He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, – politicalbetting.com
He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, – politicalbetting.com
The public have predicted Santa’s naughty list – and Donald Trump tops the charts for the second year running??But one thing has changed: the first woman makes the list, just behind the top five – Brits expect Rachel Reeves to feature in 6th place (37%).
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What's a chap got to do to get noticed?
Amazing that striking junior medics share the accolades at the top of the nice list.
Comedian @MattForde critiques the current government's lack of emotional connection with the public.
@HugoRifkind | #TimesRadio
https://x.com/timesradio/status/2003527247630631210?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Pope dropped for the only other batsman, who hasn’t been able to buy a run for months.
Bashir still the number one spinner but not playing, while Jacks takes 2/231 and retains his spot.
Duckett under investigation for being even drunker than normal.
There were only three things wrong with this Ashes tour - they picked the wrong squad, played the wrong team and prepared the wrong way.
And we thought that previous Ashes tours since 2013 had been disastrous.
Reginald D Hunter: Summons against comic by Campaign Against Antisemitism quashed for seeking to have him 'cancelled'
The judge said the CAA "misled" him over comments Hunter made to Heidi Bachram on X, and failed to inform him of a previous compliance probe.
A judge has quashed a summons against comedian Reginald D Hunter, brought privately by Campaign Against Antisemitism, ruling it "abusive" and intended to get the comedian "cancelled".
The 56-year-old US comic had been accused of three counts of sending an offensive communication on three different occasions - 24 August, 10 September and 11 September last year - to Heidi Bachram on X.
District Judge Michael Snow quashed the summons on Tuesday at Westminster Magistrates' Court following an application by the defence.
He ruled the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) charity's motive in seeking to prosecute Hunter was "to have him cancelled", and the prosecution was "abusive".
The CAA describes itself as a volunteer-led charity, "dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law".
In his ruling, Judge Snow said: "The CAA have demonstrated by the misleading and partial way in which it summarised its application and its wilful, repeated, failure to meet its disclosure obligations, that its true and sole motive in seeking to prosecute Reginald Hunter is to have him cancelled.
"I have no doubt that the prosecution is abusive.
"My view of the conduct of the CAA is consistent with them as an organisation which is not 'playing it straight' but is seeking to use the criminal justice system, in this case for improper reasons."
Judge Snow said the summary of Ms Bachram's tweeting in the application case summary was "wholly inadequate".
He added: "It did not reveal the extent of her tweets directed against Reginald Hunter in the period immediately preceding the complaints (her tweets were sent between 15 August and 11 September 2024).
"The summary misled me into believing that his comments were addressed to her involvement with the Jewish faith as opposed to his response to attempts that were being made to have him 'cancelled'."
The judge said the CAA had failed to inform him of a compliance investigation by the Charity Commission into the CAA in November 2024.
https://news.sky.com/story/reginald-d-hunter-summons-against-comic-by-campaign-against-antisemitism-quashed-for-seeking-to-have-him-cancelled-13487040
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV_oZsBBERs
Photo for the day. The Muffin Top Destroyer - why the Arleigh-Burke hull is at the end of its lifecycle.
So it would be very uncaring for us to visit any relatives over Christmas and risk the spread of infection.
1 - That is the first officially recognised misconduct question for the CAA that has been on my radar in quite a long period of following them to an extent but not in massive detail. I may have missed things, but I have thought of them as reasonably reliable - in stark contrast to say the PCS.
2 - It is about inadequate disclosure, which is a huge problem in our UK system.
Visceral thinking is our enemy. It enables fascists
Depressing start to Xmas
In my naughty list Vladimir Putin would make at least 2 of the top 5 places. No doubt AMW's behaviour hasn't been exactly flawless, but I must have missed his war crimes and genocide. And I'm no fan of Starmer, but surely he hasn't been naughtier than Xi Jinping or Kim Jong Un?
Angela Raymer would come top imho.
The other for Pope.
Haines or Charlesworth as spare batsman.
Leach or Ahmed for Bashir.
Foakes for Smith.
These problems were all obvious last winter in India (and indeed last summer against India). But we carried on in the same old way and the result has unfortunately looked inevitable for some time.
