Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
To be fair, you did gain Carshalton & Wallington from the LDs but lost Richmond Park so the 2019 seat numbers for London were unchanged from 2017 - Labour 49, Conservative 21, Liberal Democrats 3.
Looking at seat changes from the LDs as well but the Tories did make 1 net gain in London from Labour since 2017 by regaining Kensington by 150 votes
I was BANNED. Yes, I know. For Speaking Truth to Power. Tho I am sorry if I offended anyone
I find that hard to believe. The only thing you ever did was tease that pompous fool IanB2, who thoroughly deserves it, otherwise I found your comments extremely acute, witty and prescient, almost up to my standard, TBH
Thanks. You don't realise how much that means to me. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I tried to keep it quiet. Mysticrose and I have a secret fanclub dedicated to your brilliant books and renowned sexual power.
I was BANNED. Yes, I know. For Speaking Truth to Power. Tho I am sorry if I offended anyone
I find that hard to believe. The only thing you ever did was tease that pompous fool IanB2, who thoroughly deserves it, otherwise I found your comments extremely acute, witty and prescient, almost up to my standard, TBH
Thanks. You don't realise how much that means to me. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I tried to keep it quiet. Mysticrose and I have a secret fanclub dedicated to your brilliant books and renowned sexual power.
I’ve never seen a man suck his own cock before.
You've never been on pornhub ?
No.
That does however raise a number of highly disturbing questions about what you have seen on there...
I was BANNED. Yes, I know. For Speaking Truth to Power. Tho I am sorry if I offended anyone
I find that hard to believe. The only thing you ever did was tease that pompous fool IanB2, who thoroughly deserves it, otherwise I found your comments extremely acute, witty and prescient, almost up to my standard, TBH
Thanks. You don't realise how much that means to me. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I tried to keep it quiet. Mysticrose and I have a secret fanclub dedicated to your brilliant books and renowned sexual power.
I’ve never seen a man suck his own cock before.
You've never been on pornhub ?
No.
That does however raise a number of highly disturbing questions about what you have seen on there...
Disney teaches you to hate your stepmom, whereas Pornhub has a completely different approach.
I was BANNED. Yes, I know. For Speaking Truth to Power. Tho I am sorry if I offended anyone
I find that hard to believe. The only thing you ever did was tease that pompous fool IanB2, who thoroughly deserves it, otherwise I found your comments extremely acute, witty and prescient, almost up to my standard, TBH
Thanks. You don't realise how much that means to me. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I tried to keep it quiet. Mysticrose and I have a secret fanclub dedicated to your brilliant books and renowned sexual power.
I’ve never seen a man suck his own cock before.
You've never been on pornhub ?
No.
That does however raise a number of highly disturbing questions about what you have seen on there...
I think that sort of thing is available... so I am told. just knowing the site exists is not in anyway an indication of looking at it. I am sure someone can tell you more.....
Rodney Connor was backed by the Unionist parties in FST Lady Hermon was the Ind Unionist in North Down
Rodney Connor was not an official Unionist candidate and Lady Hermon was opposed by the DUP and most of her voters now vote Alliance
Connor was the only Unionist candidate in FST! Hermon was no way a Nationalist!
Total Unionist vote in 2010 was 50%.
As I pointed out the Nationalist vote is just 38%, most of the gains since 2010 have gone to the Alliance Party from both Unionists and Nationalists.
Indeed the Alliance Party now hold North Down and most of their vote there is soft Unionist ie Hermon's old voters
As I pointed out, the Unionist vote just ten years ago was 50%, now it is only 43%. In 2010 they had half the NI Westminster seats, now they have less than half.
As I pointed out since 2010 the Lady Hermon vote has gone to the Alliance Party in North Down.
So including the Alliance seat in North Down as Unionist which it is basically or at least soft Unionist then the Unionists still have 9 seats in Northern Ireland ie the same as 2010
I hope our piped fan noises are more varied than the Bundesliga. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t hear Arsenal fans chanting “we pay your benefits” tomorrow night.
Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
To be fair, you did gain Carshalton & Wallington from the LDs but lost Richmond Park so the 2019 seat numbers for London were unchanged from 2017 - Labour 49, Conservative 21, Liberal Democrats 3.
Looking at seat changes from the LDs as well but the Tories did make 1 net gain in London from Labour since 2017 by regaining Kensington by 150 votes
I didn't expect my predictions of hits on middle class benefits to be borne out that quickly. It was only about lunch time today.
Which is why all those people betting on Sunak to be next Tory leader were very premature.
