A glorious day in Wythenshawe and Sale East, which on current polling is going Reform next time round.
You have Gail's in..... the north?
That means you have sourdough. In Manchester??? And flat whites. And things like that
This is upsetting, and - quite frankly I don't believe it. This is faked
It's a Northern Gail's. Inside, they mainly sell tripe and other offal-related products.
Ah. Thankyou. Order is restored
I am also reassured that your photo, despite the sunshine, still manages to convey a hint of northern bleakness. I'm not sure what it is. The stolid red brick on the right, the slightly depressing clutter of metal, it's hard to pin down, but nonetheless something in that photo says "yes it's post-industrial northern England and yes, despite the sun and the Gail's, it's shit"
It's Manchester 33 - GM's fourth most expensive postcode. But Sale Town Centre is still no better than all right, considering. That clutter of metal is a right bloody nuisance for pedestrians - I may get @MattW on the case. I've usedup my quota now but tomorrow I may post a slightly more edifying pic of Sale which still manages to be a bit post-industrial.
You know I am only teasing. I admire your fierce loyalty to your region, and a couple of your photos of booming Manchester have kinda persuaded me to take a look. I need to see
The one the other day with the nice Dutch-ish new houses and the towers was, eg, quite cheering. It is cheering to think that some parts of the UK are NOT in terrible decline
Oh, I know. And GM - or at least its southern half - is definitely improving and improving. But from, it must be conceded, a desperately low base. I am in Gail's now, as it happens. Turns out its quite nice. They're out of tripe so I have settled for a coffee and a croissant.
Gail's in Greater Manchester is definitely an example of "levelling up", so: go Manchester
Returning to King's Cross, as I did last night, was simultaneously enlivening and saddening. It was nice because it is such a buzzy youthful place, and such a brilliant example of urban redevelopment (and it really is, town planners come from across the world to see it, and be inspired)
However it is also saddening because
1. We didn't do it everywhere in London, let alone the UK, and many other developments are decidedly worse
and
2. It feels so Blairite. It oozes the sunny optimism of, say, 1999 or 2006, when Britain was booming and things really could only get better
Sigh
Interesting you should raise King's Cross. With government currently (extremely half-heartedly) looking at new high-speed-ish lines to Manchester (Liverpool-Manchester (and on to Leeds?) and son-of-HS2), GM is uaing Kings Cross as an exenplar of what could be done at Piccadilly. The back of Piccadilly ia currently low-grade-industrial and a red light area, but the pressure for development is immense. But government's proposal is that the new line should emerge from a tunnel a mile south of Manchester and arrive on railway viaducts - thereby sterilising most of the area. GM wants to keep the new railway underground and have a through station (cf Thameslink) and develop the site (cf Kings Cross). At Select Committee in 2023, the HS2 witness pointed out that you could have community centres under railway viaducts. That appears to be the height of government ambition for the north. Largely, they see us as one big council estate.
I really like the idea of linking all the great northern cities together, Liverpool to Leeds, into one great mighty conurbation - big enough to rival London. Do it with intense local transport links, bridges and tunnels, trams and trains, knit it all into one megacity run by one authority
That would be great for the north and great for the UK, somewhere to balance London. Make this neo-greater-Manchester the northern capital of Britain
Britain is small, compact and densely populated. We need to turn this to our advantage. The absurd disaster of HS2 is an example of us doing the opposite. Britain is so small we don't actually need genuinely high speed trains. 100mph is fine. Just build more capacity
HS2 did both. It freed up line capacity for both freight and passengers.
Starmer's failure to resurrect HS2 will forever be an albatross around his neck. In the late 1950s, 60s and 70s we built thousands of miles of motorway from scratch. Today we can't even get 80 miles of track from Birmingham to Manchester and another hundred from Birmingham to Leeds and over thirty years. And the biggest irony is we've been charged hundreds of millions of pounds to knock it on the head before a shovel hit the soil.
You misconstrue me. I agree we needed new capacity, the problem is a lot of rail geeks then came in and said Oh let's make it go faster than light and build fantastic new stations and gold plate everything. We just needed new capacity, we didn't need 300kph. Of course there were many other problems - insane environmental laws, our pitiful planning system, nervous cavilling governments - but this was definitely one of the major issues
It is tragic and it is emblematic of how Britain has gone wrong. Even as I type this I am staring at the rails out of Euston and there is a massive crane right by the tracks, it is there to build HS2. About once a fortnight it moves a bit, then it stops again. It has been there for YEARS
What's the latest bill? £100bn and upwards? And it won't arrive until the late 2030s? What a catastrophe (and the Tories are easily as reponsible as Labour, indeed probably worse)
We try to gold plate everything and get nothing, not just with transport. Still, it keeps highly paid consultants employed, so that’s good!
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
DOGE has cut US non-defence spending by slightly more than 20% so far. That's about 0.7% of GDP. Will be interesting to see how much of this spending the next president re-introduces.
Is that DOGE’s figure or a real number?
It is DOGE's completely fake number.
US Government spending is actually 6% higher right now compared to last year.
One thing which has not had much coverage economically is the closure if Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. That was running at something like $5000 pa for something like 40m people, reportedly.
The money is going to go on tax breaks for the wealthy, so there’s likely to be a rather significant economic cooling effect, as rich people won’t spend it.
Gives Reform 353 seats and Farage PM with a majority of 56. Labour certainly need to squeeze the LD and Green votes by the next GE in seats where Reform are their main challengers now
It isn't enough for an area to be posh to have a Gail's, it has to be at least slightly woke as well. In the south of England, these two criteria are pretty much one and the same thing, but it isn't necessarily true in the rest of the country. There are some areas near here that are pretty wealthy but not woke, and they don't have Gail's.
They don’t have vegan version in Fail’s. They can’t be woke.
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles
Here is the article in question. It is the assumption that any infrastructure will "blight" the country that stops so much being built. The default answer should always be yes. Other countries are laughing at how bad we are getting this wrong.
That's just your opinion bro. In all my travelling, the UK still stands out as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Consider how we feel about those towns and cities blighted by rampant development in the 60s and 70s - let's not make the same mistake again.
Just because some spreadsheet wanker can't monetise something doesn't mean it has no value.
It's not about monetising, it's that the balance is so far to the view of "stop development" it's crazy.
If we want to grow the economy, we need to get building again. It is truly pathetic how long things take to get built here, they get completely bogged down in endless committees, appeals, other red tape, etc.
