My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
So if it is someone proven she did see it at some point she is still covered.
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
So if it is someone proven she did see it at some point she is still covered.
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
Be interesting if her taking the Gavin Belson-esque career arc post scandal takes off.
MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.
MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.
I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.
I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.
It's the utter shamelessness that makes him unique. Anyone else would betray at least a modicum of embarrassment in telling the most brazen-faced lies and engaging in the egregious self-contradiction that characterises his daily output. So, thankfully I can't quite see anyone else being able to replicate his modus operandi as successfully as he does.
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Solving the crisis requires doing things the public won't vote for though, so it is a touch challenge for a politician. Requires top tier leadership.
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
So if it is someone proven she did see it at some point she is still covered.
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
Unlikely that she'll have any route to a comeback though ...
MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.
MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.
I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.
I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.
Vance is the only one with the brains to carry on MAGA but he lack's Trump's charisma, none of Trump's kids have his charisma except maybe Ivanka but then she isn't really MAGA anyway
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
So if it is someone proven she did see it at some point she is still covered.
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
Unlikely that she'll have any route to a comeback though ...
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
Kemi liked it.*
* It was by and large, rubbish.
I can't believe people are talking about as if it were a serious political platform. Well, I can believe Kemi is, because she's fucking ignorant. Blair is nothing more than Larry Ellison's hired help and that essay was just his wishlist.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
Kemi liked it.*
* It was by and large, rubbish.
I can't believe people are talking about as if it were a serious political platform. Well, I can believe Kemi is, because she's fucking ignorant. Blair is nothing more than Larry Ellison's hired help and that essay was just his wishlist.
How dare we suggest Blair's expressed views thesedays might be slightly impacted by what his sugar daddy wants?
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?
The Conservatives will survive. They always do, but I see them subsumed by Reform with Reform taking the brand name.They won't be Butskellist Tories, but the name lives on. Badenoch is half way there as we speak.
If the Tories were taken over by Reform then they wouldn't have survived they would effectively have been taken over by Reform whatever name the new party was called
It'll be like the liberals and sdp
That morphed on to Liberal Democrats.
Post 2029 whether Reform will or not it will morph
RCG
Reform and Conservative Group.
Very few current Tory MPs will survive, especially in Essex
That required the SDP to lose the 1983 and 1987 general elections first and then they were still in a formal alliance with the Liberals which the Tories and Reform aren't.
Epping Forest likely stays Tory, as probably does NW Essex and maybe Harlow too on the local elections results
The Conservatives will survive. They always do, but I see them subsumed by Reform with Reform taking the brand name.They won't be Butskellist Tories, but the name lives on. Badenoch is half way there as we speak.
If the Tories were taken over by Reform then they wouldn't have survived they would effectively have been taken over by Reform whatever name the new party was called
It'll be like the liberals and sdp
That morphed on to Liberal Democrats.
Post 2029 whether Reform will or not it will morph
RCG
Reform and Conservative Group.
Very likely in my book. If Tories can hold onto more MPs then maybe Conservative and Reform Group instead.
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Solving the crisis requires doing things the public won't vote for though, so it is a touch challenge for a politician. Requires top tier leadership.
Oh, absolutely, but facing down NIMBYs* will look like politics on easy mode compared to what will happen if the far right take power. The number one quality we should be looking for in a politician is the determination to do something difficult in the short term for long term benefit.
* NIMBYs are not the main problem in Ireland. Delays in building water and electrical infrastructure, a general lack of capacity in the building industry, and the government's unwillingness to build houses directly have been more consequential.
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.
MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.
I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.
I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.
Vance is the only one with the brains to carry on MAGA but he lack's Trump's charisma, none of Trump's kids have his charisma except maybe Ivanka but then she isn't really MAGA anyway
The Conservatives will survive. They always do, but I see them subsumed by Reform with Reform taking the brand name.They won't be Butskellist Tories, but the name lives on. Badenoch is half way there as we speak.
If the Tories were taken over by Reform then they wouldn't have survived they would effectively have been taken over by Reform whatever name the new party was called
It'll be like the liberals and sdp
That morphed on to Liberal Democrats.
Post 2029 whether Reform will or not it will morph
RCG
Reform and Conservative Group.
Very likely in my book. If Tories can hold onto more MPs then maybe Conservative and Reform Group instead.
Guardian in Makerfield. Actually in Hindley, too. The Bickershaw industrial scale fly tipping would have been a national scandal had it happened anywhere near a media person's home.
Officers from West Midlands Police arrested a 58-year-old male from the Birmingham area on suspicion of environmental, fraud and money laundering offences.
The suspect has now been released on conditional bail pending further investigation..
Perhaps they'll get around to the money laundering barbers/vape shops/mini marts next year ?
The NCA are finally getting involved in those rather than leaving it almost solely to Trading Standards, so yes probably start to see some enforcement and action next year.
Screw the NCA. Most of the legwork has been done by the BBC and ITV on fly-tipping, money laundering, people smuggling and so on, not forgetting the Post Office scandal. Even kids stabbing each other only started to matter when Keir Starmer saw a Netflix drama series. Surely part of the reason for the rise of NOTA parties is the growing realisation that the Establishment lives in its own bubble.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?
I think they'd have a different figure in mind for King.
At the upcoming UFC fight at the White House see if Rubio offers Trump a crown to symbolically refuse a la Caesar (supposedly).
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?
I think they'd have a different figure in mind for King.
At the upcoming UFC fight at the White House see if Rubio offers Trump a crown to symbolically refuse a la Caesar (supposedly).
If any of us had predicted that Trump would demolish a third of the White House and build a UFC ring on the South Lawn, we would have been dismissed as the most unhinged conspiracy theorists to ever exist
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
The Conservatives will survive. They always do, but I see them subsumed by Reform with Reform taking the brand name.They won't be Butskellist Tories, but the name lives on. Badenoch is half way there as we speak.
If the Tories were taken over by Reform then they wouldn't have survived they would effectively have been taken over by Reform whatever name the new party was called
It'll be like the liberals and sdp
That morphed on to Liberal Democrats.
Post 2029 whether Reform will or not it will morph
RCG
Reform and Conservative Group.
Very likely in my book. If Tories can hold onto more MPs then maybe Conservative and Reform Group instead.
How can one be both conservative and a reformer?
Doesn't make sense.
Many Conservatives are quite radical and anti-traditional institutions. You need not be conservative, though typically it helped.
Plus people might be socially conservative but economically liberal, or vice-versa.
And it is only names - the Liberal parties of Australia, Russia, and Canada probably don't have much overlap.
There was the Progressive Conservative Party as well.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.
MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.
I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.
I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.
It's the utter shamelessness that makes him unique. Anyone else would betray at least a modicum of embarrassment in telling the most brazen-faced lies and engaging in the egregious self-contradiction that characterises his daily output. So, thankfully I can't quite see anyone else being able to replicate his modus operandi as successfully as he does.
The shameless lying is not unique – exhibit A, Boris – but Trump combines it with the business practices and ethics of a Mafia don. However, all that was true eight years ago. The new factor is the Project 2025 team controlling him.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
From the "I don't sweat" box of excuses.
Opponents won't buy it, and her supporters are already fully on side - I understand she may feel the need to defend herself whilst being attacked, but anything said has potential to unravel, so it might be better to just remain silent and stonewall at public events when questions come up.
Warsaw’s sewer system, one of the first in Europe, began operating 140 years ago.
Built by British engineers, the sewers survived the destruction of WW2, when they were used by resistance fighters to move around the city, and still serve Varsovians today https://x.com/notesfrompoland/status/2061027877689155679
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Solving the crisis requires doing things the public won't vote for though, so it is a touch challenge for a politician. Requires top tier leadership.
Oh, absolutely, but facing down NIMBYs* will look like politics on easy mode compared to what will happen if the far right take power. The number one quality we should be looking for in a politician is the determination to do something difficult in the short term for long term benefit.
* NIMBYs are not the main problem in Ireland. Delays in building water and electrical infrastructure, a general lack of capacity in the building industry, and the government's unwillingness to build houses directly have been more consequential.
Ireland is a different place. Like Scotland and Wales, vast tracts are empty. And until the millennium, it was a largely agrarian society before tax breaks lured in American companies.
MAGA was never about winning wars in the middle east. So no reason to think a calamity in Iran will change much.
MAGA is me. Trump has said this and all indications are that he's correct. It's a personality cult in other words. And he does, tbf, have a strong personality. I find it utterly repellent, he has none of the traits I like or admire in a human being and just about all the ones I can't stand, but the cult members love him to bits. It's an unconditional and enduring love, a love that lasts forever, a love that has no past (preceding him). Can't say I understand it. Can't say I want to.
I hope it dies without him, but it's consequences will be felt for a long time. They might break up a little to compete to see who is the Trumpiest, for a start.
I do wonder if the Trump kids will try to 'lead' it after he eventually dies, but none of them have his level of horrible charisma.
Vance is the only one with the brains to carry on MAGA but he lack's Trump's charisma, none of Trump's kids have his charisma except maybe Ivanka but then she isn't really MAGA anyway
Vance has anti-charisma.
I don't know, he seems at least average in terms of politicians, but the glazing of him when chosen as VP was off the scale - they were so desperate to paint him as practically being a genius.
Obviously overhyping political leaders is not unique to the GOP, but because Trump likes the praise to be laid on real thick (even to making sure people praise his golf game and looks, and his achievements in hyperbolic fashion) I think when anyone else in the party gets praised the default level gets a bit over the top too.
Warsaw’s sewer system, one of the first in Europe, began operating 140 years ago.
Built by British engineers, the sewers survived the destruction of WW2, when they were used by resistance fighters to move around the city, and still serve Varsovians today https://x.com/notesfrompoland/status/2061027877689155679
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Solving the crisis requires doing things the public won't vote for though, so it is a touch challenge for a politician. Requires top tier leadership.
Oh, absolutely, but facing down NIMBYs* will look like politics on easy mode compared to what will happen if the far right take power. The number one quality we should be looking for in a politician is the determination to do something difficult in the short term for long term benefit.
* NIMBYs are not the main problem in Ireland. Delays in building water and electrical infrastructure, a general lack of capacity in the building industry, and the government's unwillingness to build houses directly have been more consequential.
Bit ironic when for years Ireland was famous for its construction workers, and has a low population density.
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
From the "I don't sweat" box of excuses.
Was she ever driven in it? Not exacty like a Lada inside, is it? Might suggest it cost a few bob, Peter...
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
Enough people prepared to deal with the Russians that the happy thought seems amiss.
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
Kemi liked it.*
* It was by and large, rubbish.
I can't believe people are talking about as if it were a serious political platform. Well, I can believe Kemi is, because she's fucking ignorant. Blair is nothing more than Larry Ellison's hired help and that essay was just his wishlist.
