I've told this story before but my late father was on a jury. 2 complainers, both young children. One of them absolutely crystal. The other just all over the place as a result of drugs and self harm. Totally unreliable. Corroboration came from each other and Scots law requires corroboration. The jury found the second NG and the first NP because they wanted to make clear they totally believed the girl but they could not convict without corroboration.
I think that there is a role for it and I say it as a prosecutor. The onus of proof is on the Crown. If we cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt then not proven is the correct verdict. Personally, if we had to choose, I would abolish NG.
The quid pro quo of this is that rather than needing 8 votes for guilty out of 15 I will now need 10. Let's just say that I am glad I am not facing that hurdle in the case where the Jury will decide tomorrow.
For a minute I wondered if I was also on that jury, but we went one level higher with one guilty verdict.
I've told this story before but my late father was on a jury. 2 complainers, both young children. One of them absolutely crystal. The other just all over the place as a result of drugs and self harm. Totally unreliable. Corroboration came from each other and Scots law requires corroboration. The jury found the second NG and the first NP because they wanted to make clear they totally believed the girl but they could not convict without corroboration.
I think that there is a role for it and I say it as a prosecutor. The onus of proof is on the Crown. If we cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt then not proven is the correct verdict. Personally, if we had to choose, I would abolish NG.
The quid pro quo of this is that rather than needing 8 votes for guilty out of 15 I will now need 10. Let's just say that I am glad I am not facing that hurdle in the case where the Jury will decide tomorrow.
Surely as a prosecutor you're trying to abolish both NG and NP?
I know you are joking but absolutely not. I genuinely believe that we prosecute in the public interest. As I say in every speech it is not in the public interest that innocent people are found as guilty. My own view is that, if anything, changes in the recent years have changed the balance too far in favour of the Crown but that, of course, is not the party line I am obliged to put forward in my work.
Then why do you want to abolish Not Guilty verdicts?!!!!
I have to say I was taken aback as that was not my impression of you...
Because I think that the accused should be found not proven if we fail to prove it to the requisite standard. That is the reality of what we do. Not guilty makes it sound as if they have been proven to be innocent. That is not the case in the vast majority of cases. They have not been proven to be guilty.
We have to wear our ID on a lanyard when in the office.
But the advice is to remove it before leaving in case somebody who doesn't like the company twats you.
Our office security passes are now available as an app on your phone. So no lanyard or physical pass needed at all.
This was helpful in reducing the number of items I carry with me to three: phone, headphones and keys. Albeit today I forgot my keys.
Hm. Is it a work phone? No way I'm letting my employer install software on my phone. "Install this app" is the curse of modern life. On a laptop, there is exactly one app I need: sone sort of web explorer. I don't see why doing anything on a phone should carry the expectation that I install a new piece of software.
Utility privatisation has been a miserable failure both for the consumer and the country. Capital investment wss crushed, and a large proportion of the dividends go overseas.
I am a believed in market economics, but the utilities simply aren't subject to genuine competition.
Time to get a grip (and Milliband is probably the last person I'd choose to do so).
That's economically illilterate from the Guardian, as accounting doesn't work like that.
It's entirely possible to have lots of profits and for investment to exceed those profits.
Yes, but you can't invest what you pay out in dividends.
That's not necessarily true. Plenty of companies will have profits of 100, investment of 120, and dividends of 40.
Every £ of dividend is a £ not spent on something else. That's what I mean.
That pound has to go somewhere. Dividends thus seen should be an excellent way of recycling capital. Kinabalu buys shares in XYZ, company swells tenfold and pays a 10% dividend, and then you can invest in ABC conglomerates. Magic.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
On Ed Miliband I see he is endorsing Lucy Powell no doubt still smarting from Starmer wanting to demote him
With EdM and Burnham behind her what could go wrong?
Lucy Powell is likely to win the contest and Miliband backing her is a blow to Starmer as he is very much the members favourite Labour politician and has the influence
Nonce news
Last week Starmer nearly lost his job for knocking about with a mate of Epstein. Today he's not only been hanging about with another mate of Epstein and the brother of an Epstein chum.
How many Not Proven verdicts are there? And does this mean that it will be abolished before any Sturgeon trial? I thought they rather liked it.
Random Factoid.
There is a brand of wind turbines called Proven. If they went bust they would be Not Proven. Wonderfully, the founder was called Gordon Proven.
They are Scottish, so the cutoff wind speed (when it stops itself to avoid damage) is about 160mph, rather than the more normal 60mph.
Tut, Ms Sturgeon has not been charged, you'd better amend that name.
Carefully phrased to include the possibility of no trial .
But also to include the possibility of a trial, which has been ruled out (cos [edit] no charges). Unless you claim to know something we don't? Not fair on OGH.
If that's a "no charges will be made" determination (I had not thought we were that far along), then I withdraw the statement.
We can't have TSE locked up in the deepest dungeon of Edinburgh Castle.
Oh, it was months and months ago that the police said she was no longer under investigation and would face no charges - March, on checking.
ps I really liked the hi-speed wind turbine. V. sensible.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers on the flight.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
On Ed Miliband I see he is endorsing Lucy Powell no doubt still smarting from Starmer wanting to demote him
With EdM and Burnham behind her what could go wrong?
Lucy Powell is likely to win the contest and Miliband backing her is a blow to Starmer as he is very much the members favourite Labour politician and has the influence
Yes, yes, I know. Miliband the denser and Burnham the serial disappointer wouldn't be my first choices as backers though. Quite why Powell is letting these and others pontificate while she actually does the hard work of getting elected as deputy leader escapes me.
Labour's biggest curse is the left, but their next biggest curse is that they have aspirational and foolish opportunists like the undynamic duo above.
Why do you think that Burnham is so popular in Manchester ?
What causes that ?
Honestly I don't know. I've no insights into Manchester politics. I'd presume he's perceived as doing a good job. However Mayors are odd beasts - Khan isn't doing a good job in London, and yet he has very strong support.
EdM and Burnham are, like a very long list of politicians, to be avoided in great office.
I've told this story before but my late father was on a jury. 2 complainers, both young children. One of them absolutely crystal. The other just all over the place as a result of drugs and self harm. Totally unreliable. Corroboration came from each other and Scots law requires corroboration. The jury found the second NG and the first NP because they wanted to make clear they totally believed the girl but they could not convict without corroboration.
I think that there is a role for it and I say it as a prosecutor. The onus of proof is on the Crown. If we cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt then not proven is the correct verdict. Personally, if we had to choose, I would abolish NG.
The quid pro quo of this is that rather than needing 8 votes for guilty out of 15 I will now need 10. Let's just say that I am glad I am not facing that hurdle in the case where the Jury will decide tomorrow.
