Sat waiting for David Byrne to appear in Manchester.
On topic. The sad thing is the changes will not speed up justice and will only make miscarriages more common. As I said before. These changes will ruin lives and cost lives.
Is “she sounds like a man” not a cancellable offence in these gender sensitive days?
Context is everything. Battleships are often referred to as female. And my aunt... (my aunts are all dead, but one or two of them were quite formidable and didn't just sound like battleships - and I loved them very much and I'm sure they wouldn't mind in the least me poking fun)
Brixy thinks that it’s a suitable criticism of Badenoch
Do you agree?
Is it snowflake day on PB?
You are on here every day slagging off Starmer (I thought I made a fantastic Starmer U turn joke about an hour ago, and not a titter) and then you cry foul if another poster takes a pop at a Conservative politician you are fanboiing.
But do you think that “she sounds like a man” is acceptable and relevant?
No I don't, and no not really and no it isn't, however I don't believe any of it particularly offensive. Some of the stuff you write about Starmer is at least equally edgy. Although I don't particularly like Starmer so I can live with that.
What have I ever said about Starmer that's close to a kind of misgendering?
I don't know. You tell me. You are pretty intense with your Starmer derangement.
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
You can call it something ridiculous like Stellantis. Or Omni Political Products ("Come With Me If You Want To Vote"). Or the Sirius Cyberpolitics Corporation ("Vote and Enjoy!!!").
Leyland-Yutani would be fun. "Building Better British Worlds"...which then breaks down on the A62.
They're all good but I do like Confluence. The image conjured is two rivers joining seamlessly together to form a bigger river flowing in the same direction. On it goes until it reaches the sea and that sea (in this context) is a comfortable overall majority at Westminster.
I think you should give them a nod to their Liverpool stronghold: Eh’fluence
Which Nigelb has already gone and described their manifesto as.
Sat waiting for David Byrne to appear in Manchester.
On topic. The sad thing is the changes will not speed up justice and will only make miscarriages more common. As I said before. These changes will ruin lives and cost lives.
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
I wasn't. That is despicable. And there are other examples of female led horrors at various times in various places. I'm not for a second thinking only men are capable of it.
I've only read it once, but wasn't that part of the point of the The Power?
Doesn't mean recent historic trends to open up opportunities previously unavailable to women and minorities etc are not a good thing, it is, but people might fool themselves that it would in itself ensure good governance and decisions.
Is “she sounds like a man” not a cancellable offence in these gender sensitive days?
Context is everything. Battleships are often referred to as female. And my aunt... (my aunts are all dead, but one or two of them were quite formidable and didn't just sound like battleships - and I loved them very much and I'm sure they wouldn't mind in the least me poking fun)
Brixy thinks that it’s a suitable criticism of Badenoch
Do you agree?
Is it snowflake day on PB?
You are on here every day slagging off Starmer (I thought I made a fantastic Starmer U turn joke about an hour ago, and not a titter) and then you cry foul if another poster takes a pop at a Conservative politician you are fanboiing.
But do you think that “she sounds like a man” is acceptable and relevant?
No I don't, and no not really and no it isn't, however I don't believe any of it particularly offensive. Some of the stuff you write about Starmer is at least equally edgy. Although I don't particularly like Starmer so I can live with that.
What have I ever said about Starmer that's close to a kind of misgendering?
I don't know. You tell me. You are pretty intense with your Starmer derangement.
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
It's actually a pretty reasonable position. Political parties change over time - in their policy positions, their leaders, their memberships - and can become unrecognisable or may simply not be the most effective means of achieving the political goals of the current supporter. Politics is not like a football team.
Moving away from the Tories to Reform may or may not be a preferred political choice, that'll be in the eye of the beholder, but if a Leader is not achieving the results and support that you want, aren't you supposed to reconsider? When would it be reasonable to part ways?
This seems like an encouraging moment in treating political support as conditional, as it should be.
Is “she sounds like a man” not a cancellable offence in these gender sensitive days?
Context is everything. Battleships are often referred to as female. And my aunt... (my aunts are all dead, but one or two of them were quite formidable and didn't just sound like battleships - and I loved them very much and I'm sure they wouldn't mind in the least me poking fun)
Brixy thinks that it’s a suitable criticism of Badenoch
Do you agree?
Is it snowflake day on PB?
You are on here every day slagging off Starmer (I thought I made a fantastic Starmer U turn joke about an hour ago, and not a titter) and then you cry foul if another poster takes a pop at a Conservative politician you are fanboiing.
But do you think that “she sounds like a man” is acceptable and relevant?
No I don't, and no not really and no it isn't, however I don't believe any of it particularly offensive. Some of the stuff you write about Starmer is at least equally edgy. Although I don't particularly like Starmer so I can live with that.
What have I ever said about Starmer that's close to a kind of misgendering?
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
You can call it something ridiculous like Stellantis. Or Omni Political Products ("Come With Me If You Want To Vote"). Or the Sirius Cyberpolitics Corporation ("Vote and Enjoy!!!").
