It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I've signed it too. What struck me was an advert I saw recently from one of the network providers. The gist was: 'Yes, we know that being a young person with a mobile phone can condemn you to a world of pain, but we're here to ease some of the misery if we can.' It's a bloody phone, not an obligatory instrument of torture! Why are we inflicting these things on children if terrible suffering is part of the package?
Can != does.
We have bought our daughter a phone, we have given her limits on what she is permitted to do on it and whom she is permitted to speak to on it. Which does include social media, which we signed up to for her, on her behalf, but under ground rules and limitations we have set.
It is the same as anything. Used wisely, it can be powerful and for good. Used poorly, it can be harmful.
Banning it is pig-headed and ignorant. Educating people to use it wisely, especially when it is parents making the conscious choice to buy it, is sensible.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
Good luck with interpreting the dialogue of the average Glaswegian visiting the World Cup.
What does "details of all your relatives" mean?
It means that our Leon will have to declare Rollo’s cunning plan to occupy the Americas before the Americans got there.
The BBC will broadcast Scotland's first men's World Cup match since 1998, when they take on Haiti on 14 June, as well as their final group match against Brazil.
England's second group match - against Ghana on 23 June - will also be shown on BBC, as well as their knockout fixtures in the last 32, last 16, and semi-final provided they reach those stages.
England's other Group L matches - against Croatia and Panama - and Scotland's meeting with Morocco will be shown on ITV.
If Wales or Northern Ireland qualify via March's play-offs - both are in a section of four competing for one place- their group match against Canada on 12 June will be broadcast on the BBC.
Two group fixtures for the Republic of Ireland will also be shown if they come through the play-offs.
The BBC will have three of the top four picks in the round of 16 and three of the top five picks in the round of 32.
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Well yes. And Britain is on the losing side, and (sizeably foreign?) investors on the winning side. You're right that at the macro level this is a zero sum game, but the British are largely on the losing side. Because the chancellor doesn't understand economics.
Its a good time to buy annuities. On the other hand an even better time to buy annuities might well be along very shortly. Trying to spot the peak in annuities before the crash in the underlying equities is the game of the moment.
Issue with annuity David is your money dies with you, I don't fancy gambling 7 figures against living to 120 or so. Rather take my chances and if I croak early my daugher and grandsons can whoop it up.
The Nazis would never have been this shit at fixing elections.
MAGA put a huge amount of effort getting their people into every systemic office in government. Because of the US system of electing dog catchers, this means that lots of officials who supervise & run elections.
On the flip side these people are the kind of MAGA whom *MAGA* don’t want to run for higher offices. Brains running out of their ears.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
That's a very pretty diagram, but is it accurate? It appears to show that 5 voters have died for every 3 new voters, however our total population has grown by about 4 million (~6%) since 2016. Obviously there is a somewhat complicated relationship between the total population and the eligible voter base, but in broad terms it seems surprising if we have one growing substantially whilst the other shrinks.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I put my flat up this week, 4 viewers already and a note of interest already. Fingers crossed it goes before Christmas.
Are the Lib Dems proposing “a” customs union or “the” Customs Union.
Doesn’t sound like they’ve given any of this much thought.
It can only be "a" i.e the Turkey model. The only way into "the" customs union is EU, EEA, or grandfathered-in (Switzerland). During the brexit negotiations the EU explained that our joining "the" customs union was impossible, since it would require re-opening foundational EU treaties and that would be too much - it would be a free-for-all - everyone would want something changed.
The rumours of major setbacks to the Russian operations are continuing to grow. It seems that Pokrovsk, far from being a Russian victory has been an utter bloodbath for them and the Ukrainians still have a foothold in the city. Meanwhile the Russians are facing continual degradation of capabilities and logistics that are forcing very unpleasant choices and may lead to the collapse of the Crimean perimeter.
As always Trump's grip on reality in Ukraine may as fake as everything else he says.
It's really hard to know what's going on in Pokrovsk. We won't know who has had the worst of the battle until some time afterwards.
What do you mean by "the collapse of the Crimean perimeter." Are you referring to the Zaporizhia front, where Russia made some advances recently?
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I put my flat up this week, 4 viewers already and a note of interest already. Fingers crossed it goes before Christmas.
Specially for @TSE - Ipsos poll on Scotland. Indyref2, Holyrood and Westminster intentions.
Labour in all kinds of trouble in Scotland and Wales
I really cannot see what they can do to avoid a disaster in May 26
Is there a market for sensible money management in politics? Both the Greens and Reform are supping at the magic money tree, Labour are increasingly discredited, and the Tories... Well its too soon.
He’s an accomplished speaker in a small group situation: naturally loud voice, articulate, reasonably on top of his brief. I think it’s a mistake to lump all Reform people together as knuckle-heads - he has a brain. Not a brain that thinks the same way as mine, but a brain nonetheless.
Ideologically and stylistically he’s very much a Redwoodite Tory. The conversation could easily have been with someone on the right of the Tory party any time in the last 30 years. Deregulation, let’s get business people into government, cutting waste, common sense etc etc. The wrinkle vis a vis most Thatcherite types is a greater attachment to national champions, government intervention in the ownership of public utilities, and PPP. And of course a very clear enmity towards net zero and all things renewable, which is now mainstream conservative ideology but didn’t used to be.
To my question on corporation tax, he said they couldn’t make firm policy thus far out from an election but he praised Osborne’s tax roadmap.
He steered well away from anything culture war related, apart from a lone scoffing reference to “woke” investment funds. Nor foreign affairs. Clearly not his lane.
A clear indication that they would do “what they do in the USA” (he actually said that) and create a partisan civil service with Perm secs and their staff appointed by the government.
This was, in essence, like watching an hour of Dominic Cummings. Or indeed @Luckyguy1983 of this parish with a dollop of @Casino_Royale .
Interesting - was this the CFABB?
If economics and business are his lane, where does he stand on tax avoidance and UK business people dodging tax via use of tax havens?
Were I there I might have been waspish enough as to ask him about Reform's position on taxation of foreign owned properties, including taxation of encapsulated ones, and Brits who cannot get accommodation as a result.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
I think FIFA require fairly easy visas for fans.
When I went to the 2018 Russia world cup I just had to register as a fan, upload my ticket and got a 6 week visa immediately, far easier than a normal Russia tourist visa.
I expect the WC to be a bit of a fiasco, but for other reasons. Mostly it is far too bloated and spread out.
Far too many teams in the finals. And so too many matches that don't raise any interest. Too long. Too Trumpian. Host countries include one that threatens to invade another. Apart from that it's all great.
Wait til you hear that they are playing four quarters rather than two halves.....*
* This is happening, not a joke, ad breaks after 22 mins in each half.
How long are the breaks ?
This is serious. If the average pundit/reporter is denied the cliche of "it was a game of two halves" anything could end up being said.
There's already a third half, in the form of extra time (though that itself consists of two halves). This is just adding a couple more.
"It was a game of six halves..."
Is Rachel Reeves doing commentary now?
Nah, in her world, it's a game of one half, as the other five have been taxed away and given to people on benefits.
Very weirdly I was thinking last night about the rumours that British special forces have been operating in Ukraine and was presuming that eventually one would be unfortunately killed - I was wondering if they would say they were on duty in Ukraine or if they would say it was a training incident or similar in another country.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
That's a very pretty diagram, but is it accurate? It appears to show that 5 voters have died for every 3 new voters, however our total population has grown by about 4 million (~6%) since 2016. Obviously there is a somewhat complicated relationship between the total population and the eligible voter base, but in broad terms it seems surprising if we have one growing substantially whilst the other shrinks.
As I understand it, differential turnout; higher turnout oldies replaced by lower turnout youngies.
