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The odds on Starmer for next PM move to a point where he’s now a value bet – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,158
edited June 2021 in General
imageThe odds on Starmer for next PM move to a point where he’s now a value bet – politicalbetting.com

The above chart shows the movement on the Betfair “next PM” market over the past 12 months. As can be seen the big mover has been Starmer who reached a 32% chance last August but has now fallen back to just 12%.

Read the full story here

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Comments

  • swing_voterswing_voter Posts: 1,464
    First like GG in Bethnal Green & Bow all those years ago.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,960
    2nd...as in rate, like the German football team....
  • I agree with Mike. This is value.

    As is the 4% chance on Sajid Javid. Yes, dishi Rishi is well ahead and rightly so. But there are circumstances where Javid might prove the likelier option.

  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,110
    12% is probably about right (or maybe slight value): it requires Boris not to go before the next election (75%), Labour not to replace Starmer (80%), and Conservatives to fall below about 275 seats (20%).
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Well the last time I mocked one of Mike's "value" bets in C&A I ended up with a custard pie on my face but nothing daunted I respectfully disagree.

    At the moment I think that SKS is no more than evens to even fight the next election. If he loses on Thursday he will be under enormous pressure to stand down and face yet more negative publicity. It is true that Labour find it much more difficult to remove a leader, even in opposition, but SKS does not have anything like the support in the membership that Corbyn had.

    Secondly, it is hard to rule out another Tory PM before there even is a general election. The good ship Boris has been taking in a lot of water of late and still has very choppy seas to cut through. Also, unlike SKS, he has a number of obvious alternatives around him. Boris has potential health problems and a wife who seems to have an incredibly
    cloth ear for someone who has worked in politics at a fairly high level. His finances are a mess and there is a chance he may want to cash in at some point too.

    Thirdly, whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here. A much smaller majority is the most likely possibility and that would probably be the end of SKS despite Corbyn getting 2 goes.

    It is not easy putting values on each of these but add them altogether and a 12% chance doesn't seem ungenerous.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    DavidL said:

    whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here.

    Nope.

    The only thing holding the coalition together is Brexit. They wanted it for different reasons, but as time goes on all of Brexit voters are realising "this is not the Brexit I voted for..."

  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,110
    DavidL said:

    Well the last time I mocked one of Mike's "value" bets in C&A I ended up with a custard pie on my face but nothing daunted I respectfully disagree.

    At the moment I think that SKS is no more than evens to even fight the next election. If he loses on Thursday he will be under enormous pressure to stand down and face yet more negative publicity. It is true that Labour find it much more difficult to remove a leader, even in opposition, but SKS does not have anything like the support in the membership that Corbyn had.

    Secondly, it is hard to rule out another Tory PM before there even is a general election. The good ship Boris has been taking in a lot of water of late and still has very choppy seas to cut through. Also, unlike SKS, he has a number of obvious alternatives around him. Boris has potential health problems and a wife who seems to have an incredibly
    cloth ear for someone who has worked in politics at a fairly high level. His finances are a mess and there is a chance he may want to cash in at some point too.

    Thirdly, whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here. A much smaller majority is the most likely possibility and that would probably be the end of SKS despite Corbyn getting 2 goes.

    It is not easy putting values on each of these but add them altogether and a 12% chance doesn't seem ungenerous.

    I don't think Starmer will step down (why would he - the circumstances in both B&A and Hartlepool were both extremely unusual). And there's no mechanism to force him to go. So, I think your evens look very generous.

    And I also don't see Boris stepping down any time soon. To achieve his goal (the history books, more per speech than Blair), he needs to win another election. Three years in the saddle is not enough.

    I'm not saying 12% is a bargain... it's not. But nor is it crazy either. I think it is more than 50% that the next election is Johnson vs Starmer, and therefore a one-in-four that Boris is no longer PM on the other side looks perfectly reasonable.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here.

    Nope.

    The only thing holding the coalition together is Brexit. They wanted it for different reasons, but as time goes on all of Brexit voters are realising "this is not the Brexit I voted for..."

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.
  • philiphphiliph Posts: 4,704
    Would Stamer be the leader / PM of a coalition of Lib Dem, SNP, Labour and others if that was the result?
    If Labour have the option of Confidence and Supply with Stamer or more secure coalition with A N Other as PM then he may be ousted between election and limo ride to see Lizzie
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
  • borisatsunborisatsun Posts: 188
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here.

    Nope.

    The only thing holding the coalition together is Brexit. They wanted it for different reasons, but as time goes on all of Brexit voters are realising "this is not the Brexit I voted for..."

    Did the remainers vote for Janez Jansa, a "Trump inspired Twitter troll" as EU President?

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-30/a-trump-inspired-twitter-troll-gets-chance-to-set-the-eu-agenda?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=politics&utm_medium=social&cmpid==socialflow-twitter-politics
  • DavidL said:

    Well the last time I mocked one of Mike's "value" bets in C&A I ended up with a custard pie on my face but nothing daunted I respectfully disagree.

    Conversely, after initially mocking I then decided to pay attention to what Mike was saying, followed his tip, and placed two bets on the LibDems to win.

    One Two of my most successful bets ever.

    So, yes, mock not.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    DUP - irrelevant
    Fisherman - 0.0000001% of GDP, so what, a few 1,000 votes?
    Farmers - same
    Pub owners - maybe COVID is a bit more of an issue right now...
    Rock stars - :lol:
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    ydoethur said:

    What was he said? ‘Fuck business?’ Could still resonate among the unemployed of Stoke while he builds shiny new toys for them.

    He is not going to build any shiny new toys when the tax revenues from the fucked businesses dry up.

    That's the point.

    BoZo fucks over everybody. the only question is when they realise it.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    What was he said? ‘Fuck business?’ Could still resonate among the unemployed of Stoke while he builds shiny new toys for them.

    He is not going to build any shiny new toys when the tax revenues from the fucked businesses dry up.

    That's the point.

    BoZo fucks over everybody. the only question is when they realise it.
    My point being that unless something dramatic changes, it’s not likely they’ll realise it in time for this bet to come off.

    Johnson has none of Cameron’s squeamishness about printing money borrowing and he’s also very good at announcing things without following through, which is a cheap way of providing shiny new toys.