Leyland-Yutani would be fun. "Building Better British Worlds"...which then breaks down on the A62.
They're all good but I do like Confluence. The image conjured is two rivers joining seamlessly together to form a bigger river flowing in the same direction. On it goes until it reaches the sea and that sea (in this context) is a comfortable overall majority at Westminster.
The autumn Confluence conference is not going to fill me with confidence.
Is “she sounds like a man” not a cancellable offence in these gender sensitive days?
Context is everything. Battleships are often referred to as female. And my aunt... (my aunts are all dead, but one or two of them were quite formidable and didn't just sound like battleships - and I loved them very much and I'm sure they wouldn't mind in the least me poking fun)
Brixy thinks that it’s a suitable criticism of Badenoch
Do you agree?
Is it snowflake day on PB?
You are on here every day slagging off Starmer (I thought I made a fantastic Starmer U turn joke about an hour ago, and not a titter) and then you cry foul if another poster takes a pop at a Conservative politician you are fanboiing.
But do you think that “she sounds like a man” is acceptable and relevant?
No I don't, and no not really and no it isn't, however I don't believe any of it particularly offensive. Some of the stuff you write about Starmer is at least equally edgy. Although I don't particularly like Starmer so I can live with that.
What have I ever said about Starmer that's close to a kind of misgendering?
I don't know. You tell me. You are pretty intense with your Starmer derangement.
It's deranged to detest this dismalness?
If you believe I had a bad case of Johnson Derangement Syndrome during COVID.. I did and I do. Yes it is.
One of the important interventions in this scandal was from John McTernan, former adviser to labour, who said that this was effectively a 'boys club' appointment and if any of labour's women had been involved Mandelson would not have been appointed
Women routinely making the big decisions would change the world beyond recognition.
I'm willing to give it a go.
Me too. But I doubt it will ever happen. The patriarchy is too entrenched. It has two immense natural advantages. Men are bigger and more powerful physically. Women do all the birthing and most of the nurturing of children.
No discussion of this coming Sunday's election in Vietnam, I see.
The Communist Party is grimly holding on to the 465 seats it has in the National Assembly (21 vacant, 14 are held by Independents aligned to the Fatherland Front which includes the Communist Party).
I'd imagine, as the only legal party, the Communists are probably looking at re-election.
A slightly less predictable in Denmark in 13 days - the current polls are, well, if you like Voxmeter, the "red" parties are ahead, if you like Epinion, the "blue" parties are just in front but it looks another very close finish.
The current coalition of Social Democrats, Venstre and Moderates looks finished with 38% of the vote against 62% for the others but I suppose a lot will depend on whether there is a feasible alternative coalition out there. The big winners look to be the Green Left (SF) and the Liberal Alliance which reads like where the Conservative Party would aspire to sit.
The "red" parties can't form a Government without the Social Democrats and the "blue" parties need the Venstre party but both those traditional parties look set to lose votes and seats.
Winston Churchill helped defeat fascism in Europe. He deserves better than being replaced by a badger 🦡
They're missing a trick with banknotes. Why not offer up paid advertising space on the notes instead of wasting this prime real estate on pictures of dead white guys or woodland creatures. Since the pool of people who actually use bank notes is essentially the same as those who watch GB News I assume the dominant advertisers would be the producers of mobility aids like stairlifts and those baths you can walk into. If they want to have a Churchill lookalike modeling the bath all the better, I suppose, ticks all the boxes at once.
Haha - gosh how killingly funny!
The laughter guzzler, Bob Monkhouse, would be proud
If Starmer takes full responsibility for the mistake of hiring Mandelson, as he and his acolytes continue to regularly insist, shouldn’t he be paying the £70k?
When will Boris pay back thev£37,000,000,000 given to Dildo Harding for a glorified spreadsheet
Thats just the tip of the Tory iceberg
Not sure we've had a "37bn for an app" truther on PB before. A new low.
The right to a jury trial is a non-negotiable red line for me and *could* potentially see me voting REF at the next election, even though long-term PB'ers will know I've never liked Farage going back to 2010 and even before it but if a REF government is what it takes to bring back the right to trial by jury I'll probably hold my nose...
Hopefully it won't come to that!
Any excuse to go full racist.
It's being restricted, not abolished.
Currently 3% of prosecutions go to trial by jury, MOJ estimated that under the proposals 25% of those wouldn't.
So reducing from 3% to 2.25% going to trial by Jury.
Yes, its only a *restriction* of ancient liberties - not a wholesale abolition - people are so f***ing touchy aren't they?
Well yes, it does seem so. Currently prosecutions are taking 4 years or longer to get to trial, which means that many of them fall apart because witnesses are lost contact with or their memory has faded, victims and accused have their lives put on hold, some are on remand for far longer than they'd be sentenced to if found guilty. That is unacceptable and it isn't a problem of Labour's making, it's the fault of the LDs and mainly the Conservatives, who did nothing to address it. Labour are trying to resolve the delays, I don't agree with their solution, I don't expect it will work, and I don't think a Judge was the right person to review the system and make recommendations. However, I think your objection is partisan rather than sincere. What would you propose to resolve the backlog?
