Not sure that's wise from Nigel. He's done well of late by completely removing himself from the Brexit phenomenon. He doesn't want people to start chewing over that and recalling his role in it. It's not as if Brexit is a universally acclaimed success. No, Nigel should definitely be going for Year Zero.
Doing something about climate change, and how our response can build our energy security and wheen us off that gas pipeline to our country that was the actual real thing that ruined our energy bills and household incomes that Reform now dining out on, is very popular with all British voters.
Doing absolutely nothing is not at all popular.
Reforms total scrap of “ruinous” Net Zero is so politically dumb.
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Curious. The other tracker at grid.iamkate.com has wind + solar at 83.1%, though that's with a total generation of 108.8% (we're doing a decent export business to Ireland and Norway today.) (Thinks, ten percent off 83 gets back to 75, so that probably works out.)
Not quite record wind, but not far off, and there's a decent slug of sunshine as well. For all Farage's whinging about net zero, this increasingly feels reasonably doable on its own merits. See this, from the new Reform Mayor of Greater Hull;
However, in answer to a question from a member of the public at Wednesday's meeting, the former Olympic gold medallist boxer said: "I have consistently supported the region in green energy for local business, creating local jobs.
"I will keep on that same track – I was brought in by the people of this region."
Labour know what the problems in our public services are - marketisation. It is futile tipping yet more money in at the top when so much of it is eaten by the market bureaucracy that the front line provision is in a cash-starved crisis.
What we need is the Vision Thing. How they are going to remake public services so that they are fit for purpose. And the starting place is not where we are now - a blank sheet of paper is needed.
Labour are probably not the party best equipped to deal with the underlying problems of the NHS. A Cameron/Osborne style Conservative Government is needed to think the unthinkable starting with rationing, particularly at end of life.
What was the point in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds saving my father's life for an extra six months of total immobility? Multiply that half a million to a million pounds across all the hopeless cases they have saved for no quality of life each year and a not inconsequential sum of money is saved for more appropriate patients.
Take George Best, provided with a liver transplant only to waste that opportunity on his predeliction for scotch and vodka. Not spending money on people with basket case lifestyle choices has to be considered too
Repeat prescriptions free to the user resulting in millions of pounds wasted on unused drugs has to stop.
Brutality is needed, otherwise Farage and his US style insurance scheme is the unfortunate answer.
It would be interesting to know how much government expenditure is received on average per year of your life.
And how much your entire life could have been improved if some of that had been received when you were much younger.
I am a big advocate of those who indulge in lifestyle choices that bed block in later life like excessive use of booze, fags and a dramatically unhealthy younger lifestyle aren't rewarded for their gluttony.
Instead of penalising these people we allow them frequent flyer status at A and E and pay for a Motability vehicle to get them there.
Except that a few countries now have done studies on this and the lifetime healthcare costs is lower for those that smoke/drink are obese than the healthy lifestyle folk....and in the savings on paying their pensions for less time and if you are doing it on this basis its those living a healthy life that should be surcharged
Could you provide a link to these studies? My GP surgery waiting room is not packed out by runners and cyclists.
The other point you neglect is the increased likelihood of the unhealthy not to be in employment.
However that one only shows data for the obese so no healthy people to compare the figures too.
As to not being in work possibly so but then lots of other wise fit and healthy people aren't either because of mental health.
We were discussing healthcare costs and the figures are plain over a lifetime a healthy living person costs more by dint of living longer , long enough to get things like dementia which is very costly.
There is a strong link between exercise and avoiding dementia in old age, I believe.
Those who take regular exercise are approx 20% less likely to develop dementia. So, yes, a strong and clear link. But that still means that lots of people who do the right thing still get dementia and lots of people who do the wrong thing don't. Luck is still the biggest factor!
Not sure that's wise from Nigel. He's done well of late by completely removing himself from the Brexit phenomenon. He doesn't want people to start chewing over that and recalling his role in it. It's not as if Brexit is a universally acclaimed success. No, Nigel should definitely be going for Year Zero.
Doing something about climate change, and how our response can build our energy security and wheen us off that gas pipeline to our country that was the actual real thing that ruined our energy bills and household incomes that Reform now dining out on, is very popular with all British voters.
Doing absolutely nothing is not at all popular.
Reforms total scrap of “ruinous” Net Zero is so politically dumb.
And likely to be dumber still by 2029. By then, a lot of the spending will have happened, and the turbines and panels will just be sitting there, generating electricity.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
I made a slightly flippant comment earlier but there is also a more serious point about fare evasion on TfL.
As I understand it the cost of prevention is far greater than the amount of revenue lost. TfL already doesn't have enough money and is looking to save where it can - its response is therefore logical. There are sporadic exercises where teams of a dozen or so block a busy station (perhaps every 2-3 months) and catch whoever they can , and there are travelling inspectors, and I was asked to show my ticket/Oyster only a couple of weeks ago.
The Police also have limited budgets and bigger fish to fry so rightly focus their attention elsewhere, rather than having two officers on duty all day at every station in London.
If politicians wanted to fund this, they could. The last lot (including Robert Jenrick) chose not to, and were thrown out.
There is also an argument that the general shittiness of society after 14 years of austerity and under-investment also leaves some parts of society with no stake and nothing to lose. Reversing that might also be a way to reduce low level crime like fare dodging and shoplifting.
Labour could start to turn this round via either or both paths if they so chose, but they would have to increase taxation to pay for it and there is no suggestion they are prepared to move away from the conservative orthodoxy they have inherited.
Either approach will take time - it has taken 14 years to get this bad. It is hypocritical of Tory MPs in particular to point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves.
But there is an issue here, same with the police ignoring shoplifting.
The moral dilemma being if others don’t pay and there are no consequences for that action then why should the rest of us obey laws ? Effectively the action becomes decriminalised through custom and practise.
Okay - you're not wrong.
Why should the law abiding (and the risk averse) call out fare evaders, shoplifters etc? I'm not saying we shouldn't but if I confront three or four big young men who push through the East Ham ticket barrier, there's a risk one of them will have a knife or all of them will beat me up. There are plenty of instances where, if enough people get involved, the evader/shoplifter can be stopped but how often does that happen? Most people don't get involved because of what they see as the risk of harm to themselves and that includes TfL staff.
There's the politics of it and the reality of it.
The only alternative is a far more authoritarian and controlled State than we have now.
Numerous times on local Facebook groups when there’s a shoplifting incident people will complain security don’t do anything. But, as you say, why would they risk being stabbed for a bottle of 19 Crimes wine.
More often than not security is there more as a deterrent, that’s all.
