The more you see of these contenders the more it feels like a freaks circus. They're all fighting a war against woke and they're all falling over themselves to be the most brexity even though brexit has been a colossal failure. The only vaguely nice person is Rishi Sunak but there are some real horrors.
What wouldn't the country give for a Tony Blair.
You mean the Tony Blair that would fight a war on woke?
"Braverman to look at cutting welfare Leadership hopeful Suella Braverman says there are "too many people" on benefits and plans to reduce the cost of the welfare state if she becomes prime minister."
Braverman also laying into part time workers getting benefits on top
At this moment the idea you would promote such a policy is utterly bizarre but fortunately she will not get through
Yes, she would be a gift for Labour.
Morduant being unusual in not coming out with completely hatstand ideas. She would be a real threat to Labour.
FFS.
She is yet another politician whose name highly educated PBers fail to spell.
It's a problem. How do you pronounce it? I had always read it - and therefore pronounced it - as more-dew-ant. But evidently it's not. Is it Mord-ant? More-dunt? Mord-aren't? I honestly don't know.
One should not simply walk into a Mordaunt premiership without knowing that.
No one appears to know. I've genuinely no idea.
Isn't it pronoucced to rhyme-ish with "Much Vaunted" ?
If this thread proves one thing, it's that coming up with an interesting thing about yourself is harder than it sounds.
Is it....I think pretty much everybody who has volunteered one has come up with a more interesting than grammar school lad had music lesson with c-list musician who went to the same school.
OTOH can't be too bad if the musical chappie himself volunteered it in the first place.
Did he? the link in the wikipedia is from a New Statesman puff piece 2 years ago about Starmer. I doubt Fat Boy Slim edits his own wikipedia to include random articles from the News Statesman.
Are you campaigning to be PB's recognized expert on Fat Boy Slim? Your focus on FBS is impressive!
But saddened you are dissing both FBS & (S)KS, solely for being associated with one another in any fashion?
Starmer bad ergo Fat Boy stinks, and of course visa versa. Point being?
What a weird take. Fat Boy Slim in the UK pretty well known, having been in a number of bands and previously married to a famous radio DJ, so you only need to have had a cursory glance of the papers over the years to know a fair bit about him. It just isn't surprising that two middle class lads at the same Grammar school did music lessons, especially one that is a musician nor IMO "amusing".
I personally don't really have any opinion of FSB one way or another. Not really my kind of music, but makes inoffensive to the ear dance tracks.
Hmm. So Keir Starmer's anecdote should have been that he was at school with Fat Boy Slim, and leave the violin part to the readers?
Are we still doing this...my point was it just isn't amusing...comedy / amusement normally requires the unexpected or somebody doing something that is out of the context of what you expect. Two grammar schools pupils, one of whom is a famous musician, doing music lessons at school, well its a bit like saying I studied PPE at Oxford and my amusing anadecote is my mate became a Tory MP.
The strange thing about Suella is that she is a Mithra. Effectively a lay preacher in a religion which is supposed to be focussed on compassion. But the Triratnas are deeply peculiar in many ways. I shouldn't slag the Sangha. But them's the facts.
There is a school of thought amongst religions that believe in karma and reincarnation that by being beastly to those who are working off bad karma you are speeding up their rebirth in a better state. There is a sort of twisted logic to it.
That's a subsect of Hinduism though AIUI. Not Buddhism. And Buddhism doesn't have reincarnation. Just rebirth. Which is significantly different. But the Triratnas are deeply outlying. So maybe.
Voters including Tory members are desperate to draw a line under the bad behaviour of the liar clown. Therefore, my advice to the Tory prospective contenders is that if you’re the one rumoured to:
- have a secret BDSM habit, or
- be abusing your position of authority by having sex with your advisors, or
- whose financial affairs are unlikely to stand up to scrutiny,
then do yourself and us a favour, and find a reason to exit the contest before the end. The country doesn’t need another of your sort holding the highest office in the land. And you know it will only end in tears. Mostly, yours.
Being into BDSM, providing it is consensual is one of those things not like the others. One of those things.that isn't the same. Wouldn't pass the selectorate, mind. But it isn't.
Not if it’s secret.
The potential for blackmail or exposure, by agents domestic or foreign, is simply too great. Surely we have had enough of our national leader making our country look ridiculous in the eyes of the world?
Remember also that Zahawi has, I believe, had a sexual relationship with one of the other contenders?
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
Nobody is trying to shut you down except in your Daily Mail fantasies.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
Nobody is trying to shut you down except in your Daily Mail fantasies.
Bloomberg actually and today
Nothing to do with the mail
Not that, I mean the idea that “EU supporters” are trying to shut you down. It’s pure fantasy on your part.
Similar to your feverish delusions about Keir’s curry.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
"Braverman to look at cutting welfare Leadership hopeful Suella Braverman says there are "too many people" on benefits and plans to reduce the cost of the welfare state if she becomes prime minister."
Braverman also laying into part time workers getting benefits on top
At this moment the idea you would promote such a policy is utterly bizarre but fortunately she will not get through
Yes, she would be a gift for Labour.
Morduant being unusual in not coming out with completely hatstand ideas. She would be a real threat to Labour.
FFS.
She is yet another politician whose name highly educated PBers fail to spell.
It's a problem. How do you pronounce it? I had always read it - and therefore pronounced it - as more-dew-ant. But evidently it's not. Is it Mord-ant? More-dunt? Mord-aren't? I honestly don't know.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
Voters including Tory members are desperate to draw a line under the bad behaviour of the liar clown. Therefore, my advice to the Tory prospective contenders is that if you’re the one rumoured to:
- have a secret BDSM habit, or
- be abusing your position of authority by having sex with your advisors, or
- whose financial affairs are unlikely to stand up to scrutiny,
then do yourself and us a favour, and find a reason to exit the contest before the end. The country doesn’t need another of your sort holding the highest office in the land. And you know it will only end in tears. Mostly, yours.
Being into BDSM, providing it is consensual is one of those things not like the others. One of those things.that isn't the same. Wouldn't pass the selectorate, mind. But it isn't.
Not if it’s secret.
The potential for blackmail or exposure, by agents domestic or foreign, is simply too great. Surely we have had enough of our national leader making our country look ridiculous in the eyes of the world?
Remember also that Zahawi has, I believe, had a sexual relationship with one of the other contenders?
I hadn’t heard that. Truss and Kwarteng; Truss and legions of Spads yes.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
"Braverman to look at cutting welfare Leadership hopeful Suella Braverman says there are "too many people" on benefits and plans to reduce the cost of the welfare state if she becomes prime minister."
Braverman also laying into part time workers getting benefits on top
At this moment the idea you would promote such a policy is utterly bizarre but fortunately she will not get through
Yes, she would be a gift for Labour.
Morduant being unusual in not coming out with completely hatstand ideas. She would be a real threat to Labour.
FFS.
She is yet another politician whose name highly educated PBers fail to spell.
It's a problem. How do you pronounce it? I had always read it - and therefore pronounced it - as more-dew-ant. But evidently it's not. Is it Mord-ant? More-dunt? Mord-aren't? I honestly don't know.
How do you pronounce mor?
How do you pronounce daunt?
Problem solved.
How do you pronounce cock? How do you pronounce burns?
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
Voters including Tory members are desperate to draw a line under the bad behaviour of the liar clown. Therefore, my advice to the Tory prospective contenders is that if you’re the one rumoured to:
- have a secret BDSM habit, or
- be abusing your position of authority by having sex with your advisors, or
- whose financial affairs are unlikely to stand up to scrutiny,
then do yourself and us a favour, and find a reason to exit the contest before the end. The country doesn’t need another of your sort holding the highest office in the land. And you know it will only end in tears. Mostly, yours.