I think that's gauche. Starmer is every bit as as weaked-kneed about American billions (see Blackrock, see data contracts shamefully handed out to Google and Microsoft) as Blair, and frankly if Blair wanted to push Ellison's case, a private intervention and the vague promise of some lucrative sinecure to ease Starmer's soon-to-be-retirement would be far more effective than a public intervention. Of course he's never going to go into bat against Ellison's interests, but that doesn't explain the whole thing.
As for whether it was rubbish, I have to be honest, I haven't read it, but most of what I've heard summarised seems to be such basic truth that the fact it's the subject of dispute is an embarrassment. The whining responses to it - 'Why can't he give a PROGRESSIVE LABOUR solution to the problems of the UK and the economy??'- How about because there fucking isn't one. The economy is like the human body - there's plenty of ways to kill it, but with slight variations on a theme, there's only really one way to keep it healthy, and it isn't the Labour way.
Personally I think Blair's intention is to save his legacy - a large proportion of these problems can be traced back his constitutional meddling, and he's begging Labour to be a bit less shit to keep the whole show on the road, rather than a right wing coalition come in and repeal it all. Another reason could be that he's read the Faragist runes and wants to curry future favour.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
From the "I don't sweat" box of excuses.
Was she ever driven in it? Not exacty like a Lada inside, is it? Might suggest it cost a few bob, Peter...
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
Yup - first hint of an investigation, they fire up the next company.
The original one goes bankrupt.
When it was suggested that no company, that shared a director with a company found to be selling visas, should be allowed to have anything to do with visas - this was described as “too harsh”
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
Enough people prepared to deal with the Russians that the happy thought seems amiss.
One of the Ukrainian objectives seems to be to cause such severe and extensive damage to Russia's oil infrastructure that there won't be much to be gained from dealing with Russia, and Russia won't have the financial resources to threaten Ukraine again. The Ukrainians are just getting started.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
Thanks Peter. If Reform haven't done their sums properly, that is of concern and let's hope that now there's a more serious prospect of them taking power, they do them.
However, what you've written does itself appear to be a less than accurate summary of Reform's policy from their manifesto, which is as follows:
The manifesto states:
"Re-allocate £1bn currently spent on net zero projects and £6.5bn spent on 132 quangos to fund tax cuts."
It further clarifies the mechanism for the £2 billion income tax cut (aligning Scotland’s six bands with the UK’s three bands and cutting rates by 1p):
"The manifesto estimates that mirroring the rUK system and the first 1p cut would cost £2 billion... Reform UK says this would be funded by the re-allocation of £1 billion currently being spent on Net Zero projects and by (presumably reducing) 132 quangos costing £6.5 billion."
AI
So you have a £2bn tax cut, half funded by Net Zero projects, which there appears to be no reason for at all, given that Net Zero is a non-devolved matter, and the remaining billion by cutting quangos. Presumably (since the administrative costs apparently still don't add up to a billion, and some of those would need to be replicated in-house) their budgets would also need to take a haircut, but I don't see getting a billion out of a £6.5bn spend as a totally implausible goal. It's 15%.
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
I think it's the sort of liability that should be transferrable on to the directors of the company.
And if that's not currently the case I can't imagine many people would object to the law changing so that employment liabilities are transferrable to the directors..
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
I think it's the sort of liability that should be transferrable on to the directors of the company.
And if that's not currently the case I can't imagine many people would object to the law changing so that employment liabilities are transferrable to the directors..
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Lightweight Irredentism
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
Enough people prepared to deal with the Russians that the happy thought seems amiss.
One of the Ukrainian objectives seems to be to cause such severe and extensive damage to Russia's oil infrastructure that there won't be much to be gained from dealing with Russia, and Russia won't have the financial resources to threaten Ukraine again. The Ukrainians are just getting started.
Well good for them. Russia attacked Ukraine for no reason, thought they'd simply eradicate the idea of Ukraine. Nobody should have anything to so with Russians or Russia in my view.
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
Yup - first hint of an investigation, they fire up the next company.
The original one goes bankrupt.
When it was suggested that no company, that shared a director with a company found to be selling visas, should be allowed to have anything to do with visas - this was described as “too harsh”
More "too pointless" than "too harsh".
In the bizaaro postmodern world we live in, there's no reason to think that company directors have much to do with the direction of the companies they nominally direct. A related example is all those sweet/definitely not Harry Potter tat shops that infest out town centres;
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
And, of course, we've had decades of politicians trying to argue rationally, and where has it got us? It's no great surprise people are distrustful of the concept.
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
Yup - first hint of an investigation, they fire up the next company.
The original one goes bankrupt.
When it was suggested that no company, that shared a director with a company found to be selling visas, should be allowed to have anything to do with visas - this was described as “too harsh”
More "too pointless" than "too harsh".
In the bizaaro postmodern world we live in, there's no reason to think that company directors have much to do with the direction of the companies they nominally direct. A related example is all those sweet/definitely not Harry Potter tat shops that infest out town centres;
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
I think this is the right question but you have it back to front.
It is the establishment, for want of a better word, that is wedded to an ideological view of the world and the dissidents of both right and left who are pointing out the many hypocrisies and absurdities of that ideology.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
Guardian in Makerfield. Actually in Hindley, too. The Bickershaw industrial scale fly tipping would have been a national scandal had it happened anywhere near a media person's home.
