Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
I am not sure if labour supporters watch the news with the same dismay conservatives did during the Johnson and Truss crises but I wouldn't be surprised
The relaunch hasn't gone well, but like the Conservatives did with a failing Theresa May administration, Labour could bring in their Johnsonian figure and pull off a landslide six months later.
Although I am genuinely hoping that Labour don't have a Johnson figure in their midst.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
Well, you could write him his victory speech. You couldn't give it because your tongue is so firmly in your cheek you'd be unintelligible.
Are you seriously accusing Nigel Farage MP of securing a mortgage in his constituency of Clacton-on-Sea by “ejaculating onto the Pope for a TikTok bet”??
Really?? Because that’s what it sounds like. And respected PBers are bruiting this like it’s some credible hypothesis
Get a grip. This site is becoming ludicrous
No, never said at all as you well know.
I'm more interested in your traditional "let's kill off the left" message which you've bored us with in all your ridiculous incarnations for the last 15 years or more.
I suppose you'd prefer a two party system - the "hard right" and the "harder right" with power changing between the two based, rather like central American politics of the 1980s, on which group's death squads were more efficient.
If Nigel Farage masturbated on the Pope, he would at least be hard and on the right.
This is absolutely absurd. I can’t believe the pb Left is reduced to this kind of pathetic, libellous and frankly surreal speculation. You’re so scared of reform winning you’ll make up outrageous nonsense. “Oh yeah everyone knows Nigel masturbated onto the pope”
Don’t you realise how infantile you sound? No one will ever believe this. But, hey, knock yourselves out
I’m actually quoting your own words.
Honestly, even Cummings has a better grasp of reality than this.
I don’t actually understand all this Popish masturbatory nonsense you are all indulging in, but I do know the political bottom line of the trouble Farage is in. If Rayner is guilty of defrauding the country of tax, and destroyed, then who else for equivalent misdemeanour 🤷♀️ Despite numerous different answers from Farage as to who bought the house, it’s now clear enough the only sizeable amount of money that bought it came from Nigel Himself. And this is just the start.
It’s pretty basic @MoonRabbit - but I entirely understand and empathise with your bewilderment. It’s so surreal it’s hard to believe
The PB left - and the wider left beyond PB - is now claiming that Nigel Farage MP somehow broke into the papal quarters in the Vatican City - avoiding the Swiss guards who are specifically trained for this kind of event - and made it into the pontifical bedchamber and managed to orgasm over Pope Leo XIV
Just writing it makes me feel unclean. And kind of sad. Yet this is what they are now alleging
They will stop at nothing. Be aware
Its utterly absurd nonsense.
If the Catholic Church is involved in an orgasm scandal then it has to involve altarboys.
One wouldn’t want to be Ambassador to the U.S. for one’s self, but if one’s friends and colleagues felt it was the best outcome for the country then one would have to reluctantly accept the role.
A lot of chat on the last thread on Farage’s other half buying the house in Clacton and “how could she afford the mortgage”/“how could her parents afford the mortgage”.
Slightly playing devil’s advocate it’s potentially very easy. She doesn’t have a mortgage.* this is all bollocks if he’s said she has a mortgage btw.
Funnily enough she doesn’t need a mortgage. I know loads of people who do private lending on property. If it’s someone who might be of use, good potential financially in the future or any other upside it’s very easy if you know the right companies and private lenders for her to have got a lump from her family (more on this later) and then taken out an interest only loan to buy the property without it being secured against the property if, for example Nige, guaranteed it, or another contact guaranteed it.
They likely have no concept of it being their “forever home” so it’s not like they want to buy so that they can retire in their home they have paid off in sunny Clacton, they just need to service it for the period they need it.
Once it’s served it’s use they sell it off and it’s effectively been a rental (possibly more expensive than a mortgage but no long term plans for it).
It allows them to demonstrate “commitment” to the constituency by “buying” but it’s not really a long term purchase.
So, back to her family, there is nothing to have stopped Nigel or a contact to gift her family some money. Then her family decide to give the “deposit” to her and so company x lends her 65/75% ltv and she’s just paying the interest. It doesn’t have to even be her because on a private mortgage or loan as long as the lender knows they will get the interest they aren’t going to care.
So technically she has bought a home in the constituency. Her family has helped her buy it with their money technically, there is likely nothing legally wrong with this and likely legally nothing that is tax avoidance.
It’s an expensive way of doing things but cheap if it allows Nigel to suggest to low IQ voters that he has a home in their community.
He doesn’t need to lie to a lender, he doesn’t have to juggle the first v second home issue, he’s going to make a fortune if not already over the period so very few lenders will see him failing with a guarantee.
It might not sit right with people but the point of this scenario is that he can do this without breaking any laws or rules regardless of his partner’s actual wealth/family wealth and on a technicality he can say “my partner bought this house with the help of family money”.
This is of course a made up situation that might be miles away from the truth but people seem to be trying to equate what Rayner did with his situation and there are so many alternative options that I don’t think that Farage and his background/contacts wouldn’t have the planning help and savvy to make it work.
Rayner failed to take expert legal advice and found herself liable for tax that she could have morally and legally avoided, then tried to cover up her mistake.
What you're outlining is a complicated, and probably entirely unnecessary, arrangement that would be likely to set off money-laundering sirens at all the law firms involved.
You clearly have a higher opinion of expensive law firms than I do.
No you're right, ordinary people who need a mortgage have to account for every penny of their deposit and get any relative who'd gifted them money towards the deposit to put in writing that they don't have a claim on the property. While people buying for cash just leave it up to the law firms' as to whether they're asked to prove source of funds, though Nige is a PEP so they'd be a bit reckless if they didn't ask him*. Law Society guidance on lack of curiosity https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Topics/Anti-money-laundering/Guides/source-of-funds-clean-or-consistent-with-risk
*hence a PEP might prefer someone else to make the purchase
A lot of chat on the last thread on Farage’s other half buying the house in Clacton and “how could she afford the mortgage”/“how could her parents afford the mortgage”.
