The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
'Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.'
Yet as the UK government has ruled out indyref2 for now and Sturgeon has ruled out a wildcat referendum or UDI all hot air at present
The UK has claimed that our hard border with the EU - and with Northern Ireland - will boost the economy. However preposterous the SNP claim is - and it IS preposterous - they are only following in your footsteps love.
But the problem is that many Brits - even Leavers - have now seen that these wild, undetailed promises turn out to be bullshit. And painful bullshit, at that
I still back Leave but it has been a ghastly nightmare, and if I had my vote again, would I vote for it again, knowing what I know now? I honestly don't know. It would be an even tighter call than it was in 2016 - for me
A lot of Scots who quite fancy indy must look at Brexit and think, regretfully, No to indy, life is too short
After last night's stairheid rammy, I will scrupulously refrain from diagnosing bipolarity in your Brexit position(s).
I felt it wrapped up to soon and lacked a really satisfying denouement where somebody loses the plot and gets banned. It started with such promise and then just fizzled out.
I agree. I blame Ishmael. He was clearly pissed at the start and kicked it all off - Leavers are "drooling racist fuckwit ape monsters" etc etc, but then he seemed to sober up and became emollient, and the rancour drained away
I was hoping for multiple bans, like a mass sending off in a rugby brawl
Someone on my Facebook page has just retitled the Boris Johnson Umbrella moment video with 'You think that's funny; you should see him try to put a condom on'!
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
So why can't the Scots have what the Nirish are having? As you said just now, a bigger percentage of them voted Remain than the Nirish.
Almost an exact repeat of Major's majority of 21 in 1992, so Starmer would be Kinnock 2 at least on that basis and produce some recovery but Labour have still not found their Blair
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
'Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.'
Yet as the UK government has ruled out indyref2 for now and Sturgeon has ruled out a wildcat referendum or UDI all hot air at present
The UK has claimed that our hard border with the EU - and with Northern Ireland - will boost the economy. However preposterous the SNP claim is - and it IS preposterous - they are only following in your footsteps love.
But the problem is that many Brits - even Leavers - have now seen that these wild, undetailed promises turn out to be bullshit. And painful bullshit, at that
I still back Leave but it has been a ghastly nightmare, and if I had my vote again, would I vote for it again, knowing what I know now? I honestly don't know. It would be an even tighter call than it was in 2016 - for me
A lot of Scots who quite fancy indy must look at Brexit and think, regretfully, No to indy, life is too short
After last night's stairheid rammy, I will scrupulously refrain from diagnosing bipolarity in your Brexit position(s).
I felt it wrapped up to soon and lacked a really satisfying denouement where somebody loses the plot and gets banned. It started with such promise and then just fizzled out.
I agree. I blame Ishmael. He was clearly pissed at the start and kicked it all off - Leavers are "drooling racist fuckwit ape monsters" etc etc, but then he seemed to sober up and became emollient, and the rancour drained away
I was hoping for multiple bans, like a mass sending off in a rugby brawl
Shit.
I have indeed started drinking again after 15 years' abstinence. I think this is long enough not to count as falling off the wagon. Was hoping it didn't show.
Someone on my Facebook page has just retitled the Boris Johnson Umbrella moment video with 'You think that's funny; you should see him try to put a condom on'!
Almost an exact repeat of Major's majority of 21 in 1992, so Starmer would be Kinnock 2 at least on that basis and produce some recovery but Labour have still not found their Blair
But that was before Black Wednesday. So some time next year.....
Almost an exact repeat of Major's majority of 21 in 1992, so Starmer would be Kinnock 2 at least on that basis and produce some recovery but Labour have still not found their Blair
How much do you think Smith would have won by in 1997?
Almost an exact repeat of Major's majority of 21 in 1992, so Starmer would be Kinnock 2 at least on that basis and produce some recovery but Labour have still not found their Blair
How much do you think Smith would have won by in 1997?
Probably a majority of 100 rather than Blair's majority of 175, so Labour have not yet found their Smith either.
Though 2001 would probably have been closer against Smith
Almost an exact repeat of Major's majority of 21 in 1992, so Starmer would be Kinnock 2 at least on that basis and produce some recovery but Labour have still not found their Blair
How much do you think Smith would have won by in 1997?
