The last PB post by TSE was 'Will this bug John Swinney and the SNP until election day?', and here is the thing while TSE used a humourous play on the latest SNP scandal, it should have been a far bigger story here with far more scrutiny because of the implications for the Holyrood Parliament. But it won't be because frustratingly it involves a really shocking scandal that involves one of our devolved governments...
So the PB thread like the UK main stream media totally ignored it, literal tumble weed here and elsewhere, special shout out to SkyNews for mentioning it but doing sod all else to investigate it. Now just imagine if this had been a governing party at Westminster where now THREE female elected MPs had been reported to have had their offices bugged by party staffers?! I have no doubt that the Westminster Lobby would have been all over the story and it would have been wall to wall coverage in the 24/7 News channels, especially when the original breaking story reported that the male aid who bugged one female MSP had since moved to work for an SNP MP?!
Sorry TSE but I was really annoyed when you almost affectionately made fun of and dismissed this shocking scandal, and it is incredible serious story that should have resulted in not only a Parliamentary investigation, but a Police investigation too. I said early yesterday that Holyrood was not only broken, it really is not fit for purpose and that matters with a big election looming there in May next year and I stand by that claim today more than ever. But again I was just so saddened and frustrated at the lack of response here or in the media, not even the most basic questions asked. And to say this scandal stinks is an understatement, no one has asked why or to what end these female SNP MSPs who remain anonymous were bugged, but the Scottish Sun is reporting it suggests internal SNP infighting.
But the cynic in me after 18 eighteen years of this appalling SNP Government did have one question, why did it take until yesterday for this breaking story to finally see the light of day just as Holyrood went into Christmas recess and both politicians and political journalists departed to go on their festive holidays until the New Year.. Its almost as if this story finally having to break was stage managed so it would hopefully get the least attention or any proper scrutiny by the Holyrood Parliament, the local media or the public. This is how the SNP operate, totally secretive and utterly ruthless in their media management and so cynically in their media operation but they get away with it time and time again because Scotland is deemed a side show despite the fact that they control so much of our public services up here and including taxation when it comes to budgets but we like Wales and NI are totally failed by the UK media!
And the PB crew fell for it yet again yesterday because they were not even interested.... Oh to be a female MSP in the work place at Holyrood right now!
Blaw Blaw your kilt awa two snp donkeys spying on each other 2 years ago , get a life
And Hi to you to MalcolmG, but the very fact you dismiss these SNP FEMALE MSPs being bugged in their Holyrood Parliament offices says it all about this site right now!! No outrage, no curiosity or even the most basic questions that should be asked about this invasion of their privacy as elected politicians! But then I still remember the way that Jewish Labour female MPs were treated at Westminster and at their own Conference!! Oh the joys of being a strong out spoken feminist female poster on this site or an elected female politician at Holyrood or Westminster in the current climate. So and I say this sarcastically, go you wee man!!
I'll admit one reason I'm not commenting is I'm finding the story a bit baffling. The SNP was spying on its MSPs? Why? What on earth was going on? Were these people politiciking, or peculiar? So in default of more information I'm refraining from speculating.
It doesn't inspire confidence in the party's leadership but (a) I never had any and (b) I'm not Scottish so my opinion is not really relevant.
Not even clear it was the leadership or the party as such. Compare recent events in the UK generally. Which is why I don't have a clue either.
That is not only pathetic, its just embarrassing and desperate, all the more so for what has been reported about this scandal already. You are just insulting the non SNP cult in Scotland's intelligence.
So, to be clear, do we as yet have any hard evidence to say
... what was the purpose of the bugging (political or sexual); ... was it one individual, or several perpetrating the bugging; ... were any male MSPs similarly surveilled; ... was there any party leadership involvement ?
I am unclear on all of those questions.
So we await the indepth media scrutiny and questions that might answer those questions, or we just watch this latest SNP scandal being brushed under the carpet due to the ususal lack of scrutiny that would have been afforded to a similar scandal at Westminster. As I said, the cynical timing of this story finally breaking on the day that the Holyrood Parliament broke up for Christmas recess as both politicians and Scottish Lobby journalists headed off on their festive holidays speaks volumes... So the big question should be how and when did this scandal finally come to light within Holyrood estate, and why did it conveniently take until the last day of Parliament for it to break in the media when there would clearly be the least chance of it getting the scrutiny it deserves?
See my comment at the top of the thread. If the journalists don't investigate, and no further information emerges, then you might have a point.
But until then, and without more information, I have literally nothing to add.
Big news if this is correct. This is I think the tanker hit yesterday in the port of Rostov-on-Don.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
And it was Sunak who tightened the rules and the subsequent fall in numbers
I recently caused a small fire trying to fry some Tofu. Managed to put it out with a pair of wet oven gloves, but the flat still ended up full of smoke and dinner was ruined.
For some reason my partner doesn't consider my heroics mitigation of my rank stupidity and incompetence. I shall put her in touch with you.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
I don't understand the motivation for pumping Sunak's reputation. He's not coming back, and I don't get any sense anyone except a couple of PBers want him to.
No need to 'pump' Sunak's reputation as the evidence is there he took the action to reduce the high levels of immigration and of course he is not coming back, I do not know anyone who suggested he is
They dosh up their mates and make the rest of us foot the bill.
This may be true Alan, but in which respects does this differ from their predecessors?
So their position is they are as bad as the Tories.
Im sure that will inspire support.
Werent they meant to be better, cleaner the adults in the room ?
I'd have settled for less corrupt and incompetent.
They are certainly the former, and probably the latter too , but it's still early days. Give it another twelve years or so and I'll let you know.
This from Peter Punter is a post of wisdom and maturity. The single biggest positive development in politics would be if the public were to revise down their expectations of how much any government can realistically improve the UK's living standards and public services except over quite a long period (certainly several years). The gap between expectations and what is feasible is creating a fertile environment for the types of politicians who we can only hope are revealed to be unfit for power before they get their mitts on it.
Chances of this occurring though? Slim to non-existent. Why should unrealistic expectations of politicians be relinquished when politicians themselves do nothing but fuel them. Which is perfectly rational behaviour by them. Prospects of election are boosted if you exaggerate the positive impact you will make. Otherwise you'll fail to inspire the voters and they will reciprocate by failing to vote for you. Why that risk if you don't have to?
Fresh in memory, Labour last year, my party, I actually sent an email to Morgan McSweeney saying we should not be running on that crude CHANGE slogan, as if the morning after a Labour win people would look out to see lakes of milk and honey. Instead I recommended posters, lecterns and tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control!'. Compromising with cheap populism with that exclamation mark. And guess what Morgan wrote back? Not even anything polite and considered. Just "LOL". That says it all.
I am so getting a couple of those made up.
...tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control !'..
It also makes a good chant.
"Wadda we want?" "Incremental improvement in key areas subject to various factors outside of governmental control!" "When do we wannit?" "After a while"
Big news if this is correct. This is I think the tanker hit yesterday in the port of Rostov-on-Don.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
I agree with the general thrust of your argument here.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
Net migration is down 69% in the last 12 months, and total immigration is down 31%. But, yes, small boats remains the stickiest part of the problem, with numbers up 16%, the highest figure since 2022. (Asylum applications in total up 13%.) The government is processing cases quicker, which helps: numbers awaiting a first decision are down 39% (but the appeals backlog has increased) and returns/deportations are up 11%.
The main origin of those coming on boats is now Eritrea (a predominantly Christian country), followed by Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia. Those are all countries with very real reasons for people to flee.
They dosh up their mates and make the rest of us foot the bill.
This may be true Alan, but in which respects does this differ from their predecessors?
So their position is they are as bad as the Tories.
Im sure that will inspire support.
Werent they meant to be better, cleaner the adults in the room ?
I'd have settled for less corrupt and incompetent.
They are certainly the former, and probably the latter too , but it's still early days. Give it another twelve years or so and I'll let you know.
This from Peter Punter is a post of wisdom and maturity. The single biggest positive development in politics would be if the public were to revise down their expectations of how much any government can realistically improve the UK's living standards and public services except over quite a long period (certainly several years). The gap between expectations and what is feasible is creating a fertile environment for the types of politicians who we can only hope are revealed to be unfit for power before they get their mitts on it.
Chances of this occurring though? Slim to non-existent. Why should unrealistic expectations of politicians be relinquished when politicians themselves do nothing but fuel them. Which is perfectly rational behaviour by them. Prospects of election are boosted if you exaggerate the positive impact you will make. Otherwise you'll fail to inspire the voters and they will reciprocate by failing to vote for you. Why that risk if you don't have to?
Fresh in memory, Labour last year, my party, I actually sent an email to Morgan McSweeney saying we should not be running on that crude CHANGE slogan, as if the morning after a Labour win people would look out to see lakes of milk and honey. Instead I recommended posters, lecterns and tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control!'. Compromising with cheap populism with that exclamation mark. And guess what Morgan wrote back? Not even anything polite and considered. Just "LOL". That says it all.
I am so getting a couple of those made up.
...tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control !'..
My T shirt will say "Do it because it seems like a good thing to do"
You will get some misses with this approach but hopefully enough useful stuff happens to make it worthwhile.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
I don't understand the motivation for pumping Sunak's reputation. He's not coming back, and I don't get any sense anyone except a couple of PBers want him to.
