Friday 24th March 2017

[RogerOThornhill]

I blame the Democrats. Or Fake News. Or something.

[HindleA]

8pm Ryan-ahem

[StephenDolan]

A good bit of news. HUGE!

[AnatolyKasparov]

Or you might even say, BIGLY.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ryan pathetically sucking up to Trump.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Spectacular incompetence.

[RogerOThornhill]

This thread went...well, a bit strange. What an odd way to behave.

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[AnatolyKasparov]

Not our friend Rusty again, perchance?

[RogerOThornhill]

Not our friend Rusty again, perchance?

Nah, his sycophantic mate who used to go under the name of Happy Chickie. Posted here a few times.

[RogerOThornhill]

OopsieDaisy‏ @FleurFrench 8m8 minutes ago
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@ROTSchools Anyways Rog.I have a life so must dash. Say hi to Dr Terror, you. Later

Says someone who's been trolling me all afternoon...

She can also be a really nasty piece of work as evidenced by some remarks about people who left here to go elsewhere. no need for that sort of spiteful stuff.

[RogerOThornhill]

How on earth can this go one like this?

John Harwood‏Verified account
@JohnJHarwood

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Trump on Obamacare: "I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days"

Er...

Trump vows to repeal ObamaCare on day one of presidency

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[HindleA]

Lovely person,once tried to educate them when bemoaning the laziness of people getting home delivered prescriptions when it was hospital prescribed/ arranged (eg EPO for home dialysis patients),to no avail.

[HindleA]

HappyChickie not Trump.

[HindleA]

How actually sad your life must be though,to behave like that.

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ck-cartoon" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Martin Rowson on 'patriotic' reactions to the Westminster attack

(Considers name change)

[AnatolyKasparov]

Three local council byelections this week, all quite eventful in various ways:

West Somerset DC - LibDem gain from Tory with almost exactly 50 per cent of the vote in a ward where they had not stood in 2011 and 2015 when it comfortably elected Tories both times though there was a notable Green presence - they came a good second (ahead of an Independent) six years ago (the first election on these boundaries) before holding the Tories to a 60-40 margin on GE day. Tory share almost halved from then, but they held up better than the Greens who crashed by three quarters to barely 10 per cent, at least they finished ahead of Labour who (like the LibDems) were standing here for the first time in this ward's present form but had to be content with a little over 6 per cent. One other thing to note - this may be the last election in this authority (one of the smallest principal level councils in England) as a merger with neighbouring (and bigger) Taunton Deane DC has been mooted and looks likely to go ahead before the next regular polls in 2019.

Herefordshire - rather in contrast to the above, this was a Green gain from Independent with 40 per cent of the vote - a 10 point increase since 2015 which was the first election since boundary changes. However, a Green gain of a predecessor division to this one in a 2014 by-election indicated their potential here and they made no mistake this time either. The gain was, moreover, a comfortable one given the rather fragmented nature of the other candidates support - second place went to the localist Its Our County group (who did not stand last time) but they were beaten by over 2 to 1. They finished just ahead of the Tories, who retained the third place they had on GE day but saw their share drop by over 8 points, followed by a new Independent candidate who fell from 1st to 4th and had to be content with 15% this time. LibDems last with 8%.

Blackburn and Darwen - Labour hold in a division that had a previous by-election only last December, but the real excitement came after the poll had been declared when the winner was declared ineligible; thus the voters here are almost certain to be faced with three contests in much less than a year (and depending on when the "re-run" is held, four times in little more than a year since the last "regular" contest in May 2016) This ward has always been Labour since the LibDems won one of the three seats in the 2004 all-out elections, but the BNP polled strongly in the following years and to some extent UKIP has inherited that vote here (they came a good second in 2015 before for some reason not standing last May in what was a straight Labour-Tory fight the former won by over 70-30) This time Labour took almost exactly 60 per cent, amounting to a small swing in their favour in since the Dec 2016 contest as they increased slightly and second placed UKIP fell by a couple of points. Tories third with 18 per cent, a one point increase since the previous by-election.

No principal level contests next week (an unusual event recently) but four to kick off April.

[Tubby Isaacs]

How on earth can this go one like this?

John Harwood‏Verified account
@JohnJHarwood

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Trump on Obamacare: "I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days"

Er...

Trump vows to repeal ObamaCare on day one of presidency

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Seriously not literally" seems to be the alibi.

He came into this week with 37%. He's likely to dump on Ryan for the failure. Ryan was really sucking up to him.

I have nothing against people dumping on Ryan.

[RogerOThornhill]

Blackburn and Darwen - Labour hold in a division that had a previous by-election only last December, but the real excitement came after the poll had been declared when the winner was declared ineligible; thus the voters here are almost certain to be faced with three contests in much less than a year (and depending on when the "re-run" is held, four times in little more than a year since the last "regular" contest in May 2016) This ward has always been Labour since the LibDems won one of the three seats in the 2004 all-out elections, but the BNP polled strongly in the following years and to some extent UKIP has inherited that vote here (they came a good second in 2015 before for some reason not standing last May in what was a straight Labour-Tory fight the former won by over 70-30) This time Labour took almost exactly 60 per cent, amounting to a small swing in their favour in since the Dec 2016 contest as they increased slightly and second placed UKIP fell by a couple of points. Tories third with 18 per cent, a one point increase since the previous by-election.

Was the "winner" actually a council employee or was it more subtle than that?

[AnatolyKasparov]

The latter, he worked for an organisation that is obstensibly under the aegis of Lancashire CC - and of course B&D is these days a unitary authority.

However, it appears it has "links" with the latter as well. As I said upthread, the law on these issues is far from clear and has caught people out before.

[Eric_WLothian]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ck-cartoon

Martin Rowson on 'patriotic' reactions to the Westminster attack

(Considers name change)

Interesting article on that other 'patriot' that saved the UK from the nasty EU then cleared off to the US:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n-fox-news

[PorFavor]

In Major Defeat for Trump, Push to Repeal Health Law Fails

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/us/p ... e-act.html

Read it and whoop!

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yes, I get the feeling this news has cheered a lot of people up - both in the US and beyond

[citizenJA]

In Major Defeat for Trump, Push to Repeal Health Law Fails

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/us/p ... e-act.html

Read it and whoop!

Good!

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA