“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
Not sure I understand this. I never had a "Nan", I had a Granny and while she was pretty fearsome, she was actually pretty competent.
With respect to the actual point, Nicola is indeed very annoying, but it is noticeable that health is a devolved matter and yet by international comparison she has done very badly. I am not sure I can be bothered to crunch comparatives, but I think she/Scotland has done worse than England. No doubt it is the fault of the English in some way
Scotland has suffered from fewer deaths than England. You can argue about whether this was due to factors outside of Sturgeon's control - such as having fewer non-white residents, or the absence of a major international transport hub - or if it wasn't worth the extra periods with stricter legal restrictions.
I was struck watching Blair & Brown how much time Blair spent smiling, especially in his early career. A constant broad grin.
That must have sent a strong subliminal message to voters. This chap is enjoying himself, he likes Britain, he is optimistic about the future. Let’s follow him. Brown on the other hand was forever frowning.
Keir is not a smiler. He looks miserable. Corbyn was worse: not just miserable but angry. I’m not sure smiling is an absolute prerequisite for success, after all Merkel is hardly full of cheer most of the time and Putin isn’t the Cheshire Cat, but looking miserable can’t be a net benefit.
When Brown tried smiling he looked like Malvolio in his yellow stockings.
Yes and there are others with the same affliction, TM being an example.
Of course Burgon smiles quite a lot so the correlation isn’t perfect.
To win a landslide and win a majority in England Labour probably do win another charismatic and centrist Blair like leader. The Blair and Brown: the New Labour Revolution which started last Monday and continues tomorrow on BBC2 at 9pm is good on showing how ruthless Blair was in changing Labour's image and policies to appeal to Middle England.
However while Labour has near zero chance of winning a majority at the next general election, Starmer has significantly higher chance of getting a hung parliament and becoming PM with SNP and LD support.
Remember the last leader to take Labour into power before Blair, Harold Wilson in February 1974 and 1964, lost in England to Home and Heath respectively. Wilson won those elections by a majority of just 4 in 1964 and by winning most seats in a hung parliament in February 1974 thanks to Labour winning a majority of seats in Scotland and Wales. So again it could be Scottish and Welsh MPs who could put Labour into power again, only this time the Scottish MPs would be SNP not Labour
It's probably a category error to think that Labour especially needs a centrist - we think in terms of left-right spectrums but most people are far more steered by gut feeling that X sounds interesting, dynamic yet safe and Y doesn't. You need some interesting stuff (which will tend not to be centrist "steady as she goes" policies) to get to the base 30%, and then you need to be sufficiently unscary to get another 5-10%. Every Labour leader will get hit by the tabloids on something so you shouldn't be paranoid about that, but you do need a generally reassuring approach.
Starmer is betting the farm on the Rawnsley hypothesis that people will tire of Boris's antics and look for a sober, serious leader. That may be correct, but I think we do need a bit more sparkle to get the vote out.
It is also a category error to think that centrists want boring steady as she goes stuff. I am very much a centrist in favour of radical change. I am just happy picking from the rights toolbox or the lefts toolbox pragmatically on a case by case basis.
Yes, that's fine, and it's what Tony did, which is why I supported him. We shouldn't spend too much time debating what we mean by "centrist", I suppose - what I'm saying is that people want someone who is both interesting and safe. As HYUFD observes, it's half the battle not to get people out in droves to stop you (which is what happened in 2019, not so much in 2017), but you do also need to get your own supporters out. The right balance is to have a couple of well-defined proposals which sound attractive and new and mildly controversial but are not so far-reaching as to call everything into question.
In 1997 the Minimum Wage was a good example: concrete and specific, and radical enough to get a Tory campaign against it, but not sounding actually dangerous to the average voter. Wilson's observation that Labour is best led from the left is relevant here - you need the credibility that you're actually going to make a difference, coupled with the credibility not to be a bull in a china shop.
I agree with that. Labour should go with a wealth tax on something like £10m+, merging NI and income tax, whilst reducing the combined rate for workers by a couple of % as the highlight of their economic policies. Would net raise money from Tory voters and reduce taxes on Labour voters and possible swingers, as well as definitely falling in the interesting and change categories.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
Not sure I understand this. I never had a "Nan", I had a Granny and while she was pretty fearsome, she was actually pretty competent.
With respect to the actual point, Nicola is indeed very annoying, but it is noticeable that health is a devolved matter and yet by international comparison she has done very badly. I am not sure I can be bothered to crunch comparatives, but I think she/Scotland has done worse than England. No doubt it is the fault of the English in some way
‘I am not sure I can be bothered to crunch comparatives’
It’s that kind of fact based analysis that makes PB indispensable.
When have Nationalists ever worried about facts? You certainly aren't giving me any to prove that Scotland has managed the pandemic better than England. This was Nicola's moment to shine. Fact is she is as shit as Johnson when it comes to practical governance, and you know it.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
That is because as a Nationalist you are very parochial and narrow minded, and generally spout uninformed shite, even, about your own region.
If this is the case, though and we follow your twisted logic, none of us should comment on any politics except that that related to our region. We cannot comment on Trump in the US, the problems the EU is having with Poland, or China, or India, because we don't live in those countries. @StuartDickson should not comment on Scotland because he does not live there. @Sandpit should not comment on UK politics because he does not live here.
Fuxake, how many times do you have to be told to get it into your pinheid, you are allowed to comment as much as you like and I’m allowed to point and laugh as much as I like.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
Not sure I understand this. I never had a "Nan", I had a Granny and while she was pretty fearsome, she was actually pretty competent.
With respect to the actual point, Nicola is indeed very annoying, but it is noticeable that health is a devolved matter and yet by international comparison she has done very badly. I am not sure I can be bothered to crunch comparatives, but I think she/Scotland has done worse than England. No doubt it is the fault of the English in some way
‘I am not sure I can be bothered to crunch comparatives’
It’s that kind of fact based analysis that makes PB indispensable.
When have Nationalists ever worried about facts? You certainly aren't giving me any to prove that Scotland has managed the pandemic better than England. This was Nicola's moment to shine. Fact is she is as shit as Johnson when it comes to practical governance, and you know it.
She's worse as she almost certainly would have signed up to the EU Vaccine disaster.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
I expect my wife has as much a claim to her Scots heritage going back generations as you have, and you may not like the debate but the fact is Sturgeons comments this week on a any level, inside or outside Scotland, should be comprehensively condemned
I cannot even start to tell you how much she disgusts my wife
Big G and his missus will not be giving their votes to StURgeOn and the SNP. Tipping point!
No need to think 2 votes will have any effect on the majority of Scots who reject the narrow minded nationalists, the leader of which is actively hoping for the deaths of thousands to promote her political objective
It really cannot get any more obscene or disgusting
The government is to offer the north and Midlands a cut-price “bare minimum” of railway upgrades despite Boris Johnson’s promise this week to “level up” the country outside London, The Independent understands.
Local transport chiefs now expect to receive a severely pared-back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme, and for ministers to effectively shelve plans for a high-speed cross-country link through the east Midlands.
The government has been drawing up plans for new connections outside London in consultation with local leaders – but insiders familiar with discussions now expect virtually every major city across the north and Midlands to be left disappointed.
Close followers of the government’s "Levelling Up agenda" may find themselves unsurprised by this news.
The problem is, if you abandon the HS2 eastern leg you also accept there can be no increase in services on the ECML, the MML or any of their feeder lines, because there simply won’t be the pathways or even the station platforms to accommodate them. As we found in Cannock when our train service to London had to be abandoned due to congestion south of Rugby which meant no train was getting to Hednesford in time to proceed to Rugeley.
And any way of increasing capacity other than HS2 will be twice as expensive yet half as effective.
(And that’s passenger services - freight will be even more constricted.)
The road haulage lobby will be happy though. Their clients at DafT came through for them when it mattered.
Yep they’ve cut the wrong half.
York and Leeds are already at capacity with zero chance of making improvements on north south routes.
I disagree about ‘the wrong half.’ It needs to be built in full. There are just as many capacity problems at Manchester.
What it does show is the power of the false narrative. The repetition of the lie that Oakervee said it would cost ‘not less than £106 billion’ when in fact he specifically said it ‘would not’ cost £106 billion, coupled with the claims about damage to woodland (inflated two hundredfold and hyperbolically compared to the loss of woodlands in the First World War) plus the mantra about ‘forty minutes faster to Birmingham’ has made it unpopular. The fact that all these claims are deliberate horseshit invented by people with axes to grind goes unnoticed.
I have to say, I’m particularly disappointed the FT has wilfully repeated so many lies. I thought until recently they were a rare surviving bastion of responsible journalism.
I told everyone ten years ago that HS2 was for the benefit of London and the big clue would be at what end they started building from.
Sigh.
Unless they built the southern leg first, there would be nowhere for the trains at the northern end to run to.
That has nothing to do with who benefits. In fact, the reason it’s under threat is because it primarily benefits the north by releasing capacity for local services (which are amply provided for in London already) and all the decision makers care about is the south.
Sigh.
There was no reason not to build from both ends.
And we've been told on this site that HS2 would allow people to commute from Stoke to Manchester.
HS2 was always based on what benefited London - on that we can agree.
It couldn't have been made any clearer by these near simultaneous announcements:
The costs associated with building HS2, the high speed railway linking northern and southern England, have risen again.
The news comes less than two months after construction officially began.
Ministers have admitted an extra £800m is needed due to more asbestos being discovered and the complexities of bringing the railway into a new hub station at London Euston.
The reason it would have enabled people to commute more easily from Stoke to Manchester is because it would have freed up pathways on the WCML by taking express trains off it. Which wouldn’t have happened if there were no lines in the south to take said express trains.
As for the Euston platforms, that’s not about benefitting London. Again, it’s about where the trains go. The trains from (checks notes) the north of England.
Your final claim would tend to confirm my point, that the DFT don’t approve projects that don’t benefit London. Their obstruction, for that reason, is why it’s taken 25 years even to start digging.
So again, you seem to be wilfully missing the point. HS2 has had to struggle to survive because it has a limited benefit to London. Therefore, not only do we not agree but we’re arguing diametrically opposite points.
HS2 expands the London commuter belt and gets a fortune spent on London infrastructure.
It benefits London first and most.
The cunning thing about HS2 is that it has been sold as a benefit to the North when in reality it has always been about benefiting London.
Sadly people like yourself have been the useful idiots for this.
It really doesn’t. It expands the capacity of lines in the north and midlands by providing alternative routes for the fast expresses to London. Why do you suppose all the lies you have bought on the subject come from southerners - Joe Rukin, Chris Packham and the Treasury?
It’s an amusing irony though that you accuse me of being a useful idiot when every word you have typed this morning has been wrong and based on anti-HS2 campaigning.
