politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Marf celebrates gay marriage with a cartoon …
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Marf celebrates gay marriage with a cartoon …
@MichaelWhite Let he who has never leaked, lied about his involvement, sought reelection, & owned up only when rumbled cast the first stone.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
FPT: Mr. Palmer, I would recommend The Witcher 3, on the proviso you're not fussed by grimdark. I don't think it overdoes it, but from what I've read things can get a bit grim.
There's a lot of dialogue relative to combat, and many tricky decisions. It's not blue for paragon and red for renegade. And sometimes the 'nice' option leads to bad consequences.
Mr. kle4, it's better executed than Inquisition. The side-quests aren't 'fetch X for Y' so much as 'forget what the main quest is because that priest who hired you was a lying **** who's going to end up dead'.
I'm a first timer with the series. Generally finding combat good, although I'm struggling with a certain Witcher contract. Probably missing a trick.
Gibson's and Thompson's retirements aren't surprising. Gibson was born in 1945 and Thompson in 1949. Biagi is less expected as he's 32 but he said he wants to pursue academic career.
NB if you have side-quests in the first area you want to finish, do them before progressing with the main story, or you might not be able to complete them.
Bloody awful race from a betting perspective. It does feel like I've been unlucky this year so far, but that should even itself out [admittedly, the Kvyat and Vettel bets were just wrong, but on pace Hulkenberg would've easily been top 10].
Lots of fodder for the conspiracy theory folks - does AMG Mercedes have an office on the grassy knoll?
The government of Monaco owns 20% of TMC. Just sayin'
Incidentally, it seems (according to Twitter, for what it's worth) that police/council are moving to ban protests in Rotherham about the child abuse scandal. Not sure how that'll go down, if true.
I don't think they will be short of aspiring candidates for the SNP. Come to think of it I might give it a go myself!
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/23/alistair-carmichael-liberal-democrats-byelection-threat-leak-snp-sturgeon
This whole sorry affair is of Carmichaels own making, he had an opportunity to come clean on 6th April when Jeremy's investigation was announced. Further as a solicitor he should have known better. The London MSM who were carpet bombing twitter and their columns when the story broke have gone into 3 monkeys mode. The Scottish MSM are covering it and those papers which have expressed a few see resignation as the only option.
In terms of the SNP the MSM has been after any chink in the new MPs armour and has come up with very little. I'm sure if the new MPs of other parties were subject to the same level of scrutiny similar issues would no doubt have come to light.
The SNP has produced a good summary of all of this:
https://storify.com/theSNP/telegraph-and-the-scottish-labour
What happens is the EDL and Britain First protest, UAF and others launch a counter protest, both sides hurl abuse at each, the EDL and Britain First hurl racist abuse and commit vandalism and the police have spent over two million pounds policing these events in the last few months.
The police, the Rotherham Commissioners and the Rotherham public think the money can be better utilised elsewhere.
Currently trying out older stuff though - Shadowrun Returns, apparently fantasy mixed with cyberpunk; not a combination I've ever come across before.
ToriesForBurnham™ approve this message
What Tory politicians want from a Labour leader is not the same as what the voters want.
I for one could not stomach the Blair Witch Project.
I think Lab would lose more voters from its core than it gains from the right.
I am not sure i am an impartial judge though.
If not Con notional majority = 12 + 4 (SF not present) + 2 (Carswell with Govt) = 18
So 10 Con rebels required to defeat Government (or more if some abstain).
Would be surprised if that many rebels.
Govt could lose in Lords but they'll just reverse in Commons and I doubt Lords would prevail on subject like this.
PP is right, Citizens is centre right.
PSOE is centre left.
Podemos is hard left.
PP + Citizens vote share is probably at an all time high vote share for "right wing" parties.
I was going into a drug store in such a building when I noticed a crane erecting a sign on the side of the building for a new tenant. They had already erected Sugar, Hill, and Imaging. On the truck I could see a large sign about to be lifted by the crane that said Technologies.
I pointed out what the acronym of the company would be. The last part of the sign was taken away and all the other signs were subsequently altered.
But Liz Kendall is no Blair, to put it mildly. Even leaving aside policies (and it's still far from proven that Labour lost because it was "too left-wing" anyway), Burnham has more charisma and communication skills than Kendall, and Cooper looks more like a prime minister.
I would draw a comparison with another female leader who emanated from the liberal tradition against the grain of her party but that would probably be too provocative.
Night all.
Louise Mensch @LouiseMensch 9m9 minutes ago Manhattan, NY
.@Neillbury @RecentlyRealRxx @LordBobOfCheese comparison: music piracy massive, then iTunes came along. Now nobody can be arsed #legalweed
I am "awaiting moderation"
If you need convincing take a good look at this picture and ask yourself whether you would have guessed you were looking at the future dominant figure in European politics - http://polpix.sueddeutsche.com/polopoly_fs/1.15559.1358418528!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/900x600/image.jpg
And the BBC honestly believes that represents a balanced set of views...
As for Scotland, give it FFA and let it be other than predominantly foreign affairs and defence, the SNP will dominate for the next few decade or two at Westminster as the BQ did in Quebec from the early nineties, at Holyrood unionist parties will have to learn to vote tactically
Not that in necessarily matters. In the first instance, the 2020 election is one for the government to lose, not the opposition to win, as with all elections. Only if the government is perceived as not doing a good job will the merits of the opposition come into play.
England wants a common sense government; until Labour offer that, they're irrelevant.
Will Labour 'ditch the left wing crap'? Only if they want to win. At the moment, there's no sign that they do.
However, I doubt it'll be a narrow result unless the In campaign is as inept as Yes to AV.
