I also think Boris is going to surprise a lot of people with very large investment in green and renewable energy projects.
To be fair to him, this is one very important way in which he is perhaps not ‘Britain Trump’. I sincerely hope that the UK stays positively engaged in the global climate debate.
I think we will be and Boris is definitely going to direct a lot of the green investment into the new Tory seats which will create tens of thousands of highly paid jobs in the areas. I also think we will see a much more nationalist supply chain which will also help jobs across the North and Midlands.
They need to ditch her from the front benches as quickly as they can. She is the epitome of the problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint made this up but let’s be honest given Thornberry’s track record it’s also entirely believable. It’s a shame the worst Labour have to offer are the ones in the safest seats.
On the plus side I spoke to someone v close to Boris last night who very much expected the boundary changes to go through now.
Doesn't Jezza's seat get abolished under the changes?
So Dom Cummings will reinvent government with radical reforms.
Why am I very very worried about letting this character lose on our system of government.
He's a fucking genius. No one is sniggering about *Classic Dom* any more.
Let him do what he likes.
He didn’t run the campaign.
He did and he didn’t. He knew the right messages and who to target them with, he also knew the best time for an election and that a deal was required first. I’d say it’s as much a win for Dom as it was for Boris and Isaac
All the reports say he strategised the election from the moment Boris got the leadership. He left the day to day running of the grid to Levido and Co.
Moreover, I do not believe he is monastic enough to resist the easy pleasures of a campaign against Corbyn
You know how sometimes women don’t like other women? Well if you were to build from scratch a woman that other women wouldn’t vote for it would be Jess Phillips. And as for imagining her in the international stage...
I wouldn’t say Labour could do much better but the reality is there must be someone...
You know how sometimes women don’t like other women? Well if you were to build from scratch a woman that other women wouldn’t vote for it would be Jess Phillips. And as for imagining her in the international stage...
I wouldn’t say Labour could do much better but the reality is there must be someone...
Ditto. I just can't see the question to which Jess Philips is the answer.
They need to ditch her from the front benches as quickly as they can. She is the epitome of the problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint made this up but let’s be honest given Thornberry’s track record it’s also entirely believable. It’s a shame the worst Labour have to offer are the ones in the safest seats.
On the plus side I spoke to someone v close to Boris last night who very much expected the boundary changes to go through now.
With reduction to 600?
I'd not be quite so sure, even though boundary reform is in the manifesto. I expect CCHQ might want to re-crunch the numbers based on the new parliament. Remember the original proposals date from Blair's hegemony when Cameron and Osborne decided Labour was cheating because it took twice as many votes to elect a Conservative, and Scotland and Wales were uniformly red, so a touch of gerrymandering was needed to rebalance the scales. Things have moved on.
Let us suppose that CCHQ is cynical and ruthless. There are cynical and ruthless grounds for waiting. For a start, any reduction to 600 constituencies will stir up backbenchers afraid of losing their own seats. Secondly, Conservatives are most favoured by boundary reviews based on an old but purged electoral register. It would not surprise me to see a new review in a couple of years based on 650-odd seats.
They need to ditch her from the front benches as quickly as they can. She is the epitome of the problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint made this up but let’s be honest given Thornberry’s track record it’s also entirely believable. It’s a shame the worst Labour have to offer are the ones in the safest seats.
On the plus side I spoke to someone v close to Boris last night who very much expected the boundary changes to go through now.
With reduction to 600?
I'd not be quite so sure, even though boundary reform is in the manifesto. I expect CCHQ might want to re-crunch the numbers based on the new parliament. Remember the original proposals date from Blair's hegemony when Cameron and Osborne decided Labour was cheating because it took twice as many votes to elect a Conservative, and Scotland and Wales were uniformly red, so a touch of gerrymandering was needed to rebalance the scales. Things have moved on.
Let us suppose that CCHQ is cynical and ruthless. There are cynical and ruthless grounds for waiting. For a start, any reduction to 600 constituencies will stir up backbenchers afraid of losing their own seats. Secondly, Conservatives are most favoured by boundary reviews based on an old but purged electoral register. It would not surprise me to see a new review in a couple of years based on 650-odd seats.
There isn't much doubt that Boris is cynical and ruthless. Look at the way he exiled the Remainers. Brutal.
One thing to remember...2017 May didn't think she needed help from Crosby-Textor, who were so successful in 2015.
This time, Team Boris had Isaac Levido and his team who pretty much all did their apprenticeship with that firm, but are younger / more savvy to social media.
You know how sometimes women don’t like other women? Well if you were to build from scratch a woman that other women wouldn’t vote for it would be Jess Phillips. And as for imagining her in the international stage...
I wouldn’t say Labour could do much better but the reality is there must be someone...
You know how sometimes women don’t like other women? Well if you were to build from scratch a woman that other women wouldn’t vote for it would be Jess Phillips. And as for imagining her in the international stage...
I wouldn’t say Labour could do much better but the reality is there must be someone...
I would say Emily Thornberry is far worse in that respect.
Jess Phillips is a fantastic opposition MP, and should be a permanent feature of the Opposition front bench. The idea of her being a Minister fills me with dread - for me, she personifies the idea of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
The difference with Jess Phillips and the likes of Thornberry, Phillips is genuine and people can see that. I don't always agree with her, but she really believes in what she says.
They need to ditch her from the front benches as quickly as they can. She is the epitome of the problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint made this up but let’s be honest given Thornberry’s track record it’s also entirely believable. It’s a shame the worst Labour have to offer are the ones in the safest seats.
On the plus side I spoke to someone v close to Boris last night who very much expected the boundary changes to go through now.
With reduction to 600?
