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Now the focus shifts to Australia – politicalbetting.com

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  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 7,377
    edited May 3

    He’s worse than the Maybot.

    https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/1918577900397166696

    Most Prime Ministers would respond to these local elections with the same old excuses.

    My response is simple: I get it.

    We’re moving in the right direction, but people must feel the benefits of change.

    I will go further and faster to make that happen.

    He is incredibly lame.

    This is why Farage is doing well. Starmer has nothing but politician-speak, trying to pretend that he’s not speaking like a politician.

    Nobody is fooled.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,778
    eek said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    So they don't want the increased electricity supply that is required for electric cars and heat pumps nor local supply.

    Going to be an interesting return to the 1950's for Lincolnshire...
    Worth noting that the Viking "Track 2" CCS cluster will be located in Lincolnshire.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,948
    Sean_F said:

    The results surprised me. I’d have expected c.500 seats apiece for Reform and Conservatives.

    Reform took most of its seats off the Conservatives, but many of those were historically Labour seats, won by the Conservatives in 2021.

    The big correlation is with the Leave vote. The more Leave a place is the more likely it is to succumb to Reform. This is no surprise since the driving sentiment for voting Leave in 2016 and for Reform now is the same - "we want our country back".

    It's a great base to have. The Referendum vote was a Leave landslide in terms of FPTP GE calculus. 408 seats voted for Brexit. Winning three quarters of them gets Nigel Farage into Downing St. Bet that's how he's looking at it. I don't think he'll do it but it IS doable.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,882
    edited May 3

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 43,450
    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate - I need to go down at 3am and add a K to that sign !)
    A cold shower in the tent seems harsh.
  • BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 6,294
    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too
  • occasionalranteroccasionalranter Posts: 346
    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,778

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!

    Fairly predictably MAGA agenda though, and a deliberate choice of name worshiping Trumpism:

    https://trumpetofpatriots.org/policies/
    It's wonderful.

    Perhaps we could see here The Clarinet of Conservatism, The Lyre of Labour, or The Reform Riff.
    The Trombone of Concerned Guardian Readers?
    The Euphonium of Unionists.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,770
    edited May 3

    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
    The only solution involves sustained growth running at above 2% a year. But other than the US nobody none of the legacy economies managed it for 15 years now and the US still isn't in a great shape.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,385

    eek said:

    (4/5)

    What is intriguing to me is that supposedly it was the inheritance tax changes that were going to kill the government. This all seems to have gone quiet and hasn’t as far as I know been brought up much in focus groups?

    Perhaps it’s only relevant in some constituencies not others but I wonder if that policy was actually not as bad as some of the more alarmist people said at the time.

    Likewise on VAT on school fees.

    It’s the WFA cut that seems to have done the most damage - whilst I personally think this was the right move and I’d also get rid of the triple lock

    With pensions about to rise above the tax allowance I think we are about to get to the point where the triple lock can be sanely removed and replaced with tracking the standard tax allowance instead...

    Now it's an incredibly creed way of removing the triple lock but it solves a whole set of very painful issues that would otherwise arise and make income tax for pensioners very easy to calculate..
    The personal allowance is unchanged in five years and you want pensions to track it?
    It would be an informal way of sharing both pain and sweeties between employees and pensioners. Not a bad idea.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704

    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
    *waves to fellow Devonian*

    Yep. Who needs to be worrying about our politics, when probably the most clement climate on the planet right now is here on the south coast of England.

  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 30,379

    eek said:

    (4/5)

    What is intriguing to me is that supposedly it was the inheritance tax changes that were going to kill the government. This all seems to have gone quiet and hasn’t as far as I know been brought up much in focus groups?

    Perhaps it’s only relevant in some constituencies not others but I wonder if that policy was actually not as bad as some of the more alarmist people said at the time.

    Likewise on VAT on school fees.

    It’s the WFA cut that seems to have done the most damage - whilst I personally think this was the right move and I’d also get rid of the triple lock

    With pensions about to rise above the tax allowance I think we are about to get to the point where the triple lock can be sanely removed and replaced with tracking the standard tax allowance instead...

    Now it's an incredibly creed way of removing the triple lock but it solves a whole set of very painful issues that would otherwise arise and make income tax for pensioners very easy to calculate..
    The personal allowance is unchanged in five years and you want pensions to track it?
    It would be an informal way of sharing both pain and sweeties between employees and pensioners. Not a bad idea.
    The part of the triple lock that rises with wages does that.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,448

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    Is housing of migrants down to the Mayor, or is it central government?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,423

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!

    Fairly predictably MAGA agenda though, and a deliberate choice of name worshiping Trumpism:

    https://trumpetofpatriots.org/policies/
    It's wonderful.

    Perhaps we could see here The Clarinet of Conservatism, The Lyre of Labour, or The Reform Riff.
    The Trombone of Concerned Guardian Readers?
    The Euphonium of Unionists.
    Surely the Tympani of Tyranny?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,882
    I see that Andrea Jenkins referred to Farage as "Our Great Leader".

    https://youtu.be/ZFmoRk8DTWc?t=796

  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 5,805

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    I almost booked a month in Lourdes during the pandemic. Out of peak periods there is a huge surplus of hotel rooms, so prices are rock bottom.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,895

    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
    *waves to fellow Devonian*

    Yep. Who needs to be worrying about our politics, when probably the most clement climate on the planet right now is here on the south coast of England.

