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Guess who's back, back again....
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/19/damian-mcbride-to-return-_n_9274824.html?1455904155&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg000000670 -
I did advise Gove at 28-1 in the next Tory leader market.He must be taken at double-figure odds now he is leading Leave.It puts him in pole position with the selectorate and good media links help.0
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Schedule of one typical EU crisis summit, no point at guessing which of them, they all look the same:
THURSDAY
4.10pm The Prime Minister, fresh from seeing his son Elwen starring as a mouse in his school’s nativity play, departs from RAF Northolt in a small aircraft with his closest aides. The party experiences a bumpy landing in Brussels owing to turbulence – a foreshadowing of torrid talks to come.
6.40pm Cameron arrives at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, where the summit is to be held.
7.25pm The PM meets France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel for 45 minutes of pre-summit talks. He is joined by William Hague, key European adviser Jon Cunliffe and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. Aides emerge with faces like thunder, saying Sarkozy is refusing to acknowledge that Britain has any right to ask for concessions in a new fiscal union treaty.
8.10pm EU leaders sit down for a dinner of soup, cod, chocolate cake and ice cream. Each of the 27 speaks in turn. According to some sources, Sarkozy becomes so animated that at one point he has to be physically restrained. After dinner, the summit resumes.
FRIDAY
2.30am Cameron makes his main contribution to the discussion, insisting the protections Britain has requested for the City of London and the single market are ‘perfectly reasonable’. The PM later says ‘everyone else in the room’ was telling him ‘give up your national interests, and go along with what everyone wants’. At this point Cameron, reportedly banging the table, formally declares he cannot support the new EU-wide treaty.
3.30am Summit breaks as EU leaders consider what to do next.
4.48am Talks end with British veto of fiscal union plan.
5.08am Sarkozy gives press conference to announce regret at ‘unacceptable demands’ from Cameron.
6.19am Cameron tells press conference what was on offer from other EU leaders ‘was not in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it’.
6.50am Cameron finally goes to bed at British Embassy.
8.15am He orders a full English breakfast.
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A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly0 -
The best thing about Gove coming out for Brexit is that it will allow the party to heal post referendum.
He won't use it to try and topple Dave or undo the Cameroon project.0 -
FPT:
"Pro-EU Tory activists hail Cameron's deal... before it's done
The letter says "we fully support the deal the PM has negotiated which helps the UK secure a unique status in a reformed Europe" and suggests that the group has made its decision to back him already before the deal is done."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-356155480 -
'Leading' is pushing it. 'Backing' would be more accurate. The journos looking for something to report while they all hung around Brussels were saying that Gove didn't plan to take a high-profile part in the campaign.volcanopete said:I did advise Gove at 28-1 in the next Tory leader market.He must be taken at double-figure odds now he is leading Leave.It puts him in pole position with the selectorate and good media links help.
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Odds on England tumbling below 5. 44 from 30 needed.0
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Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.0 -
Gove has one of the lowest popularity / satisfaction ratings of any leading politician in any party. So it doesn't seem very likely he is going to gain many votes for Leave.
Gove is just about the worst person who could become Con leader if Con want to win the next GE - only Fox would be even worse.
Boris is the only person who could swing substantial votes behind Leave - and he would be an absolutely massive game-changer.0 -
Idea for Leave PPB:
Noel Edmonds. So, Dave, £30m of benefits against £11bn in membership.
Deal, or no deal?0 -
Ah, is Osborne's hand behind this? It usually is..david_herdson said:
'Leading' is pushing it. 'Backing' would be more accurate. The journos looking for something to report while they all hung around Brussels were saying that Gove didn't plan to take a high-profile part in the campaign.volcanopete said:I did advise Gove at 28-1 in the next Tory leader market.He must be taken at double-figure odds now he is leading Leave.It puts him in pole position with the selectorate and good media links help.
He does a very low-profile role in the campaign (virtually nothing) and then endorses Osborne after to "heal the party". And help Osborne sew it up, natch.
Or.. is that just what he's told Osborne and, loyalty notwithstanding, he seriously will campaign for Leave as the Right Thing To Do, with Boris or anyone else if necessary.
