Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Perhaps the amount you can remind someone of a wrong call is proportional to how insistent they were in repeating their prediction.
May election is not yet dead, is it? I thought there was still a bit of time left.
I think somebody told us the last practical date for a May 2nd election to be called is March 18th.
Nope that would result in a date of April 25th. It’s basically any day from next Tuesday (19th) to the 26th at which point it’s too late.
Yes I think 26th is the last legal date but the general view seems to be that it would need to be announced some days before that to allow for current parliamentary business to be wound up etc
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
And what makes you think I was wrong? 😇
A podium can be set up outside No. 10 to call that election any second now for the coming week. There’s certainly enough Blue Wall visits from Sunak and Hunt going on for a General Election campaign, more money being spent than for mere local elections, April diaries emptied, only thing missing is the rallies, fleet of battle buses, and extended news and interview shows.
Maybe the rabbit from the hat to fight on wasn’t the budget - just the valedictory budget Hunt and Sunak want to give but will never get another chance to do in their political careers. Maybe the Rabbit from the Hat to trigger the election call is the extremism announcement, because that will certainly divide UK between right and left, and Starmer and Labour in a difficult spot between safety first versus standing amongst their own supporters.
Ukraine lost a fighter ?yesterday?, and the Russians allegedly lost another SU-27 where Russian Freedom Legion have gone into Belgorod. It is also rumoured that an attack last week on an airbase damaged a couple of 'spares' Russian A-50 airframes.
Is Ukraine putting such pressure on Russia days before Putin's election enthronement wise?
There was talk yesterday of Russia having lost another AWACS-ski, damaged on the ground - probably the same report JJ mentions.
I have yet to see enough followup stories to clinch the account.
They're the A-50's I referred to above. No direct evidence (and I doubt we'd get any), but something happened at, or around, the plant.
Also today, a CHP power station's afire in St Petersburg. It might be a cold night for residents.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Perhaps the amount you can remind someone of a wrong call is proportional to how insistent they were in repeating their prediction.
May election is not yet dead, is it? I thought there was still a bit of time left.
I think somebody told us the last practical date for a May 2nd election to be called is March 18th.
Nope that would result in a date of April 25th. It’s basically any day from next Tuesday (19th) to the 26th at which point it’s too late.
Parliament normally isn't formally dissolved until at least a few days after an election is announced, so an election announced on the 18th would be unlikely to see Parliament dissolved the same day, and so the election date wouldn't be April 25th.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Perhaps the amount you can remind someone of a wrong call is proportional to how insistent they were in repeating their prediction.
May election is not yet dead, is it? I thought there was still a bit of time left.
I think somebody told us the last practical date for a May 2nd election to be called is March 18th.
Nope that would result in a date of April 25th. It’s basically any day from next Tuesday (19th) to the 26th at which point it’s too late.
The GE timetable runs from dissolution, not from announcement. So the announcement has to be a bit before dissolution date (which would I think be 26th March for a 2nd May election) so that there is time for sorting odds and ends of legislation, SIs and so on.
So it turns out there was no AI involved in Kate-Gate. Presumably the following happened. Someone told Kate and Wills that it might be a good idea to publish a family photograph, seeing that she hadn't been seen in public for a few months. Kate - thinking that a modern royal should be more 'hands on' and not just delegate to minions - decided to take charge of the whole process. However silly old Kate didn't a) realize that her amateur editing efforts would be picked up by the profession media organizations b) think it would make any difference if they were. Or am I being hopelessly naïve?
The point is that no-one knows.
A fake photo was released, followed by a vague statement in which Kate apparently took the blame. But they've not told us how it was faked, or to what degree, or for what purpose. And they've refused to release the original source material.
It might be entirely innocent, it might be a minor fix-up or a bit of artistic licence, it might be a complete fake. We can't tell, and Kensington Palace aren't saying.
The press agencies have guidelines about the sort of image manipulation that's acceptable, and they suspect that this picture breaks them strongly enough that they issued kill notices. They now find themselves in a very difficult position - if it had been from any other source, they would now be refusing to accept further pictures without verification. But are they really going to refuse images from Kensington Palace?
If Kate's story was true, they would release the original photograph.
At least I have an ounce or 2 of modesty, not constant high on my own supply 😝
It can still be called. If it isn’t I make a promise to you I will submit a header to the editor beginning in big bold capitals - I’m Moonrabbit, and I promised you a May election. 🙂↕️
Starmer has already given her support with his comments this morning .
Why is she getting support after she has said far more racist statements in her history? This is such an obvious case of a double standard. The BBC's institutional racism agaisnt white people (as shown by the Newcastle documentary) means it lets the fact Diane Abbott is in good standing with the Labour Party go by unnotced. If it was a Tory MP who had said similar things about black people, it would mention it in every article about them.
Has Diane Abbott said she hates all white people or said that a white MP needs to be killed? IIRC she was suspended as a Labour MP for saying white people don't face the same degree of constant racism that she does, which in light of these comments from the biggest political donor in Britain I have to say has a greater degree of plausibility.
No, she just said white people love to play divide and rule and black people shouldn't play "their" games.