I'd not be quite so sure, even though boundary reform is in the manifesto. I expect CCHQ might want to re-crunch the numbers based on the new parliament. Remember the original proposals date from Blair's hegemony when Cameron and Osborne decided Labour was cheating because it took twice as many votes to elect a Conservative, and Scotland and Wales were uniformly red, so a touch of gerrymandering was needed to rebalance the scales. Things have moved on.
Let us suppose that CCHQ is cynical and ruthless. There are cynical and ruthless grounds for waiting. For a start, any reduction to 600 constituencies will stir up backbenchers afraid of losing their own seats. Secondly, Conservatives are most favoured by boundary reviews based on an old but purged electoral register. It would not surprise me to see a new review in a couple of years based on 650-odd seats.
Gerrymandering? The commission is an independent body. The only gerrymandering going on is by the parties refusing to vote for the updated boundaries.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
I haven't the link but Dan Hodges in the Mail today wrote a superb article making the same and many other cogent points. My feeling is that there are 2 big disconnects atm - Scotland and also the Metropolitan cities/RoUK. Neither really get the other. It may also be that the Metropolitan area contain much heavier proportions of the ethnic minority groups who are most inclined to vote Labour regardless.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
Ed Miliband was their Hague - the well-meaning, gaffe prone, slightly lightweight figure promoted too fast and too soon because he was greedy and over-reached himself.
Corbyn was their IDS. Although IDS was never as useless, as partisan or as stupid as Corbyn.
The snag is, they failed when they had an opportunity to bring in their Howard. As a result the cupboard is now bare.
I also think Boris is going to surprise a lot of people with very large investment in green and renewable energy projects.
To be fair to him, this is one very important way in which he is perhaps not ‘Britain Trump’. I sincerely hope that the UK stays positively engaged in the global climate debate.
This is something which has been happening for years.
One of the surprises for me is how the Greens and the LibDems amongst others, including Extinction Rebellion, have indulged in a patently false rhetoric of "nothing has been done".
We are firmly at the top of the European league tables on that one, apart from a couple of Scandinavian resource economies with tiny populations.
If done right, the Greenery should be an easy win.
One thing to remember...2017 May didn't think she needed help from Crosby-Textor, who were so successful in 2015.
This time, Team Boris had Isaac Levido and his team who pretty much all did their apprenticeship with that firm, but are younger / more savvy to social media.
Wrong. Lynton Crosby's greatest achievement was to pin the blame for 2017 on Nick, Fiona and the dementia tax. In fact, Crosby did run Theresa May's 2017 campaign (presidential, Cabinet locked in a cupboard, ducking debates -- sound familiar?).
Ed Miliband was their Hague - the well-meaning, gaffe prone, slightly lightweight figure promoted too fast and too soon because he was greedy and over-reached himself.
Corbyn was their IDS. Although IDS was never as useless, as partisan or as stupid as Corbyn.
The snag is, they failed when they had an opportunity to bring in their Howard. As a result the cupboard is now bare.
The Ed Miliband bacon sani picture was one of THE great political pictures..
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
I haven't the link but Dan Hodges in the Mail today wrote a superb article making the same and many other cogent points. My feeling is that there are 2 big disconnects atm - Scotland and also the Metropolitan cities/RoUK. Neither really get the other. It may also be that the Metropolitan area contain much heavier proportions of the ethnic minority groups who are most inclined to vote Labour regardless.
I do there is there is disconnect in what is important to them. London air pollution is really bad, thus you can see why people think environmental stuff is so important. Housing is expensive, so rental rights. But there are jobs aplenty and London has always had a large diverse population, so things like immigration are less of an issue.
Flip that to say Stoke (which I know well) and they look round and poor educational attention, poor job opportunities, poor life expectancy and swift change in terms of population demographics...and then they see Jezza / McDonnell from the party that suppose to stand up for the working man, agreeing with a load of middle class tw@ts gluing themselves to trains on a work day and saying Climate Change is the #1 issue.
The difference with Jess Phillips and the likes of Thornberry, Phillips is genuine and people can see that. I don't always agree with her, but she really believes in what she says.
She also has the benefit of being the one female candidate whose candidature John McDonnell is not prepared to back.
Ed Miliband was their Hague - the well-meaning, gaffe prone, slightly lightweight figure promoted too fast and too soon because he was greedy and over-reached himself.
Corbyn was their IDS. Although IDS was never as useless, as partisan or as stupid as Corbyn.
The snag is, they failed when they had an opportunity to bring in their Howard. As a result the cupboard is now bare.
The Ed Miliband bacon sani picture was one of THE great political pictures..
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
"Thornberry: Flint's 'stupid constituents' claim is total lie Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
One thing to remember...2017 May didn't think she needed help from Crosby-Textor, who were so successful in 2015.
This time, Team Boris had Isaac Levido and his team who pretty much all did their apprenticeship with that firm, but are younger / more savvy to social media.
Wrong. Lynton Crosby's greatest achievement was to pin the blame for 2017 on Nick, Fiona and the dementia tax. In fact, Crosby did run Theresa May's 2017 campaign (presidential, Cabinet locked in a cupboard, ducking debates -- sound familiar?).
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
On topic: Consensus down the pub on Friday night was a surprise that turnout was not higher given the importance of the election. I guess a fair number of Labour voters stayed at home.
Yes, keep practising the phrase "Differential turnout".
It explains Scotland elections from 2015 perfectly, I think it describes 2019 across the UK this time.
"Thornberry: Flint's 'stupid constituents' claim is total lie Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
oopps - I meant NE of Wales, not the NW (which is similar to the Valleys).
There are no Labour seats in NW Wales. Not one. They hold precisely one seat north of Merthyr - Alyn and Deeside, by the princely margin of 113 votes.
