It could be worse. As well as having an anti-vax chap linking Covid vaccines to royal cancers, Reform could have also invited a convicted criminal who incited folk to burn down hotels occupied by asylum seekers to speak. What? They did. Oh.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
There were 890 people arrested at a demonstration against the ban on the group Palestine Action in London on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police say.
The majority of the arrests were for supporting a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act, while police said 17 were also arrested for assaults on police officers "after the protest turned violent".
I think there is some talk of the accused refusing the bail conditions and therefore clogging up remand with thousands of pensioners.
The excuse Government ministers are now giving for the arrests that there is something that they are unable to disclose to us something that makes supporting Palestine Action a genuinely awful terrorist activity. Now, there might be something some members of the core group have planned to do, like killing a soldier or burning a synagogue, but how the hell are these protestors supposed to know that?
There are going to be loads of pensioners coming up in front of a judge who - for the first time - finally find out the nature of the group they are supporting as the CPS/Crown Office makes a case behind closed doors. Surely there is something for the defence there? Or worse - ministers have simply made this up and there is no real underlying reason for it, and they are just trying to scare people into not protesting with these vague allusions.
I don't actually get what they are protesting about. It's not Palestine/Gaza per se, because you can protest about that just fine, every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Is it free speech? I bet none of them cared a fig for Connolly. Is it government overstepping the mark? I can understand if people don't trust the government. The Southport case had huge issues with that. I also sense that even if it does come out that P A were planning a 'genuine' act a lot of this mob wouldn't care, just as many reformers are in love with Connolly.
You don’t know if anyone “cared a fig” about Connolly because, as you admit yourself, you don’t “get it”.
What's your point? I genuinely don't understand if it's the Gaza angle, and this just misplaced or the free speech. No, I have no idea of their opinion about Connolly but I am drawing an inference.
My point is simply that you don’t like these people and are simply setting up various straw men that you have “inferred” they are guilty of.
Why are you suggesting I don't like them? I think them foolish, and I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve.
Quoting you,
“ I bet none of them cared a fig for Connolly... even if it does come out that P A were planning a 'genuine' act a lot of this mob wouldn't care”
Yes, it's a guess. May be wrong. What's your point?
Do you honestly believe that the nearly 900 people arrested yesterday would excuse “genuine” acts of terror?
Labour (Yvette Cooper, who ought to have been sacked rather than promoted), have brought the anti-terror laws into disrepute.
Don't know. Do you think they all think the government is lying?
This Government has said nothing whilst Bibi tries to starve 2,000,000 Gazans to death. 700 old ladies and former vicars are being arrested for being concerned. "Ooh, but what about Hamas, what about the planes...?"
Hamas not withstanding, ignoring genocide is pretty much a dereliction of duty if nothing more.
He's not doing that good a job if starving 2 million to death is he? He'san absolute shit, almost certainly prolonging things to save his own hide. But others are also prolonging this. Hamas for example.
I say this with a heavy heart but Sultana is correct and Starmer is complicit in genocide and there is a dock at the Hague waiting for him if he doesn't act.
Ludicrous.
Congratulations for still spelling the word correctly. Corresponds to X tend to spell the word as Ludacris after the American rapper.
It could be worse. As well as having an anti-vax chap linking Covid vaccines to royal cancers, Reform could have also invited a convicted criminal who incited folk to burn down hotels occupied by asylum seekers to speak. What? They did. Oh.
They are not only nutters, they are playing with fire. If they make it to power, the country will be several degrees more fucked than it is even in its current state.
It could be worse. As well as having an anti-vax chap linking Covid vaccines to royal cancers, Reform could have also invited a convicted criminal who incited folk to burn down hotels occupied by asylum seekers to speak. What? They did. Oh.
They are not only nutters, they are playing with fire. If they make it to power, the country will be several degrees more fucked than it is even in its current state.
Sadly, the snake oil is of a particularly high strength at the moment.
A relative tells me the bin people are still on strike in Birmingham.
'Outsiders' are being paid to collect the main black basic rubbish bin but the other bins for recycling are not collected.
How many months has this gone on?
Since March. Those of us with a car and a social conscience are collecting our recycling and taking it to the tip every couple of months; others have simply given up on recycling.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
We have rapidly gone supposedly the public not wanting any more "characters" and Steady Eddy Starmer is the answer, to the public don't want somebody who has had a charisma bypass. The public seem very confused.
The viral rap video of Big Ange "how many homes". I went and looked at the account that it came from, somebody appears to working very hard and pumping out anti-Labour / pro-Reform songs at a fairly rapid rate. The music is clear AI and always reasonable (as in it isn't total jank), but the generative video model they are using isn't very good.
Christ it is literally all the entryists (and their modern incarnations) that Kinnock had to work so hard to get out of the Labour party. Socialist Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party and Tusc; independents in Liverpool and Harrow; The Muslim Vote, Just Stop Oil, The Workers Party.
A relative tells me the bin people are still on strike in Birmingham.
'Outsiders' are being paid to collect the main black basic rubbish bin but the other bins for recycling are not collected.
