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The UK Government says opinion polls are more important than actual votes – politicalbetting.com
The UK Government says opinion polls are more important than actual votes – politicalbetting.com
Exclusive: Scotland could hold a second independence referendum if polls show 60 percent of Scots consistently support principle of a fresh vote, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack suggested in an interview with me yesterday. https://t.co/kKhwuRQNzG
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ETA Wikipedia reminds us that Kiwi speedway ace Barry Briggs was twice runner up in the 1960s while riding in Britain.
The Sun tips Michael Gove to replace Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary, suggesting Boris can sell it to Raab as becoming de facto Deputy PM, and making it harder for Gove to plot against him. Though the Sun also notes that Gove was previously tipped to replace Priti Patel as Home Secretary.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15994444/michael-gove-tipped-for-job-swap-with-dominic-raab/
And on Barry Briggs, I think that reflects he fact that speedway (Tai Woofinden has been unlucky not to be nominated in recent years) was massive back then and we saw kiwis as our own.
the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.
In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/revealed-foreign-office-ignored-pleas-help-afghans-mps-evacuation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/boy-12-makes-makes-290000-24853526.amp
And to think our youngest wasted his time perfecting the butterfly, back-flips and street hockey. Daddy will have to buy his own Porsche.
F1: surprised that Norris seems to be starting 14th rather than from the pit lane but apparently that's going to happen. (Five place grid penalty, but Bottas getting the same had promoted him to 9th).
How Europe is pulling ahead of Britain in the great Covid race
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/how-europe-is-pulling-ahead-of-britain-in-the-great-covid-race/ar-AANQyMT?ocid=msedgntp
Europe joined the vaccine race late, but the pace at which jabs have been going into arms in recent months has been staggering. France is now fractionally ahead of us on single jabs, while Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Portugal now all have a significantly greater proportion of their citizens fully vaccinated.
Europe has also been quicker to start vaccinating its teenagers. In France, Spain and Italy, more than half of those aged 12 to 18 are already vaccinated, for example.
And it's a fine bright morning in N Essex and the thermometer has just crawled above 10 C.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2021/08/belgium-pre-race-2021.html
Weather forecast is light rain, arguably the most unhelpful of forecasts as it can vary from having no impact to a lot. Backed under 16.5 classified finishers at evens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_Scottish_independence
So the UK government can and will refuse an indyref2 and as union matters are reserved to Westminster under the Scotland Act 1998 there is nothing the SNP can do about it. Even a wildcat referendum would have no bearing on the union as Westminster could ignore the result as Madrid did with the Catalan wildcat referendum.
Hence too Sturgeon and the Greens have said they do not want an indyref2 now but within 5 years, which the polling suggests a narrow plurality of Scots favour. Ideally Sturgeon has put the end of 2023 as the time, which conveniently would be past the likely next UK general election date of Spring or Autumn 2023. That is because if Starmer becomes UK PM Sturgeon knows he would be more willing to grant an indyref2 than Boris without a 60% threshold, especially if reliant on SNP confidence and supply.
So forget about indyref2 before the next UK general election and expect more Nationalist hardliners to move from SNP to Alba in frustration in the meantime
Is that really the face, voice and defective personality England wants to represent it in the world stage? Really? I think you guys ought to desist with the self-flagellation for a while.
Everyone needs a Willie...
For example if Nationalist parties won more votes and seats than Unionist parties at Stormont or if polling showed a consistent majority in favour of a united Ireland.
There is no such provision for Scotland however, so even if the SNP and Greens won every Holyrood seat and Yes was on 100%, the UK government at Westminster could still in theory refuse an indyref2. However Jack set the 60% Yes figure in polls as if almost 2/3 of Scots want independence it would be practically difficult for Westminster to deny an indyref2
The right-wing populist leader is trailing left-wing former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in the polls.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-58372754
Being DPM for Raab would mean he was moved away from the centre of politics.
(Well it makes as much sense as Ronaldo).
Anyway, shouldn't you be off to Church?
Actually in 2022 it will be Harry Kane after lifting the World Cup. It's coming home...
“The Foreign Office failed to roll the pitch with these countries for months,” a minister said. “The PM wanted third countries involved and Raab did nothing. Boris is exasperated that the Foreign Office has not done what he told them. They also took their people out and that cost us several days. I suspect we could have taken out 800 to 1,000 more people if they had not done that.”
Last night a senior official in the Pakistani government said Raab had shown no interest in talking to them, claiming that he did not make a single phone call to the Afghan or Pakistani foreign ministers in the six months before the crisis. “He just didn’t care,” the official said. “He thought Afghanistan was yesterday’s war and the government was totally focused on Brexit.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/afghanistan-blame-game-erupts-as-british-soldiers-fly-home-6b0c2x9tx
Cameron and the governing party MPs wanting a referendum but the status quo was a big part of the problem as it meant we did not plan properly and were very divided.