The Chancellor will not be popular once the pain of the Great(est) Depression kicks in.
He might be seen as a leader though. After all, as Boris will recall, a previous PM promised: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat," and that went down surprisingly well. Different times perhaps.
Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
Of course Kensington was a gift delivered by the LibDems and their misleading advice to tactical voters.
Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
To be fair, you did gain Carshalton & Wallington from the LDs but lost Richmond Park so the 2019 seat numbers for London were unchanged from 2017 - Labour 49, Conservative 21, Liberal Democrats 3.
Looking at seat changes from the LDs as well but the Tories did make 1 net gain in London from Labour since 2017 by regaining Kensington by 150 votes
Putney?
Oh yes forgot Labour gained Putney, the only Labour gain in the UK in 2019, so you are correct London saw no net change
Well it got Jon Cruddas re elected in Dagenham last year by just 293 votes
On what was generally an excellent night for the Conservatives, was that one of the few that got away?
Yes I thought Dagenham would narrowly go Tory as the only Tory gain in London but instead Kensington was the only seat in the capital the Tories gained and Dagenham stayed Labour
To be fair, you did gain Carshalton & Wallington from the LDs but lost Richmond Park so the 2019 seat numbers for London were unchanged from 2017 - Labour 49, Conservative 21, Liberal Democrats 3.
Looking at seat changes from the LDs as well but the Tories did make 1 net gain in London from Labour since 2017 by regaining Kensington by 150 votes
Putney?
Oh yes forgot Labour gained Putney, the only Labour gain in the UK in 2019, so you are correct London saw no net change
Rodney Connor was backed by the Unionist parties in FST Lady Hermon was the Ind Unionist in North Down
Rodney Connor was not an official Unionist candidate and Lady Hermon was opposed by the DUP and most of her voters now vote Alliance
Connor was the only Unionist candidate in FST! Hermon was no way a Nationalist!
Total Unionist vote in 2010 was 50%.
As I pointed out the Nationalist vote is just 38%, most of the gains since 2010 have gone to the Alliance Party from both Unionists and Nationalists.
Indeed the Alliance Party now hold North Down and most of their vote there is soft Unionist ie Hermon's old voters
As I pointed out, the Unionist vote just ten years ago was 50%, now it is only 43%. In 2010 they had half the NI Westminster seats, now they have less than half.
It is a constant in NI that while the Unionist vote polls solidly for remaining in the UK, a substantial chunk of the Nationalist/Republican vote polls for remain as well.
Even during the time of the Armalite&Ballot Box strategy, a substantial chunk of Shinner votes stated their intention to vote against a United Ireland.
There has been little proper analysis of why this is. Anecdote suggests that the substantial difference in benefits plays a part. As does the issue of abortion.
Stockholm syndrome?
I assume it is because, although they don't want to leave the UK, they also can't bring themselves to vote for any of the idiots who represent loyalist parties.
So I need to call a meeting of the Oxford Comma Society for an adjudication.
The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office?
Am I right?
A new government department will be created to run all foreign policy and control billions of pounds of international aid, the prime minister has announced.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office!!! is set to be up and running in September.
It's a technical thing. Due to furlough this year lots of people will have had their pay cut by 20% - so next year they will soar by 25% once furlough is over (for those that still have a job, of course).
So the suspension of the triple lock is necessary to avoid uprating pensions by 7% or so, which otherwise would be wholly an arefact of the furlough scheme's effect on average pay statistics.
Interesting social media metric: and social media is where the power is today
Nigel Farage has 1.6m followers on Twitter
For comparison:
Nicola Sturgeon has 1.2m
Sadiq Khan has 1m
Ed Davey has 48k. Yes
Sian Berry (leader of the Greens) has 45k
Even Kier Starmer only has 880k, just over half of Nigel's figures
Don't write off Farage just yet. He has a huge following, the second biggest in the UK. Watch what he does next
Marcus Rashford has 2.8 million.
Harry Styles has.... 33 million. Feck.
Sounds like I might be a bit late in asking who is Harry Styles.....
You're not. I have never knowingly heard a One Direction song. I'm sure I have heard them - in bars, as muzak, etc - but not consciously. I could not name one or hum one. I am old.
Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan are the other members.
That would be well overdue and another welcome u-turn!
Sunak is apparently popular right now - he needs to take measures like this while he still can.
Interesting to see this on the one hand - it's "courageous" given the proportion of pensioners who vote Conservative but it's a recognition of the depth of the problem confronting the public finances.