How many months has this gone on?
Since March. Those of us with a car and a social conscience are collecting our recycling and taking it to the tip every couple of months; others have simply given up on recycling.
Surprising that with all our regulations, there's not a legal obligation on the council.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
Fair play, an earnest response. I feel differently, of course: a mixture of fear and frustration.
Fear of what?! Reform aren’t Nazis. The knicker-wetting is absurd
As for Labour I note that both John Harris and J Freedland are essentially calling for Starmer to quit, in today’s Groaniad. The main story is “Labour figures tell Starmer to stop making mistakes” (which is a bit like telling Mozart to “stop being musical”)
He’s completely lost the main organ of the Left. I wonder if he will last beyond 2026
On the mention of Mozart, there is a new version of Shaffer’s play Amadeus coming out this year as a series. I loved the film and look forward to a “bigger” version of it. I think Will Sharpe as Mozart will definitely do it justice and hope Paul Bettany does even half as good a job as F Murray Abraham did.
It will be extremely hard for them to outdo the movie, which was pretty much perfect - thanks in part to that astonishing performance by Abraham
But then who knew that Netflix would completely outmatch, with a TV drama series, Visconti’s iconic movie of The Leopard? But so it is
The Netflix Leopard is a pathetic, pale imitation of the Visconti movie.
I now know to ignore all your future opinions on anything artistic, so thanks
I’ve long realised yours are cringeingly midwit, tbh.
Aren’t you some kind of middle manager finance dude?
lol
Yes, but he left Britain "because of Brexit". Dead sophisticated.
Btw I passed “carnforth” yesterday. Didn’t realise it was an actual place
AND SO CLOSE TO TEBAY SERVICES
Is it your birthplace or some cherished memory?
Can tell you've no interest in railways... everyone in the rail industry knows where 10A is!
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
I don't think the party of scientist Margaret Thatcher would have had a vaccine conspiracy theorist headline a Conservative Party conference.
It's very easy to impute views and actions to people when they're dead. Margaret Thatcher seems to get that more than most.
Fortunately, her views on science and policymaking are well known. And when -as with AIDS- science clashed with her personal morality, she chose science.
Did you watch the speech? If you didn't, your critique feels somewhat baseless.
Theories about cancers aside, we know of some adverse reactions to the vaccines in some - that would be be expected with any new treatment given to a huge amount of people. Malhotra's attack on the vaccines wasn't really about vaccine harm, it was about lack of vaccine efficacy. He pointed to data that he claimed showed vanishingly little impact on hospitalisations in those given the vaccine, even when over a certain age. If that is correct, it certainly appears to undermine the case for us going as ham on vaccinations as we did.
Someone arguing against you might just as well say that Thatcher would have been brave enough to demand answers and ask the right questions, and follow the science where it led, rather than where pressure from public health bodies was coming from. But at the end of the day, we cannot know her thoughts.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and the many other vaccines has been firmly proven by multiple studies. Malhotra was spouting nonsense. Dangerous nonsense, at that.
Luckyguy is PB’s premier conspiracy theorist. I’d be disappointed if he *didn’t* make special pleading for Reform.
I enjoyed "theories about cancers aside". He's not even attempting to plead on that one.
I have no particular badger in this baiting pit, but it’s surely healthy that heterodox opinions are heard at party conferences. We’re not gonna haul Britain out of its managed decline without some really fresh, original thinking
That necessarily means we will encounter bonkers ideas. And every so often one of these bonkers ideas will turn out to be brilliantly true
Well done Reform for allowing people to go against the grain
Great idea. How about inviting RFK jnr to run the NHS? He'll surely haul it out of its managed decline. (Probably by drastically reducing the headcount of sick uns that its looking after by virtue of his brilliant, original thinking).
Do you not understand there’s a difference between “someone who speaks at a party conference” and “someone appointed to run the entire NHS”?
What are you? Six years old?
LOL. Giving a platform at a conference which is supposed to be a platform for government to a nutjob recycling conspiracy theories is the sort of thing that has given us the Trump administration. These things have consequences, old boy.
No, they don’t. It’s an opinion expressed at a podium about four years from the next election. Not a policy document, let alone some draft legislation
This centrist dad bed-wetting about Reform is as tedious as it is embarrassing
It really isn't. It's how this stuff gets normalised and enters the political bloodstream. Farage & co are attempting to do to the mainstream right what Trump/MAGA have done in the US, ie, supplant it with a grisly form of populism.
It's potentially disastrous and needs to be challenged at every opportunity. At least, then, we can't say we weren't warned.
This discourse is effeminate and dull, but you do you
This discourse is insult as substitute for argument. You characteristically doing you.
Is it just me or is Angela Rayner much more a towering and crucial figure within Labour now that she's left than she ever was when actually in office?
Give it a few weeks and you’re going to be seeing her everywhere. She’s got an unexpected £40k (likely £50k) tax bill that’s just dropped on the mat, on top of a £650k mortgage to service.
