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The SNP haven’t gone away you know – politicalbetting.com

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  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,313

    It is a complete neck and neck it seems to me at moment despite polls flying around giving Harris the edge.

    I just got a free bet from BF and used it to lay Trump if that helps.
    I'm not sure how you use a free bet is that helpful. The world is a better place for your post though.

  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,080

    Good news folks - apparently Mr Trump is planning a blitz of campaigning next week! How soon will he look as knackered as he did last week? Nothing odd in that - he is a 78-year-old but the optics ain't great once the wheels come off. Just ask Joe.

    Apparently he is suddenly quite concerned the famously litigious Taylor Swift is about to unleash her lawyers for the fake posts

    I should have noticed this sooner, but someone pointed out earlier that the reason he is so obsessed with her is he fancies her.

    She looks like his daughter...
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    The Electoral College is DEI for rural white folks.
    https://x.com/DerekCressman/status/1827711691888718281
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,398
    Barnesian said:

    Today I've put a few more hundred on Harris. If Trump wins I'm stuffed ,,, but then again, we all are.
    My own betting strategy is the exact opposite. I bet on Trump so that I can at least have the consolation of winning a few dollars (and impoverishing a friend) if he gets back in.

    It will at least buy me enough alcohol to spend the last few hours of Western civilisation with a pleasant buzz ...
  • SMukeshSMukesh Posts: 1,759
    Omnium said:

    If you were going to have one of these two bets, which would it be?

    Back Harris @ 2.02, or lay Trump @ 2.08?

    I wimped out and just did both, but I wonder if anyone has any thoughts?

    (Obviously the choice is mainly about could Trump blow up?)

    I have bet on Trump. Kamala seems to have generated a lot of enthusiasm but I am not able to fathom why.
  • Surely Jesus was the first nepo baby.

    I reckon he'd also been one of those insufferable people who try to pass themselves off as working class when in fact they are part of an elite.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822

    Surely Jesus was the first nepo baby.

    I reckon he'd also been one of those insufferable people who try to pass themselves off as working class when in fact they are part of an elite.

    As a carpenter, does Joseph count as a toolmaker?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 33,907
    "Sir Keir Starmer Guilty of Fake News?

    BlackBeltBarrister"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5cXBZnJplQ
  • ydoethur said:

    As a carpenter, does Joseph count as a toolmaker?
    He does.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    edited August 2024
    Anyway, in important news:

    Following the conversation @DavidL and I had on the subject yesterday, Josh Hull has been called up by England.

    6"7, left armed, very fast, terrible record in the Championship.

    We shall see.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,491
    rcs1000 said:

    The problem is one of enforcement: how do you get £100,000 back from someone who has left the country? And, unfortunately, it's not like the Australians have any incentive to be helpful. They are, after all, following a policy of not paying for medical training.
    How about not allowing people to leave the country with an unpaid debt to the government....simple but effective....
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    ydoethur said:

    Anyway, in important news:

    Following the conversation @DavidL and I had on the subject yesterday, Josh Hull has been called up by England.

    6"7, left armed, very fast, terrible record in the Championship.

    We shall see.

    "Left armed" ...
    Doesn't he have a right arm ?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Nigelb said:

    "Left armed" ...
    Doesn't he have a right arm ?
    He does, but something went wrong with it.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    ydoethur said:

    He does, but something went wrong with it.
    Unorthodox pick.
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,953
    Pagan2 said:

    How about not allowing people to leave the country with an unpaid debt to the government....simple but effective....
    The small boat proprietors could get money both ways!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Nigelb said:

    Unorthodox pick.
    The England selectors are just Humber-gs.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,491
    MattW said:

    A quick note for anyone who works with knives, especially if you do outdoor, small holding, survival etc.

    There are a new set of knife regulations coming in in September. TBH they are more coherent than previous versions, but may impact knives that may have been regarded as tools,or collectors items. Since even possession is being outlawed on these, police will not be lenient if they find something incidentally.

    Things that are being banned:

    - Knives with more than one point - aimed at Zombie or fantasy knives.
    - Knives with a blade over 8" long, with a serrated section more than 2" long, as for example on the reverse edge of knives inspired by the Rambo films. (One answer: grind it to be a normal edge, or hand it in.)
    - Knives with more than one hole through the blade.

