Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Understanding what went wrong – politicalbetting.com

1246

Comments

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 77,566

    kinabalu said:

    I'm also feeling Cornish now.

    JE SUIS REDRUTH
    One of my older holiday memories is trying to photograph (absurdly, in Kodak monochrome) the Six-spot burnet moths on top of the cliffs at Lands End.

    Scarily, that's over half a century back.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,468

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

    Income from savings is taxed at 20% basic rate; income from working taxed at 28% (20% ICT + 8% NI).

    Why should unearned income be taxed less than earned income?
    If it's savings from already taxed earned income, why should it be taxed again?
    The savings are not being taxed, the unearned interest from them is.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

  • Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    Cornwall is a part of the country that really feels different . I’ve been down loads of times to visit friends . As soon as you cross the Tamar Bridge it just feels like you’ve entered a different country in a very good way. It’s a unique place with a sense of mystery , the place names hark back to a different time, it’s almost out worldly .

    Cornwall is okay, we like Looe, but the narrow roads are fecking horrendous.
    How absolutely horrible of the townplanners of the 17th century not to consider the width needs of your suv
    I drive a Hyundai i10 😂😂😂😂

    I believe road widening is a concept that was implemented in other parts of the country.
    Perhaps you could just rent a sensible car instead of expecting others to adapt their road systems to your outsized penis mobile?
    rent a morris minor or something
    This is my ‘outsized penis mobile’ 🤡

    https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/hyundai/i10/details/98690910-7b32-47f5-96df-1b3965e560bf?CID=ppc|google|paid|UK_EN_Google_Generic_Research_PMax|||||&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20697209697&gbraid=0AAAAACtVW9Jo-m6jhiLhaWYV7samRWwx-&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0LDBBhCnARIsAMpYlAqjqIPZ8HqMemzVGyovyO1pS3dgt_VtFlMnQ94NIzpTKe0Iwlzh4h8aAnoiEALw_wcB
    Is there a betting market on whether pagan bothered to click that link and has any idea what a small car the i10 is ?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552

    Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    Cornwall is a part of the country that really feels different . I’ve been down loads of times to visit friends . As soon as you cross the Tamar Bridge it just feels like you’ve entered a different country in a very good way. It’s a unique place with a sense of mystery , the place names hark back to a different time, it’s almost out worldly .

    Cornwall is okay, we like Looe, but the narrow roads are fecking horrendous.
    How absolutely horrible of the townplanners of the 17th century not to consider the width needs of your suv
    I drive a Hyundai i10 😂😂😂😂

    I believe road widening is a concept that was implemented in other parts of the country.
    Perhaps you could just rent a sensible car instead of expecting others to adapt their road systems to your outsized penis mobile?
    rent a morris minor or something
    This is my ‘outsized penis mobile’ 🤡

    https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/hyundai/i10/details/98690910-7b32-47f5-96df-1b3965e560bf?CID=ppc|google|paid|UK_EN_Google_Generic_Research_PMax|||||&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20697209697&gbraid=0AAAAACtVW9Jo-m6jhiLhaWYV7samRWwx-&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0LDBBhCnARIsAMpYlAqjqIPZ8HqMemzVGyovyO1pS3dgt_VtFlMnQ94NIzpTKe0Iwlzh4h8aAnoiEALw_wcB
    Is there a betting market on whether pagan bothered to click that link and has any idea what a small car the i10 is ?
    There's no dog in the photo so how can anyone tell?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,654
    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,773

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    As I understand it - the local SLAB council group leader has never attended a debate or spoken in a committee. In the past 3-4 years since being elected.

    I wish I had that kind of brass neck.

  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519
    hmmm just realised I need to flounce now from pb as leon made me cry so its traditional
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Another gentleman stroller, just in it for the lolz, we do not need.

  • sarissasarissa Posts: 2,144

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    They were relying on him lying about wanting to deport their relatives ?
    (TBF, not completely absurd to rely on him lying.)

    https://x.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/1924581252587274243
    "They betrayed us by doing what they promised" is an interesting take.

    A majority of Venezuelans in Doral, Florida voted for Trump, now their family members face deportation.

    One woman "cheered when Donald Trump was elected" and now the community feels "betrayed by the Trump administration."

    "Beyond betrayed. They used us."

    Are we able to nominate relatives we want deporting?
    Depends on whether or not you're wanting life imprisonment for them.

    50+ Venezuelans Imprisoned in El Salvador Came to US Legally, Never Violated Immigration Law
    https://www.cato.org/blog/50-venezuelans-imprisoned-el-salvador-came-us-legally-never-violated-immigration-law
    Trump seems to have given France ideas

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7v7n81emy3o

    France to open high-security prison in Amazon jungle
    I wonder if our former Guyana is interested in a similar deal?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519

    Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Taz said:

    nico67 said:

    Cornwall is a part of the country that really feels different . I’ve been down loads of times to visit friends . As soon as you cross the Tamar Bridge it just feels like you’ve entered a different country in a very good way. It’s a unique place with a sense of mystery , the place names hark back to a different time, it’s almost out worldly .

    Cornwall is okay, we like Looe, but the narrow roads are fecking horrendous.
    How absolutely horrible of the townplanners of the 17th century not to consider the width needs of your suv
    I drive a Hyundai i10 😂😂😂😂

    I believe road widening is a concept that was implemented in other parts of the country.
    Perhaps you could just rent a sensible car instead of expecting others to adapt their road systems to your outsized penis mobile?
    rent a morris minor or something
    This is my ‘outsized penis mobile’ 🤡

    https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/hyundai/i10/details/98690910-7b32-47f5-96df-1b3965e560bf?CID=ppc|google|paid|UK_EN_Google_Generic_Research_PMax|||||&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20697209697&gbraid=0AAAAACtVW9Jo-m6jhiLhaWYV7samRWwx-&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0LDBBhCnARIsAMpYlAqjqIPZ8HqMemzVGyovyO1pS3dgt_VtFlMnQ94NIzpTKe0Iwlzh4h8aAnoiEALw_wcB
    Is there a betting market on whether pagan bothered to click that link and has any idea what a small car the i10 is ?
    I clicked it dont see why it wont fit cornish roads
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,261
    Fuck the play offs.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,035
    Pagan2 said:

    hmmm just realised I need to flounce now from pb as leon made me cry so its traditional

    But in a good way. It's good to see people's real stories.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640
    edited May 20

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,254

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

    Income from savings is taxed at 20% basic rate; income from working taxed at 28% (20% ICT + 8% NI).

    Why should unearned income be taxed less than earned income?
    If it's savings from already taxed earned income, why should it be taxed again?
    Usual idiots thinking, usually they agree as long as it does not affect them. They would rather everybody gave up on saving/pensions and put all the burden on the government. Economics for Dummies.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage: the laziest man in Britain.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,254

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

    Income from savings is taxed at 20% basic rate; income from working taxed at 28% (20% ICT + 8% NI).

    Why should unearned income be taxed less than earned income?
    If it's savings from already taxed earned income, why should it be taxed again?
    The savings are not being taxed, the unearned interest from them is.
    It is earned by lending someone your hard earned cash you dumb cluck.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552
    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something...
    ...useful?

    (although half a point for delivering karma to the Tories, tbf)
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage: the laziest man in Britain.
    Yes, what an ineffectual politician. Utterly crap. If only he could have the impact of, uhm, er, uhm... you know... yes... that one
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 44,254

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,644
    Nobody loves the Blairites any more

    https://archive.ph/22vlx
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 10,004

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    Sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

    Income from savings is taxed at 20% basic rate; income from working taxed at 28% (20% ICT + 8% NI).

    Why should unearned income be taxed less than earned income?
    If it's savings from already taxed earned income, why should it be taxed again?
    The savings are not being taxed, the unearned interest from them is.
    How about the interest on the interest?

  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,644
    HYUFD said:

    Australia's Liberal National coalition splits after 80 years as the Liberals move back to the liberal centre after Dutton's hard right campaign was heavily defeated while the Nationals remain solidly conservative and as the 2 parties differ on issues like nuclear power.

    The 2 parties will still likely preference each other though under Australia's 2PP voting system
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cev4dve4970o

    That's quite big, isn't it? Similar to, say, the CDU and CSU splitting up.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,775
    My parents used their freedom passes yesterday to travel to Maidenhead on the Lizzie Line. Stayed the night, and went to Marlow this afternoon, my Mum tripped on a dodgy bit of pavement, fell over and has broken her hip! Four hour wait for an ambulance to A&E
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something...
    ...useful?

    (although half a point for delivering karma to the Tories, tbf)
    Farage is a very effective campaigner and one of the most important politicians of our time. But he clearly has little interest in the work of an M(E)P.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552
    viewcode said:

    Nobody loves the Blairites any more

    https://archive.ph/22vlx

    Streeting has never been popular inside Labour's membership, tbf, but he reckoned - correctly - that being stridently anti-Corbyn was the right positioning were Labour ever to get back into serious contention for power.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 10,004
    isam said:

    My parents used their freedom passes yesterday to travel to Maidenhead on the Lizzie Line. Stayed the night, and went to Marlow this afternoon, my Mum tripped on a dodgy bit of pavement, fell over and has broken her hip! Four hour wait for an ambulance to A&E

    Hope she’s ok
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,710

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Maybe he is "working from home".
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something...
    ...useful?

    (although half a point for delivering karma to the Tories, tbf)
    Farage is a very effective campaigner and one of the most important politicians of our time. But he clearly has little interest in the work of an M(E)P.
    You're so fucking dumb you called him "pretty lazy". Now suddenly you admit he is "very important and very effective"

    You have no idea about anything. You're a stupid clueless dump of donkey cum
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,654
    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    The point would be valid even if true, play the ball not the man and all that. But the opposite, maximise my tax breaks which is why I know they are ridiculously generous. Most "losers" as you call them, don't notice, hence the establishment get away with it.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640
    edited May 20
    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Deleted. Responded to wrong post idiot that I am.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,775
    edited May 20
    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    There was a time, about a decade ago, when I had to argue on here that he wasn’t a drag on the UKIP vote, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to out him & give the job to Suzanne Evans!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    RIP Patrick O'Flynn

    He always seemed to me a very likeable archetype of a Fleet Street journo. Wily, funny, sharp, surprisingly effective with just a few well-aimed words

    And only 59??

    Ave atque Vale

  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640
    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage: the laziest man in Britain.
    Yes, what an ineffectual politician. Utterly crap. If only he could have the impact of, uhm, er, uhm... you know... yes... that one
    Oh he is brilliant campaigner. He is probably one of the most influential politicians of our time and maybe that is how you should measure him. Brexit would probably not have happened without him, which, whether you are in favour or not, he should be credited for.

    However as for doing the jobs he was elected for in both the Commons and the EU. Zippo. You might argue that is irrelevant. Others might disagree.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 31,297

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,654
    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Oh he is brilliant campaigner. He is probably one of the most influential politicians of our time and maybe that is how you should measure him. Brexit would probably not have happened without him, which, whether you are in favour or not, he should be credited for.

    However as for doing the jobs he was elected for in both the Commons and the EU. Zippo. You might argue that is irrelevant. Others might disagree.
    FFS I don't mind getting called a loser by malc, but I prefer not to be mistaken for Farage.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    There was a time, about a decade ago, when I had to argue on here that he wasn’t a drag on the UKIP vote, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to out him & give the job to Suzanne Evans!
    We are surrounded by cretins, my friend, absolute scorching cretins

    What can we do?

