Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
'Ghosts' - Japan 👍 'Blue Eyes' - Elton John 👍 'Just an Illusion' - Imagination 👍 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' - Soft Cell 👍 'Ruff Mix' - Wonderdogs 😈
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
From which we can conclude you were born around 1967.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
But they're not very good. They're also not terrible
They remind me of the breathy female acoustic versions of classic pop songs you now get in EVERY POSH HOTEL BAR IN THE WORLD
It's posh hotel bar music. It's better than drill. Certainly less offensive. It's extremely derivative, and fairly boring, bits of the Beatles, bits of Fleetwood Mac, bits of Genesis, bits of Shoegaze, bits of this and bits of that, but nothing at the core. It is music for educated morons
It does nothing to dissuade me that pop music is all played out, indeed it reinforces my view
It's like pop music was born in 1963, and for a decade was a roaring force of creation, and for 30 years was potent and wonderful and then it faded, slowly, like a post coital heartbeat, with every new iteration slightly weaker than the last. There are still moments of emotional power, but we are now so far from the Conceptual Fuck that began it all, the real emotions are almost rinsed way
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
I mentioned them in a reply to you about a lost past a week or so ago, the video making you yearn for that young university love when us cool beautiful UCL people went to parties by tube:
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
'Ghosts' - Japan 👍 'Blue Eyes' - Elton John 👍 'Just an Illusion' - Imagination 👍 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' - Soft Cell 👍 'Ruff Mix' - Wonderdogs 😈
I wouldn't disagree with that. 77-84 was a golden age. Music was no longer entirely controlled by the record companies, but there was still sufficient commonality of culture that what was good was also widely known. Bands with something interesting to say had the creative control to say it, but when they did it reached the ears of everyone who cared to listen.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
I recently took on two new junior members of staff. In their early 20s. My previously most junior staff were in the early 30s and used to take great delight in ribbing me about be oh so old.
Now they are experiencing the generational shift that even 10 years brings.
Which I in no way am selfishly enjoying... Honest.
When I have chats with my tutees (now called academic advisees, for some reason) it’s painfully obvious how different our cultural references are. But then they were born in the 21st century. Never had the moment of the millennium eve. Chastening to an old man.
Yep - it's amazing how quickly little details pass. The Phone In The Hall with the Notepad next to it. A physical Address Book. All mysterious to people in their early 30s. And then they meet people in their early 20s who don't even faintly remember dial-up. And they discover they are already SO OLD!
I was trying to describe going to my local library to 'book' a 'book' from the regional library to them all. It did not compute.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
You would appear to be the sort of person who would also be into Wet Leg.
(I'm more into bands like Polyphia.)
I keep hearing the name but have yet to investigate.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
A few years back, some friends and I took it on ourselves to listen to and review for each other every album nominated for the Mercury Music prize. One was by Wolf Alice. It was energetic, proper guitar/guitar//bass/drums/voice, rocky, and refreshingly and unapologetically enjoyable in a way none of the other entries were - not necessarily my bag but pleasing to hear there is still a place in the pantheon for proper non-whiny rock music. I set about my review enthusiastically - it wouldn't win - too white/straight/unfashionable for the current times, but definitely the most fun I'd had in the exercise. Unfortunately it turned out that due to a lack of concentration I had erroneously put on an old Aerosmith album. Wolf Alice turned out to be forgettable indie-by-numbers. Perfectly adequate in its way but the contrast with the unapologetic good times of Aerosmith was a metaphor for the 2020s.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
The best selling album of 1982 in the US was Asia, by Asia. It sold more than Michael Jackson's Thriller, also released (late) that year. (Thriller went on to be the best selling album of 1983 and 1984 in the US.) Asia were a British band, including the guitarist from Yes and half of The Buggles, but the album sold much less well in the UK.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation, marking a growing crackdown on foreigners who are even permitted to be in the United States.
Any foreigners in the US should be heading for the nearest border right now. The term 'hostile environment' has been bandied about in several contexts recently, but Trump has gone well beyond that.
Last week he was all for stopping the US farm industry from collapsing as the fields were left unharvested.
This week...
Does Trump even have one clue as to what Stephen Miller is up to?
Good news - arrived in Glasgow and it’s actually sunny not raining.
Bad news - Lufthansa lost our bag.
Now waiting in airport hotel for the next LH flight which will have our bag on it!
No wife for scale, she’s in one of those moods that only copious amounts of Prosecco can fix.
Welcome to Glasgow. We will try to keep the rain away for as long as possible. Are you touring or staying in Glasgow?
Main reason for being here is a family party on Saturday.
Will be mostly touring as the missus has never been to Scotland before. Today’s plan was to go to Edinburgh, but that’s probably getting cancelled now. We’re hoping to go the bottom of Loch Ness, even if we just take the train up, walk around for a bit, and take the train back, because it’s a wonderful journey. Sadly for Wifey we’re got going to be able to go far enough North to see the live haggis. She still thinks I’m joking and they’re not real, despite them being on the menu in the hotel.
PS Unfortunate bit of news the other day: worth being aware of it when walking around (there are other bridges over the river).
The best selling album of 1982 in the US was Asia, by Asia. It sold more than Michael Jackson's Thriller, also released (late) that year. (Thriller went on to be the best selling album of 1983 and 1984 in the US.) Asia were a British band, including the guitarist from Yes and half of The Buggles, but the album sold much less well in the UK.
The best selling album of 1982 in the US was Asia, by Asia. It sold more than Michael Jackson's Thriller, also released (late) that year. (Thriller went on to be the best selling album of 1983 and 1984 in the US.) Asia were a British band, including the guitarist from Yes and half of The Buggles, but the album sold much less well in the UK.