Don't know.0 -
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Still think SA have this but it is getting more interesting.0
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His ratings of minus 29 are the same as the IRA loving give the Falklands to the Argies Corbyn.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
I love Gove but I realise he isn't an election winner.0 -
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
When I ask teachers I know why they hate Gove the answer is usually something along the lines of because the NUT told them he was a horrible person. God help the children taught by these people.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.0 -
They think he is so great that he was moved on from his brief, despite his policies seeming good and probably being good (maybe too soon to tell)Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
That tells me that regardless of his two brains, he is too quick to make enemies to be a good PM or PM-candidate0 -
This might be true. But his value is in winning over moderates within the Conservative Party itself who greatly respect him.SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.0 -
Quite. It startles me how many of my old school pals who were at best mediocre at certain subjects at school are now teaching them.MP_SE said:
When I ask teachers I know why they hate Gove the answer is usually something along the lines of because the NUT told them he was a horrible person. God help the children taught by these people.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.0 -
I adore Pride and Prejudice.
But I have to confess I've never heard of most of the other authors people have mentioned and have never read Pratchett.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving is also good.
The 3 novels by JG Farrell: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Hill Station are worth seeking out.
Perhaps we should now list those writers we think are overrated.
- Martin Amis
- Salman Rushdie
- Howard Jacobson - other than his first novel "Coming from Behind"(which made me laugh out loud on the tube) and his essays.0 -
And before that he was a fantastic Education Secretary - to the point that the Blob thought they had won even though the reforms all went through!Mortimer said:
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
He has been sane. Massive improvement. Massive.Mortimer said:
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
Still think the EU have this but it is getting more interesting.DavidL said:Still think SA have this but it is getting more interesting.
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England are going to bloody win this!!0
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Gove popping up in James Delingpole's garden is quite amusing. Not often you see a politician with a sense of humour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnXoQeGnT4Q0 -
A Clemson S.C poll of frequent past republican primary voters, doesn't include new voters:
Trump 28
Cruz 19
Rubio 15
Bush 10
Kasich 9
Carson 6
http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/palmetto-poll-frequent-voters-in-south-carolina-favor-trump/
Assuming most new voters will vote just for Trump, it seems an easy victory for him, just like what all the other polls say.
We can make an estimation of his margin of victory based on turnout, low turnout means Trump wins by around 10, very high turnout and he might win by 20.0 -
The cricket, or the EU referendum?Sandpit said:England are going to bloody win this!!
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LOLCasino_Royale said:
Still think the EU have this but it is getting more interesting.DavidL said:Still think SA have this but it is getting more interesting.
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You almost make it sound as though Cameron wants Gove to be doing this...TheScreamingEagles said:The best thing about Gove coming out for Brexit is that it will allow the party to heal post referendum.
He won't use it to try and topple Dave or undo the Cameroon project.
I'm not worried about whether particular political parties can heal post referendum though. I'm more concerned as to whether the country as a whole can heal post referendum (whichever way it goes). Gove will probably have that in mind too.
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not 
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Moeen with an over of two halves.Sandpit said:England are going to bloody win this!!
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Delighted about Gove. If the country has the temerity to vote Remain after that, hopefully the party will make him leader.
That'll teach them.0 -
Miller gone - maybe not!0
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There is that, but he's very articulate and he was (and is) regularly put up on TV as an articulate proponent of the Government's case.TheScreamingEagles said:
His ratings of minus 29 are the same as the IRA loving give the Falklands to the Argies Corbyn.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
I love Gove but I realise he isn't an election winner.
Two other things:
(1) He is a radical game-changing reformer - whether it's education or justice, he makes waves and changes, and for the best of motives
(2) There's something about his back story, journey and vision that I think could potentially be unleashed
If (and it's a big if) he could find a way to connect, he could be an inspiring leader. And Thatcher came back from an awful time as Education Secretary.
So I don't rule him out yet.0 -
Ive always liked Michael Gove... A very talented individual0
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Agree on Dickens, Woolf. Haven't tried the others.SeanT said:
Dickens. Sorry. Turgid stuff.Cyclefree said:I adore Pride and Prejudice.
But I have to confess I've never heard of most of the other authors people have mentioned and have never read Pratchett.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving is also good.
The 3 novels by JG Farrell: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Hill Station are worth seeking out.
Perhaps we should now list those writers we think are overrated.
- Martin Amis
- Salman Rushdie
- Howard Jacobson - other than his first novel "Coming from Behind"(which made me laugh out loud on the tube) and his essays.
Jonathan Franzen. Boring.
Zadie Smith. Boring and jejune.
Virginia Woolf. A failed James Joyce
Saul Bellow? I've never read him because I can't get beyond the first paragraph.