There is more joy in heaven over a repenting sinner…..
'The Vatican has announced that Richard Moth will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, making him the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.
A point made forcefully by many historians, for example Michael Bentley. 'Politicians of that era (1905-1914) had no reason to think that they needed to complete everything before the chiming of some solemn midnight hour in 1914...diaries of Liberal politicians (in spring 1914) have an optimistic future tense reference to the election of 1915...in their imagination, those young men in the summer of 1914 rode the crest of an open future.'
An idea of how people thought and felt in any era can be gained by reading newspapers of the period for several days*, and the results are usually interesting. AI is doing the same thing, just quicker.
*Something that will be to put it mildly more challenging for historians of our own times.
Not just 'quicker', but with potentially far broader reach in terms of reading. Like all AIs, it will be a fallible tool which needs someone with actual knowledge of a given period to use most effectively, but it might be quite a powerful one, since it could/can have access to a vast amount of texts in any language.
(Consider, for example, the massive volumes of Korean court histories, which on their own might otherwise require a lifetime of study.)
When I was at University the library still had either the hard copy or a microfiche (showing my age here) of the Times newspapers and one of the many ways I would amuse myself when law got too boring was to read the newspapers in the run up to some significant event, such as the American civil war or WW1 and get an idea of how the informed people of the time saw things. My recollection, and this was 45 years ago now, was that many people saw trouble with Germany as inevitable. We had already had the race to build Dreadnaughts and there were concerns about whether the RN was as dominant as it had been for the last century. No one foresaw the bloodbath to come that I recall.
It is pretty universal that predictions of the future are wrong and fail to anticipate major events correctly.
Well within our lifetimes no one really saw how quickly the Soviet Union would collapse in 89-90 either.
These things tend to be much more obvious with the advantage of hindsight.
Actually, a large number of people saw through the Potemkin Village that was the SU.
For example - a CIA analyst (one of many) who did some statistical sampling of crops, buildings etc from overhead imagery. And found the Soviet economy was a fraction of the size they claimed.
The problem was that the pyramid of lies inside the SU meant that the reports shown to the leaders were lies x lies x lies x lies…. And these reports were the target for espionage. So the CIA went with the numbers presented to Politburo from the reports they had so brilliantly stolen.
It does look awfully like history is repeating itself in modern-day Russia, with even their mainstream media now reporting on the economic collapse that has been a constant story in new media since the summer.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
I agree with the general thrust of your argument here.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
The simple fact is we need migration. We need skilled inward migration. Especially in target industries.
We also should be targetting overseas students who graduate in areas we need skills to stay.
Only today it has been announced Llandudno is to house asylum seekers and the social media is off the scale in fury and letters from politicians to the Council demanding more information
This is the first time I have heard the subject raised at any time in our area
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
Absurd. This government doesn't have any supporters. If only the same was true for Trumps.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
I don't understand the motivation for pumping Sunak's reputation. He's not coming back, and I don't get any sense anyone except a couple of PBers want him to.
I am happy to pump Sunak's reputation. He was massively, massively better than the two previous rapscallions the Conservative Party chose to be our prime minister.
Also Starmer is continuity Sunak, so he's not really gone away. Rather he's re-generated Dr Who style.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
I agree with the general thrust of your argument here.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
The simple fact is we need migration. We need skilled inward migration. Especially in target industries.
We also should be targetting overseas students who graduate in areas we need skills to stay.
Only today it has been announced Llandudno is to house asylum seekers and the social media is off the scale in fury and letters from politicians to the Council demanding more information
This is the first time I have heard the subject raised at any time in our area
I thought you had major issues there with locals not being able to get homes due to second home owners and they introduced a premium council tax charge on them.
If I was a local waiting for a home I’d be pretty pissed off at this.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
I don't understand the motivation for pumping Sunak's reputation. He's not coming back, and I don't get any sense anyone except a couple of PBers want him to.
I am happy to pump Sunak's reputation. He was massively, massively better than the two previous rapscallions the Conservative Party chose to be our prime minister.
Also Starmer is continuity Sunak, so he's not really gone away. Rather he's re-generated Dr Who style.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
I don't understand the motivation for pumping Sunak's reputation. He's not coming back, and I don't get any sense anyone except a couple of PBers want him to.
No need to 'pump' Sunak's reputation as the evidence is there he took the action to reduce the high levels of immigration and of course he is not coming back, I do not know anyone who suggested he is
So why do it? He was part of a government that saw immigration of over 1 million in a single year, that saw small boats increase by 2,000%, and youth inactivity grow by 13%.*
*Labour have actually cut youth inactivity since they got in.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
Big news if this is correct. This is I think the tanker hit yesterday in the port of Rostov-on-Don.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
Huge if true but at best it sounds like two stories have been conflated. Why would a KGB big cheese be on an oil tanker in the first place, especially now they are subject to bombs and sanctions?
Big news if this is correct. This is I think the tanker hit yesterday in the port of Rostov-on-Don.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
Other reports say "somewhere in the Mediterranean"
I think it’s two separate incidents. The one in Rostov was hit from the air whereas the one in the Mediterranean was hit from the sea. The former is most likely to take out senior crew on board.
Hopefully this article isn’t behind a paywall: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n22/james-meek/ten-foot-chopsticks However, it is worth reading. Covers the rise of Reform in Blythe. The author spent time talking to Ronnie Campbell’s widow and current Labour town councillor Deidre Campbell, and also Reform supporter Ronnie Campbell’s son Aiden.
The article was ostensibly about the collapse of Britishvolt, investment in green energy and how Governments can (or cannot) attract investment and development in areas where old industries are no more. However, it really, for me, captures the current challenges facing the Labour Government and some of the contradictions in the rise of Reform. It is a long article so why not get a cup of tea and give it a read.
The question for political betting is if this article holds true then the big thing is whether Reform and Farage can avoid the contradictions in their platform collapsing in a heap before the next election (and the general risk from Farage being Farage). If that happens and Labour get “some” credit for turning the corner then the next general election could be competitive. If nothing changes I fear a lot of Labour MPs will be updating their CVs come the next general election.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
I agree with the general thrust of your argument here.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
The simple fact is we need migration. We need skilled inward migration. Especially in target industries.
We also should be targetting overseas students who graduate in areas we need skills to stay.
Only today it has been announced Llandudno is to house asylum seekers and the social media is off the scale in fury and letters from politicians to the Council demanding more information
This is the first time I have heard the subject raised at any time in our area
I thought you had major issues there with locals not being able to get homes due to second home owners and they introduced a premium council tax charge on them.
If I was a local waiting for a home I’d be pretty pissed off at this.
Big news if this is correct. This is I think the tanker hit yesterday in the port of Rostov-on-Don.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
Huge if true but at best it sounds like two stories have been conflated. Why would a KGB big cheese be on an oil tanker in the first place, especially now they are subject to bombs and sanctions?
The KGB guy was reported as being responsible for overseeing a squadron of air drones operating from the vessel, an oil tanker. There have been reports of drones buzzing around in Northern Europe and it was alleged that they were coming from the sea. This could be that, but details appear sketchy at the moment.
It’s a massive win for Ukraine if they’ve taken out Averyanov though.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
I agree with the general thrust of your argument here.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
The simple fact is we need migration. We need skilled inward migration. Especially in target industries.
We also should be targetting overseas students who graduate in areas we need skills to stay.
Only today it has been announced Llandudno is to house asylum seekers and the social media is off the scale in fury and letters from politicians to the Council demanding more information
This is the first time I have heard the subject raised at any time in our area
I thought you had major issues there with locals not being able to get homes due to second home owners and they introduced a premium council tax charge on them.
If I was a local waiting for a home I’d be pretty pissed off at this.
That plays into it
We will have the usual suspects here and the Greens and Lib Dem’s along to tell these people they are racist.
I wouldn’t blame anyone being annoyed in those circumstance.
By me we’ve had some African care worker families moved in on local estates. But it’s not caused any issues or resentment here, certainly from the local social media, as there is not an issue with housing or services so they are not seen as getting preferential treatment. Also they work and work hard.
The last PB post by TSE was 'Will this bug John Swinney and the SNP until election day?', and here is the thing while TSE used a humourous play on the latest SNP scandal, it should have been a far bigger story here with far more scrutiny because of the implications for the Holyrood Parliament. But it won't be because frustratingly it involves a really shocking scandal that involves one of our devolved governments...
So the PB thread like the UK main stream media totally ignored it, literal tumble weed here and elsewhere, special shout out to SkyNews for mentioning it but doing sod all else to investigate it. Now just imagine if this had been a governing party at Westminster where now THREE female elected MPs had been reported to have had their offices bugged by party staffers?! I have no doubt that the Westminster Lobby would have been all over the story and it would have been wall to wall coverage in the 24/7 News channels, especially when the original breaking story reported that the male aid who bugged one female MSP had since moved to work for an SNP MP?!
