A year on for Starmer and he has yet been able to shake the hands of a single voter – politicalbetti

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

RobD said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Did schools in 1930s Germany have to fly the swastika?

I think they did, as pretty much everyone had to if they didn’t want the SA to pay them unwelcome attention.

But the main act of Nazi propaganda in schools was a large photo of Hitler in every classroom to which children would give a Nazi salute at the start of the day.

And in Weimar Germany.

And in Imperial Germany.

And in Prussia before that.

Germany had big influence in strange places - Fredrick the Great made alot of people say "one of those please" as far as armies went.

So in Peru, they introduced marching... "clubs"? in th schools. Complete with the goose step.

Scene : a quiet afternoon in the Plaza de Armas of Trujillo. The coffee was good, and the first Stinger of the day was doing it's pre-dinner work... Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The schools of the town started marching past, by class. Weirds, wacky and a bit hypnotic. All they need was to start singing the "Panzerlied"...

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

rcs1000 said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Wilson?

rcs1000 said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Wilson?

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Nothing wrong with the Union Jack, it's the idea that teachers go off for "education" that is sickening.

Imagine it the other way around, how you would cry out

rcs1000 said:

MaxPB said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

CarlottaVance said:

Better late than never I suppose.....

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1378058433203744771?s=20


"Leading COVAX donors"

After:
USA: 2.5bn
DE: 1.1bn
UK: 0.7bn
EU: 0.5bn

https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/covid/covax/COVAX-AMC-Donors-Table.pdf

In this instance though, the EU can only donate what the member states give them to donate.

No, they can borrow for this stuff and pay the borrowing costs out of the future budget.

IIRC, there are some fairly serious restrictions on EU borrowing.

Floater said:

https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1378061941176930304

justin124 said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

RobD said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Did schools in 1930s Germany have to fly the swastika?

I think they did, as pretty much everyone had to if they didn’t want the SA to pay them unwelcome attention.

But the main act of Nazi propaganda in schools was a large photo of Hitler in every classroom to which children would give a Nazi salute at the start of the day.

Nothing too sinister then!

Scott_xP said:

twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1378089011005251587

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Nothing wrong with the Union Jack, it's the idea that teachers go off for "education" that is sickening.

Imagine it the other way around, how you would cry out

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

RobD said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Did schools in 1930s Germany have to fly the swastika?

I think they did, as pretty much everyone had to if they didn’t want the SA to pay them unwelcome attention.

But the main act of Nazi propaganda in schools was a large photo of Hitler in every classroom to which children would give a Nazi salute at the start of the day.

And in Weimar Germany.

And in Imperial Germany.

And in Prussia before that.

Germany had big influence in strange places - Fredrick the Great made alot of people say "one of those please" as far as armies went.

So in Peru, they introduced marching... "clubs"? in th schools. Complete with the goose step.

Scene : a quiet afternoon in the Plaza de Armas of Trujillo. The coffee was good, and the first Stinger of the day was doing it's pre-dinner work... Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The schools of the town started marching past, by class. Weirds, wacky and a bit hypnotic. All they need was to start singing the "Panzerlied"...

I take it you’re referring to flags, not photos of Hitler?

No, no time machines....

Flags, marching, singing the national anthem, saluting portraits of the head of state...

I recall the Prussian stuff from a discussion of educational systems in the 19th cent in the UK - the government compiled a report on the various systems around Europe, and the Prussian one was included.

rottenborough said:

Floater said:

https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1378061941176930304

That can't be right. Johnson told the Commons last week there was no cut to the army.

rcs1000 said:

isam said:

ydoethur said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Although if we take the 47 years prior to your birth, back to 1927, only three leaders of the Opposition didn’t become PM - Henderson, Lansbury and Gaitskell.

Things can change.

Sure. I just wouldn’t count on it this time

My view is that some periods have high turnovers of PMs (when there is a high likelihood of the LotO taking over), and some periods have low turnover.

We're probably due for a change.

isam said:

rcs1000 said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Wilson?

Not in my lifetime!

IanB2 said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

Malmesbury said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

RobD said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Did schools in 1930s Germany have to fly the swastika?

I think they did, as pretty much everyone had to if they didn’t want the SA to pay them unwelcome attention.

But the main act of Nazi propaganda in schools was a large photo of Hitler in every classroom to which children would give a Nazi salute at the start of the day.

And in Weimar Germany.

And in Imperial Germany.

And in Prussia before that.

