I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
I hope so. Listening to KS made me feel a connection with Labour that I havent felt fo about a year. It also reminded me why I find Farage such a loathsone slimeball. What more could anyone hope to get out of a speech. A turning point? Pehaps if he doesn't blow it by saying something nice about Netanyahu.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses."
"No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions."
"We are done with that s***.”
Do we know what happened to the thousands of 'trans' people he threw out of the forces? The article below form midsummer refers to 4240 people. Did it persist that they had their pension rights taken away? I saw cases of pension rights related to 20 years of service being lost. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/air-force-transgender-retirement-military
The policy has been to expel transgender people from the US military with deliberate performative cruelty - things such as undermining honourable discharge, labelling records as a National Security Risk which has impacts later in life, do it administratively in ways that take away options, and so on.
Hegseth is an evil, evil man. He deserves 20+ years in prison for what he has done to destroy human beings.
Over the past two weeks, Military.com spoke with six transgender service members who described their own process of leaving the military as full of indignities that ranged from evaporating support from leadership to forced administrative leave and being denied the right to wear a uniform at retirement.
I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
He didn't blurt out free the frankfurters, so it's a relative triumph
The only way to get such low approval as Starmer now has is to unite all sides of the political debate against you. I think that’s the fundamental weakness here.
If you triangulate and compromise, which is generally a reasonable approach in a pluralist democracy, then if your approval is high it’s very high, but if it’s low it can be crushingly low.
Neither Trump nor Biden/Harris ever plumbed those depths because they retained most of the hyper-partisans. Starmer doesn’t have those.
His easiest route to becoming less unpopular (though not actually popular) would be to take a very clear side on something divisive. I think that may be what he's now trying.
Yes he needs to drop the 'delivery' and 'good competent government' nonsense and get political. 100% focus on two things. Frame the next election as Labour v Reform. Frame Reform as clueless and nasty with it. If they can do that, stop the boats, get lucky with a modest economic upturn, they should win.
I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
It went down well in the hall but no idea how it pans out over the next few days but May 26 has always been dangerous for Starmer and that remains as he cannot afford to lose Wales and do badly in Scotland
He’s banned beards. That will really put the fear into America’s enemies.
Funny really when these boys below would know more about serious hard soldiering and yet think beards are perfectly acceptable.
Shaving was banned during the Crimean War because of the risk of infected cuts. When the troops returned for a parade they didn't have time to shave as the boat was late. Queen Victoria was a-quiver at their tanned, hairy buffness. And that's why late Victorian males all had Karl Marx beards. True story.
You keep thinking “this is as low as it gets, surely” - Then it goes lower
And they still hope that 'people will vote tactically for Labour to keep Farage out'.
It's not just hope - in head-to-head polling Starmer still has significant leads over Farage, Badenoch etc. If you break it down by party he had enormous leads among left wing voters.
For Labour it's all about turnout. Calling Farage a racist, "just asking questions" about former support for Nazis is all part of that.
It’s much worse than they’re letting on, Ukranian “kinetic sanctions” are working, and the russian economy is going to be totally screwed if they have to import fuel for the winter.
The queues for petrol are already damn close to Moscow, and RT propogandists were talking this morning about the benefits of battlefield cavalry, because they’re out of proper vehicles.
What is it they say about things happening slowly, then happening quickly?
First comment since May. Glad to see Labour have a pulse. Curious to see if the Tories can make it a three way fight. They are in danger of being squashed.
First comment since May. Glad to see Labour have a pulse. Curious to see if the Tories can make it a three way fight. They are in danger of being squashed.
First comment since May. Glad to see Labour have a pulse. Curious to see if the Tories can make it a three way fight. They are in danger of being squashed.
You were lucky to miss Johnson, Truss and Sunak, then?
My German class at school lasted for 5 years and at the end of that time most of the people in the class could barely string together the simplest of German sentences. How is that possible? 5 years to learn almost nothing. It's mindboggling when you think about it.
[swaggering] I got GCSE A-grades in BOTH French AND German!
Ausgezeichnet!
As did I at O Level, and my French was exécrable.
Oh, and gesundheit.
