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Kemi Badenoch isn’t very effective – politicalbetting.com
Kemi Badenoch isn’t very effective – politicalbetting.com
Reform UK is the party Britons are most likely to say has provided the most effective opposition to the Labour government, amid former Tory chair Jake Berry defecting to Reform UK, saying they were the 'real opposition'Reform UK: 30%Conservatives: 19%Lib Dems: 10%yougov.co.uk/topics/polit…
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The biggest moment of peril for Badenoch is next May's Senedd and Holyrood elections
On present polling she will have little choice but to resign or be replaced
Rob J this week unleashed his inner Boris with a tweet surely conceived for the side of a bus:-
Yesterday a young man was murdered in broad daylight for his watch.
And now Starmer is on the verge of giving killers a 70% reduction on the full sentence.
https://x.com/RobertJenrick/status/1943304159719239931
Mr Trump has done maybe a few things I'd call good but at what a price. ISTM we're deep into lesser of two evils territory with our UK politics now.
Sadly the submarine set off on its mission - taking the commandos to destroy the power plant of a mining operation near the Swedish border - but simply disappeared. In 1985 they found it at the bottom of the ocean, the wreckage indicating that it had hit a German mine. The British had advised the Norwegians before the mission of the route, believed to be clear of mines, but this minefield had been very recently laid. Norway’s King unveiled the memorial, on the shore nearest the site of the wreckage, in 1987. D4S as usual.
Against stiff competition, this is probably the most laughable conspiracy theory I've read online, certainly in a while. Other than the comic idiocy of the post, there's no indication that the writer is being ironic.
The subject is the Titanic:
"The only opposition against creation of Federal Reserve (one of the main roots of financial enslavement system still today). Those people died there, that's why this "accident" happened. Fools don't know it had nothing to do with non-existent "ice berg"..."
Will they be Tory re-treads or unknown and without parliamentary experience? Both come with risks that could sway some voters away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j65t7TwIunE
Yes, as we get closer to an election I predict this will become more and more of an issue, for previous Tory voters. There's a fair proportion of Reform candidates who are ultra authoritarian/conspiracy loons, and, if the current polls are borne out, there could end up being hundreds of them in parliament.
In a new paper published earlier this year in the Journal of Marketing, we uncovered a surprising pattern: The more knowledge people have about AI and how it works, the less likely they are to embrace it. People in countries with lower average AI literacy tended to be more open to adopting AI compared to those in countries with higher literacy levels. Then, across six additional studies involving thousands of U.S.-based participants—including undergraduate students and online samples selected to be representative of the U.S. in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and regional distribution—we consistently found that lower AI literacy predicts greater receptivity to AI.
https://hbr.org/2025/07/why-understanding-ai-doesnt-necessarily-lead-people-to-embrace-it
There was a bit on PM on Thursday, I think, which explained that the additional regulator brought in after Grenfell to check buildings more than 18m high was holding up all such developments UK wide for more than a year because the regulator was "under resourced". We are our own worse enemies so often.
FPT: We (OK - me) may be at cross-purposes.
My 70 miles is the approximate length of Hadrian's Wall, which I have always treated as the Coast to Coast walk since a friend did it the week after his University Course finished. And I don't really see the point in a "coast-to-coast" which is longer than necessary; that's like building the Panama Canal through Belize, Guatemala and Mexico.
It will take a decade to create new prison places. Probably longer.
The whole reason that migrants are being put in hotels is this - all the other options were blocked or would take a decade. Of interest is the reaction by some a bit anger at the use of hotels. But anger that the government can “just do this, in days, without time for proper enquirues.
Edit not just Jenrick. Labour too are guilty of promising a more prison policy they probably don't believe in.
I may be in a minority of one on here but I think Kemi Badenoch is growing into the role a little and her poor start has been replaced by a more competent performance of late.
Unfortunately, the inepititude and incompetence of the last Conservative Government is as several millstones round her neck and as Thursday's by-election results showed, the challenge of Reform has left her party looking out of touch, out of date and out of time with such activists as remain demoralised. Look at the numbers from Woking and Wealden - two areas which were strongly Conservative not too long ago.
She is further hampered by having been part of the problem and it's hard when you've been part of the problem to be part of the solution. It took the election of David Cameron for the Conservative Party to escape the shadow of what had gone before.
As others have said, there's a space for a party to be honest with the electorate about the public finances but that honesty has to start with a substantial mea culpa regarding how we got into this mess and that includes the Covid response from Sunak and Hunt's pre-election NI cuts. Acknowledging you got things wrong is the first stage toward getting things right but Stride has to explain, if we are to balance the books, how this will happen, what will be cut, which taxes will be raised, the future of the Triple Lock, commitments on defence expenditure etc and that will involve saying a lot of things people don't want to hear now.