Blah and blah.
Endless words yet I'm the one being proven right.
I will ytake that as you don’t have a valid argument so will continue by sticking my fingers in my ears.
I'm dealing with reality not theoretical arguments.
Nope, you are missing a fundamental point. outside of Crewe HS2 unless it's built in full probably helps no-one get to London any quicker. In Birmingham you somehow have to get to a different station to catch the train as Birmingham New Street was / is full and doesn't have any spare land because Network Rail sold it during their Trains are a blooming inconvenience phase.
from what I've read in the past, there was ever any option to expand BNS due to the lie of the land and other constraints - they'd done as much as they could in the 1960s rebuilding, resulting in the rather narrow platforms.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
I recall the late Robin Day cutting short that line of argument by saying ‘I’ve never been to the North Pole, but I know it’s bloody cold’.
The lengths that leavers are going to to spin acting in bad faith as just normal things governments do is embarrassing .
The fact is no 10 signed an agreement they never had any intention of implementing, and have made no effort to make the protocol work .
The ECJ issue was nowhere to be seen earlier in the year , this has appeared because Frost and Johnson want to keep the UK in a constant war of words with the EU .
The biggest loser if this ends up in a trade war will be the UK , both sides will be harmed but facts matter . The EU is less reliant on exports to the UK than the other way round .
Any Leaver arguing otherwise just needs to look at official government data !
It seems stupid trigger a trade war because you object to the EUCJ hypothetically being called to interpret EU law as it applies to Single Market rules in Northern Ireland when it has never done so yet, and you have already agreed for them to so in a treaty.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
I expect my wife has as much a claim to her Scots heritage going back generations as you have, and you may not like the debate but the fact is Sturgeons comments this week on any level, inside or outside Scotland, should be comprehensively condemned
I cannot even start to tell you how much she disgusts my wife
The government is to offer the north and Midlands a cut-price “bare minimum” of railway upgrades despite Boris Johnson’s promise this week to “level up” the country outside London, The Independent understands.
Local transport chiefs now expect to receive a severely pared-back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme, and for ministers to effectively shelve plans for a high-speed cross-country link through the east Midlands.
The government has been drawing up plans for new connections outside London in consultation with local leaders – but insiders familiar with discussions now expect virtually every major city across the north and Midlands to be left disappointed.
Close followers of the government’s "Levelling Up agenda" may find themselves unsurprised by this news.
The problem is, if you abandon the HS2 eastern leg you also accept there can be no increase in services on the ECML, the MML or any of their feeder lines, because there simply won’t be the pathways or even the station platforms to accommodate them. As we found in Cannock when our train service to London had to be abandoned due to congestion south of Rugby which meant no train was getting to Hednesford in time to proceed to Rugeley.
And any way of increasing capacity other than HS2 will be twice as expensive yet half as effective.
(And that’s passenger services - freight will be even more constricted.)
The road haulage lobby will be happy though. Their clients at DafT came through for them when it mattered.
Yep they’ve cut the wrong half.
York and Leeds are already at capacity with zero chance of making improvements on north south routes.
I disagree about ‘the wrong half.’ It needs to be built in full. There are just as many capacity problems at Manchester.
What it does show is the power of the false narrative. The repetition of the lie that Oakervee said it would cost ‘not less than £106 billion’ when in fact he specifically said it ‘would not’ cost £106 billion, coupled with the claims about damage to woodland (inflated two hundredfold and hyperbolically compared to the loss of woodlands in the First World War) plus the mantra about ‘forty minutes faster to Birmingham’ has made it unpopular. The fact that all these claims are deliberate horseshit invented by people with axes to grind goes unnoticed.
I have to say, I’m particularly disappointed the FT has wilfully repeated so many lies. I thought until recently they were a rare surviving bastion of responsible journalism.
I told everyone ten years ago that HS2 was for the benefit of London and the big clue would be at what end they started building from.
Sigh.
Unless they built the southern leg first, there would be nowhere for the trains at the northern end to run to.
That has nothing to do with who benefits. In fact, the reason it’s under threat is because it primarily benefits the north by releasing capacity for local services (which are amply provided for in London already) and all the decision makers care about is the south.
Sigh.
There was no reason not to build from both ends.
And we've been told on this site that HS2 would allow people to commute from Stoke to Manchester.
HS2 was always based on what benefited London - on that we can agree.
It couldn't have been made any clearer by these near simultaneous announcements:
The costs associated with building HS2, the high speed railway linking northern and southern England, have risen again.
The news comes less than two months after construction officially began.
Ministers have admitted an extra £800m is needed due to more asbestos being discovered and the complexities of bringing the railway into a new hub station at London Euston.
The reason it would have enabled people to commute more easily from Stoke to Manchester is because it would have freed up pathways on the WCML by taking express trains off it. Which wouldn’t have happened if there were no lines in the south to take said express trains.
As for the Euston platforms, that’s not about benefitting London. Again, it’s about where the trains go. The trains from (checks notes) the north of England.
Your final claim would tend to confirm my point, that the DFT don’t approve projects that don’t benefit London. Their obstruction, for that reason, is why it’s taken 25 years even to start digging.
So again, you seem to be wilfully missing the point. HS2 has had to struggle to survive because it has a limited benefit to London. Therefore, not only do we not agree but we’re arguing diametrically opposite points.
HS2 expands the London commuter belt and gets a fortune spent on London infrastructure.
It benefits London first and most.
The cunning thing about HS2 is that it has been sold as a benefit to the North when in reality it has always been about benefiting London.
Sadly people like yourself have been the useful idiots for this.
It really doesn’t. It expands the capacity of lines in the north and midlands by providing alternative routes for the fast expresses to London. Why do you suppose all the lies you have bought on the subject come from southerners - Joe Rukin, Chris Packham and the Treasury?
It’s an amusing irony though that you accuse me of being a useful idiot when every word you have typed this morning has been wrong and based on anti-HS2 campaigning.
Blah and blah.
Endless words yet I'm the one being proven right.
The only reason you claim ‘you are being proved right’ is because you have refused to engage with any actual evidence, which unfortunately for you happens to demonstrate you are wrong. I appreciate this makes it easier for you to believe you’re right.
I’m intrigued about your username in light of this. Are you a member of the Richard III society by any chance?
This is what I predicted a decade ago:
1) London wants more infrastructure spending
2) The southern part of HS2 benefits London the northern parts don't
3) HS2 would be sold as benefitting the North
4) Construction would begin in London so London gets the benefits it wanted
5) Costs would rise and there would be years of delays
6) Other transport improvements in the North would be stopped as money is spent on HS2
7) Costs would rise more and yet more delays
8) A financial crisis would occur - I assumed after a recession didn't expect covid
9) Cutbacks in the northern parts of HS2 would happen
And so it came to pass.
But London doesn’t benefit from HS2. If it did, it would have been built by now. Like Crossrail.*
It’s Londoners that are constantly objecting to it, not northerners who want it built. The southern part doesn’t benefit London at all because the extra capacity will be used for semi fast services in from the Midlands. In fact, the extensive building works in and around London make it definitely a net loser (why do you suppose the link to HS1 was scrapped? Why do you suppose there are ongoing efforts to downgrade the number of platforms at Euston)?
Similarly, no transport projects have been abandoned because of it. The only major one that was downgraded was the MML electrification and that was for a whole host of reasons.
So why was it sold as benefitting the north, not London? Because it does. As simple as that. We could argue about this all day (and we have been) but it won’t alter those facts merely because you don’t like them.
But why do I bother? You are not interested in facts. Only in the narrative. Would be your problem if it wasn’t for the fact that your narrative will cause real world losses to people elsewhere.
Incidentally still no answer to the question on RIII.
*OK, so crossrail has been a complete cockup, but its still been built even if it can’t be opened yet. And that was an altogether harder and less useful project than HS2 even if the headline figure was less.
You're wasting your words.
Ten years in and I'm the one being proven right by reality while you're still trying to prove things in theory.
Shall we drop the subject and return to it in another ten years and see what the reality is then.
The government is to offer the north and Midlands a cut-price “bare minimum” of railway upgrades despite Boris Johnson’s promise this week to “level up” the country outside London, The Independent understands.
Local transport chiefs now expect to receive a severely pared-back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme, and for ministers to effectively shelve plans for a high-speed cross-country link through the east Midlands.
The government has been drawing up plans for new connections outside London in consultation with local leaders – but insiders familiar with discussions now expect virtually every major city across the north and Midlands to be left disappointed.
Close followers of the government’s "Levelling Up agenda" may find themselves unsurprised by this news.
The problem is, if you abandon the HS2 eastern leg you also accept there can be no increase in services on the ECML, the MML or any of their feeder lines, because there simply won’t be the pathways or even the station platforms to accommodate them. As we found in Cannock when our train service to London had to be abandoned due to congestion south of Rugby which meant no train was getting to Hednesford in time to proceed to Rugeley.
And any way of increasing capacity other than HS2 will be twice as expensive yet half as effective.
(And that’s passenger services - freight will be even more constricted.)
The road haulage lobby will be happy though. Their clients at DafT came through for them when it mattered.
Yep they’ve cut the wrong half.
York and Leeds are already at capacity with zero chance of making improvements on north south routes.
I disagree about ‘the wrong half.’ It needs to be built in full. There are just as many capacity problems at Manchester.
What it does show is the power of the false narrative. The repetition of the lie that Oakervee said it would cost ‘not less than £106 billion’ when in fact he specifically said it ‘would not’ cost £106 billion, coupled with the claims about damage to woodland (inflated two hundredfold and hyperbolically compared to the loss of woodlands in the First World War) plus the mantra about ‘forty minutes faster to Birmingham’ has made it unpopular. The fact that all these claims are deliberate horseshit invented by people with axes to grind goes unnoticed.
I have to say, I’m particularly disappointed the FT has wilfully repeated so many lies. I thought until recently they were a rare surviving bastion of responsible journalism.
I told everyone ten years ago that HS2 was for the benefit of London and the big clue would be at what end they started building from.
Sigh.
Unless they built the southern leg first, there would be nowhere for the trains at the northern end to run to.
That has nothing to do with who benefits. In fact, the reason it’s under threat is because it primarily benefits the north by releasing capacity for local services (which are amply provided for in London already) and all the decision makers care about is the south.
Sigh.
There was no reason not to build from both ends.
And we've been told on this site that HS2 would allow people to commute from Stoke to Manchester.
HS2 was always based on what benefited London - on that we can agree.
It couldn't have been made any clearer by these near simultaneous announcements:
The costs associated with building HS2, the high speed railway linking northern and southern England, have risen again.
The news comes less than two months after construction officially began.
