Friday 26th April 2024

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

Something about leopards and faces springs to mind

[frog222]

Many thanks to Sky for an excellent QT Report , 'thankyou for your service' as the youtube yanks say to anyone who's been 'in the service'

Young Wes doing his circus act of trying to ride two horses at once , and failing painfully --

offering a chink of light to the right by echoing some of Sunak's claims about GP's handing out sick notes too readily, before being completely eclipsed as soon as Victor Adebowale started offering an authentic left wing voice. After that he could have walked off the stage and I don't think anyone would have noticed or cared.

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Thanks to John Crace for his briefing on the magnificent imbroglio that is Scottish politics --

Humza Yousaf forgot the rule: leaders who want to look tough look stupid

Only this week the first minister said he was delighted with his coalition with the Greens. But then …

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ook-stupid
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Finally I really must look up 'Centrist dad' which is obviously an insult, gilsey to Notnow on Steve Richards .

[frog222]

Something about leopards and faces springs to mind

Refit -- I still cackle out loud when re-reading that post on the CAA .

This too -

(( Leopards Eating People's Faces Party

From an October 2015 tweet by Adrian Bott (@cavalorn) that went viral: "I never thought leopards would eat MY face," sobs woman who voted for the Leopards ... ))

Here's another Heroic Brownnoser of the 2018 Antisemitism Wars,

[frog222]

Another lol on this one, the officer wasn't commenting on Falter's physical/facial features but on his wearing the kippah !

CST, which was one of the bodies that met Rowley this week to discuss the Falter incident, issued a carefully worded statement in response that praised the overall police response to the protests while criticising the officer’s use of language.

Home Office considered antisemitism campaigner for counter-extremism unit
Gideon Falter was in running to be adviser but government’s antisemitism tsar warned against appointment
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... emism-unit

So even the unscrupulous Woodcock was distancing himself from the CAA ....

[gilsey]

Finally I really must look up 'Centrist dad' which is obviously an insult, gilsey to Notnow on Steve Richards .

It certainly wasn't meant as an insult to notnowsonny, or even Steve Richards, who is far from being the worst offender. Just that there's plenty of them for QT to choose from.

Let us know what definition you find, I'd say 'so-called progressive who threw their hands up in horror at Corbyn/McDonnell's mild attempts at social democracy'.

[gilsey]

Flying rodent has hit the nail on the head there.

Margaret Hodge has no shame at all.

[gilsey]

Thanks for the QT review, sky.

Victor Adebowale was indeed splendid, I think he's been on before but I recall him being rather more circumspect.
Maybe he's emboldened by the tories imminent loss of power over the NHS.

[notnowsonny]

May I echo frog and gilsey's praise for sky's QT report. I watch it the day after on iplayer enthused by our in house commentator and he's seldom proved to be wrong or having exaggerated - well, not often!

[notnowsonny]

Finally I really must look up 'Centrist dad' which is obviously an insult, gilsey to Notnow on Steve Richards .

It certainly wasn't meant as an insult to notnowsonny, or even Steve Richards, who is far from being the worst offender. Just that there's plenty of them for QT to choose from.

Let us know what definition you find, I'd say 'so-called progressive who threw their hands up in horror at Corbyn/McDonnell's mild attempts at social democracy'.

To be honest, I did take it as a mild jibe at the politics that both Steve Richards and I are perceived to espouse and thank gilsey for the clarification!

I've been called a "champagne socialist" and "a red under the bed" - I have a number of right wing friends and acquaintances - but never "Centrist Dad"!
I must reread Steve Richards' "The Prime Ministers we never had", as I recall it being fairly sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn. When a Party member, I didn't vote for Corbyn, but I did support him whole-heartedly as leader. Why wouldn't you if you wanted a bit more social justice in the world?

To add a little more information, I resigned my membership when they suspended AndyMcDonald, after having gritted my teeth and thought about the greater good for quite a while before that!

[notnowsonny]

I sat next to Steve Richards at a showing of "King Lear" with Glenda Jackson at the Old Vic and had quite an interesting chat with him beforehand and at the interval.

He gently accepted my gushing admiration of his writing ( I suggested he was in a line starting with James Cameron and Hugo Young) and raised an eyebrow at my description of him as 'left of centre'. I suppose in my world, he is!

A nice man in my judgement and with the correct instincts. @AK is right, SR does know the Labour party, unlike many others.

[frog222]

It certainly wasn't meant as an insult to notnowsonny, or even Steve Richards, who is far from being the worst offender. Just that there's plenty of them for QT to choose from.

Let us know what definition you find, I'd say 'so-called progressive who threw their hands up in horror at Corbyn/McDonnell's mild attempts at social democracy'.