    Meanwhile, constantly talking about the failures of Brexit when the voters Starmer needs to win back will see it as a success is hardly going to change their minds. Jobs, housing, health service and education are what will make them think again.

    And while Johnson has no obvious policy on any of those, except ludicrous ones that will be disasters, neither do Labour.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    ydoethur said:

    constantly talking about the failures of Brexit when the voters Starmer needs to win back will see it as a success is hardly going to change their minds.

    But the people who are constantly talking about the failure of Brexit are people who voted for it. Campaigned for it.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    constantly talking about the failures of Brexit when the voters Starmer needs to win back will see it as a success is hardly going to change their minds.

    But the people who are constantly talking about the failure of Brexit are people who voted for it. Campaigned for it.
    But were not, ultimately, the largest chunk who voted for it.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here.

    Nope.

    The only thing holding the coalition together is Brexit. They wanted it for different reasons, but as time goes on all of Brexit voters are realising "this is not the Brexit I voted for..."

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    constantly talking about the failures of Brexit when the voters Starmer needs to win back will see it as a success is hardly going to change their minds.

    But the people who are constantly talking about the failure of Brexit are people who voted for it. Campaigned for it.
    But were not, ultimately, the largest chunk who voted for it.
    Scott struggles with this aspect of politics...
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    DavidL said:

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.

    Again, I am looking at all of the advocates for Brexit who are now publicly whining about how badly it turned out for them
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,207
    Isn't the problem for this bet that it requires BoJo to fight and lose the next GE? I can think of two mechanisms, but neither seems that likely.

    One is that BoJo starts the campaign in a winning position, but then blows up. Not impossible- it nearly happened to TMay. But BoJo is no TMay.

    The other is that BoJo becomes unpopular in the country but stays on. Now BoJo is arrogant and his political antennae aren't that good- see his initial approach to things like Free School Meal food parcels. And he has increased the weakling/sycophant percentage in his Cabinet and on his backbenches. But it really isn't like the Conservatives to hold on to someone heading for defeat. Major is the counterexample, I guess, but in his case there was no sign of an acceptable alternative who would do better.

    What percentage do they add up to? Or is there another path?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,546
    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    IMV NPR won't be abandoned - although as NPR hasn't particularly been defined yet, the definition of 'NPR' might be downgraded. Ideally it would see full connectivity with HS2 phase 2, and there have been some noises in that direction.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.

    Again, I am looking at all of the advocates for Brexit who are now publicly whining about how badly it turned out for them
    At the moment they are mainly on the water, or over it.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    The point is, you were complaining about borrowing/QE, which I very much agree with you about. But you seem comfortable with a shitload of money for something like HS2.

    Now, maybe it will be what we need when us plebs can't afford cars, but it would be nice if the government were up front about that being its purpose.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Expectations management?

    Senior Labour figures believe the party has only a 5% to 10% chance of holding the West Yorkshire seat of Batley and Spen in Thursday’s byelection, as Keir Starmer’s team brace themselves for a backbench revolt if the Tories take the seat.

    https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1410118207126507528?s=21
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,110
    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    Spot on.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Not only do we have a deficit akin to that of fighting a major war, debt at eyewatering levels, nothing left in the tank re interest rate cuts, the uncertainty about what will happen as furlough winds down, the risk of continued disruption to movement and trade through fresh outbreaks, a massive backlog of medical need which is going to drive NHS spending through the roof, a social care disaster and the EU behaving as self destructive arseholes, we also have a strong drive to onshore production, a science base that has received an unprecedented boost, a transformation of our transport systems and power generation, the possibility of almost starting again in car production, the whole WFH transformation of work and considerable saved spending power amongst those who did very nicely.

    Our economic future has rarely looked so uncertain. It could be great or it could be very tough indeed. Either way, its going to be interesting.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859

    Isn't the problem for this bet that it requires BoJo to fight and lose the next GE? I can think of two mechanisms, but neither seems that likely.

    One is that BoJo starts the campaign in a winning position, but then blows up. Not impossible- it nearly happened to TMay. But BoJo is no TMay.

    The other is that BoJo becomes unpopular in the country but stays on. Now BoJo is arrogant and his political antennae aren't that good- see his initial approach to things like Free School Meal food parcels. And he has increased the weakling/sycophant percentage in his Cabinet and on his backbenches. But it really isn't like the Conservatives to hold on to someone heading for defeat. Major is the counterexample, I guess, but in his case there was no sign of an acceptable alternative who would do better.

    What percentage do they add up to? Or is there another path?

    Except that in those sort of scenarios, there’s a significant space for those where he’s heading for likely defeat but doesn’t believe it, or refuses to accept it, and tells everyone he’ll win through again. Given the way the Tories have junked their principles and policies and probity to go along with him so far, I don’t see them suddenly becoming brave and ditching him until he himself wants to go.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,615
    @Scott_xP has a point, but those pissed off voting groups while small but totemic are unlikely to vote Labour, and even if they did are not in winnable constituencies for Labour, nor does Labour have a distinct Brexit policy.

    There has been extraordinary political volatility over the last decade, and likely to continue, so perfectly possible for Labour to overturn that majority. Not via Starmer though.

  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    rcs1000 said:
    Ha! I saw that. Seems to me that she just identifies events that are likely to happen and makes a value bet on timing.

    By the way the classified annexe of the Pentagon report was reportedly accompanied by about 15 videos, described by an attributed source as “like watching sci fi”. Will be interesting to see what reactions we get from senators in coming weeks and months.

    Romney said without irony along the lines of “well I do find it hard to believe they’re from outer space but I can sure as hell tell ya they’re not Russian or Chinese!…2 trillion galaxies hmmm yes I’d be very interested if they came from there. But really we have so much more to worry about with global warming and the debt than spending time looking at ufos’”.

    I suspect there’s a lot of senior politicians who are not used to spending any time thinking beyond their next fundraiser. They’ve suddenly been presented with a bunch of extraordinary evidence that taken in the round leads to only one logical endpoint. And they don’t know what to think or say about. “Mmmm yes seems UFO’s might be real. But who cares, we gotta keep an eye on that deficit!”
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    Canada passes 49C for the first time
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,571
    🇺🇦🇺🇦UKRAINE!!🇺🇦🇺🇦
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    edited June 2021
    "Based on what is happening at the moment Starmer could enter Number 10 even, as is highly likely, his party doesn’t have a majority or even most MPs. The one requirement is for Tories to shed enough seats that they can’t have a majority."

    Is this right?

    Even if the Tories do not have a majority, we could end up in a situation in which the only viable coalition is Tories plus one other Party.

    (This is basically what happened in 2010. No doubt the LibDems would have much preferred to deal with a Labour party, whose leader's head they could have demanded as price of any Lab-Lib coalition. But, that was not in practice possible).

    Starmer has to be able to construct a viable Government with enough support in the HoC. The condition for this is stricter than the Tories losing their majority.

    (Of course, no other party at the moment is likely to admit that they would offer confidence & supply to a minority Tory Government).

    Anti-Tories always have this picture of a Rainbow Coalition in which ROY G. IV all live happily in a giant arc in the House of Commons, but there is a reason why it never happens.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    moonshine said:

    rcs1000 said:
    Ha! I saw that. Seems to me that she just identifies events that are likely to happen and makes a value bet on timing.

    By the way the classified annexe of the Pentagon report was reportedly accompanied by about 15 videos, described by an attributed source as “like watching sci fi”. Will be interesting to see what reactions we get from senators in coming weeks and months.

    Romney said without irony along the lines of “well I do find it hard to believe they’re from outer space but I can sure as hell tell ya they’re not Russian or Chinese!…2 trillion galaxies hmmm yes I’d be very interested if they came from there. But really we have so much more to worry about with global warming and the debt than spending time looking at ufos’”.

    I suspect there’s a lot of senior politicians who are not used to spending any time thinking beyond their next fundraiser. They’ve suddenly been presented with a bunch of extraordinary evidence that taken in the round leads to only one logical endpoint. And they don’t know what to think or say about. “Mmmm yes seems UFO’s might be real. But who cares, we gotta keep an eye on that deficit!”
    That approach and mindset is the best argument for why aliens are skulking around, if occasionally careless.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,350
    edited June 2021
    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    The point is, you were complaining about borrowing/QE, which I very much agree with you about. But you seem comfortable with a shitload of money for something like HS2.

    Now, maybe it will be what we need when us plebs can't afford cars, but it would be nice if the government were up front about that being its purpose.
    I’m not ‘complaining’ exactly. I’m setting out the facts as I see them.

    Now, with HS2, the likelihood is that will prove a sound investment both financially and ecologically. Fast, reliable trains and more electric rail capacity powered by green sources so we can get cars and lorries off the road. And it would be profitable given the numbers of people it would likely carry. In the post Covid age people are likely to live further from work and do fewer but longer journeys as commuting, so actually I don’t buy the ‘railways will never recover’ argument. The fact that all governments for 15 years have been in favour of it also shows it isn’t just a Johnson vanity project.

    The issue will be whether all the money is spent as sensibly as that. Given Johnson’s track record I am sceptical.

    And I hope @JosiasJessop is right about NPR for much the reasons he gives.

    Edit - one way you may see Johnson’s influence or at least that of his government in HS2 is the gross gilding of the contracts. Standards of embankment slippage required by no railway ever, the highest speeds ever, the best new stock. Which has inflated costs by maybe 25%.

    But overall it should still prove a success and an asset.
    Have a good morning.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Sandpit said:

    🇺🇦🇺🇦UKRAINE!!🇺🇦🇺🇦

    Who are you going to support in Rome?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,615
    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    I have always said that Brexit will be a whimper rather than a bang economically, and that it is highly likely that people will look back and think "what was the point?" as their many grievances continue. Brexit will be a rust, not a bust.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,977
    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    The effect may be trivial for you, or across the whole economy (although that is not actually true) but it is monumental for the groups listed above who are very vocal about it.

    Bruce Dickinson did not get an interview on live TV yesterday for a trivial effect.

    The effects are masked by Covid, but that is not a permanent state.

    BoZo's bigger issue is probably a backbench revolt. Trying to keep the Red wall sweet is costing him in the home counties.

    How many letters to Graham Brady can he afford?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895
    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Yes it is. Despite everything else posted above it, it would take a cataclysm to prompt anger about all of this to translate into a Labour win. I just can't see it with serkeir as he's painfully crap, nor with the likely replacements if he gets resigned like Angela Raynor.

    I think there is decent value in predicting the next election will have two different leaders, but it will still be a Blue win. Liar is ever closer to the rocks where one more "whoops" moment brings down sufficient fury for the grandees to suggest he retires to spend more time making money and having affairs.

    He'll get replaced with Sunak or Hunt or whoever, they will bring back serious government, it will get boring and austere again and people will swing back to shouting at Labour for not offering any alternatives. It'll be a smaller Blue win but its still a win.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Charles said:

    Sandpit said:

    🇺🇦🇺🇦UKRAINE!!🇺🇦🇺🇦

    Who are you going to support in Rome?
    Italy obviously. When in Rome and all that.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883
    DavidL said:

    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    whether under Boris or not it is going to take some doing for the Tories to lose their majority in one go from here.

    Nope.

    The only thing holding the coalition together is Brexit. They wanted it for different reasons, but as time goes on all of Brexit voters are realising "this is not the Brexit I voted for..."

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.
    I don't think it's merits that are at issue, they went out the window very soon after the vote. The issue is going to be when enough people start getting affected. There are lots of people shielded from it (furlough etc), and there are lots of people who will never be affected by it, but sooner or later things will change. Polling is irrelevant at the moment, it is coloured by vaccination numbers and "freedom day". Johnson will cock up the next stage, as sure as eggs is eggs, so we'll see then.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,615
    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    The point is, you were complaining about borrowing/QE, which I very much agree with you about. But you seem comfortable with a shitload of money for something like HS2.

    Now, maybe it will be what we need when us plebs can't afford cars, but it would be nice if the government were up front about that being its purpose.
    I’m not ‘complaining’ exactly. I’m setting out the facts as I see them.