It actually sounds like machine music. Suno or Udio
"Suno, make me a track that's a weak combination of the Cocteau Twins and Lush, with a bit of Velvet Underground, but not anywere near as good as them, thanks"
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
I mentioned them in a reply to you about a lost past a week or so ago, the video making you yearn for that young university love when us cool beautiful UCL people went to parties by tube:
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
You would appear to be the sort of person who would also be into Wet Leg.
(I'm more into bands like Polyphia.)
I keep hearing the name but have yet to investigate.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
I was introduced to REM by my older brother when he came back from school with a CD and I kept playing orange crush as an amazing song. Love REM, theor more country stuff like Driver 8 and Don’t go back to Rockville will always be favourites but I remember watching them live for their Monster album tour and loving how they were as good live as recorded. They were on the bill with the Manics who were dreadful live and I love them so painful, the Cranberries, angry, and some weird band called Radiohead who disappeared into obscurity.
Lots of people talking shit today about Employer National Insurance Contributions
They're exactly the same as Employee Contributions and Income Tax
They're a tax on the amount paid, and so the amount received, on employment
It would make ZERO difference if they were called employer taxes or employee taxes, to employer or employee
They're taxes on working people or people working
Which are the same thing
If I'm wrong, explain the difference
Slightly different rates and allowances, but the biggest issue is the difference that the employee sees between gross and net salary. Gross salary is what’s written in employment contracts.
So if you raised employee NI by 5% and cut employer NI by 5%, the net to the Treasury would be roughly the same but every employee would feel 5% worse off. The other way around and the employees would be happy but the employers left explaining why everyone’s salary just got cut 5%.
The way forward is to abolish employee NI as a concept, rolling it into income tax, and to rename employer NI as ‘payroll tax’.
@HYUFD will be along in a minute to disagree, as he is I think the only person on this forum who supports the concept of NI funding pensions and healthcare.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
You would appear to be the sort of person who would also be into Wet Leg.
(I'm more into bands like Polyphia.)
I keep hearing the name but have yet to investigate.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
Ah, yes, the classic opinion of the non-musician...
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
I was introduced to REM by my older brother when he came back from school with a CD and I kept playing orange crush as an amazing song. Love REM, theor more country stuff like Driver 8 and Don’t go back to Rockville will always be favourites but I remember watching them live for their Monster album tour and loving how they were as good live as recorded. They were on the bill with the Manics who were dreadful live and I love them so painful, the Cranberries, angry, and some weird band called Radiohead who disappeared into obscurity.
The best selling album of 1982 in the US was Asia, by Asia. It sold more than Michael Jackson's Thriller, also released (late) that year. (Thriller went on to be the best selling album of 1983 and 1984 in the US.) Asia were a British band, including the guitarist from Yes and half of The Buggles, but the album sold much less well in the UK.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
That would make mine '81 to '86. Which was seriously a wank time for music.
Getdown Services - like Wet Lef, if Wet Leg were two podgy moustachiod energetic bkokes from Minehead. Heroic.This is a lovely live performance of their tune 'Dog Dribble' https://youtu.be/L2J2wzYcw8M?si=VI9ec86XBBTadW8L
At the otger end of tge spectrum, Naima Bock (ex of Goat Girl) - the most gorgeous, broken, ethereal voice in music since Sandy Denny:
And in the middle, Annie Dressner: very much how I imagine some of the quirkier mums at the schoolgates would choose to record and indeed behave: https://youtu.be/zleziqaD89A?si=uq0pt2nhielQLp37 (her co-vicalist Kathryn Williams is also high in my estimation)
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
I was introduced to REM by my older brother when he came back from school with a CD and I kept playing orange crush as an amazing song. Love REM, theor more country stuff like Driver 8 and Don’t go back to Rockville will always be favourites but I remember watching them live for their Monster album tour and loving how they were as good live as recorded. They were on the bill with the Manics who were dreadful live and I love them so painful, the Cranberries, angry, and some weird band called Radiohead who disappeared into obscurity.
I liked Peter Buck's side-project Tuatara.
I do have a weird man crush on Sam “the British Springsteen” fender. For a geordie he can string a couple of words together brilliantly, almost intelligently, I jest, he’s a brilliant songwriter , now being produced by the guys from The War on Drugs who are great.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
But this is midwit bollocks, typical of the low-watt centrist Dads of PB, from @kinabalu to @bondegezou and beyond
Art forms genuinely rise and fall, and popular music has been in decline for two decades now
It's like an Italian art fan saying "Oh everyone your age loves Da Vinci and that guy Raphael and Michelangelo, but that's because they were around when you were 22, these days we love Parmigianino and Pontormo, and Bronzino, and they're just as good, and Mannerism is where it's at now, daddy-o"
And that would have been bullshit, wouldn't it? Because Pontormo and Bronzino WERE derivative, which is why they are barely known today, whereas the truly great artists of the High Renaissance are worshipped, because they were geniuses of innovation and execution, changing art as they worked
See Beatles, Stones. Dylan, Led Zep, and many others 1963-1993, they were the High Renaissance, when this artform exploded
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
Indeed. Yes.
I should have put Sea Power in that little list.
Stunning music.
Seen them three or four times.
Very indie.
Probably survive on UC and PO cheques from half-forgotten aunts.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
That would make mine '81 to '86. Which was seriously a wank time for music.
I'd say the first half of that was pretty good - though it tailed off rapidly after 84.
Definitely the peak years of music I kisten to are between 89 and 94 - the ages of 14 and 19. But moat of that didn't trouble the charts. Whereaz I hold my view that the beat yeara for chart music were 77-84, when I was 2-9.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
The best selling album of 1982 in the US was Asia, by Asia. It sold more than Michael Jackson's Thriller, also released (late) that year. (Thriller went on to be the best selling album of 1983 and 1984 in the US.) Asia were a British band, including the guitarist from Yes and half of The Buggles, but the album sold much less well in the UK.
