Friday 24th July 2015

[PorFavor]

It's been raining steadily all day, but suddenly it's gone very dark and the wind has got up....Nasty!!!!

Do you suspect the Tories are behind it? A huffing and a puffing to blow our houses down ...

Nah. It's because of that Americas Cup thing here in Portsmouth. The weather is awful. It's been hacking down with rain all day (still is). Cold and dark. It's so dark now that it could be a winter's night.

[citizenJA]

It's been raining steadily all day, but suddenly it's gone very dark and the wind has got up....Nasty!!!!

Prepare yourself.
High winds & lots of water dumping down in your part of the country, Ohso.

[ohsocynical]

It's been raining steadily all day, but suddenly it's gone very dark and the wind has got up....Nasty!!!!

Same here, weather's been shocking recently.
Temperature recorded by the car when we went shopping earlier was only 12c.

I've been looking longingly at the fire...Turned the coal effect on to make it look a bit more cheery.

[PorFavor]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33624728

Oh, well. I think a lot of Conservative voters will find that they've joined the ranks of those who are "heir today gone tomorrow".

I think they'll get it in just before the election. What does it cost? Billion a year?
Not worth leaving your opponents and easy gain.

I don't know. He's already given a bung to wealthy and wannabe-wealthy old people, who are the ones that vote Tory, with the inheritance tax cut. This way they can feel like they've got assets to pass onto their children until it's too late.

And not only would it have been the die-ees, who wanted to hang onto their assets to pass on to their children, who may well have voted Conservative but also the potential beneficiaries. (I have a degree more sympathy for the former than the latter, I might add.)

[citizenJA]

UK suspends ban on pesticides linked to serious harm in bees
Farmers allowed to use two neonicotinoid pesticides on their crop for 120 days despite concerns over serious risk to bees and other pollinators

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -harm-bees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Four & a half more years?

[AnatolyKasparov]

Five local council byelections yesterday:

Blackburn/Darwen - Labour hold, increasing their share to near 60% in a ward which has been safe for them in recent years but once had a strong LibDem presence (and where the BNP came through the middle to win an infamous by-election victory, one of their first anywhere, in late 2002) UKIP have gained real strength here in the last few elections, but fell back significantly since May to a little over 20%. Tories also down since then, with the LibDems last with 8% - though that was their first sign of improvement for several elections; they won 1 of the 3 seats here in all outs in 2004 and came close in 2008, but since then have been in continued decline.

Elmbridge DC - LibDem hold, increasing their share since May to just over half in a Lib/Tory marginal which has almost always been won by them since 2002 (a narrow Tory win in 2008 being the only exception) but has at times, as with earlier this year, been very close. Tories were down as there was a swing of nearly 5% overall, but still competitive. Greens stood here for the first time since 2003 and were rewarded with a relatively modest 5% - but this was enough to beat UKIP who saw their share more than halved on their previous two showings in 2014 and a few months ago; their falls in nearly all contests since the GE have been quite marked.

Caerphilly - Labour hold with over 80% of the vote which was over 10% up on the last regular election in 2012 (when an Independent provided the only opposition for the two seats) but slightly down on a by-election later that year when they beat Plaid (their sole opponents in 2004 and 2008) and Tory opposition. This time round UKIP stood for the first time and got 11% which was enough for an extremely distant second place, but still ahead of the Tories who nonetheless improved slightly on their previous by-election showing.

Westminster - Labour hold with nearly three quarters of the vote, a sizeable increase on last year and a swing of about 6% from the second placed Tories since then in what has been one of their few reliable strongholds in this fabled Tory "flagship". They were likely helped by there being no Green candidate this time (their sole candidate had beaten two of the 3 Tories last time round) whilst the Tories also increased slightly due to yet another UKIP slump - they polled less than 3%, well down on both their previous efforts in 2014 and 2010.

North East Lincolnshire - Labour hold again, but with a relatively modest share this time in a contest notably more competitive than their other defences this week. A tiny pro-Tory swing overall as both the top two were marginally down on May, largely due to a notable LibDem surge - they trebled their share since earlier this year to over 15% (though they are still some way from winning here, compared to when they took all three seats in the 2003 all outs - and then came top every time until 2008, save for a hairsbreadth defeat to Labour a year earlier) They just managed to overtake UKIP, who had run Labour close in 2014 and still came a decent 3rd on GE day - only to slump yet again this time. TUSC managed to poll a relatively decent 4% in their first electoral showing since the GE, and beating the Greens (down slightly) into last will also please them.

Five contests again to round off July.

[rebeccariots2]

Preseli Pembs Labour
‏@Pembslabour
Pleased to announce that tonight Preseli Pembrokeshire CLP nominated @Corbyn4Leader for leader and @stellacreasy for deputy leader

We weren't there tonight but that doesn't surprise me at all. Glad they went for Creasy as deputy - there was a bit of pushing for Watson at the last meeting I went to and I don't think he'll be helpful given the current fragmentation.

Meanwhile ...

Grahame Morris retweeted
Billy Bragg ‏@billybragg 7h7 hours ago
Tories accuse Corbyn of wanting to turn back clock, but 1st thing they do is attack unions, BBC and sell off social housing. It's not 1983!

That is so true.

and ...

Grahame Morris retweeted
Samuel Tarry ‏@SamTarry 23h23 hours ago
At local Dagenham pub reflecting on the staggering 73% nomination win for @Corbyn4Leader tonight in @JonCruddas_1 Dagenham Labour Party

[LadyCentauria]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... are_btn_tw


The nine green policies killed off by the Tory government

Thank you, it's good to have them all in one place. Not good as in pleasant but as in useful...

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, friends.
love
cJA

[LadyCentauria]

It's been raining steadily all day, but suddenly it's gone very dark and the wind has got up....Nasty!!!!

Same here, weather's been shocking recently.
Temperature recorded by the car when we went shopping earlier was only 12c.

I've been looking longingly at the fire...Turned the coal effect on to make it look a bit more cheery.

I've had my telly showing its Log Fire app (sorry, there's no further info than the name) since tea-time - it's a long video on loop (with sound) of big logs burning in a massive fireplace. Makes the place feel cosy - plus I've turned the heating up a notch and am snuggled in a thick woollen blanket. High summer. So glad I didn't have to go out today...

[LadyCentauria]

UK suspends ban on pesticides linked to serious harm in bees
Farmers allowed to use two neonicotinoid pesticides on their crop for 120 days despite concerns over serious risk to bees and other pollinators

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -harm-bees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Four & a half more years?

Just heartbreak after heartbreak from this lot, eh!? What are they going to do? Send work-experience kids and work-fare teams out to hand pollinate crops and fruit-trees? Whatever happened to only having stewardship over land, and with that the responsibility to keep it in good heart for future generations? Perhaps Prince Charles should be writing 'black-spider' open-letters to our current 'lords and masters'...