Ministers have admitted an extra £800m is needed due to more asbestos being discovered and the complexities of bringing the railway into a new hub station at London Euston.
The reason it would have enabled people to commute more easily from Stoke to Manchester is because it would have freed up pathways on the WCML by taking express trains off it. Which wouldn’t have happened if there were no lines in the south to take said express trains.
As for the Euston platforms, that’s not about benefitting London. Again, it’s about where the trains go. The trains from (checks notes) the north of England.
Your final claim would tend to confirm my point, that the DFT don’t approve projects that don’t benefit London. Their obstruction, for that reason, is why it’s taken 25 years even to start digging.
So again, you seem to be wilfully missing the point. HS2 has had to struggle to survive because it has a limited benefit to London. Therefore, not only do we not agree but we’re arguing diametrically opposite points.
HS2 expands the London commuter belt and gets a fortune spent on London infrastructure.
It benefits London first and most.
The cunning thing about HS2 is that it has been sold as a benefit to the North when in reality it has always been about benefiting London.
Sadly people like yourself have been the useful idiots for this.
It really doesn’t. It expands the capacity of lines in the north and midlands by providing alternative routes for the fast expresses to London. Why do you suppose all the lies you have bought on the subject come from southerners - Joe Rukin, Chris Packham and the Treasury?
It’s an amusing irony though that you accuse me of being a useful idiot when every word you have typed this morning has been wrong and based on anti-HS2 campaigning.
Blah and blah.
Endless words yet I'm the one being proven right.
I will ytake that as you don’t have a valid argument so will continue by sticking my fingers in my ears.
I'm dealing with reality not theoretical arguments.
Nope, you are missing a fundamental point. outside of Crewe HS2 unless it's built in full probably helps no-one get to London any quicker. In Birmingham you somehow have to get to a different station to catch the train as Birmingham New Street was / is full and doesn't have any spare land because Network Rail sold it during their Trains are a blooming inconvenience phase.
Surely it would improve (certainly in terms of frequency)services between Euston and Watford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Rugby. Not sure about Coventry, I think they might lose out.
The lengths that leavers are going to to spin acting in bad faith as just normal things governments do is embarrassing .
The fact is no 10 signed an agreement they never had any intention of implementing, and have made no effort to make the protocol work .
The ECJ issue was nowhere to be seen earlier in the year , this has appeared because Frost and Johnson want to keep the UK in a constant war of words with the EU .
The biggest loser if this ends up in a trade war will be the UK , both sides will be harmed but facts matter . The EU is less reliant on exports to the UK than the other way round .
Any Leaver arguing otherwise just needs to look at official government data !
It seems stupid trigger a trade war because you object to the EUCJ hypothetically being called to interpret EU law as it applies to Single Market rules in Northern Ireland when it has never done so yet, and you have already agreed for them to so in a treaty.
The reality is that any artificial border between GB and NI is simply impossible to enforce, and best both sides recognise this and continue indefinite talks while trade continues unabated
On the subject of exotic places visited: my contributions would include Berlin before the wall came down Belgrade Delphi (seriously, if you haven’t been, go) The Forbidden City Ulaanbataar
I don't have a strong hand in this game but I can claim Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan when they were still a part of the Soviet Union.
You have reminded me of one I really should have thought of: Leningrad!
Petrograd would kill this game stone dead.
As would Atlantis…
I’ve been to the one in the Bahamas. Nice aquarium.
Probably the most exotic place I’ve been is Anguilla, which I’d always wanted to visit since my uncle was one of the Met officers who was sent there to police it after their rebellion.
The government is to offer the north and Midlands a cut-price “bare minimum” of railway upgrades despite Boris Johnson’s promise this week to “level up” the country outside London, The Independent understands.
Local transport chiefs now expect to receive a severely pared-back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme, and for ministers to effectively shelve plans for a high-speed cross-country link through the east Midlands.
The government has been drawing up plans for new connections outside London in consultation with local leaders – but insiders familiar with discussions now expect virtually every major city across the north and Midlands to be left disappointed.
Close followers of the government’s "Levelling Up agenda" may find themselves unsurprised by this news.
The problem is, if you abandon the HS2 eastern leg you also accept there can be no increase in services on the ECML, the MML or any of their feeder lines, because there simply won’t be the pathways or even the station platforms to accommodate them. As we found in Cannock when our train service to London had to be abandoned due to congestion south of Rugby which meant no train was getting to Hednesford in time to proceed to Rugeley.
And any way of increasing capacity other than HS2 will be twice as expensive yet half as effective.
(And that’s passenger services - freight will be even more constricted.)
The road haulage lobby will be happy though. Their clients at DafT came through for them when it mattered.
Yep they’ve cut the wrong half.
York and Leeds are already at capacity with zero chance of making improvements on north south routes.
I disagree about ‘the wrong half.’ It needs to be built in full. There are just as many capacity problems at Manchester.
What it does show is the power of the false narrative. The repetition of the lie that Oakervee said it would cost ‘not less than £106 billion’ when in fact he specifically said it ‘would not’ cost £106 billion, coupled with the claims about damage to woodland (inflated two hundredfold and hyperbolically compared to the loss of woodlands in the First World War) plus the mantra about ‘forty minutes faster to Birmingham’ has made it unpopular. The fact that all these claims are deliberate horseshit invented by people with axes to grind goes unnoticed.
I have to say, I’m particularly disappointed the FT has wilfully repeated so many lies. I thought until recently they were a rare surviving bastion of responsible journalism.
I told everyone ten years ago that HS2 was for the benefit of London and the big clue would be at what end they started building from.
Sigh.
Unless they built the southern leg first, there would be nowhere for the trains at the northern end to run to.
That has nothing to do with who benefits. In fact, the reason it’s under threat is because it primarily benefits the north by releasing capacity for local services (which are amply provided for in London already) and all the decision makers care about is the south.
Sigh.
There was no reason not to build from both ends.
And we've been told on this site that HS2 would allow people to commute from Stoke to Manchester.
HS2 was always based on what benefited London - on that we can agree.
It couldn't have been made any clearer by these near simultaneous announcements:
The costs associated with building HS2, the high speed railway linking northern and southern England, have risen again.
The news comes less than two months after construction officially began.
Ministers have admitted an extra £800m is needed due to more asbestos being discovered and the complexities of bringing the railway into a new hub station at London Euston.
The reason it would have enabled people to commute more easily from Stoke to Manchester is because it would have freed up pathways on the WCML by taking express trains off it. Which wouldn’t have happened if there were no lines in the south to take said express trains.
As for the Euston platforms, that’s not about benefitting London. Again, it’s about where the trains go. The trains from (checks notes) the north of England.
Your final claim would tend to confirm my point, that the DFT don’t approve projects that don’t benefit London. Their obstruction, for that reason, is why it’s taken 25 years even to start digging.
So again, you seem to be wilfully missing the point. HS2 has had to struggle to survive because it has a limited benefit to London. Therefore, not only do we not agree but we’re arguing diametrically opposite points.
HS2 expands the London commuter belt and gets a fortune spent on London infrastructure.
It benefits London first and most.
The cunning thing about HS2 is that it has been sold as a benefit to the North when in reality it has always been about benefiting London.
Sadly people like yourself have been the useful idiots for this.
It really doesn’t. It expands the capacity of lines in the north and midlands by providing alternative routes for the fast expresses to London. Why do you suppose all the lies you have bought on the subject come from southerners - Joe Rukin, Chris Packham and the Treasury?
It’s an amusing irony though that you accuse me of being a useful idiot when every word you have typed this morning has been wrong and based on anti-HS2 campaigning.
Blah and blah.
Endless words yet I'm the one being proven right.
I will ytake that as you don’t have a valid argument so will continue by sticking my fingers in my ears.
I'm dealing with reality not theoretical arguments.
Nope, you are missing a fundamental point. outside of Crewe HS2 unless it's built in full probably helps no-one get to London any quicker. In Birmingham you somehow have to get to a different station to catch the train as Birmingham New Street was / is full and doesn't have any spare land because Network Rail sold it during their Trains are a blooming inconvenience phase.
Surely it would improve (certainly in terms of frequency)services between Euston and Watford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Rugby. Not sure about Coventry, I think they might lose out.
My granddaughter came home to Abergele from University in Leeds for the weekend and it took 3 and a half hours, two changes and £69 a distance of 112 miles
The lengths that leavers are going to to spin acting in bad faith as just normal things governments do is embarrassing .
The fact is no 10 signed an agreement they never had any intention of implementing, and have made no effort to make the protocol work .
The ECJ issue was nowhere to be seen earlier in the year , this has appeared because Frost and Johnson want to keep the UK in a constant war of words with the EU .
The biggest loser if this ends up in a trade war will be the UK , both sides will be harmed but facts matter . The EU is less reliant on exports to the UK than the other way round .
Any Leaver arguing otherwise just needs to look at official government data !
It seems stupid trigger a trade war because you object to the EUCJ hypothetically being called to interpret EU law as it applies to Single Market rules in Northern Ireland when it has never done so yet, and you have already agreed for them to so in a treaty.
What trade war? Please outline the specific steps that will lead to this fictitious trade war? The TCA is not in scope of the NI Protocol. It is a completely separate agreement and any action taken by the EU to apply retaliatory measures covered in the TCA would be thrown out by the arbitrator.
You lot can bang on about realpolitik as much as you like because you think it makes you seem clever. The actual realpolitik is simple - the EU has got no significant response to the UK triggering A16 because all it can do is put up a border in Ireland which Ireland will never agree to.
Yes, that's fine, and it's what Tony did, which is why I supported him. We shouldn't spend too much time debating what we mean by "centrist", I suppose - what I'm saying is that people want someone who is both interesting and safe. As HYUFD observes, it's half the battle not to get people out in droves to stop you (which is what happened in 2019, not so much in 2017), but you do also need to get your own supporters out. The right balance is to have a couple of well-defined proposals which sound attractive and new and mildly controversial but are not so far-reaching as to call everything into question.
In 1997 the Minimum Wage was a good example: concrete and specific, and radical enough to get a Tory campaign against it, but not sounding actually dangerous to the average voter. Wilson's observation that Labour is best led from the left is relevant here - you need the credibility that you're actually going to make a difference, coupled with the credibility not to be a bull in a china shop.
I agree with that. Labour should go with a wealth tax on something like £10m+, merging NI and income tax, whilst reducing the combined rate for workers by a couple of % as the highlight of their economic policies. Would net raise money from Tory voters and reduce taxes on Labour voters and possible swingers, as well as definitely falling in the interesting and change categories.
