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Its absolutely baffling
For anyone capable of thinking beyond the next couple of weeks and capable of looking at the last hundred years or so it is.
However once you remove "party" it does make more sense although even there it is questionable.
Get pissed. Vote Tory. 👍
Tories pledge focus on pubs and clubs in 'first 100 days
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cjqq8kgz80yt
It actually must be pretty liberating for them now, they can promise any old crap knowing they will never have to even think about implementing it.😂
Well farage has made his first proper mistake
I wonder if the Tories will suddenly wake up and start attacking him now?
kimbers
Full Member
Well farage has made his first proper mistakeI wonder if the Tories will suddenly wake up and start attacking him now?
We talking about the Putin/ Ukraine comments?
World Tonight on R4 interviewing Bostonians. They always go there. Because immigrants. Key election issues? “Migrants”. Who will you vote for? “Labour”. I could smell the disappointment in the interviewer when the man went on and said he voted to Remain. None said they’d vote Reform, I don’t think they’d heard of Tice and didn’t rate Farage.
kimbers
Full Member
We talking about the Putin/ Ukraine comments?Yes, be interesting to see what the right wing press make of it. Would also love to see deeper scrutiny of his past
Cheers, I'm playing catch-up on the news today.
He absolutely needs more light shone upon his views and past. There are some well hidden sceletons in there.
He is genuinely a dangerous man.
Le Pen in France got a loan from a Russian bank (now apparently repaid).
Farage was apparently just in the US for speaking opportunities, although Popbitch said he didn't go down very well. (Somewhere on this thread I have previously said I don't believe he would be a great draw for US audiences).
Remarkably quickly Farage has returned from the US, reinvigorated his private company, and is now positioned to carve out a niche.
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-marine-le-pen-national-rally-pays-back-russia-loan/
There’s been an effort to paint Nigel Farage as a canny political genius for deciding to abandon his American ambitions after Trump’s conviction and return to the UK instead. The reasons for his change of heart are probably slightly more prosaic though. It seems he came back to familiar political shores because none of the Yanks actually knew who he was.
Farage’s appearance at CPAC this year wasn’t exactly a barnstormer. Attendees said he spent most of his time wandering around aimlessly, surrounded by right wingers who couldn’t give a shit about That Weird Bloke In The Tweed Suit.
One poor Canadian diplomat was driven particularly mad by his constant presence, as Farage kept forcing conversation on him, seemingly as he had nowhere else to go after making his speech at the conference.
https://popbitch.com/emails/in-the-shadow-of-mount-****/
This news agents podcast in spalding, very near to Boston is nuts
There's conspiracy guy, WW2 guy, there's the batshit MP, then there's mobility scooter guy..
https://twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1804178802475700417?t=S3KgZlVqiyu2FWPVLab1Xg&s=19
Jesus, some of the people in that video.
This guy, can you imagine what he classes as news content, he hit pretty much every conspiracy going?
Specsavers being in the background, that's the universe trying to talk to him there.
The Beeb did a piece on the young candidates standing for election in the GE.
Before they even said who this guy is standing for it was bloody obvious.
How do the Tories do it, are there some genetic markers they look for? Is there some political candidate cookie cutter they employ?
It's a mystery.
Finally the mask has slipped with Farage.
Yep, he is starting to blow it now he has been fully let out. While his base are not going to care what he says about things like Andrew Tate they will most certainly not be on the side of Russia and see that as not in line with their 'thinking'
Labour have missed a big chance on electoral and constitutional reform – just a p[policy of a royal commission to look into it and make recommendations. Abolition of the lords, PR, Uk devolved nations and local English devolution / federalism.
"Missed", did I MISS when they were in power?
Is that based on their amazing handling of the ferries?
In the grand scheme of things a couple of overpriced ferries is what matters to you? If so you'll be gobsmacked when you discover what's been happening elsewhere in the UK...
How do the Tories do it, are there some genetic markers they look for? Is there some political candidate cookie cutter they employ?
As Malcolm Tucker famously described them… ‘six-toed pony-****ers!”
Looking at the Tory social media feeds this morning it appears they’ve now given up on everything except Climate Change Denial.
Next week they’ll be telling everyone that smoking is actually good for you
Who’s already voted? Posted mine yesterday
Our postal votes just landed so they’ll be going off this morning, then I’ve got another big pile of Labour leaflets to deliver. Nice to see lots of people displaying the ‘Vote Labour’ signs in their windows. Unsurprisingly I haven’t seen a single ‘Vote Conservative’ one
We’ve had no more Tory bumph through the door this week either. They’ve either given up or run out of money to pay the agency workers who were delivering them
Not long now James…
The Mr Ed teeth are bad but look closer his mouth is like Jack Nicholson’s joker
I can't be the only person who feels uncomfortable with personal attacks on people over their appearance, something that they can't change and which has no impact on their politics.