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Well yes. And Britain is on the losing side, and (sizeably foreign?) investors on the winning side. You're right that at the macro level this is a zero sum game, but the British are largely on the losing side. Because the chancellor doesn't understand economics.
Its a good time to buy annuities. On the other hand an even better time to buy annuities might well be along very shortly. Trying to spot the peak in annuities before the crash in the underlying equities is the game of the moment.
Issue with annuity David is your money dies with you, I don't fancy gambling 7 figures against living to 120 or so. Rather take my chances and if I croak early my daugher and grandsons can whoop it up.
I was certainly of the view when annuity rates were below 2%. Capital draw down seemed a much more attractive option until the mandatory 75 cut off. But if annuity rates get up to 5% then it gets a lot more tempting, especially if you are in half decent health. I will be doing some complicated sums in about 3 years time.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
Is that the same Peter Kellner who incorrectly predicted the result of the 2016 referendum?
Good point. Add 5% to the Stay Out vote and take 5% off the Rejoin vote and the situation is completely flipped still a Brexit shitstorm.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
A crash would do wonders to rebalance the economy.
It would also normally make the government of the day very unpopular, but that bridge has already been crossed.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The lib dem’s are just opportunistic simpletons
As an opportunistic simpleton I’m offended by that comparison!
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
Yes - that was the one. I lived in Leam in 1992-1993 and played cricket for Kenilworth (96-98). Small world.
I much respected Sean F's article the other day and the mentality of the MAGA mind.
Might there not be something else at play though? Russia is a white Christian country. You could say it's a racist white Christian country. I just wonder if from an insular American context there is a difficulty in accepting that such people could behave like brutal savages? Of course given our history in Europe we have to acknowledge it but maybe in America they struggle to?
I also wonder in terms of global opinion if it would be a good thing for us to call Russia out in such terms. We know how much we get accused of hypocrisy, islamophobia, racism by the non-western world. Perhaps if we framed Russia as a racist white Christian country and we know perfectly well that's no guarantee against anti-civilisational behaviour there would be fewer accusations of double standards etc.
It would also put people like JD Vance on the spot.
Its a bit of a myth that Russia is a white Christian country, or at least is any different to us in this respect.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
Supports my theory that a number of PBers are, in fact, ghosts.
In all seriousness, it's an astonishing change. This is what many naive Indy supporters would happen in Scotland - but it's actually happened for Brexit.
As someone pointed out above, it would be even more pronounced if it didn't take into account differential turnout by age.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I put my flat up this week, 4 viewers already and a note of interest already. Fingers crossed it goes before Christmas.
I have to say that this is EXACTLY the wrong time of year to be selling a dwelling.
When I've bought in the post-October period I've normally expected a 5% reduction over a sum I would have offered 2-3 months previously.
I have not asked an Estate Agent how the market is recently; I'll report back if I have a chance.
My neighbour selling his £550k 3500 sqft house house reports little interest, but it's not a main market property here, and they are happy to wait.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
I think FIFA require fairly easy visas for fans.
When I went to the 2018 Russia world cup I just had to register as a fan, upload my ticket and got a 6 week visa immediately, far easier than a normal Russia tourist visa.
I expect the WC to be a bit of a fiasco, but for other reasons. Mostly it is far too bloated and spread out.
Far too many teams in the finals. And so too many matches that don't raise any interest. Too long. Too Trumpian. Host countries include one that threatens to invade another. Apart from that it's all great.
Wait til you hear that they are playing four quarters rather than two halves.....*
* This is happening, not a joke, ad breaks after 22 mins in each half.
How long are the breaks ?
This is serious. If the average pundit/reporter is denied the cliche of "it was a game of two halves" anything could end up being said.
There's already a third half, in the form of extra time (though that itself consists of two halves). This is just adding a couple more.
"It was a game of six halves..."
Is Rachel Reeves doing commentary now?
Nah, in her world, it's a game of one half, as the other five have been taxed away and given to people on benefits.
Nonsense, it's a game of extra time - required to sort out the utter mess the Tories have made of the previous 90mins.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
I think FIFA require fairly easy visas for fans.
When I went to the 2018 Russia world cup I just had to register as a fan, upload my ticket and got a 6 week visa immediately, far easier than a normal Russia tourist visa.
I expect the WC to be a bit of a fiasco, but for other reasons. Mostly it is far too bloated and spread out.
Far too many teams in the finals. And so too many matches that don't raise any interest. Too long. Too Trumpian. Host countries include one that threatens to invade another. Apart from that it's all great.
Wait til you hear that they are playing four quarters rather than two halves.....*
* This is happening, not a joke, ad breaks after 22 mins in each half.
Drinks breaks because of the weather*, definitely not ad breaks, no ad breaks at all in “soccer”.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
Yes, which is why the builders have stopped building so quickly. They have plenty of permissions, but few customers.
I much respected Sean F's article the other day and the mentality of the MAGA mind.
Might there not be something else at play though? Russia is a white Christian country. You could say it's a racist white Christian country. I just wonder if from an insular American context there is a difficulty in accepting that such people could behave like brutal savages? Of course given our history in Europe we have to acknowledge it but maybe in America they struggle to?
I also wonder in terms of global opinion if it would be a good thing for us to call Russia out in such terms. We know how much we get accused of hypocrisy, islamophobia, racism by the non-western world. Perhaps if we framed Russia as a racist white Christian country and we know perfectly well that's no guarantee against anti-civilisational behaviour there would be fewer accusations of double standards etc.
It would also put people like JD Vance on the spot.
Its a bit of a myth that Russia is a white Christian country, or at least is any different to us in this respect.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
A lot of people in Russia and USA, who never set foot in church, still adopt Christian as an ethno/political badge, in opposition to others.
As many of us have been saying for a while it's time for Starmer to make clear he's going to distance himself unequivocally from Trump and all of his neo Nazi coterie. If you think Trumps unpopular in the US imagine how the citizenship of the UK and the EU feel about him. Leave Trump to Farage and his flag waving admirers and move on quickly and decisively. I'm in France but the stuff he said about Khan appeared on the news and is shocking ......
........and for Starmer to be silent on it is even more shocking
I’m no fan of Trump but ‘neo-Nazi’.
Where Trump is concerned there is serious derangement going down. Some seriously deranged takes. Including in this thread. You’d think the US is on the verge of becoming the next N Korea.
What I expect to happen. The US carries on for a year. The Dems flip the house. Trump is reigned in and limps on for two years and his ability to rule by executive order is diminished.
The Trump administration is ignoring the rule of law. They ignore court cases that go against them. Trump is illegally appointing people.
The Trump administration is using military and paramilitary forces on his own domestic population contrary to the law. This includes directing ICE to arrest people on the basis that they look Latino. The Trump administration are consistently racist in their rhetoric.
The Trump administration is using the military to attack people in international waters against international and domestic law. The Trump administration repeatedly makes threat of military action and invasion against other countries. The Trump administration is allying with dictatorships and seeking to undermine democracies.
The Trump administration are grifting for their personal benefit and the benefit of their relatives.
The Trump administration is prosecuting political opponents on spurious grounds, while pardoning violent criminals who support them. The Trump administration continues to seek to undermine democracy at home.
The Trump administration wants to carve up an eastern European country's territory.
The parallels to the Nazis seem obvious to me! Maybe it's 1935 Nazis rather than 1939 Nazis, but I don't think we should the many, many warning signs.
Don’t be stupid be a smarty come and join the Trump party
In the meantime the UK ignores the judgement on cross dressers in women’s spaces and postpones elections the governing party will lose but nothing wrong there 👍👍👍👍
Do you think those are comparable? Are they of a similar scale?
