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Given their improved polling in the south west, can we expect any Lib Dems to complain to the police about the Tories election spending breaches? Crick, keep the pressure on.
At the risk of my fan club complaining that I'm boring you...some interesting stats and an even more interesting graph on public support for academies.
Old article about Cameron's vomit inducing comment re Queenie's alleged purring. It's the photo accompanying it - from the Olympics and way before the Indy Ref. I get the impression she doesn't much like the fawning sh1t ...
I say vomit inducing because it seemed to indicate Cameron regarding her as a sort of regal sex kitten. Also his behaviour after the Referendum was truly despicable - Labour and Gordon Brown saved his worthless arse and he proceeded to drop them in the sh1t. I don't accept the argument that it's just politics - it's simply abandoning decency in public life. But that is where the modern Tory party is now.
The more I think about Alison McGovern the more pissed off I get.
She's yet another shadow front-bencher who flounced off to the back when the Labour leadership election didn't go the way she wanted.
Progress decided that it wasn't "New" Labour any more, preferring to style itself "Labour's new mainstream" - and despite my admiration for Ed Miliband, I think the biggest mistake he made was to support it.
Progress has, in my view, far too much influence - much of which it has bought thanks to very large donations from some very wealthy people.
I can't help feeling a bit of schadenfreude as the polls are showing more support for Corbyn and McDonnell.
"Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Mahatma Gandhi
ephemerid wrote:The more I think about Alison McGovern the more pissed off I get.
She's yet another shadow front-bencher who flounced off to the back when the Labour leadership election didn't go the way she wanted.
She was actually offered a SC job by Jez, and thought for some time about whether to accept it. Maybe she should have done.......
It is sad how some previously admirable MPs seem to have lost their bearings because of the leadership result last year. Ironically, one "moderate" who I thought was doing better than most was Wes Streeting - then he goes and has this completely ridiculous meltdown over McDonald's
(and that wasn't "Corbyn's" decision either, but one made by the NEC - where he does not have a majority of committed supporters)
ephemerid wrote:The more I think about Alison McGovern the more pissed off I get.
She's yet another shadow front-bencher who flounced off to the back when the Labour leadership election didn't go the way she wanted.
Progress decided that it wasn't "New" Labour any more, preferring to style itself "Labour's new mainstream" - and despite my admiration for Ed Miliband, I think the biggest mistake he made was to support it.
Progress has, in my view, far too much influence - much of which it has bought thanks to very large donations from some very wealthy people.
I can't help feeling a bit of schadenfreude as the polls are showing more support for Corbyn and McDonnell.
At least we don't seem to have the daily attacks any more, but they are still coming more frequently than I'd like.
I agree about Progress. The problem seems to be that, like Sauron, it does not share power. No compromise - they'd rather wreck the whole party's chances of success than not be top dog. Dan Jarvis could have co-operated with Corbyn and easily stood out as the next leader, but he had to go and start 'positioning'.
I worry about what will happen after the locals. There's no way Labour isn't going to lose councils, and another massacre in Scotland is pretty likely, but this would have been the case whoever was leading the party.
Thankfully, fingers crossed, London and Wales look like being success stories for Labour.
Off topic but I know that there's a lot of Shakespeare about right now and I'm just reading Orwell's The Clergyman's Daughter. There's a marvellous bit where she's teaching at this awful little private school and has to explain the word 'womb' to pupils reading Macbeth. Bring on the angry parents...
To my mind it's a disgrace that school-books can be printed with such words in them. I;m sure if any of us had ever known that Shakespeare was that kind of stuff, we'd have out our foot down at the start. It surprises me, I must say, I was reading a piece in my News Chronicle about Shakespeare being the father of English Literature; well, if that's Literature, let's have a bit less Literature, say I !
If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.
RogerOThornhill wrote:Off topic but I know that there's a lot of Shakespeare about right now and I'm just reading Orwell's The Clergyman's Daughter. There's a marvellous bit where she's teaching at this awful little private school and has to explain the word 'womb' to pupils reading Macbeth. Bring on the angry parents...
To my mind it's a disgrace that school-books can be printed with such words in them. I;m sure if any of us had ever known that Shakespeare was that kind of stuff, we'd have out our foot down at the start. It surprises me, I must say, I was reading a piece in my News Chronicle about Shakespeare being the father of English Literature; well, if that's Literature, let's have a bit less Literature, say I !
That reminds me of the time, years ago, when I left my copy of Zola's "Nana" behind in a shop (I'd put it down on the counter and forgotten to pick it up). The cover was a reprodution of a painting (I think it was a Reubens). Any road up - I went back for the book and the shopkeeper was very nasty about my "disgusting" book. I was quite taken aback.