Sorry TSE but I was really annoyed when you almost affectionately made fun of and dismissed this shocking scandal, and it is incredible serious story that should have resulted in not only a Parliamentary investigation, but a Police investigation too. I said early yesterday that Holyrood was not only broken, it really is not fit for purpose and that matters with a big election looming there in May next year and I stand by that claim today more than ever. But again I was just so saddened and frustrated at the lack of response here or in the media, not even the most basic questions asked. And to say this scandal stinks is an understatement, no one has asked why or to what end these female SNP MSPs who remain anonymous were bugged, but the Scottish Sun is reporting it suggests internal SNP infighting.
But the cynic in me after 18 eighteen years of this appalling SNP Government did have one question, why did it take until yesterday for this breaking story to finally see the light of day just as Holyrood went into Christmas recess and both politicians and political journalists departed to go on their festive holidays until the New Year.. Its almost as if this story finally having to break was stage managed so it would hopefully get the least attention or any proper scrutiny by the Holyrood Parliament, the local media or the public. This is how the SNP operate, totally secretive and utterly ruthless in their media management and so cynically in their media operation but they get away with it time and time again because Scotland is deemed a side show despite the fact that they control so much of our public services up here and including taxation when it comes to budgets but we like Wales and NI are totally failed by the UK media!
And the PB crew fell for it yet again yesterday because they were not even interested.... Oh to be a female MSP in the work place at Holyrood right now!
Blaw Blaw your kilt awa two snp donkeys spying on each other 2 years ago , get a life
And Hi to you to MalcolmG, but the very fact you dismiss these SNP FEMALE MSPs being bugged in their Holyrood Parliament offices says it all about this site right now!! No outrage, no curiosity or even the most basic questions that should be asked about this invasion of their privacy as elected politicians! But then I still remember the way that Jewish Labour female MPs were treated at Westminster and at their own Conference!! Oh the joys of being a strong out spoken feminist female poster on this site or an elected female politician at Holyrood or Westminster in the current climate. So and I say this sarcastically, go you wee man!!
I'll admit one reason I'm not commenting is I'm finding the story a bit baffling. The SNP was spying on its MSPs? Why? What on earth was going on? Were these people politiciking, or peculiar? So in default of more information I'm refraining from speculating.
It doesn't inspire confidence in the party's leadership but (a) I never had any and (b) I'm not Scottish so my opinion is not really relevant.
Not even clear it was the leadership or the party as such. Compare recent events in the UK generally. Which is why I don't have a clue either.
That is not only pathetic, its just embarrassing and desperate, all the more so for what has been reported about this scandal already. You are just insulting the non SNP cult in Scotland's intelligence.
For someone who’s always moaning about no one engaging with your noisy claims, you’re incredibly rude to and dismissive of anyone not supinely agreeing with whatever conspiracy theory the Yoonosphere has come up with.
After all your bleating about no one bothering with the last thread, I checked and afaics your sole post was a link to a Sun tweet. Time to check the big old Scots Pine in your own eye.
You may need to replace yours. Here’s a new one. 😉😉
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
A point made forcefully by many historians, for example Michael Bentley. 'Politicians of that era (1905-1914) had no reason to think that they needed to complete everything before the chiming of some solemn midnight hour in 1914...diaries of Liberal politicians (in spring 1914) have an optimistic future tense reference to the election of 1915...in their imagination, those young men in the summer of 1914 rode the crest of an open future.'
An idea of how people thought and felt in any era can be gained by reading newspapers of the period for several days*, and the results are usually interesting. AI is doing the same thing, just quicker.
*Something that will be to put it mildly more challenging for historians of our own times.
Not just 'quicker', but with potentially far broader reach in terms of reading. Like all AIs, it will be a fallible tool which needs someone with actual knowledge of a given period to use most effectively, but it might be quite a powerful one, since it could/can have access to a vast amount of texts in any language.
(Consider, for example, the massive volumes of Korean court histories, which on their own might otherwise require a lifetime of study.)
When I was at University the library still had either the hard copy or a microfiche (showing my age here) of the Times newspapers and one of the many ways I would amuse myself when law got too boring was to read the newspapers in the run up to some significant event, such as the American civil war or WW1 and get an idea of how the informed people of the time saw things. My recollection, and this was 45 years ago now, was that many people saw trouble with Germany as inevitable. We had already had the race to build Dreadnaughts and there were concerns about whether the RN was as dominant as it had been for the last century. No one foresaw the bloodbath to come that I recall.
It is pretty universal that predictions of the future are wrong and fail to anticipate major events correctly.
Well within our lifetimes no one really saw how quickly the Soviet Union would collapse in 89-90 either.
These things tend to be much more obvious with the advantage of hindsight.
Actually, a large number of people saw through the Potemkin Village that was the SU.
For example - a CIA analyst (one of many) who did some statistical sampling of crops, buildings etc from overhead imagery. And found the Soviet economy was a fraction of the size they claimed.
The problem was that the pyramid of lies inside the SU meant that the reports shown to the leaders were lies x lies x lies x lies…. And these reports were the target for espionage. So the CIA went with the numbers presented to Politburo from the reports they had so brilliantly stolen.
Classic case of people assuming internal reports must be magically more accurate (like internal polling inexpicably being treated as inherently more reliable) it sounds like. When it is easy to fool oneself if you want.
I recall from a few years back when democratic supporters swept Hong Kong parish elections the reports were that Beijing was genuinely surprised, as they had believed their own bullcrap reporting about how it was not popular. Unfortunately they learned their lesson from it to make sure dissent was properly stamped down upon for the legislative elections.
They dosh up their mates and make the rest of us foot the bill.
This may be true Alan, but in which respects does this differ from their predecessors?
So their position is they are as bad as the Tories.
Im sure that will inspire support.
Werent they meant to be better, cleaner the adults in the room ?
I'd have settled for less corrupt and incompetent.
They are certainly the former, and probably the latter too , but it's still early days. Give it another twelve years or so and I'll let you know.
This from Peter Punter is a post of wisdom and maturity. The single biggest positive development in politics would be if the public were to revise down their expectations of how much any government can realistically improve the UK's living standards and public services except over quite a long period (certainly several years). The gap between expectations and what is feasible is creating a fertile environment for the types of politicians who we can only hope are revealed to be unfit for power before they get their mitts on it.
Chances of this occurring though? Slim to non-existent. Why should unrealistic expectations of politicians be relinquished when politicians themselves do nothing but fuel them. Which is perfectly rational behaviour by them. Prospects of election are boosted if you exaggerate the positive impact you will make. Otherwise you'll fail to inspire the voters and they will reciprocate by failing to vote for you. Why that risk if you don't have to?
Fresh in memory, Labour last year, my party, I actually sent an email to Morgan McSweeney saying we should not be running on that crude CHANGE slogan, as if the morning after a Labour win people would look out to see lakes of milk and honey. Instead I recommended posters, lecterns and tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control!'. Compromising with cheap populism with that exclamation mark. And guess what Morgan wrote back? Not even anything polite and considered. Just "LOL". That says it all.
I am so getting a couple of those made up.
...tee-shirts saying 'Incremental improvement in key areas that you will start to feel after a while (if alert) but subject to various factors outside of governmental control !'..
It also makes a good chant.
"Wadda we want?" "Incremental improvement in key areas subject to various factors outside of governmental control!" "When do we wannit?" "After a while"
"When do we wannit?" "Within a reasonable timeframe to be dependent upon available resources and external cirumstances!"
OT - Any Lab supporters out there should be sending that YouGov 'report' to No 10 and to their local Lab MPs. Not particularly to spark a Lab revival, for me at least, but because they just have to do a much better job. They are the Govt for 3+ more years and we can't afford them to continue to get almost everything so badly wrong. The feeling is much as after Johnson's election and hoping the country can get out the other side without too much damage isn't a great place to be.
Reeves has already baked in long term youth unemployment with her NI and, especially, minimum wage increases for 18 - 24 year olds
And the crazy thing is Labour are spending hundreds of millions on a job creation scheme for NEETS, something their policies are not helping in the first place !,
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
So over 2025 the main movement has been Labour to Green and Conservatives to Reform.
While Kemi's approval rating has improved amongst 2024 Conservative and Reform voters still only just over 60% of 2024 Tories and 50% of 2024 Reform voters have a favourable view of her. The fact that less than 20% of LD voters and less than 10% of Labour and Green voters have a favourable view of her also means she is not getting the tactical votes she needs for Conservative candidates to beat Reform
Yet
And of course Johnson would be infinitely better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnson would not have leaked the voters to Reform the Tories have since he went.
Kemi is popular with the Tory rock solid core vote but that is only 20% of voters at best.
The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage. She is too rightwing still for Labour and LD voters who might tactically vote for a Cleverly led Tories but not for her
'The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage'
Excellent news
Badenoch has to be a clear and different choice than the right wing toxic Farage and Reform
It won't be good news if polls stay where they are for another 6-12 months.
I don't see how Jenrick is the answer, but the Tories remain in critical condition even if they've stopped the rot.
