I've been busy all day but have I got it right that some Labour MPs want to replace Starmer with one of -
1.Someone who has not been in Parliament for nearly 9 years and got 19% of the vote when he stood for leader last time (Andy Burnham). 2. A nitwit who came third when she stood for Labour leader in 2020 with 16% of the vote (Lisa Nandy). 3. Another nitwit (Lucy Powell). 4. Someone convicted of fraud a decade ago (Louise Haigh) though, ironically, she appears to be more intelligent than the others and had a better record in her short Ministerial career.
Do they think emulating the Tory party's policy of ousting leaders every year or so is a good idea? Or are they all a bunch of panicking nitwits?
The public probably wants someone from outside politics like Martin Lewis or Matthew Syed. The Dutch recently had someone like this as PM.
America tried this in 2016 with a president who was a property developer and television presenter rather than state governor or senator.
I haven't been following but it seems Zelenski has feet of clay.
Surely not?
If anyone seemed straight it was him. How depressing
The corruption scandal doesn't (yet?) seemed to involve him personally, but rather a number of close associates.
I interpret the actions of the Ukranian Parliament to show a robust vitality. We wouldn't see such a display of dirty linen inthe Russian Duma, or in Washington DC for that matter.
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that without China, Russia would not be able to continue fighting the war as they are. On Trump's watch they have upped their level of support.
China is officially neutral on the Russia-Ukraine war and officially wants a peace deal, unlike N Korea which has sent troops to help Russia. China just has not cut economic ties with Russia
That's nonsense.
Firstly why do you assume that China's official position is the same as their actual one? Do you take them at their word? They have been providing all kinds of essential military technology. No-one seems to dispute that.
China has been doing very little for Russia and has even reduced oil purchases, on which it was getting a discount and using a pipeline built at Russia's expense. You might be thinking of Iran or North Korea which have provided drones and their designs, and soldiers.
Re Zelenski. It's his business partner who seems to be behind it and he has now escaped to Israel. A multi million dollar fraud......
They are now demanding elections. It sounds like Zelenski is in trouble. The Americans are now proposing an unfavourable peace deal and with this going on and Zelenski weakened it strikes me they will not be in a strong positiion to resist.
It's like our Saturday morning visitors did a podcast spinoff series.
Even GB News would be embarrassed by such garbage.
I've just been reading what I can find. The facts are
1. The US is proposing a peace deal which is completely unacceptable to Ukraine 2. Zelenski's popularity because of the corruption scandal is down to 20% (ref Newsnight) 3. The pressure for him to accept a deal brokered by Trump will be extreme because of 1+2
I'm not sure what Tucker Carlson or Netanyahu has to do with anything?
Do a bit of due diligence on who you are linking to. Just because it *sounds* reasonable, doesn’t mean it isn’t batshit insane propaganda.
Remember the Lisa Kudrow character in “Death to 2020”?
It appears the reporting about the US taking Russia's absurd demands seriously has some truth in it.
Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict. https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1991297619964854460
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that without China, Russia would not be able to continue fighting the war as they are. On Trump's watch they have upped their level of support.
China is officially neutral on the Russia-Ukraine war and officially wants a peace deal, unlike N Korea which has sent troops to help Russia. China just has not cut economic ties with Russia
That's nonsense.
Firstly why do you assume that China's official position is the same as their actual one? Do you take them at their word? They have been providing all kinds of essential military technology. No-one seems to dispute that.
China has been doing very little for Russia and has even reduced oil purchases, on which it was getting a discount and using a pipeline built at Russia's expense. You might be thinking of Iran or North Korea which have provided drones and their designs, and soldiers.
But generally yes, thankfully the Chinese have remained more neutral than expected in this conflict.
The optimist in me says that Xi doesn’t want WWIII, the pessimist in me says he’s saving his army to fight for Taiwan.
Meanwhile, it appears that the NorKs have pretty much stopped shipping ammo to Russia in the last couple of months.
Latest Russian attempt at a “peace” plan looks about as acceptable to everyone else as their last attempt. Meanwhile 25 civilians in Turnopil, hundreds of km from the front lines, were killed yesterday when the Russians bombed a residential tower block. https://x.com/tatarigami_ua/status/1991148149608456287?s=12
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that without China, Russia would not be able to continue fighting the war as they are. On Trump's watch they have upped their level of support.