Is “she sounds like a man” not a cancellable offence in these gender sensitive days?
Context is everything. Battleships are often referred to as female. And my aunt... (my aunts are all dead, but one or two of them were quite formidable and didn't just sound like battleships - and I loved them very much and I'm sure they wouldn't mind in the least me poking fun)
Brixy thinks that it’s a suitable criticism of Badenoch
Do you agree?
Is it snowflake day on PB?
You are on here every day slagging off Starmer (I thought I made a fantastic Starmer U turn joke about an hour ago, and not a titter) and then you cry foul if another poster takes a pop at a Conservative politician you are fanboiing.
But do you think that “she sounds like a man” is acceptable and relevant?
No I don't, and no not really and no it isn't, however I don't believe any of it particularly offensive. Some of the stuff you write about Starmer is at least equally edgy. Although I don't particularly like Starmer so I can live with that.
What have I ever said about Starmer that's close to a kind of misgendering?
Blanche is a girl's name?
I was once good friends with a girl called Blanche Sas. She was Canadian and quite brilliant.
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
John McTernan a tory Ed Davey a tory Those sitting behind Starmer calling him out a tory Stephen Flynn a tory
I could go on but why bother with someone who has the unique talent to join this forum and hurl abuse at a woman who has in that time risen above the other party leaders in approval and absolutely eclipses Starmer
A classic example of how not to make friends and influence people
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
I say that to myself every morning.
One day.
Not the worst. When I was at boarding school one of my pals had a Charlie Brown and Peanuts poster above his bed saying, "I'm going to be sensible tomorrow!" He rarely was.
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
I say that to myself every morning.
One day.
Not the worst. When I was at boarding school one of my pals had a Charlie Brown and Peanuts poster above his bed saying, "I'm going to be sensible tomorrow!" He rarely was.
It's the not being sensible yesterday that really sticks.
The right to a jury trial is a non-negotiable red line for me and *could* potentially see me voting REF at the next election, even though long-term PB'ers will know I've never liked Farage going back to 2010 and even before it but if a REF government is what it takes to bring back the right to trial by jury I'll probably hold my nose...
Hopefully it won't come to that!
Any excuse to go full racist.
It's being restricted, not abolished.
Currently 3% of prosecutions go to trial by jury, MOJ estimated that under the proposals 25% of those wouldn't.
So reducing from 3% to 2.25% going to trial by Jury.
Yes, its only a *restriction* of ancient liberties - not a wholesale abolition - people are so f***ing touchy aren't they?
Well yes, it does seem so. Currently prosecutions are taking 4 years or longer to get to trial, which means that many of them fall apart because witnesses are lost contact with or their memory has faded, victims and accused have their lives put on hold, some are on remand for far longer than they'd be sentenced to if found guilty. That is unacceptable and it isn't a problem of Labour's making, it's the fault of the LDs and mainly the Conservatives, who did nothing to address it. Labour are trying to resolve the delays, I don't agree with their solution, I don't expect it will work, and I don't think a Judge was the right person to review the system and make recommendations. However, I think your objection is partisan rather than sincere. What would you propose to resolve the backlog?
A fair question to a degree, but lack of clear alternatives doesn't always mean choosing what seems like a bad idea. Often it is, we know the dangers of can kicking, but not always.
I'd feel more comfortable if it was pitched, and evidenced, as superior in itself, not as a short cut to save money and time we don't have, as that comes across as sactificing a major principle by further restricting, to solve a short term issue.
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
That is rather partisan, picking on the only socialist in the village. In the interests of adding BBC style impartiality to the mix I would like to throw into the hat the following names...
Draft 15 of the trans article has been up backstage since 4am 10Mar2026. Of the people currently cleared to see it (rcs1000, DavidL, fitalass, Cyclefree, TSE, Nigelb, kyf_100, turbotubbs) none have suggested further changes and I am in my weekday digs so are limited in what I can do anyway. So Draft 15 is going to be the prepublish version released to the prereaders.
If anybody wants to preread the article before it is released to the mods please let me know in the comments before 9pm 12Mar2026 and I'll add you to the backstage.
I'm not looking for an argument and kyf_100 and Cyclefree have added extensive well-argued arguments in both directions as discussants, so change/comment requests in either direction will probably be ignored. Given the very tight word count, additions will additionally be ignored. But if you spot errors, misnumbered sources, typos, bad punctuation, etc, please tell me and I'll change it/collapse screaming/politely note your point in the article.
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
That is rather partisan, picking on the only socialist in the village. In the interests of adding BBC style impartiality to the mix I would like to throw into the hat the following names...
@Roger is a socialist and I do not agree with him on much but he certainly remains polite and is not someone who thows our abuse and nastyness in his posts
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
That is rather partisan, picking on the only socialist in the village. In the interests of adding BBC style impartiality to the mix I would like to throw into the hat the following names...
@Roger is a socialist and I do not agree with him on much but he certainly remains polite and is not someone who thows our abuse and nastyness in his posts
In the spirit of Yozzer Hughes I could do that, I could be a socialist, gizza job,
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
Please stop being so damned dull and boring.
That is rather partisan, picking on the only socialist in the village. In the interests of adding BBC style impartiality to the mix I would like to throw into the hat the following names...
@Roger is a socialist and I do not agree with him on much but he certainly remains polite and is not someone who thows our abuse and nastyness in his posts
Are you new here?
There are a few posters on here who hinted back in the day they would like to beat the shit out me for not being a Tory and/or being rude about Johnson.
Some of the abuse Horse received in his Corbyn days was quite vile.
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
John McTernan a tory Ed Davey a tory Those sitting behind Starmer calling him out a tory Stephen Flynn a tory
I could go on but why bother with someone who has the unique talent to join this forum and hurl abuse at a woman who has in that time risen above the other party leaders in approval and absolutely eclipses Starmer
A classic example of how not to make friends and influence people
Not sure who flagged that post but why not just make an argument
Starmer is coming under fire from all sides including his own
Surely not? How could they turn on our King Of Hearts?
Sounds like an echo chamber.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
John McTernan a tory Ed Davey a tory Those sitting behind Starmer calling him out a tory Stephen Flynn a tory
I could go on but why bother with someone who has the unique talent to join this forum and hurl abuse at a woman who has in that time risen above the other party leaders in approval and absolutely eclipses Starmer
A classic example of how not to make friends and influence people
Not sure who flagged that post but why not just make an argument
Someone who will get an earful from the feathered plimsole obsessive for disturbung his preening
Massive fires continue to burn into the night at the Port of Salalah in Oman, with the blaze caused by Wednesday’s drone attack against the port by Iran having now spread to most if not all oil tanks at the MINA Petroleum Facility.
Massive fires continue to burn into the night at the Port of Salalah in Oman, with the blaze caused by Wednesday’s drone attack against the port by Iran having now spread to most if not all oil tanks at the MINA Petroleum Facility.
Oh f***!
Just as well we haven't needed to release our emergency stockpile yet. Oh wait...
Massive fires continue to burn into the night at the Port of Salalah in Oman, with the blaze caused by Wednesday’s drone attack against the port by Iran having now spread to most if not all oil tanks at the MINA Petroleum Facility.
Oh f***!
Just as well we haven't needed to release our emergency stockpile yet. Oh wait...
All of this also makes our efforts to reduce carbon emissions look futile as well.
Massive fires continue to burn into the night at the Port of Salalah in Oman, with the blaze caused by Wednesday’s drone attack against the port by Iran having now spread to most if not all oil tanks at the MINA Petroleum Facility.
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
No it wasn't, the Tories polled 30% when Boris resigned and of course it was Cleverly who reduced the Boriswave.
I have supported the Tories through general elections won and lost and never backed Blair like you did but even Kemi knows she has to see the Tories at least in the top 2 in May to survive
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
He does sometimes come across as if he's in the wrong party, Davey.
Also, are these lib dem subtitles or X? "With a war waging in Europe"? Raging, Shirley?
ETA: I am glad though, thanks to NF, that we now have a working definiton of woke. Next time someone says something's woke, if it doesn't involve Churchill being replaced by a beaver, I'll put them straight!
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
No it wasn't, the Tories polled 30% when Boris resigned and of course it was Cleverly who reduced the Boriswave.
I have supported the Tories through general elections won and lost and never backed Blair like you did but even Kemi knows she has to see the Tories at least in the top 2 in May to survive
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
One can support the team and be down on the manager - just ask Spurs fans!
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
One can support the team and be down on the manager - just ask Spurs fans!
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
One can support the team and be down on the manager - just ask Spurs fans!
In Spurs case managers !!!
Careful now, as a Tory and Man U fan*, glass houses and stones come to mind
*apologies for the horrific libel if I've got this wrong!
Draft 15 of the trans article has been up backstage since 4am 10Mar2026. Of the people currently cleared to see it (rcs1000, DavidL, fitalass, Cyclefree, TSE, Nigelb, kyf_100, turbotubbs) none have suggested further changes and I am in my weekday digs so are limited in what I can do anyway. So Draft 15 is going to be the prepublish version released to the prereaders.
If anybody wants to preread the article before it is released to the mods please let me know in the comments before 9pm 12Mar2026 and I'll add you to the backstage.
I'm not looking for an argument and kyf_100 and Cyclefree have added extensive well-argued arguments in both directions as discussants, so change/comment requests in either direction will probably be ignored. Given the very tight word count, additions will additionally be ignored. But if you spot errors, misnumbered sources, typos, bad punctuation, etc, please tell me and I'll change it/collapse screaming/politely note your point in the article.