Slightly playing devil’s advocate it’s potentially very easy. She doesn’t have a mortgage.* this is all bollocks if he’s said she has a mortgage btw.
Funnily enough she doesn’t need a mortgage. I know loads of people who do private lending on property. If it’s someone who might be of use, good potential financially in the future or any other upside it’s very easy if you know the right companies and private lenders for her to have got a lump from her family (more on this later) and then taken out an interest only loan to buy the property without it being secured against the property if, for example Nige, guaranteed it, or another contact guaranteed it.
They likely have no concept of it being their “forever home” so it’s not like they want to buy so that they can retire in their home they have paid off in sunny Clacton, they just need to service it for the period they need it.
Once it’s served it’s use they sell it off and it’s effectively been a rental (possibly more expensive than a mortgage but no long term plans for it).
It allows them to demonstrate “commitment” to the constituency by “buying” but it’s not really a long term purchase.
So, back to her family, there is nothing to have stopped Nigel or a contact to gift her family some money. Then her family decide to give the “deposit” to her and so company x lends her 65/75% ltv and she’s just paying the interest. It doesn’t have to even be her because on a private mortgage or loan as long as the lender knows they will get the interest they aren’t going to care.
So technically she has bought a home in the constituency. Her family has helped her buy it with their money technically, there is likely nothing legally wrong with this and likely legally nothing that is tax avoidance.
It’s an expensive way of doing things but cheap if it allows Nigel to suggest to low IQ voters that he has a home in their community.
He doesn’t need to lie to a lender, he doesn’t have to juggle the first v second home issue, he’s going to make a fortune if not already over the period so very few lenders will see him failing with a guarantee.
It might not sit right with people but the point of this scenario is that he can do this without breaking any laws or rules regardless of his partner’s actual wealth/family wealth and on a technicality he can say “my partner bought this house with the help of family money”.
This is of course a made up situation that might be miles away from the truth but people seem to be trying to equate what Rayner did with his situation and there are so many alternative options that I don’t think that Farage and his background/contacts wouldn’t have the planning help and savvy to make it work.
Rayner failed to take expert legal advice and found herself liable for tax that she could have morally and legally avoided, then tried to cover up her mistake.
What you're outlining is a complicated, and probably entirely unnecessary, arrangement that would be likely to set off money-laundering sirens at all the law firms involved.
You clearly have a higher opinion of expensive law firms than I do.
No you're right, ordinary people who need a mortgage have to account for every penny of their deposit and get any relative who'd gifted them money towards the deposit to put in writing that they don't have a claim on the property. While people buying for cash just leave it up to the law firms' as to whether they're asked to prove source of funds, though Nige is a PEP so they'd be a bit reckless if they didn't ask him*. Law Society guidance on lack of curiosity https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Topics/Anti-money-laundering/Guides/source-of-funds-clean-or-consistent-with-risk
*hence a PEP might prefer someone else to make the purchase
I think you are on to something here.
Farage may have not been avoiding Stamp Duty but rather avoiding scrutiny as to the source of his funds.
I don’t know why he needed to spend so much on a house in his constituency. He could have bought one for well under £100,000 in Jaywick, and would probably have supporters as neighbours.
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Indeed. He needs previously apolitical figures, not failed Tory career politicians.
For as bad a week Starmer is having, is actually the two most loosest cannons he has lost.
Mandelson is down beyond a low lying fruit, the type of fruit that just drops off without need for picking. Certainly not a scalp for anyone. He’s basically scalped himself. Again.
Also Rayners resignation comes with side benefits - where Starmer has dodged a bullet not having to have Rayner behind desk of a big ministry in his cabinet, trying to deliver key promise of 1.5M homes, that’s just not her political Forte, and she was failing it big time, over a third short. There’s a question how much lasting damage has been done to Starmer and Labour with Mandleson gone so quickly. And how much further both resignation story’s can run as media story.
In fact, I can’t 100% rule out Rayner was actually done by Number 10. Can you?
An astute post. (except for the conspiracy theory at the end) Henry Moore when asked how he carved a horse out of a piece of marble said you just cut off the bits that don't look like a horse and I think a political team is the same. A group without Mandy and Rayner looks more like a team than one with them and as you said for all her appeal I wouln't think building houses is her forte or being honest is Mandy's
A funny couple of statements from Labour and the Lib Dem’s; Farage hasn’t had plenty to say about nor spent days attacking others tax arrangements
Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: "There are now far too many unanswered questions about the house he stays in while in Clacton. "He must urgently come clean with the public as to whether he financially contributed towards the purchase of this property or if he has any financial interest in it. "Misleading the public for political gain about buying a constituency home is appalling in itself. "But if he deliberately put in place this arrangement to avoid paying his fair share of tax that would be even worse. "Farage has had plenty to say about other people's tax affairs recently, so it's only right that he provides evidence to prove he has told the full story here. It's the least the British public would expect." Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney said: "Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer over this. "After spending days attacking others over their tax arrangements he now needs to be frank and honest about his own."
One wouldn’t want to be Ambassador to the U.S. for one’s self, but if one’s friends and colleagues felt it was the best outcome for the country then one would have to reluctantly accept the role.
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Indeed. He needs previously apolitical figures, not failed Tory career politicians.
Yes I think too many high profile Tories moving over will end up backfiring on Reform.
One wouldn’t want to be Ambassador to the U.S. for one’s self, but if one’s friends and colleagues felt it was the best outcome for the country then one would have to reluctantly accept the role.
Not at all. This one would politely decline.