This is very true.
But China is intructive from another point of view. They stood up to Trump and as a consequence are now in an advantaged trading position with the US relative to Europe.
They had the ability to.
As we saw with the Dutch chip company Europe (including the UK) has put themselves in a very weak strategic position by created dependency on an aggressive rival
"LABOUR are planning to cut electricity prices for tech companies while energy bills continue to leave families struggling, The National can reveal.
The UK Government has set out plans to slash costs for artificial intelligence (AI) data centres –saving companies as much as £80 million per year.
Campaigners said the plans were a “gut punch” to people struggling with the cost of living."
interesting. Given Labour are already vulnerable in the north, west and south west on regional pricing ...
While I don’t agree with the policy the paper’s framing is the epitome of the zero sum thinking that infects our politics (“Resources allocated to group x is a kick in the teeth to group y”)
The issue is that it makes regional pricing even less likely, and the lack of r. p. in itself is a developing issue. Edit: so not zero sum thinking per se.
It's not as if the server farms will produce many permanent jobs [edit] locally.
Are you trying to say that becoming an 'AI Superpower' wont cure all our economic woes? You've reminded me of one of my favourite recent government headlines :
"Artificial intelligence will deliver a decade of national renewal, as part of a new plan announced today".
Nothing brings that "oh, that's doomed then" feeling more the a government PR piece with "as part of a new plan announced today". "Made up today". "Hurriedly sketched out on a napkin today". "Keir said what? Wtf? Ok - let's wing it, today"...
Not particvularly: just wondering on the effects on the *local* or in UKGspeak *regional* economic woes.
Though there's that too, now you mention it.
US companies get to offload a chunk of their power generation woes onto the UK. Luckily for them - our power companies and grid haven't spent the last 30 years creaming off profits from ageing infrastructure like they have in the USA.
Phew!
See also the water industry for the data-center cooling. Phew^2!
There are some press stories goiung around about Edinburgh suddenly needing 2-4 x the power, water etc. because data centre proposals [edit]. No idea myself how true that is. But it will not go down well with the natives. Or indeed if UKG plonk them down without asking the natives.
Similar in the US. Power companies have been sitting pretty for years and now there's new demand from huge customers, pass the cost on to the regular consumer and keep their own margins up. Years of under-investment passed onto the end consumer. It's not at all a familiar story.
Haven’t we always had discounted rates for power for businesses that use large amounts consistently? That’s a pretty natural pricing model because you can use that demand to justify baseline supply
"LABOUR are planning to cut electricity prices for tech companies while energy bills continue to leave families struggling, The National can reveal.
The UK Government has set out plans to slash costs for artificial intelligence (AI) data centres –saving companies as much as £80 million per year.
Campaigners said the plans were a “gut punch” to people struggling with the cost of living."
interesting. Given Labour are already vulnerable in the north, west and south west on regional pricing ...
While I don’t agree with the policy the paper’s framing is the epitome of the zero sum thinking that infects our politics (“Resources allocated to group x is a kick in the teeth to group y”)
The issue is that it makes regional pricing even less likely, and the lack of r. p. in itself is a developing issue. Edit: so not zero sum thinking per se.
It's not as if the server farms will produce many permanent jobs [edit] locally.
Are you trying to say that becoming an 'AI Superpower' wont cure all our economic woes? You've reminded me of one of my favourite recent government headlines :
"Artificial intelligence will deliver a decade of national renewal, as part of a new plan announced today".
Nothing brings that "oh, that's doomed then" feeling more the a government PR piece with "as part of a new plan announced today". "Made up today". "Hurriedly sketched out on a napkin today". "Keir said what? Wtf? Ok - let's wing it, today"...
Not particvularly: just wondering on the effects on the *local* or in UKGspeak *regional* economic woes.
Though there's that too, now you mention it.
US companies get to offload a chunk of their power generation woes onto the UK. Luckily for them - our power companies and grid haven't spent the last 30 years creaming off profits from ageing infrastructure like they have in the USA.
Phew!
See also the water industry for the data-center cooling. Phew^2!
There are some press stories goiung around about Edinburgh suddenly needing 2-4 x the power, water etc. because data centre proposals [edit]. No idea myself how true that is. But it will not go down well with the natives. Or indeed if UKG plonk them down without asking the natives.
