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We can all predict Nadine’s Tweets at 10pm on May 4th – politicalbetting.com

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  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537

    The one that went on for three years whilst Starmer sat beside Corbyn in the Shadow Cabinet you mean?
    Not according to Owls. Apparently all was hunky dory then and this is something new.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537

    A leading Black British KC conducted a forensic examination commissioned by Keir Starmer, who insisted it wouldn't be a whitewash, and true enough, it wasn't. Faced with the inconvenient truth, the party ignored Forde – he says he effectively hasn't heard from the party since.

    Martin Forde’s report has done severe damage to John Ware’s reputation & to that of the BBC for journalistic integrity. He says so himself. But many of those who applauded the Panorama hit-job continue to stand by its conclusions out of delusion, denial or just plain dishonesty.

    Do you have the link I asked for?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,550
    DougSeal said:

    Au contraire. She operates at a higher level of sophistication than any of you realise. She’s Spock, Machiavelli, Einstein and Thatcher wrapped into one.
    Spock, Machiavelli, Einstein and Thatcher wrapped into one gives you "smet"

    Cambridge Dictionary: smet - noun. taint [noun] a mark or trace of something bad, rotten or evil.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,764
    Nigelb said:

    What happened to the last wife - did she get bored of him ?
    I thought she cheated on him with Tony Blair?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 31,296

    The one that went on for three years whilst Starmer sat beside Corbyn in the Shadow Cabinet you mean?
    Rather a tired narrative, no? Remind me who was for the most part the disgraced alleged national security risk (Lebedev's yacht) Johnson's Chancellor.

    Neither accusation, against either Starmer or Sunak bears too much scrutiny.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,502
    ydoethur said:

    Are you suggesting that the contribution of the guerillas has been the subject of monkey business?
    Indeed.

    Guerillas tend to be massively overrated.

    Regular soldiers win wars. Guerillas do not (but they can cause a lot of damage).
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924
    DougSeal said:

    Do you have a link to the EHRC praising the Chakrabarti report? All the recent praise of the Labour Party I’m aware of, from the BoD and the EHRC anyway, stems from SKS’s leadership.
    Dozens of references to the Chakrabati report in EHRC report all comments are about failure to implement proposals quick enough no criticism of her report

    https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/investigation-into-antisemitism-in-the-labour-party.pdf
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,764
    rcs1000 said:

    Somewhat grey figure takes over following more colorful predecessors. Oversees sensible Northern Irish deal and improving economy.

    The only difference is that Major made a fortune in Fund Management after he was
    Prime Minister.
    That’s a very genteel way to describe Carlyle 😜
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537
    edited March 2023

    Dozens of references to the Chakrabati report in EHRC report all comments are about failure to implement proposals quick enough no criticism of her report

    https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/investigation-into-antisemitism-in-the-labour-party.pdf
    That is not what you said. Do you have a link to them praising the report?

    Or was it one of those Corbyn truth moments like the fully costed manifesto?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537
    Sean_F said:

    Indeed.

    Guerillas tend to be massively overrated.

    Regular soldiers win wars. Guerillas do not (but they can cause a lot of damage).
    So we shouldn't ape guerillas?
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,502
    pigeon said:

    This. The Conservative Party is vastly underestimated, because of this. The land is choc full of comfortably off, small-c conservative pensioners and their similarly comfortable offspring, looking forward to their own retirements along with a great fat inheritance when Mum and Dad shuffle off. The Tories are the lobby group for these people, who also provide the bulk of their fossil membership. They care about no-one else, except for the very rich.

    The minted grey vote will troop back to the Tories come the next election, and that'll save their arses. Or most of them, at any rate. The Tory majority goes, because the Tories have, after all, been a bag of stinking shit for the rest of the country, but all those client oldies constitute a very large constituency and will be enough to keep them right in the game.
    Setting aside your jealousy towards those who are better off than you are, it’s plain that property-owners are far more numerous than “the very rich.”
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    ...

    Starmer may be by your understanding a shambling wretch, utterly useless and will get crushed by a resurgent Richi Sunak at the next GE, but there is nothing to suggest he is a racist.

    Jeremy Corbyn on the other hand is so stupid that his support for the Palestinian cause is so wayward that he ended up punishing Jewish Labour MPs for Netanyahu's racist aggression. Now deny that Jeremy Corbyn should be branded an utterly moronic anti-Semite?
    Moronic people call Jezza an Anti Semite

    Martin Forde says there is a Heirachy of racism under Starmer

    Who to trust the respected black QC or the Moronic factionalists
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,764
    AlistairM said:

    This is rather enigmatic from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

    The moon shines in the midst of the sky;the immeasurable vault of heaven seems to have expanded to infinity; the earth is bathed in silver light; the air is warm, voluptuous, and redolent of innumerable sweet scents. A divine night! A magical night!
    Mykola Hohol
    📷@palchyk_online

    https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1637903081953439744

    Reports coming in of attacks into Crimea.

    ⚡️⚡️Explosions are reported in Dzhankoi, Crimea. Reportedly - drone attack.
    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1637903422203502593

    Reference to the sweet scent of victory
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,550

    Rather a tired narrative, no? Remind me who was for the most part the disgraced alleged national security risk (Lebedev's yacht) Johnson's Chancellor.

    Neither accusation, against either Starmer or Sunak bears too much scrutiny.
    You're tired of anti-semitism?

    Or just when it is rife in Labour.....
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022

    Major was also the last PM to face a serious assassination attempt.
    That's no way to describe John Redwood.

    I wasn't aware he had built a vast fortune on leaving office.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924
    ydoethur said:

    The one he inherited from Corbyn, you mean?

    As for your other claim, do you have a link? The only EHRC comment I recall on Corbyn's Labour was when they declared them to be a bunch of raging racists. But equally, as Labour had become a poisonous irrelevance under the useless posh git I may just not have noticed.
    ydoethur said:

    The one he inherited from Corbyn, you mean?

    As for your other claim, do you have a link? The only EHRC comment I recall on Corbyn's Labour was when they declared them to be a bunch of raging racists. But equally, as Labour had become a poisonous irrelevance under the useless posh git I may just not have noticed.
    I think your recall would benefit by another read I have posted the link to the whole report.

    Of course a read of the Forde report a look at the Labour files and a view of what Forde has said today about Labour not implementing any of his recommendations would also be beneficial.

    I fear you are not really interested as it may reveal an inconvenient truth
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038
    edited March 2023
    Sean_F said:

    Setting aside your jealousy towards those who are better off than you are, it’s plain that property-owners are far more numerous than “the very rich.”
    I think he was adding them to property owners rather than saying all property owners are very rich, if you have a very high income and live in Kensington and Chelsea but rent you are equally as likely to vote Tory as a pensioner who owns their property as you want to keep your taxes down. Pensioners who are owner occupiers and those earning over £100,000 a year are the Conservative core vote
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    You're tired of anti-semitism?

    Or just when it is rife in Labour.....
    Although the HOC reported it was less rife in Labour than across society as a whole
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,716
    DougSeal said:

    Well, you’ve convinced me. No way SKS is next PM. You guys have it in the bag. Looking forward to another Parliament of the competence your party has shown in spades during this one. And all those since 2010.
    You’ve said yourself, inevitable with the return of Truss.
  • pingping Posts: 3,805
    edited March 2023
    WTF has Musk done to Twitter?

    He’s mashed up everyone’s tweets and serves them back to us in random order, interspersed with ads and his own tweets.

    I just want to see the tweets from the people I choose follow, in timestamped order. That’s surely what everyone else wants, too?

    He’s completely wrecked it.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,820
    I've just realised this year will be my 10 year anniversary of working in the City. It's absolutely flown past. I started off wearing a full suit and tie to work everyday and working from 7am to 7pm, 10 years later I work 8am to 5pm and dress pretty casually for work, don't think I've put a tie on for work in at least 5 years. I got a telling off from HR when management were in from Japan and I wasn't wearing a suit or tie but jeans and a t-shirt.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,350
    Sean_F said:

    Setting aside your jealousy towards those who are better off than you are, it’s plain that property-owners are far more numerous than “the very rich.”
    True, and the nature of distributions is that all of us can point to a number of people with more income and wealth than us.

    (When I used to geek about such things, there was a memorable piece in New Scientist about how much wealth in the economy behaves the same way as the energy distribution of dumb particles in a gas. You get "rich" and "poor" particles just by random interaction, not because the high-energy particles have done anything special.)

    But we do now have a situation where owning a house (even with a mortgage) can increase your wealth faster than most jobs do. Which creates all sorts of bad incentives and means that property owners / non-owners is a big meaningful way to classify people in society. Crudely, rentiers / workers.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    pigeon said:

    This. The Conservative Party is vastly underestimated, because of this. The land is choc full of comfortably off, small-c conservative pensioners and their similarly comfortable offspring, looking forward to their own retirements along with a great fat inheritance when Mum and Dad shuffle off. The Tories are the lobby group for these people, who also provide the bulk of their fossil membership. They care about no-one else, except for the very rich.

    The minted grey vote will troop back to the Tories come the next election, and that'll save their arses. Or most of them, at any rate. The Tory majority goes, because the Tories have, after all, been a bag of stinking shit for the rest of the country, but all those client oldies constitute a very large constituency and will be enough to keep them right in the game.
    I think a lot of people who are also beneficiaries of the arrangement cannot bring themselves to vote for Conservative. Lots of the posters on here fall in to this category, including myself. It comes from the realisation that the situation is basically leading society to complete ruin.

  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924
    ping said:

    WTF has Musk done to Twitter?

    He’s mashed up everyone’s tweets and serves them back to us in random order, interspersed with ads and his own tweets.

    I just want to see the tweets from the people I choose follow, in timestamped order. That’s surely what everyone else wants, too?

    He’s completely wrecked it.

    I agree.

    For what purpose i have no clue
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537

    Although the HOC reported it was less rife in Labour than across society as a whole
    Glory be.

    Have you actually bothered to read and investigate either of the reports you keep selectively quoting?

    And you still have not provided the link you've been asked for. You claimed the EHRC praised the Chakrabarti report. if you want to be believed provide evidence, not bluster and abuse.

    I appreciate that the latter is the Corbynite modus operandi because they're all vile human beings, but I genuinely used to think more highly of you than that.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 31,296
    ...

    You're tired of anti-semitism?

    Or just when it is rife in Labour.....
    I don't believe I was suggesting Labour anti-Semitism was tiring, it is rather tiresome, hence my earlier critique of Corbyn's undoubted anti-Semitism. Neither do I believe Starmer is guilty of anti-Semitism by his association with Corbyn, anymore than Sunak is guilty by his association with Johnson.

    Is that the time?
  • eekeek Posts: 29,735
    edited March 2023
    MaxPB said:

    I've just realised this year will be my 10 year anniversary of working in the City. It's absolutely flown past. I started off wearing a full suit and tie to work everyday and working from 7am to 7pm, 10 years later I work 8am to 5pm and dress pretty casually for work, don't think I've put a tie on for work in at least 5 years. I got a telling off from HR when management were in from Japan and I wasn't wearing a suit or tie but jeans and a t-shirt.

    I would have told HR off for not providing a days warning...

    Equally I turned up to a major sales (£x0m) pitch once in business casual (chinos and jacket rather than full suit) because no person warned me....
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,537

    ...

    I don't believe I was suggesting Labour anti-Semitism was tiring, it is rather tiresome, hence my earlier critique of Corbyn's undoubted anti-Semitism. Neither do I believe Starmer is guilty of anti-Semitism by his association with Corbyn, anymore than Sunak is guilty by his association with Johnson.

    Is that the time?
    Half past two?

    http://mrhoyesgcsewebsite.com/Coursework/Section C/Half/Half-past Two - The Poem.htm
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,350

    That's no way to describe John Redwood.

    I wasn't aware he had built a vast fortune on leaving office.
    1995 wasn't a serious assassination attempt. Remember this photo?


  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,422
    Bringing Boris Johnson back as Conservative leader would be seen as “an utter joke” by voters, who would not tolerate yet another change of prime minister, a leading elections expert has said.

    Robert Hayward, who is a Conservative peer but has analysed May’s local elections across England in his dual role as a polling expert, said the Tories could perform better than expected in the council vote, in part because Rishi Sunak has been able to start detaching himself from Johnson’s political legacy.

    Sunak’s personal poll ratings were not only outperforming those of his party, but were ahead of those for Johnson, particularly in areas such as trustworthiness, Hayward told a briefing.


    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/20/bringing-back-boris-johnson-as-uk-pm-would-be-a-joke-says-polls-expert

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038

    1995 wasn't a serious assassination attempt. Remember this photo?


    Had Portillo activated his phone lines and been the challenger, not Redwood however it may well have been
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,634

    I thought she cheated on him with Tony Blair?
    You missed out Jerry Hall (4).

    The sequences is Wendi Deng (3) then Jerry Hall now the latest.

    Murdoch has kids with Wendi Deng. Tensions with former kids. Rumoured links with Chinese intelligence and Tony Blair. He divorced her. One assumes a largish settlement.

    jerry Hall divorced him after 6 years. "Irreconcilable differences".
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,764

    1995 wasn't a serious assassination attempt. Remember this photo?


    Marlowe, Gorman, Redwood, Lamont.

    Who can get more?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 31,296
    edited March 2023

    Moronic people call Jezza an Anti Semite

    Martin Forde says there is a Heirachy of racism under Starmer

    Who to trust the respected black QC or the Moronic factionalists
    If someone behaves like an old anti-Semite, they are probably an old anti-Semite. Corbyn cannot differentiate Netanyahu's aggressive position on disputed territories with Luciana Berger, therefore the man is, through his foolish behaviour towards Jewish MPs and Jewish Labour party members, anti-Semitic.

    Have a nice evening.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,764
    MattW said:

    You missed out Jerry Hall (4).

    The sequences is Wendi Deng (3) then Jerry Hall now the latest.

    Murdoch has kids with Wendi Deng. Tensions with former kids. Rumoured links with Chinese intelligence and Tony Blair. He divorced her. One assumes a largish settlement.

    jerry Hall divorced him after 6 years. "Irreconcilable differences".
    TBF Murdoch’s romantic affiliations are not top of my list of things to track…

  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    I had an invite for an event with a dress code where you have to wear a suit; and realised that the only time I have worn a suit in the last 3 years was for a funeral.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 38,502

    True, and the nature of distributions is that all of us can point to a number of people with more income and wealth than us.

    (When I used to geek about such things, there was a memorable piece in New Scientist about how much wealth in the economy behaves the same way as the energy distribution of dumb particles in a gas. You get "rich" and "poor" particles just by random interaction, not because the high-energy particles have done anything special.)

    But we do now have a situation where owning a house (even with a mortgage) can increase your wealth faster than most jobs do. Which creates all sorts of bad incentives and means that property owners / non-owners is a big meaningful way to classify people in society. Crudely, rentiers / workers.
    Not really, since 2007.

    The gold rush was 1997 to 2007, when residential property prices rose by 206%.