Having to deal with that Orange Fuckwit? Why would anyone with a brain?
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
Even some of the sensible [2024] intake are saying 'it's curtains' for Keir one MP tells the I paper
Andy Burnham new 'Mainstream' movement says Starmer is running a 'narrow and brittle political project '
Be careful what you wish for. Burnham has spent the last 15 years honing his incompetent t*** political operative persona into an apparently competent t*** political operative persona.
Anyway we are all rooting for the dream team of Farage and Jenrick.
Even some of the sensible [2024] intake are saying 'it's curtains' for Keir one MP tells the I paper
Andy Burnham new 'Mainstream' movement says Starmer is running a 'narrow and brittle political project '
Be careful what you wish for. Burnham has spent the last 15 years honing his incompetent t*** political operative persona into an apparently competent t*** political operative persona.
Anyway we are all rooting for the dream team of Farage and Jenrick.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
What matters career-wise depends on the person’s previous comments on such matters and general image.
If Bernard Manning told a racist joke in the 80s, he wouldn’t lose his following or any gigs, because it was factored in. If Ben Elton did, he’d have gone against everything his act depended on, looked a hypocrite, and lost work
Even some of the sensible [2024] intake are saying 'it's curtains' for Keir one MP tells the I paper
Andy Burnham new 'Mainstream' movement says Starmer is running a 'narrow and brittle political project '
Be careful what you wish for. Burnham has spent the last 15 years honing his incompetent t*** political operative persona into an apparently competent t*** political operative persona.
Anyway we are all rooting for the dream team of Farage and Jenrick.
He has been a very good mayor for Manchester
Different job, though. And the smaller scale probably means that whoever is doing the job has a better chance of suceeding in it. Being a British PM increasingly looks impossible for anyone to do.
There was a pretty good Mayor of London a while back. He wanted to be Prime Minister, got the job and turned out to be an utter disaster.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
In fact, no left wing politician has ever broken any laws nor behaved in any ethical way whatsoever, while anyone to the right of Rory Stewart is just beastly and irredeemable.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
In fact, no left wing politician has ever broken any laws nor behaved in any ethical way whatsoever, while anyone to the right of Rory Stewart is just beastly and irredeemable.
Wasn't it scared an angry before this too? Morerer scared and angry, possibly.
Yes, but it was disturbing. I was not as affected by the death, because he was an American and I'm British. So I regretted his death and pronounced my sympathies in a polite and sincere manner: he did not deserve to die in that way. But having watched that Unherd video I was disquieted at the visceral nature of it. Two observations about the Very Online Right is i) they feel things viscerally and are quick to anger/fear, and ii) there aren't any borders any more. Sayers is a Brit, but shared in the grief of the American interviewees as part of one tribe or family. I don't work like that so although I can analyse the emotion and empathise with it, I cannot share it in the same way. @Leon or his predecessor was correct: people live online these days.
I think I would fared badly in the studio. My instinct would be to say to wait for more info before taking precipitate action but that would not have gone down well. A better approach would have been to empathise with their loss, but would I have thought of it in time? I doubt it.
I hate the 2020s.
Kirk hated empathy. "New Age word which has done a lot of damage." So to empathise would be performatively cruel.
Unempathetic PB Tories often wheel out the Darwin awards. For example, three young people from around here who crashed and died on the Brecon Beacons three days after the driver had passed his driving test were awarded Darwin awards from PBers. I was offended.
Well Mr Kirk's acknowledgement that a few people dying each day of gunshot wounds is a price worth paying to protect the second amendment is surely worthy of a Darwin award.
I think you're confusing sympalthy with empathy. I don't think you can empathise with a dead man.
Anyway, in important news, Bolsonaro has been found guilty of treason and seems likely to spend the rest of his life inside.
SCOTUS, please note how the rule of law operates.
I totally agree with you... although there is a distinguishing feature in that Bolsonaro's attempted coup happened after he was President, while Trump's was before so the protection SCOTUS fashioned for sitting Presidents wouldn't be applicable.
I appreciate it was a dreadful SCOTUS decision, but they were adjudicating the discretion of Presidents, not ex-Presidents.
Trump's coup attempt was before and after
No it was after the election but before the Jan 20 handover
Even some of the sensible [2024] intake are saying 'it's curtains' for Keir one MP tells the I paper
Andy Burnham new 'Mainstream' movement says Starmer is running a 'narrow and brittle political project '
Be careful what you wish for. Burnham has spent the last 15 years honing his incompetent t*** political operative persona into an apparently competent t*** political operative persona.
Anyway we are all rooting for the dream team of Farage and Jenrick.
He has been a very good mayor for Manchester
That's because he is very well-advised by the public sector functionaries of Greater Manchester. Ministers don't have that advantage.
A lot of chat on the last thread on Farage’s other half buying the house in Clacton and “how could she afford the mortgage”/“how could her parents afford the mortgage”.
Slightly playing devil’s advocate it’s potentially very easy. She doesn’t have a mortgage.* this is all bollocks if he’s said she has a mortgage btw.
Funnily enough she doesn’t need a mortgage. I know loads of people who do private lending on property. If it’s someone who might be of use, good potential financially in the future or any other upside it’s very easy if you know the right companies and private lenders for her to have got a lump from her family (more on this later) and then taken out an interest only loan to buy the property without it being secured against the property if, for example Nige, guaranteed it, or another contact guaranteed it.
They likely have no concept of it being their “forever home” so it’s not like they want to buy so that they can retire in their home they have paid off in sunny Clacton, they just need to service it for the period they need it.
Once it’s served it’s use they sell it off and it’s effectively been a rental (possibly more expensive than a mortgage but no long term plans for it).
It allows them to demonstrate “commitment” to the constituency by “buying” but it’s not really a long term purchase.
