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BoJo judged to have had his worst PMQs for a year – politicalbetting.com
BoJo judged to have had his worst PMQs for a year – politicalbetting.com
I’ve been out most of the day and have only just caught up with today’s PMQs when BoJo’s apparently ambivalent position on taking the knee came under scrutiny from the former DPP and now LAB leader, Starmer.
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42,302 new cases | 49 new deaths within 28 days of a positive test
For comparison with last Wednesday 20% more cases 50% more deaths.
I disagree with a number of them, but at least he has some.
I would say more likely its early / mid next week for the big finals bump.
And dont start me on his untidy, unkempt appearance. Johnson is a disgrace of a Prime minister.
We've also got uncommonly good weather from today at least for the next couple of weeks which will also reduce indoor socialising as people will want to be in beer gardens and parks anyway.
I'm very pro-opening up but I don't see how it can't help but be negative on positives, so to speak.
I Agree with MaxPB - right in the middle of expectations. But that's good, because expectations were a continued drop in the rate of increase (only about 15% up on last Weds).
How this affects the polling as we move forward I do not know, but it has not been a good spectacle with idiotic remarks from Natalie Elphicke and our own @HYUFD which I immediately called out
Marcus Rashford is a role model, successful footballer, but more than that his campaign for free school meals has been completely non political.
Also Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka are wonderful role models as well and the England team is a huge credit to the nstion
On the Tory side however only 38% of Tory voters back taking the knee, so it makes sense for Boris and Patel in terms of their base not to push taking the knee too hard.
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1414951623437193224?s=20
England: 37,895 (up 37% week-on-week; up 34% on 7-day average week-on-week)
Scotland: 2,636 (down 31% week-on-week; down 22% on 7-day average week-on-week)
Wales: 1,135 (up 71% week-on-week; up 22% on 7-day average week-on-week)
NI: 636 (up 12% week-on-week; up 29% on 7-day average week-on-week)
Guido revealed that staffers will be made to mask up, whilst MPs will only be “encouraged” to wear face coverings. It is safe to say that staffers are not best pleased…
I’m shocked that MPs are getting preferential treatment.
1) Iain Duncan Smith (on keeping the £20 per week UC uplift)
2) David Davis (on voting changes)
and today
3) Steve Baker on the culture war
I feel like I need a lie down and consider have I woken up Bizarro world?
Summer holiday plans for thousands of Britons were left on the brink of tatters today after it emerged the Balearic islands are set to be upgraded to the 'amber list' just a fortnight after they were approved for quarantine-free travel.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9786817/Ibiza-Mallorca-Menorca-added-amber-list.html
The public don't mind restrictions, in fact they seem to quite like them (as long as for others), but being dicked about, especially over their holidays, that really gets people pissed and the media love the hard luck stories of Margaret and me ain't been on holiday for 20 years, 20 years I tell you, and here we are now, stranded abroad as all the flights have gone.
Irony alone says the covid figures are going to increase as release day occurs.
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1415289712634441735?s=20
I've grown to find it endearing.
Think of him as the Chris Tavaré of the socratic method.
12/07: 610
Hospital occupancy in England: 14/07: 3,110
Mechanical ventilation beds occupied in England: 14/07: 489
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
As for UFOs and Leon, I think he's desperate to receive an anal probe, from anyone/anything, so that explains his UFO/aliens obsession.
Apparently this is a good time for the Labour leader despite polling less than IDS.
At least she has made an unconditional apology for getting it wrong
He still hasn't admitted that a few self selected skippers of big long range trawlers do not represent the entire workforce of the Scottish fishing industry when it comes to actual votes. What I don't understand is wht this doesn't damage the faith some on PB have on him.
I'm happy for England players to take the knee before matches. I'm happy if they don't. I'd like them to be able to make their minds up, individually or as a team, without politicians getting hysterical about it and anyone booing them.
