Might be worth keeping an eye on Bristol mayoral election. I hear Ferguson is seriously unpopular & labours candidate is a corbynite. Will they stick with red trousered bonker or will Corbyism sweep Bristol.
I'm sorry Mike Smithson, as much as I love Lancashire, I am going to have to re-post my love of Italy from earlier in response to an attack on Italian cuisine (unthinkable)
I'm sorry...Italian cuisine is sublime. The simplicity. Provided you stay out of a tourist trap and keep to local trattorias, it is literally impossible to eat or drink badly in Italy.
For people who love food, wine, the weather, the landscape, the sea, mountains, the history...and the fact that Italians love the English. The hotels are great. The coffee. You can get to gigs in the summer for £20, and I mean top bands. The cakes, the grappa, the apperetivo....the fact that in summer everything comes to life. The sun, The walks. The quality of the hotels. The light...those wonderful Italian dusks and dawns. The sense of fun and happiness. And it's cheap.
If Andy Burnham is the Labour candidate for Mayor of Manchester, I'll be speaking to Manchester Tories about putting my name forward to be the Tory candidate.
I'm a working class Northener, outwith the Westminster bubble.
Yes, there's a truth in that. In some respects France has just been naturally overtaken by competitors, who learned from her pioneering supremacy, then applied her techniques with greater innovation or resources.
The same happened to the English/British with all the sports we invented. People copied us at football, then, thanks to sheer weight of numbers, we eventually got outstripped - there were bound to be countries which could beat us at football.
Yet the food in France, if I'm not mistaken, is a different case. It isn't just in relative decline (as is the case with the wine) - it's in absolute decline, actively getting a lot worse. Very odd. And rather sad.
Was it ever that good ?
Perhaps it only seemed good to you previously because you thought it should be.
But now after your years of posh hotels and expensive restaurants its you who has changed ?
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
In Ogmore, voted at 2145. Turnout looked to be roughly about 30% and my polling booth covers from the look of their lists about 800 peeps from a more affluent part of the constituency...
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
I'm sorry Mike Smithson, as much as I love Lancashire, I am going to have to re-post my love of Italy from earlier in response to an attack on Italian cuisine (unthinkable)
I'm sorry...Italian cuisine is sublime. The simplicity. Provided you stay out of a tourist trap and keep to local trattorias, it is literally impossible to eat or drink badly in Italy.
For people who love food, wine, the weather, the landscape, the sea, mountains, the history...and the fact that Italians love the English. The hotels are great. The coffee. You can get to gigs in the summer for £20, and I mean top bands. The cakes, the grappa, the apperetivo....the fact that in summer everything comes to life. The sun, The walks. The quality of the hotels. The light...those wonderful Italian dusks and dawns. The sense of fun and happiness. And it's cheap.
Or you could go somewhere else. Why?
Well (and I say this as a fan) the Italian holidays sold in this country are really not child friendly. Tends to be smaller hotels with minimal facilities and activities.
But my son is going to Naples, Pompeii, Herculanium etc etc for a week next year and I am seriously jealous.
Yes, there's a truth in that. In some respects France has just been naturally overtaken by competitors, who learned from her pioneering supremacy, then applied her techniques with greater innovation or resources.
The same happened to the English/British with all the sports we invented. People copied us at football, then, thanks to sheer weight of numbers, we eventually got outstripped - there were bound to be countries which could beat us at football.
Yet the food in France, if I'm not mistaken, is a different case. It isn't just in relative decline (as is the case with the wine) - it's in absolute decline, actively getting a lot worse. Very odd. And rather sad.
I have always found you can eat very well in most French towns with a higher quality of food at a reasonable price than most British cafes, though at the top Michelin starred end the French supremacy may be over. Generally they are friendly, especially if you at least attempt to speak the language. Italy is a great country too but France has Paris, the Mediterrenean climate in the south and lots of history and is the most visited country in the world for a reason
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
So losing rather than annhiliated.
Zac was winning among 55+, homeowners, ABs and whites in the polling published the other day. The 12 point margin seemed, gut instinct only, improbable to me.
Bloody Hell - Andy Burnham? (The City of) Manchester is currently run by some very capable Labour politicians, whose philosophy, for the last 30 years, has been to help the poorest by providing a climate for economic growth and job opportunities. Other Greater Manchester authorities have done similar jobs. Liverpool, meanwhile, had a policy of remaining poor enough to carry on qualifying for European objective 1 funding. Its politicians saw elected office as an opportunity to air a municipal grievance (exemplified by Council Leader Mike Storey, who, when car registrations were reordered around 2002, went on the telly to complain that it was 'insensitive' to use the letter M for Merseyside and Manchester, and that they should have used L instead. So surely we can get a decent candidate from Greater Manchester without having top revert to comedy Scouser Andy 'I like chips' Burnham? What about Richard Leese?