Is it just me or is Angela Rayner much more a towering and crucial figure within Labour now that she's left than she ever was when actually in office?
Give it a few weeks and you’re going to be seeing her everywhere. She’s got an unexpected £40k (likely £50k) tax bill that’s just dropped on the mat, on top of a £650k mortgage to service.
I thought she could reclaim the higher rate Stamp Duty when her disabled son turns 18 as she loses control of the Trust, and this is only months away.
I think she will lay low for a month or so licking her wounds but then be back in the media. In a world of blandness she is a bright spot of colour, and not noted for being self-effacing.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
We have rapidly gone supposedly the public not wanting any more "characters" and Steady Eddy Starmer is the answer, to the public don't want somebody who has had a charisma bypass. The public seem very confused.
I really don't think the public care that Starmer has no outward charisma. His massive problem is that he can't inspire any loyalty or even fear amongst his cabinet and MPs. I think that Starmer's resemblance to Ted Heath grows each day he is in office but at least Heath inspired fierce loyalty among his lieutenants and fear on the back benches.
Christ it is literally all the entryists (and their modern incarnations) that Kinnock had to work so hard to get out of the Labour party. Socialist Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party and Tusc; independents in Liverpool and Harrow; The Muslim Vote, Just Stop Oil, The Workers Party.
Yes, and very much the same problem as previous "unite the left" parties, of different interests fighting over chairing committees, formulation of motions, what gets put to the vote etc.
Very much what Monty Python lampooned in The Life of Brian,
Polanskis Greens seem much more united, have clear structure and momentum, if not Momentum.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
We have rapidly gone supposedly the public not wanting any more "characters" and Steady Eddy Starmer is the answer, to the public don't want somebody who has had a charisma bypass. The public seem very confused.
I really don't think the public care that Starmer has no outward charisma. His massive problem is that he can't inspire any loyalty or even fear amongst his cabinet and MPs. I think that Starmer's resemblance to Ted Heath grows each day he is in office but at least Heath inspired fierce loyalty among his lieutenants and fear on the back benches.
Yes, Attlee was famously charisma free, but had a clear vision of the direction of the party and country and how he wanted to change it. He was also a strong chair of the Cabinet, and not afraid to have more charismatic people around him. Attlee also faced crises at home and abroad far worse than Starmer, but never lost his focus or became distracted by them.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
We have rapidly gone supposedly the public not wanting any more "characters" and Steady Eddy Starmer is the answer, to the public don't want somebody who has had a charisma bypass. The public seem very confused.
I really don't think the public care that Starmer has no outward charisma. His massive problem is that he can't inspire any loyalty or even fear amongst his cabinet and MPs. I think that Starmer's resemblance to Ted Heath grows each day he is in office but at least Heath inspired fierce loyalty among his lieutenants and fear on the back benches.
Outward charisma is vital in a top politician, as it helps sell policy to the public and party. That is why so many good salesmen are charismatic, even when they are selling a load of tripe.
But Starmer's problem isn't that he isn't charismatic; he's anti-charismatic. He is a negative-charisma zone. For most people that's not a problem. For a PM, it is.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
Fair play, an earnest response. I feel differently, of course: a mixture of fear and frustration.
Fear of what?! Reform aren’t Nazis. The knicker-wetting is absurd
As for Labour I note that both John Harris and J Freedland are essentially calling for Starmer to quit, in today’s Groaniad. The main story is “Labour figures tell Starmer to stop making mistakes” (which is a bit like telling Mozart to “stop being musical”)
He’s completely lost the main organ of the Left. I wonder if he will last beyond 2026
On the mention of Mozart, there is a new version of Shaffer’s play Amadeus coming out this year as a series. I loved the film and look forward to a “bigger” version of it. I think Will Sharpe as Mozart will definitely do it justice and hope Paul Bettany does even half as good a job as F Murray Abraham did.
It will be extremely hard for them to outdo the movie, which was pretty much perfect - thanks in part to that astonishing performance by Abraham
But then who knew that Netflix would completely outmatch, with a TV drama series, Visconti’s iconic movie of The Leopard? But so it is
The Netflix Leopard is a pathetic, pale imitation of the Visconti movie.
I now know to ignore all your future opinions on anything artistic, so thanks
I’ve long realised yours are cringeingly midwit, tbh.
Aren’t you some kind of middle manager finance dude?
lol
Yes, but he left Britain "because of Brexit". Dead sophisticated.
Btw I passed “carnforth” yesterday. Didn’t realise it was an actual place
AND SO CLOSE TO TEBAY SERVICES
Is it your birthplace or some cherished memory?
We’ve all got to be conceived somewhere. For me it was probably a cabin on the Glasgow to Belfast ferry, or less romantically a Belfast B&B.
Incidentally I’ve been driving around East Fife all day. It is really a beautiful corner of the world. Handsome little stone built villages and towns, misty rolling countryside - with dramatic hills in the distance
Also a brilliant Italian restaurant in “Kettlebridge”, which has won awards and everything yet did us a cracking lunch for 3 (plus some wine) for £80!