    Indeed kidnapping my father from the care home today to sit in a devon beer garden for a couple of hours
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,012

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!

    Fairly predictably MAGA agenda though, and a deliberate choice of name worshiping Trumpism:

    https://trumpetofpatriots.org/policies/
    It's wonderful.

    Perhaps we could see here The Clarinet of Conservatism, The Lyre of Labour, or The Reform Riff.
    The Trombone of Concerned Guardian Readers?
    The Euphonium of Unionists.
    LibDem Dulcimer.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,895
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!

    Fairly predictably MAGA agenda though, and a deliberate choice of name worshiping Trumpism:

    https://trumpetofpatriots.org/policies/
    It's wonderful.

    Perhaps we could see here The Clarinet of Conservatism, The Lyre of Labour, or The Reform Riff.
    The Trombone of Concerned Guardian Readers?
    The Euphonium of Unionists.
    Surely the Tympani of Tyranny?
    The stylophone of social democracy?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 30,379

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    Is housing of migrants down to the Mayor, or is it central government?
    As Trump has shown, and as Boris showed before Trump, there is a lot of power in just doing stuff and worrying about legal and constitutional niceties down the line, if at all.
  • occasionalranteroccasionalranter Posts: 346

    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
    The only solution involves sustained growth running at above 2% a year. But other than the US nobody none of the legacy economies managed it for 15 years now and the US still isn't in a great shape.
    I own a manufacturing business in the UK that will grow at >2% a year. Looking at moving it, and me, to a more business friendly and tax friendly jurisdiction...
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    Pagan2 said:

    Tres said:

    eek said:

    nico67 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    MattW said:

    Good morning everyone !

    A nice sunny day in Reform Central. Agent Anderson will be out jogging in his shorts *.

    * Golfing would make more sense, since he is across the road from an excellent golf course **.
    ** That's not doxxing. We have lots of excellent golf courses here, and his new dwelling has been in the Daily Mirror.

    Morning -

    Not such a sunny day if you are Notts council employee waking up this morning!!

    I'll be surprised if Reform councillors don't go in there in on Monday full of DOGE-inspired chainsaw juice and start the purges.

    We shall see.
    It's a win, win for Reform. When the bins don't get collected they can blame national government.
    With Reform, it'll always be someone else's fault.

    Now they're getting some semblance of power, they'll need to start taking responsibility for their actions and words. And that won't come easy for Nige's fellow travelers.

    I have low expectations; I don't expect to see those expectations exceeded.
    I expect Reform will blame central government funding when they start making cuts
    What, like every other party in power in local govt ?

    Labour did in Durham. So did the coalition.

    They’re right too. The model is broken at the moment.
    It’s not sustainable and more councils are going to go bankrupt .
    Social Care costs will eventually eat all councils.

    It's the sort of area where the 3 main parties need to hold a joint decision on how to fix the issue because it needs to be solved and without cross party support it's unsolvable.
    if it's impossible politically to fix a trifle like the winter fuel allowance without getting a hammering, i don't see that there is any chance that the parties will work together to fix this
    This. The country is unfixable. Still, lovely weather here in Devon this weekend.
    *waves to fellow Devonian*

    Yep. Who needs to be worrying about our politics, when probably the most clement climate on the planet right now is here on the south coast of England.

    Indeed kidnapping my father from the care home today to sit in a devon beer garden for a couple of hours
    Well done you. He'll love you for it. (Unless the beer is shit - in which case you'll never hear the end of it!!)
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,778
    The Concertina of the Squeezed Middle.
  • occasionalranteroccasionalranter Posts: 346

    eek said:

    (4/5)

    What is intriguing to me is that supposedly it was the inheritance tax changes that were going to kill the government. This all seems to have gone quiet and hasn’t as far as I know been brought up much in focus groups?

    Perhaps it’s only relevant in some constituencies not others but I wonder if that policy was actually not as bad as some of the more alarmist people said at the time.

    Likewise on VAT on school fees.

    It’s the WFA cut that seems to have done the most damage - whilst I personally think this was the right move and I’d also get rid of the triple lock

    With pensions about to rise above the tax allowance I think we are about to get to the point where the triple lock can be sanely removed and replaced with tracking the standard tax allowance instead...

    Now it's an incredibly creed way of removing the triple lock but it solves a whole set of very painful issues that would otherwise arise and make income tax for pensioners very easy to calculate..
    The personal allowance is unchanged in five years and you want pensions to track it?
    It would be an informal way of sharing both pain and sweeties between employees and pensioners. Not a bad idea.
    The part of the triple lock that rises with wages does that.
    No, that just shares the sweeties.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!

    Fairly predictably MAGA agenda though, and a deliberate choice of name worshiping Trumpism:

    https://trumpetofpatriots.org/policies/
    It's wonderful.

    Perhaps we could see here The Clarinet of Conservatism, The Lyre of Labour, or The Reform Riff.
    The Reform Recorder. Shrill. Annoying. Ultimately people stop playing it in favour of serious instruments...
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,018

    I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions. They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, out-dated, mis-placed, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end up in the grotesque chaos of a Reform council, a Reform council, hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.

    Except handing out redundancy notices is what Reform have promised from day 1.
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,018
    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,385

    eek said:

    (4/5)

    What is intriguing to me is that supposedly it was the inheritance tax changes that were going to kill the government. This all seems to have gone quiet and hasn’t as far as I know been brought up much in focus groups?