Edited to add a "my"
And - "it" for "in"
Last edited by PorFavor on Thu 21 Apr, 2016 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RogerOThornhill wrote:Off topic but I know that there's a lot of Shakespeare about right now and I'm just reading Orwell's The Clergyman's Daughter. There's a marvellous bit where she's teaching at this awful little private school and has to explain the word 'womb' to pupils reading Macbeth. Bring on the angry parents...
To my mind it's a disgrace that school-books can be printed with such words in them. I;m sure if any of us had ever known that Shakespeare was that kind of stuff, we'd have out our foot down at the start. It surprises me, I must say, I was reading a piece in my News Chronicle about Shakespeare being the father of English Literature; well, if that's Literature, let's have a bit less Literature, say I !
Relatively little read but a fantastic book - absolutely spot on with 1930s Daily Mail reader mindset, which hasn't changed much.
There's a bit where the horrible headmistress poisons the roots of a neighbour's tree, and GO comments that such acts of spite gave her a kind of 'spiritual orgasm'.
Also, when the heroine asks her pupils what historical characters they can think of, the only ones they've all heard of are Christopher Columbus and Napoleon (she assumes that's because they sometimes get mentioned en passant in the newspapers). Nobody had heard of Robin Hood (it was before leftie Hollywood writers sneaked a socialist message through the medium of action packed yarns of Merrie Olde England). And yet the likes of Michael Gove and his creature NiMo would assume a private education in the 30s would have been so much better than today ....
ephemerid wrote:The more I think about Alison McGovern the more pissed off I get.
She's yet another shadow front-bencher who flounced off to the back when the Labour leadership election didn't go the way she wanted.
Progress decided that it wasn't "New" Labour any more, preferring to style itself "Labour's new mainstream" - and despite my admiration for Ed Miliband, I think the biggest mistake he made was to support it.
Progress has, in my view, far too much influence - much of which it has bought thanks to very large donations from some very wealthy people.
I can't help feeling a bit of schadenfreude as the polls are showing more support for Corbyn and McDonnell.
They put some sort of list on Twitter and I commented on it.
What they wanted to see included the word aspiring, or aspiration. I said it was Tory speak. Re-write needed
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
I could have dished up that news story last year. It's been going on for a long time. Well over a year since I realised it wasn't me, stuff really was shrinking.
The latest was four Sainsbury's bread rolls baked on the premises. At least a third smaller than they were.
Coincidently the other day I watched an old episode of Birds of a Feather - from the nineties? They had packets of food on the kitchen counter. One of them was a box of Mr Kipling cakes...It was enormous. I seem to remember they were one of the first to start reducing pack size. They went from six to five, then the cakes themselves got smaller... Haven't bought any of their products for a long time now, but have they bottomed out at four yet?
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
RogerOThornhill wrote:Off topic but I know that there's a lot of Shakespeare about right now and I'm just reading Orwell's The Clergyman's Daughter. There's a marvellous bit where she's teaching at this awful little private school and has to explain the word 'womb' to pupils reading Macbeth. Bring on the angry parents...
To my mind it's a disgrace that school-books can be printed with such words in them. I;m sure if any of us had ever known that Shakespeare was that kind of stuff, we'd have out our foot down at the start. It surprises me, I must say, I was reading a piece in my News Chronicle about Shakespeare being the father of English Literature; well, if that's Literature, let's have a bit less Literature, say I !
That reminds me of the time, years ago, when I left my copy of Zola's "Nana" behind in a shop (I'd put it down on the counter and forgotten to pick it up). The cover was a reprodution of a painting (I think it was a Reubens). Any road up - I went back for the book and the shopkeeper was very nasty about my "disgusting" book. I was quite taken aback.
Edited to add a "my"
And - "it" for "in"
The first thing I thought of was he might have mistaken it for a copy of Fanny Hill. Nothing wrong with either book and I'm not suggesting the two different books are similar in anyway.
I was a bookseller for many years. People sometimes associate reproduced pictures used on novels with a single work. People refused a book because of the picture on it even though they knew it was a different book. They even laughed about it - judging a book by its cover - they understood their action. If I really thought they'd like the book, I'd get another copy with a different cover for them.
So a trip to the hospital this morning to get Mr Ohso's radiotherapy set up and to have markers on his stomach.
Trying not to think about it because I'll get angry.
First date for treatment. 11th May !!!! And they're so over stretched they're having a job to fit him in at the cancer centre in Bracknell...
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
The thing about Scotland is expectations are so low for Labour that only slipping into third behind the Tories (a possibility relentlessly hyped up by the media both sides of the border, though the evidence it might actually happen is thin at best) could now be plausibly pictured as a bad result.
