Am unfortunate feature for the Tories of the timing of the Queen’s death is that it has totally taken over the news narrative which is making it very difficult for the new Tory leader Liz truss to establish herself as someone who can lead her party to beat Starmer. Any hope of honeymoon period is now over.
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His is the easier target.
At the "proclamation" of the king's "accession" in Oxford, a man was arrested for shouting "Who elected him?"
He was later "de-arrested". "A Thames Valley police spokesperson said: 'A 45-year-old man was arrested in connection with a disturbance that was caused during the county proclamation ceremony of King Charles III in Oxford. He has subsequently been de-arrested and is engaging with us voluntarily as we investigate a public order offence. The man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence."
I wonder whether they told him he'd been "de-arrested", and if so, why he didn't just walk out of the police station.
I guess the authorities don't want anyone to appear in court in the near future (Magna Carta etc.) for expressing republican sentiments.
“It’s a wildlife success story for this species,” said Jackie Rosenberger, elk project leader for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. “A lot of folks think elk are just a species that’s found in the Western part of the U.S., but that’s not the case. That’s not their history, and through a large restoration effort we’ve managed to bring them back.”'
source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/06/elk-mating-season-southwest-virginia/
The elk are flourishing on a restored coal mining area which, to my surprise, turned out ot be a good place for elk. The area is just a few hundred miles from DC. (Wild turkeys have come back enough so that one was becoming a pest in a DC park.)
So, restore a coal mining area, and get an interesting animal to watch. What's not to like?
You can watch the elk here: https://dwr.virginia.gov/elk-cam/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nftf&utm_content=nftf_all_elkcam_elktours_22
(I have seen elk herds twice in the wild. They are impressive animals; males can weigh more than a thousand pounds, females more than 600.
They did quite well after the Mt. St. Helens eruption, since they prefer grass to trees.)
Off topic? Well, I do think this would help her politically.
I met an Elk face to face in the Olympics (Hoh) once. It was absolutely hammering down with rain as usual so neither I nor the Elk heard anything until I came round a corner and found it standing on the path right in front of me.
It was....large.
Lynx are probably the most likely species for re-introduction in the UK after beavers, although given we are down to about 20 odd native wildcats, I wouldn't vouch that they will do that well.
In the Sunday Times magazine this week.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-students-are-in-crisis-after-covid-will-they-ever-recover-q7zxg2fhn
"Will my students ever be the same again?
Professor Matthew Goodwin can't believe how introverted and disengaged his undergraduates have become. The Covid era rush to online learning has wrecked the campus experience. It's time to hit reset, he argues" (£)
We might all laugh about how Blair or Johnson would handle this, but there's no denying it would be popular with a lot of people. Even TMay did a great job in parliament on Friday.
Truss so far has been utterly unremarkable, but I wouldn't count her out just yet. There will be a lot of times over the next week to show that 'she cares'. I'm reminded of 21 years ago today. George W Bush went on TV and gave a terrible speech on the day of 9/11. He looked all at sea and genuinely frightened. But that's forgotten because he got the loudhailer out in New York on the 14th and was 'a man of the people'.
All Truss has to do is on one occasion - the funeral, for example - show some human emotion or empathy for the royals or the public. It could wipe the slate relatively clean for her, or at least give the Mail and Murdoch enough to run with for a while.
However, so far she's not been able to, and the working hypothesis is that she can't. So her best chance to get ahead will likely pass her by.
"Elk and red deer produce fertile offspring in captivity, and the two species have freely inter-bred in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park."
So they might do well where there are already red deer.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/swedish-election-exit-polls-far-right
That sounds like a "few hundred miles" to me.
As does this: https://www.distance-cities.com/distance-buchanan-va-to-washington-dc
Have a good trip, and if possible, post a picture or two here afterwards.
I don't think she's going to get a bounce now. It was always unlikely as people see the currently tories as tawdry and toxic. She belonged to the Johnson milieu and, unlike him, she's not going to reach those Alf Garnett types.
After Black Wednesday there was a 4.5 year inevitability about the forthcoming tory shellacking. The same is true now.
Those who seem convinced that a Labour majority is vanishingly unlikely are making a big gambling blunder.
And I don't know anyone who has forgotten his frozen response on the day of the attacks.
For the rest of us, politics will go on. And it's interesting to see how events affect things whether they are good or bad.
Liz Truss lost any hope of honeymoon momentum with the Queen's death. The most she can hope for is to come through the next week or two calmly.
But the person I've heard being talked about in more glowing terms, which has surprised me and which won't fit well with our resident Sheffield Wednesday fan, is Keir Starmer.
Lab 42
Con 35
LD 10
Best PM:
Starmer 36
Truss 33
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11202257/Boost-Liz-Truss-new-poll-shows-nine-10-voters-plan-freeze-energy-bills.html
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1569194409123581954
“They said, ‘You’re on your own,’ ” Matvienko recounted. “They came into our houses to take clothes so the drones wouldn’t see them in uniforms. They took our bicycles. Two of them pointed guns at my ex-husband until he handed them his car keys.”…
https://twitter.com/drkathrynmannix/status/1569067840409419783?s=20&t=qJs-nGjLOw1XfP3uUYvk8Q
https://twitter.com/WiseguySix/status/1569082827735539712
If someone was highly disruptive in a comedy club, musical or theatre, shouting abuse or making a scene, you'd expect them to be thrown out by security, and rightly so.
