One thing about voting today. Pens not pencils were provided, which together with the instruction to fold each ballot paper *might* mean a transfer of wet ink from one candidate to another, and thus a spoiled vote.
Leave the poor officials and their pens alone, they are just trying to do the write thing.
They gave me a pencil and I then forgot to fold my ballot ! I then had a tirade about the voter ID rule which got unanimous agreement from the poll workers .
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The economy was relatively uncrap in spring 1992. Lawson had torched the housing market in 1988 which led to a recession with a slow recovery, but this was over by 1992. It was a few months after the 92 election when the ERM crisis hit.
Actually if Labour do win well enough for a five year term in 2025 (yes, I know) one thing they could do well to look at is the rules around elections.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Someone mentioned Heptonstall - yes, agree with Heptonstall. Also, after a bit of a think:
The Strid, Wharfedale (looking this up, apparently, on MayDay morning, the river goddess appears here in the form of a white horse, and is a sign that a drowning will soon follow). You can walk there from Bolton Abbey, which also has a bit of noom about it. Robin Hood's Bay, perhaps? Much of the limestone country in the west of the county tends to noominess - particularly the caves. And perhaps Janet's Foss and some of the other waterfalls close to Malham. Ilkley moor feels noomy to me.
And having a quick browse through my new book, I would also offer: White Mare Crag and Roulston Scar, Sutton under Whitestonecliffe (all sorts of mythical stuff) Rudston monolith (the tallest standing stone in the country. It's in a graveyard, which it reputedly predates by centuries. That's got to be noomy).
Seems to me one of the most important numbers is the proportion of Conservative 2019 voters now saying they will vote Labour. So that's what I looked at. I only took the value from the first (YouGov) poll each month. Might be worth looking at every poll at some point, as that will give a better idea as to whether what looks like a recent deterioration is a real signal. Could also look at the Opinium data.
Seems to me one of the most important numbers is the proportion of Conservative 2019 voters now saying they will vote Labour. So that's what I looked at. I only took the value from the first poll each month. Might be worth looking at every poll at some point, as that will give a better idea as to whether what looks like a recent deterioration is a real signal.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The economy was relatively uncrap in spring 1992. Lawson had torched the housing market in 1988 which led to a recession with a slow recovery, but this was over by 1992. It was a few months after the 92 election when the ERM crisis hit.
The economy in Spring 1992 was in quite good shape. But, no one knew it at the time, because economic growth was (as so often) underestimated. What screwed the Conservatives was the ERM debacle in September of that year.
Seems to me one of the most important numbers is the proportion of Conservative 2019 voters now saying they will vote Labour. So that's what I looked at. I only took the value from the first poll each month. Might be worth looking at every poll at some point, as that will give a better idea as to whether what looks like a recent deterioration is a real signal.
I voted both Labour and Conservative today.
People fought and suffered to give you the right to do that. I hope you feel you have done them justice.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney does the necessary compromise with the Greens and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The economy was relatively uncrap in spring 1992. Lawson had torched the housing market in 1988 which led to a recession with a slow recovery, but this was over by 1992. It was a few months after the 92 election when the ERM crisis hit.
Yes but, rather like now, we were talking tentative green shoots not Britain is booming. The economy was growing rapidly in 1997.
He claims to have lost it due to his dyspraxia, a symptom of which is apparently misplacing things.
Of course, he voted for the voter ID laws despite presumably being aware that, by his own account, it was likely to put people with dyspraxia at risk of being disenfranchised.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Most of the old Yorkshire monastic houses, pillaged by the Tudors, and abandoned for centuries, have a noomish sense about them. Even the touristed ones, if visited when it's quiet.
I last visited Fountains Abbey in a late December; virtually deserted, it took me back to childhood visits when it was barely touristed even in high summer. Rievaulx is also superb.
One of my greater regrets is not mortgaging everything I had at the time and buying the old vicarage overlooking Easby Abbey, back in the 80s when such things were possible.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Seems to me one of the most important numbers is the proportion of Conservative 2019 voters now saying they will vote Labour. So that's what I looked at. I only took the value from the first poll each month. Might be worth looking at every poll at some point, as that will give a better idea as to whether what looks like a recent deterioration is a real signal.
I voted both Labour and Conservative today.
People fought and suffered to give you the right to do that. I hope you feel you have done them justice.
Well Caroline Henry's not getting back in on my watch.
Just voted LD for the two London assembly votes, but Khan for the mayoral. Sorry Rob, can't risk Hall sneaking it.
I hope you’re a sign of things to come.
He's a sign of the rank iniquities of FPTP. One of two blatantly partisan bits of democratic manipulation practiced by the Conservatives for these elections.
Jesus effing Christ Paris is cold and grey. STILL. 12C with a sharp breeze and people looking irritable in winter coats and scarves. What a dump. I agree with this Spectator article
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The economy was relatively uncrap in spring 1992. Lawson had torched the housing market in 1988 which led to a recession with a slow recovery, but this was over by 1992. It was a few months after the 92 election when the ERM crisis hit.
My impression is that whatever the technical indicators might have said, there was a widespread view that things were still very difficult in early 1992.
Norman Lamont was mocked for repeated sightings of "green shoots" in 1991, but arrears & repossessions continued to rise, which will have driven a lot of media coverage and will have left middle-class homeowners feeling rather unsettled.
(I was a toddler at the time, so I'm taking this from reading about the era rather than having been politically active during it!)
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Yes, Selby Abbey would be much more celebrated if it wasn't for York Minster just up the road.
The organ there is pretty good, I think.. has @ydoethur experienced it ?
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney does the necessary compromise with the Greens and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
Knowing Scotland, this deal was probably done over a coffee and bacon roll from Greggs rather than a meal in Granita...
USA is reclassifying marijuana. As PB is full of decadents who use drugs freely without regard for law I assume this will be of interest to some of you.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney does the necessary compromise with the Greens and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
Knowing Scotland, this deal was probably done over a coffee and bacon roll from Greggs rather than a meal in Granita...
Seems to me one of the most important numbers is the proportion of Conservative 2019 voters now saying they will vote Labour. So that's what I looked at. I only took the value from the first poll each month. Might be worth looking at every poll at some point, as that will give a better idea as to whether what looks like a recent deterioration is a real signal.
I voted both Labour and Conservative today.
People fought and suffered to give you the right to do that. I hope you feel you have done them justice.
Well Caroline Henry's not getting back in on my watch.
It would have to be a big watch. Probably too big for your wrist, tbh. 😀
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Just been to vote. Huge queues at the polling station. Well, me and my dog. And they wouldn't accept the dog's pet passport as proof of his ID. No photo.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Someone mentioned Heptonstall - yes, agree with Heptonstall. Also, after a bit of a think:
The Strid, Wharfedale (looking this up, apparently, on MayDay morning, the river goddess appears here in the form of a white horse, and is a sign that a drowning will soon follow). You can walk there from Bolton Abbey, which also has a bit of noom about it. Robin Hood's Bay, perhaps? Much of the limestone country in the west of the county tends to noominess - particularly the caves. And perhaps Janet's Foss and some of the other waterfalls close to Malham. Ilkley moor feels noomy to me.
And having a quick browse through my new book, I would also offer: White Mare Crag and Roulston Scar, Sutton under Whitestonecliffe (all sorts of mythical stuff) Rudston monolith (the tallest standing stone in the country. It's in a graveyard, which it reputedly predates by centuries. That's got to be noomy).
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Most of the old Yorkshire monastic houses, pillaged by the Tudors, and abandoned for centuries, have a noomish sense about them. Even the touristed ones, if visited when it's quiet.
I last visited Fountains Abbey in a late December; virtually deserted, it took me back to childhood visits when it was barely touristed even in high summer. Rievaulx is also superb.
One of my greater regrets is not mortgaging everything I had at the time and buying the old vicarage overlooking Easby Abbey, back in the 80s when such things were possible.
Not by any chance bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang?
Just been to vote. Huge queues at the polling station. Well, me and my dog. And they wouldn't accept the dog's pet passport as proof of his ID. No photo.
I was going to ask how your dog voted, assuming s/he isn't a shy voter, but it looks like a/he was disenfranchised. I hope s/he is going to complain.
Taking the dog down to vote later, sadly he doesn't have a pet passport (thank you Brexit) and hasn't yet got his driving license (too young), so won't be able to vote. Will give it a go though.
Aww, no photos of PB dogs at the polling for scale today. *disappointed*
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Swinney as leader and Forbes as Deputy or Finance would though be a clear swing to the right by the SNP.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
Just been to vote. Huge queues at the polling station. Well, me and my dog. And they wouldn't accept the dog's pet passport as proof of his ID. No photo.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Swinney as leader and Forbes as Deputy or Finance would though be a clear swing to the right by the SNP.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Swinney as leader and Forbes as Deputy or Finance would though be a clear swing to the right by the SNP.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
Most of the old Yorkshire monastic houses, pillaged by the Tudors, and abandoned for centuries, have a noomish sense about them. Even the touristed ones, if visited when it's quiet.
I last visited Fountains Abbey in a late December; virtually deserted, it took me back to childhood visits when it was barely touristed even in high summer. Rievaulx is also superb.
One of my greater regrets is not mortgaging everything I had at the time and buying the old vicarage overlooking Easby Abbey, back in the 80s when such things were possible.
Not by any chance bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang?
Did Shakespeare even visit Yorkshire ?
The Kings Men made it to Doncaster, but that was a few years after his death.