I only got C grades in French and German at O Level many years ago...
If we were serious about foreign languages we could start younger, as suggested earlier, or we could return to the short, immersive courses used for young servicemen during the cold war. But we are not serious and it probably does not matter because everyone speaks English and Leon's new toys will cover the rest.
Thanks to Youtube and Netflix, it does appear that English is the definitive lingua franca of the 21st Century.
I've started watching a lot of triathlons recently, particularly long-distance ones, and it surprises me how many of the competitors speak fairly good English.
Then it struck me why this might be: these guys and gals do not just compete together; they often train together, or go to training camps in the same sort of area. And if you get a couple of Norwegians, a Frenchman, an Italian, and a German together, about the only common language that might be expected is English.
At the shorter distances this is not as often the case; and I wonder if that's because most competitors at the shorter distance are younger.
I imagine that foreign triathlon competitors in the UK are likely to be reasonably well educated affluent types, and it is expected throughout Europe (with the possible exception of France) that you have a pretty good standard of English if you are in any sort of position that might involve foreign contact. For most Europeans, English means "the language I use to communicate with foreigners".
I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
The prime skill of leadership is in choosing the right people to do the work for you.
If Starmer is able to choose a decent speechwriter then that would be more leadership ability then he has demonstrated in choosing his Cabinet.
I've heard today's speech. No, no, not Starmer, I haven't listened to that old rubbish but Farage? Wow, he really is the orator Starmer is not. Very Trumpian. Linking Starmer "hate speech" to Charlie Kirk's murder was bold.
I suspect Nigel's "Starmer is unfit for Government" speech gets the nod over the Starmer "hate speech" on the BBC News.
You can feel it in the air, Jonathan, Kinabalu, NorthernAl, heck even Roger is back on board. Starmer's getting the band back together and taking the fight to Reform.
I don't think this got much coverage when the headlines about the 20 euros (rather than 7 euros) was announced...
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I would just say that the media concentrated a lot on Rachel Reeves during Starmer's speech and frankly she looked like she was about to burst out into tears
She certainly looks extremely worried, and no doubt November is bearing down on her and as Sam Costes said the 30 billion shortfall is all of Labour's making especially as she said her last 40 billion tax raid wiped the slate clean
And that is 70 billion tax rises in less than 18 months
You can feel it in the air, Jonathan, Kinabalu, NorthernAl, heck even Roger is back on board. Starmer's getting the band back together and taking the fight to Reform.
Will they still be together for the difficult second album election, though?
The only way to get such low approval as Starmer now has is to unite all sides of the political debate against you. I think that’s the fundamental weakness here.
If you triangulate and compromise, which is generally a reasonable approach in a pluralist democracy, then if your approval is high it’s very high, but if it’s low it can be crushingly low.
Neither Trump nor Biden/Harris ever plumbed those depths because they retained most of the hyper-partisans. Starmer doesn’t have those.
His easiest route to becoming less unpopular (though not actually popular) would be to take a very clear side on something divisive. I think that may be what he's now trying.
That's exactly what I thought he did. In fact he hit so many targets I decided he must have found someone smart in the back office to write it for him. Someone who sees leftish politics as I do.Not a bullet point wasted. And some smacked the target like a dum dum bullet
It’s much worse than they’re letting on, Ukranian “kinetic sanctions” are working, and the russian economy is going to be totally screwed if they have to import fuel for the winter.
The queues for petrol are already damn close to Moscow, and RT propogandists were talking this morning about the benefits of battlefield cavalry, because they’re out of proper vehicles.
What is it they say about things happening slowly, then happening quickly?
Someone in Ukraine's leadership is smart and knows their history. Blowing up refineries has proven to be a great way to cripple a nation's ability to make war because fuel shortages impose strain on almost every part of the economy. And since Ukraine can import refined fuel from NATO countries, Russia has no effective way of retaliating.
The term I'm fond of is 'failure cascade'. One part of a system stops functioning, which increases strain on other dependant parts, which then also cease to function after a period of time. This repeats until the whole system collapses.
If Ukraine can keep up their drone barrage there's a good chance of this happening to Russia.