Similar to the Valleys in its lack of support for the Royal Family.
And yet the four seats in that area are two Plaid, two Tory.
It is not the only factor in whether an area votes for a particular party. But on this one particular topic, NE Wales is similar to NE England and both are very different to the South Wales Valleys. So it seems reasonable to me, in so much that it influences peoples decision in how to vote, Corbyn's lack of deference to the Queen would have less resonance in South Wales.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA was what was repeated.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
If you look at some of these maps, you can see that South Wales is one of the areas of Great Britain that has the lowest support for the Royal Family. (The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking). Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
One thing to remember...2017 May didn't think she needed help from Crosby-Textor, who were so successful in 2015.
This time, Team Boris had Isaac Levido and his team who pretty much all did their apprenticeship with that firm, but are younger / more savvy to social media.
Wrong. Lynton Crosby's greatest achievement was to pin the blame for 2017 on Nick, Fiona and the dementia tax. In fact, Crosby did run Theresa May's 2017 campaign (presidential, Cabinet locked in a cupboard, ducking debates -- sound familiar?).
I stand corrected.
Anyone who knows anything about May knows she was the architect of her own downfall. Crosby wasn't part of her tiny inner circle so was ignored and overriden on a frequent basis
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
Yes, fair point. May will be very annoyed no one cares last time.
They need to ditch her from the front benches as quickly as they can. She is the epitome of the problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Flint made this up but let’s be honest given Thornberry’s track record it’s also entirely believable. It’s a shame the worst Labour have to offer are the ones in the safest seats.
On the plus side I spoke to someone v close to Boris last night who very much expected the boundary changes to go through now.
With reduction to 600?
I'd not be quite so sure, even though boundary reform is in the manifesto. I expect CCHQ might want to re-crunch the numbers based on the new parliament. Remember the original proposals date from Blair's hegemony when Cameron and Osborne decided Labour was cheating because it took twice as many votes to elect a Conservative, and Scotland and Wales were uniformly red, so a touch of gerrymandering was needed to rebalance the scales. Things have moved on.
Let us suppose that CCHQ is cynical and ruthless. There are cynical and ruthless grounds for waiting. For a start, any reduction to 600 constituencies will stir up backbenchers afraid of losing their own seats. Secondly, Conservatives are most favoured by boundary reviews based on an old but purged electoral register. It would not surprise me to see a new review in a couple of years based on 650-odd seats.
Gerrymandering? The commission is an independent body. The only gerrymandering going on is by the parties refusing to vote for the updated boundaries.
Gerrymandering. This is how it works. First, you make Labour regions look smaller than they really are, and smaller than Conservative regions. You do this by basing new boundaries on an out-of-date but recently purged electoral register. This is because cities tend to have far higher population turnover than rural areas, and people tend not to update their registrations when they move, until prompted to do so.
That is the key to understanding how Cameron and Osborne set out to gerrymander -- so cunning I gather it is now being adopted in America. Make your opponents' regions look smaller and therefore entitled to fewer constituencies.
Then the reduction to 600 seats with very tight population limits is simply to ensure that *every* constituency is redrawn. There is nothing special about the number 600. It could as easily have been 500 or 700.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
Yes, fair point. May will be very annoyed no one cares last time.
Or had noticed. Remember, it takes the average punter a long time to notice these things. That's not a criticism of the average punter, just an acceptance that most people have far more important things to worry about than the friendships of the leader of the Labour Party.
Gerrymandering. This is how it works. First, you make Labour regions look smaller than they really are, and smaller than Conservative regions. You do this by basing new boundaries on an out-of-date but recently purged electoral register. This is because cities tend to have far higher population turnover than rural areas, and people tend not to update their registrations when they move, until prompted to do so.
That is the key to understanding how Cameron and Osborne set out to gerrymander -- so cunning I gather it is now being adopted in America. Make your opponents' regions look smaller and therefore entitled to fewer constituencies.
Then the reduction to 600 seats with very tight population limits is simply to ensure that *every* constituency is redrawn. There is nothing special about the number 600. It could as easily have been 500 or 700.
Thankfully there were two recent elections, so the register is about as up to date as it is going to get.
The BBC in recognizable form isn't going to survive a Johnson administration is it.
It'll be useful as a warm up exercise before we go to work on the NHS.
But it does come out of this GE campaign with an enhanced reputation for incompetence and dishonesty. It lied to Labour instead of pushing Labour to push for an actual guarantee of a Johnson Neil interview, and it let Neil walk all over it and make himself the story. It interviewed him and presided over debates with him, via some of the most highly regarded and paid political journalists in the country, but instead of getting someone else to ask "why did you say NZR was teaching journalism, you utter c--t, and why do you never, ever stop lying?" - it promoted a bloviating bit of self-importance from AN trying to appoint himself a living national treasure.
PS I was surprised there was no black ops attempt to bring that AN Private Eye photograph to wider attention.
"Thornberry: Flint's 'stupid constituents' claim is total lie Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
Yes, fair point. May will be very annoyed no one cares last time.
I mentioned several times on PB how absolutely LOATHED Corbyn is, I heard it time an again talking to people as I went about my work. I think CCHQ, dealt with the IRA stuff , but there has been WhatsApp stuff about Corbyn's association with terrorists and more recently the Corbyn credit card.. His reputation has been well and truly traduced.
I notice Labour / left learning media are making the same mistakes they did when Boris became Mayor and when we had the coalition in 2010. They keep screaming that he will trash the country, persecute the immigrants, destroy all the institutions, it will all be total chaos, before any policy has been announced.
They kept making this mistake over cuts 2010-15, giving it the back to Wigan pier stuff, 5 million unemployed etc....its makes it easier for the Tories to make some cuts and when the world doesn't go to hell in a handcart, point out how the opposition have been wrong on everything ever.