It's not just that though. It's about longer term preparation. How has it helped Bashir or Bethel to never play first class cricket? Clearly it hasn't. How has it helped Crawley or Pope or Brook to tell them they can continue playing silly shots and there will be no consequences other than England losing a match? Clearly it hasn't. How has it helped to have a keeper whose keeping is less than stellar because he's a somewhat better batsman than the alternatives? Clearly it hasn't. How has it helped to play golf instead of first class tour games? Clearly it hasn't.
I think we were always likely to lose the Ashes - let's face it, one win in 40 years tells its own story. But it's the level of denial about the issues that England brought with them that has made this look especially abject.
*For those who think they have been tried by England and not succeeded, that was true of Duckett first time around as well.
* Anyone with 2 or more brain cells is calling it a Strike Cruiser, which was a DARPA idea from the late 1970s, and which approximately existed at the end of WW2.
https://x.com/PolitlcsUS/status/1964079904124780904?s=20
Change it to Epstein and chums, (ghastly people), and you get top two for one.
Entitled fuckers make me want to reengage with the class struggle. Extreme inequality enabling the sexual abuse of children. I’m somewhere between nauseated and enraged. I know the world has always been like this, but I don’t like it.
I had hopes for the contact point database.
Either that or he's smoking weed.
Can Santa please not deliver us another two-day Test for this weekend!
(Bill and Ben, not Donald in Moscow.)
(There follows a more expressive than usual Trump Cabinet Meeting.)
https://x.com/euromaidanpress/status/2003595984375263475
Nothing from US, UK, EU, or anything with military use, is allowed to pass.
One required change is fairly clear!
Archer overbowled again? Wood?
Picking bowlers for their batting because the batters aren't performing...
England management don't just learn from their mistakes, they perfect them.
US naval planning has been a bit of a shitshow, and Trump is set to make it worse.
From the little I've read/watched, it seems the central Asian republics are both co-operating a bit more with each other, and that China is very keen to fully replace Russia as the power in that region.
"Nice" and "Naughty" are as nebulous and subjective as "left" and "right" these days.....
The important IPSOS polling is the other one from yesterday - the top four issues are Immigration, the Economy, NHS and Inflation. Now, you can argue the second and fourth are conflated to an extent or to put it another way:
1) Foreigners
2) Why does everything cost so much?
3) Why can't I get to see my Doctor in the next month because I'm in pain?
Resolve or mitigate any two of the above and you're pretty much guaranteed to be the next Government or, more accurately, convince enough people you can resolve or mitigate any two of the above and you will be the next Government.
Netanyahu
Trump
MBS
Musk / Zuckerberg
Nice list is harder
Dementia carers
Poor Archie...,.. all he had to do was find a grouse!
Also reflecting on some of the discussions on here about young people, the AI problem, and education at all ages. I do worry about those issues ... I'd, as it happens, just made a donation to a group towards its fund to help students (of all ages and whether in formal courses or not) with the costs of their own projects etc. Not a big charity, quite the reverse, but as a professional body I know it'll spend the money well (and we get to see the students' short reports in the regular newsletter).
Best wishes of the season to all.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=liora+rez+speech#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ba73b276,vid:nF1jxn4BMHM,st:0
But also crews in the post-conscription era want better facilities and food (still gash compared with civilian life outside prisons and farmers' mobile homes for their imported labourers).
The Sun
@TheSun
Tomorrow's front page: Police seize Andy gun licence
https://thesun.co.uk/royals/3771552
https://x.com/TheSun/status/2003225484608569385?s=20
We had a long email from a cousin in New Zealand yesterday, the usual catch up on family news etc. Of note, in view of your first para, cousins son, a newly qualified policeman in NZ, in his spare time is a skipper on a voluntary coastguard boat. Demanding, and admirable.
On your second para, back in my days as MD of a small group of pharmacies, for some years I 'hosted' a pharmacy student from Europe for a month or so each year. It was interesting for them to see the differences in practice, for us to hear about it and in several cases we kept up correspondence for a while after they'd gone back to their uni's.
Is it just social media feeding me things, or has something turned in the US posture towards Europe in the last few days? Not just the usual playground trolling but a new stage where we really are now facing a United States as strategic enemy?
https://kfgo.com/2025/12/22/exclusive-china-likely-loaded-more-than-100-icbms-in-silo-fields-pentagon-report-says/
A lot, I hope.
They have now failed with 3 series of ships in a row = Zumwalt destroyer, Littoral Combat Ship and recently the Frigate which Sub-Lieutenant Hegseth just cancelled.
