I much prefer John Harris approach to making these vox pop type videos than either the standard MSM news approach or the Louis "fake - I am just a bit thick and confused" Theroux..
His faux-naivete shtick has always grated with me.
What made it worse is that the next generation - Stacey Dooley etc. - started doing it as well, as if that's what journalism was supposed to be, so it's probably here to stay.
More worryingly, I think we now live in a world so 'connected' that genuine investigative journalism from a starting point of neutrality is dead. Learning about anything without picking up preconceived notions early in the process is pretty damn impossible these days. It's not just that journalistic standards have slipped; they've been fundamentally redefined.
I left the BBC 25 years ago and it was pretty bad then. God only knows how things are now.
The Tories have obviously had a horrible set of election results. But they were coming in from a massive high point
Labour have managed to lose a similar proportion of council seats, from a near record low
Made that point earlier. Lost 2/3 of their seats from a record low. Lost councils that have been Labour since the dawn of time. Starmer and Reeves have a lot to think about.
Lost councils that have been Labour since the dawn of time? Lost Doncaster that's been Labour since 2010.
Regained after a period of NOC (but with a Labour minority), following an expenses and planning scandal.
Really it has been Labour going back to the 1974 reorganisation.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Labour figures fear more Gaza independent gains at the locals on Thursday
My dispatch from Burnley, where one candidate challenging Labour wants to end “free mixing” between men and women
So not in favour of unisex toilets, I suspect...
Women's safe spaces taken a step too far for some.
It's what is known in Woke circles as Intersectionality.
Single sex spaces when foughtfor by middle aged, middle class women is fine and dandy, but woe and pearl clutching when young Muslim women argue for it.
Misogyny fights a raging battle against Islamophobia in many a Pop Right mind.
Sometimes it wins, sometimes it loses.
Is Islam a misogynistic religion?
Ask the female Imams.
Good idea, they seem to be around - even to some extent in the UK.
The Conservatives have to make a big decision. They can either try to move closer to Reform. (Hint - you’ll never out racist the racists.)
They can move towards the centre and distance themselves from Reform. This may be counterproductive in the short term. They may lose some of their right to Reform. However, if the likes of Rees Mogg defected to Reform, would that hinder or help them?
They can lie low and wait for the new Reform politicians to embarrass their party, and for Reform to find that running councils is harder than they thought. This assumes that the new Reform councillors don’t succeed, but they might. I think this is the Conservatives best long term hope of recovery, but are they brave enough to lie low and say nuffin?
I am starting to feel that the Tories’ fate is pretty much out of their hands now. I don’t think a move to the centre will particularly help, and I think they’re reaping what they sowed during their disastrous spell in government.
They have to hope Reform implode.
The Tories are still one Farage heart attack away from being the next Government.
There's still a very significant number of MPs and councillors and voters who still feel most comfortable in being One Nation Conservatives ahead of that.
Farage too will pass.
But Nige lives such a healthy lifestyle that seems incredibly unlikely.
And depends on the chunk of the population voting Reform going "Ok then, back to Labour/Conservatives" once Farage is off the scene.
Reform might well die - but something else will take its place. Until you deal with the actual problem.
The actual problem though, is multifaceted and complicated.
Part of it is because we have an aging population, that means an ever greater share of the output of workers is diverted into the care of the retired.
Part of it is because technology and automation means there aren't the well paid blue collar jobs there used to be.
Part of it because people in the developing world are able to do our jobs for much less than we do them for... and cutting ourself off from the rest of the world isn't possible, because we have so little natural resources.
All these things work together to make governing difficult for almost every country in the developed world.
Worse: politicians have attempted to solve the first of these problems by importing people, and lying about it.
I much prefer John Harris approach to making these vox pop type videos than either the standard MSM news approach or the Louis "fake - I am just a bit thick and confused" Theroux..
His faux-naivete shtick has always grated with me.
What made it worse is that the next generation - Stacey Dooley etc. - started doing it as well, as if that's what journalism was supposed to be, so it's probably here to stay.