Some would argue for a policy of "keep borrowing" while others would argue for tax rises and spending cuts but I suspect Sunak is trying to avoid anything like that.
The concession to Marcus Rashford illustrates how this Government, while it may call itself Conservative, is actually Liberal Unionist in nature as of course was Churchill.
It's a technical thing. Due to furlough this year lots of people will have had their pay cut by 20% - so next year they will soar by 25% once furlough is over (for those that still have a job, of course).
So the suspension of the triple lock is necessary to avoid uprating pensions by 7% or so, which otherwise would be wholly an arefact of the furlough scheme's effect on average pay statistics.
They could get round the technical problem by committing to honour at least the wage increase over say the two years taken together, assuming things return to normal. But it would be a very handy opportunity to suspend and then find a way of later amending or dropping the policy altogether.
It has been widely reported that the virus that hit Europe and then the Americas is a mutated more contagious form of the original virus that hit China and then Asia.
The best assumption must be that the mutated contagious form has now found its way back to China?
Should we be concerned at two worrying events in Asia (three if you count the mutated version of Covid-19 if true)?
First, escalating tension on the Korean peninsula. Kim-Jong-Un's sister seems to be the new power in the land and is taking a much harsher line including blowing up the inter-Korean liaison building in Kaesong. As always, there's very little clue as to the extent of covid-19 infections and deaths in North Korea.
Second, a shooting incident between Chinese and Indian forces on their disputed border. Those with long memories or Wikipedia will recall the 1962 conflict between the countries but neither is the country it was then. Both seem more self-confident and it may be a bit of sabre-rattling is part of that but hopefully this will be all as a major conflict in that part of the world would have global consequences.
Who would have thought global relations being managed by a series of trade wars, nationalism and lack of respect for multi national bodies or international norms might lead to wars?
Has any one seem much of Kim Jung Un since his illness?
I thought I saw him in Tescos last Saturday, but he was on the opposite side of the Fruit & Veg area which is quite big, so my eyes may have deceived me.
Well, presumably, all those on furlough will see a 20% "increase" as their employer takes back that portion of their salary.
Wage rates are unlikely to have increased compared with what they were in the opening months of the year. From memory benefit rates are adjusted in April on the basis of the CPI the previous Autumn - perhaps October. The State Pension increase is also related to the behaviour of average earnings, but this is also presumably an annual percentage calculation. Why would average earnings in Autumn 2020 be much higher than in Autumn 2019?
Interesting social media metric: and social media is where the power is today
Nigel Farage has 1.6m followers on Twitter
For comparison:
Nicola Sturgeon has 1.2m
Sadiq Khan has 1m
Ed Davey has 48k. Yes
Sian Berry (leader of the Greens) has 45k
Even Kier Starmer only has 880k, just over half of Nigel's figures
Don't write off Farage just yet. He has a huge following, the second biggest in the UK. Watch what he does next
Marcus Rashford has 2.8 million.
Harry Styles has.... 33 million. Feck.
Sounds like I might be a bit late in asking who is Harry Styles.....
You're not. I have never knowingly heard a One Direction song. I'm sure I have heard them - in bars, as muzak, etc - but not consciously. I could not name one or hum one. I am old.
Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson,
and Niall Horan are the other members.
I didn't know who Little Mix were until last week. Never 'eard of 'em
A 66-1 winner of The X Factor. And no, I didn’t back them.
I was BANNED. Yes, I know. For Speaking Truth to Power. Tho I am sorry if I offended anyone
I find that hard to believe. The only thing you ever did was tease that pompous fool IanB2, who thoroughly deserves it, otherwise I found your comments extremely acute, witty and prescient, almost up to my standard, TBH
Thanks. You don't realise how much that means to me. I've always been a huge fan of yours, but I tried to keep it quiet. Mysticrose and I have a secret fanclub dedicated to your brilliant books and renowned sexual power.
Oh please. I'd rather discuss modified d'Hondt voting systems and their possible replacements.
So you want me to do a thread on AV and other voting systems this weekend?
What's quite amazing about following politics for the last decade or so, is the way people of all sides shape shift depending on their opponents behaviour, so that no one can ever be happy, and they always have to be angry.
When Boris promised to look after the "Red Wall" voters who backed him last December, if we knew he was going to listen to a young, northern, black man and gone with a policy that benefited the poorest in society, against his free market ideals, we would have thought it a real example of the new compassionate Conservatives installing a bit of Social Democracy.
It has happened... and the people that wanted him to act in the interests of such folk, and would hold him to account had he not are lampooning him for being weak and defeated.