Obviously coming from Gove and Bozo it is another case of cake-ism, having made so much of 52-48, now demanding 60-40, but I think they are right this time.
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/paralympic-games/en/results/all-sports/medal-standings.htm
The answer is no.
What the Secretary of State would consider a trigger point for an Irish unity referendum is if the nationalists/republicans win a majority of seats/votes at Stormont or Westminster.
Or if in the census there were more Catholics than Protestants.
Freshers’ week parties could cause huge jump in Covid cases, scientists warn
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/28/freshers-week-parties-could-cause-huge-jump-in-covid-cases-scientists-warn
Two actually, the first of whom is Professor Susan Michie....
Of course, what we do about, if anything, is a different and more complicated question.
Elsewhere, NZ is still struggling with Delta. The good news is that they may have caught the outbreak in time to stamp it out in most of the country; the bad news is that Auckland might yet go the way of Sydney - the consequences of that likely being continuous hard lockdown into 2022, whilst they sort out their hopeless vaccination drive. Grim.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/29/new-zealand-covid-update-83-new-cases-with-all-but-one-in-auckland
Remember the UK government won’t act arbitrarily. They will discuss it with the guarantors of the GFA, the US and the EU.
There’s also the awkward discussion to be had about if the ROI would/could take NI back.
No point holding an Irish unity referendum if Dublin says no ta.
The last 10 days have been a traumatic period for so many, not least our soldiers who are reportedly, in some cases, experiencing PTSD and I know the serious nature of this as my eldest son has been suffering for some years and at 55 is unlikely to work again
I hope they all receive the mental health care they deserve, and as the last aircraft lands back in the UK with our soldiers I for one just have a huge feeling of relief they are home and that we must never again involve ourselves in foreign wars
The political fallout is hard to judge but if labour cannot regain a poll lead now, when will they
Grandparental advice.... avoid Freshers Week parties..... I don't think so. Need to give advice that's likely to be accepted.
Guardian had a useful one yesterday; never buy a book that you can borrow from the library!
just weaselly bollox from a lickspittle colonial popinjay.
https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1431862793360351236?s=19
The Daily Mail also want to know why we can't be in the single market...
https://twitter.com/danielboffey/status/1431873086736019458
Take it you haven't advised your granddaughter to stay away from parties?
In May Scotland voted on a record turnout and elected a record number of MSPs on an explicit platform for a 2nd referendum. Whatever Alister Jack thinks (or worse his frit keyboard warrior fool from Essicks) is irrelevant - Scotland has spoken.
The Tories have a track record of abolishing democratic institutions that disagree with them. Thatcher with her huge majority hated that London voted Labour so abolished it. Johnson with his large majority hates that Scotland doesn't love him how he doesn't love them so ignores them. His SofS says the election in May doesn't count, 55% of elected MSPs for a referendum isn't enough now it needs to be 60%
There is a basic warning to heed. People dislike being told that they voted wrong. Every time a court overturns an election result the following by-election delivers a thumping majority to replace the overturned wafer thin one. Brexit was seen as "rejected" by various parties hence the thumping Tory majority.
You can ignore the will of the people for only so long. Even I as a new Scot am now tempted to roll the dice as and when a vote eventually happens - we can't trust Westminster. "Why would you think that and leap off into the dark" ask various posters who said we can't trust Brussels and voted for said leap into the dark 5 years ago. What goes around comes around.
The problem with federalism is that you either create an English Parliament - in which case, there's a tremendous risk of an actual ENP emerging and finishing Britain off from the centre - or you try to cut England up into (mostly artificial) regions, which then means that Westminster has a dozen or more constantly aggrieved devolved First Ministers to deal with instead of just three.
From the point of view of the Unionists, the least worst option is to leave things more-or-less as they are, and to try to make it too scary for voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to leave - primarily by throwing vast amounts of money at them, and therefore inviting them to contemplate how they would cope without it.
Mr. Pigeon, don't forget aggravated voters.
That if he does not understand something, he should ask his tutor, his mates, or watch a couple of video lectures from other universities?
We can assume he already knows how to revise with spaced repetition and active recall.
OK got one. At the start of every module, he should check how it will be examined – essays, MCQs, lab notebooks, thesis, whatever.
Always take some dirty washing home to mum so she feels appreciated, even if she pretends not to.
Don't fall behind. Don't join so many clubs there is no time left for study, but on the other hand, always say yes to new experiences.
And enjoy it. These should be the happiest days of his life.
PTSD in veterans is quite an issue, but mental health services will always be crap. It always has been the cinderella of health care, and always will be.