More worryingly, I think we now live in a world so 'connected' that genuine investigative journalism from a starting point of neutrality is dead. Learning about anything without picking up preconceived notions early in the process is pretty damn impossible these days. It's not just that journalistic standards have slipped; they've been fundamentally redefined.
I left the BBC 25 years ago and it was pretty bad then. God only knows how things are now.
We all know John Harris is a big leftie, but he has a good way of connecting with a range of normal people including those who don't see the world the same way as him without pretending "oh I am just a stupid bumbling British bloke so you can trust me". He tries to understand what is motivating different people to vote different ways and over the past 10+ years has pulled out some excellent insights.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
The Conservatives have to make a big decision. They can either try to move closer to Reform. (Hint - you’ll never out racist the racists.)
They can move towards the centre and distance themselves from Reform. This may be counterproductive in the short term. They may lose some of their right to Reform. However, if the likes of Rees Mogg defected to Reform, would that hinder or help them?
They can lie low and wait for the new Reform politicians to embarrass their party, and for Reform to find that running councils is harder than they thought. This assumes that the new Reform councillors don’t succeed, but they might. I think this is the Conservatives best long term hope of recovery, but are they brave enough to lie low and say nuffin?
I am starting to feel that the Tories’ fate is pretty much out of their hands now. I don’t think a move to the centre will particularly help, and I think they’re reaping what they sowed during their disastrous spell in government.
They have to hope Reform implode.
The Tories are still one Farage heart attack away from being the next Government.
There's still a very significant number of MPs and councillors and voters who still feel most comfortable in being One Nation Conservatives ahead of that.
Farage too will pass.
But Nige lives such a healthy lifestyle that seems incredibly unlikely.
And depends on the chunk of the population voting Reform going "Ok then, back to Labour/Conservatives" once Farage is off the scene.
Reform might well die - but something else will take its place. Until you deal with the actual problem.
The actual problem though, is multifaceted and complicated.
Part of it is because we have an aging population, that means an ever greater share of the output of workers is diverted into the care of the retired.
Part of it is because technology and automation means there aren't the well paid blue collar jobs there used to be.
Part of it because people in the developing world are able to do our jobs for much less than we do them for... and cutting ourself off from the rest of the world isn't possible, because we have so little natural resources.
All these things work together to make governing difficult for almost every country in the developed world.
Worse: politicians have attempted to solve the first of these problems by importing people, and lying about it.
A nice summation.
I would add that cheap labour vs technology is the failure.
What happens when the Japanese get one of their old age assistant robots to work to the level of arse wiping?
What happens when someone markets a cure for one or more dementias? Or bone loss with age? Or muscle loss with age?
The Conservatives have to make a big decision. They can either try to move closer to Reform. (Hint - you’ll never out racist the racists.)
They can move towards the centre and distance themselves from Reform. This may be counterproductive in the short term. They may lose some of their right to Reform. However, if the likes of Rees Mogg defected to Reform, would that hinder or help them?
They can lie low and wait for the new Reform politicians to embarrass their party, and for Reform to find that running councils is harder than they thought. This assumes that the new Reform councillors don’t succeed, but they might. I think this is the Conservatives best long term hope of recovery, but are they brave enough to lie low and say nuffin?
I am starting to feel that the Tories’ fate is pretty much out of their hands now. I don’t think a move to the centre will particularly help, and I think they’re reaping what they sowed during their disastrous spell in government.
They have to hope Reform implode.
The Tories are still one Farage heart attack away from being the next Government.
There's still a very significant number of MPs and councillors and voters who still feel most comfortable in being One Nation Conservatives ahead of that.
Farage too will pass.
I do wonder, quite often, about the helicopter incident a few years ago.
There's going to be six months of social media horror stories from amongst these new UKIP councillors.
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
I'm on the left but I kind of agree with this. The biggest single positive thing any politician seeking power could do is to lower the public's expectations on growth and living standards.
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Starmer needs to fire his useless adviser McSweeney who is clearly out of his depth .
No more resets or change drivel .
You want him to go further and faster towards the exit?
Starmer really isn’t very good at politics and anyone so thick as to allow the Chancellor to make an imbecilic move on the WFA needs to consider whether they’re in the right job.
James O'Brien reached that conclusion on LBC this morning.