Clearly there is some balance to be found. But right now it's not anywhere near where it should be.
I've posted so many examples here of masts - as it's the industry I work in so I prefer to comment on things I know - that were blocked for nonsensical reasons.
Seems homeowners worry about the effects on the price of their homes
Now that is slightly different. The difference between a public and private good.
I have less sympathy with the house value argument, though I do think compensation (eg free broadband/data/energy) should be provided to those in close proximity to new infrastructure, simply to alter the incentives. Temper NIMBYism.
The public good is distinct from that. I am not personally enjoying Devon or wherever TimS is, and I don't live there, but there is a chance I could share that gorgeous view one day on a walk, along with the 70 million people other people on these islands. There is some value there.
I doubt devon where I live is enjoying having lycra clad oiks like you visiting either, indeed heard the driver of my taxi swearing at one of your ilk swearing about one of your people riding in such a way he was unable to overtake
I did some cycle touring up the Tamar a few years ago and everyone was just lovely.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
But sure as eggs is eggs Yoons will be raging at the SNP regardless of what stage of a ‘journey’ they’re on, so that’s one constant we can all rely on.
Swinney did vote against the assisted dying bill and worked for Scottish Life Assurance, of all the SNP FMs in my lifetime he looks the most like a Tory. I still wouldn't vote SNP however
The assisted dying bill was a free vote. Politicians of all parties, except the Greens, had members voting both for and against. It’s not an issue decided by party politics, anywhere in the UK, so I don’t understand why you used it as an example.
As it shows that personally he is relatively socially conservative, certainly for an SNP leader
Gives Reform 353 seats and Farage PM with a majority of 56. Labour certainly need to squeeze the LD and Green votes by the next GE in seats where Reform are their main challengers now
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
But sure as eggs is eggs Yoons will be raging at the SNP regardless of what stage of a ‘journey’ they’re on, so that’s one constant we can all rely on.
Swinney did vote against the assisted dying bill and worked for Scottish Life Assurance, of all the SNP FMs in my lifetime he looks the most like a Tory. I still wouldn't vote SNP however
Why not; you've voted Plaid Cymru in the past and I'd say they were slightly at least to the left of the SNP.
Only after I had voted for all Tory candidates on the ballot paper and I still had 2 votes left to cast and no other candidates stood
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Gives Reform 353 seats and Farage PM with a majority of 56. Labour certainly need to squeeze the LD and Green votes by the next GE in seats where Reform are their main challengers now
You dont care if the conservatives die as long as labour do as well?
They aren't dead, even on that poll average the Conservatives still get 18% of the vote and 20-30 odd MPs and I would still be voting Tory even if Farage wins a majority as that poll predicts
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
I think it's fair to say that the Dems had the worst of all possible worlds in 2016; a poor, or at least dreadfully advised, candidate and a poor campaign. They had a better campaign in 2020 but really should have had a younger candidate; surely somewhere there was a Governor or other prominent Dem who could have run?
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
Not unless Kate Forbes succeeds him as leader which is unlikely. Swinney is basically the John Major of the SNP
Do you still think it's impossible for Robert Jenrick to succeed Kemi Badenoch?
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
But sure as eggs is eggs Yoons will be raging at the SNP regardless of what stage of a ‘journey’ they’re on, so that’s one constant we can all rely on.
Swinney did vote against the assisted dying bill and worked for Scottish Life Assurance, of all the SNP FMs in my lifetime he looks the most like a Tory. I still wouldn't vote SNP however
Your heart belongs to Plaid after all.
Think most ex FMs and party leaders voted against the AD bill which made it mildly surprising (to me) that it passed.
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles
Here is the article in question. It is the assumption that any infrastructure will "blight" the country that stops so much being built. The default answer should always be yes. Other countries are laughing at how bad we are getting this wrong.
That's just your opinion bro. In all my travelling, the UK still stands out as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Consider how we feel about those towns and cities blighted by rampant development in the 60s and 70s - let's not make the same mistake again.
Just because some spreadsheet wanker can't monetise something doesn't mean it has no value.
It's not about monetising, it's that the balance is so far to the view of "stop development" it's crazy.
If we want to grow the economy, we need to get building again. It is truly pathetic how long things take to get built here, they get completely bogged down in endless committees, appeals, other red tape, etc.
Clearly there is some balance to be found. But right now it's not anywhere near where it should be.
I've posted so many examples here of masts - as it's the industry I work in so I prefer to comment on things I know - that were blocked for nonsensical reasons.
Seems homeowners worry about the effects on the price of their homes
Now that is slightly different. The difference between a public and private good.
I have less sympathy with the house value argument, though I do think compensation (eg free broadband/data/energy) should be provided to those in close proximity to new infrastructure, simply to alter the incentives. Temper NIMBYism.
The public good is distinct from that. I am not personally enjoying Devon or wherever TimS is, and I don't live there, but there is a chance I could share that gorgeous view one day on a walk, along with the 70 million people other people on these islands. There is some value there.
I doubt devon where I live is enjoying having lycra clad oiks like you visiting either, indeed heard the driver of my taxi swearing at one of your ilk swearing about one of your people riding in such a way he was unable to overtake
I did some cycle touring up the Tamar a few years ago and everyone was just lovely.
You mistake being nice to you for actually wanting you there, we got forced into being a tourist area. Suprising to make money we have to be nice to people even if we think they are deficiently worth being nice to, much the same as shop workers....we still have to pretend we like you even if you are an arsehole
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
I think it's fair to say that the Dems had the worst of all possible worlds in 2016; a poor, or at least dreadfully advised, candidate and a poor campaign. They had a better campaign in 2020 but really should have had a younger candidate; surely somewhere there was a Governor or other prominent Dem who could have run?
Had Biden been Democratic nominee in 2016, as by rights historically he should have been as incumbent VP, he probably would have beaten Trump narrowly.
However the Democratic establishment insisted it had to be Hillary and she was the ideal candidate for Trump to beat and so Biden had to be called out of retirement to run in 2020 when he should have been running for his second term not his first, in which case win or lose he would not have been running last year when he was too old anyway
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham's only in his 50's so you may be right. I agree though about Starmer. If that long; if he wins in 2029 I think he'll retire long before 2034, even if the Parliament lasts that long.
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles
Here is the article in question. It is the assumption that any infrastructure will "blight" the country that stops so much being built. The default answer should always be yes. Other countries are laughing at how bad we are getting this wrong.