    Labour benefitted hugely from this in 2001, 2005, and 2010, the Conservatives subsequently.

    The Conservatives have actually made rentierism much less attractive than Labour did.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038

    TBF Murdoch’s romantic affiliations are not top of my list of things to track…

    Murdoch's will certainly will be for most of those mentioned however......
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,795

    I agree.

    For what purpose i have no clue
    Indeed. It’s not clear why he wanted the platform at all, let alone pay billions for it. Unless adding to the gaiety of the world as he slow cocked it up, day by day, was his goal. Which I suppose it might have been.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,820
    eek said:

    I would have told HR off for not providing a days warning...

    Equally I turned up to a major sales (£x0m) pitch once in business casual (chinos and jacket rather than full suit) because no person warned me....
    Ah but they did, I chose to miss the email. It was fine in the end, Japanese management just think I'm a bit eccentric and that means I'm the right person to be in charge of startup financing because it shows I think like startup people.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 53,659

    1995 wasn't a serious assassination attempt. Remember this photo?


    Redwood versus Deadwood!
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924
    ydoethur said:

    Glory be.

    Have you actually bothered to read and investigate either of the reports you keep selectively quoting?

    And you still have not provided the link you've been asked for. You claimed the EHRC praised the Chakrabarti report. if you want to be believed provide evidence, not bluster and abuse.

    I appreciate that the latter is the Corbynite modus operandi because they're all vile human beings, but I genuinely used to think more highly of you than that.
    Have you actually bothered to read and investigate either of the reports you keep selectively quoting? Yes several times have you?
    Cant you read the report? The EHRC report continually references elements of Chakrabati's report recommendations that it wanted to see fully implemented and they are disappointed to see weren't

    I think you rather destroy your claim that abuse is primarily a Corbynite modus operandi when you say "Corbynites are all vile human beings"

    Get some self awareness.

    As for the Forde report I know it almost word for word as it basically supports my view on matters entirely. I ask you to view what its author has said today. Particularly the fact that Labour under SKS has ignored his hierarchy of racism finding.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,634
    edited March 2023

    There have been some interesting (for me, at least) videos and articles recently showing what is required to make a shell casing. And it's surprisingly complex.

    https://time.com/6252541/inside-the-us-army-plant-making-artillery-shells-for-ukraine/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj8KjjZVZYw
    Shells it depends massively on the type of shell, of course.

    Things like Excalibur or some precision 155mm shells (eg GPS Guided) can be $50k or $100k each (more than eg NLAWs), and are supplied in 100s. Basic ones could be a couple of thousand ££.

    I've been quite interested to see the BAE BONUS shells thats split into two units over the target and go for eg two armoured vehicles. Sort of precision guided mini cluster shell.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsKYKDdX1Ec

    I think the overall "omigod they will run out of ammo" thing has been a typical superficial media panic if you just look at all the factories around that have been coming back on line, using up spare capacity, or expanding. There was plenty of analysis around back in December or earlier.

    Also quite enjoyed a couple of triumphalist videos around "UK defence industry on the rocks because UK is excluded from the EU ammo programme". They didn't seem to notice that just the recent Luftwaffe topup orders for F35 and Eurofighter alone are worth up to £3 billion to us. Or that BAE owns Bofors.
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,754

    Indeed. It’s not clear why he wanted the platform at all, let alone pay billions for it. Unless adding to the gaiety of the world as he slow cocked it up, day by day, was his goal. Which I suppose it might have been.
    In a counter-factual where he had done literally nothing, his very presence on the Board and some wittering on about his “killer app” stuff could mean he was already into a decent paper profit. What a tit.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    If someone behaves like an old anti-Semite, they are probably an old anti-Semite. Corbyn cannot differentiate Netanyahu's aggressive position on disputed territories with Luciana Berger, therefore the man is, through his foolish behaviour towards Jewish MPs and Jewish Labour party members, anti-Semitic.

    Have a nice evening.
    Who expelled the only Jewish person elected to the NEC?

    On what grounds?

    Meeting with a group that wasnt proscribed at the time?

    You would think SKS might have heard of the term retrospective law and the problem with it?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,111
    ...
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 54,198
    MattW said:

    Shells it depends massively on the type of shell, of course.

    Things like Excalibur or some precision 155mm shells (eg GPS Guided) can be $50k or $100k each (more than eg NLAWs), and are supplied in 100s. Basic ones could be a couple of thousand ££.

    I've been quite interested to see the BAE BONUS shells thats split into two units over the target and go for eg two armoured vehicles. Sort of precision guided mini cluster shell.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsKYKDdX1Ec

    I think the overall "omigod they will run out of ammo" thing has been a typical superficial media panic if you just look at all the factories around that have been coming back on line, using up spare capacity, or expanding. There was plenty of analysis around back in December or earlier.

    Also quite enjoyed a couple of triumphalist videos around "UK defence industry on the rocks because UK is excluded from the EU ammo programme". They didn't seem to notice that just the recent Luftwaffe topup orders for F35 and Eurofighter alone are worth up to £3 billion to us. Or that BAE owns Bofors.
    Your basic “goes bang, makes a bunch of metal splinters” shell requires double figures of casting, forging, heat treating and machining operations. Precise alloying of the metal is very important as well. The heat treatment requires precision in time as well as heat to create the desired effects.

