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We need to talk about the smell of Trump – politicalbetting.com
We need to talk about the smell of Trump – politicalbetting.com
Here is team Trump’s response to the claim (they notably don’t deny it). https://t.co/s1gmKGD96J
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May God be with you all, and may Santa bring many presents!
Adam Kinzinger farted on live TV and is an unemployed fraud,” the spokesperson said in a statement provided to The Independent.
“He has disgraced his country and disrespects everyone around him because he is a sad individual who is mad about how his miserable life has turned out.”
That’s taking projection to a whole new level.
Cleverly told female guests at the reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported.
He also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.
Is he about to market “MAGA parfum de Trump”. Could be the start of a whole new business for failing right wing politicians? Coming to the Daily Mail shopping section…
Disgrace, parfum de Truss
Piffle, pour homme, de Boris
Lifestyle, un choix de Braverman
He should be sacked, but I’m betting he won’t be. Too soon after the last reshuffle.
Also, if Sunak knows the extent of Keegan’s complicity in the disaster unfolding at Ofsted, he’ll be aware that another reshuffle will be needed imminently. And the recall of Hinds, one of two education secretaries in the last 13 years not to completely crash and burn, suggests he does. He can’t really afford to lose two more ministers in quick succession though.
I'd love to see Cyclefree's take on it though.
Some of them are targeting and trying to shut down Zara stores. They celebrated getting a London shop to temporarily close yesterday after they righteously raided it
Zara's crime? They support genocide. The evidence? They released an ad campaign clearly mocking the unfolding tragedy in Gaza
The ad was made in September
But it doesn’t excuse it.
Or Sunak, for putting him in this mess (which is largely of Sunak’s own making through his indulgence of Braverman).
Hello and welcome to the daftest bit of programming for Christmas 2023. And I mean that in a good way. The Unofficial Science of Die Hard is presented by deadpan standup comedian Paul Chowdhry and less deadpan standup Chris Ramsey, who together have most daft presenting bases covered. Their festive mission is to investigate the feats performed by everyone’s favourite everyman, John McClane, in the 1988 blockbuster (set during an unfortunate Christmas party in Nakatomi Plaza) that has become a yuletide staple. Their aim is to see if they can re-enact the stunts without dying. Think of it as a movie-specific MythBusters with a dash of Taskmaster thrown in. It is ideal for children and the lightly drunk, which by this time should be most of us. Slainte!
"Home Secretary James Cleverly criticised over drink spiking joke"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67813689
See also the "if we have to publish all the off-colour WhatsApp messages, it will ruin government communication" complaints. The idea of... you know... being a bit more professional and less crude doesn't seem to have occurred to people.
Seems odd having Christmas Eve on a Sunday; once upon a time when a Sunday wasn’t a normal trading day, one would’ve seen people wandering town centres, looking for shops that were open to buy last-minute presents.
Now, of course, it’s just another trading day
As one who has been happily married… with a few normal ups and downs…for over 60 years, I am absolutely appalled at Cleverly’s comments! John Crace in the Guardian has it right; Jimmy Dimly!
Not Fit For Office.
Have any of the 2019 generation of Conservatives enhanced their reputations by being in government, even in a "decent but doomed" way? There must be someone.
Have we reached the point where things are unambiguously worse than they were in 1996/7?
OTOH Starmer's Labour generates nowhere near the enthusiasm that Blair and New Labour did 27(!) years ago.
Trump definitely stinks. Worse than any politician in the history of the US.*
And apparently he has BO as well.
*Including Albert Bacon Fall.
I don't think Labour are in anything like as strong a position. Blair, for all his many faults, was a brilliant politician and early Brown had a great deal more credibility than Reeves has generated to date. His prawn sandwich offensive in the City made it clear that Labour could be trusted with the economy and generated a lot of favourable press.
Both governments had a sense of decay and a lack of purpose about them, I don't think that there is a lot to choose between them, but the Opposition is not as strong.
And a Happy Christmas.
I've just done my Christmas Eve todo list, and it's about 3 days activity
Meanwhile, my sister has been taken into hospital a couple of days ago for a debilitating but not serious condition (I think), and I expect in hospital style they will keep her in for a week or so to make sure that when she goes out again there is no risk of her coming back. So my BiL is going to be run off his feet, and I need to find a Thinking of You card.
On topic, I wonder if this Cleverly emerging-misogyny cum size-11-boot-down-his-own-throat will be a bit of a slow-burner? I'd say in 2023 that this is a political hole beneath the waterline.
I would draw a parallel with Boris and the Chris Pincher affair, however that one only took about a week - but Bojo knew about Chris Pincher's reputation years before aiui.
Cleverly has made a really crass and stupid joke that was one of those poor attempts to self-deprecate and praise his wife by saying that she would have to be sedated to be with him. It’s really inappropriate because of the spiking issue and made worse by his role in government .
I’m sure many men have said similar silly remarks where their wife must have had bad eyesight, drunk, on drugs or similar to suggest self-mockingly that their wife is so much better than them that they wouldn’t have a chance without some sort of matter affecting their wife’s judgement.