The late works of Philip Roth. Boring.
I like Martin Amis. He can be laugh out loud funny, a very rare talent in a writer.
I liked Graham Greene when younger but haven't read him in years. I wonder what I'd make of him now.
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Interesting. I wonder who the surprise guest could be.
https://twitter.com/Grassroots_Out/status/7005890028946718730 -
There's some in the Tory party that have never forgiven Dave for winning a majority with his centrist one nation way.Steven_Whaley said:
You almost make it sound as though Cameron wants Gove to be doing this...TheScreamingEagles said:The best thing about Gove coming out for Brexit is that it will allow the party to heal post referendum.
He won't use it to try and topple Dave or undo the Cameroon project.
I'm not worried about whether particular political parties can heal post referendum though. I'm more concerned as to whether the country as a whole can heal post referendum (whichever way it goes). Gove will probably have that in mind too.
Some of those people will try and use the referendum to try and undo that, Gove isn't in that number.0 -
Or is Gove just giving his mate Dave ammunition and bargaining power in his negotiations?0
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But he is probably even more Marmite than Farage.....Slackbladder said:Ive always liked Michael Gove... A very talented individual
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I like him myself but in my experience he inspires intense dislike in a lot of people (not just automatic anti-Tories). He'd be a disaster electorally.Mortimer said:
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
Another great map
Love this map of city populations over their equivalent London population https://t.co/F2wg6u7Vb60 -
Ha, I enjoyed that. That's quite funny.MP_SE said:Gove popping up in James Delingpole's garden is quite amusing. Not often you see a politician with a sense of humour.
h0 -
Looking at the enthusiasm among Tories on PB for Gove, I'll guess Gove.MP_SE said:Interesting. I wonder who the surprise guest could be.
https://twitter.com/Grassroots_Out/status/7005890028946718730 -
Sam Coates
At Grassroots Out rally at QE2 rally. Packed. Who is the special guest? https://t.co/QyvQGj2T3M
15000 -
Oh yes.0
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You really really need to stop thinking like this.TheScreamingEagles said:
There's some in the Tory party that have never forgiven Dave for winning a majority with his centrist one nation way.Steven_Whaley said:
You almost make it sound as though Cameron wants Gove to be doing this...TheScreamingEagles said:The best thing about Gove coming out for Brexit is that it will allow the party to heal post referendum.
He won't use it to try and topple Dave or undo the Cameroon project.
I'm not worried about whether particular political parties can heal post referendum though. I'm more concerned as to whether the country as a whole can heal post referendum (whichever way it goes). Gove will probably have that in mind too.
Some of those people will try and use the referendum to try and undo that, Gove isn't in that number.
That's a small minority.
It's not what I think, or Marquee Mark or countless others.
Your dislike of that cohort is influencing you, I think.0 -
I think it's a little early to come to that conclusion but he is making all the right noises. I'll call him a fantastic Justice Secretary once he's translated those noises into policies, implemented and embedded them.Mortimer said:
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
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Interesting but it's a bit unfair because the Greater London boundary is very widely drawn whereas Manchester for example doesn't even include Salford which is a five minute walk from the city centre.Plato_Says said:Another great map
Love this map of city populations over their equivalent London population https://t.co/F2wg6u7Vb60 -
Cammo should have done the deal. He has missed out.0
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He's managed to earn the praise of Frances Cook, something I thought no Justice Secretary could achieve. He's a great thinker, I'll never forget his performance at Leveson.Casino_Royale said:
There is that, but he's very articulate and he was (and is) regularly put up on TV as an articulate proponent of the Government's case.TheScreamingEagles said:
His ratings of minus 29 are the same as the IRA loving give the Falklands to the Argies Corbyn.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
I love Gove but I realise he isn't an election winner.
Two other things:
(1) He is a radical game-changing reformer - whether it's education or justice, he makes waves and changes, and for the best of motives
(2) There's something about his back story, journey and vision that I think could potentially be unleashed
If (and it's a big if) he could find a way to connect, he could be an inspiring leader. And Thatcher came back from an awful time as Education Secretary.
So I don't rule him out yet.
What he would give Leave is some real intellectual heft.
Some leavers (not you) come accross as a bunch of angry white men obsessed about immigration and Muslims that puts off a lot of voters.
He will make the elegant and intellectual case on the grounds of sovereignty etc that will appeal to the voters needed to win it for Leave.0 -
Yeah that was me! I wasn't the only one who thought it would have finished a long time ago.ThreeQuidder said:
15 from the last over.0 -
If Gove does come out, so to speak, it will be yet another episode in his honourable career of trying not to be a janus-type politician.