As for the local polls, sensible Labourites are already starting to point to last year's elections (nearly all the councils up now also voted then) as a more meaningful comparison than four years ago. I expect that to be the "line" taken on Thursday night and its aftermath, though there are now signs the losses on 2012 may not be so bad......
StephenDolan wrote:Given their improved polling in the south west, can we expect any Lib Dems to complain to the police about the Tories election spending breaches? Crick, keep the pressure on.
I didn't hear WATO, but picked this up on the BBC Devon website - looks like Adrian Saunders (ex Torbay LD MP) is making waves, but doesn't look like any sign of an actual complaint. https://twitter.com/BBCWorldatOne/statu ... 5269588992
Time has released its annual list of the people it deems to be the most influential in the world - and David Cameron is once again notably absent.
The British Prime Minister may be displeased to hear he was pipped to the post by a number of politicians and world leaders, including the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
Just reading about more towns embroiled in election expenses...
It made me remember the shock on election night when the Tories took constituencies that should have gone to Labour or held on when they weren't supposed to.
It makes you wonder doesn't it.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
ohsocynical wrote:Just reading about more towns embroiled in election expenses...
It made me remember the shock on election night when the Tories took constituencies that should have gone to Labour or held on when they weren't supposed to.
It makes you wonder doesn't it.
Poor Ed if the election was stolen from him in that way ...How do you get your head around that.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
ohsocynical wrote:Just reading about more towns embroiled in election expenses...
It made me remember the shock on election night when the Tories took constituencies that should have gone to Labour or held on when they weren't supposed to.
It makes you wonder doesn't it.
Poor Ed if the election was stolen from him in that way ...How do you get your head around that.
How many weren't Lib Dems v Tories? I don't doubt for a second that Clegg wanted more of the same. Ditto Cameron really.
ohsocynical wrote:Just reading about more towns embroiled in election expenses...
It made me remember the shock on election night when the Tories took constituencies that should have gone to Labour or held on when they weren't supposed to.
It makes you wonder doesn't it.
I've never stopped wondering
Never forget the morning May 2015 'NOOOOO!'
I hollered - right before I burst into tears
I've bored you all with this recollection and I'm doing it again
thank you for your patience with me
"...I put my heart and soul into winning the election. And I think of all the people who are having more difficult lives because we have
a Tory government. I feel deeply sad that it didn’t happen for the country, but I am determined to use what has happened to learn
and also to carry on making the case for the things I believe in. You know … the history of progressive politics is that you have
setbacks."
ohsocynical wrote:Just reading about more towns embroiled in election expenses...
It made me remember the shock on election night when the Tories took constituencies that should have gone to Labour or held on when they weren't supposed to.
It makes you wonder doesn't it.
Poor Ed if the election was stolen from him in that way ...How do you get your head around that.
How many weren't Lib Dems v Tories? I don't doubt for a second that Clegg wanted more of the same. Ditto Cameron really.
I suppose the allegedly dodgy election tactics by the Tories might actually put the nail in the coffin of any future prospects of Lib Dems imagining (in their wildest dreams) any coalition or support deal for Tories when they make some kind of comeback - and they probably will start to make a comeback in previous strongholds. Even the most defensive and in denial amongst them will find it hard to argue for future co-operation .... surely?
Osborne is on course to miss his only remaining target for the economy
John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor responding to today’s ONS public sector finance figures that show
public sector net borrowing and debt have gone up higher than the OBR forecast, said:
“The latest figures for public sector borrowing show George Osborne is on course to miss his only remaining target for
the economy, with the Tory Government’s deficit significantly higher than forecast. Government debt is rising even as
unemployment increases and exports slump. This is a record of further failure from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
His recovery is built on sand and his unaffordable and counterproductive fiscal targets mean that failures will continue.
Labour’s Fiscal Credibility Rule would set a realistic target to get rid of the deficit on day-to-day spending whilst allowing
government the capacity to invest in the high-tech, high-wage economy of the future.”
Michael Crick Retweeted
Ed Fraser @frasereC4 1h1 hour ago
David Cameron tells BBC undeclared #electionexpenses was national spend not local. New evidence @Channel4News 7pm
The man is an out and out liar. He must know what the evidence C4 has is ... it was pretty damning last night and if there's even more ....
This and the Suliman Gani / Sadiq Khan slurs - which again he must have known were dodgy before he said them in the HoC - make me think even less of him than I did before. Before - I was prepared to think he had poor judgement - now I think he's OK with lying and deceit - whatever it takes to get what he wants.
I live in Chiswick in west London, just across the Thames from Zac Goldsmith’s Richmond constituency. I heard reassuring reports that he was an excellent constituency MP. For this reason, like many other Tories, I welcomed his emergence as Tory candidate for mayor of London and planned to vote for him.