The BBC will broadcast Scotland's first men's World Cup match since 1998, when they take on Haiti on 14 June, as well as their final group match against Brazil.
England's second group match - against Ghana on 23 June - will also be shown on BBC, as well as their knockout fixtures in the last 32, last 16, and semi-final provided they reach those stages.
England's other Group L matches - against Croatia and Panama - and Scotland's meeting with Morocco will be shown on ITV.
If Wales or Northern Ireland qualify via March's play-offs - both are in a section of four competing for one place- their group match against Canada on 12 June will be broadcast on the BBC.
Two group fixtures for the Republic of Ireland will also be shown if they come through the play-offs.
The BBC will have three of the top four picks in the round of 16 and three of the top five picks in the round of 32.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
Good luck with interpreting the dialogue of the average Glaswegian visiting the World Cup.
What does "details of all your relatives" mean?
3.
Mandatory Social Media:
In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.
4.
High Value Data Elements:
To comply with the January 2025 E.O. (14161), and the April 4, 2025, Memorandum Updating All Forms to Collect Baseline Biographic Data, CBP will add several “high value data fields” to the ESTA application, when feasible. This is in addition to the information already collected in the ESTA application.
The high value data fields include:
a. Telephone numbers used in the last five years;
b. Email addresses used in the last ten years;
c. IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos;
d. Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children);
e. Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years;
f. Family member dates of birth;
g. Family member places of birth;
h. Family member residencies;
i. Biometrics—face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris;
j. Business telephone numbers used in the last five years;
k. Business email addresses used in the last ten years.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
I much respected Sean F's article the other day and the mentality of the MAGA mind.
Might there not be something else at play though? Russia is a white Christian country. You could say it's a racist white Christian country. I just wonder if from an insular American context there is a difficulty in accepting that such people could behave like brutal savages? Of course given our history in Europe we have to acknowledge it but maybe in America they struggle to?
I also wonder in terms of global opinion if it would be a good thing for us to call Russia out in such terms. We know how much we get accused of hypocrisy, islamophobia, racism by the non-western world. Perhaps if we framed Russia as a racist white Christian country and we know perfectly well that's no guarantee against anti-civilisational behaviour there would be fewer accusations of double standards etc.
It would also put people like JD Vance on the spot.
Its a bit of a myth that Russia is a white Christian country, or at least is any different to us in this respect.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
A lot of people in Russia and USA, who never set foot in church, still adopt Christian as an ethno/political badge, in opposition to others.
Those figures are self-identification, obviously active attenders are far fewer.
The rumours of major setbacks to the Russian operations are continuing to grow. It seems that Pokrovsk, far from being a Russian victory has been an utter bloodbath for them and the Ukrainians still have a foothold in the city. Meanwhile the Russians are facing continual degradation of capabilities and logistics that are forcing very unpleasant choices and may lead to the collapse of the Crimean perimeter.
As always Trump's grip on reality in Ukraine may as fake as everything else he says.
It's really hard to know what's going on in Pokrovsk. We won't know who has had the worst of the battle until some time afterwards.
What do you mean by "the collapse of the Crimean perimeter." Are you referring to the Zaporizhia front, where Russia made some advances recently?
The rumours of major setbacks to the Russian operations are continuing to grow. It seems that Pokrovsk, far from being a Russian victory has been an utter bloodbath for them and the Ukrainians still have a foothold in the city. Meanwhile the Russians are facing continual degradation of capabilities and logistics that are forcing very unpleasant choices and may lead to the collapse of the Crimean perimeter.
As always Trump's grip on reality in Ukraine may as fake as everything else he says.
It's really hard to know what's going on in Pokrovsk. We won't know who has had the worst of the battle until some time afterwards.
What do you mean by "the collapse of the Crimean perimeter." Are you referring to the Zaporizhia front, where Russia made some advances recently?
Russia has been fighting for 20 months, to take Pokrovsk. They’ll probably take it, at a cost of tens of thousands of casualties. But, the point of defence in depth is that you retreat a few kilometres to the next pile of rubble, and make them repeat the exercise. Competent armies avoid urban fighting, for that reason.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
Well I was looking at the September ONS figures. Up 2.6% year on year. Of course if the market is 'dead' it might be a sign that sellers need to reduce their asking price.
The rumours of major setbacks to the Russian operations are continuing to grow. It seems that Pokrovsk, far from being a Russian victory has been an utter bloodbath for them and the Ukrainians still have a foothold in the city. Meanwhile the Russians are facing continual degradation of capabilities and logistics that are forcing very unpleasant choices and may lead to the collapse of the Crimean perimeter.
As always Trump's grip on reality in Ukraine may as fake as everything else he says.
It's really hard to know what's going on in Pokrovsk. We won't know who has had the worst of the battle until some time afterwards.
What do you mean by "the collapse of the Crimean perimeter." Are you referring to the Zaporizhia front, where Russia made some advances recently?
The Russians are running into the town square in Pokrovsk in plain clothes, getting dressed and raising a flag, taking a photo and sending it to someone to post it online, before the Ukranian special forces turn up to collect them. They’ve done the same thing three or four times now, the city is still under Ukranian control.
There’s also substantive rumours of a number of Ukranian gains in the same general area, as the Russians throw everyone into the Pokrovsk meat grinder.
Very weirdly I was thinking last night about the rumours that British special forces have been operating in Ukraine and was presuming that eventually one would be unfortunately killed - I was wondering if they would say they were on duty in Ukraine or if they would say it was a training incident or similar in another country.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
That's a very pretty diagram, but is it accurate? It appears to show that 5 voters have died for every 3 new voters, however our total population has grown by about 4 million (~6%) since 2016. Obviously there is a somewhat complicated relationship between the total population and the eligible voter base, but in broad terms it seems surprising if we have one growing substantially whilst the other shrinks.
They are allowing for a lower propensity to vote amongst younger people, ie new voters, than amongst older people who have since died. If it turns out they are keener to vote on this issue than normal (likely in my view), the chart will be even starker.
Very weirdly I was thinking last night about the rumours that British special forces have been operating in Ukraine and was presuming that eventually one would be unfortunately killed - I was wondering if they would say they were on duty in Ukraine or if they would say it was a training incident or similar in another country.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
He’s an accomplished speaker in a small group situation: naturally loud voice, articulate, reasonably on top of his brief. I think it’s a mistake to lump all Reform people together as knuckle-heads - he has a brain. Not a brain that thinks the same way as mine, but a brain nonetheless.
Ideologically and stylistically he’s very much a Redwoodite Tory. The conversation could easily have been with someone on the right of the Tory party any time in the last 30 years. Deregulation, let’s get business people into government, cutting waste, common sense etc etc. The wrinkle vis a vis most Thatcherite types is a greater attachment to national champions, government intervention in the ownership of public utilities, and PPP. And of course a very clear enmity towards net zero and all things renewable, which is now mainstream conservative ideology but didn’t used to be.
To my question on corporation tax, he said they couldn’t make firm policy thus far out from an election but he praised Osborne’s tax roadmap.
He steered well away from anything culture war related, apart from a lone scoffing reference to “woke” investment funds. Nor foreign affairs. Clearly not his lane.
A clear indication that they would do “what they do in the USA” (he actually said that) and create a partisan civil service with Perm secs and their staff appointed by the government.
This was, in essence, like watching an hour of Dominic Cummings. Or indeed @Luckyguy1983 of this parish with a dollop of @Casino_Royale .
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
I think FIFA require fairly easy visas for fans.
When I went to the 2018 Russia world cup I just had to register as a fan, upload my ticket and got a 6 week visa immediately, far easier than a normal Russia tourist visa.
I expect the WC to be a bit of a fiasco, but for other reasons. Mostly it is far too bloated and spread out.