At least I have an ounce or 2 of modesty, not constant high on my own supply 😝
It can still be called. If it isn’t I make a promise to you I will submit a header to the editor beginning in big bold capitals - I’m Moonrabbit, and I promised you a May election. 🙂↕️
As above, I still think it will be May. Your analysis for once was actually very good and convinced me so I chucked a few Pounds on it. It just wasn’t to be for today.
Apparently Hester can’t be a racist because he’s done business in Jamaica . That’s according to some Tory Lord .
He also quite likes Bob Marley's music, so he can't possibly be racist.
You also can’t be anti-Semitic if you shop at M and S !
O/T I have just read Cold Comfort Farm again (for book club). Written in 1932 apparently, it contains a number of clearly anti-semitic slurs - made worse if anything by the casual way they are slipped in, adding nothing to the narrative.
Casual anti-semitism (and other isms) is very common in writing up to and including the 1930s. It's a bit like how some more recent stuff treats the white working class male. None of it is good, but the past is a foreign country, they do things differently. Try Raymond Chandler, Hilary Waugh, Mark Twain in Tom Sawyer. There is one (I think only one ) Sherlock Holmes story with racist tropes.
Global sea surface temperatures, aside from being at a modern-era record high of 21.21°C for the third consecutive day, are also in crazy-town territory for the standard deviation, yesterday at 5.68σ above the 1982-2011 mean. That's 1-in-150 million for a normal distribution. https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1766886096577957960
I suppose that the crazy temperatures over the past year are being driven by the ENSO?
Perhaps the scariest effect of the current situation is that it sets a high water mark that won't be reached again until the next El Nino year - you can almost hear the denialists cueing up their "but sea surface temperatures are much cooler than they were during 2023-24! what are you worrying about?" tweets which they'll be bombarding us with for the rest of the decade...
In a fortnight the sea temperature will have been at a record for every day of the last year.
Tell me about it. I’m moving on from Cartagena and my intent was to go upriver to Mompos, said to be a fantastically lost, lovely colonial town on the Maddalena river. Then I looked at the weather forecast
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
And what makes you think I was wrong? 😇
A podium can be set up outside No. 10 to call that election any second now for the coming week. There’s certainly enough Blue Wall visits from Sunak and Hunt going on for a General Election campaign, more money being spent than for mere local elections, April diaries emptied, only thing missing is the rallies, fleet of battle buses, and extended news and interview shows.
Maybe the rabbit from the hat to fight on wasn’t the budget - just the valedictory budget Hunt and Sunak want to give but will never get another chance to do in their political careers. Maybe the Rabbit from the Hat to trigger the election call is the extremism announcement, because that will certainly divide UK between right and left, and Starmer and Labour in a difficult spot between safety first versus standing amongst their own supporters.
But the extremism announcement has been nerfed by Hester - how can the Tories draw dividing lines around extremism when their own racist donors are openly talking about wanting to shoot Diane Abbot?
I do think that a May GE would be best, both for the party and for the country. But I don't see any signs of it happening - those blue wall visits you mention, for instance, seem to map pretty well to the upcoming district council elections.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
And almost as exciting as a trip to Columbia I have had my first ever visit to a Greggs at Liverpool Street station as I make my way to Southwold to collect the car we abandoned there when I had to drive up to collect my wife last week after she broke her wrist. How the other half live eh.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
So it turns out there was no AI involved in Kate-Gate. Presumably the following happened. Someone told Kate and Wills that it might be a good idea to publish a family photograph, seeing that she hadn't been seen in public for a few months. Kate - thinking that a modern royal should be more 'hands on' and not just delegate to minions - decided to take charge of the whole process. However silly old Kate didn't a) realize that her amateur editing efforts would be picked up by the profession media organizations b) think it would make any difference if they were. Or am I being hopelessly naïve?
I think Kate has a degree in art history, this makes her the creative powerhouse in chez Windsor.
You don't need the 'in', 'Chez' means 'at the house of' or similar.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
Yeah, those pathetic white snowflakes in Newcastle, who got systematically raped while the BBC broadcast a sob story documentary about their Syrian rapist.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
Mr. Tres, three-quarters of suicides in this country are by men. It's no bad thing to point out that thinking of men in a sympathetic way is not a bad thing, and that portraying them simply as either aggressors or potential aggressors is as wrong as it is simplistic.
On international mens day in 2022 our workplace organised a couple of talks on mens health and one was on suicide which is very prevalent in men.
Especially younger men.
Ignore the sniping on here, there is alot of good work out there being done to try to combat this problem.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Mr. Tres, three-quarters of suicides in this country are by men. It's no bad thing to point out that thinking of men in a sympathetic way is not a bad thing, and that portraying them simply as either aggressors or potential aggressors is as wrong as it is simplistic.
On international mens day in 2022 our workplace organised a couple of talks on mens health and one was on suicide which is very prevalent in men.
Especially younger men.
Ignore the sniping on here, there is alot of good work out there being done to try to combat this problem.
My alma mater cancelled recognition of International Men's Day as being work of the patriarchy.
Men's issues are more relevant than ever given there is currently a major European war going on for the first time in 70 years. Men are the main victims of war.