    Now, with HS2, the likelihood is that will prove a sound investment both financially and ecologically. Fast, reliable trains and more electric rail capacity powered by green sources so we can get cars and lorries off the road. And it would be profitable given the numbers of people it would likely carry. In the post Covid age people are likely to live further from work and do fewer but longer journeys as commuting, so actually I don’t buy the ‘railways will never recover’ argument. The fact that all governments for 15 years have been in favour of it also shows it isn’t just a Johnson vanity project.

    The issue will be whether all the money is spent as sensibly as that. Given Johnson’s track record I am sceptical.

    And I hope @JosiasJessop is right about NPR for much the reasons he gives.
    HS2 will be another in a long line of British white elephant projects, with passengers not wanting to pay the eye watering ticket prices. I have no problem with a private company building it and going but, just want tax payers not to be on the hook.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    The effect may be trivial for you, or across the whole economy (although that is not actually true) but it is monumental for the groups listed above who are very vocal about it.

    Bruce Dickinson did not get an interview on live TV yesterday for a trivial effect.

    The effects are masked by Covid, but that is not a permanent state.

    BoZo's bigger issue is probably a backbench revolt. Trying to keep the Red wall sweet is costing him in the home counties.

    How many letters to Graham Brady can he afford?
    There is a tension between keeping the Home Counties sweet and delivering for the North but another by election win in a formerly red wall seat will save Brady's postie any work. The Tory party is about power and winning. How it does this changes over time. Boris has found a new way to win and it seems to work.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,207
    IanB2 said:

    Isn't the problem for this bet that it requires BoJo to fight and lose the next GE? I can think of two mechanisms, but neither seems that likely.

    One is that BoJo starts the campaign in a winning position, but then blows up. Not impossible- it nearly happened to TMay. But BoJo is no TMay.

    The other is that BoJo becomes unpopular in the country but stays on. Now BoJo is arrogant and his political antennae aren't that good- see his initial approach to things like Free School Meal food parcels. And he has increased the weakling/sycophant percentage in his Cabinet and on his backbenches. But it really isn't like the Conservatives to hold on to someone heading for defeat. Major is the counterexample, I guess, but in his case there was no sign of an acceptable alternative who would do better.

    What percentage do they add up to? Or is there another path?

    Except that in those sort of scenarios, there’s a significant space for those where he’s heading for likely defeat but doesn’t believe it, or refuses to accept it, and tells everyone he’ll win through again. Given the way the Tories have junked their principles and policies and probity to go along with him so far, I don’t see them suddenly becoming brave and ditching him until he himself wants to go.
    Maybe, but there's not much love for Boris amongst MPs. He's there because he's a winner and Conservatives like winning.

    Even at level pegging, the calls to Recruit Rishi will become deafening.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883
    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Wow, I wonder what the view from a more sensible evenhanded newspaper would be? Thoses fees were very stiff, Charles, At least twice as much as at my local indie school which is competent and high achieving.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,571
    Charles said:

    Sandpit said:

    🇺🇦🇺🇦UKRAINE!!🇺🇦🇺🇦

    Who are you going to support in Rome?
    I’ll be supporting one team, and my wife the other. What could possibly go wrong?

    Now on the lookout for a pub that’s going to have a ‘mixed’ crowd.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Foxy said:

    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    I have always said that Brexit will be a whimper rather than a bang economically, and that it is highly likely that people will look back and think "what was the point?" as their many grievances continue. Brexit will be a rust, not a bust.
    That would be an enormous win for Boris and the Brexiteers. If the economics are meh then the ability to go our own way and hold those making our laws to account will be significant pluses.

    Of course it won't solve every problem or even most of them. We still need to live in a world where every state's sovereignty is reined in by agreements, regulations etc and many of the problems blamed on the EU were in fact their response to those pressures which will not have gone away.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    IMV NPR won't be abandoned - although as NPR hasn't particularly been defined yet, the definition of 'NPR' might be downgraded. Ideally it would see full connectivity with HS2 phase 2, and there have been some noises in that direction.
    "Northern Powerhouse Rail" is already under construction. They are extending the power wires southwards to Church Fenton, and they have signed off 4 tracking and a flyover from Huddersfield to Ravensthorpe.

    "No no, there was no plan for a high speed line, this is it" say all the new Tories in the area. Whats worse is that so few people know what actual NPR was that people will probably buy it.

    Same with the towns fund where red wall Tory MPs are busy announcing that they are all spending the same money. Yes the money doesn't actually exist so very little will be spent. But people are largely disinterested in politics and don't track the details. So they'll vote for the announcement that Good is coming and miss the fact that it hasn't yet arrived.

    Don't say they won't, they already have. For Labour. For decades.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,615

    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Yes it is. Despite everything else posted above it, it would take a cataclysm to prompt anger about all of this to translate into a Labour win. I just can't see it with serkeir as he's painfully crap, nor with the likely replacements if he gets resigned like Angela Raynor.

    I think there is decent value in predicting the next election will have two different leaders, but it will still be a Blue win. Liar is ever closer to the rocks where one more "whoops" moment brings down sufficient fury for the grandees to suggest he retires to spend more time making money and having affairs.

    He'll get replaced with Sunak or Hunt or whoever, they will bring back serious government, it will get boring and austere again and people will swing back to shouting at Labour for not offering any alternatives. It'll be a smaller Blue win but its still a win.
    When Johnson falls, and all political careers end in failure, it will be brutal. I don't think though that the Tories can just shape-shifting back to a normal party. The problem will be like the post Trump Republicans. A lot of the new voters are Pro -Johnson rather than pro Tory, and a lot of the others don't recognise their party any more.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,414

    "Based on what is happening at the moment Starmer could enter Number 10 even, as is highly likely, his party doesn’t have a majority or even most MPs. The one requirement is for Tories to shed enough seats that they can’t have a majority."

    Is this right?

    Even if the Tories do not have a majority, we could end up in a situation in which the only viable coalition is Tories plus one other Party.

    (This is basically what happened in 2010. No doubt the LibDems would have much preferred to deal with a Labour party, whose leader's head they could have demanded as price of any Lab-Lib coalition. But, that was not in practice possible).

    Starmer has to be able to construct a viable Government with enough support in the HoC. The condition for this is stricter than the Tories losing their majority.

