As many union members support Reform as Labour – politicalbetting.com
As many union members support Reform as Labour – politicalbetting.com
NEW: Polling of public sector union members in @thetimes Westminster voting intention, change shown on 2024REF 28 (+12)LAB 28 (-20)CON 13 (-3)GRN 11 (+6)LDEM 8 (-2)14th-19th May 2026, representative sample of 1,002 public sector union membershttps://t.co/dK69yzUl7C
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The plates are shifting.
This is the same phenomenon as people who voted for Obama twice turning around and voting for Trump. The Dems ignored these people in 2020 and look at how it turned out for them. Labour are going to be left fighting for third place against the Greens if they can't figure out how to get on the side of working people and fix the jobs crisis they created.
Daily Mail: PM Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly raging in private as Trump moves closer to a deal with Iran.
According to Al-Monitor, Netanyahu views the potential agreement as a disaster and blames Trump for it. The report says he’s so frustrated that he’s now longing for the days when Obama was in the White House.
“This time, the prime minister’s hands are tied. He is completely paralyzed and knows that he will not be able to do anything, even if the agreement signed between the United States and Iran remains the disaster he now defines it as”, one of Netanyahu’s close associates told the outlet.
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2061091038760931338?s=20
Chief Whip is going to be a job to avoid.
Well, he has done that but even his base, whilst supportive of him still, must be confused when he declares total victory every week, so he wants something more permanent. Benjy not as bright as he thinks if he did not see that coming.
Some longstanding supporters who leave are gone for good, but as the recovery from 2019 showed there are plenty of others who can quickly be brought/bought back.
Bit daft to think Bibi put him up to it though and ultimately it will be the countries of the region that have to bear the consequences of the deal (as Trump walks off into the sunset) primarily the wrong kind of Muslims in Arab countries.
The big unknown is how many of the, in this scenario, 300 or so Reform MPs elected will be the kind of people who really don't like being told what to do, and will Farage and co be surprised that those candidates were not just talking the talk on being blunt talkers and independent minded, as seems to be part of the brand.
US politics has often seemed very individualistic compared to ours, because of the power of states, separation of powers etc, yet in 10 years one man has taken over one side completely and turned them all completely supine, so it can be done.
Though Reform can still only tie Labour with union members unlike their clear lead over Labour in national polls overall
They want Dubai on Thames with flat rate, very low tax and fuck all else.
If you think Danny Kruger and Richard Tice are going to help the working class then I have a dozen bridges for sale.
Even if not as high as the 89% who think migrants coming to the United Kingdom across the English Channel should all be immediately removed from the United Kingdom and prevented from ever returning. The 77% who back restoration of the death penalty for some crimes, the 78% who think multiculturalism has made Britain worse and the 69% who think people in Britain should not be legally able to change their gender
https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/49887-what-do-reform-uk-voters-believe
Someone to avoid at all costs
Frankly, improving on the previous Tory administration isn't a much high bar to pass either, that was pretty diabolical.
They all agree on pretty much zero immigration, so that should be sorted fairly quickly. It will be tax and spending decisions that have the potential to be a bit more fun.
It's why we need Andy Burnham.
https://x.com/patrickkmaguire/status/2061197091993420259
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/private-schools-collapse-vat-tax-m0tsnrk77
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/left-wing-youtube-cenk-uygur-banned-uk-z87xfv89b
Mahmood is getting very ban happy. I disagree with him on most things, I find his style of shouting over anybody who wants to debate him, but is he really a danger to public that needs to be banned? He has had a very long established and large YouTube network, it is basically a cheerleader for a Bernie Sanders person as POTUS.
Lump of labour is a fallacy.
That applies just as much to you as it does anyone claiming we need immigration.