Wild horses could not make me do so now. Goldsmith's campaign for mayor has become the most repulsive I have ever seen as a political reporter.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/lo ... nFUSs.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And consider this: if Goldsmith’s campaign succeeds it tells every single British Muslim that there is no role for them anywhere in the British democratic system.
I have voted Conservative all my life. I will be proudly voting for Khan on the first and the last ballot when we Londoners vote for our mayor in two weeks' time. I urge everyone, including Tories, to do the same. By voting for Goldsmith Londoners will send out a terrible message about democracy in modern Britain.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/lo ... nFUSs.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Tim Montgomerie ن @montie 3m3 minutes ago
While Khan must answer questions about extremism, Crosby-Fullbrook's operation has indeed de-Zacked the Zac campaign
No - Khan does not have to answer questions about extremism. He's very clearly worked against extremism.
But glad that Tim Montgomerie can see how badly done Goldsmith's 'campaign' has been.
Re. speeches on Her Maj in the House today from Cameron and Corbyn......only one sounded genuine and as though the person delivering the speech actually wrote it himself. Go on. Guess who?
"Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Mahatma Gandhi
Michael Crick Retweeted
Ed Fraser @frasereC4 1h1 hour ago
David Cameron tells BBC undeclared #electionexpenses was national spend not local. New evidence @Channel4News 7pm
The man is an out and out liar. He must know what the evidence C4 has is ... it was pretty damning last night and if there's even more ....
This and the Suliman Gani / Sadiq Khan slurs - which again he must have known were dodgy before he said them in the HoC - make me think even less of him than I did before. Before - I was prepared to think he had poor judgement - now I think he's OK with lying and deceit - whatever it takes to get what he wants.
You clearly never read any of the quotes from his Carlton TV colleagues
Few financial journalists in Britain are held in higher esteem than Jeff Randall......
.....And this is what he wrote when he became Conservative party leader in 2005: "I wouldn't trust him with my daughter's pocket money.
"In my experience, he never gave a straight answer when dissemblance was a plausible alternative.
"Whether he flat-out lied I won't say, but he went a long way to leave me with the impression that the story was wrong. He put up so much verbal tracker you started to lose your own guidance system."
Quotes from his Carlton TV colleagues
Quote:
Few financial journalists in Britain are held in higher esteem than Jeff Randall......
.....And this is what he wrote when he became Conservative party leader in 2005: "I wouldn't trust him with my daughter's pocket money.
"In my experience, he never gave a straight answer when dissemblance was a plausible alternative.
"Whether he flat-out lied I won't say, but he went a long way to leave me with the impression that the story was wrong. He put up so much verbal tracker you started to lose your own guidance system."
That's it exactly. He's very fluent and smooth tongued and can fit a whole range of emotions into his speech, but if you concentrate on what rather than how, most of what comes out of his mouth it nonsense or fairy dust.
He'd make a very good public speaker. Could use the same script over and over again and they'd still applaud him.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
Dear Her Majesty's Government. Many thanks for the generous GP 'rescue' package announced today. I see that primary care got 12% of the total NHS budget in 2010. Your rescue will increase this to ... er, 10% by 2020. Only we'll have to open seven days per week, until 8pm, and deal with and increasingly older and obese population. Thanks a fucking million.
Rescue [rɛskjuː] (verb) - to force someone face-down into a quagmire of foetid dog-shit, while you and your Tory chums profit at their expense.
I could have dished up that news story last year. It's been going on for a long time. Well over a year since I realised it wasn't me, stuff really was shrinking.
The latest was four Sainsbury's bread rolls baked on the premises. At least a third smaller than they were.
Coincidently the other day I watched an old episode of Birds of a Feather - from the nineties? They had packets of food on the kitchen counter. One of them was a box of Mr Kipling cakes...It was enormous. I seem to remember they were one of the first to start reducing pack size. They went from six to five, then the cakes themselves got smaller... Haven't bought any of their products for a long time now, but have they bottomed out at four yet?
I've been calling them 'Mr Kipling's exceedingly small cakes' for years.
All diesel cars tested break emissions limits when driven on road
A Department for Transport (DfT) study, launched after it was revealed VW had used technology to allegedly cheat emissions
tests,found no other company deliberately tried to rig laboratory trials.
However it found a huge difference between the laboratory results and the amount of nitrogen oxide produced when
driven normally on the road.
Of 19 new models tested which meet the latest Euro 6 limit of producing no more than 80mg/km of the emission in lab tests,
none could reproduce this on the road. The average was nearer to 500mg/km, with some cars getting close to 1,100mg/km.
The study also revealed that none of the 37 top-selling vehicles that were claimed to have met the previous Euro 5 limit –
of 180 mg/km – actually stayed within that legal level when driven in the road.