Similar in the US. Power companies have been sitting pretty for years and now there's new demand from huge customers, pass the cost on to the regular consumer and keep their own margins up. Years of under-investment passed onto the end consumer. It's not at all a familiar story.
Haven’t we always had discounted rates for power for businesses that use large amounts consistently? That’s a pretty natural pricing model because you can use that demand to justify baseline supply
Not really. Under current pricing structures, large users don't get much discount, and pay considerably more for capacity charges.
What's proposed is effectively a subsidy.for the data centres.
It appears the reporting about the US taking Russia's absurd demands seriously has some truth in it.
Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict. https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1991297619964854460
So what concessions are the Russians making?
Only one I can see is Ukraine gets to keep half its army rather that totally demilitarising.
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that without China, Russia would not be able to continue fighting the war as they are. On Trump's watch they have upped their level of support.
China is officially neutral on the Russia-Ukraine war and officially wants a peace deal, unlike N Korea which has sent troops to help Russia. China just has not cut economic ties with Russia
That's nonsense.
Firstly why do you assume that China's official position is the same as their actual one? Do you take them at their word? They have been providing all kinds of essential military technology. No-one seems to dispute that.
China has been doing very little for Russia and has even reduced oil purchases, on which it was getting a discount and using a pipeline built at Russia's expense. You might be thinking of Iran or North Korea which have provided drones and their designs, and soldiers.
But generally yes, thankfully the Chinese have remained more neutral than expected in this conflict.
The optimist in me says that Xi doesn’t want WWIII, the pessimist in me says he’s saving his army to fight for Taiwan.
Meanwhile, it appears that the NorKs have pretty much stopped shipping ammo to Russia in the last couple of months.
Latest Russian attempt at a “peace” plan looks about as acceptable to everyone else as their last attempt. Meanwhile 25 civilians in Turnopil, hundreds of km from the front lines, were killed yesterday when the Russians bombed a residential tower block. https://x.com/tatarigami_ua/status/1991148149608456287?s=12
Remember the alternative tin foil theory that China has half an eye on Siberia, specifically Outer Manchuria which used to be part of China until Russia took it. Maybe it was not just the Biden administration content to watch Russia bleed out.
Trump's Epstein woes now move to the Senate Oversight Committee, where Pam Bondi cannot withhold ANY unredacted documents, videos, photos from their subpoena - or she is skewered. They can be compared with any releases from the Epstein estate - or from a whistle-blower.
"Polling group More in Common has identified a new, distinct voting group called "the disillusioned men," which it says represents a growing dissatisfaction with politics in large parts of the country.
The organisation's research points to a group of men who feel increasingly hopeless, disappointed, and that the "dream of a decent life and opportunity to provide for their families seems out of reach".
It comes on International Men's Day, and coincides with the government's own announcement of a tailored health strategy addressing some of the key concerns affecting men.
But what makes a "disillusioned man," and what does this group tell us about the direction of travel in UK politics?"
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that without China, Russia would not be able to continue fighting the war as they are. On Trump's watch they have upped their level of support.
China is officially neutral on the Russia-Ukraine war and officially wants a peace deal, unlike N Korea which has sent troops to help Russia. China just has not cut economic ties with Russia
That's nonsense.
Firstly why do you assume that China's official position is the same as their actual one? Do you take them at their word? They have been providing all kinds of essential military technology. No-one seems to dispute that.
China has been doing very little for Russia and has even reduced oil purchases, on which it was getting a discount and using a pipeline built at Russia's expense. You might be thinking of Iran or North Korea which have provided drones and their designs, and soldiers.
But generally yes, thankfully the Chinese have remained more neutral than expected in this conflict.
The optimist in me says that Xi doesn’t want WWIII, the pessimist in me says he’s saving his army to fight for Taiwan.
Meanwhile, it appears that the NorKs have pretty much stopped shipping ammo to Russia in the last couple of months.
Latest Russian attempt at a “peace” plan looks about as acceptable to everyone else as their last attempt. Meanwhile 25 civilians in Turnopil, hundreds of km from the front lines, were killed yesterday when the Russians bombed a residential tower block. https://x.com/tatarigami_ua/status/1991148149608456287?s=12
Remember the alternative tin foil theory that China has half an eye on Siberia, specifically Outer Manchuria which used to be part of China until Russia took it. Maybe it was not just the Biden administration content to watch Russia bleed out.