So it’s a really awful choice of “joke” but I’m guessing he’s not some vile rapey creature and he’s been a big enough target for a while where any misogynistic behaviour would likely be called out already.
I won’t add a smiley as I am unfortunately not joking.
I can only imagine who might buy it (it's too expensive to gift as a poor taste joke).
They have been in force for many years now but even before that my colleagues and I in the public agencies and civil service had to be "more professional and less crude".
I want to wish everyone a very happy and enjoyable Christmas
I find politics hugely depressing at present and Cleverly's comments unacceptable even in jest
My hopes for 2024 is an improvement in my present health issues as the three consultants I am under come up with a treatment plan, look forward to my 80th on the 29th February having only had 20 actual birthday, our diamond wedding in May, and a GE that sees the conservatives sent into opposition and the election of Starmer and Labour
I would say I have no great expectations that Starmer will resolve any of the complex issues we face today and even his most dedicated supporters must accept he is far from being a Blair for whom I voted twice
1. This is a sackable offence any day of the week. If the comment had been made by your choice of 2019 Mince MPs then the mood would be "what an appalling moron" happily they lose their seat at the coming election.
This was made by the Home Secretary. At a government reception. Hours after introducing a bill to crack down on the date rape drug he finds funny. Rape is not funny Home Secretary. Sedating your partner is not a joke Home Secretary.
2. What is left of the Conservative Party seems able to justify literally anything. However cruel the action, however appalling the comment, however illegal the action, there is no gutter shitty enough that supposedly moral people will not defile themselves in.
I have talked passionately about an end to absurd absolutism and othering of positions, how real life is shades of grey not black and white. But some things are simple - right and wrong. Were it Labour cabinet ministers making a spectacle of themselves, Tories would be (rightly) outraged and (rightly) calling it out with demands of both resignations and the moral need to remove them from office for good.
It isn't just that Cleverly has to go, the whole bloody party has to go. It doesn't matter that Labour aren't yet convincing of that Keith Donkey is less charismatic than Blair. Once basic decency and morality demands the clearing of the gutter that the Tories have shat British politics into, there has to be a change whether the other lot are dynamic enough for your tastes or not.
The party was exhausted and bereft of ideas after so long in government, but they still had a numbed of fairly strong and competent ministers.
And a much smaller percentage of the party had been driven mad by Europe.
Blair was a brilliant politician - but neither he nor Brown really understood what was needed to move on from Thatcherism, as opposed to just spending much more money (necessary, but not sufficient).
With the Michelle Mone scandal just beginning to move, with rumours of more beyond in the Great PPE robbery, and yet further fun scandals yet to emerge concerning other cabinet ministers this may not be the nadir for the Tories.
After the headline obsessed showmanship, incompetence and corruption of the past seven years, he might be exactly what we need.
As for your entirely valid observations about Labour & Starmer - does it matter that there is no easy fix to the mess the country is in and that the Labour team aren't that dynamic?
If a 2023 version of Blair and his team from 1997 were the opposition then things clearly would get better in May. As it is, basic human decency would be served by removing this government. If the only substantive change is that we then get a government which isn't corrupt and immoral and sneeringly disgusted by the people of this country, isn't that worth it?
A Home Secretary who doesn't brand the town with the lowest life expectancy for women a "shithole" and instead does something to make those women live longer. A Home Secretary who doesn't find rape and marital coercion funny. That would be a positive step.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgd_V5WqLjg
And the sleaze was mostly fairly small fry- junior ministers and backbenchers. For example, can you imagine Michael Howard joking about rohypnol?
As for the future- it's hard to imagine any politician being able to actively sell a "we're poorer than we all thought, get used to it" message to the public. Blair didn't even try. Question is, is the UK prepared to internalise that message, accept that it's not going to be fun for anyone and worse than that for most, and trust the government to apportion the pain as well as can be done?
Thank you for your kind words and my present health issues do tend to override my bandwidth for political discourse
This government is tired and out of time and Starmer will be the next PM
Starmer will not have any effect on me personally and he will have a honeymoon, but I expect in due course his ministers and mps will do and say stupid things because in the end they are all politicians and it has been ever thus
Essentially, its economy has been growing like crazy recently thanks to oil discoveries, whereas Venezuela's has cratered. Also, suggests the US and others (such as us and other European nations) will likely back Guyana up if it comes to military action).
Anyway, must be off.
It is almost certain the pension age will have to rise, even to 75 as some economist say, and that will be hugely unpopular
The truth is that politicians are not all like Truss, Boris and Sunak. Some are pretty effective and/or dedicated to service rather than their personal glory or some massive ego trip.
We can do better than this government.
As Gary Neville has been pointing out for ages, the blame isn't with the manager or players - it is with the club. We know Cafe Haag is a good manager, we know the players are good players. So what happens to make them - and a succession of predecessors - so terrible when they arrive at Old Trafford?