Germany had big influence in strange places - Fredrick the Great made alot of people say "one of those please" as far as armies went.

So in Peru, they introduced marching... "clubs"? in th schools. Complete with the goose step.

Scene : a quiet afternoon in the Plaza de Armas of Trujillo. The coffee was good, and the first Stinger of the day was doing it's pre-dinner work... Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The schools of the town started marching past, by class. Weirds, wacky and a bit hypnotic. All they need was to start singing the "Panzerlied"...

I take it you’re referring to flags, not photos of Hitler?

No, no time machines....

Flags, marching, singing the national anthem, saluting portraits of the head of state...

I recall the Prussian stuff from a discussion of educational systems in the 19th cent in the UK - the government compiled a report on the various systems around Europe, and the Prussian one was included.

I had no idea you were quite so old...

justin124 said:

kinabalu said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Thatcher didn't win in 79 on personality though. That GE was about ideology and change of political direction. Blair had big charisma but Smith would have won too. Tories were clapped out after 18 years. And Cameron? Hmm not sure. More charisma than Brown, yes, but hardly Sunday night at the Palladium.

Far from clear that Thatcher would have won in 1978.

Andy_JS said:

O/T

"Deliveroo April Fools' joke backfires in France

French Deliveroo customers who received fake bills for hundreds of euros' worth of pizza have failed to see the funny side of the April Fools' joke. On 1 April thousands of customers of the delivery platform across France got confirmation emails for orders totalling over €450 (£380; $530). Many took to social media to express anger at the stunt. Late on Thursday Deliveroo informed its customers via Twitter and email that it had not been serious. "We confirm that it was an April Fool's joke," the clarification read. "You can enjoy the evening by ordering the pizza of your choice." But few customers were amused. One of them said he had "almost had a stroke" after receiving a €466 invoice for 38 pizzas that he had never ordered."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56617049

Malmesbury said:

Andy_JS said:

O/T

"Deliveroo April Fools' joke backfires in France

French Deliveroo customers who received fake bills for hundreds of euros' worth of pizza have failed to see the funny side of the April Fools' joke. On 1 April thousands of customers of the delivery platform across France got confirmation emails for orders totalling over €450 (£380; $530). Many took to social media to express anger at the stunt. Late on Thursday Deliveroo informed its customers via Twitter and email that it had not been serious. "We confirm that it was an April Fool's joke," the clarification read. "You can enjoy the evening by ordering the pizza of your choice." But few customers were amused. One of them said he had "almost had a stroke" after receiving a €466 invoice for 38 pizzas that he had never ordered."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56617049

I saw that. It seems an ugly kind of prank to play on people - imagine someone , not especially rich, not particularly clever in the ways of the world, who gets that and thinks they really have to pay.

Floater said:

https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1378061941176930304

isam said:

Re the Asylum seeker who killed the girl in Exeter - Asylum seekers are here because they are escaping from war zones generally, they have seen things and had experiences that will have seriously messed them up - they probably have a rate of PTSD in comparable with front line military veterans. Shouldn’t they be given therapy or kept an eye on somehow as a matter of course? Not letting anyone off with excuses, but they’re not just everyday people who go bad

Leon said:

Malmesbury said:

Andy_JS said:

O/T

"Deliveroo April Fools' joke backfires in France

French Deliveroo customers who received fake bills for hundreds of euros' worth of pizza have failed to see the funny side of the April Fools' joke. On 1 April thousands of customers of the delivery platform across France got confirmation emails for orders totalling over €450 (£380; $530). Many took to social media to express anger at the stunt. Late on Thursday Deliveroo informed its customers via Twitter and email that it had not been serious. "We confirm that it was an April Fool's joke," the clarification read. "You can enjoy the evening by ordering the pizza of your choice." But few customers were amused. One of them said he had "almost had a stroke" after receiving a €466 invoice for 38 pizzas that he had never ordered."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56617049

I saw that. It seems an ugly kind of prank to play on people - imagine someone , not especially rich, not particularly clever in the ways of the world, who gets that and thinks they really have to pay.

It is the worst April Fool's Day joke ever. For a start, it is not remotely funny. "Threaten people with a massive unexpected bill"

Ho Ho Ho

It is like a joke badly translated into a different language by someone with no sense of humour: which, I suspect, is what happened here

isam said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

Modern Labour seem to be able to be easily lured into defending everything you imagine a typical old fashioned/old (Red Wall?) Labour voter instinctively dislikes.

