Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
“Which Reform tribe are you? Take this quick quiz!
Q1: the English language: A. Is ever-evolving and open-source B. Has correct and incorrect usage
Q2: what do you hate most? A. Immigrants B. Wind turbines
Q3: Liz Truss was: A. Into kink B. On the right track, economically”
Etc”
I don't really hate wind turbines - how can you hate an object? Though I do believe that people regarding them as beautiful just stems from a misguided associating with 'cheap, clean energy' - we regard belching smoke stacks as ugly because of their association with planetary destruction. But perhaps there is a beauty in a belching smoke stack. It means prosperity - energy turning into things. People in gainful work. Plants and trees growing with greater vigour. I wonder if people did find them beautiful in the early days of industrialisation (though obviously whole sooty cities of them wasn't very nice).
Dark satanic mills?
They gained that reputation yes. Perhaps we have always regarded industry as ugly from the beginning. I haven't really read around it.
Industry lured agricultural workers with the promise of better pay and year-round work but machines were often dangerous, accommodation cramped and air, food and water polluted.
The life of a menial agricultural worker was long hours of hard work, seasonal unemployment and continual deprivation.
It was not some 'merry old England' rural idyll.
For that matter the problems of the modern rural working class are often overlooked.
I don't think it is a major thing, but I think there is an undercurrent of societal thought that industrialising was all one big mistake and life was better before.
I'd not have liked to have personally been there during the industrialising years, but I'm very grateful they happened.
Prelapsarianism is common in politics. Reform UK. Want to go back 75 years. The Greens want to go back 400-4000 years.
The people who took the revolutionary act of chopping off the head of an appointed monarch did so in the name of defending England's ancient liberties. A lot of progress has historically been achieved by looking backwards.
Appealing to modernity is very unusual.
Gah. Appointed should be anointed. Very different.
“Which Reform tribe are you? Take this quick quiz!
Q1: the English language: A. Is ever-evolving and open-source B. Has correct and incorrect usage
Q2: what do you hate most? A. Immigrants B. Wind turbines
Q3: Liz Truss was: A. Into kink B. On the right track, economically”
Etc”
I don't really hate wind turbines - how can you hate an object? Though I do believe that people regarding them as beautiful just stems from a misguided associating with 'cheap, clean energy' - we regard belching smoke stacks as ugly because of their association with planetary destruction. But perhaps there is a beauty in a belching smoke stack. It means prosperity - energy turning into things. People in gainful work. Plants and trees growing with greater vigour. I wonder if people did find them beautiful in the early days of industrialisation (though obviously whole sooty cities of them wasn't very nice).
Dark satanic mills?
They gained that reputation yes. Perhaps we have always regarded industry as ugly from the beginning. I haven't really read around it.
Industry lured agricultural workers with the promise of better pay and year-round work but machines were often dangerous, accommodation cramped and air, food and water polluted.
The life of a menial agricultural worker was long hours of hard work, seasonal unemployment and continual deprivation.
It was not some 'merry old England' rural idyll.
For that matter the problems of the modern rural working class are often overlooked.
I don't think it is a major thing, but I think there is an undercurrent of societal thought that industrialising was all one big mistake and life was better before.
I'd not have liked to have personally been there during the industrialising years, but I'm very grateful they happened.
Prelapsarianism is common in politics. Reform UK. Want to go back 75 years. The Greens want to go back 400-4000 years.
The people who took the revolutionary act of chopping off the head of an appointed monarch did so in the name of defending England's ancient liberties. A lot of progress has historically been achieved by looking backwards.
Appealing to modernity is very unusual.
Gah. Appointed should be anointed. Very different.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Comments like this make me look forward to a properly right wing agenda that an IMF bailout would necessitate.
If there is any IMF bale out it will have been facilitated by a vanity war and it's ramifications. The war having been arranged by a couple of right wing hawks.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
“American military bases and other equipment…suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair, according to three U.S. officials, two congressional aides and another person familiar with the damage.”
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Comments like this make me look forward to a properly right wing agenda that an IMF bailout would necessitate.
Comments like this make me feel sorry for all the right-wingers who still fantasise about an IMF bailout that they’re never going to see.
Do you realise how far the statist experiment has failed? How much we're in hoc to the bond markets? Or are you one of those who think that because we issue our own currency we're immune. Like Richard whats-his-name that the Polanskites adore....
So Trump cancels his envoys' trip and says again he has 'all the cards' (per the BBC).
Trying to put myself in the mind of his base, who adore him even when he changes his mind, this surely still has to be a little exhausting. Whilst the much stronger nation how many times can he say the USA has all the cards and yet still not reach a 'deal'?
Even then have to start wondering that if Iran has no cards why is there still talking at all? You only engage in talks if there are cards to play.
Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
“American military bases and other equipment…suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair, according to three U.S. officials, two congressional aides and another person familiar with the damage.”
Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Has to prepare for a Reform/Conservative alliance later, so Kemi going may hasten that end, as she's nto in favour of that.
Negotiating an advantageous, sustainable deal on this will require strategic nous, trust building, attention span and relevant knowledge. I don't think the Trump2 administration is capable of it. They're stuck.
“Which Reform tribe are you? Take this quick quiz!
Q1: the English language: A. Is ever-evolving and open-source B. Has correct and incorrect usage
Q2: what do you hate most? A. Immigrants B. Wind turbines
Q3: Liz Truss was: A. Into kink B. On the right track, economically”
Etc”
I don't really hate wind turbines - how can you hate an object? Though I do believe that people regarding them as beautiful just stems from a misguided associating with 'cheap, clean energy' - we regard belching smoke stacks as ugly because of their association with planetary destruction. But perhaps there is a beauty in a belching smoke stack. It means prosperity - energy turning into things. People in gainful work. Plants and trees growing with greater vigour. I wonder if people did find them beautiful in the early days of industrialisation (though obviously whole sooty cities of them wasn't very nice).
Dark satanic mills?
They gained that reputation yes. Perhaps we have always regarded industry as ugly from the beginning. I haven't really read around it.
Industry lured agricultural workers with the promise of better pay and year-round work but machines were often dangerous, accommodation cramped and air, food and water polluted.
The life of a menial agricultural worker was long hours of hard work, seasonal unemployment and continual deprivation.
It was not some 'merry old England' rural idyll.
For that matter the problems of the modern rural working class are often overlooked.
I don't think it is a major thing, but I think there is an undercurrent of societal thought that industrialising was all one big mistake and life was better before.
I'd not have liked to have personally been there during the industrialising years, but I'm very grateful they happened.
Prelapsarianism is common in politics. Reform UK. Want to go back 75 years. The Greens want to go back 400-4000 years.
The people who took the revolutionary act of chopping off the head of an appointed monarch did so in the name of defending England's ancient liberties. A lot of progress has historically been achieved by looking backwards.
Appealing to modernity is very unusual.
Gah. Appointed should be anointed. Very different.
https://x.com/SanderRegter/status/2047791949764039170 Jeffrey Epstein spent his 50th birthday at Mar-a-Lago, images showing identical backgrounds to that of Trump's property shows. The file is in the Epstein documents released by DOJ as "JE 50 Bday." The two images show the same exact window curtain, mirror and walls.
https://x.com/SanderRegter/status/2047791949764039170 Jeffrey Epstein spent his 50th birthday at Mar-a-Lago, images showing identical backgrounds to that of Trump's property shows. The file is in the Epstein documents released by DOJ as "JE 50 Bday." The two images show the same exact window curtain, mirror and walls.
"FAKE NEWS from the RADICAL LEFT LUNATIC D.O.J! Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
Security vetting stepped up after MP is given bodyguard with far-right links
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks.
This wasn't already the case?! Were they recruiting in 1982 or something?
Probably not. I suspect a lot of things linked to the British state are held together by sticky tape, and there's been an ongoing cockup on the sticky tape front for years.
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
What I love about them - and succulents generally - is the mathematical beauty of their presentation. There is something so pleasing, so right, so harmonic about them.
Trump: We have all the cards,’” “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
You can but please don’t yet. I for one would miss you on PB too much to bear.
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
I bought a beautiful Monterey cypress. “Goldcrest”. Apparently great in a pot and likely to thrive on a south facing Camden balcony
But then I got two sudden travel assignments in a row - Turkey and Ulster - and we had a massive dry spell - in April! - and when I got back the tree was dead. Every green branch turned crispy and yellow
A good lesson in the fragility of plant life. Honestly this thing was 70cm high and looked totally fine. Killed by ten days of dry and then dry and sun
I’ve just bought an olive as a replacement as I figure the microclimate on my balcony is closer to Cannes than Cannock
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Lovely and that beige pot is an impressive fellow.
But what does the balcony overlook below? Looks like a car park with a load of crowd control fences?
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
M If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre M
Sometimes I think a random drop in to pb may feel a little lost…
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Lovely and that beige pot is an impressive fellow.
But what does the balcony overlook below? Looks like a car park with a load of crowd control fences?
It’s the endless endless endless roadworks for HS2 running through Camden and Primrose Hill. Been going on ten years now, intermittently
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre
Very nice. I heartily approve. Also that’s proper integration into the British way of life. Gardening
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
What I love about them - and succulents generally - is the mathematical beauty of their presentation. There is something so pleasing, so right, so harmonic about them.
Yes they’re like organic fractals. Mesmerising at their best
Also tough bastards, some of them. Perfect for a solo gardener who goes away a lot
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Nothing beats a balcony in the city.
It will meaning nothing to anybody who hasn't watched the show but that has a 'Small Prophets' feel about it.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Following the discussion - yesterday I think - about a murder charge following a motor death, here is another one, also from the north west of England. Generally such things are a bit unusual as murder requires intent rather than carelessness, negligence or dangerous recklessness. Is this a trend?
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
Problem is women left liberal leaders don’t have that great a record against populist right leaders, see Gillard, Hillary and Harris.
A white male more macho than Ed Miliband and with a bit more personality than Starmer is their best bet eg their own Biden or Albanese or Carney or Macron. On that basis Streeting or Burnham
'A white male more macho than Ed Miliband'
Are you serious
It is time labour appointed a woman, not some white macho male
Most women would already vote Labour over Reform, with a few having gone Green or LD or still Tory. It is males, especially white males, who are now massively for Farage over Starmer and where Reform has its biggest lead
And chase labour voting women away with a white macho male
Haven't we learnt yet how toxic Trump, Hegseth and Farage are ?
There is zero evidence Labour voting women would leave as Streeting or Burnham were leader so stop writing rubbish. Trump beat two female leaders, only a white male beat him
But you’ve only got an n of 3 there. The relationship is not statistically significant.
Although I reckon you need at least five cases (2^5=32, 1/32 is less than 1/20, so you can resolve to 5%)or seven (2^7=128, 1/128 is less than 1/100, so you can resolve to 1%)
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
M If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre M
Sometimes I think a random drop in to pb may feel a little lost…
I must be the only one who runs away to catch up on PB comments to escape Gardener's World. Can we talk about AV/Mongolian opinion polls/Brexit/Scottish independence?
An MIT professor taught the same math course for 62 years, and the day he retired, students from every country on earth showed up online to watch him give his final lecture.
I opened the playlist at 2am and ended up watching three of them back to back.
His name is Gilbert Strang. The course is MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra.
Every machine learning engineer, every data scientist, every quant, every self-taught programmer who actually understands how AI works learned the math from this one man. Most of them never set foot on MIT's campus. They just opened a free playlist on YouTube and let him teach.
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre
Looking at those wonderful hostas at the back, your mum must have a zero tolernce for slugs and snails in a ten mile radius!
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Lovely and that beige pot is an impressive fellow.
But what does the balcony overlook below? Looks like a car park with a load of crowd control fences?
It’s the endless endless endless roadworks for HS2 running through Camden and Primrose Hill. Been going on ten years now, intermittently
Longer. Dickens, IIRC, discusses the downside of railway works in the Camden area in Dombey and Son.
On topic... it's hard to see Ed M developing into a coronating situation. Labour show no signs of halting their headlong pursuit of Fukker votes and Ed M, being the human embodiment of Net Zero, is Belphagor to the vaping class.
Labour have been going after the Fukker vote? I must have missed that, apart from the Mahmood stuff which I feel must be ineffective because they give the impression of doing it very reluctantly and with most of the membership hating her.
And Our Ange is said to be keen on reversing the Mahmood changes, and kicking out the Home Sec
Basically Labour are doing everything they possibly can to deliver a Reform government
In other news the FT has a new Saturday “lunch with” article today (where they lunch with a notable person and chat about the food and the notable person and their views: an oddly excellent format)
This weekend it’s Lord Chagos Hermer, the controversial Attorney General. The comments below the line are brutal and contemptuous of Hermer, so much so that one FT journalist tried to wade in and complain about the rage and hatred and change the tone, but he failed, and so they’ve closed comments completely. Before noon on the day of publication
And this is the FT! Not the Telegraph. The anger and disgust now directed at Labour is, I think, unprecedented
It's that wording of Hermer's which is shocking - "leaving us a little wiggle room if there have been no killings". It's the kind of clever cynical phrasing so reminiscent of Post Office lawyers with no apparent regard to the substance or any ethical considerations.
Yes it’s genuinely repulsive. What a worm. And he’s apparently Starmer’s only friend in the cabinet or maybe in government. Which - as @DavidL points out - is very telling
The FT comments fiasco is hilarious. It shows how out of touch the liberal media blob has become. They are so detached they thought this interview with Hermer would go down well? Right after the “wiggle room” revelations?
And then the FT journalists go below the line to criticise the readers. And of course this makes it all worse. Partly because their tone is so revealingly snooty and affronted: “this man is important and we like him and he’s a human rights lawyer how dare you be rude”
Utter wankers
Leigh Day, one of the firms involved in this, instructed my husband to do some work for them decades ago - on a boring local authority/planning matter. He is still waiting to be paid. Bastards!
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Can't quite work out if its a garden or the makings of a rather delicious meal to be honest.
“American military bases and other equipment…suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair, according to three U.S. officials, two congressional aides and another person familiar with the damage.”
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Comments like this make me look forward to a properly right wing agenda that an IMF bailout would necessitate.
If there is any IMF bale out it will have been facilitated by a vanity war and it's ramifications. The war having been arranged by a couple of right wing hawks.
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
I can die happy now. A tree I planted decades ago has a Tree Preservation Order and @Leon has been persuaded of the glories of gardens.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
If we're doing gardens this evening, this is a view of my Mum's front garden as it appeared last year. Unfortunately, she only won 2nd prize for Redbridge in Bloom 2025, but I think she should have won. She did win 1st prize the year before, mind!
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre
Looking at those wonderful hostas at the back, your mum must have a zero tolernce for slugs and snails in a ten mile radius!
Hostas and slugs are quantum. Everybody else’s hostas are always amazing, your own are eaten to buggery.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
An MIT professor taught the same math course for 62 years, and the day he retired, students from every country on earth showed up online to watch him give his final lecture.
I opened the playlist at 2am and ended up watching three of them back to back.
His name is Gilbert Strang. The course is MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra.
Every machine learning engineer, every data scientist, every quant, every self-taught programmer who actually understands how AI works learned the math from this one man. Most of them never set foot on MIT's campus. They just opened a free playlist on YouTube and let him teach.
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Me too. Though a single pint has hit me like a sledgehammer after a 130km cycle in stunning sunshine. Once the sun drops straight into the tent.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
I keep getting 503 service not available when posting a comment. Wait a while & it's OK.
I am watching football FA cup semi online as I do other computer bits and pieces and of course keep up with PB and suddenly just after Southampton scored the computer froze and then rebooted taking ages and by the time I was back it was 2-1.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Me too. Though a single pint has hit me like a sledgehammer after a 130km cycle in stunning sunshine. Once the sun drops straight into the tent.
Grasshopper warbler was today’s highlight.
Sedge Warbler and Bramling new for the year for me today.
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
It's a decent person spec. The challenge is attaching a name to it.
You're not describing Cooper, I don't think you're describing Mahmood (yes, some agree with her policies, but she is putting them forward with waaay too much relish). I'm unconvinced it's Rayner. I guess it could be Phillipson. Nothing too awful has happened in education, and she didn't embarass herself in the deputy leadership election.
I do think they need someone to do the John Major thing of getting the self-procaimed Big Beasts to naff off.
God forbid a politician have conviction eh?
True socialists know you can have a welfare state, or you can have open borders. You cannot have both.
Unfortunately most of the Labour party are, in the immortal words of Clem, 'not up to it'.
I think it's quite likely that Rayner will get a conviction, if that helps.
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Having not visited often, I can't speak for Northern Ireland, or really Wales, but as far as Scotland is concerned, it doesn't really have the same tradition of lovely country pubs. It should have, given that we have some of the most stunning scenery, amazing produce, and of course world-renowned drinks, but you rarely find that relaxed country pub with an inglenook and horse brasses here. Not never, but rarely. Different tradition of rural life.
On topic... it's hard to see Ed M developing into a coronating situation. Labour show no signs of halting their headlong pursuit of Fukker votes and Ed M, being the human embodiment of Net Zero, is Belphagor to the vaping class.
Labour have been going after the Fukker vote? I must have missed that, apart from the Mahmood stuff which I feel must be ineffective because they give the impression of doing it very reluctantly and with most of the membership hating her.
And Our Ange is said to be keen on reversing the Mahmood changes, and kicking out the Home Sec
Basically Labour are doing everything they possibly can to deliver a Reform government
In other news the FT has a new Saturday “lunch with” article today (where they lunch with a notable person and chat about the food and the notable person and their views: an oddly excellent format)
This weekend it’s Lord Chagos Hermer, the controversial Attorney General. The comments below the line are brutal and contemptuous of Hermer, so much so that one FT journalist tried to wade in and complain about the rage and hatred and change the tone, but he failed, and so they’ve closed comments completely. Before noon on the day of publication
And this is the FT! Not the Telegraph. The anger and disgust now directed at Labour is, I think, unprecedented
It's that wording of Hermer's which is shocking - "leaving us a little wiggle room if there have been no killings". It's the kind of clever cynical phrasing so reminiscent of Post Office lawyers with no apparent regard to the substance or any ethical considerations.
Yes it’s genuinely repulsive. What a worm. And he’s apparently Starmer’s only friend in the cabinet or maybe in government. Which - as @DavidL points out - is very telling
The FT comments fiasco is hilarious. It shows how out of touch the liberal media blob has become. They are so detached they thought this interview with Hermer would go down well? Right after the “wiggle room” revelations?
And then the FT journalists go below the line to criticise the readers. And of course this makes it all worse. Partly because their tone is so revealingly snooty and affronted: “this man is important and we like him and he’s a human rights lawyer how dare you be rude”
Utter wankers
Leigh Day, one of the firms involved in this, instructed my husband to do some work for them decades ago - on a boring local authority/planning matter. He is still waiting to be paid. Bastards!
Renamed Some Day?
I think they're waiting for somebody to wake them up when September ends.
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Meanwhile, John Major is cycling from cricket to evensong with a pint of warm real ale in the pannier of his bike. I feel all nostalgic!
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
Coming over here taking the jobs of our hard working native birds and insects. Where will it end? Tigers pretending to be badgers? Ostriches claiming they are just really big herons? It's the thin end of the wedge I tell you!
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
Scared Tory with no convictions longs to be liked by political opponents - destined to be very disappointed when the Labour Lib Dem cavalry fails to appear.
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
Coming over here taking the jobs of our hard working native birds and insects. Where will it end? Tigers pretending to be badgers? Ostriches claiming they are just really big herons? It's the thin end of the wedge I tell you!
I have some very bad news if you happen to be a pheasant.
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
Coming over here taking the jobs of our hard working native birds and insects. Where will it end? Tigers pretending to be badgers? Ostriches claiming they are just really big herons? It's the thin end of the wedge I tell you!
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Me too. Though a single pint has hit me like a sledgehammer after a 130km cycle in stunning sunshine. Once the sun drops straight into the tent.
Grasshopper warbler was today’s highlight.
If a grasshopper warbler was the highlight, have you considered ditching the bike and joining the RSPB?
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
And how could she have stopped that support leaking to Reform? By being more like Labour and the Lib Dems? How would that have worked exactly?
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
But he did.
Might be regretting his career choices right now.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 he might have stopped the Tories falling behind Reform. Kemi’s problem is she is not hard right enough for Reform voters and not a white male either unlike Farage, while she is still too rightwing to get many tactical anti Reform votes in Tory held seats from Labour, LD and Green voters
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
Coming over here taking the jobs of our hard working native birds and insects. Where will it end? Tigers pretending to be badgers? Ostriches claiming they are just really big herons? It's the thin end of the wedge I tell you!
Very amusing - now please tell us whether you agree with Michael Gove's rental reforms? You've shot your mouth off about how stupid Kemi is to speak of reversing them, so let's hear what you have to say about them.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
Not just left wingers. That’s your party’s best hope of recovery. Don’t go further right and you may recover.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
It's a decent person spec. The challenge is attaching a name to it.
You're not describing Cooper, I don't think you're describing Mahmood (yes, some agree with her policies, but she is putting them forward with waaay too much relish). I'm unconvinced it's Rayner. I guess it could be Phillipson. Nothing too awful has happened in education, and she didn't embarass herself in the deputy leadership election.
I do think they need someone to do the John Major thing of getting the self-procaimed Big Beasts to naff off.
God forbid a politician have conviction eh?
True socialists know you can have a welfare state, or you can have open borders. You cannot have both.
Unfortunately most of the Labour party are, in the immortal words of Clem, 'not up to it'.
I think it's quite likely that Rayner will get a conviction, if that helps.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Having not visited often, I can't speak for Northern Ireland, or really Wales, but as far as Scotland is concerned, it doesn't really have the same tradition of lovely country pubs. It should have, given that we have some of the most stunning scenery, amazing produce, and of course world-renowned drinks, but you rarely find that relaxed country pub with an inglenook and horse brasses here. Not never, but rarely. Different tradition of rural life.
It’s the worst thing about Scotland. There are a few good country pubs, mostly in places with plenty of English incomers.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
Not just left wingers. That’s your party’s best hope of recovery. Don’t go further right and you may recover.
Says another person who would rather eat a turd pasty than vote Tory.
This is awful. Far too nice and cosy. Can someone call some else a wanker, or something.?
I have a Reform garden, native plants only and anything else is tossed into the compost. Otoh it’s only focus is insects so it’s not the prettiest, particularly my artificial bog system. Does that help?
Ah but the real test is how you handle those summer migrants; Swallows and Swifts, Warblers, Cuckoos, Painted Ladies and Silver Ys. To be a true Reform garden you would need to send them back where they came from.
I guess they are on the equivalent of a working-holiday visa?
Coming over here taking the jobs of our hard working native birds and insects. Where will it end? Tigers pretending to be badgers? Ostriches claiming they are just really big herons? It's the thin end of the wedge I tell you!
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
And how could she have stopped that support leaking to Reform? By being more like Labour and the Lib Dems? How would that have worked exactly?
Kemi has tried the be even more Farage than Farage strategy and it hasn’t worked. If she doesn’t at least start getting something to show for it, ie at least a clear second in May, most Tory MPs will likely decide to dump her and focus on a clearer centre right not hard right strategy with Cleverly
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
And how could she have stopped that support leaking to Reform? By being more like Labour and the Lib Dems? How would that have worked exactly?
Kemi has tried the be even more Farage than Farage strategy and it hasn’t worked. If she doesn’t at least start getting something to show for it, ie at least a clear second in May, most Tory MPs will likely decide to dump her and focus on a clearer centre right not hard right strategy with Cleverly
No answer then. Had she pursued a more centrist continuity-Sunak policy, that Reform leakage could have been ten points not five.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
And how could she have stopped that support leaking to Reform? By being more like Labour and the Lib Dems? How would that have worked exactly?
Kemi has tried the be even more Farage than Farage strategy and it hasn’t worked. If she doesn’t at least start getting something to show for it, ie at least a clear second in May, most Tory MPs will likely decide to dump her and focus on a clearer centre right not hard right strategy with Cleverly
I'm curious. How do you decide what is centre right rather than hard right?
Anyway I am sitting in 18 degree sunshine, brilliant clear blue sky, staring at Black Combe and listening to bird song and the sheep and lambs baah-ing in the field opposite.
Apropos nothing at all.
Let me show you my balcony. In part inspired by your beautiful garden
A year ago this was a bleak non space. Then a friend said “Fucksake get some greenery out there”
So I did.
Lovely and that beige pot is an impressive fellow.
But what does the balcony overlook below? Looks like a car park with a load of crowd control fences?
It’s the endless endless endless roadworks for HS2 running through Camden and Primrose Hill. Been going on ten years now, intermittently
There is something quite uniquely wonderful about the British country pub isn't there. I truly can't think of a comparable experience anywhere in the world.
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
Me too. Though a single pint has hit me like a sledgehammer after a 130km cycle in stunning sunshine. Once the sun drops straight into the tent.
Grasshopper warbler was today’s highlight.
If a grasshopper warbler was the highlight, have you considered ditching the bike and joining the RSPB?
Grasshopper Warbler is a determinant of age. There comes a time when us aged birders lose the ability to hear the frequencies at which they "reel" their song.
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Completely disagree, otherwise they would not have dominated politics for the last 50 years, with the exception of the Blair interlude. I would accept that the contents of that pool are significantly smaller than they once were.
Kemi's strategy is essentially a core vote strategy. I'd say it has stabilised the vote share rather than actively diminishing it - it hasn't won back many voters from Reform, but I see no evidence of any leftward leakage. HYU's plan is to double down on the idea of the last 14 years - assuming the existing vote is in the bag, and altering the offering to appeal to 'the centre'. It assumes that the Tories cannot lose any more voters to Reform - an assumption for which I've still seen zero evidence.
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
Fine if Kemi’s strategy is working so well the Tories should beat Labour and the Greens and LDs and at least be a clear second to Reform on votes and seats in May. If not, then she is gone and her strategy will have been proved to have failed. She inherited a party still second in the polls and will have taken it to third or worse
And how could she have stopped that support leaking to Reform? By being more like Labour and the Lib Dems? How would that have worked exactly?
Kemi has tried the be even more Farage than Farage strategy and it hasn’t worked. If she doesn’t at least start getting something to show for it, ie at least a clear second in May, most Tory MPs will likely decide to dump her and focus on a clearer centre right not hard right strategy with Cleverly
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
On topic, might I offer the following advice to the Labour Party? It may not be felt welcome - may not be felt genuine - but trust me, as a Tory, we've been here. Get this wrong and you could be facing two more changes before the election. And if so, the voters will hate you for it.
Following Starmer, the very LAST thing you need as a replacement is a slightly weird, somewhat aloof, supercilious north London wanker of a guy. Be brave. Skip a generation. SERIOUSLY consider a woman. (You are fifty plus years overdue, for God's sake.) Choose someone the voters haven't already rejected. Choose someone the voters don't yet actively dislike.
You may hate the Tories. But at least learn from them.
The Tories and Labour BOTH need to up their game to prevent PM Farage. Start now.
I'd be happy for the Tories to survive and thrive as pro-European Heathites.
I have never voted Conservative and I particularly disliked the Johnson premiership but anything they do to kill the fascist parties stone dead has to be welcome.
Despite the eulogising of Badenoch on here I read her as being incredibly weak. Cleverly, despite his hubris would have been better.
Had Jenrick not journeyed from Cameroon to performatively cruel fascistic primate he would have been a great leader for the Tories.
Had Jenrick been elected leader in 2024 the Tories may have stayed ahead of Reform in the polls. Now though with he having gone Reform and Reform leading the polls it is tactical votes from Labour, LD and Green voters in Tory held seats to beat Reform the Tories need. If Kemi can’t get those in May then Cleverly might
I can't see many Labour or Lib Dem voters putting an X in the box for the Tories whilst they are so incredibly right wing. No point voting for a party that is quite likely to throw it's hat in with the fascists. At the moment at least.
Cleverly wouldn’t throw his lot in with Farage though, so as I said if Kemi can’t get many Labour or LD tactical votes Cleverly might
It is interesting that you think that someone like Cleverly can show enough ankle to attract Lib Dem and Labour switchers, without sending equal (or higher) numbers of traditional Tory voters to Reform. It would at least involve a firm commitment to Net Zero and remaining in the ECHR. Those would cause a massive hemorrhage to the right.
Traditional Tory voters have already gone Reform, Kemi has failed to win them back and indeed lost even some who voted for Rishi in 2024 to Reform.. So the Tories need to get tactical votes from LDs, Labour and Greens in Tory held seats to compensate and Cleverly is likeliest to do so, reforming not leaving automatically the ECHR and still committing to Net Zero 2050 would be enough, while allowing some North Sea oil drills
The Tories won 24% in 2024. They are now on around 19%, so they have fallen back around 5% - you are assuming that means all the right wing Tories have already left, and there are no more to go. That seems a completely unwarrantable assumption. I'd say a majority of Tory voters are righties to a varying extent - the lib dem tendency is more of a parliamentary phenomenon than a voter one. Your ideas would be an electoral catastrophe.
The larger portion of Tories are probably still more Reform adjacent than LD adjacent even now, but those who've left to Reform need to be willing to head back, and thus far that doesn't seem to be happening. So the question migth be would fishing in smaller poor of centristy types be more effective or not.
I'm not convinced it would be, but I think there's still a lot of complacency in the Tory high command about their position.
In most Tory held seats even now the combined Tory, Labour and LD vote is far bigger than the projected Reform vote. It is not a small pool
The pool of those voters who would ever vote Tory is a small pool.
Rubbish. 45% of LDs and a third of Labour voters and even a quarter of Green voters say they would tactically vote Conservative to beat Reform. I have found it on the doorsteps this campaign, even a young BME woman with a nose stud said they would hold their nose to re elect the Tory councillor in their ward when you tell them the alternative is a Reform councillor such is their loathing of Farage and Reform
Even people with nose studs have the innate ability to tell an annoying Tory what he wants to hear so he does one.
Nope this was real, not a shrug and yes we might vote for you but a real fear of Reform and definite ‘we will be out for you don’t worry, we definitely don’t want Reform.’ I don’t think you understand the absolute depth of hatred leftwingers have for Farage and Reform, more even than for Thatcher or Johnson
Not just left wingers. That’s your party’s best hope of recovery. Don’t go further right and you may recover.
Says another person who would rather eat a turd pasty than vote Tory.