Being into BDSM, providing it is consensual is one of those things not like the others. One of those things.that isn't the same. Wouldn't pass the selectorate, mind. But it isn't.
Not if it’s secret.
The potential for blackmail or exposure, by agents domestic or foreign, is simply too great. Surely we have had enough of our national leader making our country look ridiculous in the eyes of the world?
Remember also that Zahawi has, I believe, had a sexual relationship with one of the other contenders?
Oh. I don't disagree with that. But it is materially different in terms of personal morality to the other two.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
She wouldn't, the left would just see her as a race traitor
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
Badenoch could blow 'something that only really exists in the minds right-wingers' apart right across the Western world.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
It would be close but Badenoch might just edge it.
i shared a vey empty train carriage (last train from Oxford) with Boris and one other just after he had been selected for Henley - the other person was pissed and harangued him about tories and LGBT issues for most of the way back to London. Boris had no clue about any of it - but he wasn't rude or dismissive.
As a woke lefty I would be delighted to see a black woman PM. It wouldn't make me not woke or lefty though thank you. Or any less opposed to her policies. You see. I don't think it's about race or gender.
To me, Rishi, Javid and Zahawi are all too dodgy to be PM, and to be frank CoE either.
Hopefully they are all cleaned out by the next election PM.
I notice that nobody has been asked yet about standards in public life.
Of the rest, Patel and Braverman seem to me actually dangerous; Shapps is gregarious but likely a spiv; and Hunt is triangulating so fast he has speed-burns.
I would not be personally distressed by Mordaunt, Badenoch and Tugendhat. Indeed, it would show the system “working”.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
I never met Maggie, but I did once have to arrange an owner's badge for her at Royal Ascot.
My Dad had been invited up to the Royal Box by someone (I think Princess Anne, due to his work with the Injured Jockeys Fund), on a day when one of his horses was running.
A friend of my Dad's who's a regular Tory donor and was good friends with Michael Ancram, arranged for my Dad to walk with Maggie from the Royal Box down to the Parade Ring.
My Dad was a bit worried about the badge situation. He couldn't imagine that they'd stop Maggie on the way into the Parade Ring, but they are very strict at Royal Ascot. So he sent me to the ticket office as soon as we arrived to get an owner's badge for her.
He sent me with the £50 note that the ticket would cost if I couldn't negotiate it for free. I failed on that front (to my Dad's disappointment, which might have been unfair - I was only fifteen) and paid up, but caused quite a bit of a flutter about how her name should be written on the badge.
She was "The Baroness Thatcher"
I think it's my Dad's favourite Tory story (the walk, not my ticket buying!)
(1/4) We believe that BBC Panorama’s episode about SAS operations in Afghanistan, scheduled for broadcast Tuesday 12 July 2022, jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations that have already been fully investigated.
(2/4) We have provided a detailed and comprehensive statement to Panorama, highlighting unequivocally how two Service Police operations carried out extensive and independent investigation into allegations about the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.
(3/4) Neither investigation found sufficient evidence to prosecute. Insinuating otherwise is irresponsible, incorrect and puts our brave Armed Forces personnel at risk both in the field and reputationally.
If this thread proves one thing, it's that coming up with an interesting thing about yourself is harder than it sounds.
Is it....I think pretty much everybody who has volunteered one has come up with a more interesting than grammar school lad had music lesson with c-list musician who went to the same school.
OTOH can't be too bad if the musical chappie himself volunteered it in the first place.
Did he? the link in the wikipedia is from a New Statesman puff piece 2 years ago about Starmer. I doubt Fat Boy Slim edits his own wikipedia to include random articles from the News Statesman.
Are you campaigning to be PB's recognized expert on Fat Boy Slim? Your focus on FBS is impressive!
But saddened you are dissing both FBS & (S)KS, solely for being associated with one another in any fashion?