If they're a knob, just say so. Otherwise you're no more than the playground bullies that many of the worst politicians were in their yoof.
In the grand scheme of things a couple of overpriced ferries is what matters to you?
It's worth giving our friends who aren't familiar with this story a couple of notes. "Overpriced ferries" is a euphemism for the political scandal in which the SNP intervened to have Scotland's richest man buy a bankrupt shipyard, and then six months later, the SNP gave that shipyard a £97m public contract to build two ferries. The procurement process was very poorly run and slanted to the shipyard - despite the fact that it hadn't built any ferries close to the required spec.
The shipyard was failing financially within a year of the contract being awarded. The SNP arranged more sweetheart finance and handouts for the shipyard. And then the SNP nationalised the shipyard in 2019. But the construction was defective and rejected by insurers. The ferries are years late: all this started in 2015 but they won't be finished until 2025 at the earliest. And the cost has gone from £95 million to £360 million! The SNP minister admitted it would be cheaper to scrap the unfinished boats and just buy new ones - but decided to press on anyway.
And all this massive cost and disruption to Scottish taxpayers instead of just buying the boats on the open market, because dodgy Alex Salmond wanted Scottish ferries for Scottish people made by Scotland's richest man...
The ferries shambles is Scotland's own version of the VIP Fast Lane. It was massively wasteful and corrupt in its own right, bit it's also emblematic of the SNP's economic nationalism, its disregard for legal and financial standards, its desire to cook things up behind closed doors, its parochial mindset, and worst of all its total failure to actually land any of its grand schemes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferry_Fiasco_(Scotland)
Looking at it in another way it's a bit like British coal. However inefficient it's better for the Scottish economy than importing South African coal or a Korean ferry. The money remains within the Scotish economy and goes round and round the circle of income. The government sees a lot of the money back in tax and NI, wages are paid, benefits payments reduced, sub-contractors prosper, local businesses benefit from more prosperous clients.
Even inefficient local industry is better for the economy than imports.
A majority of Labour members are also in favour of PR too I believe. Which is of course separate to the ‘constitutioal reform’ which was half of TJ’s post.
No - its all a part of the same thing. 3 main areas. HOL. Elections to HOC and relations between the constituent nations
I agree with you Ed up to a point, but you've missed the economic impact of not having two ferries you need vs having two ferries you need. That might be a temporary blip or they might never arrive and while you have put money into workers' pockets that then comes back into the economy, you still can't get people and goods from A to B.
At the risk of waking Rone up (has he ever mentioned this) so what if you had to create some money to pay for them, if it was something you needed and had the workforce to make it all's good? What if you don't really need it (is productivity just to keep people busy making stuff we don't need useful?) and of course, is the money really going into workers' pockets and back into the economy, or into an offshore account of a barely deniable best mates chain.
Please don’t start banging on about PR again. We did it to death a few pages back
Back to the actual election, it looks like the man-frog was pretty comprehensively savaged by Nick Robinson last night, who is turning out to be quite the Rottweiler during this campaign (he made mincemeat of Rishi)
Farage seems to get a very, very easy ride from most of the media so it’s good to see him get his bullshit called out
https://Twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1804254111946227795?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
https://Twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1804265766566662478?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
https://Twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1804261876991431061?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
The worry I have with Farage's comments about the west provoking Putin, is that while it gives others attack lines, to his supporters it validates and changes opinions. "If Farage is saying it then it must be true" For all his faults he is a charismatic and effective speaker and to the 'easily led' it won't necessarily turn them off him, it might change opinion on TWIU. People don't like finding out the man they idolise has feet of clay and will turn weird somersaults to avoid having to admit they've been misled.
I hope however it tips the balance for some of the waverers.
However inefficient it’s better for the Scottish economy than importing South African coal or a Korean ferry.
No it's not because the money wasted is a dead loss from the Scottish economy! It's taxpayer money that could have been better spent on schools or health or making work pay better or freeing up employer's capital for productive investment. Instead it's been spunked up the wall on defective ferries that are no good to anyone because they don't ****ing work, and it's a decade on!
You might as well argue that Scotland should produce its own bananas at £200 a bunch (by subsidising the business of the richest man in Scotland who's personally close to the SNP leader).
