Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
She can and probably will. Not because she is impressive but because she leads the natural party of government and the alternatives are all equally depressing.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
We must factor in the strong possibility of a late implosion from the Greens. Polanski is a Jezbollah-style disaster with extra titty-whispering
From the Telegraph
“Polanski liked post claiming Zionists control Government The Green Party leader endorses Bluesky message which claims Prime Minister is on the payroll of powerful Jews”
Whatever the result of the election I predict Polanski will be gone within months
I think you are grossly underestimating the invulnerability to embarrassment of the modern politician. In any serious country Farage would already be free to spend a lot more time with his £5m and would be off the stage.
Farage being a fairly shameless grifter is factored in. Polanski being an outright anti-Semite is not. His party is already in trouble on this issue, activists have been arrested, the deputy leader is suspicious, and now the leader seems to be tainted. And also an idiot
Most of the nation has reeled back in horror at the violent anti-Semitic attacks these last weeks. The scales have dropped and a pushback is beginning
Sure, a nasty chunk of British society is now anti-Semitic, partly home grown nutters, partly imported Muslim values. But it’s a small chunk, I think. Nothing like the 20%+ the Greens need to make a real breakthrough
See the plunge in Polanski’s polling this week. Expect them to underperform on Thursday. Expect Polanski to go in months
Think you may be right. Polanski is egregiously awful and maybe there will be a fightback from the more "traditional" Greens who don't want to be part of a George Galloway tribute act.
Obvs very different with Farage who seems more grisly the more you learn about him. A true conman. However there is zero chance of an internal revolt as Reform is purely a vehicle for his ambition. And just take a look at Yusuf, Tice, etc. They really are his creatures - taking their cue from Trump's cabinet.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
Despite often being criticised for being too combative, her temperament seems to be much better than Starmer's.
For citizenship we already have language, culture and values tests, plus have to be financially sound, provide tax records and be of good character which rules out all with criminal convictions of 1 year or more plus those with lesser criminal convictions are assessed by the home office who have to be satisfied the applicant is of good character.
Essentially you are proposing what we have with an extension from 5 years to 8. The home secretary is proposing 10+ years.
The new Swedish language test is at B1 level for reading/listening and A2 level for writing/speaking on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The UK requirement is B1 for both. B1 is harder than A2. So, the existing UK language requirement is already (slightly) tougher than the new Swedish requirement. Adopting the Swedish model would mean loosening the UK rules on this front.
(The UK requirement can be satisfied in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic. It seems to me unfair that it can't be satisfied in British Sign Language, which is more widely used than Scottish Gaelic!)
Dramatic fall in SIDS after a public health intervention by the NHS in the 90s. Exactly the kind of thing we need more of.
The fall in SIDS following public health advice is the sort of good news story that needs to be on the news more often. People need to know that problems can be understood and effective action taken.
The zeitgeist at the moment is that everything is futile.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
The Inverness saga is quite a story, and the Forbes one scarce less interesting. The SNP's anxiety to expand in the Central Belt seems to have been at the expense of the broad coalition they had so successfully assembled under Salmond.
I was mildly amused at the idea the idea the Lib Dems and SNP are fighting hard over Badenoch.
Salmond actually paid attention to making money and a viable economy. This generally got him a hearing in the traditional, rural parts of Scotland with Tartan Tories very much a thing.
Under Sturgeon the SNP moved leftwards and became far more focused on the central belt. This has been electorally far more successful because Labour has proven a very weak opponent and, of course, this is where the majority of the population is. The approach has caused strains in some of the more traditional SNP (ex Tory) seats but further weakness on the part of the Tories has seen them home in the main. With the Tory vote being further split by Reform I am not seeing much of a threat to the SNP hegemony this time around.
The Lib Dems and Tories should really be sweeping up everywhere outside the central belt. I don’t understand how they can be so ineffective.
Reform are taking half of the votes of the former even in Scotland though the LDs should gain a few SNP seats
One of the major defects of the Scottish system is that it makes very little difference who wins. If the Lib Dems do win the odd constituency off the SNP (I remain to be convinced personally) then they will lose them off the lists and the SNP are very likely to win an extra seat off the lists to make up for the loss of the constituency. Its somewhat unsatisfactory.
Ah, well, that depends. In recent elections we've seen a growth in SNP-Green tactical voting, where independence-minded voters vote SNP in the constituencies and Green in the lists, which is a way that ~half of the vote could return ~three-quarters of the seats.
So the worst-case scenario for the SNP sees them lose a clutch of constituency seats, and not pick up any compensating list seats, because their list vote had gone Green.
Which is why the SNP constantly urge people to vote SNP twice, to the frustration of those who actually want independence.
Good to see you on board with an SNP/Green majority = Indyref II. Means you're on HYUFD's shitlist though.
I am not in favour of it, I am simply pointing out the system is there to be played. Thankfully, most SNP supporters are too stupid and the SNP themselves are too greedy to make it effective.
For citizenship we already have language, culture and values tests, plus have to be financially sound, provide tax records and be of good character which rules out all with criminal convictions of 1 year or more plus those with lesser criminal convictions are assessed by the home office who have to be satisfied the applicant is of good character.
Essentially you are proposing what we have with an extension from 5 years to 8. The home secretary is proposing 10+ years.
The new Swedish language test is at B1 level for reading/listening and A2 level for writing/speaking on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The UK requirement is B1 for both. B1 is harder than A2. So, the existing UK language requirement is already (slightly) tougher than the new Swedish requirement. Adopting the Swedish model would mean loosening the UK rules on this front.
(The UK requirement can be satisfied in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic. It seems to me unfair that it can't be satisfied in British Sign Language, which is more widely used than Scottish Gaelic!)
It is remarkable how often commentators come up with ideas like "we need to do x,y and z" thinking they are somehow radical when "x,y and z" have been standard for many years, often decades.
The Inverness saga is quite a story, and the Forbes one scarce less interesting. The SNP's anxiety to expand in the Central Belt seems to have been at the expense of the broad coalition they had so successfully assembled under Salmond.
I was mildly amused at the idea the idea the Lib Dems and SNP are fighting hard over Badenoch.
Salmond actually paid attention to making money and a viable economy. This generally got him a hearing in the traditional, rural parts of Scotland with Tartan Tories very much a thing.
Under Sturgeon the SNP moved leftwards and became far more focused on the central belt. This has been electorally far more successful because Labour has proven a very weak opponent and, of course, this is where the majority of the population is. The approach has caused strains in some of the more traditional SNP (ex Tory) seats but further weakness on the part of the Tories has seen them home in the main. With the Tory vote being further split by Reform I am not seeing much of a threat to the SNP hegemony this time around.
The Lib Dems and Tories should really be sweeping up everywhere outside the central belt. I don’t understand how they can be so ineffective.
Reform are taking half of the votes of the former even in Scotland though the LDs should gain a few SNP seats
One of the major defects of the Scottish system is that it makes very little difference who wins. If the Lib Dems do win the odd constituency off the SNP (I remain to be convinced personally) then they will lose them off the lists and the SNP are very likely to win an extra seat off the lists to make up for the loss of the constituency. Its somewhat unsatisfactory.
Ah, well, that depends. In recent elections we've seen a growth in SNP-Green tactical voting, where independence-minded voters vote SNP in the constituencies and Green in the lists, which is a way that ~half of the vote could return ~three-quarters of the seats.
So the worst-case scenario for the SNP sees them lose a clutch of constituency seats, and not pick up any compensating list seats, because their list vote had gone Green.
Which is why the SNP constantly urge people to vote SNP twice, to the frustration of those who actually want independence.
We need to start a new unionist party, the Vote for Us on the List to Exploit This One Weird Trick in Additional Member Systems and Oppose Independence Party.