It made me happy you voted No, so this is still part of OUR beautiful shared country. You may feel differently
Well, I didn’t vote No of course, but I’m pretty sure normal service would have continued with nice restaurants in douce parts of Fife even if Scotland had voted Yes. We might even have let Spectator hacks through the barbed wire fence at the border (as promised by Ed Miliband of all people).
But I like our Britishness…. I appreciate you do not!
St Andrews itself is bloody weird. As it is SO tiny and so dominated by a large university (much more than Oxford or Cambridge, which have actual towns beyond the gown) it is - by my reckoning - the youngest town in the UK? By median age?
Also the most beautiful. As in: human beauty. Every ten yards there’s another stunning 19 year old girl
At times today I thought I was back in Bishkek
Too many blonde girls in baseball caps saying yah.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
Fair play, an earnest response. I feel differently, of course: a mixture of fear and frustration.
Fear of what?! Reform aren’t Nazis. The knicker-wetting is absurd
As for Labour I note that both John Harris and J Freedland are essentially calling for Starmer to quit, in today’s Groaniad. The main story is “Labour figures tell Starmer to stop making mistakes” (which is a bit like telling Mozart to “stop being musical”)
He’s completely lost the main organ of the Left. I wonder if he will last beyond 2026
On the mention of Mozart, there is a new version of Shaffer’s play Amadeus coming out this year as a series. I loved the film and look forward to a “bigger” version of it. I think Will Sharpe as Mozart will definitely do it justice and hope Paul Bettany does even half as good a job as F Murray Abraham did.
It will be extremely hard for them to outdo the movie, which was pretty much perfect - thanks in part to that astonishing performance by Abraham
But then who knew that Netflix would completely outmatch, with a TV drama series, Visconti’s iconic movie of The Leopard? But so it is
The Netflix Leopard is a pathetic, pale imitation of the Visconti movie.
I now know to ignore all your future opinions on anything artistic, so thanks
I’ve long realised yours are cringeingly midwit, tbh.
Aren’t you some kind of middle manager finance dude?
lol
Yes, but he left Britain "because of Brexit". Dead sophisticated.
Btw I passed “carnforth” yesterday. Didn’t realise it was an actual place
AND SO CLOSE TO TEBAY SERVICES
Is it your birthplace or some cherished memory?
Can tell you've no interest in railways... everyone in the rail industry knows where 10A is!
Carnforth is also where they filmed Brief Encounter.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
I don't think the party of scientist Margaret Thatcher would have had a vaccine conspiracy theorist headline a Conservative Party conference.
It's very easy to impute views and actions to people when they're dead. Margaret Thatcher seems to get that more than most.
Fortunately, her views on science and policymaking are well known. And when -as with AIDS- science clashed with her personal morality, she chose science.
Did you watch the speech? If you didn't, your critique feels somewhat baseless.
Theories about cancers aside, we know of some adverse reactions to the vaccines in some - that would be be expected with any new treatment given to a huge amount of people. Malhotra's attack on the vaccines wasn't really about vaccine harm, it was about lack of vaccine efficacy. He pointed to data that he claimed showed vanishingly little impact on hospitalisations in those given the vaccine, even when over a certain age. If that is correct, it certainly appears to undermine the case for us going as ham on vaccinations as we did.
Someone arguing against you might just as well say that Thatcher would have been brave enough to demand answers and ask the right questions, and follow the science where it led, rather than where pressure from public health bodies was coming from. But at the end of the day, we cannot know her thoughts.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and the many other vaccines has been firmly proven by multiple studies. Malhotra was spouting nonsense. Dangerous nonsense, at that.
Luckyguy is PB’s premier conspiracy theorist. I’d be disappointed if he *didn’t* make special pleading for Reform.
I enjoyed "theories about cancers aside". He's not even attempting to plead on that one.
I have no particular badger in this baiting pit, but it’s surely healthy that heterodox opinions are heard at party conferences. We’re not gonna haul Britain out of its managed decline without some really fresh, original thinking
That necessarily means we will encounter bonkers ideas. And every so often one of these bonkers ideas will turn out to be brilliantly true
Well done Reform for allowing people to go against the grain
Great idea. How about inviting RFK jnr to run the NHS? He'll surely haul it out of its managed decline. (Probably by drastically reducing the headcount of sick uns that its looking after by virtue of his brilliant, original thinking).
Do you not understand there’s a difference between “someone who speaks at a party conference” and “someone appointed to run the entire NHS”?
What are you? Six years old?
LOL. Giving a platform at a conference which is supposed to be a platform for government to a nutjob recycling conspiracy theories is the sort of thing that has given us the Trump administration. These things have consequences, old boy.
No, they don’t. It’s an opinion expressed at a podium about four years from the next election. Not a policy document, let alone some draft legislation
This centrist dad bed-wetting about Reform is as tedious as it is embarrassing
I presume you have read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. This is not bed wetting. It has real consequences, regardless of whether Reform comes to power or even adopt the ideas. Conspiracy theories on medical stuff causes people to die through ignorance and sometimes in their millions. This matters.
