Oh come off it Mike - no-one is being complacent and a Labour victory is far from nailed on.
...
That is a big if, mind. Tory members give every impression of being as blind to reality as Labour ones if their Jacob Rees Mogg love-in is anything to go by.
Perhaps the most shocking thing for me is that the voters seem content to split 42/42 for both unpalatable options. Where is the British Macron or Ciudadanos option?
I think the issue is that the stark and unedifying choice between Tory and Labour is crowding out consideration of any other option. The view that the centre party does best when the two main parties are at the extremes isn't really supported by the evidence - 1983 is usually cited, but that was when Labour had self-destructed, split and engaged in civil war, which is more 'proof' of the "divided parties don't win" rule than saying much about the political centre. And of course the SDP had captured a lot of headlines because of the shock of senior politicians splitting off to start something new.
1979 is a more salutary example. Compared to 1974 (which is still the third party highwater mark in much of the country), the two parties had moved further apart - the Tories under early Thatcher and Labour with Callaghan and Healey trying to keep a lid on the left. The Liberals under Steel went into the election with high hopes, based on the 'gap in the centre', which they explicitly pitched for ("The Real Fight is for Britain"), yet the 1979 result was one of the low points of the third-party recovery.
A bit like reality TV, even when there's a horrible choice to make, the evidence suggests people would nevertheless rather participate.
It would take something truly dramatic to re-create Macron in the UK - and the potential scenarios all seem very far fetched. The most likely of an unlikely bunch IMO is that Brexit is clearly heading for the rocks, public opinion is increasingly hostile, yet the majority of the Tory party wants to press ahead, and the moderate wing splits off to join the LibDems in stopping the whole enterprise. Unlikely, as I say.
Much as I like Anna, she sadly isn't the next messiah.
Anna is the next James Chapman
I have a bit of a soft spot for Anna. She is genuinely funny, and as noted earlier, doesn't duck questions, even on an election night where she almost lost her seat.
But she is on the wrong side of public opinion on the EU.
I see the traitorous tendency are out in force again for their annual attempt to sabotage the locals with a load of overblown anti-semitism stuff. So there is the odd nutter amongst the half a million members, fine, kick them out. Hardly a crisis. I was hoping the appalling duplicitous likes of Mann and Streeting, who do so much to damage their party, would have been shut up by that al-Jazeera documentary, but no, still a stuck record.
So kick them out. Don't embrace them into the bosom of the party - as Corbyn does now. A broad church is one thing - until it encompasses holocaust deniers.
‘Britons liked what Jezza said and did’ Bingo. This is the simple small fact that all of the Westminste bubble interpreters of the election and post-election landscape are desperate to skirt around.
I think they liked the mood music and didn’t think about the details. If the Tories can focus on the details more effectively next time - and Labour being seen as a potential government will help - then there may be a more effective counterattack
Headlined clip on the BBC of Justin Trudeau apparently talking about 'peoplekind' rather than 'mankind'. Surely if we want a less seemingly gendered term 'humankind' works better?
Any use of the three letters in the sequence "M-A-N" is clearly a always an intended slight against those defining themselves as the female of the species.
Next stop: Personufacturing. Because a MAN makes everything, huh?
Lets not get started on HIStory being both a sexist and Tory term. Though at least it is true that due to historical dominance the story of peoplekind has overlooked women.
I see SO, you get your news from and give credence to Guido - no wonder your posts seem like a Daily Express front page.
Are you saying that photograph has been doctored and the meeting made up? Providing endless gifts to Guido is a mistake. If you don’t agree, so be it. That so many inside Labour turn a blind eye to the activities of the anti-Semitic, fascist left is what will ensure the party gets beaten once more come the next general election.
No, Im querying the slanted (almost always is from this ludicrous source) Guido interpretation and explanation of events, which you seem to be taking at face value, probably because you have Corbyn derangement syndrome and are willing to stoop to the vilest of sources to reinforce your preconceptions.
And I also don’t swallow the obvious desperate attempt to conflate being ferociously critical of Israel’s appalling crimes against humanity (which any non-sociopathic human should be) with being anti-semitic.
Of course. And that makes you part of the problem. Good news for the Tories.
A problem of course is that it is perfectly possible to criticise Israel without being anti semitic ("I disagree with Israeli policy on x" just as an example), but blatant anti semites attempt to spin what they say as the former even when it is clearly the latter (and is generally fairly easy to tell based on tone and content), undermining any non anti semitic critiques.
I see SO, you get your news from and give credence to Guido - no wonder your posts seem like a Daily Express front page.