Starmer bad ergo Fat Boy stinks, and of course visa versa. Point being?
What a weird take. Fat Boy Slim in the UK pretty well known, having been in a number of bands and previously married to a famous radio DJ, so you only need to have had a cursory glance of the papers over the years to know a fair bit about him. It just isn't surprising that two middle class lads at the same Grammar school did music lessons, especially one that is a musician nor IMO "amusing".
I personally don't really have any opinion of FSB one way or another. Not really my kind of music, but makes inoffensive to the ear dance tracks.
Hmm. So Keir Starmer's anecdote should have been that he was at school with Fat Boy Slim, and leave the violin part to the readers?
As far as I am concerned that anecdote makes SKS Right Here, Right Now!
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
I think potentially yes she could win amongst conservative members... but unfortunately I don't think that she will blow up woke. I would guess that she will just be regarded as a tool of white privilege. Her becoming PM would certainly help to counter the arguments of the left, but this alone isn't a good reason to elect her; the tories need to think about winning the next election, and we know that "culture war" issues are not that salient.
Marr reports in this week's Newstatesman that he has never found tory MPs more angry in his whatever number of years reporting than they were last week about the lies of Pincher.
It was a scandal and a pack of lies too far and the history book will record that.
(1/4) We believe that BBC Panorama’s episode about SAS operations in Afghanistan, scheduled for broadcast Tuesday 12 July 2022, jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations that have already been fully investigated.
(2/4) We have provided a detailed and comprehensive statement to Panorama, highlighting unequivocally how two Service Police operations carried out extensive and independent investigation into allegations about the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.
(3/4) Neither investigation found sufficient evidence to prosecute. Insinuating otherwise is irresponsible, incorrect and puts our brave Armed Forces personnel at risk both in the field and reputationally.
(4/4) The Ministry of Defence of course stands open to considering any new evidence, there would be no obstruction. We will always investigate allegations to the full, but our independent police and prosecutors can only act on the evidence before them.
(1/4) We believe that BBC Panorama’s episode about SAS operations in Afghanistan, scheduled for broadcast Tuesday 12 July 2022, jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations that have already been fully investigated.
(2/4) We have provided a detailed and comprehensive statement to Panorama, highlighting unequivocally how two Service Police operations carried out extensive and independent investigation into allegations about the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.
(3/4) Neither investigation found sufficient evidence to prosecute. Insinuating otherwise is irresponsible, incorrect and puts our brave Armed Forces personnel at risk both in the field and reputationally.
I once played golf in a fourball with Robin Smith. Somehow it was worked out that I should tee off first. I was dead nervous, but hit a really nice drive into dogleg of the par 4.
Smith stepped up next and, gripped by the biggest fingers and forearms I've ever seen that close, hit his seven iron round the corner about twenty yards past my drive.
After that my game rather fell apart. At the start of the back nine I apologised to him about how embarrassingly badly I was playing. He said,
"Don't worry; it's a bastard of a game"
I played a bit better after that
Robin Smith playing modern T20 could have been interesting.
He'd probably have opened for the current Test team!
🔥 Slams unis spending more time “indoctrinating” than teaching 🔥 Slash cash to low quality degrees 🔥Make it easier to become a nurse or copper
I think my issue with Kemi is that these are not the issues most critical to the country.
And if she is Murdoch’s candidate, that might be a disqualification in itself.
I think Rishi is Murdoch's candidate. He might be backing Kemi as an attempt to split the right wing vote and help Rishi. That would tally with Gove's Kemi support (and the fact that others say Gove is in Rishi's camp). If so, it's a dangerous game, and if she really does knock Rishi out before the members' ballot, such shenanigans will have been thoroughly punished.
From his account it sounds like he is unsure of his exact age and he might actually be a couple of years older...so it might well be the case he was crushing the old Olympics running lark when he was nearly mid 30s.
But I think Mo Farah has won this evening's PB competition.