He wasn't the only one arrested yesterday by overzealous police, free speech is important.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/21271479.lib-dems-cancel-conference-respect-queen-elizabeth-ii/
It does seem to me, looking at the changes that have taken place in Sweden through mass immigration and the failure of elements of multiculturalism, that there would inevitably be this type of political reaction.
The real question, for those genuinely concerned about the 'far right', is whether or not the Sweden Democracts and their likely partners can make any real progress at dealing with the situation that has emerged.
Unless we go full North Korean and declare a three year mourning period for Her Majesty there's enough time for the country to get to know Truss.
You can't remove that just by calling it trolling - a highly questionable label in this case.
You're effectively arguing that right shouldn't exist if it risks offending anyone.
Your comparison is completely invalid.
Projected seat distribution
Team Kristersson: 175 MPs
Likely min gov parties:
M 67 ledamöter (MPs) -3
KD 19 MPs -3
Likely C&S parties:
SD 73 MPs +11
L 16 MPs -4
Team Andersson: 174 MPs
S 108 MPs +8
C 24 MPs -7
V 24 MPs -4
MP 18 MPs +2
In topic, without getting sucked too heavily into politics, I think the country needs change and a fresh government. The advantage of Labour delivering that change is that you reengage 30-40% of electorate, who have been offering nothing in 12 years. It’s important that we all have a stake in the system. We can’t have a one party state.
I think the big gains have probably stopped for now, at least in the north. The Ukranian army has not even managed to occupy all of the land the Russians have abandoned and it will take time for lines to re-establish themselves. There is also a hell of of lot of abandoned equipment and munitions to assimilate.
Russia's strategic problems around Kherson remain and it is possible that there may be a further breakthrough there against deeply demoralised forces.
Since their arrangements are well known - no, it doesn't.
It's not appropriate that they should be arrested.
It is being "defended" on here - by those who'd usually be extremely quick to qualify free speech if it were affecting someone's job over a violation of Wokery - because they approve of making disruptive and offensive republican statements that ruin the chance for hundreds to grieve and quietly their respects to a monarch.
I am a Swede, and respect Swedish democracy. Just as I am a Scot and respect Scottish democracy.
Although I (very reluctantly) voted Centre Party (the biggest loser yesterday), I am actually reasonably pleased to have a change of government. I was of course a member of the Moderates for many years, including a period as a councillor. A Moderate PM is probably very good news for my bank account 😉
The key problem for Borgerlig (‘Bourgeois’) Sweden is that we have won the battle but look like losing the war. I predict that this Min Gov is going to be an ugly guddle.
He wasn't 'disrupting' anything.
Would you like me to turn up at your funeral and hurl abuse whilst you and your family were trying to grieve?
You will not be surprised to hear I think Truss is an advantage for the conservatives and will move them on from Johnson
I am not one for polls at present but the SavantaComRes poll in the mail today seems to confound views of many on here with high approval numbers for the price cap and windfall tax, but also removing levies on energy bills, scrapping the NI increase, and even cancelling corporation tax increases
I expect by 2024 Truss will have reduced taxes further and increased allowances, which will be a headache for Starmer and labour as they are will have to consider how selling increasing taxation may be received
No matter Truss v Starmer is going to be an interesting battle over the next 2 years
As such an inherently political event.
It was quite literally a funeral cortege. The BBC spent hours announcing it so.
I've changed my mind: all republicans should be arrested for the next 10 days, and subject to dental torture as well.
One might say that you're being unnecessarily abusive, and in light of your above comments, utterly hypocritical.
“He has subsequently been de-arrested and is engaging with us voluntarily as we investigate a public order offence. The man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence [under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986].”..."
And I'm not a republican.
I will take the last piece of your comment as a poor joke.
If the funeral is a public place like a layby on the A1 then fucking go for it.
It was a hearse. With a coffin in the back. Heading to a lying in state. It was quite literally a funeral cortege. You're trying to defend the indefensible.
I had taken you off my dickhead list. Now, you will go back on, because you are indeed a dick.
Good day.
"At the height of the campaign, the SD billed a metro train decorated in its electoral colours as the “repatriation express”. “Welcome aboard with a one-way ticket. Next stop, Kabul,” tweeted the party’s legal spokesperson, highlighting the SD’s demand to remove non-European immigrants."
I was referring to Edinburgh where the funeral cortège passed through.
This is why the ACLU used to defend the free speech of literal, actual Nazis. Because once you start banning offensive people, the list is infinite.
Red bets on football, although worth noting the EPL ones did get voided for reasons you may be aware of.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2022/09/some-poor-results.html
That will be a (perhaps huge) positive for her amongst those who don't really follow or like politics (eg the whole country minus PB).
As usual, with such types, they are not objecting on the grounds of principle but because it's 'their' side being targeted.
I think Truss hit the sweet spot in that regard. In poor taste, but heck, when did PB ever show refinement, poise and discretion?