Are you saying that photograph has been doctored and the meeting made up? Providing endless gifts to Guido is a mistake. If you don’t agree, so be it. That so many inside Labour turn a blind eye to the activities of the anti-Semitic, fascist left is what will ensure the party gets beaten once more come the next general election.
What's the rosette Corby is wearing?
Even though I am no admirer of Corbyn I doubt if it is the BNP rosette it looks so eerily like. Maybe an oversized peace poppy?
It looks like a Suffragette rosette, white purple and green.
Is Corbyn pledging votes for women? Well, he could start with encouraging Asian women being allowed to fill out their own postal ballot... Just sayin'.
The Tories are certainly unlikely to repeat mistakes like the dementia tax again and even then most of the Labour gains last time came from squeezing the minor parties, the Greens, the LDs, the SNP and UKIP than from the Tories.
There are also potentially 4 years until the next general election and with the Tories and Labour roughly neck and neck and no alternative Tory leader polling better against Corbyn than May and a number polling worse, there is no urgency for a leadership change especially with the technical Brexit negotiations going on which are more May's forte.
Headlined clip on the BBC of Justin Trudeau apparently talking about 'peoplekind' rather than 'mankind'. Surely if we want a less seemingly gendered term 'humankind' works better?
Any use of the three letters in the sequence "M-A-N" is clearly a always an intended slight against those defining themselves as the female of the species.
Next stop: Personufacturing. Because a MAN makes everything, huh?
Lets not get started on HIStory being both a sexist and Tory term
I see SO, you get your news from and give credence to Guido - no wonder your posts seem like a Daily Express front page.
Are you saying that photograph has been doctored and the meeting made up? Providing endless gifts to Guido is a mistake. If you don’t agree, so be it. That so many inside Labour turn a blind eye to the activities of the anti-Semitic, fascist left is what will ensure the party gets beaten once more come the next general election.
No, Im querying the slanted (almost always is from this ludicrous source) Guido interpretation and explanation of events, which you seem to be taking at face value, probably because you have Corbyn derangement syndrome and are willing to stoop to the vilest of sources to reinforce your preconceptions.
And I also don’t swallow the obvious desperate attempt to conflate being ferociously critical of Israel’s appalling crimes against humanity (which any non-sociopathic human should be) with being anti-semitic.
Of course. And that makes you part of the problem. Good news for the Tories.
A problem of course is that it is perfectly possible to criticise Israel without being anti semitic ("I disagree with Israeli policy on x" just as an example), but blatant anti semites attempt to spin what they say as the former even when it is clearly the latter (and is generally fairly easy to tell based on tone and content), undermining any non anti semitic critiques.
I was once in a discussion group talking about Israel, and one member said...... from a gay perspective the Palestine problem is......
A path to a Labour victory has emerged in the forgotten by-election.
Jack Sergeant wins big in Alyn & Deeside with the Labour vote up 15 %.
"You're Labour – vote for young Jack. Labour needs a kicking for the way they treated poor old Carl – vote for his son, Jack."
For many, many reasons, a sad & highly disturbing by-election.
Given Labour have held the Assembly seat at Alyn and Deeside since 1999 and the parliamentary seat or its predecessors since 1945 the result was not very surprising
Headlined clip on the BBC of Justin Trudeau apparently talking about 'peoplekind' rather than 'mankind'. Surely if we want a less seemingly gendered term 'humankind' works better?
Any use of the three letters in the sequence "M-A-N" is clearly a always an intended slight against those defining themselves as the female of the species.
Next stop: Personufacturing. Because a MAN makes everything, huh?
So you are down on 50% of the human race, because they happen to femstruate?
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
I have a bit of a soft spot for Anna. She is genuinely funny, and as noted earlier, doesn't duck questions, even on an election night where she almost lost her seat.
But she is on the wrong side of public opinion on the EU.
I don't believe that there's any such thing as being on "the wrong side of public opinion"... not on any issue.
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
No interpretations exist except modern English!
Now I best be off before a discussion on the use of niggardly begins.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
Take a look at how many marginal seats swung to the Conservatives and how many swung away from them. The former are outnumbered by the latter by more than three to one.
In other words, you’re talking complete rubbish in your first paragraph.
EDIT the rest is self-deluding nonsense too but not as immediately amenable to empirical disproof.
Has to be said that the Fawkes story is peculiar on a number of levels. How come Corbyn clapped a speech that accused Labour of 'structural racism?' What was Williamson doing there? Why this strange rosette? Above all, why was he sharing a platform with a complete idiot and deranged liar like Bouattia?
Is it fake news to some extent or is Corbyn just showing even less judgement than usual?