    Perhaps it’s only relevant in some constituencies not others but I wonder if that policy was actually not as bad as some of the more alarmist people said at the time.

    Likewise on VAT on school fees.

    It’s the WFA cut that seems to have done the most damage - whilst I personally think this was the right move and I’d also get rid of the triple lock

    With pensions about to rise above the tax allowance I think we are about to get to the point where the triple lock can be sanely removed and replaced with tracking the standard tax allowance instead...

    Now it's an incredibly creed way of removing the triple lock but it solves a whole set of very painful issues that would otherwise arise and make income tax for pensioners very easy to calculate..
    The personal allowance is unchanged in five years and you want pensions to track it?
    It would be an informal way of sharing both pain and sweeties between employees and pensioners. Not a bad idea.
    The part of the triple lock that rises with wages does that.
    It clearly doesn't as you point out that the personal allowance is unchanged for five years, whilst the pension has seen big rises.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 716
    edited May 3

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    Knights of Malta?

    https://www.orderofmalta.int/about-the-order-of-malta/knights-of-malta/

    You're making good progress.

    Just seen this

    https://www.orderofmalta.int/news/order-of-malta-67th-international-pilgrimage-lourdes-underway/
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Still the early vote to come in Australia but at the moment it’s looking like a horror show for the LIB/NP.

    Peter Dutton’s divisive campaign is getting the response it deserves . Good riddance to the Trump arselickers .
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    You have obviously never been to Blackpool on a stag / hen do.....
    Be a bold group who hit Lourdes for theirs...!
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,770
    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    MattW said:

    I see that Andrea Jenkins referred to Farage as "Our Great Leader".

    https://youtu.be/ZFmoRk8DTWc?t=796

    She'll be the News Lady in Pink from North Korean TV...
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,423
    Roger said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    I draw the attention of PB once again to the astonishing result in Cornwall

    Cornwall Council Result #LE2025:

    RFM: 28 (+28)
    LDM: 26 (+13)
    INDs: 16 (=)
    CON: 7 (-40)
    LAB: 4 (-1)
    GRN: 3 (+2)
    MK: 3 (-2)

    No Overall Control - No Change (though was initially Conservative in 2021).

    Cornwall is always a law unto itself. A last redoubt for the liberals (a hangover from Methodism I reckon), yet quite often it goes quite Tory and once every couple of decades Labour does well

    Given the appalling Tory collapse and the dire unpopularity of Labour you’d expect the Lib Dems to triumph

    They’ve done well but they’ve been beaten by an entirely new party. Reform. This will deeply unnerve all three trad parties in Cornwall; my whole family is in shock (they’re quite political and have a range of views - eg my reform voting niece is ecstatic and my Tory voting brother in law is in despair)

    You will end up with a LibDem council leader and a bunch of Reform councillors impotently contributing very little from opposition.
    But won't it be fun watching them goose-step into the council offices
    More of a waddle than a goose step from what I have seen!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,624

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    Hey, Nigel, are you watching?
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 30,007
    Election called by ABC, SKY and Guardian.
    Only question is whether it will be big or not.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    edited May 3

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night for the Liberals?
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Peter Dutton is toast . The early vote is leaning towards Labour .
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,423
    edited May 3

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    You have obviously never been to Blackpool on a stag / hen do.....
    Be a bold group who hit Lourdes for theirs...!
    One of the best stag nights that I have been on was at a Dutch Reform mission in Malawi. We had a braai under a perfectly clear African sky at a mountain hut. We swapped tall tales and sipped red wine, then hiked to the summit to watch the dawn break over the rift valley.

    One advantage of not being too hungover was being able to remember it all!
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    nico67 said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
    Bizarre why the Liberal Democrats are called Liberal Democrats as the are neither Lib....
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,012
    Only a matter of time before he renames the San Andreas Fault the Joe Biden's Fault.

    Trump marks 100 days in office with Biden blame game
    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5280246-trump-biden-economic-issues/
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,433
    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    vik said:
    As the west moves right you can expect support for the monarchy to stubbornly endure, and even rise

    European monarchies - especially the UK’s - are a source of Western European pride, culture and identity. And they are Christian. All these things are becoming more valued as they seem increasingly threatened (ironically we have a very Woke king - but it’s the institution not the individual that matters)

    Time and again we’ve seen this in actual votes. The Irish rejecting woke bollocks in referendums. New Zealanders voting to retain the Union Jack

    And so on
    I agree, the Monarchy in this country and the Commonwealth realms is, surprisingly, secure. I don't agree that the King is 'very Woke'. A LibDem at most but probably more along the lines of his friend Nick Soames (who I think is still a Tory).

    The ladies in his life who have been the most powerful influences on him, like the present Queen and the late Queen Mother are/were imho about as far from Woke as it is possible to be.
    If he could vote the King would almost certainly vote LD (maybe Green sometimes locally too), whereas Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William are basically One Nation Tories, William a cross between that and New Labour.