@Mike Thanks for posting that photo. My great-grandfather was Mayor of Salisbury.
You caused me to Google him for the first time. Found two press articles on him. Fascinating. Discovered that my great-great-grandmother's name was Emily!
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
So losing rather than annhiliated.
Zac was winning among 55+, homeowners, ABs and whites in the polling published the other day. The 12 point margin seemed, gut instinct only, improbable to me.
But the Tories probably won all those demographics in the 2015 election, too - yet Labour won London overall by 9 points.
Bloody Hell - Andy Burnham? (The City of) Manchester is currently run by some very capable Labour politicians, whose philosophy, for the last 30 years, has been to help the poorest by providing a climate for economic growth and job opportunities. Other Greater Manchester authorities have done similar jobs. Liverpool, meanwhile, had a policy of remaining poor enough to carry on qualifying for European objective 1 funding. Its politicians saw elected office as an opportunity to air a municipal grievance (exemplified by Council Leader Mike Storey, who, when car registrations were reordered around 2002, went on the telly to complain that it was 'insensitive' to use the letter M for Merseyside and Manchester, and that they should have used L instead. So surely we can get a decent candidate from Greater Manchester without having top revert to comedy Scouser Andy 'I like chips' Burnham? What about Richard Leese?
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
So losing rather than annhiliated.
Zac was winning among 55+, homeowners, ABs and whites in the polling published the other day. The 12 point margin seemed, gut instinct only, improbable to me.
But the Tories probably won all those demographics in the 2015 election, too - yet Labour won London overall by 9 points.
That was a General Election - 65+% turnout.
The top number for a Mayoral election is a full twenty points lower.
Good point. Italians hotels do not cater for children's activities.
Italian children are so pampered by their Italian families that there is no business model to provide activities outside the stifling nature of their parental control.
I'm sorry Mike Smithson, as much as I love Lancashire, I am going to have to re-post my love of Italy from earlier in response to an attack on Italian cuisine (unthinkable)
I'm sorry...Italian cuisine is sublime. The simplicity. Provided you stay out of a tourist trap and keep to local trattorias, it is literally impossible to eat or drink badly in Italy.
For people who love food, wine, the weather, the landscape, the sea, mountains, the history...and the fact that Italians love the English. The hotels are great. The coffee. You can get to gigs in the summer for £20, and I mean top bands. The cakes, the grappa, the apperetivo....the fact that in summer everything comes to life. The sun, The walks. The quality of the hotels. The light...those wonderful Italian dusks and dawns. The sense of fun and happiness. And it's cheap.
Or you could go somewhere else. Why?
Well (and I say this as a fan) the Italian holidays sold in this country are really not child friendly. Tends to be smaller hotels with minimal facilities and activities.
But my son is going to Naples, Pompeii, Herculanium etc etc for a week next year and I am seriously jealous.
Yes, there's a truth in that. In some respects France has just been naturally overtaken by competitors, who learned from her pioneering supremacy, then applied her techniques with greater innovation or resources.
The same happened to the English/British with all the sports we invented. People copied us at football, then, thanks to sheer weight of numbers, we eventually got outstripped - there were bound to be countries which could beat us at football.
Yet the food in France, if I'm not mistaken, is a different case. It isn't just in relative decline (as is the case with the wine) - it's in absolute decline, actively getting a lot worse. Very odd. And rather sad.
Was it ever that good ?
Perhaps it only seemed good to you previously because you thought it should be.
But now after your years of posh hotels and expensive restaurants its you who has changed ?
Yes, there's a truth in that too. I was more easily impressed before. And now I've eaten in the best places all around the world, and I do it regularly, so I expect higher standards.
But "disgusting" restaurant food is something I rarely if encounter outside my memories of 70s Britain and my present forays into the Third World. Yet that is what I have encountered here in France. Michelin-starred restaurant food that is so over-fussy and misconceived, so badly planned and weirdly imbalanced, I just want to hurl the plate through the window, as I barf.
I mean Properly Revolting. Fish with fruit and popcorn and nuts and.... eeeek. LE PUKE.
That sounds like the sort of pretentious WTF menu Gordon Ramsay murders on Kitchen Nightmares. There are some true horrors on his show.
I'm sorry Mike Smithson, as much as I love Lancashire, I am going to have to re-post my love of Italy from earlier in response to an attack on Italian cuisine (unthinkable)
I'm sorry...Italian cuisine is sublime. The simplicity. Provided you stay out of a tourist trap and keep to local trattorias, it is literally impossible to eat or drink badly in Italy.
For people who love food, wine, the weather, the landscape, the sea, mountains, the history...and the fact that Italians love the English. The hotels are great. The coffee. You can get to gigs in the summer for £20, and I mean top bands. The cakes, the grappa, the apperetivo....the fact that in summer everything comes to life. The sun, The walks. The quality of the hotels. The light...those wonderful Italian dusks and dawns. The sense of fun and happiness. And it's cheap.
Or you could go somewhere else. Why?
Italy is now, unquestionably, a much more appealing destination in terms of food and wine, from top to bottom.
France is still much better organised though, and the French have worked on their manners even as they've forgotten how to cook.
Also Corsica. Corsica is what France used to be. Surly, grumpy, but fucking beautiful and impossibly seductive and blessed with tremendous home made food. The last redoubt of Frenchness is the half Italian isle of Le Corse. Discuss.
Love Corsica. For once you are right about something Sean.
Theo Usherwood on LBC saying that Goldsmith is "in a better position than the polls were suggesting". Not done and dusted apparently... higher suburban differential turn-out... but who knows?
So losing rather than annhiliated.
Probably I guess. But you never know. Usherwood was very cautious. Young, ambitious political editor with a reputation to lose. But stuck his neck out far enough to say it isn't over, so he'd look a bit silly if Khan romps home by what the polls are suggesting.
Bloody Hell - Andy Burnham? (The City of) Manchester is currently run by some very capable Labour politicians, whose philosophy, for the last 30 years, has been to help the poorest by providing a climate for economic growth and job opportunities. Other Greater Manchester authorities have done similar jobs. Liverpool, meanwhile, had a policy of remaining poor enough to carry on qualifying for European objective 1 funding. Its politicians saw elected office as an opportunity to air a municipal grievance (exemplified by Council Leader Mike Storey, who, when car registrations were reordered around 2002, went on the telly to complain that it was 'insensitive' to use the letter M for Merseyside and Manchester, and that they should have used L instead. So surely we can get a decent candidate from Greater Manchester without having top revert to comedy Scouser Andy 'I like chips' Burnham? What about Richard Leese?
Burnham is MP for Leigh in GM, though to be fair it is halfway to Liverpool...
Yes, certain local Labour politicians (not the MPs) are very good and quite anti-tribal, however there is little incentive for them to run for Mayor. The GMCA managed to wangle a very good deal in return for getting the elected mayor, the position is much more subservient to them (the local councils) than London's.
Undefined discussion subject.
Comments
I'm not sure I can be bothered staying up for this, but enjoy everybody.
G'night.
I'm sure the Prime Minister relates to that.
I'm sorry...Italian cuisine is sublime. The simplicity. Provided you stay out of a tourist trap and keep to local trattorias, it is literally impossible to eat or drink badly in Italy.
For people who love food, wine, the weather, the landscape, the sea, mountains, the history...and the fact that Italians love the English. The hotels are great. The coffee. You can get to gigs in the summer for £20, and I mean top bands. The cakes, the grappa, the apperetivo....the fact that in summer everything comes to life. The sun, The walks. The quality of the hotels. The light...those wonderful Italian dusks and dawns. The sense of fun and happiness. And it's cheap.
Or you could go somewhere else. Why?
I'm a working class Northener, outwith the Westminster bubble.
Beat that Andy.
Anyhoo. Liverpool!!!!!!
Perhaps it only seemed good to you previously because you thought it should be.
But now after your years of posh hotels and expensive restaurants its you who has changed ?
Not us blue meanies.
FYI - I'm talking about the councils, I've heard nothing about the by-election
And why have the Sheffield wards been redrawn with such minimal changes ?
But my son is going to Naples, Pompeii, Herculanium etc etc for a week next year and I am seriously jealous.
Titter..
So surely we can get a decent candidate from Greater Manchester without having top revert to comedy Scouser Andy 'I like chips' Burnham? What about Richard Leese?
You caused me to Google him for the first time. Found two press articles on him. Fascinating. Discovered that my great-great-grandmother's name was Emily!
The top number for a Mayoral election is a full twenty points lower.
Labour 27 seats, Plaid 12, Con 11, UKIP 8, Lib Dem 2.
http://www.conservativehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FullSizeRender-2.jpg
Italian children are so pampered by their Italian families that there is no business model to provide activities outside the stifling nature of their parental control.
Trust me, they'll judge Andy Burnham on his merits.
https://twitter.com/TamworthCouncil
Matt
Edit: Good evening Ave It!
Sadiq might be the only winner - and that's not nailed on!
I cannot remember that far back into history.
Yes, certain local Labour politicians (not the MPs) are very good and quite anti-tribal, however there is little incentive for them to run for Mayor. The GMCA managed to wangle a very good deal in return for getting the elected mayor, the position is much more subservient to them (the local councils) than London's.