    More information:
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compensation-scheme-for-zombie-knives-and-machetes
    (Go down to the compensation scheme link and there are pictures.)

    A good video from The Gear Guy
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqU4pEWmM2Y

    So my napoleonic era bayonet that is about 2.5 feet long is ok?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836
    Pagan2 said:

    How about not allowing people to leave the country with an unpaid debt to the government....simple but effective....
    How will you distinguish between someone going on holiday and someone emigrating?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,666

    Andrew Neil
    @afneil

    After Biden’s car crash debate in June and the assassination attempt on Trump on July, Trump was pulling away with a healthy lead in nearly all the battleground states. Now, even before the impact of the DNC in Chicago, every battleground state is very close and well within polling margins of error.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,313
    rcs1000 said:

    How will you distinguish between someone going on holiday and someone emigrating?
    Size of the suitcase!?!?
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,769
    Omnium said:

    "Inequality brings dissatisfaction on a personal level. "

    I've tried to draft my thoughts on this a couple of times. I'm not sure I'll get it right now.

    Inequality is only painful if there's an expectation of equality. For all of history nobody has really expected equality. At some points in history there have been awful differences in the way people are treated, and today there are people that are starved of the resources that would be theirs in an equal system.

    Inequality is though perhaps the primary theme of the human race. It won't go away.

    "...Inequality is only painful if there's an expectation of equality. For all of history nobody has really expected equality..."

    Consider the French Revolution. Does it support your thesis?

  • Tim_in_RuislipTim_in_Ruislip Posts: 439
    edited August 2024

    Too early to tell?
    Out of interest, Peter, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you vote?

    Bonus points for explaining your logic…

  • Andrew Neil
    @afneil

    After Biden’s car crash debate in June and the assassination attempt on Trump on July, Trump was pulling away with a healthy lead in nearly all the battleground states. Now, even before the impact of the DNC in Chicago, every battleground state is very close and well within polling margins of error.

    To paraphrase Basil Fawlty...

    "Next contestant Andrew Neil from Paisley Grasse, specialist subject the bleeding obvious".
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,769
    Danny Dorling on his book "Shattered Nation"

    TL:DR
    • We are fucked
    • Neoliberalism killed us
    • The government has to fix it because the private sector won't
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAJIJ2-8a8c
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,537

    Not in the same league but as 9- to 11-year-olds my friends and I would spend the summer exploring London on buses with Red Rover tickets, or going to Southend by train.
    At the age of 15 I set off with a 16 year-old-friend on a three-week hitch-hiking and camping holiday. In those innocent times it seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do. One day I hitched alone from Lyndhurst to Bath and back: 60 miles each way. It was the Saturday of the 1966 World Cup quarter finals, some of which I watched in a TV shop window. Portugal beat North Korea 5-3 after the latter took a 3-0 lead. Argentina made a bit of a stink when their captain was sent off against England at Wembley. But the high-point of the trip (for me) was waking one morning to the news that Gwynfor Evans had won the Carmarthen by-election to become the first Plaid Cymru MP.

    Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive
    But to be young was very heaven.
  • Carnyx said:

    Never has been a one party style of governing in Scotland, the Salmond breakthrough administration aside. Everyone on PB seems to regard the SNP as an absolute one party in control government, like most Westminster administrations. But it's a minority government.

    This is a fair comment as the Greens have had some impact on SNP but only at edges. The day to day reality is that the SNP controls Scotland with an iron fist. They have also centralised control taking power away from the councils. I live in Glasgow but don't know the Lord Provost (Mayor) name because she has no power unlike Khan or Burnham.

    Reform is an unknown entity in Scotland but open to be used by a number of protest groups to influence power. The next big election in the UK is the Scottish vote and I would suggest the result is presently wide open. Reform may get no MSPs but it may also get more than 10.



  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,912
    SMukesh said:

    I have bet on Trump. Kamala seems to have generated a lot of enthusiasm but I am not able to fathom why.
    She is not a decrepit creep and acts like a human being unlike someone else.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    .

    Certainly don't mind you asking, Tim, although I'm puzzled as to why you would like to know.