Yes, that sounds fine, though I wonder if merrging NI and income tax sounds too complicated and hard to predict - I'm sure there would be some losers from the change that the Tories would highlight. Everyone knows if they have £10m in assets or not, but they will be less sure about the impact of changing the system. Simply charging NI on income over 65 would be a clearer, more specific solution, which has already been set up by Rishi's levy. I'd also throw in equalising tax on unearned income - buy to let etc. since again people will know whether that affects them or not.
The government is to offer the north and Midlands a cut-price “bare minimum” of railway upgrades despite Boris Johnson’s promise this week to “level up” the country outside London, The Independent understands.
Local transport chiefs now expect to receive a severely pared-back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme, and for ministers to effectively shelve plans for a high-speed cross-country link through the east Midlands.
The government has been drawing up plans for new connections outside London in consultation with local leaders – but insiders familiar with discussions now expect virtually every major city across the north and Midlands to be left disappointed.
Close followers of the government’s "Levelling Up agenda" may find themselves unsurprised by this news.
The problem is, if you abandon the HS2 eastern leg you also accept there can be no increase in services on the ECML, the MML or any of their feeder lines, because there simply won’t be the pathways or even the station platforms to accommodate them. As we found in Cannock when our train service to London had to be abandoned due to congestion south of Rugby which meant no train was getting to Hednesford in time to proceed to Rugeley.
And any way of increasing capacity other than HS2 will be twice as expensive yet half as effective.
(And that’s passenger services - freight will be even more constricted.)
The road haulage lobby will be happy though. Their clients at DafT came through for them when it mattered.
Yep they’ve cut the wrong half.
York and Leeds are already at capacity with zero chance of making improvements on north south routes.
I disagree about ‘the wrong half.’ It needs to be built in full. There are just as many capacity problems at Manchester.
What it does show is the power of the false narrative. The repetition of the lie that Oakervee said it would cost ‘not less than £106 billion’ when in fact he specifically said it ‘would not’ cost £106 billion, coupled with the claims about damage to woodland (inflated two hundredfold and hyperbolically compared to the loss of woodlands in the First World War) plus the mantra about ‘forty minutes faster to Birmingham’ has made it unpopular. The fact that all these claims are deliberate horseshit invented by people with axes to grind goes unnoticed.
I have to say, I’m particularly disappointed the FT has wilfully repeated so many lies. I thought until recently they were a rare surviving bastion of responsible journalism.
I told everyone ten years ago that HS2 was for the benefit of London and the big clue would be at what end they started building from.
Sigh.
Unless they built the southern leg first, there would be nowhere for the trains at the northern end to run to.
That has nothing to do with who benefits. In fact, the reason it’s under threat is because it primarily benefits the north by releasing capacity for local services (which are amply provided for in London already) and all the decision makers care about is the south.
Sigh.
There was no reason not to build from both ends.
And we've been told on this site that HS2 would allow people to commute from Stoke to Manchester.
HS2 was always based on what benefited London - on that we can agree.
It couldn't have been made any clearer by these near simultaneous announcements:
The costs associated with building HS2, the high speed railway linking northern and southern England, have risen again.
The news comes less than two months after construction officially began.
Ministers have admitted an extra £800m is needed due to more asbestos being discovered and the complexities of bringing the railway into a new hub station at London Euston.
The reason it would have enabled people to commute more easily from Stoke to Manchester is because it would have freed up pathways on the WCML by taking express trains off it. Which wouldn’t have happened if there were no lines in the south to take said express trains.
As for the Euston platforms, that’s not about benefitting London. Again, it’s about where the trains go. The trains from (checks notes) the north of England.
Your final claim would tend to confirm my point, that the DFT don’t approve projects that don’t benefit London. Their obstruction, for that reason, is why it’s taken 25 years even to start digging.
So again, you seem to be wilfully missing the point. HS2 has had to struggle to survive because it has a limited benefit to London. Therefore, not only do we not agree but we’re arguing diametrically opposite points.
HS2 expands the London commuter belt and gets a fortune spent on London infrastructure.
It benefits London first and most.
The cunning thing about HS2 is that it has been sold as a benefit to the North when in reality it has always been about benefiting London.
Sadly people like yourself have been the useful idiots for this.
It really doesn’t. It expands the capacity of lines in the north and midlands by providing alternative routes for the fast expresses to London. Why do you suppose all the lies you have bought on the subject come from southerners - Joe Rukin, Chris Packham and the Treasury?
It’s an amusing irony though that you accuse me of being a useful idiot when every word you have typed this morning has been wrong and based on anti-HS2 campaigning.
Blah and blah.
Endless words yet I'm the one being proven right.
I will ytake that as you don’t have a valid argument so will continue by sticking my fingers in my ears.
I'm dealing with reality not theoretical arguments.
Nope, you are missing a fundamental point. outside of Crewe HS2 unless it's built in full probably helps no-one get to London any quicker. In Birmingham you somehow have to get to a different station to catch the train as Birmingham New Street was / is full and doesn't have any spare land because Network Rail sold it during their Trains are a blooming inconvenience phase.
Surely it would improve (certainly in terms of frequency)services between Euston and Watford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Rugby. Not sure about Coventry, I think they might lose out.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
That is because as a Nationalist you are very parochial and narrow minded, and generally spout uninformed shite, even, about your own region.
If this is the case, though and we follow your twisted logic, none of us should comment on any politics except that that related to our region. We cannot comment on Trump in the US, the problems the EU is having with Poland, or China, or India, because we don't live in those countries. @StuartDickson should not comment on Scotland because he does not live there. @Sandpit should not comment on UK politics because he does not live here.
Fuxake, how many times do you have to be told to get it into your pinheid, you are allowed to comment as much as you like and I’m allowed to point and laugh as much as I like.
Lol! A nationalist accuses someone else of having a "pinheid". The irony is obviously lost on you clearly. Pointing and laughing is, of course, all you ever do, because like the outdated vacuous political "philosophy" that you blindly follow, you have no substance. You put an attempt, a thin veneer of an attempt, to cover the real reason you are a nationalist, like so many of your fellow travellers is because you hate people that are not like you. Not just the English, but the folk that voted against your parochial and divisive view. You know the ones, the Scots who are not real Scots because they don't fall for your fake history, these are the folk you hate more than the English.
By-the-way, well done for stopping the "Scotch" thing. Remember that great nationalist witticism that you kept using that you, and you alone, thought was very very funny. Keep up the lessons on being witty. A lot more lessons are needed
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
The lengths that leavers are going to to spin acting in bad faith as just normal things governments do is embarrassing .
The fact is no 10 signed an agreement they never had any intention of implementing, and have made no effort to make the protocol work .
The ECJ issue was nowhere to be seen earlier in the year , this has appeared because Frost and Johnson want to keep the UK in a constant war of words with the EU .
The biggest loser if this ends up in a trade war will be the UK , both sides will be harmed but facts matter . The EU is less reliant on exports to the UK than the other way round .
Any Leaver arguing otherwise just needs to look at official government data !
It seems stupid trigger a trade war because you object to the EUCJ hypothetically being called to interpret EU law as it applies to Single Market rules in Northern Ireland when it has never done so yet, and you have already agreed for them to so in a treaty.
What trade war? Please outline the specific steps that will lead to this fictitious trade war? The TCA is not in scope of the NI Protocol. It is a completely separate agreement and any action taken by the EU to apply retaliatory measures covered in the TCA would be thrown out by the arbitrator.
You lot can bang on about realpolitik as much as you like because you think it makes you seem clever. The actual realpolitik is simple - the EU has got no significant response to the UK triggering A16 because all it can do is put up a border in Ireland which Ireland will never agree to.
In addition, that realisation is why the EU has begun the process of renegotiation of the NI Protocol. The EU, it seems, agrees with my view of it, not your one. There will be no trade war over the NI Protocol, simply the tools for it don't exist.
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
The lengths that leavers are going to to spin acting in bad faith as just normal things governments do is embarrassing .
The fact is no 10 signed an agreement they never had any intention of implementing, and have made no effort to make the protocol work .
The ECJ issue was nowhere to be seen earlier in the year , this has appeared because Frost and Johnson want to keep the UK in a constant war of words with the EU .
The biggest loser if this ends up in a trade war will be the UK , both sides will be harmed but facts matter . The EU is less reliant on exports to the UK than the other way round .
Any Leaver arguing otherwise just needs to look at official government data !
It seems stupid trigger a trade war because you object to the EUCJ hypothetically being called to interpret EU law as it applies to Single Market rules in Northern Ireland when it has never done so yet, and you have already agreed for them to so in a treaty.
The reality is that any artificial border between GB and NI is simply impossible to enforce, and best both sides recognise this and continue indefinite talks while trade continues unabated
This approach has some merit. Both sides ignore each other. I'm not sure that's what's happening however.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
Still struggle to see how NZ get out of a zero Covid mindset to learn to live with it in the future.
Uk barely remarks on death numbers now that would have been considered scare mongering a year and a bit ago.
NZ will adjust fine I think. Virtually everyone there is going to get covid after being vaccinated, which is probably the best outcome possible.
Morning everyone. Am I the only person to become increasing annoyed at the definition of deaths due to Covid..... deaths within 28 days of a positive test. I'm sure we've agonised over this before, but it really doesn't, IMV anyway, present a true picture. At one time someone here was able to post figures for the average daily deaths in the four parts of the UK over the past 5 or so years and quite often the figures nowadays were lower.
There's an alternative indicator of death with COVID on the death certificate on the govt website. It takes longer to report, but is basically the same as the 28 days, but a bit higher.
In addition there is the excess deaths. None of the 3 measures are very far apart in the UK.
Just because the images of respiratory wards and ICU have gone from the news doesn't mean that they have gone away. They have just become normalised, and "not news" unless there is a dramatic twist.
It is truly remarkable how 100-150 deaths a day have become so normalised and un-newsworthy.
It's because the public operates more on gut feel. There was surprisingly little panic in early 2021 despite the figures being absoultely horrendous for instance, as people seem to expect it at that moment. Cases and deaths now at other moments would be seen as deeply concerning, but people seem to have accepted that things are not spiralling out of control and that is the key.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
Negative PCR result means I am back in work Tuesday as long as my lateral flows are negative each day and I feel 'well'. Have to undertake a risk assessment on Monday, but as we are in a green zone apparently I should be allowed back in the office.
My sister is in day 5/6 of having confirmed Covid. Coughing more frequently now but energy levels good and not had to stay in bed as much, she's not had to take Asthma Inhaler anymore than usual. Pulse Oximeter 98% so not concerned at the moment for her. Temperature fine as well.
Hoping i am seeing the power of the vaccines here, it seems more like a really bad cold for her. She is only 30 and relatively healthy so it could be a case of that lessening the symptoms as well.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
Equally interesting LNER trains are busy at higher prices than they were pre Covid.
