"He created false invoices, used the wrong codes for some items in the party’s books, transferred money directly out of the party’s accounts and used his SNP charge card and those of two SNP employees, without their knowledge, to buy things."
Daft bastard. But also, terrible and appalling financial admin by the SNP. No four eyes process? That's just asking for trouble.
After two treasurers and the auditors resigned within six months, perhaps it may have been expected that the leadership take even a passing interest in the state of the party’s finances?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Severely disabled people can now consent to care arrangements, Supreme Court rules
Severely disabled people aged 16 and over will now be able to give consent to their care arrangements despite not having the capacity to do so, the Supreme Court has ruled. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e2lq58p87o
‘The biggest rollback of disability rights in a generation’ – Charities respond to Supreme Court ruling ... The ruling effectively dismantles a landmark 2014 legal framework known as Cheshire West, which established a universal “acid test”. This means that if someone lacks the mental capacity to consent to their care and living arrangements, is under continuous supervision and control, and is not free to leave, they were legally ‘deprived of their liberty’. This triggered vital legal safeguards (DoLS), requiring an independent assessor to regularly inspect care homes, supported living arrangements, and locked units to ensure the placement is safe, justified, and in the person’s best interests. Today’s decision tears up those protections. https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/the-biggest-rollback-of-disability-rights-in-a-generation-charities-respond-to-supreme-court-ruling/
Those zany funsters on the SC bench have done it again – and not just forcing trans people into disabled toilets.
The article is not particularly helpful for a newcomer on this issue, but if in a previous case the court created a situation which in this case the court says was not quite right, at least in these particular circumstances, then possibly it is an issue where politicians need to create some clarity through a law.
The ruling, which will also be applied in England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, has said that a multifactorial approach will now be used in determining whether someone is deprived of their liberty, external.
Significantly a person's own wishes and preferences will be taken into consideration, however, unless they indicate an objection, it's unlikely that their living arrangements will be considered a deprivation of liberty.
It could potentially prove challenging for those in charge of providing care, as the court has acknowledged that people's ability to express their attitude towards their care arrangement will vary from case to case.
Northern Ireland's health minister now has the legal power to revise the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (doLS) Code of Practice, which oversees care arrangements for people without sufficient mental capacity.
The SC appear to have seriously fucked up in both directions 1) Someone without mental capacity to look after themselves can't be deprived of their freedom - for example someone with dementia but physically active who wants to go outside and play in the traffic can't be locked in for their own safety 2) Someone without mental capacity whose representative thinks their care is not in their best interest (left soiled etc) can be coerced into saying they are happy with the care.
If you read the summary, there is a frequent referral to Strasbourg court’s case law on Article 5. It appears that Cheshire West may have been correct on the information and case law at the time but that has now changed. So on reflection, they have gutted Cheshire West.
It's a good example of how the law progresses in the background and what you thought is legal (or vice versa) suddenly becomes null and void.
Toilets anyone?
"How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing! To us, it is a mundane and functional item. To you it is the basis of an entire culture!"
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
Severely disabled people can now consent to care arrangements, Supreme Court rules
Severely disabled people aged 16 and over will now be able to give consent to their care arrangements despite not having the capacity to do so, the Supreme Court has ruled. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e2lq58p87o
‘The biggest rollback of disability rights in a generation’ – Charities respond to Supreme Court ruling ... The ruling effectively dismantles a landmark 2014 legal framework known as Cheshire West, which established a universal “acid test”. This means that if someone lacks the mental capacity to consent to their care and living arrangements, is under continuous supervision and control, and is not free to leave, they were legally ‘deprived of their liberty’. This triggered vital legal safeguards (DoLS), requiring an independent assessor to regularly inspect care homes, supported living arrangements, and locked units to ensure the placement is safe, justified, and in the person’s best interests. Today’s decision tears up those protections. https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/the-biggest-rollback-of-disability-rights-in-a-generation-charities-respond-to-supreme-court-ruling/
Those zany funsters on the SC bench have done it again – and not just forcing trans people into disabled toilets.
The article is not particularly helpful for a newcomer on this issue, but if in a previous case the court created a situation which in this case the court says was not quite right, at least in these particular circumstances, then possibly it is an issue where politicians need to create some clarity through a law.
The ruling, which will also be applied in England, Wales, and Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, has said that a multifactorial approach will now be used in determining whether someone is deprived of their liberty, external.
Significantly a person's own wishes and preferences will be taken into consideration, however, unless they indicate an objection, it's unlikely that their living arrangements will be considered a deprivation of liberty.
It could potentially prove challenging for those in charge of providing care, as the court has acknowledged that people's ability to express their attitude towards their care arrangement will vary from case to case.
Northern Ireland's health minister now has the legal power to revise the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (doLS) Code of Practice, which oversees care arrangements for people without sufficient mental capacity.
The SC appear to have seriously fucked up in both directions 1) Someone without mental capacity to look after themselves can't be deprived of their freedom - for example someone with dementia but physically active who wants to go outside and play in the traffic can't be locked in for their own safety 2) Someone without mental capacity whose representative thinks their care is not in their best interest (left soiled etc) can be coerced into saying they are happy with the care.
If you read the summary, there is a frequent referral to Strasbourg court’s case law on Article 5. It appears that Cheshire West may have been correct on the information and case law at the time but that has now changed. So on reflection, they have gutted Cheshire West.
It's a good example of how the law progresses in the background and what you thought is legal (or vice versa) suddenly becomes null and void.
Toilets anyone?
"How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing! To us, it is a mundane and functional item. To you it is the basis of an entire culture!"
The Germans are much more expressive - in a germane sort of way.
"Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik von mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein."
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I did find Makerfield Heating an extremely curious name. It's not a place name anyone uses at all. Ashton Heating, yes. Companies House says February 5 this year.
Re the police - and indeed other public services - what @Nigelb said in response to my comment on the previous thread goes to the heart of the issue.
"It ought not to be difficult to understand that training to deal with existing prejudices cannot mean replacing them with new ones."
It ought not to be. But I rather fear that that is exactly what has happened. Too many public services have adopted new prejudices and created conflicts of interest which impede the proper exercise of their functions.
Exactly. In the rush to avoid being seen as racist the police have now been totally captured by a narrative that only whites can be the bad guy in a situation like this.
Its also why we have so many happy to comply with the latest DEI bullshit around 'gender' to the utter disregard of womens' rights.
Our Uni is planning on not following the recent government advice, it seems.
"On 21 May 2026, the EHRC Code of Practice following the Supreme Court's ruling defining sex within the Equalities Act (2010) was presented to Parliament. With this news, we want to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring dignity, safety and respect for all people on campus, including our trans, non-binary and intersex staff, students and visitors. As a University, we have zero tolerance for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination, including transphobia, in line with our Dignity and Respect Policy, and we will act where concerns are raised.
Parliament now has 40 days to consider the Code of Practice before a date is set for it to be enacted. The EHRC Code of Practice will automatically come into force if Parliament does not pass a resolution against it within 40 days. We will use this period to consider all of the implications of the Code for the University.
In the meantime, students and staff should continue to use the gendered spaces - including toilets and changing rooms - that align with their gender identity. No one should be questioned or challenged for doing so. If anyone does experience questioning, confrontation, or behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, this can be reported immediately through the Support and Report tool so that appropriate action will be taken.
In addition to gendered facilities, all gender toilets are available across campus. These can be located using the campus map, if you prefer to use them.
We believe that actions speak louder than words when it comes to pursuing equity for LGBTQ+ people within the University community. Discussions are currently underway with Campus Infrastructure, Campus Services, and the Health and Safety Team to establish a clear, long term University policy for toilet provision across campus."
Look at it this way. They are giving women a cast iron case for indirect discrimination claims, reporting to the HSE for breach of health & safety rules (a criminal offence) and possibly also a breach of the regulations in place since October 2024 to take steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff.
This will provide lots of work for all my lawyer friends specialising in this area of the law.
They are also facilitating criminal offences such as voyeurism and indecent exposure and in breach of their safeguarding obligations to students.