Union members may also not be very keen on Reform's "Great Repeal Bill" which promises to gut rights of workers, and repeal of the Equalities Act. Mind you when even Reform candidates don't know this, why should we expect the voters to know?
https://bsky.app/profile/bestforbritain.org/post/3mn3cxog2rg2q
With most of the votes already counted (polls closed 1.5 hours ago) the far right candidate De La Espriella is ahead. With 44% to the Ledt's Cepeda with 41%. The other right wing candidate got only 7%. Adding the two rught candidates together they are 10% ahead.
There will be a second round in 2 weeks. Last time in 2022 the left candudate improved his vote by 10% in the second round. However it seems unlikely that can be repeated as the right wing independent candidate was old and corrupt - by 2024 he had been sentenced to house imprisonment and then died.
The betting suggests about 80% chance the right will win and that seems correct. De La Espriella makes Nigel Farage look like a centrist.
I'm not on board the mass deportation train. I'd like to see the population decreasing, but to do that, I think it would be sufficient to just make it virtually impossible to come to the UK as a foreign national, and let natural wastage do the rest.
However if we did do mass deportations, it's not just the labour market that's impacted. For example, if we were to deport a couple of million people that might actually be enough to put a meaningful dent into house prices and rents. That's much more in the interest of tenants and people near the bottom of the housing ladder than the well healed property owning classes.
https://theaviationhub.co.uk/glasgow-edinburgh-airport-experiencing-fuel-supply-issues/
AFAIK both of these airports are supplied by road tankers, not the pipeline system used for major airports in England, so any supply disruption will hit them first.
One hopes this is not the canary in a coalmine.
It is wrong to add multiple parties together but especially odd to do so without accounting for others.
https://x.com/business/status/2061207129097130090
Conservative attorney Abelardo de la Espriella surged to a surprise early lead in Colombia’s presidential vote, outperforming expectations in the closely watched election.
Its really hard to see Cepeda winning, The head of the electoral commission is an Uribista and not allowing aa many witnesses as last time.
https://x.com/cenkuygur/status/2061205610327408773?s=20
He's a odd duck, though. Conservative in his youth. Also uncle of Hasan Piker, whose presence in the country is also banned.
I thought you meant you.
* He must do as he he has stayed on YouTube for donkeys years including ability to make money and live stream. They aren't as tolerant as Twitch or Kick particularly if you get big, you don't even need to say anything bad on YouTube itself to at get demonetarised, saying racist stuff outside of YouTube can still get YouTube to decide you can't have get ad revenue.
I’m sure there is something about politics and life there somewhere. Or not.
Bibby Stockholm barge operator wins £247m contracts after scandal
CTM, which ran the notorious asylum vessel, overcharged British customers by almost £120 million but Whitehall is still giving it work
https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/bibby-stockholm-barge-operator-wins-247m-contracts-after-scandal-79t3rm57w
"Tories to stop criminals spending benefits on alcohol
Pre-loaded ‘ration cards’ will prevent those with convictions linked to drink, gambling or drugs from funding their habits" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/31/tories-to-stop-criminals-spending-benefits-on-alcohol/
Also a slippery slope to spending money on "approved" things which is just not a sensible way of dealing with charity/benefits.
Puerile
Propoganda
Loony
Unworkable
Desperate!
And there is -in consequence- a large black market in SNAP benefits.
Not a good look for the UK gov to ban him though, although I would doubt that a reason was actually put to him as he describes it. Let’s not be banning people from attending what are very mainstream conferences and debates. It’s not as if he’s turning up to support Hamas, even if he is often critical of Israel. He’s not one of the crazy young kids like his nephew, and generally knows where to draw the line.
He is Frank Wright, and his website is here if you want a look:
https://www.frankwrighter.com/
He's somewhere around a British version of JD Vance but more thoughtful, so perhaps Leonard Leo, but I think with more of GK Chesterton in his thinking. For a British version, I'd suggest comparisons with the old fashioned Roman Catholic Right (meaning the first half of 20C up to perhaps the 1950s). That is an unusual angle and can give strange bedfellows on some questions - but I think we are getting used to that now in this country.