That's a good story. I didn't know you were from the Western Isles @Eabhal. Which one? I've only been to the Hebrides once. I was 17, and it was my last holiday with my parents. I'm an only child, and family holidays had gone a bit meh through my teenage years. The Hebrides though, was a totally different kettle of fish. There was very little to do, and the weather was challenging, but that somehow made everything we did wildly interesting and hugely amusing. I have glorious, happy memories of it: eating fish and chips on the harbour at Stornoway watching the seals; playing frisbee in a 30 mph wind on a beach on the west coast of Lewis; the astonishig bleakness of Callanish under leaden skies; the improbable beauty of Harris when the sun shone; peat fires; cottages sprinkled randomly on the landscape; something ceaselessly hilarious in the pub in Lochmaddy in the driving rain; golf at the RAF base on Benbecula; listening to Motorhead on my walkman in the B&B on Grimsay; glorious sunshine at the pub in Lochboisdale; arriving in Castlebay at breakfast time; seeing the plane land on the beach at Barra (which my Dad had always wanted to see - the reason for the holiday); walking to the top of Barra and the improbable sprinkling of islands from the top; sailing down the sound of Mull amongst a regatta of small yachts under a picture postcard sky; arriving back in Oban and it feeling wildly bewildering to be around so many people. And board games, conversation no longer stilted with the awkwardness of the teenage years, the 1992 Olympics on the radio with Terry Wogan, seeing the same tourists again and again and again. Weather changing every half hour. The weirdness of being somewhere so other yet still in the UK. Kind of a valediction to childhood. But a happy one. And more memorable than the previous seven years of holidays put together.
Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg are expected to endorse Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, for PM tomorrow
They're planning to make a joint announcement - two of biggest Boris Johnson loyalists backing Truss
James Cleverly also endorses Truss in tomorrow's Times
Continuity Boris is not the image you want when 3/4 of backbenchers voted to boot him out in early June and the Government followed suit in early July.....
I bumped into, literally, John Bramwell, the lead singer of the criminally underrated band I Am Kloot, in the corridor of a hotel in Holmfirth.
Boy, were they criminally underated.
Top band.
Top front mn.
I have a photo of my good self with him as he shakes my hand and passes me a signed LP after one of his solo outings.
Nice! They were a fantastic band. Terrible name though, can’t have helped.
I got a photo with him, and me and the missus had a pint with him, after the gig we’d gone to Holmfirth to see. It was earlier that day, when we were checking into the hotel, that I bumped into him.
🔥 Slams unis spending more time “indoctrinating” than teaching 🔥 Slash cash to low quality degrees 🔥Make it easier to become a nurse or copper
I think my issue with Kemi is that these are not the issues most critical to the country.
And if she is Murdoch’s candidate, that might be a disqualification in itself.
I think Rishi is Murdoch's candidate. He might be backing Kemi as an attempt to split the right wing vote and help Rishi. That would tally with Gove's Kemi support (and the fact that others say Gove is in Rishi's camp). If so, it's a dangerous game, and if she really does knock Rishi out before the members' ballot, such shenanigans will have been thoroughly punished.
Many Conservatives are stupid, then. We can't just keep increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to stop at some point.
As Germany fires up its coal fired power plants and gas to Germany is to be closed off for 10 days for maintenance to the pipeline
I don't know why you're suddenly stuck in this WHAT ABOUT GERMANY but it's really not helpful.
It helps old G get through the day and night!
Maybe because Germany is featuring heavily in euro news with serious concerns of a recession, the gas has been curtailed for 10 days, and tonight Germany is seriously concerned about Russia restarting the gas supply
Germany is a huge economy and as can be seen from the fall in the euro (greater than the pound) the predicted recession in Europe is not good for the UK
I really do not understand why those who support the EU try to close down debate on the negatives and serious economic implications for all of us
You do tend to do a lot of Whataboutery Big_G. When Boris was being fined you were pushing the Daily Mail "what about Starmer's curry" line. No one in their right mind would think Starmer's behaviour was in any way comparable to Johnson's.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
Yes. But. How does that make Patel's ditch net zero right?