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
So why can't the Scots have what the Nirish are having? As you said just now, a bigger percentage of them voted Remain than the Nirish.
Because they can't apparently! Frankly the intra-Irish border is unique so I don't think it copy pastes onto Scotland. What does copy paste is the eventual settlement between GB and the EU. It seems clear that we cannot implement our own deal and start widespread customs and standards checks, so we will find a way to make this permanent.
Either we sack off both the treaty and WTO rules, don't do checks and don't get taken to court, or we compromise and accept that our standards and the EU standards are actually the same after all. Whatever that long term solution is will apply to E&W / Scotland. There will only be a hard border if we end with one with the EU. And we won't. For our government taking back control of our border didn't mean taking back control of the border - we don't want a controlled border checking who and what comes in apparently.
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
So why can't the Scots have what the Nirish are having? As you said just now, a bigger percentage of them voted Remain than the Nirish.
As Scotland has a border with England which is also not in the EU, not Ireland which is in the EU like NI. There is also no GFA covering Scotland and the EU did not demand no checks between Scotland and the EU as they demanded no checks between NI and the EU for a GB-EU trade deal (so you can also partly blame Barnier for abandoning you).
Technically of course as long as army checkpoints were not imposed again on the Irish border even customs posts would not have breached the GFA but the EU were not going to do a trade deal with the UK government with a hard border in Ireland
I agree. I blame Ishmael. He was clearly pissed at the start and kicked it all off - Leavers are "drooling racist fuckwit ape monsters" etc etc, but then he seemed to sober up and became emollient, and the rancour drained away
I was hoping for multiple bans, like a mass sending off in a rugby brawl
I'm in a Russian language VK group for Porsche owners. The Georgians and Chechens on it have been known to meet up in the car park of the Typoly Stan Ikea in Moscow (it's right on the ring road so very convenient) to beat the shit out of each other. Very commendable and entertaining.
Yes, agree, still a big Lab win. Maybe 100 or so. I think Blair gets over-credited sometimes.
it was the whole top team at the time (Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Campbell etc) who did everything that they could to ensure that they won the election. TB was also more likeable than John Smith. There would still have been significant tactical voting and significant losses for the Tories but not to the same extent.
I thought the first rule of code names is that they should not be immediately identifiable with their subject?
Chris Musson @ChrisMusson EXCL: Cops ditch tag “Operation Bunter” for Boris Johnson's next visit to Scotland, after warnings they were effectively branding him Billy Bunter.
It's a bugger isn't it, what with that and executive pay, chugging commissions etc.
My usual plug for sightsavers.org: It's a hell of a lot of bang for your buck, and they don't get their hands on the patients for long enough to attract the abusers. Or so I naively hope.
Yes, agree, still a big Lab win. Maybe 100 or so. I think Blair gets over-credited sometimes.
it was the whole top team at the time (Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Campbell etc) who did everything that they could to ensure that they won the election. TB was also more likeable than John Smith. There would still have been significant tactical voting and significant losses for the Tories but not to the same extent.
Blair won seats in 1997 like Braintree, Thanet South, Upminster no Labour leader had ever won before and likely ever will again.
Smith would still have won comfortably in 1997 certainly but he would not have slaughtered the Tories like Blair did
I agree. I blame Ishmael. He was clearly pissed at the start and kicked it all off - Leavers are "drooling racist fuckwit ape monsters" etc etc, but then he seemed to sober up and became emollient, and the rancour drained away
I was hoping for multiple bans, like a mass sending off in a rugby brawl
I'm in a Russian language VK group for Porsche owners. The Georgians and Chechens on it have been known to meet up in the car park of the Typoly Stan Ikea in Moscow (it's right on the ring road so very convenient) to beat the shit out of each other. Very commendable and entertaining.
I used to be in a rec. forum some years ago for martial arts. And people used to throw themselves at each other at a moment's notice. Probably 10-20% actually happened. I remember intricately planning at one point a trip to Texas to fight some bloke in the car park of his ju-jitsu gym. Never happened, obvs.
It's a bugger isn't it, what with that and executive pay, chugging commissions etc.
My usual plug for sightsavers.org: It's a hell of a lot of bang for your buck, and they don't get their hands on the patients for long enough to attract the abusers. Or so I naively hope.