The shoplifters are more brazen too. This came up on my Twitter feed.
We have security at our local Tesco. Didn’t stop three kids going in the shop on bikes and riding around the aisles. Stuff like that doesn’t even get reported to Plod. I wouldn’t have believed it but my neighbour was in the store at the time.
This is one issue with increasing ticket inspections. The staff won't go near the young man in a hoodie for fear of getting stabbed, but will hammer the female Asian student who has just arrived for uni and has no idea what she is doing.
It was a really big issue in Australia when I was there because the inspectors have a daily quota they have to meet.
You’re absolutely right and I’ve seen it first hand a couple of times.
Just as in the US, ICE has just announced a quota of 3000 arrests per day. Vanishingly few of those individuals will be the "worst of the worst". Instead, they will be like this unfortunate lady.
https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-05-24/missouri-kennett-woman-ice-deportation-visa ..Mayorga, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, has been detained in jail under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since late April. She’d traveled from Kennett, Missouri, her home for nearly two decades, to St. Louis for what she thought was a routine meeting to renew her employment authorization document.
The document, issued by the federal government, allows her to work legally in the U.S. and is set to expire in January 2026..
It should be pointed out that this lady overstayed her visa, admitted to being in the US illegally and had her claims for asylum rejected, so ICE are perfectly entitled to deport her. All she can really do is plead leniency as she has a job and kids in the US.
Doubt it. There are lots of other anti knock additives that could be and were used.
In the absence of any alternative they could have also slightly derated the engines by retarding timing or dialling back boost. It would knock (geddit?) a few % off the top of the power curve but how often are engines operated at 100% anyway?
https://x.com/CalumDouglas1/status/1928010564921421878 ..Ethlyene Dibromide, without which it was almost impossible to effectively run high powered military aero engines in WW2, was only made in ONE plant in all of Germany, which was full of complex, bespoke fragile earthenware vials and chambers.
Much of the Nazi military aviation fuel infrastructure had been built by, funded by, supported by and in many cases underwritten by, British and American chemical firms and insurance companies.
Almost incredibly, none of the German lead or dibromide plants were ever bombed, even once, through the entire course of WW2. If these plants had been put out of action, it would have essentially halted all Luftwaffe air operations once the small reserve stock had been expended.
This sounds totally mad, but is all absolutely true...
Read the Secret Horsepower Race - the definitive book on military engine development in the Western world in WWII.
The gaps in knowledge about what the other side was doing with their fuel were enormous - given the number of aircraft crashing in each others territory, you’d have thought the composition of the Other Guys fuel would be known. But no.
It took ages to find out that the Germans were using N2O2 as a boost gas.
One other factor might be that for the first part of the war, RAF bombing was notoriously inaccurate. By the time it wasn't, the allies had air superiority over most of Europe anyway.
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Devolution by TV transmitter regions! Definitely the way to go.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
Yup, this is going wild on social media already. It's smashed through the Instagram doesn't do politics barrier already. Jenrick is making himself the only viable candidate for when Jeni resigns.
If the Tories install Jenrick and he promises to do all these Reform-y things - leave the ECHR, expel the Boriswave, stop the boats whatever, sort out the enshittification of our cities - then I might, just might, be persuaded to vote for them again
He seems to get it. He might be a devious shit - probably he is - but frankly I don’t care. Starmer is a lying grifting hypocritical freak show, so it would still be an improvement
LOL. whoever promises you most cake for free funded by the magic tree gets your vote? All they need is sound the right dog whistle on those dangerous foreigners getting the better deal than us natives, and you are owned. That’s your politics?
If Jenrick is a real s**t he'll promise not to axe the triple lock during the election campaign and then axe it just afterwards in order to raise the money needed for his policies. Hopefully voters will be thinking about something else 5 years later.
Did you see how voters reacted to the (perfectly reasonable) means testing of the winter fuel allowance?
The best Jenrick could do is to announce an end date for it in the early 2040s.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
I made a slightly flippant comment earlier but there is also a more serious point about fare evasion on TfL.
As I understand it the cost of prevention is far greater than the amount of revenue lost. TfL already doesn't have enough money and is looking to save where it can - its response is therefore logical. There are sporadic exercises where teams of a dozen or so block a busy station (perhaps every 2-3 months) and catch whoever they can , and there are travelling inspectors, and I was asked to show my ticket/Oyster only a couple of weeks ago.
The Police also have limited budgets and bigger fish to fry so rightly focus their attention elsewhere, rather than having two officers on duty all day at every station in London.
If politicians wanted to fund this, they could. The last lot (including Robert Jenrick) chose not to, and were thrown out.
There is also an argument that the general shittiness of society after 14 years of austerity and under-investment also leaves some parts of society with no stake and nothing to lose. Reversing that might also be a way to reduce low level crime like fare dodging and shoplifting.
Labour could start to turn this round via either or both paths if they so chose, but they would have to increase taxation to pay for it and there is no suggestion they are prepared to move away from the conservative orthodoxy they have inherited.
Either approach will take time - it has taken 14 years to get this bad. It is hypocritical of Tory MPs in particular to point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves.
But there is an issue here, same with the police ignoring shoplifting.
The moral dilemma being if others don’t pay and there are no consequences for that action then why should the rest of us obey laws ? Effectively the action becomes decriminalised through custom and practise.
Okay - you're not wrong.
Why should the law abiding (and the risk averse) call out fare evaders, shoplifters etc? I'm not saying we shouldn't but if I confront three or four big young men who push through the East Ham ticket barrier, there's a risk one of them will have a knife or all of them will beat me up. There are plenty of instances where, if enough people get involved, the evader/shoplifter can be stopped but how often does that happen? Most people don't get involved because of what they see as the risk of harm to themselves and that includes TfL staff.
There's the politics of it and the reality of it.
The only alternative is a far more authoritarian and controlled State than we have now.
Numerous times on local Facebook groups when there’s a shoplifting incident people will complain security don’t do anything. But, as you say, why would they risk being stabbed for a bottle of 19 Crimes wine.
More often than not security is there more as a deterrent, that’s all.
The shoplifters are more brazen too. This came up on my Twitter feed.
We have security at our local Tesco. Didn’t stop three kids going in the shop on bikes and riding around the aisles. Stuff like that doesn’t even get reported to Plod. I wouldn’t have believed it but my neighbour was in the store at the time.
This is one issue with increasing ticket inspections. The staff won't go near the young man in a hoodie for fear of getting stabbed, but will hammer the female Asian student who has just arrived for uni and has no idea what she is doing.
It was a really big issue in Australia when I was there because the inspectors have a daily quota they have to meet.