Telling a woman faced with a man staring at her while she is changing that she must not query his presence or challenge him is to undermine the steps she needs to take to keep herself safe. It is grotesque advice. Utterly grotesque. It tells women - put up with fear, risk or crime - and don't you dare do anything to protect yourself because the feelings of the man making you feel at risk are more important.
I'd like to ask men here with daughters? Is that what you tell them? Is that what your advice is? And if it isn't why is it ok for a place which has a duty of care to them to give such advice?
I'd go with Linehan's tweet, the one that got him into trouble with the police (and which the police have grudgingly admitted was a wrongful arrest)
"If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls."
Its a joke, but it portrays real situations.
Linehan is talking balls I'm afraid. A woman will challenge but will not be violent because she knows that in a physical confrontation with a man she will lose. So she will try to defuse or flee. That then is used by activists to say women don't object which is nonsense too.
Women rely on men behaving decently and no men, whether trans or not, should go into a women only space and universities and others need to have procedures which reinforce that decency and so not put the onus of challenge on women or actively tell them not to. What this university is doing is telling women to put up with indecent behaviour and, far from reinforcing equality, it is putting the demands of a subset of men above all other considerations, including the law.
He's joking, of course.
I agree with you, and strongly support Sex Matters, but I do think that the 'toilet thing' is focused on much too much.
Years ago women and men toilets were kind of loose terms I think. I mean, in pubs and clubs I saw women use the men's loo many times (no one cared). Sure men using women's loos was uncommon (and sometimes a genuine mistake) but they'd get a bollocking at the most I think.
I don't recall women's loos every being described as a 'safe space'. When did this change?
I think things were better when we were relaxed and cool about such things rather than being all legalistic and censorious.
There didn’t used to be a group of fetishistic men who would get off on being in the women’s room, making the women uncomfortable at best, and victims of indencency or sexual assault at worst.
I think this is exagerrated. What do you mean by 'fetishistic'?
That there is a sexual motive to their actions.
Yes that's what I thought you meant. But is it true? I know there are exceptions but men who identify as women are not at all sexually motivated to use the women's facilities. They want to re-affirm their chosen identity, surely? They may be genuine/narcissistic/deluded but such people are not a threat to women are they.
Not all such people, sure, but the activist group members very much fall into that category, they *want* to make regular women uncomfortable. @cyclefree will probably say that having a penis means you shouldn’t be in the women’s room, which in my mind seems to be a reasonable place to draw the line.
There’s even a medical term for it, autogynephilia, as distinct from gender disphoria.
In fairness to m'learned colleague @Cyclefree, she insists that the status of "biological male" is set at birth (conception?) and is not altered by any genital surgery. Your statement seems to believe that trans women without a penis are still allowed in women's toilets. If my preliminary reading ( @RochdalePioneers and @malcolmg asked me to look into it ) is correct, they are not.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the current legal position was that, after the redefinition of the terms of the Equality Act to achieve internal consistency, anywhere where gendered facilities are required in law now has to split those facilities on the basis of biological sex (whoever the judges decide to precisely define that if a case ever comes to court). That doesn’t currently extend to places where facilities are offered to the public by a venue without legal obligation for them to be split by gender.
So, for instance, changing rooms in Marks & Spencer can be split any way M+S management prefers, subject to meeting their duty of care to staff and the public, because there’s no law that states that M+S must supply changing rooms divided on the basis of (biological) sex. Meanwhile changing rooms in workplaces & hospitals must be split on the basis of biological sex, because they are required by law to exist & the Equality Act now states that the division on the basis of sex must be biological sex.
Have I mis-understood?
My understanding is slightly different. The purpose of the Equalities Act is to prevent discrimination by sex. It provides a number of carve outs so that you may but are not obliged to discriminate by sex in specified situations, for example in provision of education, sports, changing rooms. The direction from the Supreme Court is that this discrimination may only be made on the basis of biological sex and not gender. ie you discriminate by sex or not at all. Many organisations will decide not to split services by sex even if they can, either because they don't agree with the discrimination as currently allowed or it's just easier not to go there.
There are a small number of government regulations that mandate separate facilities for men and women that are outwith the Equalities Act.
Yes - I should have added that any split M+S makes has to be justifiable under the Equality Act. Which is of course why so many of these places are implementing gender neutral changing - they hope it will enable them to avoid the entire controversy.
The Gender Crit crowd are having none of this, naturally, so those shops are going to find themselves the targets of action & I expect a push for gendered changing to made explicitly required in law. I expect the next Reform government to be particularly receptive to this lobbying.
Gender neutral facilities can be an option but simply putting an all-welcome sticker over the existing one on the door does not make it gender neutral.
Neutral facilities must be single occupant use behind a lock. Including the sink.
Many places have that for eg disabled facilities, so they can be gender neutral and open to all. But if you have communal sinks, then it must be one sex or the other, not neutral.
I was thinking of changing rooms above, so the sink thing doesn’t apply, but yes - this is my understanding too.
Same thing applies then, can be gender-neutral so long as it is lockable cubicles that you are getting changed in, as far as I am aware.
Centerparcs does this well, there is a single changing room for everyone to use but then it is arrays of cubicles within that room. Everyone has their own private space to get changed in (either solo/couples or families as appropriate), nobody getting changed in front of anyone else.
So long as it is lockable, there's no problem. The problem is if you have a communal open changing space then you can't just slap an "all welcome" sticker on that. Sex neutral means redesigning the space and ensuring it is all individually lockable spaces.
Make the spaces all individually lockable and sex is moot.
You’d hope this would be uncontroversial, but the Gender Crit crowd have recently started campaigning against shops with gender neutral changing rooms where each space has floor to ceiling walls & a lockable door with no gap underneath or above.
They’re going to push harder on this.
So M&S have made a rod for their own backs by having a Mens and an Anybody fitting room. WTF?
Indeed. I’m not sure what they were thinking there: it’s asking for trouble in the current political environment.
It might be that stores going through refurb have switched previously gendered changing rooms to gender neutral after being fitted with proper full length lockable doors & so on? So if the Mens in a given store (say) still had curtains & no locks M+S might be leaving them gendered until they re-fit them?
So where is the claim that "gender critical" people are objecting to properly implemented universal, individually lockable changing facilities then?
Objecting to M&S having a badly thought through and poorly implemented scheme is entirely reasonable and not the same thing.
They messed up and need to fix it. That is a practical matter that is reasonable to point out.
They’re also going after Next & other high street shops.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I don't think it's rumour. It appears to be definite fact that his plumbing business was set up only a few months ago. That doesn't mean he wasn't previously a plumber, of course. He just wasn't a self-employed one.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I don't think it's rumour. It appears to be definite fact that his plumbing business was set up only a few months ago. That doesn't mean he wasn't previously a plumber, of course. He just wasn't a self-employed one.
He could have been self employed, just trading in an unincorporated capacity as a sole trader. It is weird though.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I don't think it's rumour. It appears to be definite fact that his plumbing business was set up only a few months ago. That doesn't mean he wasn't previously a plumber, of course. He just wasn't a self-employed one.
He could have been self employed, just trading in an unincorporated capacity as a sole trader. It is weird though.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
According to word-cloud profiles of the party leaders I saw recently, the word most used to describe Farage is "racist". Not sure that doubling down on that is the route to No 10. At least, I hope not.
"He created false invoices, used the wrong codes for some items in the party’s books, transferred money directly out of the party’s accounts and used his SNP charge card and those of two SNP employees, without their knowledge, to buy things."
Daft bastard. But also, terrible and appalling financial admin by the SNP. No four eyes process? That's just asking for trouble.
A parish council has mastered these things. How come the SNP have not? What were their auditors playing at?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I don't think it's rumour. It appears to be definite fact that his plumbing business was set up only a few months ago. That doesn't mean he wasn't previously a plumber, of course. He just wasn't a self-employed one.
He could have been self employed, just trading in an unincorporated capacity as a sole trader. It is weird though.
He was working for British Gas.
Well, that settles that. He's clearly a total crook.