    (Of course, no other party at the moment is likely to admit that they would offer confidence & supply to a minority Tory Government).

    Anti-Tories always have this picture of a Rainbow Coalition in which ROY G. IV all live happily in a giant arc in the House of Commons, but there is a reason why it never happens.

    Quite. Can't see a United Anti-Tory Coalition lasting for more than a few months, if that. Particularly if Northern Irish Unionists votes were needed.
    And it good to see someone recognising that, apart from another election in a couple of months, the Cons-LD Coalition was the only practical deal available.There can be arguments about that was managed, especially by the LD side but at the time the Labour Party, as a party of government was tired and fractious and unfit for Government.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173
    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    tlg86 said:

    @ydoethur - aren't you in favour of HS2?

    Yes.

    I’m not sure what your point is?
    That's the biggest, shiniest and most expensive toy of all.
    And? Are you saying that it’s likely to turn off voters in the north? ‘Vote Labour, the Tories have improved your rail services by freeing up masses of capacity.’

    The one that I think will be announced and then abandoned is NPR. Which is a depressing thought because it’s very badly needed.
    The point is, you were complaining about borrowing/QE, which I very much agree with you about. But you seem comfortable with a shitload of money for something like HS2.

    Now, maybe it will be what we need when us plebs can't afford cars, but it would be nice if the government were up front about that being its purpose.
    I’m not ‘complaining’ exactly. I’m setting out the facts as I see them.

    Now, with HS2, the likelihood is that will prove a sound investment both financially and ecologically. Fast, reliable trains and more electric rail capacity powered by green sources so we can get cars and lorries off the road. And it would be profitable given the numbers of people it would likely carry. In the post Covid age people are likely to live further from work and do fewer but longer journeys as commuting, so actually I don’t buy the ‘railways will never recover’ argument. The fact that all governments for 15 years have been in favour of it also shows it isn’t just a Johnson vanity project.

    The issue will be whether all the money is spent as sensibly as that. Given Johnson’s track record I am sceptical.

    And I hope @JosiasJessop is right about NPR for much the reasons he gives.

    Edit - one way you may see Johnson’s influence or at least that of his government in HS2 is the gross gilding of the contracts. Standards of embankment slippage required by no railway ever, the highest speeds ever, the best new stock. Which has inflated costs by maybe 25%.

    But overall it should still prove a success and an asset.
    Have a good morning.
    BiB - this is back to front, in my opinion. What it shows is that Johnson is not unusual in wanting to piss money up the wall.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895
    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,173

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    Do you not think it's a bit cheeky to take their money and then lecture them about how evil they are?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895
    Sorry, another question about ASL as I genuinely (and respectfully) have no knowledge of fee-paying schools. When the school charges that much dollah and parents are unhappy with what and how they are teaching, can pressure not be brought to bear to change the teaching?

    Ultimately cash is king, they want your money and the reputation that comes from you sending your kids there. I can't imagine the Daily Mail story does them much good, does not something like a fee strike work? OK not a "strike" as communistic, but late payment of invoices due to a dispute over services received...?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,615

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    There always been folk with more money than sense.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,775
    Good morning, everyone.

    Mr. Pioneers, I've heard that non-white people also get to have lots of money. And lots of white people don't have much money.

    White privilege is a bloody stupid term.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895
    rcs1000 said:

    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    Spot on.
    It will have a trivial effect on a lot of people - so what if food gets more expensive and choice restricted? So what if holidays cost more?

    There are millions of Brexit voters though who were already in the desperate camp. The impacts won't be trivial to them. Brexit was a hail mary pass, vote down the man, make our own destiny, fewer forriners driving down wages and taking our jobs/benefits means more better paid jobs for whitey.

    Unless those more and better paid jobs start arriving, and their communities start improving, they are not going to be happy. They voted to be better off so your "relatively trivial" worsening of their already screwed situation means a lot to them.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,950
    edited June 2021
    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Yes it is. Despite everything else posted above it, it would take a cataclysm to prompt anger about all of this to translate into a Labour win. I just can't see it with serkeir as he's painfully crap, nor with the likely replacements if he gets resigned like Angela Raynor.

    I think there is decent value in predicting the next election will have two different leaders, but it will still be a Blue win. Liar is ever closer to the rocks where one more "whoops" moment brings down sufficient fury for the grandees to suggest he retires to spend more time making money and having affairs.

    He'll get replaced with Sunak or Hunt or whoever, they will bring back serious government, it will get boring and austere again and people will swing back to shouting at Labour for not offering any alternatives. It'll be a smaller Blue win but its still a win.
    When Johnson falls, and all political careers end in failure, it will be brutal. I don't think though that the Tories can just shape-shifting back to a normal party. The problem will be like the post Trump Republicans. A lot of the new voters are Pro -Johnson rather than pro Tory, and a lot of the others don't recognise their party any more.
    Hancock’s obliteration and the speed of it was a bit of an eye opener. I expect CCH are digitally editing every piece of online imagery to remove his presence.

    Of course BJ has had a lifetime of getting away with it so his Untergang will be necessarily of a greater magnitude. It’s gonna be great!
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    This problem seems particularly bad in these private schools are by definition a bastion of privelege (see Eton as well). It is really just the replacement of one form of elite ideology with another.

    I am not claiming to have any special powers, but I have been alive to this deranged woke cult for many years and saw something like this coming in 2019 when looking for a school for my son. Went around the trendy schools in the rapidly gentrifying part of town where we live and saw the right on extinction rebellion parents and their kids running out of control and just thought no way.

    In consequence, we drive our son out to a boring conservative suburban school every day. The parents dress in supermarket clothes and do real jobs and, from what I can tell, don't even know about the concept of white privelege. The headteacher is clearly a very smart guy and he is obviously having absolutely none of the woke cult rubbish.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883
    edited June 2021
    Foxy said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    There always been folk with more money than sense.
    32K is a lot of money to "spaff up the wall"...
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172

    Boris -- whether you call him a pragmatist or an opportunist or just a lying shit -- occupies the centre ground and even some of the ground to the left of centre, leaving little or no room for his opponents.

    To lose, Boris has to be forced from this ground -- either (i) by Sir Keir or (ii) by Tory MPs or (iii) by external financial /economic pressure.