    Very easy to get wrong and end up with a pile of shell shaped scrap. Each part of the process will need running in and tuning.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,634

    Rather a tired narrative, no? Remind me who was for the most part the disgraced alleged national security risk (Lebedev's yacht) Johnson's Chancellor.

    Neither accusation, against either Starmer or Sunak bears too much scrutiny.
    Surely relevant questions there would be around detail such as "what did Starmer do when Corbyn managed to get Labour declared institutionally racist?".

    I don't see much mileage in it - Starmer has made them acceptable on the issue partly by defenestrating Corbyn and one or two poisonous figures, even if there are still a few lunatics hiding down the back of the sofa and behind the skirting.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,307
    MaxPB said:

    I've just realised this year will be my 10 year anniversary of working in the City. It's absolutely flown past. I started off wearing a full suit and tie to work everyday and working from 7am to 7pm, 10 years later I work 8am to 5pm and dress pretty casually for work, don't think I've put a tie on for work in at least 5 years. I got a telling off from HR when management were in from Japan and I wasn't wearing a suit or tie but jeans and a t-shirt.

    I wear a suit and tie most days.

    Although I am viewed as amusingly old-fashioned I also get people, including the younger ones, describing me as looking "professional" as a consequence.

    Which I will take.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,634

    Your basic “goes bang, makes a bunch of metal splinters” shell requires double figures of casting, forging, heat treating and machining operations. Precise alloying of the metal is very important as well. The heat treatment requires precision in time as well as heat to create the desired effects.

    Very easy to get wrong and end up with a pile of shell shaped scrap. Each part of the process will need running in and tuning.
    I'd be interested to see the cost numbers from the new factory at Washington, but that may be optimistic.

    My £3k number for a basic 155mm shell was a quick grab from here:
    https://www.technology.org/2023/01/05/how-much-do-155-mm-artillery-rounds-cost-now-and-how-many-are-fired-in-ukraine/
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,307

    Marlowe, Gorman, Redwood, Lamont.

    Who can get more?
    Sir Edward bloody Leigh is still there.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022
    Edwina Currie and David Mellor on GB News debating the Privileges committee and you know who.

    Is there any reason why Edwina Currie isn't in the Lords? There haven't been vast numbers of prominent female Tory MPs. She blew the whistle on Salmonella and sponsored the Bill on equalising the age of consent.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,716

    1995 wasn't a serious assassination attempt. Remember this photo?


    On the contrary, on the evidence of that photo, they came within an ace of creating an IQ black hole, which could have taken out Major along with the entire Houses of Parliament.

  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,867

    Marrying a much younger model usually obviates the need for artificial help…
    At 92???
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,307
    pigeon said:

    This. The Conservative Party is vastly underestimated, because of this. The land is choc full of comfortably off, small-c conservative pensioners and their similarly comfortable offspring, looking forward to their own retirements along with a great fat inheritance when Mum and Dad shuffle off. The Tories are the lobby group for these people, who also provide the bulk of their fossil membership. They care about no-one else, except for the very rich.

    The minted grey vote will troop back to the Tories come the next election, and that'll save their arses. Or most of them, at any rate. The Tory majority goes, because the Tories have, after all, been a bag of stinking shit for the rest of the country, but all those client oldies constitute a very large constituency and will be enough to keep them right in the game.
    The trouble is attacking property rights doesn't get you anywhere because the biggest criticism of the youth is that they can't get the same.

    The solution is more housing and cheaper housing, and I don't think you can blame Conservative governments for trying.

    You can blame their local MPs for caving into NIMBYism too often and loading up the young with higher student debt/fees, and increased taxation - which is where I'd start to make an offer if I were them.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,677

    Edwina Currie and David Mellor on GB News debating the Privileges committee and you know who.

    Is there any reason why Edwina Currie isn't in the Lords? There haven't been vast numbers of prominent female Tory MPs. She blew the whistle on Salmonella and sponsored the Bill on equalising the age of consent.

    She blew more than a whistle!
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,677

    I wear a suit and tie most days.

    Although I am viewed as amusingly old-fashioned I also get people, including the younger ones, describing me as looking "professional" as a consequence.

    Which I will take.
    I hate wearing a suit. Indoor temperatures are designed for shirts not jackets. I feel sweaty and horrible.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,867
    HYUFD said:
    The comment Len Goodman made years ago about Ann Widdecombe being like snow - fun at the start but after a while you wish it would go away - is as true today as then...

    And what is about Widdy, Farage, Tice etc etc that they just can't take YES for an answer?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,716
    Moscow students are reportedly being handed mobilisation orders along with their diplomas, literally at the very minute that their exemption from military service expires. This is happening at the same time that Russia is reportedly seeking 400,000 new soldiers.
    https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1637869043884384297
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,867

    She blew more than a whistle!
    Oooo errrrrr 😂
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,716
    Explosions in the Russian-occupied Crimea destroy a number of Kalibr missiles while they were being transported via railways, Ukraine's defence intelligence claims. There have been reports of multiple explosions in Dzhankoy, Crimea, tonight
    https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1637932466995605505
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,350
    GIN1138 said:

    The comment Len Goodman made years ago about Ann Widdecombe being like snow - fun at the start but after a while you wish it would go away - is as true today as then...

    And what is about Widdy, Farage, Tice etc etc that they just can't take YES for an answer?
    Ultimately, because giving them what they say they want (the UK not being in the EU) doesn't give them what they fundamentally want (youth, potency, riches, the ability to lord it over Johny Eurocrat).
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566

    Bringing Boris Johnson back as Conservative leader would be seen as “an utter joke” by voters, who would not tolerate yet another change of prime minister, a leading elections expert has said.

    Robert Hayward, who is a Conservative peer but has analysed May’s local elections across England in his dual role as a polling expert, said the Tories could perform better than expected in the council vote, in part because Rishi Sunak has been able to start detaching himself from Johnson’s political legacy.

    Sunak’s personal poll ratings were not only outperforming those of his party, but were ahead of those for Johnson, particularly in areas such as trustworthiness, Hayward told a briefing.


    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/20/bringing-back-boris-johnson-as-uk-pm-would-be-a-joke-says-polls-expert

    "More trustworthy than Johnson"

    And the winner of this year's low bar clearance championship is...
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038
    edited March 2023
    Nigelb said:

    On the contrary, on the evidence of that photo, they came within an ace of creating an IQ black hole, which could have taken out Major along with the entire Houses of Parliament.

    Redwood may be hardline but I don't think you can call him thick, he has a BA from Magdalen college Oxford and a DPhil from All Souls
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566
    Nigelb said:

    Moscow students are reportedly being handed mobilisation orders along with their diplomas, literally at the very minute that their exemption from military service expires. This is happening at the same time that Russia is reportedly seeking 400,000 new soldiers.
    https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1637869043884384297

    I know Russia has a population of 140 million and have a history of taking massive losses, but you would like to think they would question things at some point.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,716
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood may be hardline but I don't think you can call him thick, he has a BA from Magdalen college Oxford and a DPhil from All Souls
    He’s got a big IQ … in negative territory.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood may be hardline but I don't think you can call him thick, he has a BA from Magdalen college Oxford and a DPhil from All Souls
    As has been noted before people can be highly educated and yet say and do things that make them appear to be very thick. Particularly when they get very lazy and ossified in their thinking.

    Diane Abbott graduated from Cambridge yet that doesn't prevent people calling her thick, and only some of that will be racism.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,073
    GIN1138 said:

    At 92???
    Look at those tits and nips. The Sun ought to put them on Page 3.


  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566

    I wear a suit and tie most days.

    Although I am viewed as amusingly old-fashioned I also get people, including the younger ones, describing me as looking "professional" as a consequence.

    Which I will take.
    For me in part it's a mental thing - I feel more in 'work mode' when I put on a suit.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,350
    Nigelb said:

    He’s got a big IQ … in negative territory.
    For a long time, Redwood was a good candidate for the 21st century's "wisest fool in Christendom"; clearly not stupid but driven to unwise conclusions by relentless logic untempered by "is this still sensible?" thoughts.

    At some point, he descended into self-parody, where he remains.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,867
    edited March 2023

    Ultimately, because giving them what they say they want (the UK not being in the EU) doesn't give them what they fundamentally want (youth, potency, riches, the ability to lord it over Johny Eurocrat).
    I always had a theory that Farage never really wanted us to leave the EU as it would get him off the EU gravy train and out of the limelight.

    The fact he's STILL trying to claim we haven't achieved Brexit and whip up a betrayal narrative when it's patently obvious to everyone that we have Brexited kind of backs up the idea IMO.

    The other alternative is that he's in the back pocket of Bad Vlad... but would Putin really have any time for a moron like him?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240

    I wear a suit and tie most days.

    Although I am viewed as amusingly old-fashioned I also get people, including the younger ones, describing me as looking "professional" as a consequence.

    Which I will take.
    I like wearing a suit and tie though have to take my jacket off at work, so tend to the NASA 1969 moonshot look. Most British men are slobs, so it isn't hard to look well turned out.

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,795
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood may be hardline but I don't think you

    can call him thick, he has a BA from Magdalen college Oxford and a DPhil from All



    Souls

    Careful, you’ll invoke the “Cowley Tech” / “Fen Poly” humble-braggers and we’ll all have to sit here cringing in acute embarrassment

  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,867
    edited March 2023

    Look at those tits and nips. The Sun ought to put them on Page 3.