"He created false invoices, used the wrong codes for some items in the party’s books, transferred money directly out of the party’s accounts and used his SNP charge card and those of two SNP employees, without their knowledge, to buy things."
Daft bastard. But also, terrible and appalling financial admin by the SNP. No four eyes process? That's just asking for trouble.
A parish council has mastered these things. How come the SNP have not? What were their auditors playing at?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world.
Like honestly "it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election" is failed state shit and should be much more stigmatized
The fact that it's tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness.
I'm not sure why he's singled out California when that could apply to America as a whole.
To be fair California is the worst, their elections look from the outside to be about as straight as the SNP accounts. Most other states have had their primary results called before we wake up on the other side of the Pond.
Good to see someone of Silver’s standing calling out the process of elections in the US though, their management of elections is unlike anywhere else in the world, and not in a good way.
The one exception in the US is Florida, who spent a lot of effort redesigning their elections from scratch, after a rather unfortunate incident a quarter of a century ago.
Re the police - and indeed other public services - what @Nigelb said in response to my comment on the previous thread goes to the heart of the issue.
"It ought not to be difficult to understand that training to deal with existing prejudices cannot mean replacing them with new ones."
It ought not to be. But I rather fear that that is exactly what has happened. Too many public services have adopted new prejudices and created conflicts of interest which impede the proper exercise of their functions.
Exactly. In the rush to avoid being seen as racist the police have now been totally captured by a narrative that only whites can be the bad guy in a situation like this.
Its also why we have so many happy to comply with the latest DEI bullshit around 'gender' to the utter disregard of womens' rights.
Our Uni is planning on not following the recent government advice, it seems.
"On 21 May 2026, the EHRC Code of Practice following the Supreme Court's ruling defining sex within the Equalities Act (2010) was presented to Parliament. With this news, we want to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring dignity, safety and respect for all people on campus, including our trans, non-binary and intersex staff, students and visitors. As a University, we have zero tolerance for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination, including transphobia, in line with our Dignity and Respect Policy, and we will act where concerns are raised.
Parliament now has 40 days to consider the Code of Practice before a date is set for it to be enacted. The EHRC Code of Practice will automatically come into force if Parliament does not pass a resolution against it within 40 days. We will use this period to consider all of the implications of the Code for the University.
In the meantime, students and staff should continue to use the gendered spaces - including toilets and changing rooms - that align with their gender identity. No one should be questioned or challenged for doing so. If anyone does experience questioning, confrontation, or behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, this can be reported immediately through the Support and Report tool so that appropriate action will be taken.
In addition to gendered facilities, all gender toilets are available across campus. These can be located using the campus map, if you prefer to use them.
We believe that actions speak louder than words when it comes to pursuing equity for LGBTQ+ people within the University community. Discussions are currently underway with Campus Infrastructure, Campus Services, and the Health and Safety Team to establish a clear, long term University policy for toilet provision across campus."
Look at it this way. They are giving women a cast iron case for indirect discrimination claims, reporting to the HSE for breach of health & safety rules (a criminal offence) and possibly also a breach of the regulations in place since October 2024 to take steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff.
This will provide lots of work for all my lawyer friends specialising in this area of the law.
They are also facilitating criminal offences such as voyeurism and indecent exposure and in breach of their safeguarding obligations to students.
Telling a woman faced with a man staring at her while she is changing that she must not query his presence or challenge him is to undermine the steps she needs to take to keep herself safe. It is grotesque advice. Utterly grotesque. It tells women - put up with fear, risk or crime - and don't you dare do anything to protect yourself because the feelings of the man making you feel at risk are more important.
I'd like to ask men here with daughters? Is that what you tell them? Is that what your advice is? And if it isn't why is it ok for a place which has a duty of care to them to give such advice?
I'd go with Linehan's tweet, the one that got him into trouble with the police (and which the police have grudgingly admitted was a wrongful arrest)
"If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls."
Its a joke, but it portrays real situations.
Linehan is talking balls I'm afraid. A woman will challenge but will not be violent because she knows that in a physical confrontation with a man she will lose. So she will try to defuse or flee. That then is used by activists to say women don't object which is nonsense too.
Women rely on men behaving decently and no men, whether trans or not, should go into a women only space and universities and others need to have procedures which reinforce that decency and so not put the onus of challenge on women or actively tell them not to. What this university is doing is telling women to put up with indecent behaviour and, far from reinforcing equality, it is putting the demands of a subset of men above all other considerations, including the law.
He's joking, of course.
I agree with you, and strongly support Sex Matters, but I do think that the 'toilet thing' is focused on much too much.
Years ago women and men toilets were kind of loose terms I think. I mean, in pubs and clubs I saw women use the men's loo many times (no one cared). Sure men using women's loos was uncommon (and sometimes a genuine mistake) but they'd get a bollocking at the most I think.
I don't recall women's loos every being described as a 'safe space'. When did this change?
I think things were better when we were relaxed and cool about such things rather than being all legalistic and censorious.
There didn’t used to be a group of fetishistic men who would get off on being in the women’s room, making the women uncomfortable at best, and victims of indencency or sexual assault at worst.
I think this is exagerrated. What do you mean by 'fetishistic'?
That there is a sexual motive to their actions.
Yes that's what I thought you meant. But is it true? I know there are exceptions but men who identify as women are not at all sexually motivated to use the women's facilities. They want to re-affirm their chosen identity, surely? They may be genuine/narcissistic/deluded but such people are not a threat to women are they.
Not all such people, sure, but the activist group members very much fall into that category, they *want* to make regular women uncomfortable. @cyclefree will probably say that having a penis means you shouldn’t be in the women’s room, which in my mind seems to be a reasonable place to draw the line.
There’s even a medical term for it, autogynephilia, as distinct from gender disphoria.
In fairness to m'learned colleague @Cyclefree, she insists that the status of "biological male" is set at birth (conception?) and is not altered by any genital surgery. Your statement seems to believe that trans women without a penis are still allowed in women's toilets. If my preliminary reading ( @RochdalePioneers and @malcolmg asked me to look into it ) is correct, they are not.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the current legal position was that, after the redefinition of the terms of the Equality Act to achieve internal consistency, anywhere where gendered facilities are required in law now has to split those facilities on the basis of biological sex (whoever the judges decide to precisely define that if a case ever comes to court). That doesn’t currently extend to places where facilities are offered to the public by a venue without legal obligation for them to be split by gender.
So, for instance, changing rooms in Marks & Spencer can be split any way M+S management prefers, subject to meeting their duty of care to staff and the public, because there’s no law that states that M+S must supply changing rooms divided on the basis of (biological) sex. Meanwhile changing rooms in workplaces & hospitals must be split on the basis of biological sex, because they are required by law to exist & the Equality Act now states that the division on the basis of sex must be biological sex.
Have I mis-understood?
My understanding is slightly different. The purpose of the Equalities Act is to prevent discrimination by sex. It provides a number of carve outs so that you may but are not obliged to discriminate by sex in specified situations, for example in provision of education, sports, changing rooms. The direction from the Supreme Court is that this discrimination may only be made on the basis of biological sex and not gender. ie you discriminate by sex or not at all. Many organisations will decide not to split services by sex even if they can, either because they don't agree with the discrimination as currently allowed or it's just easier not to go there.
There are a small number of government regulations that mandate separate facilities for men and women that are outwith the Equalities Act.
Yes - I should have added that any split M+S makes has to be justifiable under the Equality Act. Which is of course why so many of these places are implementing gender neutral changing - they hope it will enable them to avoid the entire controversy.
The Gender Crit crowd are having none of this, naturally, so those shops are going to find themselves the targets of action & I expect a push for gendered changing to made explicitly required in law. I expect the next Reform government to be particularly receptive to this lobbying.
Gender neutral facilities can be an option but simply putting an all-welcome sticker over the existing one on the door does not make it gender neutral.
Neutral facilities must be single occupant use behind a lock. Including the sink.
Many places have that for eg disabled facilities, so they can be gender neutral and open to all. But if you have communal sinks, then it must be one sex or the other, not neutral.