USA is reclassifying marijuana. As PB is full of decadents who use drugs freely without regard for law I assume this will be of interest to some of you.
Still the crazy world where they allow firms to sell it, but not banks to accept the money, so huge piles of cash have to be secured and transported in a country where guns are easier to come by than bank accounts.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The problem is that, while “the economy” might be doing well in the abstract, most people only see their mortgages go up and the rest of their money spent on food and energy. Very few are feeling better off now than they were in 2019.
Jesus effing Christ Paris is cold and grey. STILL. 12C with a sharp breeze and people looking irritable in winter coats and scarves. What a dump. I agree with this Spectator article
USA is reclassifying marijuana. As PB is full of decadents who use drugs freely without regard for law I assume this will be of interest to some of you.
Still the crazy world where they allow firms to sell it, but not banks to accept the money, so huge piles of cash have to be secured and transported in a country where guns are easier to come by than bank accounts.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The economy was relatively uncrap in spring 1992. Lawson had torched the housing market in 1988 which led to a recession with a slow recovery, but this was over by 1992. It was a few months after the 92 election when the ERM crisis hit.
My impression is that whatever the technical indicators might have said, there was a widespread view that things were still very difficult in early 1992.
Norman Lamont was mocked for repeated sightings of "green shoots" in 1991, but arrears & repossessions continued to rise, which will have driven a lot of media coverage and will have left middle-class homeowners feeling rather unsettled.
(I was a toddler at the time, so I'm taking this from reading about the era rather than having been politically active during it!)
In South England the negative equity for those who bought houses in 86-88 hit really hard. By 1992 most of the house values hat caught back up with the prices the owners had paid. But the housing market was still very sluggish. I was a student 86 to 90 so I wasn't looking to buy at the danger time but I knew many people a bit older than me who had recently bought their first houses, had been hit by higher interest rates and were unable to move due to negative equity. It meant that many people around my age waited much longer to buy their first house.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The problem is that, while “the economy” might be doing well in the abstract, most people only see their mortgages go up and the rest of their money spent on food and energy. Very few are feeling better off now than they were in 2019.
Which is why I think the 1992 comparison is probably closest. Economy on the mend and inflation down, but interest rates relatively high and households feeling the pinch.
Unlike Major I don’t think that means a Tory victory because people will play safe (he actually thinks that).
Ukraine's SBU cybersecurity chief Ilia Vitiuk has been fired following a scandal with a "weaponized draft" notice for journalist digging into dodgy real estate of his family
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
USA is reclassifying marijuana. As PB is full of decadents who use drugs freely without regard for law I assume this will be of interest to some of you.
Jesus effing Christ Paris is cold and grey. STILL. 12C with a sharp breeze and people looking irritable in winter coats and scarves. What a dump. I agree with this Spectator article
Apart from the horrified airport in Vegas, and the fact that taxis at GdN have always been plentiful, and Ubers available for years and years meeting point top of Bd de Denain, apart from that, the writer (who he btw) has completely misjudged the city.
I can tell you now that I was in Paris around the very time he was there and he has simply created a Paris for his readership that doesn't exist. Entertaining as the article may be.
Plus the profile pic is weird and makes the author look like a cross between Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt. Which might have been the aim tbf.
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
Just voted. LD locally. The Lib Dems in the Knottingley ward are a small blob of insurgent yellow in what is pretty much a sea of red over Wakefield. I know the candidate vaguely, she and her two LD fellow ward cllrs do good, high profile work in the town. They all live here. I wanted to vote Labour but couldn’t do it - poor candidate, doesn’t live here. The local party seems to be on its knees. Until the Lib Dem insurgency a few years ago it was unbroken Labour cllrs for aeons. As the old boys retired no-one credible has come forward to stand for the reds.
Tracy Brabin, Labour, for mayor.
Quiet polling station. One elderly couple strolling in as I left, no-one else.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The problem is that, while “the economy” might be doing well in the abstract, most people only see their mortgages go up and the rest of their money spent on food and energy. Very few are feeling better off now than they were in 2019.
Which is why I think the 1992 comparison is probably closest. Economy on the mend and inflation down, but interest rates relatively high and households feeling the pinch.
Unlike Major I don’t think that means a Tory victory because people will play safe (he actually thinks that).
USA is reclassifying marijuana. As PB is full of decadents who use drugs freely without regard for law I assume this will be of interest to some of you.
Still the crazy world where they allow firms to sell it, but not banks to accept the money, so huge piles of cash have to be secured and transported in a country where guns are easier to come by than bank accounts.
Feds vs States
Better yet, it creates the situation where finance for a legal weed selling business can’t use banks.
All the people I can think of with gym bags of money are wonderful people.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
Don’t mind debating you on this and your “Hopia” rubbish. You seem deluded about what polls are telling you, how politics works, and what’s about to happen.