One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps
https://www.theatlantic.com/the-uyghur-chronicles/
…The government in Kashgar had required all Uyghurs there to hand over any religious items they held. Frightened by the ongoing roundups, most had surrendered to the state any belongings relating to their faith: religious books, prayer rugs, prayer beads, articles of clothing. Some were unwilling to part with their Qurans, but with neighbors and even relatives betraying one another, those who kept them were quickly found out, detained, and harshly punished.
Some time after, a man in his 70s had come across a Quran in his house that he hadn’t been able to find following the confiscation order. He was afraid that if he turned it over now, the officials would ask why he hadn’t relinquished it earlier, accuse him of “incorrect thinking,” and take him away to be punished. So he wrapped the Quran in a plastic bag and threw it in the Tuman River. But the authorities had installed wire mesh under all bridges, and when the mesh was cleaned, the Quran was found and turned over to the police. When officers opened it, they found a copy of the old man’s ID card: In Xinjiang, the elderly have a habit of keeping important documents in frequently read books, so that they are easily found when needed. The police tracked down the old man and detained him on charges of engaging in illegal religious activities. He was sentenced to seven years in prison….
….“I’m going to ask you something,” I said to Merhaba, “and you have to promise me you’ll do it.”
“What is it? Tell me first,” she said.
“I’m serious. Promise me first,” I said firmly.
“All right,” she replied quietly.
“If they arrest me, don’t lose yourself. Don’t make inquiries about me, don’t go looking for help, don’t spend money trying to get me out. This time isn’t like any time before. They are planning something dark. There is no notifying families or inquiring at police stations this time. So don’t trouble yourself with that. Keep our family affairs in order, take good care of our daughters, let life go on as if I were still here. I’m not afraid of prison. I am afraid of you and the girls struggling and hurting when I’m gone. So I want you to remember what I’m saying.”...
They haven't been this scared since February, when the vaccine rollout was going full pelt.
Over the last year or so you could match Boris Johnson's and government popularity to how scared the public felt.
The problem is the government aren't having an honest conversation about this, the narrative has basically become your vaccinated your safe, period, and on the other side we have the zero covid constantly moving the goal posts and screaming disaster we are all going to die or get long covid.
The head of MI5 has dismissed claims that Russian bots are responsible for online racist abuse against England footballers and said that this country should shoulder the blame for the problem.
Ken McCallum said that racist abuse hurled online at three players who missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday night was not a matter for the security service as it was not targeted disinformation posted by hostile states.
He added: “I would also voice the thought, maybe at the risk of stepping slightly out of my own swim lane, that if we were to find ourselves overly looking to blame abroad for this phenomenon of racism we might risk not owning the portion of the problem that is ours within our own country.”
Speaking at Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters, he compared many of his spy colleagues to the England team — a group of young people “giving their all for their country and you don’t always win”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/racism-online-against-england-penalty-takers-is-britains-problem-not-from-russia-kgt0g5c9h
It's become a tradition, just need fill in a higher number every week.
Blair, Thatch and (to an extent) Cameron could survive the brickbats because they knew in the core of their being that they were right. Brown was a bit like that, but much more brittlely.
Major and May endured the brickbats, it could be painful to watch. They survived through pure sense of duty.
Johnson is a performer. He needs the applause of the audience to thrive. When lots of people (and not just scruffy lefties) go from "we hail King Boris" to "we hate King Boris", what will he do?
And whilst losing at PMQs won't shift many votes on the streets, and might not shift many votes on the Conservative backbenches (which matters more), it must be playing with Boris's psyche.
It's not impossible that he will just stomp off one Wednesday lunchtime, never to be seen again. It's incredibly unlikely, but it's less impossible than it should be.
Oh, and Gloucestershire-Hampshire. Blimey.
That's the big danger for Johnson. In pandering to the base (an activity of which I know you are a huge fan) he's allowed himself to be cast in a bad light even for those in his base. This issue could have been closed down pre-tournament, but Patel's comments weren't corrected, and headbanger Tory MPs weren't disciplined.