I bet al large charities will have potential issues: my 1% devil-1% angels idea plays for them as much as it does EvilCo bank. In fact, if I was evil, I might be more attracted to work for a charity than a bank. After all, I work for a charity, so I cant be doing wrong, can I. And if my evil tends towards money, then there's plenty swashing around in the charitable sector...
Given that many charities work with people who have issues (hence why they need help), then they may need to take safeguarding issues more seriously than EvilCo.
Yes, agree, still a big Lab win. Maybe 100 or so. I think Blair gets over-credited sometimes.
it was the whole top team at the time (Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Campbell etc) who did everything that they could to ensure that they won the election. TB was also more likeable than John Smith. There would still have been significant tactical voting and significant losses for the Tories but not to the same extent.
Blair won seats in 1997 like Braintree, Thanet South, Romford, Shipley and Wimbledon no Labour leader had ever won before and likely ever will again.
Smith would still have won comfortably in 1997 certainly but he would not have slaughtered the Tories like Blair did
Blair/Campbell were the only politicians in the UK to ever seem to understand that politics is an infinite game (https://simonsinek.com/product/the-infinite-game/) and did much better because of it. None of the current crop of politicians/leaders are so enlightened and are spending more time on tactics rather than strategy.
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
'Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.'
Yet as the UK government has ruled out indyref2 for now and Sturgeon has ruled out a wildcat referendum or UDI all hot air at present
The UK has claimed that our hard border with the EU - and with Northern Ireland - will boost the economy. However preposterous the SNP claim is - and it IS preposterous - they are only following in your footsteps love.
But the problem is that many Brits - even Leavers - have now seen that these wild, undetailed promises turn out to be bullshit. And painful bullshit, at that
I still back Leave but it has been a ghastly nightmare, and if I had my vote again, would I vote for it again, knowing what I know now? I honestly don't know. It would be an even tighter call than it was in 2016 - for me
A lot of Scots who quite fancy indy must look at Brexit and think, regretfully, No to indy, life is too short
After last night's stairheid rammy, I will scrupulously refrain from diagnosing bipolarity in your Brexit position(s).
Please, diagnose away. I am bipolar on this point (unusually for me)
To be fair, anyone with a brain should be bipolar. There are days when the baby cries all day and you think Fuck this, I didn't even really want the kid, and there are days when the baby smiles and you go Oooooh, being a parent is the best thing in the world!
I hope you approached parenting more rationally than you did Brexit.
Well he has to face the reality the 2017 election result when May lost her majority over the dementia tax killed off the notion of using the family home to pay for at home care
I thought the first rule of code names is that they should not be immediately identifiable with their subject?
Chris Musson @ChrisMusson EXCL: Cops ditch tag “Operation Bunter” for Boris Johnson's next visit to Scotland, after warnings they were effectively branding him Billy Bunter.
Rentoul makes the point that maybe he thinks he has a chance at the top job? He's surprised me before.
I've rather forgotten but is Rees-Mogg still a member of the government? An extraordinary intervention if so and underlines the fact that Boris has the whiff of political death about him.
Yes. Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council.
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
So why can't the Scots have what the Nirish are having? As you said just now, a bigger percentage of them voted Remain than the Nirish.
As Scotland has a border with England which is also not in the EU, not Ireland which is in the EU like NI. There is also no GFA covering Scotland and the EU did not demand no checks between Scotland and the EU as they demanded no checks between NI and the EU for a GB-EU trade deal (so you can also partly blame Barnier for abandoning you).
Technically of course as long as army checkpoints were not imposed again on the Irish border even customs posts would not have breached the GFA but the EU were not going to do a trade deal with the UK government with a hard border in Ireland
But rUK and Ireland have a border too, at the seaports and airports (and there is also one between NI and England/Scotland). So your argument doesn't make sense at all.
My lunch partner is a genius architect designer who drives around in a chauffeured and reinforced Bentley, when he isn't in his Aston Martin. He was schooled in a very average comprehensive and did several years in Exeter prison
Are the reasons he has a Bentley/Aston Martin the same as his reason for going to Exeter prison.
And why is his Bentley reinforced?
I have no idea why it is reinforced, but it is. It is huge. He drove it - or had it chauffeured up to the front door of the Savoy one Christmas. It was like driving a Tiger tank into Windsor Castle.
