Thank you binners. You always know how to make me feel special.
Alexei Sayle is commentating on the Tour on ITV4 right now. I’m not joking.
Really? Thats full Partridge
Really?
His anecdotes are fantastic. Loving it!
Yep listening to it now, makes it even better. I like Alexei a lot more than I did 30 years ago and he has some good stuff on BBC Sounds.
He's finished now. Shame.
Have you read any of his books?
They're very good

He called Tom Watson a ****
kelvin
Full Member
Really?His anecdotes are fantastic. Loving it!
Watching now- and loving it. He's on from near enough the start if anyone is interested.
Uncle Starmer has dropped off the front page generally - including here.
Something to rev us up again.
James Meadway on the Buy British procurement job.
It’s doing what other European countries do, and what we should be doing. The shake up of the railways is a good opportunity for the Tories to do the same (and I expect they will). As I said before, it’s also about Starmer moving focus from (re)nationalisation and towards how the government procures/partners with the private sector.
'We want new procurement and partners for the privatised railways and we want it now!'
Dull, isn’t it Bill. Wrap it in a “BuyBritish” message, and it’ll probably get some people excited though.
So, copying others' policies yet again. Yay. Go Starmer.
Meanwhile, football players appear to be posing a better opposition to the government, than the actual Leader of the Opposition. One thing I've seen that came from the Corbyn era, is that people in fields such as sports and entertainment, fields where political sentiments were usually kept very much under wraps, have been a lot more vocal about their criticism of the state this nation is currently in, and openly critical of the government and politicians. From Stormzy's '**** the government and **** Boris' at Glasto, to Marcus Rashford's call for money for school meals for deprived kids, to Gary Neville's comments about Gareth Southgate being 'everything a leader should be; respectful, humble, tells the truth, genuine', it does seem that a lot more younger people are becoming politicised, which is vital is it's their future. Corbyn had that ability to connect with millions of younger people, and for Labour to move forwards, they have to capitalise on that. Constantly whining on about Corbyn, whilst quietly adopting the exact same policies he laid out, is just utter hypocrisy of the highest order, and Starmer's been found out; he's really nowhere near as popular with younger people as Corbyn was, and never will be popular with the majority of the electorate. It's sad that politics has become reduced to personality contests, but this is where we are. You'd have thought Starmer would have organised a slick media team by now, to capitalise on what Corbyn started, and continue with encouraging grass roots politics, and for 'ordinary' people to have a voice. But no. Nothing more than 'ooh Boris you're so mean', then agreeing with the government, and mumbling something about football. Flapping around like Jordan Pickford dealing with a loose ball. Oh, it's in the back of the net already, Keir.
Mentioning renationalisation. I see the Ministry of Defence are sniffing around Sheffield Forgemasters. Seems like an odd thing as generally the Conservatives don't do nationalisation but then they do seem to like their armed forces so maybe it does make sense.
Not quite, they nationalise losses and privatise profits.
Corbyn had that ability to connect with millions of younger people,
Millions????!!! You could argue Mr Blobby had the ability to connect to millions of younger people as well, not sure it makes him fit to be PM
Has JC had his jabs yet?
Conservatives don’t do nationalisation but then they do seem to like their armed forces so maybe it does make sense.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment which was privatised during the Thatcherite era was renationalised a few months back.
Having failed privatised water companies is one thing, having failed atomic weapons manufacturers is a whole new ball game.
Ability to kill people in foreign lands with WMDs is clearly a greater priority than people's health in the UK.
You could argue Mr Blobby had the ability to connect to millions of younger people as well, not sure it makes him fit to be PM
I wish people would call politicians by their names. Wtf is Mr Blobby, Johnson or Starmer or someone else?
Neither Johnson nor Starmer strike me as politicians who can connect with millions of young people so I'm intrigued to know who it might be.
Hands up who didnt watch TV in the early 90s...
Who the **** was the intended question, not what the ****.
So okay Johnson is a bit of a podgy bastard, is he the one who has "the ability to connect to millions of younger people"?
I wasn't aware of that. I have always assumed that Johnson's appeal lay primarily with older voters.
No wonder that Starmer's having problems, if Boris is popular with the kool kidz.
Pretty convinced Starmer is here to keep the Tories in power.
Apparently he's going to sweat blood and tears to earn the respect of voters. Lmfao. He's almost invisible.
https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1415657680186793990?s=19
Is this the B&S bounce?
Bet he was good in PMQs though.
Did anyone put a bet on for the Conservatives hitting 50% in the polls this summer?
You think it will?
Maybe if England had won there would have been a caveman like euphoria that would have gammonised the polls to 50.
If they can convince people not to think to much about what might happen come the Autumn because of their decision making as regards the pandemic, then yes, a short spell of even higher polling is likely in August.
As an aside, I’m not sure about that seat projection up there, I think the voters may get more tactical/practical at the next big FPTP test… depending on who the party leaders are then.
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1415919548105166849?s=19
What the hell does "get stuck in like that the ‘warm bath’ of talking to those already signed up" mean?
As an aside, I’m not sure about that seat projection up there, I think the voters may get more tactical/practical at the next big FPTP test… depending on who the party leaders are then
Agreed. Seat projections a bit pointless but if you think polls can go to 50% for the Tories then you are sort of suggesting that Lab may fair worse in a general election.
If there was a snap election this summer, I think that would be entirely possible. There won’t be though.
Of course but what's the reason for Labour doing necessarily better than now over the coming couple of years?
(Although I believe eventually the Government of the day does out stay its welcome.)
What the hell does “get stuck in like that the ‘warm bath’ of talking to those already signed up” mean?
I think there is a 'than' missing after 'like that' and the warm bath is the comfort zone of preaching to the converted or whatever. It's very uninspiring stuff either way.
Even when literate it's terrible.
Yes he means that. He is dealing with the difficult discussions and not just talking to people who are already behind him. Guess he must be doing it in private somewhere...
Of course but what’s the reason for Labour doing necessarily better than now over the coming couple of years?
I’d like to think that the “talk positive and they’ll be jam tomorrow” schtick will start to come undone soon for the PM. But ahead of that, it is very likely, unfortunately, that choices made this summer by the PM as regards the ongoing pandemic will look like yet another series of mistakes as people are disappointed by the outcomes.
I also hope that Labour go into the next election with a different, fresh, leader. How they get the timing right for that, and who that should be, is the real political challenge ahead for them.
I suspect the shower who back Starmer care not one jot if he gets elected, the purpose was to flush out anyone who looked a bit like a socialist, especially Corbyn (even though he was a bit of a wet).
I honestly can't begin to predict what the next two years might look like.
Only light appears to be GB news not quite romping home to success it thought it would be.
Agree on the pandemic, it's likely to eventually unfold for them. Currently they are trying again to please everyone and please no one at the same time. Weak leadership.
I see the 'right' yesterday on twitter trying to make Jacinda Ardern look like she's a dictator with an out of context clip. The irony was the clip was all about trust in your own government.
Trust them too much and it's apparently North Korea.
If only they measured government success by total deaths in a pandemic.
There's literally no mention of Corbyn or a 'death spiral' by the voters quoted in that article. The tweet is incredibly misleading (as well as not making sense).
Interestingly most of those ex Labour voters give Blair, Brown and Iraq as the reasons they were turned away from the party.
It's not just Starmer; the whole of Labour's ****ed. We already know that 52% of the UK voting population are inbred uneducated imbecilic racist Brexity bastards and would never vote Labour.
If they changed their policies to attract the gammon brigade then the few people (I include myself) who think it would be nice if we didn't **** people over just because of where they were born or the colour of their skin wouldn't vote for them.
My vote has been consistently cast for the Greens for the last decade.
Millions of previous labour voters voted for brexit
My vote has been consistently cast for the Greens for the last decade.
So has mine but let's be realistic about it, they are going nowhere (even in a time when they really should be more popular). And they are now even having their own bit of leadership infighting to top it off.
It’s not just Starmer; the whole of Labour’s *. We already know that 52% of the UK voting population are inbred uneducated imbecilic racist Brexity bastards and would never vote Labour.
If they changed their policies to attract the gammon brigade then the few people (I include myself) who think it would be nice if we didn’t * people over just because of where they were born or the colour of their skin wouldn’t vote for them.
My vote has been consistently cast for the Greens for the last decade.
No wonder the Greens are doing so well with viewpoints like this
Brexit will increase non white immigration at the expense of white European immigration.
Lots of labour voters voted for Brexit
Dismissing 52% of the population as you do says a lot more about you than that 52%
And they are now even having their own bit of leadership infighting to top it off.
Trans rights are the kryptonite of the left
Brexit will increase non white immigration at the expense of white European immigration.
Funny I don't remember that part of the Vote Leave campaign.
Funny I don’t remember that part of the Vote Leave campaign.
It was part of one of the campaigns. The bonus of the different leave campaigns was they could promise different things to different groups.
There was a specific and dedicated campaign aimed at those of South Asian descent claiming that blocking EU migration would allow greater migration from that area. The "save our curry houses" campaign was a prominent part of it.
Yup, we covered the curry chef pro-brexit campaign in the old Brexit thread. That's actually quite useful for resources when people say "not the Brexit I voted for".
Some updates....