Lots of people talking shit today about Employer National Insurance Contributions
They're exactly the same as Employee Contributions and Income Tax
They're a tax on the amount paid, and so the amount received, on employment
It would make ZERO difference if they were called employer taxes or employee taxes, to employer or employee
They're taxes on working people or people working
Which are the same thing
If I'm wrong, explain the difference
Slightly different rates and allowances, but the biggest issue is the difference that the employee sees between gross and net salary. Gross salary is what’s written in employment contracts.
So if you raised employee NI by 5% and cut employer NI by 5%, the net to the Treasury would be roughly the same but every employee would feel 5% worse off. The other way around and the employees would be happy but the employers left explaining why everyone’s salary just got cut 5%.
The way forward is to abolish employee NI as a concept, rolling it into income tax, and to rename employer NI as ‘payroll tax’.
@HYUFD will be along in a minute to disagree, as he is I think the only person on this forum who supports the concept of NI funding pensions and healthcare.
I would argue that NI serves a purpose as it's paid weekly / monthly where income tax is annual and there are times where HMRC does well out of the idea and times when they don't
But in this day and age it has little to do with pensions and healthcare although paying NI (note not income tax) is a pre-requisite to receive a pension.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boat
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
Let's see how they do with their local councils first - I'm not holding out much hope on them fixing things.
Going to be interesting in how they deal with HMO applications given the current news and the fact there are a number coming up in Durham at the next planning committee.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
You would appear to be the sort of person who would also be into Wet Leg.
(I'm more into bands like Polyphia.)
I keep hearing the name but have yet to investigate.
I got 11 seconds in before my phone objected to me not feeding it. I enjoyed those 11 seconds though. Will investigate further tomorrow after a good night's charge.
“Wolf Alice” is (are?) causing a major stir on Parkway. 15 yards from my flat
No, I have no idea either
I do love Wolf Alice’s music, not bothered by their politics.
After I got home I ChatGPT'd, so apparently they're a kind of neo-Fleetwood Mac?
There are only two groups from the generation below me (or maybe even longer) that have penetrated my Neil Young/REM/Radiohead shield and they are Wolf Alice and, lately, English Teacher.
Wolf's Ellie Rowsell is the Debi Harry of her generation imho, just haven't quite made that moment yet (perhaps because music is now fragmented and there is no Thursday TOTPs to bring everyone on focus). Nor indeed John Peel.
I was hugely into REM back in the day, then moved onto Pulp, Suede etc. Now mainly loving (British) Sea Power. If you like REM and Pulp I’d say they are worth a go. On the edge of folk, or folk adjacent too.
I was introduced to REM by my older brother when he came back from school with a CD and I kept playing orange crush as an amazing song. Love REM, theor more country stuff like Driver 8 and Don’t go back to Rockville will always be favourites but I remember watching them live for their Monster album tour and loving how they were as good live as recorded. They were on the bill with the Manics who were dreadful live and I love them so painful, the Cranberries, angry, and some weird band called Radiohead who disappeared into obscurity.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
But this is midwit bollocks, typical of the low-watt centrist Dads of PB, from @kinabalu to @bondegezou and beyond
Art forms genuinely rise and fall, and popular music has been in decline for two decades now
It's like an Italian art fan saying "Oh everyone your age loves Da Vinci and that guy Raphael and Michelangelo, but that's because they were around when you were 22, these days we love Parmigianino and Pontormo, and Bronzino, and they're just as good, and Mannerism is where it's at now, daddy-o"
And that would have been bullshit, wouldn't it? Because Pontormo and Bronzino WERE derivative, which is why they are barely known today, whereas the truly great artists of the High Renaissance are worshipped, because they were geniuses of innovation and execution, changing art as they worked
See Beatles, Stones. Dylan, Led Zep, and many others 1963-1993, they were the High Renaissance, when this artform exploded
A post lacking in unartfully repressed glee at an unsatisfactory situation. Which enjoins me to agree. Wholeheartedly. You're spot on right.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
Yes, Indeed that is possibly their number one task. Purge The Blob. Sack people like @bondegezou. Because NOTHING can be done until this is done first. These parasitic maggots will stop every attempt at serious change
Unfortunately, I have grave doubts that Reform are up to the task. Where is the plan, where are the brains, what is the detailed grid for the Peaceful Revolution?
I doubt it exists. And yet, as things stand, I will certainly vote Reform, because a vote for any of the others is a vote for Total Decline and More Of The Same
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
My favourite musical decade was the 80s - which was between my 4th and 14th birthdays
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
No they won't. You're laughably naive. See the number of Council officers fired since May. It's a very round number.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
A lot of them will probably go off to live in places like Tuscany where they can enjoy living under a populist right-wing Italian government.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
No they won't. You're laughably naive. See the number of Council officers fired since May. It's a very round number.
I've not met many bureaucrats, but of all the ones I've met, none hated the country. They generally seemed to quite like it.
The people who do hate the country are Reform UK supporters, always telling us that everything's gone to the dogs.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
But this is midwit bollocks, typical of the low-watt centrist Dads of PB, from @kinabalu to @bondegezou and beyond
Art forms genuinely rise and fall, and popular music has been in decline for two decades now
It's like an Italian art fan saying "Oh everyone your age loves Da Vinci and that guy Raphael and Michelangelo, but that's because they were around when you were 22, these days we love Parmigianino and Pontormo, and Bronzino, and they're just as good, and Mannerism is where it's at now, daddy-o"
And that would have been bullshit, wouldn't it? Because Pontormo and Bronzino WERE derivative, which is why they are barely known today, whereas the truly great artists of the High Renaissance are worshipped, because they were geniuses of innovation and execution, changing art as they worked
See Beatles, Stones. Dylan, Led Zep, and many others 1963-1993, they were the High Renaissance, when this artform exploded
My absolute fail safe favourite albums were ones introduced in two years of my life, 1989/91 The Cure Disintegration, waterboys fisherman’s blues, U2 achtung baby and Jesus and Mary Chain Darklands, they are the only musical things that have remained constant, otherwise you will always find new “old music” and new music. If you stick to a period then You will miss so much amazing music. I currently have Eddy Grant making my ears dance with “I don’t want to dance” which is full of memories and next is “call the shots” by girls aloud, so you have to be open to everything.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
That would make mine '81 to '86. Which was seriously a wank time for music.