    The Queen Mother however was a staunch Thatcher fan and got on better with Maggie than her daughter and was very anti German so would probably have gone for Farage and Reform
    Our Royal Family are in no credible position to be anti-German!
    The Queen Mother was half Scottish and half English, her husband had German blood, she didn't
    "her husband" = "King George VI"
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,267
    nico67 said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
    They are classical Liberals with the Nationals the conservatives and together they form the Coalition
  • DoubleCarpetDoubleCarpet Posts: 948
    ydoethur said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    Hey, Nigel, are you watching?
    Do you think Farage will lose Clacton in 2028/9?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,385

    nico67 said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
    Bizarre why the Liberal Democrats are called Liberal Democrats as the are neither Lib....
    Just imagine a bunch of ex Revolutionary Communists running the Conservative party! It would probably sink to oblivion a few years later.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!
    Until the walls come tumbling down...
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,012

    nico67 said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
    Bizarre why the Liberal Democrats are called Liberal Democrats as the are neither Lib....
    Just imagine a bunch of ex Revolutionary Communists running the Conservative party! It would probably sink to oblivion a few years later.
    Is that what happened to them ?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    OK, battery charged - back to attack the garden!
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,441
    Foxy said:

    Roger said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    I draw the attention of PB once again to the astonishing result in Cornwall

    Cornwall Council Result #LE2025:

    RFM: 28 (+28)
    LDM: 26 (+13)
    INDs: 16 (=)
    CON: 7 (-40)
    LAB: 4 (-1)
    GRN: 3 (+2)
    MK: 3 (-2)

    No Overall Control - No Change (though was initially Conservative in 2021).

    Cornwall is always a law unto itself. A last redoubt for the liberals (a hangover from Methodism I reckon), yet quite often it goes quite Tory and once every couple of decades Labour does well

    Given the appalling Tory collapse and the dire unpopularity of Labour you’d expect the Lib Dems to triumph

    They’ve done well but they’ve been beaten by an entirely new party. Reform. This will deeply unnerve all three trad parties in Cornwall; my whole family is in shock (they’re quite political and have a range of views - eg my reform voting niece is ecstatic and my Tory voting brother in law is in despair)

    You will end up with a LibDem council leader and a bunch of Reform councillors impotently contributing very little from opposition.
    But won't it be fun watching them goose-step into the council offices
    More of a waddle than a goose step from what I have seen!
    RefUK is a kind of Viagra for the politically impotent.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,012
    ydoethur said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    Hey, Nigel, are you watching?
    The dynamic is slightly different.

    Last week:
    ..Australia's opposition leader has ditched an election promise to end work from home options for public servants after a backlash.
    Peter Dutton on Monday said his Liberal-National Coalition had "made a mistake" and apologised...
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,544
    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Peter Dutton loses his seat . So that’s two leaders of the two main opposition parties in Canada and Australia both being sent packing .
  • isamisam Posts: 41,418

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I draw the attention of PB once again to the astonishing result in Cornwall

    Cornwall Council Result #LE2025:

    RFM: 28 (+28)
    LDM: 26 (+13)
    INDs: 16 (=)
    CON: 7 (-40)
    LAB: 4 (-1)
    GRN: 3 (+2)
    MK: 3 (-2)

    No Overall Control - No Change (though was initially Conservative in 2021).

    Cornwall is always a law unto itself. A last redoubt for the liberals (a hangover from Methodism I reckon), yet quite often it goes quite Tory and once every couple of decades Labour does well

    Given the appalling Tory collapse and the dire unpopularity of Labour you’d expect the Lib Dems to triumph

    They’ve done well but they’ve been beaten by an entirely new party. Reform. This will deeply unnerve all three trad parties in Cornwall; my whole family is in shock (they’re quite political and have a range of views - eg my reform voting niece is ecstatic and my Tory voting brother in law is in despair)

    In other words, the old NOTA party, LibDem, was eclipsed by the new NOTA party, Reform.
    Yes, but the big thing is the shock. As I say my family is quite political. My 30 year old niece - young mum, two small kids, v bright and funny - has been voting Reform for a while. She follows politics closely

    My brother in law is a Tory member etc

    No one expected this. There was no sense this massive change was coming - people expected the Tories to suffer and Reform to prosper - but this? Wow
    I think the reform "surge" has been exacerbated by the FPTP aspect. I am looking at the numerical analysis (specifically Bucks to start with) and the closeness of all the scores is quite startling. I can see this happening in 2029 unless Labour gets its act together.
    Except both Curtice and Thrasher crunched the numbers and it wasn't that. With their projected national vote share models, they had Reform on between 30-32%, Labour / Tories sub 20 on around 18%/17% (their worst performances ever).
    I meant the closeness of the scores in each electoral ward, leading to a more volatile set of results
    But there were others that Reform didn't win that were close. They could have easily won 2-3 more of the Mayoral races.

    I don't think FPTP did exacerbate thing when you are 14% clear in the national projected vote share you are going to win lots of wards.
    Reform got 32% in the projected national vote share. That’s a lower vote share than the LOSING party in the 1945 general election, and in 1950, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1974 twice, 1979, 1992 and 2017, and lower than the winning party in every election since the war. Winning with 32% requires some FPTP magic.
    Labour got a 170 seat majority in 2024 with 34%...
    I can imagine anyone saying that last July was met with "Get over it, loser" style jibes
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 5,805
    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    https://x.com/MattCartoonist/status/1918349527515275704
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,385
    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/matt-cartoons-may-2025/

    I prefer the one for May 1st.
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Quite funny that a LIB politician on the ABC panel is being accused of being Chemical Ali after refusing to accept the reality.
  • DoubleCarpetDoubleCarpet Posts: 948
    kinabalu said:

    Sean_F said:

    The results surprised me. I’d have expected c.500 seats apiece for Reform and Conservatives.