So, back to her family, there is nothing to have stopped Nigel or a contact to gift her family some money. Then her family decide to give the “deposit” to her and so company x lends her 65/75% ltv and she’s just paying the interest. It doesn’t have to even be her because on a private mortgage or loan as long as the lender knows they will get the interest they aren’t going to care.
So technically she has bought a home in the constituency. Her family has helped her buy it with their money technically, there is likely nothing legally wrong with this and likely legally nothing that is tax avoidance.
It’s an expensive way of doing things but cheap if it allows Nigel to suggest to low IQ voters that he has a home in their community.
He doesn’t need to lie to a lender, he doesn’t have to juggle the first v second home issue, he’s going to make a fortune if not already over the period so very few lenders will see him failing with a guarantee.
It might not sit right with people but the point of this scenario is that he can do this without breaking any laws or rules regardless of his partner’s actual wealth/family wealth and on a technicality he can say “my partner bought this house with the help of family money”.
This is of course a made up situation that might be miles away from the truth but people seem to be trying to equate what Rayner did with his situation and there are so many alternative options that I don’t think that Farage and his background/contacts wouldn’t have the planning help and savvy to make it work.
So basically spivdom.
Whatever people want to call it he’s likely to have access to people and companies who can do similar to the above and it breaks no rules or laws. I might be wildly wrong and he gets his arse handed to him but the hope that he gets shafted like Rayner is reaching.
and if he cant explain to the man in the clapham omnibus where the money came from.....
Nigel bought a second home but didn't pay stamp duty because he bought it in his girlfriend's name.
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Indeed. He needs previously apolitical figures, not failed Tory career politicians.
Yes I think too many high profile Tories moving over will end up backfiring on Reform.
Indeed, then Reform would basically be the Rightwing Thatcherite Tories party, with the remaining Tories the One Nation wing and AdvanceUK would take over as the hard right nationalist party
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America. Sad day for his family, but a man I have never heard of being killed in a country famed for gun violence didn’t really register for me.
However, I’m clearly the odd one out.
Not at all. I'm very interested in American politics and had never heard of Charlie Kirk until yesterday.
There is only one perfect candidate to be the next US Ambassador, and it is George Osborne.
Why not Johnson? A comedy Ambassador for a comedy administration.
Or if we wanted to troll Trump, Sadiq Khan.
Another PB says that George Osborne was telling people that he was the second choice after Mandelson. Which is pretty funny if it's true.
George Osborne seems surprisingly adept at being offered jobs.
GO is a prime example of how far a clipped public school accent can take you. A total empty suit.
George Osborne remains one of the most politically underated but astute politicians of his generation. He ran David Cameron's leadership campaign, he also recognised the possibility of a hung Parliament and opened negotiations with the Libdems before the 2010 GE while Brown's team were completely caught out. I also believe that he was Michael Howard's first choice when he resigned and announced that lengthy Conservative Leadership contest where David Davis was the nailed on favourite. But he realised that he would not be a popular choice within the party or with the electorate and he also recognised that David Cameron was the right man to fight the contest from their wing of the party.
He was also an incredible loyal wingman that helped the Cameron premiership steer through the challenges of a Coalition government for five years before going onto win the 2015 GE, he also made Gove get rid of Dominic Cummings when he was Education Minister and he fell out with May's two closest special advisers who then both fell on their swords after that disasterous 2017 GE campaign. So he was far from being an empty suit.
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Indeed. He needs previously apolitical figures, not failed Tory career politicians.
Yes I think too many high profile Tories moving over will end up backfiring on Reform.
Indeed, then Reform would basically be the Rightwing Thatcherite Tories party, with the remaining Tories the One Nation wing and AdvanceUK would take over as the hard right nationalist party
There are still some very nasty populust right wingers jockeying for position in the event of Badenoch falling over. Get rid of them and you might have your party back.
Is it obvious that he’d be a worse PM than Starmer or Badenoch? I don’t see it. He looks more articulate and intelligent than either of them - and by a distance
The big mental block with Reform is that it remains a one man band. If Farage attracts great candidates as Chancellor and ForSec in waiting, I think he could be pushing towards 40%. That’s a really big if still.
Agreed. I think nigel could be a pretty good PM - far better than the dross we have been recently served, by both parties, BUT he desperately needs some capable lieutenants. Tice and Co don’t cut it
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Bozo of the wave is kryptonite . Reform would be mad to accept him .
Indeed. He needs previously apolitical figures, not failed Tory career politicians.
Yes I think too many high profile Tories moving over will end up backfiring on Reform.
Indeed, then Reform would basically be the Rightwing Thatcherite Tories party, with the remaining Tories the One Nation wing and AdvanceUK would take over as the hard right nationalist party
There are still some very nasty populust right wingers jockeying for position in the event of Badenoch falling over. Get rid of them and you might have your party back.
Problem is with FPTP you need them in the Tory tent for the party to win a majority, only with PR could the Tories win even reasonable numbers of MPs without the uber Thatcherite and nationalist right
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America. Sad day for his family, but a man I have never heard of being killed in a country famed for gun violence didn’t really register for me.
However, I’m clearly the odd one out.
Not at all. I'm very interested in American politics and had never heard of Charlie Kirk until yesterday.
Conservatives have gained Wilmslow in Cheshire East from Residents which means the Labour led coalition loses its majority on Cheshire East council. Figs to follow
Wilmslow Lacey Green (Cheshire East) Council By-Election Result:
On topic as part of the electorate for this race, I think this question risks creating a polling mirage. If Yougov had polled me with that list of options I suppose I would have picked something as "fairly important" but nothing on that list is what I'll be voting on.
The issues for me are "are they any good at politics" and "who has the fewest houses".