    The former is very unlikely, Boris has the beating of Sir Forensic.

    The second is very unlikely, as long as the Tories are doing well in the polls & (it seems) still taking Red Wall seats. It would be more likely if Sir Forensic were putting the Government under pressure, but that seems a forlorn hope.

    That just leaves the third.
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited June 2021
    My big worry re: state aid changes is that it will be yet another mechanism to shovel taxpayers cash to the mates of whoever is in power.

    Seems inevitable to me.

    I think it’s a bad idea that will now become entrenched.

    I’ve changed my mind on this over the last few days. I don’t like it one bit.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,722
    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Do.you want a charity bet 10 quid tories get an overall majority at the next GE Charity of winners choice...?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,414
    ping said:

    My big worry re: state aid changes is that it will be yet another mechanism to shovel taxpayers cash to the mates of whoever is in power.

    Seems inevitable to me.

    I think it’s a bad idea that will now become entrenched.

    Especially with this Government.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883
    edited June 2021

    Sorry, another question about ASL as I genuinely (and respectfully) have no knowledge of fee-paying schools. When the school charges that much dollah and parents are unhappy with what and how they are teaching, can pressure not be brought to bear to change the teaching?

    Ultimately cash is king, they want your money and the reputation that comes from you sending your kids there. I can't imagine the Daily Mail story does them much good, does not something like a fee strike work? OK not a "strike" as communistic, but late payment of invoices due to a dispute over services received...?

    As a former teacher at an Independent School I can say that it depends on the length of the waiting lists. It also depends on how weak the management is. I can remember senior management teams caving in to some obnoxious parents, even down to changing teaching sets because the child doesn't like the teacher, to having to rewrite the whole school timetable because of a few "influential" parents.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895
    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Yes it is. Despite everything else posted above it, it would take a cataclysm to prompt anger about all of this to translate into a Labour win. I just can't see it with serkeir as he's painfully crap, nor with the likely replacements if he gets resigned like Angela Raynor.

    I think there is decent value in predicting the next election will have two different leaders, but it will still be a Blue win. Liar is ever closer to the rocks where one more "whoops" moment brings down sufficient fury for the grandees to suggest he retires to spend more time making money and having affairs.

    He'll get replaced with Sunak or Hunt or whoever, they will bring back serious government, it will get boring and austere again and people will swing back to shouting at Labour for not offering any alternatives. It'll be a smaller Blue win but its still a win.
    When Johnson falls, and all political careers end in failure, it will be brutal. I don't think though that the Tories can just shape-shifting back to a normal party. The problem will be like the post Trump Republicans. A lot of the new voters are Pro -Johnson rather than pro Tory, and a lot of the others don't recognise their party any more.
    It will be fascinating to watch! The Tories absolutely will try to go back to the party of old - Biden's "America is back" model to mea culpa Britain's way back into favour with all the nations we have pissed off with out twattery over treaties.

    As you say most red wall Tories are not Tories at all, so when their man goes and the new PM Sunak starts telling them sadly that there is no money left, what will they do? Some will go back to Labour of course, but I doubt in anywhere near sufficient numbers.

    In the red wall it is like scales have been washed from people's eyes. They have realised that despite in some places voting for Labour since the Danelaw that nothing substantial has been done to improve and rebuild their communities in this post industrial age. Too many MPs and too many councils make excuses for what they can't do and all they have to offer is negativity.

    New Tories like Ben "Southgate is no Bobby Robson" Houchen have flipped this around and have taken something hopeless (Teesside Airport) and gee'd everybody up into something really positive. Despite the reality that Teesside Airport is a hopeless waste of good housing land being ever more obvious.

    PM Sunak's asset is that the Houchens of the party will work their socks off to try and hold onto sufficient voters to stop Labour coming back. And for at least the next election I am certain they will succeed.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Sandpit said:

    Charles said:

    Sandpit said:

    🇺🇦🇺🇦UKRAINE!!🇺🇦🇺🇦

    Who are you going to support in Rome?
    I’ll be supporting one team, and my wife the other. What could possibly go wrong?

    Now on the lookout for a pub that’s going to have a ‘mixed’ crowd.
    Good luck!

    And I hope you find a nice pub too…
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    I laid Sir Keir in this market at 13/8 last year, and think 8/1 is probably a good price to back him.

    I laid it in tiny size and backed it back at 2/1 so not shouting about some super shrewd trading. I win £30 on Sir Keir £915 on Jess Phillips and lose a fiver on anyone else
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,207

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    Yes it is. Despite everything else posted above it, it would take a cataclysm to prompt anger about all of this to translate into a Labour win. I just can't see it with serkeir as he's painfully crap, nor with the likely replacements if he gets resigned like Angela Raynor.

    I think there is decent value in predicting the next election will have two different leaders, but it will still be a Blue win. Liar is ever closer to the rocks where one more "whoops" moment brings down sufficient fury for the grandees to suggest he retires to spend more time making money and having affairs.

    He'll get replaced with Sunak or Hunt or whoever, they will bring back serious government, it will get boring and austere again and people will swing back to shouting at Labour for not offering any alternatives. It'll be a smaller Blue win but its still a win.
    When Johnson falls, and all political careers end in failure, it will be brutal. I don't think though that the Tories can just shape-shifting back to a normal party. The problem will be like the post Trump Republicans. A lot of the new voters are Pro -Johnson rather than pro Tory, and a lot of the others don't recognise their party any more.
    Hancock’s obliteration and the speed of it was a bit of an eye opener. I expect CCH are digitally editing every piece of online imagery to remove his presence.

    Of course BJ has had a lifetime of getting away with it so his Untergang will be necessarily of a greater magnitude. It’s gonna be great!
    The thing about BoJo is that he tends to get away with things by running away and/or failing upwards.

    That's.much harder now he's at the top of the tree.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,522

    Expectations management?