    Anyway, I voted LD. It was a tactical vote. I would normally vote Labour, but am generally comfortable with voting LD if they have more chance of winning. It wasn't an obvious choice this time round. At a glance it might have appeared Labour had the better chance but it soon became apparent that they were not even putting up a show, quite possibly by agreement. If so, it would have been perfectly understandable because the sitting MP, Laurence Robertson, had a huge majority and it's not the sort of constituency where Labour can profit easily from dissatisfaction with the status quo.

    As it happened it turned out to be one of best LD wins of the night. Tewkesbury was 88 on their target list, but Cameron Thomas got home by a comfortable 6,000. He was a good candidate, and Robertson was due for retirement anyway, so I was happy with my choice.

    Don't worry about the like. I'm not a Like Whore. I do like to like other people's posts though, sometimes for the obvious reason, but often just as a way of indicating that I have read a post but didn't have time to reply. I wonder if others do likewise?

    And on a related matter, I have never knowingly hit the Off Topic flag. I don't even know what it is there for.

    I do that quite a lot.
    Though it does tend also (not always) to indicate agreement.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,912


    This is a fair comment as the Greens have had some impact on SNP but only at edges. The day to day reality is that the SNP controls Scotland with an iron fist. They have also centralised control taking power away from the councils. I live in Glasgow but don't know the Lord Provost (Mayor) name because she has no power unlike Khan or Burnham.

    Reform is an unknown entity in Scotland but open to be used by a number of protest groups to influence power. The next big election in the UK is the Scottish vote and I would suggest the result is presently wide open. Reform may get no MSPs but it may also get more than 10.



    Apart from nutjob unionists they will get nowhere at Holyrood.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    edited August 2024
    Harris apparently thinks Georgia is in play.

    Harris and Walz heading to Georgia as campaign seeks to build on convention momentum
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-tim-walz-georgia-convention-momentum-rcna168039

    … Earlier this month, Harris held the second rally of her presidential campaign in Atlanta, an event that featured Megan Thee Stallion; the campaign said it attracted more than 10,000 people.

    It then launched a mobilization effort in the state and now touts more than 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers and 24 coordinated campaign offices sprawled across Georgia. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”

    The Harris-Walz campaign said it has recruited nearly 400,000 new volunteers nationally since Harris launched her presidential bid last month. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”..

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    Trump confirms that he is in favour of childhood measles, tetanus, polio, and other infectious diseases.

    Reminder that for months Trump has told his rallies he will not give “one penny” to any school w/a vaccine mandate-from kindergarten thru college. Providing RFK Jr prominent role in public health empowers an advocate for undermining state vaccine requirements.
    https://x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1827704053754982849
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Nigelb said:

    Harris apparently thinks Georgia is in play.

    Harris and Walz heading to Georgia as campaign seeks to build on convention momentum
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-tim-walz-georgia-convention-momentum-rcna168039

    … Earlier this month, Harris held the second rally of her presidential campaign in Atlanta, an event that featured Megan Thee Stallion; the campaign said it attracted more than 10,000 people.

    It then launched a mobilization effort in the state and now touts more than 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers and 24 coordinated campaign offices sprawled across Georgia. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”

    The Harris-Walz campaign said it has recruited nearly 400,000 new volunteers nationally since Harris launched her presidential bid last month. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”..

    Even if they think it a long shot, forcing Trump to divert limited resources there and away from Arizona and Pennsylvania counts as a win. Expect to see them in Florida and Texas too, possibly Missouri.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Nigelb said:

    Trump confirms that he is in favour of childhood measles, tetanus, polio, and other infectious diseases.

    Reminder that for months Trump has told his rallies he will not give “one penny” to any school w/a vaccine mandate-from kindergarten thru college. Providing RFK Jr prominent role in public health empowers an advocate for undermining state vaccine requirements.
    https://x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1827704053754982849

    A reply makes a pertinent point:

    Important context: Every state requires vaccines to attend school. Trump’s pledge would defund all schools.

    https://x.com/ECGreaves/status/1827713303759740980
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,482
    edited August 2024
    Pagan2 said:

    How about not allowing people to leave the country with an unpaid debt to the government....simple but effective....
    I was watching an episode of an old-ish TV show recently ("Hadleigh" if you must ask : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadleigh_(TV_series) ) and the episode was centred around whether the main character had taken too much currency out of the UK when they left for a trip to Spain.