I was thinking of changing rooms above, so the sink thing doesn’t apply, but yes - this is my understanding too.
Same thing applies then, can be gender-neutral so long as it is lockable cubicles that you are getting changed in, as far as I am aware.
Centerparcs does this well, there is a single changing room for everyone to use but then it is arrays of cubicles within that room. Everyone has their own private space to get changed in (either solo/couples or families as appropriate), nobody getting changed in front of anyone else.
So long as it is lockable, there's no problem. The problem is if you have a communal open changing space then you can't just slap an "all welcome" sticker on that. Sex neutral means redesigning the space and ensuring it is all individually lockable spaces.
Make the spaces all individually lockable and sex is moot.
You’d hope this would be uncontroversial, but the Gender Crit crowd have recently started campaigning against shops with gender neutral changing rooms where each space has floor to ceiling walls & a lockable door with no gap underneath or above.
They’re going to push harder on this.
So M&S have made a rod for their own backs by having a Mens and an Anybody fitting room. WTF?
The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world.
Like honestly "it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election" is failed state shit and should be much more stigmatized
The fact that it's tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness.
Can't say I disagree. We've seen the explanations for long counts in many states, super lengthy ballots with many different matters on them for example, but the process as a whole seems particularly egregious in California.
The original has a phenomenal first twenty or thirty minutes, a foundational-for-the-period title sequence, one of the best electronic soundtracks ever, inspired the intro of "Neuromancer", and one of the best last ten minutes. But the rest is a bit of a dirge.
"He created false invoices, used the wrong codes for some items in the party’s books, transferred money directly out of the party’s accounts and used his SNP charge card and those of two SNP employees, without their knowledge, to buy things."
Daft bastard. But also, terrible and appalling financial admin by the SNP. No four eyes process? That's just asking for trouble.
A parish council has mastered these things. How come the SNP have not? What were their auditors playing at?
Not a big organisation (bigger than most parish councils though), that apparently just trusted one many to have unchecked control?
Fortunate for him that no one cared to look into it, or at least did not support anyone who did say they wanted to look into it.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
I don't think it's rumour. It appears to be definite fact that his plumbing business was set up only a few months ago. That doesn't mean he wasn't previously a plumber, of course. He just wasn't a self-employed one.
He could have been self employed, just trading in an unincorporated capacity as a sole trader. It is weird though.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
The change from just-about plausible deniability, "asking the legitimate questions" to naked racism and fascism seems to be real. Speculation Reform are getting a bit desperate, or it could be a confidence they don't need to pretend anymore. Maybe it comes to the same thing. They will either get enough votes at the next election to form the government, which will be of a fascist sort, or they will fade away as another party that looked like a threat at one point.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
The change from just-about plausible deniability, "asking the legitimate questions" to naked racism and fascism seems to be real. Speculation Reform are getting a bit desperate, or it could be a confidence they don't need to pretend anymore. Maybe it comes to the same thing. They will either get enough votes at the next election to form the government, which will be of a fascist sort, or they will fade away as another party that looked like a threat at one point.
If only those were the only options, then they'd just need to be defeated once to stake them through the heart.
Sadly other scenarios are plausible too, like they don't get enough to for them government but do get enough to form the Opposition.
In which case they would remain a very real threat and could form the next Government after that.
They need to be handsomely defeated by both the Tories and Labour, not just either of them.
Your Party-backed groups did pretty well in London, winning 67 councillors in all + control of 1 council + 1 directly elected mayor, compared to Reform UK's 79 councillors + 1 council + 0 mayors.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 12m The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
If its Burnham he actually has an open goal
He's not Starmer He has political instinct He can orate his views with a degree of passion He has views not easily categorised some left some right. He's credible
He will destroy Badenoch as a vacuous screaming windbag He can take the fight better to Farage He takes the sting out of Polanski tail He's very hard for Davey to pick genuine fights with
His other key cards
A genuine debate about PR A genuine debate about EU A proper debate about Palestine and the ostracistion of Israel under its current governance.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 12m The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
According to word-cloud profiles of the party leaders I saw recently, the word most used to describe Farage is "racist". Not sure that doubling down on that is the route to No 10. At least, I hope not.
Yes you'd really hope that's a voter repellent not a magnet.
California is crap at counting (although I don't share @Sandpit's views that this makes the results in some way tainted.).
The fundamental issue is that California allows universal mail in voting, and if a ballot is post-marked before polling day, then it's valid. And USPS is even crapper than California.
Given that California has ballot drop boxes that are open before polling day, I would have thought that such 'generosity' is really not required.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 12m The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Fair enough. Yes, guilty.
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 12m The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
People should be very careful about who they spend time with as their "friends" may sacrifice them to save themselves (or in this case get some media attention in the hope of a few votes)
California is crap at counting (although I don't share @Sandpit's views that this makes the results in some way tainted.).
The fundamental issue is that California allows universal mail in voting, and if a ballot is post-marked before polling day, then it's valid. And USPS is even crapper than California.
Given that California has ballot drop boxes that are open before polling day, I would have thought that such 'generosity' is really not required.
It is worth noting that California would still be very slow to count most elections, even without that, because of the extraordinary number of things its citizens need to vote on. In November, someone in San Francisco - between ballot propositions (State, County and City led), assembleymen, Mayors, Congressmen, Senators and the like - will be voting on close to 100 things!
I see Kent County Councillors have decided the National Anthem will be sung at the end of their meetings (presumably just full Council meetings). Essex, on the other hand, are going to play the National Anthem (to spare us all the dubious vocal qualities of the Councillors) atn the start of the meetings.
When I was in local Government, there were always prayers before the opening of full Council meetings - I don't know if the Lord's Prayer was specifically one of those spoken - I once saw it mistyped as Lords' Prayer ironically during a test series against the Aussies - but there was always prayers from which any Councillor could excuse themselves.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
California is crap at counting (although I don't share @Sandpit's views that this makes the results in some way tainted.).
The fundamental issue is that California allows universal mail in voting, and if a ballot is post-marked before polling day, then it's valid. And USPS is even crapper than California.
Given that California has ballot drop boxes that are open before polling day, I would have thought that such 'generosity' is really not required.
Just to add to this. If your ballot arrives a week after the polls close, then they check your signature. If the signature doesn't match, then they reach out to you, and you have the opportunity to 'cure' your signature by turning up with ID to verify that your vote was actually your vote. This adds even more time to the process.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
Me too but if he keeps Mahmood on I won't be voting for them at the next election nor giving them my usual donation.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
We will have 300 or so Robert Kenyons in Parliament shortly.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Voters in places like Makerfield are in a rebellious mood, so they'll probably vote for this candidate in a big way.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
Weeks after the election (24 March), Denmark finally has a new Government.
Mette Frederiksen, who had led the outgoing Social Democrat-Venstre-Moderate coalition, now leads a new minority coalition of Social Democrats - Green Left - Moderates and Social Liberals which has 83 members of the Folketing and will be supported at least initially by the 10 members of the Red-Green Alliance.
It's a significant setback for the "Blue" block who had hoped to persuade Moderate leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen to support a minority Venstre led coalition but that had only 73 Folketing members.
Rasmussen had hoped to persuade the Venstre and Conservative parties to join a combined Red-Blue majority Government but the "Blue" parties just weren't prepared to play ball.
Perhaps an echo or two for what we might see here, one of the big problems was the Danish People's Party which wanted among other things a commitment to the net emigration of Muslims from Denmark.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
If its Burnham he actually has an open goal
He's not Starmer He has political instinct He can orate his views with a degree of passion He has views not easily categorised some left some right. He's credible
He will destroy Badenoch as a vacuous screaming windbag He can take the fight better to Farage He takes the sting out of Polanski tail He's very hard for Davey to pick genuine fights with
His other key cards
A genuine debate about PR A genuine debate about EU A proper debate about Palestine and the ostracistion of Israel under its current governance.
Despite your bile against Kemi this is the best response from any politician today
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Voters in places like Makerfield are in a rebellious mood, so they'll probably vote for this candidate in a big way.