    Senior Labour figures believe the party has only a 5% to 10% chance of holding the West Yorkshire seat of Batley and Spen in Thursday’s byelection, as Keir Starmer’s team brace themselves for a backbench revolt if the Tories take the seat.

    https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1410118207126507528?s=21

    Not blowing my own trumpet since I might well be quite wrong, but what I've effectively been saying for weeks is that (a) Labour will probably lose but it's not going to be a huge margin and (b) Galloway has been talked up to a ridiculous extent and will get under 10%. Something like the Survation poll (47/41/6 IIRC) is quite a likely outcome, and that's close enough to give a 5-10% chance of winning on the day - differential turnout, last-minute shifts, better organisation, etc.

    The Ladbrokes bet on Labour doing better than Galloway was free money at 1-4, and is IMO still free money at the current 1-8 - a 10% return in 24 hours, after all. It ought to be at least 1-50.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,240

    rcs1000 said:

    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    Spot on.
    It will have a trivial effect on a lot of people - so what if food gets more expensive and choice restricted? So what if holidays cost more?

    There are millions of Brexit voters though who were already in the desperate camp. The impacts won't be trivial to them. Brexit was a hail mary pass, vote down the man, make our own destiny, fewer forriners driving down wages and taking our jobs/benefits means more better paid jobs for whitey.

    Unless those more and better paid jobs start arriving, and their communities start improving, they are not going to be happy. They voted to be better off so your "relatively trivial" worsening of their already screwed situation means a lot to them.
    The better paid jobs have nearly arrived. Wage growth is happening, although it will be a while before you can filter out the Corona effect. There are certainly labour shortages in some areas.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    We pulled her out because they weren’t teaching her.

    For example: she was told to write about someone who inspired her so write about Alfred the Great. The teacher criticised her saying she should write about someone in the High School and praise their community work instead.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883
    Charles said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Wow, I wonder what the view from a more sensible evenhanded newspaper would be? Thoses fees were very stiff, Charles, At least twice as much as at my local indie school which is competent and high achieving.
    The Mail has absolutely cherry picked specific incidents and spun it very heavily to suit their agenda

    But we didn’t change schools lightly - the trend was clearly one way with academic subjects being crowded out to make room for lessons on social justice. And we were very worried by the new DIE Director given her track record.

    But the crunch for me was we sent our daughter to her new school for a taster. Her view: “I want to be taught like that. It’s challenging.”
    Aah I see. A lot more reasons than I thought, I apologise. The last comment by your daughter was probably the clincher. Good on her.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,009
    edited June 2021
    DavidL said:

    Foxy said:

    DavidL said:

    The reality is that Brexit was always going to have a relatively trivial effect on our economy for good or ill. On a placid lake we might have been able to identify the odd ripple and measure its effect. But we are in the middle of a force 10 hurricane right now and it isn't even background noise. Anyone sensible has so many more important things to worry about.

    I have always said that Brexit will be a whimper rather than a bang economically, and that it is highly likely that people will look back and think "what was the point?" as their many grievances continue. Brexit will be a rust, not a bust.
    That would be an enormous win for Boris and the Brexiteers. If the economics are meh then the ability to go our own way and hold those making our laws to account will be significant pluses.

    Of course it won't solve every problem or even most of them. We still need to live in a world where every state's sovereignty is reined in by agreements, regulations etc and many of the problems blamed on the EU were in fact their response to those pressures which will not have gone away.
    Good morning

    I believe for every passing day, the introduction of our own laws including on state aid and various new trade deals, the likelihood of us rejoining the EU diminishes

    Furthermore, the EU itself is in a poor state, with UVDL being a disaster especially with her vaccine rollout failure

    This has been followed with the Merkel - Macron pairing being put back in their box over a summit with Putin and trying to prevent UK holidays makers going to the Mediterranean countries, and the general lack of agreement over many other issues

    Merkel and Macron will both be gone next year.

    Additionally only the SNP and Plaid will be standing at the next GE on a rejoin platform, so I do believe that those who just cannot be reconciled to Brexit will be in a permanent state of despair

    The conservative party do have candidates to replace Boris and as I have said on many occasions , Rishi is my choice and I would be delighted too see him in place sooner rather than later and he is very popular in the country

    Labour do not have a realistic alternative to Starmer and are being squeezed by the conservatives and lib dems with nowhere to go it seems

    Very depressing if you are a Labour supporter
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Sorry, another question about ASL as I genuinely (and respectfully) have no knowledge of fee-paying schools. When the school charges that much dollah and parents are unhappy with what and how they are teaching, can pressure not be brought to bear to change the teaching?

    Ultimately cash is king, they want your money and the reputation that comes from you sending your kids there. I can't imagine the Daily Mail story does them much good, does not something like a fee strike work? OK not a "strike" as communistic, but late payment of invoices due to a dispute over services received...?

    The issue is that 10% of the pupils are teachers kids, 20% are Embassy brats, 40% on secondment for overseas companies so only about 30% of parents actually pay the fees.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.

    Again, I am looking at all of the advocates for Brexit who are now publicly whining about how badly it turned out for them
    Looking at an inconsequential number of squeaky wheel interest groups publicly whining while ignoring those who are literally a silent majority who are happy with how its going and think it is going well.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,895

    Good morning, everyone.

    Mr. Pioneers, I've heard that non-white people also get to have lots of money. And lots of white people don't have much money.

    White privilege is a bloody stupid term.

    Of course its a stupid term. It is far more nuanced than that. But it quite evidently is there. As is the other massive divider - class. WWC kids and their parents don't feel white privilege and I absolutely understand why. Then again they can't see it from the other side of the race divide where their kids are far less likely to be harassed by the police, suffer from abuse and discrimination because of the colour of their skin or even their name etc etc.

    Where the WWC get discriminated against is class. Posh whitey sending their kids to fee paying schools don't want to spend their money on the WWC. So they vote in MPs who vote against feeding hungry white kids in massively poor areas who then bemoan the poor educational attainment of kids they voted to keep hungry. And then use this as proof that there is no white privilege such as having a spare £32k to spend on school fees per child.

    Are such schools exclusively white? Of course not! But look how hard it is for non-white parents to be in that position compared to white parents. It does happen, but in tiny numbers. And when its a tiny percentage of the population in a position to spend that kind of cash on school fees, its a truly tiny percentage of non-whites.