Surely as a prosecutor you're trying to abolish both NG and NP?
I know you are joking but absolutely not. I genuinely believe that we prosecute in the public interest. As I say in every speech it is not in the public interest that innocent people are found as guilty. My own view is that, if anything, changes in the recent years have changed the balance too far in favour of the Crown but that, of course, is not the party line I am obliged to put forward in my work.
Then why do you want to abolish Not Guilty verdicts?!!!!
I have to say I was taken aback as that was not my impression of you...
Because I think that the accused should be found not proven if we fail to prove it to the requisite standard. That is the reality of what we do. Not guilty makes it sound as if they have been proven to be innocent. That is not the case in the vast majority of cases. They have not been proven to be guilty.
If you abolish Not Guilty then you have to abolish Guilty in favour of Proven.
So the verdicts would become either Proven or Not Proven.
This is correct because Not Guilty may not mean that the accused didn't do it and Guilty may not mean that he/she actually did do it.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers..
As I posted yesterday from Rentoul it's a bloody PILOT scheme.
The point is to work out how to do it so there aren't empty flights.
Reform councillor walks out of local council meeting because they didnt acknowledge the death of a US political figure. Odd. Its Torfaen council, why would they?
Indication though of what a Reform government is going to like and driven by. It is UK's Trump 2.0 and it is going to be disaster for this country and its institutions and all those dancing around in joyful anticipation of Nigel as PM are profoundly wrong.
As much as we love our centrist Dads here, my thoughts on Reform are they will drift back as they drive away the Centre Right Grandpas and Grandmas
How Reform plan to win and how Reform will govern are two separate questions. Neither has a clear answer and both should be issues for intense journalistic scrutiny.
The second question is more important. Assuming we can put on one side a Reform government going Trumpian and seeking to prevent further free and fair elections (and IMO we can dismiss that) then the probability is that they will govern in such a way as to try to win a subsequent election in 4/5 years time. This imposes a very considerable limit on what they can do. They will continue to need the votes of people who rely on pensions, low inflation, NHS, housing including social housing, free education, not having a series of fiscal/debt crises, the welfare state and a reasonable supply of jobs provided by someone else. (Try asking the people of Clacton what they want in addition to fewer brown faces).
This describes a high spend and high tax society in a social democracy. This is possible to do with fairly tightly closed borders, as is clearly Reform's policy. I suggest this (underneath all sorts of evasive rhetoric) is exactly what they will try to do.
Whether it can be done is a question for Reform to answer, but not only Reform.
I remain somewhat sceptical of this analysis.
Firstly, Farage admires Trump. He still admires Trump while Trump is busy dismantling democratic norms in the US. This suggests to me that Farage would, given the opportunity, do just as much to dismantle democratic norms.
Reform UK may well "continue to need the votes of people who rely on pensions, low inflation, NHS" etc. But that doesn't mean they won't enact policies counter to those voters' interests. The point is that they've drunk their own Kool-Aid. They believe that their policies will work. They won't, but as long they believe they'll work, they'll still introduce them. And if it looks like they aren't working, they'll just stop publishing the statistics that say that, as Trump has.
Your analysis that satisfying their voters' expectations will require "a high spend and high tax society in a social democracy" is correct, but that doesn't mean Reform will aim for that. Plenty of radical right populists have gotten into power and enacted stupid policies counter to their voters' interests (e.g., Trump, Erdoğan, Milei... and perhaps one could include Putin too). Some radical right populists have bent to reality more (Meloni?), so is Farage more a Trump or a Meloni?
Lol.
Millei has done more for his people than any Argentine politician in living memory....
The recent Buenos Aries elections suggest that much of the Argentinian electorate don't share that view.
Parish council elections. I don't think they'll make much difference.
CentristDadism is over, as evidenced by the failure of Sunak, the failure of Biden, the failure of repeated French govts etc etc
Millei-esque politics will IMO end up being elected or imposed upon us here, as the burden of debt and entitlements continues to drag down our country.
They are not parish council elections. They are the highest level of election below the national parliament. The electorate is about 50% of the full Argentine electorate. Milei's party underperformed polls. The Argentine peso notably sank after the result precisely because it was a bad result for Milei.
The world is not divided between radical right politicians like Milei and CentristDadism. Don't be silly. Radical right parties have had success and failures. They advanced in the recent Norwegian general election, but lost the election to the centre-left. They fell back in Poland in June, losing to a centrist. The centre-left also won in South Korea that month. And so on.
The UK economy is nothing like the Argentinian one and Milei-esque politics are not going to be needed or wanted.
And it's Milei, one 'l'. If you're going to hero-worship the guy, learn to spell his name.
Oh do get a sense of humour - the parish council jibe is a reference to local elections long used here and elsewhere.
I didn't say it the world was divided between the failed Social Dadocracy and Milleism - but that I suspect the latter will likely imposed upon us if we don't vote for it first, by the IMF
The idea that we are going to have to go to IMF is some weird sexual fantasy that some on the right have, a throwback to the 1970s, with very little basis in the modern world. It's like thinking that a new Carry On film would be a big success.
It has *literally* been mooted by serious economists
Just because the lanyard class know they'll be the first for the job cuts, they tend to stick their fingers in their ears about it.
What would the IMF be providing - that’s the flaw in the IMF argument that no one answers so please tell us?
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
On Ed Miliband I see he is endorsing Lucy Powell no doubt still smarting from Starmer wanting to demote him
With EdM and Burnham behind her what could go wrong?
Lucy Powell is likely to win the contest and Miliband backing her is a blow to Starmer as he is very much the members favourite Labour politician and has the influence
Yes, yes, I know. Miliband the denser and Burnham the serial disappointer wouldn't be my first choices as backers though. Quite why Powell is letting these and others pontificate while she actually does the hard work of getting elected as deputy leader escapes me.
Labour's biggest curse is the left, but their next biggest curse is that they have aspirational and foolish opportunists like the undynamic duo above.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
On Ed Miliband I see he is endorsing Lucy Powell no doubt still smarting from Starmer wanting to demote him
With EdM and Burnham behind her what could go wrong?
Lucy Powell is likely to win the contest and Miliband backing her is a blow to Starmer as he is very much the members favourite Labour politician and has the influence
Yes, yes, I know. Miliband the denser and Burnham the serial disappointer wouldn't be my first choices as backers though. Quite why Powell is letting these and others pontificate while she actually does the hard work of getting elected as deputy leader escapes me.
Labour's biggest curse is the left, but their next biggest curse is that they have aspirational and foolish opportunists like the undynamic duo above.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
When did you last go and stay in Paris?
In my case less than a week ago and it was buzzing.