Scott_xP said:

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1378089011005251587

Leon said:

isam said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

Modern Labour seem to be able to be easily lured into defending everything you imagine a typical old fashioned/old (Red Wall?) Labour voter instinctively dislikes.

The Tories hope to get a majority in 2024 on this stuff. And I can see it happening, as Labour is so clueless.

Pace the Marina Hyde article, the Tories know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it quite expertly (aided by idiot lefties)

eg When you are REALLY ANGRY about RACIST BOTANICAL GARDENS, like the Guardian, and Labour, then you have probably mopped up every single voter in a small corner of London N1, but you have lost several million elsewhere, because sane people think Botanical Gardens are nice quiet places we can all go, to escape this abject lunacy

HYUFD said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Thatcher also got in in 1979 partly because of the Winter of Discontent, strikes and high inflation, Cameron got in in 2010 due to the 2008 crash. Blair got in in 1997 because he moved the Labour Party to the centre, the Major government was divided over Europe, hit by sleaze allegations and due to the ERM crash and the mood for change after 18 years of Tory rule.

None got in on personality alone

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

The botanical gardens one must be a spoof. It can't be genuine.

"Kew Gardens is right to confront its role in the history of British colonialism and racism"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/the-guardian-view-on-botanical-gardens-inextricably-linked-to-empire

Leon said:

isam said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

Modern Labour seem to be able to be easily lured into defending everything you imagine a typical old fashioned/old (Red Wall?) Labour voter instinctively dislikes.

The Tories hope to get a majority in 2024 on this stuff. And I can see it happening, as Labour is so clueless.

Pace the Marina Hyde article, the Tories know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it quite expertly (aided by idiot lefties)

eg When you are REALLY ANGRY about RACIST BOTANICAL GARDENS, like the Guardian, and Labour, then you have probably mopped up every single voter in a small corner of London N1, but you have lost several million elsewhere, because sane people think Botanical Gardens are nice quiet places we can all go, to escape this abject lunacy

isam said:

HYUFD said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Thatcher also got in in 1979 partly because of the Winter of Discontent, strikes and high inflation, Cameron got in in 2010 due to the 2008 crash. Blair got in in 1997 because he moved the Labour Party to the centre, the Major government was divided over Europe, hit by sleaze allegations and due to the ERM crash and the mood for change after 18 years of Tory rule.

None got in on personality alone

Kinnock didn’t get in when 3m were unemployed, Howard didn’t get in after Blair invaded Iraq, Miliband didn’t get in when Cameron’s party were divided on the referendum...

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

The botanical gardens one must be a spoof. It can't be genuine.

"Kew Gardens is right to confront its role in the history of British colonialism and racism"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/the-guardian-view-on-botanical-gardens-inextricably-linked-to-empire

Not a spoof. It is incredible. They are self-immolating

God damn those RACIST FLOWERS. And those Nazi TREES. And shrubs! Always knew those evil SHRUBS were BIGOTS: like all white people.

Ideally, we should concrete over Kew Gardens and build a seventeen million metre high memorial to Winnie Mandela

glw said:

Leon said:

The Tories hope to get a majority in 2024 on this stuff. And I can see it happening, as Labour is so clueless.

Pace the Marina Hyde article, the Tories know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it quite expertly (aided by idiot lefties)

eg When you are REALLY ANGRY about RACIST BOTANICAL GARDENS, like the Guardian, and Labour, then you have probably mopped up every single voter in a small corner of London N1, but you have lost several million elsewhere, because sane people think Botanical Gardens are nice quiet places we can all go, to escape this abject lunacy

I'm not sure there is anything particularly clever about it. The Tories could get a junior SPAD to keep an eye open for things trending on Twitter, when the SPAD finds something the government can announce that they are in favour of whatever is making the Twits angry today. Nine times out of ten that would put the Tories on the side of the majority in the UK.

RobD said:

Andy_JS said:

Scott_xP said:

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1378089011005251587

Alan Duncan.

So the headline is wrong?

Black_Rook said:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1378090013339099136

I wonder if this may be what we have coming tomorrow (on top of formal confirmation of April 12th): a sunshine holiday free-for-all - but only for anybody who has been jabbed twice?

Confinement for the young, playtime for the old - and yet, absolutely no mass importation of Plague variants. Because, although Covid is so fucking lethal that the vaccinated daren't have a cup of tea indoors together, jetting off to the Algarve creates (by means yet to be explained) a miraculous forcefield that renders the virus completely inert.