Oh indeed. We all know that China plays the very long game, and it’s not difficult to imagine that Xi has his eye on the potential wealth oil and mineral in Eastern Russia.
One can understand that the US has to tread a little carefully around Russia, but yes both Biden and Trump admins could have been much more enthusiastic in their military support for Ukraine. Biden talked the talk about sending hundreds of billions in aid but actually sent a load of obsolete kit from storage, Trump talks about achieving peace and speaks to both sides, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of intelligence sharing that still goes on.
I think that European leaders need to make it clear to Trump that they will play their part in increasing defense spending if the US helps more than they have been, but also that US sales of military kit to Europe depends on the US themselves doing their bit to support NATO and the war effort. That isolationism works both ways.
I've been busy all day but have I got it right that some Labour MPs want to replace Starmer with one of -
1.Someone who has not been in Parliament for nearly 9 years and got 19% of the vote when he stood for leader last time (Andy Burnham). 2. A nitwit who came third when she stood for Labour leader in 2020 with 16% of the vote (Lisa Nandy). 3. Another nitwit (Lucy Powell). 4. Someone convicted of fraud a decade ago (Louise Haigh) though, ironically, she appears to be more intelligent than the others and had a better record in her short Ministerial career.
Do they think emulating the Tory party's policy of ousting leaders every year or so is a good idea? Or are they all a bunch of panicking nitwits?
Unfortunately for Labour, they need a leader with competence and charisma, and they don’t have any.
Looks to me like they need to rethink the criteria for appointing PPCs.
You mean, Politics graduate, SPAD, constituency organiser isn’t the ideal career path? I’m shocked, I tell you!
As a matter of interest who on the Labour front bench came that route? No one springs to mind.
That is the route for PPCs. They don’t have the skills or ability to progress to the front bench, which is why there are so few contenders for front bench posts.
"Polling group More in Common has identified a new, distinct voting group called "the disillusioned men," which it says represents a growing dissatisfaction with politics in large parts of the country.
The organisation's research points to a group of men who feel increasingly hopeless, disappointed, and that the "dream of a decent life and opportunity to provide for their families seems out of reach".
It comes on International Men's Day, and coincides with the government's own announcement of a tailored health strategy addressing some of the key concerns affecting men.
But what makes a "disillusioned man," and what does this group tell us about the direction of travel in UK politics?"
Are these the snowflakes/woke that everyone was going on about a couple of years ago? And have been given a new name?
The “Disillusioned Men” are those keeping Farage top of the polling in the UK, and who elected Trump again in the US. There’s sharp differences in polling between men and women.
They’re reacting sharply to the “Woke” movement of the past few years, which portrayed men, especially white men, as inherently bad people, to the cost of living which has made housebuying unaffordable for many on average salaries, and to the “dating” environment which sees many of them single into their thirties.
"Polling group More in Common has identified a new, distinct voting group called "the disillusioned men," which it says represents a growing dissatisfaction with politics in large parts of the country.
The organisation's research points to a group of men who feel increasingly hopeless, disappointed, and that the "dream of a decent life and opportunity to provide for their families seems out of reach".
It comes on International Men's Day, and coincides with the government's own announcement of a tailored health strategy addressing some of the key concerns affecting men.
But what makes a "disillusioned man," and what does this group tell us about the direction of travel in UK politics?"
Are these the snowflakes/woke that everyone was going on about a couple of years ago? And have been given a new name?
The “Disillusioned Men” are those keeping Farage top of the polling in the UK, and who elected Trump again in the US. There’s sharp differences in polling between men and women.
They’re reacting sharply to the “Woke” movement of the past few years, which portrayed men, especially white men, as inherently bad people, to the cost of living which has made housebuying unaffordable for many on average salaries, and to the “dating” environment which sees many of them single into their thirties.
So Incel Snowflakes as opposed to Woke Snowflakes?
"Polling group More in Common has identified a new, distinct voting group called "the disillusioned men," which it says represents a growing dissatisfaction with politics in large parts of the country.
The organisation's research points to a group of men who feel increasingly hopeless, disappointed, and that the "dream of a decent life and opportunity to provide for their families seems out of reach".
It comes on International Men's Day, and coincides with the government's own announcement of a tailored health strategy addressing some of the key concerns affecting men.
But what makes a "disillusioned man," and what does this group tell us about the direction of travel in UK politics?"
Are these the snowflakes/woke that everyone was going on about a couple of years ago? And have been given a new name?
The “Disillusioned Men” are those keeping Farage top of the polling in the UK, and who elected Trump again in the US. There’s sharp differences in polling between men and women.
They’re reacting sharply to the “Woke” movement of the past few years, which portrayed men, especially white men, as inherently bad people, to the cost of living which has made housebuying unaffordable for many on average salaries, and to the “dating” environment which sees many of them single into their thirties.
Hardly. From that ITV article,
Much discussion on men's desire for radical change often centres on younger generations and their vulnerability at the hands of an increasingly extreme manosphere.
Contrary to this, the More in Common data suggests the most disillusioned in society actually fall within the 35-54 age group, with Gen Z being the least affected...
Executive Director of More in Common UK, Luke Tryl, said: “The men most disillusioned with politics aren't primarily concerned with the cultural issues that dominate online debates - they want action on bread and butter concerns like the cost of living.
See also the observation that Moneysaving Martin Lewis is the best idea for their leader. It's the affordability. In the end, that's mostly housing and energy, which are the price we are now paying for decades of deliberate inaction and cheapskatedom.
Comments
And the bit that is being plucked from there is the statistic that only 25% of Ukrainians want Zelenskky to remain President after the war.
But his approval rating as a wartime leader is somewhat diffferent: it's 60% trust him to lead Ukraine through the war, while 35% do not.
Remember the Lisa Kudrow character in “Death to 2020”?
Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.
https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1991297619964854460
https://www.itv.com/news/central/2025-11-18/reform-leader-of-warwickshire-county-council-bans-flags-ahead-of-christmas
https://x.com/euromaidanpress/status/1990814258100158753
But generally yes, thankfully the Chinese have remained more neutral than expected in this conflict.
The optimist in me says that Xi doesn’t want WWIII, the pessimist in me says he’s saving his army to fight for Taiwan.
Meanwhile, it appears that the NorKs have pretty much stopped shipping ammo to Russia in the last couple of months.
Latest Russian attempt at a “peace” plan looks about as acceptable to everyone else as their last attempt. Meanwhile 25 civilians in Turnopil, hundreds of km from the front lines, were killed yesterday when the Russians bombed a residential tower block.
https://x.com/tatarigami_ua/status/1991148149608456287?s=12
As we saw with the Dutch chip company Europe (including the UK) has put themselves in a very weak strategic position by created dependency on an aggressive rival
Under current pricing structures, large users don't get much discount, and pay considerably more for capacity charges.
What's proposed is effectively a subsidy.for the data centres.
Only one I can see is Ukraine gets to keep half its army rather that totally demilitarising.
Next!
Drip, drip, drip.....BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
One can understand that the US has to tread a little carefully around Russia, but yes both Biden and Trump admins could have been much more enthusiastic in their military support for Ukraine. Biden talked the talk about sending hundreds of billions in aid but actually sent a load of obsolete kit from storage, Trump talks about achieving peace and speaks to both sides, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of intelligence sharing that still goes on.
I think that European leaders need to make it clear to Trump that they will play their part in increasing defense spending if the US helps more than they have been, but also that US sales of military kit to Europe depends on the US themselves doing their bit to support NATO and the war effort. That isolationism works both ways.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/civil-nuclear-constabulary/about
They’re reacting sharply to the “Woke” movement of the past few years, which portrayed men, especially white men, as inherently bad people, to the cost of living which has made housebuying unaffordable for many on average salaries, and to the “dating” environment which sees many of them single into their thirties.
Much discussion on men's desire for radical change often centres on younger generations and their vulnerability at the hands of an increasingly extreme manosphere.
Contrary to this, the More in Common data suggests the most disillusioned in society actually fall within the 35-54 age group, with Gen Z being the least affected...
Executive Director of More in Common UK, Luke Tryl, said: “The men most disillusioned with politics aren't primarily concerned with the cultural issues that dominate online debates - they want action on bread and butter concerns like the cost of living.
See also the observation that Moneysaving Martin Lewis is the best idea for their leader. It's the affordability. In the end, that's mostly housing and energy, which are the price we are now paying for decades of deliberate inaction and cheapskatedom.