    Reform took most of its seats off the Conservatives, but many of those were historically Labour seats, won by the Conservatives in 2021.

    The big correlation is with the Leave vote. The more Leave a place is the more likely it is to succumb to Reform. This is no surprise since the driving sentiment for voting Leave in 2016 and for Reform now is the same - "we want our country back".

    It's a great base to have. The Referendum vote was a Leave landslide in terms of FPTP GE calculus. 408 seats voted for Brexit. Winning three quarters of them gets Nigel Farage into Downing St. Bet that's how he's looking at it. I don't think he'll do it but it IS doable.
    You didn't think Trump would win, IIRC?
  • kamskikamski Posts: 6,391

    Foxy said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australian results so far on the primary vote

    Coalition 33%
    Labor 29%
    Greens 12%
    One Nation 8%
    Independents 8%
    Trumpet of Patriots 3%
    Others 7%
    https://pollbludger.net/fed2025/Results/

    Labor ahead on 2PP

    Trumpet of Patriots is a great name for a party!
    Until the walls come tumbling down...
    "You don't have to take this crap"
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,284
    edited May 3

    nico67 said:

    Early results show Dutton may struggle to hold his seat

    A terrrrrrrrrrrible night fo rthe Liberals?
    It’s bizarre why they’re called Liberals .
    Bizarre why the Liberal Democrats are called Liberal Democrats as the are neither Lib....
    The Conservatives attacked our institutions and wrecked everything and Labour is doing nothing for the working man...so the chances of any meaningful reform from Reform would appear to be slim...
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    nico67 said:

    Peter Dutton loses his seat . So that’s two leaders of the two main opposition parties in Canada and Australia both being sent packing .

    ....by their association to Trump. Farage for the hat-trick?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,133

    He’s worse than the Maybot.

    https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/1918577900397166696

    Most Prime Ministers would respond to these local elections with the same old excuses.

    My response is simple: I get it.

    We’re moving in the right direction, but people must feel the benefits of change.

    I will go further and faster to make that happen.

    A devastating intervention from Sir Sheer Wanker, there

  • OllyTOllyT Posts: 5,042
    nico67 said:

    Peter Dutton loses his seat . So that’s two leaders of the two main opposition parties in Canada and Australia both being sent packing .

    The curse of Trump strikes again
  • isamisam Posts: 41,418
    edited May 3

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
    Training long term unemployed/people with kind of milky mental health excuses not to work, to be out in the fresh air all day working could be a way of killing two birds with one stone. The idea that these were "immigrants jobs" to be done while our kids were studying for a degree in corporate nonsense speak always seemed a bit privileged, bordering on xenophobic . Plenty of the under 25s with negative mental health would find it beneficial to be given this work, rather than medication and benefit payments
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,267

    nico67 said:

    Peter Dutton loses his seat . So that’s two leaders of the two main opposition parties in Canada and Australia both being sent packing .

    ....by their association to Trump. Farage for the hat-trick?
    To be fair to Poilevre and Dutton neither were as close to Trump as Farage.

    Both are more traditional conservatives than MAGA, although still firmly rightwing. They also lack the charisma of Trump and Farage which has helped drive their election wins
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,423
    isam said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
    Training long term unemployed/people with kind of milky mental health excuses not to work, to be out in the fresh air all day working could be a way of killing two birds with one stone. The idea that these were "immigrants jobs" to be done while our kids were studying for a degree in corporate nonsense speak always seemed a bit privileged, bordering on xenophobic . Plenty of the under 25s with negative mental health would find it beneficial to be given this work, rather than medication and benefit payments
    Are we back to "Gulags for Slags"?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,133
    edited May 3
    Foxy said:

    isam said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
    Training long term unemployed/people with kind of milky mental health excuses not to work, to be out in the fresh air all day working could be a way of killing two birds with one stone. The idea that these were "immigrants jobs" to be done while our kids were studying for a degree in corporate nonsense speak always seemed a bit privileged, bordering on xenophobic . Plenty of the under 25s with negative mental health would find it beneficial to be given this work, rather than medication and benefit payments
    Are we back to "Gulags for Slags"?
    I actually went to a Gulag for Slags. Last week, on the frigid steppes of northern Kazakhstan

    Called ALZHiR

    An actual gulag. For slags

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALZhIR
  • isamisam Posts: 41,418
    Foxy said:

    isam said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
    Training long term unemployed/people with kind of milky mental health excuses not to work, to be out in the fresh air all day working could be a way of killing two birds with one stone. The idea that these were "immigrants jobs" to be done while our kids were studying for a degree in corporate nonsense speak always seemed a bit privileged, bordering on xenophobic . Plenty of the under 25s with negative mental health would find it beneficial to be given this work, rather than medication and benefit payments
    Are we back to "Gulags for Slags"?
    I think fresh air and a hard days work would be beneficial for people who are suffering from mild mental health issues. Call it what you like
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 14,370
    edited May 3
    Foxy said:

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    You have obviously never been to Blackpool on a stag / hen do.....
    Be a bold group who hit Lourdes for theirs...!
    One of the best stag nights that I have been on was at a Dutch Reform mission in Malawi.
    Mine was in Cyprus and it was mental. My Russian best man stabbed a cop and my RM mate filled my bottle of sunscreen with white house paint. The same Bootie (who is now a very senior civil servant in the MoD) performed cunnilingus on the oldest prostitute I have ever seen and I've seen a few. His condition report on her vulva was "Tasted like a 9V battery, smelled like a damp stair carpet and was as yellow as a toad.". We also lost our apartment key so we broke into the apartment above and lowered ourselves on to the balcony using my belt. This was on the 9th and 8th floors. Loads more, and worse/better, happened. There is an entire chapter on it in the autobiography I will never publish. "Chapter 12: Disgrace and other Coetzee Novels".