You’re absolutely right and I’ve seen it first hand a couple of times.
Just as in the US, ICE has just announced a quota of 3000 arrests per day. Vanishingly few of those individuals will be the "worst of the worst". Instead, they will be like this unfortunate lady.
https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-05-24/missouri-kennett-woman-ice-deportation-visa ..Mayorga, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, has been detained in jail under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since late April. She’d traveled from Kennett, Missouri, her home for nearly two decades, to St. Louis for what she thought was a routine meeting to renew her employment authorization document.
The document, issued by the federal government, allows her to work legally in the U.S. and is set to expire in January 2026..
It should be pointed out that this lady overstayed her visa, admitted to being in the US illegally and had her claims for asylum rejected, so ICE are perfectly entitled to deport her. All she can really do is plead leniency as she has a job and kids in the US.
They can absolutely defend it in court, but that wasn't really my point, was it ? I was noting that the individuals most likely to be deported are the most law abiding and compliant, rather than the rapists and drug dealers Trump constantly drones on about.
It should also be pointed out that she's been in the US for two decades, has kids who are citizens, and her largely Trump voting neighbours are campaigning for her to be allowed to stay: ..“Ninety-five percent of the people in here support Trump — I do, too — but this is wrong,” said Bud Garrison, a daily customer at John’s.
Garrison and his wife, Anita, made black T-shirts with bold yellow wording that read in all caps, “Bring Carol Home” and on the sleeve say #TEAMCAROL. They described Mayorga as the wrong type of person for Trump to deport.
“We don’t feel what’s happened to her is right,” said Anita Garrison. “She’s a very upstanding citizen in our community. Her kids are into the sports, she’s in the church, and she’s a very upstanding citizen as far as I’m concerned. I think she deserves to be free with her kids.”..
The quota will have consequences, and I don't think they will and up being particular popular with a very large number of those who voted for Trump, as this becomes more widespread, as it will.
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Devolution by TV transmitter regions! Definitely the way to go.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
Look East (Spanners) as we knew it in the proper bit of the Wuffingas Kingdom
Reform at around their “dog whistle answer to everything, we got nothing else and can’t do politics properly” ceiling is just temporary gasm as after effect of historical incomes crash.
The inflation spike was worldwide and due to post covid reboot of world economy.
The household incomes crash was due to UK importing gas - lots of countries suffered with energy price when Putin started murdering Ukraine and Russian people - UK suffered from the amount of gas imports we are dependant on as we haven’t switched to renewables and energy security quickly enough.
If Farage was PM 2020 to 2024, he could not have done anything better. He’s currently dining out on, do you feel better off and country in better place after 30 years of Labour and Conservative government. But next General Election, and all general elections, are based in economic credibility based on the years following the General Election.
That’s the argument the Tories will use over and over to bring voters back home from Reform. And it’s true honest argument.
https://x.com/CalumDouglas1/status/1928010564921421878 ..Ethlyene Dibromide, without which it was almost impossible to effectively run high powered military aero engines in WW2, was only made in ONE plant in all of Germany, which was full of complex, bespoke fragile earthenware vials and chambers.
Much of the Nazi military aviation fuel infrastructure had been built by, funded by, supported by and in many cases underwritten by, British and American chemical firms and insurance companies.
Almost incredibly, none of the German lead or dibromide plants were ever bombed, even once, through the entire course of WW2. If these plants had been put out of action, it would have essentially halted all Luftwaffe air operations once the small reserve stock had been expended.
This sounds totally mad, but is all absolutely true...
Read the Secret Horsepower Race - the definitive book on military engine development in the Western world in WWII.
The gaps in knowledge about what the other side was doing with their fuel were enormous - given the number of aircraft crashing in each others territory, you’d have thought the composition of the Other Guys fuel would be known. But no.
It took ages to find out that the Germans were using N2O2 as a boost gas.
The tweeter wrote the Secret Horsepower Race, so I guess he knows what he’s talking about. I’d buy it if there weren’t quite a lot of books jostling my now meagre reading bandwidth.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
I made a slightly flippant comment earlier but there is also a more serious point about fare evasion on TfL.
As I understand it the cost of prevention is far greater than the amount of revenue lost. TfL already doesn't have enough money and is looking to save where it can - its response is therefore logical. There are sporadic exercises where teams of a dozen or so block a busy station (perhaps every 2-3 months) and catch whoever they can , and there are travelling inspectors, and I was asked to show my ticket/Oyster only a couple of weeks ago.
The Police also have limited budgets and bigger fish to fry so rightly focus their attention elsewhere, rather than having two officers on duty all day at every station in London.
If politicians wanted to fund this, they could. The last lot (including Robert Jenrick) chose not to, and were thrown out.
There is also an argument that the general shittiness of society after 14 years of austerity and under-investment also leaves some parts of society with no stake and nothing to lose. Reversing that might also be a way to reduce low level crime like fare dodging and shoplifting.
Labour could start to turn this round via either or both paths if they so chose, but they would have to increase taxation to pay for it and there is no suggestion they are prepared to move away from the conservative orthodoxy they have inherited.
Either approach will take time - it has taken 14 years to get this bad. It is hypocritical of Tory MPs in particular to point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves.
But there is an issue here, same with the police ignoring shoplifting.
The moral dilemma being if others don’t pay and there are no consequences for that action then why should the rest of us obey laws ? Effectively the action becomes decriminalised through custom and practise.
Okay - you're not wrong.
Why should the law abiding (and the risk averse) call out fare evaders, shoplifters etc? I'm not saying we shouldn't but if I confront three or four big young men who push through the East Ham ticket barrier, there's a risk one of them will have a knife or all of them will beat me up. There are plenty of instances where, if enough people get involved, the evader/shoplifter can be stopped but how often does that happen? Most people don't get involved because of what they see as the risk of harm to themselves and that includes TfL staff.
There's the politics of it and the reality of it.
The only alternative is a far more authoritarian and controlled State than we have now.
Numerous times on local Facebook groups when there’s a shoplifting incident people will complain security don’t do anything. But, as you say, why would they risk being stabbed for a bottle of 19 Crimes wine.
More often than not security is there more as a deterrent, that’s all.
The shoplifters are more brazen too. This came up on my Twitter feed.
We have security at our local Tesco. Didn’t stop three kids going in the shop on bikes and riding around the aisles. Stuff like that doesn’t even get reported to Plod. I wouldn’t have believed it but my neighbour was in the store at the time.
This is one issue with increasing ticket inspections. The staff won't go near the young man in a hoodie for fear of getting stabbed, but will hammer the female Asian student who has just arrived for uni and has no idea what she is doing.