They've also got a slightly more right wing but saner Restore candidate to vote for. Where I voting (I'm not) and if I wasn't voting for Andy, she would be my preferred option.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
I maintain my previous view.
Nigel Farage secretly doesn't want to be PM.
I think you're right. Though, as The Producers showed us, that sort of scam production risks developing a ghastly life of its own.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Fair enough. Yes, guilty.
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
Re the police - and indeed other public services - what @Nigelb said in response to my comment on the previous thread goes to the heart of the issue.
"It ought not to be difficult to understand that training to deal with existing prejudices cannot mean replacing them with new ones."
It ought not to be. But I rather fear that that is exactly what has happened. Too many public services have adopted new prejudices and created conflicts of interest which impede the proper exercise of their functions.
Exactly. In the rush to avoid being seen as racist the police have now been totally captured by a narrative that only whites can be the bad guy in a situation like this.
Its also why we have so many happy to comply with the latest DEI bullshit around 'gender' to the utter disregard of womens' rights.
Our Uni is planning on not following the recent government advice, it seems.
"On 21 May 2026, the EHRC Code of Practice following the Supreme Court's ruling defining sex within the Equalities Act (2010) was presented to Parliament. With this news, we want to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring dignity, safety and respect for all people on campus, including our trans, non-binary and intersex staff, students and visitors. As a University, we have zero tolerance for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination, including transphobia, in line with our Dignity and Respect Policy, and we will act where concerns are raised.
Parliament now has 40 days to consider the Code of Practice before a date is set for it to be enacted. The EHRC Code of Practice will automatically come into force if Parliament does not pass a resolution against it within 40 days. We will use this period to consider all of the implications of the Code for the University.
In the meantime, students and staff should continue to use the gendered spaces - including toilets and changing rooms - that align with their gender identity. No one should be questioned or challenged for doing so. If anyone does experience questioning, confrontation, or behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, this can be reported immediately through the Support and Report tool so that appropriate action will be taken.
In addition to gendered facilities, all gender toilets are available across campus. These can be located using the campus map, if you prefer to use them.
We believe that actions speak louder than words when it comes to pursuing equity for LGBTQ+ people within the University community. Discussions are currently underway with Campus Infrastructure, Campus Services, and the Health and Safety Team to establish a clear, long term University policy for toilet provision across campus."
Look at it this way. They are giving women a cast iron case for indirect discrimination claims, reporting to the HSE for breach of health & safety rules (a criminal offence) and possibly also a breach of the regulations in place since October 2024 to take steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff.
This will provide lots of work for all my lawyer friends specialising in this area of the law.
They are also facilitating criminal offences such as voyeurism and indecent exposure and in breach of their safeguarding obligations to students.
Telling a woman faced with a man staring at her while she is changing that she must not query his presence or challenge him is to undermine the steps she needs to take to keep herself safe. It is grotesque advice. Utterly grotesque. It tells women - put up with fear, risk or crime - and don't you dare do anything to protect yourself because the feelings of the man making you feel at risk are more important.
I'd like to ask men here with daughters? Is that what you tell them? Is that what your advice is? And if it isn't why is it ok for a place which has a duty of care to them to give such advice?
I'd go with Linehan's tweet, the one that got him into trouble with the police (and which the police have grudgingly admitted was a wrongful arrest)
"If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls."
Its a joke, but it portrays real situations.
Linehan is talking balls I'm afraid. A woman will challenge but will not be violent because she knows that in a physical confrontation with a man she will lose. So she will try to defuse or flee. That then is used by activists to say women don't object which is nonsense too.
Women rely on men behaving decently and no men, whether trans or not, should go into a women only space and universities and others need to have procedures which reinforce that decency and so not put the onus of challenge on women or actively tell them not to. What this university is doing is telling women to put up with indecent behaviour and, far from reinforcing equality, it is putting the demands of a subset of men above all other considerations, including the law.
He's joking, of course.
I agree with you, and strongly support Sex Matters, but I do think that the 'toilet thing' is focused on much too much.
Years ago women and men toilets were kind of loose terms I think. I mean, in pubs and clubs I saw women use the men's loo many times (no one cared). Sure men using women's loos was uncommon (and sometimes a genuine mistake) but they'd get a bollocking at the most I think.
I don't recall women's loos every being described as a 'safe space'. When did this change?
I think things were better when we were relaxed and cool about such things rather than being all legalistic and censorious.
There didn’t used to be a group of fetishistic men who would get off on being in the women’s room, making the women uncomfortable at best, and victims of indencency or sexual assault at worst.
I think this is exagerrated. What do you mean by 'fetishistic'?
That there is a sexual motive to their actions.
Yes that's what I thought you meant. But is it true? I know there are exceptions but men who identify as women are not at all sexually motivated to use the women's facilities. They want to re-affirm their chosen identity, surely? They may be genuine/narcissistic/deluded but such people are not a threat to women are they.
Not all such people, sure, but the activist group members very much fall into that category, they *want* to make regular women uncomfortable. @cyclefree will probably say that having a penis means you shouldn’t be in the women’s room, which in my mind seems to be a reasonable place to draw the line.
There’s even a medical term for it, autogynephilia, as distinct from gender disphoria.
In fairness to m'learned colleague @Cyclefree, she insists that the status of "biological male" is set at birth (conception?) and is not altered by any genital surgery. Your statement seems to believe that trans women without a penis are still allowed in women's toilets. If my preliminary reading ( @RochdalePioneers and @malcolmg asked me to look into it ) is correct, they are not.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the current legal position was that, after the redefinition of the terms of the Equality Act to achieve internal consistency, anywhere where gendered facilities are required in law now has to split those facilities on the basis of biological sex (whoever the judges decide to precisely define that if a case ever comes to court). That doesn’t currently extend to places where facilities are offered to the public by a venue without legal obligation for them to be split by gender.
So, for instance, changing rooms in Marks & Spencer can be split any way M+S management prefers, subject to meeting their duty of care to staff and the public, because there’s no law that states that M+S must supply changing rooms divided on the basis of (biological) sex. Meanwhile changing rooms in workplaces & hospitals must be split on the basis of biological sex, because they are required by law to exist & the Equality Act now states that the division on the basis of sex must be biological sex.
Have I mis-understood?
My understanding is slightly different. The purpose of the Equalities Act is to prevent discrimination by sex. It provides a number of carve outs so that you may but are not obliged to discriminate by sex in specified situations, for example in provision of education, sports, changing rooms. The direction from the Supreme Court is that this discrimination may only be made on the basis of biological sex and not gender. ie you discriminate by sex or not at all. Many organisations will decide not to split services by sex even if they can, either because they don't agree with the discrimination as currently allowed or it's just easier not to go there.
There are a small number of government regulations that mandate separate facilities for men and women that are outwith the Equalities Act.
Yes - I should have added that any split M+S makes has to be justifiable under the Equality Act. Which is of course why so many of these places are implementing gender neutral changing - they hope it will enable them to avoid the entire controversy.
The Gender Crit crowd are having none of this, naturally, so those shops are going to find themselves the targets of action & I expect a push for gendered changing to made explicitly required in law. I expect the next Reform government to be particularly receptive to this lobbying.
Gender neutral facilities can be an option but simply putting an all-welcome sticker over the existing one on the door does not make it gender neutral.
Neutral facilities must be single occupant use behind a lock. Including the sink.
Many places have that for eg disabled facilities, so they can be gender neutral and open to all. But if you have communal sinks, then it must be one sex or the other, not neutral.
I was thinking of changing rooms above, so the sink thing doesn’t apply, but yes - this is my understanding too.
Same thing applies then, can be gender-neutral so long as it is lockable cubicles that you are getting changed in, as far as I am aware.
Centerparcs does this well, there is a single changing room for everyone to use but then it is arrays of cubicles within that room. Everyone has their own private space to get changed in (either solo/couples or families as appropriate), nobody getting changed in front of anyone else.
So long as it is lockable, there's no problem. The problem is if you have a communal open changing space then you can't just slap an "all welcome" sticker on that. Sex neutral means redesigning the space and ensuring it is all individually lockable spaces.
