They Change Their Sky, Not Their Soul – politicalbetting.com
They Change Their Sky, Not Their Soul – politicalbetting.com
In two significant ways, Reform UK supporters, and that subset which knows how to hold a writing implement and thus become Reform UK voters, are like senior military officers. First, they only want to hear things that they already know to be true. Second, they assume that anything they don’t personally understand must be simple.
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If it was not for them, the racists would find something else to whip up a frenzy about.
F1: 5 place grid penalty for Hamilton in Monza.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hamilton-hit-with-five-place-grid-penalty-for-italian-grand-prix.5C1Sie7Rwr55bNtywE8YTt
We have made Newcastle United, the club with the richest owners in the world, bend the knee and sell Isak to us.
All with a comparable net spend to Arsenal this summer.
Since @Leon is up and about, perhaps he can advise?
Sounds like DA's worskhop, but in facr Den in Scots = wooded ravine, etc., compare S. English dene.
Famous for its fossils. I've seen huge slabs of sandstone covered in primeval armoured fishes that died in some drought in Devonian times.
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/assets/university/schools/school-of-earth-and-environmental-sciences/documents/geoheritage-leaflets/dura-den.pdf
https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/dura-den-fossil-fish/762345
Dura outlines exactly how you could go about doing a tow back in the Channel. You tow out west to somewhere just over 12 miles from the French coast, but a lot further from the British coast. In the Bay of Biscay of you want to be extreme, or Brittany if minimalist.
From what I've read, it really isn't so very long since people from the village 2 miles down the road were considered foreigners and abused if they appeared off their own territory.
I hope it doesn't cross the boundaries of decency to say that if our national flags are so dreadful, displaying them at the landing points would have the small boats fleeing as soon as they saw them.
That reminds me of a Carry On film somehow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Center_for_Public_Policy
What's happens in Mississippi would perhaps be better off staying in Mississippi.
Many thanks to @Dura_Ace for such an Informative piece
The boats are totemic and toxic for politicians and Starmer's [and labour's] instinctively support asylum seekers and it is against their very nature to adopt the language of Farage so when Starmer starts shouting 'deport them' he just highlights Farage’s message
Also in a few weeks we have Reeves embarking on a tax raising exercise, strikes looming in the public sector, and in October the Epping case in court
None of this augurs well for labour
A lot of people in Britain seem not only unbothered with seeing the sausage made, but would actually relish seeing the pig squeal as part of the process. Social media has had a massive effect on brutalising people's sensibilities.
Bad for Labour = Bad for Britain.
So were I SKS I would be appointing Farage as the leader of a taskforce to solve the issue - without asking him first and then watch how he handles the problem...
Perhaps the government could change the law so that all homeless people are a national interest issue. That would at least give people who live here parity with immigrants.
Regarding the possible solution, what is to stop the skipper pocketing the bribe and heading back to France a bit before doing a U turn to try again?
I think they will dead-bat that one.
Some of the charmers behind the racist and hotel riots ............A decent bit of research by 'stand up to racism'
Interesting article Dura though I loathe the idea of dumping these unfortunate people to accomodate the serensibilities of a bunch of nasty racists.
https://standuptoracism.org.uk/far-right-activists-and-convicted-criminals-behind-anti-refugee-protests-in-manchester-and-stockport/
As a noted PB-er not so long ago pointed out in a whole post on the matter, it is not the measly numbers (although growing) that is the issue, it is that these boats are the most visible and literal (hi Leon) manifestation of the government's lack of control. Over our borders in this instance and, people will inevitably extrapolate, over other parts of the economy also.
Is why it's so dangerous.
As for practical measures to stop them? F**k knows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paps_of_Jura
The process of self-radicalisation is effecting not just the electorate but the aspiring (and actual leaders)
If you want something to make you freak out - it will be happening in journalism as well.
My mailbox is full of items from JIRA so it's really not that important.
Next
https://x.com/WillKingston/status/1962252403106894267?s=08
A niche fantasy I accept..
Have you not, perhaps, encountered the National Ramblers?
Who are polling 36% at the moment.
2 France has its own nutters and fascists.
3 Migrants decide their attempted destination not politicians
4 Despite the musings of Refukker politicians which assume "they" "all" come here, more asylum seekers already choose France than the UK, France processed 158k to the UKs 108k last year.
France has every bit as bad a problem with racist, flag waving knuckledraggers. If you hadn’t noticed the political landscape in France where a party suitably to the Right of Reform is a much bigger electoral proposition then you really shouldn’t be making clever statements about France being so magnifique and fluffy compared to horrid old England.
The posh word he is forlornly seeking is “disapprobation” = “formal or severe disapproval”
Frankly, the whole thing is jejeune
Feels smug he ignores Sean Thomas's turgid, low-IQ 'writing'.
Then checks this post is under five sentences long...
There are a number of fun activities for tourists.
You can visit George Orwell's house. We didn't do that. It was raining.
You can climb the paps. We didn't do that. It was foggy.
You can visit the distillery. We didn't do that. Our host was the minister's daughter, and therefore inappropriate.
We did go to the pub once. She didn't come with us.
From the Tory angle, I'd be concerned that Farage is manoeuvring to move on from this controversy, leaving Kemi, Jenrick and Philp taking narrowly dogmatic positions and holding the baby.
He's well aware that there has not been much of a response from the public, and that the extreme Right in all its varied awfulness is at the core of things, driving certain continuing demonstrations.
He's trying to exploit the extremism whilst keeping them at arms' length, as in the past - and it is beginning to cause Reform quite severe problems.
Farage has been pivoting to more open-sided politics in several areas, which afaics is the opposite of the trajectory of the Conservative leadership.
Perhaps it is like the storyline in the Beano where Minnie the Minx put a circle of black cloth over a manhole and told the "enemy" to watch out, who then jumped onto it "It's just a cloth". "But guess what's underneath?".
I assume the fawning BBC would never have run it without Windsor (very) Ltd approval though.
(One of the reasons for the surge in Channel boat crossings has been the marine engineering one; boats that are just strong enough to make it across the narrow bit of the Channel on a relatively nice day.)
His misuse of “approbation” is surprisingly poor form, however
This also potentially addresses the "efficiency" problem - have 2 or 3 patrol boats, each one covers the channel for a few hours scooping up all the boat crossings that enter UK waters, then makes one run to somewhere convenient to send a convoy of the days winnings back to France. Once you've fished the people out and sunk their inflatable, you don't have to immediately head for the drop-off point for their return - you can wait until you've a full load.
As with all these deterrents, it will work, providing we are able to do it to 99.9% of the small boats.
If there is a 30% chance of making it through, the boat people will still come. We have to make it impossible to succeed for them to stop trying.
The next GE could be four years away. Just think what’s happened in the last five years….
Exactly
It’s more than likely that the boats will be sorted and finished one way or another by 2029, or overshadowed by several larger and more pressing issues
Lowest number of people in small boats since 2021
Lowest number of boat crossings since 2019
And there is at least one easy way to circumvent this - saturate the patrol boats by sailing all at once (which tends to happen in good weather anyway).
The fact the Tories never seriously addressed the issue makes me wonder if someone crunched the numbers.
I doubt many people are against genuine refugees being given a home and integrated into British life, but what we are actually getting is thousands of young men with no real claim to be here, making Britain resemble the third world they came from
As far as dumping the migrants in international waters off France no doubt in some type of lifeboat just seems a fantasy
In other words we have set up an informal and easily gamed migration route for entire families, and unsurprisingly chancers are exploiting it
We have to cease offering all asylum for five or ten years and deport hundreds of thousands already here
If that’s true we can expect them to resume. If it is true that may explain why HMG is not crowing about its success - they don’t expect it to last
Its one of the reasons why 'dependants' have increased as a proportion of immigrants.
So far it's costing: the cost of patrols which would need to be comprehensive, the cash bribe, a gift of a seaworthy boat for each group plus payment to the French ...
The point being that people keep on coming up with factors that any tow back scheme would have to address as though they are sufficient to make the scheme impossible, and it's a mode of debate that's become increasingly prevalent, but is really annoying when the supposed show-stopping impediments are relatively minor things that can be dealt with.
The question isn't whether it can be done, but whether it should be done, or whether there's a better way to tackle the problem.
That's why Labour's one in, one out policy might have a material effect on the numbers. The problem is we don't know what the counterfactual is; given how good the weather has been, it might have been thousands more without it.
ENOUGH
This faulty understanding bears no comparison to how the asylum system is being used and abused today, often with legal and other services paid for from our taxes.
It's not surprising the British are furious.
The director of strategic communications replaced Matthew Doyle earlier this year, whose job was split in two. Lyons said: “It was an honour to be asked to come in. I’m proud to have helped to get a grip on Whitehall comms after what was a difficult few first months for the Government. It wasn’t just filling the grid. Launching the Plan for Change brought focus and direction. But I gave up a lot to come in and this was never intended as a long haul. When I came back from the summer break I told colleagues I was looking to leave by the end of the year. I’ve brought this forward to be part of the other changes.”
Another comms director gone.
https://order-order.com/2025/09/01/downing-street-communications-director-departs-in-personnel-shake-up/