Last week I booked trains for a weekend in London, previously it would have been £150 or so max, it was over £220.
It might be partly because AWC weren’t running as many trains as LNER (relative to pre-COVID). I’ve noticed AWC advertising a lot recently, so perhaps they’ll catch up as more services are put in the timetable.
The EU never really cared that much about the Belfast Agreement - it was mainly leverage over the UK:
Good thread. It does raise the Q of why it takes this long for the EU to engage properly like this, given this is v similar to a UK idea dismissed as unworkable before Brexit. In my view Brussels has been appallingly complacent about the political consequence of strict E-W checks
The problem is that the UK hasn't and isn't engaging properly, or in good faith, to the big detriment of the people of Northern Ireland. You can also criticise the EU , but it's motes and beams frankly.
No, the problem is that the UK government's insistence on removing the CJEU's remit in Northern Ireland demonstrates that it negotiated the protocol in bad faith and never had any intention of honouring it. That essentially means we are back to the kind of No Deal scenario that will have consequences for all of us.
Time limited role for ECJ =/= permanent role for ECJ
It’s a negotiation. Get over it.
We don't all have your privilege, Charles. Some of us have to live with the consequences of the UK government's lies.
So just a restatement of your position plus a personal attack.
I’m guessing you don’t have any actually facts or arguments to back your statement up then?
The fact is the international treaty the UK signed. Another fact is that you do not have to live with the consequences of the UK government's bad faith. Pointing this out is not a personal attack.
You chose to highlight my background as if that was done kind of killer point
But the government is exercising the rights set out in the protocol
Your background is a fact of life, Charles. You do not have to live with the consequences of Brexit. You have an escape route.
It is utterly irrelevant to the discussion
I suspect that you have more options than most following the sale of your business. But I don’t bring it up because it’s irrelevant.
Oops.
I do not have the ability to fly to the US tomorrow and live there. Neither do any of my children.
Neither do I.
My daughter, however, is an American citizen. Not relevant to this discussion.
Apologies - I understood your wife is a US citizen.
She is. But I only get 90 days without an immigration application (which I have a high probability of getting approval for)
Yep, so essentially you can go to live in the US tomorrow.
No I can go as a tourist, as you can (subject to the presidential proclamation which is just a temporary situation)
And then you can apply to live there without returning to the UK and be almost 100% certain of acceptance.
No, entering on the visa waiver and then filing an I-130 petition for a green card as the spouse of a USC is very risky (it’s known as the “6ft bargepole” option on an ex-pats forum I frequent). You have to prove the negative that you did not intend to do so at the time you entered. It’s usually only viable if you can show some compelling change of circumstances that occurred after you arrived such as the USC spouse becoming seriously ill.
The normal route for someone married to an American to get an immigrant visa (which gets you a green card on arrival) takes about six months at best, but I think right now with COVID backlogs it’s taking over a year.
It is by no means guaranteed as well. You need to have a clean criminal record (don’t bother if you have any drug offences at all), pass a medical, and your USC spouse has to prove that they have sufficient income or savings to support you. That last one can be quite a hurdle for US/non-US couples moving to the US as any income the USC had from their job before moving cannot be counted if it will cease on their leaving. Many people have to accept separation for months with the USC moving to the US first and getting a job before their spouse can get the visa to join them.
As a side note, my dad tested positive for COVID on a lateral flow. Yesterday he was coughing a lot and had chills etc... so my wife suggested doing a LFT and he's very faintly positive. He's booked a confirmation PCR today. He's AZ vaccinated, second dose back in April. My mum described it as manflu when we video called her from Greece.
Power of vaccination in effect because he's overweight, diabetic and over 65. My sister and I were always worried about him catching it and getting a serious case so quite glad to see that he's basically ok.
The vaccine has saved him an almost certain hospital admission and possibly even saved his life so very grateful to all of the scientists who made it happen in record time!
Scotland Yard is rotten from top to bottom, Priti Patel believes. The UK home secretary has plans that will, in effect, bring Britain’s largest police force under greater political control.
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Amazing, but irrelevant.
Why is it irrelevant? Vote shares mean something, and it’s worth knowing, or at least trying to figure out, where 12.6% of voters, whose party has more or less given up, from 2015 went.
If Tory 2019 is (Tory 2015 + UKIP 2015) - 4-5% to the LDs, where does that leave Labour?
Flat from 2010 to 2019. One can hardly blame Corbyn for UKIPs voters going Tory, when his Brexit plan was a second referendum and the Tories was getting it done
Scotland Yard is rotten from top to bottom, Priti Patel believes. The UK home secretary has plans that will, in effect, bring Britain’s largest police force under greater political control.
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
One wonders why Priti Patel renewed Dick's contract at the Met?
Easy to control. Dick will go along with any reforms because she knows she's there by the grace of the Home Secretary and can be removed at any point. Keeping her in place has turned her into a puppet of Priti.
Scotland Yard is rotten from top to bottom, Priti Patel believes. The UK home secretary has plans that will, in effect, bring Britain’s largest police force under greater political control.
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
One wonders why Priti Patel renewed Dick's contract at the Met?
Indeed.
And it's nice to see she has spotted the problems with a culture of defensiveness. Perhaps she could explain that problem to her political colleagues, as it might just have some cross relevance.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
As a side note, my dad tested positive for COVID on a lateral flow. Yesterday he was coughing a lot and had chills etc... so my wife suggested doing a LFT and he's very faintly positive. He's booked a confirmation PCR today. He's AZ vaccinated, second dose back in April. My mum described it as manflu when we video called her from Greece.
Power of vaccination in effect because he's overweight, diabetic and over 65. My sister and I were always worried about him catching it and getting a serious case so quite glad to see that he's basically ok.
The vaccine has saved him an almost certain hospital admission and possibly even saved his life so very grateful to all of the scientists who made it happen in record time!
Bear in mind that a negative PCR result after a positive LFT does not necessarily mean all clear, especially as he has symptoms. See Tom Chivers in Unherd and Bristol Oliver on twitter.
Still struggle to see how NZ get out of a zero Covid mindset to learn to live with it in the future.
Uk barely remarks on death numbers now that would have been considered scare mongering a year and a bit ago.
NZ will adjust fine I think. Virtually everyone there is going to get covid after being vaccinated, which is probably the best outcome possible.
Morning everyone. Am I the only person to become increasing annoyed at the definition of deaths due to Covid..... deaths within 28 days of a positive test. I'm sure we've agonised over this before, but it really doesn't, IMV anyway, present a true picture. At one time someone here was able to post figures for the average daily deaths in the four parts of the UK over the past 5 or so years and quite often the figures nowadays were lower.
There's an alternative indicator of death with COVID on the death certificate on the govt website. It takes longer to report, but is basically the same as the 28 days, but a bit higher.
In addition there is the excess deaths. None of the 3 measures are very far apart in the UK.
Just because the images of respiratory wards and ICU have gone from the news doesn't mean that they have gone away. They have just become normalised, and "not news" unless there is a dramatic twist.
It is truly remarkable how 100-150 deaths a day have become so normalised and un-newsworthy.
Every death is an individual tragedy, of course, but 100-150 deaths a day is normal and un-newsworthy. It's ~35,000 - 50,000 deaths over the course of a year - which is about the same as a bad flu season.
Well that rather depends on how and where they die. If most are dying in hospital beds and many in ICUs this is a new, significant and ongoing pressure on the NHS which will increasingly drive up mortality of other illnesses, such as cancer, which are not being spotted and diagnosed quickly enough for effective treatment. It will, for example, reduce our capacity to cope with a bad flu outbreak.
Our UK government has taken the rather robust view that 100-150 deaths a day are a price worth paying for opening up the economy again. They may be right, I think that they are, but the knock on consequences will be significant, especially if we are still at these sorts of levels come winter.
A key thing is who are the 100-150 deaths per day - anti-vaxxers and/or sick oldies now make up almost all of the deaths.
Scotland Yard is rotten from top to bottom, Priti Patel believes. The UK home secretary has plans that will, in effect, bring Britain’s largest police force under greater political control.
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
One wonders why Priti Patel renewed Dick's contract at the Met?
Easy to control. Dick will go along with any reforms because she knows she's there by the grace of the Home Secretary and can be removed at any point. Keeping her in place has turned her into a puppet of Priti.
People are't always so controllable, even if in their interest to be so, they do a lot from instinct. Remember the Scorpion and the Frog.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Amazing, but irrelevant.
Why is it irrelevant? Vote shares mean something, and it’s worth knowing, or at least trying to figure out, where 12.6% of voters, whose party has more or less given up, from 2015 went.
If Tory 2019 is (Tory 2015 + UKIP 2015) - 4-5% to the LDs, where does that leave Labour?
Flat from 2010 to 2019. One can hardly blame Corbyn for UKIPs voters going Tory, when his Brexit plan was a second referendum and the Tories was getting it done
Corbynites continually cite their vote share and increase in its %, while completely ignoring what is actually required to win an election - and by which measure they fell lamentably short in 2017.
Scotland Yard is rotten from top to bottom, Priti Patel believes. The UK home secretary has plans that will, in effect, bring Britain’s largest police force under greater political control.
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Amazing, but irrelevant.
Why is it irrelevant? Vote shares mean something, and it’s worth knowing, or at least trying to figure out, where 12.6% of voters, whose party has more or less given up, from 2015 went.
If Tory 2019 is (Tory 2015 + UKIP 2015) - 4-5% to the LDs, where does that leave Labour?
Flat from 2010 to 2019. One can hardly blame Corbyn for UKIPs voters going Tory, when his Brexit plan was a second referendum and the Tories was getting it done
Corbynites continually cite their vote share and increase in its %, while completely ignoring what is actually required to win an election - and by which measure they fell lamentably short in 2017.
Never mind that, I am talking about the fact that 2010, 2015,and 2019 were very similar scores for Labour, with three different leaders. 2017 was a peculiar GE that can pretty much be written off, analytically. But the fact remains Corbyn (32.1%) bettered EdM (30.4%),and Gordo's (29%) efforts in his bad GE, and the reason the seat tally was so low was UKIP/BXP standing aside and the Tories gobbling up their vote
Still struggle to see how NZ get out of a zero Covid mindset to learn to live with it in the future.
Uk barely remarks on death numbers now that would have been considered scare mongering a year and a bit ago.
NZ will adjust fine I think. Virtually everyone there is going to get covid after being vaccinated, which is probably the best outcome possible.
Morning everyone. Am I the only person to become increasing annoyed at the definition of deaths due to Covid..... deaths within 28 days of a positive test. I'm sure we've agonised over this before, but it really doesn't, IMV anyway, present a true picture. At one time someone here was able to post figures for the average daily deaths in the four parts of the UK over the past 5 or so years and quite often the figures nowadays were lower.