Reform councillor walks out of local council meeting because they didnt acknowledge the death of a US political figure. Odd. Its Torfaen council, why would they?
Indication though of what a Reform government is going to like and driven by. It is UK's Trump 2.0 and it is going to be disaster for this country and its institutions and all those dancing around in joyful anticipation of Nigel as PM are profoundly wrong.
As much as we love our centrist Dads here, my thoughts on Reform are they will drift back as they drive away the Centre Right Grandpas and Grandmas
How Reform plan to win and how Reform will govern are two separate questions. Neither has a clear answer and both should be issues for intense journalistic scrutiny.
The second question is more important. Assuming we can put on one side a Reform government going Trumpian and seeking to prevent further free and fair elections (and IMO we can dismiss that) then the probability is that they will govern in such a way as to try to win a subsequent election in 4/5 years time. This imposes a very considerable limit on what they can do. They will continue to need the votes of people who rely on pensions, low inflation, NHS, housing including social housing, free education, not having a series of fiscal/debt crises, the welfare state and a reasonable supply of jobs provided by someone else. (Try asking the people of Clacton what they want in addition to fewer brown faces).
This describes a high spend and high tax society in a social democracy. This is possible to do with fairly tightly closed borders, as is clearly Reform's policy. I suggest this (underneath all sorts of evasive rhetoric) is exactly what they will try to do.
Whether it can be done is a question for Reform to answer, but not only Reform.
I remain somewhat sceptical of this analysis.
Firstly, Farage admires Trump. He still admires Trump while Trump is busy dismantling democratic norms in the US. This suggests to me that Farage would, given the opportunity, do just as much to dismantle democratic norms.
Reform UK may well "continue to need the votes of people who rely on pensions, low inflation, NHS" etc. But that doesn't mean they won't enact policies counter to those voters' interests. The point is that they've drunk their own Kool-Aid. They believe that their policies will work. They won't, but as long they believe they'll work, they'll still introduce them. And if it looks like they aren't working, they'll just stop publishing the statistics that say that, as Trump has.
Your analysis that satisfying their voters' expectations will require "a high spend and high tax society in a social democracy" is correct, but that doesn't mean Reform will aim for that. Plenty of radical right populists have gotten into power and enacted stupid policies counter to their voters' interests (e.g., Trump, Erdoğan, Milei... and perhaps one could include Putin too). Some radical right populists have bent to reality more (Meloni?), so is Farage more a Trump or a Meloni?
Lol.
Millei has done more for his people than any Argentine politician in living memory....
The recent Buenos Aries elections suggest that much of the Argentinian electorate don't share that view.
Parish council elections. I don't think they'll make much difference.
CentristDadism is over, as evidenced by the failure of Sunak, the failure of Biden, the failure of repeated French govts etc etc
Millei-esque politics will IMO end up being elected or imposed upon us here, as the burden of debt and entitlements continues to drag down our country.
They are not parish council elections. They are the highest level of election below the national parliament. The electorate is about 50% of the full Argentine electorate. Milei's party underperformed polls. The Argentine peso notably sank after the result precisely because it was a bad result for Milei.
The world is not divided between radical right politicians like Milei and CentristDadism. Don't be silly. Radical right parties have had success and failures. They advanced in the recent Norwegian general election, but lost the election to the centre-left. They fell back in Poland in June, losing to a centrist. The centre-left also won in South Korea that month. And so on.
The UK economy is nothing like the Argentinian one and Milei-esque politics are not going to be needed or wanted.
And it's Milei, one 'l'. If you're going to hero-worship the guy, learn to spell his name.
Oh do get a sense of humour - the parish council jibe is a reference to local elections long used here and elsewhere.
I didn't say it the world was divided between the failed Social Dadocracy and Milleism - but that I suspect the latter will likely imposed upon us if we don't vote for it first, by the IMF
The idea that we are going to have to go to IMF is some weird sexual fantasy that some on the right have, a throwback to the 1970s, with very little basis in the modern world. It's like thinking that a new Carry On film would be a big success.
It has *literally* been mooted by serious economists
Just because the lanyard class know they'll be the first for the job cuts, they tend to stick their fingers in their ears about it.
I wear a lanyard to work. Everybody who works in an office wears a lanyard to work. That's millions of people.
Doesn't change the fact that lanyards ought to be abolished completely.
We've replaced lanyards with employee tattoos. The embedded QR codes enable employees access appropriate areas using door scanners and to pay for things in the company canteen.
It's been a big success, plus it's a real opportunity for employees to show loyalty.
Pah, this is the way to do it as shown by Scottish coal mine and saltings operators (nowadays the corporate logo would be in colour):
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers on the flight.
How long before the first "we never get to fly on a nice airline- do they get free tea and crossaints?" moan piece?
Make them suffer like the rest of us. Get them tickets on Ryanair.
Off thread, but I'm now hearing rather more concrete rumours that Burnham is putting in place plans to get back to parliament.
He is by far their best chance, I think. That said, I think he benefits greatly from a lot of people projecting their hopes onto him. Hes been a popular mayor of a Labour city. That counts for something, but being PM at this particularly difficult time is something completely different.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers on the flight.
How long before the first "we never get to fly on a nice airline- do they get free tea and crossaints?" moan piece?
Make them suffer like the rest of us. Get them tickets on Ryanair.
Too much risk they'd be thrown off for having a bag 1cm too long.
Off thread, but I'm now hearing rather more concrete rumours that Burnham is putting in place plans to get back to parliament.
There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Yes. Though - to bend a metaphor - it is very hard to kniw when that tide is as the flood. And the path for Burnham to get to PM seems remarkably narrow, and the prize for getting there seems slight. Neither the current nor the previous incumbent seemed to enjoy themselves massively. Still, people who go into politics are different.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
Yes that can be a good option. And the passenger lounge at St Pancras is far too small and a hell hole.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers..
As I posted yesterday from Rentoul it's a bloody PILOT scheme.
The point is to work out how to do it so there aren't empty flights.
You can google Starmer mocking Sunak re Rwanda for only managing to send four “volunteers” to Rwanda which it can be argued equally was also at the stage a pilot scheme.
So if Starmer wants to come out and say, “I would like to apologise to Rishi Sunak and the Tories for my mockery and condescension of their Rwanda scheme, I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to surpass legal obstacles to get a new and untried plan to remove illegal migrants” then that would be nice.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
For me, rightly or wrongly, he comes across with a childlike simplicity about the problems of the world and the solutions.
His zealotry about net zero to the cost of the country is a massive problem for me - he is either misguided and doesn’t realise the damage he is doing to create a tiny effect on global emissions at the expense of the country or he does and it’s more important to stand there in the positive glow of awards from people who won’t really feel the effects personally and be able to proudly announce we are the forst country to achieve net zero, sorry you are all freezing.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
I very much wish he’d won the 2015 election, in hindsight. So there is that.
