The long-running series is cancelled – politicalbetting.com
The long-running series is cancelled – politicalbetting.com
The original series opened after World War Two, taking inspiration from opposition to Nazi ideology and depicting itself as a series of companions, using science and logic to solve multiple problems that threatened the whole planet, although that usually translated to Britain and more usually London.
1
Comments
The public rightly say Die Hard is NOT a Christmas film
https://www.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/12/11/new-poll-confirms-the-infinite-wisdom-of-the-british-people/
The weekend after the referendum, when the shadow cabinet mass resigned to try and force Corbyn out.
He married Miss Marple
Seeing Labour through a Dr who lens, and now I can't un-see it.
We know Burnham wants to be more collegiate, and in fairness this should avoid wasting political capital on ramming through unpopular measures followed by swift u-turns, but in service of what, exactly? Like Starmer, Burnham is a blank canvas on which 400 Labour MPs are projecting their different and perhaps even incompatible visions.
No one at all
Or Dr Who.
https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00058.x
Mixed feelings on Burnham. Much as i don't greatly like him based on his previous in government and as my metro mayor, and think the obvious success i see every day in Manchester owes much to those he's piggybacked on to, i think he'll be a reasonable PM and considerably better than Starmer. As a working class origins Lancastrian, and Manchester based for two decades myself, i identify more with Burnham than i could with Starmer or any of his recent predecessors. So kind of want him to succeed, to a point, even if I'm moderately centre right and would obviously prefer to have a sensible one nation Tory government in power.
They need to get him started now though if they aren't having a contest it would be ludicrous to wait until July or later if it's a coronation.
Interesting times....
@lewis_goodall
Steve Bray blasting Ode to Joy, ruining nationally historic moments like this for us and posterity, is a complete disgrace. A yob."
https://x.com/lewis_goodall/status/2068975930270179330
The Doctor Falls is good. Went to see it in Durham when the Beeb did screenings in December prior to the TV screening.
They cut it as he started to regenerate into Whittaker.
Doctor - PM or LoTO you get the idea
1st (Hartnell) - Attlee
2nd (Troughton) - Wilson
3rd (Pertwee) - Heath
4th (Tom Baker) - Thatcher
5th (Davison) - Major
6th (Colin Baker) - Hague (yes, I know not PM)
7th (McCoy) - Kinnock
Wilderness Years - Labour 1992-97
8th (McGann) - John Smith
War Doctor - Blair in opposition
9th (Eccleston) - New Labour government (1997-2010)
10th (Tennant) - Cameron/Coalition
11th (Smith) - Cameron
12th (Capaldi) - May
13th (Whittaker) - Corbyn (not PM, but the timing and fandom dynamics fit frighteningly well)
14th (Tennant redux) -Starmer before election
15th (Gatwa) - Starmer government
What do they know?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Christmas_(film)
I agree that his anti social behaviour adds nothing to debate or protest and should be curtailed permanently.
(another Christmas tradition)
One thing that stood out was his repeated use of the first person - I, me, my. My party. My decisions and so forth.
If he had been more collegiate, he might have had more support from the Party he was elected to lead. He didn't own the Party. He was there to serve it as well as lead. And leadership is about working with your team.
But he was too willing to only accept responsibility when things went well and to throw his team under the bus when things went wrong.
"...As the 1980s wore on it began to falter. It could not compete with flashier imported ideas from America that captured the imagination in a way the older, British based series could not. Attempts at attracting attention by recruiting celebrities mitigated the problem but its verbose showrunner could not prevent it collapsing in the figures..."
