"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
The Independent is gunning for Farage over taxes today, perhaps hoping that the Rayner zeitgeist will enable another scalp.
Question for the lawyers: if Farage had provided the £800k for his girlfriend to buy the flat in Clacton which he later claimed to own, does this actually open him up to any legal liability? It appears on the face of it that he has structured this transaction to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty.
If the £800k was a gift & the girlfriend gets to keep the property free & clear if they break up, then obviously he’s fine. But HMRC might well look at this transaction as one being structured to avoid tax & the property being “really” owned by Farage acting in a similar fashion to a shadow director of a limited company. Is that actually prosecutable though? My instincts say no, but that doesn’t mean much in this area!
It may be interesting to amateur psychologists that Farage's girlfriend is French and his former wives are Irish and German.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Maybe the zenith was slightly earlier. I didn't say there was no racism. Just that I don't think you'll ever find a society doing much better.
She's there because she's ostensibly better than Cooper, who has been useless in the home office, but instead of a straight demotion to justice has failed upwards to the easier and glitzier foreign office role; replacing Lammy - who, despite seriously low expectations has managed to build a good relationship particularly with the US VP but has now been given the sop of Deputy PM; a good personal relationship wiped out with the US administration because Starmer didn't dare demote Cooper.
A lot of comment from the US right about Shabhana Mahmood in the Home Office, and some of the causes and protests to which she’s aligned herself in the past.
I remember the good old days when it was none of their fucking business.
Great in theory, but when the comments look like this it’s potentially concerning for the UK government.
https://x.com/bgatesisapyscho/status/1964554012352500054 “Calls for America to restrict its ‘Intelligence Sharing’ with the UK following the appointment of Shabana Mahmood to UK Home Secretary. “Mahmood swore her oath to UK Office on the Quran & has attended Pro Hamas Rallies that have called for the ‘Globalisation of the Intifada’.”
https://x.com/kevin_rainville/status/1964360369155043682 “@DNIGabbard@SecRubio Five Eyes Intelligence Services MUST exclude the UK from receiving any further data. Mahmood has publicly stated multiple times that Islam governs EVERY facet of her life. Such as spying for the IRGC and practicing Taqiyah during international relations.”
https://x.com/steve_zivin/status/1964295446358090075 “I am not sure Americans realize how outrageous this is. We need to immediately reevaluate intelligence sharing. Mahmood has refused to condemn Palestinian activists sabotaging British military hardware as well as championing boycotts of Jews.“
With Tulsi Gabbard in charge of US intelligence I’m frankly surprised we’ve not already voluntarily stopped sharing with them.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
Badenoch: 'We have to show the electorate we're ready'
Not doing a very good job so far.
There is precisely nothing that Badenoch has done in her first 9 months that convinces me she has any idea the radical steps needed to get the Tories back to power. In that time, the only thing she’s really done is try to defend the previous government (badly) in a series of generally sub-par PMQs performances against a PM who leaves open goals all over the place.
I think it’s too late for Badenoch now. She will be the fall girl for the 2026 elections and it’ll be someone else who needs to try and save the Party.
She came over as very aggressive this morning.
She's on the defensive as far as her credibility with her own side is concerned, which is never a good position for a leader. She looks irritated that her natural brilliance isn't being properly appreciated by her colleagues.
She did say the conservative party has 4 years to recover, and certainly her own future is very much on the line next May after the Senedd and Holyrood elections
I am not impressed by her, but am not piling on as it is pointless to do so at present
She's there because she's ostensibly better than Cooper, who has been useless in the home office, but instead of a straight demotion to justice has failed upwards to the easier and glitzier foreign office role; replacing Lammy - who, despite seriously low expectations has managed to build a good relationship particularly with the US VP but has now been given the sop of Deputy PM; a good personal relationship wiped out with the US administration because Starmer didn't dare demote Cooper.
A lot of comment from the US right about Shabhana Mahmood in the Home Office, and some of the causes and protests to which she’s aligned herself in the past.
I remember the good old days when it was none of their fucking business.
Great in theory, but when the comments look like this it’s potentially concerning for the UK government.
https://x.com/bgatesisapyscho/status/1964554012352500054 “Calls for America to restrict its ‘Intelligence Sharing’ with the UK following the appointment of Shabana Mahmood to UK Home Secretary. “Mahmood swore her oath to UK Office on the Quran & has attended Pro Hamas Rallies that have called for the ‘Globalisation of the Intifada’.”
https://x.com/kevin_rainville/status/1964360369155043682 “@DNIGabbard@SecRubio Five Eyes Intelligence Services MUST exclude the UK from receiving any further data. Mahmood has publicly stated multiple times that Islam governs EVERY facet of her life. Such as spying for the IRGC and practicing Taqiyah during international relations.”
https://x.com/steve_zivin/status/1964295446358090075 “I am not sure Americans realize how outrageous this is. We need to immediately reevaluate intelligence sharing. Mahmood has refused to condemn Palestinian activists sabotaging British military hardware as well as championing boycotts of Jews.“
With Tulsi Gabbard in charge of US intelligence I’m frankly surprised we’ve not already voluntarily stopped sharing with them.
They are not an ally anymore.
I still don’t understand where the Tulsi Gabbard stuff actually comes from. She’s been a serving Officer in the Reserves for two decades.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Rayner hasn't called me 'scum' either personally or as a member of a group.
And while I fully recognise her achievement at rising from the bottom 10% to the top 10% I am in no way disappointed to see her fall as she was also a liar, a tax dodger and an incompetent minister.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
It's f-all to do with that. If people are going to be racist fuckwits, then that's down to them.
Don't excuse racist fuckwits.
If as a society you prioritise one group over another - e.g. enshrining in law that non-whites must be prioritised - don't be surprused if those whites who are losing out start to feel a little less well towards multiculturalism.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Maybe the zenith was slightly earlier. I didn't say there was no racism. Just that I don't think you'll ever find a society doing much better.
I live in hope that we will. I have zero doubt that a Farage government will make things *much* worse.
She's there because she's ostensibly better than Cooper, who has been useless in the home office, but instead of a straight demotion to justice has failed upwards to the easier and glitzier foreign office role; replacing Lammy - who, despite seriously low expectations has managed to build a good relationship particularly with the US VP but has now been given the sop of Deputy PM; a good personal relationship wiped out with the US administration because Starmer didn't dare demote Cooper.
A lot of comment from the US right about Shabhana Mahmood in the Home Office, and some of the causes and protests to which she’s aligned herself in the past.
I remember the good old days when it was none of their fucking business.
Great in theory, but when the comments look like this it’s potentially concerning for the UK government.
https://x.com/bgatesisapyscho/status/1964554012352500054 “Calls for America to restrict its ‘Intelligence Sharing’ with the UK following the appointment of Shabana Mahmood to UK Home Secretary. “Mahmood swore her oath to UK Office on the Quran & has attended Pro Hamas Rallies that have called for the ‘Globalisation of the Intifada’.”
https://x.com/kevin_rainville/status/1964360369155043682 “@DNIGabbard@SecRubio Five Eyes Intelligence Services MUST exclude the UK from receiving any further data. Mahmood has publicly stated multiple times that Islam governs EVERY facet of her life. Such as spying for the IRGC and practicing Taqiyah during international relations.”
https://x.com/steve_zivin/status/1964295446358090075 “I am not sure Americans realize how outrageous this is. We need to immediately reevaluate intelligence sharing. Mahmood has refused to condemn Palestinian activists sabotaging British military hardware as well as championing boycotts of Jews.“
With Tulsi Gabbard in charge of US intelligence I’m frankly surprised we’ve not already voluntarily stopped sharing with them.