He then bought me a £1000 lunch in Kaspar's, probably the only four figure lunch I have ever had
Amazingly, all his money is legit. He's a genius
I’ve paid six figures for a meal: but that was in Italy before the Euro.
Rentoul makes the point that maybe he thinks he has a chance at the top job? He's surprised me before.
I've rather forgotten but is Rees-Mogg still a member of the government? An extraordinary intervention if so and underlines the fact that Boris has the whiff of political death about him.
Yes. Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council.
Lord Snooty I think, from the Beano.
Fuxake, we're governed by cartoon characters.
JRM has a genuinely sinister malevolence about him. He's more like Roderick Spode.
This is why the SNP ultimately thrashed Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats: we worked twenty times harder than they did *between* elections.
The level of Unionist complacency during the 1980s and 90s was monumental. Although they did wake up a bit during the early 2000s, by 2015 there were still lots of SLab MPs who still didn’t have the faintest scoobie who their voters were. Or by that late date, rather their former voters.
Take Angus for example, a former Tory stronghold. We received intelligence that the Con canvass records were so unsophisticated that their organiser pointed down a few streets and proclaimed that these were Conservative voters. When the SNP subsequently built up a detailed picture of how the individuals living at those addresses actually voted, we discovered that not one single registered elector in any of those streets was a Con voter. Conservative arrogance and ignorance like that was pretty much universal throughout the areas they held up until their collapse.
Labour were often even worse, not knocking a single door for decades in some areas of Glasgow, even at election times. They just assumed “everybody” was Labour.
The Lib Dems were much better, but they simply lacked the vast numbers of door-knockers the local SNP branches could muster.
The Unionists tried to compensate eventually by telephone canvassing, but it is just not as effective as seeing a pleasant face on your doorstep, especially if you recognise the person as being local. (Word to the wise Labour: bussing in hundreds of activists from northern England is profoundly unwise and counterproductive.)
Technology has moved on, and with it have come major adjustments, but the key principle remains: meeting your potential voters works. It is one reason why PB is often such a surreal place when discussing Scotland, most posters around here have never knocked a single door in the country in their life, and therefore hold truly bizarre opinions about the Scots and their electoral behaviour.
Will not the SNP learn complacency in due course ?
Of course that is a risk, but my judgement is that it is profoundly unlikely pre-independence. On the other hand it is my hope and wish that the SNP become complacent post-independence and fizzle away.
I read an awful lot of nonsense on this blog, but one of the biggest myths is that the SNP do not want independence. It was repeated several times yesterday.
We are focussed on the main prize: sovereignty and becoming a normal country. Unionists would do well to simply acknowledge that (the wiser ones do) and work on that basis. Proclaiming that the SNP are anti-independence is just neo-complacency for the Unionist cause.
The biggest change between the 80s and now is that the SNP are obviously much, much bigger, and that we are part of a much wider Yes community. That is a strength which Unionists often try to delude themselves is a weakness.
If the SNP were really focused on independence not keeping power above all, Sturgeon would not have ruled out a wildcat referendum, Sturgeon would not have ruled out UDI and Salmond would not have felt forced to set up Alba
Your disappointment at not having an excuse to send in the (barely operational) tanks is palpable. Still, no need for an AFV to truncheon a granny if push comes to shove.
TUD, amazing as it may seem on this one he is actually correct. She made sure she did not have a decent majority with her SNP2 rhetoric which allowed a shedload of unionist list MSP's. If she had any real interest in ever having a referendum she would have urged them to vote ALBA. Her hatred of Salmond and desperation to keep all power in her hands was just a terrible decision. That and her other stuff will come to haunt her, she will go down as Scotland's Ceaușescu.
Malc, politics is a tough old game and if you can't manage the first step of getting ordinary punters to vote for you, the game's a bogey. Complaining that the game's fixed or that your opponents are rotters won't change anything, something Salmond used to understand very well. I personally can't see how having an extra 5 or 10 Alba MSPs in Hollyrood would have moved us an inch closer to a referendum, but I'm willing to listen if you can talk me through how it might have worked.
Well it would have meant that they had a real majority instead of having to depend on the nutjob Greens. Sturgeon has no intention of having a referendum in this parliament for sure, she will not beg for one , they are not making and have not made any preparations or updates since the last one. Not one thing to promote independence has been done in many years. Yet she spent lots of time and money trying to persuade England not to vote for Brexit. We are for sure going nowhere whilst she is running the show. I would bet on that.