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
Radiohead have condemned ticket resale sites and “exploitative” touts who use them after more than 1,000 potentially fraudulent tickets for the band’s upcoming tour were advertised online before they had even gone on sale.
Radiohead have condemned ticket resale sites and “exploitative” touts who use them after more than 1,000 potentially fraudulent tickets for the band’s upcoming tour were advertised online before they had even gone on sale.
Radiohead have condemned ticket resale sites and “exploitative” touts who use them after more than 1,000 potentially fraudulent tickets for the band’s upcoming tour were advertised online before they had even gone on sale.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Seen some ferocious discussion Online about dating at work. US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret." UK WTAF you say?
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
The fundamentals of the UK are radically different from the USA, and our geostrategic interests, while they have intersected, are not identical.
When Acheson said in the 1950s "Great Britain has lost an Empire and still not found a role", this was not merely an observation, but an act of policy. The USA, from the end of the Second World War has acted to reduce British autonomy- most obviously at Suez, but also in such things as our "independent" nuclear deterrent. Macmillan believed that Britain should be "Greece to America's Rome", and most of the British establishment went along with it. From a British point of view NATO was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down. However, from an American view, NATO also kept the Brits in line too.
Since the end of the Cold war, the US has been pivoting away from Europe, and with the advent of Trump this trend is getting faster and messier. Authoritarians like Farage are drinking the American Kool-aid, but the economic policies of Trump will lead to a permanent weakening of American power. Maintaining the American alliance is now an extremely open question. Were it not for the threat of Russia, that discussion would now be far more advanced than it is. Nevertheless, Trump's failure to counter Russian aggression requires us to do it ourselves and better to do that without an at best ambivalent, at worst treacherous, ally.
Britain now truly needs to find a role, and being an off-shore sub-colony of the unreliable, transactional American Empire is not a sustainable position. There needs to be a much greater sense of national awareness- but equally we need to rediscover our global partnerships. CANZUK is one circle, the wider European political community another. As for the US- while we have seen sinister McCarthyism before, the neo-fascism of Trump is fraying old ties faster that they can be repaired. Farage helped push us out from the EU, I very much doubt that he can push us into the US, indeed, the need for much closer ties with the EU is obvious to all and is slowly beginning to happpen.
In the last six months, the US-UK trade has fallen, routine intelligence sharing suspended, after the CIA leaks and the soft influence of the US in the UK has crash dived. Worse is to come, so we better get prepared. Even post Trump, the trust has gone, so nothing will be as it was.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
What matters career-wise depends on the person’s previous comments on such matters and general image.
If Bernard Manning told a racist joke in the 80s, he wouldn’t lose his following or any gigs, because it was factored in. If Ben Elton did, he’d have gone against everything his act depended on, looked a hypocrite, and lost work
Jimmy Carr was asked recently if people ever get offended at his shows.
He replied that while there were sometimes a few reluctant parters dragged along, when you’ve been headlining events for more nearly two decades, and your name is on the ticket, the people there kinda know what to expect.
Which is true., if I want to take my parents to a comedy show I’ll choose Michael McIntyre not Jimmy Carr.
I wouldn't believe a word Starmer or his acolytes say about anything. His judgement is suspect and I'm not even sure how long he's going to remain in place. Labour needs a big reset. People who voted Labour didn't vote for genocide in Israel or to fawn over an American President who probably should be in jail. If anyone thinks we left the EU to get closer to Trump's America they're insane.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Seen some ferocious discussion Online about dating at work. US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret." UK WTAF you say?
Morning, PB.
US Puritanism is very strong in both the Left and Right sides, and we are unfortunately already a long way down the road of importing it. Scandinavia is a better model for both progressed and unhypocritical relations.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Seen some ferocious discussion Online about dating at work. US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret." UK WTAF you say?
I met my wife at our work and have been together for 63 years
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
What matters career-wise depends on the person’s previous comments on such matters and general image.
If Bernard Manning told a racist joke in the 80s, he wouldn’t lose his following or any gigs, because it was factored in. If Ben Elton did, he’d have gone against everything his act depended on, looked a hypocrite, and lost work
Jimmy Carr was asked recently if people ever get offended at his shows.
He replied that while there were sometimes a few reluctant parters dragged along, when you’ve been headlining events for more nearly two decades, and your name is on the ticket, the people there kinda know what to expect.
Which is true., if I want to take my parents to a comedy show I’ll choose Michael McIntyre not Jimmy Carr.
Michael McIntyre is also a lot funnier than Jimmy Carr. Although Peter Kay, Stewart Lee or Omid Djalili would be my comedy gigs of choice.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
The left are also sometimes guilty of casually assuming Britain and America are basically culturally the same. The language of the BLM protests in 2020 seemed to infer armed British police casually shooting black suspects was commonplace. And I have seen it puzzlingly implied that slave ownership was common in Victorian Britain. And the changes to the abortion limit were a needless attempt to import a culture war we have managed quite well without.
Wasn't it scared an angry before this too? Morerer scared and angry, possibly.
Yes, but it was disturbing. I was not as affected by the death, because he was an American and I'm British. So I regretted his death and pronounced my sympathies in a polite and sincere manner: he did not deserve to die in that way. But having watched that Unherd video I was disquieted at the visceral nature of it. Two observations about the Very Online Right is i) they feel things viscerally and are quick to anger/fear, and ii) there aren't any borders any more. Sayers is a Brit, but shared in the grief of the American interviewees as part of one tribe or family. I don't work like that so although I can analyse the emotion and empathise with it, I cannot share it in the same way. @Leon or his predecessor was correct: people live online these days.
I think I would fared badly in the studio. My instinct would be to say to wait for more info before taking precipitate action but that would not have gone down well. A better approach would have been to empathise with their loss, but would I have thought of it in time? I doubt it.
I hate the 2020s.