They are not an ally anymore.
I still don’t understand where the Tulsi Gabbard stuff actually comes from. She’s been a serving Officer in the Reserves for two decades.
She's ambitious and knows how to make the right noises for Trump and his pals?
Although being one of the three most senior posts, history suggests that progressing from there to PM is extremely uncommon. When the PM role becomes vacant, it's the Chancellor and FS who are best placed to pitch for the top job.
Which is why I think Cooper comes out well from the recent shuffle in terms of her prospects. Although she may have under-performed particularly from a media/comms perspective, she has avoided any of the major scandals, disasters or blunders that killed the careers of so many previous Home Secs, and now she's FS she could pitch for a future leadership having done two out of the three most senior roles.
Given that Reeves is already tarnished and Mahmood is brand new (and inherits the poisoned chalice), Cooper is effectively heir apparent. Yes, there's Streeting hanging about in the wings, but people underestimate how unpopular he is with many party members, making the young Blair look like a hero of socialism by comparison.
That’s a sad inditement of the quality of this government if Yvette Cooper is the best they’ve got
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
The Independent is gunning for Farage over taxes today, perhaps hoping that the Rayner zeitgeist will enable another scalp.
Question for the lawyers: if Farage had provided the £800k for his girlfriend to buy the flat in Clacton which he later claimed to own, does this actually open him up to any legal liability? It appears on the face of it that he has structured this transaction to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty.
If the £800k was a gift & the girlfriend gets to keep the property free & clear if they break up, then obviously he’s fine. But HMRC might well look at this transaction as one being structured to avoid tax & the property being “really” owned by Farage acting in a similar fashion to a shadow director of a limited company. Is that actually prosecutable though? My instincts say no, but that doesn’t mean much in this area!
It may be interesting to amateur psychologists that Farage's girlfriend is French and his former wives are Irish and German.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Maybe the zenith was slightly earlier. I didn't say there was no racism. Just that I don't think you'll ever find a society doing much better.
Badenoch: 'We have to show the electorate we're ready'
Not doing a very good job so far.
There is precisely nothing that Badenoch has done in her first 9 months that convinces me she has any idea the radical steps needed to get the Tories back to power. In that time, the only thing she’s really done is try to defend the previous government (badly) in a series of generally sub-par PMQs performances against a PM who leaves open goals all over the place.
I think it’s too late for Badenoch now. She will be the fall girl for the 2026 elections and it’ll be someone else who needs to try and save the Party.
She came over as very aggressive this morning.
She's on the defensive as far as her credibility with her own side is concerned, which is never a good position for a leader. She looks irritated that her natural brilliance isn't being properly appreciated by her colleagues.
I like Badenoch. But she's not succeeding. Every time I see her she's being photobombed by Jimmy Dimly like he's the heir apparent and she's just serving out her time. I think she's being manoeuvred out. I don't like US involvement with UK domestic politics, but it was a bit strange not getting an invite from Vance during his holiday. I believe that was because it was planned by Osborne - I don't think it was Vance himself.
Personally I think she should have gone ham and burned the entire Tory Party GCHQ hierarchy to the ground, restoring the associations to the driving seat. If not at the beginning, then certainly following the local elections and the vicious CCHQ briefing about her then. I feel though that those who still run the party (what's left of it) are the ones who put her there, so evidently she doesn't feel able to turn on them.
Although being one of the three most senior posts, history suggests that progressing from there to PM is extremely uncommon. When the PM role becomes vacant, it's the Chancellor and FS who are best placed to pitch for the top job.
Which is why I think Cooper comes out well from the recent shuffle in terms of her prospects. Although she may have under-performed particularly from a media/comms perspective, she has avoided any of the major scandals, disasters or blunders that killed the careers of so many previous Home Secs, and now she's FS she could pitch for a future leadership having done two out of the three most senior roles.
Given that Reeves is already tarnished and Mahmood is brand new (and inherits the poisoned chalice), Cooper is effectively heir apparent. Yes, there's Streeting hanging about in the wings, but people underestimate how unpopular he is with many party members, making the young Blair look like a hero of socialism by comparison.
At present the question is will she retain her seat as is the same with Streeting ?
She won by 48% to 29% - Streeting by 33% to 32%.
And I'd doubt that even Streeting is seriously at risk - the Gaza Independent who ran him close last time came across as an energetic and charismatic young social media campaigner, who got as much out of the 'independent' tag with non-Labour voters as she did from the 'Gaza' tag with muslim voters (who were only 15% in the seat in 2011 - surely higher now but nowhere near a majority). Next time he'll face an opponent from Corbyn's outfit, who might be able to hang on to the Gaza vote (assuming the issue remains salient through to 2028/9) but will lose support because of its hard left orientation.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
But not anywhere near as low as the chance it all holds together in government.
Farage, Tice and Yusuf cannot organise either a conference properly or a policy properly.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
The Independent is gunning for Farage over taxes today, perhaps hoping that the Rayner zeitgeist will enable another scalp.
Question for the lawyers: if Farage had provided the £800k for his girlfriend to buy the flat in Clacton which he later claimed to own, does this actually open him up to any legal liability? It appears on the face of it that he has structured this transaction to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty.
If the £800k was a gift & the girlfriend gets to keep the property free & clear if they break up, then obviously he’s fine. But HMRC might well look at this transaction as one being structured to avoid tax & the property being “really” owned by Farage acting in a similar fashion to a shadow director of a limited company. Is that actually prosecutable though? My instincts say no, but that doesn’t mean much in this area!
It may be interesting to amateur psychologists that Farage's girlfriend is French and his former wives are Irish and German.
That just proves he's a racist xenophobe
No it doesn't. But there is plenty of other available evidence to suggest you might be right.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Maybe the zenith was slightly earlier. I didn't say there was no racism. Just that I don't think you'll ever find a society doing much better.
1990s.
LOL.
You should have aa talk with my Pakistani friend from back then...
Interesting article. I hope you are doing well Cyclefree
Not sure if this is strictly true: "Tory Muslim Home Secretary 7 years ago". Javid is of Muslim heritage but has said he is non-practicing and is married to a Christian.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Getting Ukraine "right" was hardly difficult - Russia invades a neighbouring country, what position would you take? - and Johnson had the additional incentive of having to scurry to move on from his previous close contacts with various Putin-supporting oligarchs.
It's heavily debateable whether Johnson got covid right in any meaningful sense, other than with the drive for the vaccine which succeeded largely because the boffins told the politicians to keep well away from it lest they turn it into the same scandalous mess that the Tories had made of the PPE procurement. Other than that, Johnson's contribution was mostly vaccilation and swerving from ludicrously liberal positions - perversely shaking hands with everyone in the hospital and coming down with it himself - to the opposite. In this regard, Cummings's "shopping trolley" moniker says it all.