We are ruled over by imbeciles.

Malmesbury said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Malmesbury said:

justin124 said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

I am no Corbynite but- unlike Attlee and Thatcher - he appears to be the only Opposition Leader who succeeded in moving the Overton Window without achieving office as PM. Johnson and the Tories have - in essence - copied much of his economic policy!

‘Vote for me. My policies are so extreme they are the right response to a once in a century public health emergency.’

Hmmm...doesn’t quite do it for me as a slogan.

Also true in wartime - ie 'when the chips are down!'

AKA War Socialism.

"The people are going to get one kind of bomber. And it will only come in green."

The B-24 Liberator in the picture was the most mass-produced 4-engine heavy bomber, c. 19,000 built.

Though a bit crap in some ways.

Interesting story I am trying to find out about - following the success of the Mosquito, allegedly, North American sketched a 4 Merlin fast bomber, using their Mustang cooling systems and aerodynamic insights....

HYUFD said:

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

The botanical gardens one must be a spoof. It can't be genuine.

"Kew Gardens is right to confront its role in the history of British colonialism and racism"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/the-guardian-view-on-botanical-gardens-inextricably-linked-to-empire

Not a spoof. It is incredible. They are self-immolating

God damn those RACIST FLOWERS. And those Nazi TREES. And shrubs! Always knew those evil SHRUBS were BIGOTS: like all white people.

Ideally, we should concrete over Kew Gardens and build a seventeen million metre high memorial to Winnie Mandela

‘Kew Gardens has recently published a 10-year plan, which places a need to decolonise its collections'?

GarethoftheVale2 said:

Leon said:

isam said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

Modern Labour seem to be able to be easily lured into defending everything you imagine a typical old fashioned/old (Red Wall?) Labour voter instinctively dislikes.

The Tories hope to get a majority in 2024 on this stuff. And I can see it happening, as Labour is so clueless.

Pace the Marina Hyde article, the Tories know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it quite expertly (aided by idiot lefties)

eg When you are REALLY ANGRY about RACIST BOTANICAL GARDENS, like the Guardian, and Labour, then you have probably mopped up every single voter in a small corner of London N1, but you have lost several million elsewhere, because sane people think Botanical Gardens are nice quiet places we can all go, to escape this abject lunacy

I see Labour as being in a similar place to where the Tories were under William Hague. The Tories saw that Blair won and was cool so they tried putting William Hague in a baseball cap at Alton Towers. Now Labour see that they weren't patriotic and have SKS in front of the Union Jack. The problem is it is putting lipstick on a pig.

SKS makes the right noises but underneath Labour haven't changed. It is probably going to take one more election defeat for them to be willing to get out of their comfort zones.

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Malmesbury said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Malmesbury said:

justin124 said:

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

I am no Corbynite but- unlike Attlee and Thatcher - he appears to be the only Opposition Leader who succeeded in moving the Overton Window without achieving office as PM. Johnson and the Tories have - in essence - copied much of his economic policy!

‘Vote for me. My policies are so extreme they are the right response to a once in a century public health emergency.’

Hmmm...doesn’t quite do it for me as a slogan.

Also true in wartime - ie 'when the chips are down!'

AKA War Socialism.

"The people are going to get one kind of bomber. And it will only come in green."

The B-24 Liberator in the picture was the most mass-produced 4-engine heavy bomber, c. 19,000 built.

Though a bit crap in some ways.

Interesting story I am trying to find out about - following the success of the Mosquito, allegedly, North American sketched a 4 Merlin fast bomber, using their Mustang cooling systems and aerodynamic insights....

Was that the NA-116?

glw said:

Black_Rook said:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1378090013339099136

I wonder if this may be what we have coming tomorrow (on top of formal confirmation of April 12th): a sunshine holiday free-for-all - but only for anybody who has been jabbed twice?

Confinement for the young, playtime for the old - and yet, absolutely no mass importation of Plague variants. Because, although Covid is so fucking lethal that the vaccinated daren't have a cup of tea indoors together, jetting off to the Algarve creates (by means yet to be explained) a miraculous forcefield that renders the virus completely inert.

We are ruled over by imbeciles.

We seem to have made a mess of travel restrictions at each stage up to now, so I expect we will keep doing so.

RobD said:

Black_Rook said:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1378090013339099136

I wonder if this may be what we have coming tomorrow (on top of formal confirmation of April 12th): a sunshine holiday free-for-all - but only for anybody who has been jabbed twice?

Confinement for the young, playtime for the old - and yet, absolutely no mass importation of Plague variants. Because, although Covid is so fucking lethal that the vaccinated daren't have a cup of tea indoors together, jetting off to the Algarve creates (by means yet to be explained) a miraculous forcefield that renders the virus completely inert.

We are ruled over by imbeciles.

I imagine there will be very few countries that allow you in without a vaccine. Or if they do, you'll be spending the first two weeks of your holiday in quarantine.

Black_Rook said:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1378090013339099136

I wonder if this may be what we have coming tomorrow (on top of formal confirmation of April 12th): a sunshine holiday free-for-all - but only for anybody who has been jabbed twice?

Confinement for the young, playtime for the old - and yet, absolutely no mass importation of Plague variants. Because, although Covid is so fucking lethal that the vaccinated daren't have a cup of tea indoors together, jetting off to the Algarve creates (by means yet to be explained) a miraculous forcefield that renders the virus completely inert.

We are ruled over by imbeciles.

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Leon said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Sunil_Prasannan said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

What's wrong with the Union Jack?

Whether or not anything is 'wrong' with it, it is our national flag, and I'm surprised that teachers who are paid by our state have so much to say about flying the flag of that state on their place of work. I don't really think I want kids to be taught by people who hate their own country.

The school - Pimlico? - that has caved to its kids burning the Union flag, is a disgrace

My taxes pay for that school, those kids, their teachers. It is not a private enterprise.

Fly the damn flag, sack any teacher that objects, and expel any kids that, after a warning, still try to burn the flag. End of.

Quite.

Tbf the Tories are doing a genius job of making Labour fall the wrong side of all these inflammatory culture war debates.

The "traveller incursions" thing. Jeez

Cf this Marina Hyde article in the Guardian. Perhaps the worst she has ever written, in terms of dull, witless misunderstanding (and she can be a genius writer). They don't know what to do or how to react


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/culture-war-government-race-report

See the Guardian's hysterical over-reaction to the Sewell Report:



"The Sewell report on racial disparity is an attempt to erase progress and sow division"

"Despite the Sewell report, No 10 can no longer remain in denial about racism"

"The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate"

"The Guardian view on botanical gardens: inextricably linked to empire"

They are lemmings, rushing to the cliff of electoral oblivion, and someone quite clever in the Tories is deftly encouraging them

The botanical gardens one must be a spoof. It can't be genuine.

"Kew Gardens is right to confront its role in the history of British colonialism and racism"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/02/the-guardian-view-on-botanical-gardens-inextricably-linked-to-empire

Not a spoof. It is incredible. They are self-immolating

God damn those RACIST FLOWERS. And those Nazi TREES. And shrubs! Always knew those evil SHRUBS were BIGOTS: like all white people.

Ideally, we should concrete over Kew Gardens and build a seventeen million metre high memorial to Winnie Mandela

Black_Rook said:

RobD said:

Black_Rook said:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1378090013339099136

I wonder if this may be what we have coming tomorrow (on top of formal confirmation of April 12th): a sunshine holiday free-for-all - but only for anybody who has been jabbed twice?

Confinement for the young, playtime for the old - and yet, absolutely no mass importation of Plague variants. Because, although Covid is so fucking lethal that the vaccinated daren't have a cup of tea indoors together, jetting off to the Algarve creates (by means yet to be explained) a miraculous forcefield that renders the virus completely inert.

We are ruled over by imbeciles.

I imagine there will be very few countries that allow you in without a vaccine. Or if they do, you'll be spending the first two weeks of your holiday in quarantine.

There are three points here.

Firstly, at the end of all this misery, giving special privileges to the old that are denied to the young is evil.

Secondly, do we really want people going abroad in huge numbers and seeding the country with imported Plague variants when they come back? This plan sounds like an excuse to let holidaymakers go to countries with high or medium disease prevalence just because it will disappoint them not to let them go - yet the Government has already wet itself over the vaccines being less than 100% effective, to the extent that the Prime Minister is pleading with people who have all been vaccinated still not meeting up with one another indoors.

Thirdly, there's the total inconsistency, indeed the sheer stupidity, of approach: if it's perfectly safe for the vaccinated to go abroad then it's certainly safe for them to have the aforementioned tea parties. And. once everyone has been vaccinated, it's also safe to get rid of all the restrictions and not be dicking about with these wretched vaccine passports ID cards. I mean, honestly...