Of course, had he not implemented the school meal policy, he would have remained the white supremacis, tin eared, out of touch Bullingdon Boy who has no connection with anyone outside his bubble.
One of the most surreal things I’ve witnessed was the pro-celeb golf at Wentworth in 2016. I walked up to the driving range to find a load of school girls; not the usual punters at such an event. Anyway, the World No 1 golfer Rory McIlroy walks past them and they pay no notice. Some blonde haired kid follows and he is mobbed. Turned out it was Niall Horan and he’s good mates with Rory.
What's quite amazing about following politics for the last decade or so, is the way people of all sides shape shift depending on their opponents behaviour, so that no one can ever be happy, and they always have to be angry.
When Boris promised to look after the "Red Wall" voters who backed him last December, if we knew he was going to listen to a young, northern, black man and gone with a policy that benefited the poorest in society, against his free market ideals, we would have thought it a real example of the new compassionate Conservatives installing a bit of Social Democracy.
It has happened... and the people that wanted him to act in the interests of such folk, and would hold him to account had he not are lampooning him for being weak and defeated.
Of course, had he not implemented the school meal policy, he would have remained the white supremacis, tin eared, out of touch Bullingdon Boy who has no connection with anyone outside his bubble.
Not all his opponents by any means, I welcomed it and am encouraging further u-turns. Listening and being open to changing your mind is strength not weakness.
Trump does not look likely to increase his electoral college count on those numbers.
Let's see how Biden survives a campaign....
Have the dems even set out their policy stall yet?
Taxes? Healthcare? Defence? Law and order? Foreign policy?
Has Trump for that matter?
Don't know, but last time the media gave more space to Clinton using a private server for government emails than they gave to all policy proposals from both candidates combined. So perhaps they shouldn't bother.
Can we all take a moment to REJOICE at the fact that of all the nations in the world it was little old Blighty that's come up with the first treatment for this thing? It's like 1940 all over again (and one in the eye for the also-rans of Cambridge).
We produced the first high quality research trial on steroids such as Dexamethasone, but it has been a staple treatment on theoretical grounds for some time.
This is a 2004 debate on the subject, in the context of SARS
Comments
The Chancellor will not be popular once the pain of the Great(est) Depression kicks in.
That does however raise a number of highly disturbing questions about what you have seen on there...
There is no suggestion that eadric and fitz are linked with each other or any other poster 😊
So I am told.
So including the Alliance seat in North Down as Unionist which it is basically or at least soft Unionist then the Unionists still have 9 seats in Northern Ireland ie the same as 2010
Presumably Irish rather than Cornish?
With millions unemployed??
He's also been advised that he's on the list for possible redundancy, so not having a great time of it.
Open the champagne!
Literally continuous thunder and lightning in rapid succession.
The rain was so heavy I couldn’t see the incinerator at Chase Hospital which cannot be more than 500 metres away.
And it’s still going on!
The one thing they dread more than anything is a revitalised brexit party tearing around their luvly new working class seats screaming betrayal.
On Europe, on statues, on culture, on immigration.
And to be pedantic(!) It will be a 25% increase.
The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office?
Am I right?
A new government department will be created to run all foreign policy and control billions of pounds of international aid, the prime minister has announced.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office!!! is set to be up and running in September.
https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-to-merge-foreign-office-and-international-development-offices-into-new-department-12007870
So the suspension of the triple lock is necessary to avoid uprating pensions by 7% or so, which otherwise would be wholly an arefact of the furlough scheme's effect on average pay statistics.
Some would argue for a policy of "keep borrowing" while others would argue for tax rises and spending cuts but I suspect Sunak is trying to avoid anything like that.
The concession to Marcus Rashford illustrates how this Government, while it may call itself Conservative, is actually Liberal Unionist in nature as of course was Churchill.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/tory-senedd-member-dies-after-medical-emergency/ar-BB15zvDl?ocid=msedgntp
NEW THREAD
When Boris promised to look after the "Red Wall" voters who backed him last December, if we knew he was going to listen to a young, northern, black man and gone with a policy that benefited the poorest in society, against his free market ideals, we would have thought it a real example of the new compassionate Conservatives installing a bit of Social Democracy.
It has happened... and the people that wanted him to act in the interests of such folk, and would hold him to account had he not are lampooning him for being weak and defeated.
Of course, had he not implemented the school meal policy, he would have remained the white supremacis, tin eared, out of touch Bullingdon Boy who has no connection with anyone outside his bubble.