She's there because she's ostensibly better than Cooper, who has been useless in the home office, but instead of a straight demotion to justice has failed upwards to the easier and glitzier foreign office role; replacing Lammy - who, despite seriously low expectations has managed to build a good relationship particularly with the US VP but has now been given the sop of Deputy PM; a good personal relationship wiped out with the US administration because Starmer didn't dare demote Cooper.
A lot of comment from the US right about Shabhana Mahmood in the Home Office, and some of the causes and protests to which she’s aligned herself in the past.
I remember the good old days when it was none of their fucking business.
Great in theory, but when the comments look like this it’s potentially concerning for the UK government.
https://x.com/bgatesisapyscho/status/1964554012352500054 “Calls for America to restrict its ‘Intelligence Sharing’ with the UK following the appointment of Shabana Mahmood to UK Home Secretary. “Mahmood swore her oath to UK Office on the Quran & has attended Pro Hamas Rallies that have called for the ‘Globalisation of the Intifada’.”
https://x.com/kevin_rainville/status/1964360369155043682 “@DNIGabbard@SecRubio Five Eyes Intelligence Services MUST exclude the UK from receiving any further data. Mahmood has publicly stated multiple times that Islam governs EVERY facet of her life. Such as spying for the IRGC and practicing Taqiyah during international relations.”
https://x.com/steve_zivin/status/1964295446358090075 “I am not sure Americans realize how outrageous this is. We need to immediately reevaluate intelligence sharing. Mahmood has refused to condemn Palestinian activists sabotaging British military hardware as well as championing boycotts of Jews.“
Given the Putin stooges in the WH shouldn’t the UK be concerned about our own intelligence? The USA lost its moral authority to criticise any other country after the re-election of Trump . In his first term there were at least some saner people surrounding him . That’s no longer the case .
Of course.
The point, though, is that the US under Trump believes because it's the most powerful party in the relationship, it's fine to humiliate its allies.
See also. If South Korea chained several hundred US workers, many Americans would be talking war.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
He admitted Reform were short of talent for government but said Dorries has changed that, with lots more to come
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
But not anywhere near as low as the chance it all holds together in government.
Farage, Tice and Yusuf cannot organise either a conference properly or a policy properly.
I think you'll find it was organised brilliantly. Unlike many of the other parties, Reform believes in free speech and debate. There were no quarrels that I've read, there were people giving their views and others keen to hear them and make up their own minds. That's actual politics dearie.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
He admitted Reform were short of talent for government but said Dorries has changed that, with lots more to come
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
Yes, that was an eye-brow raising moment of the interview.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
The Independent is gunning for Farage over taxes today, perhaps hoping that the Rayner zeitgeist will enable another scalp.
Question for the lawyers: if Farage had provided the £800k for his girlfriend to buy the flat in Clacton which he later claimed to own, does this actually open him up to any legal liability? It appears on the face of it that he has structured this transaction to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty.
If the £800k was a gift & the girlfriend gets to keep the property free & clear if they break up, then obviously he’s fine. But HMRC might well look at this transaction as one being structured to avoid tax & the property being “really” owned by Farage acting in a similar fashion to a shadow director of a limited company. Is that actually prosecutable though? My instincts say no, but that doesn’t mean much in this area!
It may be interesting to amateur psychologists that Farage's girlfriend is French and his former wives are Irish and German.
That just proves he's a racist xenophobe
No it doesn't. But there is plenty of other available evidence to suggest you might be right.
She's there because she's ostensibly better than Cooper, who has been useless in the home office, but instead of a straight demotion to justice has failed upwards to the easier and glitzier foreign office role; replacing Lammy - who, despite seriously low expectations has managed to build a good relationship particularly with the US VP but has now been given the sop of Deputy PM; a good personal relationship wiped out with the US administration because Starmer didn't dare demote Cooper.
A lot of comment from the US right about Shabhana Mahmood in the Home Office, and some of the causes and protests to which she’s aligned herself in the past.
I remember the good old days when it was none of their fucking business.
Great in theory, but when the comments look like this it’s potentially concerning for the UK government.
https://x.com/bgatesisapyscho/status/1964554012352500054 “Calls for America to restrict its ‘Intelligence Sharing’ with the UK following the appointment of Shabana Mahmood to UK Home Secretary. “Mahmood swore her oath to UK Office on the Quran & has attended Pro Hamas Rallies that have called for the ‘Globalisation of the Intifada’.”
https://x.com/kevin_rainville/status/1964360369155043682 “@DNIGabbard@SecRubio Five Eyes Intelligence Services MUST exclude the UK from receiving any further data. Mahmood has publicly stated multiple times that Islam governs EVERY facet of her life. Such as spying for the IRGC and practicing Taqiyah during international relations.”
https://x.com/steve_zivin/status/1964295446358090075 “I am not sure Americans realize how outrageous this is. We need to immediately reevaluate intelligence sharing. Mahmood has refused to condemn Palestinian activists sabotaging British military hardware as well as championing boycotts of Jews.“
With Tulsi Gabbard in charge of US intelligence I’m frankly surprised we’ve not already voluntarily stopped sharing with them.
They are not an ally anymore.
I still don’t understand where the Tulsi Gabbard stuff actually comes from. She’s been a serving Officer in the Reserves for two decades.
Where her rabbit hole journey comes from, or where the concerns about her come from?
The concerns about her come from multiple, consistent on the record statements and actions in support of both Bashar al Assad and Vladimir Putin, including claiming the Ukraine invasion was provoked (“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/Nato had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns”), denying Assad had used chemical weapons, and repeating the Ukraine biolabs conspiracy theory.
That said, she’s not a one woman threat. Almost the entire current administration has variations on the same views, all of which should make British intelligence very very careful about sharing what they have.
Remember this is an admin that according to news reports this week has started deporting Russian dissidents back to Russia and sharing details of their asylum claims with the Russian authorities.
Although being one of the three most senior posts, history suggests that progressing from there to PM is extremely uncommon. When the PM role becomes vacant, it's the Chancellor and FS who are best placed to pitch for the top job.
Which is why I think Cooper comes out well from the recent shuffle in terms of her prospects. Although she may have under-performed particularly from a media/comms perspective, she has avoided any of the major scandals, disasters or blunders that killed the careers of so many previous Home Secs, and now she's FS she could pitch for a future leadership having done two out of the three most senior roles.
Given that Reeves is already tarnished and Mahmood is brand new (and inherits the poisoned chalice), Cooper is effectively heir apparent. Yes, there's Streeting hanging about in the wings, but people underestimate how unpopular he is with many party members, making the young Blair look like a hero of socialism by comparison.
At present the question is will she retain her seat as is the same with Streeting ?
She won by 48% to 29% - Streeting by 33% to 32%.
And I'd doubt that even Streeting is seriously at risk - the Gaza Independent who ran him close last time came across as an energetic and charismatic young social media campaigner, who got as much out of the 'independent' tag with non-Labour voters as she did from the 'Gaza' tag with muslim voters (who were only 15% in the seat in 2011 - surely higher now but nowhere near a majority). Next time he'll face an opponent from Corbyn's outfit, who might be able to hang on to the Gaza vote (assuming the issue remains salient through to 2028/9) but will lose support because of its hard left orientation.
That was in 2024 but the tide has changed completely and Cooper is not odds on to win again
Badenoch: 'We have to show the electorate we're ready'
Not doing a very good job so far.
