Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
You think he's fallen, and perhaps he has, but are Green voters and potential Green voters noticing? There's not been a dip in their polling yet.
Well he's in a hole of some sorts, and insisting on continued excavation.
Polanski stands by concerns over police response to Golders Green attack
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78q6w1vzz7o Zack Polanski said he remains concerned over the actions of police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack, after previously apologising for sharing a critical social media post. The Green Party leader told the BBC everyone who works in public service "should not be above scrutiny" and action must be "proportionate no matter how brave". Polanski apologised on Friday for "sharing a tweet in haste" after he reposted a message on X accusing officers of "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser". Communities Secretary Steve Reed said it was "shameful" that Polanski was "still questioning the police's response". His repost was criticised at the time by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who accused Polanski of amplifying "inaccurate and misinformed commentary" in a letter published by the force. Pressed on whether he believed the police were heavy-handed, Polanski told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I was very concerned by what I saw and I remain concerned."..
Of all the manifold failings of the Met, this is not one.
None of this will do him much harm with Green voters.
No, it won’t. If they have been sensible they won’t be competing with the Gaz Indy’s in inner cities but working together.
I was in Heaton yesterday for a foodie afternoon and I saw a few green signs in local gardens and one Lib Dem sign which has a couple of Palestine Flag stickers decrying genocide placed on it.
Genocide?
Heaton has got a lot rougher since I was last there.
The breakfast in the Corner House looked unappetising to,say the least !!
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
That moral high ground he perched on in opposition was clearly built of sand. He’s no better than BoJo.
Firstly, I continue to be amazed at this hunt for those practicing antisemitism or islamophobia. It's almost a diversion from the real issues facing the country which we appear either ignorant of or willinging to ignore. But I suppose it passes the time until the reality of our demographics hits home.
Secondly, I notice that Kemi (or more likely one of her team) is looking at the issue. It's brave raising it just before the elections. Whoever gets elected will have to deal with Adult Social Care without the ability to do anything about it.
Ah, the patriarchal tax inequality scandal. Truly important to the man on the Clapham omnibus.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
You think he's fallen, and perhaps he has, but are Green voters and potential Green voters noticing? There's not been a dip in their polling yet.
Well he's in a hole of some sorts, and insisting on continued excavation.
Polanski stands by concerns over police response to Golders Green attack
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78q6w1vzz7o Zack Polanski said he remains concerned over the actions of police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack, after previously apologising for sharing a critical social media post. The Green Party leader told the BBC everyone who works in public service "should not be above scrutiny" and action must be "proportionate no matter how brave". Polanski apologised on Friday for "sharing a tweet in haste" after he reposted a message on X accusing officers of "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser". Communities Secretary Steve Reed said it was "shameful" that Polanski was "still questioning the police's response". His repost was criticised at the time by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who accused Polanski of amplifying "inaccurate and misinformed commentary" in a letter published by the force. Pressed on whether he believed the police were heavy-handed, Polanski told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I was very concerned by what I saw and I remain concerned."..
Of all the manifold failings of the Met, this is not one.
None of this will do him much harm with Green voters.
No, it won’t. If they have been sensible they won’t be competing with the Gaz Indy’s in inner cities but working together.
I was in Heaton yesterday for a foodie afternoon and I saw a few green signs in local gardens and one Lib Dem sign which has a couple of Palestine Flag stickers decrying genocide placed on it.
Genocide?
Heaton has got a lot rougher since I was last there.
The breakfast in the Corner House looked unappetising to,say the least !!
I used to drink in the Corner House, on occasion.
The perils of having mates from Heaton and Walker!
Loved his stint at Swindon. Last decent Town side under Di Canio.
Always brings a tear to the eye when I see this come up.
It comes to something when one of your major happy memories of a football team is avoiding relegation on the last game of the season in the umpteenth minute of injury time
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
You think he's fallen, and perhaps he has, but are Green voters and potential Green voters noticing? There's not been a dip in their polling yet.
Well he's in a hole of some sorts, and insisting on continued excavation.
Polanski stands by concerns over police response to Golders Green attack
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78q6w1vzz7o Zack Polanski said he remains concerned over the actions of police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack, after previously apologising for sharing a critical social media post. The Green Party leader told the BBC everyone who works in public service "should not be above scrutiny" and action must be "proportionate no matter how brave". Polanski apologised on Friday for "sharing a tweet in haste" after he reposted a message on X accusing officers of "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser". Communities Secretary Steve Reed said it was "shameful" that Polanski was "still questioning the police's response". His repost was criticised at the time by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who accused Polanski of amplifying "inaccurate and misinformed commentary" in a letter published by the force. Pressed on whether he believed the police were heavy-handed, Polanski told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I was very concerned by what I saw and I remain concerned."..
Of all the manifold failings of the Met, this is not one.
None of this will do him much harm with Green voters.
No, it won’t. If they have been sensible they won’t be competing with the Gaz Indy’s in inner cities but working together.
