Sir Ed Davey is the most popular GB wide party leader – politicalbetting.com
Sir Ed Davey is the most popular GB wide party leader – politicalbetting.com
Net favourability ratings for party leadersNigel Farage: -31Jeremy Corbyn: -31Ed Davey: -6Keir Starmer: -50Kemi Badenoch: -35Zarah Sultana: -13*Zack Polanski: -10**recognition rate lower than 50%Further political figures available in article: yougov.co.uk/politics/art…
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*ironically or otherwise
We hate each other ?
Head-to-head polling is surely a better indicator?
It also doesn't allow for the strength of feeling amongst passionate supporters - my feeling is that Farage has a fairly robust "base" - humble apologies for the Americanism - but I've never heard of anybody calling themselves a "staunch Starmerite".
(Which Starmer anyway? Corbyn's "good friend" or the guy who expelled him from the Labour Party? The Trotskyist junior barrister or the PM that poses in front of the Union Jack at every opportunity, tries to control immigration and welfare spending and refuses to sanction Israel?)
The TLDR is that we don't like the status quo, but don't like any of the proposed prescriptions either.
Of course, he is.
Everyone likes Sir Ed - he really should be Prime Minister rather than some Old Alleynian.
Sljghtly more seriously, the problem with most politicians is the more people see them and get to know them the less they like them. It's almost as though politics, a trade where success is a result of popularity, is defined by unpopularity.
Governing a country means doing things not everybody likes and those who like it least shout about it the most as we see on here - who'd have thought?
Though from what little I've seen he's an easy man to take an instant dislike to.
To be "Coldplayed" - it means to be found out and to express outward signs of embarrassment and guilt.
Example - "when they told everyone I was a Lib Dem, I felt really coldplayed". Does that work?
Over to our linguistic experts - perhaps those whose primary source of income is the English language mayhap (I thought I;d throw that in)?
That's fine, until you enter office and have to admit a bit of a lack of moons. And sticks..
It would be good if someone could win power on a platform of "these are the specific painful things we will need to do", but I don't think you can. Cameron cane closer than many in 2010, but even he was vague on the consequences of percentage cuts.
Starmer gets a kind of contempt - from the left for having forsaken so many left wing principles, and all for nothing. From the middle for being a middle manager. From the extreme right for being part of The Same Old Thing.
None of it is a critique of Starmerism. There’s no such thing.
*Antonia Fraser noted the familiar pattern of attacks on women leaders, going back centuries.
The paradox is while honesty may be the best policy in life, it isn't in politics. You lie through your teeth to get elected and when you confront the voters with the truth, they don't like it and call you a liar but if you hadn't lied to them in the first place you wouldn't be in a position to be honest with them.
It's little surprise people of real ability stay away from politics - I would.
Not heard the expression you mention, though.
Whodathunkit?But i see it actually means "least unpopular".
Now what Ed needs is 100 such polls in a row.
And to rebuild their operation in Ashfield ! The Ashfield Indies are still in the old Lib Dem office.
Yet, I remember the Mail in 1992 banging on about "nice" John Major was - he was only nice when beating Labour. As soon as he hit trouble, the Mail put the boot in.
Davey is popular with a chunk of folk who don't say that they will vote LibDem.
If we had a presidential system he might be in good stead.
And Charlie Kennedy would've run the country.
But we don't.
That is, do unpopular stuff at the start of your term to build a social and economic boom for the next election.
Apparently Trump spent most of last night talking to Kate, from which I think we can conclude Prince William will be having a tough morning.
And we have independent confirmation of Farage's popularity in his declared earnings of tens of thousands a month from recording personal greetings – remember Up the Ra!
The country caught a dose of 'anything will be better than this' in 2024 and Labour/Starmer are paying the price for disproving it. Starmer especially as he is disproving it in a personality vacuum.
Look at Nigel's figures....... not a good sign for him as the country now shows early signs of Reform cant be any worse-itis
Andrew Gwynne?
I just caught up with him having joked about a local cyclist who was run down by an HGV, and joking about Jewish people and their names. It feels more "Ref UK Councillor" (or maybe 1950s Blue Labour) than Labour Party 2024-5.
Which means they are now going suffer a death by a 1000 small cuts, each of which drains away a small bit of support until the flood gates truly open.
So in basic terms the major tax rates (income tax, NI, VAT, corporation tax, capital gains tax, council tax) would need to more than double, with no adverse effects on behaviour from those asked to pay 90% in income tax.
https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/
(You could double council tax and largely wipe out the structural deficit - IT is not the only option).
Pensions is the classic example. It's not just the tripl;e Lock Ratchet. I seem to recall the Labour Party in the 1970 (??) General Election campaigning to reduce the pension age from 70 to 65.
Mr Farage's register of interests revealed that he made £27,342 from the service in December (2024), almost double the amount he has previously registered for a single month.
He spent 28 hours - more than three full average working days - filming hundreds of messages on top of his work as an Essex MP and Reform leader, giving him an hourly pay rate of £977.
..
Since the election, Mr Farage has registered more than £81,000 he has made from Cameo alone.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14360025/Nigel-Farage-27k-Cameo-Christmas-bonus-Reform-UK-Christmas-morning.html
(I think he started around 20-21.)
So to reduce that to zero you’d need to raise 12% more tax than today.
Income tax currently raises £477bn, so to get another £137bn from income tax you’d need to raise the rates by 29%.
So 20% income tax becomes 26%, 40% income tax becomes 52%, and 45% income tax becomes 58%, assuming no behavioural changes.