Translation: future fighter project doesn't have enough money
More about this, I think.
https://x.com/epelgrino/status/2001746614348615939 FCAS: French newspaper Les Echos reports that FCAS project is now completely stalled and the latest meetings have been unsuccessful. Teams working at Dassault HQs are beginning to realize the lack of expertise on the Airbus DS side. 1/n
Airbus DS has been unable to meet expectations in specific areas of the design phase and cannot provide critical elements for the NGF demonstrator because ADS is bound by restrictive intellectual property agreements on Eurofighter. 2/n
Dassault teams are increasingly frustrated by the lack of expertise and the poor contribution of the German teams to the project. The deterioration in relations between the teams now seems irreparable. 3/n
A source close to the situation claims that ADS deliberately leaked internal documentation to make it appear that Dassault willing to take on 80% of workshare. This claim has since been refuted by Dassault CEO and the heads of the 2 groups are no longer on speaking terms. 4/n
The preferred scenario is now therefore the national development of a fighter jet for France, without relying on Germany. The differences are too great and the lack of trust too significant, especially after the leaks of false information in the press. n/n
Whether it's sensible to included Germany is an 'interesting' question.
The last PB post by TSE was 'Will this bug John Swinney and the SNP until election day?', and here is the thing while TSE used a humourous play on the latest SNP scandal, it should have been a far bigger story here with far more scrutiny because of the implications for the Holyrood Parliament. But it won't be because frustratingly it involves a really shocking scandal that involves one of our devolved governments...
So the PB thread like the UK main stream media totally ignored it, literal tumble weed here and elsewhere, special shout out to SkyNews for mentioning it but doing sod all else to investigate it. Now just imagine if this had been a governing party at Westminster where now THREE female elected MPs had been reported to have had their offices bugged by party staffers?! I have no doubt that the Westminster Lobby would have been all over the story and it would have been wall to wall coverage in the 24/7 News channels, especially when the original breaking story reported that the male aid who bugged one female MSP had since moved to work for an SNP MP?!
Sorry TSE but I was really annoyed when you almost affectionately made fun of and dismissed this shocking scandal, and it is incredible serious story that should have resulted in not only a Parliamentary investigation, but a Police investigation too. I said early yesterday that Holyrood was not only broken, it really is not fit for purpose and that matters with a big election looming there in May next year and I stand by that claim today more than ever. But again I was just so saddened and frustrated at the lack of response here or in the media, not even the most basic questions asked. And to say this scandal stinks is an understatement, no one has asked why or to what end these female SNP MSPs who remain anonymous were bugged, but the Scottish Sun is reporting it suggests internal SNP infighting.
But the cynic in me after 18 eighteen years of this appalling SNP Government did have one question, why did it take until yesterday for this breaking story to finally see the light of day just as Holyrood went into Christmas recess and both politicians and political journalists departed to go on their festive holidays until the New Year.. Its almost as if this story finally having to break was stage managed so it would hopefully get the least attention or any proper scrutiny by the Holyrood Parliament, the local media or the public. This is how the SNP operate, totally secretive and utterly ruthless in their media management and so cynically in their media operation but they get away with it time and time again because Scotland is deemed a side show despite the fact that they control so much of our public services up here and including taxation when it comes to budgets but we like Wales and NI are totally failed by the UK media!
And the PB crew fell for it yet again yesterday because they were not even interested.... Oh to be a female MSP in the work place at Holyrood right now!
Blaw Blaw your kilt awa two snp donkeys spying on each other 2 years ago , get a life
And Hi to you to MalcolmG, but the very fact you dismiss these SNP FEMALE MSPs being bugged in their Holyrood Parliament offices says it all about this site right now!! No outrage, no curiosity or even the most basic questions that should be asked about this invasion of their privacy as elected politicians! But then I still remember the way that Jewish Labour female MPs were treated at Westminster and at their own Conference!! Oh the joys of being a strong out spoken feminist female poster on this site or an elected female politician at Holyrood or Westminster in the current climate. So and I say this sarcastically, go you wee man!!
I'll admit one reason I'm not commenting is I'm finding the story a bit baffling. The SNP was spying on its MSPs? Why? What on earth was going on? Were these people politiciking, or peculiar? So in default of more information I'm refraining from speculating.
It doesn't inspire confidence in the party's leadership but (a) I never had any and (b) I'm not Scottish so my opinion is not really relevant.
Not even clear it was the leadership or the party as such. Compare recent events in the UK generally. Which is why I don't have a clue either.
That is not only pathetic, its just embarrassing and desperate, all the more so for what has been reported about this scandal already. You are just insulting the non SNP cult in Scotland's intelligence.
For someone who’s always moaning about no one engaging with your noisy claims, you’re incredibly rude to and dismissive of anyone not supinely agreeing with whatever conspiracy theory the Yoonosphere has come up with.
After all your bleating about no one bothering with the last thread, I checked and afaics your sole post was a link to a Sun tweet. Time to check the big old Scots Pine in your own eye.
You may need to replace yours. Here’s a new one. 😉😉
I can’t remember moaning about anyone not engaging with my claims, noisy or otherwise, least of all right of centrist dads with their ‘fascinating’ insights into their favourite Dr Who and the best fish and chips round their bit. But do carry on.
The last PB post by TSE was 'Will this bug John Swinney and the SNP until election day?', and here is the thing while TSE used a humourous play on the latest SNP scandal, it should have been a far bigger story here with far more scrutiny because of the implications for the Holyrood Parliament. But it won't be because frustratingly it involves a really shocking scandal that involves one of our devolved governments...
So the PB thread like the UK main stream media totally ignored it, literal tumble weed here and elsewhere, special shout out to SkyNews for mentioning it but doing sod all else to investigate it. Now just imagine if this had been a governing party at Westminster where now THREE female elected MPs had been reported to have had their offices bugged by party staffers?! I have no doubt that the Westminster Lobby would have been all over the story and it would have been wall to wall coverage in the 24/7 News channels, especially when the original breaking story reported that the male aid who bugged one female MSP had since moved to work for an SNP MP?!
Sorry TSE but I was really annoyed when you almost affectionately made fun of and dismissed this shocking scandal, and it is incredible serious story that should have resulted in not only a Parliamentary investigation, but a Police investigation too. I said early yesterday that Holyrood was not only broken, it really is not fit for purpose and that matters with a big election looming there in May next year and I stand by that claim today more than ever. But again I was just so saddened and frustrated at the lack of response here or in the media, not even the most basic questions asked. And to say this scandal stinks is an understatement, no one has asked why or to what end these female SNP MSPs who remain anonymous were bugged, but the Scottish Sun is reporting it suggests internal SNP infighting.
But the cynic in me after 18 eighteen years of this appalling SNP Government did have one question, why did it take until yesterday for this breaking story to finally see the light of day just as Holyrood went into Christmas recess and both politicians and political journalists departed to go on their festive holidays until the New Year.. Its almost as if this story finally having to break was stage managed so it would hopefully get the least attention or any proper scrutiny by the Holyrood Parliament, the local media or the public. This is how the SNP operate, totally secretive and utterly ruthless in their media management and so cynically in their media operation but they get away with it time and time again because Scotland is deemed a side show despite the fact that they control so much of our public services up here and including taxation when it comes to budgets but we like Wales and NI are totally failed by the UK media!
And the PB crew fell for it yet again yesterday because they were not even interested.... Oh to be a female MSP in the work place at Holyrood right now!
Blaw Blaw your kilt awa two snp donkeys spying on each other 2 years ago , get a life
And Hi to you to MalcolmG, but the very fact you dismiss these SNP FEMALE MSPs being bugged in their Holyrood Parliament offices says it all about this site right now!! No outrage, no curiosity or even the most basic questions that should be asked about this invasion of their privacy as elected politicians! But then I still remember the way that Jewish Labour female MPs were treated at Westminster and at their own Conference!! Oh the joys of being a strong out spoken feminist female poster on this site or an elected female politician at Holyrood or Westminster in the current climate. So and I say this sarcastically, go you wee man!!
I'll admit one reason I'm not commenting is I'm finding the story a bit baffling. The SNP was spying on its MSPs? Why? What on earth was going on? Were these people politiciking, or peculiar? So in default of more information I'm refraining from speculating.
It doesn't inspire confidence in the party's leadership but (a) I never had any and (b) I'm not Scottish so my opinion is not really relevant.
Not even clear it was the leadership or the party as such. Compare recent events in the UK generally. Which is why I don't have a clue either.
That is not only pathetic, its just embarrassing and desperate, all the more so for what has been reported about this scandal already. You are just insulting the non SNP cult in Scotland's intelligence.
For someone who’s always moaning about no one engaging with your noisy claims, you’re incredibly rude to and dismissive of anyone not supinely agreeing with whatever conspiracy theory the Yoonosphere has come up with.
After all your bleating about no one bothering with the last thread, I checked and afaics your sole post was a link to a Sun tweet. Time to check the big old Scots Pine in your own eye.
You may need to replace yours. Here’s a new one. 😉😉
I can’t remember moaning about anyone not engaging with my claims, noisy or otherwise, least of all right of centrist dads with their ‘fascinating’ insights into their favourite Dr Who and the best fish and chips round their bit. But do carry on.
Mansplain that again please 😉
I’m hanging on your every word about Sandie Peggie 🥱
Oh, and as you’re so keen to know I am currently watching and early Taggart, set in Glasgae, but will watch the timeless Dr Who classic ‘Claws of Axos’ later. I also prefer a doner kebab to Fish and Chips. Sea Spray in Shirley does a good one.