Taxpayers to fund clear-up of huge illegal waste dumps https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2expk404vo Three of the worst illegal rubbish dumps in England are set to be cleaned up at the taxpayers' expense as part of a national waste crime action plan launched by the government. Huge tips in Wigan, Sheffield and Lancashire - together containing 48,000 tonnes of waste - have been earmarked for clearance by the Environment Agency. A 20,000-tonne site in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, is already being cleared at a cost of more than £9m. Normally, the cost of clearing illegal sites on private land is met by the landowner. The plan has been welcomed by locals near the tips but villagers near one of the so-called supersites uncovered by a recent BBC investigation are angry that site is not being cleared. 'Forgotten about' The three sites identified for clearance include a notorious dump in Bickershaw, near Wigan, which caught fire last summer, forcing schools nearby to close..
Given how long such things take, if Burnham does become PM, he will probably get the opportunity to take credit for clearing it up.
The "private land" has an exemption in Bickershaw. It's about one third owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. The Royals have no duty to clean up, and from all evidence, aren't in the slightest bit interested in so doing.
Why is the Duchy exempt from cleaning it up?
Is there an exception in EPA 1990 or something?
This must be seriously obscure.
"The land was transferred to the Duchy under the ancient "bona vacantia" legal principle which states that if a landowner goes into liquidation or dies without a will within the Duchy's juristiction, ownership defaults to the Duchy.
However, the estate does not have to inherit any liabilities associated with the property."
Source BBC.
Duchy tried to gift the land to the Council but it isn't worth the c.£5m cost.
I think that in due course that will not stick.
Eventually the Duchy will take on the liability under some sort of self-justifying "by HMK's grace" narrative.
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
Yup - first hint of an investigation, they fire up the next company.
The original one goes bankrupt.
When it was suggested that no company, that shared a director with a company found to be selling visas, should be allowed to have anything to do with visas - this was described as “too harsh”
More "too pointless" than "too harsh".
In the bizaaro postmodern world we live in, there's no reason to think that company directors have much to do with the direction of the companies they nominally direct. A related example is all those sweet/definitely not Harry Potter tat shops that infest out town centres;
They don't mind fat wongs of cash from them for bugger all work or risk though, do they? Whilst moaning about benefit scroungers no doubt.
That's what we all think of when we hear "company directors". Not in the 21st century, brother. From that Londoncentric article;
The legal tenants of these gift shops are often overseas students from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. When we turned up at the registered address given by these tenants we found overcrowded flats, abandoned offices, or even the flytipped car park. In most cases the registered director had either vanished elsewhere or left the country by the time we arrived, with stacks of unopened legal letters and tax demands visible through letterboxes...
...A former tenant of one of the units told London Centric that the business model of many central London gift shops is based on two factors. First, the knowledge that authorities are failing to enforce tax laws when it comes high street businesses. And secondly, the ease with which overseas students can be paid a few thousand pounds to sign legal paperwork on behalf of the real operators — before vanishing without paying taxes.
Once companies and company directors are effectively disposable consumables, combatting fraud is much like combatting drone attacks. And nobody really knows what to do about those, either.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
I think this is the right question but you have it back to front.
It is the establishment, for want of a better word, that is wedded to an ideological view of the world and the dissidents of both right and left who are pointing out the many hypocrisies and absurdities of that ideology.
...and coming up with a remedial action that is even madder than the one they are criticising
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the Russians hit a post office branch in Dnipro.
Are the Ukrainian post office deeply involved in military logistics? I know that when I last bought something from a Ukrainian maker on Etsy they said delivery could be delayed due to disruption to the postal service, so the Russians do seem to think that attacking the Ukrainian postal service will help to win the war. I'm no expert in the winning of wars, but I'm not seeing it myself.
Let's face it, if having a poor postal service made you vulnerable to attack we'd have been conquered long ago.
The Conservatives will survive. They always do, but I see them subsumed by Reform with Reform taking the brand name.They won't be Butskellist Tories, but the name lives on. Badenoch is half way there as we speak.
If the Tories were taken over by Reform then they wouldn't have survived they would effectively have been taken over by Reform whatever name the new party was called
It'll be like the liberals and sdp
That morphed on to Liberal Democrats.
Post 2029 whether Reform will or not it will morph
RCG
Reform and Conservative Group.
Very few current Tory MPs will survive, especially in Essex
I think the Tories will recover from wherever the low point is, once Ref UK have had their car crash series.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
It was a fucking I-Pace as well so that'll be a fuck, no.
I can't think of a single Jaguar I would put my own money into. Even the ones that have some sort of charm and appeal like a 1st gen 3.6 XJ-SC are a guaranteed ownership nightmare.
Just bought a Ferrari 575M (TdF blue/crema/manual). It was cheap because it's got no fucking engine.
In general, the monarch isn't subject to the courts. It's where the concept of Crown immunity comes from, and why Civil Servants technically don't have employment rights.
So it's not so much that there is no duty to clean it up, more that the Duchy can't be made to do so.
Despite generally lefty views I'm pretty neutral on the monarchy (they behave much as an elected non-party president would). But the Royal exemption from the law is indefensible and makes republicanism much more desirable.
Only the reigning monarch is immune from prosecution not the other royals but then again so are the Presidents of the US and France immune from prosecution when in office. It is more something given to heads of state than a monarchy v republic issue
Yes, silly argument.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Couldn't we compromise by reviving the American monarchy and offering them Andy as King?
Here's the big Gallup poll, often cited on the growth of independents:
A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, equal shares of U.S. adults — 27% each — identified as either Democrats or Republicans.
Note, please, that this is an average for all of 2025, so it is about 11 months out of date. I made a very quick search and didn't find any newer results, though I am sure there must be some.