What am I forecasting that you disagree with? General Election result on 4th July 2024 is 39% Labour 33% Conservative, or similar combination with Con just 5 or 6 behind. And you can’t see how on earth we quickly go from here to there? Is this the question I must answer?
The polling what matters to whole electorate, showing Labour ahead on all measures, bin it. For recovery to 34% Tories will focus on what matters to voters still leaning to them - it doesn’t matter a jot for every extra badger shot, 68% want Tories out even more, if Cons move from 24% to 32% and beyond targetting swingback. Tories have shipped about 10% to Reform in only 18 months, these are clearly softish votes. What do these recent reform voters, and those 2019 Tory Don’t Knows often in Mikes and TSE headers, need to hear during a campaign to be tempted back?
Remember how polls moved in 2017 and 2019 in the campaign. Every GE becomes a “forced choice” because support for minor parties like Reforms manifesto of unicorns, comes under pressure. One candidate wins FPTP in large constituency’s, this usually reduces voter option to 2 candidates who can win the seat. Conservative or Starmer, or waste your vote nearly everywhere - love it or hate it, you can’t deny FPTP does do this. And Voters know how painful letting in a horrible government and PM they get stuck with for 5 years, most will use their vote wisely not chuck it away. When I see this smorgasbord polling “choose your preferred unicorn” I shout at the screen: that mountain of deliberately wasted votes just won’t happen! It never does in a UK GE, so why now?
Only “Forced choice” polling from now gives us more realistic GE prediction. The last forced choice poll I noted was by Delta earlier in March, Lab just 11 points ahead 42% to 31%. Tories already polling in 30’s now before start of campaigning, before two party emphasis and squeezing others gets serious. I want to see forced choice poll from every pollster, don’t you? If forced choice polls taken exactly same time as normal one is completely different, and all have Tories in the 30+%, you will instantly see I am right, too much full options polling like todays Yougov is clearly misleading us.
Although I am closer to the Conservatives views now living back in North Yorkshire with parents and not in London, I am not voting Conservative. I’m casting my votes for libdems. The only reason I am explaining these facts is because there is a big elephant staring you in the face - This particular election has potential to dramatically change once starting gun fired. And it’s so funny you refuse to acknowledge it’s there.
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
I've only been to Paris once, in 1999. My abiding memory is of it being covered in graffiti and dogshit and getting caught up in a protest; also dodgy looking types from North Africa scamming tourists by the Eiffel Tower; also flashers and other nutters on the Metro. It made London look like Bruges for cleanliness and order.
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
You are misremembering.
GdN has been a shithole for as long as I've been going there although now in fact the brasseries opposite the station look rather attractive. Elsewhere people face down on the "bare sidewalk" (as opposed to...)? So what - happens all the time everywhere. One guy blotto for whatever reason and the city is falling apart is the thesis? Not 100% sure about that.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
No mention of Fylingdales on the Moor? But on reflection it's been rebuilt?
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
John Major thinks that the better the economy is doing by the time of the general election, the better Labour will perform. Now, this is probably a distorted view on his part as he takes as his evidence that he won in 1992 when the economy was crap and lost heavily in 1997 when "Britain was booming", but the basis for him saying this is that people will more willingly vote for change, especially for a party perceived as spending more on nice things, if they feel the economy is not in danger. Otherwise they cling to the devil they know.
The problem is that, while “the economy” might be doing well in the abstract, most people only see their mortgages go up and the rest of their money spent on food and energy. Very few are feeling better off now than they were in 2019.
My own view is that the economy will perform pretty well for the rest of the decade, due to catch up from the abnormal 2020-23 period, rapid growth in business investment since 2021, and quite a high savings ratio, currently. But, that won't necessarily translate into a feelgood factor.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
That's more of a familiar landmark than 'noomy', though.
The nearby West Yorkshire Sculpture Park - on a bleak day - has a certain something about it.
Just voted LD for the two London assembly votes, but Khan for the mayoral. Sorry Rob, can't risk Hall sneaking it.
Are you worried that she might sneak it?
1) I never altogether trust local polling because of the sample size issue; and 2) I think she is so appalling that it's important that she is not just beaten, but trounced.
Only then might the Tories learn that they need to work a lot harder on their candidate selection. Frankly, it's insulting to Londoners that we've been offered her as their candidate.
Inflation under 2%, strong 2024 growth bouncing us out of recession and on path to further tax cuts, and interest rate and mortgage cuts too? On the hustings Sunak told Truss she was wrong and he could do it right, and has proved it by completely reversing the damage she caused.
Hope you don't mind me snipping this paragraph out. You appear to be suffering from the same hopium as HY is.
Inflation? How about interest rates? How about mortgages - you say "cuts" to rates but they have just gone *up* again. And a cut from the peak is still an increase - mine didn't go up as much as it could have done, but do you think I should be greatful to the Tories that my Truss Tax is *only* £170 a month?