There is precisely nothing that Badenoch has done in her first 9 months that convinces me she has any idea the radical steps needed to get the Tories back to power. In that time, the only thing she’s really done is try to defend the previous government (badly) in a series of generally sub-par PMQs performances against a PM who leaves open goals all over the place.
I think it’s too late for Badenoch now. She will be the fall girl for the 2026 elections and it’ll be someone else who needs to try and save the Party.
She came over as very aggressive this morning.
She's on the defensive as far as her credibility with her own side is concerned, which is never a good position for a leader. She looks irritated that her natural brilliance isn't being properly appreciated by her colleagues.
She did say the conservative party has 4 years to recover, and certainly her own future is very much on the line next May after the Senedd and Holyrood elections
I am not impressed by her, but am not piling on as it is pointless to do so at present
If she is to survive May 2026 she'll need to be creative spinning any successes - there will likely be some unlike 2025 where the sole win was Paul Bristow in Cambs/PBorough. Big expectations management on Senedd and Holyrood required and try to focus on any council gains - Westminster quite likely and maybe they get Barnet or Wandsworth if Labour have a worse night. Pick the better prospect out of Norfolk/Suffolk or Greater Essex Mayor and throw the kitchen sink at it. Its a really grim job because they are in the doldrums but she has to start telling a different story of 'recovery begins' even if its bullshit
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
Boris looks good over covid only in comparison with Starmer, who was on the wrong side of absolutely every argument. And with the thankfully hypothetical nightmare of having Corbyn in charge.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
If they take on board too many Tory retreads - Farage hinting just this morning that there are more senior ones to come - people might start asking why the same people would succeed next time when they failed so demonstrably last time around? Same Tories, new name, opens up an obvious attack line for their opponents.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PPE fast lanes, Dido Harding and Partygate are all giving you a wave.
Although being one of the three most senior posts, history suggests that progressing from there to PM is extremely uncommon. When the PM role becomes vacant, it's the Chancellor and FS who are best placed to pitch for the top job.
Which is why I think Cooper comes out well from the recent shuffle in terms of her prospects. Although she may have under-performed particularly from a media/comms perspective, she has avoided any of the major scandals, disasters or blunders that killed the careers of so many previous Home Secs, and now she's FS she could pitch for a future leadership having done two out of the three most senior roles.
Given that Reeves is already tarnished and Mahmood is brand new (and inherits the poisoned chalice), Cooper is effectively heir apparent. Yes, there's Streeting hanging about in the wings, but people underestimate how unpopular he is with many party members, making the young Blair look like a hero of socialism by comparison.
That’s a sad inditement of the quality of this government if Yvette Cooper is the best they’ve got
Cf Sunak and Truss in the same roles under Johnson
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
And you might want to look at the 'companies' that Labour MPs were calling about them not using. Some of which were (ahem) interesting.
We needed PPE. We could either get PPE quickly or efficiently. There was zero chance of quickly *and* efficiently.
Badenoch: 'We have to show the electorate we're ready'
Not doing a very good job so far.
There is precisely nothing that Badenoch has done in her first 9 months that convinces me she has any idea the radical steps needed to get the Tories back to power. In that time, the only thing she’s really done is try to defend the previous government (badly) in a series of generally sub-par PMQs performances against a PM who leaves open goals all over the place.
I think it’s too late for Badenoch now. She will be the fall girl for the 2026 elections and it’ll be someone else who needs to try and save the Party.
She came over as very aggressive this morning.
She's on the defensive as far as her credibility with her own side is concerned, which is never a good position for a leader. She looks irritated that her natural brilliance isn't being properly appreciated by her colleagues.
I like Badenoch. But she's not succeeding. Every time I see her she's being photobombed by Jimmy Dimly like he's the heir apparent and she's just serving out her time. I think she's being manoeuvred out. I don't like US involvement with UK domestic politics, but it was a bit strange not getting an invite from Vance during his holiday. I believe that was because it was planned by Osborne - I don't think it was Vance himself.
Personally I think she should have gone ham and burned the entire Tory Party GCHQ hierarchy to the ground, restoring the associations to the driving seat. If not at the beginning, then certainly following the local elections and the vicious CCHQ briefing about her then. I feel though that those who still run the party (what's left of it) are the ones who put her there, so evidently she doesn't feel able to turn on them.
Possibly - or possibly she's someone like Mandleson or Gove, who can stand out as a member of a senior team whilst having personal characteristics that make them unsuitable for the top job. There are many fields of life in which people get promoted out of roles in which they are strong, until they fall upwards into one where they are suddenly not.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
If they take on board too many Tory retreads - Farage hinting just this morning that there are more senior ones to come - people might start asking why the same people would succeed next time when they failed so demonstrably last time around? Same Tories, new name, opens up an obvious attack line for their opponents.
I call BS on the big names to come - otherwise why drag out Dorries as your big success at Conference, the optimum time to present a defector. He means hes chatted to a few who said 'maybe' Its like the 5 Labour who were jumping ship to Boris.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
He admitted Reform were short of talent for government but said Dorries has changed that, with lots more to come
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
Yes, that was an eye-brow raising moment of the interview.
Political defections are like boat ownership: the best days are the first one and the last one; the intervening period, often not so much.
I notice that the new Business Secretary Peter Kyle doesn't seem to have ever had a business or indeed worked in the private sector.
Which is very similar to the previous Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
Its a pity for Labour that there isn't a cabinet post for owning multiple homes and having dubious housing transactions.
They would have no shortage of MPs with personal experience of those.
Are you suggesting that, ideally, all Justice ministers should have done time in the Scrubs?
Sometimes a little experience is helpful, perhaps more with empathy than actual knowledge.
Perhaps especially so with business where the experience is very different between a small business and large, multinational business (which has much greater influence with government).
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Having UK Ministerial appointments vetted by MAGA is a good idea or not? Many were very disappointed by the lack of Tories and Reformers promoted in the re-shuffle after all.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
And you might want to look at the 'companies' that Labour MPs were calling about them not using. Some of which were (ahem) interesting.
We needed PPE. We could either get PPE quickly or efficiently. There was zero chance of quickly *and* efficiently.
I believe Rachel Reeves even provided a list !!!!!!!!!!!
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
That would be quite a nifty political move. Very difficult for Boris to refuse, and then very difficult for him to fully put the boot into Starmer. Not sure it would do a lot for the negotiations though.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
Boris looks good over covid only in comparison with Starmer, who was on the wrong side of absolutely every argument. And with the thankfully hypothetical nightmare of having Corbyn in charge.
I am often accused of gratuitous whataboutery but you have left me standing there. Starmer may or may not have been a disastrous COVID Prime Minister, but the reality is, he wasn't Prime Minister, and Johnson was.
Under a Reform government will people be able to say absolutely anything they like , so incitement , asking for people to be murdered will be okay , calling for MPs to be murdered . Will it just be a free for all ?
Will there be any restrictions ? Listening to the councillor being interviewed on LBC it seems there won’t be .
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
And you might want to look at the 'companies' that Labour MPs were calling about them not using. Some of which were (ahem) interesting.
We needed PPE. We could either get PPE quickly or efficiently. There was zero chance of quickly *and* efficiently.
