’
https://thecritic.co.uk/letter-from-washington-the-great-lab-leak-u-turn/
Person in full military haz-mat gear strolls through Bath clutching 27 rolls of Floralys Super Soft toilet roll
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/coronavirus-covid-19-toilet-rolls-3945503
Obviously, who needs 27 bog rolls.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/23/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html
You are on my list of Johnson uber-loyalists, so Johnson can't be the PM of whom you are critical.
https://twitter.com/HenryJFoy/status/1396437732700958723?s=20
As for me personally, you will struggle to find many posts where I say much positive about Boris. I have repeatedly said he is ill suited to be PM on so many levels. You obviously missed my repeated FFS why haven't we locked down yet, FFS close the f##king border, etc. His instincts have been repeatedly wrong during this pandemic.
The evidence for a lab leak is v strong.
I think Caprice was the “celebrity” on that breakfast show where some so-called expert airily echoed the government’s nonsensical talking points.
Caprice had the balls to cry wolf.
That clip should be featured in the intro to the eventual enquiry website.
Damiano David: Eurovision winner denies taking drugs during event
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57217600
You can get a feeling for how trust in her claims are with the rest of the media now...nobody else is giving her exclusive any real airtime. So much so, they are taking Big Doms claims much more seriously.
Luckily the Saville and Bashir scandals fell on Johnson,'s and Patel's watch. I can't think of two politicians better placed to drain the swamp.
Curtains? What colour would you prefer? Israeli Foreign Policy? Official or unofficial?