Far better for Labour to get their own house in order and pick their fights when policies have been announced.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
Yes, fair point. May will be very annoyed no one cares last time.
I mentioned several times on PB how absolutely LOATHED Corbyn is, I heard it time an again talking to people as I went about my work. I think CCHQ, dealt with the IRA stuff , but there has been WhatsApp stuff about Corbyn's association with terrorists and more recently the Corbyn credit card.. His reputation has been well and truly traduced.
So I was right about that 2017, 6 million view video. Just a slow burner. Because the talk this time after the 2017 election was LOL, no cut through, all ancient history (and obv 2 years ancienter, now).
I notice Labour / left learning media are making the same mistakes they did when Boris became Mayor and when we had the coalition in 2010. They keep screaming that he will trash the country, persecute the immigrants, destroy all the institutions, it will all be total chaos, before any policy has been announced.
They kept making this mistake over cuts 2010-15, giving it the back to Wigan pier stuff, 5 million unemployed etc....its makes it easier for the Tories to make some cuts and when the world doesn't go to hell in a handcart, point out how the opposition have been wrong on everything ever.
Hyperbole is fine - but only if you also know when to employ litotes.
I think Labour's huge problem is still Scotland. Labour needs to win 30-40 seats in Scotland to get a majority, I don't know how realistic that is. Which means they are forever going to need to be in a Faustian pact with the SNP which is voter poison in middle England. That picture of EdM in Salmond's pocket is still relevant.
I honestly don't see a path to a Labour minority unless they make nice with the Lib Dems and hope the Lib Dems start their fight back against the Tories.
There is no path to power for Labour which includes separatist parties in its coalition. They will get smashed to pieces by the electorate in England and Wales if they enable separatist movements.
Or, they need to absolutely knock it out the park in England and Wales and gain 125 seats next time.
Nope. Me neither.
And that's what I mean, what's target seat 125 in England and Wales? It must be something ridiculous like Surrey Heath.
That's a good question actually.
Don't know. But I suspect Blairish era seats.
Yep. You've got to go much deeper to hit some of the more traditional Labour seats
Bassetlaw is now safer than Banbury. Nuneaton - which was a much-watched key marginal until a few years ago - is safer than both of those.
Bassetlaw ( and Barrow ) are both unusual seats where the previous Labour incumbent, seeking to represent their constituents found themselves literally at war with the entire party under whose banner they were elected. The bullshit from certain former Tories about the party moving away from them was in these two cases on the other side actually true.
"Thornberry: Flint's 'stupid constituents' claim is total lie Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
Yes, fair point. May will be very annoyed no one cares last time.
I mentioned several times on PB how absolutely LOATHED Corbyn is, I heard it time an again talking to people as I went about my work. I think CCHQ, dealt with the IRA stuff , but there has been WhatsApp stuff about Corbyn's association with terrorists and more recently the Corbyn credit card.. His reputation has been well and truly traduced.
Perhaps one day we will find out what the Tories were up to with things like their targeted advertising spend, but if I was this company I would keep it secret. I was very surprised when Crosby was happy to explain how they won the 2015 GE.
"Thornberry: Flint's 'stupid constituents' claim is total lie Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
Could this alleged comment by Thornberry turn into the "no money left" note of 2019?
The thing is not only is it totally believable Thornberry would say such a thing, I think lots of Northern voters in places like Stoke think that is exactly what lots of politicians / media types think of their decision to vote Leave.
I saw James O'Brien interviewed by Owen Jones and he pretty much said exactly this i.e. these people are so thick they are going to vote to be worse off.
I think Labour's huge problem is still Scotland. Labour needs to win 30-40 seats in Scotland to get a majority, I don't know how realistic that is. Which means they are forever going to need to be in a Faustian pact with the SNP which is voter poison in middle England. That picture of EdM in Salmond's pocket is still relevant.
I honestly don't see a path to a Labour minority unless they make nice with the Lib Dems and hope the Lib Dems start their fight back against the Tories.
There is no path to power for Labour which includes separatist parties in its coalition. They will get smashed to pieces by the electorate in England and Wales if they enable separatist movements.
Or, they need to absolutely knock it out the park in England and Wales and gain 125 seats next time.
Nope. Me neither.
And that's what I mean, what's target seat 125 in England and Wales? It must be something ridiculous like Surrey Heath.
Target 125 for Labour in England and Wales is Somerset North East Target 126 is the even more ridiculous for Labour Derbyshire North East.
Accept some Tory policies can stay in place - I don't know what those are but I am sure there are some - but argue for some left policies on pragmatic grounds, like railways.
Labour needs somebody on the soft left who is prepared to argue for left policy when it's needed but also against it where it is not. They need somebody not pinned down by ideology at all costs, that is where the Corbyn project has gone wrong.
I liked a lot of Labour's 2017 policies and a more pragmatic leader on the soft left could have argued for them, from a Norway POV. But the problem was that Labour wasn't doing that.
Update from Corbynland - apparently all over twitter it's being said a tory company was responsible for counting ballots all over the country. A company called idox.
So simple.
I've not seen the posts but this was put to me very sincerely.
I think Labour's huge problem is still Scotland. Labour needs to win 30-40 seats in Scotland to get a majority, I don't know how realistic that is. Which means they are forever going to need to be in a Faustian pact with the SNP which is voter poison in middle England. That picture of EdM in Salmond's pocket is still relevant.
I honestly don't see a path to a Labour minority unless they make nice with the Lib Dems and hope the Lib Dems start their fight back against the Tories.
There is no path to power for Labour which includes separatist parties in its coalition. They will get smashed to pieces by the electorate in England and Wales if they enable separatist movements.