There's an alternative indicator of death with COVID on the death certificate on the govt website. It takes longer to report, but is basically the same as the 28 days, but a bit higher.
In addition there is the excess deaths. None of the 3 measures are very far apart in the UK.
Just because the images of respiratory wards and ICU have gone from the news doesn't mean that they have gone away. They have just become normalised, and "not news" unless there is a dramatic twist.
It is truly remarkable how 100-150 deaths a day have become so normalised and un-newsworthy.
It's because the public operates more on gut feel. There was surprisingly little panic in early 2021 despite the figures being absoultely horrendous for instance, as people seem to expect it at that moment. Cases and deaths now at other moments would be seen as deeply concerning, but people seem to have accepted that things are not spiralling out of control and that is the key.
The thing is people die. Its sad but inevitable, you can't cheat death forever you can only keep playing chess for so long.
Nationwide every single day well over a thousand people die, even in normal circumstances.
Covid isn't running out of control, its simply joined the list of diseases that kill people in the background.
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has said that Welsh Labour has begun ‘talks to remove centralised party control of Welsh members’, a move toward full autonomy that to many represents a first step on the road to a divorce from the toxic leadership of Keir Starmer, David Evans and the Labour right.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
Lol, get back to the office 'cos wfh is killing small businesses, but only for 3 days a week.
Bill Esterson @Bill_Esterson Kwasi Kwarteng doesn’t rule out a three day week as a result of the energy crisis. This crisis was made in Downing Street by Boris Johnson’s failure to plan. 9:54 am · 10 Oct 2021·Twitter for iPhone
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
Michael Gove famously promoted the Albanian option before the referendum and you voted for it.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
Michael Gove famously promoted the Albanian option before the referendum and you voted for it.
Lol because that absolutely made it mandatory didn't it?
Anyway, one of the things that will slowly wind people up as they start travelling abroad again is how we have been asked to be treated. Stupid paperwork, bureaucracy and long queues are our lot now.
Nicola Sturgeon kept Scotland in the dark over its first mass Covid outbreak against the advice of her health minister and the deputy chief medical officer — and a leading scientist says it potentially exposed more people to the virus
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
That is because as a Nationalist you are very parochial and narrow minded, and generally spout uninformed shite, even, about your own region.
If this is the case, though and we follow your twisted logic, none of us should comment on any politics except that that related to our region. We cannot comment on Trump in the US, the problems the EU is having with Poland, or China, or India, because we don't live in those countries. @StuartDickson should not comment on Scotland because he does not live there. @Sandpit should not comment on UK politics because he does not live here.
When they are like you , thick and ignorant on the topic, they should keep their mouths zipped.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
LOL, dumbo strikes again, sticks his foot right in his thick gob and spouts more ignorance. What an embarrassment to the human species. Go read the statistics you cretinous halfwit.
“You know you have fucked up on an epic scale when Sinn Féin, the DUP and the Archbishop of Canterbury are united in condemning you,” an EU source conceded of the extraordinary events that soon transpired.
You know what, though.
The EU fucked up with vaccines. But then they got it together.
You know what, though.
The UK got it together with vaccines. But then they fucked up everything else.
How is the SNP government doing in fighting the plague? Any better than rUK? Bit worse? How embarrassing for you. Sturgeon is even shitter than Boris Johnson for all her bluster.
I don’t think that’s true.
Nicola is annoying but not grossly incompetent like Boris.
Boris is at the very foot of the table, below your actual Nan (may she rest in peace!), and the whale they used for the 90s kid’s film, “Free Willie”.
I thought Alex Salmond took that prize though I have not heard even Alex Salmond seeking the deaths of people to gain a political ambition
That’s some claim you are making against @Nigel_Foremain’s nan. Any evidence to back it up?
I am in full agreement with @Nigel_Foremain in respect of Scots independence debate and maybe you should condemn Sturgeon's appalling remarks this week
I’m in agreement with that PB guy who was recently saying folk who don’t live in Wales and don’t know much about Welsh politics should stop spouting barely informed shite (I paraphrase) about them.
That is because as a Nationalist you are very parochial and narrow minded, and generally spout uninformed shite, even, about your own region.
If this is the case, though and we follow your twisted logic, none of us should comment on any politics except that that related to our region. We cannot comment on Trump in the US, the problems the EU is having with Poland, or China, or India, because we don't live in those countries. @StuartDickson should not comment on Scotland because he does not live there. @Sandpit should not comment on UK politics because he does not live here.
Fuxake, how many times do you have to be told to get it into your pinheid, you are allowed to comment as much as you like and I’m allowed to point and laugh as much as I like.
He certainly gives us some belly laughs, how thick and stupid can someone be.
Lol, get back to the office 'cos wfh is killing small businesses, but only for 3 days a week.
Bill Esterson @Bill_Esterson Kwasi Kwarteng doesn’t rule out a three day week as a result of the energy crisis. This crisis was made in Downing Street by Boris Johnson’s failure to plan. 9:54 am · 10 Oct 2021·Twitter for iPhone
Looking at the passenger transport use data, the numbers travelling on the London Underground have stabilised at 55-60% of pre-Covid during the week and 70-80% at the weekend. Rail passenger numbers are similar though more like 60% during the week while London bus passenger numbers are between 70-75% of pre-Covid.
That suggests a large-scale transition to hybrid working with office attendance up to three days per week and WFH two days per week. It's not as simple as that of course - some will be back to five days a week, others will not have returned at all.
Is this the "new normal" and what does it mean for the operational financial model for transport providers? To what extent do we need to re-think the financial model for transport provision and, as I suggested yesterday, do we need to re-think when engineering works are programmed to reduce the inconvenience to leisure traffic where the numbers continue to be robust?
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
At the end of November I'm off to London, normally I'd meet my other half in Manchester and train it down.
Going first class from Manchester is £160 on AWC, going from Leeds on LNER cost us £70 first class.
Agreed. One of the worst things Avanti has also done is effectively get rid of the Weekend First, restricting it to one carriage which inevitably becomes crowded and noisy thus eliminating its key advantage. I now don't pay and use the seats at the back of the quiet carriage which have got more legroom.
Early days in the post-COVID recovery, but LNER (Kings Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) usage in Q1 (Apr to June) was quite a bit higher as a percentage of 2019-20 Q1 than Avanti West Coast (Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow).
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
At the end of November I'm off to London, normally I'd meet my other half in Manchester and train it down.
Going first class from Manchester is £160 on AWC, going from Leeds on LNER cost us £70 first class.
Agreed. One of the worst things Avanti has also done is effectively get rid of the Weekend First, restricting it to one carriage which inevitably becomes crowded and noisy thus eliminating its key advantage. I now don't pay and use the seats at the back of the quiet carriage which have got more legroom.
Sorry, I obviously do pay my train fare but not the Weekend First...
Been deleted. What's that header - N--- C--- Club?
I believe that is Horwich Conservative Club. North of Bolton. I also STR that is a couple/few years old. Made quite a minor, rightful stink at the time. Can't believe they'd do it again.
Just to tie up the loose ends of yesterday's Czech election.
Despite winning most seats (72), ANO2011 leader and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babis has conceded defeat. Neither of the other two significant blocs of parties will work with him and his previous allies lost all their seats.
The centre-right alliance known as SPOLU is led by Petr Fiala's Civic Democratic Party won 71 seats. They will form a coalition with the STAN group which gained 27 seats to win 33 and the Pirates which won four seats.
Within SPOLU, the Civic Democrats won 33 seats, the Christian Democrats 27 seats and the TOP09 party 11 seats.
STAN is led by Vit Rakusan who is arguably the real winner of the election. His party won the same number as the Civic Democrats and I expect they will be a powerful part of the new Government.
Been deleted. What's that header - N--- C--- Club?
I believe that is Horwich Conservative Club. North of Bolton. I also STR that is a couple/few years old. Made quite a minor, rightful stink at the time. Can't believe they'd do it again.
Coming late to the exotic countries game. Several years ago I was on a cruise due to visit Eritrea but the captain cancelled the visit due to a row over port fees. Instead we went to Al Fujairah - the least known of the Emirates.
Been deleted. What's that header - N--- C--- Club?
I believe that is Horwich Conservative Club. North of Bolton. I also STR that is a couple/few years old. Made quite a minor, rightful stink at the time. Can't believe they'd do it again.
Yep, I believe it is from a few years ago, maybe why the tweeter deleted it. Things are probably different in the Conservative party now that noted feminist and upholder of women's rights BJ is in charge.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
I love the idea that Scotland suffering fewer deaths per 100k than England is evidence that Sturgeon has under performed Boris.
This is an exciting new definition of success that I am unfamiliar with.
I did like the time when the PBTories collectively created the Great Central Scottish Desert in their desperation - raised happy thoughts of camel caravans from Bathgate Oasis to the incense port of Borrowstounness and the perfumed oils distilled by the craftsfolk at Grangemouth. And the pale-skinned natives shocked and indignant at being offered Buckfast by the merchants from the south.
I'm intrigued by the success of the STAN group in yesterday's Czech elections where they went from 6 to 33 seats. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), their manifesto is as follows:
The party's top priorities include: good stewardship, high-quality education, environmental care and heritage protection – investing in education is key to the future prosperity that, however, must be built on the principles of good stewardship (management of public funds, use of energy resources and prudential landscape interventions). In promoting the principle of subsidiarity, STAN encourages localism, decentralisation, reduced bureaucracy and corruption clampdown. STAN further promotes: European integration, high-quality education, investments in science, state economy driven by the principles of a free market with the social aspect and sanctity of private property in mind, and environment protection.
Apart from the "European integration", there's nothing here a Liberal Democrat could oppose. Indeed, if I were Ed Davey or an LD activist/thinker, I'd be studying the STAN platform in detail.
As an antidote to the vacuously aspirational "high skills, high wages, high productivity, low tax" tenets of Johnson-ism or the complete vacuity of Starmer-ism, this at least has bones on which some policy meat could be put.
I have to say if a UK political party put up this kind of platform, I'd certainly give it a second or even third look.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
Just to tie up the loose ends of yesterday's Czech election.
Despite winning most seats (72), ANO2011 leader and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babis has conceded defeat. Neither of the other two significant blocs of parties will work with him and his previous allies lost all their seats.
The centre-right alliance known as SPOLU is led by Petr Fiala's Civic Democratic Party won 71 seats. They will form a coalition with the STAN group which gained 27 seats to win 33 and the Pirates which won four seats.
Within SPOLU, the Civic Democrats won 33 seats, the Christian Democrats 27 seats and the TOP09 party 11 seats.
STAN is led by Vit Rakusan who is arguably the real winner of the election. His party won the same number as the Civic Democrats and I expect they will be a powerful part of the new Government.