    Schools like that cannot pretend they are ordinary, that their students are ordinary. All of them are massively and extraordinarily privileged to a level that most kids can barely conceive of. Teaching them that - and that with privilege comes responsibility - is surely a basic. I do with my kids and their level of privilege is nothing compared to Charles et al
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited June 2021
    Looks like we’re about to engage in a bout of competitive parenting.

    I can see the way this is going!

    I’m off…
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    Early night for me last night. On the marking of the apogee of American power, I vote for for the Battle of Mogadishu 1993. If indeed we have seen the apogee which I do have my doubts about.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,297
    Charles said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Wow, I wonder what the view from a more sensible evenhanded newspaper would be? Thoses fees were very stiff, Charles, At least twice as much as at my local indie school which is competent and high achieving.
    The Mail has absolutely cherry picked specific incidents and spun it very heavily to suit their agenda

    But we didn’t change schools lightly - the trend was clearly one way with academic subjects being crowded out to make room for lessons on social justice. And we were very worried by the new DIE Director given her track record.

    But the crunch for me was we sent our daughter to her new school for a taster. Her view: “I want to be taught like that. It’s challenging.”
    Where is she now, Charles?

    My daughter is at QCPS and I detect no ideological unsoundness. The reverse, really.
    The intake is pleasingly cosmopolitan and the idea of racial politics feels redundant.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,240
    tlg86 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    tlg86 said:

    For a remainer, you seem to know an awful lot about what leavers voted for.

    I read the news.

    The DUP voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Fishermen voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Farmers voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Pub owners voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    Rock stars voted for Brexit, but not this Brexit.

    There comes a point when everybody realises they got shafted by BoZo and chums. An 80 seat collapse is not unlikely at that point
    DUP - irrelevant
    Fisherman - 0.0000001% of GDP, so what, a few 1,000 votes?
    Farmers - same
    Pub owners - maybe COVID is a bit more of an issue right now...
    Rock stars - :lol:
    Yes they are all small sectional interests. Most people would have voted in favour of cheap Australian beef and improved pay and conditions for the lower paid. If they have to pay a bit more for beer in the pub it will be a bit annoying, but hard to work out how you have one without the other.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,883

    Scott_xP said:

    DavidL said:

    I am sure Scott, with your completely impartial view on the merits of Brexit, that you have particular insight into what those that voted for it wanted. You may, however, want to check some of the more recent polling.

    Again, I am looking at all of the advocates for Brexit who are now publicly whining about how badly it turned out for them
    Looking at an inconsequential number of squeaky wheel interest groups publicly whining while ignoring those who are literally a silent majority who are happy with how its going and think it is going well.
    Good morning Philip
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,542
    isam said:

    I laid Sir Keir in this market at 13/8 last year, and think 8/1 is probably a good price to back him.

    I laid it in tiny size and backed it back at 2/1 so not shouting about some super shrewd trading. I win £30 on Sir Keir £915 on Jess Phillips and lose a fiver on anyone else

    Sir Keir is looking ever more by the day like a stop-gap Labour leader until the right one comes along.

    Who the hell that might be I have no idea.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Wow, I wonder what the view from a more sensible evenhanded newspaper would be? Thoses fees were very stiff, Charles, At least twice as much as at my local indie school which is competent and high achieving.
    The Mail has absolutely cherry picked specific incidents and spun it very heavily to suit their agenda

    But we didn’t change schools lightly - the trend was clearly one way with academic subjects being crowded out to make room for lessons on social justice. And we were very worried by the new DIE Director given her track record.

    But the crunch for me was we sent our daughter to her new school for a taster. Her view: “I want to be taught like that. It’s challenging.”
    Where is she now, Charles?

    My daughter is at QCPS and I detect no ideological unsoundness. The reverse, really.
    The intake is pleasingly cosmopolitan and the idea of racial politics feels redundant.
    We went to Abercorn, so just down the road from QCPS - needed move fast and they had space
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,297
    On American disillusionment, nobody seems to have mentioned Vietnam.

    I think 1963 is right, though.

    A loss of “innocence”, and then a chaotic period of social fragmentation, military quagmires, and political corruption.

    (Unless you’re black, in which case the 50s/60s were the start of something, not the end).
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    tlg86 said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    Do you not think it's a bit cheeky to take their money and then lecture them about how evil they are?
    There's a certain class of Liberal to whom that sort of thing is just catnip. It demonstrates their inner virtue and awareness. Not so sure that I would want it inflicted on my kids though. With @Charles on that one.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,795
    Charles said:

    Charles said:

    People may remember we decided to move our daughter to a different school recently. This is why:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9739259/Indoctrination-generation-Racially-segregated-clubs-white-pupils-told-theyre-oppressors.html

    Have I got this right? You were sending your daughter to the £32k a year (Jeeeesus...) American School London and pulled her out because they were teaching students about white privilege?

    £32k a year on school fees might be seen as the literal embodiment of white privilege to many. Even to those of us who are white who don't have a spare £32k a year for school fees.
    We pulled her out because they weren’t teaching her.

    For example: she was told to write about someone who inspired her so write about Alfred the Great. The teacher criticised her saying she should write about someone in the High School and praise their community work instead.
    He was a lousy cook, allegedly.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,950
    BBC 3 Lions (Northern region) has found something else to talk about. A temporary distraction I expect.

    https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1410130536501293058?s=21
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,366
    I feel sorry for Keir. He comes over as honest, meaning well, but riding a horse that no one can stay on. A male Mrs May without quite the same problems.

    Labour are irrevocably split. The Corbynites, having had a taste of power will never accept consensus. That's why talk of a united front against the Tories is impossible. They can't agree among themselves.

    They have morphed into a middle-class, woke and self-regarding (verging on arrogant) bunch who don't particularly like their fellow travellers on the left, or their old natural allies from years back - the old working class.

    The Tories aren't loved, but that's baked in. It's accepted they have grievous faults but it's often seen as natural self-interest. It doesn't inspire quite the acrimony it used to.

    Brexit exposed the hatred that some of on the left have for their fellow Brits. It's not a pretty look. The nasty bastard tendency. It doesn't matter if Brexit succeeds or fails. It's become visceral.

    Boris can't do anything wrong because he's being compared to that mindset. Despite his incompetence, he has that as a shield. Keir doesn't.

This discussion has been closed.