There's a line between bad politics and doing politics badly. I think we have seen too many examples of the latter from this Government starting with Emma Reynolds on the Nick Ferrari LBC show and now this.
This is basic stuff - knowing what you're going to say, sounding confident and on top of your brief and able to answer most questions (I do think there's a level of granularity on projects for example I wouldn't expect a Minister to know) should be meat and drink for politicians. The confidence should either come from good media training or actually believing what you say and standing behind it when challenged.
Bad politics is something else - you can promote something actively and strongly and it might be the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way but if it's your Government and your policy you have to fight for it even when strongly and coherently challenged whether by another politician, an interviewer or someone who knows what they're talking about.
Despite the Netflix millions, the foreign (ie American) characters in Squid Game 3 confirm to the Kdrama trope of showing every sign of being picked off the street at random, showing, at best, minimal acting ability.
Despite the Netflix millions, the foreign (ie American) characters in Squid Game 3 confirm to the Kdrama trope of showing every sign of being picked off the street at random, showing, at best, minimal acting ability.
I applaud this.
A good chunk of those in the Wire had no prior acting experience. Picked rather for their lived experiences.
It's a crowded field in America but Pete has a really stupid name.
How is it pronounced? BOOT-EDGE-EDGE?
Give me a break.
Can't say I've ever given it any thought before, but when a gay couple have kids, do they agree which surname the kids get to use? Or do the kids get to choose later in life? Or maybe both surnames, hyphenated?
I know feel I need to get some answers.
If my married gay friends are of a traditional disposition then they tend to double barrel their names. In the case of my husband and I we kept our own names as ours double barreled sounds like a sauce.
H....P....
Your not Aitch from Steps are you?
(There wouldn't be enough SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE in the world for TSE if so!)
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Despite the Netflix millions, the foreign (ie American) characters in Squid Game 3 confirm to the Kdrama trope of showing every sign of being picked off the street at random, showing, at best, minimal acting ability.
I applaud this.
A good chunk of those in the Wire had no prior acting experience. Picked rather for their lived experiences.
It seems to me there are two diametrically opposite types of actor: those who can play almost anyone (Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, for example) and those who could only ever play themselves (Woody Allen, John Wayne). That's why successful scripts are often written with a particular actor in mind. It's a far cry from Hamlet's wandering players.
Despite the Netflix millions, the foreign (ie American) characters in Squid Game 3 confirm to the Kdrama trope of showing every sign of being picked off the street at random, showing, at best, minimal acting ability.
I applaud this.
A good chunk of those in the Wire had no prior acting experience. Picked rather for their lived experiences.
It's a crowded field in America but Pete has a really stupid name.
How is it pronounced? BOOT-EDGE-EDGE?
Give me a break.
Can't say I've ever given it any thought before, but when a gay couple have kids, do they agree which surname the kids get to use? Or do the kids get to choose later in life? Or maybe both surnames, hyphenated?
I know feel I need to get some answers.
If my married gay friends are of a traditional disposition then they tend to double barrel their names. In the case of my husband and I we kept our own names as ours double barreled sounds like a sauce.
H....P....
Your not Aitch from Steps are you?
(There wouldn't be enough SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE in the world for TSE if so!)
Alas no but if I were I would insist that everyone called me Haitch from Steps.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Completely OT, Youtube has just handed me an 1888 sound recording of Gladstone, made by Thomas Edison. He sounds very Scottish.
A souvenir of the Midlothian campaign, perhaps?
It seems to have been some sort of dunner party for notables of the time with the new-fangled invention of the time, with some of the attendees a bit tipsy.
Gladstone has some sort of clearly Scottish patrician lilt, like a cross between Lord Reith and Victor Meldrew.
Completely OT, Youtube has just handed me an 1888 sound recording of Gladstone, made by Thomas Edison. He sounds very Scottish.
A souvenir of the Midlothian campaign, perhaps?
It seems to have been some sort of dunner party for notables of the time with the new-fangled invention of the time, with some of the attendees a bit tipsy.
Gladstone has some sort of clearly Scottish patrician lilt, like a cross between Lord Reith and Victor Meldrew.
This is correct although I believe there is some doubt as to whether it is really him as Edison was known to employ stand ins from time to time. I've listened to that recording extensively and I think you can hear a slight Northern twang in the way he says 'made, me and my'.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
Hmm, we've had that discussion a few times before. It depends which Establishment you mean, as Hannan's first meeting for Vote Leave was convened at Lord Leach's country house.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
Hmm, we've had that discussion a few times before. It depends which Establishment you mean, as Hannan's first meeting for Vote Leave was convened at Lord Leach's country house.
Not sure old men with country houses are the current establishment.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
Hmm, we've had that discussion a few times before. It depends which Establishment you mean, as Hannan's first meeting for Vote Leave was convened at Lord Leach's country house.
Not sure old men with country houses are the current establishment.
No, although plutocratic large media interests might also feature as candidates too, though, and they were also heavily in support.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
Hmm, we've had that discussion a few times before. It depends which Establishment you mean, as Hannan's first meeting for Vote Leave was convened at Lord Leach's country house.
Not sure old men with country houses are the current establishment.
No, although plutocratic large media interests might also feature as candidates too, though, and they were also heavily in support.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Rock legend Sir Rod Stewart has handed Nigel Farage a surprise endorsement ahead of his slot at Glastonbury on Sunday.
Stewart, 80, who was a lifelong Tory voter and Remain-supporter in 2016, opened up about his change of heart since the 2024 General Election.
Despite previously admitting he fancied Theresa May, the former Faces frontman voted for Labour last July.
However, as Sir Keir Starmer approaches his one year milestone, Stewart appeared to switch his support to the Prime Minister's main foe.
Sir Rod may be in touch with voters shifting to Farage given the Reform poll leads. Yet given the leftist and liberal shades of the Glastonbury crowd who mostly think Corbyn a saint he might find a smaller crowd than expected om Sunday afternoon if some decide to head home early rather than be in the crowd for a Farage backer
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
That's true. I never think of Brexiteers and think public school and Oxbridge, Westminster and the City, and almost all the newspapers.
Some of their leaders were that eg Boris and Mogg but their voters certainly weren't, it was working class voters and pensioners who delivered Brexit, London rejected and the Home Counties also were less Leave than average.
Establishment Cameron, Osborne, the CBI and effectively the BBC, the FT and civil service and large corporations also opposed Brexit
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 5m No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
Whatever you think of Brexit it was hardly establishment.
That's true. I never think of Brexiteers and think public school and Oxbridge, Westminster and the City, and almost all the newspapers.
Some of their leaders were that eg Boris and Mogg but their voters certainly weren't, it was working class voters and pensioners who delivered Brexit, London rejected and the Home Counties also were less Leave than average.
Establishment Cameron, Osborne, the CBI and effectively the BBC, the FT and civil service and large corporations also opposed Brexit
For voters, Brexit was NOTA. For its leaders, who knows? The problem with David Cameron not insisting on the Leave side agreeing a coherent vision of Brexit before the referendum, is that they did not bother to agree one afterwards either. Did Jacob Rees-Mogg want the same thing as Michael Gove? Boris the same as Nigel Farage?
So this is the technology (or at least, one of the technologies) the military are going to use for space based tracking of stealth aircraft. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_imaging
The IDF of course deny it. They regularly announce an enquiry every time a large scale killing of civilians hits the news. I don't recall any of those enquiry results being reported.
One year ago Biden and Trump held their POTUS debate.
Only one year? Life is fast...
Very true. I can't believe how many years it's been since the year 2000. The whole of the 90s felt like longer to me.
The Y2K scare is closer in time to Thatcher's first election victory than it is to the present.
My schooldays were closer to the Second World War, which then seemed very ancient history from a bygone era, than Y2K is to now. But that’s a phenomenon of ageing, rather than some newsworthy change in the time-space continuum…
So income tax thresholds are to be frozen for longer, according to the guardian, as I predicted back in the spring. As the easiest way of bringing in lots of (forward) cash without generating much opposition, it looks inevitable now.
I'm not a Nigel Farage fan so, obviously, disagree with Rod Stewart. But Will Hutton's ridiculous 'you're not allowed to have that opinion' take isn't exactly going to persuade people except those who are already singing from the same hymn sheet.
I'm not a Nigel Farage fan so, obviously, disagree with Rod Stewart. But Will Hutton's ridiculous 'you're not allowed to have that opinion' take isn't exactly going to persuade people except those who are already singing from the same hymn sheet.
So income tax thresholds are to be frozen for longer, according to the guardian, as I predicted back in the spring. As the easiest way of bringing in lots of (forward) cash without generating much opposition, it looks inevitable now.
One year ago Biden and Trump held their POTUS debate.
Only one year? Life is fast...
Very true. I can't believe how many years it's been since the year 2000. The whole of the 90s felt like longer to me.
The Y2K scare is closer in time to Thatcher's first election victory than it is to the present.
My schooldays were closer to the Second World War, which then seemed very ancient history from a bygone era, than Y2K is to now. But that’s a phenomenon of ageing, rather than some newsworthy change in the time-space continuum…
Conversely, I can recall as a kid in the 60s being aware that WWII was still recent memory for adults; and the Thatcher win now seems from somewhere impossibly lost back in my youth.
Stuff that happened before you were born is in a different, unknowable category. But you still got a sense of time from those who lived through it.
So income tax thresholds are to be frozen for longer, according to the guardian, as I predicted back in the spring. As the easiest way of bringing in lots of (forward) cash without generating much opposition, it looks inevitable now.
Comments
LOL.
Bit late now.
There's a line between bad politics and doing politics badly. I think we have seen too many examples of the latter from this Government starting with Emma Reynolds on the Nick Ferrari LBC show and now this.
This is basic stuff - knowing what you're going to say, sounding confident and on top of your brief and able to answer most questions (I do think there's a level of granularity on projects for example I wouldn't expect a Minister to know) should be meat and drink for politicians. The confidence should either come from good media training or actually believing what you say and standing behind it when challenged.
Bad politics is something else - you can promote something actively and strongly and it might be the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way but if it's your Government and your policy you have to fight for it even when strongly and coherently challenged whether by another politician, an interviewer or someone who knows what they're talking about.
https://www.gbnews.com/celebrity/rod-stewart-announcement-nigel-farage-keir-starmer
Rock legend Sir Rod Stewart has handed Nigel Farage a surprise endorsement ahead of his slot at Glastonbury on Sunday.
Stewart, 80, who was a lifelong Tory voter and Remain-supporter in 2016, opened up about his change of heart since the 2024 General Election.
Despite previously admitting he fancied Theresa May, the former Faces frontman voted for Labour last July.
However, as Sir Keir Starmer approaches his one year milestone, Stewart appeared to switch his support to the Prime Minister's main foe.
https://x.com/wesstreeting/status/1618657973676679168
Maggie may have been a Tory but Rod's Labour! 🌹
I applaud this.
Tut tut....
Your not Aitch from Steps are you?
(There wouldn't be enough SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE in the world for TSE if so!)
Yeah. That’s hilarious
LOL!!!!
*tumbleweed*
Will Hutton
@williamnhutton
·
5m
No Rod. No. No. Any rock star however fit and legendary who wants to give Farage a chance forfeits the rock tradition and betrays all its stands for. You are 81 and lost the plot. Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’
https://x.com/williamnhutton/status/1938712348807831924
There. I've said it. The ban hammer cometh maybe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-2eZwUZKk
Gladstone has some sort of clearly Scottish patrician lilt, like a cross between Lord Reith and Victor Meldrew.
https://www.gbnews.com/celebrity/rod-stewart-announcement-nigel-farage-keir-starmer
Rock legend Sir Rod Stewart has handed Nigel Farage a surprise endorsement ahead of his slot at Glastonbury on Sunday.
Stewart, 80, who was a lifelong Tory voter and Remain-supporter in 2016, opened up about his change of heart since the 2024 General Election.
Despite previously admitting he fancied Theresa May, the former Faces frontman voted for Labour last July.
However, as Sir Keir Starmer approaches his one year milestone, Stewart appeared to switch his support to the Prime Minister's main foe.
Leathery skinned old guy supposedly swarmed around by youth whose more recent contribution hit something of a duff note in the end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLIu3ahDiy8
Nigel will want to avoid the obvious comparisons.
https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/backbench-revolt-shows-labour-hasnt-changed-m38db9d03
GB News just now.
Only one year? Life is fast...
John Rentoul
@rentouljohn.bsky.social
Eighteen years ago today, the skies darkened, never to brighten again www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJpp...
https://bsky.app/profile/rentouljohn.bsky.social/post/3lsmli55res2u
Establishment Cameron, Osborne, the CBI and effectively the BBC, the FT and civil service and large corporations also opposed Brexit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJpp7BSKd54
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_imaging
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-deliberately-at-unarmed-gazans-waiting-for-humanitarian-aid/00000197-ad8e-de01-a39f-ffbe33780000?s=09
They regularly announce an enquiry every time a large scale killing of civilians hits the news. I don't recall any of those enquiry results being reported.
IDF opens inquiry into possible war crimes after deaths near Gaza aid sites
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/27/idf-opens-inquiry-into-possible-war-crimes-after-deaths-near-gaza-aid-sites
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jun/27/reeves-expected-to-freeze-income-tax-thresholds-to-raise-fresh-funds
I'm not a Nigel Farage fan so, obviously, disagree with Rod Stewart. But Will Hutton's ridiculous 'you're not allowed to have that opinion' take isn't exactly going to persuade people except those who are already singing from the same hymn sheet.
PS I can only see posts using Vanilla. Is this just me?
NEW THREAD
Stuff that happened before you were born is in a different, unknowable category. But you still got a sense of time from those who lived through it.
One of the government's greater failings is that it only blunders into being unpopular.
It doesn't seem able to embrace it deliberately in the necessary pursuit of good policy.