The problem was those people who still received millions for non-usable PPE.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
List out the characteristics of a good negotiator (honest, trustworthy, consistent, good grasp of the detail, etc.) and it is hard to see that 'shopping-trolley' Johnson has any of them.
Yes, Trump fancies himself as a negotiator, but his are the type of "I win, you lose" deals where the other party gets sold a lemon.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
Boris looks good over covid only in comparison with Starmer, who was on the wrong side of absolutely every argument. And with the thankfully hypothetical nightmare of having Corbyn in charge.
I am often accused of gratuitous whataboutery but you have left me standing there. Starmer may or may not have been a disastrous COVID Prime Minister, but the reality is, he wasn't Prime Minister, and Johnson was.
Like the Tories' over-enthusiastic support for the Iraq wars, the stance the opposition takes doesn't really matter (except for some brownie points in opposing if they are later proved right, and even then) - it's the government that always takes the blame.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
But not anywhere near as low as the chance it all holds together in government.
Farage, Tice and Yusuf cannot organise either a conference properly or a policy properly.
I think you'll find it was organised brilliantly. Unlike many of the other parties, Reform believes in free speech and debate. There were no quarrels that I've read, there were people giving their views and others keen to hear them and make up their own minds. That's actual politics dearie.
All very flowers and rainbows.
But ultimately government requires polices which are both workable and supported.
You can see with Labour's attempt at disability benefit reform what happens when everyone is free to make up their own minds.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
But not anywhere near as low as the chance it all holds together in government.
Farage, Tice and Yusuf cannot organise either a conference properly or a policy properly.
I think you'll find it was organised brilliantly. Unlike many of the other parties, Reform believes in free speech and debate. There were no quarrels that I've read, there were people giving their views and others keen to hear them and make up their own minds. That's actual politics dearie.
All very flowers and rainbows.
But ultimately government requires polices which are both workable and supported.
You can see with Labour's attempt at disability benefit reform what happens when everyone is free to make up their own minds.
I was at my dog's agility class last week, when the trainer had a little moan that her son had just been refused PIP for his ADHD, and the others there then all started sharing the various seemingly trivial things that their grown-up kids were getting PIP for, and it was a bit of an eye-opener. No wonder it's costing a fortune.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
And you might want to look at the 'companies' that Labour MPs were calling about them not using. Some of which were (ahem) interesting.
We needed PPE. We could either get PPE quickly or efficiently. There was zero chance of quickly *and* efficiently.
The problem was those people who still received millions for non-usable PPE.
Big profits for big risk was fair.
Big profits for no risk wasn't.
Indeed. But perhaps if we'd placed more checks on this sort of thing, we would not only not have got unusable PPE; we'd have got less usable PPE.
"I have some PPE available!" "Cool. When can you get it me?" "Two weeks." "Cool! We'll have it." "I need the money now." "I'll wire it over."
compared to: "I have some PPE available!" "Does it meet all the required standards?" "I'm getting this through a middleman. He says it does." "We'll need to check some samples before saying yes." "Okay... I can get you some samples in three days." "We'll require four weeks to perform the tests." "Look, the French, Italians, Indians and Australians are all after this stuff. I think I'm first in the queue. Can you at least send a deposit to secure the transaction?" "we'll need to know the samples are good first." "Sorry, I've just sold them to the French."
As a matter of interest, what proportion of the PPE bought was unusable? Over half? 25%? 10% 5%? And what proportion was acceptable in those frenetic times?
A very interesting header from Cyclefree, and I agree that she's the cabinet minister most worth watching in the near future.
One point that's not quite correct is that Mahmood* has already faced some of the sort of attacks that Farron attracted. But in this case from the US right on social media - I've even seen calls for the UK's access to Five Eyes data be suspended owing to her appointment.
*my autocorrect has yet to learn the correct spelling of her name
I included these in my reference to "some of the more unhinged responses to the very idea of a Muslim in such a position, by those conveniently forgetting there was a Tory Muslim Home Secretary 7 years ago without the sky falling in".
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
I would have agreed on the use of Boris, because he really seemed to get the fundamentals of the Ukraine challenge, but I get the sense that MAGA has evolved so far in one direction that they’d likely put even him in the same “socialist European cucks” bucket as UVDL, Macron and Metz.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
I felt he, eventually at least, got the shutdown right a first, although he was Mr Twisted Knickers later on.
Under a Reform government will people be able to say absolutely anything they like , so incitement , asking for people to be murdered will be okay , calling for MPs to be murdered . Will it just be a free for all ?
Will there be any restrictions ? Listening to the councillor being interviewed on LBC it seems there won’t be .
Under a Reform government will people be able to say absolutely anything they like , so incitement , asking for people to be murdered will be okay , calling for MPs to be murdered . Will it just be a free for all ?
Will there be any restrictions ? Listening to the councillor being interviewed on LBC it seems there won’t be .
It'll be like that. With a draconian zero tolerance for anything they don't like.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Are you for real? Self reported incidents rise slightly over 4 years is evidence of nowt nor are the police stops. You're obsessed by racism - it's really boring.
I've seen her on Newsnight recently obviously trying to rehabilitate herself. She surprised me with her articulacy and intelligence. Previously I'd never been able to get past her choice of hair colour. I think she'd be an asset to Labour as deputy leader.
As for Mahmood I'm not sure. Anyone with a ringing endorsement from Michael Gove must be suspect. Being a religious fanatic isn't particularly welcome either. My guess is that Starmer got rid of Cooper from the Home Office because he realised that her terrorism bill had to be ditched.
It was making Labour and Starmer look ridiculous.The only way out without again looking weak was to change Home Secretary and blame it on that
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
I am careful not to be dismissive and I don't dispute Johnson's popularity in Ukraine, however he has never been a World statesman, despite suggesting in his book he is a Churchillian diplomat. And persuading Trump to do the right thing is possibly a big ask for even the most seasoned cat herder.
For anyone thinking Dorries might be the gateway drug for Boris to Reform its been ruled out by Lord Sir Zia Yusuf this morning 'Worst PM in history, will never be welcome in Reform' Dorries out by teatime?
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Are you for real? Self reported incidents rise slightly over 4 years is evidence of nowt nor are the police stops. You're obsessed by racism - it's really boring.
Yes, I am for real. And I am not obsessed by racism.
But many people want, for some reason, to downplay racism. Which is fine until you're the target.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
Boris looks good over covid only in comparison with Starmer, who was on the wrong side of absolutely every argument. And with the thankfully hypothetical nightmare of having Corbyn in charge.
I am often accused of gratuitous whataboutery but you have left me standing there. Starmer may or may not have been a disastrous COVID Prime Minister, but the reality is, he wasn't Prime Minister, and Johnson was.
He was LOTO. And always - consistently - calling for the wrong thing. Boris did ok by comparison with his counterparts in power elsewhere. Not great, but not awful.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
I felt he, eventually at least, got the shutdown right a first, although he was Mr Twisted Knickers later on.
I've seen her on Newsnight recently obviously trying to rehabilitate herself. She surprised me with her articulacy and intelligence. Previously I'd never been able to get past her choice of hair colour. I think she'd be an asset to Labour as deputy leader.
As for Mahmood I'm not sure. Anyone with a ringing endorsement from Michael Gove must be suspect. Being a religious fanatic isn't particularly welcome either. My guess is that Starmer got rid of Cooper from the Home Office because he realised that her terrorism bill had to be ditched.
It was making Labour and Starmer look ridiculous.The only way out without again looking weak was to change Home Secretary and blame it on that
Mahmood handled the prison crisis that the Tories had managed to keep under wraps during their dog days well, both decisively in terms of remedy and competently in terms of PR. That's why, with the country full of mini-Leons trying to stir up panic about the boats, she's got the job. Whether she can pull off the same again remains to be seen.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
I felt he, eventually at least, got the shutdown right a first, although he was Mr Twisted Knickers later on.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
I am careful not to be dismissive and I don't dispute Johnson's popularity in Ukraine, however he has never been a World statesman, despite suggesting in his book he is a Churchillian diplomat. And persuading Trump to do the right thing is possibly a big ask for even the most seasoned cat herder.
What Putin, and the bond markets, show is that the way you get Trump to do what you want is through fear.
The Canadians understood that. Sadly neither the Brits nor the EU have done, but that partly reflects the fact that Canada has its economic foot on the US throat (albeit at great cost to itself) more securely than we ever could have.
The other world player who understands his limited hand and plays it to the max is Erdogan. He’s a total arse, but he does play geopolitics well. We need to think of things we could threaten to withdraw (and intel sharing is surely one, as perhaps would be access to British military bases), like the Turks do on a regular basis.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
Johnson got Covid right for everyone else but not for himself. Having had it, you'd have thought he'd have been more careful.
He got the PPE fast lane right for the friends and family of Ministers, and Dido Harding was deservedly rewarded for her contribution.
I felt he, eventually at least, got the shutdown right a first, although he was Mr Twisted Knickers later on.
He was probably late in March 2020 by a week, not least because records suggest he was AWOL and writing a book. Nonetheless one of Johnson's COVID successes was his general timing of lockdowns. A success now questioned in hindsight by right wingers.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
Yes, I agree - I'd argue the UK of 2005 or thereabouts was as unracist as its possible for a society to be. The identity politics we've had since then has got us to the rather less harmonioua state we are in now.
What absolute rubbish. The idea that 2005 was "as unracist as its possible for a society to be" is absolutely ludicrous.
Or from 2007: "Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Are you for real? Self reported incidents rise slightly over 4 years is evidence of nowt nor are the police stops. You're obsessed by racism - it's really boring.
Yes, I am for real. And I am not obsessed by racism.
But many people want, for some reason, to downplay racism. Which is fine until you're the target.
At a guess, our basket-dwelling friend isn't from an ethnic minority?
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
I am careful not to be dismissive and I don't dispute Johnson's popularity in Ukraine, however he has never been a World statesman, despite suggesting in his book he is a Churchillian diplomat. And persuading Trump to do the right thing is possibly a big ask for even the most seasoned cat herder.
What Putin, and the bond markets, show is that the way you get Trump to do what you want is through fear.
The Canadians understood that. Sadly neither the Brits nor the EU have done, but that partly reflects the fact that Canada has its economic foot on the US throat (albeit at great cost to itself) more securely than we ever could have.
The other world player who understands his limited hand and plays it to the max is Erdogan. He’s a total arse, but he does play geopolitics well. We need to think of things we could threaten to withdraw (and intel sharing is surely one, as perhaps would be access to British military bases), like the Turks do on a regular basis.
Difficult, when our military tech is utterly dependent on the US for parts, software, and even - if you believe some reports - for being able to deploy.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
Put the "scum" back in her box where she belongs? We need proper working class heroes like Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Lucy Connolly.
Poshos at the top is the standard order of things, which is why nobody was bothered about the likes of Blair and Darling.
Whereas Rayner is disconcerting, having gone from bottom 10% to top 10%, entirely through the medium of the Labour party.
That appears great to Labour politicians who are obsessed about those at the top and those at the bottom.
But less so to the 80% who get the impression that Labour isn't interested in them.
There are, of course, other people who have gone from bottom 10% to top 10% - in sport, in entertainment, even in business. But these people leave a trail of visible achievement whereas Rayner was a pretty rubbish housing minister for a year.
Like I said.
She called you "scum" so you don't like her. Nonetheless I don't believe you can dismiss her achievement in becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
And don't forget, Boris got all the big calls right.
Johnson certainly got Ukraine and covid right but he was responsible, much like Rayner, for his own fall from grace
Such is politics
COVID?
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
I do not expect you to give Johnson any credit, but it is widely recognised he did support Ukraine, even Ukrainians recognising it by naming a street after him, and on covid, if he had listened to Starmer we would probably be still in lockdown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know it would be controversial, but Starmer could do an awful lot worse than to ask Boris Johnson to assist with the Ukraine negotiations, especially when it comes to mediating between the Ukranians and Americans.
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
I know you have a genuine personal interest, but really?
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Johnson is someone known to both Trump and Zelensky, and trusted by both. I’m not sure there’s as much of a relationship between the US and Starmer’s team, given the current headlines over issues such as freedom of speeech.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
I am careful not to be dismissive and I don't dispute Johnson's popularity in Ukraine, however he has never been a World statesman, despite suggesting in his book he is a Churchillian diplomat. And persuading Trump to do the right thing is possibly a big ask for even the most seasoned cat herder.
What Putin, and the bond markets, show is that the way you get Trump to do what you want is through fear.
The Canadians understood that. Sadly neither the Brits nor the EU have done, but that partly reflects the fact that Canada has its economic foot on the US throat (albeit at great cost to itself) more securely than we ever could have.
The other world player who understands his limited hand and plays it to the max is Erdogan. He’s a total arse, but he does play geopolitics well. We need to think of things we could threaten to withdraw (and intel sharing is surely one, as perhaps would be access to British military bases), like the Turks do on a regular basis.
Is it because everyone relentlessly treated Rayner herself like some special-needs child, a young, underprivileged woman who they secretly suspected couldn’t read or write? If you look at the way Starmer spoke about her, it was constantly in these terms: she was a woman, and working class.
Of her actual record, of course: no hint. She was the perfect deputy prime minister for him: a politician allowed to rise to the top on personality alone. And that personality was: middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be. Slobby, ribald, partying in ’Beefa — isn’t vaping on inflatables what working-class people all do? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Most working-class people are insulted to be compared to her.
Rayner was someone from the bottom 10% who moved into the top 10% through the Labour party.
Its no wonder that Labour politicians, people who are obsessed about the top 10% and bottom 10% and very little in between, turned Rayner into their living icon.
The Independent is gunning for Farage over taxes today, perhaps hoping that the Rayner zeitgeist will enable another scalp.
Question for the lawyers: if Farage had provided the £800k for his girlfriend to buy the flat in Clacton which he later claimed to own, does this actually open him up to any legal liability? It appears on the face of it that he has structured this transaction to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty.
If the £800k was a gift & the girlfriend gets to keep the property free & clear if they break up, then obviously he’s fine. But HMRC might well look at this transaction as one being structured to avoid tax & the property being “really” owned by Farage acting in a similar fashion to a shadow director of a limited company. Is that actually prosecutable though? My instincts say no, but that doesn’t mean much in this area!
Farage said this morning that his girlfiend is very wealthy and bought the house which he lives in with her
I do not like Farage at all but this is a non story
Lots of more important ones, like sending women back to Afghanistan and Iran and is thinking about what to do with children
Or having an anti vaxer on his stage spouting dangerous nonsense
Or his delusion on reducing taxes and tens of billions of pounds gap in his solution
And many more now, and to come
In that case there’s obviously no problem tax-wise whatsoever. Indeed, should they ever intend to marry, her buying property with her own money before they do so is perfectly legal tax avoidance.
A gasoline crisis has begun in Russia. There is no fuel at gas stations in a number of regions, including occupied Crimea and Transbaikal (East Siberia). In the Far East, there have been serious problems with fuel availability since August 20.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
It's f-all to do with that. If people are going to be racist fuckwits, then that's down to them.
Don't excuse racist fuckwits.
No, don't you understand? It's always the left's fault.
I am fairly immune to significant 'isms' here in the UK.
I am white, male, middle class, and straight. I am unlikely to be a victim of racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia.
I *may* become a victim of ageism as I get even older. Or, if I suffer illness, ableism.
The fact I might never suffer significant racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia does not mean that I think they are irrelevant or unimportant, and am surprised so many people seem to.
My "likes" ratio is in the toilet today. I have a plan!
Boris Johnson is without doubt the United Kingdom's greatest Prime Minister and should be returned to Downing Street this afternoon to sort out the mess everyone else has created.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
He admitted Reform were short of talent for government but said Dorries has changed that, with lots more to come
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
If he hung a woolly hat on Dorries, it may unravel.
Things Reform have tried to distance themselves from already during or after conference
The Vax bloke Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before) Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
He admitted Reform were short of talent for government but said Dorries has changed that, with lots more to come
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
If he hung a woolly hat on Dorries, it may unravel.
A gasoline crisis has begun in Russia. There is no fuel at gas stations in a number of regions, including occupied Crimea and Transbaikal (East Siberia). In the Far East, there have been serious problems with fuel availability since August 20.
A gasoline crisis has begun in Russia. There is no fuel at gas stations in a number of regions, including occupied Crimea and Transbaikal (East Siberia). In the Far East, there have been serious problems with fuel availability since August 20.
"The Black Farmer: If you think rural Britain is racist, you’re wrong My experiences in Devon show the countryside is far more welcoming than the latest report on ‘normalised’ abuse would have you believe
IIRC if you look at the comparative surveys that ask questions like: “would you be happy with a family with a different skin colour moving in next door?” or “Would you react negatively to your daughter marrying someone of a different race?” the UK is one of the least racist countries in Europe, possibly on the planet.
Which doesn’t make us a pure, prefect land of colour blind plenty, but it is food for thought.
While that is true, it's not inevitable that the data moves one way, towards us being even less racist.
There are worrying signs that racism towards certain groups is becoming more 'respectable' again, fuelled by the current dehumanising attitudes towards asylum seekers and the call in some quarters for 'mass deportations'.
Yes, it’s quite possible that two decades of identity politics and multiculturalism, seeing race and gender in everything, has the potential to reverse the trend towards a less-racist country.
It's f-all to do with that. If people are going to be racist fuckwits, then that's down to them.
Don't excuse racist fuckwits.
If as a society you prioritise one group over another - e.g. enshrining in law that non-whites must be prioritised - don't be surprused if those whites who are losing out start to feel a little less well towards multiculturalism.
But we know that society already prioritises whites over others. You are whining about the 'trying to do something about it' part.
I've seen her on Newsnight recently obviously trying to rehabilitate herself. She surprised me with her articulacy and intelligence. Previously I'd never been able to get past her choice of hair colour. I think she'd be an asset to Labour as deputy leader.
As for Mahmood I'm not sure. Anyone with a ringing endorsement from Michael Gove must be suspect. Being a religious fanatic isn't particularly welcome either. My guess is that Starmer got rid of Cooper from the Home Office because he realised that her terrorism bill had to be ditched.
It was making Labour and Starmer look ridiculous.The only way out without again looking weak was to change Home Secretary and blame it on that
A gasoline crisis has begun in Russia. There is no fuel at gas stations in a number of regions, including occupied Crimea and Transbaikal (East Siberia). In the Far East, there have been serious problems with fuel availability since August 20.
Ukraine’s “kinetic sanctions” on russia are definitely starting to work.
I was initially sceptical about the stories of long queues at petrol stations across russia, but it’s definitely happening.
Russian O&G production is 20% down competed to a couple of months ago, with refineries, storage, and pumping stations, specifically targeted.
They also managed to put two Flamingos either side of the Kerch Bridge last night, that’s now again on the target list.
Interestingly (but unsurprisingly once I think about it), the shortages tend to be in certain products in some cases. Hence complaints of there being diesel but no petrol, or of the 'wrong' octane of petrol.
Donald Trump is a risk-taker sounding a necessary wake-up call to a stale status quo, Peter Mandelson has told the Ditchley Foundation in a speech before Trump’s second state visit to the UK this month.
I am fairly immune to significant 'isms' here in the UK.
I am white, male, middle class, and straight. I am unlikely to be a victim of racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia.
I *may* become a victim of ageism as I get even older. Or, if I suffer illness, ableism.
The fact I might never suffer significant racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia does not mean that I think they are irrelevant or unimportant, and am surprised so many people seem to.
I'm now a mobility scooter user, due to considerable age-related infirmity. Over the past couple of years I've experienced both courtesy and helpfulness from those I bump* into.
My "likes" ratio is in the toilet today. I have a plan!
Boris Johnson is without doubt the United Kingdom's greatest Prime Minister and should be returned to Downing Street this afternoon to sort out the mess everyone else has created.
My "likes" ratio is in the toilet today. I have a plan!
Boris Johnson is without doubt the United Kingdom's greatest Prime Minister and should be returned to Downing Street this afternoon to sort out the mess everyone else has created.
I think I have a winning strategy.
No, you need to post a picture of something nice, like your mum’s pot plants or, as I found yesterday, a bunch of grapes.
Or tell a heartwarming story about one of your children.
That’s the way to get likes, because your target market is then across the full political spectrum.
Comments
e.g.:
"Between 2000 and 2004 racist incidents reported to the police in England and Wales - anything from verbal abuse to the most vicious of assaults - rose from 48,000 to 52,700."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/27/foodanddrink.expertopinions
Or from 2007:
"Black people were almost seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police last year, according to official figures."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069791.stm
Such is politics
They are not an ally anymore.
I am not impressed by her, but am not piling on as it is pointless to do so at present
And while I fully recognise her achievement at rising from the bottom 10% to the top 10% I am in no way disappointed to see her fall as she was also a liar, a tax dodger and an incompetent minister.
Yes he invented the Oxford Zeneca vaccine but the rest?
I have questions relating to Ukraine from a decade back and prior to his last throw of the dice in 2022.
The Vax bloke
Dorries Hug A Boris calls (having revealed her as the greatest coup since that Welsh secretary bloke from 1876 two days before)
Laura Jones 'shut the senedd' speech
Nigels stop the boats in 2 weeks announcement
Their own tax cuts plan
And Nigel is calling for disagreements to happen behind closed doors.
The chance this all holds together for 4 years with the constant Tory entrists is low
Much, much worse, in fact.
Personally I think she should have gone ham and burned the entire Tory Party GCHQ hierarchy to the ground, restoring the associations to the driving seat. If not at the beginning, then certainly following the local elections and the vicious CCHQ briefing about her then. I feel though that those who still run the party (what's left of it) are the ones who put her there, so evidently she doesn't feel able to turn on them.
And I'd doubt that even Streeting is seriously at risk - the Gaza Independent who ran him close last time came across as an energetic and charismatic young social media campaigner, who got as much out of the 'independent' tag with non-Labour voters as she did from the 'Gaza' tag with muslim voters (who were only 15% in the seat in 2011 - surely higher now but nowhere near a majority). Next time he'll face an opponent from Corbyn's outfit, who might be able to hang on to the Gaza vote (assuming the issue remains salient through to 2028/9) but will lose support because of its hard left orientation.
Farage, Tice and Yusuf cannot organise either a conference properly or a policy properly.
You should have aa talk with my Pakistani friend from back then...
Not sure if this is strictly true: "Tory Muslim Home Secretary 7 years ago". Javid is of Muslim heritage but has said he is non-practicing and is married to a Christian.
It's heavily debateable whether Johnson got covid right in any meaningful sense, other than with the drive for the vaccine which succeeded largely because the boffins told the politicians to keep well away from it lest they turn it into the same scandalous mess that the Tories had made of the PPE procurement. Other than that, Johnson's contribution was mostly vaccilation and swerving from ludicrously liberal positions - perversely shaking hands with everyone in the hospital and coming down with it himself - to the opposite. In this regard, Cummings's "shopping trolley" moniker says it all.
The point, though, is that the US under Trump believes because it's the most powerful party in the relationship, it's fine to humiliate its allies.
See also.
If South Korea chained several hundred US workers, many Americans would be talking war.
Hard to exaggerate how mad this is.
Mad economics, mad foreign policy.
Shameful to treat an ally this way.
This is the kind of thing which won’t be forgotten. Decades of good will torched.
https://x.com/ATabarrok/status/1964456149044122009
If he is hanging his hat on Dorries then yes this will unravel
The concerns about her come from multiple, consistent on the record statements and actions in support of both Bashar al Assad and Vladimir Putin, including claiming the Ukraine invasion was provoked (“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/Nato had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns”), denying Assad had used chemical weapons, and repeating the Ukraine biolabs conspiracy theory.
That said, she’s not a one woman threat. Almost the entire current administration has variations on the same views, all of which should make British intelligence very very careful about sharing what they have.
Remember this is an admin that according to news reports this week has started deporting Russian dissidents back to Russia and sharing details of their asylum claims with the Russian authorities.
Its a really grim job because they are in the doldrums but she has to start telling a different story of 'recovery begins' even if its bullshit
Yes, he’s still absolutely loved in Ukraine for his actions at the start of the war.
We needed PPE. We could either get PPE quickly or efficiently. There was zero chance of quickly *and* efficiently.
Its like the 5 Labour who were jumping ship to Boris.
Perhaps especially so with business where the experience is very different between a small business and large, multinational business (which has much greater influence with government).
I am not entirely sure the Trump Presidency has been as optimal for Ukraine as you anticipated either. Maybe Putin's recent behaviour will turn Trump's head in the right direction eventually.
Many were very disappointed by the lack of Tories and Reformers promoted in the re-shuffle after all.
Will there be any restrictions ? Listening to the councillor being interviewed on LBC it seems there won’t be .
Big profits for big risk was fair.
Big profits for no risk wasn't.
Yes, Trump fancies himself as a negotiator, but his are the type of "I win, you lose" deals where the other party gets sold a lemon.
But ultimately government requires polices which are both workable and supported.
You can see with Labour's attempt at disability benefit reform what happens when everyone is free to make up their own minds.
I disagree with Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I could see what he was trying to do but it should have been obvious long ago that Putin was playing games and had no intention of wanting peace. Someone like Johnson could assist with a nudge or two in the right direction
"I have some PPE available!"
"Cool. When can you get it me?"
"Two weeks."
"Cool! We'll have it."
"I need the money now."
"I'll wire it over."
compared to:
"I have some PPE available!"
"Does it meet all the required standards?"
"I'm getting this through a middleman. He says it does."
"We'll need to check some samples before saying yes."
"Okay... I can get you some samples in three days."
"We'll require four weeks to perform the tests."
"Look, the French, Italians, Indians and Australians are all after this stuff. I think I'm first in the queue. Can you at least send a deposit to secure the transaction?"
"we'll need to know the samples are good first."
"Sorry, I've just sold them to the French."
As a matter of interest, what proportion of the PPE bought was unusable? Over half? 25%? 10% 5%? And what proportion was acceptable in those frenetic times?
With a draconian zero tolerance for anything they don't like.
I’m going to try to interest the family in a little Sunday trip.
As for Mahmood I'm not sure. Anyone with a ringing endorsement from Michael Gove must be suspect. Being a religious fanatic isn't particularly welcome either. My guess is that Starmer got rid of Cooper from the Home Office because he realised that her terrorism bill had to be ditched.
It was making Labour and Starmer look ridiculous.The only way out without again looking weak was to change Home Secretary and blame it on that
'Worst PM in history, will never be welcome in Reform'
Dorries out by teatime?
But many people want, for some reason, to downplay racism. Which is fine until you're the target.
Boris did ok by comparison with his counterparts in power elsewhere. Not great, but not awful.
Go for Lady Nugee. From working class to sneering at the working class in one effortless bound
The Canadians understood that. Sadly neither the Brits nor the EU have done, but that partly reflects the fact that Canada has its economic foot on the US throat (albeit at great cost to itself) more securely than we ever could have.
The other world player who understands his limited hand and plays it to the max is Erdogan. He’s a total arse, but he does play geopolitics well. We need to think of things we could threaten to withdraw (and intel sharing is surely one, as perhaps would be access to British military bases), like the Turks do on a regular basis.
@cdlassociates.bsky.social
· 1h
A gasoline crisis has begun in Russia. There is no fuel at gas stations in a number of regions, including occupied Crimea and Transbaikal (East Siberia). In the Far East, there have been serious problems with fuel availability since August 20.
https://bsky.app/profile/cdlassociates.bsky.social/post/3lyadth367k2h
I am white, male, middle class, and straight. I am unlikely to be a victim of racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia.
I *may* become a victim of ageism as I get even older. Or, if I suffer illness, ableism.
The fact I might never suffer significant racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia does not mean that I think they are irrelevant or unimportant, and am surprised so many people seem to.
Boris Johnson is without doubt the United Kingdom's greatest Prime Minister and should be returned to Downing Street this afternoon to sort out the mess everyone else has created.
I think I have a winning strategy.
I was initially sceptical about the stories of long queues at petrol stations across russia, but it’s definitely happening.
Russian O&G production is 20% down competed to a couple of months ago, with refineries, storage, and pumping stations, specifically targeted.
They also managed to put two Flamingos either side of the Kerch Bridge last night, that’s now again on the target list.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/07/peter-mandelson-donald-trump-speech-us-uk-ai-technology-state-visit
*Not literally.
Or tell a heartwarming story about one of your children.
That’s the way to get likes, because your target market is then across the full political spectrum.