The starting point of that premise is that a Unionist party would have to be winning enough constituency seats in an area to bring the list options into play for Unionist voters. Possibly in the borders in previous elections. Maybe for Labour in Glasgow or Edinburgh on a better night than looks at all likely. Generally not, though.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
Under FPTP, the most important task for the long-term survival of the Tories is to remain the leading party of the right. That means tacking far enough right to see off Reform. Obviously it's not solely an issue of how far right-wing they are - there are also questions of competence and sleaze. I'd note that Badenoch's resurgence seems to have started with a well-received party conference speech and response to Reeve's autumn budget.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
Yep, those of us who saw the departure of Jenrick as a bonus for a start.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
Under FPTP, the most important task for the long-term survival of the Tories is to remain the leading party of the right. That means tacking far enough right to see off Reform. Obviously it's not solely an issue of how far right-wing they are - there are also questions of competence and sleaze. I'd note that Badenoch's resurgence seems to have started with a well-received party conference speech and response to Reeve's autumn budget.
Being the official opposition is a massive advantage in this. A slow burn, but over a parliamentary term they get so many more opportunities to be relevant and take credit for the govts failings (and perceived failings) than Reform do. If they both perform to current expectations that will be enough to make the Tories largest party at the GE imo.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
True. But she's in an existential fight with Farage and priority must be preventing further haemorrhaging of support to the right. (Plus, let's face it, she is pretty rightwing anyway, and seems to have the courage of her convictions). Any that drift off to the left will, ultimately, come back when they want a change of govt.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
Despite often being criticised for being too combative, her temperament seems to be much better than Starmer's.
It's interesting. The more we see of her the better she seems. Not so true of Starmer, Farage or Polanski.
I think it's inconceivable that Tories will ditch her. And, as @leon hopes, I suspect will see Katie Lam in the shadow cabinet. I can't see her walking back her comments about Jenrick.
For citizenship we already have language, culture and values tests, plus have to be financially sound, provide tax records and be of good character which rules out all with criminal convictions of 1 year or more plus those with lesser criminal convictions are assessed by the home office who have to be satisfied the applicant is of good character.
Essentially you are proposing what we have with an extension from 5 years to 8. The home secretary is proposing 10+ years.
MIchael Caine voice - "Not many people know that."
The most common version of the poem omits mention of the sick/incurables (i.e. disabled) who were part of the original speech the poem is based on.
it's fascinating how the point of the argument in the speech/poem is ignored by people who put their favoured groups in a new version of it, rather than the groups they would happily go after. One imagines that the quoted individual on X would not be happy about a version of the poem that started with: "First they came for the bankers..." but that's precisely the point! You must defend the civil liberties of even the people you do not like, or no-one is safe.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Stephen Bush writes strongly in the FT about the horror of rising anti-Semitism, but criticises Westminster politicians' criticism of civil society. He picks on Sarah Sackman (Lab MP for Finchley and Golders Green) when she said recently, "For a minority community to come under this sort of sustained level of threat and attack purely for our identity, you would expect in the normal run of things for anti-racist organisations, for trade unions, for cultural leaders to speak out." He then notes that anti-racist organisations are not well funded, but also goes on to say:
Perhaps the reason so many at Westminster think these organisations have been silent, and are more well-resourced and influential than they actually are, is because so many at Westminster still use X.
X has an owner who is avowedly hostile to ethnic diversity, and in terms of what the platform amplifies, it consistently favours extremes, particularly of the right. Yes, of course, as long as X drives the UK’s political conversation, the UK’s anti-racism movement is going to be “muted”.
The Inverness saga is quite a story, and the Forbes one scarce less interesting. The SNP's anxiety to expand in the Central Belt seems to have been at the expense of the broad coalition they had so successfully assembled under Salmond.
I was mildly amused at the idea the idea the Lib Dems and SNP are fighting hard over Badenoch.
Salmond actually paid attention to making money and a viable economy. This generally got him a hearing in the traditional, rural parts of Scotland with Tartan Tories very much a thing.
Under Sturgeon the SNP moved leftwards and became far more focused on the central belt. This has been electorally far more successful because Labour has proven a very weak opponent and, of course, this is where the majority of the population is. The approach has caused strains in some of the more traditional SNP (ex Tory) seats but further weakness on the part of the Tories has seen them home in the main. With the Tory vote being further split by Reform I am not seeing much of a threat to the SNP hegemony this time around.
The Lib Dems and Tories should really be sweeping up everywhere outside the central belt. I don’t understand how they can be so ineffective.
Reform are taking half of the votes of the former even in Scotland though the LDs should gain a few SNP seats
One of the major defects of the Scottish system is that it makes very little difference who wins. If the Lib Dems do win the odd constituency off the SNP (I remain to be convinced personally) then they will lose them off the lists and the SNP are very likely to win an extra seat off the lists to make up for the loss of the constituency. Its somewhat unsatisfactory.
Ah, well, that depends. In recent elections we've seen a growth in SNP-Green tactical voting, where independence-minded voters vote SNP in the constituencies and Green in the lists, which is a way that ~half of the vote could return ~three-quarters of the seats.
So the worst-case scenario for the SNP sees them lose a clutch of constituency seats, and not pick up any compensating list seats, because their list vote had gone Green.
Which is why the SNP constantly urge people to vote SNP twice, to the frustration of those who actually want independence.
Good to see you on board with an SNP/Green majority = Indyref II. Means you're on HYUFD's shitlist though.
I am not in favour of it, I am simply pointing out the system is there to be played. Thankfully, most SNP supporters are too stupid and the SNP themselves are too greedy to make it effective.
There's been an indy supporting majority in Holyrood in every parliament since 2011 so I'm not sure who's being stupid here.
Just looking over some data ahead of our elections webinar later and Zack Polanski’s net approval rating has fallen by a fairly chunky 14 points over the last week. Still far ahead of Starmer but also puts him now well below the top three of Badenoch, Davey and Farage.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
It's still there (see my previous post for proof).
Stephen Bush writes strongly in the FT about the horror of rising anti-Semitism, but criticises Westminster politicians' criticism of civil society. He picks on Sarah Sackman (Lab MP for Finchley and Golders Green) when she said recently, "For a minority community to come under this sort of sustained level of threat and attack purely for our identity, you would expect in the normal run of things for anti-racist organisations, for trade unions, for cultural leaders to speak out." He then notes that anti-racist organisations are not well funded, but also goes on to say:
Perhaps the reason so many at Westminster think these organisations have been silent, and are more well-resourced and influential than they actually are, is because so many at Westminster still use X.
X has an owner who is avowedly hostile to ethnic diversity, and in terms of what the platform amplifies, it consistently favours extremes, particularly of the right. Yes, of course, as long as X drives the UK’s political conversation, the UK’s anti-racism movement is going to be “muted”.
There is a cadre of professional charity CEO (JRT I'm looking at you) whose main job is to "raise awareness" (i.e. complain); state they are underfunded (i.e. complain); and then take quite decent pay for themselves (without complaint) and then move onto the next gig.
Just looking over some data ahead of our elections webinar later and Zack Polanski’s net approval rating has fallen by a fairly chunky 14 points over the last week. Still far ahead of Starmer but also puts him now well below the top three of Badenoch, Davey and Farage.
Horse posted this earlier. It is an astounding drop. It is very unusual to see such a rapid shift. Not a good sign for the Greens with voting this week, although they'll still be on massive gains in seat numbers, I'm sure.
Just looking over some data ahead of our elections webinar later and Zack Polanski’s net approval rating has fallen by a fairly chunky 14 points over the last week. Still far ahead of Starmer but also puts him now well below the top three of Badenoch, Davey and Farage.
Horse posted this earlier. It is an astounding drop. It is very unusual to see such a rapid shift. Not a good sign for the Greens with voting this week, although they'll still be on massive gains in seat numbers, I'm sure.
They may have just missed being too badly hit with this. Postal votes are likely still to be to their benefit. Elections are now two fold. GOTPV and GOTV.