Why are the Tories sinking so quickly? Because having put taxes up to their highest level they are telling people there has been a tax cut. Having opened the door to soaring levels of migration they're claiming they have cut it. Having put the price of *everything* up a lot they're saying they cut inflation.
I know that hopium gets you lot driving forward with "we can sell this" but in the real world the only thing you are selling is the determination to absolutely destroy this government. You cannot lie to people's faces and insist that their lived experience actually isn't what they experience daily. It just proves to more and more of them that you are utterly disconnected from reality and sanity.
Don’t mind debating you on this and your “Hopia” rubbish. You seem deluded about what polls are telling you, how politics works, and what’s about to happen.
What am I forecasting that you disagree with? General Election result on 4th July 2024 is 39% Labour 33% Conservative, or similar combination with Con just 5 or 6 behind. And you can’t see how on earth we quickly go from here to there? Is this the question I must answer?
The polling what matters to whole electorate, showing Labour ahead on all measures, bin it. For recovery to 34% Tories will focus on what matters to voters still leaning to them - it doesn’t matter a jot for every extra badger shot, 68% want Tories out even more, if Cons move from 24% to 32% and beyond targetting swingback. Tories have shipped about 10% to Reform in only 18 months, these are clearly softish votes. What do these recent reform voters, and those 2019 Tory Don’t Knows often in Mikes and TSE headers, need to hear during a campaign to be tempted back?
Remember how polls moved in 2017 and 2019 in the campaign. Every GE becomes a “forced choice” because support for minor parties like Reforms manifesto of unicorns, comes under pressure. One candidate wins FPTP in large constituency’s, this usually reduces voter option to 2 candidates who can win the seat. Conservative or Starmer, or waste your vote nearly everywhere - love it or hate it, you can’t deny FPTP does do this. And Voters know how painful letting in a horrible government and PM they get stuck with for 5 years, most will use their vote wisely not chuck it away. When I see this smorgasbord polling “choose your preferred unicorn” I shout at the screen: that mountain of deliberately wasted votes just won’t happen! It never does in a UK GE, so why now?
Only “Forced choice” polling from now gives us more realistic GE prediction. The last forced choice poll I noted was by Delta earlier in March, Lab just 11 points ahead 42% to 31%. Tories already polling in 30’s now before start of campaigning, before two party emphasis and squeezing others gets serious. I want to see forced choice poll from every pollster, don’t you? If forced choice polls taken exactly same time as normal one is completely different, and all have Tories in the 30+%, you will instantly see I am right, too much full options polling like todays Yougov is clearly misleading us.
Although I am closer to the Conservatives views now living back in North Yorkshire with parents and not in London, I am not voting Conservative. I’m casting my votes for libdems. The only reason I am explaining these facts is because there is a big elephant staring you in the face - This particular election has potential to dramatically change once starting gun fired. And it’s so funny you refuse to acknowledge it’s there.
Mortgages have started ticking up, but this is due to profiteering being sold to us as “swap rates”, and just a blip in the big scheme of things when on 9th May BoE announce interest rate cut it will spark the downward fight on mortgage deals.
Rishi’s Economic Miracle coming to front pages and TV screens very soon, deal with it.
Jesus effing Christ Paris is cold and grey. STILL. 12C with a sharp breeze and people looking irritable in winter coats and scarves. What a dump. I agree with this Spectator article
Jesus effing Christ Paris is cold and grey. STILL. 12C with a sharp breeze and people looking irritable in winter coats and scarves. What a dump. I agree with this Spectator article
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Swinney as leader and Forbes as Deputy or Finance would though be a clear swing to the right by the SNP.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
Banter heuristic demands she gets Equalities... 😀
And all the non-jobs the Greens had
I can’t see how Forbes can work with the Greens. Forgetting the religious/social beliefs, their more material policies are separated by a serious political distance.
Because of the structure of the Green Party, any “sell out” of their beliefs would result in ructions, rapidly. A leader who did that would be out on their arse.
Forbes could simply sign up to everything. But that would torpedo her pitch as having a set of principled, sensible policies that are different to the current status quo.
So, poison for both of them.
Deputy or other jobs would mean Forbes going along with Swinney - collective responsibility. Which, almost certainly means Continuity SNP.
So unless she is in the mood of “pull together to save the Party” and is prepared to potentially sacrifice her cause… I don’t see it.
Just voted LD for the two London assembly votes, but Khan for the mayoral. Sorry Rob, can't risk Hall sneaking it.
Are you worried that she might sneak it?
1) I never altogether trust local polling because of the sample size issue; and 2) I think she is so appalling that it's important that she is not just beaten, but trounced.
Only then might the Tories learn that they need to work a lot harder on their candidate selection. Frankly, it's insulting to Londoners that we've been offered her as their candidate.