Read further, and you will learn that there was a substantial shift during 2025, toward the Democratic Party.
The shift in the annual average leaned party preferences, moving from a one-point Republican advantage in 2024 to a five-point Democratic advantage in 2025, somewhat obscures the true extent of movement in party affiliation that has occurred over the past 16 months. In the fourth quarter of 2024, which spanned the last month of the presidential election campaign and most of the Trump presidential transition, Republicans held a four-point lead in party affiliation. By the first quarter of 2025, that advantage had disappeared and the parties were on equal footing. By the second quarter, Democrats had gained an edge of three points, 46% to 43%, which expanded to seven points in the third quarter and eight points in the fourth quarter.
Do I think Republicans have lost more ground this year? Probably, and I will be looking for evidence on that question in the weeks and months to come.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
It was a fucking I-Pace as well so that'll be a fuck, no.
I can't think of a single Jaguar I would put my own money into. Even the ones that have some sort of charm and appeal like a 1st gen 3.6 XJ-SC are a guaranteed ownership nightmare.
Just bought a Ferrari 575M (TdF blue/crema/manual). It was cheap because it's got no fucking engine.
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
A bit like the public perception of how companies, like supermarkets, are a lot more profitable than they are, or that illegal migration is much higher than it is, there is a widespread view that housing needs to be a lot cheaper but we should not build anything (people still object to social housing too).
In Ireland there is now a campaign of firebombing vacant council houses thought to be about to be occupied by immigrants. "Irish only or it burns," is the slogan.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Solving the crisis requires doing things the public won't vote for though, so it is a touch challenge for a politician. Requires top tier leadership.
Oh, absolutely, but facing down NIMBYs* will look like politics on easy mode compared to what will happen if the far right take power. The number one quality we should be looking for in a politician is the determination to do something difficult in the short term for long term benefit.
* NIMBYs are not the main problem in Ireland. Delays in building water and electrical infrastructure, a general lack of capacity in the building industry, and the government's unwillingness to build houses directly have been more consequential.
Talking to an Irish friend recently, they have similar rhetoric to the UK - "why are we accepting asylum seekers from safe countries like France and the UK?".
MAGA may well be here to stay, but the Democrats have done their bit to help. Since 2020 they’ve managed the rare feat of combining an unpopular candidate, poor messaging and policies that many voters simply didn’t want. Parties usually only need one of those to lose an election.
The more interesting question isn’t whether MAGA survives Trump, but whether the Democrats can rediscover the political centre before the Republicans rediscover theirs.
Harris, Biden and Clinton were all pretty centrist, and much more so than Trump. Biden, of course, won. Clinton won the popular vote. Harris was close on the popular vote, but sunk by post-COVID inflation.
The key argument is not that Clinton, Biden or Harris were hard-left. They plainly weren’t. It’s that a significant chunk of the electorate associated the Democratic Party with cultural liberalism, progressive activists and elite institutions. Once that perception takes hold, having a relatively centrist candidate at the top of the ticket doesn’t necessarily solve the problem
And does that perception come from the reality of what most Democratic politicians were proposing, or from Fox News and a right-wing social media bubble? I would suggest the latter.
If so, it's not about the Democrats rediscovering a political centre they never really left. Rather, it's about how do they cut through what Republicans make up about them?
My criticism is that most of Blair's essay was vapid bilge.
Isn't the criticism of New Labour exactly that they left the high income inequality that came in under Thatcher intact? Saying income inequality is the lowest its been since 1986 misses that it was much lower for most of the past-war period.
OT supermarket sitrep. This afternoon I noticed some tinned sardines labelled entirely in French. Now, maybe they've always been there but next to them was a notice about difficulties procuring food.
"I didn't drive and I had no interest in cars," says Nicola Sturgeon when asked why she never discussed Peter Murrell's purchase of a Jaguar worth £80,000.
It was a fucking I-Pace as well so that'll be a fuck, no.
I can't think of a single Jaguar I would put my own money into. Even the ones that have some sort of charm and appeal like a 1st gen 3.6 XJ-SC are a guaranteed ownership nightmare.
Just bought a Ferrari 575M (TdF blue/crema/manual). It was cheap because it's got no fucking engine.
MAGA may well be here to stay, but the Democrats have done their bit to help. Since 2020 they’ve managed the rare feat of combining an unpopular candidate, poor messaging and policies that many voters simply didn’t want. Parties usually only need one of those to lose an election.
The more interesting question isn’t whether MAGA survives Trump, but whether the Democrats can rediscover the political centre before the Republicans rediscover theirs.
Harris, Biden and Clinton were all pretty centrist, and much more so than Trump. Biden, of course, won. Clinton won the popular vote. Harris was close on the popular vote, but sunk by post-COVID inflation.
The key argument is not that Clinton, Biden or Harris were hard-left. They plainly weren’t. It’s that a significant chunk of the electorate associated the Democratic Party with cultural liberalism, progressive activists and elite institutions. Once that perception takes hold, having a relatively centrist candidate at the top of the ticket doesn’t necessarily solve the problem
And does that perception come from the reality of what most Democratic politicians were proposing, or from Fox News and a right-wing social media bubble? I would suggest the latter.
If so, it's not about the Democrats rediscovering a political centre they never really left. Rather, it's about how do they cut through what Republicans make up about them?
If I weren't so knackered after (please!) the heatwave, I'd look up the video of Jimmy Carr at a comedy gig saying the Dems had substituted equality of status in place of equality of outcome or opportunity, and the GOP had been hollowed out and taken over by Trump/MAGA. I think it was JC anyway.
This data implies that MAGA has not weakened very much as a political force, but even if actually true, to then say that MAGA is therefore immortal is not justified by this polling. First of all, as we know, polls are often lagging indicators, but even if they were not, it is quite a stretch to say "MAGA is not dead yet, therefore it will survive indefinitely".
There is increasing evidence that MAGA is becoming profoundly unpopular, even with erstwhile Republicans, and the size of the Republican vote is falling accordingly- vide current Paxton v Talerico where Texas has gone from likely Republican to lean Republican in the course of a week, and that is TEXAS!
So putting money down that MAGA and Tump will retain seats on this basis is a pretty shoogly peg to rest your cash on.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
I think this is the right question but you have it back to front.
It is the establishment, for want of a better word, that is wedded to an ideological view of the world and the dissidents of both right and left who are pointing out the many hypocrisies and absurdities of that ideology.
Well the very fact that you used the meaningless term "The Establishment!" shows waht an Ideologue you are. It's like the "Metroploitain Elite"; it's not an accurate discription of anything, it's just a Trump style insult to throw at the other side.
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
She said it wasn't on the drive of her in-law's place; in other words at the front of the property, but away to the side, to that she 'might' not have seen it. Or if she did, that she thought it was the neighbours. Could someone please produce a ground plan of the place so we can test the likelihood of her statement?
Surely the best way of testing the likelihood of that statement is to ask a jury to give an opinion
They got away with stitching up Salmond , just made the damning stuff unadmissable and ignored the witnesses for the accused so not make chance of that.
The evidence against erstwhile Russia Today presenter Eck, seemed quite compelling. Would he have been in greater jeopardy outside Scotland?
Sad old Pete, he would have been not guilty outside Scotland and your pathetic jibe about his independent TV show is typical leftie arse stuff.
What if we are still all stuck in a Left v Right framework and therefore missing the point of what is actiually happening.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
Thanks Peter. If Reform haven't done their sums properly, that is of concern and let's hope that now there's a more serious prospect of them taking power, they do them.
However, what you've written does itself appear to be a less than accurate summary of Reform's policy from their manifesto, which is as follows:
The manifesto states:
"Re-allocate £1bn currently spent on net zero projects and £6.5bn spent on 132 quangos to fund tax cuts."
It further clarifies the mechanism for the £2 billion income tax cut (aligning Scotland’s six bands with the UK’s three bands and cutting rates by 1p):
"The manifesto estimates that mirroring the rUK system and the first 1p cut would cost £2 billion... Reform UK says this would be funded by the re-allocation of £1 billion currently being spent on Net Zero projects and by (presumably reducing) 132 quangos costing £6.5 billion."
AI
So you have a £2bn tax cut, half funded by Net Zero projects, which there appears to be no reason for at all, given that Net Zero is a non-devolved matter, and the remaining billion by cutting quangos. Presumably (since the administrative costs apparently still don't add up to a billion, and some of those would need to be replicated in-house) their budgets would also need to take a haircut, but I don't see getting a billion out of a £6.5bn spend as a totally implausible goal. It's 15%.
Have Ref UK published a list of these 132 quangos?
This Financial Times article (bought by the Irish Times to republish) is interesting. Suggests there are some in Moscow hoping for an end to the war on the current front lines.
Last year Ukraine would certainly have accepted, but by the time Putin decides to do so, might Ukraine decide they sufficiently have the upper hand that they might be able to push Russia out?
They should demand return to original borders including Crimea. Bomb the crap out of Russia.
How about the original original borders? Ukraine used to reach to the Caspian Sea...
Sturgeon - "I don't have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome"
Lawyer approved....
So if it is someone proven she did see it at some point she is still covered.
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
This data implies that MAGA has not weakened very much as a political force, but even if actually true, to then say that MAGA is therefore immortal is not justified by this polling. First of all, as we know, polls are often lagging indicators, but even if they were not, it is quite a stretch to say "MAGA is not dead yet, therefore it will survive indefinitely".
There is increasing evidence that MAGA is becoming profoundly unpopular, even with erstwhile Republicans, and the size of the Republican vote is falling accordingly- vide current Paxton v Talerico where Texas has gone from likely Republican to lean Republican in the course of a week, and that is TEXAS!
So putting money down that MAGA and Tump will retain seats on this basis is a pretty shoogly peg to rest your cash on.
I think they have weakened as a political force, and have mainly their committed religious base still standing.
The aspect which I think has not weakened too far yet is Trump's control of the apparatus of the Republican Party.
I'm interested in how those Congressmen and Senators(?) he has rubbed out for the next Election change their spots now they have less to lose.
MAGA may well be here to stay, but the Democrats have done their bit to help. Since 2020 they’ve managed the rare feat of combining an unpopular candidate, poor messaging and policies that many voters simply didn’t want. Parties usually only need one of those to lose an election.
The more interesting question isn’t whether MAGA survives Trump, but whether the Democrats can rediscover the political centre before the Republicans rediscover theirs.
Harris, Biden and Clinton were all pretty centrist, and much more so than Trump. Biden, of course, won. Clinton won the popular vote. Harris was close on the popular vote, but sunk by post-COVID inflation.
The key argument is not that Clinton, Biden or Harris were hard-left. They plainly weren’t. It’s that a significant chunk of the electorate associated the Democratic Party with cultural liberalism, progressive activists and elite institutions. Once that perception takes hold, having a relatively centrist candidate at the top of the ticket doesn’t necessarily solve the problem
And does that perception come from the reality of what most Democratic politicians were proposing, or from Fox News and a right-wing social media bubble? I would suggest the latter.
If so, it's not about the Democrats rediscovering a political centre they never really left. Rather, it's about how do they cut through what Republicans make up about them?
We see this with Talarico in Texas. A white male eighth generation Texan, who is a theology seminarian, loves BBQ and has a hot fiancee. Hard to come up with a more Texan Texan, and it seems his politics are firmly centrist.
Yet this is how Stephen Miller depicts him in MAGA media:
"It's very bold that Democrats would choose Texas to nominate their first transgender Senate candidate who's transitioning into a female. When Talarico goes in for a blood test, blood doesn't come out, instead soy milk comes out. This man has less testosterone than Jasmine Crockett."
Comments
I just found out that B. in Benoit B. Mandelbrot's name is short for Benoit B. Mandelbrot
I don't think the story will run that much longer. It feels like a stretch she saw and knew nothing as wife or Leader, and the latter would be a professional and political failing, but with no criminal charges and her sticking firmly to an 'I know nothing' defence, it'll just be one of those things that hangs around without leading to anything.
* It was by and large, rubbish.
‘Very disturbing’: How Ireland’s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin’s council homes
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2026/05/30/irish-only-or-it-burns-how-the-far-right-targets-dublins-council-houses/
The far right in Ireland hasn't yet found a party home of its own, though there are plenty of parties chasing their votes, but it is showing that if you let a housing crisis fester then people will look for other solutions.
Still, Prince Andrew going to prison (if not for the reasons he probably should) would go some way towards showing some accountability.
Epping Forest likely stays Tory, as probably does NW Essex and maybe Harlow too on the local elections results
* NIMBYs are not the main problem in Ireland. Delays in building water and electrical infrastructure, a general lack of capacity in the building industry, and the government's unwillingness to build houses directly have been more consequential.
Doesn't make sense.
At the upcoming UFC fight at the White House see if Rubio offers Trump a crown to symbolically refuse a la Caesar (supposedly).
From the "I don't sweat" box of excuses.
From the "I don't sweat" box of excuses.
The Ukraine/Republic of China border. Can’t miss it, big graveyard there.
https://x.com/BMeiselas/status/2060716439720653032
Plus people might be socially conservative but economically liberal, or vice-versa.
And it is only names - the Liberal parties of Australia, Russia, and Canada probably don't have much overlap.
There was the Progressive Conservative Party as well.
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who said the problem wasn't so much the Communist ideology but ideology itself, the way we can become so committed to an ideal or way of thinking that we become blinkered. We start to suffer from chronic comfirmation bias, believing the things we like and dismissing those we don't.
What if what we are seeing isn't a struggle between Left and Right but rather between Rational and Emotional, between what we can prove is true and what we want to believe .
It doesn't matter if what Reform or the Greens are offering those who want change doesn't work, if people are willing to vote for it because they want to believe it will work.
One thing that draws me to this is the fact that for all the attempts that Harris and the Democrats made to successfully show that much of what Trump proposed from Trade to Investment and Tax cuts was close to Bonkers, people still were willing to vote for it it the hope it wasn't.
If systematically demolishing the other sides economic policies can be overcome by them calling you Radical Marxist Haters and voters believe them how do you fight that?
I watched reform at Holyrood claim they could save £2bn from a £6.5bn budget by cutting many of Scotlands 130+ Qango's and giving power to MSP's and a slimmed down Civil Service. Problem is of the total administrative cost of all of them is estimated at under £700m. Benefits Scotland administers £6.3bn but it's admin cost is only £320m. You can't save three times the admin budget by cutting the admin budget.
It doesn't take much to dismantle this kind of thing and it applies to all parties including the SNP, but the challenges seem to be ineffectual. We seem to be in a kind of doom loop that the bigger the lie ,the more popular it is and the more votes you get, from an electorate that says they don't trust politicians because they all lie.
Peter.
Warsaw’s sewer system, one of the first in Europe, began operating 140 years ago.
Built by British engineers, the sewers survived the destruction of WW2, when they were used by resistance fighters to move around the city, and still serve Varsovians today
https://x.com/notesfrompoland/status/2061027877689155679
Obviously overhyping political leaders is not unique to the GOP, but because Trump likes the praise to be laid on real thick (even to making sure people praise his golf game and looks, and his achievements in hyperbolic fashion) I think when anyone else in the party gets praised the default level gets a bit over the top too.
Lots of windows in planes, you see
The SNP?
There is no equivalance. You can try, but...
An Oswald Mosley du jour as it were.
Said no one.
As for whether it was rubbish, I have to be honest, I haven't read it, but most of what I've heard summarised seems to be such basic truth that the fact it's the subject of dispute is an embarrassment. The whining responses to it - 'Why can't he give a PROGRESSIVE LABOUR solution to the problems of the UK and the economy??'- How about because there fucking isn't one. The economy is like the human body - there's plenty of ways to kill it, but with slight variations on a theme, there's only really one way to keep it healthy, and it isn't the Labour way.
Personally I think Blair's intention is to save his legacy - a large proportion of these problems can be traced back his constitutional meddling, and he's begging Labour to be a bit less shit to keep the whole show on the road, rather than a right wing coalition come in and repeal it all. Another reason could be that he's read the Faragist runes and wants to curry future favour.
https://wiki.gearknob.org/index.php?title=Lada_Riva_by_Lotus
You in the market for a new Jag ?