Far too many teams in the finals. And so too many matches that don't raise any interest. Too long. Too Trumpian. Host countries include one that threatens to invade another. Apart from that it's all great.
Wait til you hear that they are playing four quarters rather than two halves.....*
* This is happening, not a joke, ad breaks after 22 mins in each half.
Drinks breaks because of the weather*, definitely not ad breaks, no ad breaks at all in “soccer”.
*irrespective of the weather.
Egypt vs Iran during Seattle Pride is amusing though. I bet they rearrange it
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
I think FIFA require fairly easy visas for fans.
When I went to the 2018 Russia world cup I just had to register as a fan, upload my ticket and got a 6 week visa immediately, far easier than a normal Russia tourist visa.
I expect the WC to be a bit of a fiasco, but for other reasons. Mostly it is far too bloated and spread out.
Far too many teams in the finals. And so too many matches that don't raise any interest. Too long. Too Trumpian. Host countries include one that threatens to invade another. Apart from that it's all great.
Wait til you hear that they are playing four quarters rather than two halves.....*
* This is happening, not a joke, ad breaks after 22 mins in each half.
Drinks breaks because of the weather*, definitely not ad breaks, no ad breaks at all in “soccer”.
*irrespective of the weather.
Egypt vs Iran during Seattle Pride is amusing though. I bet they rearrange it
I’m quite looking forward to the Iranian and Egyptian fans walking into the middle of a Seattle “Gays for Palestine” march.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
I don’t remember Croydon being “nice” back in the 80s/90s?
The Republicans will carry on winning in the US as long as the Democrats are so utterly useless at doing anything for the sort of people the party is supposed to support, ie. working-class Americans. They've become almost exclusively the party of upper-class graduates.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Well yes. And Britain is on the losing side, and (sizeably foreign?) investors on the winning side. You're right that at the macro level this is a zero sum game, but the British are largely on the losing side. Because the chancellor doesn't understand economics.
The recent rise in gilt yields has been driven by international factors, it has nothing to do with Reeves. Since the start of the month 10 year gilt yields are up 8bp (0.08 %pts) while yields on 10 year US Treasuries and 10 year German bunds are both up 18bp. The main driver has been a repricing of expectations around the Fed. If anything, gilts have outperformed.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
I don’t remember Croydon being “nice” back in the 80s/90s?
Croydon remains what it always was: utilitarian. With some tatty outskirts and some posh outskirts.
Around me: Brockley, Deptford, New X, Lewisham, Nunhead, Peckham, all somewhat smarter with more going on than they were when I first arrived in the 90s.
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Well yes. And Britain is on the losing side, and (sizeably foreign?) investors on the winning side. You're right that at the macro level this is a zero sum game, but the British are largely on the losing side. Because the chancellor doesn't understand economics.
The recent rise in gilt yields has been driven by international factors, it has nothing to do with Reeves. Since the start of the month 10 year gilt yields are up 8bp (0.08 %pts) while yields on 10 year US Treasuries and 10 year German bunds are both up 18bp. The main driver has been a repricing of expectations around the Fed. If anything, gilts have outperformed.
And 30 year gilts are down a little. We’re still at the top of the G7 though. We need to get back into the pack like we were only a few years ago.
The Republicans will carry on winning in the US as long as the Democrats are so utterly useless at doing anything for the sort of people the party is supposed to support, ie. working-class Americans. They've become almost exclusively the party of upper-class graduates.
The Reps have done nothing for the working class . All the tax cuts have been aimed at the rich , the Reps have tried to gut the ACA . The Reps have just offered culture wars and scapegoated migrants . The Reps have never cared about improving the lives of working class Americans .
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
Is that the same Peter Kellner who incorrectly predicted the result of the 2016 referendum?
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Well yes. And Britain is on the losing side, and (sizeably foreign?) investors on the winning side. You're right that at the macro level this is a zero sum game, but the British are largely on the losing side. Because the chancellor doesn't understand economics.
The recent rise in gilt yields has been driven by international factors, it has nothing to do with Reeves. Since the start of the month 10 year gilt yields are up 8bp (0.08 %pts) while yields on 10 year US Treasuries and 10 year German bunds are both up 18bp. The main driver has been a repricing of expectations around the Fed. If anything, gilts have outperformed.
And 30 year gilts are down a little. We’re still at the top of the G7 though. We need to get back into the pack like we were only a few years ago.
That is doable if we keep our heads down and the Bank of England drops its dovish bias.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
plus cost, they reckon minimum 7.5K-10K to budget.
There’s already reports of hotels in the cities where matches are being held making up prices like $2,000 for a 3*, with airlines not far behind in rapidly increasing prices once people started searching the dates.
Suspect it will be like modern Las Vegas, where they give the impression of trying to nickel-and-dime you at every opportunity. Look out for $20 beers and $50 nachos in the stadiums.
Yes, have heard of booked accommodation (well north of 2k for 9 nights) being cancelled. Obviously will be relisted at twice the price, or more
FIFA are a racket, but there will be no end of profiteering going on. Some tickets for high up in the gods for games in big stadiums have been making nearly 1k, and they'll rise in price
As Foxy says, its too spread out - that's until you hear the ridiculous plan for WC 2030 which starts in Uruguay/S America, then crosses the Atlantic, where all but 3 games will be played in Morocco, Spain and Portugal. 6 host nations have qualified for 2030WC already
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I put my flat up this week, 4 viewers already and a note of interest already. Fingers crossed it goes before Christmas.
I have to say that this is EXACTLY the wrong time of year to be selling a dwelling.
When I've bought in the post-October period I've normally expected a 5% reduction over a sum I would have offered 2-3 months previously.
I have not asked an Estate Agent how the market is recently; I'll report back if I have a chance.
My neighbour selling his £550k 3500 sqft house house reports little interest, but it's not a main market property here, and they are happy to wait.
If memory serves, house prices start to rise around spring/Easter, dip a bit when people go on holiday, go back up in Sept when the kids go back to school, then ease off around now.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
I don’t remember Croydon being “nice” back in the 80s/90s?
Croydon remains what it always was: utilitarian. With some tatty outskirts and some posh outskirts.
Around me: Brockley, Deptford, New X, Lewisham, Nunhead, Peckham, all somewhat smarter with more going on than they were when I first arrived in the 90s.
Even in the 15 years we have lived there all those areas have changed a lot, largely for the better.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
I lived in Tooting for a couple of years. It was a bit of a dump then, somewhat smarter now.
Croydon was a dump then too, but did have "Beano's" which was an excellent second hand record shop.
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
I put my flat up this week, 4 viewers already and a note of interest already. Fingers crossed it goes before Christmas.
I have to say that this is EXACTLY the wrong time of year to be selling a dwelling.
When I've bought in the post-October period I've normally expected a 5% reduction over a sum I would have offered 2-3 months previously.
I have not asked an Estate Agent how the market is recently; I'll report back if I have a chance.
My neighbour selling his £550k 3500 sqft house house reports little interest, but it's not a main market property here, and they are happy to wait.
If memory serves, house prices start to rise around spring/Easter, dip a bit when people go on holiday, go back up in Sept when the kids go back to school, then ease off around now.
AIUI for decent prices you need to market for the Easter hols, early summer, or back-to-school times - roughly. Never leave it hanging. But these may be different times and different by region; here in Ashfield our market never died and is fairly sane, we always have had newbuilds, and we don't have the London panic-dynamic.
As it was when I was last in the market, advice was that if there was no interest in the first week, it was probably better to significantly reprice and try again at once, or delist and come back in in the next live period with a better price. And know who will be buying your dwelling. The market loves "fresh stock".