Or, they need to absolutely knock it out the park in England and Wales and gain 125 seats next time.
Nope. Me neither.
And that's what I mean, what's target seat 125 in England and Wales? It must be something ridiculous like Surrey Heath.
Target 125 for Labour in England and Wales is Somerset North East Target 126 is the even more ridiculous for Labour Derbyshire North East.
What's target 60? 60 would be enough to force a minority Government on a 5.5% swing.
Update from Corbynland - apparently all over twitter it's being said a tory company was responsible for counting ballots all over the country. A company called index.
So simple.
I've not seen the posts but this was put to me very sincerely.
So much of the Cult really are like left wing InfoWars, worshipping their left wing Trump. Everything is a conspiracy.
One really surprising thing about the Labour post-mortems: how many of them mention Corbyn's association with the IRA, and its toxicity in working class seats
We dismissed this blemish, on here, as priced in and irrelevant. We were totally wrong, voters hadn't really noticed the taint before, but this time they took a proper look at Corbyn's backstory, and they were repelled.
The only pb-er who mentioned this possibility before the vote, I believe, was Southam.
I was taken aback by the visceral hatred of him when the Vox Pop'ed Burley football fans yesterday.....he doesn't sing the national anthem, he hates the Queen, he supported the IRA.
I think what a lot of the Maomentum lot didn't quite realise is that Flat Cap Fred is incredibly patriotic and they respect the Queen.
Yes, see here
"Talking to regulars the same allegations surface again and again. That Corbyn consorted with the IRA, that he is soft on terrorists. That he has remained silent on prosecuting veterans over the Bloody Sunday killings."
There's a dozen other articles which say exactly the same, and from all over Britain
Whoever is the next Labour leader, their patriotism has to be absolutely unquestionable, and they have to be more monarchist than the Queen. The same way Tories have to go on an on and on about loving the NHS, to the point of nausea.
There is an instinctive mistrust which must be allayed from the get-go.
Do Labour have such a candidate? Dan Jarvis? Is he still with us?
Whoever the CCHQ mole in the Corbyn camp that persuaded Corbyn to launch the Labour Manifesto in Birmingham - on the anniversary of the IRA's Birmingham pub bombings - step forward and collect your gong.
Could this alleged comment by Thornberry turn into the "no money left" note of 2019?
The thing is not only is it totally believable Thornberry would say such a thing, I think lots of Northern voters in places like Stoke think that is exactly what lots of politicians / media types think of their decision to vote Leave.
A note is a note. Undocumented hearsay is just that, and creates an opportunity for Thornberry to call Flint a liar. It could easily be true, but it was still ill-advised to say it.
I think I've lost some of my political judgement in this election, although I've made money (by 4 seats). I totally missed what was happening on the Red Wall.
So I put this out there as a question. Does not Boris' emphatic win mean that he will be able to silence the hard-right? He can shift quietly to the centre knowing he's not going to get defeated by 20 ERG types, with whom he does not naturally really agree.
I said throughout this campaign that the new intake who were going to be elected had all signed up to Boris's Deal - and beyond that, they were mostly One Nation Conservatives. I don't expect many to be joining the ERG, which will whither in importance one we leave on 31st January.
Boris will get a boost in popularity for delivering that Leave. 30 months of shameless Remain MPs ensured constant blocking, yet with many of them gone and his new intake in place, Boris gets us out after barely one month. He will have listened, he will have acted. Just what many of these new voters wanted - simply to be listened to. Loud and clear, says Boris - loud and clear.
He can do some radical stuff thereafter if he (and Cummins) turn their minds to it.
One Nation Tories or not is completely to miss the point. It was well articulated on the ITV coverage, sorry can't remember who, but something I said here the other side of the election. These seats were never going to be easy wins so the candidates were in the generality less career politicians but more hard working party members and activists. That means in turn that they have probably served in local government and probably understand the local community needs.
If those who thought they had the right to be Tory MPs were too often the A Listers then these are the anti-thesis of A Listers and I know of three at least who were actually prevented from taking a seat for 2010 because of an effing A Lister.
My dad often spoke about those who came into our area to show us common plebs how to farm - they generally went in 3 to 5 years. The A Listers came to show us how to run our Constituency Associations and win elections - they will not be missed, least of all Rory Stewart.
I have been having a think about how the LDs could have avoided Thursdays disaster and to be honest, I think ever since Labour came out unambiguously for a second referendum it holed them below the waterline. They were not going to be able to compete.
The only strategic error that probably lost them a few extra seats was the revoke policy, which was weird and felt a bit extreme. Bear in mind that most potential LD voters are pro-European and anti-Brexit anyway though, so I feel it probably only had a minimal contribution. Maybe it lost them a seat or two here or there, but nothing seismic. It wouldn’t have stopped a Boris majority and it wouldn’t have taken the LDs to a pre-coalition seat count, or anywhere even near that.
Maybe they could have done a bit better with a leader other than Swinson, who the public didn’t seem to like all that much. Maybe portraying her as the next Prime Minister was a bit of a silly idea. Maybe spending half the campaign moaning about the debates wasn’t the best look. But really I think all this is fluff beyond the fact that they had an anti-Brexit horse and Jeremy Corbyn stood up, pulled out a revolver and shot it.
Hard to see how they could have helped that. But also hard to see where they go from here.
I think Labour's huge problem is still Scotland. Labour needs to win 30-40 seats in Scotland to get a majority, I don't know how realistic that is. Which means they are forever going to need to be in a Faustian pact with the SNP which is voter poison in middle England. That picture of EdM in Salmond's pocket is still relevant.
I honestly don't see a path to a Labour minority unless they make nice with the Lib Dems and hope the Lib Dems start their fight back against the Tories.