Don't worry - Reform can't win them all (and of course they don't).
Most interesting for me is the contest in Plaistow South in my patch of Newham. Six candidates but it's essentially a two horse race between Labour and the Newham Independents. The candidate for the Indpendents has been on quite the journey having been a Conservative candidate and stood as such alongside the current Conservative candidate in 2018.
That adds a little nuance to this contest - Labour lost Plaistow North to the Newham Independents in November 2023 despite putting up a separate spoiler candidate. However, in the four by elections since the GE (two held on GE day), Labour has held the Newham Independents at bay. In Forest Gate and Maryland, the Newham Independents and Greens split the anti Labour vote allowing Labour to get home quite easily.
Two weeks after the GE, in Beckton and Little Ilford, the Newham Independents polled over 30% in both contests but won neither - another spoiler candidate probably cost them Little Ilford.
I think the Newham Independents will win Plaistow South - if they don't, Labour will feel confident of holding the council and the Mayoralty next year despite Newham Council probably matching the national Government in approval numbers. A big win for the Independents and cat will be enjoying afternoon tea with pigeons. The disastrous Fiaz era is coming to an end but a charismatic Independent candidate could yet win the Mayoral election even if overall Council control is probably well beyond them at this time.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
Because he's a LABOUR MP?
Not a lot wrong with being that!
Maybe some of us occasionally think if he hadn't stood against his brother and 'flashed some knicker' at the unions during the contest as we used to say in the north west, then we would still be in the EU and this would be very very different country.
But then again maybe none of that would have happened.
Off thread, but I'm now hearing rather more concrete rumours that Burnham is putting in place plans to get back to parliament.
He is by far their best chance, I think. That said, I think he benefits greatly from a lot of people projecting their hopes onto him. Hes been a popular mayor of a Labour city. That counts for something, but being PM at this particularly difficult time is something completely different.
That's the key thing. At the moment, he's popular because he doesn't really have to do anything unpopular. As they are right now, that's the advantage of being a Mayor.
(And I think the last time he was put in the position of doing something right but unpopular, which I think was the clean air zone, he ran away from it. Sadiq Khan, to his credit, didn't, and my local Conservative councillor here in Romford has acknowledged that it has worked.)
Apart from reducing the gap between stimulus and response (Starmer tends to say the right thing, but 48 hours too late), what is Burnham going to do better?
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
For me, rightly or wrongly, he comes across with a childlike simplicity about the problems of the world and the solutions.
His zealotry about net zero to the cost of the country is a massive problem for me - he is either misguided and doesn’t realise the damage he is doing to create a tiny effect on global emissions at the expense of the country or he does and it’s more important to stand there in the positive glow of awards from people who won’t really feel the effects personally and be able to proudly announce we are the forst country to achieve net zero, sorry you are all freezing.
Evenimg PB.
There was nothing simple about his original green growth plan, which he worked on for five years, and which was supported by many economists.
Had Starner''s government not taken the very foolish decision to ditch it, it might well already have started to boost both the economy, and the government's own fortunes, by now.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
Because he's a LABOUR MP?
Not a lot wrong with being that!
His dad was a commie - or more precisely a Marxist. Our site-companions complained bitterly about that, as I recall. Edit: at least in the 2015 election era. Not so much this time round.
I think it was MaxPB that was tipping Kate Lam for future Tory leader. Looks like she is starting down the route of doing the right wing podcast circuit.
I don’t know what a significant section of this site’s membership has against Ed Miiliband. The Edstone was a massive “clunk” but otherwise he seems to me a reasonable sort bloke.
Because he's a LABOUR MP?
Not a lot wrong with being that!
Maybe some of us occasionally think if he hadn't stood against his brother and 'flashed some knicker' at the unions during the contest as we used to say in the north west, then we would still be in the EU and this would be very very different country.
But then again maybe none of that would have happened.
Historical counter factual are fun.
My wife absolutely loathes him above almost any other MP, for the way he stood against his brother in 2010. As an only child it didn't particularly strike me, but she was astonished that anyone could stitch up a sibling like that.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
What's the point of the flights taking off if they have no passengers?
They are scheduled flights.. Not just asylum seekers..
As I posted yesterday from Rentoul it's a bloody PILOT scheme.
The point is to work out how to do it so there aren't empty flights.
You can google Starmer mocking Sunak re Rwanda for only managing to send four “volunteers” to Rwanda which it can be argued equally was also at the stage a pilot scheme.
So if Starmer wants to come out and say, “I would like to apologise to Rishi Sunak and the Tories for my mockery and condescension of their Rwanda scheme, I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to surpass legal obstacles to get a new and untried plan to remove illegal migrants” then that would be nice.
Labour cabinet members are too busy apologising for all the grief they gave Tories for Trump's first state visit... aren't they?
Off thread, but I'm now hearing rather more concrete rumours that Burnham is putting in place plans to get back to parliament.
He is by far their best chance, I think. That said, I think he benefits greatly from a lot of people projecting their hopes onto him. Hes been a popular mayor of a Labour city. That counts for something, but being PM at this particularly difficult time is something completely different.
That's the key thing. At the moment, he's popular because he doesn't really have to do anything unpopular. As they are right now, that's the advantage of being a Mayor.
(And I think the last time he was put in the position of doing something right but unpopular, which I think was the clean air zone, he ran away from it. Sadiq Khan, to his credit, didn't, and my local Conservative councillor here in Romford has acknowledged that it has worked.)
Apart from reducing the gap between stimulus and response (Starmer tends to say the right thing, but 48 hours too late), what is Burnham going to do better?
Utility privatisation has been a miserable failure both for the consumer and the country. Capital investment wss crushed, and a large proportion of the dividends go overseas.
I am a believed in market economics, but the utilities simply aren't subject to genuine competition.
Time to get a grip (and Milliband is probably the last person I'd choose to do so).
Indeed, I always thought utilities should make less profit due to less risk, so a couple of percent above what interest you could get depositing cash
But companies don't aim for the profit they should make. Their duty is to make as much as they can get away with.
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
When did you last go and stay in Paris?
In my case less than a week ago and it was buzzing.
I went earlier and it was fab. Perhaps people go with preconceptions?
Don't worry - Reform can't win them all (and of course they don't).
Most interesting for me is the contest in Plaistow South in my patch of Newham. Six candidates but it's essentially a two horse race between Labour and the Newham Independents. The candidate for the Indpendents has been on quite the journey having been a Conservative candidate and stood as such alongside the current Conservative candidate in 2018.