Kirk hated empathy. "New Age word which has done a lot of damage." So to empathise would be performatively cruel.
I have a bit of sympathy with Kirk's view on empathy (even if I don't with a lot of his nonsense).
I'm not totally sure I feel empathy very often as such. When something awful has happened to a friend, I very much feel sympathy... but possibly it is a bit of a show off move to suggest I'm experiencing the same emotions as them... in honesty, I'm probably not. I do worry that the performative aspect is a bit damaging.
I kind of agree, but performative horribleness, the default mode of so many nowadays and epitomised by Kirk, is much more damaging
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Seen some ferocious discussion Online about dating at work. US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret." UK WTAF you say?
Morning, PB.
US Puritanism is very strong in both the Left and Right sides, and we are unfortunately already a long way down the road of importing it. Scandinavia is a better model for both progressed and unhypocritical relations.
Modern laws on sexual harassment in the workplace are widespread through out Europe.
I wouldn't believe a word Starmer or his acolytes say about anything. His judgement is suspect and I'm not even sure how long he's going to remain in place. Labour needs a big reset. People who voted Labour didn't vote for genocide in Israel or to fawn over an American President who probably should be in jail. If anyone thinks we left the EU to get closer to Trump's America they're insane.
I have been very uncomfortable with Starmer fawning over Trump and the state visit which was ridiculous, but also EU leaders and Mark Rutte of NATO virtually kneeling before him
Where is their pride and as far as Brexit is concerned it does not need to be isolation from the EU but at the same time a trading agreement between the EU and the TPPA would draw together a large trading block that the US is not part of
Radiohead have condemned ticket resale sites and “exploitative” touts who use them after more than 1,000 potentially fraudulent tickets for the band’s upcoming tour were advertised online before they had even gone on sale.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Seen some ferocious discussion Online about dating at work. US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret." UK WTAF you say?
Morning, PB.
US Puritanism is very strong in both the Left and Right sides, and we are unfortunately already a long way down the road of importing it. Scandinavia is a better model for both progressed and unhypocritical relations.
Modern laws on sexual harassment in the workplace are widespread through out Europe.
That's not the point I'm making. The U.S. is gradually embracing a climate of extreme anxiety regarding all sexuality witb currents from both left and right, that Is not shared in Europe.
Depictions of sex are greatly reducing, and in fact gradually disappearing from mainstream Anerican television and film, while it sinultaneously has an enormous and thriving subculture of degraded and brutalised porn, that has influenced the whole world. That is the definition of Puritan hypocrisy, at its most unbalanced and damaging.
Who honestly gives a fuck about Nigel’s mortgage in Clacton?
Fact is the nation needs him and want him as prime minister. We all love him on this site - which is quite striking given the disparate views of Pb
Let’s just have an election and put him into number 10. Get it done. And pipe down about all this mortgage stuff. NO ONE CARES
As John Rentoul said, Farage has never been sanctimonious about other people's tax affairs, so could bat away anyone delving into his without being compromised politically in the way Rayner was. It doesn't matter.
Farage literally said a few days ago that Rayner had to go over an underpayment of stamp duty that was almost identical to his own apparent underpayment.
What matters is whether it’s lawful, or not. Not whether someone has structured their affairs to minimise their tax bill.
Not at all. Public opinion is the judge ofb politicians. Mandy didn't break any law. indeed neither did Angela.
What matters career-wise depends on the person’s previous comments on such matters and general image.
If Bernard Manning told a racist joke in the 80s, he wouldn’t lose his following or any gigs, because it was factored in. If Ben Elton did, he’d have gone against everything his act depended on, looked a hypocrite, and lost work
Jimmy Carr was asked recently if people ever get offended at his shows.
He replied that while there were sometimes a few reluctant parters dragged along, when you’ve been headlining events for more nearly two decades, and your name is on the ticket, the people there kinda know what to expect.
Which is true., if I want to take my parents to a comedy show I’ll choose Michael McIntyre not Jimmy Carr.
Michael McIntyre is also a lot funnier than Jimmy Carr. Although Peter Kay, Stewart Lee or Omid Djalili would be my comedy gigs of choice.
Writing ‘clean’ comedy is difficult, because you’re deliberately restricting yourself by removing many words and phrases that are inherently funny.
The real trick is to leave a few jokes that the parents of the kids in the audience will get, but the kids won’t, without making it too much of a smutty innuendo.
I wouldn't believe a word Starmer or his acolytes say about anything. His judgement is suspect and I'm not even sure how long he's going to remain in place. Labour needs a big reset. People who voted Labour didn't vote for genocide in Israel or to fawn over an American President who probably should be in jail. If anyone thinks we left the EU to get closer to Trump's America they're insane.
I have been very uncomfortable with Starmer fawning over Trump and the state visit which was ridiculous, but also EU leaders and Mark Rutte of NATO virtually kneeling before him
Where is their pride and as far as Brexit is concerned it does not need to be isolation from the EU but at the same time a trading agreement between the EU and the TPPA would draw together a large trading block that the US is not part of
We need to be in it and at the heart of it. It's the only way we can prosper and more importantly get rid of our total subservience to the US.
I've always felt a loyalty varying from strong to reasonably weak for Labour but I realised this morning that I haven't got it anymore. I looked at the local results and didn't care less. The only thing that might keep me and others like me on board is a greater loathing of Fatrage.
Finally some release from the daily bucket of shit.
“Nearly 60%”
Nah.
It’s 40-60% gross mortality and when you adjust for underlying health conditions (these are very sick patients) the best study (in Alberta) was only 18.1% attributable mortality.
I have never understood why so many British people get so animated about events in America.