    I looked like fucking Data from TNG in the wedding photos from the unwitting and liberal application of paint. I had to doctor them in Photoshop to restore an approximately human pallor before Mrs DA did her nut and the marriage succumbed to infant mortality.
  • eekeek Posts: 29,861
    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    Personally it's the worst Matt cartoon I can remember...
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,948

    kinabalu said:

    Sean_F said:

    The results surprised me. I’d have expected c.500 seats apiece for Reform and Conservatives.

    Reform took most of its seats off the Conservatives, but many of those were historically Labour seats, won by the Conservatives in 2021.

    The big correlation is with the Leave vote. The more Leave a place is the more likely it is to succumb to Reform. This is no surprise since the driving sentiment for voting Leave in 2016 and for Reform now is the same - "we want our country back".

    It's a great base to have. The Referendum vote was a Leave landslide in terms of FPTP GE calculus. 408 seats voted for Brexit. Winning three quarters of them gets Nigel Farage into Downing St. Bet that's how he's looking at it. I don't think he'll do it but it IS doable.
    You didn't think Trump would win, IIRC?
    And?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,133
    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
  • isamisam Posts: 41,418
    Dura_Ace said:

    Foxy said:

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    You have obviously never been to Blackpool on a stag / hen do.....
    Be a bold group who hit Lourdes for theirs...!
    One of the best stag nights that I have been on was at a Dutch Reform mission in Malawi.
    Mine was in Cyprus and it was mental. My Russian best man stabbed a cop and my RM mate filled my bottle of sunscreen with white house paint. The same Bootie (who is now a very senior civil servant in the MoD) performed cunnilingus on the oldest prostitute I have ever seen and I've seen a few. His condition report on her vulva was "Tasted like a 9V battery, smelled like a damp stair carpet and was as yellow as a toad.". We also lost our apartment key so we broke into the apartment above and lowered ourselves on to the balcony using my belt. This was on the 9th and 8th floors. Loads more, and worse/better, happened. There is an entire chapter on it in the autobiography I will never publish. "Chapter 12: Disgrace and other Coetzee Novels".

    I looked like fucking Data from TNG in the wedding photos from the unwitting and liberal application of paint. I had to doctor them in Photoshop to restore an approximately human pallor before Mrs DA did her nut and the marriage succumbed to infant mortality.
    Reading that, my minds eye was envisioning a grotesque combination of David Mitchell, Lee Mack and Josh Widdicombe on Would I Lie To You
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 30,379

    eek said:

    (4/5)

    What is intriguing to me is that supposedly it was the inheritance tax changes that were going to kill the government. This all seems to have gone quiet and hasn’t as far as I know been brought up much in focus groups?

    Perhaps it’s only relevant in some constituencies not others but I wonder if that policy was actually not as bad as some of the more alarmist people said at the time.

    Likewise on VAT on school fees.

    It’s the WFA cut that seems to have done the most damage - whilst I personally think this was the right move and I’d also get rid of the triple lock

    With pensions about to rise above the tax allowance I think we are about to get to the point where the triple lock can be sanely removed and replaced with tracking the standard tax allowance instead...

    Now it's an incredibly creed way of removing the triple lock but it solves a whole set of very painful issues that would otherwise arise and make income tax for pensioners very easy to calculate..
    The personal allowance is unchanged in five years and you want pensions to track it?
    It would be an informal way of sharing both pain and sweeties between employees and pensioners. Not a bad idea.
    The part of the triple lock that rises with wages does that.
    It clearly doesn't as you point out that the personal allowance is unchanged for five years, whilst the pension has seen big rises.
    Wages go up, pension goes up. The personal allowance stays the same.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,418
    Leon said:

    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
    He is quite eloquently saying what almost all his supporters are thinking. A good thing for a leader I'd say
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 7,377
    Labour will be looking at their Australian counterparts for strategy in 2029. There are a lot of similarities between Starmer and Albanese - a first term government that was quickly unpopular, with an uncharismatic and unloved front man, under attack from the populist right. But who won again when the crunch time came, essentially running against fear of his opponent and the US political scene.

    There is a long time to run until our GE, and the global picture may have changed a lot. A trend in one country does not necessarily correlate to others. But there’s an interesting case study for Labour there - it gives them some hope, perhaps.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,801
    Talking of stag dos, I will shortly be leaving home to go on my son's.
    So in case you never hear from me again, I wish you all well.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 716
    nico67 said:

    Quite funny that a LIB politician on the ABC panel is being accused of being Chemical Ali after refusing to accept the reality.

    They can be quite blunt or vicious, depending on your point of view.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 30,379

    Talking of stag dos, I will shortly be leaving home to go on my son's.
    So in case you never hear from me again, I wish you all well.

