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Both the coming by-elections present problems for LAB – politicalbetting.com
After LAB lost Hartlepool and their lackluster performance in this year’s locals the next two electoral tests also look problematical for Keir Starmer and his party.
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A very good summary. Yes the first explanation is the most "comforting".... but I just don't buy it.
Have we really developed brilliant hypersonic technology on the quiet, over decades, and did we master it as long ago as 2004? Or the 1990s? Or the 1970s?
How did they keep it a secret? From everyone? Why has the US not flexed this mighty power, to keep China in check, instead allowing China to rise to equality, and assume supremacy?
And, also, why employ this truly bizarre media technique of faking lots of UAP videos and persuading pilots to lie on camera and speculating about ET in a manner that makes everyone look mad
I don't buy it. But then it's very hard to buy all the other scenarios, too
Mass hallucination? They are known during plagues. Popular delusions and fearful portents in the skie
Did anyone else notice my cheeky double I got yesterday?
He was from Lincolnshire, and very much valued being at uni in a city (Sheffield) where he never saw them and felt infinitely safer.
I have no idea what can be learned from this. But he was quite sincere.
I think she may turn out to be the new, and more blatant, Sally Bercow.
(Or rather, I am. The rest of you are all figments of my deranged imagination.)
From a personal perspective, I would vote Labour or Liberal Democrat, but no way would I vote Green in a national election. They’re far too authoritarian for my tastes. So if I lived in a seat where Labour stood down for the Greens, I would be spoiling my ballot paper again.
The chimera of an electoral pact once again heaves into view. There's little evidence anti-Conservative votes are that transferrable and while most non-Conservatives might want to see the back of Boris Johnson and the current Government, that doesn't equate to a strong desire to see Sir Keir Starmer walk into No.10 Downing Street.
Unless there's a dramatic turn of events, any non-Conservative Government at Westminster would be predicated on Labour and the SNP with LDs, Greens and others as bit players. The question then becomes whether, pace 2015, the dislike for the SNP in England will be enough to counteract the dislike for Boris Johnson.
One of the many reasons why the LDs suffered so badly in 2015 was the fear a vote for any other party than the Conservatives would leave Britain at the tender mercy of Alex Salmond who would effectively "run" the Labour minority Government of Ed Miliband. Voting for Cameron meant keeping Salmond out and that was a strong factor, I think, in many English constituencies.
After the 2010-15 experience, the LDs will want the loosest of associations with a future Starmer Government (as might other minor parties) but, as they say, if you want to sup with the devil, make sure you have a long spoon.
The Conservatives will play the "vote anyone other than us and Sturgeon will be running the country" card for all it's worth so OGH isn't quite right. For a non-Conservative Government to be realistic, a complete re-evaluation and re-constitution of Labour-SNP relations is necessary. In truth, it's a different yet no less symbiotic relationship than Johnson and Sturgeon "enjoy" now.
Voters expect parties to stand on their own merits. If they don't get any support they need to adapt to reflect what voters want.
Spen - And what may that be, Batley my dear chap?
Batley - There's going to be a byelection in this very constitutency, Spen.
Spen - You don't say! Right here in our own environs, Batley?
PBers, stay tuned for yet more sparkling wit and old-school humor, from this renowned, quintessentially-English comedy duo!
lackSportsTV
@BlacksportsTV
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3h
Leaked Navy video appears to show UFO off California https://news.yahoo.com/leaked-navy-video-appears-show-211241985.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via
@YahooNews
It's really quite crap - filmed at midnight, what is more interesting is the timing. It feels *orchestrated*. To what end, I know not
(No, not the band...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter
Must be a lot of cognitive dissonance
Or maybe a triple bill, WT v 'Squatch v the Honey Island Swamp Monster?
EDIT - Anyway, personally see Chesham & Amersham as the PERFECT name for retail website aimed at upwardly-mobile Americans, hungry for over-priced doo-dads with a "touch of class" of the kind only our English cousins can provide!
Pacts happen at most elections in individual or other seats. At local elections, they are widespread - one of the reasons the Conservatives took such a pounding in Surrey (apart from the fact the County Council was perceived as not being capable of running a bath) was the fact LDs, Greens and some Residents groups got together to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.
At the last GE, the LDs didn't contest Brighton Pavilion and the Greens didn't contest Richmond Park among other examples.
EDIT - 5,000th post! And every one quality,
I cannot vouch for the more "trippy" aspects personally, but Hancock did put his life on the line by actually taking ayahuasca in a ceremony in Brazil!
Obvs.