At least City and Liverpool won titles with style, not sure a victory for set-piece anti-football is anything to celebrate. Be an absolute travesty if they win the Champions League. Easiest possible route through the knockout stages and even then they are scraping by most of the time.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
Very well thank you. I hope @fitaloon is likewise?
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
It's still there (see my previous post for proof).
Not for me just now or I would not of highlighted it or asked why it was not still there.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
In fairness I have had the same problem on a phone, instead of giving you an edit you get a grey box covering several posts (well, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!). As you say, it works better on a laptop.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
I see when Kemi was challenged on badly run Tory Councils she came up with a list of well run Tory councils. Here is the list. It is the complete list
Guildford Runnymeade Epsom Elmbridge Mole Valley
Er! The Tories don't run any of the those councils Not one. In a couple they struggle to even get any councillors whatsoever. For example:
Mole Valley 31 LD, 6 Ashford Indys, 2 Tories.
She seems to be living in the past (measured in decades)
Indeed and for all the Badenoch love-in from some on here, she still has a fragility and a brittle nature which suggests she will struggle when the pressure is applied as it will be.
We have already seen a raft of uncosted pledges - well,not uncosted but lacking in detail as tohow they will be funded and on key issues such as immigration and welfare reform, we don't really know what the Conservatives would do or how they would pay for it.
That's part of Opposition politics and three years out from a GE you can get away with broad themes but the detail will need to be there this time in say 2028 - what will be cut, whose benefits willbe removed, which services will be reduced and that's when you find out not only who your friends are but who your enemies are as well.
Credit where it's due - from the turnround last autumn, she has generally done well and said most of the right things at the right time though I'd like to see a more honest appraisal of the 2010-24 Government period. Trying to pretend everything went wrong on July 5th 2024 and up to then everything was fine won't work in the heat of a GE camapign and a little mea culpa now might go a long way. Her fingerprints were on a lot of the policies of the 2019-24 period and if you're going to rubbish them you have to be honest about the fact you supported them at the time.
Apart from being thoroughly nasty, isn't the Yusuf/Farage plan for detention centre in 'Green' constituencies somewhat flawed? Given that any seats won by the Greens are likely to be on c. 30-35% of the vote, those who voted Reform in that constituency would be 'punished' as well. See Gorton and Denton for example.
On reflection, I've no idea why I'm even giving such an unpleasant, unworkable and bizarre policy proposal the time of day.
I don’t remember this effeminate outrage over the last 25 years, as successive governments, of all stripes, have dumped “difficult” migrants in poor, white, working class areas
Weird
I’ve said many times on here that immigrants should be houses in cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country, rather than dumped on struggling coastal towns. This policy from Reform isn’t much different I suppose. People are shrieking about it, but it is Green policy to accept refugees without fuss, and plenty of lefties wore ‘Refugees Welcome’ t-shirts so why should they be upset by it?
How do you build cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country? To start with, the most expensive streets in the country tend to have a fair percentage of the street occupied already.
I don't have a fully costed manifesto, but you get the gist. House the migrants in posh areas and let the people who aren't struggling for jobs, doctors appointments, school places etc suffer the consequences, rather than those who are already in bother having an added burden
Please cost it - remembering that most builders can no longer afford to build in London because £500,000 a flat doesn't cover costs..
Big caravan sites in Richmond Park, the Cotswolds, Hyde Park, Regents Park, the posh squares in London, Hampstead Heath, Sidmouth, Bristol, etc
I dont see how "We are going to need massive detention camps in nice green suburban parts of England because we can't control the border" is a vote winner for Reform.
It would toughen the other parties up on the issue. The areas I mentioned becoming detention centres wouldn’t bother Reform supporters too much
The point is, mass immigration has fucked over the poor and the JAMs, while the rich profited financially and were immune to the social consequences. It’s time to redress the balance
There's this bit in the West Wing where Jed Bartlett says something like "I'm the President of all Americans, not just the ones who voted for me".
And for a long time, politics was like that.
But we saw that break down in the US in recent years: during the government shutdown, the Trump administration deliberately withheld funds from Blue States, even as it sent them to Red States.
No government should ever seek to govern only for those who voted it for it. There should never be 'punishment' for voting the wrong way.
Now, if Farage had framed it as "we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs", that would have been fine. But "vote Green, get detention centres" is the kind of thing that riles me beyond belief.
Worth repeating. A nasty and childish policy.
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims are being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
We must factor in the strong possibility of a late implosion from the Greens. Polanski is a Jezbollah-style disaster with extra titty-whispering
From the Telegraph
“Polanski liked post claiming Zionists control Government The Green Party leader endorses Bluesky message which claims Prime Minister is on the payroll of powerful Jews”
Whatever the result of the election I predict Polanski will be gone within months
I think you are grossly underestimating the invulnerability to embarrassment of the modern politician. In any serious country Farage would already be free to spend a lot more time with his £5m and would be off the stage.
Farage being a fairly shameless grifter is factored in. Polanski being an outright anti-Semite is not. His party is already in trouble on this issue, activists have been arrested, the deputy leader is suspicious, and now the leader seems to be tainted. And also an idiot
Most of the nation has reeled back in horror at the violent anti-Semitic attacks these last weeks. The scales have dropped and a pushback is beginning
Sure, a nasty chunk of British society is now anti-Semitic, partly home grown nutters, partly imported Muslim values. But it’s a small chunk, I think. Nothing like the 20%+ the Greens need to make a real breakthrough
See the plunge in Polanski’s polling this week. Expect them to underperform on Thursday. Expect Polanski to go in months
What you mean by "factored in" is that a significant part of the electorate are willing to just ignore it. Many will be utterly appalled by Polanski's antisemitism but I fear many of those voting Green will have the same response and some of their more recent supporters might even like it.
Which is exactly what I said. Some of his recent converts - the quasi Islamists, the Gaza indies, the Jew hating students - love all this stuff
Britain as a whole does not. The maximum vote for a fairly openly anti Semitic party is 10-15%. Disturbingly high but not enough to break through
I wouldn't vote, at National level anyway, bearing in mind what I posted a few minutes ago, for an anti-semitic party. I would though vote for an anti-netanyahu one!
Apart from being thoroughly nasty, isn't the Yusuf/Farage plan for detention centre in 'Green' constituencies somewhat flawed? Given that any seats won by the Greens are likely to be on c. 30-35% of the vote, those who voted Reform in that constituency would be 'punished' as well. See Gorton and Denton for example.
On reflection, I've no idea why I'm even giving such an unpleasant, unworkable and bizarre policy proposal the time of day.
I don’t remember this effeminate outrage over the last 25 years, as successive governments, of all stripes, have dumped “difficult” migrants in poor, white, working class areas
Weird
I’ve said many times on here that immigrants should be houses in cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country, rather than dumped on struggling coastal towns. This policy from Reform isn’t much different I suppose. People are shrieking about it, but it is Green policy to accept refugees without fuss, and plenty of lefties wore ‘Refugees Welcome’ t-shirts so why should they be upset by it?
How do you build cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country? To start with, the most expensive streets in the country tend to have a fair percentage of the street occupied already.
I don't have a fully costed manifesto, but you get the gist. House the migrants in posh areas and let the people who aren't struggling for jobs, doctors appointments, school places etc suffer the consequences, rather than those who are already in bother having an added burden
Please cost it - remembering that most builders can no longer afford to build in London because £500,000 a flat doesn't cover costs..
Big caravan sites in Richmond Park, the Cotswolds, Hyde Park, Regents Park, the posh squares in London, Hampstead Heath, Sidmouth, Bristol, etc
I dont see how "We are going to need massive detention camps in nice green suburban parts of England because we can't control the border" is a vote winner for Reform.
It would toughen the other parties up on the issue. The areas I mentioned becoming detention centres wouldn’t bother Reform supporters too much
The point is, mass immigration has fucked over the poor and the JAMs, while the rich profited financially and were immune to the social consequences. It’s time to redress the balance
There's this bit in the West Wing where Jed Bartlett says something like "I'm the President of all Americans, not just the ones who voted for me".