Acknowledging men face certain unique harms doesn't mean taking away from women's issues. As much as some identity politics types like to turn it into us vs them.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
Yeah, those pathetic white snowflakes in Newcastle, who got systematically raped while the BBC broadcast a sob story documentary about their Syrian rapist.
What disgusting views you have.
The worst thing about the BBC News Story was it portrayed the victim as a racist who had been around the block a few times.
At least I have an ounce or 2 of modesty, not constant high on my own supply 😝
It can still be called. If it isn’t I make a promise to you I will submit a header to the editor beginning in big bold capitals - I’m Moonrabbit, and I promised you a May election. 🙂↕️
As above, I still think it will be May. Your analysis for once was actually very good and convinced me so I chucked a few Pounds on it. It just wasn’t to be for today.
Anyhow - let’s focus on the racing now. Are mine the only tips posted?
And almost as exciting as a trip to Columbia I have had my first ever visit to a Greggs at Liverpool Street station as I make my way to Southwold to collect the car we abandoned there when I had to drive up to collect my wife last week after she broke her wrist. How the other half live eh.
Oh dear, commiserations to your wife. I broke my wrist last November, I was recommended to have surgery, though I was told that I could opt for non-surgical "fixation" which avoids an operation but means a longer period in plaster. I opted for surgery and I've been glad I did - I had the plaster off two weeks after the op and could immediately use the wrist for light activity, gradually increasing the amount of weight I could put on it until now, 12 weeks after the op, flexibility and strength is more or less as it was before. So to anyone in a similar position I would recommend taking the surgical route.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
Yeah, those pathetic white snowflakes in Newcastle, who got systematically raped while the BBC broadcast a sob story documentary about their Syrian rapist.
What disgusting views you have.
The worst thing about the BBC News Story was it portrayed the victim as a racist who had been around the block a few times.
And they still haven't apologized, even while they plaster the Hester story across their website. Institutionalized racism.
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
* though maybe we don't have trusts anymore - I see that my GP practice apparently works for NHS South East London Integrated Care System, whatever that is, another Tory failure has been endless structural tinkering which has served only to make the system more byzantine and incomprehensible than it was before.
Provider Trusts still exist. Integrated Care Systems are the Hancock version of what was Clinical Commissioning Groups (Lansley reforms), which were previously Primary Care Trusts (Dobson/Milburn reforms), before them they were Area Health Authorities.
It’s quite something the way Boris Johnson wins all these elections, referendums, and mayoralty’s in real life, but is always such a drag with the voters in academic theory… and politico’s buy the theory
It will be interesting to see if he *does* go and campaign, because he has a history of only choosing to fight winning battles (c.f. his abortive first run at Party Leader)
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
Rubbish. The true costs and utter futility of our current Net Zero trajectory are going to be just as unpopular in the blue wall as the red wall. The argument that we should look after the environment but not commit economic suicide in so doing (see Germany - few class them as environment wreckers) isn't an identity issue, it's a bread and butter survival issue.
Mr. Tres, three-quarters of suicides in this country are by men. It's no bad thing to point out that thinking of men in a sympathetic way is not a bad thing, and that portraying them simply as either aggressors or potential aggressors is as wrong as it is simplistic.
On international mens day in 2022 our workplace organised a couple of talks on mens health and one was on suicide which is very prevalent in men.
Especially younger men.
Ignore the sniping on here, there is alot of good work out there being done to try to combat this problem.
My alma mater cancelled recognition of International Men's Day as being work of the patriarchy.
Men's issues are more relevant than ever given there is currently a major European war going on for the first time in 70 years. Men are the main victims of war.
Acknowledging men face certain unique harms doesn't mean taking away from women's issues. As much as some identity politics types like to turn it into us vs them.
Your Alma Mater is, quite frankly, fucked up with that thinking.
Men's issues are relevant and it does not make womens health issues any less relevant.
The general reluctance of men, as a group, not to talk about health issues or see the Doctor when needed is something to be combatted.
Where I work has many faults, but their approach to both International Womens and International Mens day is spot on.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
And what makes you think I was wrong? 😇
A podium can be set up outside No. 10 to call that election any second now for the coming week. There’s certainly enough Blue Wall visits from Sunak and Hunt going on for a General Election campaign, more money being spent than for mere local elections, April diaries emptied, only thing missing is the rallies, fleet of battle buses, and extended news and interview shows.
Maybe the rabbit from the hat to fight on wasn’t the budget - just the valedictory budget Hunt and Sunak want to give but will never get another chance to do in their political careers. Maybe the Rabbit from the Hat to trigger the election call is the extremism announcement, because that will certainly divide UK between right and left, and Starmer and Labour in a difficult spot between safety first versus standing amongst their own supporters.
I don't have any opinion on how likely a May election is, and have never offered one. I didn't see anything from you that justified the certainty you seemed to have.
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Perhaps the amount you can remind someone of a wrong call is proportional to how insistent they were in repeating their prediction.
May election is not yet dead, is it? I thought there was still a bit of time left.
I think somebody told us the last practical date for a May 2nd election to be called is March 18th.
I'm pretty sure that was DavidL, and I agree with him. You need more than just the 25 working campaign days because you need a week to finish Parliamentary business.