I'd just like to add that @Viewcode has done a cracking job producing both the article and the extended investigation (through separate appendices and discussant contributions). The overall standard is very high, honestly close to what you'd expect from something publishable in an academic journal. It's a genuinely interesting piece of work, and I hope it gets circulated more widely.
For my part, I've contributed almost 5,000 words to a discussant response, as has Cyclefree. We've deliberately avoided tearing chunks out of each other and instead focused on setting out our respective stalls. Decide for yourself who you think is right.
There's always more that could be said on a topic like this, particularly since, if the rumours circulating this week are true, trans healthcare on the NHS may soon be ended or at least severely curtailed. But I don't want to get dragged into this argument endlessly. I'll respond to trans threads if Cyclefree keeps posting them, but I won't be starting them myself.
Ditto @Turbotubbs, who I note has apologised after making me somewhat apoplectic at the weekend after wishing “all the joy in the world” to my partner, not realising that she is quite, quite dead. Apology accepted, especially now I've had a little time to calm down. Sadly there is little joy in my world in her absence.
My final comment on this: trans rights may be a political issue, but trans people themselves aren’t. They’re just ordinary people trying to live their lives, often under difficult circumstances and under a lot of scrutiny and hostility.
Most people here are lucky that their existence isn’t treated as a political question. Trans people don’t have that luxury. When the article is published, I hope people remember the subject under discussion is a group of marginalised people just trying to live their lives - for some of us they are our friends, family and loved ones. They are not political footballs.
The right to a jury trial is a non-negotiable red line for me and *could* potentially see me voting REF at the next election, even though long-term PB'ers will know I've never liked Farage going back to 2010 and even before it but if a REF government is what it takes to bring back the right to trial by jury I'll probably hold my nose...
Hopefully it won't come to that!
Any excuse to go full racist.
It's being restricted, not abolished.
Currently 3% of prosecutions go to trial by jury, MOJ estimated that under the proposals 25% of those wouldn't.
So reducing from 3% to 2.25% going to trial by Jury.
Yes, its only a *restriction* of ancient liberties - not a wholesale abolition - people are so f***ing touchy aren't they?
Well yes, it does seem so. Currently prosecutions are taking 4 years or longer to get to trial, which means that many of them fall apart because witnesses are lost contact with or their memory has faded, victims and accused have their lives put on hold, some are on remand for far longer than they'd be sentenced to if found guilty. That is unacceptable and it isn't a problem of Labour's making, it's the fault of the LDs and mainly the Conservatives, who did nothing to address it. Labour are trying to resolve the delays, I don't agree with their solution, I don't expect it will work, and I don't think a Judge was the right person to review the system and make recommendations. However, I think your objection is partisan rather than sincere. What would you propose to resolve the backlog?
A fair question to a degree, but lack of clear alternatives doesn't always mean choosing what seems like a bad idea. Often it is, we know the dangers of can kicking, but not always.
I'd feel more comfortable if it was pitched, and evidenced, as superior in itself, not as a short cut to save money and time we don't have, as that comes across as sactificing a major principle by further restricting, to solve a short term issue.
As I said, I think the mistake was asking a Judge to make the recommendations, having done that they're implementing what was recommended. My limited experience as a juror, twice at the same court, would suggest that courts are inefficient and that Judges and barristers are windbags, addressing those 2 issues would speed things up. The other issue is that due to the backlog criminals know that many cases fail, so some are waiting to see whether witnesses turn up before pleading guilty. That wastes ~2 hours of court sitting time (the morning).
"What have we lost in the shift from cigarettes to smartphones? The transition from cigarettes to phones highlights wider social shifts that the digital age of late capitalism has ushered in.
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
One can support the team and be down on the manager - just ask Spurs fans!
In Spurs case managers !!!
Careful now, as a Tory and Man U fan*, glass houses and stones come to mind
*apologies for the horrific libel if I've got this wrong!
I can really sympathise and have experienced being present in Barcelona when United won the triple and watching Denis Law send them down
I also remember Munich, which even today can be emotional, and meeting both Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton on several occasions
Looking at Spurs fixture list they are in a real battle to stay up - lots of squeaky bum times ahead as Alex would say
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
How about we take Liberal Democrat from the LibDems and from the Labour Party we could take Party?
I suppose what we could do is have the one party with two names depending on where it's standing. So up north it's Labour and in the home counties it's the Liberal Democrats. No rule against that afaik.
I'm more than happy for the Lib Dems to wither, losing members to the Greens
Zack Polanski's claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.
Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter's bust.
Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.
BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio Humberside to stand by the theory saying "the evidence is growing".
At least when it comes to the 2029 leaders' debates Polanski will be at home among the massive tits on stage alongside him.
Indeed...
It would be a huge shock if a Sun journalist had completely misrepresented the facts in a story. Zack should consider himself lucky he wasn't coerced into doing something illegal, shopped to the police and served jail time.