    These days being on PB is like being the adult in a kindergarten. Most of the time I try to stop @bondegezou eating his own poo and @IanB2 pushing crayons up his own nose, while @kinabalu sings about his "tiny widdler"

    Very little education gets done, but we must persevere
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,676
    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something
    At the moment, he has forced other people to do things. Now that isn't to be sniffed at, if I were able to force Year 9 (say) to draw their graphs properly with less effort from me, that would make me much happier at work. But that's different to actually doing stuff himself.

    From that point of view, his record is rather more mixed. And that is a problem if he actually, really, wants to be PM. (I'm still not entirely sure he does, as opposed to making some other PM dance to his tune. In some ways, that's almost admirable.)
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640

    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Oh he is brilliant campaigner. He is probably one of the most influential politicians of our time and maybe that is how you should measure him. Brexit would probably not have happened without him, which, whether you are in favour or not, he should be credited for.

    However as for doing the jobs he was elected for in both the Commons and the EU. Zippo. You might argue that is irrelevant. Others might disagree.
    FFS I don't mind getting called a loser by malc, but I prefer not to be mistaken for Farage.
    Sorry. I corrected before I even saw your comment (so people will be wondering what we are talking about). I blame Vanilla and not the pint of Shere Drop I had before posting.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,710

    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Oh he is brilliant campaigner. He is probably one of the most influential politicians of our time and maybe that is how you should measure him. Brexit would probably not have happened without him, which, whether you are in favour or not, he should be credited for.

    However as for doing the jobs he was elected for in both the Commons and the EU. Zippo. You might argue that is irrelevant. Others might disagree.
    FFS I don't mind getting called a loser by malc, but I prefer not to be mistaken for Farage.
    Surely that's a banning offense as bad as dissing Radiohead.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Deleted. Responded to wrong post idiot that I am.
    At last, a glimmer of self awareness
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,654
    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Oh he is brilliant campaigner. He is probably one of the most influential politicians of our time and maybe that is how you should measure him. Brexit would probably not have happened without him, which, whether you are in favour or not, he should be credited for.

    However as for doing the jobs he was elected for in both the Commons and the EU. Zippo. You might argue that is irrelevant. Others might disagree.
    FFS I don't mind getting called a loser by malc, but I prefer not to be mistaken for Farage.
    Sorry. I corrected before I even saw your comment (so people will be wondering what we are talking about). I blame Vanilla and not the pint of Shere Drop I had before posting.
    It was bad enough when everyone started labelling the Refukkers as noneoftheabove.....
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something
    At the moment, he has forced other people to do things. Now that isn't to be sniffed at, if I were able to force Year 9 (say) to draw their graphs properly with less effort from me, that would make me much happier at work. But that's different to actually doing stuff himself.

    From that point of view, his record is rather more mixed. And that is a problem if he actually, really, wants to be PM. (I'm still not entirely sure he does, as opposed to making some other PM dance to his tune. In some ways, that's almost admirable.)
    "forcing other people to do things" - by sheer force of voice and will - is, by other people, known as "doing politics really really well"
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 1,051

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    The point would be valid even if true, play the ball not the man and all that. But the opposite, maximise my tax breaks which is why I know they are ridiculously generous. Most "losers" as you call them, don't notice, hence the establishment get away with it.
    Anyway it appears that no financial institution has done a study on the net effect of tax-free pension saving. I suspect that both the Treasury and CoE just see large £signs of potential tax take this year rather than thinking about future costs. Undoubtedly if they do remove it some generational cohort will get roundly f****d, taxed on their pension contributions to pay for current pensioners and then left with a miserably small pension pot for their own retirement.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    edited May 20

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you at least were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were

    Don't descend to the level of @bondegezou and @IanB2
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,694
    edited May 20
    viewcode said:

    HYUFD said:

    Australia's Liberal National coalition splits after 80 years as the Liberals move back to the liberal centre after Dutton's hard right campaign was heavily defeated while the Nationals remain solidly conservative and as the 2 parties differ on issues like nuclear power.

    The 2 parties will still likely preference each other though under Australia's 2PP voting system
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cev4dve4970o

    That's quite big, isn't it? Similar to, say, the CDU and CSU splitting up.
    Indeed and also sensible so the Liberals can reach out to more liberal urban voters while the Nationals focus on their rural and small town heartlands.

    For those saying that if we retain FPTP the Tories should just merge with Reform don't assume all current Tory voters would vote for Farage. At least a third of 2024 Tory voters would vote for Davey's LDs over Reform and about 10% even for Starmer Labour over Farage, even if 50-60% of Tory voters still went for Farage and Reform.

    In some respects the Tories would be better off taking a leaf out of the Australian Liberals book and shift back to Cameroonism, maybe with soft Brexit. Most hard Brexiteers now back Farage and Reform anyway and that wouldn't change even if Boris returned, MiC still found Reform would hold most of their current vote even with some leakage to a Johnson led Conservatives.

    The problem with Kemi is she started off as the hard right candidate in the Tory leadership, so turned off liberals and centrist swing voters who voted Labour or LD at the general election. Then ended up as the moderates candidate in the final round after Jenrick overtook her and went even harder right, so she also turned off rightwingers who she has leaked further to Reform
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    edited May 20
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners. He can’t work with others and is not interested in the details of actually getting stuff done.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,644
    Gordon Brown on The State Of This in the New Statesman

    https://archive.ph/3IH5c
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,900
    kjh said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
    Cheltenham?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 31,297
    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640
    Leon said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    There was a time, about a decade ago, when I had to argue on here that he wasn’t a drag on the UKIP vote, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to out him & give the job to Suzanne Evans!
    We are surrounded by cretins, my friend, absolute scorching cretins

    What can we do?