TBF she was the Tories' *second choice* - but I suppose that is the point.
NEW: Kate Forbes to give a statement later today. @SkyNews
She's not running
But is she standing?
It's looking like a stitch up. I don't think Swinney would have been singing her praises quite so loudly if he thought they were going to be in competition with each other. It also neatly differentiates Swinney from Yousaf as coming back to the centre with both himself and Forbes, people Yousaf didn't find a space for (not that they were exactly desperate).
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
I guess Swinney deals with the Greens compromise and as a safe pair of hands diffuses the various landmines strewn by Sturgeon and Yousaf, something Forbes is temperamentally incapable of doing. Meanwhile Forbes gets a track record as the heir apparent.
At the risk of having my wrist slapped for being a non-SNPer offering advice on SNP matters, it does seem like Swinney is the best bet and might help claw back a bit of support. He benefits from the fact that leaders who were unimpressive first time round but keep their noses clean can still be relatively popular in their older age.
Swinney as leader and Forbes as Deputy or Finance would though be a clear swing to the right by the SNP.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
Banter heuristic demands she gets Equalities... 😀
And all the non-jobs the Greens had
I can’t see how Forbes can work with the Greens. Forgetting the religious/social beliefs, their more material policies are separated by a serious political distance.
Because of the structure of the Green Party, any “sell out” of their beliefs would result in ructions, rapidly. A leader who did that would be out on their arse.
Forbes could simply sign up to everything. But that would torpedo her pitch as having a set of principled, sensible policies that are different to the current status quo.
So, poison for both of them.
Deputy or other jobs would mean Forbes going along with Swinney - collective responsibility. Which, almost certainly means Continuity SNP.
So unless she is in the mood of “pull together to save the Party” and is prepared to potentially sacrifice her cause… I don’t see it.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
That's more of a familiar landmark than 'noomy', though.
The nearby West Yorkshire Sculpture Park - on a bleak day - has a certain something about it.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
No mention of Fylingdales on the Moor? But on reflection it's been rebuilt?
Yes, the AN/FPS-132 doesn't have quite the presence of the old giant golf balls.
Day before yesterday I went to Mont St Michel for the first time. Of course I compared it to St Michael’s Mount (the latter was actually a monastic satellite of the former for a while). I know the Cornish one really well, I once took tea with Lord and Lady St Levan, in the castle, and found it very hard not to mention Edward St Aubyn and his *interesting backstory*. But I managed it
Anyway the French version is much more impressive in several ways - it’s a lot bigger. It’s more architecturally harmonious and beautiful. It is imposing in a way the Cornish one is not
On the other hand the Cornish version is properly surrounded by tidal waters, and it has an even more interesting history - it’s probably the isle of Ictis mentioned by classical scholars as the tin trading island of the Phoenicians - Cornwall’s tin industry is at least 3000 years old
More importantly the Cornish one has a ton of noom and the French one has about zero (after your first gobsmacked initial approach). Why? The trillions of tourists don’t help at all, but also the French one has that classic french noomlessness. Someone rubbed away the patina. There is no mad aristocratic family with a known history of incestuous father rapists living in one of the towers
Voila, c’est sans Noom
I find something noomy about all our western islands. That 'end of the earth' feeling.
Perhaps its the age of the land, particularly in the Hebrides, where it seems at first sight that it has been like this for billions of years and the ancient inhabitants have only just gone.
Of course, that ignores the not so romantic reason why they have only just gone.
I'm trying to think of the noomiest place in Yorkshire but am finding it tricky. Fountains Abbey has too many visitors and too many cakes, like Mont St Michel, magnificent though it is.
I quite like the empty moors, so Top Withens could be a valid choice, although the Brontes weren't quite long enough ago.
If only there was more left of Thornborough Henges...
Is Whitby in Yorkshire? That always looks Noomy to be, but I’ve not been
For me the noomiest place in Yorkshire must be Haworth and Heptonstall, for the Brontë House and Sylvia Plath’s grave. Three of the greatest female writers in history, all packed together in that satanically beautiful scenery, with the weird gritstone houses and the austere moors everywhere, and the cascading waters over crags
Top notch Noom
The grave in particular is decidedly noomy, Ted Hughes chose well. The anonymity of it makes it all better
Howarth's graveyard is a gloomy place, with a profusion of infants and young children listed on the old gravestones. It's also at the top of a hill, and it's speculated that the regular supply of new corpses polluted the local water supply. Average life expectancy was somewhere in the mid twenties.
And you mention Whitby without noting Bram Stoker's little story ?