There is no path to power for Labour which includes separatist parties in its coalition. They will get smashed to pieces by the electorate in England and Wales if they enable separatist movements.
Or, they need to absolutely knock it out the park in England and Wales and gain 125 seats next time.
Nope. Me neither.
And that's what I mean, what's target seat 125 in England and Wales? It must be something ridiculous like Surrey Heath.
Target 125 for Labour in England and Wales is Somerset North East Target 126 is the even more ridiculous for Labour Derbyshire North East.
What's target 60? 60 would be enough to force a minority Government on a 5.5% swing.
The BBC in recognizable form isn't going to survive a Johnson administration is it.
The BBC won't survive in any form if it doesn't reform. The telly tax is totally unenforceable in the modern world.
It will be a lot more expensive if you have to pay for it rather than be licensed for it.
It won't be value for money then. For less than the license fee you can already get Netflix plus Amazon Prime.
For less than the license fee (£0) you can already get R4, R3, more if you want it plus old or not-so-old TV programmes on Youtube. It doesn't make logical sense but it was clearly decided, sensibly, that a radio tax would be too difficult to collect.
Finland and Iceland now fund theirs from taxation. We should too. No evasion, no admin. costs.
I have been having a think about how the LDs could have avoided Thursdays disaster and to be honest, I think ever since Labour came out unambiguously for a second referendum it holed them below the waterline. They were not going to be able to compete.
The only strategic error that probably lost them a few extra seats was the revoke policy, which was weird and felt a bit extreme. Bear in mind that most potential LD voters are pro-European and anti-Brexit anyway though, so I feel it probably only had a minimal contribution. Maybe it lost them a seat or two here or there, but nothing seismic.
Maybe they could have done a bit better with a leader other than Swinson, who the public didn’t seem to like all that much. Maybe portraying her as the next Prime Minister was a bit of a silly idea. Maybe spending half the campaign moaning about the debates wasn’t the best look. But really I think all this is fluff beyond the fact that they had an anti-Brexit horse and Jeremy Corbyn stood up, pulled out a revolver and shot it.
Hard to see how they could have helped that. But also hard to see where they go from here.
The Lib Dems refusal (and to be fair Labour's too) to work pragmatically even under the table (as per 1997), was what did it for them.
However, they do have now 100 close targets, so if Labour is prepared to be smart they can stop Johnson in 2024. But that's a tall order.
The BBC in recognizable form isn't going to survive a Johnson administration is it.
The BBC won't survive in any form if it doesn't reform. The telly tax is totally unenforceable in the modern world.
IIRC under-25s (it might have even been under-30s) watch more Netflix alone than ALL of the BBC's output combined. The idea that the BBC can simply carry on as usual is simply nuts.
The BBC in recognizable form isn't going to survive a Johnson administration is it.
The BBC won't survive in any form if it doesn't reform. The telly tax is totally unenforceable in the modern world.
IIRC under-25s (it might have even been under-30s) watch more Netflix alone than ALL of the BBC's output combined. The idea that the BBC can simply carry on as usual is simply nuts.
Anybody who has kids, has friends with kids...It isn't even Netflix...its YouTube....There is a whole eco-system of YouTubbers who make daily videos which get millions of views and the kids tune in every day to get the next episode. It the first thing they do when they get in from school.
Update from Corbynland - apparently all over twitter it's being said a tory company was responsible for counting ballots all over the country. A company called index.
So simple.
I've not seen the posts but this was put to me very sincerely.
So much of the Cult really are like left wing InfoWars, worshipping their left wing Trump. Everything is a conspiracy.
The election clearly needs to be re-run with Momentum in charge of the count.
Target 61 is Sedgefield. If Labour can't even take that back they're doomed.
Labour has lots of 1st time incumbency against it next time. And because of the stonking majority, MPs will be able to work their seats hard - they won't need to be within 5 minutes of Westminster every waking minute.
I have been having a think about how the LDs could have avoided Thursdays disaster and to be honest, I think ever since Labour came out unambiguously for a second referendum it holed them below the waterline. They were not going to be able to compete.
The only strategic error that probably lost them a few extra seats was the revoke policy, which was weird and felt a bit extreme. Bear in mind that most potential LD voters are pro-European and anti-Brexit anyway though, so I feel it probably only had a minimal contribution. Maybe it lost them a seat or two here or there, but nothing seismic.
Maybe they could have done a bit better with a leader other than Swinson, who the public didn’t seem to like all that much. Maybe portraying her as the next Prime Minister was a bit of a silly idea. Maybe spending half the campaign moaning about the debates wasn’t the best look. But really I think all this is fluff beyond the fact that they had an anti-Brexit horse and Jeremy Corbyn stood up, pulled out a revolver and shot it.
Hard to see how they could have helped that. But also hard to see where they go from here.
The Lib Dems refusal (and to be fair Labour's too) to work pragmatically even under the table (as per 1997), was what did it for them.
However, they do have now 100 close targets, so if Labour is prepared to be smart they can stop Johnson in 2024. But that's a tall order.
Maybe they should have said we’ll work with Labour and moderate Corbyn to strip out all the whacko policies. Perhaps that would have helped. But then people would just say “you can’t trust the LDs look at the last coalition” so they would have had a problem with that too I think.
I also think Boris is going to surprise a lot of people with very large investment in green and renewable energy projects.
As I say, I am working for one to be the Tidal Lagoons.....
Hooray!!
I thought tidal lagoons had been evaluated as pink elephants more expensive than the vanity-nuclear?
Only when evaluated by those desperate to protect nuclear energy in this country.
When you you measure them on sensible metrics - for example they will barely be run in for their 125 year life cycle as the nuclear plants are being deactivated - then things look rather different.