I doubt it will do him any good and as has been much rehearsed, he ain't going to be PM any time soon but dear god we need politicians like him.
Perhaps the PM, through gritted teeth, or perhaps HMQ herself could reach into the tightly locked box of hereditary peerages and make him a viscount or something. Just to go to the Lords as a life peer Lord Gove of Integrity would seem woefully inadequate.0 -
Wasn't that posted at just about the time the leaders broke up for the afternoon? Dave probably had time to catch the whole thing. Good job it was a T20 and not a test match.DavidL said:Has no one told Dave that the 20:20 starts in half an hour? Get a grip man and pay attention to the important things in life.
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I think about 110-120 myself.SeanT said:C4 News: Downing Street "really worried". Could be 100 Tory MPs backing LEAVE.
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Two full tosses?????0
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Sandpit the double jinxerSandpit said:
Yeah that was me! I wasn't the only one who thought it would have finished a long time ago.ThreeQuidder said:
15 from the last over. 0 -
Reece Topley the new Jade Dernbach0
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I've forgotten what it was he "vetoed" now. What was it?Speedy said:Schedule of one typical EU crisis summit, no point at guessing which of them, they all look the same:
THURSDAY
4.10pm The Prime Minister, fresh from seeing his son Elwen starring as a mouse in his school’s nativity play, departs from RAF Northolt in a small aircraft with his closest aides. The party experiences a bumpy landing in Brussels owing to turbulence – a foreshadowing of torrid talks to come.
6.40pm Cameron arrives at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, where the summit is to be held.
7.25pm The PM meets France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel for 45 minutes of pre-summit talks. He is joined by William Hague, key European adviser Jon Cunliffe and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. Aides emerge with faces like thunder, saying Sarkozy is refusing to acknowledge that Britain has any right to ask for concessions in a new fiscal union treaty.
8.10pm EU leaders sit down for a dinner of soup, cod, chocolate cake and ice cream. Each of the 27 speaks in turn. According to some sources, Sarkozy becomes so animated that at one point he has to be physically restrained. After dinner, the summit resumes.
FRIDAY
2.30am Cameron makes his main contribution to the discussion, insisting the protections Britain has requested for the City of London and the single market are ‘perfectly reasonable’. The PM later says ‘everyone else in the room’ was telling him ‘give up your national interests, and go along with what everyone wants’. At this point Cameron, reportedly banging the table, formally declares he cannot support the new EU-wide treaty.
3.30am Summit breaks as EU leaders consider what to do next.
4.48am Talks end with British veto of fiscal union plan.
5.08am Sarkozy gives press conference to announce regret at ‘unacceptable demands’ from Cameron.
6.19am Cameron tells press conference what was on offer from other EU leaders ‘was not in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it’.
6.50am Cameron finally goes to bed at British Embassy.
8.15am He orders a full English breakfast.0 -
hunchman said:
Sandpit the double jinxerSandpit said:
Yeah that was me! I wasn't the only one who thought it would have finished a long time ago.ThreeQuidder said:
15 from the last over.
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I'd add Trollope and Sylvia Plath to the overrated authors list.SeanT said:
To be fair to Woolf I like her "minor" works, e.g. Orlando, or a Room of One's Own, it's the serious important novels I dislike, To The Lighthouse etc.Cyclefree said:
Agree on Dickens, Woolf. Haven't tried the others.SeanT said:
Dickens. Sorry. Turgid stuff.Cyclefree said:I adore Pride and Prejudice.
But I have to confess I've never heard of most of the other authors people have mentioned and have never read Pratchett.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving is also good.
The 3 novels by JG Farrell: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Hill Station are worth seeking out.
Perhaps we should now list those writers we think are overrated.
- Martin Amis
- Salman Rushdie
- Howard Jacobson - other than his first novel "Coming from Behind"(which made me laugh out loud on the tube) and his essays.
Jonathan Franzen. Boring.
Zadie Smith. Boring and jejune.
Virginia Woolf. A failed James Joyce
Saul Bellow? I've never read him because I can't get beyond the first paragraph.
The late works of Philip Roth. Boring.
I like Martin Amis. He can be laugh out loud funny, a very rare talent in a writer.
I liked Graham Greene when younger but haven't read him in years. I wonder what I'd make of him now.