I refer you to the Lab Leak hypothesis, and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade. A hypothesis which was vigorously, outrageously and scandalously repressed by who? Oh yes, the “good” scientists
Who was the conspiracy theorist there, you moron?
", and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade."
That is absolute bullshit. Worse, it's dangerous bullshit.
I am very pleased with my new robot mower, which will save me a tiresome chore and hopefully avoid my returning from long trips to knee-high grass, provided nobody nicks it while I am away. Going round Norway, pretty much everyone has one, but then I guess there the grass grows super fast.
The more immediate challenge is persuading the dog I haven’t bought it for him to pee on every morning.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
I don't think the party of scientist Margaret Thatcher would have had a vaccine conspiracy theorist headline a Conservative Party conference.
It's very easy to impute views and actions to people when they're dead. Margaret Thatcher seems to get that more than most.
Fortunately, her views on science and policymaking are well known. And when -as with AIDS- science clashed with her personal morality, she chose science.
Did you watch the speech? If you didn't, your critique feels somewhat baseless.
Theories about cancers aside, we know of some adverse reactions to the vaccines in some - that would be be expected with any new treatment given to a huge amount of people. Malhotra's attack on the vaccines wasn't really about vaccine harm, it was about lack of vaccine efficacy. He pointed to data that he claimed showed vanishingly little impact on hospitalisations in those given the vaccine, even when over a certain age. If that is correct, it certainly appears to undermine the case for us going as ham on vaccinations as we did.
Someone arguing against you might just as well say that Thatcher would have been brave enough to demand answers and ask the right questions, and follow the science where it led, rather than where pressure from public health bodies was coming from. But at the end of the day, we cannot know her thoughts.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and the many other vaccines has been firmly proven by multiple studies. Malhotra was spouting nonsense. Dangerous nonsense, at that.
Luckyguy is PB’s premier conspiracy theorist. I’d be disappointed if he *didn’t* make special pleading for Reform.
I enjoyed "theories about cancers aside". He's not even attempting to plead on that one.
I have no particular badger in this baiting pit, but it’s surely healthy that heterodox opinions are heard at party conferences. We’re not gonna haul Britain out of its managed decline without some really fresh, original thinking
That necessarily means we will encounter bonkers ideas. And every so often one of these bonkers ideas will turn out to be brilliantly true
Well done Reform for allowing people to go against the grain
Great idea. How about inviting RFK jnr to run the NHS? He'll surely haul it out of its managed decline. (Probably by drastically reducing the headcount of sick uns that its looking after by virtue of his brilliant, original thinking).
Do you not understand there’s a difference between “someone who speaks at a party conference” and “someone appointed to run the entire NHS”?
What are you? Six years old?
LOL. Giving a platform at a conference which is supposed to be a platform for government to a nutjob recycling conspiracy theories is the sort of thing that has given us the Trump administration. These things have consequences, old boy.
No, they don’t. It’s an opinion expressed at a podium about four years from the next election. Not a policy document, let alone some draft legislation
This centrist dad bed-wetting about Reform is as tedious as it is embarrassing
I presume you have read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. This is not bed wetting. It has real consequences, regardless of whether Reform comes to power or even adopt the ideas. Conspiracy theories on medical stuff causes people to die through ignorance and sometimes in their millions. This matters.
I refer you to the Lab Leak hypothesis, and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade. A hypothesis which was vigorously, outrageously and scandalously repressed by who? Oh yes, the “good” scientists
Who was the conspiracy theorist there, you moron?
", and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade."
That is absolute bullshit. Worse, it's dangerous bullshit.
Leon is, one imagines, leaning on the variant of the lab leak hypothesis that claims the Covid virus (in its more virulent form) was created by mad scientists and so all the Covid deaths can be blamed on them, but even so, since the Covid death toll is estimated at 7 million, Leon is out by a factor of 3. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths
Incidentally, a more interesting interplay between the science and politics of vaccination came in China, where the government prioritised its own pharmaceutical industry despite accepting that Western vaccines were superior. A milder form of flag-waving occurred in Britain and Europe, of course.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
I don't think the party of scientist Margaret Thatcher would have had a vaccine conspiracy theorist headline a Conservative Party conference.
It's very easy to impute views and actions to people when they're dead. Margaret Thatcher seems to get that more than most.
Fortunately, her views on science and policymaking are well known. And when -as with AIDS- science clashed with her personal morality, she chose science.
Did you watch the speech? If you didn't, your critique feels somewhat baseless.
Theories about cancers aside, we know of some adverse reactions to the vaccines in some - that would be be expected with any new treatment given to a huge amount of people. Malhotra's attack on the vaccines wasn't really about vaccine harm, it was about lack of vaccine efficacy. He pointed to data that he claimed showed vanishingly little impact on hospitalisations in those given the vaccine, even when over a certain age. If that is correct, it certainly appears to undermine the case for us going as ham on vaccinations as we did.