The fact the Brontës’ talented brother drank himself to death in that pub only adds to the Noom. Also the poisonously tiny shoes of Charlotte Brontë in the house. And they all died so absurdly young
It’s bleak as fuck and I love it. Bleakness leading to beauty is a sure source of Noom
Plus you’ve got all the lesbians down at Hebden Bridge
World class nooming by Yorkshire there 👏
Noomiest in Yorkshire? All Saints North Street, York. Just yards off the tourist trail, step into an unbroken medieval culture in closeup, don't miss the Prick of Conscience window, 1420, if you are lucky in total solitude.
And Selby Abbey. Echoes of Durham but few if any people and surrounded by tat.
I think my vote would go to the Emley Moor Transmission mast. You can see it for miles.
No mention of Fylingdales on the Moor? But on reflection it's been rebuilt?
Emley tower is a remarkable structure but I don't find much atmosphere up there. Its been spoilt a bit recently by having a boring guyed mast nearby as a temporary spare, too. It needs to stand alone for the full effect.
Rudston Monolith (mentioned earlier) might be much older skyscraper technology but beats it hands down.
Fylingdales golf balls were replaced by a "Deep Thought" style pyramid structure and although it is imposing it doesn't quite have the oomph.
Of course, if you want golf balls, you can still tee off at Menwith Hill where the US listen in to everyone, including all their allies.
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
You are misremembering.
GdN has been a shithole for as long as I've been going there although now in fact the brasseries opposite the station look rather attractive. Elsewhere people face down on the "bare sidewalk" (as opposed to...)? So what - happens all the time everywhere. One guy blotto for whatever reason and the city is falling apart is the thesis? Not 100% sure about that.
I was prepared to admit I’d got it wrong - or at least exaggerated - when I disembarked at Gare du Montparnasse
Soon as we crossed the Seine, nope, I was right. Besides the spectator agrees with me and that magazine is famously correct about everything
And I speak as the reincarnation of Napoleon and as the Jay Rayner of Place
In fact Napoleon was more a prior incarnation of me, really
Comments
Re Trump, look at the Emerson polls from 30th April. Emerson is one of the best-rated companies, and this is not good news.
https://x.com/mavennavarro1/status/1785785576571994299
Nobody asked me for ID. They just accepted my polling card…
Like Westminster, arguably even more so, there is a chronic lack of talent at Holyrood in all parties including the SNP. Forbes is not someone to waste.
It was, of course, brisk.......
(It wasn't. It was pretty quiet)
Lib Dem all the way down the line.
I'll stick my neck out now however, and suggest you throw your life's savings on Labour winning in Liverpool.
Actually if Labour do win well enough for a five year term in 2025 (yes, I know) one thing they could do well to look at is the rules around elections.
Also, after a bit of a think:
The Strid, Wharfedale (looking this up, apparently, on MayDay morning, the river goddess appears here in the form of a white horse, and is a sign that a drowning will soon follow). You can walk there from Bolton Abbey, which also has a bit of noom about it.
Robin Hood's Bay, perhaps?
Much of the limestone country in the west of the county tends to noominess - particularly the caves. And perhaps Janet's Foss and some of the other waterfalls close to Malham.
Ilkley moor feels noomy to me.
And having a quick browse through my new book, I would also offer:
White Mare Crag and Roulston Scar, Sutton under Whitestonecliffe (all sorts of mythical stuff)
Rudston monolith (the tallest standing stone in the country. It's in a graveyard, which it reputedly predates by centuries. That's got to be noomy).
Of course, he voted for the voter ID laws despite presumably being aware that, by his own account, it was likely to put people with dyspraxia at risk of being disenfranchised.
I last visited Fountains Abbey in a late December; virtually deserted, it took me back to childhood visits when it was barely touristed even in high summer.
Rievaulx is also superb.
One of my greater regrets is not mortgaging everything I had at the time and buying the old vicarage overlooking Easby Abbey, back in the 80s when such things were possible.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/paris-city-of-blight/
Norman Lamont was mocked for repeated sightings of "green shoots" in 1991, but arrears & repossessions continued to rise, which will have driven a lot of media coverage and will have left middle-class homeowners feeling rather unsettled.
(I was a toddler at the time, so I'm taking this from reading about the era rather than having been politically active during it!)
...when we both filled in our postal votes at the kitchen table last week.
Two votes for the Queen of the North, two votes to reelect our Labour councillor.
Considering that one of us is a (pissed off) Green Party member, that isn't a bad result in my book.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68932612
Swinney born 13 April 1964.
Mine just went in to vote
The change to FPTP must, I assume, have been intended to help the Tories. Hard to see it ever working out for them, at least in London.
Both relatively fiscally conservative and Forbes a social conservative too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_AYgdbzcw
Rory & Alastair answer questions.
The Kings Men made it to Doncaster, but that was a few years after his death.
Unlike Major I don’t think that means a Tory victory because people will play safe (he actually thinks that).
Following the media outcry, Vitiuk was suspended & reassigned to the frontline
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1785980073176092719
What we need is a structured legalisation approach - a controlled, legal supply chain. And actual science on the effects of various strengths.