The Rance tidal power station in Brittany, built in 1966, is today the cheapest power produced in France.
I have been having a think about how the LDs could have avoided Thursdays disaster and to be honest, I think ever since Labour came out unambiguously for a second referendum it holed them below the waterline. They were not going to be able to compete.
The only strategic error that probably lost them a few extra seats was the revoke policy, which was weird and felt a bit extreme. Bear in mind that most potential LD voters are pro-European and anti-Brexit anyway though, so I feel it probably only had a minimal contribution. Maybe it lost them a seat or two here or there, but nothing seismic.
Maybe they could have done a bit better with a leader other than Swinson, who the public didn’t seem to like all that much. Maybe portraying her as the next Prime Minister was a bit of a silly idea. Maybe spending half the campaign moaning about the debates wasn’t the best look. But really I think all this is fluff beyond the fact that they had an anti-Brexit horse and Jeremy Corbyn stood up, pulled out a revolver and shot it.
Hard to see how they could have helped that. But also hard to see where they go from here.
The Lib Dems refusal (and to be fair Labour's too) to work pragmatically even under the table (as per 1997), was what did it for them.
However, they do have now 100 close targets, so if Labour is prepared to be smart they can stop Johnson in 2024. But that's a tall order.
Maybe they should have said we’ll work with Labour and moderate Corbyn to strip out all the whacko policies. Perhaps that would have helped. But then people would just say “you can’t trust the LDs look at the last coalition” so they would have had a problem with that too I think.
The voters the Lib Dems were courting were more afraid of Corbyn than Brexit. If Labour has a leader the Lib Dems can get behind - as per Blair, Brown and Ed - then they'll be onto a winner.
Target 61 is Sedgefield. If Labour can't even take that back they're doomed.
That includes winning seats in Scotland which I think Labour needs to write off. It means winning a higher number of seats in England and Wales, it seems very unlikely.
On topic: Consensus down the pub on Friday night was a surprise that turnout was not higher given the importance of the election. I guess a fair number of Labour voters stayed at home.
Yes, keep practising the phrase "Differential turnout".
It explains Scotland elections from 2015 perfectly, I think it describes 2019 across the UK this time.
Looking at the numbers here in the Red Wall, turnout has not been substantially different from looking at a (small) sample. It has more been 15-25% of Lab voters moving elsewhere, perhaps.
eg in Bassetlaw the total of votes was down by 2% only.
That is more likely to be Toxic Jeremy plus Brexit, though perhaps also fed by some differential turnout. Is there evidence of Brexit bringing people out rather than changing?
Update from Corbynland - apparently all over twitter it's being said a tory company was responsible for counting ballots all over the country. A company called index.
So simple.
I've not seen the posts but this was put to me very sincerely.
So much of the Cult really are like left wing InfoWars, worshipping their left wing Trump. Everything is a conspiracy.
The election clearly needs to be re-run with Momentum in charge of the count.
Conspiracy is really the 'democratisation of reality'. Back in the day, if you were a flat-earther, you'd be patted on the head and sent on your way with a pitying look. Now, you can simply connect to others on the Internet and build yourself an echo chamber that says: "this *is* reality...
Target 61 is Sedgefield. If Labour can't even take that back they're doomed.
That includes winning seats in Scotland which I think Labour needs to write off. It means winning a higher number of seats in England and Wales, it seems very unlikely.
To be fair, there were signs of life in 2017 for Labour in Scotland. Toxic Corbyn did it for them this time around but if they go hard against independence they can setup a USP again.
Comments
Moreover, I do not believe he is monastic enough to resist the easy pleasures of a campaign against Corbyn
I wouldn’t say Labour could do much better but the reality is there must be someone...
She should be in the Shadow Cabinet, mind.
Let us suppose that CCHQ is cynical and ruthless. There are cynical and ruthless grounds for waiting. For a start, any reduction to 600 constituencies will stir up backbenchers afraid of losing their own seats. Secondly, Conservatives are most favoured by boundary reviews based on an old but purged electoral register. It would not surprise me to see a new review in a couple of years based on 650-odd seats.
It's one of his more appealing characteristics.
This time, Team Boris had Isaac Levido and his team who pretty much all did their apprenticeship with that firm, but are younger / more savvy to social media.
https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1206134930247475206?s=20
Jess Phillips is a fantastic opposition MP, and should be a permanent feature of the Opposition front bench. The idea of her being a Minister fills me with dread - for me, she personifies the idea of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.
https://twitter.com/GlennBBC/status/1206198583244066816?s=20
(The difference with the NE of England and the NW of Wales is particularly striking).
Maybe his lack of respect for the Queen had less resonance there, and helps explain why the Red Valleys remained red?
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/royal-family-support-wales-queen-17299194
Corbyn was their IDS. Although IDS was never as useless, as partisan or as stupid as Corbyn.
The snag is, they failed when they had an opportunity to bring in their Howard. As a result the cupboard is now bare.
One of the surprises for me is how the Greens and the LibDems amongst others, including Extinction Rebellion, have indulged in a patently false rhetoric of "nothing has been done".
We are firmly at the top of the European league tables on that one, apart from a couple of Scandinavian resource economies with tiny populations.
If done right, the Greenery should be an easy win.
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/05/21/11/v3-miliband-selwynv2.jpg?w968
Flip that to say Stoke (which I know well) and they look round and poor educational attention, poor job opportunities, poor life expectancy and swift change in terms of population demographics...and then they see Jezza / McDonnell from the party that suppose to stand up for the working man, agreeing with a load of middle class tw@ts gluing themselves to trains on a work day and saying Climate Change is the #1 issue.
Have a good afternoon.