Failed modernism.0 -
Fiscal compact, 2011, I think?pbr2013 said:
I've forgotten what it was he "vetoed" now. What was it?Speedy said:Schedule of one typical EU crisis summit, no point at guessing which of them, they all look the same:
THURSDAY
4.10pm The Prime Minister, fresh from seeing his son Elwen starring as a mouse in his school’s nativity play, departs from RAF Northolt in a small aircraft with his closest aides. The party experiences a bumpy landing in Brussels owing to turbulence – a foreshadowing of torrid talks to come.
6.40pm Cameron arrives at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, where the summit is to be held.
7.25pm The PM meets France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel for 45 minutes of pre-summit talks. He is joined by William Hague, key European adviser Jon Cunliffe and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. Aides emerge with faces like thunder, saying Sarkozy is refusing to acknowledge that Britain has any right to ask for concessions in a new fiscal union treaty.
8.10pm EU leaders sit down for a dinner of soup, cod, chocolate cake and ice cream. Each of the 27 speaks in turn. According to some sources, Sarkozy becomes so animated that at one point he has to be physically restrained. After dinner, the summit resumes.
FRIDAY
2.30am Cameron makes his main contribution to the discussion, insisting the protections Britain has requested for the City of London and the single market are ‘perfectly reasonable’. The PM later says ‘everyone else in the room’ was telling him ‘give up your national interests, and go along with what everyone wants’. At this point Cameron, reportedly banging the table, formally declares he cannot support the new EU-wide treaty.
3.30am Summit breaks as EU leaders consider what to do next.
4.48am Talks end with British veto of fiscal union plan.
5.08am Sarkozy gives press conference to announce regret at ‘unacceptable demands’ from Cameron.
6.19am Cameron tells press conference what was on offer from other EU leaders ‘was not in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it’.
6.50am Cameron finally goes to bed at British Embassy.
8.15am He orders a full English breakfast.0 -
My fillings are rattling in horror
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6942957/This-man-just-made-a-Cadburys-Creme-Scotch-Egg-and-its-blowing-peoples-minds.html0 -
Reece fucking Topley can fuck right off.0
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Fielding practice needed for England.
Well that match was way more interesting than three hours of EU debate. 0 -
The number of Tory mps backing leave doesn't matter as much as the number of labour ones.
There is no route to victory for leave that doesn't involve winning > 50% of the labour vote.
0 -
Same result though...England getting beat up...Sandpit said:Fielding practice needed for England.
Well that match was way more interesting than three hours of EU debate.0 -
This.TheScreamingEagles said:Reece fucking Topley can fuck right off.
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The Fiscal Compact. Which would have required the UK to submit its fiscal plans to the ECB for approval before we built an extension, eg of the M6 toll road.pbr2013 said:
I've forgotten what it was he "vetoed" now. What was it?Speedy said:Schedule of one typical EU crisis summit, no point at guessing which of them, they all look the same:
THURSDAY
4.10pm The Prime Minister, fresh from seeing his son Elwen starring as a mouse in his school’s nativity play, departs from RAF Northolt in a small aircraft with his closest aides. The party experiences a bumpy landing in Brussels owing to turbulence – a foreshadowing of torrid talks to come.
6.40pm Cameron arrives at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, where the summit is to be held.
7.25pm The PM meets France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel for 45 minutes of pre-summit talks. He is joined by William Hague, key European adviser Jon Cunliffe and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. Aides emerge with faces like thunder, saying Sarkozy is refusing to acknowledge that Britain has any right to ask for concessions in a new fiscal union treaty.
8.10pm EU leaders sit down for a dinner of soup, cod, chocolate cake and ice cream. Each of the 27 speaks in turn. According to some sources, Sarkozy becomes so animated that at one point he has to be physically restrained. After dinner, the summit resumes.
FRIDAY
2.30am Cameron makes his main contribution to the discussion, insisting the protections Britain has requested for the City of London and the single market are ‘perfectly reasonable’. The PM later says ‘everyone else in the room’ was telling him ‘give up your national interests, and go along with what everyone wants’. At this point Cameron, reportedly banging the table, formally declares he cannot support the new EU-wide treaty.
3.30am Summit breaks as EU leaders consider what to do next.
4.48am Talks end with British veto of fiscal union plan.
5.08am Sarkozy gives press conference to announce regret at ‘unacceptable demands’ from Cameron.
6.19am Cameron tells press conference what was on offer from other EU leaders ‘was not in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it’.