If it hasn't been called by next Monday (at the latest), it won't be May. Given Sunak, I strongly suspect it'll then either be October or he might decide to just think 'screw it all' and hang on till January 2025.
Question for the PB Brain Trust: If he just lets the clock run out, does that just set the election as Tuesday 28th January 2025 therefore?
And almost as exciting as a trip to Columbia I have had my first ever visit to a Greggs at Liverpool Street station as I make my way to Southwold to collect the car we abandoned there when I had to drive up to collect my wife last week after she broke her wrist. How the other half live eh.
You’re not helping me decide. I have one week left. I can either go along the coast to Santa Marta, death place of Bolivar, under the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains. Or I can plunge inland into searing heat, and a totally forgotten corner of Colombia
The first is obviously more practical. And not a bad option. But the second is the road less travelled…
* though maybe we don't have trusts anymore - I see that my GP practice apparently works for NHS South East London Integrated Care System, whatever that is, another Tory failure has been endless structural tinkering which has served only to make the system more byzantine and incomprehensible than it was before.
Provider Trusts still exist. Integrated Care Systems are the Hancock version of what was Clinical Commissioning Groups (Lansley reforms), which were previously Primary Care Trusts (Dobson/Milburn reforms), before them they were Area Health Authorities.
IMHO, the biggest mistake in recent NHS history was New Labour's out-of-the-blue abolition of Community Health Councils.
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Brexit benefit, innit. Slashing onerous EU red tape, actually having to hold a qualification
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
Failed cosmetic surgery?
I do hope not. The pressure to stay youthful is quite intense in the public eye.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
What a weird take? Who is denying male to female violence?
And almost as exciting as a trip to Columbia I have had my first ever visit to a Greggs at Liverpool Street station as I make my way to Southwold to collect the car we abandoned there when I had to drive up to collect my wife last week after she broke her wrist. How the other half live eh.
You’re not helping me decide. I have one week left. I can either go along the coast to Santa Marta, death place of Bolivar, under the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains. Or I can plunge inland into searing heat, and a totally forgotten corner of Colombia
The first is obviously more practical. And not a bad option. But the second is the road less travelled…
To be honest I don't think I am going to be able to help. Best i can do is a review of Greggs, but I suspect that's not going to be available to you sadly.
Whatever you decide have a damn good time. I'll be thinking of you as I sup my pint of Broadside in the Sole Bay tonight
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Brexit benefit, innit. Slashing onerous EU red tape, actually having to hold a qualification
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
Ah, so Diane Abbott is not the only recipient of racism it seems.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Perhaps the amount you can remind someone of a wrong call is proportional to how insistent they were in repeating their prediction.
May election is not yet dead, is it? I thought there was still a bit of time left.
I think somebody told us the last practical date for a May 2nd election to be called is March 18th.
I'm pretty sure that was DavidL, and I agree with him. You need more than just the 25 working campaign days because you need a week to finish Parliamentary business.
If it hasn't been called by next Monday (at the latest), it won't be May. Given Sunak, I strongly suspect it'll then either be October or he might decide to just think 'screw it all' and hang on till January 2025.
Question for the PB Brain Trust: If he just lets the clock run out, does that just set the election as Tuesday 28th January 2025 therefore?
This would also mean a very short campaign. Campaigning is something that the little shit is not good at and does not enjoy. We'd also have the Trump inauguration or civil war in the middle of it.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
Sport can be cruel, and as delighted as I was for Hamilton in 2008, I felt for Massa. However, this suggests that it still hurts him today and that is really sad:
Lewis Hamilton’s first Formula One world championship is the subject of legal action after Felipe Massa filed a lawsuit against Formula One, its governing body, the FIA, and the sport’s former supremo Bernie Ecclestone in London’s high court on Monday.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
What a weird take? Who is denying male to female violence?
And what the eff is white privilege?
White privilege is the ability to not have to learn about white privilege.
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Brexit benefit, innit. Slashing onerous EU red tape, actually having to hold a qualification
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
Broken English is not ideal. But with smartphones I guess it can be handled as they improve. But if these African nurses and doctors are actually and entirely unqualified - their degrees taken by clever relatives - then we will soon see calamities in the NHS, and people dying. This is pretty serious
It is also justification for crude racism. A refusal to be treated by African NHS staff is now logical
I am fucking furious. i have just spent a hour looking for about four or five handymen in my area. Both Google and Bing have degraded to the point where this is not possible. What they provide is:
Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
A ludicrously poor attempt at an analogy given that Brent WAS being racist and I WAS NOT cyberbullying.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
What a weird take? Who is denying male to female violence?
And what the eff is white privilege?
White privilege is the ability to not have to learn about white privilege.
Everyone has different advantages and disadvantages in life, for sure. I am very lucky. I had two loving parents who are still married after 50+ years, a stable home life, and attended a grammar school. I have since studied and worked at Uni ever since.
Some of that is down to my ability, some is luck. A black kid born on a sink estate with an absent father may be seen as someone who has not had the breaks in life, and that's true. But I believe in this country we try very hard to give people an even chance. Far better than most other places.
I am fucking furious. i have just spent a hour looking for about four or five handymen in my area. Both Google and Bing have degraded to the point where this is not possible. What they provide is:
Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.