Because America is our largest trading partner, military and intelligence ally and foreign investor and the world's economic, military and cultural superpower and what happens there often happens here eventually, from political correctness and the current reaction against it to supermarkets to fast food to the Internet to saying "passing" instead of "dying" for some reason. Not always - thank God Prohibition and loose gun laws have never stood a chance here and attempts to hook us on American sports have mostly failed, but overwhelmingly it's our largest foreign source of inspiration.
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
But to an extent, that's a circular argument. America is a massive cultural influence on us because we watch it so closely. The downside is that many aspects of the British Question can't be answered by taking inspiration from our former colonies across the Atlantic. (Take the right's fracking obsession; just because it works there doesn't mean it works here.)
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
The fundamentals of the UK are radically different from the USA, and our geostrategic interests, while they have intersected, are not identical.
When Acheson said in the 1950s "Great Britain has lost an Empire and still not found a role", this was not merely an observation, but an act of policy. The USA, from the end of the Second World War has acted to reduce British autonomy- most obviously at Suez, but also in such things as our "independent" nuclear deterrent. Macmillan believed that Britain should be "Greece to America's Rome", and most of the British establishment went along with it. From a British point of view NATO was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down. However, from an American view, NATO also kept the Brits in line too.
Since the end of the Cold war, the US has been pivoting away from Europe, and with the advent of Trump this trend is getting faster and messier. Authoritarians like Farage are drinking the American Kool-aid, but the economic policies of Trump will lead to a permanent weakening of American power. Maintaining the American alliance is now an extremely open question. Were it not for the threat of Russia, that discussion would now be far more advanced than it is. Nevertheless, Trump's failure to counter Russian aggression requires us to do it ourselves and better to do that without an at best ambivalent, at worst treacherous, ally.
Britain now truly needs to find a role, and being an off-shore sub-colony of the unreliable, transactional American Empire is not a sustainable position. There needs to be a much greater sense of national awareness- but equally we need to rediscover our global partnerships. CANZUK is one circle, the wider European political community another. As for the US- while we have seen sinister McCarthyism before, the neo-fascism of Trump is fraying old ties faster that they can be repaired. Farage helped push us out from the EU, I very much doubt that he can push us into the US, indeed, the need for much closer ties with the EU is obvious to all and is slowly beginning to happpen.
In the last six months, the US-UK trade has fallen, routine intelligence sharing suspended, after the CIA leaks and the soft influence of the US in the UK has crash dived. Worse is to come, so we better get prepared. Even post Trump, the trust has gone, so nothing will be as it was.
Excellent post, @Cicero. Worthy of being a thread header.
On the video of the Utah roof guy, he's carrying a long thin bag. I'm no rifle expert but aren't they designed to be broken down easily into a few components?
Comments
Braverman and even Boris might help. It’s time for all
Us Brits to unite around Nigel
Although I am genuinely hoping that Labour don't have a Johnson figure in their midst.
Angela Rayner for Ambassador!
Even some of the sensible [2024] intake are saying 'it's curtains' for Keir one MP tells the I paper
Andy Burnham new 'Mainstream' movement says Starmer is running a 'narrow and brittle political project '
Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: "There are now far too many unanswered questions about the house he stays in while in Clacton.
"He must urgently come clean with the public as to whether he financially contributed towards the purchase of this property or if he has any financial interest in it.
"Misleading the public for political gain about buying a constituency home is appalling in itself.
"But if he deliberately put in place this arrangement to avoid paying his fair share of tax that would be even worse.
"Farage has had plenty to say about other people's tax affairs recently, so it's only right that he provides evidence to prove he has told the full story here. It's the least the British public would expect."
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney said: "Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer over this.
"After spending days attacking others over their tax arrangements he now needs to be frank and honest about his own."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce845w70g0yo
It looks like several takes stuck together to me, rather than AI, but that in itself is not great. Definitely some kind of morph at 18 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q1N6Akpz9c
Anyway we are all rooting for the dream team of Farage and Jenrick.
If Bernard Manning told a racist joke in the 80s, he wouldn’t lose his following or any gigs, because it was factored in. If Ben Elton did, he’d have gone against everything his act depended on, looked a hypocrite, and lost work
There was a pretty good Mayor of London a while back. He wanted to be Prime Minister, got the job and turned out to be an utter disaster.
Whatever happened to him?
Though both are more cerebral and capable than Rayner
Do you really think the law's such an ass?
Newmarket East (West Suffolk) Council By-Election Result:
➡️ RFM: 29.7% (New)
🌳 CON: 25.0% (+4.1)
🔶 LDM: 17.2% (-3.1)
🌹 LAB: 15.3% (-8.3)
🌍 GRN: 12.8% (New)
No WSI (-19.2) or Ind (-16.1) as previous.
Reform GAIN from Labour.
He was also an incredible loyal wingman that helped the Cameron premiership steer through the challenges of a Coalition government for five years before going onto win the 2015 GE, he also made Gove get rid of Dominic Cummings when he was Education Minister and he fell out with May's two closest special advisers who then both fell on their swords after that disasterous 2017 GE campaign. So he was far from being an empty suit.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/george-osborne-shares-record-70m-145726913.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACEYED-IsXRmMpA2D1ueCJH6d6ZLjZYWOZJBfDXoZFnXXxG6OdHyfUKLEJhHDmJa-g4xyHFshDeeXBI1twx6K2LFXc7JNSESgp0Be0zSy-XUGSp5oyGl7xpdAE9sozmITdV9Bb8JcV6DH0x7jLx6Hfi50lXOby64-pyXHIMYw9Et
https://xcancel.com/scrowder/status/1966118431511433267#m
➡️ RFM: 823,
🔵 CON: 559,
🔴 LAB: 532,
🟢 GRN: 416,
🔶 LDM: 339"
Ref 30.84% [new]
Con 20.94% [+1.34]
Lab 19.93% [-4.19]
Grn 15.59% [new]
LD 12.70% [+0.17]
No Ind (previously 43.75%)
➡️ RFM: 45.0% (+31.3)
🌳 CON: 43.1% (-24.1)
🌍 GRN: 4.7% (New)
🌹 LAB: 4.6% (-14.5)
🔶 LDM: 2.7% (New)
Reform GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2024.