My lunch partner is a genius architect designer who drives around in a chauffeured and reinforced Bentley, when he isn't in his Aston Martin. He was schooled in a very average comprehensive and did several years in Exeter prison
Are the reasons he has a Bentley/Aston Martin the same as his reason for going to Exeter prison.
And why is his Bentley reinforced?
I have no idea why it is reinforced, but it is. It is huge. He drove it - or had it chauffeured up to the front door of the Savoy one Christmas. It was like driving a Tiger tank into Windsor Castle.
He then bought me a £1000 lunch in Kaspar's, probably the only four figure lunch I have ever had
Amazingly, all his money is legit. He's a genius
I’ve paid six figures for a meal: but that was in Italy before the Euro.
Well he has to face the reality the 2017 election result when May lost her majority over the dementia tax killed off the notion of using the family home to pay for at home care
Trouble is that Social Care is expensive, unavoidable, and there's no way of paying for it that's going to be pleasant.
Good job the PM has told us he has a brilliant ready-to-go plan, eh?
My lunch partner is a genius architect designer who drives around in a chauffeured and reinforced Bentley, when he isn't in his Aston Martin. He was schooled in a very average comprehensive and did several years in Exeter prison
Are the reasons he has a Bentley/Aston Martin the same as his reason for going to Exeter prison.
And why is his Bentley reinforced?
I have no idea why it is reinforced, but it is. It is huge. He drove it - or had it chauffeured up to the front door of the Savoy one Christmas. It was like driving a Tiger tank into Windsor Castle.
He then bought me a £1000 lunch in Kaspar's, probably the only four figure lunch I have ever had
Amazingly, all his money is legit. He's a genius
I’ve paid six figures for a meal: but that was in Italy before the Euro.
Several million (Zimbabwe, 90s).
Several million figures is impressive, even in Zimbabwean dollars.
I thought the first rule of code names is that they should not be immediately identifiable with their subject?
Chris Musson @ChrisMusson EXCL: Cops ditch tag “Operation Bunter” for Boris Johnson's next visit to Scotland, after warnings they were effectively branding him Billy Bunter.
It's a bugger isn't it, what with that and executive pay, chugging commissions etc.
My usual plug for sightsavers.org: It's a hell of a lot of bang for your buck, and they don't get their hands on the patients for long enough to attract the abusers. Or so I naively hope.
I bet al large charities will have potential issues: my 1% devil-1% angels idea plays for them as much as it does EvilCo bank. In fact, if I was evil, I might be more attracted to work for a charity than a bank. After all, I work for a charity, so I cant be doing wrong, can I. And if my evil tends towards money, then there's plenty swashing around in the charitable sector...
Given that many charities work with people who have issues (hence why they need help), then they may need to take safeguarding issues more seriously than EvilCo.
You will also find a number of people who self justify - "I work for a charity and donate to Greenpeace, therefore I am good. And all my actions are good."
Also like in the (sj) commentary that whoever the rider, the commentators tut as if it is a genuine disappointment to them personally when someone has a pole down.
Aug 1 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) have raised the prices of their COVID-19 vaccines in their latest European Union supply contracts, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The new price for the Pfizer shot was 19.50 euros ($23.15)against 15.50 euros previously, the newspaper said, citing portions of the contracts seen.
The price of a Moderna vaccine was $25.50 a dose, the contracts show, up from about 19 euros in the first procurement deal but lower than the previously agreed $28.50 because the order had grown, the report said, citing one official close to the matter.
I go to horsey parties where, sadly, it is not an uncommon sight to see modified people carriers arrive and the occupants propel themselves out on wheelchairs.
The #IndoPacific is where the international order of the future will be decided. We want to help shape it and to take on responsibility for upholding the rules‑based international order.– @HeikoMaas Today the frigate “Bayern” departs towards Asia.
I thought the first rule of code names is that they should not be immediately identifiable with their subject?
Chris Musson @ChrisMusson EXCL: Cops ditch tag “Operation Bunter” for Boris Johnson's next visit to Scotland, after warnings they were effectively branding him Billy Bunter.
I thought the first rule of code names is that they should not be immediately identifiable with their subject?