That's just your opinion bro. In all my travelling, the UK still stands out as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Consider how we feel about those towns and cities blighted by rampant development in the 60s and 70s - let's not make the same mistake again.
Just because some spreadsheet wanker can't monetise something doesn't mean it has no value.
It's not about monetising, it's that the balance is so far to the view of "stop development" it's crazy.
If we want to grow the economy, we need to get building again. It is truly pathetic how long things take to get built here, they get completely bogged down in endless committees, appeals, other red tape, etc.
Clearly there is some balance to be found. But right now it's not anywhere near where it should be.
I've posted so many examples here of masts - as it's the industry I work in so I prefer to comment on things I know - that were blocked for nonsensical reasons.
Seems homeowners worry about the effects on the price of their homes
Now that is slightly different. The difference between a public and private good.
I have less sympathy with the house value argument, though I do think compensation (eg free broadband/data/energy) should be provided to those in close proximity to new infrastructure, simply to alter the incentives. Temper NIMBYism.
The public good is distinct from that. I am not personally enjoying Devon or wherever TimS is, and I don't live there, but there is a chance I could share that gorgeous view one day on a walk, along with the 70 million people other people on these islands. There is some value there.
I doubt devon where I live is enjoying having lycra clad oiks like you visiting either, indeed heard the driver of my taxi swearing at one of your ilk swearing about one of your people riding in such a way he was unable to overtake
I did some cycle touring up the Tamar a few years ago and everyone was just lovely.
You mistake being nice to you for actually wanting you there, we got forced into being a tourist area. Suprising to make money we have to be nice to people even if we think they are deficiently worth being nice to, much the same as shop workers....we still have to pretend we like you even if you are an arsehole
Tbh I’m finding it hard to visualise you faking niceness..
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
Not unless Kate Forbes succeeds him as leader which is unlikely. Swinney is basically the John Major of the SNP
Do you still think it's impossible for Robert Jenrick to succeed Kemi Badenoch?
Before the next GE yes I think Cleverly or Stride would be picked by coronation if Tory MPs removed Badenoch.
If they lost too after the subsequent general election then Jenrick could take over but if Farage has won anyway a Jenrick led rump Tories would be little different from a Reform government policy wise anyway
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles
Here is the article in question. It is the assumption that any infrastructure will "blight" the country that stops so much being built. The default answer should always be yes. Other countries are laughing at how bad we are getting this wrong.
That's just your opinion bro. In all my travelling, the UK still stands out as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Consider how we feel about those towns and cities blighted by rampant development in the 60s and 70s - let's not make the same mistake again.
Just because some spreadsheet wanker can't monetise something doesn't mean it has no value.
It's not about monetising, it's that the balance is so far to the view of "stop development" it's crazy.
If we want to grow the economy, we need to get building again. It is truly pathetic how long things take to get built here, they get completely bogged down in endless committees, appeals, other red tape, etc.
Clearly there is some balance to be found. But right now it's not anywhere near where it should be.
I've posted so many examples here of masts - as it's the industry I work in so I prefer to comment on things I know - that were blocked for nonsensical reasons.
Seems homeowners worry about the effects on the price of their homes
Now that is slightly different. The difference between a public and private good.
I have less sympathy with the house value argument, though I do think compensation (eg free broadband/data/energy) should be provided to those in close proximity to new infrastructure, simply to alter the incentives. Temper NIMBYism.
The public good is distinct from that. I am not personally enjoying Devon or wherever TimS is, and I don't live there, but there is a chance I could share that gorgeous view one day on a walk, along with the 70 million people other people on these islands. There is some value there.
I doubt devon where I live is enjoying having lycra clad oiks like you visiting either, indeed heard the driver of my taxi swearing at one of your ilk swearing about one of your people riding in such a way he was unable to overtake
I did some cycle touring up the Tamar a few years ago and everyone was just lovely.
You mistake being nice to you for actually wanting you there, we got forced into being a tourist area. Suprising to make money we have to be nice to people even if we think they are deficiently worth being nice to, much the same as shop workers....we still have to pretend we like you even if you are an arsehole
Tbh I’m finding it hard to visualise you faking niceness..
I never claimed I did I am just saying for example in a place I know which is Cornwall most I knew had a view of tourists that was not the view that they showed to tourists. You should also consider that I know in Cornwall and maybe just us....most tourist focussed industries, well lets say their contribution was employing some staff on minimum wage, the actual owners who made most of the profit weren't cornish so the money didn't stay here.
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Yougov has 8% of 2024 Labour voters now voting Green, the same percentage as have gone Reform
Gives Reform 353 seats and Farage PM with a majority of 56. Labour certainly need to squeeze the LD and Green votes by the next GE in seats where Reform are their main challengers now
You dont care if the conservatives die as long as labour do as well?
They aren't dead, even on that poll average the Conservatives still get 18% of the vote and 20-30 odd MPs and I would still be voting Tory even if Farage wins a majority as that poll predicts
Fine but how does your party cope with being the fifth largest overall and the fourth largest on the Opposition benches behind Labour, the LDs and the SNP?
The LDs are used to irrelevance and being ignored - the Conservatives aren't. They've either been the Government or the lead Opposition party since 1832.
This weather is like being on the Bolivian altiplano
Beautiful and warm in perfect clear sun, but as soon as you step in the shade, brrr
Many Bolivians on the altiplano don't have fridges. Because they don't need them. If they want something kept properly cold, they put it in the shade
The coldest I've ever been. Shivering in a sleeping bag while enduring a bad sunburn.
Magnificent part of the world, in an austere horrifying challenging scary dangerous way
I still remember the purple-red lake surrounded by the corpses of dead flamingoes
The flamingoes are fine as long as they stay in the thermally heated lake, but as soon as they get out they will freeze to death in moments if they don't fly away at once. The corpses are the flamingoes that couldn't get off the ground quick enough
I once camped (illegally, I think) on the Salar de Uyuni on my birthday.
I went to bed with a full water bottle by my head - next morning it was frozen solid. Turns out the salt doesn't retain heat particularly well. Who knew?
What a place tho, eh? Did you go to see that weird salt-flat-island with the shrine of sacrificed children's skeletons? Lovely
The only disappointing thing was the "salt hotel". I imagined a blinding white Taj Mahal made of Halen Mon seasalt. In reality, of course, raw salt quickly discolours so its a sludgy grey brown and looks like its made of crappy beige bricks
I must admit I was in one of my sporadic curmudgeon phases and refused to partake in any sanctioned tourist sites. We were cycling through Bolivia at the time so we just cycled onto the salt flats, made camp, nearly died, then trundled onto La Paz to get mugged and kidnapped (well, Paddy did whilst Andy and I were watching a poorly dubbed Da Vinci code).