It was a really big issue in Australia when I was there because the inspectors have a daily quota they have to meet.
You’re absolutely right and I’ve seen it first hand a couple of times.
Just as in the US, ICE has just announced a quota of 3000 arrests per day. Vanishingly few of those individuals will be the "worst of the worst". Instead, they will be like this unfortunate lady.
https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-05-24/missouri-kennett-woman-ice-deportation-visa ..Mayorga, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, has been detained in jail under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since late April. She’d traveled from Kennett, Missouri, her home for nearly two decades, to St. Louis for what she thought was a routine meeting to renew her employment authorization document.
The document, issued by the federal government, allows her to work legally in the U.S. and is set to expire in January 2026..
It should be pointed out that this lady overstayed her visa, admitted to being in the US illegally and had her claims for asylum rejected, so ICE are perfectly entitled to deport her. All she can really do is plead leniency as she has a job and kids in the US.
They can absolutely defend it in court, but that wasn't really my point, was it ? I was noting that the individuals most likely to be deported are the most law abiding and compliant, rather than the rapists and drug dealers Trump constantly drones on about.
It should also be pointed out that she's been in the US for two decades, has kids who are citizens, and her largely Trump voting neighbours are campaigning for her to be allowed to stay: ..“Ninety-five percent of the people in here support Trump — I do, too — but this is wrong,” said Bud Garrison, a daily customer at John’s.
Garrison and his wife, Anita, made black T-shirts with bold yellow wording that read in all caps, “Bring Carol Home” and on the sleeve say #TEAMCAROL. They described Mayorga as the wrong type of person for Trump to deport.
“We don’t feel what’s happened to her is right,” said Anita Garrison. “She’s a very upstanding citizen in our community. Her kids are into the sports, she’s in the church, and she’s a very upstanding citizen as far as I’m concerned. I think she deserves to be free with her kids.”..
The quota will have consequences, and I don't think they will and up being particular popular with a very large number of those who voted for Trump, as this becomes more widespread, as it will.
The US has a very strange immigration system where it appears illegal immigrants can live and work quite openly for years and even decades, including paying taxes and getting married both of which you would have expected to require an ID check and a subsequent visit from ICE.
The year 2026 will have a lot to say about whether the Netanyahu and Trump cults can be contained. That year, Netanyahu will have to hold national elections and Trump will have to face the midterms. Those committed to democracy and decency in both countries have one job between now and then: organize, organize, organize to win power.
Nothing else matters. And everything is riding on it.
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Devolution by TV transmitter regions! Definitely the way to go.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
The broader Thames catchment and estuary form a natural unit. That encompasses Oxon/Berks/Bucks, Herts & Essex, Surrey, Sussex and Kent - and London.
Hampshire seems to me to be the heart of a separate Wessex region including Wilts and Dorset.
That leaves a West Country of Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
Controversially, I always think of Gloucs, outside the Bristol suburbs, as West Mids (and the Marches).
I don’t know if North-Westers think of themselves as such or rather as Lancs or Cumbrians.
East Anglia and the Levels - a name I just made up - would comprise not just Norfolk and Suffolk but the South Midlands salient of Cambs, Beds and Northants.
Also, why do we keep using “North East” when the name Northumbria already exists.
Doubt it. There are lots of other anti knock additives that could be and were used.
In the absence of any alternative they could have also slightly derated the engines by retarding timing or dialling back boost. It would knock (geddit?) a few % off the top of the power curve but how often are engines operated at 100% anyway?
For fighters, with high compression (for the time) engines was't the difference rather more than a few % ?
Just curious - I am fairly ignorant on this.
Anti-knock agents, octane rating, additives and detailed engine design all went together. Change one… by the end of the war, the Germans couldn’t run captured Allied aircraft for long on German fuel - wrong stuff for the engines.
Lead was an important additive, for its lubricating qualities and protecting the valves (IIRC).
Removing lead in aviation fuel means re qualifying all the existing engines - includes modifications for many.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
Yup, this is going wild on social media already. It's smashed through the Instagram doesn't do politics barrier already. Jenrick is making himself the only viable candidate for when Jeni resigns.
If the Tories install Jenrick and he promises to do all these Reform-y things - leave the ECHR, expel the Boriswave, stop the boats whatever, sort out the enshittification of our cities - then I might, just might, be persuaded to vote for them again
He seems to get it. He might be a devious shit - probably he is - but frankly I don’t care. Starmer is a lying grifting hypocritical freak show, so it would still be an improvement
LOL. whoever promises you most cake for free funded by the magic tree gets your vote? All they need is sound the right dog whistle on those dangerous foreigners getting the better deal than us natives, and you are owned. That’s your politics?
Well, at least I'm not liable at any moment to be forcibly detained in hospital, under the Mental Health Act, 1983 - unlike you
Labour know what the problems in our public services are - marketisation. It is futile tipping yet more money in at the top when so much of it is eaten by the market bureaucracy that the front line provision is in a cash-starved crisis.
What we need is the Vision Thing. How they are going to remake public services so that they are fit for purpose. And the starting place is not where we are now - a blank sheet of paper is needed.
Labour are probably not the party best equipped to deal with the underlying problems of the NHS. A Cameron/Osborne style Conservative Government is needed to think the unthinkable starting with rationing, particularly at end of life.
What was the point in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds saving my father's life for an extra six months of total immobility? Multiply that half a million to a million pounds across all the hopeless cases they have saved for no quality of life each year and a not inconsequential sum of money is saved for more appropriate patients.
Take George Best, provided with a liver transplant only to waste that opportunity on his predeliction for scotch and vodka. Not spending money on people with basket case lifestyle choices has to be considered too
Repeat prescriptions free to the user resulting in millions of pounds wasted on unused drugs has to stop.
Brutality is needed, otherwise Farage and his US style insurance scheme is the unfortunate answer.
It would be interesting to know how much government expenditure is received on average per year of your life.
And how much your entire life could have been improved if some of that had been received when you were much younger.
I am a big advocate of those who indulge in lifestyle choices that bed block in later life like excessive use of booze, fags and a dramatically unhealthy younger lifestyle aren't rewarded for their gluttony.
Instead of penalising these people we allow them frequent flyer status at A and E and pay for a Motability vehicle to get them there.
Except that a few countries now have done studies on this and the lifetime healthcare costs is lower for those that smoke/drink are obese than the healthy lifestyle folk....and in the savings on paying their pensions for less time and if you are doing it on this basis its those living a healthy life that should be surcharged
Could you provide a link to these studies? My GP surgery waiting room is not packed out by runners and cyclists.
The other point you neglect is the increased likelihood of the unhealthy not to be in employment.
However that one only shows data for the obese so no healthy people to compare the figures too.
As to not being in work possibly so but then lots of other wise fit and healthy people aren't either because of mental health.
We were discussing healthcare costs and the figures are plain over a lifetime a healthy living person costs more by dint of living longer , long enough to get things like dementia which is very costly.
There is a strong link between exercise and avoiding dementia in old age, I believe.
Those who take regular exercise are approx 20% less likely to develop dementia. So, yes, a strong and clear link. But that still means that lots of people who do the right thing still get dementia and lots of people who do the wrong thing don't. Luck is still the biggest factor!
Isn't genetics the main factor? I am speaking as someone whose dad was entirely fine to his death at age 87, but whose mum is now doo-lally-tap at 85, so I have mixed feelings
It’s not enough to “deliver”. You need a coherent vision and you need to sell it.
Keir is not able to do that. And the jury’s out on the delivery, which depends very heavily on housing, and quality of life issues that have obviously been left to rot.
Labour know what the problems in our public services are - marketisation. It is futile tipping yet more money in at the top when so much of it is eaten by the market bureaucracy that the front line provision is in a cash-starved crisis.
What we need is the Vision Thing. How they are going to remake public services so that they are fit for purpose. And the starting place is not where we are now - a blank sheet of paper is needed.
Labour are probably not the party best equipped to deal with the underlying problems of the NHS. A Cameron/Osborne style Conservative Government is needed to think the unthinkable starting with rationing, particularly at end of life.
What was the point in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds saving my father's life for an extra six months of total immobility? Multiply that half a million to a million pounds across all the hopeless cases they have saved for no quality of life each year and a not inconsequential sum of money is saved for more appropriate patients.
Take George Best, provided with a liver transplant only to waste that opportunity on his predeliction for scotch and vodka. Not spending money on people with basket case lifestyle choices has to be considered too
Repeat prescriptions free to the user resulting in millions of pounds wasted on unused drugs has to stop.
Brutality is needed, otherwise Farage and his US style insurance scheme is the unfortunate answer.
It would be interesting to know how much government expenditure is received on average per year of your life.
And how much your entire life could have been improved if some of that had been received when you were much younger.
I am a big advocate of those who indulge in lifestyle choices that bed block in later life like excessive use of booze, fags and a dramatically unhealthy younger lifestyle aren't rewarded for their gluttony.
Instead of penalising these people we allow them frequent flyer status at A and E and pay for a Motability vehicle to get them there.
Except that a few countries now have done studies on this and the lifetime healthcare costs is lower for those that smoke/drink are obese than the healthy lifestyle folk....and in the savings on paying their pensions for less time and if you are doing it on this basis its those living a healthy life that should be surcharged
Could you provide a link to these studies? My GP surgery waiting room is not packed out by runners and cyclists.
The other point you neglect is the increased likelihood of the unhealthy not to be in employment.
However that one only shows data for the obese so no healthy people to compare the figures too.
As to not being in work possibly so but then lots of other wise fit and healthy people aren't either because of mental health.
We were discussing healthcare costs and the figures are plain over a lifetime a healthy living person costs more by dint of living longer , long enough to get things like dementia which is very costly.
There is a strong link between exercise and avoiding dementia in old age, I believe.
Those who take regular exercise are approx 20% less likely to develop dementia. So, yes, a strong and clear link. But that still means that lots of people who do the right thing still get dementia and lots of people who do the wrong thing don't. Luck is still the biggest factor!
Are they differentiating between vascular and alzheimers? Better health and exercise can clearly help with vascular dementia but, as they've yet to establish the cause of alzheimer's, I'm not convinced that advice is anything other than wishful.
It’s not enough to “deliver”. You need a coherent vision and you need to sell it.
Keir is not able to do that. And the jury’s out on the delivery, which depends very heavily on housing, and quality of life issues that have obviously been left to rot.
Doesn’t look terminal to me yet. Far too early to judge delivery.
Labour know what the problems in our public services are - marketisation. It is futile tipping yet more money in at the top when so much of it is eaten by the market bureaucracy that the front line provision is in a cash-starved crisis.
What we need is the Vision Thing. How they are going to remake public services so that they are fit for purpose. And the starting place is not where we are now - a blank sheet of paper is needed.
Labour are probably not the party best equipped to deal with the underlying problems of the NHS. A Cameron/Osborne style Conservative Government is needed to think the unthinkable starting with rationing, particularly at end of life.
What was the point in spending hundreds of thousands of pounds saving my father's life for an extra six months of total immobility? Multiply that half a million to a million pounds across all the hopeless cases they have saved for no quality of life each year and a not inconsequential sum of money is saved for more appropriate patients.
Take George Best, provided with a liver transplant only to waste that opportunity on his predeliction for scotch and vodka. Not spending money on people with basket case lifestyle choices has to be considered too
Repeat prescriptions free to the user resulting in millions of pounds wasted on unused drugs has to stop.
Brutality is needed, otherwise Farage and his US style insurance scheme is the unfortunate answer.
It would be interesting to know how much government expenditure is received on average per year of your life.
And how much your entire life could have been improved if some of that had been received when you were much younger.
I am a big advocate of those who indulge in lifestyle choices that bed block in later life like excessive use of booze, fags and a dramatically unhealthy younger lifestyle aren't rewarded for their gluttony.
Instead of penalising these people we allow them frequent flyer status at A and E and pay for a Motability vehicle to get them there.
Except that a few countries now have done studies on this and the lifetime healthcare costs is lower for those that smoke/drink are obese than the healthy lifestyle folk....and in the savings on paying their pensions for less time and if you are doing it on this basis its those living a healthy life that should be surcharged
Could you provide a link to these studies? My GP surgery waiting room is not packed out by runners and cyclists.
The other point you neglect is the increased likelihood of the unhealthy not to be in employment.
However that one only shows data for the obese so no healthy people to compare the figures too.
As to not being in work possibly so but then lots of other wise fit and healthy people aren't either because of mental health.
We were discussing healthcare costs and the figures are plain over a lifetime a healthy living person costs more by dint of living longer , long enough to get things like dementia which is very costly.
There is a strong link between exercise and avoiding dementia in old age, I believe.
Those who take regular exercise are approx 20% less likely to develop dementia. So, yes, a strong and clear link. But that still means that lots of people who do the right thing still get dementia and lots of people who do the wrong thing don't. Luck is still the biggest factor!
Are they differentiating between vascular and alzheimers? Better health and exercise can clearly help with vascular dementia but, as they've yet to establish the cause of alzheimer's, I'm not convinced that advice is anything other than wishful.
I think the 20% figures was across various dementias, but studies have shown that the risk of Alzheimer's is also linked to exercise. Often in medicine, we can show relationships between risk factors and disease without understanding the mechanism by which the disease occurs.
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
Yup, this is going wild on social media already. It's smashed through the Instagram doesn't do politics barrier already. Jenrick is making himself the only viable candidate for when Jeni resigns.
If the Tories install Jenrick and he promises to do all these Reform-y things - leave the ECHR, expel the Boriswave, stop the boats whatever, sort out the enshittification of our cities - then I might, just might, be persuaded to vote for them again
He seems to get it. He might be a devious shit - probably he is - but frankly I don’t care. Starmer is a lying grifting hypocritical freak show, so it would still be an improvement
LOL. whoever promises you most cake for free funded by the magic tree gets your vote? All they need is sound the right dog whistle on those dangerous foreigners getting the better deal than us natives, and you are owned. That’s your politics?
Well, at least I'm not liable at any moment to be forcibly detained in hospital, under the Mental Health Act, 1983 - unlike you
Oh - you bitch. 🤣
It’s not personal in anyway. Merely out to destroy Reform and the madness of voting for Reform.
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Devolution by TV transmitter regions! Definitely the way to go.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
The broader Thames catchment and estuary form a natural unit. That encompasses Oxon/Berks/Bucks, Herts & Essex, Surrey, Sussex and Kent - and London.
Hampshire seems to me to be the heart of a separate Wessex region including Wilts and Dorset.
That leaves a West Country of Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
Controversially, I always think of Gloucs, outside the Bristol suburbs, as West Mids (and the Marches).
I don’t know if North-Westers think of themselves as such or rather as Lancs or Cumbrians.
East Anglia and the Levels - a name I just made up - would comprise not just Norfolk and Suffolk but the South Midlands salient of Cambs, Beds and Northants.
Also, why do we keep using “North East” when the name Northumbria already exists.
Northumbria doesn't really mean anything specific. As a medeival kingdom, it equalled the area North of the Humber - i.e. Yorkshire upwards (to tge Forth, at its greatest extent). Butclearly that includes Yorkshire.
On balance I think its right for Starmer to face Farage head on. You can't ignore Farage or pretend that he isn't driving the political agenda. Going at him to try and change or at least deflect the narrative makes a lot of sense.
But - and its a very big but - he can't just dismiss Faragism as Trussism. It may well be, but people need to believe in *something*. Starmer needs to offer an alternative, the Labour Big Picture for how his government is going to transform lives and communities.
Unless he does that he can shriek on about it being uncosted all he likes. People don't care any more, and you can't say "ooh don't do that because things will be bad" when things are already bad.
Starmer is Osborne, saying there will have to be an emergency budget if Leave wins.
Most comments support Jenrick. This is the sort of crapulent comment which doesn't. (Crapulent is a new word I've just invented if it doesn't already exist).
"Jake is less convinced it was a wise move… "Considering the security implications MPs face, it's irresponsible for any MP, more so a prominent Tory in London, to put themselves in the face of people who they're already calling out for any criminal behaviour. It's a cheap stunt and he endangered himself and the public." Jake"
How strong is regional identity in Britain? North Easterners are as strongly attached to their region as Welsh people are to Wales
Scotland: 61% have very strong attachment Wales: 49% North East: 48% London: 38% North West: 35% Yorkshire: 34% South West: 32% South East: 22% East: 16% West Midlands: 13% East Midlands: 11%"
Two are actual countries, Yorkshiremen might say there's is a third, one is London (Londoner), and there's a good score for "Northerners" and "West Country".
The rest have no meaningful identity, hence the low score. I'd respond to Hampshire - and possibly even home county- but South-East is BS.
The South East region should really be split up as it is too large. Bucks, Berks and Oxon form a natural Thames Valley region (which already has a shared police force).
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
Devolution by TV transmitter regions! Definitely the way to go.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
The broader Thames catchment and estuary form a natural unit. That encompasses Oxon/Berks/Bucks, Herts & Essex, Surrey, Sussex and Kent - and London.
Hampshire seems to me to be the heart of a separate Wessex region including Wilts and Dorset.
That leaves a West Country of Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
Controversially, I always think of Gloucs, outside the Bristol suburbs, as West Mids (and the Marches).
I don’t know if North-Westers think of themselves as such or rather as Lancs or Cumbrians.
East Anglia and the Levels - a name I just made up - would comprise not just Norfolk and Suffolk but the South Midlands salient of Cambs, Beds and Northants.
Also, why do we keep using “North East” when the name Northumbria already exists.
Northumbria doesn't really mean anything specific. As a medeival kingdom, it equalled the area North of the Humber - i.e. Yorkshire upwards (to tge Forth, at its greatest extent). Butclearly that includes Yorkshire.
Not quite the point- gate jumping is visible in a way that dumbelling isn't. And visible signs of lawlessness are a bad thing. But where should forces of order focus their attention? Big but invisible crimes, or smaller all-too-visible ones? In an imperfect world, the answer can't be "both".
In Scottish Parliament news, DRoss given a straight red card at First Minister’s Questions. Now he knows how other teams players feel when sent off against Rangers.
On balance I think its right for Starmer to face Farage head on. You can't ignore Farage or pretend that he isn't driving the political agenda. Going at him to try and change or at least deflect the narrative makes a lot of sense.
But - and its a very big but - he can't just dismiss Faragism as Trussism. It may well be, but people need to believe in *something*. Starmer needs to offer an alternative, the Labour Big Picture for how his government is going to transform lives and communities.
Unless he does that he can shriek on about it being uncosted all he likes. People don't care any more, and you can't say "ooh don't do that because things will be bad" when things are already bad.
Starmer is Osborne, saying there will have to be an emergency budget if Leave wins.
No, Starmer should leave Reform to fight it out with the Conservatives. If Starmer knocks out Farage, Kemi wins, not him.
On balance I think its right for Starmer to face Farage head on. You can't ignore Farage or pretend that he isn't driving the political agenda. Going at him to try and change or at least deflect the narrative makes a lot of sense.
But - and its a very big but - he can't just dismiss Faragism as Trussism. It may well be, but people need to believe in *something*. Starmer needs to offer an alternative, the Labour Big Picture for how his government is going to transform lives and communities.
Unless he does that he can shriek on about it being uncosted all he likes. People don't care any more, and you can't say "ooh don't do that because things will be bad" when things are already bad.
Starmer is Osborne, saying there will have to be an emergency budget if Leave wins.
Labour have no credibility left already after 10 months. 'Run on the pound if we dont freeze pensioners' to U turn in record time. 2 child cap going and now they are briefing the PIP changes are being watered down and McGovern is briefing there will be billions in support for anyone losing out. It's ceasing to be about the right approach or debates about what to cut and where and more about the rudderless panic. Reeves, according to which day of the week it is, will cut or tax or stick to the holy rules or make new ones or be committed or flexible or just inept. Inane government. 'We inherited a crisis' and we will flip flop on dealing with it with increasing frequency.
Not quite the point- gate jumping is visible in a way that dumbelling isn't. And visible signs of lawlessness are a bad thing. But where should forces of order focus their attention? Big but invisible crimes, or smaller all-too-visible ones? In an imperfect world, the answer can't be "both".
This is the quality of some of the comments on this subject.
Follow Dumbelling is ONLY worth doing if you're a regular traveller.
So a commuter. Living in the countryside. Coming into your office. Let's say in... Canary Wharf.
i.e. your average major fare evader looks like (and has similar income as) Robert fucking Jennick. Not the racebaity stuff he puts out /END 29 May 2025 at 13:37"
Most comments support Jenrick. This is the sort of crapulent comment which doesn't. (Crapulent is a new word I've just invented if it doesn't already exist).
"Jake is less convinced it was a wise move… "Considering the security implications MPs face, it's irresponsible for any MP, more so a prominent Tory in London, to put themselves in the face of people who they're already calling out for any criminal behaviour. It's a cheap stunt and he endangered himself and the public." Jake"
Not quite the point- gate jumping is visible in a way that dumbelling isn't. And visible signs of lawlessness are a bad thing. But where should forces of order focus their attention? Big but invisible crimes, or smaller all-too-visible ones? In an imperfect world, the answer can't be "both".
This is the quality of some of the comments on this subject.
Follow Dumbelling is ONLY worth doing if you're a regular traveller.
So a commuter. Living in the countryside. Coming into your office. Let's say in... Canary Wharf.
i.e. your average major fare evader looks like (and has similar income as) Robert fucking Jennick. Not the racebaity stuff he puts out /END 29 May 2025 at 13:37"
But he's almost certainly right, even if you don't like the tone. Dumbelling commuters (who definitely exist) cost the system more, because they are evading a bigger fare. So if we can't make every sort of crime top priority, what should be prioritised? Smaller things we can see, or larger things we can't?
(Same as Small Boats, or the crossing the Mexican Border as forms of immigration. What makes them important is their visibility, not their numerical contribution to the total.)
Guido is sharing a video of Jenrick confronting tube fare dodgers. Vigilante Jenrick the latest iteration of the many Jenricks!
It's quite the brass neck for a man who signed off a Planning Application one day before the deadline by unlawfully abusing his authority as Minister - as was determined by an enquiry (maybe a court case, I think?) - at a cost of tens of millions to the people of Tower Hamlets, and where the applicant was a big donor to the Conservative Party.
A "law and order" wanker has zero credibility when his response to have been found to have done unlawful things himself is denial, defiance and slopey shoulders.
The video is doubtless heavily edited. How many people did Jenrick go after who just ignored him and kept walking? How many fare evaders did he actually confront?
He can look "brave" (with a camera in tow) going up to one person evading. Let's see how "brave" he would be facing six young men who have all just pushed through the ticket barrier. That's the other reality of fare evasion - mass evasion with the threat of violence if challenged. What's Jenrick's answer to that?
Perhaps he should stand as Mayor of London if he thinks he has the answers...
This is completely ridiculous. Likewise the prior comment from @MattW
Flatulent nonsense
Jenrick is doing good street level politics. People REALLY care about all this. This is important quality of life stuff because it is daily life
I don’t care if he raped trees ten years ago, or got this vid edited by Marty Scorsese, he shows that he gets it. And by doing it he shows how all the other politicians - outside Reform - do NOT get it
Yup, this is going wild on social media already. It's smashed through the Instagram doesn't do politics barrier already. Jenrick is making himself the only viable candidate for when Jeni resigns.
If the Tories install Jenrick and he promises to do all these Reform-y things - leave the ECHR, expel the Boriswave, stop the boats whatever, sort out the enshittification of our cities - then I might, just might, be persuaded to vote for them again
He seems to get it. He might be a devious shit - probably he is - but frankly I don’t care. Starmer is a lying grifting hypocritical freak show, so it would still be an improvement
LOL. whoever promises you most cake for free funded by the magic tree gets your vote? All they need is sound the right dog whistle on those dangerous foreigners getting the better deal than us natives, and you are owned. That’s your politics?
Well, at least I'm not liable at any moment to be forcibly detained in hospital, under the Mental Health Act, 1983 - unlike you
Would it be Byronic, LadyG or Eadric they would take instead?
A business / branding question for the PB Genius Bar. I am looking for a business name for a new venture. Companies House clear, domain clear, trademarks clear. There's a business of the same name - in a similar but not directly related field - based in Southern California. They don't operate even in northern CA never mind the rest of the US or beyond, and they're a distributor rather than a brand name for products.
Any objections to using the same name? I can see many examples of that already as finding a completely unique name anywhere in the world is quite difficult...
We've got enough problems with seagulls nicking chips. We don't need eagles flying off with cats, let alone human babies.
We have a few sea eagles (larger than goldens) here on the island now, resettled from the Highlands of Scotland, and not only do they not nick anything, the seagulls all disappear on the rare occasions they’re about.
We've got enough problems with seagulls nicking chips. We don't need eagles flying off with cats, let alone human babies.
We have a few sea eagles (larger than goldens) here on the island now, resettled from the Highlands of Scotland, and not only do they not nick anything, the seagulls all disappear on the rare occasions they’re about.
Comments
Doing absolutely nothing is not at all popular.
Reforms total scrap of “ruinous” Net Zero is so politically dumb.
Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes can form a reasonably coherent South East region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight could form a South Coast region adding in Dorset.
The existing South West region can then be split into South West (Devonwall) and West Country (Somerset, Gloucs, Wilts, CUBA)
East can also be split into East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs) and then one for Essex, Herts, Beds (not sure what you call that - North home counties?)
(Thinks, ten percent off 83 gets back to 75, so that probably works out.)
Not quite record wind, but not far off, and there's a decent slug of sunshine as well. For all Farage's whinging about net zero, this increasingly feels reasonably doable on its own merits. See this, from the new Reform Mayor of Greater Hull;
However, in answer to a question from a member of the public at Wednesday's meeting, the former Olympic gold medallist boxer said: "I have consistently supported the region in green energy for local business, creating local jobs.
"I will keep on that same track – I was brought in by the people of this region."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5egy0d576o
https://esassoc.com/news-and-ideas/2023/08/changing-course-on-aviation-emissions-the-transition-to-unleaded-aviation-gasoline/
Apparently the RAF only started using 100 octane fuel in 1939:
https://www.warbirdforum.com/octane.htm
For fighters, with high compression (for the time) engines was't the difference rather more than a few % ?
Just curious - I am fairly ignorant on this.
The only place it doesn't really work is the Cambridge-Peterborough-Northampton-Milton Keynes block. Just too generic. Hence the BBC having a news programme called Look East (West) for a while.
The best Jenrick could do is to announce an end date for it in the early 2040s.
I was noting that the individuals most likely to be deported are the most law abiding and compliant, rather than the rapists and drug dealers Trump constantly drones on about.
It should also be pointed out that she's been in the US for two decades, has kids who are citizens, and her largely Trump voting neighbours are campaigning for her to be allowed to stay:
..“Ninety-five percent of the people in here support Trump — I do, too — but this is wrong,” said Bud Garrison, a daily customer at John’s.
Garrison and his wife, Anita, made black T-shirts with bold yellow wording that read in all caps, “Bring Carol Home” and on the sleeve say #TEAMCAROL. They described Mayorga as the wrong type of person for Trump to deport.
“We don’t feel what’s happened to her is right,” said Anita Garrison. “She’s a very upstanding citizen in our community. Her kids are into the sports, she’s in the church, and she’s a very upstanding citizen as far as I’m concerned. I think she deserves to be free with her kids.”..
The quota will have consequences, and I don't think they will and up being particular popular with a very large number of those who voted for Trump, as this becomes more widespread, as it will.
The inflation spike was worldwide and due to post covid reboot of world economy.
The household incomes crash was due to UK importing gas - lots of countries suffered with energy price when Putin started murdering Ukraine and Russian people - UK suffered from the amount of gas imports we are dependant on as we haven’t switched to renewables and energy security quickly enough.
If Farage was PM 2020 to 2024, he could not have done anything better. He’s currently dining out on, do you feel better off and country in better place after 30 years of Labour and Conservative government. But next General Election, and all general elections, are based in economic credibility based on the years following the General Election.
That’s the argument the Tories will use over and over to bring voters back home from Reform. And it’s true honest argument.
I’d buy it if there weren’t quite a lot of books jostling my now meagre reading bandwidth.
Nothing else matters. And everything is riding on it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/opinion/israel-gaza-netanyahu.html
LBC and TfL trying their best to help Jenrick into number 10. Jenrick response here spot on
https://x.com/reformparty_uk/status/1928044948508570004?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
https://x.com/reformparty_uk/status/1928054546388980131?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
https://x.com/reformparty_uk/status/1928061420895129609?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Hampshire seems to me to be the heart of a separate Wessex region including Wilts and Dorset.
That leaves a West Country of Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
Controversially, I always think of Gloucs, outside the Bristol suburbs, as West Mids (and the Marches).
I don’t know if North-Westers think of themselves as such or rather as Lancs or Cumbrians.
East Anglia and the Levels - a name I just made up - would comprise not just Norfolk and Suffolk but the South Midlands salient of Cambs, Beds and Northants.
Also, why do we keep using “North East” when the name Northumbria already exists.
Lead was an important additive, for its lubricating qualities and protecting the valves (IIRC).
Removing lead in aviation fuel means re qualifying all the existing engines - includes modifications for many.
'I understand what it's like to work 12 hours a day in a factory because my Dad did it'
Oh dear.
It’s not enough to “deliver”.
You need a coherent vision and you need to sell it.
Keir is not able to do that.
And the jury’s out on the delivery, which depends very heavily on housing, and quality of life issues that have obviously been left to rot.
Better health and exercise can clearly help with vascular dementia but, as they've yet to establish the cause of alzheimer's, I'm not convinced that advice is anything other than wishful.
Agree about the vision.
This is a 2017 systematic review on Alzheimer's and exercise if you would like details: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/fulltext/2017/01000/Alzheimer_s_Disease_and_Exercise__A_Literature.9.aspx
It’s not personal in anyway. Merely out to destroy Reform and the madness of voting for Reform.
But - and its a very big but - he can't just dismiss Faragism as Trussism. It may well be, but people need to believe in *something*. Starmer needs to offer an alternative, the Labour Big Picture for how his government is going to transform lives and communities.
Unless he does that he can shriek on about it being uncosted all he likes. People don't care any more, and you can't say "ooh don't do that because things will be bad" when things are already bad.
Starmer is Osborne, saying there will have to be an emergency budget if Leave wins.
"Jake is less convinced it was a wise move…
"Considering the security implications MPs face, it's irresponsible for any MP, more so a prominent Tory in London, to put themselves in the face of people who they're already calling out for any criminal behaviour. It's a cheap stunt and he endangered himself and the public."
Jake"
https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-labour-reform-starmer-farage-tories-migration-prisons-12593360
Also, last time I looked the biggest issue with fare evasion was still "dumbelling".
This is when travellers from outside London don't buy a ticket at a regional station with no barriers, and use an Oyster card to tap out in London.
So they pay maximum zonal LONDON fare without the regional bit /1
https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social/post/3lqcpyrw46s2u
Not quite the point- gate jumping is visible in a way that dumbelling isn't. And visible signs of lawlessness are a bad thing. But where should forces of order focus their attention? Big but invisible crimes, or smaller all-too-visible ones? In an imperfect world, the answer can't be "both".
Golden eagles soaring south back to English skies https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62x408deppo
Phone theft is out of control in London
29 May 2025, 11:59am"
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/phone-theft-is-out-of-control-in-london/
NEW THREAD
It's ceasing to be about the right approach or debates about what to cut and where and more about the rudderless panic.
Reeves, according to which day of the week it is, will cut or tax or stick to the holy rules or make new ones or be committed or flexible or just inept.
Inane government. 'We inherited a crisis' and we will flip flop on dealing with it with increasing frequency.
"John Bull
@garius.bsky.social
Follow
Dumbelling is ONLY worth doing if you're a regular traveller.
So a commuter. Living in the countryside. Coming into your office. Let's say in... Canary Wharf.
i.e. your average major fare evader looks like (and has similar income as) Robert fucking Jennick. Not the racebaity stuff he puts out /END
29 May 2025 at 13:37"
https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social/post/3lqcqcd5ukc2u
I can't find it.
(Same as Small Boats, or the crossing the Mexican Border as forms of immigration. What makes them important is their visibility, not their numerical contribution to the total.)
Any objections to using the same name? I can see many examples of that already as finding a completely unique name anywhere in the world is quite difficult...