Facebook is my go to for this sort of stuff if I don't already have an appropriate contact.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
Neither is okay.
Might as well shut down all humour then. Is the sketch about eating bland English food racist? Is it mocking English people asking for the 'hottest dish on the menu' in Asian restaurants?
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
Failed cosmetic surgery?
I do hope not. The pressure to stay youthful is quite intense in the public eye.
What kind of cosmetic surgery needs weeks in hospital?
I guess it is possible she had some cosmetic surgery done even as she had other surgery. Maybe. I dunno
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
Neither is okay.
Might as well shut down all humour then.
Or just have wall to wall re-runs of love thy neighbour.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
What a weird take? Who is denying male to female violence?
And what the eff is white privilege?
White privilege is the ability to not have to learn about white privilege.
Everyone has different advantages and disadvantages in life, for sure. I am very lucky. I had two loving parents who are still married after 50+ years, a stable home life, and attended a grammar school. I have since studied and worked at Uni ever since.
Some of that is down to my ability, some is luck. A black kid born on a sink estate with an absent father may be seen as someone who has not had the breaks in life, and that's true. But I believe in this country we try very hard to give people an even chance. Far better than most other places.
Sure, we are better than most other places and should be proud of that. Equally there are still problems and it is very obvious what white privilege is, even if it is a divisive term I would not personally encourage.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
How many seat losses are you expecting in the blue wall?
I am fucking furious. i have just spent a hour looking for about four or five handymen in my area. Both Google and Bing have degraded to the point where this is not possible. What they provide is:
Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.
I’ve used hamuch.com in the past. Cheaper than silversaints. Brisk and efficient
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
How many seat losses are you expecting in the blue wall?
Quite a few and considerably more if that fool Johnson is allowed anywhere near the cameras come GE time
I am fucking furious. i have just spent a hour looking for about four or five handymen in my area. Both Google and Bing have degraded to the point where this is not possible. What they provide is:
Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.
I've used rated people once or twice, you can add photos and drawings and you get the web addresses of traders who express an interest in your job.
But it has become a lot more difficult to find small builders/handymen in recent years and those that are still around are much more expensive. Brexit, Covid etc etc......
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Brexit benefit, innit. Slashing onerous EU red tape, actually having to hold a qualification
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
Ah, so Diane Abbott is not the only recipient of racism it seems.
What's racist about that? I'm not saying African people can't speak English well because they're black. It's probably due to poorer educational systems in Africa because they're poorer countries. You could then discuss why they're poorer when so often they are resource-rich, which then brings you onto discussing colonialism and its aftermath, the general pillaging of the continent over centuries.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
Neither is okay.
Might as well shut down all humour then. Is the sketch about eating bland English food racist? Is it mocking English people asking for the 'hottest dish on the menu' in Asian restaurants?
Yes its a little bit racist depending on your definition of racist, but its hard to see how it is particularly offensive. In comedy how funny it is, the audience, setting, the intent and delivery all matter. A lot of observational comedy is built on stereotypes, only a sliver of that genre is both offensive and designed to hurt.
And politicians in mainstream political parties, including someone donating a third of their annual budget, will be held to stricter standards than comics.
Kategate is notable because the RF are being mercilessly mocked. The memes just won't stop coming on my socials. The feels like a new and deleterious development for the institution.
That would be incredibly dangerous and could cause a danger to both the lives of passengers on the planes aswell as the protesters . That IMO is a step too far and crosses a red line .
I am fucking furious. i have just spent a hour looking for about four or five handymen in my area. Both Google and Bing have degraded to the point where this is not possible. What they provide is:
Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.
Do you have any local groups you could get recommendations from? We have a street WhatsApp group that includes a spreadsheet of recommended local tradespeople.
I expect it's one of a number of ideas being discussed and considered. It's the sort of thing undercover police would suggest, as it would enable them to use anti-terrorism powers against the protestors.
Mr. Jessop, quite agree. It's similar to the way the media reporting implies violence against women is higher than violence against men, when the reverse is true. Or the report, some time ago now, into groping and the like against MPs' staff was worse against male employees.
Cyclefree, much as I love her input to this forum, goes big on the number of women killed by men each year, but fails to mention the fair higher number of men killed by men.
won't someone think about the men, sad tear emoji
There was a cringe moment in a discussion on TV, IIRC, where a feminist of note started laughing when the suicide stats for men vs women was mentioned.
Cheltenham 1.30 - Mystical Power Cheltenham 2.10 - Il Etait Temps Cheltenham 2.50 - Chianti Classico Cheltenham 3:30 - State Man Cheltenham 4:10 - Lossiemouth Cheltenham 4:50 - Liari Cheltenham 5.30 - Apple Away
Are these the only tips posted? I was looking for the mini thread.
Amazed that Nicholls only has one horse today, I will be on Liari. Looks like Mullins for nearly clean sweep otherwise
The fact it’s softer/heavier than anticipated all season, does add a question or two over some of the fancied runners. Especially those stepping up in distance as well, we will find out about their stamina.