I would suggest governments across the west will struggle to maintain their net zero promise as long as the war with Russia continues
Merkel was an utter disaster for Germany and Europe when she handed over energy dependence to Russia and banned nuclear power stations
The consequences of her actions together with the war has made net zero far more difficult
Another one who doesn’t know what net zero means.
It’s just any excuse. Stick to the old technology because that’s what you’re comfortable with, even if it makes you less cost efficient, less appealing to new investment, more dependent on dodgy regimes like Russia or the Gulf States, let alone dirtier and more polluted.
If we - and Germany, with their weird anti-Nuclear fixation - had been more serious about actually getting on a path to net zero a few years ago we’d be less prone to Russian economic blackmail now and wouldn’t be facing astronomical home fuel bills.
If this really is the next all new direction for the Tories after the stunning success of their last attempt to take us back to the 70s then god help us.
My gut feeling: Mordaunt or Kemi have quite a good chance of winning the next election. Sunak and Javid smaller chance but not vanishingly small. Truss, Shapps and some of the others would be a disaster (for the Tories).
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 9m Replying to @oflynnsocial and @MRothermere This is getting silly. If you don’t think advising the chief of the defence staff and being chair of the foreign affairs select committee is political experience I can’t help you. And if you think Kemi should be PM, facing down Putin next month, fine. It’s not a rational debate.
To me, Rishi, Javid and Zahawi are all too dodgy to be PM, and to be frank CoE either.
Hopefully they are all cleaned out by the next election PM.
I notice that nobody has been asked yet about standards in public life.
Of the rest, Patel and Braverman seem to me actually dangerous; Shapps is gregarious but likely a spiv; and Hunt is triangulating so fast he has speed-burns.
I would not be personally distressed by Mordaunt, Badenoch and Tugendhat. Indeed, it would show the system “working”.
I think the best candidates have naturally risen to the top.
It's all a bit up in the air till we see the nomination figures. And more importantly the first round of voting. I'm not convinced it won't be Truss v Sunak, yet.
I think the tories fear the cultural power of the left. They saw Boris as pathetic in the face of BLM, the trashing of the Centophah, statue toppling etc. Badenoch offers the possibility of the reinvention and modernisation of the party, a credible alternative to the vision offered by the left. They think that, with Badenoch at the helm, they cannot be just be smeared and dismissed as the party of white male privelege.
Badenoch could blow Woke apart right across the Western world.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
You could be right if it’s those two.
Indeed. It would be a catastrophe for the Tories at the following GE though.
My gut feeling: Mordaunt or Kemi have quite a good chance of winning the next election. Sunak and Javid smaller chance but not vanishingly small. Truss, Shapps and some of the others would be a disaster (for the Tories).
My wild guess, FWIW, is that Mordaunt would be most likely to save the Tories.
And I gather Labour whispers are that they are the one they fear most.
Comments
That Tony Blair?
https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1546605822746284033?s=20&t=kUHj34AbTzNAhmkfJVhxMw
He was puffing and sweating disgracefully, considering he was about five minutes from his then abode.
And Buddhism doesn't have reincarnation. Just rebirth. Which is significantly different.
But the Triratnas are deeply outlying. So maybe.
The potential for blackmail or exposure, by agents domestic or foreign, is simply too great. Surely we have had enough of our national leader making our country look ridiculous in the eyes of the world?
Remember also that Zahawi has, I believe, had a sexual relationship with one of the other contenders?
Nothing to do with the mail
But here's Labour's costing memo from their 2019 Manifesto.
The extra spending splurge is .. er .. £83bn per annum, and is specifically identified as "All new spending is in addition to that announced in all previous fiscal events, up to and including Spending Round 2019".
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Funding-Real-Change-1.pdf
Similar to your feverish delusions about Keir’s curry.