    Sorry Moon I think I'm gonna have to flag this 🤮
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,795
    I like a suit and own many. Easy, smart dressing. A tie? Depends on my mood.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939
    edited March 2023
    See. I self aware enough to realise I'm partisan.
    I like to think the shambles of recent years mean the sensible moderate population will elect a Labour government next time.
    But that chart of which seats are needed to win a majority is quite sobering.
    As is the growing idea that "they've been batshit crazy, corrupt and incompetent for years. But they've recanted and are being sensible. So one more chance."
    Bit depressing really.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566
    dixiedean said:

    See. I self aware enough to realise I'm partisan.
    I like to think the shambles of recent years mean the sensible moderate population will elect a Labour government next time.
    But that chart of which seats are needed to win a majority is quite sobering.
    As is the growing idea that "they've been batshit crazy, corrupt and incompetent for years. But they've recanted and are being sensible. So one more chance."
    Bit depressing really.

    I think a Rubicon has been crossed that means they simply cannot win back enough to win outright. But 2019 was such a big win that it opens the door to them clinging on.

    Keir needs the SNP to follow through on their leadership election chaos.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood may be hardline but I don't think you can call him thick, he has a BA from Magdalen college Oxford and a DPhil from All Souls
    That would be mistaking qualifications for intelligence and competence.
    The root of our education and by extension productivity issues.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,073

    Yes. I am the fascist. How observant you are!
    Is that you admitting it?

    But you ought to think about it. Rather than saying vive Le difference, democracy bring it on, your gut instinct you want your opponents you don’t like gone, not around anymore.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566
    dixiedean said:

    That would be mistaking qualifications for intelligence and competence.
    The root of our education and by extension productivity issues.
    Could be worse - could be mistaking a posh accent and knowing someone's powerful dad for intelligence and competence. Which we also do.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939
    kle4 said:

    For me in part it's a mental thing - I feel more in 'work mode' when I put on a suit.
    I am absolutely ecstatic that the suit is dying off.
    Never looked good in one. Nor liked the compulsion.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,073
    GIN1138 said:

    Sorry Moon I think I'm gonna have to flag this 🤮
    I cropped it, so you can’t see his fiancé and a young man either side propping him up for his dip in the sea. Perhaps I cropped the comedy away.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,550
    GIN1138 said:

    I always had a theory that Farage never really wanted us to leave the EU as it would get him off the EU gravy train and out of the limelight.

    The fact he's STILL trying to claim we haven't achieved Brexit and whip up a betrayal narrative when it's patently obvious to everyone that we have Brexited kind of backs up the idea IMO.

    The other alternative is that he's in the back pocket of Bad Vlad... but would Putin really have any time for a moron like him?
    He has time for Trump, so....
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,634
    edited March 2023
    Off for the evening, so something uplifting.

    Does anyone have a doggo that does this?

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1610998234951852033
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,180

    Redwood versus Deadwood!
    What sort of moron would not look at that room and think, oh god, I have made a serious mistake here, and quickly leave?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038
    dixiedean said:

    That would be mistaking qualifications for intelligence and competence.
    The root of our education and by extension productivity issues.
    Redwood also headed Thatcher's policy unit and helped drive through her privatisation programme and was a successful investment analyst and manager and director in the City before he became an MP. He was also a reasonably competent Welsh Secretary despite not learning the anthem by heart
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,073

    I want Johnson gone as much as anyone, but delaying the report by 24 hours will not prevent his supporters from doing everything they can to mitigate the allegations
    If he comes through this without a suspension, does he get an “exonerated bounce”?

    Lula was actually in prison and now a president, for example. All Boris needs to achieve is on a ballot that goes to the membership, and that’s a shoe in, to achieve his Churchillian comeback. It’s not impossible is it?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038
    edited March 2023
    kle4 said:

    Could be worse - could be mistaking a posh accent and knowing someone's powerful dad for intelligence and competence. Which we also do.
    Redwood was born in a council house, so that doesn't apply to him either!
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,754

    Moronic people call Jezza an Anti Semite

    Martin Forde says there is a Heirachy of racism under Starmer

    Who to trust the respected black QC or the Moronic factionalists
    I mean call me old fashioned but you could always use the evidence of your own eyes and judge Corbyn by his prejudiced words like the rest of us do….
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566

    If he comes through this without a suspension, does he get an “exonerated bounce”?

    Lula was actually in prison and now a president, for example. All Boris needs to achieve is on a ballot that goes to the membership, and that’s a shoe in, to achieve his Churchillian comeback. It’s not impossible is it?
    If a vote goes to the Members he probably wins. Therefore it is telling he did not put it to them when he could have. Even if Rishi has a shocker of a Locals it is much harder to remove a leader than get on the ballot for a contest. He has 100 MPs who back him even at his lowest ebb, assuming none have eked away. He's need a lot more than that to remove Rishi in order to get himself on a ballot.
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,754
    edited March 2023
    kle4 said:

    If a vote goes to the Members he probably wins. Therefore it is telling he did not put it to them when he could have. Even if Rishi has a shocker of a Locals it is much harder to remove a leader than get on the ballot for a contest. He has 100 MPs who back him even at his lowest ebb, assuming none have eked away. He's need a lot more than that to remove Rishi in order to get himself on a ballot.
    If you’re Boris, why take charge now? Let the other guy manage a narrow loss, and do the fun bit of leading the Tories back to power against a divided government with a slim majority next time around. He’s much more temperamentally suited to opposition where he just has to make some speeches. Plus in the meantime he can make a lot of cash.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,566
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood was born in a council house, so that doesn't apply to him either!
    We have more than enough others to point to as evidence.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 53,659

    Look at those tits and nips. The Sun ought to put them on Page 3.