I'd say the first half of that was pretty good - though it tailed off rapidly after 84.
Definitely the peak years of music I kisten to are between 89 and 94 - the ages of 14 and 19. But moat of that didn't trouble the charts. Whereaz I hold my view that the beat yeara for chart music were 77-84, when I was 2-9.
Quite. I reckon the absolute peak - admittedly in a huge carnival of creativity - was about 1968-1974 - when I was about five years old
There were many peaks afterwards, but the apex? About then
So the idea we all love best the music when we are 18 or 22 is interesting but false
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
No they won't. You're laughably naive. See the number of Council officers fired since May. It's a very round number.
I've not met many bureaucrats, but of all the ones I've met, none hated the country. They generally seemed to quite like it.
The people who do hate the country are Reform UK supporters, always telling us that everything's gone to the dogs.
Yeah. And they're furious too. It's bad for your health. Chill.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
A lot of them will probably go off to live in places like Tuscany where they can enjoy living under a populist right-wing Italian government.
At some point it’s probably worth, as in the old Soviet Union, just paying them not to come in because they’re an active block on the implementation of the government’s agenda.
'Slave-like' assistants and late-night massages: How a radical priest abused his congregation
Heralded by Church of England leaders for its "ground-breaking" nightclub style, the Nine O'Clock Service attracted hundreds of young people to its meetings in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.
But, during the seven-week trial of its leader, Chris Brain, jurors heard how as the service's popularity exploded, the former priest used his power to isolate followers and sexually assault women in his congregation.
Now after a jury has found him guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault, not guilty of 15 and failed to reach verdicts on five outstanding charges, the BBC examines his rise and fall.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
That would make mine '81 to '86. Which was seriously a wank time for music.
I'd say the first half of that was pretty good - though it tailed off rapidly after 84.
Definitely the peak years of music I kisten to are between 89 and 94 - the ages of 14 and 19. But moat of that didn't trouble the charts. Whereaz I hold my view that the beat yeara for chart music were 77-84, when I was 2-9.
Quite. I reckon the absolute peak - admittedly in a huge carnival of creativity - was about 1968-1974 - when I was about five years old
There were many peaks afterwards, but the apex? About then
So the idea we all love best the music when we are 18 or 22 is interesting but false
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
No they won't. You're laughably naive. See the number of Council officers fired since May. It's a very round number.
I've not met many bureaucrats, but of all the ones I've met, none hated the country. They generally seemed to quite like it.
The people who do hate the country are Reform UK supporters, always telling us that everything's gone to the dogs.
Yeah. And they're furious too. It's bad for your health. Chill.
Poetry As a response to posts Will run out of steam. But nice.
I see @MaxPB was telling you all the obvious truth on the prior thread, yet he was predictably ignored or criticised by the PB Centrist Dads
If we want racism and associated unhappiness, in the UK, to go back to the pleasantly low levels of the Noughties - WHICH WE ALL DO - then we need to
1. Bring net migration down to under 100,000. It will hurt, but we now have no choice if we want a stable, prosperous country
2. End asylum as we know it. Stop the boats
3. Start huge deportations, and make sure the Boriswave doesn't get Leave to Remain, so they go home
That's it. If we do that we will return to the relative harmony of Yore. Why? Because British people are not racist. They are some of the most tolerant and accepting people on the planet, it is what we do - Live and Let Live. Don't bother me I won't bother you. We've been like this, in the UK, since Elizabeth the First refused to "make a window into men's souls"
To bring back the tolerant Britain we all knew and loved, we need to be really tough on migration and integration. They are doing exactly this in Denmark, and it is working. We can do it too
Remember, readers, that this is a lie. Leon is a racist. He has repeatedly voiced his view that there are significant genetic differences in things like intelligence between different supposed "races" around the world. He wants a country with more white babies. He touts nativist policies that would discriminate against immigrants, the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants.
Racists pretend that if we just have a few slightly racist policies, then they'll be quiet and everything will be lovey-dovey. In practice, you give them some racist policies, they just want more, as we've seen with Trump.
lol
One of the upsides of a Reform government is that swathes of these bureaucrats who hate the country will be sacked and untouchable. If Reform don't have a clearout of these people who very clearly loathe everything about this country and are egging on the boat invasion of third worlders then they will fall at the first hurdle. They need to find people like this and purge them from the civil service immediately and from any other public body.
No they won't. You're laughably naive. See the number of Council officers fired since May. It's a very round number.
I've not met many bureaucrats, but of all the ones I've met, none hated the country. They generally seemed to quite like it.
The people who do hate the country are Reform UK supporters, always telling us that everything's gone to the dogs.
That’s the right wing playbook . Funny how all those so called freedom of speech warriors in the USA now want any organisation that disagrees with their world view shut down . And the ones trying to trash democracy aren’t so called lefties but the right . Do people seriously think they’ll have more rights and freedoms under a Reform government?
Some of you might have noticed that I've not been posting on PB as often as I used to in the past. There's a reason for that. I've been working on a new project in my spare time called Halbut. It's a play on Hal, But not evil. I've been using many of these voice dictation apps that are out there, and the question I had or I asked myself was: "Was it possible to do something that was significantly more AI-enhanced?" This is what Halbut does.
There are three modes:
Transcription:
You hold down an a hotkey (I like Caps Lock) and it listens and then it transcribes. It's very quick, very effective (of course it uses a fast inference provider on the back-end). In addition, you can set it to clean up the text in terms not just of adding punctuation (which is automatic), but also things like bullet points, paragraphs, removing duplication etc.