Thanks gilsey, that's pretty much what I'd suspected .
It's been pointed out manymany times but just across a few miles of salty water even our Right governments implement Corbyn/McDonnell - style policies that are either treated as extreme or ignored your side .
One major one is hiking tax thresholds yearly to take account of inflation (Last 4.7%), another is the longtime routine suspension of evictions in the winter months, actually c. FIVE months last time I looked .

Supposed to be raining according to Météo, , but it's LATE, so off out again to pick up some more grass before it turns into a soggy mass ...

[RogerOThornhill]

Another lol on this one, the officer wasn't commenting on Falter's physical/facial features but on his wearing the kippah !

CST, which was one of the bodies that met Rowley this week to discuss the Falter incident, issued a carefully worded statement in response that praised the overall police response to the protests while criticising the officer’s use of language.

Home Office considered antisemitism campaigner for counter-extremism unit
Gideon Falter was in running to be adviser but government’s antisemitism tsar warned against appointment
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... emism-unit

So even the unscrupulous Woodcock was distancing himself from the CAA ....

John Mann not Woodcock...but take the point. Lots of people clearly unhappy about Falter even before this latest episode.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Something about leopards and faces springs to mind

Though as usual in these situations, even though the tweeter is basically correct my main response is still "better late than never".

[frog222]

John Mann nit Woodcock...but take the point. Lots of people clearly unhappy about Falter even before this latest episode.

Very odd that I got them mixed up ?

On a scale of ridiculousness there are several others just as extreme in the Squad , as above .

Weather forecast was wrong so continued garden till WATO time, much relief for the old back.

[RogerOThornhill]

I was going to say that maybe it was about time people started to look at Jake Wallis Simon...and look what's just come on my timeline...that last bit about him on X behaving more like a political activist than a journalist is spot on.

[AnatolyKasparov]

As usual, excellent QT read from Sky last night.

In particular, regarding the totally clownishness of Charles Moore - let us never forget it was he who convinced BoJo to attempt to totally rig the disciplinary process in parliament so that Owen Paterson could be let off; one of the two events (along with the near simultaneous "partygate" revelations) that dynamited the previously apparently solid 2019 Tory election coalition beyond repair. So he is likely to have a minor - if unwanted - place in the history books.

(btw in common with a few right wingers of his vintage, Moore actually started off as a Liberal in the 1970s)

[gilsey]

It's been pointed out manymany times but just across a few miles of salty water even our Right governments implement Corbyn/McDonnell - style policies that are either treated as extreme or ignored your side .
One major one is hiking tax thresholds yearly to take account of inflation (Last 4.7%), another is the longtime routine suspension of evictions in the winter months, actually c. FIVE months last time I looked .

Supposed to be raining according to Météo, , but it's LATE, so off out again to pick up some more grass before it turns into a soggy mass ...

We used to do that routinely here, as you probably know, but between 2011 and 2016 Osborne/the Coalition hiked the personal allowance by over 60%, £6375 to £10600 at a time of not much inflation, hence hiking other taxes up since to overcome their decimation of the tax base. Then choosing to freeze it again exactly when inflation's been rampant.

I was never sure what the economic or even political logic was but they seem intent on doing the same to NI given the chance. Which they won't be, fortunately.

[frog222]

I was going to say that maybe it was about time people started to look at Jake Wallis Simon...and look what's just come on my timeline...that last bit about him on X behaving more like a political activist than a journalist is spot on.

The last bit ,almost, of the article --

The coverage of Israel-Gaza—and its editor’s often uninhibited behaviour on social media (“onward to victory!” in posting a video of a huge bomb killing untold people in Gaza city in December)—sits oddly with the impartiality its nominal owner, Gibb, urges when wearing his BBC hat.

In addition to impartiality, Gibb is, along with his fellow BBC directors, signed up to the Nolan principles of accountability and openness. The board’s own website commits them to “submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office”. They should restrict information “only when the wider public interest clearly demands”.

But it seems Gibb doesn’t believe this applies to him beyond his BBC role: he has flatly ignored any of my questions about his role as the sole named director of the JC. Nor will he tell anyone whose money is behind the paper he “owns”.

You wonder how he grapples with the potential conflict of interest.

Now planning to become a charity, just like our dear IEA ...

[frog222]

Gilsey -- I didn't know that , thanks for clarification .

Been forrin since 1976 .

It's going to rain VERY soon, so out to do a little more before it does

[frog222]

Heaven's now opened, but I managed another 15 mins .

Will have a deserved glass of Messrs Aldi's organic Bordeaux

>Whoops ---

[frog222]

Liveblog -- some understatement here --

" For an early election to happen, two thirds of MSPs would have to vote in favour. That means Yousaf would need SNP MSPs to vote in favour, which might be hard because polling suggests many of them would lose their seats."

[frog222]

Uninterrupted !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frog222]

Stopped raining so I biked to pick up my Friday organic loaf and craft beer at the farm, rode on a bit to see the latest litters of Bayeux/Berkshire crosses --