If Jenrick does decide to unseat Kemi he needs a pact with Nigey to only contest half the winnable seats. As it stands at the moment why would Farage bother? Let's hope Trump can screw the Reform pooch.
Listening to LBC on the way home the Con to Ref turncoats were all wibbling on about small boats.
I am sure Reform-run Staffordshire Council can stop the boats.
The Trent is tidal!
Not the bit that runs through Staffordshire.
When I was a nipper I used to drink the wonderfully named Trent Bitter. 3.8%
I don’t think it was made with water from the Trent.
In Nottingham you could get Shipstones. An anagram of which is Honest Piss.
Visiting American colleagues were gobsmacked that we have a soft drink that is an anagram of ‘vomit’.
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
I'm on the left but I kind of agree with this. The biggest single positive thing any politician seeking power could do is to lower the public's expectations on growth and living standards.
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
As that Belgian(?) said in 2008, we know what needs to be done, just not how to win an election after doing it.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Reform is NOTA. Farage is NOTA. As you say, it is a reaction to the other parties being the ones who broke broken Britain. This also explains why some of the polling was off. NOTA voters are harder to reach because a lot of the time, they don't vote.
Cyber criminals have told BBC News their hack against Co-op is far more serious than the company previously admitted. Hackers contacted the BBC with proof they had infiltrated IT networks and stolen huge amounts of customer and employee data.
The cyber criminals claim to have the private information of 20 million people who signed up to Co-op's membership scheme, but the firm would not confirm that number.
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
I'm on the left but I kind of agree with this. The biggest single positive thing any politician seeking power could do is to lower the public's expectations on growth and living standards.
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
A politician who said, "We can no longer afford to take on obligations towards the rest of the world's citizens as if we were still the centre of a global empire," would win support from both of us.
From absurdity and anger to hope in Reform UK's new heartland – video
As Nigel Farage's party sweeps to victory in Lincolnshire, John Harris and John Domokos take a road trip through anger, sadness and fear – and, despite Reform's triumph, discover people working on a new politics of hope and common humanity
It is one of the lip-biting seething-anger parts of my life that John Harris, Danny Dorling and Gary Stephenson have spent years pointing out the problems and solutions while our political classes and electorate cheerfully ignore them. It is a bad world.
From absurdity and anger to hope in Reform UK's new heartland – video
As Nigel Farage's party sweeps to victory in Lincolnshire, John Harris and John Domokos take a road trip through anger, sadness and fear – and, despite Reform's triumph, discover people working on a new politics of hope and common humanity
It is one of the lip-biting seething-anger parts of my life that John Harris, Danny Dorling and Gary Stephenson have spent years pointing out the problems and solutions while our political classes and electorate cheerfully ignore them. It is a bad world.
I have far less time for Gary Economics....as a) he is a bullshitter about his background and b) that YouTube by his own admission wasn't an organic thing, it was a marketing ploy cynically run and funded by his publisher to sell books....then when they cut off his funding after the book came out, he immediately got the begging bowl out....you are a sodding multi-millionaire and now sold a shit load of books, don't start asking for donations or you can't carry on filming some videos from your kitchen.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Reform is NOTA. Farage is NOTA. As you say, it is a reaction to the other parties being the ones who broke broken Britain. This also explains why some of the polling was off. NOTA voters are harder to reach because a lot of the time, they don't vote.
The Big Lie is that Britain is broke(n). A theme park for 8.5 million visitors per year in Bedfordshire. A Centre Parcs proposed for the Scottish Borders. Yet we are all supposed to be on our uppers.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Reform is NOTA. Farage is NOTA. As you say, it is a reaction to the other parties being the ones who broke broken Britain. This also explains why some of the polling was off. NOTA voters are harder to reach because a lot of the time, they don't vote.
I also think it’s why, certainly in Durham, a lot of the previously popular independents lost out. They were also NOTA
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
I'm on the left but I kind of agree with this. The biggest single positive thing any politician seeking power could do is to lower the public's expectations on growth and living standards.
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
As that Belgian(?) said in 2008, we know what needs to be done, just not how to win an election after doing it.
That's why the last two budgets were so disappointing. Both parties had a chance to do the right thing - Conservatives to leave a '97 style legacy; Labour had 5 years to enjoy lower interest rates and perhaps even some growth.
WFP was the right thing to do, but only as a drone swarm of multiple other spicy reforms.
From absurdity and anger to hope in Reform UK's new heartland – video
As Nigel Farage's party sweeps to victory in Lincolnshire, John Harris and John Domokos take a road trip through anger, sadness and fear – and, despite Reform's triumph, discover people working on a new politics of hope and common humanity
It is one of the lip-biting seething-anger parts of my life that John Harris, Danny Dorling and Gary Stephenson have spent years pointing out the problems and solutions while our political classes and electorate cheerfully ignore them. It is a bad world.
John Harris and Suzanne Moore did some really,excellent work prior to,the Brexit vote touring the country. A proper finger on the pulse stuff.
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
Nine of the poorest ten regions in Northern Europe are now in the UK, with just one of the richest ten.
There's going to be six months of social media horror stories from amongst these new UKIP councillors.
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Daily.
For eternity.
A Farage-Jenrick RefCon love- in gets you the win nonetheless. Kills Labour forever. What's not to like for PBTories?
The PM promises to go faster with change. The problem is his changes bring higher taxes, higher energy prices, more migrants, more small boats, cuts in benefits for pensioners and the disabled. These are not the changes most people want."
They need to drop the Change thing. It was deliberately designed as the slogan for the Ming Vase election because it was nebulous and didn’t mean much. Now they’re in government he keeps waffling on about his Plan For Change but he’s never taken the time to really set out what he wants.
Stop trying to make Change happen, Keir.
I agree. Sick of hearing about change as if it's by definition a good thing.
Starmer needs to fire his useless adviser McSweeney who is clearly out of his depth .
No more resets or change drivel .
You want him to go further and faster towards the exit?
Starmer really isn’t very good at politics and anyone so thick as to allow the Chancellor to make an imbecilic move on the WFA needs to consider whether they’re in the right job.
James O'Brien reached that conclusion on LBC this morning.
If Jenrick does decide to unseat Kemi he needs a pact with Nigey to only contest half the winnable seats. As it stands at the moment why would Farage bother? Let's hope Trump can screw the Reform pooch.
Listening to LBC on the way home the Con to Ref turncoats were all wibbling on about small boats.
I am sure Reform-run Staffordshire Council can stop the boats.
The Trent is tidal!
Not the bit that runs through Staffordshire.
When I was a nipper I used to drink the wonderfully named Trent Bitter. 3.8%
I don’t think it was made with water from the Trent.
In Nottingham you could get Shipstones. An anagram of which is Honest Piss.
Visiting American colleagues were gobsmacked that we have a soft drink that is an anagram of ‘vomit’.
Let alone going outside for a quick fag or eating faggots for dinner !
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
That’s the thing. People going on about how people shouldn’t vote Reform as they are being conned, not being honest, lying to you.
No different to any other party. So why not vote for them.
Fuck the normal mainstream parties. They deserve their fate. They brought us here.
As did Farage. Since everyone's been giving him credit for Brexit.
@Nigel_Farage says any Durham County Council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives, or think 'they can go on working from home', should be 'seeking alternative careers'
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Reform is NOTA. Farage is NOTA. As you say, it is a reaction to the other parties being the ones who broke broken Britain. This also explains why some of the polling was off. NOTA voters are harder to reach because a lot of the time, they don't vote.
The Big Lie is that Britain is broke(n). A theme park for 8.5 million visitors per year in Bedfordshire. A Centre Parcs proposed for the Scottish Borders. Yet we are all supposed to be on our uppers.
A wakeup call for Farage haters to tactically vote
A wake up call for parties to engage with voters. Simply saying don’t vote for Reform because of Farage doesn’t really do anything to address the failings of the other parties that brought this about.
Reform is NOTA. Farage is NOTA. As you say, it is a reaction to the other parties being the ones who broke broken Britain. This also explains why some of the polling was off. NOTA voters are harder to reach because a lot of the time, they don't vote.
The Big Lie is that Britain is broke(n). A theme park for 8.5 million visitors per year in Bedfordshire. A Centre Parcs proposed for the Scottish Borders. Yet we are all supposed to be on our uppers.
Exactly. A local,town to us is getting a new Home Bargains. The good news is endless.
Labour figures fear more Gaza independent gains at the locals on Thursday
My dispatch from Burnley, where one candidate challenging Labour wants to end “free mixing” between men and women
So not in favour of unisex toilets, I suspect...
Women's safe spaces taken a step too far for some.
It's what is known in Woke circles as Intersectionality.
Single sex spaces when foughtfor by middle aged, middle class women is fine and dandy, but woe and pearl clutching when young Muslim women argue for it.
Misogyny fights a raging battle against Islamophobia in many a Pop Right mind.
Sometimes it wins, sometimes it loses.
Is Islam a misogynistic religion?
Ask the female Imams.
Good idea, they seem to be around - even to some extent in the UK.
Feck, this is worse than my worse nightmare. The people of this country have completely and utterly lost the place. Our normal, mainstream parties have been destroyed. Both of them. Together.
This is what we get for politicians pretending that we are a "rich country." We are not. We are a debtor country. We have the "right" to a certain standard of living, whether we work, whether we actually produce or whether we simply take off the state. Do we fuck.
This sort of lies (because that is what they are) have put us in a dark space. Tytler, a Scot, said nearly 200 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
This is Reform in a nutshell but it is Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems too. All of them lie to us about what is needed, what we can actually afford, what we are actually entitled to and what we need to do to earn what we want.
I'm on the left but I kind of agree with this. The biggest single positive thing any politician seeking power could do is to lower the public's expectations on growth and living standards.
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
As that Belgian(?) said in 2008, we know what needs to be done, just not how to win an election after doing it.
That's why the last two budgets were so disappointing. Both parties had a chance to do the right thing - Conservatives to leave a '97 style legacy; Labour had 5 years to enjoy lower interest rates and perhaps even some growth.
WFP was the right thing to do, but only as a drone swarm of multiple other spicy reforms.
The trouble is parties let themselves be bullied by the media into "we won't increase tax X or tax Y" corners. So they have to scrabble around elsewhere into niches where no one thought to force them into promises.
There's going to be six months of social media horror stories from amongst these new UKIP councillors.
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Daily.
For eternity.
A Farage-Jenrick RefCon love- in gets you the win nonetheless. Kills Labour forever. What's not to like for PBTories?
The Tories are fucked. That may work to pull back losses on the right but they then lose more to the Lib Dem’s in middle England.
They’re being squeezed on the right by Reform and centre by Lib Dem’s.
Serves the motherfuckers right. They’re a complete shambles,and elected an ideas vacuum as leader and left the country in an utter mess.
It’s an existential problem for them. I suspect they are going the way of the liberals after WW1.
Labour figures fear more Gaza independent gains at the locals on Thursday
My dispatch from Burnley, where one candidate challenging Labour wants to end “free mixing” between men and women
So not in favour of unisex toilets, I suspect...
Women's safe spaces taken a step too far for some.
It's what is known in Woke circles as Intersectionality.
Single sex spaces when foughtfor by middle aged, middle class women is fine and dandy, but woe and pearl clutching when young Muslim women argue for it.
Misogyny fights a raging battle against Islamophobia in many a Pop Right mind.
Sometimes it wins, sometimes it loses.
Is Islam a misogynistic religion?
Ask the female Imams.
Good idea, they seem to be around - even to some extent in the UK.
There's going to be six months of social media horror stories from amongst these new UKIP councillors.
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Daily.
For eternity.
A Farage-Jenrick RefCon love- in gets you the win nonetheless. Kills Labour forever. What's not to like for PBTories?
Even PB Tories suffer from lack of growth and decreased prosperity.
There's going to be six months of social media horror stories from amongst these new UKIP councillors.
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Daily.
For eternity.
A Farage-Jenrick RefCon love- in gets you the win nonetheless. Kills Labour forever. What's not to like for PBTories?
The Tories are fucked. That may work to pull back losses on the right but they then lose more to the Lib Dem’s in middle England.