Command Mode:
You press another hotkey (say Shift-Caps lock), and you give it a command like "Write a paragraph about the dangers of phosphates" for example, and it fills that in. Or "Give me three reasons why you should be suspicious of x y z". In other words, if the ability to insert a sensible, well-written stuff into your emails or letters (and I hope not PB posts).
Question Model:
Another hotekey (Ctrl-Caps Lock in my case) and you just ask it a quick question like "You know, what's the best library to do this?" or "Who's the president of Ethiopia?" or whatever, and it just speaks it back to you. The idea is that by enabling you to ask quick questions without taking your hands off the keyboard, it makes you more productive.
Anyway, I'll be launching this firstly for Windows, and then hopefully Mac and Linux. I'm looking for Windows beta testers for now. It is completely free (for now). It'll probably be free for transcription (with limits), and $5/month for all the features.
Send me an email if you want to beta test, and you will probably get access next week. (Once I get the hang of packaging up Windows applications for distribution.)
I'm a Mac guy but more than happy to give it a whirl when you port across.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has instructed negotiations to begin for the release of all remaining hostages and an end to the war in Gaza on terms "acceptable to Israel".
'Slave-like' assistants and late-night massages: How a radical priest abused his congregation
Heralded by Church of England leaders for its "ground-breaking" nightclub style, the Nine O'Clock Service attracted hundreds of young people to its meetings in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.
But, during the seven-week trial of its leader, Chris Brain, jurors heard how as the service's popularity exploded, the former priest used his power to isolate followers and sexually assault women in his congregation.
Now after a jury has found him guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault, not guilty of 15 and failed to reach verdicts on five outstanding charges, the BBC examines his rise and fall.
Was going to ask if we'd done Christian grooming gangs and white teenage terrorists (Imam response "I just hope that he get's the help he needs"). Mark up another win for juries, how can you find him not guilty of half the sexual assaults FFS, once you've into double figures of guilty then any "reasonable doubt" about the rest must have disappeared.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has instructed negotiations to begin for the release of all remaining hostages and an end to the war in Gaza on terms "acceptable to Israel".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has instructed negotiations to begin for the release of all remaining hostages and an end to the war in Gaza on terms "acceptable to Israel".
Must get clicks, must get engagement....then loads of online commentators talk about it, to get clicks and engagement....and then people talk about the people talking about the original person to get clicks and engagement....then GMB, GB News, Jeremy Vine, etc invite the people who talked about the people talking about the person, to get clicks and engagement.
Youse ought to work with 12 year olds. Make your aura skibidi Ohio.
Your post is just skifidol Italian brain rot.
My teenager has rebranded me as “Skibidi Slay Preppy the Third”. She tells me it’s a compliment…
At school we had our own two languages. There was “notions” which was our official weird language with strange replacements for ordinary things - a bike was a bogle, dining halls were grubbing halls, tuck shop in the summer was oily hatch, mugging down for working late. Then there was another level where “yoi” meant no, “noi” was yes but could mean the opposite if said in a certain way, if someone said “ I shpect (sic) many times you did that” meant “ I don’t believe you” . “Velux” meant “good” but also “bad” and “anti-velux” meant “bad” or “good” depending on the tone it was said in and the raised eyebrow and all weird variants of this and sometimes you would get “anti,anti velux” . Young people like their own language as it keeps others out.
Good result for the Tories, a big swing to them from Labour and Reform in third.
Suggests the London local elections could be OK for the Tories as they are Labour's main opponents still not Farage's party and the Conservatives will therefore get the main anti Labour swing
Must get clicks, must get engagement....then loads of online commentators talk about it, to get clicks and engagement....and then people talk about the people talking about the original person to get clicks and engagement....then GMB, GB News, Jeremy Vine, etc invite the people who talked about the people talking about the person, to get clicks and engagement.
Good result for the Tories, a big swing to them from Labour and Reform in third.
Suggests the London local elections could be OK for the Tories as they are Labour's main opponents still not Farage's party and the Conservatives will therefore get the main anti Labour swing
Its about a 7 point swing Lab to Con in Cranford since GE 24 (using the New Statesman ward by wards) and a small Ref to Con swing too. West London a better hunting ground than East for Tories. Uxbridge, Hendon and Barnet all in play and possibly Brent West in the West London rim, Barnet council a target.
Lots of people talking shit today about Employer National Insurance Contributions
They're exactly the same as Employee Contributions and Income Tax
They're a tax on the amount paid, and so the amount received, on employment
It would make ZERO difference if they were called employer taxes or employee taxes, to employer or employee
They're taxes on working people or people working
Which are the same thing
If I'm wrong, explain the difference
Slightly different rates and allowances, but the biggest issue is the difference that the employee sees between gross and net salary. Gross salary is what’s written in employment contracts.
So if you raised employee NI by 5% and cut employer NI by 5%, the net to the Treasury would be roughly the same but every employee would feel 5% worse off. The other way around and the employees would be happy but the employers left explaining why everyone’s salary just got cut 5%.
The way forward is to abolish employee NI as a concept, rolling it into income tax, and to rename employer NI as ‘payroll tax’.
@HYUFD will be along in a minute to disagree, as he is I think the only person on this forum who supports the concept of NI funding pensions and healthcare.
Anyone sane should support that unless you want ever more welfare dependency funded by tax rather than contributions based pensions and unemployment benefits and insurance funded healthcare like most OECD nations have.
NI should be hypothecated to fund the state pension and JSA and indeed some healthcare and social care too, the type of things it was founded to fund.