    What sort of man takes invites his father to his stag do? Not the sort taking a gang of mates to Croation brothels, I guess.
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 7,377
    Leon said:

    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
    He runs rings around every politician in the UK right now. Whatever one’s views of the man.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 716
    isam said:

    Foxy said:

    isam said:

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    (5/5)

    If waiting for Farage and Reform to fuck up is the strategy, Labour will lose the next election and rightly so.

    They need to cut immigration, stop the boats and make the average person feel better off.

    They have four years to do that. Clock is ticking.

    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1918573908871000257

    Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP

    If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons

    Think again

    We will fight you every step of the way

    We will win

    People ask me why I’d not vote for Reform.

    This is why. I don’t want another NIMBY party.

    That's interesting - so he's opposing development, but is demanding that he does not want another NIMBY party?

    And he says he's going to win by stopping things that are explicitly not in the control of the Council and Mayoralty Reform now control.

    An interesting conundrum for Don Quixote Tice.

    On a similar note, has the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire expressed a policy yet on anything that SHE can control?

    There are interesting times coming in the Flatlands Northern Extension.

    PS How is Greater Lincolnshire different to ... Lincolnshire ?
    Good morning

    I understand migrants will be not be housed in hotels but tents

    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshires-new-reform-mayor-calls-10150365
    I heard that one.

    It may have come from Agent Anderson.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

    The work regime fits Lincolnshire:

    He then said: "These people, who have to live somewhere, let's have them in a tent, in the middle of a field.

    "Six o'clock every morning, let's have them up.

    "Let's have them in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."


    (It probably lost him some votes on the Carsic Estate, but the Lab Councillor for Carsic defected to Reform some time ago. Wearing my Active Travel Hat I need to go down and add a K to that sign for a photo op!)
    Isn't that basically what the Poles and Lithuanians were doing until Brexit got rid of them?
    Training long term unemployed/people with kind of milky mental health excuses not to work, to be out in the fresh air all day working could be a way of killing two birds with one stone. The idea that these were "immigrants jobs" to be done while our kids were studying for a degree in corporate nonsense speak always seemed a bit privileged, bordering on xenophobic . Plenty of the under 25s with negative mental health would find it beneficial to be given this work, rather than medication and benefit payments
    Are we back to "Gulags for Slags"?
    I think fresh air and a hard days work would be beneficial for people who are suffering from mild mental health issues. Call it what you like
    There are various charities that do this because of the mental health benefits. It's an established process. However if it becomes politicised, there is a chance that the approach could be rejected simply because it has been politicised. Check your local area for 'health walks'.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,770
    edited May 3
    Leon said:

    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
    So much of the media are a trifector of being thick as shit, poorly prepped and detached from the real world faced by lots of people in the UK.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,133
    isam said:

    Leon said:

    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
    He is quite eloquently saying what almost all his supporters are thinking. A good thing for a leader I'd say
    He’s so vastly superior to Starmer, Davey and Badenoch. Which is as much a comment on their total mediocrity

    He must be a little worried that the Tories will install Jenrick. I can’t see anyone on the Labour front bench who could trouble him. Streeting?
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,801

    Talking of stag dos, I will shortly be leaving home to go on my son's.
    So in case you never hear from me again, I wish you all well.

    What sort of man takes invites his father to his stag do? Not the sort taking a gang of mates to Croation brothels, I guess.
    My son had a young person's do in Dublin already. This is his second stag do, for the 'older' generation.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 30,379
    eek said:

    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    Personally it's the worst Matt cartoon I can remember...
    Matt cartoon shows a television news reporter with the caption (no point wasting a photo): Reform won [Runcorn]. They've already imposed tariffs on other counties and given Manchester to Putin...

    Regardless of its comedic or satirical merits, it might be a sign the Telegraph is allying itself with the Conservative Party against Reform.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,133

    Talking of stag dos, I will shortly be leaving home to go on my son's.
    So in case you never hear from me again, I wish you all well.

    What sort of man takes invites his father to his stag do? Not the sort taking a gang of mates to Croation brothels, I guess.
    I was best man at my father’s third wedding. But I did tup a bridesmaid after the ceremony, so we maintained SOME traditions
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Battlebus said:

    nico67 said:

    Quite funny that a LIB politician on the ABC panel is being accused of being Chemical Ali after refusing to accept the reality.

    They can be quite blunt or vicious, depending on your point of view.
    I noticed that in the coverage . You certainly wouldn’t get that tone on the BBC.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,770
    edited May 3

    eek said:

    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    Personally it's the worst Matt cartoon I can remember...
    Matt cartoon shows a television news reporter with the caption (no point wasting a photo): Reform won [Runcorn]. They've already imposed tariffs on other counties and given Manchester to Putin...

    Regardless of its comedic or satirical merits, it might be a sign the Telegraph is allying itself with the Conservative Party against Reform.
    I think you might be reading too much into it. I don't think Matt takes orders from anybody. I have never detected definite Tory bias in their cartoons despite it being in the Torygraph. They seem to have a pop at all sorts.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 14,083
    IanB2 said:

    boulay said:

    Listening to the news about the Coop hack and the BBC say that the Coop has 20 million members. I find this quite extraordinary that nearly 30% of the population, not just the adult population, are members of a shopping cooperative.

    I had no idea it was such a huge organisation.