So from my point of view I would expect him for example to align with me on Eugenics (Chesterton was very strongly opposed, as I am) but disagree with me on abortion (Wright is an author on Lifesite News, whilst I am fairly liberal on the issue).
One current interesting phenomenon is that very few have noticed.
Investigation launched after thousands of payments from taxpayer-funded asylum seeker cards spent on gambling
Over the last year, up to 6,537 people used the government-issued cards at least once in gambling establishments
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/investigation-payments-asylum-seeker-cards-spent-gambling-b1239850.html
Nobody is more aware of the laziness and corruption of the lower classes than me, but empirically, the proposal could show positive results.
In America, government assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/aka food stamps) is doled out in roughly the way that the Conservatives are proposing, and studies generally show low, usually very low, levels of abuse, at any rate for a government program.
For example, this study from the University of Chicago Becker Friedman Institute found that cash assistance (like SSI) caused a 20-30% increase in emergency department visits for drug and alcohol use. By contrast, SNAP benefits, which are doled out electronically did not result in any increase in substance-related hospital visits.
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Paternalistic-Social-Assistance-Evidence-and-Implications-from-Cash-vs.-In-Kind-Transfers.pdf
And again a National Center for Biotechnology Information study claimed that rather than funding drug or alcohol habits, the expansion of SNAP and the removal of drug-related eligibility bans actually correlate with reduced rates of substance use disorders and improved access to addiction treatments.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7779750/
Finally, according to the Brookings Institution, the majority of SNAP dollars are spent on staple goods, with the overall spending patterns of recipients closely mirroring those of non-recipients.
So rather than making assumptions about the habits of the great unwashed, it's generally better to look at what actually happens.
And the evidence is that this is a policy that could conceivably work, depending on how it's implemented.
He reminds me of the "young Intellectuals" (on the Trumpist Right) of NatConSquad. They recently featured a 53 year old.
* Domestic population is in decline with more deaths than births
* 500K of domestic population leaving each year.
* With zero immigration (forecast at 700K) then population shrinks very quicky
* Domestic population is both getting older and sicker
* Potential tax base from Domestic population is shrinking fast to provide benefits (including pensions) for the old and the sick.
The dead hand of demographics is a heavy influence in the background so how do you satisfy the average Reform/Restore voter?
https://tyt.com/about
Cenk’s podcast co-host is much younger and better looking than he is, Ana Kasparian. Not as combative or ranty as Cenk, she’d probably be allowed in!
A peak to not quite so peak fall of 20% in real terms is pretty meaningless in fact.
It would take an approximately 70% to 80% fall from here in real terms to get a meaningful reduction back to rational price to income ratios that existed in the 90s.
Exclusive: Cocaine deaths have hit record levels, with more than 1,000 people dying last year.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cocaine-drugs-uk-deaths-police-south-america-b2975580.html
Good news for coked-up benefits card users!!
I would be sold for £80-90 and the alcoholic will use that to get their alcohol.
I'm sorry but have these people ever lived in the real world
I would be sold for £80-90 and the alcoholic will use that to get their alcohol.
I'm sorry but have these people ever lived in the real world
- The purity of cocaine has risen from 32 per cent 13 years ago to more than 80 per cent today
- Shocking figures show cocaine-related deaths in England and Wales have reached a record high, claiming 1,279 lives in 2024
- The UK had the largest cocaine consumer rate in Europe in 2023, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
- There has been a 40 per cent cut in real-time spending on adult drug and alcohol services from 2014 to 2022
- The latest government figures from wastewater showed consumption of the drug in England had risen by a quarter in the past five years
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cocaine-drugs-uk-deaths-police-south-america-b2975580.htmlAnother British success story! A fine example of targeted government cuts raising GDP.
There’s still a lot of pent-up demand outside London though, a lot of housebuilding and/or population reduction required before prices fall significantly.