A Twitter discussion by African Brits, on widespread fraud by migrant Africans, creating fake nurses and fake doctors
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Brexit benefit, innit. Slashing onerous EU red tape, actually having to hold a qualification
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
Ah, so Diane Abbott is not the only recipient of racism it seems.
What's racist about that? I'm not saying African people can't speak English well because they're black. It's probably due to poorer educational systems in Africa because they're poorer countries. You could then discuss why they're poorer when so often they are resource-rich, which then brings you onto discussing colonialism and its aftermath, the general pillaging of the continent over centuries.
But then you knew that, didn't you.
And the issue of falsified credentials is a function of the corruption index of the country involved. Which isn’t correlated to race.
I think on balance I’d like it to be May but I need to remove that from what is most likely.
My gut says Sunak is trying to stay PM as long as possible. But on the other hand will he actually make it to the end of the year?
If Sunak genuinely intends for a January 2025 election (to stay as long as possible) then he won't announce it to anyone. The Conservatives would remove him if they thought he would hang on to the death.
So instead, mutter about an Autumn election, which he's done and his party accepts. However, just do nothing. When mid September comes, and Brady(?) comes to Sunak and asks when the announcement is going to be, Sunak just says, "Ha, fooled you. It's Tuesday 28th January 2025 after all, and its too late to replace me now."
Brady and his party will be furious, but Sunak would be right. They couldn't replace him in time to force an October election, so they're knackered.
I'm not a betting man (hence why I'm on this site) but it might be worth a few quid on Sunak to still be PM on 31st December - not just the outside possibility he wins the election, but to cover the possibility it hasn't yet been held.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
Another barb on the Conservative Torture Machine.
The voters who are probably easiest to win back are Reform defectors in Red Wall seats.
But the seats that it's probably easiest and most useful to win back or hold onto are in the Blue Wall.
Trying to do either will actively annoy the other...
I expect it's one of a number of ideas being discussed and considered. It's the sort of thing undercover police would suggest, as it would enable them to use anti-terrorism powers against the protestors.
I expect it's one of a number of ideas being discussed and considered. It's the sort of thing undercover police would suggest, as it would enable them to use anti-terrorism powers against the protestors.
I think the people involved are of a mindset to consider whatever they do, justified.
Police provocation has happened. Just not sure it is needed.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
Rubbish. The true costs and utter futility of our current Net Zero trajectory are going to be just as unpopular in the blue wall as the red wall. The argument that we should look after the environment but not commit economic suicide in so doing (see Germany - few class them as environment wreckers) isn't an identity issue, it's a bread and butter survival issue.
The supposed need for additional gas-fired capacity arises from the latest delay to Hinkley Point C which was due to be complete by 2028, but is now expected in 2029-2031 (cynics might say that the two year range is a negotiating ploy by EDF).
Our remaining AGR stations shut down in 2028, and Sizewell B is due to close in 2035. It's the latter that is causing concern - any further delays to HPC would take us uncomfortably close to that 2035 shutdown of Sizewell B.
If we were to find ourselves without any operational nuclear capacity at all, current projections from the National Grid ESO suggest that we could be looking at up to 27.9 hours of blackouts every winter (in the worst scenario, with no nuclear or hydrogen) from 2035 until HPC is operational.
Now, you might think that simply re-certifying Sizewell B for another 5 years might be a sensible idea at this point. EDF say that's technically feasible, but a decision to start the process needs to be taken this year. Negotiations about costs are currently underway...
Yesterday's announcement from Sunak should be seen in the context of those negotiations - but it also gives him a few "fuck the greenies" points to play with in the run-up to the election.
I strongly doubt that any additional conventional CCGT plant will be built as a result of this. Expect Sizewell B recertification to get given the go-ahead by the next government if this one doesn't do the deal in time.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
How many seat losses are you expecting in the blue wall?
Quite a few and considerably more if that fool Johnson is allowed anywhere near the cameras come GE time
Sunak will probably send Johnson to Manchester to tell them all about levelling up.
Sunak is calling an election today at 1032, Moon told us so
What you are doing is rather close to bullying.
Stop it.
It adds nothing to the site.
We all make wrong calls from time to time. She backed up her judgement with analysis.
Maybe it adds nothing to the site, but it's about as close to "bullying" as your own post telling ninja to stop.
Or indeed Rabbit's own "analysis" telling us why it had to be May 2nd, and anyone who disagreed either knew nothing, or were somehow dishonestly trying to worsen the conservatives chances
Yes snowflakery from StillWaters. Bullying is a hugely overused term.
I recall being accused of "cyberbullying" on here for having the temerity to ask @williamglenn whether he would vote for Trump, given the chance.
I should add that William himself seemed fine with my question!
Reminds me of the sketch in The Office where David Brent is pulled up for telling a racist joke. He said it was alright as the Black Guy wasn't offended
Question then - is it ok for a black guy to tell a joke about white men, as long as the white men aren't offended?
Neither is okay.
Might as well shut down all humour then.
Or just have wall to wall re-runs of love thy neighbour.
I'd prefer Till Death Us Do Part and In Sickness and in Health, where the butt of the jokes is the old white racist having his nonsense shown up for what it is.
So the pathological liar who would have been suspended from parliament for 90 days is going to be their vote winner !