I'd also note that 38% is a heck of a lot of Tories. Not saying at all that this issue will do it on its own, but Major only needed to lose around a quarter of voters in his 1992 triumph to go down in flames in 1997. Indeed, it's that 38% that Conservatives need to pander to most of all as they are the ones most likely to shop elsewhere for their political leaders.
This is what Cameron understood with his "hug a hoody" and "hug a huskie" messaging, the 0.7% of GDP stuff etc. None of that was about the base - the Tory base varies from agnostic to hostile on such things. It's about the Blair voters and soggy centre.
Lord Frost tells Lords Ctte that increased cross border trade in Ireland is ‘in many ways a problem’ & he doesn’t want to encourage more of it.
Pressed by the Ctte chair he says it’s a problem because it reflects the fact NI businesses are finding it more difficult to source goods from preferred GB suppliers.
https://twitter.com/JP_Biz/status/1415340223291170824
I was correct however that suburban areas like Eastwood and rural areas like the Scottish borders and West Aberdeenshire would stay Tory and prevent an SNP majority
Who knows but everyone must want it to succeed
Remember too Major lost almost a million votes to the Referendum Party and UKIP in 1997.
Cameron failed to get a majority in 2010 after 'hug a hoody' and even in 2015 got far smaller a majority than Boris did in 2019 when he carried his base with him.
You don't need to support booing as such, all you need to say is taking the knee is personal choice and not actually do it yourself or say it must be done
Just strap on this strap on and we'll play some rock and roll
As the stranglers sort of said
1) moving a border from the Northern Ireland / Ireland border to the Irish Sea...
2) that extra paperwork is a disincentive of selling to NI
There is a misconception about COVID vaccination and also humans are generally crap at maths / stats / risk.
Andrew Marr being a classic example, admitting he went around like he was invincible, then shocked that spending a week in a covid hotspot with load of unvaccinated people and is immuno-supressed to some extent, that he a) got it and b) he was ill for a few days. And that all that happening was a disaster. a) the vaccine worked and b) he should now be basically immune for a long time to come.
They are definitely getting taken rather quickly, up to quite recent there were still slots available for next day delivery, now, they are very rare.
Given how much remainers like to blame Russia for their electoral defeats, I’d say it bloody well should be a matter for GCHQ.
There’s an obvious motive for foreign states to do this sort of thing.
The fear is now irrational for anyone who's had both jabs which is 35m people and rising.
They need to worry about me. An ex-Cons voter now thoroughly disaffected by the make up of the Party and is looking around to see what's on offer. So far SKS ain't it but I thought he had a good PMQs today and there will be some for whom a sustained good run by him will do much to sway their vote.
There has been a debate over whether taking the knee should be replaced with a more "unifying" symbol (presumably a badge stitched on a sleeve with a nice slogan dreamt up in a clever ad agency). But that misses the point. Symbols aren't always meant to unify. Some of them are intended to prevent the politicians you mention (and others in society) from dodging the debate - they confront, force people to take sides, and require public debate. In that respect, taking a knee (whatever you think of it) has been enormously powerful.
People really don't understand how much time and money people will spend to avoid manual tasks and risks of delays and additional hassle.
There is no question that the number of people sufficiently seriously affected by Covid to require medical treatment is increasing. Not nearly as fast as cases, thanks to the vaccines. Not nearly as fast as it did in January, thanks to be vaccines. But increasing none the less and at a rate which make the "this is over" tendency simply untenable.
Now, how can you help me...
It is an odd thing, though. My second jab is 26 July, but it does seem to be dragging, when it really shouldn’t worry me.
Edit: but I can see why you're such a hit on the doorstep.
We are now seeing Pfizer vaccine doses pile up as our 60m order has commenced.
Simple. (Maybe I'd be a terrible politician, but that's the position which would make me most likely to vote for someone, all else being equal).
I agree about the power of the gesture. All the deabte about it has certainly raised the profile of the issues.