Thursday 8th February 2024

[refitman]

Morning all.

[gilsey]

Good morning.


I can't remember a better example of the need to follow Healy's advice than yesterday, but it isn't only Sunak who's bad at politics, is it.
The PM and the tory front bench are totally discredited in the eyes of most of the public, but Labour can't/doesn't want to stand up to them.
Barry Gardiner's not wrong.

If you make [your manifesto] so bland, if you stand for nothing, then the opposition and government will actually write your policies for you, they will say ‘You see, Labour’s not telling you what they’re going to do, it’s going to be this it’s going to be that’, and they can paint their own picture. So I think politically, it’s strategically incompetent.

Otoh, tories are so incompetent they're trying to ride both horses at once.

Having attacked Labour obsessively for having the target in recent weeks, arguing that it would have to be funded by higher borrowing or higher taxes, or both, the Tories could embrace the U-turn and argue that it shows Keir Starmer is unreliable.

Alternatively, they could argue that in practice the target has not been dropped because Labour is still firmly committed to clean energy goals that require spending on that scale.

But, at the risk of causing some confusion, CCHQ is trying to run both lines of attack. Its new release described the move as an “attempted £28bn U-turn”

[frog222]

I'm sure Vlad is delighted to see OK politics sidelined to Identity Politics and squabbles on budget promises !

I had the same thought for a pledge on homes insulation (etc) the most sensible one imaginable --

[frog222]

Worthwhile thread on Propaganda from Mikhail Khodorkovsky --



The Useful Idiots on the Left will admit Tucker Carlson got the bio-weapons lab and Zelznskiy's nuclear attack stuff wrong , but will of course insist that it's ALL A NATO plot.

Well having seen the US get so very much wrong since WW2 ... of course they are always wrong !

One other misconception is that native Russian speakers in Ukraine are naturally pro-Russian .

(So English-speakers in the ROI would welcome an English invasion ? )

In the past two weeks I've watched Kate Gerbeau at Times Radio and Owen Matthews of the Spectator make the same elementary mistake . And Matthews is supposed to be a Russia expert .

Jonathan has done hundreds of interviews since the Invasion and I find that this is one of the most useful .

He and Greg have been involved with Russia since the Eighties.

I forget the figure, listened late last night, but a good HALF of the UA Army is

... Russian-speaking . Confirmed by previous interviews with a retired Swedish Army volunteer and a woman from Zhaporhyzia whose Russian-speaking classmates are all in the army.



One reminder near the end of how porous the 1000km border is in places. 2 kms away from Greg, some way behind the 'zero-line' near Sumi , Russian special forces were hiding in the forest and came out to murder an old couple in their car;

That is exactly what they did in 2020, killing fleeing refugees and anyone else they came across . One UK camera team got shot up in the same way.

They escaped , made a youtube about it .

[AnatolyKasparov]

Sunak won't apologise for yesterday, but at the same time he keeps referring to Brianna as "she/her".

If he really meant what he said, he would be using "he/him".

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Ugh, apart from Daisy Cooper this looks absolutely bloody awful.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It's snowing* and cold, I've had to turn the gas fire up which will be costing me a fortune, it wouldn't be so bad if this house had even basic insulation but the landlord will never spend the money. If only there was some kind of government scheme to provide funding...



*Sadly it's wet rubbish snow that despite falling for hours has only succeeded in forming a thin layer of slush entirely lacking in scrunch.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Ah, good to see Streeting on the TV - that so rarely happens after all.

[gilsey]

https://bsky.app/profile/andraswf.bsky. ... via7sb5f25


Thought I'd see if bluesky posts would display here, I see the answer is no. Refit?

It says

let me reiterate my opinion that having gendered pronouns is a waste of everyone's time and we should all aspire to the gender neutrality of the Hungarian language

Don't know if any of you already knew that, my MIL was Hungarian and used he/him for everything, very confusing at times.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I can't remember a better example of the need to follow Healy's advice than yesterday, but it isn't only Sunak who's bad at politics, is it.
The PM and the tory front bench are totally discredited in the eyes of most of the public, but Labour can't/doesn't want to stand up to them. Barry Gardiner's not wrong.