I’m also making bread at the moment. I’ll put you a pic up, mofo !!
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
So over 2025 the main movement has been Labour to Green and Conservatives to Reform.
While Kemi's approval rating has improved amongst 2024 Conservative and Reform voters still only just over 60% of 2024 Tories and 50% of 2024 Reform voters have a favourable view of her. The fact that less than 20% of LD voters and less than 10% of Labour and Green voters have a favourable view of her also means she is not getting the tactical votes she needs for Conservative candidates to beat Reform
Yet
And of course Johnson would be infinitely better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnson would not have leaked the voters to Reform the Tories have since he went.
Kemi is popular with the Tory rock solid core vote but that is only 20% of voters at best.
The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage. She is too rightwing still for Labour and LD voters who might tactically vote for a Cleverly led Tories but not for her
'The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage'
Excellent news
Badenoch has to be a clear and different choice than the right wing toxic Farage and Reform
It won't be good news if polls stay where they are for another 6-12 months.
I don't see how Jenrick is the answer, but the Tories remain in critical condition even if they've stopped the rot.
Not only that they are inching up, slowly, in the polls.
Translation: future fighter project doesn't have enough money
Haven't the people preparing the costs not figured out they need to make their estimate then triple it and add 10 years onto the timing yet?
We've got more of a chance of controlling costs on this than we do for the US systems we've bought. And it will at least be integrated with the weaponry we develop - unlike the F-35.
The participation of Japan is a huge plus, IMO. And given the new fighter is being developed with long range as a priority, there shouldn't be a major conflict on specifications either. Previous US stealth efforts (F-22 and F-35) have been surprisingly deficient in that respect.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
Translation: future fighter project doesn't have enough money
Haven't the people preparing the costs not figured out they need to make their estimate then triple it and add 10 years onto the timing yet?
Of course not, because then the program would never start in the first place. The prime contractor, the MoD and the service chiefs blatantly lie about and wildly underestimate the cost and schedule of these things in the hope that by the time the horrific truth comes out, the project is too big to fail.
This worked with Typhoon but if they had done a realistic estimate of cost and schedule at the start, it would have been strangled at birth. The target of record was that it would be cheaper than Legacy Hornet. it ended up being three times as expensive at £130m+ for each aircraft and is still inferior in some ways to an aircraft the US and other users have largely retired.
Translation: future fighter project doesn't have enough money
Haven't the people preparing the costs not figured out they need to make their estimate then triple it and add 10 years onto the timing yet?
Of course not, because then the program would never start in the first place. The prime contractor, the MoD and the service chiefs blatantly lie about and wildly underestimate the cost and schedule of these things in the hope that by the time the horrific truth comes out, the project is too big to fail.
This worked with Typhoon but if they had done a realistic estimate of cost and schedule at the start, it would have been strangled at birth. The target of record was that it would be cheaper than Legacy Hornet. it ended up being three times as expensive at £130m+ for each aircraft and is still inferior in some ways to an aircraft the US and other users have largely retired.
And yet, unlike legacy Hornet, is again winning new orders. The glass half empty view isn't always correct.
Given the new strategic direction of the US there isn't really much choice anyway, unless we fancy a bit of unilateral disarmament.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
So over 2025 the main movement has been Labour to Green and Conservatives to Reform.
While Kemi's approval rating has improved amongst 2024 Conservative and Reform voters still only just over 60% of 2024 Tories and 50% of 2024 Reform voters have a favourable view of her. The fact that less than 20% of LD voters and less than 10% of Labour and Green voters have a favourable view of her also means she is not getting the tactical votes she needs for Conservative candidates to beat Reform
Yet
And of course Johnson would be infinitely better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnson would not have leaked the voters to Reform the Tories have since he went.
Kemi is popular with the Tory rock solid core vote but that is only 20% of voters at best.
The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage. She is too rightwing still for Labour and LD voters who might tactically vote for a Cleverly led Tories but not for her
'The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage'
Excellent news
Badenoch has to be a clear and different choice than the right wing toxic Farage and Reform
It won't be good news if polls stay where they are for another 6-12 months.
I don't see how Jenrick is the answer, but the Tories remain in critical condition even if they've stopped the rot.
Not only that they are inching up, slowly, in the polls.
Which is certainly encouraging for them, but they really need something to cement that they remain the primary centre-right to right option. Otherwise current or potential Reform switchers (from the Con ranks at least) will have reason to believe the latter have reached the FPTP tipping point and won't be persuaded back in fear of letting someone worse in.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
It was put in 'extended readiness' (ie abandoned) in 2023 so it'll be semi-fucked by now. We can't crew it so selling it for anything we can get is the right move. Nobody is going to be doing an amphibious assault in the age of drones anyway as the Ukrainians found out at Krinki.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
And it was Sunak who tightened the rules and the subsequent fall in numbers
I recently caused a small fire trying to fry some Tofu. Managed to put it out with a pair of wet oven gloves, but the flat still ended up full of smoke and dinner was ruined.
For some reason my partner doesn't consider my heroics mitigation of my rank stupidity and incompetence. I shall put her in touch with you.
Chip pan fires used to be a thing. Tofu fires are so 21st century. Congratulations on this new wave of domestic angst when cooking.
So over 2025 the main movement has been Labour to Green and Conservatives to Reform.
While Kemi's approval rating has improved amongst 2024 Conservative and Reform voters still only just over 60% of 2024 Tories and 50% of 2024 Reform voters have a favourable view of her. The fact that less than 20% of LD voters and less than 10% of Labour and Green voters have a favourable view of her also means she is not getting the tactical votes she needs for Conservative candidates to beat Reform
Yet
And of course Johnson would be infinitely better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnson would not have leaked the voters to Reform the Tories have since he went.
Kemi is popular with the Tory rock solid core vote but that is only 20% of voters at best.
The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage. She is too rightwing still for Labour and LD voters who might tactically vote for a Cleverly led Tories but not for her
'The problem Kemi has otherwise is she is not as popular with Reform voters as Jenrick is and still not rightwing populist enough for those backing Farage'
Excellent news
Badenoch has to be a clear and different choice than the right wing toxic Farage and Reform
It won't be good news if polls stay where they are for another 6-12 months.
I don't see how Jenrick is the answer, but the Tories remain in critical condition even if they've stopped the rot.
Not only that they are inching up, slowly, in the polls.
Which is certainly encouraging for them, but they really need something to cement that they remain the primary centre-right to right option. Otherwise current or potential Reform switchers (from the Con ranks at least) will have reason to believe the latter have reached the FPTP tipping point and won't be persuaded back in fear of letting someone worse in.
The good thing for them, and Badenoch is they’ve stopped the rot.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
It was put in 'extended readiness' (ie abandoned) in 2023 so it'll be semi-fucked by now. We can't crew it so selling it for anything we can get is the right move. Nobody is going to be doing an amphibious assault in the age of drones anyway as the Ukrainians found out at Krinki.
Both the Telegraph and MoD (see Ajax) need the sunk cost fallacy explaining to them like they're schoolkids.
The Inquiry, which was commissioned by Johnson’s government so this was all their choice, is not on how best to respond to a pandemic, but on how well did the government(s - including devolved administrations) respond. It is thus about the actions of specific individuals. Thus, you open up all these individuals to criticism and you need to provide them with legal advice. Thus, big bill.
I was on some SAGE subcommittees, so I was asked for an evidence statement, and the Govt paid for a lawyer to take an hour or two to look through what I’d written and make sure I hadn’t said anything legally problematic for myself. (They only told us this late in the process, so I’d written my thing anyway and the lawyer then had no comments on what I wrote. I didn’t get paid for my time - about a day - writing the statement. They just paid the lawyer!)
The Green surge is the one that Yougov didn't really explore in this article, perhaps because Polanski only came to prominence mid year.
Its obvious that while Badenoch continues to shed support to Farage, Polanski continues to gain supporters from Starmer. The Greens are where those former Labour voters have gone.
Incidentally Polanski is also the most popular of the party leaders, albeit slightly negative and 49% not taking a view.
I think there will be a lot of attention to the Greens in 2026, particularly they are likely to do well in the May elections in England.
Good morning
The Greens are a problem for the left including the lib dems but anyone who supports Polanski's promises is no better than those supporting Farage
Both are extreme and incoherent
I dont expect The Only Tory in the PB Village to like Polanski or his policies, but certainly the story of the year politically is the Labour to Green swing over the year, which is double the size of the Con to Reform swing.
How much of that is Gaza? Do the Gaza voters come back if there is relative peace? How much is typical mid term blues? How much withstands a tactical battle vs Reform?
Feels very volatile to me. Polanski is an impressive communicator for sure, but doesn't have the answers, so the Farage parallel is valid imo.
Some is Gaza, but there is clearly a rejection of Starmerite apeing of Reform policy by those on the left of Labour on domestic economic and social issues too.
Which is why the replacement of Starmer will be someone from the centre-left of the party, not Streeting or Mahmood.
Reform don’t have a domestic economic policy to ape.