Farage is apparently shocked at Starmers speech and says he is unfit to be PM .
The poor snowflake Farage can dish it out but can’t take it .
These right wing populists identify as robust life and soul types but are often brittle and humourless. Eg contrary to myth I bet going for a pint with Farage would be quite a wearisome experience. Keir, otoh, down at the Pineapple, would probably charm the pants off you. I've been there so I know what I'm talking about. A terrific vibey pub with unusually high urinals.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses."
"No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions."
"We are done with that s***.”
Do we know what happened to the thousands of 'trans' people he threw out of the forces? The article below form midsummer refers to 4240 people. Did it persist that they had their pension rights taken away? I saw cases of pension rights related to 20 years of service being lost. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/air-force-transgender-retirement-military
The policy has been to expel transgender people from the US military with deliberate performative cruelty - things such as undermining honourable discharge, labelling records as a National Security Risk which has impacts later in life, do it administratively in ways that take away options, and so on.
Hegseth is an evil, evil man. He deserves 20+ years in prison for what he has done to destroy human beings.
Over the past two weeks, Military.com spoke with six transgender service members who described their own process of leaving the military as full of indignities that ranged from evaporating support from leadership to forced administrative leave and being denied the right to wear a uniform at retirement.
I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
Because the person reading it out had the good nouse to pick a good speechwriter.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses."
"No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions."
"We are done with that s***.”
Do we know what happened to the thousands of 'trans' people he threw out of the forces? The article below form midsummer refers to 4240 people. Did it persist that they had their pension rights taken away? I saw cases of pension rights related to 20 years of service being lost. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/air-force-transgender-retirement-military
The policy has been to expel transgender people from the US military with deliberate performative cruelty - things such as undermining honourable discharge, labelling records as a National Security Risk which has impacts later in life, do it administratively in ways that take away options, and so on.
Hegseth is an evil, evil man. He deserves 20+ years in prison for what he has done to destroy human beings.
Over the past two weeks, Military.com spoke with six transgender service members who described their own process of leaving the military as full of indignities that ranged from evaporating support from leadership to forced administrative leave and being denied the right to wear a uniform at retirement.
It's self-defeating for another reason. If you were a young gay man thinking of entering the military, as thousands have, would you look at this hideous treatment of people who honourably served their country an think: "Gee, that'll be a welcoming place for me!"
Or would you think: "They're going to bring back 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', aren't they? At best." and then look for an alternative career.
Or if you are a young woman, would you think: "The US military's the place for me!"
At a time the US Army has only just managed to fill recruiting quotas - after two years of 25% under quota - by introducing a training camp to get the kids fit enough to get into basic training - it'll further damage recruitment and retention.
I'm expecting Hesketh to introduce Dedovshchina to prove the soldier's manliness...
Farage is apparently shocked at Starmers speech and says he is unfit to be PM .
The poor snowflake Farage can dish it out but can’t take it .
These right wing populists identify as robust life and soul types but are often brittle and humourless. Eg contrary to myth I bet going for a pint with Farage would be quite a wearisome experience. Keir, otoh, down at the Pineapple, would probably charm the pants off you. I've been there so I know what I'm talking about. A terrific vibey pub with unusually high urinals.
Farage's live broadcast was very much in the spirit of Maga, but it was delivered brilliantly. Utterly insane ramblings but his thoughts will capture the BBC types and overshadow Starmer.
I may be alone in listening to Starmer's speech in in its entirety. While I'm sure most of the fair-minded contributors on PB, and elsewhere, will conclude that it was rubbish, it was actually surprisingly good. I won't bore you all with a full analysis. Suffice to say, it will certainly have bought him time - I can't see any serious challenge to his leadership before May '26 now.
I haven’t listened to it but, as all speeches tend to be written by other people, why would the credit go to the person reading it out?
Because the person reading it out had the good nouse to pick a good speechwriter.
The art is in the delivery and timing. Actual texts when read of nearly all speeches are utterly dead and full of simplistic platitudes (Gettysburg is an exception).
Starmer wasn't too bad today by his pretty low standards. It was, for me, an OK reminder that of all the badly performing circus acts that make up our parties at the moment, Labour is the least worst of those who could form a government. I listened rather than watched, so I missed any compulsory faux flag fluttering that went on among the North Korean element.