Chris Musson @ChrisMusson EXCL: Cops ditch tag “Operation Bunter” for Boris Johnson's next visit to Scotland, after warnings they were effectively branding him Billy Bunter.
The SNP is also set to renew its independence offer to Scots with a series of what critics said were unrealistic policies.
A public sector job for everyone who wants one, pensions would be more generous and a Scottish passport for every resident....
Perhaps most controversially, the SNP conference will be asked to support plans to set up a new commission which would claim a hard border with England would boost the Scottish economy.
Whilst the UK in its current form is utterly unworkable, that isn't to say that a modernised UK couldn't be. "Devo Max" isn't yet a specific proposal, but having the 4 nations largely self-governing within the UK could be.
Where I think many people outside England struggle currently is that "the Union" is represented Boris, Gammon and "let the migrants drown". But it won't always be.
This is an acutely dangerous period for the Union with a Westminster government that is actively working to break it apart. The danger is that the drive towards independence in Scotland takes real root, that NI realises that it has been cast adrift and needs to own its own destiny, and even Wales is finding a nationalist movement growing way beyond where it had been.
Brexit demonstrated that people don't vote based on practicalities. "What about the hard border" is no barrier to voting leave.
Considering 62% of Scots voted Remain, 55% of Northern Irish voters voted Remain and even 47.5% of Welsh voters voted Remain the surprise is more that the SNP, SF and Plaid are not polling better than the reverse.
In May's Holyrood elections the SNP only got 47% on the constituency vote and 40% on the list and Plaid only got 20% on the constituency vote and list in the Senedd.
In 2019 SF also only got 22% in NI at the general election despite Brexit.
Probably Boris getting a trade deal with the EU and avoiding No Deal has reduced the damage Brexit might have done to the Union
I can't send good to NI or take my dog to NI or carry certain amounts of cash to NI without paperwork and checks. You say we avoided no deal - tell that to the Northern Irish.
The Northern Irish are effectively still in the SM and CU, so have an even stronger trade deal with the EU than GB does.
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
So why can't the Scots have what the Nirish are having? As you said just now, a bigger percentage of them voted Remain than the Nirish.
As Scotland has a border with England which is also not in the EU, not Ireland which is in the EU like NI. There is also no GFA covering Scotland and the EU did not demand no checks between Scotland and the EU as they demanded no checks between NI and the EU for a GB-EU trade deal (so you can also partly blame Barnier for abandoning you).
Technically of course as long as army checkpoints were not imposed again on the Irish border even customs posts would not have breached the GFA but the EU were not going to do a trade deal with the UK government with a hard border in Ireland
But rUK and Ireland have a border too, at the seaports and airports (and there is also one between NI and England/Scotland). So your argument doesn't make sense at all.
Of course it does, the UK government was never going to agree a border between England and Scotland as well, especially as the EU never asked for one for a deal
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
In the Torygraph as well which we know the party leadership reads. I'm genuinely shocked that this policy is even under consideration. The cost of social care needs to be paid for by the oldies.
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
In the Torygraph as well which we know the party leadership reads. I'm genuinely shocked that this policy is even under consideration. The cost of social care needs to be paid for by the oldies.
That policy cost the Tories their majority in 2017, it is political suicide, especially as it lost the middle aged vote too who stood to inherit.
If you are going to raise extra funds for social care NI is the only politically viable way to do so
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
Now they're showing replays of the weightlifting whilst the 5000 metres is on live...
Shit show.....nearly as bad as their commentary for the Hundred....6s getting launched everywhere and Tuffers and Vaughan discussing shoe sizes for 20 mins inbetween uninformed nonsense about how hard for spinner to bowl early overs in Hundred / T20 (when conventional wisdom now is that is actually one of the best times for them to bowl).
In the Torygraph as well which we know the party leadership reads. I'm genuinely shocked that this policy is even under consideration. The cost of social care needs to be paid for by the oldies.
That policy cost the Tories their majority in 2017, it is political suicide, especially as it lost the middle aged vote too who stood to inherit.
If you are going to raise extra funds for social care NI is the only politically viable way to do so
I think you are right, but Boris said he had a solution immediately after the last election. All this time has gone by and it seems the solution is to raise a tax! That's it.
Personally I feel that if you can afford to pay for your care you should do so. I certainly plan to, but for some reason inheriting from ones parents and passing the bill on to others seems to be the accepted way.