Ref Con having some tight fights! Ref winning them
Wilmslow Lacey Green (Cheshire East) Council By-Election Result:
🌳 CON: 29.8% (-8.4)
🌹 LAB: 24.2% (New)
🏘️ RoW: 17.3% (-30.2)
➡️ RFM: 23.2% (New)
🌍 GRN: 5.4% (New)
No LDM (-14.2) as previous.
Conservative GAIN from Residents of Wilmslow.
Changes w/ 2023.
Con 370
Ref UK 288
Lab 300
Residents 215
Grn 67
Con 29.84% [-8.37]
Lab 24.19% [new]
Ref 23.23% [new]
Residents 17.34% [-30.21]
Grn 5.40% [new]
No LD [previously 14.24%]
Ref 729
PC 657
Con 445
Lab 414
Grn 85
Ref 31.29% [new]
PC 28.20% [+10.10]
Con 19.10% [-10.18]
Lab 17.77% [-22.69]
Grn 3.65% [-8.52]
Ref gain from Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_QV8t-ywjo&t=397s
C.auris, which typically spreads in healthcare facilities, kills nearly 60 per cent of people who contract it within 90 days
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/drug-resistant-fungus-spreads-rapidly-in-european-hospitals/ (£££)
The issues for me are "are they any good at politics" and "who has the fewest houses".
No other country comes close to the influence it has on us.
It makes perfect sense for anyone who cares about these things to follow American affairs closely.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/12/radiohead-condemn-exploitative-touts-and-resale-sites-ahead-of-tour
People are voluntarily paying to see Radiohead live, and at a steep markup, madness, absolute madness.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/177WtfnRs-M
https://www.madness.co.uk/hitparade/
Mr Mushroom Shaped is Not Happy.
I maintain that the sort-of shared language is giving us a very false steer on how similar we are.
Interesting from the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/12/uk-rejoining-eu-european-union-membership-nick-thomas-symonds?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
US opinion "Don't ever do it. One of you will be fired. It's impossible to keep secret."
UK WTAF you say?
When Acheson said in the 1950s "Great Britain has lost an Empire and still not found a role", this was not merely an observation, but an act of policy. The USA, from the end of the Second World War has acted to reduce British autonomy- most obviously at Suez, but also in such things as our "independent" nuclear deterrent. Macmillan believed that Britain should be "Greece to America's Rome", and most of the British establishment went along with it. From a British point of view NATO was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down. However, from an American view, NATO also kept the Brits in line too.
Since the end of the Cold war, the US has been pivoting away from Europe, and with the advent of Trump this trend is getting faster and messier. Authoritarians like Farage are drinking the American Kool-aid, but the economic policies of Trump will lead to a permanent weakening of American power. Maintaining the American alliance is now an extremely open question. Were it not for the threat of Russia, that discussion would now be far more advanced than it is. Nevertheless, Trump's failure to counter Russian aggression requires us to do it ourselves and better to do that without an at best ambivalent, at worst treacherous, ally.
Britain now truly needs to find a role, and being an off-shore sub-colony of the unreliable, transactional American Empire is not a sustainable position. There needs to be a much greater sense of national awareness- but equally we need to rediscover our global partnerships. CANZUK is one circle, the wider European political community another. As for the US- while we have seen sinister McCarthyism before, the neo-fascism of Trump is fraying old ties faster that they can be repaired. Farage helped push us out from the EU, I very much doubt that he can push us into the US, indeed, the need for much closer ties with the EU is obvious to all and is slowly beginning to happpen.
In the last six months, the US-UK trade has fallen, routine intelligence sharing suspended, after the CIA leaks and the soft influence of the US in the UK has crash dived. Worse is to come, so we better get prepared. Even post Trump, the trust has gone, so nothing will be as it was.
He replied that while there were sometimes a few reluctant parters dragged along, when you’ve been headlining events for more nearly two decades, and your name is on the ticket, the people there kinda know what to expect.
Which is true., if I want to take my parents to a comedy show I’ll choose Michael McIntyre not Jimmy Carr.
US Puritanism is very strong in both the Left and Right sides, and we are unfortunately already a long way down the road of importing it. Scandinavia is a better model for both progressed and unhypocritical relations.
Where is their pride and as far as Brexit is concerned it does not need to be isolation from the EU but at the same time a trading agreement between the EU and the TPPA would draw together a large trading block that the US is not part of
BREAKING: Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine
NEW THREAD
Depictions of sex are greatly reducing, and in fact gradually disappearing from mainstream Anerican television and film, while it sinultaneously has an enormous and thriving subculture of degraded and brutalised porn, that has influenced the whole world. That is the definition of Puritan hypocrisy, at its most unbalanced and damaging.
The real trick is to leave a few jokes that the parents of the kids in the audience will get, but the kids won’t, without making it too much of a smutty innuendo.
I've always felt a loyalty varying from strong to reasonably weak for Labour but I realised this morning that I haven't got it anymore. I looked at the local results and didn't care less. The only thing that might keep me and others like me on board is a greater loathing of Fatrage.
Nah.
It’s 40-60% gross mortality and when you adjust for underlying health conditions (these are very sick patients) the best study (in Alberta) was only 18.1% attributable mortality.
They are advertising on TV in the Seattle area, which is not cheap, so they are profitable, have a lot of investment money to burn, or both.
(Full disclosure: I rather like their ads, which show a diverse group of American workers.)