Thanks. Just to add Rakusan sees himself as continuity Vaclav Havel. So Czech has moved from Populist billionaire to standard European CD/liberal coalition. Very much out of line with some of the neighbours.
On Topic Man who has never voted Labour in his life thinks Labour leader that in 2017 produced the biggest increase in vote share since WW2 left a toxic legacy
His toxic divisive useless nonentity of a replacement is blame free
As I say man who knows nothing about what inspires people to vote Labour
You keep repeating this bollox, but bollox it is. Corbyn fought two general elections, and Labour recorded two of its lowest ever seat totals.*
* Explanatory Note: In the UK, parties can form governments if they win a majority of the seats. Corbyn’s Labour won 262 seats in 2017, and a lot fewer in 2019. At both elections the winning post was 326 seats.
It is amazing though, that even in the 2019 GE, Corbyn’s Labour got a better vote share than Miliband in 2015 and Brown in 2010.
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Amazing, but irrelevant.
Why is it irrelevant? Vote shares mean something, and it’s worth knowing, or at least trying to figure out, where 12.6% of voters, whose party has more or less given up, from 2015 went.
If Tory 2019 is (Tory 2015 + UKIP 2015) - 4-5% to the LDs, where does that leave Labour?
Flat from 2010 to 2019. One can hardly blame Corbyn for UKIPs voters going Tory, when his Brexit plan was a second referendum and the Tories was getting it done
Corbynites continually cite their vote share and increase in its %, while completely ignoring what is actually required to win an election - and by which measure they fell lamentably short in 2017.
Never mind that, I am talking about the fact that 2010, 2015,and 2019 were very similar scores for Labour, with three different leaders. 2017 was a peculiar GE that can pretty much be written off, analytically. But the fact remains Corbyn (32.1%) bettered EdM (30.4%),and Gordo's (29%) efforts in his bad GE, and the reason the seat tally was so low was UKIP/BXP standing aside and the Tories gobbling up their vote
You go wrong when you start claiming Starmer's Remainerdom is a reason why he's struggling - it's the Covid blot out effect plus a lack of charisma cf Perfidious Posh - but I broadly agree with your take on this.
Both 17 and 19 were Brexit elections but were impacted in opposite fashion. In 17, Labour were a receptacle for Remainers to vote against the hard Brexit Mrs May seemed intent upon. They didn't want to give her the majority she said she needed to drive it through. Upshot - the result flattered Corbyn. By 19, a significant proportion of these voters were sick & tired of the Brexit wars and rather than prolonging the agony with another Referendum wanted it to be over. Thus the power of the Oven Ready Deal and Get Brexit Done. Upshot - the result flattered Johnson.
So what I'm saying is Jeremy Corbyn had less to do with Labour's good result at GE17 than his supporters like to make out, and he had less to do with their terrible result at GE19 than his detractors like to make out. Bias drives the analysis of both camps. The bigger and deeper reason for the overperformance in 17 and the underperformance in 19 is Brexit.
The interesting question now - indeed the million dollar question when it comes to punditing UK politics - is what impact will Brexit have on the next election?
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
We let EU citizens use our e-gates. And countries don’t have to give a physical stamp, they are simply allowed to.
I love the idea that Scotland suffering fewer deaths per 100k than England is evidence that Sturgeon has under performed Boris.
This is an exciting new definition of success that I am unfamiliar with.
I did like the time when the PBTories collectively created the Great Central Scottish Desert in their desperation - raised happy thoughts of camel caravans from Bathgate Oasis to the incense port of Borrowstounness and the perfumed oils distilled by the craftsfolk at Grangemouth. And the pale-skinned natives shocked and indignant at being offered Buckfast by the merchants from the south.
The West Lothian Empty Quarter is littered with the bones of the foolhardy.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
We let EU citizens use our e-gates. And countries don’t have to give a physical stamp, they are simply allowed to.
Are you saying there were no non-e-gate EU/EEA/CH lanes? Surely there must be for people travelling on national ID or without biometric passports?
Just to tie up the loose ends of yesterday's Czech election.
Despite winning most seats (72), ANO2011 leader and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babis has conceded defeat. Neither of the other two significant blocs of parties will work with him and his previous allies lost all their seats.
The centre-right alliance known as SPOLU is led by Petr Fiala's Civic Democratic Party won 71 seats. They will form a coalition with the STAN group which gained 27 seats to win 33 and the Pirates which won four seats.
Within SPOLU, the Civic Democrats won 33 seats, the Christian Democrats 27 seats and the TOP09 party 11 seats.
STAN is led by Vit Rakusan who is arguably the real winner of the election. His party won the same number as the Civic Democrats and I expect they will be a powerful part of the new Government.
Thanks. Just to add Rakusan sees himself as continuity Vaclav Havel. So Czech has moved from Populist billionaire to standard European CD/liberal coalition. Very much out of line with some of the neighbours.
So, your RL tip came so close. Nice one. Certainly value at the 4. And I did a layback in play at 2 so lost not a bean.
I love the idea that Scotland suffering fewer deaths per 100k than England is evidence that Sturgeon has under performed Boris.
This is an exciting new definition of success that I am unfamiliar with.
I did like the time when the PBTories collectively created the Great Central Scottish Desert in their desperation - raised happy thoughts of camel caravans from Bathgate Oasis to the incense port of Borrowstounness and the perfumed oils distilled by the craftsfolk at Grangemouth. And the pale-skinned natives shocked and indignant at being offered Buckfast by the merchants from the south.
The West Lothian Empty Quarter is littered with the bones of the foolhardy.
Indeed. Friend of mine was to be a student teacher there. He travelled all the way there; took one look at the school from the camel park; and went straight home and got another job instead.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
Wait. We're out of the EU at our own request. We are a third country at our own request. And now you say the EU is treating us as a non-member third country?
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
Wait. We're out of the EU at our own request. We are a third country at our own request. And now you say the EU is treating us as a non-member third country?
UK e-gates can be used by “a national of an EU country, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the USA”.
A closed, parochial country compared with the EU. Obvs.
Lewis Hamilton understandably pissed off with his team.
IIRC, you used to have to take at least one pit stop during the race. Is that still the case, or could they have brought him in on the last lap, or even crossing the line (shades of Schuey)?
Interesting article. Thank you. There are several aspects to winning an election including:
competence level, actual retail policies at that moment, the spectrum of support, leadership, the nature and underlying principles of the party, do voters think they can come in the top two in their seat/House of Commons.
What is behind Labour's persistent failure?
Competence? Could be worse, but flawed by: Iraq, banking crisis, Brexit
Actual policies? Wait and see. No-one has awareness of there being any
Spectrum of support? Far too much in enclaves. Nothing unites Bootle and Putney and Bradford in the demographic spectrum. Far too little support form the middling sort.
Leadership? Better now than for years, hence they have a chance of helping to form a government. But the toxic legacy will last for years.
Principles? Hopeless. MPs and members all over the place. Traditionally their principles are socialist, but all parties wanting power are centrist social democrats, like the Tories now. Labour cannot compare with the Tories on the visceral tests like: Do your members love their country? Are Labour people more critical of the UK than they are of China?
Top two? OK on this score. Which is why they might form, with others, the next government.As Mrs T said: "There is no alternative".
Final note: Terms like left and right have no meaning in this discussion.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
A minor point, but an example. Last night's SL GF had an attendance around 45k. It usually sells out OT comfortably. Why? Well RL is the worst run sport in this country. But also, Catalans Dragons were in it for the first time. Almost none of their fans possess passports, as they are relentlessly proletarian and live on the border with Spain and nip across using their ID cards. So they couldn't get them in 2 weeks despite a huge rush. So. Manchester loses out on hotels and food, the fans who attended lose an atmosphere, those who couldn't lose, the UK loses, an already tottering RL loses. Airlines and airports, in not a great state, lose out. The passport requirements came in only this week I believe. As I said. Not vital in the great scheme, but how many Europeans without passports will choose to go elsewhere on holiday? And discretionary travel? I would factor it in.
Lewis Hamilton understandably pissed off with his team.
IIRC, you used to have to take at least one pit stop during the race. Is that still the case, or could they have brought him in on the last lap, or even crossing the line (shades of Schuey)?
You have to use two compounds of tyre in the dry. But today it was wet. Occon completed the race without stopping.
Lewis Hamilton understandably pissed off with his team.
IIRC, you used to have to take at least one pit stop during the race. Is that still the case, or could they have brought him in on the last lap, or even crossing the line (shades of Schuey)?
You have to use two compounds of tyre in the dry. But today it was wet. Occon completed the race without stopping.
Schiphol. Massive queue for passport control. Of course the EU EEA CH gates are empty. How exactly have we managed to do Brexit so that we have the same status as Eritrea?
A competent airport flips the lights on the signs to balance things out. When I got into Malta a few months ago there were four non-eu queues and two eu-queues, all of about the same length.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
All the manned gates were manned. We can't use e-gates as we have to get a fucking stamp now.
Wait. We're out of the EU at our own request. We are a third country at our own request. And now you say the EU is treating us as a non-member third country?
Well whatever next.
Its rather small minded and parochial to only allow EEA citizens through e-gates. Why not Americans, or Canadians, or Kiwis, or Koreans or . . . oh wait, that's what we do already.
If they've chosen to be parochial, that's on them not us.
Just to tie up the loose ends of yesterday's Czech election.
Despite winning most seats (72), ANO2011 leader and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babis has conceded defeat. Neither of the other two significant blocs of parties will work with him and his previous allies lost all their seats.
The centre-right alliance known as SPOLU is led by Petr Fiala's Civic Democratic Party won 71 seats. They will form a coalition with the STAN group which gained 27 seats to win 33 and the Pirates which won four seats.
Within SPOLU, the Civic Democrats won 33 seats, the Christian Democrats 27 seats and the TOP09 party 11 seats.
STAN is led by Vit Rakusan who is arguably the real winner of the election. His party won the same number as the Civic Democrats and I expect they will be a powerful part of the new Government.
Thanks. Just to add Rakusan sees himself as continuity Vaclav Havel. So Czech has moved from Populist billionaire to standard European CD/liberal coalition. Very much out of line with some of the neighbours.
So, your RL tip came so close. Nice one. Certainly value at the 4. And I did a layback in play at 2 so lost not a bean.
Yes. Was a value bet, and they usually lose of course. Glad to hear you lost nowt. Me neither.
UK e-gates can be used by “a national of an EU country, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the USA”.
A closed, parochial country compared with the EU. Obvs.
So the EU doing what we ask implementing the same rules for everyone as we demanded is their fault?
Comments
But there have been fewer deaths.