They’re being squeezed on the right by Reform and centre by Lib Dem’s.
Serves the motherfuckers right. They’re a complete shambles,and elected an ideas vacuum as leader and left the country in an utter mess.
It’s an existential problem for them. I suspect they are going the way of the liberals after WW1.
Comments
What made it worse is that the next generation - Stacey Dooley etc. - started doing it as well, as if that's what journalism was supposed to be, so it's probably here to stay.
More worryingly, I think we now live in a world so 'connected' that genuine investigative journalism from a starting point of neutrality is dead. Learning about anything without picking up preconceived notions early in the process is pretty damn impossible these days. It's not just that journalistic standards have slipped; they've been fundamentally redefined.
I left the BBC 25 years ago and it was pretty bad then. God only knows how things are now.
Really it has been Labour going back to the 1974 reorganisation.
Paneer Tank.
Part of it is because we have an aging population, that means an ever greater share of the output of workers is diverted into the care of the retired.
Part of it is because technology and automation means there aren't the well paid blue collar jobs there used to be.
Part of it because people in the developing world are able to do our jobs for much less than we do them for... and cutting ourself off from the rest of the world isn't possible, because we have so little natural resources.
All these things work together to make governing difficult for almost every country in the developed world.
Worse: politicians have attempted to solve the first of these problems by importing people, and lying about it.
I would add that cheap labour vs technology is the failure.
What happens when the Japanese get one of their old age assistant robots to work to the level of arse wiping?
What happens when someone markets a cure for one or more dementias? Or bone loss with age? Or muscle loss with age?
Expulsion after expulsion after expulsion after expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives need a leader who can take on the failings of this Government. Offer something that is more than None of the Above. Kemi isn't being listened to. Jenrick would be Reform lite - fuck that. Nobody wants Reform lite. Nobody.
Jeremy Hunt probably gets listened to when demolishing Labour. Especially when Reeves is the Chancellor. They need a Michael Howard for our times - unlikely to be PM, but gets them back in the game.
How the Tories get to Hunt when the membership will be swayed by Jenrick though is the challenge they face. A small number of twattish MPs who put Truss to the membership started this. A membership who elected her propelled it forward. There was some hope when the membership went for Kemi over Jenrick. But again, the twattish MPs who played games to keep Cleverly from the membership deserve a cauldron of luke warm piss and shit dropping on them.
Daily.
For eternity.
Guardiola signed a two-year contract extension in November, extending his stay at the club until June 2027.
"After my contract with City, I'm going to stop. I'm sure," Guardiola told ESPN, external.
"I don't know if I'm going to retire, but I'm going to take a break."
The trouble is you can't get elected that way. It has to be "change" and "reset" and "best days lie ahead" and "great country" yada yada.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.
Cyber criminals have told BBC News their hack against Co-op is far more serious than the company previously admitted. Hackers contacted the BBC with proof they had infiltrated IT networks and stolen huge amounts of customer and employee data.
The cyber criminals claim to have the private information of 20 million people who signed up to Co-op's membership scheme, but the firm would not confirm that number.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkx3vy54nzo
In addition to N Northamptonshire, there is a chance of a ReFuk majority in W Northamptonshire.
A theme park for 8.5 million visitors per year in Bedfordshire.
A Centre Parcs proposed for the Scottish Borders.
Yet we are all supposed to be on our uppers.
WFP was the right thing to do, but only as a drone swarm of multiple other spicy reforms.
PS I love Brains West Country Faggots.
NEW THREAD
Since everyone's been giving him credit for Brexit.
says any Durham County Council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives, or think 'they can go on working from home', should be 'seeking alternative careers'
It is one of seven county councils now under Reform's control
https://x.com/ITVNewsPolitics/status/1918323083305275735
Come on guys... let's leave Reform behind for a minute.
So they have to scrabble around elsewhere into niches where no one thought to force them into promises.
They’re being squeezed on the right by Reform and centre by Lib Dem’s.
Serves the motherfuckers right. They’re a complete shambles,and elected an ideas vacuum as leader and left the country in an utter mess.
It’s an existential problem for them. I suspect they are going the way of the liberals after WW1.
NEW THREAD