    I am too young (hurrah! at last!) or too poor (un-hurrah!) to have known that was really 'a thing'.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    edited August 2024
    ydoethur said:

    Even if they think it a long shot, forcing Trump to divert limited resources there and away from Arizona and Pennsylvania counts as a win. Expect to see them in Florida and Texas too, possibly Missouri.
    Reading the story, it sounds more as though they’re considering a serious play for the state.

    The campaign has a lot of resources - they raised $500m last month - but they one thing they don’t have to spare is time.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    ohnotnow said:

    I was watching an episode of an old-ish TV show recently ("Hadleigh" if you must ask : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadleigh_(TV_series) ) and the episode was centred around whether the main character had taken too much currency out of the UK when they left for a trip to Spain.

    I am too young (hurrah! at last!) or too poor (un-hurrah!) to have known that was really 'a thing'.
    It was a thing until 1979.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_controls_in_the_United_Kingdom
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,769
    "...Labour has no plans for a wealth tax it has been revealed, despite Britain's biggest trade union Unite calling on the new government to implement one..."

    https://nitter.poast.org/LBCNews/status/1827686188330750254#m
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,289
    viewcode said:

    "...Labour has no plans for a wealth tax it has been revealed, despite Britain's biggest trade union Unite calling on the new government to implement one..."

    https://nitter.poast.org/LBCNews/status/1827686188330750254#m

    I think the growing narrative is of Labour being rather cowardly. The Ming vase strategy might be OK for the campaign, but to govern is to choose, and so far the Labour government is choosing to be rather wishy washy on quite a few issues.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    RFK Jr’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, recounts the time her dad cut off a dead whale’s head with a chainsaw. When he said he had skeletons in his closet, he was not kidding.
    https://x.com/CyberPunkCortes/status/1827549288588624060
  • CookieCookie Posts: 14,632
    Cicero said:

    I think the growing narrative is of Labour being rather cowardly. The Ming vase strategy might be OK for the campaign, but to govern is to choose, and so far the Labour government is choosing to be rather wishy washy on quite a few issues.
    It doesn't HAVE to do what the unions tell it. Most of the time it is advisable that it doesn't.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,816
    edited August 2024
    Cicero said:

    I think the growing narrative is of Labour being rather cowardly. The Ming vase strategy might be OK for the campaign, but to govern is to choose, and so far the Labour government is choosing to be rather wishy washy on quite a few issues.
    And yet their unexpectedly bold choice on WFA got absolutely monstered.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,405
    malcolmg said:

    Apart from nutjob unionists they will get nowhere at Holyrood.
    I forsee a Lab, Lib, Green Scottish Government in 2026. The reaction from Labour when they find their ability to govern destroyed by the parasite Greens will be wonderful to behold.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    Good call.

    “ He looks like if Tommy Lee Jones ate Sponge Bob.”
    https://x.com/IAmJohnAles/status/1827536136073572536
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,405
    IanB2 said:

    Today’s pic from Almost Heaven, West Virginia


    Is that the Shenandoah River?
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,405
    ydoethur said:

    As a carpenter, does Joseph count as a toolmaker?
    How could Jesus have been the messiah if his father wasn’t a toolmaker?
  • franklynfranklyn Posts: 324

    Certainly don't mind you asking, Tim, although I'm puzzled as to why you would like to know.

    Anyway, I voted LD. It was a tactical vote. I would normally vote Labour, but am generally comfortable with voting LD if they have more chance of winning. It wasn't an obvious choice this time round. At a glance it might have appeared Labour had the better chance but it soon became apparent that they were not even putting up a show, quite possibly by agreement. If so, it would have been perfectly understandable because the sitting MP, Laurence Robertson, had a huge majority and it's not the sort of constituency where Labour can profit easily from dissatisfaction with the status quo.

    As it happened it turned out to be one of best LD wins of the night. Tewkesbury was 88 on their target list, but Cameron Thomas got home by a comfortable 6,000. He was a good candidate, and Robertson was due for retirement anyway, so I was happy with my choice.

    Don't worry about the like. I'm not a Like Whore. I do like to like other people's posts though, sometimes for the obvious reason, but often just as a way of indicating that I have read a post but didn't have time to reply. I wonder if others do likewise?

    And on a related matter, I have never knowingly hit the Off Topic flag. I don't even know what it is there for.

    Cameron Thomas MP seems to have quite an interesting and impressive CV for a new MP
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,769
    Cookie said:

    It doesn't HAVE to do what the unions tell it. Most of the time it is advisable that it doesn't.
    You have to tax *something*. Even a nightwatchman state needs tax. The current approach is to tax the pre-retirement poor, because the rich go live in other countries and the retired have the votes. It isn't working, and we have the advent of Reform to prove it.
  • ydoethur said:

    As a carpenter, does Joseph count as a toolmaker?
    A tool user, surely?
  • Tim_in_RuislipTim_in_Ruislip Posts: 439
    edited August 2024

    Certainly don't mind you asking, Tim, although I'm puzzled as to why you would like to know.

    Anyway, I voted LD. It was a tactical vote. I would normally vote Labour, but am generally comfortable with voting LD if they have more chance of winning. It wasn't an obvious choice this time round. At a glance it might have appeared Labour had the better chance but it soon became apparent that they were not even putting up a show, quite possibly by agreement. If so, it would have been perfectly understandable because the sitting MP, Laurence Robertson, had a huge majority and it's not the sort of constituency where Labour can profit easily from dissatisfaction with the status quo.

    As it happened it turned out to be one of best LD wins of the night. Tewkesbury was 88 on their target list, but Cameron Thomas got home by a comfortable 6,000. He was a good candidate, and Robertson was due for retirement anyway, so I was happy with my choice.

    Don't worry about the like. I'm not a Like Whore. I do like to like other people's posts though, sometimes for the obvious reason, but often just as a way of indicating that I have read a post but didn't have time to reply. I wonder if others do likewise?

    And on a related matter, I have never knowingly hit the Off Topic flag. I don't even know what it is there for.

    Thanks.

    Decent logic, displaying an impressive understanding of the local psephology. Why would I like to know? I have you down as a sensible political bellwether. I think I remember you once posting you'd be the most left wing member of the Tory Party and/or the most right wing Labour Party member. That was a few years ago, though. I think Cameron/May era. I guess I was wondering how, after all the turmoil, you now fitted in to the current political context.

    I appreciate your post.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,666
    Getting RFK off the ballot aint easy:

    "In North Carolina, the first state to begin early voting, his name has already been physically printed on the ballots in around 30 counties, so he’s probably stuck there, too."

    https://www.natesilver.net/p/we-removed-rfk-jr-from-our-model
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,666
    Trump: "Our primary focus is not to get out the vote it is to make sure they don't cheat. 'cos we have all the votes you need, you can see it"

    points to half empty arena.
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 849
    ydoethur said:

    A reply makes a pertinent point:

    Important context: Every state requires vaccines to attend school. Trump’s pledge would defund all schools.

    https://x.com/ECGreaves/status/1827713303759740980
    In keeping with the abortion policy which could see (poor) pregnant women avoiding medical care in case they miscarry and end up in prison.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 14,445
    edited August 2024
    franklyn said:

    Cameron Thomas MP seems to have quite an interesting and impressive CV for a new MP
    Yes, not many professional NBA players in the Lib Dems.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,558
    IanB2 said:

    Today’s pic from Almost Heaven, West Virginia


    Trees for scale.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,505
    MattW said:

    A quick note for anyone who works with knives, especially if you do outdoor, small holding, survival etc.

    There are a new set of knife regulations coming in in September. TBH they are more coherent than previous versions, but may impact knives that may have been regarded as tools,or collectors items. Since even possession is being outlawed on these, police will not be lenient if they find something incidentally.

    Things that are being banned:

    - Knives with more than one point - aimed at Zombie or fantasy knives.
    - Knives with a blade over 8" long, with a serrated section more than 2" long, as for example on the reverse edge of knives inspired by the Rambo films. (One answer: grind it to be a normal edge, or hand it in.)
    - Knives with more than one hole through the blade.

    More information:
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compensation-scheme-for-zombie-knives-and-machetes
    (Go down to the compensation scheme link and there are pictures.)

    A good video from The Gear Guy
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqU4pEWmM2Y

    Been looking at this as we do have a potential surrender to make on a garden knife.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,666
    Xmas at the Kennedy family gathering is going be a hoot this year.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 53,990

    Trees for scale.
    Presumably not redwoods...?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 30,563

    Presumably not redwoods...?
    He could be an enormous dog.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,143

    Presumably not redwoods...?
    The Houses of Parliament (Redwood for scale).

    image
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 30,563

    The Houses of Parliament (Redwood for scale).

    image
    One of the BIG beasts of the Conservative Party.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,558

    The Houses of Parliament (Redwood for scale).

    image
    Elected under First Past the Lamppost.
  • Presumably not redwoods...?
    Redwood versus Deadwood.
  • Thanks.

    Decent logic, displaying an impressive understanding of the local psephology. Why would I like to know? I have you down as a sensible political bellwether. I think I remember you once posting you'd be the most left wing member of the Tory Party and/or the most right wing Labour Party member. That was a few years ago, though. I think Cameron/May era. I guess I was wondering how, after all the turmoil, you now fitted in to the current political context.

    I appreciate your post.
    Thank you Tim. Much appreciated. I don't remember writing that but certainly could have done.

    I quite liked Cameron, and could live with May. On economics I'm quite right wing but am socially liberal. My Dad was a One Nation Tory and I would probably have been the same if that had been an option. He distanced himself from the Tories during the Thatcher years and I edged leftwards about the same time,

    These days I'm happy enough with grown up government, so you can imagine what I thought of Johnson and Truss. It will probably be a long time before I weary of Starmer, but you never know! I may get there one day, if the Lord spares me long enough.

    Sleep well.

  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831

    Is that the Shenandoah River?
    The upper reaches of the Potomac. The Shenandoah, despite the song, is mostly in (east) Virginia.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831

    Certainly don't mind you asking, Tim, although I'm puzzled as to why you would like to know.

    Anyway, I voted LD. It was a tactical vote. I would normally vote Labour, but am generally comfortable with voting LD if they have more chance of winning. It wasn't an obvious choice this time round. At a glance it might have appeared Labour had the better chance but it soon became apparent that they were not even putting up a show, quite possibly by agreement. If so, it would have been perfectly understandable because the sitting MP, Laurence Robertson, had a huge majority and it's not the sort of constituency where Labour can profit easily from dissatisfaction with the status quo.

    As it happened it turned out to be one of best LD wins of the night. Tewkesbury was 88 on their target list, but Cameron Thomas got home by a comfortable 6,000. He was a good candidate, and Robertson was due for retirement anyway, so I was happy with my choice.

    Don't worry about the like. I'm not a Like Whore. I do like to like other people's posts though, sometimes for the obvious reason, but often just as a way of indicating that I have read a post but didn't have time to reply. I wonder if others do likewise?

    And on a related matter, I have never knowingly hit the Off Topic flag. I don't even know what it is there for.

    Doubtless why you haven’t missed it?

  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831

    Thank you Tim. Much appreciated. I don't remember writing that but certainly could have done.

    I quite liked Cameron, and could live with May.

    Living with May would surely drive you nuts? She’s surely quite OCD and would have vans driving round the neighbourhood telling you to clean up properly.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,537
    Nigelb said:

    It was a thing until 1979.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_controls_in_the_United_Kingdom
    Every time you converted Sterling into dodgy foreign currency like francs or dollars you had to present your passport to the bank, who would stamp it like so:


  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,143
    IanB2 said:

    Living with May would surely drive you nuts? She’s surely quite OCD and would have vans driving round the neighbourhood telling you to clean up properly.
    Nagging vans would be a good innovation. They could drive around with an alarm to wake people up in the morning and remind people to do their chores.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,606
    edited August 2024


    This is a fair comment as the Greens have had some impact on SNP but only at edges. The day to day reality is that the SNP controls Scotland with an iron fist. They have also centralised control taking power away from the councils. I live in Glasgow but don't know the Lord Provost (Mayor) name because she has no power unlike Khan or Burnham.

    Reform is an unknown entity in Scotland but open to be used by a number of protest groups to influence power. The next big election in the UK is the Scottish vote and I would suggest the result is presently wide open. Reform may get no MSPs but it may also get more than 10.



    The Edinburgh Trams show that if the opposition want they can change anything. Same with the attempts to reduce sectarianism, aborted by a Lab + LD U-turn when they realised it might upset some of their vote.

    Of course Reform will get MSPs; more than it has Scottish MPs. It's the same with any other minority party - UKIP as was, the Tories, the Greens, and the LDs (who made sure the voting system had that effect, together with Labour).
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,606

    Every time you converted Sterling into dodgy foreign currency like francs or dollars you had to present your passport to the bank, who would stamp it like so:


    Indeed, though as I was young at the time it didn't matter much to me.
  • Larry the Cat on plans to announce his demise:-

    Plans are being made for how to announce my passing when that sad day comes. My wish is to be stuffed and placed above a fireplace in Downing Street as a constant reminder that the inhabitants shouldn't do anything stupid.
    https://x.com/Number10cat/status/1827284885511237681
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,816

    Nagging vans would be a good innovation. They could drive around with an alarm to wake people up in the morning and remind people to do their chores.
    Or get back to work and increase productivity.
    And get off PB. Which a remarkable amount seem to spend all day on exhorting the low paid to be more efficient.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,329
    Dura_Ace said:

    How the fuck would you enforce that? They don't have 100k for a start. Also, just go bankrupt, see ya!
    The day they sign a contract with the NHS, the NHS pays off their student debt and replaces it with a loan from the NHS.

    That can be enforced like any other debt. But perhaps you make it survive bankruptcy..
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 33,907
    IanB2 said:

    Today’s pic from Almost Heaven, West Virginia


    How do you take a dog on holiday?
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,482

    Larry the Cat on plans to announce his demise:-

    Plans are being made for how to announce my passing when that sad day comes. My wish is to be stuffed and placed above a fireplace in Downing Street as a constant reminder that the inhabitants shouldn't do anything stupid.
    https://x.com/Number10cat/status/1827284885511237681

    I am reminded of this horror :


  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,329
    rcs1000 said:

    The problem is one of enforcement: how do you get £100,000 back from someone who has left the country? And, unfortunately, it's not like the Australians have any incentive to be helpful. They are, after all, following a policy of not paying for medical training.
    Make sure they can’t get confirmation of their medical qualifications while debt is outstanding
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831
    Andy_JS said:

    How do you take a dog on holiday?
    In what sense?
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,329
    Andy_JS said:

    The nanny state is real, it seems.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13776757/After-TV-presenter-sparked-debate-revealing-15-year-old-went-travelling-abroad-friend-Kirstie-Allsopps-fury-social-services-probe-sons-interrail-trip.html

    "Kirstie Allsopp last night spoke of her outrage after she was quizzed by social services for allowing her 15-year-old son to go Interrailing across Europe.

    The Mail on Sunday can reveal how, in an extraordinary intervention, a social worker contacted the TV presenter to inform her that a file had been opened after child protection concerns were raised over her youngest child, Oscar.

    To the 52-year-old's fury, the social worker demanded to know what 'safeguards' had been put in place when she allowed Oscar to travel for three weeks on the continent alongside a 16-year-old friend. "

    We don’t know the full details, but I think that Alsopp and the council have both behaved properly.

    The council is obliged by law to open an investigation on a complaint. So long as they didn’t take any action they don’t appear to have done anything wrong.

    The issue is that someone took it on themselves to make a malicious complaint based on a tweet by a celebrity about her legitimate parenting choices. There should be a higher barrier to triggering a case
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,482
    Cicero said:

    I think the growing narrative is of Labour being rather cowardly. The Ming vase strategy might be OK for the campaign, but to govern is to choose, and so far the Labour government is choosing to be rather wishy washy on quite a few issues.
    There is quite a common meme on Discord servers now for Keir to just be a :grey_question: emoji.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,329
    Phil said:

    Social care have more serious cases to worry about than a very-near 16 year old going interrailing, no matter how wealthy the parent is. They didn’t go alone, they had parental cash behind them & in the modern world near universal mobile phone coverage. You’d also have to ask what would be achieved by taking the child into care? Absolutely nothing - they’d clearly be worse off afterwards.


    (It wouldn’t surprise me if a fair number of the “reports” sent into social services originate with TERFs who have never forgiven Kirsty Allsopp for taking the opposing side btw.)
    I can never remember. Are the TERFs the goodies or the baddies?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,666
    edited August 2024

    We don’t know the full details, but I think that Alsopp and the council have both behaved properly.

    The council is obliged by law to open an investigation on a complaint. So long as they didn’t take any action they don’t appear to have done anything wrong.

    The issue is that someone took it on themselves to make a malicious complaint based on a tweet by a celebrity about her legitimate parenting choices. There should be a higher barrier to triggering a case
    When it takes a minimum, at absolute incredibly lucky best, six weeks for a social worker to undertake a care assessment of someone who is in major health difficulties and is waiting for social care support as in OT equipment or care workers coming to get them to the toilet is is fucking ridiculous they have time for this shit.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,461

    I can never remember. Are the TERFs the goodies or the baddies?
    Yes
  • Xmas at the Kennedy family gathering is going be a hoot this year.

    Correction - Thanksgiving at the Kennedy family gathering [at Hyannisport] . . .
  • IanB2 said:

    The upper reaches of the Potomac. The Shenandoah, despite the song, is mostly in (east) Virginia.
    North Branch OR South Branch of the Potomoc? The former is boundary between WVa and Maryland.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,852

    We don’t know the full details, but I think that Alsopp and the council have both behaved properly.

    The council is obliged by law to open an investigation on a complaint. So long as they didn’t take any action they don’t appear to have done anything wrong.

    The issue is that someone took it on themselves to make a malicious complaint based on a tweet by a celebrity about her legitimate parenting choices. There should be a higher barrier to triggering a case
    A bigger issue is that the complaint now remains on file and cannot be removed by any means.

    Mrs Flatlander is also "known to social services" as the result of a completely spurious report. There's no way of finding out who made this report or getting it expunged from the records.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831
    edited August 2024

    North Branch OR South Branch of the Potomoc? The former is boundary between WVa and Maryland.
    North fork, South Branch

    In Britain, we’d give all these bits of stream different names, but maybe you Americans were running out of names to copylift by then? And there weren’t any natives around to ask.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,852
    IanB2 said:

    Today’s pic from Almost Heaven, West Virginia


    Cougar bait...

    [Though I don't suppose there are many Puma concolor couguar left in Virginia]
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,831
    edited August 2024

    Cougar bait...

    [Though I don't suppose there are many Puma concolor couguar left in Virginia]
    Supposedly there are plenty of bears hereabouts.

    In the barn we are sleeping in, there are three goats, a pig, and a shedload of ducks and chickens sleeping in the next door room. And some peacocks outside. A puma round these here parts would have a feast. In almost heaven West Virginia, you can rent a renovated barn, and when you arrive, it’s still being used as a barn.
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 3,204
    IanB2 - Since you are in West Virginia, and this is a politics site (most of the time), you may be interested in this from the 2006 Almanac of American Politics:

    'In April 2000 the Clinton administration came out against a ban on mountaintop mining, but for stricter regulation; Al Gore was caught in the middle between environmentalists who supported it and West Virginia's all-Democratic congressional delegation which opposed it. George W. Bush, spotting an opening quickly, came out in favor of mountaintop mining and called for increased federal support of clean coal technology; he said the Clinton administration "fears coal" and managed to mention coal in one of the presidential debates. Bush's support of coal and his opposition to gun control enabled him to carry West Virginia 52%-46% -- a stunning upset in a state that hadn't voted for a Republican in a open presidential race since 1928. Its five electoral votes were crucial: Without them, it would not have mattered who won Florida.' (p. 1783)

    (Mountaintop mining became a hot issue in 2000 because of a judge's decision -- which was reversed by an appeals court in April 2001.)
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 33,907
    edited August 2024
    Does anyone agree with me that we ought to go back to having 4 TV channels in the UK, like we did between 1982 and 1997?
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 3,204
    There are cougars in the West, and occasionally they attack humans, sometimes fatally, for example near North Bend in 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America

    (North Bend is 30 miles east of Seattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Bend,_Washington

    In February, there was an attack on a group of women, who bravely fought back (as adults generally should). https://www.kuow.org/stories/cougar-attack-washington-state-cyclists
This discussion has been closed.