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
I have arrived in Naples, Italy, after my arduous flight from Gatwick. I’m settled in a glamorous apartment in the Quattro Spagnoli, the old romantic Spanish quarters where Vespas fizz over the cobbles and the laundry hangs like flags of endless Italian surrender
I’ve got my AirPods3 in their shiny new pod. I’m ready to do my grand even futuristic experiment: do they really work as Babelfish? Does the translate function truly allow you to move smoothly through foreign languages, understanding everything, instantly?
Only problem: I’ve just discovered that Apple doesn’t offer instant Italian translation, yet. And you aren’t allowed to use these things in the EU, by law, so you can’t download the software
Situation excellent: avanti!
Il quartiere spagnolo - named thus because it was where the Spanish soldiers where housed when the Spanish took over Naples. It was around this time that my mother's family came to Naples - the family name is Spanish, from the town in Spain where they came from, and many of the boy's first names were also Spanish. The main street abutting this area was always known as Via Toledo (and still is by some) but was renamed Via Roma after unification.
Neapolitan is not a dialect but a separate language and Neapolitan humour, theatre and life is hard to understand well without some knowledge of it. Listen to la Tamurriata Nera being sung - it's a world away from the Italy of Milan or Florence. Absolutely glorious, though. I hope I will be able to travel soon. See Naples and Die and so on.
The individual acting as if he's in imminent danger in this video, recorded today, is Ilan Shor, a Moldovan oligarch (currently hiding in Moscow) that has been instrumental in Russia's catastrophic attempt to take over Moldova, which is estimated to have costed $400 million. https://x.com/Daractenus/status/1972721749117596046
Farage is apparently shocked at Starmers speech and says he is unfit to be PM .
The poor snowflake Farage can dish it out but can’t take it .
These right wing populists identify as robust life and soul types but are often brittle and humourless. Eg contrary to myth I bet going for a pint with Farage would be quite a wearisome experience. Keir, otoh, down at the Pineapple, would probably charm the pants off you. I've been there so I know what I'm talking about. A terrific vibey pub with unusually high urinals.
I thought Farage was twitching like a rabbit.
I might say so over at GB News, and point out a couple of the fabrications in his speech.
Most are better off saving by putting more into their pension than getting a shares isa which is why it’s not used so much
True, particularly given the tax reliefs, though depends on when you want to access it too, and how much you have available.
I don’t think its a bad idea generally to put as much as you can in your pension, keep a few months’ worth of outgoings + a bit of a top up for any unforeseen expenses eg home disrepair in cash, and anything left over / that you feel might be needed before you can draw your pension in equities (using ISA allowances where possible). And sticking to the general rule that any equity investment should ideally be for 5 yr + and appropriately diversified.
The squeamishness that many feel from investing in equities largely arises from a lack of education/confidence in that space. I know a lot of people who are terrified it will wipe out their savings - if we are in a situation where there is such a significant crash of stocks then we are all in much bigger trouble than just worrying about personal savings - it will impact on pensions and the whole financial system.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor.
I think many see finances in 3 pots:
1) Housing: get as big a mortgage as you can afford and pay it off before retirement 2) Pension: by default heavily invested in equities for DC pensions most have now. 3) Buffer: typically in low returning cash ISAs
I suspect most people never have the financial resources to get past these 3 pots. And when they have excess, it either tops up the cash ISA or gets spent on expensive new cars / holidays / refurb kitchen / larger house etc. Or maybe buy to let another property. Which are all either "consumption" or piling more money into pot number 1. Hence as a country we have low savings rates, high consumption and housing obsessed.
What we could, as a country, do with more people doing is using that excess (where it exists) and investing it in equities or other risk assets. They would personally mostly end up better off as a result (there's risk but on average you get above inflation returns) and can ultimately spend more.
...which is what they do in the US. We should have better financial education so people can make the decision easily as to whether or not they want to do that here.
Agree. Just not sure most people have much left over for a shares isa. Esp as a lot of it will be a deposit for a house. Not sure it’s lack of education.