Someone arguing against you might just as well say that Thatcher would have been brave enough to demand answers and ask the right questions, and follow the science where it led, rather than where pressure from public health bodies was coming from. But at the end of the day, we cannot know her thoughts.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and the many other vaccines has been firmly proven by multiple studies. Malhotra was spouting nonsense. Dangerous nonsense, at that.
Luckyguy is PB’s premier conspiracy theorist. I’d be disappointed if he *didn’t* make special pleading for Reform.
I enjoyed "theories about cancers aside". He's not even attempting to plead on that one.
I have no particular badger in this baiting pit, but it’s surely healthy that heterodox opinions are heard at party conferences. We’re not gonna haul Britain out of its managed decline without some really fresh, original thinking
That necessarily means we will encounter bonkers ideas. And every so often one of these bonkers ideas will turn out to be brilliantly true
Well done Reform for allowing people to go against the grain
Great idea. How about inviting RFK jnr to run the NHS? He'll surely haul it out of its managed decline. (Probably by drastically reducing the headcount of sick uns that its looking after by virtue of his brilliant, original thinking).
Do you not understand there’s a difference between “someone who speaks at a party conference” and “someone appointed to run the entire NHS”?
What are you? Six years old?
LOL. Giving a platform at a conference which is supposed to be a platform for government to a nutjob recycling conspiracy theories is the sort of thing that has given us the Trump administration. These things have consequences, old boy.
No, they don’t. It’s an opinion expressed at a podium about four years from the next election. Not a policy document, let alone some draft legislation
This centrist dad bed-wetting about Reform is as tedious as it is embarrassing
I presume you have read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. This is not bed wetting. It has real consequences, regardless of whether Reform comes to power or even adopt the ideas. Conspiracy theories on medical stuff causes people to die through ignorance and sometimes in their millions. This matters.
I refer you to the Lab Leak hypothesis, and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade. A hypothesis which was vigorously, outrageously and scandalously repressed by who? Oh yes, the “good” scientists
Who was the conspiracy theorist there, you moron?
", and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade."
That is absolute bullshit. Worse, it's dangerous bullshit.
Leon is, one imagines, leaning on the variant of the lab leak hypothesis that claims the Covid virus (in its more virulent form) was created by mad scientists and so all the Covid deaths can be blamed on them, but even so, since the Covid death toll is estimated at 7 million, Leon is out by a factor of 3. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths
(Snip)
In so doing, he's showing what I said was the case: he was playing the "It was a lab leak (accidental)" because he knew when that was accepted, he could then move onto his true extreme position of it all being an evil Chinese plan with an engineered virus.
Evening all. Been with Pa Woolie this afternoon. You'll be pleased to know he has proclaimed we have passed peak Reform. Pa Woolie for the win.
We are always passing peak Reform. We've passed it here at least 5 times.
You’re feeling, shall we say, bullish? Enjoy it. Reform will end either with a squib-like polling slump, or electoral success and the destruction of our nation.
Show me an example of a populist right wing movement in history bringing about national renewal and happiness in a developed country and I might change my mind, but I’m struggling for good creds.
Bullish, no. Genuinely optimistic about the country for the first time for ages, yes.
Reform are old school Tories - their policies are simply what worked in the UK before the country became enshittified by the Blairite consensus. It will be a huge relief to get sensible Government in the national interest again.
Inexperience is an issue, and I hope they will need Tory support, as that will be a Government with a real democratic mandate as well as a hopefully a significant parliamentary majority.
Don't be fooled by Andrea Jenkins singing and Jeremy Kyle hyping the crowds - they are serious about governing. Last week they had a press conference about billions of waste in Local Government pensions for goodness sake. Sometimes their tries are outside the line and they course correct. This is the mistake Kemi is making, possibly out of necessity. She wants a policy that is absolutely bullet proof from every angle, but sometimes you have to put a policy out and it gets tested and then develops in public.
I don't think the party of scientist Margaret Thatcher would have had a vaccine conspiracy theorist headline a Conservative Party conference.
It's very easy to impute views and actions to people when they're dead. Margaret Thatcher seems to get that more than most.
Fortunately, her views on science and policymaking are well known. And when -as with AIDS- science clashed with her personal morality, she chose science.
Did you watch the speech? If you didn't, your critique feels somewhat baseless.
Theories about cancers aside, we know of some adverse reactions to the vaccines in some - that would be be expected with any new treatment given to a huge amount of people. Malhotra's attack on the vaccines wasn't really about vaccine harm, it was about lack of vaccine efficacy. He pointed to data that he claimed showed vanishingly little impact on hospitalisations in those given the vaccine, even when over a certain age. If that is correct, it certainly appears to undermine the case for us going as ham on vaccinations as we did.
Someone arguing against you might just as well say that Thatcher would have been brave enough to demand answers and ask the right questions, and follow the science where it led, rather than where pressure from public health bodies was coming from. But at the end of the day, we cannot know her thoughts.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and the many other vaccines has been firmly proven by multiple studies. Malhotra was spouting nonsense. Dangerous nonsense, at that.