In the Torygraph as well which we know the party leadership reads. I'm genuinely shocked that this policy is even under consideration. The cost of social care needs to be paid for by the oldies.
That policy cost the Tories their majority in 2017, it is political suicide, especially as it lost the middle aged vote too who stood to inherit.
If you are going to raise extra funds for social care NI is the only politically viable way to do so
No it isn't, the Tories will lose far too many working age voters. The key metric from 2017 vs 2019 was the age of becoming a Tory voter. In 2017 it was 49 and the party lost its majority and n 2019 the age was 37 and you got an 80 seat majority. Push working age voters away again with a rise in NI (a tax only paid by working age people) and that age will rise to over 45 again and the majority goes with it.
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
It is a very poor performance by the BBC all day, apart from the Horsey stuff. We seemed to stay a long time with the athletics, mainly talking heads, yet no mention of the weightlifting girl until after she won the silver. I have been following this and others live on the olympics website. I suspect we will be striking out of medals in athletics this year. I wonder if they will lose some funding?
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
It is a very poor performance by the BBC all day, apart from the Horsey stuff. We seemed to stay a long time with the athletics, mainly talking heads, yet no mention of the weightlifting girl until after she won the silver. I have been following this and others live on the olympics website. I suspect we will be striking out of medals in athletics this year. I wonder if they will lose some funding?
Then they replay the weightlifting, and miss the women's 5000 metres.
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
It is a very poor performance by the BBC all day, apart from the Horsey stuff. We seemed to stay a long time with the athletics, mainly talking heads, yet no mention of the weightlifting girl until after she won the silver. I have been following this and others live on the olympics website. I suspect we will be striking out of medals in athletics this year. I wonder if they will lose some funding?
Its as if because of the restrictions on the deal they have signed, they just given up trying with the coverage. Far far too long wittering in the studio, normally making excuses about why one of their chosen "winners" hasn't done it (we get it the Olympics are ultra competitive and margin for error tiny), while not making full use of the two channels they have to actually show the sport. Plenty of time for the wittering during the round up shows.
In the Torygraph as well which we know the party leadership reads. I'm genuinely shocked that this policy is even under consideration. The cost of social care needs to be paid for by the oldies.
That policy cost the Tories their majority in 2017, it is political suicide, especially as it lost the middle aged vote too who stood to inherit.
If you are going to raise extra funds for social care NI is the only politically viable way to do so
Though as Max and The Telegraph have pointed out, NI is just differently politically unviable. Working people paying more tax for the social care of Boomers will just seal the Conservatives' problem with young and middle aged people. Short of inventing a time machine and making different decisions back in the 1980s, there's no nice way of doing this. Maybe that's a job for ARIA?
For her many faults, TM the PM recognised this and was prepared to grimace her way through it, in a way that her successor seems not to be.
We're guaranteed a silver in the weightlifting - great effort from Emily.
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
Its an incredible result, Team GB have no real history in weight lifting....in fact ground breaking, first British women to win one and of course what angle are the BBC concentrating on...
You'll note that was published well before the medal results actually happened.
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
What are the 1000s of BBC news people doing with their time, pissing about on twitter?.....and then Whitlock won yesterday, they had a story up in seconds.
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
It is a very poor performance by the BBC all day, apart from the Horsey stuff. We seemed to stay a long time with the athletics, mainly talking heads, yet no mention of the weightlifting girl until after she won the silver. I have been following this and others live on the olympics website. I suspect we will be striking out of medals in athletics this year. I wonder if they will lose some funding?
Its as if because of the restrictions on the deal they have signed, they just given up trying with the coverage. Far far too long wittering in the studio, normally making excuses about why one of their chosen "winners" hasn't done it (we get it the Olympics are ultra competitive and margin for error tiny), while not making full use of the two channels they have to actually show the sport. Plenty of time for the wittering during the round up shows.
I watched Beyonce at Glasto 2011 the other night. Never seen it before. It was great, flawless performance, full of feelgood vibes from the recent election of Obama. Footage of him and his family was worked into the backdrop, everybody cheering. And I couldn't help thinking, although the thought was such a downer, what if someone had crashed the stage back then, grabbed the mike from 'B', and told this large and happy gathering that in 5 years time the 1st black president of the United States would be replaced by a rancid old white racist? Talk about pooping the party.