Since I bought for rental, a low purchase price is important as you make your money on the way in not the way out when a buy-and-hold rather than buy-and-flip purchaser, plus by being 30-40% more cost effective at renovating than a normal householder, not spending on things that don't give benefit or will break down or are unnecessary or avoidable (recognise a dodgy roof when you see one; they are bloody expensive) to mitigate risk.
With experience surveys can be dispensed with at little risk, which gives a marginal cost saving (not important) but much more agility (important).
I much respected Sean F's article the other day and the mentality of the MAGA mind.
Might there not be something else at play though? Russia is a white Christian country. You could say it's a racist white Christian country. I just wonder if from an insular American context there is a difficulty in accepting that such people could behave like brutal savages? Of course given our history in Europe we have to acknowledge it but maybe in America they struggle to?
I also wonder in terms of global opinion if it would be a good thing for us to call Russia out in such terms. We know how much we get accused of hypocrisy, islamophobia, racism by the non-western world. Perhaps if we framed Russia as a racist white Christian country and we know perfectly well that's no guarantee against anti-civilisational behaviour there would be fewer accusations of double standards etc.
It would also put people like JD Vance on the spot.
Its a bit of a myth that Russia is a white Christian country, or at least is any different to us in this respect.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
Ukraine is more white Christian than Russia, over 90% are white and 85% of Ukranians identify as Christian
FPT. One of my few rules on here is to stick to facts and arguments, and stay away from personalising to other commentators, but as @Luckyguy1983 has tagged me on this spurious comment I feel obliged to respond on the substantive points.
I see Badenoch has listed Brexit as one of the negative economic shocks experienced by the British economy in recent times.
That will come as a surprise to the “PB Tories” on here, who represent perhaps the final platoons of Brexity Hiroo Onodas, or Comical Alis.
No, it won’t. Of course it came at a near term cost (but also opened up a potential future upside with a capable government). It’s just that some people believe that’s all that matters (hence the tedious rendition of “Brexit is bad” related ad nauseum) and others believe that the political freedoms were worth the cost
Your compadres refuse to concede any cost. That’s the issue.
I’m glad you do.
I don't know which compadres you refer to, but I don't know any PB Brexit supporters who don't acknowledge a cost. Of course there was a cost. There was moderate to significant trade disruption with the EU, and British people lost some of their privileges in getting around the Continent easily.
By contrast, many, I would say a plurality of remoaners here cannot being themselves to acknowledge equally true benefits, not future aspirations, just basic prosaic facts like: 1. We no longer pay significant sums into the EU's coffers 2. We are no longer liable for additional EU debt
There are plenty more, but let's start with those two basic facts. When ScottP, Foxy, FF43, Cicero, Roger and *many* more, have the ability to acknowledge those simple facts without requiring medical assistance, come back to us for an informed debate. If anything, I'd say the less foamy contributors on the remain side here are in the minority.
Firstly I have said nothing at all on previous UK contributions to the EU and UK liabilities for EU collective debt, so my claimed inability to acknowledge these supposed facts is a clear falsehood.
It would be obviously stupid to deny UK used to pay contributions to the EU budget, which it no longer does. The much more important "fact" however is that Brexit costs the UK and citizens individually even when the budget savings are included
EU debt, which is new since we left it and so far relatively small compared to the size of the economy of the EU, is held against future EU revenues. Although in practice UK businesses and citizens would pay for this in the future if we remained members, through increased EU revenues, the UK would have no liability for it as a country.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
It depends which part of south London you're talking about. Croydon, most people would probably agree, is not as nice now as it was a few decades ago. The concrete blocks in the town centre haven't aged well for instance.
I lived in Tooting for a couple of years. It was a bit of a dump then, somewhat smarter now.
Croydon was a dump then too, but did have "Beano's" which was an excellent second hand record shop.
That's interesting. I lived in 6 areas of London in the late 90s / noughties, and they were all OK. But I got all my flats / bedsits from community networks directly by contact with the owners, rather than via Agents, and they were nearly all long-term owners, in areas where the owners themselves lived or had lived.
One example was a one bed flat tucked behind Wesley's Chapel on Paul Street, near City Road and Bunhill Fields, which was the former pied-a-terre of the owner who lived out of London. That one came out of an advert in the Evening Standard. Another one (flat share room) came via the HTB tabloid newspaper Focus, which was round the corner from the Clapham North tube station. All were quite ordinary.
I much respected Sean F's article the other day and the mentality of the MAGA mind.
Might there not be something else at play though? Russia is a white Christian country. You could say it's a racist white Christian country. I just wonder if from an insular American context there is a difficulty in accepting that such people could behave like brutal savages? Of course given our history in Europe we have to acknowledge it but maybe in America they struggle to?
I also wonder in terms of global opinion if it would be a good thing for us to call Russia out in such terms. We know how much we get accused of hypocrisy, islamophobia, racism by the non-western world. Perhaps if we framed Russia as a racist white Christian country and we know perfectly well that's no guarantee against anti-civilisational behaviour there would be fewer accusations of double standards etc.
It would also put people like JD Vance on the spot.
Its a bit of a myth that Russia is a white Christian country, or at least is any different to us in this respect.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
Ukraine is more white Christian than Russia, over 90% are white and 85% of Ukranians identify as Christian
Part of the reason for the invasion is that Putin wants more Slavs in Russia. It’s getting a bit non-Slavic for the tastes of racist ultra-nationalists.
See the birth rate collapse.
Hence the kidnapping of children to be Russified etc.
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
They'll rely on the public not understanding, ironically.
Davey just looks like he is preaching to the converted. Pretty much all he ever asks about at PMQs is Trump, the EU and social care. Starmer can just bat him away.
The LDs are going to have to start asking themselves some serious questions soon - Labour are plummeting in the polls, the Tories are down, Reform and the Greens are marmite, yet the LDs are flatlining and in 5th.
On seats though the LDs are still projected to be third with 74 MPs, just behind Labour on 102, with Reform getting a small majority on 331 and the Tories on 50, SNP on 45 and Greens on just 13. If Labour get re elected, a big if, on those numbers it will almost certainly be short of a majority in a hung parliament with Davey Kingmaker and able to dictate terms to Starmer or any other Labour PM
Specially for @TSE - Ipsos poll on Scotland. Indyref2, Holyrood and Westminster intentions.
Typical The National spin.
The big story on that poll is the SNP vote collapsing from the 47% it got in 2021 on the Holyrood constituency vote to just 35% now. Scottish Labour's vote though is only down 5% on 2021 so the main swing is SNP to Reform with Reform on 18% in Scotland now.
So a 3.5% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour should see some SNP seats go Labour (likely more with Unionist tactical voting as occurred in the Hamilton by election) and with lots of Reform MSPs likely to be elected on the regional list vote too we could get a Unionist majority at Holyrood for the first time since 2011. That would block even a request for indyref2, though Starmer would of course refuse it anyway. Indeed the SNP are projected on that poll to be down 4 MSPs from their 2021 total
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
They'll rely on the public not understanding, ironically.
Davey just looks like he is preaching to the converted. Pretty much all he ever asks about at PMQs is Trump, the EU and social care. Starmer can just bat him away.
The LDs are going to have to start asking themselves some serious questions soon - Labour are plummeting in the polls, the Tories are down, Reform and the Greens are marmite, yet the LDs are flatlining and in 5th.
On seats though the LDs are still projected to be third with 74 MPs, just behind Labour on 102, with Reform getting a small majority on 331 and the Tories on 50, SNP on 45 and Greens on just 13. If Labour get re elected, a big if, on those numbers it will almost certainly be short of a majority in a hung parliament with Davey Kingmaker and able to dictate terms to Starmer or any other Labour PM
The Lib Dems flatlining in the polls mid-term (and after a small jump post-election) isnt exactly a stellar performance, but it’s actually reasonably good by historical standards. The party tends to fall back due to minimal media coverage, and have mini boomlets around local council (and in the old days European Parliament) elections.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
plus cost, they reckon minimum 7.5K-10K to budget.