I was in Heaton yesterday for a foodie afternoon and I saw a few green signs in local gardens and one Lib Dem sign which has a couple of Palestine Flag stickers decrying genocide placed on it.
Genocide?
Heaton has got a lot rougher since I was last there.
The breakfast in the Corner House looked unappetising to,say the least !!
I used to drink in the Corner House, on occasion.
The perils of having mates from Heaton and Walker!
I’ve not drunk there in years, it had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc there yesterday.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
Yes, I argued this point the other day. I agree that it is worse for Sir Keir, as he styled himself as the pious purger of sleaze, whereas it is priced in with Farage, but I still don't really like it. He has often said "I can't be bought", yet he can whether it is on Cameo, or by foreign billionaires.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
I think a useful way of understanding Farage is through the lens of his emulation of Trump. For the Trump crowd, to which Farage is very close, monetising political influence is second nature. They hardly bother disguising the grift. Farage seems entirely at home with all that. And you can tell by the way they swagger around that his chief lieutenants have an overpowering sense of entitlement. It's all so obvious - and in plain sight.
Now wonder an overseas crypto-king would fancy putting a would-be PM like Farage in his debt. The only surprise is that Farage still has a sufficient lingering sense of old-world British proprieties to keep mum over it. Do people over here really care, anymore? We shall see.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
The thing that should give voters pause about the £5m is that it's a sign Farage is bought and paid for and if he ever makes it into Number Ten his priorities will be those of the people who give him £millions and not those of the voters who vote for him, let alone the country as a whole.
Much as I have criticised the decisions of the Tories (2010-2024) to prioritise the interests of their pensioner voters, at least those were the interests of voters in large numbers, and not the interests of a handful of people giving money to them directly (with one or two exceptions among their ministers, perhaps, one of whom has defected to Reform, of course).
The thing about Farage is that he's not a slippery person who you can't trust in the way of most politicians. You can absolutely trust that he will shaft the British people in favour of his own personal interests and those of his dodgy rich mates. Depend upon it.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
Where does the idea come from that it was "untraceable crypto"? I thought it was a monetary gift.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
The moaning is nonsensical drivel from fools and - in the likes of @Theuniondivvie et al - fools with a whiff of anti-Semitism
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
The moaning is nonsensical drivel from fools and - in the likes of @Theuniondivvie et al - fools with a whiff of anti-Semitism
I’m surprised there’s not a crowdfunder been started for him.
Today I learned, in a heavily crowded Camden Market. that Camden Market gets as many annual visitors as..... Venice. And that includes day-trippers
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
Where does the idea come from that it was "untraceable crypto"? I thought it was a monetary gift.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
The moaning is nonsensical drivel from fools and - in the likes of @Theuniondivvie et al - fools with a whiff of anti-Semitism
I wish people wouldn’t @ me.
I could definitely see you as the old codger bravely kicking the assailant in the baws once he was handcuffed on the ground, maybe next time.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
The moaning is nonsensical drivel from fools and - in the likes of @Theuniondivvie et al - fools with a whiff of anti-Semitism
I wish people wouldn’t @ me.
I could definitely see you as the old codger bravely kicking the assailant in the baws once he was handcuffed on the ground, maybe next time.
You @ me all the effing time you stupid Scottish cuck
Today I learned, in a heavily crowded Camden Market. that Camden Market gets as many annual visitors as..... Venice. And that includes day-trippers
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Classic British planning. Works best when planners have absolutely nothing to do with it.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
Polanski has misread the room, even though he might have a point about what happened.
He’s wrong about Plod. The assailant was armed with a knife. They did what they had to.
If it had been the US the assailant would be with Nana and the Angles.
If it had been literally any other country on earth, from China to Chile, from Oz to Austria, he would have been shot. He was trying to murder people, he had already knifed three very badly, he was refusing to surrender, he wouldn't give up the knife, even a taser didn't stop him. At that point any armed policeman - which is all of them, apart from the British, would shoot him. Maybe they would be kind and shoot to incapacittate, but I reckon most would not take the risk of him having more weapons, or bombs, and they would shoot him dead
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
I’d agree, but from the reactions of some on social media you’d think he was a victim of Police Brutality.
The moaning is nonsensical drivel from fools and - in the likes of @Theuniondivvie et al - fools with a whiff of anti-Semitism
I wish people wouldn’t @ me.
I could definitely see you as the old codger bravely kicking the assailant in the baws once he was handcuffed on the ground, maybe next time.
You @ me all the effing time you stupid Scottish cuck
Lol. Once you get your new tactical stab proof gilet you’ll be ready for anything.
Today I learned, in a heavily crowded Camden Market. that Camden Market gets as many annual visitors as..... Venice. And that includes day-trippers
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Classic British planning. Works best when planners have absolutely nothing to do with it.
"British town planning 1945-1995" ranks alongside "French military planning 1918-1939"
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
A few years back I saw it a few times on the train from Five Ways out to Redditch.
The revenue protection team always went for easy victims. I remember once a group of lads with no tickets. Off at the next station and that’s all.
A guy in a suit got the wrong ticket. Cardinal offence. Details taken down.
I do suspect my experience at a Micro level is played out on a wider scale. Easier targets are gone for. Less easy ones ignored.
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
Yes of course - I lived in London for the best part of a decade, and saw various fare dodgers.
But in the UK we also have an inbuilt tendency to make unfavourable comparisons with other places, and our media lives off it.
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
I don't think I've ever seen that in person - though I've seen a few people hooked off the train by BTP at Waverley/Queen Street, which might be the aftermath of a report of fare evasion? I've been doing commutes in the central belt and London for nearly a decade now.
Much more common is "deliberately accidentally" getting the wrong ticket or applying the wrong railcard. Raised eyebrow from the conductor and a new ticket bought.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
Today I learned, in a heavily crowded Camden Market. that Camden Market gets as many annual visitors as..... Venice. And that includes day-trippers
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Classic British planning. Works best when planners have absolutely nothing to do with it.
"British town planning 1945-1995" ranks alongside "French military planning 1918-1939"
I don't want to set this debate off... but wasn't French planning actually pretty good, and they just failed to implement it? This is my mangled memory of a TRIH episode where they just sort of fannied about at the start of the war rather than going for the jugular.
And to be fair that sums up much of the town planning too - e.g. the Abercrombie plan for Edinburgh, which was never implemented (my flat would be adjacent to a four-lane motorway rather than a lovely park, cycle network, 5-minute neighbourhood).
This is interesting and, if the difference in intensity continues, may be important in November:
There is also a division over how members of the two parties see the significance of the November elections. About 6 in 10 Democrats say the midterm elections are “much more important” compared to past midterm elections, while 35 percent of Republicans see the same significance. Among those who identify as MAGA Republicans, 41 percent say the upcoming balloting is much more important than past elections, with 20 percent of non-MAGA Republicans agreeing.
(In past elections, Republicans were usually more likely to vote than Democrats.)
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Wacky Zacky being torn to shreds by Trevor Phillips earlier.
An absolute joy to see the bugger squirm.
Trevor Phillips views on multiculturalism, integration, and Islam have led to persistent accusations of racism and Islamophobia. That Trevor Phillips?
Not surprised a Labour candidate, with that parties "hierarchy of racism" is on the side of the racist bully as he picks on the UKs only Jewish party leader Philips given his dislike of Multiculturism and right wingery should fit right in to SKS's cesspit of a Party
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Wacky Zacky being torn to shreds by Trevor Phillips earlier.
An absolute joy to see the bugger squirm.
Trevor Phillips views on multiculturalism, integration, and Islam have led to persistent accusations of racism and Islamophobia. That Trevor Phillips?
Not surprised a Labour candidate, with that parties "hierarchy of racism" is on the side of the racist bully as he picks on the UKs only Jewish party leader Philips given his dislike of Multiculturism and right wingery should fit right in to SKS's cesspit of a Party
Today I learned, in a heavily crowded Camden Market. that Camden Market gets as many annual visitors as..... Venice. And that includes day-trippers
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Classic British planning. Works best when planners have absolutely nothing to do with it.
"British town planning 1945-1995" ranks alongside "French military planning 1918-1939"
I don't want to set this debate off... but wasn't French planning actually pretty good, and they just failed to implement it? This is my mangled memory of a TRIH episode where they just sort of fannied about at the start of the war rather than going for the jugular.
And to be fair that sums up much of the town planning too - e.g. the Abercrombie plan for Edinburgh, which was never implemented (my flat would be adjacent to a four-lane motorway rather than a lovely park, cycle network, 5-minute neighbourhood).
There is an alternative history where in 1939 the French army marched straight to Berlin and ended the war in a couple of months. As it was, the phoney war persisted till mid-1940.
The perils of talking to AI with no personal checks and balances:
Adam is one of 14 people the BBC has spoken to who have experienced delusions after using AI. They are men and women from their 20s to 50s from six different countries, using a wide range of AI models.
Their stories have striking similarities. In each case, as the conversation drifted further from reality, the user was pulled into a joint quest with the AI.
Large language models (LLMs) are trained on the whole corpus of human literature, says social psychologist Luke Nicholls from City University New York, who has tested different chatbots for their reaction to delusional thoughts.
"In fiction, the main character is often the centre of events," he says. "The problem is that, sometimes, AI can actually get mixed up about which idea is a fiction and which a reality. So the user might think that they're having a serious conversation about real life while the AI starts to treat that person's life as if it's the plot of a novel."
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
A few years back I saw it a few times on the train from Five Ways out to Redditch.
The revenue protection team always went for easy victims. I remember once a group of lads with no tickets. Off at the next station and that’s all.
A guy in a suit got the wrong ticket. Cardinal offence. Details taken down.
I do suspect my experience at a Micro level is played out on a wider scale. Easier targets are gone for. Less easy ones ignored.
No,different to any other walk of life really.
While it might seem unfair, if you are doing revenue protection you will concentrate on those who will buy a ticket if likely to be caught, and especially those who travel regularly eg to work. The aim is to maximise revenue, not ensure 100% ticket collection.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
I watched the Trevor Philips thing and he appears to be trying to do a gotcha with the apparent 1998 definition that something is a hate crime “if it is perceived as such by the victim or any other person, regardless of the offender's actual intent.”
Polanski is a complete twat, whose motivations I increasingly distrust, but he should dug deeper and claimed that Section 28 of the 1998 Act was illiberal and pernicious.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Yup. Everyone knows Farage is a crook. We thought better of Starmer.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Fake news. There aren't any 7 year olds called Tracy.
I’m astonished to read the opinion of a couple on here that Farage’s £5M bung is a nothing burger.
It’s encouraging that Badenoch is going after him for it.
One of the myriad faults of Starmer is that he can’t even be bothered denouncing gross corruption in his main political rival, lest a bigger boy give him a down-trow.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Wacky Zacky being torn to shreds by Trevor Phillips earlier.
An absolute joy to see the bugger squirm.
Trevor Phillips views on multiculturalism, integration, and Islam have led to persistent accusations of racism and Islamophobia. That Trevor Phillips?
Not surprised a Labour candidate, with that parties "hierarchy of racism" is on the side of the racist bully as he picks on the UKs only Jewish party leader Philips given his dislike of Multiculturism and right wingery should fit right in to SKS's cesspit of a Party
Phillips' views on multiculturalism are well thought through. He was a massive proponent of it, an equalities tsar under Blair and head of the Human Rights Commission, before he realised how hugely damaging it all is
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Wacky Zacky being torn to shreds by Trevor Phillips earlier.
An absolute joy to see the bugger squirm.
Trevor Phillips views on multiculturalism, integration, and Islam have led to persistent accusations of racism and Islamophobia. That Trevor Phillips?
Not surprised a Labour candidate, with that parties "hierarchy of racism" is on the side of the racist bully as he picks on the UKs only Jewish party leader Philips given his dislike of Multiculturism and right wingery should fit right in to SKS's cesspit of a Party
I can't understand this line 'the UKs only Jewish party leader'. Polanski should be judged on his political skill, judgment etc (which seems to have been found wanting recently) rather than his religion.
It's equivalent to saying Mahmood's immigration policy can't be criticised because she has brown skin and her parents are of Pakistani origin.
Polanski does, I think, have some interesting things to say about Jewishness being distinct from Zionism and Israeli state actions, but if he deserves to be torn to shreds he deserves to be torn to shreds regardless of whether his co-religionists get persecuted for their faith.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Yup. Everyone knows Farage is a crook. We thought better of Starmer.
The idea that Starmer is a crook is daft. He’s a pompous arse, and a coward, politically inept and with no fixed view at all on political, economic or foreign policy. But having someone smarten up your M&S suits before becoming PM is not crooked.
I watched the Trevor Philips thing and he appears to be trying to do a gotcha with the apparent 1998 definition that something is a hate crime “if it is perceived as such by the victim or any other person, regardless of the offender's actual intent.”
Polanski is a complete twat, whose motivations I increasingly distrust, but he should dug deeper and claimed that Section 28 of the 1998 Act was illiberal and pernicious.
That would upset quite a lot of his supporters from the left. That definition was seen as a great victory for the progressive cause.
I watched the Trevor Philips thing and he appears to be trying to do a gotcha with the apparent 1998 definition that something is a hate crime “if it is perceived as such by the victim or any other person, regardless of the offender's actual intent.”
Polanski is a complete twat, whose motivations I increasingly distrust, but he should dug deeper and claimed that Section 28 of the 1998 Act was illiberal and pernicious.
That would upset quite a lot of his supporters from the left. That definition was seen as a great victory for the progressive cause.
Not at all. The progressive left and as in thrall to personality based politics as anyone; more so indeed. They would follow Polanski into a great deal of places regardless of the cognitive dissonance.
"Russia has lost 1,332,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. " At the rate this is going (about 300k losses per year) this implies that the Russian population (140m) of men (½ = 70m) of fighting age (20 to 40 –> 20m) will have been literally decimated before the next Russian presidential election (2030).
The perils of talking to AI with no personal checks and balances:
Adam is one of 14 people the BBC has spoken to who have experienced delusions after using AI. They are men and women from their 20s to 50s from six different countries, using a wide range of AI models.
Their stories have striking similarities. In each case, as the conversation drifted further from reality, the user was pulled into a joint quest with the AI.
Large language models (LLMs) are trained on the whole corpus of human literature, says social psychologist Luke Nicholls from City University New York, who has tested different chatbots for their reaction to delusional thoughts.
"In fiction, the main character is often the centre of events," he says. "The problem is that, sometimes, AI can actually get mixed up about which idea is a fiction and which a reality. So the user might think that they're having a serious conversation about real life while the AI starts to treat that person's life as if it's the plot of a novel."
(1) The sullen hostility of rail travel. Passengers are treated putative criminals, not customers. I scanned (just one) of my train tickets yesterday so my family of four could go through the wide gate with the pushchair and all our luggage as one at Hampton Court, and then one "friendly" one walked over and scanned every single one of my tickets and then, not being satisfied they hadn't caught us out there, asked to see my Network Rail Card. I didn't get a thank you, Sir, enjoy your trip; she was clearly disappointed. And that's just leisure travel. I often see three lines of defence at Waterloo at peak hours too where you have ticket guards, backed up by revenue protection (as close to a British gestapo as you can get) and private security guards behind them. No smiles. Just looking for prey.
(2) No-one owning a problem. My AEG freezer broke down 2 weeks ago after just 3 years and it was very obvious from the way the engineer behaved from the second they walked in through my front door that they saw their job as to find reasons to void the warranty, not fix the problem. He also inadvertently let slip that his firm was on a fixed price contract. So, he claimed it wasn't installed to 'specification', and voided the warranty. Not helping us in any way to fix the freezer until I asked, and then he mumbled something about a new compressor and re-gassing it - if not a new fridge/freezer - but didn't do it or offer to do it if we paid him. Our original kitchen installer, once contacted, said it was precisely installed to specification and there was no issue, and said it's a fault with the appliance, and AEG's fault. So we have two groups of people more interested in avoiding blame than resolving the problem for the customer. And, consequently, we still have no working freezer.
That's Britain's real problem today: ordinary people are treated as a problem to manage (if not the true problem themselves) rather than people to help, with a real air of mutual unpleasant mistrust and suspicion.
On (1), didn’t Robert Jenrick make a huge fuss about staff not doing enough to stop fare dodgers last year? What’s the balance here?
Most fare dodgers, particularly the obvious ones, are men vaulting the barriers, not families with pushchairs. And a bit of friendliness to oil the interaction would be nice (albeit customer-facing staff are allowed to have days when they're grumpy at work for unrelated reasons).
A lot of fare dodging is by respectable looking people, not just men vaulting the barriers. See:
And yet in most of Europe, they seem to manage with almost no barriers to or from platforms.
My impression (quick Google) is that fare evasion in the UK is relatively low.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
Anyone who travels by public transport has seen fare evasion in action, usually by scary looking people who staff don't dare challenge. Much easier to target people like CR's family who aren't going to kick off.
A few years back I saw it a few times on the train from Five Ways out to Redditch.
The revenue protection team always went for easy victims. I remember once a group of lads with no tickets. Off at the next station and that’s all.
A guy in a suit got the wrong ticket. Cardinal offence. Details taken down.
I do suspect my experience at a Micro level is played out on a wider scale. Easier targets are gone for. Less easy ones ignored.
No,different to any other walk of life really.
While it might seem unfair, if you are doing revenue protection you will concentrate on those who will buy a ticket if likely to be caught, and especially those who travel regularly eg to work. The aim is to maximise revenue, not ensure 100% ticket collection.
Well it is unfair. I worked on the Underground for a year and a half. I get the approach but I do think it ties into a sense of unfairness and some people can do what they like without fear of comeback.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
I'm even more impressed by the Farage fans here saying nothing-to-see-here.
A £5m bung to someone who might be the next PM as a "personal gift" ? Disgusting and corrupt.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Yup. Everyone knows Farage is a crook. We thought better of Starmer.
The idea that Starmer is a crook is daft. He’s a pompous arse, and a coward, politically inept and with no fixed view at all on political, economic or foreign policy. But having someone smarten up your M&S suits before becoming PM is not crooked.
A bit of that is harsh. Starmer seems to me to have pretty clear views on foreign policy.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
I'm even more impressed by the Farage fans here saying nothing-to-see-here.
A £5m bung to someone who might be the next PM as a "personal gift" ? Disgusting and corrupt.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
It’s the story of Tracy and Dave
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Yup. Everyone knows Farage is a crook. We thought better of Starmer.
The idea that Starmer is a crook is daft. He’s a pompous arse, and a coward, politically inept and with no fixed view at all on political, economic or foreign policy. But having someone smarten up your M&S suits before becoming PM is not crooked.
I didn't post that Starmer was a crook. However, were I to be elected PM (don't snigger at the back) the last thing I would do is allow someone to buy knickers for my wife, no matter how up-market the knicker-supplier was.
Edit. And Mrs C would tell them to do one as well!
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
I'm even more impressed by the Farage fans here saying nothing-to-see-here.
A £5m bung to someone who might be the next PM as a "personal gift" ? Disgusting and corrupt.
Can you imagine the furore if any other leader had received that donation ?
It would be wall to wall media coverage for days .
General Vasyl Syrotenko, Chief of Ukraine's Engineer Troops:
Traditional concepts such as the line of contact, deep rear, or safe zone have largely disappeared, as unmanned capabilities now cover all these areas. 1/15 https://x.com/revishvilig/status/2050947313426677970
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
But somehow accepting £5 million of untraceable crypto from a foreigner accused of money laundering and not declaring it is a whole different level of bad compared with a pair designer spectacles, dontcha think?
He just explained the difference! And, although it didn't amount to anywhere near £5m, it wasn't one pair of designer spectacles, convenient argument though that is to make. The principle is the same
"Not claiming to be whiter than white" neither explains the difference nor is an acceptable defence in my view.
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
Big Nige's nothing-to-see-here defence is compromised by the fact that he didn't own up until the Guardian found out about it. He knew it would make him look like the grasping turd he is, so he said nothing and didn't declare it.
I'm even more impressed by the Farage fans here saying nothing-to-see-here.
A £5m bung to someone who might be the next PM as a "personal gift" ? Disgusting and corrupt.
Can you imagine the furore if any other leader had received that donation ?
It would be wall to wall media coverage for days .
Just check out the consternation on here when Rayner was in the cart last September. Look no further than your early flags.
"Russia has lost 1,332,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. " At the rate this is going (about 300k losses per year) this implies that the Russian population (140m) of men (½ = 70m) of fighting age (20 to 40 –> 20m) will have been literally decimated before the next Russian presidential election (2030).
There are a lot of soldiers in their 40s on both sides. And not a tiny number older.
The Ukrainians have a target to increase Russian casualties to 50,000 per month, a bit more than 1,600 per day, so things may get a lot worse for Russia and their soldiers.
"Russia has lost 1,332,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. " At the rate this is going (about 300k losses per year) this implies that the Russian population (140m) of men (½ = 70m) of fighting age (20 to 40 –> 20m) will have been literally decimated before the next Russian presidential election (2030).
There are a lot of soldiers in their 40s on both sides. And not a tiny number older.
The Ukrainians have a target to increase Russian casualties to 50,000 per month, a bit more than 1,600 per day, so things may get a lot worse for Russia and their soldiers.
The history books will compare this insanity from Putin to WWI battle fields as far as the futile slaughter is concerned.
"Russia has lost 1,332,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. " At the rate this is going (about 300k losses per year) this implies that the Russian population (140m) of men (½ = 70m) of fighting age (20 to 40 –> 20m) will have been literally decimated before the next Russian presidential election (2030).
There are a lot of soldiers in their 40s on both sides. And not a tiny number older.
The Ukrainians have a target to increase Russian casualties to 50,000 per month, a bit more than 1,600 per day, so things may get a lot worse for Russia and their soldiers.
The history books will compare this insanity from Putin to WWI battle fields as far as the futile slaughter is concerned.
WWI was principally a war of choice for Austria-Hungary, with every other country choosing to get involved by standing by their treaty obligations to do so. By the end of the war the Austro-Hungarian Empire had suffered just over 1 million military dead, 3.6 million wounded and had ceased to exist.
This is a war of choice for Russia and Putin seems willing to pursue it to the same bloody conclusion.
Polanski has really and totally misread the situation over Golders Green, hasn't he? I always knew he'd fall but honestly not this soon.
You think he's fallen, and perhaps he has, but are Green voters and potential Green voters noticing? There's not been a dip in their polling yet.
Well he's in a hole of some sorts, and insisting on continued excavation.
Polanski stands by concerns over police response to Golders Green attack
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78q6w1vzz7o Zack Polanski said he remains concerned over the actions of police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack, after previously apologising for sharing a critical social media post. The Green Party leader told the BBC everyone who works in public service "should not be above scrutiny" and action must be "proportionate no matter how brave". Polanski apologised on Friday for "sharing a tweet in haste" after he reposted a message on X accusing officers of "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser". Communities Secretary Steve Reed said it was "shameful" that Polanski was "still questioning the police's response". His repost was criticised at the time by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who accused Polanski of amplifying "inaccurate and misinformed commentary" in a letter published by the force. Pressed on whether he believed the police were heavy-handed, Polanski told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "I was very concerned by what I saw and I remain concerned."..
Of all the manifold failings of the Met, this is not one.
None of this will do him much harm with Green voters.
Perhaps not. But if he continues to display an inability to admit he's wrong, I'd expect more gaffes over the next couple of years which will.
He also seems to find it difficult under pressure. He looked quite angry at Trevor Phillips line of questions earlier.
He’s similar to Farage in that respect.
That is a very astute point; and it's an interesting thread that connects politicians of various hues. It's almost like they can't accept that there are viewpoints and opinions different to theirs.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
The thing that should give voters pause about the £5m is that it's a sign Farage is bought and paid for and if he ever makes it into Number Ten his priorities will be those of the people who give him £millions and not those of the voters who vote for him, let alone the country as a whole.
Much as I have criticised the decisions of the Tories (2010-2024) to prioritise the interests of their pensioner voters, at least those were the interests of voters in large numbers, and not the interests of a handful of people giving money to them directly (with one or two exceptions among their ministers, perhaps, one of whom has defected to Reform, of course).
The thing about Farage is that he's not a slippery person who you can't trust in the way of most politicians. You can absolutely trust that he will shaft the British people in favour of his own personal interests and those of his dodgy rich mates. Depend upon it.
Nah
One of the things I think we can assume about Farage is that he's going to show absolutely zero loyalty to those who showered him with cash in the past.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
I’m not convinced by that. We’ve discussed polling before that showed that a message that Farage is in the pocket of big donors was effective. The point, perhaps, is whether Farage is going to “do the necessary stuff” for *you*, the voter, or whether he’s just another tool of *them*. If he’d fiddled his taxes, I can see your line of reasoning working maybe, but this isn’t about Farage enriching himself, it’s about Farage being owned by someone else.
Most things don’t shift many votes. PB trumpets some catastrophe or debacle every other week, most of which sink without a trace. The voters don’t give a shit about Diego Garcia, for example. But if I was going to pick something that might cut through, this would be my pick from events in April.
Hasn't he said the cash wasn't for Reform? I thought the whole thing is being explained as a personal gift to Farage "outside politics" that's why he's saying it wasn't declared.
Yes, which makes the phrasing in Kemi's tweet a bit odd. Reform's defence about non-disclosure is precisely that the cash wasn't for Reform (not that this "personal gift" defence seems likely to work given the requirements of disclosure).
However, none of that matters. It stinks of shit. If you're quibbling over the details, you've already lost. This is an area of weakness for Farage. We've seen polling before that the message that Farage is in the pocket of rich donors cuts through strongly. He's looking ever more like Trump, and looking like Trump doesn't win you votes any more.
Ongoing investigations also means the story will run and run.
It stinks like all of Sir Keir’s mealy mouthed excuses for the things he looked bang to rights for I’m afraid, and just reminds me of American politics, which I find quite sleazy.
Isn't there a difference?
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
The thing that should give voters pause about the £5m is that it's a sign Farage is bought and paid for and if he ever makes it into Number Ten his priorities will be those of the people who give him £millions and not those of the voters who vote for him, let alone the country as a whole.
Much as I have criticised the decisions of the Tories (2010-2024) to prioritise the interests of their pensioner voters, at least those were the interests of voters in large numbers, and not the interests of a handful of people giving money to them directly (with one or two exceptions among their ministers, perhaps, one of whom has defected to Reform, of course).
The thing about Farage is that he's not a slippery person who you can't trust in the way of most politicians. You can absolutely trust that he will shaft the British people in favour of his own personal interests and those of his dodgy rich mates. Depend upon it.
Nah
One of the things I think we can assume about Farage is that he's going to show absolutely zero loyalty to those who showered him with cash in the past.
Only insofar as he shows loyalty to those who shower him with cash in the present in preference.
Comments
I’d welcome it. I stopped watching the last run. It offered nothing.
A new vision and a reboot would be welcome.
The perils of having mates from Heaton and Walker!
It comes to something when one of your major happy memories of a football team is avoiding relegation on the last game of the season in the umpteenth minute of injury time
SKS sanctimoniously whinged about everything and anything until elected, then turns out to be as bad as the rest of them. There is little voters loathe so much as a hypocrite. He's also not helped his cause by playing his rather poor hand extremely badly as PM.
Farage has never claimed to be whiter than white. His appeal is that he might actually do some of the stuff everyone knows needs doing, but the other political parties can't or won't do, like stopping the boats. He's therefore not judged on the "whiteness" scale, but almost entirely on the "will he actually do the necessary stuff" scale.
Is his £5mil a bit dodgy? Probably. Is it going to change a single vote? Probably not. Voters don't actually want a sanctimonious prig for PM, they just want one who is effective. Boris showed that, it was just unfortunate he failed fairly badly on the being effective bit.
It was adequate.
The food down Heaton these days is good.
Now wonder an overseas crypto-king would fancy putting a would-be PM like Farage in his debt. The only surprise is that Farage still has a sufficient lingering sense of old-world British proprieties to keep mum over it. Do people over here really care, anymore? We shall see.
He is incredibly lucky he is alive, and only got a few boots to the head
Much as I have criticised the decisions of the Tories (2010-2024) to prioritise the interests of their pensioner voters, at least those were the interests of voters in large numbers, and not the interests of a handful of people giving money to them directly (with one or two exceptions among their ministers, perhaps, one of whom has defected to Reform, of course).
The thing about Farage is that he's not a slippery person who you can't trust in the way of most politicians. You can absolutely trust that he will shaft the British people in favour of his own personal interests and those of his dodgy rich mates. Depend upon it.
I also learned that Camden Market only exists because there was some evil Whitehall plan to level that entire derelict Victorian-industrial area of north London - the stables, the horse yards, the roundhouse, the canal sides, the locks - so they could put in..... an inner city motorway. Like the one that grotesquely scars Glasgow. As a result the whole area was left to rot, no one would buy it to demolish it and turn it into ugly 70s housing, not even the council. Why bother if a motorway will smash it down 3 years later?