As for Germany, it will take the short term actions it must to keep the lights on through the winter but you can bet it will still continue cutting CO2 in the medium and long-term. And its actions to deal with Russia are in no way comparable to Patel suggesting we ditch net zero.
How do you pronounce daunt?
Problem solved.
I think she wins the members if it's down to her and Mordaunt.
Truss and Kwarteng; Truss and legions of Spads yes.
BBC News - Ukraine war: Germany fears Russia gas cut may become permanent
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62121702
Problem.
Deport them if possible.
And it would all be over by Wednesday night
How?
And what does that look like?
The Home Office would be mad to question his citizenship at this point
It's a sad, eye-opening story though.
@KemiBadenoch writes for @TheSun
🔥 Slams unis spending more time “indoctrinating” than teaching
🔥 Slash cash to low quality degrees
🔥Make it easier to become a nurse or copper
I can be guaranteed to spell and pronounce it correctly. She was a lovely neighbour too.
https://news.sky.com/video/what-a-pathetic-spectacle-12646852?dicbo=v2-0c477076fbc9c079bcd6a480bc2bd007
It wouldn't make me not woke or lefty though thank you.
Or any less opposed to her policies.
You see. I don't think it's about race or gender.
Hopefully they are all cleaned out by the next election PM.
I notice that nobody has been asked yet about standards in public life.
Of the rest, Patel and Braverman seem to me actually dangerous; Shapps is gregarious but likely a spiv; and Hunt is triangulating so fast he has speed-burns.
I would not be personally distressed by Mordaunt, Badenoch and Tugendhat. Indeed, it would show the system “working”.
Merkel was an utter disaster for Germany and Europe when she handed over energy dependence to Russia and banned nuclear power stations
The consequences of her actions together with the war has made net zero far more difficult
"The woman at the centre of the controversy did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment."
And if she is Murdoch’s candidate, that might be a disqualification in itself.
My Dad had been invited up to the Royal Box by someone (I think Princess Anne, due to his work with the Injured Jockeys Fund), on a day when one of his horses was running.
A friend of my Dad's who's a regular Tory donor and was good friends with Michael Ancram, arranged for my Dad to walk with Maggie from the Royal Box down to the Parade Ring.
My Dad was a bit worried about the badge situation. He couldn't imagine that they'd stop Maggie on the way into the Parade Ring, but they are very strict at Royal Ascot. So he sent me to the ticket office as soon as we arrived to get an owner's badge for her.
He sent me with the £50 note that the ticket would cost if I couldn't negotiate it for free. I failed on that front (to my Dad's disappointment, which might have been unfair - I was only fifteen) and paid up, but caused quite a bit of a flutter about how her name should be written on the badge.
She was "The Baroness Thatcher"
I think it's my Dad's favourite Tory story (the walk, not my ticket buying!)
I haven't decided otherwise. But I like Sunak takking sense
Today in Tottenham
https://twitter.com/CrimeLdn/status/1546590779203805186?s=20&t=Hem8wxFmlN91WUsGN2Iy_g
(1/4) We believe that BBC Panorama’s episode about SAS operations in Afghanistan, scheduled for broadcast Tuesday 12 July 2022, jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations that have already been fully investigated.
(2/4) We have provided a detailed and comprehensive statement to Panorama, highlighting unequivocally how two Service Police operations carried out extensive and independent investigation into allegations about the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.
(3/4) Neither investigation found sufficient evidence to prosecute. Insinuating otherwise is irresponsible, incorrect and puts our brave Armed Forces personnel at risk both in the field and reputationally.
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQPress/status/1546521612018765827
(not sure where 4 went)
These are issues that do not matter, I want to know how we deal with CoL.
I thought net zero is the amount of CO2 that we can emit while seeing atmospheric levels stabilise.
On one level though it is marvellous that we can be talking about a black woman as the next PM.
Shame about her political views.