Earlier, ousted Labour MP Caroline Flint claimed on Sky News that Emily Thornberry told one of Ms Flint’s colleagues: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours."
In a statement, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Thornberry, said: "This is a total and utter lie.
"I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it is not something I would ever think.”"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/election-2019-50798916
Is it possible to commit suicide 5 times in a row? Labour having a darned good go at it.
It explains Scotland elections from 2015 perfectly, I think it describes 2019 across the UK this time.
The giant toad has form on this,we all remember her sneering at white van man & Miliband giving her the boot.
I would get rid of road tax for a similar reason. Stick it on fuel.
But on this one particular topic, NE Wales is similar to NE England and both are very different to the South Wales Valleys.
So it seems reasonable to me, in so much that it influences peoples decision in how to vote, Corbyn's lack of deference to the Queen would have less resonance in South Wales.
RIP Tories4Jezza, long live Tories4Wrong-Daily?
Who's with me?
That is the key to understanding how Cameron and Osborne set out to gerrymander -- so cunning I gather it is now being adopted in America. Make your opponents' regions look smaller and therefore entitled to fewer constituencies.
Then the reduction to 600 seats with very tight population limits is simply to ensure that *every* constituency is redrawn. There is nothing special about the number 600. It could as easily have been 500 or 700.
Hahahahahahhaha. Yes. As a Tory voter, I beg you please appoint the mad cow as Labour leader. Lol!
😂😂😂😂
And where is "Up North" ? For me a journey by car to Manchester, Leeds or Liverpool takes the best part of two hours and I have to head due south !
But it does come out of this GE campaign with an enhanced reputation for incompetence and dishonesty. It lied to Labour instead of pushing Labour to push for an actual guarantee of a Johnson Neil interview, and it let Neil walk all over it and make himself the story. It interviewed him and presided over debates with him, via some of the most highly regarded and paid political journalists in the country, but instead of getting someone else to ask "why did you say NZR was teaching journalism, you utter c--t, and why do you never, ever stop lying?" - it promoted a bloviating bit of self-importance from AN trying to appoint himself a living national treasure.
PS I was surprised there was no black ops attempt to bring that AN Private Eye photograph to wider attention.
I know who's my money's on.
They kept making this mistake over cuts 2010-15, giving it the back to Wigan pier stuff, 5 million unemployed etc....its makes it easier for the Tories to make some cuts and when the world doesn't go to hell in a handcart, point out how the opposition have been wrong on everything ever.
Far better for Labour to get their own house in order and pick their fights when policies have been announced.
Another empathy void.
Uh-oh, the needle is heading strongly towards Flint......
The thing is not only is it totally believable Thornberry would say such a thing, I think lots of Northern voters in places like Stoke think that is exactly what lots of politicians / media types think of their decision to vote Leave.
I saw James O'Brien interviewed by Owen Jones and he pretty much said exactly this i.e. these people are so thick they are going to vote to be worse off.
Target 126 is the even more ridiculous for Labour Derbyshire North East.
Accept some Tory policies can stay in place - I don't know what those are but I am sure there are some - but argue for some left policies on pragmatic grounds, like railways.
Labour needs somebody on the soft left who is prepared to argue for left policy when it's needed but also against it where it is not. They need somebody not pinned down by ideology at all costs, that is where the Corbyn project has gone wrong.
I liked a lot of Labour's 2017 policies and a more pragmatic leader on the soft left could have argued for them, from a Norway POV. But the problem was that Labour wasn't doing that.
https://twitter.com/GlennBBC/status/1206198583244066816
So simple.
I've not seen the posts but this was put to me very sincerely.
If those who thought they had the right to be Tory MPs were too often the A Listers then these are the anti-thesis of A Listers and I know of three at least who were actually prevented from taking a seat for 2010 because of an effing A Lister.
My dad often spoke about those who came into our area to show us common plebs how to farm - they generally went in 3 to 5 years. The A Listers came to show us how to run our Constituency Associations and win elections - they will not be missed, least of all Rory Stewart.
The only strategic error that probably lost them a few extra seats was the revoke policy, which was weird and felt a bit extreme. Bear in mind that most potential LD voters are pro-European and anti-Brexit anyway though, so I feel it probably only had a minimal contribution. Maybe it lost them a seat or two here or there, but nothing seismic. It wouldn’t have stopped a Boris majority and it wouldn’t have taken the LDs to a pre-coalition seat count, or anywhere even near that.
Maybe they could have done a bit better with a leader other than Swinson, who the public didn’t seem to like all that much. Maybe portraying her as the next Prime Minister was a bit of a silly idea. Maybe spending half the campaign moaning about the debates wasn’t the best look. But really I think all this is fluff beyond the fact that they had an anti-Brexit horse and Jeremy Corbyn stood up, pulled out a revolver and shot it.
Hard to see how they could have helped that. But also hard to see where they go from here.
60 Milton Keynes South
61 is Sedgefield !
Excl Scotland it is Old Lady Brady's seat.
Finland and Iceland now fund theirs from taxation. We should too. No evasion, no admin. costs.
However, they do have now 100 close targets, so if Labour is prepared to be smart they can stop Johnson in 2024. But that's a tall order.
When you you measure them on sensible metrics - for example they will barely be run in for their 125 year life cycle as the nuclear plants are being deactivated - then things look rather different.
The Rance tidal power station in Brittany, built in 1966, is today the cheapest power produced in France.
eg in Bassetlaw the total of votes was down by 2% only.
That is more likely to be Toxic Jeremy plus Brexit, though perhaps also fed by some differential turnout. Is there evidence of Brexit bringing people out rather than changing?
https://twitter.com/ProfChalmers/status/1206206084920365058?s=20
At least one person in this bourach has been a very silly sausage indeed.