- Dr Who: showrunner John Nathan Turner. Camp. Used stunt casting (Beryl Reid! Richard Briers!) to keep numbers up. Failed
- Labour: showrunner Neil Kinnock. Verbose. Used celebrities (Tracey Ullman! Billy Bragg!) to keep numbers up. Failed
"...The 1990s saw numerous attempts to revive and invigorate the series, but an attempt under a new showrunner in the early 90s to revive the series still failed..."- Dr Who: showrunner Philip Sayer. Well regarded. Attempted American reboot. Failed
- Labour: showrunner John Smith. Well regarded. Attempted a British reboot. Died prematurely
"…and a new showrunner promptly arrived. Imbued by a love for the old series but well aware of the problems that were killing it, he rewrote it from top to bottom, inventing an event making the previous lore irrelevant, reformatting it, and using new money to recast the series as flashy, audience friendly, with a smidgen of social change but not enough to scare the horses. It took off and became incredibly popular, even inspiring Americans in the late 2000s/early 2010s as the series expanded worldwide..."- Dr Who: showrunner Russell T Davies. Well regarded. Invented the Time War to eliminate old lore. Succeeded wildly. Big in America
- Labour: showrunner Tony Blair. Well regarded. Invented New Labour to eliminate old lore. Succeeded wildly. Big in America
"...Then another showrunner took over, with greater emphasis on equality and female stars, and despite early optimism and enthusiasm the figures fell still further. It could no longer survive as the 2020s dawned..."- Dr Who: showrunner Chris Chibnall. Mediocre. Recast the Doctor as a woman. Invented the Timeless Child which was hated. Failed.
- Labour: showrunner Jeremy Corbyn. Mediocre. Returned Labour to its old roots, far too late. Introduced antisemitism which was hated. Failed.
"...It became apparent that the showrunner simply didn’t know what he was doing, and with an approach based on meaningless tweets, generated content, and bodged resurrections of old villains, now irrelevant, just made things worse..."Although the Farage example is more pernicious. Starmer gets free glasses from a Labour Peer and generates a national media scandal. Farage takes £5m from a crypto billionaire, speaks in favour of crypto and not a sausage. Two tier media.
High farce delivered in the way only British politics can - a Sky News helicopter tracking Burnham's train down to Euston, only to follow the wrong cab once he gets in.
https://bsky.app/profile/silly.bsky.social/post/3moux2hh3ws2s
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwy2qp32d1pt
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/22/keir-starmer-resignation-labour-burnham-streeting-no-10/
Anybody still funding him should now be well aware they funding somebody who is mentally ill.
https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-steven-bray-judgment/
https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2026/0622/1579576-jeffrey-donaldson-court/
Sentencing for Jeffrey Donaldson not until September 25th and he has been remanded in custody. Told by the judge to expect a lengthy sentence.
utterly embarrassing
His trial previously heard Mr Bray had told police their map, illustrating where he could not use the speakers, was incorrect. Body-worn footage featured Mr Bray, wearing a yellow and blue top hat, repeatedly telling police "you've got the wrong map".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4ner79y5lo
He’s not the Messiah!
The country needs to wish him well and I hope he is collegiate but at the same time take Farage and Lowe and Polanski head on
Starmer truly is Malleus ScotNatorum.
BREAKING
The Brexit reset summit with the EU - which was scheduled for July 22nd - has been postponed
Antonia Costa, the president of the European Council, says that he hopes that Starmer's successor will provide 'continuity'
This was going to be a big moment for Starmer, but is now heading into the middle distance. Over to Andy Burnham...
I am also a professional Northerner.
There will shortly be an election…
Hopefully a long sentence awaits.
I also assume he will be stripped of his knighthood and Privy Council position. Quickly hopefully.
He'd be ridiculed if he went early, lost the majority or worse lost power to try to gain two more years than he already has.
Chicken ovulation.
Slices of coagulated pig blood mixed with fat and oats.
Ground-up pig scraps stuffed into cleaned-out intestine.
Salt-cured pig abdomen.
Fungi fried in animal fat.
I have no doubt I will hate most of what he proposes but we have had enough of the short termism that has blighted the last few administrations. We need some big thinking and some genuine change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bev_Craig
Much as I loathe Reform and Farage I'd be tempted by them if they find a sensible candidate just to shake it up a bit and be rid of the pro bus, anti car and anti green belt Burnhamism for a bit. But with SV now in place, it's going to be Bev.