6.50am Cameron finally goes to bed at British Embassy.
8.15am He orders a full English breakfast.0 -
Topley must be a saffa.... what a choker.0
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Having one of your youngest players bowling the final over — not a bright idea.0
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I knew England were scraping the bottom of the barrel, picking old uncle Reece Topley and all.0
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Integrity is what makes a real leader.TOPPING said:If Gove does come out, so to speak, it will be yet another episode in his honourable career of trying not to be a janus-type politician.
I doubt it will do him any good and as has been much rehearsed, he ain't going to be PM any time soon but dear god we need politicians like him.
Perhaps the PM, through gritted teeth, or perhaps HMQ herself could reach into the tightly locked box of hereditary peerages and make him a viscount or something. Just to go to the Lords as a life peer Lord Gove of Integrity would seem woefully inadequate.0 -
Really, at this stage Cameron should simply stop and say that the negotiations have not got where they need to for a conclusion to be reached. Some useful work, blah, blah. Time for everyone to go away and think and regroup. Oh and BTW there is another 18 months before the referendum need be held.
He's rushing for no good reason. This isn't about him. It's about the country. And he needs to do this properly.0 -
It's why we love cricket. The result was exactly what we expected it to be 90 min ago yet so much more exciting!FrancisUrquhart said:
Same result though...England getting beat up...Sandpit said:Fielding practice needed for England.
Well that match was way more interesting than three hours of EU debate.
A bit like the Test in Abu Dhabi when I left the ground at lunch and there were eight wickets in the afternoon session to set up an England chase. But it was still a draw!0 -
That and they wanted to force the City to submit to full EBA oversight and sideline the BoE.TOPPING said:
The Fiscal Compact. Which would have required the UK to submit its fiscal plans to the ECB for approval before we built an extension, eg of the M6 toll road.pbr2013 said:
I've forgotten what it was he "vetoed" now. What was it?Speedy said:Schedule of one typical EU crisis summit, no point at guessing which of them, they all look the same:
THURSDAY
4.10pm The Prime Minister, fresh from seeing his son Elwen starring as a mouse in his school’s nativity play, departs from RAF Northolt in a small aircraft with his closest aides. The party experiences a bumpy landing in Brussels owing to turbulence – a foreshadowing of torrid talks to come.
6.40pm Cameron arrives at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building, where the summit is to be held.
7.25pm The PM meets France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel for 45 minutes of pre-summit talks. He is joined by William Hague, key European adviser Jon Cunliffe and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn. Aides emerge with faces like thunder, saying Sarkozy is refusing to acknowledge that Britain has any right to ask for concessions in a new fiscal union treaty.
8.10pm EU leaders sit down for a dinner of soup, cod, chocolate cake and ice cream. Each of the 27 speaks in turn. According to some sources, Sarkozy becomes so animated that at one point he has to be physically restrained. After dinner, the summit resumes.
FRIDAY
2.30am Cameron makes his main contribution to the discussion, insisting the protections Britain has requested for the City of London and the single market are ‘perfectly reasonable’. The PM later says ‘everyone else in the room’ was telling him ‘give up your national interests, and go along with what everyone wants’. At this point Cameron, reportedly banging the table, formally declares he cannot support the new EU-wide treaty.
3.30am Summit breaks as EU leaders consider what to do next.
4.48am Talks end with British veto of fiscal union plan.
5.08am Sarkozy gives press conference to announce regret at ‘unacceptable demands’ from Cameron.
6.19am Cameron tells press conference what was on offer from other EU leaders ‘was not in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it’.
6.50am Cameron finally goes to bed at British Embassy.
8.15am He orders a full English breakfast.0 -
'Cameron' and 'do things properly' aren't two adjectives that naturally spring to mind with me. It's like saying 'Reece Topley calm under pressure' after today!Cyclefree said:Really, at this stage Cameron should simply stop and say that the negotiations have not got where they need to for a conclusion to be reached. Some useful work, blah, blah. Time for everyone to go away and think and regroup. Oh and BTW there is another 18 months before the referendum need be held.
He's rushing for no good reason. This isn't about him. It's about the country. And he needs to do this properly.0 -
TBH though do we really think the various EU nations and concerns for protecting their own best interests will have changed much in 18 months....all that will happen is basically no further progress and stalling would fill the extra time.Cyclefree said:Really, at this stage Cameron should simply stop and say that the negotiations have not got where they need to for a conclusion to be reached. Some useful work, blah, blah. Time for everyone to go away and think and regroup. Oh and BTW there is another 18 months before the referendum need be held.