They were discussing this on Newsnight last night with John McTernan and some think tank tosser in a sharp suit from 'Labour Together'.

We've now reached the stage where McTernan, who I don't think anyone would deny has always been on the right of the party, sounds like a far left eco-freak compared to the kind of policy bods advising Reeves and Starmer. What was worst was the sheer contempt the smarmy think tank tosser had for Labour voters, he insisted that they would simply 'forget' about all these ditched policies and u-turns, if indeed they even noticed them at all, because they weren't paying attention as they had 'other things to do'.

According to Google.

Labour Together is a UK political think tank proposing bold ideas for the next Labour government.

Uh huh.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Taking a more optimistic view (yes, I know) this might actually be a case of one side getting a headline "win" (formally dropping the £28 bn figure) but most of the actual substance behind it being retained. And somebody did make the point many voters will relate more easily to smaller (though still of course substantial) specific schemes - rather than one single "big scary number". Regrettably, loads of people are basically economically illiterate at the most basic level (though when we have the likes of the egregious Laura K using disgracefully dishonest tropes such as "maxed out the credit card" is this at all surprising)

I suppose it has at least ensured that more people take an interest in what Starmer actually says today.....

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Rubbish snow.

It's been at it for hours but this is the best we've got.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Holly Valance's husband says it's time for a Labour government.

Chortle.

[frog222]

Holly Valance's husband says it's time for a Labour government.

Chortle.

Otherwise known as "Fill yer boots time" , fresh suckers in Westminster !

[frog222]

Whoops !





------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/b ... trycode=bx

Click on 'ALL' and wonder at how many 30y Gilts the Tories issued at between 1 and 2% .

Back at GFC levels now, 4.6% today .

I've also wondered why local pension funds invest so little in UK utilities, leaving them to the Toronto and NSW Teachers Funds and suchlike ?

The cashflow will roll in with no exchange rate risks , or gains of course .

Rules obviously need reforming, as there's some regular investment £ looking for a home !

[refitman]

https://bsky.app/profile/andraswf.bsky. ... via7sb5f25


Thought I'd see if bluesky posts would display here, I see the answer is no. Refit?

No embedding yet

[refitman]

Jesus christ, the are an absolute shower.

[gilsey]

Taking a more optimistic view (yes, I know) this might actually be a case of one side getting a headline "win" (formally dropping the £28 bn figure) but most of the actual substance behind it being retained. And somebody did make the point many voters will relate more easily to smaller (though still of course substantial) specific schemes - rather than one single "big scary number". Regrettably, loads of people are basically economically illiterate at the most basic level (though when we have the likes of the egregious Laura K using disgracefully dishonest tropes such as "maxed out the credit card" is this at all surprising)

I suppose it has at least ensured that more people take an interest in what Starmer actually says today.....

Starmer used the disgracefully dishonest trope himself.

You carry on with the optimistic view AK, the rest of us will just go on muttering 'doomed' under our breath.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yes, that was definitely not something I would have recommended. But as I said, its how a lot of people think!

[frog222]

[frog222]

A humbling experience to spend a few months in a place like this , with people paralysed for example such as those young men I remember -- one by a car accident in Sydney , the other by a Kalachnikov bullet in the spine ( he was a charter skipper attacked by pirates in the Red Sea ) , or a hospital-acquired resistant infection resulting in more and more and more amputations .

I also won't forget the attractive young blond woman parading on two convincing prosthetic legs with what I thought was a prosthetic forearm too .

[frog222]

As a bit of a personal joke I'd thought of offering me services



My top-speed shuffling amounts to about twenty yards , running towards or away from the enemy , and since Shaun Pinner's jnduction test was 1500m nobody would have accepted me , or maybe now in some only- defensive troops on the very long Western border catching draft-dodgers .