We do seem to have a system of absurdly long sentences made reasonable by 70% off. Its like a criminal justice system using the Carpetright business model.
But instead, nothing. Just repeated announcements that it will happen. At some point. Supposedly. Without a date.
Check the link from noneoftheabove, yet another announcement that planning 'will be changed' but no actual changes happened yet.
What the frig are they waiting for? It's on the never, never. Just change it already and get started.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/uredd-rest-area-ureddplassen
Within the first 12 months Blair had passed many changes that he wanted. Devolution, BoE independence, minimum wage etc etc etc all happened in the first 12 months.
What the hell has Starmer done? Announcements that planning will be changed. Announcements that this, that or the other will happen.
Where are the changes? We could have had a new planning system in place by now.
It’s great they’re wise in opposition. They weren’t so wise in govt.
People see through it.
They’ve squandered the first year but it’s not irredeemable. They still have four years, they need to make the next year count.
I have not even seen that mentioned in histories about SOE.
The biggest problem they have is dodgy camper van users unloading their chemical toilets into them - the first one I used yesterday in Lofoten was completely blocked and I’d guess that was why. Up here on the tourist trail, the area attracts a fair few numpties, sadly. Not long off the ferry, we were held up waiting to get past a stranded VW camper van, which some bright spark had decided to reverse off the road (or was crap in doing a three pointer) whereupon the rear wheels had sunk into the roadside ditch.
The view of Badenoch is poll-led. And whether she is replaced during 2026 will be equally poll-led - both VI and the May Locals and Wales/Scotland. She will need the Tories to perform relatively better than this year in the locals retain some councils, get minimum fourth in Scotland and Wales but that be a fourth in touching distance of third (or third itself) and win a mayoralty - Essex or Norfolk/Suffolk (Lowe might save them here if his group support a Reform spoiler candidate)
Remember Starmer’s outburst about The Blob?
The boss of Yorkshire Water received a bonus of £371,000 on top of her base salary of £585,000 last year
Are you suggesting that we leave out the meeting to discuss the budget and terms of reference for the meeting to discuss the biscuits for the meeting to discuss how the announcement of the meeting to discuss the meeting?!!
That’s would be a catastrophic failure of Proper Government!
Just a shame they fill the road and often drive around at a very sedate pace. I sense some Norwegians don’t like them, as the majority are German and they have a reputation for arriving full of provisions such that they’re tourists spending next to nothing actually in the country, other than fuel.
He's spaffed some money at CCS and spent 12 months debating whether or not to proceed with the regional pricing idea that was initiated by the civil service under the last Government before deciding against it.
As some commenters seem to appreciate my occasional postcards from foreign parts, I thought I'd share some thoughts:
- they use the Euro, and this has clearly trapped them in an unsustainably strong currency. Things feel much more expensive than they should for a developing country at the back end of Europe, unemployment is obviously very high (14% officially, youth unemployment 26%, in reality probably significantly higher)
- Russian influence EVERYWHERE. The most common petrol stations were Lukoil, many Russian banks (Sberbank etc) have branches in the towns, lots of signs in tourist areas where in Russian and the usual quota of Russian men obviously drunk by noon on the beaches
- but every Montenegrin ministry in the capital flies an EU flag alongside the Montenegrin one, and some fly NATO flags as well. So it's an odd mix. Their national symbol is the double-headed eagle, simultaneously facing west and east, which seems somehow appropriate to the country.
- the language situation is just as confused. Montenegrin itself is sort of a dialect of Serbian but sort of its own language. It only formally separated from Serbian in the 1990s. Most of the signs use the Latin script but some are in modified Cyrillic and a few are in English.
- the people I talked to are also a mix - they look Mediterranean rather than Slavic, though their language and culture are obviously basically Serbian. They drive better than you'd expect for a country that's next to Albania, and actually stop at pedestrian crossings, which was unexpected
- the US embassy in Podgorica is staggeringly ugly and larger than the former embassy in London on Grosvenor Square. For an obscure country of 600k, not a world power of 70m. God knows what Uncle Sam is thinking.
- the food is good if uninspired - classic Balkan fare of grilled meat, potatoes, sauces, soups, etc.
Anyway it was a good trip, though unfortunately I had to cut it short because of work. They won't become another Belarus as they are too far - geographically and culturally - from Russia but I will be interested to see if they can maintain their precarious national balancing act over the next couple of decades or if they will embrace the free world with all its problems and disappointments wholeheartedly.