Controlling our borders and migration is a sensible thing. The Greens are merely, like Lib Dem’s, open door fanatics. That’s fair enough but to pretend controlling borders and migration is reform lite is wrong, there’s no remigration talk.
Also changing the rules on the years needed to get ILR is absolutely right. The Boriswave was an economic time bomb. As has been discussed previously.
A lot of the more moderate approaches to controlling our borders and migration have already been enacted by Sunak and Starmer, with the consequence that net immigration to the UK is plummeting. It’s not quite “tens of thousands”, but it’s getting closer to that than has been the case for a long time.
So, does that filter through to voters’ perceptions and they reward the incumbent government? Or does anti-immigration rhetoric on social media that is less concerned with reality keep sections of the electorate angry?
Until the boats are stopped this will remain an active and toxic part of our political debate
Certainly Sunak is responsible for the substantial drop in migration to date
It was under Sunak that we saw the massive peak in small boats in 2022 - the biggest year on record. It was under Sunak that the Treasury agitated for massive immigration to fill the jobs vacancies after COVID-19.
And it was Sunak who tightened the rules and the subsequent fall in numbers
I recently caused a small fire trying to fry some Tofu. Managed to put it out with a pair of wet oven gloves, but the flat still ended up full of smoke and dinner was ruined.
For some reason my partner doesn't consider my heroics mitigation of my rank stupidity and incompetence. I shall put her in touch with you.
Chip pan fires used to be a thing. Tofu fires are so 21st century. Congratulations on this new wave of domestic angst when cooking.
Unless it was deep fried tofu, it's quite the achievement.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The thing about Trump is that there is no floor of awful.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
Given the fairly random way FPTP distributes seats, I think Sir Ed is well within his rights to ask who would go into coalition under him. 72 seats is a lot more than 5, after all.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
I think it's actually quite a good innovation that should be copied. Forcing each new Prime Minister to write a couple of paragraphs to sum up how they see each of their predecessors would be very instructive and help contextualise their long-term decision making.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The dispiriting thing is people like the cringey style. Heck, I know otherwise sensible people who got irate about MPs in leader debates sharing a non-confrontational discussion before/afterwards, claiming it shows the opposition to each other is just confected, as if getting along with an opponent (or even just civility) is a weird, even negative thing.
It's like how Speakers sometimes bemoan MPs heckling or party leaders just insulting each other, when the truth is people like that, even if they say they don't - otherwise they'd stop doing it.
Which is not to say being polite or chummy with each other is the be all and end all in politics, certainly you want a degree of conflict and disagreement (indeed, I'd say the idea people shoudl not 'play politics' and seek 'unity' in all things is misplaced), and a blunt, even rude style, has it's place. But the idea it is desirable as a general approach is unfortunate.
It ties into one of my most disliked and political sayings, about how it is the job of oppositions to oppose, which is one of those lazy statements which is true as a general purpose, but never meant to be literal, since there are any number of things all (or nearly all) will agree on, without it being some 'uniparty' conspiracy or terrible establishment move. A party in opposition wouldn't be bound to oppose a government if they did something unambiguously good (or indeed something the opposition had initially proposed) for example.
A surge in support for the "Green" Party, and yet fewer people list the environment as a priority.
Sums up what this bunch of chancers are all about.
Well there's a party called "Labour" and they do bugger all for people who work
The Liberal Democrat’s are anything but liberal and Reform is just more of the same old Tories.
What a vintage year for politics.
The Fukkers are not just the tories with teal paint job. They are about 100x better at politics and can reach chavvy parts of the electorate the tories never could as video from the annual conference vividly demonstrates.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
Interesting.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The thing about Trump is that there is no floor of awful.
I was looking back at some old posts that I missed while I was on my hejira and noticed that "Big Nige" was wearing a Fleet Air Arm tie at the Fukkerberg Rally.
A surge in support for the "Green" Party, and yet fewer people list the environment as a priority.
Sums up what this bunch of chancers are all about.
Well there's a party called "Labour" and they do bugger all for people who work
The Liberal Democrat’s are anything but liberal and Reform is just more of the same old Tories.
What a vintage year for politics.
The Fukkers are not just the tories with teal paint job. They are about 100x better at politics and can reach chavvy parts of the electorate the tories never could as video from the annual conference vividly demonstrates.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The thing about Trump is that there is no floor of awful.
A surge in support for the "Green" Party, and yet fewer people list the environment as a priority.
Sums up what this bunch of chancers are all about.
Well there's a party called "Labour" and they do bugger all for people who work
The Liberal Democrat’s are anything but liberal and Reform is just more of the same old Tories.
What a vintage year for politics.
The Fukkers are not just the tories with teal paint job. They are about 100x better at politics and can reach chavvy parts of the electorate the tories never could as video from the annual conference vividly demonstrates.
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
Interesting.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
The actual theory of carrier operations is creating a zone/bubble within which the carrier group controls the sea.
Without a carrier, the frigates and destroyers are trying to create that bubble without air power.
They’d be better off developing existing platforms such as Typhoon and Gripen, which are superior to anything a conceivable enemy might be fielding within the next decade. Russia’s Su-57 and China’s J-20 and J-35 are miles away from actual serial production.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
A surge in support for the "Green" Party, and yet fewer people list the environment as a priority.
Sums up what this bunch of chancers are all about.
Well there's a party called "Labour" and they do bugger all for people who work
The Liberal Democrat’s are anything but liberal and Reform is just more of the same old Tories.
What a vintage year for politics.
The Fukkers are not just the tories with teal paint job. They are about 100x better at politics and can reach chavvy parts of the electorate the tories never could as video from the annual conference vividly demonstrates.
They’d be better off developing existing platforms such as Typhoon and Gripen, which are superior to anything a conceivable enemy might be fielding within the next decade. Russia’s Su-57 and China’s J-20 and J-35 are miles away from actual serial production.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
I see we’re getting another dose of “all the parties are crap” from the usual suspects.
I’d be fascinated to know what kind of mutually contradictory incoherence some on here would support.
Back to what we have and I’ll cheerfully admit Badenoch has got better in the past three months having looked in real trouble after the local elections. She has been aided and abetted by the implosion of her main opponent (much as Starmer has) but I’ve always thought anyone believing Jenrick was the answer hadn’t understood the question.
Badenoch and Stride have, to their credit, started to stake out the ground of sound economic management abandoned by the Conservatives for a number of years. The Devil is in the detail and talking tough on getting borrowing down is fine but as someone once said, “where’s the beef?” meaning if you are going to talk about cutting spending, let’s see some specific costed proposals rather than rhetoric.
The 2026 locals could still be make or break for Badenoch - London will be of particular interest especially to the extent gains from Labour in Barnet, Wandsworth and Westminster are offset by losses to Reform in Havering, Bromley and Bexley. Oddly enough, the 2027 round which will be more problematic for the LDs could have looked very good for the Tories but the abolition of so many District Councils will perhaps not show gains in such a strong light - we’ll see.
The irony is London won’t be that vital for the Conservatives at a General Election but the local performance could be seen as a referendum on her progress.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
I think it's actually quite a good innovation that should be copied. Forcing each new Prime Minister to write a couple of paragraphs to sum up how they see each of their predecessors would be very instructive and help contextualise their long-term decision making.
They’d be better off developing existing platforms such as Typhoon and Gripen, which are superior to anything a conceivable enemy might be fielding within the next decade. Russia’s Su-57 and China’s J-20 and J-35 are miles away from actual serial production.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
The problem with the Germans getting involved in GCAP is that they will demand a huge work share based on the claim they will buy the most aircraft. Then they will cut the buy and demand they keep the workshare - or they will collapse the project.
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
Given the fairly random way FPTP distributes seats, I think Sir Ed is well within his rights to ask who would go into coalition under him. 72 seats is a lot more than 5, after all.
Sir Ed's ambition is obviously to serve in cabinet in a Labour-led minority government. Don't think supply will be enough. Nicely finish off his career after serving in Cameron's govt, and then his spell as party leader.
Who was the last Liberal to serve in cabinets led by both Conservative and Labour PMs? Has there ever been one?
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
Interesting.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
Interesting.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
Given the fairly random way FPTP distributes seats, I think Sir Ed is well within his rights to ask who would go into coalition under him. 72 seats is a lot more than 5, after all.
Sir Ed's ambition is obviously to serve in cabinet in a Labour-led minority government. Don't think supply will be enough. Nicely finish off his career after serving in Cameron's govt, and then his spell as party leader.
Who was the last Liberal to serve in cabinets led by both Conservative and Labour PMs? Has there ever been one?
Archibald Sinclair? Liberal MP. Served under Ramsay Macdonald in his National government 1931-2, then served in Churchill’s Cabinet in WWII.
They’d be better off developing existing platforms such as Typhoon and Gripen, which are superior to anything a conceivable enemy might be fielding within the next decade. Russia’s Su-57 and China’s J-20 and J-35 are miles away from actual serial production.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
The problem with the Germans getting involved in GCAP is that they will demand a huge work share based on the claim they will buy the most aircraft. Then they will cut the buy and demand they keep the workshare - or they will collapse the project.
They’ve only done this multiple times before.