Pretty ignoble : liberating fit young things for the front line ?

Or not ?

[frog222]

[refitman]

Rubbish snow.

It's been at it for hours but this is the best we've got.

This is what it was like at work. They started closing local schools and about 6 people had to leave work

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Question Time tonight came from Nottingham, where I've had a few good nights at Rock City. I assumed like a lot of music venues from my youth it was probably gone by now but after a quick Google it seems like it's still going strong. Yay.

For the Tories we had James Daly. James began with a bit of fire in his belly and a pre-prepared screed about Labour and Starmer flip-flopping and u-turning, he had numbers about how many times it had happened and everything, he expressed himself with a modicum of passion and finished off confidently telling the audience Labour couldn't be trusted. Only to be met with complete and utter silence. After that you could see the light go out in him and he spent the rest of the evening looking like a bloke with a ridiculous comb over being forced to take part in a hostage video. On the plus side he managed not to be laughed at, so a win of sorts.

For Labour we had Wes Streeting. Wes came out swinging playing the honesty card saying it was better for Labour to admit they couldn't afford stuff now rather than after the election and fuck me it actually worked. Lots of applause, job done. All bollocks of course because we know these policies are being ditched because Labour are terrified of the Tories using them against them. But kudos to Wes, he managed to persuade the audience his chickenshit party were doing it for their benefit, fiscal responsibility and all that. Sigh.

For the Lib Dems we had Daisy Cooper. I like Daisy so it pains me to admit that I'm struggling to remember anything she said of any interest...hang on, I'm sure something will pop into my head in a moment if I just...Nope. Sorry Daisy.

For some obscure reason we had Paddy McGuinness. I mainly know Paddy from a Stewart Lee routine where he tells the story of how Paddy McGuinness is going to be playing in some small rural venue and a horse in a field sees one his fliers and as a result commits suicide by rubbing its neck repeatedly on a barbed wire fence. To his credit Paddy admitted at the outset that he wasn't there for his great political brain, following it up with, 'but that didn't stop Boris Johnson'. He clearly can't stand the Tories, his heart was in the right place when it came to his answers to the questions, but let's be honest he was a total waste of time as a political panellist. Baffling choice.

Talking of which for some other obscure reason we had Inaya Folarin Iman. Inaya seems to have come a long way since standing in my constituency as a Brexit Party candidate and losing her deposit. Back then she was a struggling 'artist', or so her leaflets said, now she's a rich bullshit artist sucking at the right wing media money teat. And why not? If you're black and female and prepared to provide contrarian views, especially on race, there's lots of rich white men prepared to bankroll you and publish you in Spiked. She's like Badenoch's mini-me. This evening, like a lot of these right wing contrarians, she said nothing even remotely controversial when faced with real people.



[Edited because I got my Daisies and Rosies confused, thanks AK]

[AnatolyKasparov]

I presume you mean Daisy Cooper there, Sky?

Rosie Cooper is a now retired Labour MP (though she was previously a LibDem)

[Sky'sGoneOut]

This is what it was like at work. They started closing local schools and about 6 people had to leave work.

I can't help but notice some idiot has walked right across there heedless of the risk of setting off an avalanche.

[AnatolyKasparov]

And......James Daly has a combover?

Must admit I have always noticed more his truly incredible forehead, which gives Brendan O'Neill a run for his money.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I presume you mean Daisy Cooper there, Sky?

Rosie Cooper is a now retired Labour MP (though she was previously a LibDem)

Indeed I did. Thanks and it's been edited accordingly.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And......James Daly has a combover?

That's what it looked like to me in all it's HD glory this evening, wispy strands combed across his head held in place with gel or hairspray.

As someone who went down the topknot/ponytail route to cover a bald crown and ended up fooling nobody I'm not one to judge but what I will say is no matter how hard you try to hide it you're going to look like a twat so you might as well shave the lot off. It's utterly liberating.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Just because.