Make the spaces all individually lockable and sex is moot.
You’d hope this would be uncontroversial, but the Gender Crit crowd have recently started campaigning against shops with gender neutral changing rooms where each space has floor to ceiling walls & a lockable door with no gap underneath or above.
They’re going to push harder on this.
So M&S have made a rod for their own backs by having a Mens and an Anybody fitting room. WTF?
Big, if true.
It is true. It might say 'any gender', but the gist is correct. There is no women only fitting room.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
If that is so the solution will be to stop talking to the press, or at least the 'mainstream media'.
That's a difficulty in the long term as Farage et al cannot just stop talking to nearly all media outlets every time things get difficult, but whilst they are still leading the polls they can probably get away with for a time.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
We will have 300 or so Robert Kenyons in Parliament shortly.
California is crap at counting (although I don't share @Sandpit's views that this makes the results in some way tainted.).
The fundamental issue is that California allows universal mail in voting, and if a ballot is post-marked before polling day, then it's valid. And USPS is even crapper than California.
Given that California has ballot drop boxes that are open before polling day, I would have thought that such 'generosity' is really not required.
Just to add to this. If your ballot arrives a week after the polls close, then they check your signature. If the signature doesn't match, then they reach out to you, and you have the opportunity to 'cure' your signature by turning up with ID to verify that your vote was actually your vote. This adds even more time to the process.
As Nate Silver said, this is “Learned helplessness”.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 12m The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
People should be very careful about who they spend time with as their "friends" may sacrifice them to save themselves (or in this case get some media attention in the hope of a few votes)
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Internet rumours (therefore please treat with appropriate caution) are that the Reform Makerfield candidate's plumbing business was set up 6 months ago and that reviews are all from other Reform members. Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
You seem to be more outraged by Farage than by Digwa?
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
If its Burnham he actually has an open goal
He's not Starmer He has political instinct He can orate his views with a degree of passion He has views not easily categorised some left some right. He's credible
He will destroy Badenoch as a vacuous screaming windbag He can take the fight better to Farage He takes the sting out of Polanski tail He's very hard for Davey to pick genuine fights with
His other key cards
A genuine debate about PR A genuine debate about EU A proper debate about Palestine and the ostracistion of Israel under its current governance.
Despite your bile against Kemi this is the best response from any politician today
I’ve said in the past that it will drive the left crazy to have a black woman arguing as she does on race relations.
I suspect that Burnham, unlike most of the other Labour options, is sensible enough not to fall into the obvious trap, and there might be a chance to bring the country back together on these things.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
If that is so the solution will be to stop talking to the press, or at least the 'mainstream media'.
That's a difficulty in the long term as Farage et al cannot just stop talking to nearly all media outlets every time things get difficult, but whilst they are still leading the polls they can probably get away with for a time.
Except he can... it's a stunt Boris pulled until the pandemic got in the way. If absolute loyalty of 30% or so is the aim, maybe Reform doesn't need mass media.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
It was a murder by an officer of the state, not simply a criminal.
That is political.
The equivalent in the UK is not Digwa, but Sarah Everard.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
You seem to be more outraged by Farage than by Digwa?
I addressed you before when you accused me of supporting Digwa.
And as a father I have no sympathy whatsoever with the murderous bastard who without any compassion stabbed a young lad six times. I also think the police officer who made a career defining error of judgement deserves no sympathy either
However there is a special place in hell for a politician who seees an opportunity within a heartbreaking tragedy*. Despicable.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Fair enough. Yes, guilty.
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
I'll offer you an honest assessment from the LD trenches (I'm not a member though am considering rejoining).
Badenoch is doing well - the local election results outside London were bruising and accentuated by the fact councils which had postponed in 2025 were legally forced to hold contests this year so in places like Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, the pain of 2025 was essentially dished out a year later.
In London, there were good results for the Conservatives against Labour and with very little improvement they might have added Barnet, Enfield and Wandsworth to the boroughs in majority control. They also held off Reform in Bromley and Bexley but were obliterated in south west London,as well as Havering and rendered an irrelevance in most of Inner and East London. I think it's 12 Boroughs where there are now no Conservative councillors.
Badenoch has also worked out there's no point being Reform-lite just as it won't help Farage being Restore-lite. I think she and her advisers see the outline of a distinctive approach but there are several hard sells to be made, first, why, after 2010-24 (and especially 2019-24) should anyone trust or believe the Conservatives to act in a conservative way (whatever that is)?
Second, if you want the public finances to improve and you see the route to that by cutting spending and taxes to encourage growth, whose benefits will you be cutting, whose Services will you end and how much will you charge people for that which they currently get for nothing? Whose taxes will you cut and by how much and how will you square the circle of commitments to spending more on defence and the Police among other things with the ending of stamp duty and presumably measures to helpthe car driver?
I agree on Lowe and as for immigration, it's one thing to argue for the deportation of illegal immigrants and non British-born criminals but I fear Restore have that streak of ethno-nationalism and unfortunately there are too many who would tacitly support their notion of a "white Christian" Britain.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Fair enough. Yes, guilty.
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
Did George Floyd's father plead with politicians not to politicise his death?
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
It was a murder by an officer of the state, not simply a criminal.
That is political.
The equivalent in the UK is not Digwa, but Sarah Everard.
That's a very poor analogy. Sarah Everard was murdered by a sick bastard who happened to be a policeman and used that for his crime. Floyd was killed while being arrested by a policeman attempting to do his job.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
You seem to be more outraged by Farage than by Digwa?
I addressed you before when you accused me of supporting Digwa.
And as a father I have no sympathy whatsoever with the murderous bastard who without any compassion stabbed a young lad six times. I also think the police officer who made a career defining error of judgement deserves no sympathy either
However there is a special place in hell for a politician who seees an opportunity within a heartbreaking tragedy*. Despicable.
See also the Farage Southport Riots.
Farage has given a perfectly reasonable summary of the deplorable incident.
The Knee seems to have (finally) gone away now, but one lasting effect of the 2020 BLM protests has been that almost all TV adverts now feature mixed-race families.
People will say, "So what?" etc. - and I get that - but it might be playing into perceptions of immigration being much higher that it actually is on the one hand and, if it's too at odds with what people actually see around them and feels contrived, it can play into some people feeling there's another agenda at play.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
It was a murder by an officer of the state, not simply a criminal.
That is political.
The equivalent in the UK is not Digwa, but Sarah Everard.
There were even politicians commenting aboout that.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
It was a murder by an officer of the state, not simply a criminal.
That is political.
The equivalent in the UK is not Digwa, but Sarah Everard.
That's a very poor analogy. Sarah Everard was murdered by a sick bastard who happened to be a policeman and used that for his crime. Floyd was killed while being arrested by a policeman attempting to do his job.
Everard was murdered by a sick bastard who was a Policeman who used that for his crime, agreed. Floyd was murdered by a sick bastard who was a Policeman who used that for his crime.
No part of "doing his job" was done in that murder. It was murder, plain and simple, for which he was rightly found guilty.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 5m Reform really are descending into the gutter now. This is a total distortion of what Kemi Badenoch actually said. It’s another example of their increasingly desperate efforts to neutralise Restore.
Yes, that is a complete distortion of what Badenoch said! Reform are now just distorting and lying routinely. They're straight copying Donald Trump.
Have Reform ascended as far as the gutter? When did this happen?
Up to now, Nigey F has been able to walk the line- walk on the edge of the gutter without ever quite falling in. Just about plausible deniability is a really good trick if you can pull it off, and NF has managed to just about keep some space between him and the actual NF for decades now.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
I maintain my previous view.
Nigel Farage secretly doesn't want to be PM.
I think in this, like so much else, he's very like Trump.
I don't really think Trump ever expected to be President - too outlandish to be accepted by the political establishment. Much more interested in his own brand, and pursuing his pet hobby-horses. But enjoyed making political waves, and upsetting the higher echelons. A feast for the ego.
And then, amazingly, he won the nomination and, even more amazingly, won the presidency. He loves it.
I think Nige would be more than happy being PM. Think of the gratification. But it certainly wasn't the long-term plan.
The Knee seems to have (finally) gone away now, but one lasting effect of the 2020 BLM protests has been that almost all TV adverts now feature mixed-race families.
People will say, "So what?" etc. - and I get that - but it might be playing into perceptions of immigration being much higher that it actually is on the one hand and, if it's too at odds with what people actually see around them and feels contrived, it can play into some people feeling there's another agenda at play.
They should probably vary it a bit more.
We've discussed this before. I don't think it was a response to Floyd, I've noticed it for many years. In reality it's advertisers trying to hit all the potential shoppers. I do agree that it gives a very false view of modern Britain. And that may well skew perceptions of how much immigration has occured.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
I think a significant proportion of those who left Labour under SKS could be persuaded to vote for Burnham
I heard him talk about 47 years of Neo Liberalism failing the working classes and not addressing inequality
On the other hand I have heard him cave to the Red Tory agenda on issue after issue in the last few weeks
So it very much depends which route Labour goes down for me to consider leaving the Greens
I'd almost decided to switch to the Greens but I'm giving Burnham a chance (and going up next weekend to help canvass). I'm not optimistic about him being consistently left-wing, but he has some interesting ideas and doesn't seem sectarian. Let's see.
You should give the Tories a spin. Far better.
Still shrilling for that lost cause, I see?
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Fair enough. Yes, guilty.
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
I'll offer you an honest assessment from the LD trenches (I'm not a member though am considering rejoining).
Badenoch is doing well - the local election results outside London were bruising and accentuated by the fact councils which had postponed in 2025 were legally forced to hold contests this year so in places like Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, the pain of 2025 was essentially dished out a year later.
In London, there were good results for the Conservatives against Labour and with very little improvement they might have added Barnet, Enfield and Wandsworth to the boroughs in majority control. They also held off Reform in Bromley and Bexley but were obliterated in south west London,as well as Havering and rendered an irrelevance in most of Inner and East London. I think it's 12 Boroughs where there are now no Conservative councillors.
Badenoch has also worked out there's no point being Reform-lite just as it won't help Farage being Restore-lite. I think she and her advisers see the outline of a distinctive approach but there are several hard sells to be made, first, why, after 2010-24 (and especially 2019-24) should anyone trust or believe the Conservatives to act in a conservative way (whatever that is)?
Second, if you want the public finances to improve and you see the route to that by cutting spending and taxes to encourage growth, whose benefits will you be cutting, whose Services will you end and how much will you charge people for that which they currently get for nothing? Whose taxes will you cut and by how much and how will you square the circle of commitments to spending more on defence and the Police among other things with the ending of stamp duty and presumably measures to helpthe car driver?
I agree on Lowe and as for immigration, it's one thing to argue for the deportation of illegal immigrants and non British-born criminals but I fear Restore have that streak of ethno-nationalism and unfortunately there are too many who would tacitly support their notion of a "white Christian" Britain.
I think pretty much everyone on PB agrees that we need to address spending, and that Starmer is somehow creating a no-vote zone in precisely the political region that we all vote, or vote adjacent to.
It's not a good time.
Immigration has to be addressed. We are just creating a nation of welfare much populated by people of no history here, and largely made up of those with paper-thin claims to charity. I've no strong view as to what the solution is, and I wouldn't vote based on policy in the area, but I'll equally not cry a tear for the immigrants.
The Greens under Zack attack ate their lunch. They’re dead.
And when Burnham wins Labour pivots left and kills the greens surge. Just look at the Compass twitter feed for what to expect
How long before the Greens split?
Not long IMHO
When Burnham wins the leadership and pivots left the Corbynite hard left will go back to Labour and that will leave the environment loving NIMBY brigade
Quite where it leaves Zack remains to be seen
Are parties doing well less likely to split? Why split when you’re winning?
That said, Reform did see splits while they were doing well, but those were driven by interpersonal tensions between Farage and others.
Your Party aren’t winning and, aside from a few inner city areas, neither are the Greens.
I suspect when Burnham pivots left Greens on the left will go back.
Your Party aren't winning, but the Greens are doing better than they have ever done before. Most MPs ever. Most local councillors ever. Most directly-elected mayors ever. Most councils led ever. Most Senedd members ever. Equal most London Assembly members ever. Most MSPs ever (although they're a separate party). Highest polling ever.
Their polling numbers have fallen back.
As for the rest. It could be peak green. We will see.
Their polling numbers have fallen back a bit. They are still above any polling they received before this year, aren't they? Maybe it's peak Green, and I wouldn't mind if it was, but I think they're generally pretty happy within the party at the moment.
Just watched the Reform candidate for Makerfield. They've got to be joking haven't they? He was interviewed by Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Farage's despicable racially charged commentary on the murder of Henry Novak despite Mark Novak, Henry's father pleading with politicians not to turn this tragedy into a racial witch hunt against non whites. Of course Farage went in with his boots on to stir a hornets nest of outrage. One expects such a disgusting manipulation from Farage, but Philp charged in despite Badenoch earlier, and quite impressively I thought cautioning of Farage's racist opportunism.
So why was George Floyd politicised?
You tell me.
You don't have to look too far for racial profiling in US policing. I have no particular interest in Floyd. Although it is interesting that the murderous white guy ( can't remember his name, but you will know the one) who shot up a BLM protest wandered through cops with an automatic weapon nonchalantly draped on his shoulder. My particular favourite murdered by police example is Sandra bland. She was no George Floyd. I believe it unfortunate that George Floyd is referenced in Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police literature.
Farage is promoting the idea of white disadvantage. There end product of that is Pete Hegseth putting in place a moratorium of military promotions for black and female officers. Not because of ability because he doesn't believe that black and female officers should be in military roles. I suspect Farage is of a similar mindset and he is gaslighting.
The Knee seems to have (finally) gone away now, but one lasting effect of the 2020 BLM protests has been that almost all TV adverts now feature mixed-race families.
People will say, "So what?" etc. - and I get that - but it might be playing into perceptions of immigration being much higher that it actually is on the one hand and, if it's too at odds with what people actually see around them and feels contrived, it can play into some people feeling there's another agenda at play.
They should probably vary it a bit more.
Interesting. Never thought of it like that. Insights like this are what PB should be about.
Comments
Suggesting they're drawing a very odd lesson from the Denton and Gorton byelection.
"Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik von mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein."
On their foreheads.
It's not a place name anyone uses at all. Ashton Heating, yes.
Companies House says February 5 this year.
https://x.com/natesilver538/status/2061670901394047276
The fact that California elections often can't be resolved for weeks is kind of insane and not common in other electoral systems around the world.
Like honestly "it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election" is failed state shit and should be much more stigmatized
The fact that it's tolerated is bad too a textbook example of learned helplessness.
He's not the Jezziah, he's a very naughty boy.
The rise of Restore has put Reform in the same tricky position that the various Faragist parties have put the Conservatives. The Conservatives handled it really badly- they have neither the credit for leaving clear clean water between themselves and Farage, nor the populist popularity of going all-in. Instead, they've become Reform Lite- validating his talking points without enough red meat to truly satisfy.
Can Reform do better at strangling their rival on the right in early childhood? Much too early to tell, but the signs aren't brilliant.
Good to see someone of Silver’s standing calling out the process of elections in the US though, their management of elections is unlike anywhere else in the world, and not in a good way.
The one exception in the US is Florida, who spent a lot of effort redesigning their elections from scratch, after a rather unfortunate incident a quarter of a century ago.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/zack-snyder-escape-from-new-york-remake-1236610684/
The original has a phenomenal first twenty or thirty minutes, a foundational-for-the-period title sequence, one of the best electronic soundtracks ever, inspired the intro of "Neuromancer", and one of the best last ten minutes. But the rest is a bit of a dirge.
Plus "Lockout" was a unofficial remake and had the same problems: great first bit, great last bit, boring middle.
"Escape from Los Angeles" was the official sequel and was also not good.