Then a few craftsmen set up stalls in the 1970s, then the horrible motorways went out of fashion - and the market was seeded, and allowed to flourish
Today it gets around 25-30m visitors a year, and generates about a billion quid, annually. And attracts tourists from all over the world (as I discovered today, pushing through the insane crush)
Particularly as Farage made a lot of capital out of Starmer accepting these gifts and claimed to be a "different kind of politician". Farage is at least as hypocritical as Starmer. And that isn't what people should be objecting to over the £5 million bung.
I could definitely see you as the old codger bravely kicking the assailant in the baws once he was handcuffed on the ground, maybe next time.
Once you get your new tactical stab proof gilet you’ll be ready for anything.
Just look at them.
We can't say we haven't been warned.
Of course, if there are no barriers fare dodgers can just walk on.
The balance with Jenrick is that he is an attention-seeking bullshitter, in addition to a problem which may or may not exist.
The revenue protection team always went for easy victims. I remember once a group of lads with no tickets. Off at the next station and that’s all.
A guy in a suit got the wrong ticket. Cardinal offence. Details taken down.
I do suspect my experience at a Micro level is played out on a wider scale. Easier targets are gone for. Less easy ones ignored.
No,different to any other walk of life really.
But in the UK we also have an inbuilt tendency to make unfavourable comparisons with other places, and our media lives off it.
Much more common is "deliberately accidentally" getting the wrong ticket or applying the wrong railcard. Raised eyebrow from the conductor and a new ticket bought.
And to be fair that sums up much of the town planning too - e.g. the Abercrombie plan for Edinburgh, which was never implemented (my flat would be adjacent to a four-lane motorway rather than a lovely park, cycle network, 5-minute neighbourhood).
This is interesting and, if the difference in intensity continues, may be important in November: (In past elections, Republicans were usually more likely to vote than Democrats.)
Not surprised a Labour candidate, with that parties "hierarchy of racism" is on the side of the racist bully as he picks on the UKs only Jewish party leader Philips given his dislike of Multiculturism and right wingery should fit right in to SKS's cesspit of a Party
Tracy is a 7 year old who is kind to her brother, and tidies her room without being asked. One day Tracy took a biscuit from the biscuit jar, before dinner.
Dave is a warlord, who goes by the moniker Screamin’ Insanity. On the same day, he burnt a village to ground and killed everyone. For Dave, this is Tuesday.
Tracy will get told off. Dave won’t.
Polanski is a complete twat, whose motivations I increasingly distrust, but he should dug deeper and claimed that Section 28 of the 1998 Act was illiberal and pernicious.
There aren't any 7 year olds called Tracy.
It’s encouraging that Badenoch is going after him for it.
One of the myriad faults of Starmer is that he can’t even be bothered denouncing gross corruption in his main political rival, lest a bigger boy give him a down-trow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078hlsz
It's equivalent to saying Mahmood's immigration policy can't be criticised because she has brown skin and her parents are of Pakistani origin.
Polanski does, I think, have some interesting things to say about Jewishness being distinct from Zionism and Israeli state actions, but if he deserves to be torn to shreds he deserves to be torn to shreds regardless of whether his co-religionists get persecuted for their faith.
He’s a pompous arse, and a coward, politically inept and with no fixed view at all on political, economic or foreign policy.
But having someone smarten up your M&S suits before becoming PM is not crooked.
The progressive left and as in thrall to personality based politics as anyone; more so indeed. They would follow Polanski into a great deal of places regardless of the cognitive dissonance.
"Russia has lost 1,332,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. "
At the rate this is going (about 300k losses per year) this implies that the Russian population (140m) of men (½ = 70m) of fighting age (20 to 40 –> 20m) will have been literally decimated before the next Russian presidential election (2030).
A £5m bung to someone who might be the next PM as a "personal gift" ?
Disgusting and corrupt.
It's not like he's a money grubbing grifter.
Edit. And Mrs C would tell them to do one as well!
It would be wall to wall media coverage for days .
General Vasyl Syrotenko, Chief of Ukraine's Engineer Troops:
Traditional concepts such as the line of contact, deep rear, or safe zone have largely disappeared, as unmanned capabilities now cover all these areas. 1/15
https://x.com/revishvilig/status/2050947313426677970
The Ukrainians have a target to increase Russian casualties to 50,000 per month, a bit more than 1,600 per day, so things may get a lot worse for Russia and their soldiers.
NEW THREAD
This is a war of choice for Russia and Putin seems willing to pursue it to the same bloody conclusion.
One of the things I think we can assume about Farage is that he's going to show absolutely zero loyalty to those who showered him with cash in the past.
Most things don’t shift many votes. PB trumpets some catastrophe or debacle every other week, most of which sink without a trace. The voters don’t give a shit about Diego Garcia, for example. But if I was going to pick something that might cut through, this would be my pick from events in April.