The club. A crumbling edifice, rotten from the top down with a stadium so knackered and a management so inept that they can't even keep the kitchens clean. The stench of decay is everywhere, and until the Glazers are finally prized from the board room it will not get better.
There's no real sign of a coherent plan for that from either government or opposition.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-67811929
We either rescue our politics or we defile the whole country. Some things are basics of morality, of right and wrong. Can anyone honestly claim that making jokes about rape and spousal battery aren't that bad? From the *Home Secretary*?
He HAS to go. And you know it. Supposedly moral Tories need to grow a spine and call it out.
Won't help. Anthony. Casemiro. Varane. These are great players ruined by United. Sell them and they will go back to being great.
We need better private pensions. But the truth of the matter is that too many fund managers are taking out too much. The investor is last in the queue.
The way to handle this moment is to acknowledge the wrong turn the Conservative party took with Boris. They need to recognise that whilst the rot spread from the head and the source of the infection was removed, the rest of body is still infected.
Context and personal position matter.
Were he a comedian on stage making the same joke we would consider it risque and there would be a few moans and groans and drawn breath. Most of us would not find it funny. But comedians are supposed to push the limits and offend in what they say. We might think the joke out of order but sacking someone for it would be OTT and would be cancelling.
The Home Secretary, the man in charge of devising and overseeing rules to protect all sections of society, making such a joke at a Government function, is clearly so far outside acceptable that he should go. This is not cancellation. It is someone showing they simply don't understand or appreciate the harm done by a senior minister making jokes about situations that put the lives and well being of women at risk.
Anyway there's always this - https://www.cyclefree.co.uk/the-cynics-dictionary/
The original version was published on here in autumn 2017.
We may end up seeing a version of this -
“I have reflected on my position” – “My wife / the PM / the Chief Whip has been shouting at me all weekend.”
If we want to be really cynical, maybe this is his attempt to get out of being Home Secretary. And we'll end up with Suella again. Anything is possible with this lot.
“ Somehow the Government has allowed itself to become caricatured as a group of extremist Neanderthals, who are intent on destroying Britain's economy and social fabric with a series of brutal and callous spending cuts in pursuit of their fanatical neo-conservative agenda.
A few months ago Sunak was even described by The Economist as 'the most Right-wing Conservative leader of his generation'.
It's a fantasy. Since Rishi Sunak became Chancellor, and then Prime Minister, no peacetime British government has borrowed more. No government in British history has spent more on the NHS and other public services. No government has taxed the British people more to fund its vast expenditure.
But for some bizarre reason Sunak and his aides have manifestly failed to contextualise this reality. Or even attempt to frame it to their advantage.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12897657/DAN-HODGES-Rishi-started-2023-vowing-bring-hope-ends-year-brink-calamitous-defeat.html
Keir Starmer is every way a more decent person than Boris Johnson. To say otherwise is just bizarre.
This season brings back those memories as she What's app me after matches with tearful emojis even though she is now in her 50s
I remember going into a meeting at Old Trafford with the late great Bobby Charlton and we were chatting at the time how well United were doing, which they were, and he said to enjoy the good days as they will come and go - wise words from a wonderful person
I do not get troubled by United anymore and agree that the toxicity of the Glazers is there for all to see, and maybe once Ratcliffe is installed a gradual change will come about but it will not be quick
I was raped in my early 20's by a lawyer. My drink was spiked. I don't find any of this funny. At all.
As it is Xmas my husband has presented me with this bauble - from Carlisle cathedral. It is of the beautiful ceiling there.
It reminds me - if no-one else I've mentioned it too - a little of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
The Scrovegni Chapel is here -
https://images.app.goo.gl/4uiUJnUa1x4RAisA9
Online stockbroker, then choose ETFs/indiv shares which are dirt cheap. Cuts out the fund manager and the salesmen (aka financial adviser).
The Palestian loons had a stand on Lord Street, ranting about something or another. I just saw their banner, "The river to the sea."
I did wonder if those manning the stall really understood what they were supporting.
hikes, this govt has increased immigration to record levels. It is a left wingers dream, yet left wingers hate it, because they are obsessed with personality rather than policy - having their man in charge rather than a nasty Tory. Right wingers on
here hate it too, because of the policies, yet Hodges is correct; a clever politician would be
able to turn what’s happened into an advantage, yet Sunak has disappointed everyone
"Most people wouldn't dare say this but, me, I've got the gumption and personality to carry it off."
This is what's going on in the head in such cases.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1736830532539818083.html?fbclid=IwAR1v8VJOMC-zrmY1CPtHf9HaV2TFcl8-5mHp5rxe3x_PERIF_RHof1tAgFw
This is not a left-winger's dream. It's simply bad government.
This is one that I really hope (probably against hope) isn’t drawn into the culture war. It’s so clearly, egregiously wrong for him to say, we could do without turning this into some ‘freedom of speech’ rubbish.
By any meaningful measure, any politician who thinks giving women a date rape drug is a topic of amusement should be shown the door pronto.
Can you please send me an early election for Christmas?
Yours hopefully
Fairliered