Comments
I was hoping for multiple bans, like a mass sending off in a rugby brawl
If NI had genuinely gone to No Deal there would be a hard border and checkpoints along the Irish border
I have indeed started drinking again after 15 years' abstinence. I think this is long enough not to count as falling off the wagon. Was hoping it didn't show.
Frustratingly low informational content. We need the years and models to pass judgement.
Though 2001 would probably have been closer against Smith
Either we sack off both the treaty and WTO rules, don't do checks and don't get taken to court, or we compromise and accept that our standards and the EU standards are actually the same after all. Whatever that long term solution is will apply to E&W / Scotland. There will only be a hard border if we end with one with the EU. And we won't. For our government taking back control of our border didn't mean taking back control of the border - we don't want a controlled border checking who and what comes in apparently.
Another charity (and one I really like) has proved to have (ahem) safeguarding issues:
"Samaritans volunteers met vulnerable callers for sex"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58057031
Technically of course as long as army checkpoints were not imposed again on the Irish border even customs posts would not have breached the GFA but the EU were not going to do a trade deal with the UK government with a hard border in Ireland
My usual plug for sightsavers.org: It's a hell of a lot of bang for your buck, and they don't get their hands on the patients for long enough to attract the abusers. Or so I naively hope.
Smith would still have won comfortably in 1997 certainly but he would not have slaughtered the Tories like Blair did
Given that many charities work with people who have issues (hence why they need help), then they may need to take safeguarding issues more seriously than EvilCo.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/08/01/taxing-work-pay-social-care-would-make-britain-unfair/
Gawd bless you, sir.
In fact, the little I know about it doesn't really make me want to go there.
So... sell it to me.
Not one thing to promote independence has been done in many years. Yet she spent lots of time and money trying to persuade England not to vote for Brexit. We are for sure going nowhere whilst she is running the show. I would bet on that.
Good job the PM has told us he has a brilliant ready-to-go plan, eh?
https://unherd.com/2021/08/barack-obama-was-a-false-hope/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=bbdd2e0884&mc_eid=836634e34b
Under William Fox-Pitt, I see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Collett#Personal_life
The new price for the Pfizer shot was 19.50 euros ($23.15)against 15.50 euros previously, the newspaper said, citing portions of the contracts seen.
The price of a Moderna vaccine was $25.50 a dose, the contracts show, up from about 19 euros in the first procurement deal but lower than the previously agreed $28.50 because the order had grown, the report said, citing one official close to the matter.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-moderna-raises-prices-its-covid-19-vaccines-eu-ft-2021-08-01/
Oh dear, what a shame!
Isn’t it a pity that there’s not a low price not for profit vaccine whose reputation hasn’t been traduced?
The #IndoPacific is where the international order of the future will be decided. We want to help shape it and to take on responsibility for upholding the rules‑based international order.– @HeikoMaas
Today the frigate “Bayern” departs towards Asia.
https://twitter.com/GermanyDiplo/status/1422144171972964352?s=20
Edit: It is silver, the chinese lady takes gold.
"Johnson badly needs his party’s... polling position to improve."
I don't think the Tories have ever ditched a leader whose ratings put the party on course for a working majority, have they?
Sure the position could get worse, but I don't think it's the status quo that's the problem for Johnson.
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It's not real till it has a shit logo.
BBC breaking News - Tokyo Olympics: Laurel Hubbard out of weightlifting after failing to register successful lift
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58054891
Do they know something about impending continental upheaval that we don't?
It's a frequent complaint on here that the BBC isn't covering something, when the reality is that they're just a bit slow in publishing stories.
If you are going to raise extra funds for social care NI is the only politically viable way to do so
In fact...they have a story up in the sport section of the weightlifting result, but news concetrating solely on the transgender angle.
Personally I feel that if you can afford to pay for your care you should do so. I certainly plan to, but for some reason inheriting from ones parents and passing the bill on to others seems to be the accepted way.
https://twitter.com/DitEropa1_Kemlu/status/1422171355236028420?s=20
Short of inventing a time machine and making different decisions back in the 1980s, there's no nice way of doing this. Maybe that's a job for ARIA?
For her many faults, TM the PM recognised this and was prepared to grimace her way through it, in a way that her successor seems not to be.