Morning all.
Thanks for the QT review Sky.
Friday 24th October 2025
Re: Friday 24th October 2025
Much enjoyed the Sky Report .
Nice er hopeful Lab comment on bsky about noble Caerphilly Labourites tactically voting to keep Reform out
Kinnock Jr changing tack on the Brexit Victory is a good sign at least. Plus that audience!
Starmer's "not in my lifetime" was yet another sign of his lack of any sense. "Who knows where the EU will be in five years ? " is the only decent beginning of a response to the question.
Anyway, here's a little Mariella --
Nice er hopeful Lab comment on bsky about noble Caerphilly Labourites tactically voting to keep Reform out
Kinnock Jr changing tack on the Brexit Victory is a good sign at least. Plus that audience!
Starmer's "not in my lifetime" was yet another sign of his lack of any sense. "Who knows where the EU will be in five years ? " is the only decent beginning of a response to the question.
Anyway, here's a little Mariella --
Re: Friday 24th October 2025
Good morning.
Nice anecdote from Sparrow.
Nice anecdote from Sparrow.
The last time I was writing about Lindsay Whittle was more than 30 years ago. My first job in journalism was on the South Wales Echo, where I spent more than a year in the early 1990s in the Caerphilly office covering the Rhymney Valley. Whittle was leader of the Plaid group on the council at the time. Even then he was a veteran (he was first elected as a councillor in the 1970s) and he was a useful contact (friendly, approachable, decent, public-spirited), but not that useful, because Labour ran south Wales, and the idea that Plaid might ever replace them seemed fanciful.
Re: Friday 24th October 2025
Just a bit of History , on the delights of a divided left , and even a divided centre --
Chirac got 20% in the first round, and 80% in the second, with an 80% turnout !
" Cette élection marque durablement la vie politique française. Le premier tour place en tête Jacques Chirac (19,88 %) et, à la surprise générale, Jean-Marie Le Pen (16,86 %). Lionel Jospin arrive en troisième position avec 16,18 % des voix. Ce résultat s'explique en partie par la division de la gauche plurielle et par les scores réalisés par l'extrême gauche. C'est la deuxième fois (avec celle de 1969) qu'un candidat de gauche n'est pas présent au second tour d'une élection présidentielle sous la Ve République et la première fois qu'un candidat d'extrême droite y figure. Enfin, et pour la première fois sous la Ve République, aucun candidat ne franchit le seuil de 20 % au premier tour."
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lec ... se_de_2002
Was reading some Tim Snyder and Anne Applebaum yesterday , the latter a very personal account of how over twenty or so years the Polish Right divided into the proto-fascist authoritarians which we can also see in the present US GOP, where election-rigging is NOW the rule ... and the old-fashioned election-respecters .
Part of her conclusion -- there are many people deeply attracted to cruelty and authoritarianism, and the rest of us have real Fight to counter them .
Nice day disappearing, but going to do my laundry all the same !
Chirac got 20% in the first round, and 80% in the second, with an 80% turnout !
" Cette élection marque durablement la vie politique française. Le premier tour place en tête Jacques Chirac (19,88 %) et, à la surprise générale, Jean-Marie Le Pen (16,86 %). Lionel Jospin arrive en troisième position avec 16,18 % des voix. Ce résultat s'explique en partie par la division de la gauche plurielle et par les scores réalisés par l'extrême gauche. C'est la deuxième fois (avec celle de 1969) qu'un candidat de gauche n'est pas présent au second tour d'une élection présidentielle sous la Ve République et la première fois qu'un candidat d'extrême droite y figure. Enfin, et pour la première fois sous la Ve République, aucun candidat ne franchit le seuil de 20 % au premier tour."
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lec ... se_de_2002
Was reading some Tim Snyder and Anne Applebaum yesterday , the latter a very personal account of how over twenty or so years the Polish Right divided into the proto-fascist authoritarians which we can also see in the present US GOP, where election-rigging is NOW the rule ... and the old-fashioned election-respecters .
Part of her conclusion -- there are many people deeply attracted to cruelty and authoritarianism, and the rest of us have real Fight to counter them .
Nice day disappearing, but going to do my laundry all the same !
