LAB moves to an 86% betting chance to win a Rutherglen by-election – politicalbetting.com
LAB moves to an 86% betting chance to win a Rutherglen by-election – politicalbetting.com
The big political betting news today is that a by-election looks set to take place in the Scottish seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West which was an SNP gain from LAB at GE2019.
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What is wrong with these people?
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-hits-meta-with-record-e1-2b-privacy-fine/
On the poshness of La Guardianista
Polly Toynbee is outdone in poshness by many of her fellow Groaniad hacks eg her fellow guardian columnist marina hyde, granddaughter of first baronet Sir Rolf Dudley Williams
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Dudley-
Williams
A few years ago I heard that REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED
“What’s the situation with X?”
“Mogg was on the radio defending him/her/it”
“Oh, so they are fucked, then”
https://spacenews.com/agencies-studying-safety-issues-of-lox-methane-launch-vehicles/
...The FAA has set up a test stand at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. A crane 43 meters tall will be used to drop stainless steel containers containing mixtures of LOX and methane. A series of tests is planned to start in June on three-week intervals to measure the explosive power of that propellant combination...
On the other hand she seems much happier with Ben Houchen's "mayoral development corporation" steel works project.
I'm a regular Guardian reader, and haven't looked at a Toynbee article for a good couple of decades.
Yet at the same time I am sure she genuinely feels guilt at her privilege and has a sincere desire to help others - especially those “less fortunate”
So you end up with weird and awkward contortions like that essay
Is she worse or better than an outright snob like Alan Clark? I honestly dunno. He was funny. But a nasty snob. She’s not funny. But she’s probably done more for poor people while inwardly sneering at them and trying not to smell them
Clue: 99.7% at public school.
Likewise I stopped reading Toynbee at least a decade back. Just so predictable. Hyde can at least make you laugh
Guardian (Observer)
Telegraph
Times
FT
Mail
Sun
Mirror
Express
Indy
Star
Key Republican recruits hesitate to jump in if Trump is the nominee
Potential Republican candidates in swing states and districts are reluctant to throw hats into ring.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/22/donald-trump-dominance-spooks-down-ballot-recruits-00097995
FT below Times?
Appalling but funny
It’s weird how she has been completely overtaken by tenth wave feminism (or whatever it is now) in regards to the trans terf wars. No one cares what she thinks because her opinion is irrelevantly outdated. I bet she finds that quite hard. To be an outdated “progressive” is not very progressive. She’s like the Jennifer’s Diary of The British Left
"A revolution came to Westminster from May 15–17, 2023. This was when the National Conservatism conference, after three events in the States and two in Europe, came to Britain. To hear talk of it from the left and some liberal Tories, this was a gathering of fascists and nut-jobs, coming together to overthrow democracy, equality and all the good things of late-stage liberalism. In reality, it was an argument between Peelite Whigs and Disraelian Tories, with a dash of foreign flavour thrown in to season the mix. Looking back, it doesn’t seem obvious that the Whigs had the better of it.
Surveying the hall on the first day, I immediately noticed the youth of the audience, 40 per cent of which was under thirty. There was a definite charge to the air. I haven’t felt such a sense of vibrancy to a right-wing event in Britain, ever. Are there underlying issues and schisms? Obviously, given national conservatism’s nascent form in Britain. Still, the potential for something significant, maybe even positive, to happen is there."
https://thecritic.co.uk/reflections-on-a-revolution-in-westminster/
The SNP have a good by-election machine, 5k (10%) isn't a bad majority, and there will be some backs-to-the-wall fighting.
Labour are the more likely winners, but the odds may be a bit flattering.
The SNP really shouldn't have a prayer of holding Rutherglen.
The FT employs more geeky finance and tech nerds (of necessity) and they are more likely to be from poorer backgrounds than the social butterflies who interned at the Times etc
It’s still fairly posh. As are all newspapers these days. In my life I’ve watched journalism become a job for posher and posher people. It’s tragic
Unpaid internships should be banned. If Starmer does that I will applaud him loudly. They are meant to be illegal now but newspapers get round it
It means I'm completely free of posh guilt.
Their current cri de cœur is that independence supporting parties must cooperate by putting up single candidates in constituencies but I suspect that they might not be able to resist the chance of being involved in a media frenzy.
For all our sakes, our right wing brothers and sisters need to find a home grown form of conservatism and put an end to this reheated stuff. We know where that takes us and it is not a good place.
FWIW I think Cameron came closest to the future with vote blue go green.
Is Conservatism moving to the left?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1gcuTPtULk
As I say, I think Labour should win it, but the value may be with SNP here. I can see the electorate being a little bit deliberately perverse about it.
The "work experience" (for a full day or week 'work trial') loophole is what is currently being banned.
Unfortunately, lots of places simply ignore the law, and no-one shops them because they want the leg up.
The Lusail track days are insane though. More like full on GT3 races where it's impossible to get black flagged.
I could definitely be a travel writer.
#genxfacebook
She is the sort of English person who ruins Tuscany, especially in summer. Mind you the Tuscans are not much trusted by other Italians - so they probably deserve having ghastly English people who think they're posh but really really are not inflicted on them.
Now, obviously, I admit this was not an optimal bit of exploratory tourism. But still - I came to the view that Qatar is possibly the ugliest country on earth. There is almost nothing edifying to look at.
