FlyTheNest

Morning all.

Far from me to tell people how-to vote but if you vote for the Tories it is against British values and you would selling your soul to the devil.

I'm not political.

"Cloak"-other cloaks are available or indeed none.

I have no problem with those of faith expressing a
a political opinion and vice versa I reserve the right to point out the cloak.

Not being of faith I wish to point out the evidential poison and consequent enactions with more proposed to continue the hostile environment

I beg your pardon ,not singular of course

I'm answerable to myself ,the cloak doesn't have an opinion.

No offence to those with a cloak.It isn't a judgement on owning one.

366k yesterday.

https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Morning all.

Yes, the contrast in reactions...interesting.

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Tories continuing to do their "protecting "thing(against themselves)by extending minimum PIP award to 18months.

Dmitry Grozoubinski
@DmitryOpines
If Mr Gove had announced the government planned to "end poverty within 2 years" or "land human beings on Saturn" would he have been queried?

Has half the journalism profession just put trade policy in the "too hard" basket and given themselves a free pass on critical thinking?

I think we all know the answer to that.

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As an "empowerment and support"measure ,logic dictates the previous was to take power and support away.

Another example highlighted by Maugham, Resolution Foundation reports that child poverty will rise under tory plans and BBC reports 'could rise'.
Literally puts that in quotation marks as if the report said that, which it didn't.

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Outside of politics, BBC reported 'alleged' racial abuse suffered by Jofra Archer in NZ.

If the NZ cricket authorities have apologised to him can't we assume that it's a fact?

"Bears shit in the woods?"

Briefcase Michael
‏

@BriefcaseMike
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Robinson says the Chief Rabbi's community is 'the Jewish Community'.
So there's a single 'Jewish Community' is there? All represented by the Chief Rabbi?
I suggest such an assertion is in itself anti-semitic and breaches the IHRA definition of anti-semitism. #r4today @BBCr4today

8:16 AM - 26 Nov 2019

Also,

"Identity Politics is a Bad Thing. Discuss."

David Rosenberg
@davidjrosenberg
Chief Rabbi has had nothing to say on Tories hostile environment and Windrush Scandal, nor on formal Tory links with antisemitic gov'ts in Poland and Hungary. Think he's sitting on his moral compass. #notmychiefrabbibruv

Boles has come out with a few zingers tbf to him.

Folk pointing out that LauraK Tweeted that Lord Dubs was on the Today programme "now".

But didn't subsequently report the conversation

I might agree with everything Frances Coppola says but I don't see how saying it now helps the disadvantaged.
Slag Labour off all you like after 12 Dec.

gilsey wrote:366k yesterday.

https://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And there is normally a last day surge.

A few days ago neither Johnson or Swinson had tweeted anything encouraging people to sign up.....

Hugh Grant
@HackedOffHugh
Young people - today is your last chance. Register to vote or I will make another enchanting romantic comedy. #registertovote TACTICALLY.

Gove's doing what appears to be a bit of score-settling with Richard Evans..

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Tom Chivers
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Verified account

@TomChivers
Follow Follow @TomChivers
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This gets my back up. Not because Labour antisemitism isn't a real problem but because it seems wildly implausible that Gove is using it for anything other than political gain. It feels so cheapening. If he truly wanted to fight racism he has plenty to look at in his own ranks

Mmm...there's a few like that about.

Gove is clearly the designated Tory "attack dog" for this election. Lovely role, lovely man.

Meanwhile they appear to have hidden JRM in what is probably a very posh antique cupboard...

HindleA wrote:I'm not political.

I think that claim has actually been made by at least one historical Tory PM.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Oops.

General election 2019: Karl McCartney apologises over retweets

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/election ... ssion=true

A Conservative election candidate has apologised for retweeting posts from former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate said Karl McCartney shared several posts from Mr Robinson and far-right commentator Katie Hopkins.

The posts, it said, contained "anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic material".

Hope Not Hate has called for Mr McCartney to be suspended as the candidate for Lincoln.

In a statement, Mr McCartney said: "I apologise unreservedly. In no way do I endorse the tweets or the accounts behind them. I accept retweeting them was ill judged and could cause offence.

"This divisive figure [Mr Robinson] has no place in our politics or public life."

gilsey wrote:I might agree with everything Frances Coppola says but I don't see how saying it now helps the disadvantaged.
Slag Labour off all you like after 12 Dec.

FWIW I disagree with her view CA should be minimum wage level ,it isn't means tested so not a "to the poor"(urgh) thing ,necessarily .

Six local council byelections last week:

West Sussex CC - Tory hold with nearly half the vote (though their previous incumbent had defected to the Brexit Party) an increase from almost exactly 40% two years ago. This may be accounted for by the absence of UKIP, who won this division in 2013 and still polled a sizeable vote as runners up last time. LibDems were second to the Tories here in 2005 and 2009 and were again competitive now as they rose more than 15 points to 36%. Greens slightly up to 9%, Labour slightly down and the local one man far right party Patria last with 0.6%.

Chichester DC - Tory gain from LibDem (though in another defection the outgoing councillor had gone Green soon after being elected this May) with a 17 point increase to over 60% of the vote. This was a new ward set up post boundary changes for this year's election, and given that its predecessors had been reliably Tory going back to the 1990s it was a major surprise when two LibDems were elected in a straight fight with the Tories. So their drop from over half then to 30% now was maybe not such a surprise given past history, Greens are unlikely to have helped by intervening either. Patria stood here as well (the same candidate, even though this is a different part of the county) and again got a minuscule vote.