And for a long time, politics was like that.
But we saw that break down in the US in recent years: during the government shutdown, the Trump administration deliberately withheld funds from Blue States, even as it sent them to Red States.
No government should ever seek to govern only for those who voted it for it. There should never be 'punishment' for voting the wrong way.
Now, if Farage had framed it as "we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs", that would have been fine. But "vote Green, get detention centres" is the kind of thing that riles me beyond belief.
Worth repeating. A nasty and childish policy.
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims re being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
That entire comment by @rcs1000 was the most ridiculous and incoherent piffle he has ever emitted. Like a kind of morbid excretion from a dying fungus
The north will be interesting. I think the SNP vote will take a tumble as there are just too many local issues to hurt them: oil/gas, road dualling (lack of), ferries, etc. How will that affect turn out?
I've noticed that Tories are talking up their chances against Stephen Flynn and SNP reportedly worried about Moray (3000 maj to defend). Surely Reform will deliver those seats to them - we shall see.
But there will be plenty winners on pretty low vote shares including, I suspect, Fergus Ewing in Inverness.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
The trouble is she has to be able to claim to be different from the clowns who preceded her. Which means moving policy positions. Given the weak sauce of previous actual Tory positions she can hardly go left.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
Er, I've mentioned it a few times on here in the last few days!
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
Very well thank you. I hope @fitaloon is likewise?
Fitaloon decided to retire a few years ago, he lasted SIX months before he and I were driven mad with his attempts to keep busy by doing DIY jobs around the house. He is now back working in the IT energy sector and really enjoying it. I had to laugh, he was hung by his own petard a couple of weeks ago, our sons are now in their late 20s/early 30s and he was commiserating with a work colleague who has school age children and who was having to try to balance work/family committments and he said been there done that and got the t-shirt but I don't have to worry about that now..... He just had to take today off to take Son No1 for a hospital appointment and Son No3 to a dental appointment because neither of them were allowed to drive afterwards!
We must factor in the strong possibility of a late implosion from the Greens. Polanski is a Jezbollah-style disaster with extra titty-whispering
From the Telegraph
“Polanski liked post claiming Zionists control Government The Green Party leader endorses Bluesky message which claims Prime Minister is on the payroll of powerful Jews”
Whatever the result of the election I predict Polanski will be gone within months
I think you are grossly underestimating the invulnerability to embarrassment of the modern politician. In any serious country Farage would already be free to spend a lot more time with his £5m and would be off the stage.
Farage being a fairly shameless grifter is factored in. Polanski being an outright anti-Semite is not. His party is already in trouble on this issue, activists have been arrested, the deputy leader is suspicious, and now the leader seems to be tainted. And also an idiot
Most of the nation has reeled back in horror at the violent anti-Semitic attacks these last weeks. The scales have dropped and a pushback is beginning
Sure, a nasty chunk of British society is now anti-Semitic, partly home grown nutters, partly imported Muslim values. But it’s a small chunk, I think. Nothing like the 20%+ the Greens need to make a real breakthrough
See the plunge in Polanski’s polling this week. Expect them to underperform on Thursday. Expect Polanski to go in months
What you mean by "factored in" is that a significant part of the electorate are willing to just ignore it. Many will be utterly appalled by Polanski's antisemitism but I fear many of those voting Green will have the same response and some of their more recent supporters might even like it.
Frankly both the Greens and Reform are for now beyond the pale.
I am, for the first time in my life, considering voting Labour, as my council area is now a a Reform/Labour marginal.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
Despite often being criticised for being too combative, her temperament seems to be much better than Starmer's.
Apart from being thoroughly nasty, isn't the Yusuf/Farage plan for detention centre in 'Green' constituencies somewhat flawed? Given that any seats won by the Greens are likely to be on c. 30-35% of the vote, those who voted Reform in that constituency would be 'punished' as well. See Gorton and Denton for example.
On reflection, I've no idea why I'm even giving such an unpleasant, unworkable and bizarre policy proposal the time of day.
I don’t remember this effeminate outrage over the last 25 years, as successive governments, of all stripes, have dumped “difficult” migrants in poor, white, working class areas
Weird
I’ve said many times on here that immigrants should be houses in cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country, rather than dumped on struggling coastal towns. This policy from Reform isn’t much different I suppose. People are shrieking about it, but it is Green policy to accept refugees without fuss, and plenty of lefties wore ‘Refugees Welcome’ t-shirts so why should they be upset by it?
How do you build cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country? To start with, the most expensive streets in the country tend to have a fair percentage of the street occupied already.
I don't have a fully costed manifesto, but you get the gist. House the migrants in posh areas and let the people who aren't struggling for jobs, doctors appointments, school places etc suffer the consequences, rather than those who are already in bother having an added burden
Please cost it - remembering that most builders can no longer afford to build in London because £500,000 a flat doesn't cover costs..
Big caravan sites in Richmond Park, the Cotswolds, Hyde Park, Regents Park, the posh squares in London, Hampstead Heath, Sidmouth, Bristol, etc
I dont see how "We are going to need massive detention camps in nice green suburban parts of England because we can't control the border" is a vote winner for Reform.
It would toughen the other parties up on the issue. The areas I mentioned becoming detention centres wouldn’t bother Reform supporters too much
The point is, mass immigration has fucked over the poor and the JAMs, while the rich profited financially and were immune to the social consequences. It’s time to redress the balance
There's this bit in the West Wing where Jed Bartlett says something like "I'm the President of all Americans, not just the ones who voted for me".
And for a long time, politics was like that.
But we saw that break down in the US in recent years: during the government shutdown, the Trump administration deliberately withheld funds from Blue States, even as it sent them to Red States.
No government should ever seek to govern only for those who voted it for it. There should never be 'punishment' for voting the wrong way.
Now, if Farage had framed it as "we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs", that would have been fine. But "vote Green, get detention centres" is the kind of thing that riles me beyond belief.
Worth repeating. A nasty and childish policy.
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims re being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
That entire comment by @rcs1000 was the most ridiculous and incoherent piffle he has ever emitted. Like a kind of morbid excretion from a dying fungus
Musing on the Reform "policy" of, if in Government, putting camps for migrants in Green constituencies or areas with Green controlled councils, all Yusuf has done is state explicitly how Government policy often operates implicitly.
Local authority funding was always one of those issues where it was perceived party A gave additional funds to areas where it controlled the councils and Party B did the same when it was their turn.
Policy is also dictated by the old adage "people like people like themselves". This is evident in planning, housing and immigration to name but three.
A local example is the 600 home development planned for some former industrial land - to be honest, the locals are less concerned about the size of the development, the density, the height of the proposed blocks, the parking or the impact on transport rather than WHO will be living there and the suggestion it could be 100% affordable housing has got people reaching for the pitchforks.
The local impact of central policy is often not what the policymakers might expect .
One to watch for those staying up is Wigan, due to declare at 2:30. It isn't inconceivable that Reform could sweep all 25 wards. And still be nowhere near a majority.
We must factor in the strong possibility of a late implosion from the Greens. Polanski is a Jezbollah-style disaster with extra titty-whispering
From the Telegraph
“Polanski liked post claiming Zionists control Government The Green Party leader endorses Bluesky message which claims Prime Minister is on the payroll of powerful Jews”
Whatever the result of the election I predict Polanski will be gone within months
I think you are grossly underestimating the invulnerability to embarrassment of the modern politician. In any serious country Farage would already be free to spend a lot more time with his £5m and would be off the stage.
Farage being a fairly shameless grifter is factored in. Polanski being an outright anti-Semite is not. His party is already in trouble on this issue, activists have been arrested, the deputy leader is suspicious, and now the leader seems to be tainted. And also an idiot
Most of the nation has reeled back in horror at the violent anti-Semitic attacks these last weeks. The scales have dropped and a pushback is beginning
Sure, a nasty chunk of British society is now anti-Semitic, partly home grown nutters, partly imported Muslim values. But it’s a small chunk, I think. Nothing like the 20%+ the Greens need to make a real breakthrough
See the plunge in Polanski’s polling this week. Expect them to underperform on Thursday. Expect Polanski to go in months
What you mean by "factored in" is that a significant part of the electorate are willing to just ignore it. Many will be utterly appalled by Polanski's antisemitism but I fear many of those voting Green will have the same response and some of their more recent supporters might even like it.
Which is exactly what I said. Some of his recent converts - the quasi Islamists, the Gaza indies, the Jew hating students - love all this stuff
Britain as a whole does not. The maximum vote for a fairly openly anti Semitic party is 10-15%. Disturbingly high but not enough to break through
I wouldn't vote, at National level anyway, bearing in mind what I posted a few minutes ago, for an anti-semitic party. I would though vote for an anti-netanyahu one!
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims re being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
What "practical proposals" ? Reform are proposing to deport people in numbers that no one else is considering. They're effectively promising a UK version of ICE, with similar lack of care for the consequences.
What's offending rcs, quite rightly, is the promise to target policy at constituencies specifically and exclusively on the basis of how that constituency voted. That's not a "trade-off".
We must factor in the strong possibility of a late implosion from the Greens. Polanski is a Jezbollah-style disaster with extra titty-whispering
From the Telegraph
“Polanski liked post claiming Zionists control Government The Green Party leader endorses Bluesky message which claims Prime Minister is on the payroll of powerful Jews”
Whatever the result of the election I predict Polanski will be gone within months
I think you are grossly underestimating the invulnerability to embarrassment of the modern politician. In any serious country Farage would already be free to spend a lot more time with his £5m and would be off the stage.
Farage being a fairly shameless grifter is factored in. Polanski being an outright anti-Semite is not. His party is already in trouble on this issue, activists have been arrested, the deputy leader is suspicious, and now the leader seems to be tainted. And also an idiot
Most of the nation has reeled back in horror at the violent anti-Semitic attacks these last weeks. The scales have dropped and a pushback is beginning
Sure, a nasty chunk of British society is now anti-Semitic, partly home grown nutters, partly imported Muslim values. But it’s a small chunk, I think. Nothing like the 20%+ the Greens need to make a real breakthrough
See the plunge in Polanski’s polling this week. Expect them to underperform on Thursday. Expect Polanski to go in months
What you mean by "factored in" is that a significant part of the electorate are willing to just ignore it. Many will be utterly appalled by Polanski's antisemitism but I fear many of those voting Green will have the same response and some of their more recent supporters might even like it.
Frankly both the Greens and Reform are for now beyond the pale.
I am, for the first time in my life, considering voting Labour, as my council area is now a a Reform/Labour marginal.
Grim, isn't it?
I suspect I'm going to wake up with Reform councillors on Friday; not so much because of their popuarity or brilliant campaign, but because they will get all their ducks in the same pond, whereas the anti-Refom vote will be split between Conservatives (who do seem to have withdrawn to their last redouts), Labour (who are trying, bless them, but are still Labour) and the Residents Association (who haven't done that brilliant a job of running the council). Oh, and the Greens, I suppose. And the solitary Lib Dem candidate in a 3 member ward, who we've understandably heard nothing from.
My self inflicted exile from PB is waning a little. To start with I didn't even lurk for a few weeks at a time. Now I am lurking regularly.
Occasionally I am stimulated to post in response to something and then realise I will get sucked into some nonsense and it will just waste my time, so I resist which has given me more time to drink beer, play table tennis, drive my cobra (which is sick currently), garden and plan my cycle trips (Normandy in June, Burgundy in September).
Might post a picture of a wisteria in my garden later. That is what a political forum needs; more garden pictures.
PS always up for a beer if you are even in the soft south.
X Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post.... Sonia Sodha@soniasodha I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next). https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant. https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
Thanks DavidL, hope you and all the family are in fine fettle? I fired off that post on my phone without bothering to edit, now blushing at mistakes. What happened to the old editing system on here that allowed you about six minutes grace to correct our glaring mistakes?!
It's still there (see my previous post for proof).
Not for me just now or I would not of highlighted it or asked why it was not still there.
Just trying to be helpful. The editing system is still there even if for whatever reason you can’t see it.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
Er, I've mentioned it a few times on here in the last few days!
I am still seeing nothing more than PB tumbleweed. I suppose it's Nigel so it is fine ?
My self inflicted exile from PB is waning a little. To start with I didn't even lurk for a few weeks at a time. Now I am lurking regularly.
Occasionally I am stimulated to post in response to something and then realise I will get sucked into some nonsense and it will just waste my time, so I resist which has given me more time to drink beer, play table tennis, drive my cobra (which is sick currently), garden and plan my cycle trips (Normandy in June, Burgundy in September).
Might post a picture of a wisteria in my garden later. That is what a political forum needs; more garden pictures.
PS always up for a beer if you are even in the soft south.
As promised. 12 years ago I had a new water pipe laid to my house which required the chopping down of a wisteria on our front wall. I chopped out a really thick section of root, only about 30 cm long and planted it under a magnolia in our back garden. That is it now growing through the magnolia. So we get magnolia blooms followed by wisteria blooms in the Spring.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
Er, I've mentioned it a few times on here in the last few days!
I am still seeing nothing more than PB tumbleweed. I suppose it's Nigel so it is fine ?
It seems to have been mentioned quite a few times.
And surely, the correct version of your second sentence is 'I suppose it's Nigel so donations of dodgy money are to be expected.'
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
When Polanski became leader the Greens were averaging 9% in the opinion polls, so, y'know, 10-12% wouldn't necessarily be a disaster.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
Some idle musing on seat match bets on Ladbrokes. What do people think of the following?
Con beat Labour at 3.
Green beat Lib Dem at 1.36.
Green beat Lab at 1.4.
I think Labour and the Conservatives could end up on similar totals of contested seats as the blues are going to shed hundreds but Labour could lost three-quarters (~1,500).
Edited: just seen the Polanski approval collapse. Might nix the first the two.
Incidentally, Badenoch is getting a ton of love on X. Especially that recent impromptu speech at a hustings, squashing the Jew haters
It is deeply impressive. Her polling improvement is also striking. Can she single handedly pull the Tories back into contention? It would be one of the most extraordinary comebacks in British political history.
I still don’t think it’s likely but I believe it’s now plausible
At some point you’d think her better net approval would start crossing over to Tory vote share .
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
They should definitely stick with her. She’s got my attention and I was in a state of such Tory-loathing I wanted the party to die
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
I still think the Tories need to keep a broader tent and she has a difficult juggling act.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
The trouble is she has to be able to claim to be different from the clowns who preceded her. Which means moving policy positions. Given the weak sauce of previous actual Tory positions she can hardly go left.
The country is crying out for a capable centrist party. That is the prize. Neither Reform nor Greens offer that. Labour has blown it being "capable".
Being different from "the clowns who preceded her" means being seen as capable.
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
When Polanski became leader the Greens were averaging 9% in the opinion polls, so, y'know, 10-12% wouldn't necessarily be a disaster.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
No. It’s because he’s been revealed in the last few weeks, even days, as a nasty anti semite and a low IQ pillock at the same time
The Greens surged when he seemed new and untested and everyone could pin their hopes on him, and write on the blank slate. Now look at his polling. In free fall. Down 14 points in a week
The Green VI will follow. What’s worse, the deputy leader puts his wife in a burqa. The full death shroud. And refuses to commit to LGBT rights. The Greens are a self destruct bomb timed to go off really quite soon
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
When Polanski became leader the Greens were averaging 9% in the opinion polls, so, y'know, 10-12% wouldn't necessarily be a disaster.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
No. It’s because he’s been revealed in the last few weeks, even days, as a nasty anti semite and a low IQ pillock at the same time
The Greens surged when he seemed new and untested and everyone could pin their hopes on him, and write on the blank slate. Now look at his polling. In free fall. Down 14 points in a week
The Green VI will follow. What’s worse, the deputy leader puts his wife in a burqa. The full death shroud. And refuses to commit to LGBT rights. The Greens are a self destruct bomb timed to go off really quite soon
I'm going with number blindness then. You just can't see it.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
Er, I've mentioned it a few times on here in the last few days!
I am still seeing nothing more than PB tumbleweed. I suppose it's Nigel so it is fine ?
It seems to have been mentioned quite a few times.
And surely, the correct version of your second sentence is 'I suppose it's Nigel so donations of dodgy money are to be expected.'
@Mexicanpete - I probably commented a lot more on Alligate than I did on this latest Nigel donation. This is not because I consider Alligate *worse* - of course getting policy dictated by shadowy cryptobillionaires is worse - it is because: - Nigel getting massive dodgy donations is lamentable but uninteresting - we know he's dodgy. - Labour went so quickly from 'look at the sleazy Tories' to 'but it was a really nice bribe which was very hard to turn down'. - Labour are in power - there was a lot more to Alligate than just some free undies.
Volume of comments does not equate to how grisly I find a certain behaviour. Otherwise we'd do little but lament the behaviour of Trump and Putin.
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
When Polanski became leader the Greens were averaging 9% in the opinion polls, so, y'know, 10-12% wouldn't necessarily be a disaster.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
No. It’s because he’s been revealed in the last few weeks, even days, as a nasty anti semite and a low IQ pillock at the same time
The Greens surged when he seemed new and untested and everyone could pin their hopes on him, and write on the blank slate. Now look at his polling. In free fall. Down 14 points in a week
The Green VI will follow. What’s worse, the deputy leader puts his wife in a burqa. The full death shroud. And refuses to commit to LGBT rights. The Greens are a self destruct bomb timed to go off really quite soon
I'm going with number blindness then. You just can't see it.
My self inflicted exile from PB is waning a little. To start with I didn't even lurk for a few weeks at a time. Now I am lurking regularly.
Occasionally I am stimulated to post in response to something and then realise I will get sucked into some nonsense and it will just waste my time, so I resist which has given me more time to drink beer, play table tennis, drive my cobra (which is sick currently), garden and plan my cycle trips (Normandy in June, Burgundy in September).
Might post a picture of a wisteria in my garden later. That is what a political forum needs; more garden pictures.
PS always up for a beer if you are even in the soft south.
I’ll have to make the effort to get darn sarf. That would be good. I’ve wanted to visit some Sweeney locations for a while !
All well up here. My apple tree and rhubarb is spouting and should be good later in the year.
My self inflicted exile from PB is waning a little. To start with I didn't even lurk for a few weeks at a time. Now I am lurking regularly.
Occasionally I am stimulated to post in response to something and then realise I will get sucked into some nonsense and it will just waste my time, so I resist which has given me more time to drink beer, play table tennis, drive my cobra (which is sick currently), garden and plan my cycle trips (Normandy in June, Burgundy in September).
Might post a picture of a wisteria in my garden later. That is what a political forum needs; more garden pictures.
PS always up for a beer if you are even in the soft south.
All of you who were so correctly triggered by Lady Victoria's gifted underwear and Starmer's free spectacles, why are you not triggered by Farage's personally donated buckshee £5m from a Thai based crypto-billionaire?
Er, I've mentioned it a few times on here in the last few days!
I am still seeing nothing more than PB tumbleweed. I suppose it's Nigel so it is fine ?
It seems to have been mentioned quite a few times.
And surely, the correct version of your second sentence is 'I suppose it's Nigel so donations of dodgy money are to be expected.'
@Mexicanpete - I probably commented a lot more on Alligate than I did on this latest Nigel donation. This is not because I consider Alligate *worse* - of course getting policy dictated by shadowy cryptobillionaires is worse - it is because: - Nigel getting massive dodgy donations is lamentable but uninteresting - we know he's dodgy. - Labour went so quickly from 'look at the sleazy Tories' to 'but it was a really nice bribe which was very hard to turn down'. - Labour are in power - there was a lot more to Alligate than just some free undies.
Volume of comments does not equate to how grisly I find a certain behaviour. Otherwise we'd do little but lament the behaviour of Trump and Putin.
If people want to go after the crypto-dodgy-donation to Farage - liken it to the smaller donations to Mandelson that used to get him in trouble.
The Farage donation is an order of magnitude bigger.
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims re being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
What "practical proposals" ? Reform are proposing to deport people in numbers that no one else is considering. They're effectively promising a UK version of ICE, with similar lack of care for the consequences.
What's offending rcs, quite rightly, is the promise to target policy at constituencies specifically and exclusively on the basis of how that constituency voted. That's not a "trade-off".
Yep it’s simple bullying - don’t vote for us and while we won’t make the life of people who vote for us better we have ways of making it far worse for people who didn’t vote for us
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
When Polanski became leader the Greens were averaging 9% in the opinion polls, so, y'know, 10-12% wouldn't necessarily be a disaster.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
No. It’s because he’s been revealed in the last few weeks, even days, as a nasty anti semite and a low IQ pillock at the same time
The Greens surged when he seemed new and untested and everyone could pin their hopes on him, and write on the blank slate. Now look at his polling. In free fall. Down 14 points in a week
The Green VI will follow. What’s worse, the deputy leader puts his wife in a burqa. The full death shroud. And refuses to commit to LGBT rights. The Greens are a self destruct bomb timed to go off really quite soon
I'm going with number blindness then. You just can't see it.
wtf are you wittering on about?
There's no point me repeating myself given that you weren't capable of understanding it the first time. It's taken me a remarkably long time, but I've finally learnt that you simply don't do numbers.
Sorry but twitter / x links are pointless now everything is behind their wall
Tldr: Rayner has given up vaping, as recounted by a Lab cabinet member to a leading politics presenter.
UK media has only 2 settings, inane shite or hyperbolic speculation.
Is her going off the vapes why she is drinking more alcohol?
I think some people simply have a personality that is more prone to becoming dependent on one substance or another. In my case it's sugar, and doctors have tended to tell me that I should count myself lucky it's not nicotine, alcohol, or a controlled substance.
Apart from being thoroughly nasty, isn't the Yusuf/Farage plan for detention centre in 'Green' constituencies somewhat flawed? Given that any seats won by the Greens are likely to be on c. 30-35% of the vote, those who voted Reform in that constituency would be 'punished' as well. See Gorton and Denton for example.
On reflection, I've no idea why I'm even giving such an unpleasant, unworkable and bizarre policy proposal the time of day.
I don’t remember this effeminate outrage over the last 25 years, as successive governments, of all stripes, have dumped “difficult” migrants in poor, white, working class areas
Weird
I’ve said many times on here that immigrants should be houses in cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country, rather than dumped on struggling coastal towns. This policy from Reform isn’t much different I suppose. People are shrieking about it, but it is Green policy to accept refugees without fuss, and plenty of lefties wore ‘Refugees Welcome’ t-shirts so why should they be upset by it?
How do you build cheap new builds on the most expensive streets in the country? To start with, the most expensive streets in the country tend to have a fair percentage of the street occupied already.
I don't have a fully costed manifesto, but you get the gist. House the migrants in posh areas and let the people who aren't struggling for jobs, doctors appointments, school places etc suffer the consequences, rather than those who are already in bother having an added burden
Please cost it - remembering that most builders can no longer afford to build in London because £500,000 a flat doesn't cover costs..
Big caravan sites in Richmond Park, the Cotswolds, Hyde Park, Regents Park, the posh squares in London, Hampstead Heath, Sidmouth, Bristol, etc
I dont see how "We are going to need massive detention camps in nice green suburban parts of England because we can't control the border" is a vote winner for Reform.
It would toughen the other parties up on the issue. The areas I mentioned becoming detention centres wouldn’t bother Reform supporters too much
The point is, mass immigration has fucked over the poor and the JAMs, while the rich profited financially and were immune to the social consequences. It’s time to redress the balance
There's this bit in the West Wing where Jed Bartlett says something like "I'm the President of all Americans, not just the ones who voted for me".
And for a long time, politics was like that.
But we saw that break down in the US in recent years: during the government shutdown, the Trump administration deliberately withheld funds from Blue States, even as it sent them to Red States.
No government should ever seek to govern only for those who voted it for it. There should never be 'punishment' for voting the wrong way.
Now, if Farage had framed it as "we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs", that would have been fine. But "vote Green, get detention centres" is the kind of thing that riles me beyond belief.
Worth repeating. A nasty and childish policy.
OK then - we can all agree that it is a silly, nasty, unlawful etc policy. But note how @rcs1000 complains about it.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims are being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
Practical proposals instead of Reform's:
1. Don't massively increase the categories of people you want to deport. Reform's challenge is not just the existing backlog of people to be deported, but that they are going to increase those numbers significantly. We should continue offering asylum to those genuinely in need. 2. Speed up processing times so that those who should be granted asylum are, and can start building new lives, and those who aren't can be promptly returned. The Tories deliberately let the backlog build up; Labour are successfully reducing it. 3. Increase deportations. There are many people who we have determined should be deported, but are still in the country. Deportations collapsed under the Tories. The numbers are now increasing under Labour. 4. Work on bilateral agreements with specific countries. The deal with Albania that Sunak negotiated has been a big success. The one-in-one-out scheme with France over small boat crossings is up and running: can this be built on?
Comments
Dramatic fall in SIDS after a public health intervention by the NHS in the 90s. Exactly the kind of thing we need more of.
I disagree with her politics but she’s done a good job so far . The Tories should ignore the media hysteria post the elections and stick with her . Whether they do though is another matter .
Now I’m intrigued. She needs to sack the wet no-marks around her - like Phelps and Strude - and promote people like Lam. Then we’re talking
Obvs very different with Farage who seems more grisly the more you learn about him. A true conman. However there is zero chance of an internal revolt as Reform is purely a vehicle for his ambition. And just take a look at Yusuf, Tice, etc. They really are his creatures - taking their cue from Trump's cabinet.
Holyrood election 07May2026
1: https://www.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2026/05/01/holyrood-election-seats-to-watch/
2: https://www.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2026/05/05/holyrood-election-seats-to-watch-part-2/
(The UK requirement can be satisfied in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic. It seems to me unfair that it can't be satisfied in British Sign Language, which is more widely used than Scottish Gaelic!)
The zeitgeist at the moment is that everything is futile.
Going too far towards the right will alienate a section of their voters .
https://x.com/rabbizvi/status/2051525042631004225?s=61
Any that drift off to the left will, ultimately, come back when they want a change of govt.
Sonia Sodha quote tweeting this post....
Sonia Sodha@soniasodha
I also thought there was a lot of subconscious bias in way Badenoch was written off before she even started by the left & some journos. Left tends to see right-wing black/brown women as bogeywomen. I wrote a column back in 2024 warning the left not to underestimate her (🔗 next).
https://x.com/soniasodha/status/2051564600831750394
Jools@JoolsJuevans
The thing that gets me about Badenoch is how all the political commentators underestimated her. Many treated her with contempt and she’s proving them all wrong. Women who’d paid attention to her attitude and willingness to speak out for women didn’t, we knew she was impressive. I’m not even a Tory but I think she’s brilliant.
https://x.com/JoolsJuevans/status/2051392136038199593
I don't post that often on here anymore after being a regular poster, in fact possible the first regular female poster on here in the early days more than twenty years ago. But I have on more than one occassion popped up in the last year to say that the regular left and right mens shed on here were being far too quick to dismiss her as the new leader of the Conservative party and that that they were underestimating her abilities as a party leader and future PM.
I first spotted Kemi when she was a new elected MP and I have followed her rise within in the party to the point I for the first time since I voted for David Cameron was really happy to tick that box for her a party leader that I knew who had real potential to rescue the party and get it back onto a winning electoral track and I stand by that. I particularly noted her here early on unequivocal support for womens rights/safe spaces because I finally found the single issue I was prepared to die on a political hill for and that was those rights. Just so sad that I felt we had to start fighting this battle again now when I am now in my sixties!!
But the biggest benefit has been the amazing cross party support that has seen women from across the tribal political debate to come together in a common cause to fight together. So I am not surprised to see Kemi Badenoch's robust response to the current shocking rise in antisemtism in this country in the same robust way she has fought for womens rights. If the arrogant and at times nasty and direct way that Farage, Tice and Zia Yusuf have attacked the Conservative party in the past looked to be a popular easy hit, its not looking that way today and if they are not worried, they should be because the polling and focus groups are clearing showing that Kemi Badenoch is now looking like a force to be reckoned with and one that they like Keir Starmer and the Labour party don't seem to know how to handle!
I think it's inconceivable that Tories will ditch her. And, as @leon hopes, I suspect will see Katie Lam in the shadow cabinet. I can't see her walking back her comments about Jenrick.
The most common version of the poem omits mention of the sick/incurables (i.e. disabled) who were part of the original speech the poem is based on.
it's fascinating how the point of the argument in the speech/poem is ignored by people who put their favoured groups in a new version of it, rather than the groups they would happily go after. One imagines that the quoted individual on X would not be happy about a version of the poem that started with: "First they came for the bankers..." but that's precisely the point! You must defend the civil liberties of even the people you do not like, or no-one is safe.
Perhaps the reason so many at Westminster think these organisations have been silent, and are more well-resourced and influential than they actually are, is because so many at Westminster still use X.
X has an owner who is avowedly hostile to ethnic diversity, and in terms of what the platform amplifies, it consistently favours extremes, particularly of the right. Yes, of course, as long as X drives the UK’s political conversation, the UK’s anti-racism movement is going to be “muted”.
He links to this article on Musks' anti-Semitism: https://forward.com/news/550035/elon-musk-disturbing-comments-jews/ (Maybe @Sandpit could read that.)
Btw the edit button is still here.
https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/2051558719679304067
Just looking over some data ahead of our elections webinar later and Zack Polanski’s net approval rating has fallen by a fairly chunky 14 points over the last week. Still far ahead of Starmer but also puts him now well below the top three of Badenoch, Davey and Farage.
There is a cadre of professional charity CEO (JRT I'm looking at you) whose main job is to "raise awareness" (i.e. complain); state they are underfunded (i.e. complain); and then take quite decent pay for themselves (without complaint) and then move onto the next gig.
https://pa.media/blogs/fact-check/fact-check-postal-votes-made-up-majority-of-ballots-in-one-2025-local-election/
Guildford
Runnymeade
Epsom
Elmbridge
Mole Valley
Er! The Tories don't run any of the those councils Not one. In a couple they struggle to even get any councillors whatsoever. For example:
Mole Valley 31 LD, 6 Ashford Indys, 2 Tories.
She seems to be living in the past (measured in decades)
We have already seen a raft of uncosted pledges - well,not uncosted but lacking in detail as tohow they will be funded and on key issues such as immigration and welfare reform, we don't really know what the Conservatives would do or how they would pay for it.
That's part of Opposition politics and three years out from a GE you can get away with broad themes but the detail will need to be there this time in say 2028 - what will be cut, whose benefits willbe removed, which services will be reduced and that's when you find out not only who your friends are but who your enemies are as well.
Credit where it's due - from the turnround last autumn, she has generally done well and said most of the right things at the right time though I'd like to see a more honest appraisal of the 2010-24 Government period. Trying to pretend everything went wrong on July 5th 2024 and up to then everything was fine won't work in the heat of a GE camapign and a little mea culpa now might go a long way. Her fingerprints were on a lot of the policies of the 2019-24 period and if you're going to rubbish them you have to be honest about the fact you supported them at the time.