(*Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall to be PM and Chancellor)
Kendell is not only a fresh face and able to dispense with the last Labour Government's baggage, she is very media friendly and does not come across as too tribal. Indeed, she is already trying to reach out beyond her party's core during the Leadership contest, something that neither Burnham or Cooper are doing right now.
I suspect her polling will improve as the contest progresses and she is given a higher profile in the media that reaches the public. The Labour party have a mountain to climb to win the next GE, especially after their near wipe out in Scotland. But to stand any chance, they need to start appealing to a much wider pool of voters than their core vote in England to have any chance of increasing their current MP tally enough to even make a two term GE strategy feasible.
The Labour party really needs to remember that the Conservatives managed to remain stuck at a polling core vote level for years, languishing in Opposition for three terms with under 200 MP's. The Conservatives political fortunes only began to significantly change when they finally made a complete break with the past. And more importantly, when they went onto chose a Leader who very effectively made his own pitch to reach out beyond the Conservative party from the minute he announced he was running as a candidate in the contest.
On 25 October 1924 the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev letter, which cost Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party in the 1924 general election, held four days later.
The aim and intent of the smear on Nicola Sturgeon was the same and Michael White thinks it is OK - the mind boggles. The problem with people like White is that their hatred of the NATS obsures any semblence of rational judgement.
Not only has Farage yet again made it clear that he views Ukip as his own personal fiefdom, and in much the same manner that Gordon Brown used to do within the Scottish Labour party and then the Treasury. Farage has yet again portrayed Ukip as a one man band, and as such he will then use this position to demand a very significant role as the front man of any Out campaign team. Quite how this will play out with strong maverick Conservatives politicians such as Dan Hannan or John Redwood & Co remains to be seen, I doubt they will be any more comfortable than Douglas Carswell has appeared to be at times with some Farage's strategy antics and political outbursts.
Maybe there will be damaging Conservative divisions caused by an EU referendum campaign, but its far less likely to be the case if politicians within the Conservative party are granted the freedom to campaign on which ever side of the debate they choose to position themselves. But what shouldn't be ignored is the possibility of serious cross party divisions within either the In or Out campaign teams during the campaign. I see trouble ahead for any team that has Farage and Ukip in the mix, and then there is the unlikely bedfellows of Cameron, Sturgeon/Salmond, Lab and the Libdems shaping up within the In campaign.
One of the problems for the Yes to AV campaign back in the last Parliament was the lack of any focussed cross party combined team effort. Miliband not only wouldn't share a platform with Clegg after he entered into Coalition with the Conservatives, I suspect that many in the public would even today be surprised to learn that Miliband or the Labour party were supposed to have supported the Yes campaign during that referendum. And as for Ukip, well nobody wanted to share a platform with them so simple ignored them. And we all know how difficult it was to navigate the cross party make up of the Better Together campaign in Scotland during the Indy Referendum campaign. So there is a long way to go before we all jump the gun and assume that the Conservative party will be the only ones to suffer divisions within their own ranks.
(- hink hat ll hese idiculously ong cronyms hould e anned)
Still not sure what point you are trying to make about the mystical powers of Tony Blair in all of this, especially after a Conservative party in a third term of Government showed far better survival instincts than the last Labour Government did by holding a proper Leadership election contest instead of being cowed into a coronation whereby they knew they were backing an electorally liability.
Its worth pointing out again, Cameron achieved an amazing result in 2010, even if he didn't get the Conservative party across that majority winning line. Blair on the other hand literally just had to nip over the line and start piling up a majority in 1997, so many of those Labour MP's who finally lost their seats only did so back in 2010.
But from 1997 until 2010, the Conservatives were sitting with less than 200 MP's, their numbers have only swelled into a majority over the last five years. Do you think for a minute that this large number of new Conservative MP's lack a survival instinct which will very much rely on them being able to select the strongest two contenders to put forward to their party membership as a Leader and PM who will then appeal to the same electorate that voted into a majority Government?
While Gordon Brown spent the last few years of Blair's Premiership systematically trying to oust him from Office while briefing against and destroying any other Labour politicians Leadership ambitions so he in could become the only viable contender. Don't then go onto make the mistake of assuming that the Conservatives plan to do the same during this Parliament before Cameron stands down. If anything, expect Cameron to try to deliver a stable Government and a healthy economic legacy while he presides over a Leadership contest that could see an other new but fresh candidate emerging from within Government rather than opposition, but a candidate that is not only the Conservatives first choice, but also the public's first pick as well. There is still far too many within the Labour party and the Unions who still don't recognise just what a big political hole they have dug themselves over the last five years.
The ultimate example of this is Gordon Brown, the most useless Prime Minister for decades, who spent years knifing his own leader, but, once elected, had not the slightest idea what to do with the office he'd schemed to get. I well remember the bewildered tone of some of his MPs who pointed that out at the time.
Ed Miliband, too, never gave the impression that he knew what he wanted to do with power once he got it. Fortunately, he turned out to be just as useless at acquiring power as he was at exercising it (and I have some personal knowledge of his ability at the latter, having worked with DECC during the dying days of the Brown government).
It was best summed after her resignation up in a cartoon of Heseltine standing triumphant before the door to number 10 oblivious to an apoplectic Colonel swinging down on him Tarzan like, wielding his walking stick and intent on a brutal, violent and fatal revenge.
But she was mad by then, no doubt about it.
Tories ahead among Hindus and Sikhs.
Christian: 56% Labour, 31% Conservative
Muslim: 64% Labour, 25% Conservative
Hindu: 41% Labour, 49% Conservative
Sikh (based on a small sample): 41% Labour, 49% Conservative
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11626969/Greece-to-miss-IMF-payments-amid-fears-of-catastrophic-eurozone-rupture.html
These people are going to be so disappointed when the EU finds yet another way of kicking the can down the road.