Neil Marshall's "Doomsday" was explicitly a homage, down to the font and the heroine having only one eye
So Snyder can't f*** it up more than it's already been f***ed up
- EFNY: title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfxpq5V7rjA "In 1988 the once-great city..."
- EFNY: old trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCktBbzTtQA
- EFLA: old trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRJ8UV_HLjU
- Lockout: trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4hZqrIM9w
- Doomsday: title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI7QacxxH_A
- Doomsday: trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsG3mzlUpc
RedLetterMedia review of EFNY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff2YU6XtZ9oFortunate for him that no one cared to look into it, or at least did not support anyone who did say they wanted to look into it.
Corbyn and Your Party explicitly endorsed Mehmood Mirza and the Newham Independents before the local elections.
Mirza was in Momentum back in the day.
https://www.yourparty.uk/independent-groups/
Sadly other scenarios are plausible too, like they don't get enough to for them government but do get enough to form the Opposition.
In which case they would remain a very real threat and could form the next Government after that.
They need to be handsomely defeated by both the Tories and Labour, not just either of them.
Why should anyone support the Conservatives currently? For what do they actually stand?
On a more serious note, how do Conservatives view Restore - potential ally, existential threat, fringe movement?
Burnham will hurt Labour if he fails and condemn the party to the abyss if he succeeds.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
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12m
The question people should be asking is why have Reform suddenly gone nuclear, and started lashing out at everyone and everything. I think the reason is they are seeing the same polling and canvassing data that all the other parties are seeing in Makerfield.
https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/2061860489336901756
He's not Starmer
He has political instinct
He can orate his views with a degree of passion
He has views not easily categorised some left some right.
He's credible
He will destroy Badenoch as a vacuous screaming windbag
He can take the fight better to Farage
He takes the sting out of Polanski tail
He's very hard for Davey to pick genuine fights with
His other key cards
A genuine debate about PR
A genuine debate about EU
A proper debate about Palestine and the ostracistion of Israel under its current governance.
The fundamental issue is that California allows universal mail in voting, and if a ballot is post-marked before polling day, then it's valid. And USPS is even crapper than California.
Given that California has ballot drop boxes that are open before polling day, I would have thought that such 'generosity' is really not required.
https://x.com/SikhPA/status/2061393076376232210?s=20
Indeed, why should anyone bother with today's Tories? It's mostly just a hanging on to history thing I guess. Kemi is better as a leader, but her bench is woeful.
(I was once a Tory, and hope to become one again, but unconnected otherwise)
My personal view of Lowe is that he's awful. Really bad.
When I was in local Government, there were always prayers before the opening of full Council meetings - I don't know if the Lord's Prayer was specifically one of those spoken - I once saw it mistyped as Lords' Prayer ironically during a test series against the Aussies - but there was always prayers from which any Councillor could excuse themselves.
Chris Mason and though only two or three minutes he was a car crash. Farage must have been squirming.
Nigel Farage secretly doesn't want to be PM.
Or even on the end of a skewer.
Mette Frederiksen, who had led the outgoing Social Democrat-Venstre-Moderate coalition, now leads a new minority coalition of Social Democrats - Green Left - Moderates and Social Liberals which has 83 members of the Folketing and will be supported at least initially by the 10 members of the Red-Green Alliance.
It's a significant setback for the "Blue" block who had hoped to persuade Moderate leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen to support a minority Venstre led coalition but that had only 73 Folketing members.
Rasmussen had hoped to persuade the Venstre and Conservative parties to join a combined Red-Blue majority Government but the "Blue" parties just weren't prepared to play ball.
Perhaps an echo or two for what we might see here, one of the big problems was the Danish People's Party which wanted among other things a commitment to the net emigration of Muslims from Denmark.
https://x.com/i/status/2061735363127730232
(Looks around nervously)
That's a difficulty in the long term as Farage et al cannot just stop talking to nearly all media outlets every time things get difficult, but whilst they are still leading the polls they can probably get away with for a time.
Great when leaning on the bar with a pint in his pewter tankard, sucking air through teeth and going "Oh, I wouldn't do it like that..."
"So how would you do it then Nigel?"
"Er....gulp..."
I’ve said in the past that it will drive the left crazy to have a black woman arguing as she does on race relations.
I suspect that Burnham, unlike most of the other Labour options, is sensible enough not to fall into the obvious trap, and there might be a chance to bring the country back together on these things.
That is political.
The equivalent in the UK is not Digwa, but Sarah Everard.
And as a father I have no sympathy whatsoever with the murderous bastard who without any compassion stabbed a young lad six times. I also think the police officer who made a career defining error of judgement deserves no sympathy either
However there is a special place in hell for a politician who seees an opportunity within a heartbreaking tragedy*. Despicable.
See also the Farage Southport Riots.
Badenoch is doing well - the local election results outside London were bruising and accentuated by the fact councils which had postponed in 2025 were legally forced to hold contests this year so in places like Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, the pain of 2025 was essentially dished out a year later.
In London, there were good results for the Conservatives against Labour and with very little improvement they might have added Barnet, Enfield and Wandsworth to the boroughs in majority control. They also held off Reform in Bromley and Bexley but were obliterated in south west London,as well as Havering and rendered an irrelevance in most of Inner and East London. I think it's 12 Boroughs where there are now no Conservative councillors.
Badenoch has also worked out there's no point being Reform-lite just as it won't help Farage being Restore-lite. I think she and her advisers see the outline of a distinctive approach but there are several hard sells to be made, first, why, after 2010-24 (and especially 2019-24) should anyone trust or believe the Conservatives to act in a conservative way (whatever that is)?
Second, if you want the public finances to improve and you see the route to that by cutting spending and taxes to encourage growth, whose benefits will you be cutting, whose Services will you end and how much will you charge people for that which they currently get for nothing? Whose taxes will you cut and by how much and how will you square the circle of commitments to spending more on defence and the Police among other things with the ending of stamp duty and presumably measures to helpthe car driver?
I agree on Lowe and as for immigration, it's one thing to argue for the deportation of illegal immigrants and non British-born criminals but I fear Restore have that streak of ethno-nationalism and unfortunately there are too many who would tacitly support their notion of a "white Christian" Britain.
(Oh, sorry, that was Labour in 2007).
Floyd was killed while being arrested by a policeman attempting to do his job.
People will say, "So what?" etc. - and I get that - but it might be playing into perceptions of immigration being much higher that it actually is on the one hand and, if it's too at odds with what people actually see around them and feels contrived, it can play into some people feeling there's another agenda at play.
They should probably vary it a bit more.
https://x.com/I_amMukhtar/status/2061790366265668095?s=20
Floyd was murdered by a sick bastard who was a Policeman who used that for his crime.
No part of "doing his job" was done in that murder. It was murder, plain and simple, for which he was rightly found guilty.
I don't really think Trump ever expected to be President - too outlandish to be accepted by the political establishment. Much more interested in his own brand, and pursuing his pet hobby-horses. But enjoyed making political waves, and upsetting the higher echelons. A feast for the ego.
And then, amazingly, he won the nomination and, even more amazingly, won the presidency. He loves it.
I think Nige would be more than happy being PM. Think of the gratification. But it certainly wasn't the long-term plan.
El Nino second.
It's not a good time.
Immigration has to be addressed. We are just creating a nation of welfare much populated by people of no history here, and largely made up of those with paper-thin claims to charity. I've no strong view as to what the solution is, and I wouldn't vote based on policy in the area, but I'll equally not cry a tear for the immigrants.
You don't have to look too far for racial profiling in US policing. I have no particular interest in Floyd. Although it is interesting that the murderous white guy ( can't remember his name, but you will know the one) who shot up a BLM protest wandered through cops with an automatic weapon nonchalantly draped on his shoulder. My particular favourite murdered by police example is Sandra bland. She was no George Floyd. I believe it unfortunate that George Floyd is referenced in Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police literature.
Farage is promoting the idea of white disadvantage. There end product of that is Pete Hegseth putting in place a moratorium of military promotions for black and female officers. Not because of ability because he doesn't believe that black and female officers should be in military roles. I suspect Farage is of a similar mindset and he is gaslighting.