But if it keeps people busy and it's something we need, just print more money to pay for it?
(I'm not paying £200 for bananas mind)
I see the ever-obnoxious Johnny Mercer is covering himself in glory again. What a ****! I dearly hope he'll be getting the Portillo Moment he so richly deserves
https://Twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1804134909310624155
But if it keeps people busy and it’s something we need, just print more money to pay for it?
(I’m not paying £200 for bananas mind)
How are you going to repay any of that money when everyone's working in jobs that need massively subsidised?
To be clear, the SNP didn't intend for the ferries to be hugely expensive but accepted that as the cost of subsidising a failing industry. They stumbled into the massive overspend because they wanted to do a Scottish businessman a favour. Overspending £200m on the ferries (plus another £50m in COVID plus another £3.5m to hire a crew for a ferry that's never sailed and having them sit on their arsed to do nothing) is not a job creation programme. It's a job destruction programme because all of that money is squeezed our of people and companies that are profitable.
How are you going to repay any of that money when everyone’s working in jobs that need massively subsidised?
You don't have to, that's the beauty of the Magic Money Tree!!
The Scottish government doesn't have a magic money tree. That tree is in a reserved orchard. The only ways the SNP can make up for the money it has wasted is to cut public services and raise taxes.
They stumbled into the massive overspend because they wanted to do a Scottish businessman a favour.
thats a very creative interpretation. IMO its more they wanted to build in Scotland and then kept changing the brief. also the private sector can borrow money - Scots gov cannot
That money is not lost to the economy - it churns around. Its not going abroad.
Isn’t there a separate thread for those north of the border to have their parochial political spats/arguments about ferries? 😂
Anyway… I thought the Lib Dems were only concentrating on seats they were on with a shout of winning? Our neighbour, who’s a staunch Lib Dem, bless him, has just had loads of leaflets delivered, one of which I’m sure I’ll get through the door shortly.
Talk about misplaced optimism/a hiding to nothing. The latest constituency polling has them in last at 2%, behind Labour on 48%, the Tories on 27%, then Reform, the Greens and ‘Others’ (whoever they are?)
Have a read of your neighbour's Lib Dem flyers, Binners, you might find there's more to like than on the Labour ones you are delivering. If ever there was the opportunity for people to vote for what they believe in safe in the knowledge that it won't lead to a Tory government this is it.
If I voted Lib Dem in this constituency, I may as well just set fire to my ballot paper
If I was in a leafy Home Counties seat where only the Lib Dems could beat the Tories, would I vote for them? Absolutely, I would!
All that matters in this election is getting shut of this corrupt, debased shower. Everything else is a minor consideration
But Binners, if you vote for Labour you're voting for that ghastly Starmer fellow who is at the root of all things evil since the beginning of time, you should vote for the Lib Dems or Greens, you know, the parties who can promise the earth in their manifesto as there's no chance of actually having to do any of it 🤣
Promising the earth does indeed seem a very good idea.
Starmer want's the stop oil protesters prosecuted for a bit of orange corn flour, well I'd like him prosecuted for injuring a cyclist:
https://road.cc/content/news/no-action-against-starmer-knocking-cyclist-bike-279573
We’ve already emitted enough CO2 to get to Miocene climatic conditions and there’s enough fosil fuels to get us to the Cretaceous. By that time life will be a real chore even if humans are still around because you’ll feel fatigued and sleepy from the CO2 quite apart from all the other crap in the atmosphere if the oceans start to turn over. The asteroid theory for the extinction of the dinosaurs is all very well but the dinosaurs had already been descimated by climatic change due to volcanic CO2 long before the asteroid impacted.
We’re going the way of the the dinosaurs, taking most other species with us and are still unwilling to Stop Oil.
That money is not lost to the economy – it churns around. Its not going abroad.
Brilliant - in that case let's have everyone in Scotland working for the government on a million quid a year. The money will just "churn around". Obviously none of it will go abroad because Scotland is in total autarky. "Saving" (ie subsidising) 400 jobs at the cost of £500,000 each is definitely worth it.
Isn’t there a separate thread for those north of the border to have their parochial political spats/arguments about ferries? 😂
I know it's a novel experience for a provincial Northern monkey like you to play the "parochial" card @binners and I'm sure you must be enjoying that, but Scotland is so far still in the UK. God knows we've endured enough wanging on about Ed Daley and various other Lib Dem hobbyhorses like PR on this thread.
Everything else is a minor consideration.
What you gonna do when things get worse or don't improve?
