There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
I think South Park already did that about 15 years ago, culminating in an American cardinal seizing power after the pope objected that killing Jesus (the character in the show) to protect the church was not very Christian.
They’ve also revealed that the Pope answers to the highest power - the Queen Spider
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
You don't get it do you , I know well how English works. However in this instance you always use the "lowlifes" when talking about scumbags, you never ever ever say low lives. You might be clever but have obviously led a very sheltered life.
Wife = WIVES Knife = KNIVES Life = LIVES
Two Freddie Scappaticcis would be two Steakknifes though.
The deeply frustrating thing about litter and graffiti is that this really js something that can be easily fixed. Punish people hard for a few months and they will stop
And then imagine. Britain gets cleaner. Your town centre doesn’t look like a shithole. Your local park could be in Switzerland. If Uzbekistan can do it Britain can do it FFS
And then suddenly everyone feels a bit better about the country and moods lifts overall
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
I think South Park already did that about 15 years ago, culminating in an American cardinal seizing power after the pope objected that killing Jesus (the character in the show) to protect the church was not very Christian.
The trailer for the new series of South Park looks quite promising. Whether they've been overtaken by events of course...
The deeply frustrating thing about litter and graffiti is that this really js something that can be easily fixed. Punish people hard for a few months and they will stop
And then imagine. Britain gets cleaner. Your town centre doesn’t look like a shithole. Your local park could be in Switzerland. If Uzbekistan can do it Britain can do it FFS
And then suddenly everyone feels a bit better about the country and moods lifts overall
If I recall correctly there was once a move to punish littering with fines linked to income. The more you earn, the bigger the fine. I think a woman who had thrown an apple core out of a car was hit with a rather large fine to general outcry.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
The pavement parking ban in parts of Scotland was instructive. A few days of fines and now you have almost universal conformity. Littering is almost impossible to enforce, hence the problem.
Otoh, it's always fun watching a hillwalker desperately scramble across the mountain hunting down an errant cereal bar wrapper. And the elderly gentleman opposite us always heads out with a bin bag, bonkers spaniel and litter picker.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Thunderdome.
Tina Turner would make a great 1980s letter "T" (I know I chose Tears For Fears in my list last night!).
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
The pavement parking ban in parts of Scotland was instructive. A few days of fines and now you have almost universal conformity. Littering is almost impossible to enforce, hence the problem.
Otoh, it's always fun watching a hillwalker desperately scramble across the mountain hunting down an errant cereal bar wrapper. And the elderly gentleman opposite us always heads out with a bin bag, bonkers spaniel and litter picker.
It's really not hard to enforce. The Uzbeks do it. The Kazakhs do it. The Kyrgyz do it. Kyrgyz GDP per capita is $2000, they haven't got hi tech robots roaming the roads catching litter-bugs
Just make sure the punishments are quite nasty. And also treat it like drink driving. That used to be ubiquitous (I got caught doing it, for shame) but now drink driving is regarded as morally bad by everyone and it is almost self policing. Make littering and graffiti like that. Something that should make you ashamed, and if you still do it you WILL suffer - the way drink drivers lost their precious licenses
As societies, in the west, we just need to toughen up AND return some civic pride. It's not quantum chromodynamics
I have no predictions about 2028 but a candidate who seems to have something going in the early innings is J.B. Pritzker. He pleases the liberal base and being a "good" billionaire (in the eyes of the left) may only help him in the primary. Different than Bloomberg 2020.
Writing in the foreword, Sir Tony says: "Though most people will accept that climate change is a reality caused by human activity, they're turning away from the politics of the issue because they believe the proposed solutions are not founded on good policy."
He says "any strategy based on either 'phasing out' fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail".
He also warns against the "alarmist" tone of the debate on climate change, which he says is "riven with irrationality".
I think he is right about that. The movement has been very successful in a positive way, but there's dangers of trying to match the right vibes as if that in itself is enough.
The strategy simply needs to be that renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, and is getting cheaper and more efficient all the time. And it is tried and tested, carbon capture is pie in the sky.
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
The pavement parking ban in parts of Scotland was instructive. A few days of fines and now you have almost universal conformity. Littering is almost impossible to enforce, hence the problem.
Otoh, it's always fun watching a hillwalker desperately scramble across the mountain hunting down an errant cereal bar wrapper. And the elderly gentleman opposite us always heads out with a bin bag, bonkers spaniel and litter picker.
I'm not sure where you stay - but there is naff-all conformity with the parking stuff here in Glasgow. The parking fines are all doled out in easy-to-hit-quota hotspots with zero enforcement anywhere else.
I have no predictions about 2028 but a candidate who seems to have something going in the early innings is J.B. Pritzker. He pleases the liberal base and being a "good" billionaire (in the eyes of the left) may only help him in the primary. Different than Bloomberg 2020.
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
You're more Jack Regan than Inspector Morse I see.
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
I'm a mild man in many respect, but I would quite happily introduce the death penalty for graffiti. I'd pull the lever myself. Murder is sometimes defensible; graffiti, never. It's only ever done to make everyone else's life slightly worse. There is a lovely piece of public art ona small hillock in St. Helens, called Dream. Essentially it's a massive head. It's beautiful. Or it was. It's now covered in graffiti.
Writing in the foreword, Sir Tony says: "Though most people will accept that climate change is a reality caused by human activity, they're turning away from the politics of the issue because they believe the proposed solutions are not founded on good policy."
He says "any strategy based on either 'phasing out' fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail".
He also warns against the "alarmist" tone of the debate on climate change, which he says is "riven with irrationality".
I think he is right about that. The movement has been very successful in a positive way, but there's dangers of trying to match the right vibes as if that in itself is enough.
The strategy simply needs to be that renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, and is getting cheaper and more efficient all the time. And it is tried and tested, carbon capture is pie in the sky.
That’s the pitch, but the strategy to deliver that is important too. A future of cheap almost limitless clean energy should be a no brainer to sell to the public. But we seem to be in danger of missing that open goal through poor infrastructure planning and the wrong incentives.
We risk the worst of both worlds: being neither completely shameless and exploiting regulatory arbitrage to pollute our way to growth, nor full hearted enough in making the transition work so that we get the economic and growth benefits from it.
The energy transition will happen. Not only will it increasingly make complete financial sense, but the alternative is catastrophic both environmentally and financially.
"Badenoch suggests UK net zero plans could lead to blackouts
The Tory leader has suggested that the power outages in Spain and Portugal were linked to a reliance on renewable energy, and that the UK's net zero plans could lead to blackouts."
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
I think South Park already did that about 15 years ago, culminating in an American cardinal seizing power after the pope objected that killing Jesus (the character in the show) to protect the church was not very Christian.
The trailer for the new series of South Park looks quite promising. Whether they've been overtaken by events of course...
Volvo Cars announced cost cuts of $1.87 billion, withdrew its earnings forecast for the next two years and said it would restructure its US operations as its first-quarter profit tumbled, sending shares down 10%
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
I'm a mild man in many respect, but I would quite happily introduce the death penalty for graffiti. I'd pull the lever myself. Murder is sometimes defensible; graffiti, never. It's only ever done to make everyone else's life slightly worse. There is a lovely piece of public art ona small hillock in St. Helens, called Dream. Essentially it's a massive head. It's beautiful. Or it was. It's now covered in graffiti.
I quite like graffiti that makes a bit of an effort. Our family enjoy spotting the “I like eggs” efforts around the place. It’s the basic tags that are uglier.
But to me litter is 10x worse than graffiti. And dog shit is 10x worse than litter. I’m not sure it’s worse now than it was 30 years ago in inner cities, I certainly remember dodging dog dirt on London and particularly Paris streets back in the 90s, but I’m on board with the idea that a moral / societal campaign like we did for drink driving and seatbelts is probably a good idea, coupled with a period of intense policing. Whether we have the police numbers for that though is questionable.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Or Doctor in the House. "What's the bleeding time?" "Ten past nine".
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Low LIVES.
Your arse, low lifes for any educated person. Never in all my years heard any idiot trying to say low lives it is low lifes
The plural of Life is LIVES.
It ought to be but it isn't. It goes: Single person is low life; generic plural is low life; specific plural is low lifes. No idea why. Why is the plural of sheep sheep?
He cannot grasp that fact. It is what it is bad grammar or not.
To be fair to Poilievre, despite losing his seat the Conservatives did gain votes and seats. Indeed they got the highest Conservative voteshare since 1988. Yet the anti Trump vote rallied around the Liberals as Carney squeezed the NDP vote to get most seats
They lost. In an election where they had a massive lead. And an opposition easy to attack. And he lost his seat.
Only you could try and spin that as a positive result.
They got 41% and gained 20 seats, they only lost on an anti Trump vote. It wasn't a particularly pro Liberal vote beyond that
Shocking to see HYUFD of all people turning into a gay leftie woke Muslim atheist.
Of course the Conservatives didn't lose. There was just massive fraud on the part of the lefties.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Or Doctor in the House. "What's the bleeding time?" "Ten past nine".
Really, this is awful.
How could anyone not know it was 'ten past ten, sir!'
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
It’s an exaggeration for comedy.
But arguments not unlike those were used when the BBC moved to Salford, and have been marshalled against other such moves - see the Treasury.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
IME there are still plenty in government who view the North as some distant benighted wasteland whose inhabitants are perhaps to be pitied but who can't really be expected to perform any higher cerebral functions.
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
I'm a mild man in many respect, but I would quite happily introduce the death penalty for graffiti. I'd pull the lever myself. Murder is sometimes defensible; graffiti, never. It's only ever done to make everyone else's life slightly worse. There is a lovely piece of public art ona small hillock in St. Helens, called Dream. Essentially it's a massive head. It's beautiful. Or it was. It's now covered in graffiti.
And you know what? - I expect 88% of British adults agree with us
Because yes, you're right - litter and graffiti make everyone's life that bit worse, for absolutely no reason other than the litterer's selfish irresponsibility, or some tagger's desire to be a fucking wanker
Also, get rid of litter and graffiti and other good things follow, we know this, it is proven, it improves public moods and ennobles the civic realm. It is also self reinforcing: people do not litter in places with no litter, ditto graffiti. So. Just do it 1 Taser them, make them blind for a week, do a modern day birching - just do it and make it properly painful but transient and impermanent, and this antisocial shit will stop
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
IME there are still plenty in government who view the North as some distant benighted wasteland whose inhabitants are perhaps to be pitied but who can't really be expected to perform any higher cerebral functions.
So you're saying it's surprising the senior ranks don't move north where they would fit right in?
"Badenoch suggests UK net zero plans could lead to blackouts
The Tory leader has suggested that the power outages in Spain and Portugal were linked to a reliance on renewable energy, and that the UK's net zero plans could lead to blackouts."
On a really weird R4 PM this evening there was first an analysis of the Iberian blackouts being the fault of "Net Zero", then some polling analysis before May 1st. Apparently Labour are on 23 with YouGov and RefCon on 46. Then there was a merged piece about Trump's first hundred days followed by Carney, followed by Trump winning here after 100 days of successful deportation of foreigners and super low inflation according to Karoline Leavitt (Leave it!) then I lost the DAB signal near Llangollen.
Wisdom of crowds playing here? Somewhat impressively those party scores average out to almost exactly on the centre. To the nearest integer, the average of those 5 party scores is +1
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Or Doctor in the House. "What's the bleeding time?" "Ten past nine".
Really, this is awful.
How could anyone not know it was 'ten past ten, sir!'
It's interesting that Tory voters think that Labour are more left than the Greens. Maybe it's a sign that Greens in more Tory areas are a lot more NIMBY.
Trump has said he wishes to become Pope. Shedding the USA of the false idols of materialism is obviously part of the plan for a higher purpose amongst his MAGA flock
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
I wonder which classical piece they are based on then
London feels pleasantly buzzy in the spring warmth but I’m afraid the endless litter and graffiti is a significant culture shock after the immaculate cities of Central Asia. And I’m not talking Singapore - I’m talking Tashkent, Almaty and Bishkek. Big cities in poor countries
I was in Germany for a week recently and never saw one bit of litter anywhere, all buildings looked pristine , all roadsides etc perfectly clean and just the opposite of this country where people have no pride or respect for anything and just dump their crap anywhere. A shithole of a country riddled with low lifes.
Trouble is 95% of people don’t throw rubbish out of cars, but 5% are absolute wankers who don’t care.
This is most of the law. How do we deal with the 5% of nutters/psycho's/idiots.
Beat the fucking shit out of them, so they are physically scared
I'm a mild man in many respect, but I would quite happily introduce the death penalty for graffiti. I'd pull the lever myself. Murder is sometimes defensible; graffiti, never. It's only ever done to make everyone else's life slightly worse. There is a lovely piece of public art ona small hillock in St. Helens, called Dream. Essentially it's a massive head. It's beautiful. Or it was. It's now covered in graffiti.
Beautiful and St Helens can only be proximate for a short while. Or else the fabric of spacetime will fold in on itself.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Or Doctor in the House. "What's the bleeding time?" "Ten past nine".
Really, this is awful.
How could anyone not know it was 'ten past ten, sir!'
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
I wonder which classical piece they are based on then
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
IME there are still plenty in government who view the North as some distant benighted wasteland whose inhabitants are perhaps to be pitied but who can't really be expected to perform any higher cerebral functions.
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
Or you could get a black conservative Pope
Are there any Canadian candidates? Can you imagine the orange smoke emanating from Trump’s ears following the announcement of their appointment.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
Bananarama's Venus was a cover version. The original was by the Dutch band Shocking Blue.
Wisdom of crowds playing here? Somewhat impressively those party scores average out to almost exactly on the centre. To the nearest integer, the average of those 5 party scores is +1
If you had the Tories in charge for the next decade or Labour, I suspect the difference in government expenditure by share of GDP would be in the region of 1-2%. And that is broadly the case for the last three decades bar Corbyn.
Currently the Labour lot are more competent, and that will flip flop over time, but the ideological gap is all talk and little action.
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
Or you could get a black conservative Pope
Are there any Canadian candidates? Can you imagine the orange smoke emanating from Trump’s ears following the announcement of their appointment.
Four of them, I believe @College is on Michael Czerny at 200/1.
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
Or you could get a black conservative Pope
Are there any Canadian candidates? Can you imagine the orange smoke emanating from Trump’s ears following the announcement of their appointment.
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
Given the way reality works, 17.5% will be tat and the other 17.5% will be things like a critical component of Fogbank.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Yes. It is dated in its comedic scenario that Ministers make policies and civil servants come up with elaborate ruses to thwart their wishes. These days, civil servants make policy and Ministers must come up with elaborate ruses to thwart their wishes.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
Bananarama's Venus was a cover version. The original was by the Dutch band Shocking Blue.
Thanks, yes I remember the Pete Waterman story on this now- he took it as he liked the tune and the lyrics, and decided to lay down the dead or alive track under it to create a similar vibe.
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
Given the way reality works, 17.5% will be tat and the other 17.5% will be things like a critical component of Fogbank.
Recall that 99% of global industrialisation and growth has been powered by people wanting to buy tat. That’s how Britain built an empire.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 80s music discussion yesterday, just prior to the first results of the Canadian election being announced.
I think I set out my defence of Bananarama fairly clearly 🤩
Yes, I thought you were Really Saying Something!
Not only is Bananarama an excellent band name, but it cemented its legacy with Siobhan Fahy and the almost-as-good band name Shakespeare’s sister.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
Bananarama's Venus was a cover version. The original was by the Dutch band Shocking Blue.
Just want to point out that my friends and I once had a party in our house in Barnsbury, Islington, and everyone came and everyone behaved badly and the prettiest member of Bananarama had sex on our tumble dryer
Also REDACTED and REDACTED (both genuinely famous) snorted coke off our kitchen counter
The most remarkable thing about this story is not the party, it is the fact that a bunch of freelancing ne-er-do-wells were, back in the mid 90s, able to rent an entire Georgian house on Thornhill Crescent, in N1, complete with garden, conservatory, chaise longue, drawing room, four bedrooms - insane
Rightmove tells me such a house now would cost £6-£8k a month
This is due to the delay by the Trump administration, which has suspended military aid to Ukraine. In the case of American-made tanks, the Australian leadership must obtain a shipping permit from the US for the transport, which has not yet been granted.
Nevertheless, Australia is working to deliver these 49 tanks to Ukraine in 2025...
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
Walmart and co wouldn't be buying things they can't sell. So while it's probably not critical some people are going to notice it's missing.
And a lot of people who work in distribution are going to be working less or not at all from next week because 35% fewer containers is 35% fewer trucks moving that container from A to B.
There’s a very loud Catholic group demanding a MAGA pope. I can’t see how the conclave would be swayed, but I can see how MAGA could denounce the new pope when he decides he is into woke DEI shit like the New Testament
Or you could get a black conservative Pope
Are there any Canadian candidates? Can you imagine the orange smoke emanating from Trump’s ears following the announcement of their appointment.
Four of them, I believe @College is on Michael Czerny at 200/1.
Bryan Adams was playing in the (Tesla) taxi earlier. I commented to my American colleague that it was apt the radio was celebrating Canada on this important day, and asked if there had been much coverage of the Canadian election here.
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
Suspect it will be the tat that gets missed first in a consumer society.
I mean, the USA will manage fine (and probably be morally improved) if they don't import a load of "sexy global trade negotiator" costumes for Halloween 2025, but people will notice and probably be cross about it.
This is due to the delay by the Trump administration, which has suspended military aid to Ukraine. In the case of American-made tanks, the Australian leadership must obtain a shipping permit from the US for the transport, which has not yet been granted.
Nevertheless, Australia is working to deliver these 49 tanks to Ukraine in 2025...
They should just do it, and sort out the paperwork afterwards.
Still watching CBC and they are talking to Bruce Fanjoy. He thinks a big part of his victory was Poilievre's active support of the trucker convoy that inconvenienced so many of the electors in his riding back in 2022.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Or Doctor in the House. "What's the bleeding time?" "Ten past nine".
"The [Tony Blair Institute] report calls for the rapid deployment of carbon capture and storage technology..."
Sorry if that has put you off your supper.
When cheap and practical means of doing so have been invented - it's a great idea. until then it's a lovely idea but not practical in the real world.
Given that there was plenty of research into CCS happening when I was knocking around university geology departments (roughly Blair's Premiership as it happens), I'm not convinced that the relevant invention is out there. Sometimes, necessity isn't the mother of invention.
Besides, for bulk scenarios like electricity generation, it's been rather overtaken by events. Good-enough solar panels and batteries are now so cheap that they are hard to beat for 90-95% of the task. I'm sure there are niches where CCS is going to be useful (maybe cement, maybe steel) but they are... niche.
I trust that someone has pointed this out to Team Tonyblair, and they aren't running off 25 year old muscle memory.
I’m far from convinced (as some seem to be) that the Canadian result points to what will happen to Reform at the next GE (or beforehand).
The Canadian situation was brought about by a very particular set of events that were immediate in the minds of voters. Canada is also much more badly hit by Trump’s trade policies and his general unhinged-ness, being next door. The Liberals also did an exceptionally well-timed switcheroo at the top.
We have had a lot of predictions that Trump’s antics would damage Reform. As of today, their poll rating is holding up and they will take a load of council seats on Thursday, and potentially win a Westminster by election. I could be persuaded that Trump might be a brake on them expanding their position further, but we don’t have any real evidence of that yet.
Yup. I don't assume people who self-indulgently voted for Brexit would not self-indulgently vote for the man most responsible for it.
Farage also doesn’t need to make MAGA converts of everyone.
He just needs enough people to feel let down by Labour and the Tories.
Reform are a NOTA party.
They don't have a monopoly on the NOTA vote though, do they? Lib Dems regained some of that turf in 2024 having lost it through involvement in the Coalition (making them a OOTA vote for a time). The Greens and Scots/Welsh nationalists also have NOTA appeal.
You can argue in a sense RefUK have greater NOTA appeal - they got more votes than any of those at the last General Election, and are polling higher now. But here's the rub... all those other NOTA parties were more efficient at turning votes into seats in 2024 - the Lib Dems by MILES. That's because they have fewer perceived negatives for NOTA voters (a big negative for Farage being the MAGA connection, which is highly unpopular in the UK).
It is a good point, and that is where FPTP and voter distribution has a big part to play.
In essence you need a bigger “Stop Reform” vote (of which there will be a good chunk) than those minded to vote Reform.
For that reason I’d be less bullish on their chances in much of the blue-rinse seats than a party like the LDs. Rural seats around big cities aren’t going to be great for them either, but the small towns and northern/eastern coasts are fertile ground. At the moment I subscribe to the view that no party can win a majority at the next GE. If I had to predict, I would suggest Labour minority with LD confidence and supply is the most likely.
Big cities and their rural hinterlands aren’t Reform territory, because they’re not the places left behind by our administrators. They’re the places where our administrators live and work, so must receive the benefits they deserve.
It is simpler than that. There are benefits to living in a major city, and benefits to living in pleasant market towns, not much to living in smaller post industrial cities, so no one wants to stay there and they go into spirals of decline.
There are benefits to living in smaller cities, done right, you can get the best of both worlds - the advantages of city life, without too much being squeezed out and able to get about etc
The problem is whether those smaller cities get investment or not
If I were dictator of England I would move senior civil servants out of London and disperse them across the entire country. See how rapidly investment turned up to the smaller cities when Sir Humphrey lives and works there.
(Narrator: the Office For National Statistics moved from London to Newport)
Minor bits and pieces have moved, yes. However Sir Humphrey and all his senior apparatchiks aren't in Newport.
From Man Overboard, Yes, Prime Minister.
Move 200,000 or 300,000 service personnel up north and you create masses of civilian jobs. Clerks, suppliers, builders, vehicle maintenance. 300,000 extra pay packets spent in the shops.
You can't move thousands of men like that.
I thought that's what you did with armies.
You bring 'em back! This'd be permanent.
Guy, can any servicemen be stationed permanently in the north?
I suppose other ranks, junior officers, but you can't ask senior officers to live permanently in the north! The wives wouldn't stand for it for one thing. Children's schools.
I understand there are schools in the north of England.
What about Harrods? What about Wimbledon? Ascot? Henley? The Army and Navy Club? I mean civilisation, generally! It's just not on!
You do realise that:
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
1) That episode is actually Yes Prime Minister, not Yes Minister
2) Spineless, incompetent politicians and arrogant, manipulative civil servants have existed for generations and will exist generations hence. Stereotypes often exist for a reason.
Parody and parable can often usefully inform debate - you can't bring up the surveillance state without somebody (well, realistically, almost everybody) mentioning 1984 and Big Brother, for instance, and many people's ideas of espionage are molded by James Bond and John Le Carre. They make dry, abstract debates much more relatable.
There was an interview with the former Medical Chief of USAID on Leading (interview feed of The Rest is Politics) yesterday, and he was pointing out that it would not be long before more deaths would have been caused by Trump's cancellation of vaccine programmes (eg international programme for measles vaccines) had caused more deaths than the Ukraine war.
While this policy is clearly an economic catastrophe by a vandal who has no frigging clue what he is doing and is unfit for office - I wonder what proportion of that 35% reduction is of critical stuff that will be missed, and how much of that 35% is tat that won't be missed anyway.
Given the way reality works, 17.5% will be tat and the other 17.5% will be things like a critical component of Fogbank.
Recall that 99% of global industrialisation and growth has been powered by people wanting to buy tat. That’s how Britain built an empire.
There was an interview with the former Medical Chief of USAID on Leading (interview feed of The Rest is Politics) yesterday, and he was pointing out that it would not be long before more deaths would have been caused by Trump's cancellation of vaccine programmes (eg international programme for measles vaccines) had caused more deaths than the Ukraine war.
Comments
And then imagine. Britain gets cleaner. Your town centre doesn’t look like a shithole. Your local park could be in Switzerland. If Uzbekistan can do it Britain can do it FFS
And then suddenly everyone feels a bit better about the country and moods lifts overall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUIK01ek-Ko
But I might be hallucinating this.
"The [Tony Blair Institute] report calls for the rapid deployment of carbon capture and storage technology..."
Sorry if that has put you off your supper.
1) Yes Minister was a comedy, not a documentary
2) it is 4 decades old, and was based on stereotypes older than that
It's like trying to decide NHS policy by watching "Carry on Nurse".
Otoh, it's always fun watching a hillwalker desperately scramble across the mountain hunting down an errant cereal bar wrapper. And the elderly gentleman opposite us always heads out with a bin bag, bonkers spaniel and litter picker.
https://x.com/TheDailyShow/status/1917307799819735132
Just make sure the punishments are quite nasty. And also treat it like drink driving. That used to be ubiquitous (I got caught doing it, for shame) but now drink driving is regarded as morally bad by everyone and it is almost self policing. Make littering and graffiti like that. Something that should make you ashamed, and if you still do it you WILL suffer - the way drink drivers lost their precious licenses
As societies, in the west, we just need to toughen up AND return some civic pride. It's not quantum chromodynamics
I have no predictions about 2028 but a candidate who seems to have something going in the early innings is J.B. Pritzker. He pleases the liberal base and being a "good" billionaire (in the eyes of the left) may only help him in the primary. Different than Bloomberg 2020.
https://x.com/RossBarkan/status/1917213074349584854
33/1 with the Magic sign
60s on Betfair
https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3lnxydpu72s2s
There is a lovely piece of public art ona small hillock in St. Helens, called Dream. Essentially it's a massive head. It's beautiful. Or it was. It's now covered in graffiti.
We risk the worst of both worlds: being neither completely shameless and exploiting regulatory arbitrage to pollute our way to growth, nor full hearted enough in making the transition work so that we get the economic and growth benefits from it.
The energy transition will happen. Not only will it increasingly make complete financial sense, but the alternative is catastrophic both environmentally and financially.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aetILfTwBN0
But to me litter is 10x worse than graffiti. And dog shit is 10x worse than litter. I’m not sure it’s worse now than it was 30 years ago in inner cities, I certainly remember dodging dog dirt on London and particularly Paris streets back in the 90s, but I’m on board with the idea that a moral / societal campaign like we did for drink driving and seatbelts is probably a good idea, coupled with a period of intense policing. Whether we have the police numbers for that though is questionable.
Green: -55
Labour: -36
Lib Dems: -23
Conservatives: +51
Reform UK: +69
Scale where -100 is very left-wing and +100 is very right-wing
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1917157069179810201
Britons on average place Keir Starmer to the right of the Labour Party
Keir Starmer: -28 (+8 vs Labour)
Ed Davey: -25 (-2 vs Lib Dems)
Kemi Badenoch: +51 (= vs Cons)
Nigel Farage: +73 (+4 vs Reform)
Scale where -100 is very left-wing and +100 is very right-wing
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1917157083155230952
Of course the Conservatives didn't lose. There was just massive fraud on the part of the lefties.
I suppose with both, there is another big gap between what they say and what they do.
How could anyone not know it was 'ten past ten, sir!'
https://youtu.be/oVWjAeAa52o?si=Xu0yToUShDcBT7TD
But arguments not unlike those were used when the BBC moved to Salford, and have been marshalled against other such moves - see the Treasury.
Interesting trivia: both “I’m your Venus” and “You spin me round like a record” by dead or alive have almost exactly the same backing track and chord sequence, both written of course by Pete Waterman.
Because yes, you're right - litter and graffiti make everyone's life that bit worse, for absolutely no reason other than the litterer's selfish irresponsibility, or some tagger's desire to be a fucking wanker
Also, get rid of litter and graffiti and other good things follow, we know this, it is proven, it improves public moods and ennobles the civic realm. It is also self reinforcing: people do not litter in places with no litter, ditto graffiti. So. Just do it 1 Taser them, make them blind for a week, do a modern day birching - just do it and make it properly painful but transient and impermanent, and this antisocial shit will stop
RADICAL RIGHT LUNATICS = Con, Ref.
Or else the fabric of spacetime will fold in on itself.
(Flexes knees.)
I like the name. Presumably there exists an association of Fanjoy Fanboys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(Shocking_Blue_song)
Currently the Labour lot are more competent, and that will flip flop over time, but the ideological gap is all talk and little action.
https://bsky.app/profile/themckenziest.gay/post/3lnxvujof4c2p
Dismiss tat at your peril!
Also REDACTED and REDACTED (both genuinely famous) snorted coke off our kitchen counter
The most remarkable thing about this story is not the party, it is the fact that a bunch of freelancing ne-er-do-wells were, back in the mid 90s, able to rent an entire Georgian house on Thornhill Crescent, in N1, complete with garden, conservatory, chaise longue, drawing room, four bedrooms - insane
Rightmove tells me such a house now would cost £6-£8k a month
Too many strings.
https://x.com/jurgen_nauditt/status/1917058555078971500
M1A1 Abrams tanks, which Australia was supposed to deliver to Ukraine as part of a $245 million military aid package, have still not left Australia - ABC
This is due to the delay by the Trump administration, which has suspended military aid to Ukraine. In the case of American-made tanks, the Australian leadership must obtain a shipping permit from the US for the transport, which has not yet been granted.
Nevertheless, Australia is working to deliver these 49 tanks to Ukraine in 2025...
And a lot of people who work in distribution are going to be working less or not at all from next week because 35% fewer containers is 35% fewer trucks moving that container from A to B.
“No, not really”.
I mean, the USA will manage fine (and probably be morally improved) if they don't import a load of "sexy global trade negotiator" costumes for Halloween 2025, but people will notice and probably be cross about it.
Warming will increase the size of the oceans.
Problem solved, right?
Runcorn and Helsby by-election, model forecast
LAB: 36% (-17)
REF: 35% (+17)
CON: 11% (-5)
GRN: 9% (+3)
LDEM: 7% (+2)
via Britain Predicts, the @BNHWalker model
Would possibly be cut now.
https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/1917324291772735898?s=61
https://x.com/vanguardintel/status/1917321774842404916?s=61
If this kicks off we will see social disruption in part of the country.
Let’s hope calmer heads prevail.
Besides, for bulk scenarios like electricity generation, it's been rather overtaken by events. Good-enough solar panels and batteries are now so cheap that they are hard to beat for 90-95% of the task. I'm sure there are niches where CCS is going to be useful (maybe cement, maybe steel) but they are... niche.
I trust that someone has pointed this out to Team Tonyblair, and they aren't running off 25 year old muscle memory.
2) Spineless, incompetent politicians and arrogant, manipulative civil servants have existed for generations and will exist generations hence. Stereotypes often exist for a reason.
Parody and parable can often usefully inform debate - you can't bring up the surveillance state without somebody (well, realistically, almost everybody) mentioning 1984 and Big Brother, for instance, and many people's ideas of espionage are molded by James Bond and John Le Carre. They make dry, abstract debates much more relatable.
Harvard Surgeon: We Are In A Global Health Crisis (Atul Gawande)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huVdKhZLfm8
Deep link to "estimated deaths" section
https://youtu.be/huVdKhZLfm8?t=1447
All of this stuff has been around for anyone following the detail, but it's good to see it reaching the more general audience.
"Deluded, psychopathic coward" ?
https://x.com/acyn/status/1917320346950328502
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/04/14/g-s1-59863/hiv-aids-drugs-usaid-zambia