West Lancashire DC - Labour hold with over 60% of the vote, a modest increase since May. This has been a strong Labour ward since being set up at the 2002 all-outs and returning two members for the red team - on that occasion however an Independent polled decently before then disappearing, and Labour won by sometimes huge margins (often opposed by a sole token Tory) until earlier this year when a localist Skelmersdale Independent polled 35% of the vote - however they dropped 5 points now, meaning that the third placed Tory also went up slightly.

Cardiff - Tory gain from Labour, meaning they complete a full house in this ward that voted 3C/1Lab two years ago. This ward also provided a clean sweep for the Tories in 2004 and 2008 before it split 3Lab/1C in 2012, but that result apart this area has been clearly Tory leaning in recent years and in 2017 the successful Labour candidate outpolled their running mates by several hundred votes. Labour thus arguably did well to pretty much hold their share from then, but a 6 point Tory increase to 43% was enough to confirm a clean sweep - LibDems increased a few points to 10% but both Plaid and Greens were clearly down, whilst an ex-UKIP candidate here stood as an Independent and got less than 2%.

Aberdeen - SNP hold with 43% of first preferences, a double figure increase from two years ago when this division split 2Nat/1C/1Lab which was the same split as in 2012 despite a drop in Labour support and compared to a 1Nat/1Lab/1C/1LD in the first STV elections in 2007. Tories were thus left well behind even though they also increased slightly, whilst Labour support more than halved to 11%. LibDems increased by 3 points to 8% (but they are still some way from their former strength here) just followed by the Greens who advanced similarly. Independents polled 2% whilst UKIP got just over 1% (though they were actually slightly under that last time)

Moray - Tory gain from Independent with a 7 point increase to over 40% in a division that split 1Nat/1C/1Ind in 2017, thus confirming the latter;s decline after things had divided 2Ind/1Nat in both 2012 and 2007. SNP almost held their vote from two years ago and were close behind on first preferences, but they may be disappointed that despite that the Tories won quite easily on transfers. Thus time the Independent candidate was the one who had finished second of the two Indies last time - their own vote went up a bit to 13% but that was never going to be enough. LibDems polled over 7% in their first outing since 2007 (and little changed from then)

Three contests this week.

None of the BBC's commentary today mentions the fact that the Chief Rabbi didn't comment on the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates who had been adopted by their constituencies despite their openly antisemitic comments on social media. This is the kind of thing that make some people think the BBC and others are more interested in attacking the Labour party than in attacking anti-semitism.

Lib Dems lambasted over fake newspapers campaign material

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... bGfEKG-NR0

The Liberal Democrats have been accused of peddling misinformation after distributing fake newspapers with names similar to be independent publications, prompting one local newspaper group to threaten to stop all coverage of the party.

Jo Swinson’s party has produced publications in more than a dozen seats with titles such as Cheltenham Courier, North West Leeds News and York News to promote their candidates. Each “newspaper” has a similar look to a traditional news outlet but is accompanied by a small line of text saying it is a party publication.

Besides, I was unaware that "defending Ken Livingstone" was a disciplinary offence in itself?

Economists and academics back Labour spending plans
This article about the letter isn't paywalled but the letter itself is on the FT site.

It's here for anyone interested.
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Tories have made a cult out of the Labour party leader; no one else.

My word Andrew Neil is unpleasant.

I suspect nothing was learned and nobody will have changed their views.

Andrew Neil interview with JC an entirely predictable car crash, although he remained reasonably calm.

I’ve two questions.

What was the tax increase on people on £14k Neil was on about? I must have blinked and missed it.

Is BJ really going to turn up to be eviscerated?

I'm not sure what the £14k was about. The living wage proposed by Labour will be £10 an hour so Corbyn's answer that those losing the marriage tax allowance will be compensated by this is cold comfort to anyone currently earning just above that, like us.

As far as I can tell, tax/benefit wise, I think my family will be worse off initially, under Labour's proposals. After being hammered over and over by the Tories over the last 9 years, we stopped "just about managing" a while ago. I'm finding it hard to get excited about Labour's investment for the future when I'm struggling to see how we'll get through the next year whoever wins the election.

Am I an aberration or am I part of a significant cohort that has been overlooked? Usually Labour have policies that feel were designed specifically to make my life better but I'm not getting that so far this time, just all the general stuff that affects everyone. Which is ok. Just not, well, as personally positive as normal.

Perhaps it's just that I'm more in need of some help than in anytime previously.

I'm sorry to hear that.

We've been benefiting from the married allowance ourselves but would be giving it up anyway now I've finally got my state pension, I'm a taxpayer again.

I've always been against it in principle, a bit like Gordon Brown's 10p rate, complications that aren't very significant to most people but cause real upset for some when taken away. Best not to bring them in in the first place.

Swinson has successfully sued an SNP candidate (actually probably their agent) for distributing a leaflet saying she was taking money from a fracking company. She wasn't taking money from a fracking company, she was taking money from a director of a fracking company acting in a personal capacity. I think we're coming quite close to 'that money was just resting in my account'.

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

gilsey wrote:I'm sorry to hear that.

We've been benefiting from the married allowance ourselves but would be giving it up anyway now I've finally got my state pension, I'm a taxpayer again.

I've always been against it in principle, a bit like Gordon Brown's 10p rate, complications that aren't very significant to most people but cause real upset for some when taken away. Best not to bring them in in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I have no particular love for the married tax allowance, any more than I did for MIRAS, it's just that the only Labour policy I've heard about so far that will particularly affect me, will affect me negatively. Just a bit of a sucky end to a rather tough day. I want to be more enthusiastic about the Labour campaign but it's missing me a bit at the moment. Hopefully it's going down better elsewhere.