The Netherlands ended deaths from E with testing, for example.
Apart from the horrified airport in Vegas, and the fact that taxis at GdN have always been plentiful, and Ubers available for years and years meeting point top of Bd de Denain, apart from that, the writer (who he btw) has completely misjudged the city.
I can tell you now that I was in Paris around the very time he was there and he has simply created a Paris for his readership that doesn't exist. Entertaining as the article may be.
Plus the profile pic is weird and makes the author look like a cross between Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt. Which might have been the aim tbf.
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
Tracy Brabin, Labour, for mayor.
Quiet polling station. One elderly couple strolling in as I left, no-one else.
Better yet, it creates the situation where finance for a legal weed selling business can’t use banks.
All the people I can think of with gym bags of money are wonderful people.
What am I forecasting that you disagree with? General Election result on 4th July 2024 is 39% Labour 33% Conservative, or similar combination with Con just 5 or 6 behind. And you can’t see how on earth we quickly go from here to there? Is this the question I must answer?
The polling what matters to whole electorate, showing Labour ahead on all measures, bin it. For recovery to 34% Tories will focus on what matters to voters still leaning to them - it doesn’t matter a jot for every extra badger shot, 68% want Tories out even more, if Cons move from 24% to 32% and beyond targetting swingback. Tories have shipped about 10% to Reform in only 18 months, these are clearly softish votes. What do these recent reform voters, and those 2019 Tory Don’t Knows often in Mikes and TSE headers, need to hear during a campaign to be tempted back?
Remember how polls moved in 2017 and 2019 in the campaign. Every GE becomes a “forced choice” because support for minor parties like Reforms manifesto of unicorns, comes under pressure. One candidate wins FPTP in large constituency’s, this usually reduces voter option to 2 candidates who can win the seat. Conservative or Starmer, or waste your vote nearly everywhere - love it or hate it, you can’t deny FPTP does do this. And Voters know how painful letting in a horrible government and PM they get stuck with for 5 years, most will use their vote wisely not chuck it away. When I see this smorgasbord polling “choose your preferred unicorn” I shout at the screen: that mountain of deliberately wasted votes just won’t happen! It never does in a UK GE, so why now?
Only “Forced choice” polling from now gives us more realistic GE prediction. The last forced choice poll I noted was by Delta earlier in March, Lab just 11 points ahead 42% to 31%. Tories already polling in 30’s now before start of campaigning, before two party emphasis and squeezing others gets serious. I want to see forced choice poll from every pollster, don’t you? If forced choice polls taken exactly same time as normal one is completely different, and all have Tories in the 30+%, you will instantly see I am right, too much full options polling like todays Yougov is clearly misleading us.
Although I am closer to the Conservatives views now living back in North Yorkshire with parents and not in London, I am not voting Conservative. I’m casting my votes for libdems. The only reason I am explaining these facts is because there is a big elephant staring you in the face - This particular election has potential to dramatically change once starting gun fired. And it’s so funny you refuse to acknowledge it’s there.
GdN has been a shithole for as long as I've been going there although now in fact the brasseries opposite the station look rather attractive. Elsewhere people face down on the "bare sidewalk" (as opposed to...)? So what - happens all the time everywhere. One guy blotto for whatever reason and the city is falling apart is the thesis? Not 100% sure about that.
The nearby West Yorkshire Sculpture Park - on a bleak day - has a certain something about it.
Only then might the Tories learn that they need to work a lot harder on their candidate selection. Frankly, it's insulting to Londoners that we've been offered her as their candidate.
Rishi’s Economic Miracle coming to front pages and TV screens very soon, deal with it.
Because of the structure of the Green Party, any “sell out” of their beliefs would result in ructions, rapidly. A leader who did that would be out on their arse.
Forbes could simply sign up to everything. But that would torpedo her pitch as having a set of principled, sensible policies that are different to the current status quo.
So, poison for both of them.
Deputy or other jobs would mean Forbes going along with Swinney - collective responsibility. Which, almost certainly means Continuity SNP.
So unless she is in the mood of “pull together to save the Party” and is prepared to potentially sacrifice her cause… I don’t see it.
Way to not get the point
Rudston Monolith (mentioned earlier) might be much older skyscraper technology but beats it hands down.
Fylingdales golf balls were replaced by a "Deep Thought" style pyramid structure and although it is imposing it doesn't quite have the oomph.
Of course, if you want golf balls, you can still tee off at Menwith Hill where the US listen in to everyone, including all their allies.
Don't test the fence!
Soon as we crossed the Seine, nope, I was right. Besides the spectator agrees with me and that magazine is famously correct about everything
And I speak as the reincarnation of Napoleon and as the Jay Rayner of Place
In fact Napoleon was more a prior incarnation of me, really