First he says that for a long time politics was about being in power for all the people not just those who voted for you. This is frankly childish nonsense. Politics has never been like that - not in the US and not here either and not, frankly, anywhere. Politics has always been about choices, about trade offs, about shifting power and wealth, about priorities etc and to a greater or lesser extent all politicians have acted in favour of those they are for. Some are better at disguising this. Some are good at expanding this group. But to pretend that a PM or President acts in the interests of everyone all the time is for the fairies.
Then he says that it would have been OK to say ""we think the costs should be shared around, and it's wrong that the most deprived areas bear the brunt of these costs". So is the problem with the tone rather than the policy?
And if the policy of sharing the costs around is fine, how precisely is this going to be done, especially bearing in mind that the costs are not simply financial? How is the cost of dealing with illegal migration and asylum seekers while their claims are being considered going to be fairly shared and not simply dumped on poor areas because it is too expensive to do so in expensive areas which claim to welcome refugees?
I would not vote Reform in a month of Sundays but until their critics come up with some practical proposals all this bleating just comes across like NIMBYs complaining about not enough houses for the young while ferociously resisting any building in their precious Cotswold village.
The north will be interesting. I think the SNP vote will take a tumble as there are just too many local issues to hurt them: oil/gas, road dualling (lack of), ferries, etc. How will that affect turn out?
I've noticed that Tories are talking up their chances against Stephen Flynn and SNP reportedly worried about Moray (3000 maj to defend). Surely Reform will deliver those seats to them - we shall see.
But there will be plenty winners on pretty low vote shares including, I suspect, Fergus Ewing in Inverness.
I am, for the first time in my life, considering voting Labour, as my council area is now a a Reform/Labour marginal.
Local authority funding was always one of those issues where it was perceived party A gave additional funds to areas where it controlled the councils and Party B did the same when it was their turn.
Policy is also dictated by the old adage "people like people like themselves". This is evident in planning, housing and immigration to name but three.
A local example is the 600 home development planned for some former industrial land - to be honest, the locals are less concerned about the size of the development, the density, the height of the proposed blocks, the parking or the impact on transport rather than WHO will be living there and the suggestion it could be 100% affordable housing has got people reaching for the pitchforks.
The local impact of central policy is often not what the policymakers might expect .
PMs Streeting or Burnham have a good chance of reigniting the Labour brand.
Labour and Tories both back up to 30% within the next couple of years.
It isn't inconceivable that Reform could sweep all 25 wards.
And still be nowhere near a majority.
Reform are proposing to deport people in numbers that no one else is considering. They're effectively promising a UK version of ICE, with similar lack of care for the consequences.
What's offending rcs, quite rightly, is the promise to target policy at constituencies specifically and exclusively on the basis of how that constituency voted. That's not a "trade-off".
I suspect I'm going to wake up with Reform councillors on Friday; not so much because of their popuarity or brilliant campaign, but because they will get all their ducks in the same pond, whereas the anti-Refom vote will be split between Conservatives (who do seem to have withdrawn to their last redouts), Labour (who are trying, bless them, but are still Labour) and the Residents Association (who haven't done that brilliant a job of running the council). Oh, and the Greens, I suppose. And the solitary Lib Dem candidate in a 3 member ward, who we've understandably heard nothing from.
My self inflicted exile from PB is waning a little. To start with I didn't even lurk for a few weeks at a time. Now I am lurking regularly.
Occasionally I am stimulated to post in response to something and then realise I will get sucked into some nonsense and it will just waste my time, so I resist which has given me more time to drink beer, play table tennis, drive my cobra (which is sick currently), garden and plan my cycle trips (Normandy in June, Burgundy in September).
Might post a picture of a wisteria in my garden later. That is what a political forum needs; more garden pictures.
PS always up for a beer if you are even in the soft south.
Polanski is a disaster. If they had someone like Lucas but younger and fresher they really could prosper. But not with this leader and deputy leader
Chris Philp says in leaked audio that Tories ‘ran some checks’ just prior to Brexit and realised ‘around half’ of small boat arrivals could have been returned under EU law
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-brexit-small-boats-asylum-philp-b2751177.html
I don't recall Farage mentioning this either.
But as Leon assures us regularly, a price worth paying in his view.
As promised. 12 years ago I had a new water pipe laid to my house which required the chopping down of a wisteria on our front wall. I chopped out a really thick section of root, only about 30 cm long and planted it under a magnolia in our back garden. That is it now growing through the magnolia. So we get magnolia blooms followed by wisteria blooms in the Spring.
Labour will absorb their vote no problem under a new leader.
And surely, the correct version of your second sentence is 'I suppose it's Nigel so donations of dodgy money are to be expected.'
https://x.com/sophyridgesky/status/2051555487263474050?s=46&t=fJymV-V84rexmlQMLXHHJQ
But they must get away from the pensioner vote.
I'm not impressed by Polanski's approach to this, but you are weirdly over-egging and under-egging the impact at the same time. Is it just number blindness?
Con beat Labour at 3.
Green beat Lib Dem at 1.36.
Green beat Lab at 1.4.
I think Labour and the Conservatives could end up on similar totals of contested seats as the blues are going to shed hundreds but Labour could lost three-quarters (~1,500).
Edited: just seen the Polanski approval collapse. Might nix the first the two.
Being different from "the clowns who preceded her" means being seen as capable.
The Greens surged when he seemed new and untested and everyone could pin their hopes on him, and write on the blank slate. Now look at his polling. In free fall. Down 14 points in a week
The Green VI will follow. What’s worse, the deputy leader puts his wife in a burqa. The full death shroud. And refuses to commit to LGBT rights. The Greens are a self destruct bomb timed to go off really quite soon
I’ll give it you once I’ve done my chores. I’ve got to go ti the recycling centre and then the garden centre
I’ve reached an age where I actually look forward to doing this. The recycling centre and the garden centre. I need to replace a failed juniper
In my defence I have just been to Turkey, Ulster and darkest Rwanda in less than three weeks with no let up. I’ve earned my centrist dad moments
- Nigel getting massive dodgy donations is lamentable but uninteresting - we know he's dodgy.
- Labour went so quickly from 'look at the sleazy Tories' to 'but it was a really nice bribe which was very hard to turn down'.
- Labour are in power
- there was a lot more to Alligate than just some free undies.
Volume of comments does not equate to how grisly I find a certain behaviour. Otherwise we'd do little but lament the behaviour of Trump and Putin.
And Philp is "admitting" nothing. He was a remainer.
All well up here. My apple tree and rhubarb is spouting and should be good later in the year.
The Farage donation is an order of magnitude bigger.
As in “If Mandelson was resigning over…”
UK media has only 2 settings, inane shite or hyperbolic speculation.
Just had a canvasser knock the door in ceredigion penfro for Labour. Gave her a big surprise when I said I was voting libdem!
Hope that's not bad news for Thursday.
Probably will sadly.
I think some people simply have a personality that is more prone to becoming dependent on one substance or another. In my case it's sugar, and doctors have tended to tell me that I should count myself lucky it's not nicotine, alcohol, or a controlled substance.
1. Don't massively increase the categories of people you want to deport. Reform's challenge is not just the existing backlog of people to be deported, but that they are going to increase those numbers significantly. We should continue offering asylum to those genuinely in need.
2. Speed up processing times so that those who should be granted asylum are, and can start building new lives, and those who aren't can be promptly returned. The Tories deliberately let the backlog build up; Labour are successfully reducing it.
3. Increase deportations. There are many people who we have determined should be deported, but are still in the country. Deportations collapsed under the Tories. The numbers are now increasing under Labour.
4. Work on bilateral agreements with specific countries. The deal with Albania that Sunak negotiated has been a big success. The one-in-one-out scheme with France over small boat crossings is up and running: can this be built on?
I can’t see him getting past the NEC before Starmer announces he is quitting. Maybe not even then.
If Starmer quits, there won’t be time before a contest to get Burnham into Parliament.
Unless the whole thing is turned into a triumphal parade. And there are enough people who want the job to say no to that.