That adds a little nuance to this contest - Labour lost Plaistow North to the Newham Independents in November 2023 despite putting up a separate spoiler candidate. However, in the four by elections since the GE (two held on GE day), Labour has held the Newham Independents at bay. In Forest Gate and Maryland, the Newham Independents and Greens split the anti Labour vote allowing Labour to get home quite easily.
Two weeks after the GE, in Beckton and Little Ilford, the Newham Independents polled over 30% in both contests but won neither - another spoiler candidate probably cost them Little Ilford.
I think the Newham Independents will win Plaistow South - if they don't, Labour will feel confident of holding the council and the Mayoralty next year despite Newham Council probably matching the national Government in approval numbers. A big win for the Independents and cat will be enjoying afternoon tea with pigeons. The disastrous Fiaz era is coming to an end but a charismatic Independent candidate could yet win the Mayoral election even if overall Council control is probably well beyond them at this time.
Interesting commentary on the Newham election.
My prediction: Newham Ind 37%, Lab 30%, Grn 14%, Ref 11%, LD 4%, Con 4%
I think it was MaxPB that was tipping Kate Lam for future Tory leader. Looks like she is starting down the route of doing the right wing podcast circuit.
I think it was MaxPB that was tipping Kate Lam for future Tory leader. Looks like she is starting down the route of doing the right wing podcast circuit.
Utility privatisation has been a miserable failure both for the consumer and the country. Capital investment wss crushed, and a large proportion of the dividends go overseas.
I am a believed in market economics, but the utilities simply aren't subject to genuine competition.
Time to get a grip (and Milliband is probably the last person I'd choose to do so).
Indeed, I always thought utilities should make less profit due to less risk, so a couple of percent above what interest you could get depositing cash
But companies don't aim for the profit they should make. Their duty is to make as much as they can get away with.
Utilities are regulated to ROCE not margin anyway
Technically, isn't it return on regulated asset base?
More deportation flights planned for Labour's ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard. And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
This is an absolute joke
Good on the judges for blocking these flights. Who in their right mind could support deporting them to that war-torn hellscape is beyond me.
Quite. France is a hell hole for migrants according to the aid agencies etc.
A country like that is a failed state. A failed state with oil.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking, children?
Frankly I'm horrified! And am glad the flights have been stopped, it's inexcusable. They should use the tunnel or ferries.
It is a very odd decision why they must fly people back to France.
It increases the cost to benefit ratio and so makes it easier to attack as pointless.
They are trying to get the people away from Calais, and Paris is likely where the French want them being sent to. Both make planes the preferred choice
I am not sure commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris are easier than using Eurostar, are they?
If you were serious, couldn't you also just have a dedicated coach on the back of the Eurostar for those being deported, so you don't even need to worry about how to deal possible issues around public safety (or public being twats and causing a scene to stop the flight, as they have in the past).
Clearly you’ve never been on a Eurostar nor near Gare du Nord recently. Airports are built for this type of thing, St Pancras not so much
Paris...By train....god no...I've been to Paris, its a shit hole full of rude French people....And Gare du Nord in particular is shitty of shit holes.
More seriously, I haven't used the Eurostar in donkey years. I don't have any real reason to.
It does go to Brussels, which is considerably more fun and only an hour from some nice Belgian towns and cities
Don't tell Ed Miliband, but I prefer flying from smaller airports with only carry on....if you go on the first flights out in the morning, I find I can arrive an hour before my flight, walk straight through the security as very quiet at say 4am and at the other end straight out the door in a few minutes. Even from Heathrow if you get the first flights out can still be very quiet.
On Ed Miliband I see he is endorsing Lucy Powell no doubt still smarting from Starmer wanting to demote him
With EdM and Burnham behind her what could go wrong?
Lucy Powell is likely to win the contest and Miliband backing her is a blow to Starmer as he is very much the members favourite Labour politician and has the influence
Yes, yes, I know. Miliband the denser and Burnham the serial disappointer wouldn't be my first choices as backers though. Quite why Powell is letting these and others pontificate while she actually does the hard work of getting elected as deputy leader escapes me.
Labour's biggest curse is the left, but their next biggest curse is that they have aspirational and foolish opportunists like the undynamic duo above.
Actually there have been complaints about Powell's coverage focussing on her male backers rather than the woman herself.
Utility privatisation has been a miserable failure both for the consumer and the country. Capital investment wss crushed, and a large proportion of the dividends go overseas.
I am a believed in market economics, but the utilities simply aren't subject to genuine competition.
Time to get a grip (and Milliband is probably the last person I'd choose to do so).
Indeed, I always thought utilities should make less profit due to less risk, so a couple of percent above what interest you could get depositing cash
But companies don't aim for the profit they should make. Their duty is to make as much as they can get away with.
Utilities are regulated to ROCE not margin anyway
Technically, isn't it return on regulated asset base?
Apols to @SandyRentool for digging out an old post (from 26th July 2022!):
"BTW, have you done the Northallerton avoiding lines and the York avoider? Both now have scheduled passenger trains over them."
I'm sure I mentioned I did the York avoider back in January, the same day I did Ashington, but today I did the Northallerton avoider (northbound), on the direct LNER King's Cross to Middlesbrough.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Social media must have picked up a lot of the slack from canvassing etc, so it makes sense that Indy's with good insta/X/facebook game can do better nowadays
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Social media must have picked up a lot of the slack from canvassing etc, so it makes sense that Indy's with good insta/X/facebook game can do better nowadays
Adam had a pretty effective ground game too. Considering that he was a fairly unknown optometrist, it was all from scratch. There were lots of posters up, but must have been a lot on Social Media. I thought he would get a decent share, but didn't expect him to win.
I don't know what the deal with her is but Melania sure is as cool as fuck.
The most beautiful First Lady in the era of photography?
Probably. Even more beatiful than Jackie K Onassis (who was very very lovely)
Not even close. I mean, bloody hell.
Not even close… which way?
Probably answered with my edit but Jackie Kennedy in 1963 was 34 and could have been a professional model. Melania Trump is currently 55 and seems to hide under her hat the entire time, possibly from her husband. She's a good looking woman for her age no doubt but you are not comparing like with like.
Well you’ve just answered your own silly point. Melania is still a striking woman - and cool as @TOPPING says - but look at her in her 20s and 30s. Absolutely stunning. A world class beauty
Notably more beautiful than Jackie K (and, as I say, she was herself a 9 peach)
Well you've got eclectic tastes. From a young Jackie K and Melania to Sydney Sweeny.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Social media must have picked up a lot of the slack from canvassing etc, so it makes sense that Indy's with good insta/X/facebook game can do better nowadays
Adam had a pretty effective ground game too. Considering that he was a fairly unknown optometrist, it was all from scratch. There were lots of posters up, but must have been a lot on Social Media. I thought he would get a decent share, but didn't expect him to win.