Because it is possible.
I don't think the climate and likely inaction is minor for instance.
The ferries shambles is Scotland’s own version of the VIP Fast Lane.
If we're going to list financial **** ups then we're going to be here for a very long time regarding the tories own, I'll start with Freeport's.
Mercer seems like a lovely chap, just the sort of person you want a veterans minister.
Almost as vile as his wife, her twitter account used to be very entertaining
The ferries shambles is Scotland’s own version of the VIP Fast Lane.
Its really not at all. Its a monumental Eff up but its not open corruption
Freeport’s are naked corruption not inept decision making.
Freeport’s are purely for there to benefit tax dodgers and are loved by corrupt authoritarian regimes the world over for the ease with which they enable embezzlement on an industrial scale
"Wooden ladders. Talk to me"
Now for something different? Isn’t that Monty Python’s tagline between sketches?
Paul Luggeri? He looks a geezer.
I've just got back from a few days away, to be confronted with this in my letterbox
It's only on looking closer do you see this
To make things worse, in the 4 days I've been away a Tory banner has appeared on the farm across the road (only the second I've seen sing campaigning began) and horror of horrors, a Reform poster has arrived at the other end of my road. Never seen one of them before.
I'm in Surrey Heath (Gove's old constituency) and LibDem banners seem to be the de facto banners... they did well in the Locals. I'm currently in France and due back on the 4th.... so straight from the tunnel to the polling station for me.
Burn them
It’s interesting on X getting his supporters to explain how they passionately support free speech yet hero worship Putin…who infamously gets a bit “murdery” over free speech.
Down the road from me a right prick lives. I can tell he's a prick, I've seen him berating the kid that works in the local shop for not knowing how to do the dry cleaning drop off, for parking in the disabled spots at the nearby Tesco express (he isn't), stuff like that.
He's had a Ukraine flag up since the war started. He now has a Reform poster. I just drove past and had eyes on the road, but I *think* the flag has gone.
We've seen the "gave Putin an excuse" line on tne Ukraine thread way back, and I can kind of see the logic that takes you there, even if I disagree.
But saying he admires Putin as a political operative? He locks up and/or kills his political opponents ffs. Even my dad has decided he can't stomach Farage/Reform.
The ferries shambles is Scotland’s own version of the VIP Fast Lane.
Its really not at all. Its a monumental Eff up but its not open corruption
Matt Hancock bending the rules to chuck lucrative contracts to his political allies is not different to Alex Salmond bending the rules to chuck lucrative contacts to his political allies.
I’m in Surrey Heath (Gove’s old constituency) and LibDem banners seem to be the de facto banners… they did well in the Locals. I’m currently in France and due back on the 4th…. so straight from the tunnel to the polling station for me.
Burn them
the French?
I wonder If this article was writen by Nigel Garage under a ghost name??
jam-bo Full Member
Does their leaflet use some creative bar charts to suggest they are somehow the best chance against the tories? Ours local candidates one does.
There was one election where I think that every party used that line in the leaflets they put through my door. Either they were the best chance against the Tories, or against Labour, or against the SNP.
Interesting to see what farages putin loving does to the Reform numbers
https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1804569350072062389?t=ny8nElAsBHEPXb5hGQgOoA&s=19
But the tories being <100 seats is looking more & more likely and I think there's more betting scandal to come... Wonder if the Sunday papers will have a minister on the front?
“Wooden ladders. Talk to me”
Well I knew what you meant:
It would be funny if IDS came in behind Terry Tibbs.
kimbers
Full Member
Interesting to see what farages putin loving does to the Reform numbers
Unfortunately I dont think it will make much difference at all.
Some of his supporters might also support Ukraine but when the chips are really down, their hatred of immigrants far outweighs any dislike of Putin.
For that reason, Farage is still their man.
I have very little doubt that Rishi will head for California as soon as his party wins it's only seat. Then a mega right-wing fight for control of Tories will start. Not sure what will happen to the old One Nation wing though.
Not sure what will happen to the old One Nation wing though.
Dead and buried already I think. Either Reform finally subsumes the conservatives and Farage gets to live his ultimate revenge dream, or they become a 'Centre-Right' irrelevance, lagging behind the LDs forevermore.
And they deserve it TBH.
I dunno, I think all that's happened is the extreme right vote has been split between the tories and reform. Add them both together and the numbers are just not there.
Even more so, if it comes down to coalitions and/or deals between parties, I can't see a deal between the cons and reform, but even if they did, a deal between labour and lib dems, for example, would dwarf those numbers.