One is being flogged off cheap, soon.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/may/31/indian-citizen-post-brexit-visa-scheme-employment-tribunal-uk
The companies involved will turn out not to have the money to pay the fines, and will rapidly be wound up.
The people actually running the show will find some other sucker to be the name on the letterhead and start up under a new name.
Limited liability is a good thing overall, but so easy to abuse.
The original one goes bankrupt.
When it was suggested that no company, that shared a director with a company found to be selling visas, should be allowed to have anything to do with visas - this was described as “too harsh”
Are you getting desperate, lad?
Maybe keep your crypto millions for something else. 😂
I like now Andy is prepared to take these people on directly
At least Farage stands and fights for what he thinks. Not the servants entrance (disused).
However, what you've written does itself appear to be a less than accurate summary of Reform's policy from their manifesto, which is as follows:
"Re-allocate £1bn currently spent on net zero projects and £6.5bn spent on 132 quangos to fund tax cuts."
It further clarifies the mechanism for the £2 billion income tax cut (aligning Scotland’s six bands with the UK’s three bands and cutting rates by 1p):
"The manifesto estimates that mirroring the rUK system and the first 1p cut would cost £2 billion... Reform UK says this would be funded by the re-allocation of £1 billion currently being spent on Net Zero projects and by (presumably reducing) 132 quangos costing £6.5 billion."
So you have a £2bn tax cut, half funded by Net Zero projects, which there appears to be no reason for at all, given that Net Zero is a non-devolved matter, and the remaining billion by cutting quangos. Presumably (since the administrative costs apparently still don't add up to a billion, and some of those would need to be replicated in-house) their budgets would also need to take a haircut, but I don't see getting a billion out of a £6.5bn spend as a totally implausible goal. It's 15%.
And if that's not currently the case I can't imagine many people would object to the law changing so that employment liabilities are transferrable to the directors..
And if that's not currently the case I can't imagine many people would object to the law changing so that employment liabilities are transferrable to the directors..
In the bizaaro postmodern world we live in, there's no reason to think that company directors have much to do with the direction of the companies they nominally direct. A related example is all those sweet/definitely not Harry Potter tat shops that infest out town centres;
https://www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-london-candy-shops-gift-shop-unpaid-tax
It's no great surprise people are distrustful of the concept.
Whilst moaning about benefit scroungers no doubt.
It is the establishment, for want of a better word, that is wedded to an ideological view of the world and the dissidents of both right and left who are pointing out the many hypocrisies and absurdities of that ideology.
Eventually the Duchy will take on the liability under some sort of self-justifying "by HMK's grace" narrative.
The legal tenants of these gift shops are often overseas students from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. When we turned up at the registered address given by these tenants we found overcrowded flats, abandoned offices, or even the flytipped car park. In most cases the registered director had either vanished elsewhere or left the country by the time we arrived, with stacks of unopened legal letters and tax demands visible through letterboxes...
...A former tenant of one of the units told London Centric that the business model of many central London gift shops is based on two factors. First, the knowledge that authorities are failing to enforce tax laws when it comes high street businesses. And secondly, the ease with which overseas students can be paid a few thousand pounds to sign legal paperwork on behalf of the real operators — before vanishing without paying taxes.
Once companies and company directors are effectively disposable consumables, combatting fraud is much like combatting drone attacks. And nobody really knows what to do about those, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1qyZWu2YFs
I can't think of a single Jaguar I would put my own money into. Even the ones that have some sort of charm and appeal like a 1st gen 3.6 XJ-SC are a guaranteed ownership nightmare.
Just bought a Ferrari 575M (TdF blue/crema/manual). It was cheap because it's got no fucking engine.
Note, please, that this is an average for all of 2025, so it is about 11 months out of date. I made a very quick search and didn't find any newer results, though I am sure there must be some.
Read further, and you will learn that there was a substantial shift during 2025, toward the Democratic Party. Do I think Republicans have lost more ground this year? Probably, and I will be looking for evidence on that question in the weeks and months to come.
If so, it's not about the Democrats rediscovering a political centre they never really left. Rather, it's about how do they cut through what Republicans make up about them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrlXNHSCfoQ
Best car I've ever bought. It's superb.
This data implies that MAGA has not weakened very much as a political force, but even if actually true, to then say that MAGA is therefore immortal is not justified by this polling. First of all, as we know, polls are often lagging indicators, but even if they were not, it is quite a stretch to say "MAGA is not dead yet, therefore it will survive indefinitely".
There is increasing evidence that MAGA is becoming profoundly unpopular, even with erstwhile Republicans, and the size of the Republican vote is falling accordingly- vide current Paxton v Talerico where Texas has gone from likely Republican to lean Republican in the course of a week, and that is TEXAS!
So putting money down that MAGA and Tump will retain seats on this basis is a pretty shoogly peg to rest your cash on.
3/10 must try harder.
Peter.
Does anyone have a reference?
The aspect which I think has not weakened too far yet is Trump's control of the apparatus of the Republican Party.
I'm interested in how those Congressmen and Senators(?) he has rubbed out for the next Election change their spots now they have less to lose.
Yet this is how Stephen Miller depicts him in MAGA media:
"It's very bold that Democrats would choose Texas to nominate their first transgender Senate candidate who's transitioning into a female. When Talarico goes in for a blood test, blood doesn't come out, instead soy milk comes out. This man has less testosterone than Jasmine Crockett."
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mmyorhisdo26
These people are not interested in the truth.