@GadiNBC
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24m
With Obama weighing in today & Rubio’s statements this weekend, you’ve got to hope the issue of UAPs has finally transcended questions of political partisanship. Whatever they are, they seem to represent an inflection point for society as a whole.
https://twitter.com/GadiNBC/status/1394740524343463936?s=20
In 2019, there were sufficient people who thought Boris was the bee's knees that pacting against him was seen as cheating. The same had been true of John Major in 1992.
By contrast, in 1997 the key thing was to identify the best way of Kicking The Tories, and kicking away. It doesn't really matter if there was a pact or not (let's be honest, there probably was a soft, behind the scenes pact). The voting public was smart enough to work out what to do, and then they did the necessary.
At the moment, there are enough Boris lovers to stop a pact working. But it's probably fairly finely balanced, and if the roof falls in, it has the potential to fall in big time.
At some point in the next decade.
1) they are Chinese tech and the US have no idea how they work despite years of espionage
2) they are US tech and turn out to be not very useful to combat being geo-economically outcompeted by the Chinese.
I'm still waiting for Bozo to get in touch. Tomorrow is 8 weeks and 2 days.
Voters are unpredictable; they can't simply be shuffled from one party to another, and they don't appreciate it when parties assume that they will.
I don't understand what commonality there is between the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. They are like the right and the hard left of the Labour Party.
New Zealand has become an increasingly appealing destination for those seeking a haven – from Covid-19, economic recession or chaotic international politics. In recent years, the country gained a reputation for “billionaires’ boltholes”, as mega-rich speculators including Peter Thiel bought up remote properties in scenic, isolated regions.
But in a post-Covid world, the emigration dream will be less accessible – at least for those who don’t fall into the mega-rich category. On Monday, the New Zealand government announced it would be narrowing pathways for those hoping to migrate and work in the country, particularly those it classed as “low-skill” and low-wage workers. It simultaneously announced new measures to attract rich investors.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/new-zealand-to-cut-low-skill-immigration-and-refocus-on-wealthy
The daily summary really should give before and after details of what has happened but doesn't SFAICS.
2 is even more surreal. Why then all this talk about aliens? How did they hide this tech for decades? What the actual F?
There is no credible coherent answer. Which of course means maybe one of your incredible answers is right
There's a logical explanation for everything, it just isn't always obvious sometimes what it is at first glance.
@kinabalu
It is pretty isn’t it?! For some reason I really like blue & orange. A programme on BBC4 about Matisse’s colour wheel introduced me to the combo
After the battering we have all taken psychologically over the past year we are in such a febrile state that people are prepared to believe anything as their critical defences are weak.
UFOs, UAPs, OAPs, whatever. After being told that it's illegal to have sex with whomever you want for the past year many people are prepared to believe anything. They have had it with critical thinking. We have jumped the shark.
VAR meanwhile...who knows...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56811379
A GP elected as a Conservative MSP has condemned fellow parliamentarians for “inciting” Scots to blockade an immigration enforcement raid in Glasgow....
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Gulhane said: “My concern really is our elected officials inciting people to come out in the southside and put themselves at risk. The safety of everyone with the pandemic and the increase of the Indian variant in the southside is my concern. I really hope that nobody does contract coronavirus as a result of that.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/84a941b6-b758-11eb-98e3-d1306649ebf7?shareToken=6ad228b1298804d32277c464406312bf
So not all of England is going for 8 weeks.
Usually the disturbing stuff happens on stage.
'Suit you, sir!'
Big fan of the mention left to the very last line of this press release from SNP-run Glasgow city council
"The UK Government is providing the test kits as part of its testing programme"
https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1394680407048736770?s=20
It's what I'm getting at with my Plagues Being Fearful Portents thesis. Our brains have been addled by a medieval terror, so we see medieval demons, in Ye Skie
I see Paul Pogba needs to brush up on how to fly a Palestinian flag, after he was dancing around Old Trafford holding it Green side up.
1) It has been concluded it’s the right thing to do; or
2) It has been assessed that it’s about to come out anyway in an uncontrolled fashion (e.g. increased use of better drones or increased volumes of private owned space assets).
1 seems unlikely so I think you’re left with 2, especially if it actually is extraterrestrial objects. That would mean no mad rush to reveal EVERYTHING in one go, but a sense it does need to come out in a controlled fashion in the next year or two.
From what we know about the timing of the emergence of life on earth and the preponderance of exoplanets in the galaxy, it’s likely that et life is abundant. There’s a question mark about how easily single cell life becomes complex. But the galaxy is very large indeed and much older than our solar system. So all we are really talking about is whether other advanced species have made it here. They could achieve it at quite slow speeds if their civilisation remained stable for a relatively brief period of time.
It is not foolish to consider this hypothesis on the evidence we are now told exists. Indeed, it is an entirely logical one. I get youre scared though, it’s a scary conversation.