The ERG will swing behind one candidate and consolidate.
It was a scandal and a pack of lies too far and the history book will record that.
We will always investigate allegations to the full, but our independent police and prosecutors can only act on the evidence before them.
Steven Swinford
@Steven_Swinford·26m
EXCLUSIVE:
Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg are expected to endorse Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, for PM tomorrow
They're planning to make a joint announcement - two of biggest Boris Johnson loyalists backing Truss
James Cleverly also endorses Truss in tomorrow's Times
She really shouldn't be this short of backers at this stage.
I think she's in trouble.
Says a lot.
From the BBC article:
Mr Watkinson helped him apply for British citizenship under the name Mohamed Farah, which was granted in July 2000.
In the documentary, barrister Alan Briddock tells Sir Mo his nationality was technically "obtained by fraud or misrepresentations".
Legally, the government can remove a person's British nationality if their citizenship was obtained through fraud.
I've only been to the Hebrides once. I was 17, and it was my last holiday with my parents. I'm an only child, and family holidays had gone a bit meh through my teenage years. The Hebrides though, was a totally different kettle of fish. There was very little to do, and the weather was challenging, but that somehow made everything we did wildly interesting and hugely amusing. I have glorious, happy memories of it: eating fish and chips on the harbour at Stornoway watching the seals; playing frisbee in a 30 mph wind on a beach on the west coast of Lewis; the astonishig bleakness of Callanish under leaden skies; the improbable beauty of Harris when the sun shone; peat fires; cottages sprinkled randomly on the landscape; something ceaselessly hilarious in the pub in Lochmaddy in the driving rain; golf at the RAF base on Benbecula; listening to Motorhead on my walkman in the B&B on Grimsay; glorious sunshine at the pub in Lochboisdale; arriving in Castlebay at breakfast time; seeing the plane land on the beach at Barra (which my Dad had always wanted to see - the reason for the holiday); walking to the top of Barra and the improbable sprinkling of islands from the top; sailing down the sound of Mull amongst a regatta of small yachts under a picture postcard sky; arriving back in Oban and it feeling wildly bewildering to be around so many people. And board games, conversation no longer stilted with the awkwardness of the teenage years, the 1992 Olympics on the radio with Terry Wogan, seeing the same tourists again and again and again. Weather changing every half hour. The weirdness of being somewhere so other yet still in the UK.
Kind of a valediction to childhood. But a happy one. And more memorable than the previous seven years of holidays put together.
I think it will be of limited benefit given how Mordaunt and Badenoch have captured the race.
Michael Gove, for example.
I got a photo with him, and me and the missus had a pint with him, after the gig we’d gone to Holmfirth to see. It was earlier that day, when we were checking into the hotel, that I bumped into him.
Delicious.
I want Kemi v Penny
If we - and Germany, with their weird anti-Nuclear fixation - had been more serious about actually getting on a path to net zero a few years ago we’d be less prone to Russian economic blackmail now and wouldn’t be facing astronomical home fuel bills.
If this really is the next all new direction for the Tories after the stunning success of their last attempt to take us back to the 70s then god help us.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
·
9m
Replying to
@oflynnsocial
and
@MRothermere
This is getting silly. If you don’t think advising the chief of the defence staff and being chair of the foreign affairs select committee is political experience I can’t help you. And if you think Kemi should be PM, facing down Putin next month, fine. It’s not a rational debate.
But, we now have to see if the MPs agree.
The backlash would be huge. But a Home secretary looking for a headline to launch her leadership bid might be foolish enough
I don't like her political views. But I do like the fact that we have a country where a black woman can succeed.
(I'm not sure every traditional Tory over-65 voter will take to the idea though tbh)
And more importantly the first round of voting.
I'm not convinced it won't be Truss v Sunak, yet.
She seems to just have a mission to destroy the civil service and the state.
Mordaunt for me
And I gather Labour whispers are that they are the one they fear most.