That would also then enable income tax to be focused on defence and the police and basic welfare for those who have not contributed enough
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
Gradually falling immigration plus tactical voting from LD and Green voters in Labour held marginals to keep out Reform
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
Gradually falling immigration plus tactical voting from LD and Green voters in Labour held marginals to keep out Reform
Labour backbenchers won't allow the sort of much tougher policies on immigration to get numbers right down (they have already slackened off some of the Tory measures). They have also already backed down on real reform of benefits. That means lots of businesses are still dependent on the model of cheap immigrant labour and they will also kick up a huge fuss should the government try to get tough.
We might not be getting Boris wave numbers, but 300k net a year is I believe still predictions. Which won't get Labour much credit, especially if small boats are still bringing 40-50k a year.
Good result for the Tories, a big swing to them from Labour and Reform in third.
Suggests the London local elections could be OK for the Tories as they are Labour's main opponents still not Farage's party and the Conservatives will therefore get the main anti Labour swing
The Tory candidate is a Sikh in a ward which is 20% so, (although the Labour candidate is also). May partly explain the good Conservative showing.
Do your own vox pops with your mates. Labour are loathed. Tories ditto
I don't get the feeling from my inner or wider circle that they are loathed. "Bafflingly rubbish" is maybe closer to the mark. Just a general puzzlement at how bad they are at the basic comms, policy, effectiveness.
Might well turn into loathing. But for now it's more like watching someone try and do the 100m hurdles with a giant dumbbell tied to their foot. Without the comedic "It's a Knockout!" voiceover.
Apart from here and BlueSky, I hardly hear politics discussed at all. The cut to WFA cut through, but not much else. Not even small boats or Gaza.
The great British Electorate is asleep until the next election is announced IMO.
You don't get the graph at the head of the thread with just the WFA misstep. Clearly a lot more people are very annoyed by the government so other things must be cutting through. The obvious issue that exercise people are Gaza for the left and immigration / high taxes for the right of the electorate.
Perhaps given how toxic starting discussions on Gaza and immigration can be among polite company they keep their mouth shut out.
What is also an indicator that the public are annoyed is when Starmer does something quite good e.g. his dealing with Trump / Ukraine, he seems to get no credit or uptick.
They seemed to be flattening out around May/June, but the downward trend has resumed. With the budget from hell in the offing, crossover with the Tories by the end of the year seems a good bet.
Starmer may take some hope from Maggie, in November and December 1981 the Conservatives were third behind the SDP and Labour in the polls but 2 years later went to to win, the Falklands helped but the recovery started even before then.
Trudeau's Liberals were also 20% behind the Conservatives last year but went onto win, helped by tactical voting and admittedly a change of Liberal leader
It's possible but I'm struggling to see what would turn it around as it would need to be something that rallies people round the flag, but which Lab can't be blamed for. Another pandemic?
War. See 1982 for a (relatively) recent example.
Time is weird. That’s 43 years ago. To those over say 50 it probably doesn’t feel that long. And it’s longer back to the falklands that it was from 1982 to 1945.
1982 was probably the best year ever for pop music imo. The Associates' album Sulk was released that year for example. Also Avalon by Roxy Music.
The best period for pop music is between your 14th and 19th birthday. Everything before that is dad music, everything after is new stuff that's not as good as the old stuff
My favourite musical decade was the 80s - which was between my 4th and 14th birthdays
The 80s was definitely my favourite musical decade and I have noticed a few adverts recently have been using songs that were big hits back then.
Reform taking a Tory seat in Surrey is interesting.
UKIP almost took it in 2013, changes from 2021 so the drop in Tory vote not entirely surprising but very good Reform showing
Maybe this is one of those bits of Surrey that was traditionally in Middlesex.
No, this is Runnymede Borough, which was always in Surrey.
Spelthorne was the bit that used to be in Middlesex, covering Staines, Sunbury and Ashford (Middlesex).
Thanks. This must be one of the most Brexit-ty areas of traditional Surrey then. Spelthorne is more so, but as you say that wasn't traditionally in the county.
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative. Changes w/ 2021.
Massive tactical voting by Labour supporters for the LDs in areas where the latter are the main challenger to Tories/Reform. (Not just the -3.6% this time, but previously as well).
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative. Changes w/ 2021.
Massive tactical voting by Labour supporters for the LDs in areas where the latter are the main challenger to Tories/Reform. (Not just the -3.6% this time, but previously as well).
This one was tighter than current polling suggests, Hinchley Wood and Claygate are very very Lib Dem ATM, Oxshott more Tory
'Slave-like' assistants and late-night massages: How a radical priest abused his congregation
Heralded by Church of England leaders for its "ground-breaking" nightclub style, the Nine O'Clock Service attracted hundreds of young people to its meetings in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.
But, during the seven-week trial of its leader, Chris Brain, jurors heard how as the service's popularity exploded, the former priest used his power to isolate followers and sexually assault women in his congregation.
Now after a jury has found him guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault, not guilty of 15 and failed to reach verdicts on five outstanding charges, the BBC examines his rise and fall.
Was going to ask if we'd done Christian grooming gangs and white teenage terrorists (Imam response "I just hope that he get's the help he needs"). Mark up another win for juries, how can you find him not guilty of half the sexual assaults FFS, once you've into double figures of guilty then any "reasonable doubt" about the rest must have disappeared.
Why? The benefit of the doubt may have disappeared, but if there isn’t the evidence to convict then there is t the evidence
I think it’s an indication that they took their decision seriously and differentiated between the charges
Lots of people talking shit today about Employer National Insurance Contributions
They're exactly the same as Employee Contributions and Income Tax
They're a tax on the amount paid, and so the amount received, on employment
It would make ZERO difference if they were called employer taxes or employee taxes, to employer or employee
They're taxes on working people or people working
Which are the same thing
If I'm wrong, explain the difference
Slightly different rates and allowances, but the biggest issue is the difference that the employee sees between gross and net salary. Gross salary is what’s written in employment contracts.
So if you raised employee NI by 5% and cut employer NI by 5%, the net to the Treasury would be roughly the same but every employee would feel 5% worse off. The other way around and the employees would be happy but the employers left explaining why everyone’s salary just got cut 5%.
The way forward is to abolish employee NI as a concept, rolling it into income tax, and to rename employer NI as ‘payroll tax’.
@HYUFD will be along in a minute to disagree, as he is I think the only person on this forum who supports the concept of NI funding pensions and healthcare.
Anyone sane should support that unless you want ever more welfare dependency funded by tax rather than contributions based pensions and unemployment benefits and insurance funded healthcare like most OECD nations have.
NI should be hypothecated to fund the state pension and JSA and indeed some healthcare and social care too, the type of things it was founded to fund.
That would also then enable income tax to be focused on defence and the police and basic welfare for those who have not contributed enough
You should raise money in the most economically efficient way (this is independent of the overall level of taxation).
You should spend it in the way that the government/parliament determines.
If you put artificial constraints in place (“x tax can only be spent on y”) the.n you reduce both efficiency and limit democracy.
Looks like something trivial to get right to my eyes (This is my day job). The sort of error that happened not because of a mistake but because Smiths wanted to make it's US division look more profitable than it actually was ..
Not sure it is a blunder, more an attempt at investor deception
Comments
'Blue Eyes' - Elton John 👍
'Just an Illusion' - Imagination 👍
'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' - Soft Cell 👍
'Ruff Mix' - Wonderdogs 😈
They remind me of the breathy female acoustic versions of classic pop songs you now get in EVERY POSH HOTEL BAR IN THE WORLD
It's posh hotel bar music. It's better than drill. Certainly less offensive. It's extremely derivative, and fairly boring, bits of the Beatles, bits of Fleetwood Mac, bits of Genesis, bits of Shoegaze, bits of this and bits of that, but nothing at the core. It is music for educated morons
It does nothing to dissuade me that pop music is all played out, indeed it reinforces my view
It's like pop music was born in 1963, and for a decade was a roaring force of creation, and for 30 years was potent and wonderful and then it faded, slowly, like a post coital heartbeat, with every new iteration slightly weaker than the last. There are still moments of emotional power, but we are now so far from the Conceptual Fuck that began it all, the real emotions are almost rinsed way
I shall self-immolate, just
https://open.spotify.com/track/3hgHrfMdtnLtH54HYTdNHF?si=yiVxLzpGSsSzC0igFCET4g
How much it costs to employ someone
How much the employee earns for their employment
The difference is the tax
What you call that is utterly irrelevant
I was trying to describe going to my local library to 'book' a 'book' from the regional library to them all. It did not compute.
Also: fun anecdote! lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCALGlGuVUA
This week...
Does Trump even have one clue as to what Stephen Miller is up to?
For all our faults we ( the British Isles) do have superb music taste.
It actually sounds like machine music. Suno or Udio
"Suno, make me a track that's a weak combination of the Cocteau Twins and Lush, with a bit of Velvet Underground, but not anywere near as good as them, thanks"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzH6toY_EPw
Then this is Polyphia being a bit more fun: "ABC", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtd24QIBJ5Y
So if you raised employee NI by 5% and cut employer NI by 5%, the net to the Treasury would be roughly the same but every employee would feel 5% worse off. The other way around and the employees would be happy but the employers left explaining why everyone’s salary just got cut 5%.
The way forward is to abolish employee NI as a concept, rolling it into income tax, and to rename employer NI as ‘payroll tax’.
@HYUFD will be along in a minute to disagree, as he is I think the only person on this forum who supports the concept of NI funding pensions and healthcare.
One of them won't be paid more by you, and the other more by your employer
They're both weirdly calculated total taxes on employment
Telling me that they'll be called different things is spectacularly missing the point
Make your aura skibidi Ohio.
Which I'm sure it isn't but that is where we are at.
How long before no one believes anything they see on Internet?
Which was seriously a wank time for music.
Getdown Services - like Wet Lef, if Wet Leg were two podgy moustachiod energetic bkokes from Minehead. Heroic.This is a lovely live performance of their tune 'Dog Dribble'
https://youtu.be/L2J2wzYcw8M?si=VI9ec86XBBTadW8L
At the otger end of tge spectrum, Naima Bock (ex of Goat Girl) - the most gorgeous, broken, ethereal voice in music since Sandy Denny:
https://youtu.be/M8OgI4f2stg?si=h5yrseCjhfYM5rlU
And in the middle, Annie Dressner: very much how I imagine some of the quirkier mums at the schoolgates would choose to record and indeed behave:
https://youtu.be/zleziqaD89A?si=uq0pt2nhielQLp37
(her co-vicalist Kathryn Williams is also high in my estimation)
Art forms genuinely rise and fall, and popular music has been in decline for two decades now
It's like an Italian art fan saying "Oh everyone your age loves Da Vinci and that guy Raphael and Michelangelo, but that's because they were around when you were 22, these days we love Parmigianino and Pontormo, and Bronzino, and they're just as good, and Mannerism is where it's at now, daddy-o"
And that would have been bullshit, wouldn't it? Because Pontormo and Bronzino WERE derivative, which is why they are barely known today, whereas the truly great artists of the High Renaissance are worshipped, because they were geniuses of innovation and execution, changing art as they worked
See Beatles, Stones. Dylan, Led Zep, and many others 1963-1993, they were the High Renaissance, when this artform exploded
I should have put Sea Power in that little list.
Stunning music.
Seen them three or four times.
Very indie.
Probably survive on UC and PO cheques from half-forgotten aunts.
They should be known more widely.
And then there is I am Kloot.
Definitely the peak years of music I kisten to are between 89 and 94 - the ages of 14 and 19. But moat of that didn't trouble the charts. Whereaz I hold my view that the beat yeara for chart music were 77-84, when I was 2-9.
(My favourite supergroup is UK, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdBQwDHM6Q Perhaps more of an acquired taste.)
But in this day and age it has little to do with pensions and healthcare although paying NI (note not income tax) is a pre-requisite to receive a pension.
Going to be interesting in how they deal with HMO applications given the current news and the fact there are a number coming up in Durham at the next planning committee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAPl3ogd_pw&start_radio=1
Which enjoins me to agree.
Wholeheartedly.
You're spot on right.
Unfortunately, I have grave doubts that Reform are up to the task. Where is the plan, where are the brains, what is the detailed grid for the Peaceful Revolution?
I doubt it exists. And yet, as things stand, I will certainly vote Reform, because a vote for any of the others is a vote for Total Decline and More Of The Same
You're laughably naive.
See the number of Council officers fired since May.
It's a very round number.
The people who do hate the country are Reform UK supporters, always telling us that everything's gone to the dogs.
There were many peaks afterwards, but the apex? About then
So the idea we all love best the music when we are 18 or 22 is interesting but false
And they're furious too.
It's bad for your health.
Chill.
'Slave-like' assistants and late-night massages: How a radical priest abused his congregation
Heralded by Church of England leaders for its "ground-breaking" nightclub style, the Nine O'Clock Service attracted hundreds of young people to its meetings in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.
But, during the seven-week trial of its leader, Chris Brain, jurors heard how as the service's popularity exploded, the former priest used his power to isolate followers and sexually assault women in his congregation.
Now after a jury has found him guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault, not guilty of 15 and failed to reach verdicts on five outstanding charges, the BBC examines his rise and fall.
As a response to posts
Will run out of steam.
But nice.
CLEAVER, Wendy Lorraine (independent) 299
DAVIES FISHER, Deana (Independent) 161
TEMPLE, Terry (Reform UK) 107
THOMAS, Hedd Vaughan (Conservative) 20
GREEN, Chris (Pirate Party) 11
JOYCE, Andrew (Liberal Democrat) 5
Ind Cleaver 49.59%
Ind Davies Fisher 26.70%
Ref 17.74%
Con 3.32% -5.14%
Pirate 1.82%
LD 0.83%
Alton Amery-East Hampshire Council
Liberal Democrat Hold
LD: Lizzie Marshall 407 54.9% (1.6%)
RFM: 189 25.5% (New)
Con: 145 19.6% (-9.9%)
In the video clips he is surrounded by grinning idiots nodding along and willing their hero to go further into insanity.
This is how an empire ends.
Last time they did this it was for Biden, could Trump really be on his way there?
https://x.com/ukrreview/status/1958609236000481637
Mark up another win for juries, how can you find him not guilty of half the sexual assaults FFS, once you've into double figures of guilty then any "reasonable doubt" about the rest must have disappeared.
https://x.com/iainmartin1/status/1958651786434162952
DHILLON, Hira Singh Labour Party 951
SIDHU, Gurpreet Singh Conservative Party Candidate 679
SINGH, Khushwant Reform UK 405
VIRDI, Gurpal Singh Green Party 156
LEITOIU, Miruna Liberal Democrats 145
Cranford (Hounslow) Council By-Election Result:
🌹 LAB: 40.7% (-12.6)
🌳 CON: 29.1% (+10.0)
➡️ RFM: 17.3% (New)
🌍 GRN: 6.7% (-7.5)
🔶 LDM: 6.2% (New)
No Ind (-13.4) as previous.
Labour HOLD.
Changes w/ 2022.
Suggests the London local elections could be OK for the Tories as they are Labour's main opponents still not Farage's party and the Conservatives will therefore get the main anti Labour swing
NI should be hypothecated to fund the state pension and JSA and indeed some healthcare and social care too, the type of things it was founded to fund.
That would also then enable income tax to be focused on defence and the police and basic welfare for those who have not contributed enough
We might not be getting Boris wave numbers, but 300k net a year is I believe still predictions. Which won't get Labour much credit, especially if small boats are still bringing 40-50k a year.
Addlestone: Surrey Council By-Election
Reform Gain from Conservative
RFM: 931 34.2% (New)
CON: 659 24.2% (-25.9%)
LDM: 473 17.4% (+9.2%)
GRN: 441 16.2% (+1.9%)
LAB: 222 8.1% (-10.9%)
Hinchley Wood, Claygate & Oxshott (Surrey) Council By-Election Result:
🔶 LDM: 38.1% (-6.2)
🌳 CON: 31.0% (-16.0)
🙋 Ind: 15.2% (New)
➡️ RFM: 12.7% (+8.3)
🌍 GRN: 2.3% (New)
🌹 LAB: 0.7% (-3.6)
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2021.
Spelthorne was the bit that used to be in Middlesex, covering Staines, Sunbury and Ashford (Middlesex).
I think it’s an indication that they took their decision seriously and differentiated between the charges
You should spend it in the way that the government/parliament determines.
If you put artificial constraints in place (“x tax can only be spent on y”) the.n you reduce both efficiency and limit democracy.
The blunder sent the company’s share price to its lowest level in 12 years"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/21/almost-500m-wiped-off-wh-smith-after-accounting-error
Looks like something trivial to get right to my eyes (This is my day job). The sort of error that happened not because of a mistake but because Smiths wanted to make it's US division look more profitable than it actually was ..
Not sure it is a blunder, more an attempt at investor deception
https://bsky.app/profile/ellzsummary.bsky.social/post/3lwxg7zhwck2l
2 Ref gains from Con
"REF: 467
REF: 414
LD: 356
LD: 352
CON: 329
CON: 273
LAB: 146
GRE: 145
LAB: 129"
Top vote method
Ref 32.36%
LD 24.67%
Con 22.80%
Lab 10.12%
Grn 10.05%
Changes compared to Oct 2024 by-election
Ref +32.36%
Con -33.11%
LD +15.53%
Lab -18.05%
Grn +3.28%