Thursday 25th January 2024

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Afternoon. I'll have a go at this tonight once I've enjoyed my Burns night haggis.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Nicola telling it like it is.

[refitman]

Afternoon. I'll have a go at this tonight once I've enjoyed my Burns night haggis.

What's the betting Sonia tries to crowbar trans people into one of her answers?

[AnatolyKasparov]

Kisin is a complete whopper.

[frog222]

Sky -- Bon appetit for the haggis !

Looking forward to the QT Report .

Like to know more detail on the FO material --

[Sky'sGoneOut]

In case anyone hasn't seen this. Nevena Bridgen is Andrew Bridgen's wife.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Maybe not for so much longer if that is really her, tbf.

[refitman]

[AnatolyKasparov]

I regret to say it, but wasn't the above a (highly believable) spoof?

[frog222]

I regret to say it, but wasn't the above a (highly believable) spoof?

So many of them are so very foul-mouthed that sometimes one has to check --

Politics For You
@PoliticoForYou
SATIRE

Sir Michael Take MP etc had a very good run !!!!!!!!!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

First off I'll say happy Burns night and my haggis from the butcher in my old home town was sublime.

Question Time came tonight from Gillingham which provided the best audience we've had for ages. Lots of laughter, piss taking, anger, and eventually shouty protest. Just the ticket.

For the Conservatives we had Alex Burghart. For once I'm actually struggling to find words adequate to describe how badly Alex went down this evening in a Tory seat with a Tory majority audience. When he wasn't being laughed at, mocked, ridiculed, or called delusional, he was met with shakes of the head and tumbleweed. Which you would have thought would be a chastening experience for anyone, but not Alex, oh no, he sat throughout looking smug and condescending taking nothing in before tetchily turning on the audience as if they were unruly children. He insisted Sunak was brilliant, the country was doing great, and even tried the old Gordon Brown tanked the economy line towards the end which resulted in widespread groans and him being shouted down. Every week you think a Tory politician can't perform worse than the last one, and every week they defy that prediction. And they wonder why they're facing such an electoral kicking.

For Labour we had Jonathan Ashworth. With his Tory opponent making an absolute dick of himself Jonathan had an easy night tonight and could put his feet up. He barely attacked the Conservatives at all and instead wisely chose to talk up what Labour was offering. I mean it might not be much but at least this evening the audience seemed to think it sounded better than being talked down to by a patronising Tory arsehole. As a result he got the best response I've seen a Labour panellist get in a while despite him having to put in minimal effort. So the upcoming election in a microcosm I suppose.

For the alt-right we had Konstantin Kisin. Konstantin is nothing if not predictable. Our armed forces biggest problem is they're too woke, the government's biggest problem is they got rid of those prepared to tell the truth like Suella Braverman, knife crime is all the fault of the break down of the traditional family (and by extension poor parenting by single mothers one presumes), then he tried to round it all off with a stirring populist paean to Britain about how great this country is and the left are talking it down only to be be interrupted and shouted over by a girl protesting about the slaughter in Gaza. This clearly pissed him off because she was upstaging him and ruining the applause he was expecting and I'm sure tomorrow he'll be bleating about it because if there's one thing we know about people like Konstantin they're always the victim.

For the Observer we had Sonia Sodha. Sonia had a splendid outing pointing out in detail the mess the Tories have intentionally made of this country. From special needs kids education to disabled adult social care she laid out a long list of things we used to take for granted that are now at the point of collapse due to wilful Tory negligence. She then got the loudest round of applause of the night by calling for councils to be given the funds to build council houses to rent at an affordable rate. A complete no brainer. As someone who grew up in a council house it strikes me as bizarre that Labour, like the Tories, keep going on about house building targets when what so many of us need, whether young or old, is a place to rent without being fleeced by private landlords, rather than £250000 boxes on the edge of town.

For Chatham House we had Bronwen Maddox. Bronwen was great, telling a few home truths while trying to be polite. The first question was about this idea of a 'citizen army' (notably nobody in the audience put up their hand when asked if they'd sign up to such a thing). She agreed that the British army was one of the most professional in the world but pointed out it was too small to do what was asked of it. As evidence she pointed to what happened in Helmand province in Iraq where the Americans gave us one region to look after and we didn't have enough troops so it ended up being a disaster. In other matters when asked if the Tories would do any better under a different leader she just laughed.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Melanie, singer-songwriter who topped charts with Brand New Key, dies aged 76

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/ ... es-aged-76

[AnatolyKasparov]

How many times did Sonia Sodha mention trans people?