It will win back some votes in some places. Possibly even a net gain overall.
Though it could all just be a "don't follow Lee to Reform, Daddy still loves you and he is coming back" piece of waffle.
The nearest we have to confirmation is
A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.”
Which is only a bit of a fib.
With defection of Lee, Tories immediately reached for two dock leaves, Boris into the Red Wall and Two fingers to Net Zero with Gas Plants.
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
Even if Johnson gained back every vote in the red wall (SPOILER: he won't!), they are still not addressing the massive fall in their vote in the blue wall. Their rhetoric on ignoring net zero will only make the blue wall losses greater.
How many seat losses are you expecting in the blue wall?
Quite a few and considerably more if that fool Johnson is allowed anywhere near the cameras come GE time
Sunak will probably send Johnson to Manchester to tell them all about levelling up.
The £288m for Canary Wharf surely can't be argued with?
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
What a weird take? Who is denying male to female violence?
And what the eff is white privilege?
White privilege is the ability to not have to learn about white privilege.
Everyone has different advantages and disadvantages in life, for sure. I am very lucky. I had two loving parents who are still married after 50+ years, a stable home life, and attended a grammar school. I have since studied and worked at Uni ever since.
Some of that is down to my ability, some is luck. A black kid born on a sink estate with an absent father may be seen as someone who has not had the breaks in life, and that's true. But I believe in this country we try very hard to give people an even chance. Far better than most other places.
Sure, we are better than most other places and should be proud of that. Equally there are still problems and it is very obvious what white privilege is, even if it is a divisive term I would not personally encourage.
The use of white privilege as a term is just wrong. What white privilege does a boy born on a sink estate to a single mother on benefits with an absent father have compared to a black boy born into an upper middle class family who attends a good school etc. Its meaningless.
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
Failed cosmetic surgery?
I do hope not. The pressure to stay youthful is quite intense in the public eye.
What kind of cosmetic surgery needs weeks in hospital?
I guess it is possible she had some cosmetic surgery done even as she had other surgery. Maybe. I dunno
Poor Kate. It all feels very ominous
Conversely, what kind of "abdominal" surgery causes you to desperately hide your face from the adoring monarchist faithful for weeks?
Comments
A podium can be set up outside No. 10 to call that election any second now for the coming week. There’s certainly enough Blue Wall visits from Sunak and Hunt going on for a General Election campaign, more money being spent than for mere local elections, April diaries emptied, only thing missing is the rallies, fleet of battle buses, and extended news and interview shows.
Maybe the rabbit from the hat to fight on wasn’t the budget - just the valedictory budget Hunt and Sunak want to give but will never get another chance to do in their political careers. Maybe the Rabbit from the Hat to trigger the election call is the extremism announcement, because that will certainly divide UK between right and left, and Starmer and Labour in a difficult spot between safety first versus standing amongst their own supporters.
Also today, a CHP power station's afire in St Petersburg. It might be a cold night for residents.
It can still be called. If it isn’t I make a promise to you I will submit a header to the editor beginning in big bold capitals - I’m Moonrabbit, and I promised you a May election. 🙂↕️
A week of 40C. This is unusual even for Colombia
And yet, I’m still tempted
I do think that a May GE would be best, both for the party and for the country. But I don't see any signs of it happening - those blue wall visits you mention, for instance, seem to map pretty well to the upcoming district council elections.
My gut says Sunak is trying to stay PM as long as possible. But on the other hand will he actually make it to the end of the year?
*hoarse - works better spoken, obvs
"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing."
https://twitter.com/CountBinface/status/1767199772073411056
The bottom line here is in the bigger picture Boris and Lee are far from popular - but the Tories don’t need everybody or be ahead on everything, they just need to target certain “constituencies of voters” to come back to them. The ones they had last time and have lost.
A denial of random male to female violence, and a denial of white privilege makes my heart bleed for all these PB snowflakes. In my sixty two years no random stranger has ever told me to "f*** off home whitey".
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/now-ai-is-coming-for-musicians/
Incidentally there is definitely “AI” manipulation in the royal image. Absolute hallmarks. Also I am pretty convinced the Mirror photo Ed is correct: the AI took the Vogue cover shot of Kate’s face and reworked it into this composite. Quite a desperate move, as the Vogue photo is years old
...
...resists (almost overwhelming) temptation.
What disgusting views you have.
Former Chancellor @KwasiKwarteng on Frank Hester’s alleged comments about Diane Abbott:
“They are clearly racist and they are clearly sexist… They were very stupid remarks.”
https://twitter.com/joepike/status/1767526491468759541
Don’t forget to share snippets about what it’s like and what surprised you, for those of us who have never gone inside.
It’s supposed to feel a lot smaller inside than we imagine from the telly isn’t it?
Especially younger men.
Ignore the sniping on here, there is alot of good work out there being done to try to combat this problem.
Men's issues are more relevant than ever given there is currently a major European war going on for the first time in 70 years. Men are the main victims of war.
Acknowledging men face certain unique harms doesn't mean taking away from women's issues. As much as some identity politics types like to turn it into us vs them.
But nonetheless, credit where due for a clear statement.
It was soon deleted, tho one of the tweeters stands by the assertion. If true, this is massive. It means we are importing fraudulent and unqualified medical staff. The NHS just gets better
Your Alma Mater is, quite frankly, fucked up with that thinking.
Men's issues are relevant and it does not make womens health issues any less relevant.
The general reluctance of men, as a group, not to talk about health issues or see the Doctor when needed is something to be combatted.
Where I work has many faults, but their approach to both International Womens and International Mens day is spot on.
If it hasn't been called by next Monday (at the latest), it won't be May.
Given Sunak, I strongly suspect it'll then either be October or he might decide to just think 'screw it all' and hang on till January 2025.
Question for the PB Brain Trust: If he just lets the clock run out, does that just set the election as Tuesday 28th January 2025 therefore?
The first is obviously more practical. And not a bad
option. But the second is the road less travelled…
My sis is a nurse and has commented on increased NHS recruitment of nurses from Africa post-Brexit. It's causing language problems too, as the spoken English of African people isn't as good as the Europeans we used to have
And what the eff is white privilege?
Whatever you decide have a damn good time. I'll be thinking of you as I sup my pint of Broadside in the Sole Bay tonight
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/11/felipe-massa-legal-fight-f1-bernie-ecclestone-2008-lewis-hamilton-title
Lewis Hamilton’s first Formula One world championship is the subject of legal action after Felipe Massa filed a lawsuit against Formula One, its governing body, the FIA, and the sport’s former supremo Bernie Ecclestone in London’s high court on Monday.
It is also justification for crude racism. A refusal to be treated by African NHS staff is now logical
- Google-generated suggestions. These are webpages generated by Google on-the-fly containing lists of those in my area. they don't contain links to the websites and hence have no galleries to inspect
- Trader sites (checkatrade, trust-a-trader). Again do not have websites
- Directories (Yell). Seriously degraded. Some entries do not exist
- Quote request sites (Myworkman.co.uk). These are sites that allow you to spec a job and ask multiple people for quotes. Useless if your spec has images or diagrams
- AI-generated website (https://www.oddjobmanuk.co.uk/). These are sites that are generated by other sites on-the-fly. Lots of words, no information.
Fucking annoying and rather scary. As has been observed, Google is gradually becoming useless.Some of that is down to my ability, some is luck. A black kid born on a sink estate with an absent father may be seen as someone who has not had the breaks in life, and that's true. But I believe in this country we try very hard to give people an even chance. Far better than most other places.
Apparently.
Not sure if I buy this or whether it is just GB News creating a story out of very little.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/gb-news-hosts-clash-with-just-stop-oil-campaigner-over-plans-to-disrupt-summer-flights/ar-BB1jHFNJ?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b0ab977e7f534df1ae6f65621afa7c7c&ei=7
I guess it is possible she had some cosmetic surgery done even as she had other surgery. Maybe. I dunno
Poor Kate. It all feels very ominous
But it has become a lot more difficult to find small builders/handymen in recent years and those that are still around are much more expensive. Brexit, Covid etc etc......
Bad news, if it happens, for the resident Likudniks here.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israel-could-see-netanyahu-ousted-from-power-us-predicts/ar-BB1jIifP?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=ef621bb3c0574f5ba0509b28c5ec4ae3&ei=21
But then you knew that, didn't you.
bad day for biden.
And politicians in mainstream political parties, including someone donating a third of their annual budget, will be held to stricter standards than comics.
So instead, mutter about an Autumn election, which he's done and his party accepts. However, just do nothing. When mid September comes, and Brady(?) comes to Sunak and asks when the announcement is going to be, Sunak just says, "Ha, fooled you. It's Tuesday 28th January 2025 after all, and its too late to replace me now."
Brady and his party will be furious, but Sunak would be right. They couldn't replace him in time to force an October election, so they're knackered.
I'm not a betting man (hence why I'm on this site) but it might be worth a few quid on Sunak to still be PM on 31st December - not just the outside possibility he wins the election, but to cover the possibility it hasn't yet been held.
The voters who are probably easiest to win back are Reform defectors in Red Wall seats.
But the seats that it's probably easiest and most useful to win back or hold onto are in the Blue Wall.
Trying to do either will actively annoy the other...
Police provocation has happened. Just not sure it is needed.
Our remaining AGR stations shut down in 2028, and Sizewell B is due to close in 2035. It's the latter that is causing concern - any further delays to HPC would take us uncomfortably close to that 2035 shutdown of Sizewell B.
If we were to find ourselves without any operational nuclear capacity at all, current projections from the National Grid ESO suggest that we could be looking at up to 27.9 hours of blackouts every winter (in the worst scenario, with no nuclear or hydrogen) from 2035 until HPC is operational.
Now, you might think that simply re-certifying Sizewell B for another 5 years might be a sensible idea at this point. EDF say that's technically feasible, but a decision to start the process needs to be taken this year. Negotiations about costs are currently underway...
Yesterday's announcement from Sunak should be seen in the context of those negotiations - but it also gives him a few "fuck the greenies" points to play with in the run-up to the election.
I strongly doubt that any additional conventional CCGT plant will be built as a result of this. Expect Sizewell B recertification to get given the go-ahead by the next government if this one doesn't do the deal in time.