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Frosty the no man as our next PM? – politicalbetting.com
Frosty the no man as our next PM? – politicalbetting.com
(Also apologies 3) is ill phrased – Johnson forced out due to more fines from Partygate)
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You're right TSE.
And well done for the win yesterday. I see the Mail on Sunday are outraged at the booing of Prince William and jeering during Abide with Me & God Save the Queen. Tory MP and former Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: 'It is utterly unacceptable and disgraceful that fans booed Prince William. I would urge the FA to take all necessary action and pursue those responsible.'
Last time I checked the UK was still a free country. If people wish to boo, or demonstrate, they should be free to. The Nasty Party thinks not.
Boris Johnson would be delighted if Jeremy Hunt loses his seat. I would not be at all surprised if he assists in the process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic34P9v2hPs
The jeers started during a rendition of the Christian hymn Abide With Me by the 60-strong B Positive Choir, whose members have sickle cell disease or who have close friends or family suffering from it.
Hmm. A choir with sickle cell disease. That would be Black people, wouldn't it?
I ask those of you who pray to put in a few words this Sunday for Julian Assange, threatened with extradition to the USA for the noncrime of embarrassing Uncle Sam. Home Secretary Priti Patel must decide by Wednesday whether to let him be taken away to what will almost certainly be a very grim fate, or refuse. I do very much urge her to refuse.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10816875/PETER-HITCHENS-Progressives-whod-wreck-Tiger-Heads-school-admit-theyre-wrong.html
For anyone who feels that tHillsborough was an establishment cover up and who does not wish to wait for jam tomorrow, the lyrics to the hymn are no consolation.
They really do shoot themselves in the foot.
I find it interesting though. I'm not sure I would boo William but I get this sense at the moment that reminds me so much of 1992-7. During that time there was this same reactionary 'Back to Basics' guff and outrage from the right wing press. The same Nasty Party rearing its ugly head. But all the while the country was getting ready to move on.
Times they are a changing.
- the quality of the songwriting (one would hope that this might be the principal determinant; it probably isn’t)
- the quality of the singing voice(s)
- the quality of the musicianship
- the overall “show” put on by the act, including choreography
- the “attractiveness” of the contestants (unfortunate, but that’s life; classic example last night being Spain, who tv-viewers loved and radio-listeners thought was rubbish)
- the outfits and makeup (sounds trivial, but they would not invest so much time and money in these if it were not an important factor)
- whether the competing state belongs to a “bloc” (eg Spain doesn’t = not good; Baltics/Scandics do = good)
- politics and “soft power”
In answer to your question, I’ve no idea. I only listened to maybe 1/10 of the whole show, on the radio, and missed the performance you are enquiring about. I heard a couple of his Green Room snippets, and he sounded like he was stuck in a pastiche of the 1970s, but it is impossible to judge an artist based on 10 seconds of off-the-cuff asides.
I’m sure there are weighty works available on the art of Eurovision success. Perhaps refer to them?
https://tinyurl.com/nhzp2vhy
Sometimes you take a value loser and there's always a price that makes that worthwhile - would you have backed them even at 1.05, for example, before any votes came in?
I didn't do this last night as I totally misread how the public votes worked on top of the judges - but I'd definitely consider doing it again on the basis that markets do overrreact, sometimes get it wrong and can be surprisingly slow to correct.
On the betting markets, I’m not sure you’re correct. I’m pretty sure the UK was in 2nd place, certainly in the last few weeks. I’m sure stats are available somewhere.
In contrast to the slander on here, I am in fact an Anglophile, so well done to the lad! And well done to Ukraine!
(*but not as flabbergasted as I was by HYFUD’s Victorian ethno-gobbledegook. He was called a racist, and the epithet was justified.)
I would never boo them. I never boo anybody. I just ignore them, as far as that is possible when your wife is a raving monarchist 😉
The crisis is fast approaching. In England, not in Scotland.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-are-all-more-closely-related-than-we-commonly-think/?amp=true
Also
"Beginning in 1492, “you begin to see the European genes flowing in every direction until our estimates are that there are no people in South America today who don’t have European ancestry.”
So still plenty of room for Eurovision to expand!
Now we're told Charles wants to slim down the Royal Family. Nobody is saying "No, we need at least this many Royals, we can't manage with any fewer".
Indeed in recent years Philip, Andrew, Harry, Meghan and the Queen to a large extent have all stopped doing Royal engagements with nobody replacing them to a significant degree. Have there been reports of a shortage of Royals, with nobody to do important engagements? No, stuff has just been dropped and nobody has noticed or cared.
Next we have William apparently wanting to drop people bowing and curtsying. Again nobody is saying "No, we need to keep that, people should do it".
The overall point is that it's one way traffic - everyone knows that everything that is being done is only being done because it always has been and very little if any of it makes any sense. Hence as soon as any individual bit is seriously challenged nobody attempts to defend it.
Mr. L, one might say that one of the reasons the monarchy here has remained is that it's been willing to adapt over time.
Do you prefer a President Blair? Or a President Johnson?
The question isn't "Is monarchy the perfect system?" or even "Does the monarchy make sense?" but "Is monarchy better than the alternative?"
Compare the opinion of the politicians and royals. The latter tend to do rather better.
ETA it would have been rational to expect overreactions and to bet accordingly but not that particular one.
I wonder if we can see some of the same patterns in Brexit or, more particularly, the version devised and campaigned for by those in the Vote Leave faction of the Conservative Party. Their hearts don’t seem to be in it any more. You can see it in their eyes, their shifty body language, their serial evasions when they are answering questions about the continuing hit to the British economy. Like a virus, cognitive dissonance is now endemic in the Tory party.
IMHO this is where England gets the competition wrong most years.
In fact, upon reflection, cheesiness probably trumps all the other factors I listed.
Note that Ukraine’s win last night is supposedly the first time a rap song has won. That factoid may not be unimportant. Rap is very cheesy these days.
I assumed Ukraine would win, but I enjoyed the Spanish entry. The UK entry was passable but I thought Sweden were best.
It's a little like the search for Starmers successor. Which female entrant is most attractive?
....
That's weird.
https://twitter.com/curaffairs/status/1525611272007565318?t=s7YGBQfb3jDt6_rdqXpV1Q&s=19
Which one is the writing of a white supremacist and which one is Tucker Carlson?
Even though the last F/A-2s came off the line in the 90s it was an old (60s vintage) design and it showed in places. It was always handicapped by the fact that it was never mean to be the operational a/c. What became the Harrier was only ever meant to be used as an operational evaluation platform to develop VSTOL ops at RAF West Raynham with the joint US/UK/German squadron. When everything else got cancelled the Kestrel/Harrier with all of limitations that came from being a proof-of-concept (small size, wing that was "drawn not designed") was all that was left and became the production aircraft.
Still loved it though.
https://twitter.com/sundersays/status/1525732004515430402
On topic, Frost is the last person the conservative party need as a leader at this time of great insensitivity over NIP, actually that should read at 'anytime'
On the monarchy, the queen has been the glue that has held it together over 7 decades but that is coming to an end and the monarchy with it's archaic traditions will have to go through colossal change to make itself relevant to modern day UK
Deference in all its forms should be abolished, as should all the parading around in military uniforms with lots of meaningless medals on display.
At the state opening of Parliament, Charles looked and sounded like a very old man and he is not the future
I do believe William and Kate understand just how rapidly this change is coming and I expect in fairly quick time we will see a much reduced monarchy no longer touring with great pomp and ceremony the commonwealth countries, nor any more bowing or walking backwards in deference, and the end of ridiculous military dressing up
I do believe most would accept a less formal, more modern monarchy, as I cannot see many wanting a republic with a President Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Nadine Dories, JRM or ANO
Frostie not only has a Marshall's Baton in his knapsack, but he's happy to get it out and give it a wave.
He is also the highest profile active politician who tells Brexit Backers in the country what they want to hear- that precious Brexit is being stabbed in the back by cowards and weaklings.
What saves us all is that not even this governing party can contemplate a PM from the Lords. His best chance of a Commons place was under the radar in 2019.
As with Andy Burnham in the other side, he may want it, many may want it to happen, but he's fluffed the eligibility. (And I wonder if, in both cases, that reveals something bad about not being willing to do the necessary hard yards.)
And in both cases, that's probably for the best.
"Deaference ... should be abolished." That'll upset some on PB. And no mention of Divine Right of Kings, even. Or the C of E.
It is far, far from impossible. Labour's candidate for the 2019 GE is an example: particularly given the two crises that have faced the country since then. Corbyn would have been disastrous with both the Covid crisis and the Ukrainian War. The former we did not do too badly at, nor well; but on the latter we've done very well indeed IMO.
And we came very near having PM Corbyn during both of these.
I'd hope both parties consider this and try to get leaders who are more competent than Johnson or Corbyn.
(Although that is a problem for today. Ironic to hear it from the left, though, given all the debt the nation and students have been saddled with due to tuition fees and the collapse of Brown's financial oversight and ensuing crisis).
I suspect that Corbyn's handling of Covid would have produced similar overall results to Johnson's. And Ukraine would have seen him toppled.
In any case, I was not aware that the FA is an organization best known for lifting a finger in terms of encouraging the seemly and polite behaviour of its customers in public.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/14/buffalo-shooting-supermarket-new-york
The deference has gone already I feel. As has much of the overt fawning.
We are now three weeks from the Jubilee.
I don't see a single decoration or sign that it is taking place anywhere.
I may have been a kid then, but ISTR the 1977 one and the wedding of Charles and Di being front and centre of the Nation's activity for months beforehand.
Meanwhile. Yet another mass shooting in America. Racially motivated by a teenager. So commonplace it passes without comment.
Deep sighs.
Edit. I see it was linked to as I typed that.
Trying to predict what the public will do reminds me of Big Brother, the Series One of which was a very profitable betting event for me on the spreads.
As it happened I did very nicely last night (£100+). I was lucky though. I backed Norway to get in top ten (they came 10th) and Serbia to get in top five (they came 5th). In running, was backing UK to win w/o Ukraine and laying Sweden in same market. Those bets just came in too.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/14/nyregion/buffalo-shooting?smid=url-copy#the-accused-gunmans-racist-manifesto-outlined-a-plan-to-kill-blacks-and-referred-to-replacement-theory
… Through the 180 pages of hate-filled writings that Payton S. Gendron posted online, a common theme emerged: The notion that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color.
Gunmen have referenced the racist idea, known as “replacement theory,” during a string of mass shootings and other violence in recent years. It was once associated with the far-right fringe, but has become increasingly mainstream, pushed by politicians and popular television programs...
Why do you suspect that? He has refused to say if he has been vaccinated. It was vital for politicians to encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated, which was why we saw politicians publicising getting vaccinated once it was their turn. Corbyn sadly has quite a following in a demographic where (AIUI) vaccination rates are lower, and his unequivocally saying that he had been vaccinated would have helped.
I'm also unsure how well he would have tackled vaccine procurement, given the inclusion of big pharma (boo, hiss).
"And Ukraine would have seen him toppled."
Which would have been too late to help Ukraine.