Comments
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/air-force-transgender-retirement-military
The policy has been to expel transgender people from the US military with deliberate performative cruelty - things such as undermining honourable discharge, labelling records as a National Security Risk which has impacts later in life, do it administratively in ways that take away options, and so on.
Hegseth is an evil, evil man. He deserves 20+ years in prison for what he has done to destroy human beings.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/investigations-and-features/2025/07/29/open-cruelty-transgender-troops-describe-indignities-theyre-kicked-out-of-military.html
Over the past two weeks, Military.com spoke with six transgender service members who described their own process of leaving the military as full of indignities that ranged from evaporating support from leadership to forced administrative leave and being denied the right to wear a uniform at retirement.
Breast cancer survivors are routinely denied hormone replacement therapy due to legacy views about the risks – can a new study offer hope?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/conditions/cancer/doctors-changing-minds-breast-cancer-hrt/ (£££)
The poor snowflake Farage can dish it out but can’t take it .
When the troops returned for a parade they didn't have time to shave as the boat was late.
Queen Victoria was a-quiver at their tanned, hairy buffness.
And that's why late Victorian males all had Karl Marx beards.
True story.
For Labour it's all about turnout. Calling Farage a racist, "just asking questions" about former support for Nazis is all part of that.
Russia drops tarrifs on *IMPORTS* of oil and gas.
https://x.com/delfoo/status/1972945908146045207
It’s much worse than they’re letting on, Ukranian “kinetic sanctions” are working, and the russian economy is going to be totally screwed if they have to import fuel for the winter.
The queues for petrol are already damn close to Moscow, and RT propogandists were talking this morning about the benefits of battlefield cavalry, because they’re out of proper vehicles.
What is it they say about things happening slowly, then happening quickly?
If Starmer is able to choose a decent speechwriter then that would be more leadership ability then he has demonstrated in choosing his Cabinet.
Rep. Mark Alford says Trump won't negotiate in good faith with Dem leaders to stop a shutdown, opting instead for hostile ambush.
"Let's give them a little taste of what we gave Zelenskyy back in the spring."...
https://x.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1972688366425518400
I've heard today's speech. No, no, not Starmer, I haven't listened to that old rubbish but Farage? Wow, he really is the orator Starmer is not. Very Trumpian. Linking Starmer "hate speech" to Charlie Kirk's murder was bold.
I suspect Nigel's "Starmer is unfit for Government" speech gets the nod over the Starmer "hate speech" on the BBC News.
Nigel 1-0 Starmer?
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NEW THREAD
She certainly looks extremely worried, and no doubt November is bearing down on her and as Sam Costes said the 30 billion shortfall is all of Labour's making especially as she said her last 40 billion tax raid wiped the slate clean
And that is 70 billion tax rises in less than 18 months
Frightening
The term I'm fond of is 'failure cascade'. One part of a system stops functioning, which increases strain on other dependant parts, which then also cease to function after a period of time. This repeats until the whole system collapses.
If Ukraine can keep up their drone barrage there's a good chance of this happening to Russia.
Or would you think: "They're going to bring back 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', aren't they? At best." and then look for an alternative career.
Or if you are a young woman, would you think: "The US military's the place for me!"
At a time the US Army has only just managed to fill recruiting quotas - after two years of 25% under quota - by introducing a training camp to get the kids fit enough to get into basic training - it'll further damage recruitment and retention.
I'm expecting Hesketh to introduce Dedovshchina to prove the soldier's manliness...
Starmer wasn't too bad today by his pretty low standards. It was, for me, an OK reminder that of all the badly performing circus acts that make up our parties at the moment, Labour is the least worst of those who could form a government. I listened rather than watched, so I missed any compulsory faux flag fluttering that went on among the North Korean element.
Neapolitan is not a dialect but a separate language and Neapolitan humour, theatre and life is hard to understand well without some knowledge of it. Listen to la Tamurriata Nera being sung - it's a world away from the Italy of Milan or Florence. Absolutely glorious, though. I hope I will be able to travel soon. See Naples and Die and so on.
I might say so over at GB News, and point out a couple of the fabrications in his speech.