Sorry - I don't buy it. It is in a layby full of lorries and campavans, probably complete with sacks of Bratwurst and chocolate sprinkles. My photo quota. Beautiful memorial, though.
I suspect it may fail the "function over form" test. If it is not excellent as a loo, then the appearance is irrelevant. See 39648 "artistic" bike stands all over the UK.
The ramp for wheelchair users is also quite a trip around the houses, by the photographs.
As I said yesterday, I need to be in Norway to have a proper look.
"Would give 5 stars foe the location and outside architecture. But the inside was hot and smelly.
Staying outside enjoying the view is recommended."
https://maps.app.goo.gl/afPrn7oDESGHkEix5
(Removes Captain Mainwaring hat)
And the Tories in Wales are by my understanding (forgive me BigG if I'm wrong) rather rubbish and a bit 'uniparty', and perfect targets for a Reform take down.
I think there's a bit more hope for them in Scotland. Reform are doing great in the South West and probably the North East but I am not sure they have saturated everywhere.
I think in Scotland they need to go with the fiscally prudent message vs. Labour being a disaster and Reform having spendthrift tendencies.
I think in Wales they need to have something completely different. Farage is going with 'dig baby dig' which is strong, but the Tories could (and I know I'm a broken record here) support the Swansea Bay tidal scheme, highlighting the difference - we still want reliable energy and jobs but we still care about the environment. 'A plan for Wales' could include some of this stuff. I don't think it will return the Tories to power, but I think it could retain some votes.
You can't just arrange a big-ticket budgetary meeting willy nilly like that. It needs some proper prep. I suggest a meeting.
They didn't make enough of their legacy. They needed a Liam Byrne note to keep them afloat for a decade. I am sure they found plenty, but being naive and useless sent them all to the dumpster rather than the Guardian.
One idea I have been hearing to tip that balance the Western way, from both the Daily Telegraph Ukraine the Latest podcast *and* Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics, is that a variety of multi-speed EU should be made available to some countries in the Western Balkans, where they get accelerated access to the EU features that help develop their economies* in advance of fulfilling the entire EU rulebook which takes decades.
As a tactic of drawing them deeper in, more quickly, given Russian tactics.
* As an example, single market access to be less restricted.
Scottish Tories probably want to retain 3 constituencies and hit about 13 to 14% list
The above is benchmark (I think) for Kemi survives/we are struggling along but OK
We need to have a meeting to align on how scheduling will be coordinated in future.
I think they need to remember "We were elected as Labour, we need to govern as Labour" - not in the sense of caving in to the nutter wing, but in the sense of Wilson's “The Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.”
I like that we have a real Government for the first time in years, but they are timid little mice.
I think they need to remember "We were elected as Labour, we need to govern as Labour" - not in the sense of caving in to the nutter wing, but in the sense of Wilson's “The Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.”
I like that we have a real Government for the first time in years, but they are timid little mice.
They could doubtless be developed further, but of course the EU would be very reluctant to allow countries to cherry-pick desirable aspects of EU membership without the undesirable ones, but then would that be attractive to countries like Montenegro?
Knowing the EU and its negotiating style, any more in-depth agreement would basically be a kind of colonial arrangement, or at least could easily be presented as such. Brussels doesn't really do flexibility or goodwill so I think they could cause more political problems than they solve.
They appear to have no idea that what I have just described is a realistic expectation about a top quality government.
AIUI that is rather better in that respect (eg the "tank traps" are hidden).
A good piece, albeit with a fair amount of architectural bollocks in it *.
https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/fortress-london-the-new-us-embassy-and-the-rise-of-counter-terror-urbanism/
* To the north, the site is bordered with an English yew hedge, which leads to meadowland planted with species native to North America (“analogous to the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom”)
That's what I think they'll be targeting, I'm not saying they'll get it. On current polling they are looking at just under teens % and maybe 10 seats
I quite enjoyed this stealth camper, who had his van camper in white, with "Asbestos Removal and Disposal" magnetic stick on decals to keep people away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqjaD_-BwDY
I don't suppose it is too late for common sense to put this right is it?
Why do I suspect your interpretation of the facts is somewhat suspect?
http://john.thywissen.org/eds.html
Allegedly the original idea was for the building to straddle a 6 lane highway, vetoed on security grounds.
The attractive grasslands (cowherd was an official job title) hide tank traps (or so it was said)
I did visit once. The entrance road leads to employee security gates, with armed guards. If you don't fancy that there is an exit lane to the visitors entrance with more armed guards. If you decline that the exit lane takes you straight back to the freeway going the wrong way so you can't easily return.
The whole campus said GO AWAY
My friend has mooted Cote D’Ivoire in January (he tends to co-opt me for the Francophone countries). Anyone been?