FlyTheNest

Morning all.

Good morefternoon all, looking like this place has gone quiet again.

David__Osland
@David__Osland
Polly Toynbee warns against 'mistaking Starmer's strategy for vacillation'. I suspect she's mistaking Starmer's vacillation for strategy.

In other news, it's snowing.

@AK

Don’t know what to say really.

Looks like Labour will lose in Hartlepool. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.....

And yes snowing here too with a bit settling on the tops

Sunny, snowing, sunny, snowing, sunny, snowing...it's neither one thing nor t'other.

Hartlepool looks grim, but then it again it always does.

I see the Labour left are pointing to the poll saying free broadband has popular support presumably as a criticism of Starmer's centrism, but then again under Corbyn they lost a chunk of the Hartlepool electorate and only won because the Brexit party split the vote. Nothing's ever that simple.

In my humble and often wrong opinion I still think Labour have a chance of winning the seat if they can get their vote out. They've pulled a few rabbits out of hats in similar by-elections in the last few years.

And now it's snowing and sunny at the same time.

Its worth looking at what some poll "experts" have said about the Hartlepool effort. To take just one example, BxP got some 28% there in 2019 and this poll has that figure down to just 3%. Details like that don't mean it is *wrong*, but they do indicate it isn't totally to be relied on.

Brit expats and homeowners 'screwed over' by Brexit as retirement dreams dashed

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/b ... r-23835728

Mrs Smyth said the couple bought the villa just over two years ago, placing their faith in the UK government to negotiate a post-Brexit agreement with Spain that would support homeowners in the country.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Its worth looking at what some poll "experts" have said about the Hartlepool effort. To take just one example, BxP got some 28% there in 2019 and this poll has that figure down to just 3%. Details like that don't mean it is *wrong*, but they do indicate it isn't totally to be relied on.

Here's how they adjusted their weighting to take into account the 'missing' Brexit Party voters.

https://twitter.com/DamianSurvation/sta ... 8944653320

I know that polls get weighted all the time, but 28% to 3% is one hell of a drop and its fair to say it has raised eyebrows with some poll people.

As for where all the Brexit Party voters have gone, as it's Hartlepool they may have been mistaken for monkeys and hung, or, and I think this one's more likely, they're embarrassed to admit they voted for Farage & Co.

If they're embarrassed to admit they voted for Nige, shouldn't they be embarrassed to say they'll vote for Johnson? People have gone mad.

I'm not sure madness is the problem in Hartlepool, more a chronically limited gene pool. Every time I got off the train there I'd sing the dueling banjos tune from Deliverance to myself.

Whisper it, but the "Pool" is positively cosmopolitan compared to some nearby areas

gilsey wrote:Polly Toynbee warns against 'mistaking Starmer's strategy for vacillation'. I suspect she's mistaking Starmer's vacillation for strategy.

(I stole that off someone on Twitter).

Is there such a thing as a snowbow?

https://metro.co.uk/2017/12/18/spectacu ... t-7167445/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

apparently so!

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Whisper it, but the "Pool" is positively cosmopolitan compared to some nearby areas

I did make the mistake of going for a night out in Stockton once. That'll never happen again. The less said about Redcar the better. Of course this was all nearly 30 years ago, so they may have been transformed into paradises by now. Or at least be marginally less terrifying.

To be fair I was experiencing them at their worst when they were still reeling from Thatcher's acts of wanton destruction so I can only imagine they've improved. Probably with the help of EU development funds.

I too was wondering about snowbows this afternoon but thought snowflakes would be too large to refract any visible wavelengths of light, but apparently not. That's really cool.

Many of us older locals have happy memories of nights out in Redcar, before your time.

http://redcarjazzclubmedia.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That building has been more or less derelict for years, currently being converted into flats. There's a complete new promenade/flood defences, EU money as you say, but really Redcar has nothing going for it other than the beach and a great chippy. Hartlepool has a marina. Stockton's mostly given up on being a shopping centre and is probably better for it, there's an Arts Centre and a couple of annual entertainment/music festivals.

Stephen Timms upholding the pro-LGBTQ+ ideals of the Labour party.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/ ... 3563121665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;