Fool me once, etc. We might have fallen for that, but the chances of Japan and Italy also doing so are considerably slimmer. (And assuming what Dassault are saying about their tech capacity approximates the truth, then cash is their only card.)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
In more defence news as we boost spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the cunning ruse of reducing GDP...
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
How true is this?
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
True enough but the main interest is in the rest of the article with charts showing the long term decline of the Royal Navy.
With drones able to take big ships out, is that not pretty sensible?
No.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one. Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back. Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers. Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
Interesting.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
UK and EU should really send the Irish a bill. Get your own weapons!
And if they didn't, then what? The RAF waits an extra 30 seconds before intercepting the same Russian planes also heading by an accident of geography to His Majesty's United Kingdom?
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
The dispiriting thing is people like the cringey style. Heck, I know otherwise sensible people who got irate about MPs in leader debates sharing a non-confrontational discussion before/afterwards, claiming it shows the opposition to each other is just confected, as if getting along with an opponent (or even just civility) is a weird, even negative thing.
It's like how Speakers sometimes bemoan MPs heckling or party leaders just insulting each other, when the truth is people like that, even if they say they don't - otherwise they'd stop doing it.
Which is not to say being polite or chummy with each other is the be all and end all in politics, certainly you want a degree of conflict and disagreement (indeed, I'd say the idea people shoudl not 'play politics' and seek 'unity' in all things is misplaced), and a blunt, even rude style, has it's place. But the idea it is desirable as a general approach is unfortunate.
It ties into one of my most disliked and political sayings, about how it is the job of oppositions to oppose, which is one of those lazy statements which is true as a general purpose, but never meant to be literal, since there are any number of things all (or nearly all) will agree on, without it being some 'uniparty' conspiracy or terrible establishment move. A party in opposition wouldn't be bound to oppose a government if they did something unambiguously good (or indeed something the opposition had initially proposed) for example.
Yes that's a stupid saying. The job of opposition is twofold: hold the government to account, win the next election and become the government.
And I commend your attitude. More like you would benefit us. Although to channel your own 'otoh' judiciousness we do also need a bit of the other (as it were).
Politics free of the passionate intensity that comes from party partisanship and/or ideological commitment would struggle to engage people.
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
Given the fairly random way FPTP distributes seats, I think Sir Ed is well within his rights to ask who would go into coalition under him. 72 seats is a lot more than 5, after all.
Sir Ed's ambition is obviously to serve in cabinet in a Labour-led minority government. Don't think supply will be enough. Nicely finish off his career after serving in Cameron's govt, and then his spell as party leader.
Who was the last Liberal to serve in cabinets led by both Conservative and Labour PMs? Has there ever been one?
Archibald Sinclair? Liberal MP. Served under Ramsay Macdonald in his National government 1931-2, then served in Churchill’s Cabinet in WWII.
Gwilym Lloyd George (David’s son) was in both governments too, but I don’t think he had Cabinet rank in 1931-2. (Someone check all these details!)
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
I think it's actually quite a good innovation that should be copied. Forcing each new Prime Minister to write a couple of paragraphs to sum up how they see each of their predecessors would be very instructive and help contextualise their long-term decision making.
Which works fine until, as seen in the US, end up with someone with no filter whatsoever, who makes a fool of himself by thinking it’s supposed to be for Twitter-level humour.
I am content with Badenoch and indeed pleased she has upped her game and ruffling Starmer and labour
The fact she is upsetting @Foxy and others is not an issue, as she has a different audience than those who wouldn't vote conservative under any circumstances
Starmer playing games with the lobby indicates he is 'frit' and if he does hold regular Press Conferences instead, I would suggest Badenoch does the same within 24 hours as she needs to continue to increase her public profile and does get that opportunity as official leader of the opposition
Actually, my wife has found her fascinating, especially at PMQs and thinks she has the measure of Starmer
I am hopeful 2026 will see her continuing improvement though the May elections will be difficult, but I expect Starmer will come under more pressure especially if labour are decimated in Wales
On Wales, I have an instinctive feeling that Plaid will overperform and Reform underperform with the result of a Plaid First Minister governing in a minority, nor least because I think to go onto coalition with labour would be a very silly decision
I would be content with that for Wales
The biggest block to reforming the lobby system is the lobby system.
Just as with the pre-briefing of policies, before they are presented in the Commons, it’s about power.
Without the “inside info” the politicians can’t court journalists. And the journalists need the inside info to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
It’s going to be fun to watch the government’s supporters praise the changes to the lobby system in the UK, white condemning similar changes in the US.
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
There will still be a daily lobby briefing in the UK and they're not kicking media agencies out on ideological grounds. It's nothing like what the Trump administration is doing.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
You can take even the tackiest politician here and they'd be crucified for doing something like that in Downing St. It shows how far Donald Trump has debauched politics in the US. Some of it is bound to bleed across the pond, America being such a global influence, but it really is worth fighting against it.
I think it's actually quite a good innovation that should be copied. Forcing each new Prime Minister to write a couple of paragraphs to sum up how they see each of their predecessors would be very instructive and help contextualise their long-term decision making.
Ok you've convinced me, you silver-tongued rascal you.
They’d be better off developing existing platforms such as Typhoon and Gripen, which are superior to anything a conceivable enemy might be fielding within the next decade. Russia’s Su-57 and China’s J-20 and J-35 are miles away from actual serial production.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
The problem with the Germans getting involved in GCAP is that they will demand a huge work share based on the claim they will buy the most aircraft. Then they will cut the buy and demand they keep the workshare - or they will collapse the project.
They’ve only done this multiple times before.
If it’s an unmanned vehicle, it should be easier to set up multiple production lines and not be reliant on any one country for the project to succeed. A fighter drone should be considerably cheaper than a manned aircraft, being mostly software-controlled and updated.
The difficult bit with that, is keeping enemy spies away from the IP.
Comments
£9 million on civil servants and £11 million on lawyers in six months.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-covid-19-inquiry-response-costs-for-quarter-2-2526/uk-covid-19-inquiry-response-costs-for-quarter-2-2526
If the journalists don't investigate, and no further information emerges, then you might have a point.
But until then, and without more information, I have literally nothing to add.
Russian media are reporting the elimination of the head of the Russian military intelligence, General Andrei Averyanov, in a strike carried out by Ukrainian drones on a tanker. He was involved in bombing Prigozhin's plane & Skripal poisonings.
https://x.com/raging545/status/2001930373811609664
For some reason my partner doesn't consider my heroics mitigation of my rank stupidity and incompetence. I shall put her in touch with you.
"Wadda we want?"
"Incremental improvement in key areas subject to various factors outside of governmental control!"
"When do we wannit?"
"After a while"
The media landscape has charged a lot in the past couple of decades, and the old clique of the Lobby seems ever more anachronistic with each passing year. It will be good to see different faces asking questions, and more new media being invited to attend.
I think the issue will be twofold. The boats and the hotels/housing of asylum seekers.
The boats will always be newsworthy. It also gives an impression we cannot defend our borders.
Stories like this will be toxic, even if it pleases the politicians who want to polish their halo and revel in their saintliness, when you have people unable to get homes, especially in areas that have had problems with second home owners, and people rock up and get them it causes some resentment.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/flats-welsh-resort-town-used-33068167
The simple fact is we need migration. We need skilled inward migration. Especially in target industries.
We also should be targetting overseas students who graduate in areas we need skills to stay.
The main origin of those coming on boats is now Eritrea (a predominantly Christian country), followed by Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia. Those are all countries with very real reasons for people to flee.
You will get some misses with this approach but hopefully enough useful stuff happens to make it worthwhile.
He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.
For the past 10 years Richard Moth has been Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, and before that served as Bishop to the Forces.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yq7l244ydo
This is the first time I have heard the subject raised at any time in our area
Also Starmer is continuity Sunak, so he's not really gone away. Rather he's re-generated Dr Who style.
If I was a local waiting for a home I’d be pretty pissed off at this.
More Capaldi into Jodie W.
*Labour have actually cut youth inactivity since they got in.
Nor has Starmer put plaques slagging off former PMs under their pictures in No. 10!
The article was ostensibly about the collapse of Britishvolt, investment in green energy and how Governments can (or cannot) attract investment and development in areas where old industries are no more. However, it really, for me, captures the current challenges facing the Labour Government and some of the contradictions in the rise of Reform. It is a long article so why not get a cup of tea and give it a read.
The question for political betting is if this article holds true then the big thing is whether Reform and Farage can avoid the contradictions in their platform collapsing in a heap before the next election (and the general risk from Farage being Farage). If that happens and Labour get “some” credit for turning the corner then the next general election could be competitive. If nothing changes I fear a lot of Labour MPs will be updating their CVs come the next general election.
It’s a massive win for Ukraine if they’ve taken out Averyanov though.
UK open to Germany joining future fighter project
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-open-to-germany-joining-future-fighter-project/
I wouldn’t blame anyone being annoyed in those circumstance.