Kidnapped? Eesh
Was this one of this kidnappings where they take you at gunpoint from ATM to ATM and drain all your bank accounts?
That happened to a guy I met in Mexico City. An American. He was sitting at the hotel bar necking enormous amounts of whisky and still trembling with fear (this was the day after the horror). He told me they'd also kept his girlfriend at gunpoint in their room, threatening to rape or kill her if he didn't give them every cent
After he told me his horrifying story he said "I am never fucking coming back to fucking Mexico" and I didn't dispute his logic
Slow reply, sorry, busy in the sunshine. It's an excellent story involving loose bowels, the favela-esque hillsides around La Paz, Paddy being put in a headlock until he passed out, a generous taxi driver who probably saved his life by spotting him being dumped by the roadside and driving him home without any money, and a particularly entertaining moment where a roll of bog paper (vital for aforesaid loose bowels) was mistaken for a wallet fat with pesos.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Gives Reform 353 seats and Farage PM with a majority of 56. Labour certainly need to squeeze the LD and Green votes by the next GE in seats where Reform are their main challengers now
You dont care if the conservatives die as long as labour do as well?
They aren't dead, even on that poll average the Conservatives still get 18% of the vote and 20-30 odd MPs and I would still be voting Tory even if Farage wins a majority as that poll predicts
Fine but how does your party cope with being the fifth largest overall and the fourth largest on the Opposition benches behind Labour, the LDs and the SNP?
The LDs are used to irrelevance and being ignored - the Conservatives aren't. They've either been the Government or the lead Opposition party since 1832.
The LDs were in government ten years ago and Starmer would almost certainly need their confidence and supply to be re elected.
Farage if he fails to win a majority would also likewise need Tory confidence and supply.
If we went to PR the Tories and LDs would then normally be Kingmakers between Reform and Labour
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Sure. Not since the 'yogic flying' gang (who's name I forget) has there been a national party so very far from the ability to form a government though.
This weather is like being on the Bolivian altiplano
Beautiful and warm in perfect clear sun, but as soon as you step in the shade, brrr
Many Bolivians on the altiplano don't have fridges. Because they don't need them. If they want something kept properly cold, they put it in the shade
The coldest I've ever been. Shivering in a sleeping bag while enduring a bad sunburn.
Magnificent part of the world, in an austere horrifying challenging scary dangerous way
I still remember the purple-red lake surrounded by the corpses of dead flamingoes
The flamingoes are fine as long as they stay in the thermally heated lake, but as soon as they get out they will freeze to death in moments if they don't fly away at once. The corpses are the flamingoes that couldn't get off the ground quick enough
I once camped (illegally, I think) on the Salar de Uyuni on my birthday.
I went to bed with a full water bottle by my head - next morning it was frozen solid. Turns out the salt doesn't retain heat particularly well. Who knew?
What a place tho, eh? Did you go to see that weird salt-flat-island with the shrine of sacrificed children's skeletons? Lovely
The only disappointing thing was the "salt hotel". I imagined a blinding white Taj Mahal made of Halen Mon seasalt. In reality, of course, raw salt quickly discolours so its a sludgy grey brown and looks like its made of crappy beige bricks
I must admit I was in one of my sporadic curmudgeon phases and refused to partake in any sanctioned tourist sites. We were cycling through Bolivia at the time so we just cycled onto the salt flats, made camp, nearly died, then trundled onto La Paz to get mugged and kidnapped (well, Paddy did whilst Andy and I were watching a poorly dubbed Da Vinci code).
Kidnapped? Eesh
Was this one of this kidnappings where they take you at gunpoint from ATM to ATM and drain all your bank accounts?
That happened to a guy I met in Mexico City. An American. He was sitting at the hotel bar necking enormous amounts of whisky and still trembling with fear (this was the day after the horror). He told me they'd also kept his girlfriend at gunpoint in their room, threatening to rape or kill her if he didn't give them every cent
After he told me his horrifying story he said "I am never fucking coming back to fucking Mexico" and I didn't dispute his logic
Slow reply, sorry, busy in the sunshine. It's an excellent story involving loose bowels, the favela-esque hillsides around La Paz, Paddy being put in a headlock until he passed out, a generous taxi driver who probably saved his life by spotting him being dumped by the roadside and driving him home without any money, and a particularly entertaining moment where a roll of bog paper (vital for aforesaid loose bowels) was mistaken for a wallet fat with pesos.
I'll tell it properly sometime.
Ah, the lifesaving taxi driver
An article on the good and bad of foreign cab drivers has, coincidentally, appeared in the Spectator, today
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Sure. Not since the 'yogic flying' gang (who's name I forget) has there been a national party so very far from the ability to form a government though.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
Not unless Kate Forbes succeeds him as leader which is unlikely. Swinney is basically the John Major of the SNP
Do you still think it's impossible for Robert Jenrick to succeed Kemi Badenoch?
Before the next GE yes I think Cleverly or Stride would be picked by coronation if Tory MPs removed Badenoch.
If they lost too after the subsequent general election then Jenrick could take over but if Farage has won anyway a Jenrick led rump Tories would be little different from a Reform government policy wise anyway
I've laid Kemi exit 2025 at 2.7 for a decent amount.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
A nationwide rollout of smart meters threatens to clutter the countryside with 40-foot poles
Here is the article in question. It is the assumption that any infrastructure will "blight" the country that stops so much being built. The default answer should always be yes. Other countries are laughing at how bad we are getting this wrong.
That's just your opinion bro. In all my travelling, the UK still stands out as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Consider how we feel about those towns and cities blighted by rampant development in the 60s and 70s - let's not make the same mistake again.
Just because some spreadsheet wanker can't monetise something doesn't mean it has no value.
It's not about monetising, it's that the balance is so far to the view of "stop development" it's crazy.
If we want to grow the economy, we need to get building again. It is truly pathetic how long things take to get built here, they get completely bogged down in endless committees, appeals, other red tape, etc.
Clearly there is some balance to be found. But right now it's not anywhere near where it should be.
I've posted so many examples here of masts - as it's the industry I work in so I prefer to comment on things I know - that were blocked for nonsensical reasons.
Seems homeowners worry about the effects on the price of their homes
Now that is slightly different. The difference between a public and private good.
I have less sympathy with the house value argument, though I do think compensation (eg free broadband/data/energy) should be provided to those in close proximity to new infrastructure, simply to alter the incentives. Temper NIMBYism.
The public good is distinct from that. I am not personally enjoying Devon or wherever TimS is, and I don't live there, but there is a chance I could share that gorgeous view one day on a walk, along with the 70 million people other people on these islands. There is some value there.
I doubt devon where I live is enjoying having lycra clad oiks like you visiting either, indeed heard the driver of my taxi swearing at one of your ilk swearing about one of your people riding in such a way he was unable to overtake
I did some cycle touring up the Tamar a few years ago and everyone was just lovely.
You mistake being nice to you for actually wanting you there, we got forced into being a tourist area. Suprising to make money we have to be nice to people even if we think they are deficiently worth being nice to, much the same as shop workers....we still have to pretend we like you even if you are an arsehole
Well I had a wonderful time. An arsehole's paradise - I guess you could put that on the road signs.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
Not unless Kate Forbes succeeds him as leader which is unlikely. Swinney is basically the John Major of the SNP
Do you still think it's impossible for Robert Jenrick to succeed Kemi Badenoch?
Before the next GE yes I think Cleverly or Stride would be picked by coronation if Tory MPs removed Badenoch.
If they lost too after the subsequent general election then Jenrick could take over but if Farage has won anyway a Jenrick led rump Tories would be little different from a Reform government policy wise anyway
I've laid Kemi exit 2025 at 2.7 for a decent amount.
That's a great bet, H, don't you think?
Yes but I think she survives until next autumn, if the polls haven't improved for the Tories by then and if they lose more seats in the local and Scottish and Welsh elections next year then she likely loses a VONC 2 years into her leadership as LoftheO. Same timeframe as IDS was removed, elected Tory leader in autumn 2001, removed as Tory leader in autumn 2003
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
You haven't taken into account that Boris would lie and affirm frequently and publicly that he'd ALWAYS been opposed to immigration from India. Or wherever.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
Given you didn't even vote for Boris when he won his landslide in 2019 why is your opinion on his electability relevant?
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
How well I remember the PB paeans to Bastani during his Corbynite phase.
Isn't the SNP itself on a rightward journey from the united colours of male rapists in womens' prisons era into the age of the wee frees, via a grey and soon to be forgotten Swinney interregnum?
Not unless Kate Forbes succeeds him as leader which is unlikely. Swinney is basically the John Major of the SNP
Do you still think it's impossible for Robert Jenrick to succeed Kemi Badenoch?
Before the next GE yes I think Cleverly or Stride would be picked by coronation if Tory MPs removed Badenoch.
If they lost too after the subsequent general election then Jenrick could take over but if Farage has won anyway a Jenrick led rump Tories would be little different from a Reform government policy wise anyway
I've laid Kemi exit 2025 at 2.7 for a decent amount.
That's a great bet, H, don't you think?
Yes but I think she survives until next autumn, if the polls haven't improved for the Tories by then and if they lose more seats in the local and Scottish and Welsh elections next year then she likely loses a VONC 2 years into her leadership as LoftheO. Same timeframe as IDS was removed, elected Tory leader in autumn 2001, removed as Tory leader in autumn 2003
Yes that sounds about right. I couldn't believe that 2.7 price. Still too short now at 3.5 imo.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
TSE has explained to you on several occassions that polling for future prospective leaders is an inexact science.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
Given you didn't even vote for Boris when he won his landslide in 2019 why is your opinion on his electability relevant?
Personally I'm proud to say that I have NEVER voted for Boris, or a candidate whom he endorsed. And I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
TSE has explained to you on several occassions that polling for future prospective leaders is an inexact science.
Nope, TSE didn't disprove ANY hypothetical leader polls only some hypothetical Brexit polls.
The polls were right in 2019 a Boris led Tories would win as they were right in 1990 a Major led Tories would win
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
Given you didn't even vote for Boris when he won his landslide in 2019 why is your opinion on his electability relevant?
Personally I'm proud to say that I have NEVER voted for Boris, or a candidate whom he endorsed. And I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would.
Enjoy PM Farage then as at the moment the polls show only Boris can stop Reform winning most seats or a majority
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Sure. Not since the 'yogic flying' gang (who's name I forget) has there been a national party so very far from the ability to form a government though.
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
Given you didn't even vote for Boris when he won his landslide in 2019 why is your opinion on his electability relevant?
Personally I'm proud to say that I have NEVER voted for Boris, or a candidate whom he endorsed. And I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would.
Enjoy PM Farage then
I have every confidence that I'll never see that!!
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
That 9% Green number is astonishing. I don't hold with those that think we'd be plunged into the iron age if the Greens ever put their policies in place. I'm more of the stone age view.
(Although there does seem to be a very gradual shift towards reality in their stated views)
They got 7% at the general election. Not a huge increase since then.
Sure. Not since the 'yogic flying' gang (who's name I forget) has there been a national party so very far from the ability to form a government though.
Their manifesto was quite amazing too - filled with tenor calculus, although I'm not sure anyone who is familiar with tensor calculus could make head or tail of it. Back then, despite knowing something of the area, it seemed nonsense to me.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Polls on hypotheticals like that are worth diddly squat; you should know that already.
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
Drop Colour of Money. Drop Jerry Maguire. Drop Magnolia. Drop Eyes Wide Shut. Drop Interview with the Vampire. Drop the two Reacher films and Oblivion.
I'll be deciding where the wind is blowing in 2028 and betting accordingly. If that's towards Reform then I'll be betting on them.
But at the moment it's just too early to say. I don't underestimate Starmer simply because the people here saying he's done were the same people saying he was done in 2021 and laughing at me.
So I'll stick with my guns for now.
Who are these people?
I was basically the only person here at the peak of Johnson predicting he'd not last and Labour would win. I'm not sure if you were one of the people laughing but there were certainly a large number calling my predictions ridiculous.
Of course I also predicted a Corbyn win in 2019 so you can't win them all.
A stopped clock is right twice a day. If you just always say the party you vote for is going to win, and repeat it constantly, that doesn’t show any insight, it’s just noise
I've learned from the best.
Passive aggressive nonsense again
You obviously mean me, but I don’t always say the party I am voting for is going to win, so you’re passively aggressively bang wrong. And I understand betting.
Sam I was one of the people here most trying to get you to be unbanned as I thought it unfair. Be careful where you're throwing that fire.
I understand betting just as much as you.
I very much doubt both of those statements!
I haven't been banned for about three years anyway, what are you talking about?
Horse was very keen for your return be that you were on an enforced holiday or a voluntary one. Obviously there were a fair number of your more obvious supporters demanding your return too. Fair play to them all.
You asked earlier who were the Starmer nay sayers way back before the Hartlepool by election. There was a common theme on here then poking fun at Starmer's perceived incompetence. He was called Brittas, Captain Hindsight, Mr Indecisive, Sir Fence Sitter. They then moved on to Kid Starver, Granny Starver, Two Tier Keir, Free Gear Kier.and now flip flop.
I am not here to defend Starmer. I think he is a poor politician. However it does seem odd that Farage doesn't get the same vitriol thrown at him in opposition that Starmer did, despite being a complete barsteward.
I don't disagree. Since the election it has been a one way barrage against Starmer and co. I don't think it's been that fair to be honest, but I suspect that is the sign of the times.
I am not a labour supporter btw, but it has been very obvious.
Are you seriously trying to claim the press (or PB) are unfair on Starmer, because they were nicer to the Tories? Really???
Starmer gets intense grief because he has made unforced error after unforced error, starting from day 1 (the free lingerie and designer spectacles), and he is - it turns out - politically inept, wooden on TV, very poor at speaking, devoid of ideas, devoid of charisma, and fantastically bad at making deals
Take just one recent example. He went to Albania expecting to announce a new Rwanda-lite deal with Albania, where they would take boat people. But he was humiliated on live TV when the Albanian PM said, Nope, that's not happening, with Starmer standing by his side, blushing furiously
How does a UK PM get into these pickles? It is basic and shocking political incompetence, an inability to "do" politics, and Starmer makes these errors all the time. He deserves all the criticism he gets. Soz
I don't think Starmer ever expected to be PM when he went into politics. And, if it hadn't been for the bog Corbyn made, or was said by the twitterati to have made, of things sometimes, Starmer might have ended up as a competent Attorney General or Roy Jenkins-like Home Secretary. IMHO, for what little it is worth, I think Ed Miliband should have stayed in post after 2015. He might well have defeated May in 2017.
Burnham maybe, Ed Miliband no
You may be right about Burnham but I really don't see him now coming back to Parliament unless it's to the HoL. Same with Sadiq Khan. It's only in the recent past, though, that defeated leaders have abandoned the job after a GE. Heath didn't, nor Wilson, nor most other leaders going back though Attlee, Churchill to pre-war.
I could see Burnham coming back in a Greater Manchester seat, I can't see Starmer lasting more than 1 more term as PM and Labour leader
Burnham would most likely have to run as an independent. (Similarly Boris)
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
Why? He was Labour members top choice in the last Labour poll to succeed Starmer and unlike the Tories once nominated Labour members pick from all candidates not just the final 2.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Reform would eat the Tories for breakfast if Johnson was leader.
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
MiC had Reform still on 23% v a Boris led Tories but the Conservatives reached 26% under Boris with Labour on 22% as Boris reaches centrist swing voters that Farage can't
Bring boris back I say if you are so convinced, it will drive your vote into greens territory if you promote him as pm
Given you didn't even vote for Boris when he won his landslide in 2019 why is your opinion on his electability relevant?
Personally I'm proud to say that I have NEVER voted for Boris, or a candidate whom he endorsed. And I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would.
Enjoy PM Farage then as at the moment the polls show only Boris can stop Reform winning most seats or a majority
Nearer the mark to say that if anything could keep Labour in power, a fight to the death between those two clowns on the right could do it!
Something I've noticed from Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool is just how gay football fans can be
The one thing Liverpool supporters calling Radio 5 to lament his departure all said was how it was like being dumped by a girlfriend
Really?!
They have the same kind of emotional attachments to their favourite players as they do to romantic partners?
That's WEIRD
Read Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' - it's a good book and I think tells you much about football fandom. The film (by the same name) is good too, but it's not much like the book.
"Britain’s police are restricting speech in worrying ways Muddled laws give them wide discretion"
"Europeans are becoming less free to say what they think It’s becoming dangerous to anger minority groups and politicians"
Free speech is under threat in both the US and in Europe, because it turns out that when most people (including VP Vance) say they are in favour of free speech, what they mean is that they are in favour of free speech they agree with.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
He's ok. But no doesn't "tell the truth as he sees it". He just tries to get attention.
You are such a hapless dork. But it's OK. There's room for dorks, even a need for them, sometimes
A wise dork actually. As in being wise to the MO of these opinion mongers. It's about gaining and monetising attention not (lol) "telling the truth as they see it".
You're saying that about this particular monger purely because he's saying stuff here that you happen to like.
No, I'm not. I admire people who look at something and offer an unexpected worldview, it shows they are REALLY thinking
Here's an opposing example. Jacob Rees Mogg says we should bring back Shamima Begum, as she is our responsibility
I couldn't disagree more. My opinion of Ms Begum is that we should hand her over to be tried by the Kurds or Yazidis - as they were her victims - and if they decide to execute her, so be it. It is their choice. Whatever. She is despicable
Nonetheless I admire JRM for adopting a highly unexpected opinion and arguing it logically. He made me think again, even if in the end I still disagree with him, vehemently
You're just virtue signaling. JRM didn't for one second make you reconsider about Begum. In general, straining to be different and "unexpected" does not map to free intelligent thinking.
Yep, you're still tedious
You dislike being sussed, don't you. Get irritated.
And yet I am right, aren't I? You haven't had an original thought in 30 years and you haven't changed your opinion since you were 21. Sometimes this reality is visible on your tiny radar of self-awareness, and it vaguely troubles you, yet you're not sure why, so you look away, and forget about it. Like someone ignoring a malignant symptom
And then you trot out the same opinions again
The tragedy is that he genuinely thinks he's quite bright.
"Britain’s police are restricting speech in worrying ways Muddled laws give them wide discretion"
"Europeans are becoming less free to say what they think It’s becoming dangerous to anger minority groups and politicians"
Free speech is under threat in both the US and in Europe, because it turns out that when most people (including VP Vance) say they are in favour of free speech, what they mean is that they are in favour of free speech they agree with.
You're not getting nul points tonight! I think you've summed it up rather well.
A glorious day in Wythenshawe and Sale East, which on current polling is going Reform next time round.
You have Gail's in..... the north?
That means you have sourdough. In Manchester??? And flat whites. And things like that
This is upsetting, and - quite frankly I don't believe it. This is faked
It's a Northern Gail's. Inside, they mainly sell tripe and other offal-related products.
Ah. Thankyou. Order is restored
I am also reassured that your photo, despite the sunshine, still manages to convey a hint of northern bleakness. I'm not sure what it is. The stolid red brick on the right, the slightly depressing clutter of metal, it's hard to pin down, but nonetheless something in that photo says "yes it's post-industrial northern England and yes, despite the sun and the Gail's, it's shit"
It's Manchester 33 - GM's fourth most expensive postcode. But Sale Town Centre is still no better than all right, considering. That clutter of metal is a right bloody nuisance for pedestrians - I may get @MattW on the case. I've usedup my quota now but tomorrow I may post a slightly more edifying pic of Sale which still manages to be a bit post-industrial.
You know I am only teasing. I admire your fierce loyalty to your region, and a couple of your photos of booming Manchester have kinda persuaded me to take a look. I need to see
The one the other day with the nice Dutch-ish new houses and the towers was, eg, quite cheering. It is cheering to think that some parts of the UK are NOT in terrible decline
Oh, I know. And GM - or at least its southern half - is definitely improving and improving. But from, it must be conceded, a desperately low base. I am in Gail's now, as it happens. Turns out its quite nice. They're out of tripe so I have settled for a coffee and a croissant.
Gail's in Greater Manchester is definitely an example of "levelling up", so: go Manchester
Returning to King's Cross, as I did last night, was simultaneously enlivening and saddening. It was nice because it is such a buzzy youthful place, and such a brilliant example of urban redevelopment (and it really is, town planners come from across the world to see it, and be inspired)
However it is also saddening because
1. We didn't do it everywhere in London, let alone the UK, and many other developments are decidedly worse
and
2. It feels so Blairite. It oozes the sunny optimism of, say, 1999 or 2006, when Britain was booming and things really could only get better
Sigh
Interesting you should raise King's Cross. With government currently (extremely half-heartedly) looking at new high-speed-ish lines to Manchester (Liverpool-Manchester (and on to Leeds?) and son-of-HS2), GM is uaing Kings Cross as an exenplar of what could be done at Piccadilly. The back of Piccadilly ia currently low-grade-industrial and a red light area, but the pressure for development is immense. But government's proposal is that the new line should emerge from a tunnel a mile south of Manchester and arrive on railway viaducts - thereby sterilising most of the area. GM wants to keep the new railway underground and have a through station (cf Thameslink) and develop the site (cf Kings Cross). At Select Committee in 2023, the HS2 witness pointed out that you could have community centres under railway viaducts. That appears to be the height of government ambition for the north. Largely, they see us as one big council estate.
I really like the idea of linking all the great northern cities together, Liverpool to Leeds, into one great mighty conurbation - big enough to rival London. Do it with intense local transport links, bridges and tunnels, trams and trains, knit it all into one megacity run by one authority
That would be great for the north and great for the UK, somewhere to balance London. Make this neo-greater-Manchester the northern capital of Britain
Britain is small, compact and densely populated. We need to turn this to our advantage. The absurd disaster of HS2 is an example of us doing the opposite. Britain is so small we don't actually need genuinely high speed trains. 100mph is fine. Just build more capacity
HS2 did both. It freed up line capacity for both freight and passengers.
Starmer's failure to resurrect HS2 will forever be an albatross around his neck. In the late 1950s, 60s and 70s we built thousands of miles of motorway from scratch. Today we can't even get 80 miles of track from Birmingham to Manchester and another hundred from Birmingham to Leeds and over thirty years. And the biggest irony is we've been charged hundreds of millions of pounds to knock it on the head before a shovel hit the soil.
You misconstrue me. I agree we needed new capacity, the problem is a lot of rail geeks then came in and said Oh let's make it go faster than light and build fantastic new stations and gold plate everything. We just needed new capacity, we didn't need 300kph. Of course there were many other problems - insane environmental laws, our pitiful planning system, nervous cavilling governments - but this was definitely one of the major issues
It is tragic and it is emblematic of how Britain has gone wrong. Even as I type this I am staring at the rails out of Euston and there is a massive crane right by the tracks, it is there to build HS2. About once a fortnight it moves a bit, then it stops again. It has been there for YEARS
What's the latest bill? £100bn and upwards? And it won't arrive until the late 2030s? What a catastrophe (and the Tories are easily as reponsible as Labour, indeed probably worse)
We try to gold plate everything and get nothing, not just with transport. Still, it keeps highly paid consultants employed, so that’s good!
Politicians are about 90% responsible for the problems of HS2, and they'll never take the blame for it.
Really striking that Reform are doing a number of things the Labour establishment denigrated:
1) They want to build a mass member party
2) They have lots of rallies.
3) They see the value in offline social spaces (a reform pub?!)
4) They want a pipeline from youth activism.
Bastani seems to be tip-toeing towards Reform.
Whatever pays the rent, I suppose.
It is so typical of you to see it in that way. You cannot possibly accept that Bastani is open-minded and intelligent and therefore takes things as he sees them, and tells the truth as he views it, even if it is "uncomfortable" for the Woke Left
Quite frankly, Labour would be doing vastly better if they had seven hundred Aaron Bastanis as MPs and wonks and activists, rather than the utter shower of wankers they have at the moment
He's ok. But no doesn't "tell the truth as he sees it". He just tries to get attention.
You are such a hapless dork. But it's OK. There's room for dorks, even a need for them, sometimes
A wise dork actually. As in being wise to the MO of these opinion mongers. It's about gaining and monetising attention not (lol) "telling the truth as they see it".
You're saying that about this particular monger purely because he's saying stuff here that you happen to like.
No, I'm not. I admire people who look at something and offer an unexpected worldview, it shows they are REALLY thinking
Here's an opposing example. Jacob Rees Mogg says we should bring back Shamima Begum, as she is our responsibility
I couldn't disagree more. My opinion of Ms Begum is that we should hand her over to be tried by the Kurds or Yazidis - as they were her victims - and if they decide to execute her, so be it. It is their choice. Whatever. She is despicable
Nonetheless I admire JRM for adopting a highly unexpected opinion and arguing it logically. He made me think again, even if in the end I still disagree with him, vehemently
You're just virtue signaling. JRM didn't for one second make you reconsider about Begum. In general, straining to be different and "unexpected" does not map to free intelligent thinking.