Most politically-successful eye physician working in Britain since Bashar Al Assad.
I don't know what the deal with her is but Melania sure is as cool as fuck.
The most beautiful First Lady in the era of photography?
Probably. Even more beatiful than Jackie K Onassis (who was very very lovely)
Not even close. I mean, bloody hell.
Not even close… which way?
Probably answered with my edit but Jackie Kennedy in 1963 was 34 and could have been a professional model. Melania Trump is currently 55 and seems to hide under her hat the entire time, possibly from her husband. She's a good looking woman for her age no doubt but you are not comparing like with like.
Well you’ve just answered your own silly point. Melania is still a striking woman - and cool as @TOPPING says - but look at her in her 20s and 30s. Absolutely stunning. A world class beauty
Notably more beautiful than Jackie K (and, as I say, she was herself a 9 peach)
Well you've got eclectic tastes. From a young Jackie K and Melania to Sydney Sweeny.
What a misery would it be to go through life just eating steak frites.
From the comments, Kemi has a lot of admirers. So why is it going so wrong?
Because she’s a Tory at a time when nobody is listening to them.
I am being a little flippant: she has problems with strategy, and for someone so articulate her PMQs game is shocking. She has become leader still too green, I think, and with limited party backing. But a lot of it comes down to the fact that she grasped the poison chalice (or had it thrust upon her), and it would have taken a politician of exceptional skill to drag the Tories back into contention in the current circumstances.
I like Kemi. She had the potential to be interesting, thoughtful, different. She likely won’t get the chance to show much of that, but politics is a cruel game and much of it is being in the right place at the right time - which she isn’t.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state after President Trump has concluded his state visit to the UK in an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident
The prime minister has delayed the announcement until after Trump has left the country due to concerns that the issue risks dominating a press conference on Thursday at Chequers
The US is strongly opposed to official recognition of Palestine and Trump has previously warned that it would serve to reward Hamas
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Social media must have picked up a lot of the slack from canvassing etc, so it makes sense that Indy's with good insta/X/facebook game can do better nowadays
Adam had a pretty effective ground game too. Considering that he was a fairly unknown optometrist, it was all from scratch. There were lots of posters up, but must have been a lot on Social Media. I thought he would get a decent share, but didn't expect him to win.
Most politically-successful eye physician working in Britain since Bashar Al Assad.
A surprising number of countries have been led by Doctors, more than 30 in total. Probably most famous and significant was Sun Yat Sen, but Clemenceau, Hastings Banda* and Leo Varadker are notable too. Of those who didn't make the top spot perhaps David Owen and Ernesto "Che" Guevara stand out. I think all strands of politics are covered.
If called upon, I shall put nation before self (and refuse!)
*Banda was a GP in Merseyside before becoming the first President of Malawi.
Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state after President Trump has concluded his state visit to the UK in an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident
The prime minister has delayed the announcement until after Trump has left the country due to concerns that the issue risks dominating a press conference on Thursday at Chequers
The US is strongly opposed to official recognition of Palestine and Trump has previously warned that it would serve to reward Hamas
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I think the problems arise when the way voters intuitively want the system to work diverges from the way the mechanics of it actually work. I think most people in practice are voting for a party and treat the system as a clunky mechanism for doing so -- and so they are not particularly pleased when they see details of the mechanism used to subvert their intention.
I don't know what the deal with her is but Melania sure is as cool as fuck.
The most beautiful First Lady in the era of photography?
Probably. Even more beatiful than Jackie K Onassis (who was very very lovely)
Not even close. I mean, bloody hell.
Not even close… which way?
Probably answered with my edit but Jackie Kennedy in 1963 was 34 and could have been a professional model. Melania Trump is currently 55 and seems to hide under her hat the entire time, possibly from her husband. She's a good looking woman for her age no doubt but you are not comparing like with like.
Well you’ve just answered your own silly point. Melania is still a striking woman - and cool as @TOPPING says - but look at her in her 20s and 30s. Absolutely stunning. A world class beauty
Notably more beautiful than Jackie K (and, as I say, she was herself a 9 peach)
Well you've got eclectic tastes. From a young Jackie K and Melania to Sydney Sweeny.
Melania in the hat is a strong look - reminiscent of Michael Jackson in Smooth Criminal.
Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state after President Trump has concluded his state visit to the UK in an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident
The prime minister has delayed the announcement until after Trump has left the country due to concerns that the issue risks dominating a press conference on Thursday at Chequers
The US is strongly opposed to official recognition of Palestine and Trump has previously warned that it would serve to reward Hamas
So... Thursday's press conference will just be hack after hack asking Keir "Will you be recognising Palestine this weekend?". Keir will flap his mouth in a vague way, Donald will say something to put Keir in his box. Then nothing much happens. Though Keirs mouth keeps flapping in a vague way?
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Social media must have picked up a lot of the slack from canvassing etc, so it makes sense that Indy's with good insta/X/facebook game can do better nowadays
Adam had a pretty effective ground game too. Considering that he was a fairly unknown optometrist, it was all from scratch. There were lots of posters up, but must have been a lot on Social Media. I thought he would get a decent share, but didn't expect him to win.
Most politically-successful eye physician working in Britain since Bashar Al Assad.
A surprising number of countries have been led by Doctors, more than 30 in total. Probably most famous and significant was Sun Yat Sen, but Clemenceau, Hastings Banda* and Leo Varadker are notable too. Of those who didn't make the top spot perhaps David Owen and Ernesto "Che" Guevara stand out. I think all strands of politics are covered.
If called upon, I shall put nation before self (and refuse!)
*Banda was a GP in Merseyside before becoming the first President of Malawi.
Plus Papa Doc, of course. But not Baby Doc; he was a lawyer.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
I can't remember a GE before this last one where more than a single Independent got elected.
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Wikipedia claims 2005 GE got 2 independents,
Richard Taylor Peter Law
followed by
Dai Davies 2006 (by election)
So there was 3 sitting in third term of Labour government.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
Big Tech to UK, can I interest you in some snake oil....
To be more serious, seems a great business opportunity for Big Tech. Government chunter on about AI without really knowing what they are doing, these helpful gentleman can sell them lots of AI hardware and software....and investors have given particularly OpenAI stupidifying amounts of money to sell AI software as far and wide.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
I can't see Rupert Murdoch boosting growth.
‘A’ growth maybe. Didn’t Dennis Potter call his tumour Rupert?
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
I can't see Rupert Murdoch boosting growth.
I don’t know, if you compare Sam Fox when she started to when she finished.
