Thursday 18th May 2023

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

[gilsey]

Good morning.

Don't always agree with Larry Elliot but he's spot on here.

Record numbers of British workers are sick. No wonder the economy is too

tl:dr

Above all, it will require a recognition that inactivity as a result of ill-health is a symptom of a deeper malaise: the unhealthy state of modern British capitalism.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Any opinions here on Starmer going big on house building?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

What's this? A reason to vote Labour? Well I never.

Labour vows to introduce Scottish-style right to roam law in England

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... aw-england

The Labour party has pledged to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam law in England if it wins the next general election, with access to green space enshrined in law.

In Scotland, there is a right to walk through the countryside, leaving no trace, with some exceptions such as not trampling over land that is growing crops. Under a Labour government, people in England would be granted the same rights.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh Allister. Not a happy bunny are you?

Deluded Tories are blind to the scale of the disaster to come

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... hemselves/

It is time for the Conservative Party to get real: it is on course for a landslide defeat of historic proportions, brought about by its own cowardice and incompetence. There is too much delusion in Toryland, too much residual hope that Rishi Sunak will pull off a miracle, too little honest appraisal of public opinion. Poll after poll paints the same picture: yes, the Prime Minister is relatively well liked, but his party isn’t.

The current 17-point gap may narrow: Sir Keir Starmer may overreach, frightening some electors. But barring a major black swan event, it is overwhelmingly likely that Starmer will be PM next year, quite possibly without even needing the support of other Left-wing parties. There will be tactical voting, and he may win the most votes even in England, as Tony Blair did in 1997 and 2001. He will wield immense power.

Why am I so pessimistic?

He then goes on to whinge at length about how the Tories are too woke and obsessed with doing vaguely sane things instead of doing lots of the insane things which were coming out of that batshit conference of deluded fascists. He genuinely seems to believe that the police aren't being tough enough, that benefit claimants have it too easy, that women want to be baby machines, that the NHS should be privatised, and that brexit has been a crock of shit because we have a socialist monetary policy.

I can't imagine Allister gets invited to many parties.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Jings! Looks like I better don my sporran, we're in Scotland tonight.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Labour have been unveiling a few policy "kites" this week haven't they - I wonder if this was always planned once the elections were out of the way?

[refitman]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

QT tonight came to you from Fort William, lucky sods, I wish I was up there. Despite it being the place I had the worst curry I've ever eaten in my life. The scenery and wildlife kinda made up for it though.

For the Tories we had Malcolm Offord. After failing miserably to get elected to the Scottish Parliament Malcolm was made a peer and junior minister in the Scottish Office by Boris Johnson after donating £150,000 to the Tories. Make of that what you will. Tonight Malcolm demonstrated some novel uses of statistics. For example, he made an attempt to claim that because more Scots voted to stay in the UK than stay in the EU that somehow trumped the Scottish EU remain vote because the independence referendum was more important...or something. It got a laugh from the audience and Fiona Bruce shut him up but undeterred he later claimed inflation was higher in the EU (it's not, Germany for example is at 7.2% compared to the UK's 10.1%) and even asserted that food prices would fall once inflation was reduced. It tells you all you need to know about how highly the Westminster Tories regard their Scottish Government counterparts that they sent this fool who paid for his position rather than any of them.

For the SNP we had Mairi MCallan. Given current the travails of the SNP Mairi was probably expecting a kicking tonight but it never happened. In fact she faced far less hostility from a QT Scottish audience than I think I've ever seen. This probably says more about a change in how QT chooses its audiences than Scottish politics but it was a welcome change not to have some Unionist ex-Ukip nutter in the front row being encouraged to vent their spleen*. She acknowledged the difficulties her party finds itself in then came out swinging, mostly at Labour for it's pitiful stance on the EU and her frustration in having to deal with the Tories when it came to allowing seasonal workers visas to work in Scottish businesses.

For his Alba party we had Alex Salmond. Say what you like about Alex, and many have in court, as a performative politician he has few equals. Despite his party so far proving to be about as popular in Scotland as drinking less he was the obvious star of the show. He schooled the SNP on policy drift (as in, you've got one job, stop dicking about with all the rest of this nonsense) and absolutely skewered Labour on their cowardice when it came to immigration and the EU.

For Labour we had Jackie Baillie. In England Jackie would have done alright. She was bullish and confident and all that shit, but unfortunately she was in Scotland, facing two Scottish independence and rejoining the EU advocates and all her bluff and bluster came to naught when all she had to offer were feeble Starmerist half promises about 'a closer relationship' with the EU in return. As someone who pays a bit of attention to Scottish politics, if Labour think they're making inroads they're seriously kidding themselves.

For whatever reason we also had Nina Myskow. Nina said the Tories and big companies were all money grubbing bastards. Can't argue with that can you?



*This isn't a conspiracy theory.

https://www.scotsman.com/regions/bbc-qu ... snp-126515

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I've forgotten. Wait a minute. What?