He's rushing for no good reason. This isn't about him. It's about the country. And he needs to do this properly.
The reality is Cameron can't get anything significant now, nor in 18 months.0 -
If you go on BSE's Twitter page you can see they are doing a ton of campaigning in London. I imagine their activists are metropolitan liberal types who live in London and other big cities. I can see this causing them problems.SeanT said:
Yes there is. Apathy amongst REMAIN. If the pro-EU young and left simply don't turn out, then the older LEAVERS win.asjohnstone said:The number of Tory mps backing leave doesn't matter as much as the number of labour ones.
There is no route to victory for leave that doesn't involve winning > 50% of the labour vote.0 -
Nobody would have heard of Plath if she hadn't married Ted Hughes.Sean_F said:
I'd add Trollope and Sylvia Plath to the overrated authors list.SeanT said:
To be fair to Woolf I like her "minor" works, e.g. Orlando, or a Room of One's Own, it's the serious important novels I dislike, To The Lighthouse etc.Cyclefree said:
Agree on Dickens, Woolf. Haven't tried the others.SeanT said:
Dickens. Sorry. Turgid stuff.Cyclefree said:I adore Pride and Prejudice.
But I have to confess I've never heard of most of the other authors people have mentioned and have never read Pratchett.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving is also good.
The 3 novels by JG Farrell: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Hill Station are worth seeking out.
Perhaps we should now list those writers we think are overrated.
- Martin Amis
- Salman Rushdie
- Howard Jacobson - other than his first novel "Coming from Behind"(which made me laugh out loud on the tube) and his essays.
Jonathan Franzen. Boring.
Zadie Smith. Boring and jejune.
Virginia Woolf. A failed James Joyce
Saul Bellow? I've never read him because I can't get beyond the first paragraph.
The late works of Philip Roth. Boring.
I like Martin Amis. He can be laugh out loud funny, a very rare talent in a writer.
I liked Graham Greene when younger but haven't read him in years. I wonder what I'd make of him now.
Failed modernism.
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I respect James Forsyth a lot. It seems Boris is very truly holding his own council:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/is-michael-gove-about-to-back-out/0 -
The oldies split for REMAIN in all the Ipsos-MORI phone pollsSeanT said:
Yes there is. Apathy amongst REMAIN. If the pro-EU young and left simply don't turn out, then the older LEAVERS win.asjohnstone said:The number of Tory mps backing leave doesn't matter as much as the number of labour ones.
There is no route to victory for leave that doesn't involve winning > 50% of the labour vote.
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Assuming you mean for Leave, yes there is. 90% of UKIP support + 60% Con support would give Leave more than 35% for starters. They only then require about a third of Lab, LD, SNP and Green. Even if that all came from Labour, it'd still only be about a half but the LDs in the SW have a Eurosceptic edge, as does the SNP.asjohnstone said:The number of Tory mps backing leave doesn't matter as much as the number of labour ones.
There is no route to victory for leave that doesn't involve winning > 50% of the labour vote.
And that's assuming equal turnout. In reality, each parties' vote will split three ways: Leave, Remain and abstain.0 -
DavidL from this morning:
It seems his memory of Chancellors only extends back as far as Gordon Brown.
" Osborne has been a victim of his own success in this. I remember when a Chancellor who got within £5bn of his forecast would be seriously chuffed with himself. Osborne, in contrast, has got absurdly close. He clearly fiddles it and will no doubt do so again. "
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"Don't you think it's embarrassing that when Europe is facing the biggest refugee crisis since the war the Prime Minister is fiddling around trying to persuade the European heads of state that the UK shouldn't have to pay child benefit to immigrant workers which last year cost £34 million?" asked John Snow........
Can anyone hand on heart say that this Tory government isn't a massive fu*king embarrassment?0 -
to say nothing of how much the UK public gives a flying f***.FrancisUrquhart said:
TBH though do we really think the various EU nations and concerns for protecting their own best interests will have changed much in 18 months....all that will happen is basically no further progress and stalling would fill the extra time.Cyclefree said:Really, at this stage Cameron should simply stop and say that the negotiations have not got where they need to for a conclusion to be reached. Some useful work, blah, blah. Time for everyone to go away and think and regroup. Oh and BTW there is another 18 months before the referendum need be held.
He's rushing for no good reason. This isn't about him. It's about the country. And he needs to do this properly.
The reality is Cameron can't get anything significant now, nor in 18 months.
That is the challenge, as every politician knows. For the good of the UK is nothing you can drop on your foot. Winning a negotiation, even if it is to get the 27 to half-promise they won't disallow 3 o'clock Premier League kick-offs for three years, is a victory and will be spun to the public as such.0 -
No. That is completely wrong. It is because he is rude, arrogant and dishonest.MP_SE said:
When I ask teachers I know why they hate Gove the answer is usually something along the lines of because the NUT told them he was a horrible person. God help the children taught by these people.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Rude - he said that all teachers were opposed to the good teaching of children.
Arrogant - he believed he knew more about education than teachers because he had read some reports on the subjects from other people, most of whom were not teachers.
Dishonest - he said that we were opposed to him because we are naturally stubborn and lazy, when in reality we were opposed to the rushed nature of his changes and the lackadaisical way he was implementing them (see Academy chains collapsing, no Maths GCSE spec six months before lessons start, record attrition rates among NQTs...)
He began with a huge groundswell of optimism and support among teachers.* Have you forgotten that a majority of my profession voted for him in 2010? And that a much larger majority voted Labour in 2015? Gove's personality was the key driver of that change. Had he worked with teachers, to modify his ideas to reflect this funny thing called reality, the fact that he is intelligent and genuinely does want to give children a great education would have given him a chance to be a truly great Education secretary - perhaps the only truly great one. He threw it away out of a personal need to insult and belittle. What an idiot.
It is disturbing to note that some people are not paying careful attention to his record as Lord Chancellor either - legal aid fiascoes, anyone? Managing to alienate all solicitors and judges by pettiness and name calling? He does not change, no matter what his job.
A Conservative party led by Gove would make the current disaster under Jihadi Jez look like a teddy bears' picnic. And it could well deliver the Bearded Wonder into government.
*It should be noted, one of his first actions, in getting Wilshaw to head OFSTED, was also hugely popular with teachers and seen as a first step into turning the hydra that is OFSTED into something vaguely useful. Wilshaw has however turned out to be an even bigger disaster than Gove, and OFSTED ratings now bear very little resemblance to the actual performance of a school.0 -
I don't think so. There is a temptation to infer order underlying chaos, whereas what may be happening is simply events: Gove thinks LEAVE is the correct thing to do, Gove says so, no conspiracy required.philiph said:Or is Gove just giving his mate Dave ammunition and bargaining power in his negotiations?
If GoveLeave is true, then I am saddened. He is a rational creature and I assume he has arrived at his decision after deliberation and for what he considers to be the right reasons. I understand he is unpopular but that should have no bearing on the question of whether LEAVE or REMAIN is the right choice. BorisLeave would come with a nasty aftertaste of pandering and dissembling, but GoveLeave does not: intellectually, I prefer the latter to the former. If true, a sad day for REMAIN.0 -
It just feels horribly dishonest. Sneaky. Low. Beneath the Prime Minister we thought we liked and admired.SeanT said:
He's rushing because, migration.Cyclefree said:Really, at this stage Cameron should simply stop and say that the negotiations have not got where they need to for a conclusion to be reached. Some useful work, blah, blah. Time for everyone to go away and think and regroup. Oh and BTW there is another 18 months before the referendum need be held.
He's rushing for no good reason. This isn't about him. It's about the country. And he needs to do this properly.0 -
The problem is Sandpit that they haven't gone through yet. GCSE reforms are due to be implemented this autumn. As yet, the Maths GCSE is not ready, and there seems a very real chance that it cannot be launched in time (realistically, there are about 2-3 weeks left to do it). If it is not ready, it is hard to see how the others can go ahead.Sandpit said:
And before that he was a fantastic Education Secretary - to the point that the Blob thought they had won even though the reforms all went through!Mortimer said:
Presumably amongst YouGov panel members?SeanT said:
Eh, sadly, no. He has some of the worst popularity ratings in the Cabinet.Mortimer said:
Rubbish. Some teachers hated him because he was reforming a highly politicised profession with much of the year as holidays....EPG said:A Gove Conservative Party might make the next election competitive
I have liked him on most of his policy briefs but he enemyises people quickly
Parents think he is great.
There are more parents than teachers.
Amongst the actual public, especially the Tory voting public, he is popular.
He has also been a fantastic Justice secretary.0 -