    It was even bigger until the Crystal Methodist screwed up the banking part. But I believe the things like funeral service, insurance, legal are part of the Coop group.
    They are, and you can become a member by holding accounts or policies from their other divisions, even if you’re not a shopper. Another reason why there are so many members.

    Despite their good ethics, my practical experience is that everything non-shopping that they do is terribly managed and organised, hence customers get a poor service. Their energy was diabolical, their insurance little better. I am told their funeral service is OK but have no personal experience to offer.
    The real contradiction with the Coop is in retail. They are socialist social cooperative set up without the need to distribute massive dividends to shareholders or owners in Dubai, mostly dealing in food for ordinary people many of whom are not wealthy.

    But their pricing is enormously expensive when compared with Lidl, Aldi etc.

    This makes no sense. As a social set up if they have proper priorities it would be to provide high quality product at less cost to poorer consumers. Instead their price policy sends them to the ruthless capitalists. This is exactly what happens in my immediate area.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,704
    isam said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Foxy said:

    I've just stopped for a lunch break at Lourdes

    I have never seen so many nuns

    There are thousands of them. I've seen more nuns than non-nuns. They're from all over the world; they all have badges saying where they're from

    There's also a load of men wearing black, military looking uniforms with berets, and badges with the Maltese cross. Like all the nuns have on their cloaks

    They all look full of joy to be somewhere so spiritually important to them

    I'm rather enjoying the moment, too

    You have obviously never been to Blackpool on a stag / hen do.....
    Be a bold group who hit Lourdes for theirs...!
    One of the best stag nights that I have been on was at a Dutch Reform mission in Malawi.
    Mine was in Cyprus and it was mental. My Russian best man stabbed a cop and my RM mate filled my bottle of sunscreen with white house paint. The same Bootie (who is now a very senior civil servant in the MoD) performed cunnilingus on the oldest prostitute I have ever seen and I've seen a few. His condition report on her vulva was "Tasted like a 9V battery, smelled like a damp stair carpet and was as yellow as a toad.". We also lost our apartment key so we broke into the apartment above and lowered ourselves on to the balcony using my belt. This was on the 9th and 8th floors. Loads more, and worse/better, happened. There is an entire chapter on it in the autobiography I will never publish. "Chapter 12: Disgrace and other Coetzee Novels".

    I looked like fucking Data from TNG in the wedding photos from the unwitting and liberal application of paint. I had to doctor them in Photoshop to restore an approximately human pallor before Mrs DA did her nut and the marriage succumbed to infant mortality.
    Reading that, my minds eye was envisioning a grotesque combination of David Mitchell, Lee Mack and Josh Widdicombe on Would I Lie To You
    Sounds like a role for 77 year-old Ann Widdecombe too...
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,544

    Roger said:

    If anyone takes the Telegraph there's a particularly good Matt cartoon today.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/matt-cartoons-may-2025/

    I prefer the one for May 1st.
    I took it to be a joke at the expense of the BBC who were going overboard about the result
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,250
    Leon said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    isam said:
    Jesus. Farage is about 3900 IQ points smarter than these journalists who try to outsmart him

    Her idea of a “gotcha” question was “do you, er, do you, er, do you not think you’re trying to create divisions?”

    “No.”
    He is quite eloquently saying what almost all his supporters are thinking. A good thing for a leader I'd say
    He’s so vastly superior to Starmer, Davey and Badenoch. Which is as much a comment on their total mediocrity

    He must be a little worried that the Tories will install Jenrick. I can’t see anyone on the Labour front bench who could trouble him. Streeting?
    Jenrick is slime . Creepy with that “ wo ist die papieren” look .
  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,901
    I've watched the Prince Harry interview. I quite like him and have some sympathy for his situation. But what do we think of his argument? Is it true that other VIPs who have served this country in a significant capacity and are now retired are provided with a level of protection by the state equivalent to the protection that he feels he and his family deserves - or not?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,770
    edited May 3
    algarkirk said:

    IanB2 said:

    boulay said:

    Listening to the news about the Coop hack and the BBC say that the Coop has 20 million members. I find this quite extraordinary that nearly 30% of the population, not just the adult population, are members of a shopping cooperative.

    I had no idea it was such a huge organisation.

    It was even bigger until the Crystal Methodist screwed up the banking part. But I believe the things like funeral service, insurance, legal are part of the Coop group.
    They are, and you can become a member by holding accounts or policies from their other divisions, even if you’re not a shopper. Another reason why there are so many members.

    Despite their good ethics, my practical experience is that everything non-shopping that they do is terribly managed and organised, hence customers get a poor service. Their energy was diabolical, their insurance little better. I am told their funeral service is OK but have no personal experience to offer.
    The real contradiction with the Coop is in retail. They are socialist social cooperative set up without the need to distribute massive dividends to shareholders or owners in Dubai, mostly dealing in food for ordinary people many of whom are not wealthy.

    But their pricing is enormously expensive when compared with Lidl, Aldi etc.

    This makes no sense. As a social set up if they have proper priorities it would be to provide high quality product at less cost to poorer consumers. Instead their price policy sends them to the ruthless capitalists. This is exactly what happens in my immediate area.
    Isn't the answer quite simple, they don't have the vast scale of the big boys along with their principles stops them competing on price, so instead they have forged a path of using their do gooder image to move to increasingly being the middle class corner shop where people aren't as price sensitive.
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