    [Austin Powers voice] "RUPERT MURDOCH NAKED ON A COLD DAY! RUPERT MURDOCH NAKED ON A COLD DAY!"
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 5,173
    Some interesting replies to my earlier remarks about the Tory core vote.

    I can't post the lengthy response I was going to to Sean F because crappy Vanilla keeps churning out one of its "body is X characters too long" errors, but suffice it to say that I can hardly be jealous of myself. I am a mortgage-free owner-occupier, and therefore one of God's Elect in this ridiculous economy that we've built in which such status means you can live like a Lord on an average wage, whilst people who have to service housing costs struggle badly or simply sink into the mire. I have also comprehended that, whilst this may be absolutely peachy for me and others like me (disproportionately older, better-off people,) it's also an unmitigated disaster for the country. We simply cannot continue to pour what's left of the country's wealth into unproductive assets (housing) and unproductive people (the retired) forever without there being an almighty reckoning. It's an urgent imperative to tax earned incomes less and assets more - but it won't happen because the grey vote is too numerous and powerful, and all the politicians are frightened of them.

    Labour won't change anything about this when they get back in: they won't touch the triple lock, they won't raise property taxes (save, perhaps, for those applicable to derisory numbers of huge mansions,) and they'll keep prioritising the NHS - which spends nearly half its entire budget on the over 65s - over every other area of spending including that on children, and thus the circling of the plughole will continue...
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939
    HYUFD said:

    Redwood also headed Thatcher's policy unit and helped drive through her privatisation programme and was a successful investment analyst and manager and director in the City before he became an MP. He was also a reasonably competent Welsh Secretary despite not learning the anthem by heart
    There you go.
    Being an expert and competent in a really narrow range does not transfer automatically to any other field. (Sometimes it can, sometimes it doesn't). The UK tends to assume it does as a default position.
    John Redwood shouldn't be let anywhere loose near empathy or listening skills.
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 5,173
    edited March 2023
    ...Casino is, of course, right to point out that constructing a vast amount of housing is part of the solution to our intractable problems, but again this upsets a great many of the well-off old (twice over - they don't want new houses near them because they hate development, and they're afraid of the potential effects of any kind of blight, like more road traffic or having their view spoiled, on their precious property prices.) Besides which, the current Government deserves no credit at all for its efforts to get more homes built because they have been risible. Tory efforts to - supposedly - get more houses built are like Tory efforts to subsidise childcare: PR exercises, done to create an impression that the Government cares when it so obviously doesn't. The childcare policy is underfunded and thus undeliverable in practice; and, because virtually all Tory MPs are nimbies or in the pockets of nimby electors, responsibility for setting housing targets has been passed back to local councils in leafy areas, most of whom will simply set fire to them. Because if it's not the Conservatives, who are heavily in thrall to nimbyism, who are in charge then it's the Liberal Democrats, who are even bloody worse.

    Perhaps Labour will try to do something about this - but, then again, if their own agenda consists mainly of hiking taxes on earned incomes yet higher to provide cash with which to hose down pensioners and the NHS, then is there going to be anything left to put towards social housing - which is what we're probably going to need, given that the business model of private housebuilders appears to consist of releasing a thing dribble into a market full of pent-up demand, and thus making big guaranteed profits out of their overpriced little boxes of ticky-tacky? Most likely not.

    This is the state that we're in, and I don't see how we're going to get out of it, to be honest.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,073
    kle4 said:

    If a vote goes to the Members he probably wins. Therefore it is telling he did not put it to them when he could have. Even if Rishi has a shocker of a Locals it is much harder to remove a leader than get on the ballot for a contest. He has 100 MPs who back him even at his lowest ebb, assuming none have eked away. He's need a lot more than that to remove Rishi in order to get himself on a ballot.
    The general election defeat will remove Rishi. Many could see Boris as an effective oven ready big beast of an opposition leader best option for quick bounce back to power.

    And how quickly Rishi crashed this time last year, from most popular politician and shoe in to number 10, to so many on his own side saying he can’t be PM now, makes you wonder how much those revelations can still come back to hurt him, and if more is still not known and how it goes down when inevitably he becomes the story at some point.
  • MikeLMikeL Posts: 7,772
    Wiki graph now updated for all polls in particular including today's Deltapoll and PeoplePolling.

    Latest average lines are Lab 46, Con 29.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,838

    Look at those tits and nips. The Sun ought to put them on Page 3.
    He's got a great pair of melanomas.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,038
    dixiedean said:

    There you go.
    Being an expert and competent in a really narrow range does not transfer automatically to any other field. (Sometimes it can, sometimes it doesn't). The UK tends to assume it does as a default position.
    John Redwood shouldn't be let anywhere loose near empathy or listening skills.
    If you want empathy or listening skills above all else then why not make Lorraine Kelly PM?

    It is part of the package for a PM yes but intelligence and competence and charisma are most important, albeit Redwood falls down on the latter
This discussion has been closed.