Not sure the SNP's are quite as good as by-elections as some people think, either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Airdrie_and_Shotts_by-election
Sturgeon was pretty much at peak popularity at this point (and no Green candidate), yet there was still a swing from the SNP to Labour.
Lord Falkland was originally elected as a Lib Dem, but left the Lib Dems in 2011 and became a Crossbencher.
It is interesting that his replacement will be a Lib Dem rather than a Crossbencher.
Candidate CVs are better than usual:
Belhaven and Stenton, L. (Liberal Democrat)
I support individual freedom, equality, social justice, environmental and agricultural sustainability/protection, a market economy with strong government regulation, active engagement with the EU, free trade without tariff barriers. Banning conversion therapy. 50 years’ business experience in insurance, outsourcing, speech recognition and AI
technology. 20 years working alongside NHS services and procurement. Strong interest in improving healthcare and social care provision, trade liberalisation,
sustainable immigration management & human rights, taxation reform, incentivising business productivity.
Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, E. (Liberal Democrat)
Since my early years I have had a keen and personal interest in politics, espoused with the traditions and beliefs of a liberal. My working life started aged 19 in shipping, finishing in political risk insurance. Should I be elected, I would undertake to be a regular attender
and to devote my maximum time and efforts to the Liberal Democrats and to the business of the House.
Russell, E. (Liberal Democrat)
I have been active in the Liberal Democrat Party as a Parliamentary and London Assembly candidate, a London Borough Councillor and campaign manager.
As a professional photographer specialising in political events and conferences, charities and landscapes my work is much used on social media and has been exhibited. I am committed to work in the House with my experience of local government and knowledge of environmental issues and international relations
Eventually this is going to have some enormous geopolitical consequence which I can’t quite work out because I’m trying to wash down sunflower seeds with Egyptian malt whisky
Journalism in general seems like one of those careers where some family money and connections are very helpful for breaking into it. Wasn't really an option for a poor boy from the provinces like me! Finance is perhaps surprisingly meritocratic and so I've done well out of it, but there are certainly other careers that sound like they're probably more interesting.
Seriously. That’s why they do it. It’s the aural equivalent of a brake light. Once you realise that, it is so much less annoying. Even welcome
Only Chris Mullin has come close to him, I think.
Only Louis Vuitton do shoes that fit my wide size 11s.
Is why I have to buy them.
The Guardian has the poshest journalists as its socially liberal, social democrat, pro EU, pro immigration and anti Brexit views tend to be mainly found in North London, university campuses and the top ranks of the public sector. Very few working class voters read or hold Guardian views, even if they voted Labour still in 2019 they were more likely to read the Mirror than the Guardian
I am happy to be argued with on the also rans. But the gold and silver are not arguable
The times is strangely egalitarian in comparison. Probably the influence of murdoch
He was also quite snobbish about William Hague too, Hague's father owned a small drinks factory, recounting one conversation with his fellow OE Nicholas Soames in which he said of the comprehensive educated Hague ' I mean the man looks like a golf ball'. He quite liked Blair though, apart from on Kosovo (Blair sent him a note after his illness was diagnosed) and was a big Princess Diana fan and worshipped Thatcher, though that was not fully reciprocated as The Lady never made him a senior Minister
Shall I tell you about the time a burglar broke into the house I was living in in Brixton and came into my bedroom clutching my bread knife while I was in it alone?
I loathe the Toynbees of this world. They seem very accurately described by Martin Amis here -
"What we eventually run up against are the forces of humourlessness, and let me assure you that the humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't be trusted with anything."
“Who built this road? It’s amazing! Was it the Chinese?”
He laughed.
“Yes. Of course. The Chinese!”
And he shrugged. Affably. Contentedly. He has a lovely new road which saves hours
I grant you non-posh by comparison with Toynbee, though!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/65665546
Hague does look a bit like a golf ball tbf.
He also said that the parliamentarian he most admired was Dennis Skinner.
I want a mini pig.
The telegraph actually has writers that admit they regularly go shooting
Depending on my mood I can find either annoying or irrelevant. Good writing helps
The Sun and Mirror journalists I've met have all seemed pretty posh to me, though there we get on to defining 'posh' (let's not).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Nelson
Turkey
Sri Lanka
Vietnam (I think)
Egypt
Thailand
Imagine if, over the last 30 years, America - and the west in general - had abhorred warfare and instead decided to build motorways and infrastructure wherever it could. Imagine if the 29 trillion spent on the Iraq war had been spent on hospitals and hi speed rail
The world would now be a much kinder place for us. And for humanity. I speak as an idiot that thought the Iraq war was a good if difficult idea
On the death of Lord Avebury (who, as Eric Lubbock, won the Orpington by-election but succeeded to the peerage later) the result was as follows:
Viscount Thurso: 3
Lord Calverley: 0
Earl of Carlisle: 0
Lord Kennett: 0
Earl Lloyd-George: 0
Earl Russell: 0
Lord Somerleyton: 0
By nightfall the Free russia Legion will have taken more territory than Wagner in the last 3 months.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1660643051331543040
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-tribute-to-jeremy-clarke-the-spectators-low-life-columnist/
They BOUGHT their moated castle in Kent
Interesting but little known fact: British tabloids are starting to make SERIOUS money online through YouTube etc
I once had sex with a girl who was at the same time having sex with Martin Amis (not literally a “Nick palmer in Zurich” situation but you know what I mean - she was liberal with her charms)
She said he was unsatisfyingly tiny in height but genuinely hilarious