I doubt most LD members would go Green, they are now a party with almost as many oiks as Reform voters since Polanski has led them. LDs under Davey are closest to Starmer Labour with a few One Nation Tories at heart who have gone LD post Brexit
That reveals a breathtaking lack of understanding of the dynamics of political parties other than your own
No it does not.
Since the Coalition the LDs voter demographic has completely changed. Under Charles Kennedy they were the party of left of Labour, high tax and spend anti War voters. Those voters then went back to Labour under Ed Miliband in disgust at the LD coalition government with the Tories and voted with enthusiasm for Corbyn and now many even most of the have gone Green.
Since Brexit meanwhile many voters who voted Tory for Cameron and to a lesser extent May and were Remainers have gone LD, hence the average LD voter is now firmly centrist, indeed most of the seats they won in 2024 lean centre right if anything and normally used to elect Tory MPs. Starmer Labour meanwhile picked up some who voted Tory since 2010 in 2024 while it has leaked voters who backed Corbyn and Ed Miliband as above to the Greens.
The Tories meanwhile have leaked a lot of the voters Boris won in 2019 to Reform and having already leaked some Remainers to Labour and the LDs only the true hardcore Tories like me are still voting for the party under Kemi
You and me are polls apart but unlike you I vote conservative and back Kemi, not constantly trying to undermine her
Fine but you must recognise that the Conservatives are polling even lower than the 24% they got in 2024 which was in turn the lowest voteshare for the Conservative party at a general election in its history.
I backed Kemi's position on Iran this week and if the Tories do well in May I will be fully behind her
The reason was Johnson's abject premiership resulting in the Boriswave
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
One can support the team and be down on the manager - just ask Spurs fans!
In Spurs case managers !!!
Four Forest managers in a season chorus "hold my pint...."
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.
Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?
I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.
They better be indigenous. Any fucking grey squirrels or signal crayfish get on and we riot
Surely it has to be a bulldog?
Sounds like an elegant compromise.
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.
Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?
I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.
They better be indigenous. Any fucking grey squirrels or signal crayfish get on and we riot
Surely it has to be a bulldog?
Sounds like an elegant compromise.
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
Draft 15 of the trans article has been up backstage since 4am 10Mar2026. Of the people currently cleared to see it (rcs1000, DavidL, fitalass, Cyclefree, TSE, Nigelb, kyf_100, turbotubbs) none have suggested further changes and I am in my weekday digs so are limited in what I can do anyway. So Draft 15 is going to be the prepublish version released to the prereaders.
If anybody wants to preread the article before it is released to the mods please let me know in the comments before 9pm 12Mar2026 and I'll add you to the backstage.
I'm not looking for an argument and kyf_100 and Cyclefree have added extensive well-argued arguments in both directions as discussants, so change/comment requests in either direction will probably be ignored. Given the very tight word count, additions will additionally be ignored. But if you spot errors, misnumbered sources, typos, bad punctuation, etc, please tell me and I'll change it/collapse screaming/politely note your point in the article.
I'd just like to add that @Viewcode has done a cracking job producing both the article and the extended investigation (through separate appendices and discussant contributions). The overall standard is very high, honestly close to what you'd expect from something publishable in an academic journal. It's a genuinely interesting piece of work, and I hope it gets circulated more widely.
For my part, I've contributed almost 5,000 words to a discussant response, as has Cyclefree. We've deliberately avoided tearing chunks out of each other and instead focused on setting out our respective stalls. Decide for yourself who you think is right.
There's always more that could be said on a topic like this, particularly since, if the rumours circulating this week are true, trans healthcare on the NHS may soon be ended or at least severely curtailed. But I don't want to get dragged into this argument endlessly. I'll respond to trans threads if Cyclefree keeps posting them, but I won't be starting them myself.
Ditto @Turbotubbs, who I note has apologised after making me somewhat apoplectic at the weekend after wishing “all the joy in the world” to my partner, not realising that she is quite, quite dead. Apology accepted, especially now I've had a little time to calm down. Sadly there is little joy in my world in her absence.
My final comment on this: trans rights may be a political issue, but trans people themselves aren’t. They’re just ordinary people trying to live their lives, often under difficult circumstances and under a lot of scrutiny and hostility.
Most people here are lucky that their existence isn’t treated as a political question. Trans people don’t have that luxury. When the article is published, I hope people remember the subject under discussion is a group of marginalised people just trying to live their lives - for some of us they are our friends, family and loved ones. They are not political footballs.
I do not like to comment much on this debate, but you have first hand experience and loss and you have my full understanding
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.
Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?
I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.
They better be indigenous. Any fucking grey squirrels or signal crayfish get on and we riot
Surely it has to be a bulldog?
Sounds like an elegant compromise.
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
Yet again such a close fit between the views of Lab and LD voters. This happens on almost all issues. Do we really need both parties?
You think it's time for Labour to fold?
Lol no. But perhaps a friendly merger like you sometimes get in the corporate world. New bigger party called Confluence to capture the entire non-reactionary non-populist vote.
You can call it something ridiculous like Stellantis. Or Omni Political Products ("Come With Me If You Want To Vote"). Or the Sirius Cyberpolitics Corporation ("Vote and Enjoy!!!").
Leyland-Yutani would be fun. "Building Better British Worlds"...which then breaks down on the A62.
They're all good but I do like Confluence. The image conjured is two rivers joining seamlessly together to form a bigger river flowing in the same direction. On it goes until it reaches the sea and that sea (in this context) is a comfortable overall majority at Westminster.
I think you should give them a nod to their Liverpool stronghold: Eh’fluence
Which Nigelb has already gone and described their manifesto as.
I see I'm going to have to drop the idea.
I know. In my defence I came up with the joke independently and before I’d read his post.
"What have we lost in the shift from cigarettes to smartphones? The transition from cigarettes to phones highlights wider social shifts that the digital age of late capitalism has ushered in.
Winston Churchill helped defeat fascism in Europe. He deserves better than being replaced by a badger 🦡
They're missing a trick with banknotes. Why not offer up paid advertising space on the notes instead of wasting this prime real estate on pictures of dead white guys or woodland creatures. Since the pool of people who actually use bank notes is essentially the same as those who watch GB News I assume the dominant advertisers would be the producers of mobility aids like stairlifts and those baths you can walk into. If they want to have a Churchill lookalike modeling the bath all the better, I suppose, ticks all the boxes at once.
Haha - gosh how killingly funny!
The laughter guzzler, Bob Monkhouse, would be proud
They used to laugh when I told people I was going to be a comedian. They’re not laughing now.
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.
Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?
I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.
They better be indigenous. Any fucking grey squirrels or signal crayfish get on and we riot
Surely it has to be a bulldog?
Sounds like an elegant compromise.
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
Wellington, standing on top of a pile of dead Frenchmen.
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.
Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?
I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.
They better be indigenous. Any fucking grey squirrels or signal crayfish get on and we riot
Surely it has to be a bulldog?
Sounds like an elegant compromise.
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
There's a change every few years for security reasons apparently.
Animals will be selected down to a short list by "experts" and then public will vote.
This avoids the public voting on masse for the dodo or gungan for example.
Comments
On topic. The sad thing is the changes will not speed up justice and will only make miscarriages more common. As I said before. These changes will ruin lives and cost lives.
I see I'm going to have to drop the idea.
And as for your last sentence that is simply pathetic - it's like saying I only support my football team if they win the league
Doesn't mean recent historic trends to open up opportunities previously unavailable to women and minorities etc are not a good thing, it is, but people might fool themselves that it would in itself ensure good governance and decisions.
Moving away from the Tories to Reform may or may not be a preferred political choice, that'll be in the eye of the beholder, but if a Leader is not achieving the results and support that you want, aren't you supposed to reconsider? When would it be reasonable to part ways?
This seems like an encouraging moment in treating political support as conditional, as it should be.
Nothing to see here
Desperate Tories
The Communist Party is grimly holding on to the 465 seats it has in the National Assembly (21 vacant, 14 are held by Independents aligned to the Fatherland Front which includes the Communist Party).
I'd imagine, as the only legal party, the Communists are probably looking at re-election.
A slightly less predictable in Denmark in 13 days - the current polls are, well, if you like Voxmeter, the "red" parties are ahead, if you like Epinion, the "blue" parties are just in front but it looks another very close finish.
The current coalition of Social Democrats, Venstre and Moderates looks finished with 38% of the vote against 62% for the others but I suppose a lot will depend on whether there is a feasible alternative coalition out there. The big winners look to be the Green Left (SF) and the Liberal Alliance which reads like where the Conservative Party would aspire to sit.
The "red" parties can't form a Government without the Social Democrats and the "blue" parties need the Venstre party but both those traditional parties look set to lose votes and seats.
Currently prosecutions are taking 4 years or longer to get to trial, which means that many of them fall apart because witnesses are lost contact with or their memory has faded, victims and accused have their lives put on hold, some are on remand for far longer than they'd be sentenced to if found guilty. That is unacceptable and it isn't a problem of Labour's making, it's the fault of the LDs and mainly the Conservatives, who did nothing to address it.
Labour are trying to resolve the delays, I don't agree with their solution, I don't expect it will work, and I don't think a Judge was the right person to review the system and make recommendations.
However, I think your objection is partisan rather than sincere.
What would you propose to resolve the backlog?
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tFP1zcsNM0yL8k2Sjdg9BIsyUhVSE_MKU-sVEhLLMpNLQIAq9EK2w&q=the+galway+farmer&oq=the+galway+g=armer&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEC4YDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAuGA0YgAQyCAgCEAAYDRgeMggIAxAAGA0YHjIICAQQABgNGB4yBwgFEAAY7wXSAQk2NDA5ajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBWqc6b_HRfr4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:798d6e0a,vid:yy2Hk0n__No,st:0
One day.