Alternatively, they could just cut spending.
If the love rats in question had simply brazened it out, no one might have noticed.
To double council tax is roughly to increase the tax of a household by over £2000 pa. That is the stuff of poll tax revolts. TME is currently running at about £20,000 per head, over £40,000 per household. Opinion is highly sensitive to tiny increases let alone massive ones.
I think we need Dennis Pennis back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvghEZX9fNs
I thought that was for unemployed entertainers to raise some cash during the pandemic, and when they all went back to the day jobs of acting and telling jokes it would die a death.
Edit: so I looked it up (so you don’t need to), he’s charging $100 for a personal greeting and $5,000 for a corporate greeting. That’s a lot of Happy Brithdays if he’s making £30k a month after commission, although presumably a few Americans are paying the corporate rate for remote speeches. https://www.cameo.com/nigelfarage
We can't pay off our debt in two years, or twenty. But we can, and must stop increasing it at a rate faster than the economy is growing.
If we don't, the problem will compound, and hello IMF. If we're lucky.
As a first clue in this nest building that would be a negative as would his Corbyn embrace
(But I like him and think his anti Farage clip was excellent)
GOTV's fine analysis of the LD situation is well worth a read or reread. To do really well they would need not just new voters but new types of voter.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/07/11/the-challenge-for-the-liberal-democrats/
When Farage gets his nicotine stained fingers on the reins of power we can be sure there's not the slightest danger of Daubney being cancelled.
https://x.com/AndyPlumb4/status/1968416818210517446
What's mad is you could double council tax to 1% and apply it as flat percentage and that would be a cut for most households. It's that unfair at the moment.
Perhaps some anger would actually do the Lib Dems some good, and spur their supporters on.
You don't often see an angry Lib Dem...
£81k in his most famous 12 months fits with that number, and is authenticated Farage himself.
@jorge_rupes
"Here, we see The Beast driven through Windsor...Inside a 10 ton vehicle."😉
One of the most interesting things about the vom-fest state visit is that the MAGA crew genuinely believe that the UK is on the brink of a helter-skelter style civil/race war. They have zero understanding of this country but are determined, through Tom-eh, Farage and others to export their Lie-deology, guns, anti abortion extremism and all, to the UK.
Given the likely problems in the US economy, the choice of Starmer, the Tories and especially Reform to put all their eggs in the USA, MAGA basket may look very foolish in a year or two.
Ed Davey, by contrast, expresses the disgust that the majority of Brits feel towards Trump and his sinister neo-fascist acolytes. That could look like strategic genius remarkably soon. I get that in his heart of hearts, Starmer is totally insincere in his flattery of the loathsome Trump, but after Mandelson, even being in the same room is a statement that is unpopular to say the least.
In order to be seen as decent, it really helps if you are decent, which Ed Davey, self evidently, is.
Meanwhile the hypocritical slime fest of Trumps slug trails all over Windsor is not a sight many of us want to see again.
So if you now make national insurance payable on all income then future pension income will have been hit twice by national insurance.
The better thing to do would be to get rid of national insurance entirely and increase income tax by an equivalent amount.
The previous to that clip is also a killer. You really have to hope it's an act.
I think the Greens will take the Brighton/Hove ward from Labour
Newham Indies will take the Newham ward
I think Labour will hold on in Cardiff, I think its more sticky for them than anywhere else in Wales
LDs will fancy taking Leamington from Labour, and probably will
Greens should hold Kenilworth ok but the Tories will have thrown the kitchen sink at it and might close the gap
And Good Morning to one and all.
I can imagine getting Nigel Farage to sing Happy Brithday to some woke student who hates his guts might be worth $100 as a prank among friends or parents, but there’s obviously a lot of people doing it if he’s making six figures a year!
https://www.libdemvoice.org/mathew-on-monday-how-do-we-up-our-media-coverage-78248.html
Lab defence in Thetford in Truss old seat of SW Norfolk on Weds, and 4 on the Thursday
2 x Highland - SNP defence and a Scots Green elected last time unopposed so free for all!
Green defence in Ashford
Green defence in Burnhams neck of the woods Wythenshaw/Sale
The government are spinning the £150bn investment creating 75,000 jobs across the airwaves this morning
When I heard 75,000 jobs for £150bn I assumed it was misspoken as I would want a whole lot more jobs for that investment, but it appears it is over 10 years on projects that have to pass design, planning and environmental issues and data centres that will consume vast quantities of electricity and water that is not readily available
Add in the cost on consumers bills this seems much like the 1.5 million new homes, all smoke and mirrors
I would suggest this investment would have happened anyway, but it is long term and in that long term is welcome but Starmer has less than 4 years and I doubt very little of it will be noticed by the public who are impatient for change
And on Ed Davey, I don't generally comment too much about him because I respect many of the Lib Dems who post on here, but if I am being honest I wasn't impressed with his stunts and on policy I know and understand his crusade for carers, not least because of his own family issues, and on Europe and WASPI women but I have no idea what his tax and spending policies are and look on him mainly as representing an English, largely south based party, which is reflected when it comes to Wales, and to a degree Scotland, where he struggles to be relevant
How unfortunate that this appears to be now something of a daily theme.
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/1968591637002523068
And the problem with modern data centres is they consume stupid amounts of power that they need 24/7/365. So where are the gWs of power to keep them online coming from.
A massive £billions data centre needs a massive £billions power station next door to it these days.
https://x.com/TomasVilimec/status/1968200557618926019