Personally I think that the current idea to upscale the Coastguard Cutter is likely to wreck that programme as well, rather than save the other by transferring relative success.
Imo the USN is much further up shit creek than we have been, without a paddle, or a boat, or a working shipyard, or a workforce, or an incorrupt Congress, or any of the other bits they need.
There was a video I saw the other day arguing that they should start building Oliver Hazard Perry Frigates again. These were commissioned into the USN from 1977 to 1989, so it's a 55 year old design.
I think they will end up suspending the "build in USA only" practice for a period, to cover the interim, and do something like order 20 Mogami (or improved Mogami) class from Japan, built in Japan, at one or two per year.
Trump=
Farage
Tice
Dacre
Liora Rez (AKA Morticia Addams)
Zack
Zelensky
Macron
Carney
Davey
Thumberg
And it's all getting more complicated, because the postwar USN has never had anything close to a peer adversary, but that's likely to change with China's shipbuilding efforts.
Along with new threats like naval drones and hypersonics.
Tidy up mess the Vicar made today (9,3)
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/die-hard
They clearly see the EU as, if not an enemy, no longer a friend and it’s a competitor.
The EU is a trade competitor by virtue of its size and wealth, is a competitor on geopolitical-political influence and to MAGA the EU speak funny languages and have strange customs.
So I don’t think the US is yet a strategic enemy to “us” but is moving that way to Europe unless Europe shifts to being a nodding dog to Trump and Co.
It's stupidly dangerous and irresponsible what they've been doing.
I hope they don't go back.
To turn it into an effective fighting vessel it would need to be entirely redesigned; they'd be better if with something purpose built - and as you say there are plenty of good, available foreign alternatives.
If Andrew had any sense he would quietly do volunteering work for homeless charities and food banks for the poor in Norfolk, be grateful he still has a home and spend time with his daughters and grandchildren. His ego though is too big for that
It has absolutely no relevance to any news story...
This means that there will be some things that we agree on but many which we don't and they are ok with that. We seem to be a lot less comfortable about it. What Europe needs to decide is whether they remain a relatively peaceful and prosperous backwater or whether they still want to play a role on the world stage. To put it at its kindest there is a real difference of views within the EU about that.
The commitment to the RNLI by crews and shore staff is amazing and the hours in the classrooms, at sea, and at Poole and at the same time holding down a full time job is a lesson to us all
Every time they answer a shout they have no idea what they are facing, and of course they are answerable for their actions as any professional would be
Their teamwork is incredible and so are their families and employers who know they have to answer their pager immediately and leave what they are doing, and this 24/7 and of course they cannot drink in case they are called
They can and do sign themselves out of calls but most of the year they are ready to go to assist anyone in peril on the sea
We do come from a long traditon of fishermen and merchant men on both sides of the family and have experienced the loss of loved ones at sea and our son is following in the footsteps of his family by his involvement in the RNLI
It is Christmas Eve and I want to wish everyone on here the happiest of Christmases and new year
There is more that unites us than divides us
If he were innocent, he would not have made a huge payout.
China's at its demographic peak.
America is led by a fickle moron.
Europe's heavily concerned by Russia (and may face military action there as China invades Taiwan).
And, from Xi Jinping's perspective, he's not getting any younger.
They are not clear about what they need as soon as it gets beyond rhetoric, so they all pile in and it ends up like the shitshow our army made with Ajax.
A cutter (it is about 25% smaller than our Type 31 frigate) will not meet the need for second tier battle group protection alongside the Arleigh-Burkes, but if they are looking at "presence" or "keeping shipping lanes open by escorting merchantmen" or "escort the tankers to the battle group because the Arleigh-Burke's can't make it across the Pacific without a tea break" (so covering roles of our River Class Batch 2 or Type 31 low-end frigates) it could be fine with some upgrades, especially as it already has a 12,ooo nautical mile range.
But they won't; they will try and create a big Swiss Army knife for machete-fights.
https://youtu.be/APToE8Zo45Y?si=1MrRf2djIlMpG1eO
Calmly devastating on the current state of our military, but with sensible solutions. Let's hope Reform listens to him (they have him running as one of the cancelled Mayors just now - he would be a far better defence spokesman), and he is eventually made Defence Sec.