I don't know what the deal with her is but Melania sure is as cool as fuck.
The most beautiful First Lady in the era of photography?
Probably. Even more beatiful than Jackie K Onassis (who was very very lovely)
Not even close. I mean, bloody hell.
Not even close… which way?
Probably answered with my edit but Jackie Kennedy in 1963 was 34 and could have been a professional model. Melania Trump is currently 55 and seems to hide under her hat the entire time, possibly from her husband. She's a good looking woman for her age no doubt but you are not comparing like with like.
Well you’ve just answered your own silly point. Melania is still a striking woman - and cool as @TOPPING says - but look at her in her 20s and 30s. Absolutely stunning. A world class beauty
Notably more beautiful than Jackie K (and, as I say, she was herself a 9 peach)
Well you've got eclectic tastes. From a young Jackie K and Melania to Sydney Sweeny.
I don't know what the deal with her is but Melania sure is as cool as fuck.
The most beautiful First Lady in the era of photography?
Probably. Even more beatiful than Jackie K Onassis (who was very very lovely)
Not even close. I mean, bloody hell.
Not even close… which way?
Probably answered with my edit but Jackie Kennedy in 1963 was 34 and could have been a professional model. Melania Trump is currently 55 and seems to hide under her hat the entire time, possibly from her husband. She's a good looking woman for her age no doubt but you are not comparing like with like.
Well you’ve just answered your own silly point. Melania is still a striking woman - and cool as @TOPPING says - but look at her in her 20s and 30s. Absolutely stunning. A world class beauty
Notably more beautiful than Jackie K (and, as I say, she was herself a 9 peach)
Well you've got eclectic tastes. From a young Jackie K and Melania to Sydney Sweeny.
Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state after President Trump has concluded his state visit to the UK in an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident
The prime minister has delayed the announcement until after Trump has left the country due to concerns that the issue risks dominating a press conference on Thursday at Chequers
The US is strongly opposed to official recognition of Palestine and Trump has previously warned that it would serve to reward Hamas
So... Thursday's press conference will just be hack after hack asking Keir "Will you be recognising Palestine this weekend?". Keir will flap his mouth in a vague way, Donald will say something to put Keir in his box. Then nothing much happens. Though Keirs mouth keeps flapping in a vague way?
This was a great article on the last Starmer-Trump press conference
A multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement announced to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit represents “sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley”, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former president of global affairs, has said.
The former deputy prime minister said the deals, heralded with great fanfare by the government as it tries to foster growth in the UK, were “mutton dressed as lamb” and would make the country ever more reliant on US tech firms.
“These companies need those infrastructure resources anyway,” he said. “They’re building datacentres all over the world. Maybe they were pushed a bit forward just to meet the timetable with this week’s state visit. But … it’s all one-way traffic.
We have to wear our ID on a lanyard when in the office.
But the advice is to remove it before leaving in case somebody who doesn't like the company twats you.
Our office security passes are now available as an app on your phone. So no lanyard or physical pass needed at all.
This was helpful in reducing the number of items I carry with me to three: phone, headphones and keys. Albeit today I forgot my keys.
Hm. Is it a work phone? No way I'm letting my employer install software on my phone. "Install this app" is the curse of modern life. On a laptop, there is exactly one app I need: sone sort of web explorer. I don't see why doing anything on a phone should carry the expectation that I install a new piece of software.
I got a new computer from work recently. It's so loaded with 'enterprise' apps that I can barely get work done. The anti-virus 'solution' alone has slowed disk access by about 10x. The pre-installed chrome extensions which I can't remove are actually flagged as security issues. And I can't install operating system updates when it's convenient - only when it is 'allowed' in some vague way (I'm guessing someone just gets back to their desk and checks a box somewhere).
So, it's gathering dust on the shelf instead of being used.
Which probably ticks the required enterprise security boxes. So job done I guess.
A multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement announced to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit represents “sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley”, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former president of global affairs, has said.
The former deputy prime minister said the deals, heralded with great fanfare by the government as it tries to foster growth in the UK, were “mutton dressed as lamb” and would make the country ever more reliant on US tech firms.
“These companies need those infrastructure resources anyway,” he said. “They’re building datacentres all over the world. Maybe they were pushed a bit forward just to meet the timetable with this week’s state visit. But … it’s all one-way traffic.
A multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement announced to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit represents “sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley”, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former president of global affairs, has said.
The former deputy prime minister said the deals, heralded with great fanfare by the government as it tries to foster growth in the UK, were “mutton dressed as lamb” and would make the country ever more reliant on US tech firms.
“These companies need those infrastructure resources anyway,” he said. “They’re building datacentres all over the world. Maybe they were pushed a bit forward just to meet the timetable with this week’s state visit. But … it’s all one-way traffic.
“The UK is currently an international outlier in life sciences competitiveness. There is great potential here, but we must see bolder action to address some of these critical factors that influence inward investment decisions,” he said.
This all seemed to start when the government U-Turned on the previous government backing for Astra-Zenca new R&D site all because they asked for £15m more in funding.
Comments
"Install this app" is the curse of modern life. On a laptop, there is exactly one app I need: sone sort of web explorer. I don't see why doing anything on a phone should carry the expectation that I install a new piece of software.
Last week Starmer nearly lost his job for knocking about with a mate of Epstein. Today he's not only been hanging about with another mate of Epstein and the brother of an Epstein chum.
ps I really liked the hi-speed wind turbine. V. sensible.
EdM and Burnham are, like a very long list of politicians, to be avoided in great office.
So the verdicts would become either Proven or Not Proven.
This is correct because Not Guilty may not mean that the accused didn't do it and Guilty may not mean that he/she actually did do it.
The point is to work out how to do it so there aren't empty flights.
“The bad man [imf] made me do it”
I assume you do not live in the north ?
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scottish_serf's_collar_1701.JPG
Make them suffer like the rest of us. Get them tickets on Ryanair.
But, still, we may be fucked as a country but we can still do this stuff in spades.
And the path for Burnham to get to PM seems remarkably narrow, and the prize for getting there seems slight. Neither the current nor the previous incumbent seemed to enjoy themselves massively.
Still, people who go into politics are different.
So if Starmer wants to come out and say, “I would like to apologise to Rishi Sunak and the Tories for my mockery and condescension of their Rwanda scheme, I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to surpass legal obstacles to get a new and untried plan to remove illegal migrants” then that would be nice.
His zealotry about net zero to the cost of the country is a massive problem for me - he is either misguided and doesn’t realise the damage he is doing to create a tiny effect on global emissions at the expense of the country or he does and it’s more important to stand there in the positive glow of awards from people who won’t really feel the effects personally and be able to proudly announce we are the forst country to achieve net zero, sorry you are all freezing.