Luckyguy is PB’s premier conspiracy theorist. I’d be disappointed if he *didn’t* make special pleading for Reform.
I enjoyed "theories about cancers aside". He's not even attempting to plead on that one.
I have no particular badger in this baiting pit, but it’s surely healthy that heterodox opinions are heard at party conferences. We’re not gonna haul Britain out of its managed decline without some really fresh, original thinking
That necessarily means we will encounter bonkers ideas. And every so often one of these bonkers ideas will turn out to be brilliantly true
Well done Reform for allowing people to go against the grain
Great idea. How about inviting RFK jnr to run the NHS? He'll surely haul it out of its managed decline. (Probably by drastically reducing the headcount of sick uns that its looking after by virtue of his brilliant, original thinking).
Do you not understand there’s a difference between “someone who speaks at a party conference” and “someone appointed to run the entire NHS”?
What are you? Six years old?
LOL. Giving a platform at a conference which is supposed to be a platform for government to a nutjob recycling conspiracy theories is the sort of thing that has given us the Trump administration. These things have consequences, old boy.
No, they don’t. It’s an opinion expressed at a podium about four years from the next election. Not a policy document, let alone some draft legislation
This centrist dad bed-wetting about Reform is as tedious as it is embarrassing
I presume you have read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. This is not bed wetting. It has real consequences, regardless of whether Reform comes to power or even adopt the ideas. Conspiracy theories on medical stuff causes people to die through ignorance and sometimes in their millions. This matters.
I refer you to the Lab Leak hypothesis, and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade. A hypothesis which was vigorously, outrageously and scandalously repressed by who? Oh yes, the “good” scientists
Who was the conspiracy theorist there, you moron?
", and the highly likely fact that science has already killed 20 million people, and destroyed entire economies, in this decade."
That is absolute bullshit. Worse, it's dangerous bullshit.
Leon is, one imagines, leaning on the variant of the lab leak hypothesis that claims the Covid virus (in its more virulent form) was created by mad scientists and so all the Covid deaths can be blamed on them, but even so, since the Covid death toll is estimated at 7 million, Leon is out by a factor of 3. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths
(Snip)
In so doing, he's showing what I said was the case: he was playing the "It was a lab leak (accidental)" because he knew when that was accepted, he could then move onto his true extreme position of it all being an evil Chinese plan with an engineered virus.
Contra Leon's claims of novel, heterodox thinking, it is the new orthodoxy on the right.
Is it just me or is Angela Rayner much more a towering and crucial figure within Labour now that she's left than she ever was when actually in office?
She's interesting and Starmer is boring.
It’s remarkable how quickly people have forgotten that ‘interesting’ is over-rated, at least when it comes to running the country.
The trouble is nothing is interesting, neither the politicians or the policies. I think you need at least one of these otherwise you end up with a vacuum.
The "delivery, delivery, delivery" mantra is a deeply worrying IMO. Deliver... what?
Is it just me or is Angela Rayner much more a towering and crucial figure within Labour now that she's left than she ever was when actually in office?
She's interesting and Starmer is boring.
It’s remarkable how quickly people have forgotten that ‘interesting’ is over-rated, at least when it comes to running the country.
Have they, though?
There must be a hefty overlap between "I want Boris because he's interesting/charismatic" and "I want Nigel because he's interesting/charismatic".
One of the key differences between 2019/20/21 and now is that then, such people were getting what they wanted, and now they aren't.
Hence the ongoing tantrum.
Charisma isn't the same as sense of purpose. Both are needed in a leader. Johnson was famously a shopping trolley, crashing from one thing to another, but with some charisma. Farage has charisma too, and slightly more sense of purpose. Both however lack interest in the nuts and bolts of making things work.
John Harris more or less echoing what I said about Starmer since 2020 - in a political world that is dominated more than ever by the cult of personality, a charisma free zone like Sir Keir is a lame duck. Events somehow conspired to hand him the keys to no10 on a plate, but I don’t really take back anything I said about the importance of personality ratings and charisma on politicians chances of winning office
We have rapidly gone supposedly the public not wanting any more "characters" and Steady Eddy Starmer is the answer, to the public don't want somebody who has had a charisma bypass. The public seem very confused.
I really don't think the public care that Starmer has no outward charisma. His massive problem is that he can't inspire any loyalty or even fear amongst his cabinet and MPs. I think that Starmer's resemblance to Ted Heath grows each day he is in office but at least Heath inspired fierce loyalty among his lieutenants and fear on the back benches.
He is like a wet blanket , no -one would want to be stuck with him. Like a grey cardboard cutout of a less able John Major. I reckon he models himself on Roy from Corrie , minus the shopping bag.
Interesting reminder on the news this morning that Brexit is one of the drivers of the small boat crossings.
Because the EU no longer shares asylum claims data with the UK, those whose claims are rejected in the EU get to have another crack over here, if they can make it across.
Sadly I was not able to catch much of the Reform conference footage.
Was it established whether it is official policy that vaccines gave the King and Princess of Wales cancer?