Says another person who would rather eat a turd pasty than vote Reform. FTFY
Comments
Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremists
The security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.
Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on.
Concerns about the threat to MPs from extremists – including Islamists and the far right – have risen, with elected representatives facing a level of threat not seen since the campaign mounted by Irish republican terrorists in the 1980s and 70s.
Mitie’s contract followed the assassination of the Conservative MP David Amess by an Islamist terrorist in 2021. This came five years after the killing of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/25/security-vetting-stepped-up-after-mp-is-given-bodyguard-with-far-right-links
Anyway. Boing, boing!
She's making the best of a bad job. As far as I can see, HYUFD wants to make the worst of a bad job.
“American military bases and other equipment…suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair, according to three U.S. officials, two congressional aides and another person familiar with the damage.”
https://bsky.app/profile/leahmcelrath.bsky.social/post/3mkdgyargh22p
Better all round if City and Tottenham just mess up their remaining matches.
Trying to put myself in the mind of his base, who adore him even when he changes his mind, this surely still has to be a little exhausting. Whilst the much stronger nation how many times can he say the USA has all the cards and yet still not reach a 'deal'?
Even then have to start wondering that if Iran has no cards why is there still talking at all? You only engage in talks if there are cards to play.
This wasn't already the case?! Were they recruiting in 1982 or something?
https://x.com/SanderRegter/status/2047791949764039170
Jeffrey Epstein spent his 50th birthday at Mar-a-Lago, images showing identical backgrounds to that of Trump's property shows. The file is in the Epstein documents released by DOJ as "JE 50 Bday." The two images show the same exact window curtain, mirror and walls.
The echeverias I can see are glorious. Here are mine from last summer.
If you have space and it's sunny grow a fig. They do well in pots.
NY Times blog
Um, I er helped out with watering, and transporting car boot loads of plants from the local garden centre
But then I got two sudden travel assignments in a row - Turkey and Ulster - and we had a massive dry spell - in April! - and when I got back the tree was dead. Every green branch turned crispy and yellow
A good lesson in the fragility of plant life. Honestly this thing was 70cm high and looked totally fine. Killed by ten days of dry and then dry and sun
I’ve just bought an olive as a replacement as I figure the microclimate on my balcony is closer to Cannes than Cannock
But what does the balcony overlook below? Looks like a car park with a load of crowd control fences?
Also tough bastards, some of them. Perfect for a solo gardener who goes away a lot
It will meaning nothing to anybody who hasn't watched the show but that has a 'Small Prophets' feel about it.
Unsettling things in urns.
Might be regretting his career choices right now.
https://news.sky.com/story/man-charged-with-murder-after-much-loved-son-hit-by-car-in-accrington-13536338
Although I reckon you need at least five cases (2^5=32, 1/32 is less than 1/20, so you can resolve to 5%)or seven (2^7=128, 1/128 is less than 1/100, so you can resolve to 1%)
An MIT professor taught the same math course for 62 years, and the day he retired, students from every country on earth showed up online to watch him give his final lecture.
I opened the playlist at 2am and ended up watching three of them back to back.
His name is Gilbert Strang. The course is MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra.
Every machine learning engineer, every data scientist, every quant, every self-taught programmer who actually understands how AI works learned the math from this one man. Most of them never set foot on MIT's campus. They just opened a free playlist on YouTube and let him teach.
Here's the story almost nobody tells you...
https://x.com/ihtesham2005/status/2048016720372302055
It is a stunning spring evening. After a day of skydiving I am sitting with a pint of Otter Black and my book in the garden of the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. Their delicious pork belly is on its way. I'm considering ordering a black pudding salad as an actual pudding. It's that sort of evening.
I am a curmudgeon so delighted to be alone, but the table of 9 next to me are getting gently, convivially pissed together. The birds are singing, the spring flowers are blooming, the church bells are ringing 7pm. It's warm enough to bask in the sunshine.
What a wonderful country we live in.
The Iranians took out massive amounts of US/allied radar facilities in the first 48 hours, it has been said. And not just by Iran.
The prime minister says he’s focused on bigger issues than Peter Mandelson or calls for his resignation. Most Labour MPs quietly back me, he tells Josh Glancy
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-peter-mandelson-resignation-iran-interview-6ltnlpxfj
It is a very rewarding task, looking SO much better for the effort.
Grasshopper warbler was today’s highlight.
Weird.
"yes"
"that's your bed that is. You're on the front cover of bed wetters monthly"
Or was that something else?
World beating etc etc...
Enjoy it while you still can.