    These days being on PB is like being the adult in a kindergarten. Most of the time I try to stop @bondegezou eating his own poo and @IanB2 pushing crayons up his own nose, while @kinabalu sings about his "tiny widdler"

    Very little education gets done, but we must persevere
    The trouble is you are not very good at nuance are you? Try actually reading what people actually say. You know all the words rather than inaccurately precising it and completely misunderstanding.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339
    .
    Dopermean said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    The point would be valid even if true, play the ball not the man and all that. But the opposite, maximise my tax breaks which is why I know they are ridiculously generous. Most "losers" as you call them, don't notice, hence the establishment get away with it.
    Anyway it appears that no financial institution has done a study on the net effect of tax-free pension saving. I suspect that both the Treasury and CoE just see large £signs of potential tax take this year rather than thinking about future costs. Undoubtedly if they do remove it some generational cohort will get roundly f****d, taxed on their pension contributions to pay for current pensioners and then left with a miserably small pension pot for their own retirement.
    It's long been the subject of research, e.g. Cymrot (1980, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1057071 ) or Kesselman (2009, https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/cdntj57&i=614 ) among many.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 14,324

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something
    At the moment, he has forced other people to do things. Now that isn't to be sniffed at, if I were able to force Year 9 (say) to draw their graphs properly with less effort from me, that would make me much happier at work. But that's different to actually doing stuff himself.

    From that point of view, his record is rather more mixed. And that is a problem if he actually, really, wants to be PM. (I'm still not entirely sure he does, as opposed to making some other PM dance to his tune. In some ways, that's almost admirable.)
    There are two questions not discussed often enough despite their importance:

    (1) As indicated by Stuartinromford, do Farage and his cohorts actually want to win outright. Not sure.
    (2) If Reform actually won - or even was lead player in a carve up, though outright would be much more dramatic - what would it be like; what would happen; what would they do; how would the world and markets and people react; how long would it take for supporters to realise they had been sold a dud etc?
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640

    kjh said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
    Cheltenham?
    LD MP attacked and seriously injured in his surgery and his assistant killed.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339
    viewcode said:

    Gordon Brown on The State Of This in the New Statesman

    https://archive.ph/3IH5c

    Gordon Brown thought that devolution would kill the Scottish independence movement. I question his insight.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Your general stupidity is visible all the way from Manhattan.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 27,290
    edited May 20

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    Essentially there is no data available except attendance at votes - that's all we have. Plus logged stuff on the Register of Interests. Lee Anderson attends 65% of votes as recorded vs 30-35% for Tice or Farage.

    Amongst the RefUK lot I think Tice is perhaps more constituency absent than Farage - I think he's far closer to Reform's Stuart Bell.

    I don't know how many hold in person constituency surgeries, except that Farage said he planned not to do so ("security reasons"). Agent Anderson holds surgeries, and he answers his emails after a couple of days in my experience. But then for him it is all local engagement and the promotional tour.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552
    Leon said:

    kjh said:

    malcolmg said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    Doesn't mention ISAs, closing the avoidance loophole of owning your home via a company seems sensible though doesn't bring in much.

    Pension lifetime allowance should be indexlinked if a limit returns. If people don't save for a pension, the Govt will just end up having to pay their care home costs.
    Surely it makes more sense for the taxpayer to subsidise pensions only up to say £500k and pay for most care home fees for the few % that need it, rather than the status quo of foregoing tax on people building up multi million pound pensions/ISA combos and having the current care shambles? Even in the status quo, most social care costs come from the state rather than personally funded from pensions/savings.
    There speaks a loser who pisses their money up the wall, looking for some hard working person who saves to fund them.
    Deleted. Responded to wrong post idiot that I am.
    At last, a glimmer of self awareness
    Of which you can only dream.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,900
    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
    Cheltenham?
    LD MP attacked and seriously injured in his surgery and his assistant killed.
    Ah, I see. I would have thought Jo Cox was more in the memory?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Your general stupidity is visible all the way from Manhattan.
    So no answer to the point....go home have fun with orange tango man....you know the one the country you live in elected and leave our country out of it....you don't live here you shouldnt have a say
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,261
    Sean_F said:

    On topic. I’m taking the opposite psephological position to you on this TSE.

    We need to recognise how something different to UNS happened last year, seat by seat, FPTP is seat by seat election. Remember, anecdotally, Last June, Tory PBers crying foul - there’s an unofficial secret alliance between Labour and LibDems! Labour barely campaigning in this LibDem target, just right next door, LibDems not campaigning much in this Labour target.

    The Psephological fact in this discussion, efficiency/inefficiency of the July 24 vote.

    Lab 33.7% - 412 seats
    LibDem 12.2% - 72 seats;
    Conservatives 23.7% - 121 seats.
    Green 6.7% - 4 seats.
    Populists with unworkable policies 14.3% - 5 seats.

    How many LibDem seats rely on squeezed Labour and Green votes, how many Labour seats with voters who said Libdem or Green to pollsters for many years, before voting differently? Where poll of polling today has Reform 29% Labour 22% - UNS will say one thing, but the efficiency/inefficiency of the last General Election suggests something else.

    Looking forwards based on we know what happened last year, we know how, to consider not just why, but find what changes in this motivation of voters during 2024 to 2029. Whatever polling is like between now and next election, we see through UNS to find evidence why 2024 result will be different at next General Election in terms of efficiency/inefficiency.

    Anecdotally we have the number of PBers, surprising names, who traditionally vote Conservative, posting they would consider voting something else to stop a Prime Minister Farage and Trump/Reform ideology in government. I suggest at this particular moment in time, nothing has changed. Tory economic credibility still being rebuilt keeps Labour in power, vast majority of voters will vote at a General Election to prevent Reform from winning their constituency, creating massive vote inefficiency for Reform.

    What created the particular 2024 election may be little changed at next General Election voting day, if anything even more of a stop Farage election truly motivating 75% of votes cast. Conservative and Reform up in seats, at expense of Labour and Libdems, not in anyway to dramatically change May 29 result from looking similar to 2024 result.

    The two big differences with last July are:

    1. The Right vote is bigger, (c.48% as opposed to 39%)

    2. The Right vote is more efficient. Local council results showed former Conservatives switching in droves to Reform, in places where the latter could defeat Labour.
    Yes. Knowing What built the last GE result, we need to find what is changing, to predict the next one - 3rd May 2029.

    Unfortunately, neither of those differences you brought actually count. First, comparing mid term polls with a General Election result? What you are doing is as flawed as Mid term polls showing Ed Milliband 15%+ and on way to Downing St, a year out from GE he failed in.

    The GE question is always a different question, was the point I made.

    The same applies to voting in some mid term shire council elections, isn’t deciding a PM or putting someone in charge of the UK economy. Where you are so sure results showed former Conservatives switching in droves to Reform, those locals bringing the same turnout to the polls as GE did? No. It means at least part of 2025 result is not Tories switching in droves, but stay at home Conservative vote it was difficult to get out, making it a disproportionate result, not switching in droves result. At a GE recent stay at home may be out as Conservative or even whatever stops Reform, as GE question is always a different question.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 31,297

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
    I think he likes money (and has only fairly recently become a very big earner), as do most of us, but most of all I think he's working his tits off to promote Reform. He was knocking on doors in Runcorn on the day of the election. They won by six votes. It is highly possible that his decision to work on that day won them the election.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 7,038
    Does anyone care what Lammy says?
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,637
    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    The only argument for it is makes property investment relatively less attractive, given the CGT and IHT breaks on that.

    But £40k savings per year per couple is a bit ridiculous. What proportion of the country can max that out? 10%?
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,676
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    He's half destroyed the Tory party and he's destroying Labour, he's forced Britain into a referendum and he won Brexit, altering global history

    If only he would get off his butt and DO something
    At the moment, he has forced other people to do things. Now that isn't to be sniffed at, if I were able to force Year 9 (say) to draw their graphs properly with less effort from me, that would make me much happier at work. But that's different to actually doing stuff himself.

    From that point of view, his record is rather more mixed. And that is a problem if he actually, really, wants to be PM. (I'm still not entirely sure he does, as opposed to making some other PM dance to his tune. In some ways, that's almost admirable.)
    "forcing other people to do things" - by sheer force of voice and will - is, by other people, known as "doing politics really really well"
    It is (in some ways) and it isn't (in others).

    If you have one or two things you really really want to happen, then the Farage model works great. But government is also the hundred other things that nobody else really wants to deal with, but someone has to deal with that therefore end up on the PM's desk.

    Boris didn't want to deal with Covid. Starmer didn't want to deal with last summer's riots. And so on. Tough luck- "dealing with random unpredictable crap" is part of the PM's job description. Sometimes, it works pretty well- think of Maggie dealing with the Falklands, or Gordon Brown and the credit crunch. Even then, it's still a lot of unpredictable work that comes at inconvenient times.

    Farage does... what he does... very well. But that effectiveness comes at the cost of cutting away all the difficult bits of the job. And anyone can win playing on easy mode.

    Paying le Farage a bit of a compliment, I suspect that he realises that in a way that Boris never did. (Plus, he will be quite a bit older in 2029 than Boris was in 2019.) And, as a result, he may swerve the Premiership if it's a genuine risk of happening in 2029. If I'm right, it will be interesting to see how he does it.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Agreed with you on an earlier topic so now it is the turn to disagree with you. I think we are all free to discuss this stuff whether we live here or not.

    This forum would be pretty dull if we couldn't discuss Trump and all (bar 3 I think) would come under your heading of 'none of our business) on Trump discussions.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
    I think he likes money (and has only fairly recently become a very big earner), as do most of us, but most of all I think he's working his tits off to promote Reform. He was knocking on doors in Runcorn on the day of the election. They won by six votes. It is highly possible that his decision to work on that day won them the election.
    Political leader knocks on doors on day of by-election.
    Truly a Stakhanovite!
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,503

    Does anyone care what Lammy says?

    Latvian taxi drivers
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,676

    Does anyone care what Lammy says?

    There's a French taxi driver who cares beaucoup about what Lammy says.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,640

    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
    Cheltenham?
    LD MP attacked and seriously injured in his surgery and his assistant killed.
    Ah, I see. I would have thought Jo Cox was more in the memory?
    The issue was 'in constituency surgeries', which is why I didn't mention her. Parliament security is really hot on this now to try and ensure it doesn't happen again.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552
    Eabhal said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    The only argument for it is makes property investment relatively less attractive, given the CGT and IHT breaks on that.

    But £40k savings per year per couple is a bit ridiculous. What proportion of the country can max that out? 10%?
    Only 7% of households have combined income over £100,000, so surely fewer than that.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
    OK, I will give you one last chance before I consign you into the bin with @bondegezou and @kinabalu and the rest

    What evidence do we have for Farage's admin skills or otherwise? I'd say almost none - until recently - but that's because he's not beem trying for this. He is a campaigning politician, rather than a manager. He knows his own skills, and exploits them superbly

    That, surely, is now accepted, even by you and the PB Centrist Dimwits? I think so

    In which case, do we have any evidence for him being managerially and administratively skilled? Well, yes, this time we do. Namely: he has personally taken charge of Reform and turned them - in a couple of years- into a nationwide party that can win - WIN - a UK local election, humiliating the Tories and Labour. He's got candidates recruited, vetted, scrutinised, or persuaded them to defect. And you can't say "oh that's not him" because - as you guys insist - he doesn't rely on rivals and colleagues because: the party is him

    So if the party is him, it is him that has done this. I see this as a remarkable feat of political administration. Man management. Does it mean he will be good in office? Who knows. But it is impressive

    Frankly, I wish he'd been in charge of our EU reset negotiations, rather than Starmer, don't you? Farage has the wit, smarts and balls, he knows when to press and when to walk away, he would have got a seriously superior deal than the flailing, inept Sir Keir Starmer, the butt plug of Brussels
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 31,297

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
    I think he likes money (and has only fairly recently become a very big earner), as do most of us, but most of all I think he's working his tits off to promote Reform. He was knocking on doors in Runcorn on the day of the election. They won by six votes. It is highly possible that his decision to work on that day won them the election.
    Political leader knocks on doors on day of by-election.
    Truly a Stakhanovite!
    Farage campaigned in Runcorn six times, whereas Sir Fat Arse didn't visit the constituency once, though to be fair one look at his clammy chops would probably have taken points off the Labour vote.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519
    kjh said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Agreed with you on an earlier topic so now it is the turn to disagree with you. I think we are all free to discuss this stuff whether we live here or not.

    This forum would be pretty dull if we couldn't discuss Trump and all (bar 3 I think) would come under your heading of 'none of our business) on Trump discussions.
    I have a simple creed on this...you are a british citizen and live here most of the year you get to vote....I don't want some arsehole from new york voting on parties that might pass rules that affect me but not them....sorry whats unreasonable about that please explain?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 11,519
    Pagan2 said:

    kjh said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Agreed with you on an earlier topic so now it is the turn to disagree with you. I think we are all free to discuss this stuff whether we live here or not.

    This forum would be pretty dull if we couldn't discuss Trump and all (bar 3 I think) would come under your heading of 'none of our business) on Trump discussions.
    I have a simple creed on this...you are a british citizen and live here most of the year you get to vote....I don't want some arsehole from new york voting on parties that might pass rules that affect me but not them....sorry whats unreasonable about that please explain?
    And didn't say he couldnt discuss them merely he shouldnt get a vote on them
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,710
    IanB2 said:

    Eabhal said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    The only argument for it is makes property investment relatively less attractive, given the CGT and IHT breaks on that.

    But £40k savings per year per couple is a bit ridiculous. What proportion of the country can max that out? 10%?
    Only 7% of households have combined income over £100,000, so surely fewer than that.
    ISAs are from after tax income. So to have £20 000 after tax looking for a home, you have to have an income more like £100 000.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 14,339

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
    I think he likes money (and has only fairly recently become a very big earner), as do most of us, but most of all I think he's working his tits off to promote Reform. He was knocking on doors in Runcorn on the day of the election. They won by six votes. It is highly possible that his decision to work on that day won them the election.
    Political leader knocks on doors on day of by-election.
    Truly a Stakhanovite!
    Farage campaigned in Runcorn six times, whereas Sir Fat Arse didn't visit the constituency once, though to be fair one look at his clammy chops would probably have taken points off the Labour vote.
    That's why Starmer didn't visit. He knew he wouldn't be a campaigning asset. That's not laziness; that's being sensible.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,341
    edited May 20
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
    OK, I will give you one last chance before I consign you into the bin with @bondegezou and @kinabalu and the rest

    What evidence do we have for Farage's admin skills or otherwise? I'd say almost none - until recently - but that's because he's not beem trying for this. He is a campaigning politician, rather than a manager. He knows his own skills, and exploits them superbly

    That, surely, is now accepted, even by you and the PB Centrist Dimwits? I think so

    In which case, do we have any evidence for him being managerially and administratively skilled? Well, yes, this time we do. Namely: he has personally taken charge of Reform and turned them - in a couple of years- into a nationwide party that can win - WIN - a UK local election, humiliating the Tories and Labour. He's got candidates recruited, vetted, scrutinised, or persuaded them to defect. And you can't say "oh that's not him" because - as you guys insist - he doesn't rely on rivals and colleagues because: the party is him

    So if the party is him, it is him that has done this. I see this as a remarkable feat of political administration. Man management. Does it mean he will be good in office? Who knows. But it is impressive

    Frankly, I wish he'd been in charge of our EU reset negotiations, rather than Starmer, don't you? Farage has the wit, smarts and balls, he knows when to press and when to walk away, he would have got a seriously superior deal than the flailing, inept Sir Keir Starmer, the butt plug of Brussels
    It’s commonly known that Farage falls out with everyone, and his failure to turn up to any of his actual workplaces tells its own story.

    As for Farage being in charge of negotiations, no.
    Farage doesn’t do detail, nuance, compromise, or - in the final analysis - reality, preferring the comfort of deluded rage-baiting to actual material improvement.

    Only a half-wit would want Farage anywhere near power or any kind.
  • kjh said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    Erm you are from new zealand you live in new york, our government then is none of your business
    Agreed with you on an earlier topic so now it is the turn to disagree with you. I think we are all free to discuss this stuff whether we live here or not.

    This forum would be pretty dull if we couldn't discuss Trump and all (bar 3 I think) would come under your heading of 'none of our business) on Trump discussions.
    The US and NZ are pretty useful comparators in different ways, and we should welcome commentary from people with experience of either or indeed both.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,552
    edited May 20
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
    OK, I will give you one last chance before I consign you into the bin with @bondegezou and @kinabalu and the rest

    What evidence do we have for Farage's admin skills or otherwise? I'd say almost none - until recently - but that's because he's not beem trying for this. He is a campaigning politician, rather than a manager. He knows his own skills, and exploits them superbly

    That, surely, is now accepted, even by you and the PB Centrist Dimwits? I think so

    In which case, do we have any evidence for him being managerially and administratively skilled? Well, yes, this time we do. Namely: he has personally taken charge of Reform and turned them - in a couple of years- into a nationwide party that can win - WIN - a UK local election, humiliating the Tories and Labour. He's got candidates recruited, vetted, scrutinised, or persuaded them to defect. And you can't say "oh that's not him" because - as you guys insist - he doesn't rely on rivals and colleagues because: the party is him

    So if the party is him, it is him that has done this. I see this as a remarkable feat of political administration. Man management. Does it mean he will be good in office? Who knows. But it is impressive

    Frankly, I wish he'd been in charge of our EU reset negotiations, rather than Starmer, don't you? Farage has the wit, smarts and balls, he knows when to press and when to walk away, he would have got a seriously superior deal than the flailing, inept Sir Keir Starmer, the butt plug of Brussels
    The EU loathes Farage, and would have offered him diddly squat.

    The Tories, through their ideological idiocy, scandalous behaviour, and rank incompetence, have probably done more to bring about the current Reform surge than has Reform itself. As you have pointed out yourself, similar things are happening in many other countries, so there are clearly also wider factors in play.
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,551
    Farage was happy to get paid by an organisation he wanted to get rid of . Hardly ever bothered to torn up to vote . His so called patriotism and fighting for British interests entailed attending 1 meeting out of 43 on fisheries . He does bugger all for his constituents and a search party has been launched in Clacton in the hope of sighting him .
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
    OK, I will give you one last chance before I consign you into the bin with @bondegezou and @kinabalu and the rest

    What evidence do we have for Farage's admin skills or otherwise? I'd say almost none - until recently - but that's because he's not beem trying for this. He is a campaigning politician, rather than a manager. He knows his own skills, and exploits them superbly

    That, surely, is now accepted, even by you and the PB Centrist Dimwits? I think so

    In which case, do we have any evidence for him being managerially and administratively skilled? Well, yes, this time we do. Namely: he has personally taken charge of Reform and turned them - in a couple of years- into a nationwide party that can win - WIN - a UK local election, humiliating the Tories and Labour. He's got candidates recruited, vetted, scrutinised, or persuaded them to defect. And you can't say "oh that's not him" because - as you guys insist - he doesn't rely on rivals and colleagues because: the party is him

    So if the party is him, it is him that has done this. I see this as a remarkable feat of political administration. Man management. Does it mean he will be good in office? Who knows. But it is impressive

    Frankly, I wish he'd been in charge of our EU reset negotiations, rather than Starmer, don't you? Farage has the wit, smarts and balls, he knows when to press and when to walk away, he would have got a seriously superior deal than the flailing, inept Sir Keir Starmer, the butt plug of Brussels
    It’s commonly known that Farage falls out with everyone, and his failure to turn up to any of his actual workplaces tells its own story.

    As for Farage being in charge of negotiations, no.
    Farage doesn’t do detail, nuance, compromise, or - in the final analysis - reality, preferring the comfort of deluded rage-baiting to actual material improvement.

    Only a half-wit would want Farage anywhere near power or any kind.
    OK, you are sadly now re-categorised as one of tbe PB kindergarten poo-eaters
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 14,261
    edited May 20
    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    “ Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"”

    How about traitor? With handlers in Moscow giving him orders, that same place linked to where funding has come from, and has benefited from murky electoral interference from foreign actors too.

    Could opponents spotlight on any of that hurt Reform in the coming years?
  • TazTaz Posts: 18,350

    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    He has yet to hold a constituency surgery. He says he was advised not to for security reasons. This has been denied by the speaker. Now on the face of it Farage's position is not unreasonable as he could easily be the target of violent nutters, however I have a little inside knowledge on the security procedures for MPs surgeries and my goodness they are really hot since the GE. Parliament is rather keen that the murders in Southend and Cheltenham are not repeated.

    In the EU (where there was no such concern) he attended only 1 of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings of which he was a member.

    He also has the 745 worst voting record in the EU out of 746. The 746 having never voted for some fairly compelling reasons.
    Cheltenham?
    LD MP attacked and seriously injured in his surgery and his assistant killed.
    Ah, I see. I would have thought Jo Cox was more in the memory?
    There was also the near fatal attack on Labour MP Stephen Timms, and didn’t his neighbouring MP have to wear a stab vest when out and about.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 60,959
    nico67 said:

    Farage was happy to get paid by an organisation he wanted to get rid of . Hardly ever bothered to torn up to vote . His so called patriotism and fighting for British interests entailed attending 1 meeting out of 43 on fisheries . He does bugger all for his constituents and a search party has been launched in Clacton in the hope of sighting him .

    Yeah, that'll learn him

    Who cares about winning national elections from a standing start with a brand new party, when "@nico67 off of PB" says "you're neglecting your Essex constituency"
  • TazTaz Posts: 18,350
    IanB2 said:

    Eabhal said:

    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Angela Rayner, working class heroine to some here, sent a letter to Reeves demanding increasing taxes on savers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/20/angela-rayner-demands-tax-raid-savers-rachel-reeves/

    When ISAs were first launched, the idea was to encourage ordinary folk to save by giving them a tax break. I don't think it was ever envisaged that over the years it would enable many pretty wealthy savers and investors to take so much of their investment income out of tax.
    The only argument for it is makes property investment relatively less attractive, given the CGT and IHT breaks on that.

    But £40k savings per year per couple is a bit ridiculous. What proportion of the country can max that out? 10%?
    Only 7% of households have combined income over £100,000, so surely fewer than that.
    Probably, as rolling over existing savings into new accounts doesn’t count towards it as it’s 20K of new cash.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,775
    edited May 20

    ...

    Dopermean said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigel Farage missed the parliamentary debate on the biggest reset to Brexit since the referendum because he is overseas on holiday, the Reform UK leader has said. Following speculation that he was on holiday in France, Farage, who has not been seen in the Commons this week and did not present his GB News show on Monday, released a statement confirming he was away.

    Good for him for having a holiday - he sure as shit deserves one.

    However, Kemi has definitely made the most of it in his absence.
    HOC is in recess next week, the lazy f****r could have gone then. They pretty much get the school holidays plus another month in September/October.
    Whatever else he can be called, I don't think lazy is it.
    He does f all constituency work. He frequently misses Commons sessions, as he always missed European Parliament sessions. He's pretty lazy.
    Links please.
    Farage & his constituency: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/20/clacton-nigel-farage-first-months-as-mp-reform (constituents complaining), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l47e86r39o (Farage initially said he wouldn't hold surgeries and he was warned not to for security reasons, but this turned out to be a lie)

    Farage's attendance record in the Commons: https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nigel_Farage&mpc=Clacton&house=commons&display=everyvote (look at all the absences), https://www.pressreader.com/uk/The-i-paper/20250307/281874419165789?srsltid=AfmBOorcMaW_P1dQdiuZIOnHBXuhALo3onjbbs7Giey3WCPXEutdSbV1 (notes his poor attendance record, while noting some Reform UK MPs have a much higher attendance rate)

    Farage's attendance record in the EuroParl: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leader-nigel-farage-worst-8302679 ("EXCLUSIVE analysis of the MEP voting records places Farage 745th out of 746 MEPs on the register - with only Brian Crowley, a MEP in Ireland who has NEVER voted, below him.")

    Farage has now been MP of Clacton for over a year - the constituency opinion pieces you present are very out of date - though I thank you for them.

    Nor does the piece about his Commons attendance come to a conclusion on his work rate. It notes that leaders of smaller parties have tended to vote more (and larger parties less), but the leaders of the Greens and the DUP are not leaders of national movements of the scale of Reform.
    And the most damning, his MEP attendance rate?
    It was a central tenet (and I believe a true one) of euroskepticism that the parliament was a talking shop, as real power lay with the commission. I am not aware that Farage ever attended the European Parliament to do anything except take the piss out of it, and I doubt those who voted for him wanted him to do anything else.

    I asked for links because I was genuinely interested in Farage and Clacton - I don't get the impression that the good people of Clacton are rising up in revolt against their absentee squire, so I wonder how he's managing.

    My impression of Farage's schedule in general is that it's one of the most punishing in British politics.
    He does take on lots of extra work for money, true. He has more outside earnings than any other MP. Maybe he's not lazy, he just needs the right financial motivation.
    I think he likes money (and has only fairly recently become a very big earner), as do most of us, but most of all I think he's working his tits off to promote Reform. He was knocking on doors in Runcorn on the day of the election. They won by six votes. It is highly possible that his decision to work on that day won them the election.
    Political leader knocks on doors on day of by-election.
    Truly a Stakhanovite!
    The leader whose party finished six votes behind didn't visit the constituency at all.. I suppose that will be thought of as a shrewd move

    EDIT I hadn't seen @bondegezou's post actually saying this! Funny, I was always told on here that Starmer was really popular, and Farage was a massive turn off. Depends on the day of the week I suppose
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Only absolute morons regard Farage as either lazy or dim or "strolling"

    His record speaks for itself. He has now transfomed UK politics TWICE and built a brand new party - sufficient to terrify the Establishment - TWICE

    He has a good argument for being the oustanding British political talent of the 21st century, more effective than Boris, more impactful than Blair, and more successful than Salmond

    Er, you do realize there’s a difference between “lazy” and “effective”.

    All the evidence we have is that Farage is completely uninterested and indeed useless at any kind of management.

    A Farage government would resemble the current Trump clown-show.
    Jeez. I thought you were being sarcastic

    You're smarter than this??! Or, I thought you were
    Are you seriously suggesting Farage has any administrative inclination or aptitude whatsoever?

    He’s been through more parties than Lee Anderson’s had hot dinners.
    I think it's a category error to appraise him in that way. And I imagined a smart guy like you would realise this

    Apparently not
    He is asking to be considered as Prime Minister of the UK, so yes I am going to look at his actual administrative competence.

    Like Johnson (and Trump), he couldn’t run a bath.
    I don't even know where to begin with this level of weird, mule-headed incomprehension, so... I'm not going to begin
    You clearly live in an alternative universe in which Farage is any way a suitable candidate for public office, let alone high office.

    He’s a very effective populist campaigner, but he is also a lazy shyster.
    OK, I will give you one last chance before I consign you into the bin with @bondegezou and @kinabalu and the rest

    What evidence do we have for Farage's admin skills or otherwise? I'd say almost none - until recently - but that's because he's not beem trying for this. He is a campaigning politician, rather than a manager. He knows his own skills, and exploits them superbly

    That, surely, is now accepted, even by you and the PB Centrist Dimwits? I think so

    In which case, do we have any evidence for him being managerially and administratively skilled? Well, yes, this time we do. Namely: he has personally taken charge of Reform and turned them - in a couple of years- into a nationwide party that can win - WIN - a UK local election, humiliating the Tories and Labour. He's got candidates recruited, vetted, scrutinised, or persuaded them to defect. And you can't say "oh that's not him" because - as you guys insist - he doesn't rely on rivals and colleagues because: the party is him

    So if the party is him, it is him that has done this. I see this as a remarkable feat of political administration. Man management. Does it mean he will be good in office? Who knows. But it is impressive

    Frankly, I wish he'd been in charge of our EU reset negotiations, rather than Starmer, don't you? Farage has the wit, smarts and balls, he knows when to press and when to walk away, he would have got a seriously superior deal than the flailing, inept Sir Keir Starmer, the butt plug of Brussels
    It’s commonly known that Farage falls out with everyone, and his failure to turn up to any of his actual workplaces tells its own story.

    As for Farage being in charge of negotiations, no.
    Farage doesn’t do detail, nuance, compromise, or - in the final analysis - reality, preferring the comfort of deluded rage-baiting to actual material improvement.

    Only a half-wit would want Farage anywhere near power or any kind.
    OK, you are sadly now re-categorised as one of tbe PB kindergarten poo-eaters
    "I know you are, but what am I ?" etc etc
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,035
    Farage is a superb campaigner, but he wouldn't be able to implement most of his promises, both through lack of diplomatic and collegiate skills, and economic reality.

    One thing he might both want to do, and better be able to do, would be to link Britain to a Trumpite America more fully than any other British politician.
Sign In or Register to comment.