Yep, you're still tedious
You dislike being sussed, don't you. Get irritated.
And yet I am right, aren't I? You haven't had an original thought in 30 years and you haven't changed your opinion since you were 21. Sometimes this reality is visible on your tiny radar of self-awareness, and it vaguely troubles you, yet you're not sure why, so you look away, and forget about it. Like someone ignoring a malignant symptom
And then you trot out the same opinions again
The tragedy is that he genuinely thinks he's quite bright.
21.Top Gun 20.The Firm 19.The Color of Money 18.Edge of Tomorrow 17.Interview with the Vampire 16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol 15.Rain Main 14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout 13.Born on the Fourth of July 12.Risky Business 11.War of the Worlds 10.A Few Good Men 9. Jerry Maguire 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 7. Minority Report 6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning 5. Mission: Impossible 4. Collateral 3. Magnolia 2. Eyes Wide Shut 1. Top Gun: Maverick"
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
Comments
"Way back in 2016 when journalists/pundits/blue-checks (2016 version) were going crazy with "How did Trump possibly win" and offering up all sorts of crazy atavistic explanations, a few of us who had actually talked to voters before this, and so were not surprised, said, "Well, a whole lot of the country thinks the system is corrupt and you elites now screaming are who they think are the most corrupted," and they thought about that for a moment and said, "Naaaaaaah, American voters are dirty racist idiots and we don't need to change a bit,"
"And then they go and pull off the whole Biden isn't senile thing—which is more and more looking like they covered for a deeply detached and mentally incompetent president while a cadre of unelected bureaucrats could run stuff the way they wanted to run stuff and then they kept trying to do this telling whoever pointed it out that Biden sure looked out of it that no, don't believe your eyes, no you instead were lying misinformation spreaders who needed more education and were fascists as well, which because Biden was now so clearly a zombie that no amount of their usual big word lying could hide they got caught, and the result is the very person they hate the most, Trump, got elected again.
It really boggles the mind that a group could be lacking this much self awareness, this incompetent, and keep on stepping on rakes they way they do, all without suffering any consequences or moral reflection"
https://x.com/Chris_arnade/status/1923691545867264105
That was running at something like $5000 pa for something like 40m people, reportedly.
The money is going to go on tax breaks for the wealthy, so there’s likely to be a rather significant economic cooling effect, as rich people won’t spend it.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=N&CON=18&LAB=22.5&LIB=14.5&Reform=30&Green=9&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVReform=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=&SCOTLAB=&SCOTLIB=&SCOTReform=&SCOTGreen=&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2024base
Think most ex FMs and party leaders voted against the AD bill which made it mildly surprising (to me) that it passed.
However the Democratic establishment insisted it had to be Hillary and she was the ideal candidate for Trump to beat and so Biden had to be called out of retirement to run in 2020 when he should have been running for his second term not his first, in which case win or lose he would not have been running last year when he was too old anyway
He was absolutely adamant about that; like he is about NI being insurance, not tax
I think there is a lot of criticism being levelled at pretty much all the parties, which I think is broadly reflective of the general national mood.
If they lost too after the subsequent general election then Jenrick could take over but if Farage has won anyway a Jenrick led rump Tories would be little different from a Reform government policy wise anyway
He then rejoining the party and sweeping to leadership seems a long shot. Quite why the PLP might then choose to let him sweep all before him escapes me.
https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/VotingIntention_MRP_250512_w.pdf
The LDs are used to irrelevance and being ignored - the Conservatives aren't. They've either been the Government or the lead Opposition party since 1832.
I'll tell it properly sometime.
Boris would also be Tory members top choice, a Boris v Burnham GE would probably the only way to really push back Reform
Farage if he fails to win a majority would also likewise need Tory confidence and supply.
If we went to PR the Tories and LDs would then normally be Kingmakers between Reform and Labour
So far
(I remembered - 'Natural Law Party')
An article on the good and bad of foreign cab drivers has, coincidentally, appeared in the Spectator, today
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/david-lammy-and-the-trouble-with-foreign-taxis/
And on that note, my turn to go out and enjoy the lovely sun. Later
What killed the Tories and is killing Labour today? Immigration! What individual politician is blamed by racists and non- racists alike for teeing up mass immigration from the Indian subcontinent?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HP3EPZJX7c
That's a great bet, H, don't you think?
21.Top Gun
20.The Firm
19.The Color of Money
18.Edge of Tomorrow
17.Interview with the Vampire
16.Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol
15.Rain Main
14.Mission: Impossible — Fallout
13.Born on the Fourth of July
12.Risky Business
11.War of the Worlds
10.A Few Good Men
9. Jerry Maguire
8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
7. Minority Report
6. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning
5. Mission: Impossible
4. Collateral
3. Magnolia
2. Eyes Wide Shut
1. Top Gun: Maverick"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/tom-cruise-best-films-ranked/
I am sure all of PB will be happy for him, averse to wishing bad or mocking political opponents as we are on here
And I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would.
https://archive.ph/IEE4v
The polls were right in 2019 a Boris led Tories would win as they were right in 1990 a Major led Tories would win
21 factorial = 5.109094217 E+19 combinations IIUC. Happy to be contradicted if wrong.
The former is far pervier.
Man City 0
63 mins
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cm23zrkn7ryt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnszB3fdp0o
Hmm
I have to go: the Costa is closing
The one thing Liverpool supporters calling Radio 5 to lament his departure all said was how it was like being dumped by a girlfriend
Really?!
They have the same kind of emotional attachments to their favourite players as they do to romantic partners?
That's WEIRD
"Europe’s free-speech problem
J.D. Vance was right"
https://www.economist.com
Also:
"Britain’s police are restricting speech in worrying ways
Muddled laws give them wide discretion"
"Europeans are becoming less free to say what they think
It’s becoming dangerous to anger minority groups and politicians"
Massive sex wee time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e540k8xepo
George Galloway has an outlandish theory which I won't repeat here. I feel he gets worse every year.
Most people get far more pleasure from their football team than they do from their romantic partner.
Common meme amongst Liverpool fans.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/bm2p3z/loyalty/
I’ve given up on it now.
It may be foolish as Starmer has been litigious to protect his good name in the past, rightly so.
Bookending Top Gun like that is pure clickbait, to drive traffic and a debate deliberately.
BTW - If nobody used the line 'The Hend of God' then I am going to be very disappointed.
I might have to ruddy watch it now.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/audio-biden-memory-lapses