I don't think it is. They put Dr Assem Malhotra on the platform. Here's his speech (the Telegraph have the whole thing recorded live). 15 mniutes long.
WTF did they expect by putting a vax denier on stage at their conference? Pretty sure it’s a cynical strategy, ie continually flash some fruitcake, loony and closet racist leg then look all innocent when it goes over the edge.
Free Speech, innit.
It won't get directly reported by unsympathetic journos though, as they were banned.
As much as I found the topic of the particular speech unpleasant, wasn't the whole thing broadcast live? Banned or not, they can still report on it.
They can report, but they cannot ask him or attendees questions.
We were in the car at the time of the alarm. Genuinely alarming. Very much the point, I suppose. We quickly got stuck in a traffic jam - I wonder if someone had crashed as a result? Interestingly, daughter #1's ohone sounded a good 45 seconds before everyone else's. She then got a follow up alarm a little later which none of the rest of us got.
Um. Why was the driver paying attention to a mobile phone? And why should somebody else's mobile phone have diverted any attention?
(I'll give you it might have been the idiots driving other cars paying attention the their phone.)
(When I drive, 95% of the time it is on my own, and my mobile pgone is switched off - so I am a touch puritanical on this.)
Interesting reminder on the news this morning that Brexit is one of the drivers of the small boat crossings.
Because the EU no longer shares asylum claims data with the UK, those whose claims are rejected in the EU get to have another crack over here, if they can make it across.
The boats weren’t an issue until Brexit. There may have been other issues, but there were no boats.
Interesting reminder on the news this morning that Brexit is one of the drivers of the small boat crossings.
Because the EU no longer shares asylum claims data with the UK, those whose claims are rejected in the EU get to have another crack over here, if they can make it across.
The boats weren’t an issue until Brexit. There may have been other issues, but there were no boats.
Like the Boriswave, it’s bitterly ironic.
"In 2018, French authorities, with UK funding, expanded the security infrastructure around the port of Calais, including a new 1-kilometer concrete wall to deter migrants from reaching the UK-bound road and ferry terminals. This was part of a larger system of border barriers and intensified security measures at the Channel Tunnel entrance, funded through a bilateral agreement between France and the UK"
Comments
What? They did. Oh.
Holding it is entirely another matter.
'Outsiders' are being paid to collect the main black basic rubbish bin but the other bins for recycling are not collected.
How many months has this gone on?
If they make it to power, the country will be several degrees more fucked than it is even in its current state.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1964710721289416945
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/power-struggles-inside-founding-jeremy-corbyns-new-party
Nut and raisin.
Has me wondering what is going on.
Senior Labour figures tell Keir Starmer to stop making mistakes
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/07/senior-labour-figures-keir-starmer-stop-making-mistakes
Labour insiders form new centre-left network in bid to change party’s direction
Exclusive: Andy Burnham-backed Mainstream group will inevitably influence looming deputy leadership contest
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/07/labour-insiders-form-new-centre-left-network-in-bid-to-change-partys-direction
Unions threaten Starmer over workers’ rights law
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/07/unions-threaten-starmer-over-workers-rights-law/
You characteristically doing you.
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19682105.binmen-show-appalling-glasgow-back-lane-conditions-labour-leader-anas-sarwar/
I think she will lay low for a month or so licking her wounds but then be back in the media. In a world of blandness she is a bright spot of colour, and not noted for being self-effacing.
Very much what Monty Python lampooned in The Life of Brian,
Polanskis Greens seem much more united, have clear structure and momentum, if not Momentum.
But Starmer's problem isn't that he isn't charismatic; he's anti-charismatic. He is a negative-charisma zone. For most people that's not a problem. For a PM, it is.
That is absolute bullshit. Worse, it's dangerous bullshit.
The more immediate challenge is persuading the dog I haven’t bought it for him to pee on every morning.
https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths
Incidentally, a more interesting interplay between the science and politics of vaccination came in China, where the government prioritised its own pharmaceutical industry despite accepting that Western vaccines were superior. A milder form of flag-waving occurred in Britain and Europe, of course.
There must be a hefty overlap between "I want Boris because he's interesting/charismatic" and "I want Nigel because he's interesting/charismatic".
One of the key differences between 2019/20/21 and now is that then, such people were getting what they wanted, and now they aren't.
Hence the ongoing tantrum.
The precise details don't really matter.
The "delivery, delivery, delivery" mantra is a deeply worrying IMO. Deliver... what?
NEW THREAD
I reckon he models himself on Roy from Corrie , minus the shopping bag.
Because the EU no longer shares asylum claims data with the UK, those whose claims are rejected in the EU get to have another crack over here, if they can make it across.
(I'll give you it might have been the idiots driving other cars paying attention the their phone.)
(When I drive, 95% of the time it is on my own, and my mobile pgone is switched off - so I am a touch puritanical on this.)
There may have been other issues, but there were no boats.
Like the Boriswave, it’s bitterly ironic.
This is the cause.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/18/uk-to-pay-extra-445m-for-calais-security-in-anglo-french-deal