Most interesting for me is the contest in Plaistow South in my patch of Newham. Six candidates but it's essentially a two horse race between Labour and the Newham Independents. The candidate for the Indpendents has been on quite the journey having been a Conservative candidate and stood as such alongside the current Conservative candidate in 2018.
That adds a little nuance to this contest - Labour lost Plaistow North to the Newham Independents in November 2023 despite putting up a separate spoiler candidate. However, in the four by elections since the GE (two held on GE day), Labour has held the Newham Independents at bay. In Forest Gate and Maryland, the Newham Independents and Greens split the anti Labour vote allowing Labour to get home quite easily.
Two weeks after the GE, in Beckton and Little Ilford, the Newham Independents polled over 30% in both contests but won neither - another spoiler candidate probably cost them Little Ilford.
I think the Newham Independents will win Plaistow South - if they don't, Labour will feel confident of holding the council and the Mayoralty next year despite Newham Council probably matching the national Government in approval numbers. A big win for the Independents and cat will be enjoying afternoon tea with pigeons. The disastrous Fiaz era is coming to an end but a charismatic Independent candidate could yet win the Mayoral election even if overall Council control is probably well beyond them at this time.
But then again maybe none of that would have happened.
Historical counter factual are fun.
(And I think the last time he was put in the position of doing something right but unpopular, which I think was the clean air zone, he ran away from it. Sadiq Khan, to his credit, didn't, and my local Conservative councillor here in Romford has acknowledged that it has worked.)
Apart from reducing the gap between stimulus and response (Starmer tends to say the right thing, but 48 hours too late), what is Burnham going to do better?
There was nothing simple about his original green growth plan, which he worked on for five years, and which was supported by many economists.
Had Starner''s government not taken the very foolish decision to ditch it, it might well already have started to boost both the economy, and the government's own fortunes, by now.
It's important to bear in mind.
On topic, this is a discussion we've had many times before.
I think it depends on whether you think people vote for an individual or a party. If the former, the elected member remains the elected members irrelevant of the rosette he or she wears. If the latter, there is a case for a new election because those who voted for a candidate from a particular party are now being represented by someone belonging to another party.
Our system, I suspect, is predicated on us all voting for an individual rather than a party but to get elected (in modern times), the individual has to belong to a party to call on its money and resources to get elected. Most parties operate some form of closed candidate selection process (though that can often be rudimentary) so in theory (and we see this with council de-selections leading to defections of pique) an elected MP can be deselected by their party and then can decide whether to stand for another party or as an Independent.
Or, heaven forbid, mean it?
My prediction: Newham Ind 37%, Lab 30%, Grn 14%, Ref 11%, LD 4%, Con 4%
Kemi Badenoch
@KemiBadenoch
We’re off to the state banquet!
https://x.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1968373329540313554
How far down the very long table are they?
Guardian
Former tory activist iirc.
I reckon LOTO is about six places down from the real action but I could be way out.
"BTW, have you done the Northallerton avoiding lines and the York avoider? Both now have scheduled passenger trains over them."
I'm sure I mentioned I did the York avoider back in January, the same day I did Ashington, but today I did the Northallerton avoider (northbound), on the direct LNER King's Cross to Middlesbrough.
Some news — Rupert Murdoch will attend tonight’s state dinner at Windsor Castle, amid a major legal battle with President Trump over the WSJ reporting on the Epstein birthday letter. Murdoch will be at the dinner that includes about 160 guests total, per a preview given to reporters. Trump’s lawsuit is not only seeking $20 billion in damages but Murdoch’s testimony.
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1968389940305408400
It's not just the polling that's tolling for the end of the two party system. It seems that they may no longer be needed in areas where there is a strong local candidate.
Shokhat Adam is proving to be a very good MP in Leicester South. I expect that he will hold the seat.
Lol
Realised I hadn't used my quota today.
I am being a little flippant: she has problems with strategy, and for someone so articulate her PMQs game is shocking. She has become leader still too green, I think, and with limited party backing. But a lot of it comes down to the fact that she grasped the poison chalice (or had it thrust upon her), and it would have taken a politician of exceptional skill to drag the Tories back into contention in the current circumstances.
I like Kemi. She had the potential to be interesting, thoughtful, different. She likely won’t get the chance to show much of that, but politics is a cruel game and much of it is being in the right place at the right time - which she isn’t.
From Guardian Blog:
"A number of American business leaders, who accompanied Trump on Air Force One yesterday, are expected to attend tonight’s state banquet as the UK government tries to court investment and boost growth. Among those expected are Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Open AI’s Sam Altman."
Exclusive:
Sir Keir Starmer will this weekend formally recognise Palestine as a state after President Trump has concluded his state visit to the UK in an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident
The prime minister has delayed the announcement until after Trump has left the country due to concerns that the issue risks dominating a press conference on Thursday at Chequers
The US is strongly opposed to official recognition of Palestine and Trump has previously warned that it would serve to reward Hamas
https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1968393078303039840
If called upon, I shall put nation before self (and refuse!)
*Banda was a GP in Merseyside before becoming the first President of Malawi.
Richard Taylor
Peter Law
followed by
Dai Davies 2006 (by election)
So there was 3 sitting in third term of Labour government.
To be more serious, seems a great business opportunity for Big Tech. Government chunter on about AI without really knowing what they are doing, these helpful gentleman can sell them lots of AI hardware and software....and investors have given particularly OpenAI stupidifying amounts of money to sell AI software as far and wide.
Didn’t Dennis Potter call his tumour Rupert?
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/starmer-trump-turnberry-sketch-vpznb368b
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/17/shabana-mahmood-accuses-asylum-seekers-of-making-vexatious-last-minute-claims
Quite a change in tone from when in opposition.
The former deputy prime minister said the deals, heralded with great fanfare by the government as it tries to foster growth in the UK, were “mutton dressed as lamb” and would make the country ever more reliant on US tech firms.
“These companies need those infrastructure resources anyway,” he said. “They’re building datacentres all over the world. Maybe they were pushed a bit forward just to meet the timetable with this week’s state visit. But … it’s all one-way traffic.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/17/nick-clegg-multibillion-dollar-transatlantic-tech-agreement-sloppy-seconds-from-silicon-valley
So, it's gathering dust on the shelf instead of being used.
Which probably ticks the required enterprise security boxes. So job done I guess.
It took Trump like 8 words to go off script. This could be fun after all
https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/eli-lilly-pausing-investment-in-uk-as-report-warns-against-limited-nhs-uptake-of-new-drugs
All smelling very coordinated....
This all seemed to start when the government U-Turned on the previous government backing for Astra-Zenca new R&D site all because they asked for £15m more in funding.