There’s already reports of hotels in the cities where matches are being held making up prices like $2,000 for a 3*, with airlines not far behind in rapidly increasing prices once people started searching the dates.
Suspect it will be like modern Las Vegas, where they give the impression of trying to nickel-and-dime you at every opportunity. Look out for $20 beers and $50 nachos in the stadiums.
In 2012 I was working on a big banking integration project necessitating frequent stays in London hotels. 3-4 months ahead we were unable to book any rooms during the actual Olympic period at anywhere near our permitted corporate rates as prices had gone stupidly sky-high.
However, as we got closer it became clear that hotels were struggling to sell rooms , and not just because of the outrageous prices... Anyone who wasn't going to the Olympics was avoiding London - normal tourism and non-essential business stays had clearly fallen off a cliff. Net result was we got the rooms we needed at knock-down prices.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
'Four Afghan men were ordered to report to the Taliban government's department of vice and virtue for dressing in costumes inspired by the TV series Peaky Blinders.
The friends were told that their clothing was "in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values", a Taliban spokesman told the BBC, adding the values in Peaky Blinders went against Afghan culture.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cedx6lqy967o
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
plus cost, they reckon minimum 7.5K-10K to budget.
There’s already reports of hotels in the cities where matches are being held making up prices like $2,000 for a 3*, with airlines not far behind in rapidly increasing prices once people started searching the dates.
Suspect it will be like modern Las Vegas, where they give the impression of trying to nickel-and-dime you at every opportunity. Look out for $20 beers and $50 nachos in the stadiums.
In 2012 I was working on a big banking integration project necessitating frequent stays in London hotels. 3-4 months ahead we were unable to book any rooms during the actual Olympic period at anywhere near our permitted corporate rates as prices had gone stupidly sky-high.
However, as we got closer it became clear that hotels were struggling to sell rooms , and not just because of the outrageous prices... Anyone who wasn't going to the Olympics was avoiding London - normal tourism and non-essential business stays had clearly fallen off a cliff. Net result was we got the rooms we needed at knock-down prices.
Yep, that’s how these things normally work out, most people travelling for the event want to plan ahead, but as it gets closer the hotels realise they’re not selling rooms and start to cut prices.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
It must be said that despite the Bank of England's apparent desperation to reduce interest rates as soon as possible house prices seem fairly stable.
Um that isn’t what I’m hearing. And today I’m sat in the residential valuation team of a firm everyone on here will know the name of
My late MiL's house went on the market 5 weeks ago now. No one has yet asked to see inside it. We have heard that some have viewed it from the outside. The market around here, unfortunately, seems to be dead.
House price reporting has a lead time of up to 6 months. And since September the market has definitely turned
Yes, which is why the builders have stopped building so quickly. They have plenty of permissions, but few customers.
But little competition.
If there were open competition without the requirement for permissions then any builder could build one home and sell it to market for anyone who needs one and take the profit from that, without being able to hold back as if they don't build it then someone else will.
When an oligopoly, or worse a local monopoly, has permission and no competitors do, then they can hold back and constrain supply to suit their own agenda.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told @Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
Specially for @TSE - Ipsos poll on Scotland. Indyref2, Holyrood and Westminster intentions.
Typical The National spin.
The big story on that poll is the SNP vote collapsing from the 47% it got in 2021 on the Holyrood constituency vote to just 35% now. Scottish Labour's vote though is only down 5% on 2021 so the main swing is SNP to Reform with Reform on 18% in Scotland now.
So a 3.5% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour should see some SNP seats go Labour (likely more with Unionist tactical voting as occurred in the Hamilton by election) and with lots of Reform MSPs likely to be elected on the regional list vote too we could get a Unionist majority at Holyrood for the first time since 2011. That would block even a request for indyref2, though Starmer would of course refuse it anyway. Indeed the SNP are projected on that poll to be down 4 MSPs from their 2021 total
You claiming that Ipsos is bent? Edit: I posted it for the data. Not the commentary, such as it is.
Most of what you say isn't new. The main change *is* the Labour drop.
Are the Lib Dems proposing “a” customs union or “the” Customs Union.
Doesn’t sound like they’ve given any of this much thought.
I'm not sure what the Lib Dems are for anymore other than performing cunnilingus on the EU.
It seems to be all they're interested in.
So you mean, apart from electoral reform, major constitutional reform, the role of the Royal family, and including more powerful local government and codifying the relationship between England and the rest of the UK, rebuilding the relationship with the EU and rejoining the single market, protecting civil liberties, reform of the NHS, including expanding medical training, much more active anti pollution measures, including net zero by 2045, major reform of welfare, improving the funding of the courts, expanding the early years pupil premium, take much more aggressive action to seize Russian assets to defend Ukraine, and expanding sanctions against the Iranian revolutionary guard and expanding our armed forces back above 100,000?
You are still asking what have the Liberal Democrats ever done for us?
I think you should be asking a similar question to the government and the Tories, honestly, for the Tories in particular have very few answers.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
So it is.. thanks for pointing that out. Which bit do you think is balls?
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I take it you live somewhere down south.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
Good news for investors and those buying annuities. Every transaction has 2 sides.
Indeed. Ive been most happy with VGOV in my SIPP and am buying monthly at the moment.
But its not good for the govt.
VGOV is down over almost every time period from 1 day to 5 years. Average gilt duration 8.3 years. Surely rising gilt yields are (yet more) bad news for holders ?
Rising gilt yields are great news for the holders, but not so great for the government.
If you are already a holder then it means that prices are going down, so it’s not great. Great for buyers.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
plus cost, they reckon minimum 7.5K-10K to budget.
There’s already reports of hotels in the cities where matches are being held making up prices like $2,000 for a 3*, with airlines not far behind in rapidly increasing prices once people started searching the dates.
Suspect it will be like modern Las Vegas, where they give the impression of trying to nickel-and-dime you at every opportunity. Look out for $20 beers and $50 nachos in the stadiums.
In 2012 I was working on a big banking integration project necessitating frequent stays in London hotels. 3-4 months ahead we were unable to book any rooms during the actual Olympic period at anywhere near our permitted corporate rates as prices had gone stupidly sky-high.
However, as we got closer it became clear that hotels were struggling to sell rooms , and not just because of the outrageous prices... Anyone who wasn't going to the Olympics was avoiding London - normal tourism and non-essential business stays had clearly fallen off a cliff. Net result was we got the rooms we needed at knock-down prices.
And we did all sorts of contingency planning in case transport chaos meant nobody could get into the office. In practice everybody stayed away from Central London unless they absolutely had to be there, and commuting was a dream (trains ran on time, and I even got a seat).
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I take it you live somewhere down south.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
There's a breathtaking change that is only five years or less, and thats the foreign shiftless men pestering young women in town centres. Your point is astute, if the home counties are only getting the engineers and the doctors they might miss that for many places this is not the case.
Specially for @TSE - Ipsos poll on Scotland. Indyref2, Holyrood and Westminster intentions.
Typical The National spin.
The big story on that poll is the SNP vote collapsing from the 47% it got in 2021 on the Holyrood constituency vote to just 35% now. Scottish Labour's vote though is only down 5% on 2021 so the main swing is SNP to Reform with Reform on 18% in Scotland now.
So a 3.5% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour should see some SNP seats go Labour (likely more with Unionist tactical voting as occurred in the Hamilton by election) and with lots of Reform MSPs likely to be elected on the regional list vote too we could get a Unionist majority at Holyrood for the first time since 2011. That would block even a request for indyref2, though Starmer would of course refuse it anyway. Indeed the SNP are projected on that poll to be down 4 MSPs from their 2021 total
You claiming that Ipsos is bent? Edit: I posted it for the data. Not the commentary, such as it is.
Most of what you say isn't new. The main change *is* the Labour drop.
No, the data is right, the Nat spin is wrong.
The main change is the SNP vote down 12% on the Holyrood constituency vote since 2021 and Scottish Labour down just 5%, giving a 3.5% swing from SNP to Labour and likely more with Unionist tactical votes as the Hamilton by election showed
The rumours of major setbacks to the Russian operations are continuing to grow. It seems that Pokrovsk, far from being a Russian victory has been an utter bloodbath for them and the Ukrainians still have a foothold in the city. Meanwhile the Russians are facing continual degradation of capabilities and logistics that are forcing very unpleasant choices and may lead to the collapse of the Crimean perimeter.
As always Trump's grip on reality in Ukraine may as fake as everything else he says.
It's really hard to know what's going on in Pokrovsk. We won't know who has had the worst of the battle until some time afterwards.
I have seen exactly the same videos, just with different watermarks, on Reddit and Telegram being marketed as FPV strikes on Ukrainian or Russian forces depending on the platform.
Both sides are running relentless propaganda campaigns operated by pathological liars so who knows what the fuck is going on.
The only knowable fact at this point is that Trump has had e-fucking-nough of it. The SMO is degrading Russian military capabilities (yet also simultaneously improving it doctrinally and technologically) but that's not worth the $130bn (or whatever) that the US has pumped into a losing cause.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I take it you live somewhere down south.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
More people live down south. If we are to describe the state of the nation, we can't just look at one region's experience, let alone that experience filtered through a rather loaded lens.
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I take it you live somewhere down south.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
More people live down south. If we are to describe the state of the nation, we can't just look at one region's experience, let alone that experience filtered through a rather loaded lens.
That's right, the people down south live, while the people up north exist.
The World Cup in 2026 is going to be a fiasco isn't it? No-one is going to turn up. I see the latest proposal is that all visitors must provide social media, email addresses going back 5 years and details of all your relatives.
Isn’t that normal for the USA.
My wife had to provide a lot of info, like that, prior to a recent trip to New York.
Don't think so. I travelled to the US twice in recent times (just after Covid). Applied for the bit of paper I needed (can't remember its name), which had minimal info on it, which was very straightforward and trundled through passport checks with minimal interference. They did something with my passport, had some sort of scan and then straight through. A lot less than I was anticipating having listened to some stories.
My wife certainly had to provide that to get her ESTA but she travelled last month.
Must be something relatively recent then
The ESTA has asked for details of social media account names for some years, now. What happens if you just leave the section blank, I dont know,
The (new) proposal, which sparked off the current discussion, is for it to be mandatory.
If asked for social media history, what counts as social media? Does it include anonymous exchanges of great thoughts such as PB? Is Whatsapp social media? Included in the social media under 16 ban in Australia (I read) is YouTube. To me YouTube is like being able to watch telly or listen to the radio but with wider and sometimes better content. Are under 16s banned from watching its lectures on the Critique of Pure Reason?
Sir Keir will be thrilled that his cherished ideals of anglo-French co-operation will be retained after he leaves office.
*In seriousness, in the event that both Farage and Bardella are elected, minds are more than likely to change, but it's interesting nonetheless.
The Home Office and Civil Service simply won’t allow it.
I dont think towing overloaded dinghies is something that either coastguard or Royal Navy could do. Theres a very high risk of a capsize catastrophe.
Loading them onto a safe vessel and landing them back on the French coast is possible, but obviously needs French governmental support.
I wouldn’t advocate it for the reasons you outline. Whatever people think of these men and their motivations for coming here you cannot simply risk drowning them. It would be unacceptable.
I thought the Labour government told us that they were mostly women and children?
Perhaps they self-identify as women and children.
There's a long tradition of asylum seekers claiming to be children when they're not.
Specific quote of interest "Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said." But was he really 17?
Is this the case that was reported of the two Leamington spa boys committing a heinous attack on a girl ?
I used to work in Leamington and live in Kenilworth.
It used to be a nice place.
There are lots of parts of England that *used* to be a nice place. Hence, those with immediate memories kind of getting annoyed and looking for someone to put it right.
Lots of parts of Britain used to be pretty grim too. South London was in 1983, much smarter now. The Black Country was down in the dumps when I moved there in 1989 too, with closed factories everywhere as a sort of post Thatcher post industrial dystopia.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
"Squalor", not "squaller". A squaller is something quite different!
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I take it you live somewhere down south.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
More people live down south. If we are to describe the state of the nation, we can't just look at one region's experience, let alone that experience filtered through a rather loaded lens.
That's right, the people down south live, while the people up north exist.
Weighted mean has the population centred on the Daventry logistics centre (rather impressive really).
Starmer just comprehensively demonstrated why a customs union or rejoining the single market is not a practical proposition following the trade deals with India, US and the pharmaceutical deal with US
This is a question the Lib Dems will have to find answers to if they are to persuade a change in policy by labour
The answer, if it gets that far, would be that deepening trade with the EU would generate enough benefits that it will be worth ditching the other deals for. See also the Pacific thing.
I don't think that's where the conversation is today, and it might never get there. But if it does, that's your answer.
Meanwhile, in Beautiful Swirly Diagram news, here's the latest from Lord Peter of Kellnershire;
There are many reasons why that doesn't mean Rejoin Now. But as long as the defining thing of recent Britain remains immovable and unpopular, it's going to continue to stink out the national conversation.
That's the outlook for a fair bit longer yet.
That's a very pretty diagram, but is it accurate? It appears to show that 5 voters have died for every 3 new voters, however our total population has grown by about 4 million (~6%) since 2016. Obviously there is a somewhat complicated relationship between the total population and the eligible voter base, but in broad terms it seems surprising if we have one growing substantially whilst the other shrinks.
I think it reflects the fact that turnout in the referendum is much higher than at elections now, combined with the fact that most of the population increase is of non voters.
Comments
We have bought our daughter a phone, we have given her limits on what she is permitted to do on it and whom she is permitted to speak to on it. Which does include social media, which we signed up to for her, on her behalf, but under ground rules and limitations we have set.
It is the same as anything. Used wisely, it can be powerful and for good. Used poorly, it can be harmful.
Banning it is pig-headed and ignorant. Educating people to use it wisely, especially when it is parents making the conscious choice to buy it, is sensible.
On the flip side these people are the kind of MAGA whom *MAGA* don’t want to run for higher offices. Brains running out of their ears.
What do you mean by "the collapse of the Crimean perimeter." Are you referring to the Zaporizhia front, where Russia made some advances recently?
If economics and business are his lane, where does he stand on tax avoidance and UK business people dodging tax via use of tax havens?
Were I there I might have been waspish enough as to ask him about Reform's position on taxation of foreign owned properties, including taxation of encapsulated ones, and Brits who cannot get accommodation as a result.
They are barely above the current level of inflation.
It would also normally make the government of the day very unpopular, but that bridge has already been crossed.
In both UK and Russia about 47% identify as Christians in surveys, and we both have Muslims as 6.5% of the population.
Only 71% of "Russians" are ethnically Russian, with 193 ethnic groups officially recognised.
In all seriousness, it's an astonishing change. This is what many naive Indy supporters would happen in Scotland - but it's actually happened for Brexit.
As someone pointed out above, it would be even more pronounced if it didn't take into account differential turnout by age.
When I've bought in the post-October period I've normally expected a 5% reduction over a sum I would have offered 2-3 months previously.
I have not asked an Estate Agent how the market is recently; I'll report back if I have a chance.
My neighbour selling his £550k 3500 sqft house house reports little interest, but it's not a main market property here, and they are happy to wait.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
Now only +0.92C for the rest of December for this year to be the warmest on record.
*irrespective of the weather.
Mandatory Social Media:
In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.
4.
High Value Data Elements:
To comply with the January 2025 E.O. (14161), and the April 4, 2025, Memorandum Updating All Forms to Collect Baseline Biographic Data, CBP will add several “high value data fields” to the ESTA application, when feasible. This is in addition to the information already collected in the ESTA application.
The high value data fields include:
a. Telephone numbers used in the last five years;
b. Email addresses used in the last ten years;
c. IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos;
d. Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children);
e. Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years;
f. Family member dates of birth;
g. Family member places of birth;
h. Family member residencies;
i. Biometrics—face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris;
j. Business telephone numbers used in the last five years;
k. Business email addresses used in the last ten years.
This is just to go to Disneyland
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/10/2025-22461/agency-information-collection-activities-revision-arrival-and-departure-record-form-i-94-and
There’s also substantive rumours of a number of Ukranian gains in the same general area, as the Russians throw everyone into the Pokrovsk meat grinder.
It seems to be all they're interested in.
SCOOP: Trump administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document and commit to not investigating President Donald Trump & his top officials, an administration official told
@Reuters, adding that this ask has been made known to court & allies
https://x.com/humeyra_pamuk/status/1998739327656858018?s=20
Around me: Brockley, Deptford, New X, Lewisham, Nunhead, Peckham, all somewhat smarter with more going on than they were when I first arrived in the 90s.
Though, given that he launched his assault against the ICC in his first couple of months, I'm not sure what leverage he has left.
FIFA are a racket, but there will be no end of profiteering going on. Some tickets for high up in the gods for games in big stadiums have been making nearly 1k, and they'll rise in price
As Foxy says, its too spread out - that's until you hear the ridiculous plan for WC 2030 which starts in Uruguay/S America, then crosses the Atlantic, where all but 3 games will be played in Morocco, Spain and Portugal. 6 host nations have qualified for 2030WC already
Croydon was a dump then too, but did have "Beano's" which was an excellent second hand record shop.
As it was when I was last in the market, advice was that if there was no interest in the first week, it was probably better to significantly reprice and try again at once, or delist and come back in in the next live period with a better price. And know who will be buying your dwelling. The market loves "fresh stock".
Since I bought for rental, a low purchase price is important as you make your money on the way in not the way out when a buy-and-hold rather than buy-and-flip purchaser, plus by being 30-40% more cost effective at renovating than a normal householder, not spending on things that don't give benefit or will break down or are unnecessary or avoidable (recognise a dodgy roof when you see one; they are bloody expensive) to mitigate risk.
With experience surveys can be dispensed with at little risk, which gives a marginal cost saving (not important) but much more agility (important).
It would be obviously stupid to deny UK used to pay contributions to the EU budget, which it no longer does. The much more important "fact" however is that Brexit costs the UK and citizens individually even when the budget savings are included
EU debt, which is new since we left it and so far relatively small compared to the size of the economy of the EU, is held against future EU revenues. Although in practice UK businesses and citizens would pay for this in the future if we remained members, through increased EU revenues, the UK would have no liability for it as a country.
Information here if anyone is interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_EU
One example was a one bed flat tucked behind Wesley's Chapel on Paul Street, near City Road and Bunhill Fields, which was the former pied-a-terre of the owner who lived out of London. That one came out of an advert in the Evening Standard. Another one (flat share room) came via the HTB tabloid newspaper Focus, which was round the corner from the Clapham North tube station. All were quite ordinary.
See the birth rate collapse.
Hence the kidnapping of children to be Russified etc.
https://electionmaps.uk/nowcast
The big story on that poll is the SNP vote collapsing from the 47% it got in 2021 on the Holyrood constituency vote to just 35% now. Scottish Labour's vote though is only down 5% on 2021 so the main swing is SNP to Reform with Reform on 18% in Scotland now.
So a 3.5% swing from SNP to Scottish Labour should see some SNP seats go Labour (likely more with Unionist tactical voting as occurred in the Hamilton by election) and with lots of Reform MSPs likely to be elected on the regional list vote too we could get a Unionist majority at Holyrood for the first time since 2011. That would block even a request for indyref2, though Starmer would of course refuse it anyway. Indeed the SNP are projected on that poll to be down 4 MSPs from their 2021 total
The guy is nothing more than a hoodlum.
However, as we got closer it became clear that hotels were struggling to sell rooms , and not just because of the outrageous prices... Anyone who wasn't going to the Olympics was avoiding London - normal tourism and non-essential business stays had clearly fallen off a cliff. Net result was we got the rooms we needed at knock-down prices.
The dystopia was long before Thatcher, lets remember the Boys from the Blackstuff was a play written before she took office.
Since the Thatcher revolution, the improvements by Major and Blair with regional investment much of this was long gone. By the late 2000s (just as we went into the crash), much of what was unrecognisable squaller was gone.
Mid 2000s was peak UK. All ruined by the crash, the eastern european migration, the need for budgetary constraint following the great crash, the bandwidth taken up by Brexit, the inviting of the chancers of the earth to relocated to Europe by Merkel precipitating the refugee crisis and the boats, Covid (and the government's response) and the Boris wave.
We live in a materially worse state than we did, foreign young men shiftlessly wandering round the most provincial of towns, pestering the young women and committing petty crime, the movement of the high street to a highway of vape shops, barbers and mini markets that are openly recognised as fronts for organised crime. On that latter point that started off as a racist conspiracy is now an openly accepted fact across the political spectrum.
Any wonder people are going to vote for someone like Farge?
Wigan Manchester are also a different world.
Just HOW does the ICC amend its founding document, when there are 125 countries signed up to it?
Perhaps an easier way is for Trump to stop committing crimes that make him liable.
The friends were told that their clothing was "in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values", a Taliban spokesman told the BBC, adding the values in Peaky Blinders went against Afghan culture.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cedx6lqy967o
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members'_Protection_Act
If there were open competition without the requirement for permissions then any builder could build one home and sell it to market for anyone who needs one and take the profit from that, without being able to hold back as if they don't build it then someone else will.
When an oligopoly, or worse a local monopoly, has permission and no competitors do, then they can hold back and constrain supply to suit their own agenda.
Most of what you say isn't new. The main change *is* the Labour drop.
You are still asking what have the Liberal Democrats ever done for us?
I think you should be asking a similar question to the government and the Tories, honestly, for the Tories in particular have very few answers.
As for the rest of your claims: balls.
I fully recognize what @CumberlandGap is saying and equally can imagine someone in somewhere in the home counties not recognizing it.
But that’s because I live up north but spend a fair bit of time down south
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25686679.former-snp-councillor-completes-defection-reform-uk/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1765364987-2
https://x.com/i/status/1998724255845130690
The main change is the SNP vote down 12% on the Holyrood constituency vote since 2021 and Scottish Labour down just 5%, giving a 3.5% swing from SNP to Labour and likely more with Unionist tactical votes as the Hamilton by election showed
Both sides are running relentless propaganda campaigns operated by pathological liars so who knows what the fuck is going on.
The only knowable fact at this point is that Trump has had e-fucking-nough of it. The SMO is degrading Russian military capabilities (yet also simultaneously improving it doctrinally and technologically) but that's not worth the $130bn (or whatever) that the US has pumped into a losing cause.
https://barneystringer.wordpress.com/2023/01/03/shifting-population/