Of course Burgon smiles quite a lot so the correlation isn’t perfect.
It really cannot get any more obscene or disgusting
Ten years in and I'm the one being proven right by reality while you're still trying to prove things in theory.
Shall we drop the subject and return to it in another ten years and see what the reality is then.
Probably the most exotic place I’ve been is Anguilla, which I’d always wanted to visit since my uncle was one of the Met officers who was sent there to police it after their rebellion.
You lot can bang on about realpolitik as much as you like because you think it makes you seem clever. The actual realpolitik is simple - the EU has got no significant response to the UK triggering A16 because all it can do is put up a border in Ireland which Ireland will never agree to.
https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1447131021682561024?s=21
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-58856914
(There's an official document somewhere, but I cannot find it atm...)
By-the-way, well done for stopping the "Scotch" thing. Remember that great nationalist witticism that you kept using that you, and you alone, thought was very very funny. Keep up the lessons on being witty. A lot more lessons are needed
If you ignore 2017, & look at the vote share changes from 2015 to 2019, all that seems to have happened is UKIP went Tory, and some Tory Remainers went Lib Dem, despite all the loud noise in between
Will be interesting to see if the AWC catch up, but it has felt like there’s an east-west divide in terms of people travelling for whatever reason.
https://mobile.twitter.com/railandroad/status/1446114826460164107
Last week I booked trains for a weekend in London, previously it would have been £150 or so max, it was over £220.
My sister is in day 5/6 of having confirmed Covid. Coughing more frequently now but energy levels good and not had to stay in bed as much, she's not had to take Asthma Inhaler anymore than usual. Pulse Oximeter 98% so not concerned at the moment for her. Temperature fine as well.
Hoping i am seeing the power of the vaccines here, it seems more like a really bad cold for her. She is only 30 and relatively healthy so it could be a case of that lessening the symptoms as well.
At the end of November I'm off to London, normally I'd meet my other half in Manchester and train it down.
Going first class from Manchester is £160 on AWC, going from Leeds on LNER cost us £70 first class.
The normal route for someone married to an American to get an immigrant visa (which gets you a green card on arrival) takes about six months at best, but I think right now with COVID backlogs it’s taking over a year.
It is by no means guaranteed as well. You need to have a clean criminal record (don’t bother if you have any drug offences at all), pass a medical, and your USC spouse has to prove that they have sufficient income or savings to support you. That last one can be quite a hurdle for US/non-US couples moving to the US as any income the USC had from their job before moving cannot be counted if it will cease on their leaving. Many people have to accept separation for months with the USC moving to the US first and getting a job before their spouse can get the visa to join them.
Power of vaccination in effect because he's overweight, diabetic and over 65. My sister and I were always worried about him catching it and getting a serious case so quite glad to see that he's basically ok.
The vaccine has saved him an almost certain hospital admission and possibly even saved his life so very grateful to all of the scientists who made it happen in record time!
In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Patel has been left frustrated and bewildered by the attitude of senior officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, in particular the commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick.
Patel has concluded that a culture of “defensiveness” in the Met and its reluctance to own up to mistakes means it is “absolutely the worst” among the UK’s forces. Her determination has been bolstered by her meetings with Everard’s parents in the days after she vanished in March. This has given her a personal motivation to “break” what she sees as a dysfunctional and misogynistic police culture, review the scandals that have plagued the Yard and order the force to disclose more information about its officers under investigation.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clash-with-met-chief-cressida-dick-over-sarah-everard-made-priti-patels-patience-snap-8xlk0j0l7
One wonders why Priti Patel renewed Dick's contract at the Met?
https://twitter.com/colinphoenix/status/1447152194088747013?s=20
If Tory 2019 is (Tory 2015 + UKIP 2015) - 4-5% to the LDs, where does that leave Labour?
Flat from 2010 to 2019. One can hardly blame Corbyn for UKIPs voters going Tory, when his Brexit plan was a second referendum and the Tories was getting it done
And it's nice to see she has spotted the problems with a culture of defensiveness. Perhaps she could explain that problem to her political colleagues, as it might just have some cross relevance.
It’s a new world. People have the option of not travelling for business.
If you think prices are high for a Pendolino, imagine what they’ll be like on HS2.
But, yes amen to the vaccine people.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/chris-whitty-slide-vaccines-effective_uk_6140b940e4b0dda4cbd47342
If you're not in one of those groups then covid is something which happens to 'other people'.
Since the plague I've not spent a single penny on work/commuter related train travel.
As for the trains, the LNER train I am on is an Azuma train which I like a lot, even more so than a Pendolino.
The Home Secretary becomes de facto Met Commissioner. Maybe she could twin the Met with Mossad/Magav/IDF.
She has form.
Nationwide every single day well over a thousand people die, even in normal circumstances.
Covid isn't running out of control, its simply joined the list of diseases that kill people in the background.
Bill Esterson
@Bill_Esterson
Kwasi Kwarteng doesn’t rule out a three day week as a result of the energy crisis. This crisis was made in Downing Street by Boris Johnson’s failure to plan.
9:54 am · 10 Oct 2021·Twitter for iPhone
Anyway, one of the things that will slowly wind people up as they start travelling abroad again is how we have been asked to be treated. Stupid paperwork, bureaucracy and long queues are our lot now.
This is an exciting new definition of success that I am unfamiliar with.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10077261/One-six-Brits-unable-buy-essential-food-items-shelves-stay-empty.html#comments-10077261
That suggests a large-scale transition to hybrid working with office attendance up to three days per week and WFH two days per week. It's not as simple as that of course - some will be back to five days a week, others will not have returned at all.
Is this the "new normal" and what does it mean for the operational financial model for transport providers? To what extent do we need to re-think the financial model for transport provision and, as I suggested yesterday, do we need to re-think when engineering works are programmed to reduce the inconvenience to leisure traffic where the numbers continue to be robust?
I also STR that is a couple/few years old. Made quite a minor, rightful stink at the time.
Can't believe they'd do it again.
Despite winning most seats (72), ANO2011 leader and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babis has conceded defeat. Neither of the other two significant blocs of parties will work with him and his previous allies lost all their seats.
The centre-right alliance known as SPOLU is led by Petr Fiala's Civic Democratic Party won 71 seats. They will form a coalition with the STAN group which gained 27 seats to win 33 and the Pirates which won four seats.
Within SPOLU, the Civic Democrats won 33 seats, the Christian Democrats 27 seats and the TOP09 party 11 seats.
STAN is led by Vit Rakusan who is arguably the real winner of the election. His party won the same number as the Civic Democrats and I expect they will be a powerful part of the new Government.
Things are probably different in the Conservative party now that noted feminist and upholder of women's rights BJ is in charge.
(This doesn’t help if you happen to get stuck behind one person who takes ages to process of course.)
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/conservative-club-hosting-gentlemens-night-11971070
I'm intrigued by the success of the STAN group in yesterday's Czech elections where they went from 6 to 33 seats. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), their manifesto is as follows:
The party's top priorities include: good stewardship, high-quality education, environmental care and heritage protection – investing in education is key to the future prosperity that, however, must be built on the principles of good stewardship (management of public funds, use of energy resources and prudential landscape interventions). In promoting the principle of subsidiarity, STAN encourages localism, decentralisation, reduced bureaucracy and corruption clampdown. STAN further promotes: European integration, high-quality education, investments in science, state economy driven by the principles of a free market with the social aspect and sanctity of private property in mind, and environment protection.
Apart from the "European integration", there's nothing here a Liberal Democrat could oppose. Indeed, if I were Ed Davey or an LD activist/thinker, I'd be studying the STAN platform in detail.
As an antidote to the vacuously aspirational "high skills, high wages, high productivity, low tax" tenets of Johnson-ism or the complete vacuity of Starmer-ism, this at least has bones on which some policy meat could be put.
I have to say if a UK political party put up this kind of platform, I'd certainly give it a second or even third look.
So Czech has moved from Populist billionaire to standard European CD/liberal coalition.
Very much out of line with some of the neighbours.
Both 17 and 19 were Brexit elections but were impacted in opposite fashion. In 17, Labour were a receptacle for Remainers to vote against the hard Brexit Mrs May seemed intent upon. They didn't want to give her the majority she said she needed to drive it through. Upshot - the result flattered Corbyn. By 19, a significant proportion of these voters were sick & tired of the Brexit wars and rather than prolonging the agony with another Referendum wanted it to be over. Thus the power of the Oven Ready Deal and Get Brexit Done. Upshot - the result flattered Johnson.
So what I'm saying is Jeremy Corbyn had less to do with Labour's good result at GE17 than his supporters like to make out, and he had less to do with their terrible result at GE19 than his detractors like to make out. Bias drives the analysis of both camps. The bigger and deeper reason for the overperformance in 17 and the underperformance in 19 is Brexit.
The interesting question now - indeed the million dollar question when it comes to punditing UK politics - is what impact will Brexit have on the next election?
Well whatever next.
A closed, parochial country compared with the EU. Obvs.
competence level,
actual retail policies at that moment,
the spectrum of support,
leadership,
the nature and underlying principles of the party,
do voters think they can come in the top two in their seat/House of Commons.
What is behind Labour's persistent failure?
Competence? Could be worse, but flawed by: Iraq, banking crisis, Brexit
Actual policies? Wait and see. No-one has awareness of there being any
Spectrum of support? Far too much in enclaves. Nothing unites Bootle and Putney and Bradford in the demographic spectrum. Far too little support form the middling sort.
Leadership? Better now than for years, hence they have a chance of helping to form a government. But the toxic legacy will last for years.
Principles? Hopeless. MPs and members all over the place. Traditionally their principles are socialist, but all parties wanting power are centrist social democrats, like the Tories now. Labour cannot compare with the Tories on the visceral tests like: Do your members love their country? Are Labour people more critical of the UK than they are of China?
Top two? OK on this score. Which is why they might form, with others, the next government.As Mrs T said: "There is no alternative".
Final note: Terms like left and right have no meaning in this discussion.
Why? Well RL is the worst run sport in this country.
But also, Catalans Dragons were in it for the first time. Almost none of their fans possess passports, as they are relentlessly proletarian and live on the border with Spain and nip across using their ID cards. So they couldn't get them in 2 weeks despite a huge rush.
So. Manchester loses out on hotels and food, the fans who attended lose an atmosphere, those who couldn't lose, the UK loses, an already tottering RL loses. Airlines and airports, in not a great state, lose out.
The passport requirements came in only this week I believe.
As I said. Not vital in the great scheme, but how many Europeans without passports will choose to go elsewhere on holiday? And discretionary travel?
I would factor it in.
If they've chosen to be parochial, that's on them not us.
https://twitter.com/konstructivizm/status/1446911072477265924?s=20
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight