I was reviewing some older political betting markets and I found this from December 2019 after Jeremy Corbyn lost another general election and announced his resignation. I often wonder about the road not taken, like Starmer she is a lawyer and we know how well they win elections, see here, but would her Corbynite leanings held her back?
Comments
Lost it all backing Con for most seats at next GE at around the same time
President Trump on Elon Musk: "DOGE is going to look at Musk. If DOGE looks at Musk, we're going to save a fortune...I don't think he should be playing that game with me."
The Prime Minister has sanctioned a legal change that aims to reinstate the Tory government’s block on the former Sinn Féin leader’s compensation without breaching human rights laws.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/01/labour-ira-gerry-adams-compensation-human-rights-starmer/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vrrj72xy7o
We haven't had a military coup in Thailand for a couple of years.
I have listened to the debate in the HOC this afternoon, including Rebecca Long Bailey and Richard Burgon amongst others and simply agreed with everything they said
Indeed the mps seem near unanimous in their contempt for the bill and support Maskell's amendment
I expect it to pass, but if so many labour mps will have deep concerns about creating a 2 tier benefit scheme that disadvantages future disabled people's legitimate claim
So shelving the main complaint of those against but losing a good deal of the cost savings which is the only reason they are doing this now in July and not in a year's time as a properly thought out Bill.
What a frigging mess.
@jessicaelgot
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14m
“If they move on this, it’s deal done,” one leading rebel says
It most likely will pass but at what cost to labour
Under new rules passed by Denmark's parliament, women are to join teenage males in a lottery system that could require them to undertake a period of conscription. Denmark is following the example of neighbouring Sweden and Norway, which both brought in conscription for women in recent years.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e0094n5d3o
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/jul/01/welfare-bill-vote-labour-conservatives-keir-starmer-universal-credit-pip-uk-politics-latest-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with:block-6863f3358f084cce07ef65be#block-6863f3358f084cce07ef65be
The second trip I am doing now, skipping the fjords as I’ve seen them, working more directly up Norway, with a detour to Lofoten, then Narvik, Tromso, and returning south through Finland as originally intended. Because I learned from experience that Finland is stunningly dull to drive through, such that keeping the speed limit is difficult, I’m using Finnish motorail to get from Lapland to Helsinki - which incredibly, for me, the dog, the car and a cabin, cost only about €170. Doing motorrail from France or Belgium fifteen years ago cost about £600-700 even then, so the Finland offer is incredibly cheap, presumably subsidised because of Lapland.
You could of course skip Norway altogether, and do Sweden, Finland and the Baltics, linked by ferries, or come back through Poland. A future trip I have in mind.
The markets will love it, looooooooove it
Kendalls career is over, as is Reeves shortly after
They were forgotten about in the chaos at the beginning od May and it wasn't until September someone went and found them and told them the war was over.
The second last to hear were the Germans stationed on Les Minquieres who surrendered to a passing fishing boat.
Its got 'tuition fees'/LDs written all over it. Its NOT LABOUR but they are gagging to vote it through
McSweeney is safe, Starmer rode out to bat for him at cabinet this am
You can see it's a problem how the cost of health-related benefits is increasing and set to keep doing so when the finances are so stressed. Furthermore you don't want to defeat your own government and give succour to political opponents, most of whom would be tougher on welfare claimants than this is.
So, being rational, vote for it? Yes, I think so.
But hang on, forget all that and get back to basics - should any government, let alone a Labour one, be doing something that makes the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our country worse unless they truly have to? And do they truly have to?
If it's 'no' and 'no' to that, how can you vote for it even if you've just convinced yourself you should?
I wonder what PBers would do if they were a Labour MP?
https://x.com/MLP_officiel/status/1940003469487677683
Air conditioning saves lives.
Leaving children, the elderly, or vulnerable people to suffer because there is no air conditioning, rather than developing an air conditioning plan, is completely absurd.
I am reminded of a different time when government were proposing much more sweeping changes to benefits. The reform to pensions under the Coalition. When we compare that, people still lost out, but the person in charge Steve Webb really knew his onions and they had thought really carefully about how to go about such a reform.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
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26m
This is how governments die. Every Labour MP, Minister and Cabinet Minister knows the welfare bill is no longer fit for purpose. But they’re going to blindly force it through anyway. Then spend the rest of the parliament saying to each other “why did we do that”.
Nick Clegg has vowed to veto a new generation of nuclear plants if they require a single penny of public money.
Delay the 4 point rule change until Timm's reports. Timms review is due "autumn 2026".
But 4 point rule wasn't due until then anyway.
So unless the rebels are confident the review can be steered away from ruling out 100,000s of people on the lower end of disability then they have gained nothing.
14800 excess deaths in France
Inept
I think there were some reasonably component Tory ministers as well. Osborne had done his homework on the situation he faced, Hague, Clarke, Hunt (having to clean up Lansley mess). But there were stinkers too.
Which planet is she on?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9vrrymm10nt?post=asset:83fceec4-64cb-43ec-bbec-6b6326b83303#post
You can't believe this is the same person running the Country today, it's like Chalk and Cheese
https://x.com/timmyvoe/status/1940073205227823161?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
I have a clear memory of my three year old Thai granddaughter's moment when her parents brought her to Essex for her first British Christmas;
She stood in our doorway, looked up at me and said "It's cold in your world!"
Later that night it snowed, so next morning she and her mother had their first experience of a 'white world'.
Traditional air conditioning is horribly inefficient, and it is far better done via heat pumps - which run at approx 1/3 to 1/4 of the energy use and cost, and passive measures before that.
He did post earlier on the enforcement of federal contempt of court orders thing that was slipped into the sprawling bill and another step to Trump being King.
Is he realising he's been totally conned?
Aircon is no more treating a sympton than heating is. We have technology that allows us to make our living environment more comfortable and only lunatics would try to prevent people from using it.
@Smyth_Chris
Timms confirms that 4-point rule is being dropped. Clause 5 dropped entirely
Full retreat
Her performance in the Commons this afternoon is the usual shambolic mix of half truths and half facts. She's the gift that keeps on giving.
It does the same job more efficiently, so is the better solution.
I have put a/c in the bedrooms in our French house. It was reasonably priced. It’s powered almost entirely by solar panels, especially on hot days like today. Nobody in France is preventing me from installing it.
Planet non sequitur. It’s almost up there with “electricity is expensive so we should build less generating capacity” and similar British idiocies.