By me we’ve had some African care worker families moved in on local estates. But it’s not caused any issues or resentment here, certainly from the local social media, as there is not an issue with housing or services so they are not seen as getting preferential treatment. Also they work and work hard.
https://www.simplylogcabins.co.uk/palmako-emilia-5-4m-glasshouse-405497-b?srsltid=AfmBOoo_4HTod-enjx3PrR-MVOYJlH1H_4SMVxbHpOCF5FVVu-Ze8FLJEGA
The £70m farce that exposes rot at the heart of the Royal Navy
Critics call deal to sell HMS Bulwark to Brazil for a knockdown price ‘a spectacular failure’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5cb3b12a20aff2aa (gift link so no paywall)
Classic case of people assuming internal reports must be magically more accurate (like internal polling inexpicably being treated as inherently more reliable) it sounds like. When it is easy to fool oneself if you want.
I recall from a few years back when democratic supporters swept Hong Kong parish elections the reports were that Beijing was genuinely surprised, as they had believed their own bullcrap reporting about how it was not popular. Unfortunately they learned their lesson from it to make sure dissent was properly stamped down upon for the legislative elections.
"Within a reasonable timeframe to be dependent upon available resources and external cirumstances!"
I don't see how Jenrick is the answer, but the Tories remain in critical condition even if they've stopped the rot.
https://x.com/epelgrino/status/2001746614348615939
FCAS: French newspaper Les Echos reports that FCAS project is now completely stalled and the latest meetings have been unsuccessful. Teams working at Dassault HQs are beginning to realize the lack of expertise on the Airbus DS side. 1/n
Airbus DS has been unable to meet expectations in specific areas of the design phase and cannot provide critical elements for the NGF demonstrator because ADS is bound by restrictive intellectual property agreements on Eurofighter. 2/n
Dassault teams are increasingly frustrated by the lack of expertise and the poor contribution of the German teams to the project. The deterioration in relations between the teams now seems irreparable. 3/n
A source close to the situation claims that ADS deliberately leaked internal documentation to make it appear that Dassault willing to take on 80% of workshare. This claim has since been refuted by Dassault CEO and the heads of the 2 groups are no longer on speaking terms. 4/n
The preferred scenario is now therefore the national development of a fighter jet for France, without relying on Germany. The differences are too great and the lack of trust too significant, especially after the leaks of false information in the press. n/n
Whether it's sensible to included Germany is an 'interesting' question.
But do carry on.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/graham-budd-auctions-ltd/catalogue-id-srgrah10114
I’m hanging on your every word about Sandie Peggie 🥱
Oh, and as you’re so keen to know I am currently watching and early Taggart, set in Glasgae, but will watch the timeless Dr Who classic ‘Claws of Axos’ later. I also prefer a doner kebab to Fish and Chips. Sea Spray in Shirley does a good one.
I’m also making bread at the moment. I’ll put you a pic up, mofo !!
The refit costs appear to be based on this quote "This excludes HMS Bulwark's 2022-2025 refit which was estimated to cost £72.1 million. As HMS Bulwark was retired before her refit was completed, the refit costs are under review." https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16458.h
So probably much less than the estimate as we stopped at least a year early.
And for the sale even the Telegraph state: Navy sources disputed the £20m figure but declined to say what the actual sale price was, citing “commercial sensitivities”. “It’s significantly higher. Selling it for £20m would be giving it away,” the insider said.
Not to mention that for the Labour government the refit costs from 2022-4 were a sunk cost obviously out of their control.
And it will at least be integrated with the weaponry we develop - unlike the F-35.
The participation of Japan is a huge plus, IMO. And given the new fighter is being developed with long range as a priority, there shouldn't be a major conflict on specifications either.
Previous US stealth efforts (F-22 and F-35) have been surprisingly deficient in that respect.
There always seems to be overruns.
This worked with Typhoon but if they had done a realistic estimate of cost and schedule at the start, it would have been strangled at birth. The target of record was that it would be cheaper than Legacy Hornet. it ended up being three times as expensive at £130m+ for each aircraft and is still inferior in some ways to an aircraft the US and other users have largely retired.
The glass half empty view isn't always correct.
Given the new strategic direction of the US there isn't really much choice anyway, unless we fancy a bit of unilateral disarmament.
I wasn’t aware I’d ever told anyone they were racist but if a cheap jibe gets you through the day….
The YouGov favourabilty numbers are a worry to Sir Ed about any rapprochement with Labour but both the LDs and Conservatives will be asked whether and in what way they would (respectively) support a minority Labour or minority Reform Government in the Commons.
Obviously, if either Labour or Reform are on course to win a majority that question becomes moot but let’s ponder whether a Reform Government with a majority of 10 would feasibly last the full five years. Maybe, maybe not.
The problem for Davey and Badenoch is equidistance only gets you so far - as the LDs discovered in 2010, when
push comes to shove, a choice has to be made. For Badenoch, it might be easier if the only game in town was Reform but I suspect Davey knows his supporters see Farage and Starmer increasingly as beyond the pale.
Sums up what this bunch of chancers are all about.
https://x.com/michaelrosenyes/status/2001992917716816071?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
But, you’re right, they need to build on that.
I was on some SAGE subcommittees, so I was asked for an evidence statement, and the Govt paid for a lawyer to take an hour or two to look through what I’d written and make sure I hadn’t said anything legally problematic for myself. (They only told us this late in the process, so I’d written my thing anyway and the lawyer then had no comments on what I wrote. I didn’t get paid for my time - about a day - writing the statement. They just paid the lawyer!)
What a vintage year for politics.
Cross out drones and write missiles, and that has long been the case. Torpedoes even longer. But these are small-ish ships. No-one has built massive battleships since aircraft carriers came along.
Here is everything you need to know about warships:-
Aircraft carriers: we've got two but not enough planes to fill one.
Submarines: the ones not laid up are at sea for years because we've run out of sailors so can't let the crew take holidays in case they don't come back.
Destroyers: shoot down planes and missiles to protect carriers.
Frigates: hunt and sink submarines to protect carriers.
It's like how Speakers sometimes bemoan MPs heckling or party leaders just insulting each other, when the truth is people like that, even if they say they don't - otherwise they'd stop doing it.
Which is not to say being polite or chummy with each other is the be all and end all in politics, certainly you want a degree of conflict and disagreement (indeed, I'd say the idea people shoudl not 'play politics' and seek 'unity' in all things is misplaced), and a blunt, even rude style, has it's place. But the idea it is desirable as a general approach is unfortunate.
It ties into one of my most disliked and political sayings, about how it is the job of oppositions to oppose, which is one of those lazy statements which is true as a general purpose, but never meant to be literal, since there are any number of things all (or nearly all) will agree on, without it being some 'uniparty' conspiracy or terrible establishment move. A party in opposition wouldn't be bound to oppose a government if they did something unambiguously good (or indeed something the opposition had initially proposed) for example.
https://www.tiktok.com/@zandernation/video/7336546342237506849
Everyone steer clear of the ports.
What would all these ships (frigates, destroyers) do if they don't have carriers to protect? Must, surely, have some other utility?
#𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒓
What a cracking track, from the finest Rock band Scotland has ever produced, Shang-a-Lang is !
What a piece of crap.
Without a carrier, the frigates and destroyers are trying to create that bubble without air power.
Then everyone get together to spend the R&D on an unmanned replacement next-gen fighter.
Proper LOL stuff 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’d be fascinated to know what kind of mutually contradictory incoherence some on here would support.
Back to what we have and I’ll cheerfully admit Badenoch has got better in the past three months having looked in real trouble after the local elections. She has been aided and abetted by the implosion of her main opponent (much as Starmer has) but I’ve always thought anyone believing Jenrick was the answer hadn’t understood the question.
Badenoch and Stride have, to their credit, started to stake out the ground of sound economic management abandoned by the Conservatives for a number of years. The Devil is in the detail and talking tough on getting borrowing down is fine but as someone once said, “where’s the beef?” meaning if you are going to talk about cutting spending, let’s see some specific costed proposals rather than rhetoric.
The 2026 locals could still be make or break for Badenoch - London will be of particular interest especially to the extent gains from Labour in Barnet, Wandsworth and Westminster are offset by losses to Reform in Havering, Bromley and Bexley. Oddly enough, the 2027 round which will be more problematic for the LDs could have looked very good for the Tories but the abolition of so many District Councils will perhaps not show gains in such a strong light - we’ll see.
The irony is London won’t be that vital for the Conservatives at a General Election but the local performance could be seen as a referendum on her progress.
They’ve only done this multiple times before.
Who was the last Liberal to serve in cabinets led by both Conservative and Labour PMs? Has there ever been one?
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/ireland-to-request-european-air-defense-support-ahead-of-2026-eu-presidency
We might have fallen for that, but the chances of Japan and Italy also doing so are considerably slimmer.
(And assuming what Dassault are saying about their tech capacity approximates the truth, then cash is their only card.)
And I commend your attitude. More like you would benefit us. Although to channel your own 'otoh' judiciousness we do also need a bit of the other (as it were).
Politics free of the passionate intensity that comes from party partisanship and/or ideological commitment would struggle to engage people.
Absolutely nobody asked for this BUT
English Anglican cathedrals that have burned down, fallen over, and sank into the swamp: a thread, ranked from least to most dramatic.
https://x.com/oldenoughtosay/status/2001769922494632066
*Good pub quiz question, which seems to resist googling.
The difficult bit with that, is keeping enemy spies away from the IP.