Ed Davey a tory
Those sitting behind Starmer calling him out a tory
Stephen Flynn a tory
I could go on but why bother with someone who has the unique talent to join this forum and hurl abuse at a woman who has in that time risen above the other party leaders in approval and absolutely eclipses Starmer
A classic example of how not to make friends and influence people
He rarely was.
I'd feel more comfortable if it was pitched, and evidenced, as superior in itself, not as a short cut to save money and time we don't have, as that comes across as sactificing a major principle by further restricting, to solve a short term issue.
Draft 15 of the trans article has been up backstage since 4am 10Mar2026. Of the people currently cleared to see it (rcs1000, DavidL, fitalass, Cyclefree, TSE, Nigelb, kyf_100, turbotubbs) none have suggested further changes and I am in my weekday digs so are limited in what I can do anyway. So Draft 15 is going to be the prepublish version released to the prereaders.
If anybody wants to preread the article before it is released to the mods please let me know in the comments before 9pm 12Mar2026 and I'll add you to the backstage.
I'm not looking for an argument and kyf_100 and Cyclefree have added extensive well-argued arguments in both directions as discussants, so change/comment requests in either direction will probably be ignored. Given the very tight word count, additions will additionally be ignored. But if you spot errors, misnumbered sources, typos, bad punctuation, etc, please tell me and I'll change it/collapse screaming/politely note your point in the article.
There are a few posters on here who hinted back in the day they would like to beat the shit out me for not being a Tory and/or being rude about Johnson.
Some of the abuse Horse received in his Corbyn days was quite vile.
Massive fires continue to burn into the night at the Port of Salalah in Oman, with the blaze caused by Wednesday’s drone attack against the port by Iran having now spread to most if not all oil tanks at the MINA Petroleum Facility.
Just as well we haven't needed to release our emergency stockpile yet. Oh wait...
https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2031785771212902539
The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.
*Fucked Around And Other Folk Found Out
Why am I picturing Tracy Emin?
You were obsessed by the the largely loved Boris
Inspector Burghart on the case
I have supported the Tories through general elections won and lost and never backed Blair like you did but even Kemi knows she has to see the Tories at least in the top 2 in May to survive
And Farmy Farm.
Also, are these lib dem subtitles or X? "With a war waging in Europe"? Raging, Shirley?
ETA: I am glad though, thanks to NF, that we now have a working definiton of woke. Next time someone says something's woke, if it doesn't involve Churchill being replaced by a beaver, I'll put them straight!
Loads of lunatics still want him back!
Great clunking fist
*apologies for the horrific libel if I've got this wrong!
For my part, I've contributed almost 5,000 words to a discussant response, as has Cyclefree. We've deliberately avoided tearing chunks out of each other and instead focused on setting out our respective stalls. Decide for yourself who you think is right.
There's always more that could be said on a topic like this, particularly since, if the rumours circulating this week are true, trans healthcare on the NHS may soon be ended or at least severely curtailed. But I don't want to get dragged into this argument endlessly. I'll respond to trans threads if Cyclefree keeps posting them, but I won't be starting them myself.
Ditto @Turbotubbs, who I note has apologised after making me somewhat apoplectic at the weekend after wishing “all the joy in the world” to my partner, not realising that she is quite, quite dead. Apology accepted, especially now I've had a little time to calm down. Sadly there is little joy in my world in her absence.
My final comment on this: trans rights may be a political issue, but trans people themselves aren’t. They’re just ordinary people trying to live their lives, often under difficult circumstances and under a lot of scrutiny and hostility.
Most people here are lucky that their existence isn’t treated as a political question. Trans people don’t have that luxury. When the article is published, I hope people remember the subject under discussion is a group of marginalised people just trying to live their lives - for some of us they are our friends, family and loved ones. They are not political footballs.
My limited experience as a juror, twice at the same court, would suggest that courts are inefficient and that Judges and barristers are windbags, addressing those 2 issues would speed things up.
The other issue is that due to the backlog criminals know that many cases fail, so some are waiting to see whether witnesses turn up before pleading guilty. That wastes ~2 hours of court sitting time (the morning).
Hopefully we'll get new £25 and £500 notes with pony and monkey on respectively.
The transition from cigarettes to phones highlights wider social shifts that the digital age of late capitalism has ushered in.
William Davies"
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/what-have-we-lost-in-shift-from-cigarettes-to-smartphones/
I also remember Munich, which even today can be emotional, and meeting both Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton on several occasions
Looking at Spurs fixture list they are in a real battle to stay up - lots of squeaky bum times ahead as Alex would say
Thats a proper British tenner right there
(Amongst all the hooh and hah, worth noting(!) that Churchill has only been on a banknote since 2016, and we're probably due a change anyway. Without looking, does anyone remember who came before him?)
All the best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4
It’s disturbing that I think like @Nigelb
Animals will be selected down to a short list by "experts" and then public will vote.
This avoids the public voting on masse for the dodo or gungan for example.