In order to understand Williamson, you need to understand why he resigned as shadow fire minister. I have a friend who is one of his constituents in derby north so am well versed in what is going on there. Hint - follow the money trail back to the Grenfell tower tragedy. It isn't pretty as with a lot of UK politics today.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
Take a look at how many marginal seats swung the Conservatives and how many swung away from them. The former are outnumbered by the latter by more than three to one.
In other words, you’re talking complete rubbish in your first paragraph.
Sometimes Alastair I wish you'd say what you really mean
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
And to write wimmin (because women has men in it ) or wombyn, because the etymology is apparently just that - women are chaps with wombs.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
Take a look at how many marginal seats swung to the Conservatives and how many swung away from them. The former are outnumbered by the latter by more than three to one.
In other words, you’re talking complete rubbish in your first paragraph.
EDIT the rest is self-deluding nonsense too but not as immediately amenable to empirical disproof.
You're using past performance (in a pretty dire election campaign) to predict future performance, again.
I'm talking about real, on the doorstep support and enthusiasm for the Tories in places that would not have been imagined in 2010.
Oh, and I'm talking keeping our vote share above 40%.
The trick with the next election will be doing all we can to ensure that the Labour vote falls below 35% again.
Oh come off it Mike - no-one is being complacent and a Labour victory is far from nailed on.
...
That is a big if, mind. Tory members give every impression of being as blind to reality as Labour ones if their Jacob Rees Mogg love-in is anything to go by.
Perhaps the most shocking thing for me is that the voters seem content to split 42/42 for both unpalatable options. Where is the British Macron or Ciudadanos option?
I think the issue is that the stark and unedifying choice between Tory and Labour is crowding out consideration of any other option. The view that the centre party does best when the two main parties are at the extremes isn't really supported by the evidence - 1983 is usually cited, but that was when Labour had self-destructed, split and engaged in civil war, which is more 'proof' of the "divided parties don't win" rule than saying much about the political centre. And of course the SDP had captured a lot of headlines because of the shock of senior politicians splitting off to start something new.
1979 is a more salutary example. Compared to 1974 (which is still the third party highwater mark in much of the country), the two parties had moved further apart - the Tories under early Thatcher and Labour with Callaghan and Healey trying to keep a lid on the left. The Liberals under Steel went into the election with high hopes, based on the 'gap in the centre', which they explicitly pitched for ("The Real Fight is for Britain"), yet the 1979 result was one of the low points of the third-party recovery.
A bit like reality TV, even when there's a horrible choice to make, the evidence suggests people would nevertheless rather participate.
It would take something truly dramatic to re-create Macron in the UK - and the potential scenarios all seem very far fetched. The most likely of an unlikely bunch IMO is that Brexit is clearly heading for the rocks, public opinion is increasingly hostile, yet the majority of the Tory party wants to press ahead, and the moderate wing splits off to join the LibDems in stopping the whole enterprise. Unlikely, as I say.
Much as I like Anna, she sadly isn't the next messiah.
Anna is the next James Chapman
I have a bit of a soft spot for Anna. She is genuinely funny, and as noted earlier, doesn't duck questions, even on an election night where she almost lost her seat.
But she is on the wrong side of public opinion on the EU.
Oh dear. Trying to frighten the voters by pointing at Labour policies is likely to backfire horribly. While I appreciate that the economy was a basket case in 2010, the fact of the matter is that we're still running a substantial deficit and a national debt of close to 90% of GDP. It's currently costing knocking on for £50bn p.a. to service that debt. Yes, it's been higher in the past yada yada, but that's not the point.
The Conservatives cannot trade on economic competence when we're still borrowing a billion quid a week, ten years after the crash. That borrowing is broadly equal to our annual debt servicing cost, so it doesn't even have the risible fig leaf of 'borrowing to invest'.
From my perspective, the Tories are only slightly less bonkers than Labour.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
Take a look at how many marginal seats swung to the Conservatives and how many swung away from them. The former are outnumbered by the latter by more than three to one.
In other words, you’re talking complete rubbish in your first paragraph.
EDIT the rest is self-deluding nonsense too but not as immediately amenable to empirical disproof.
You're using past performance (in a pretty dire election campaign) to predict future performance, again.
I'm talking about real, on the doorstep support and enthusiasm for the Tories in places that would not have been imagined in 2010.
Oh, and I'm talking keeping our vote share above 40%.
The trick with the next election will be doing all we can to ensure that the Labour vote falls below 35% again.
No, I’m talking about seats in play, otherwise known as marginals. They swung to Labour in the main. They are in general less in play than they were under David Cameron in 2015.
I see SO, you get your news from and give credence to Guido - no wonder your posts seem like a Daily Express front page.
Are you saying that photograph has been doctored and the meeting made up? Providing endless gifts to Guido is a mistake. If you don’t agree, so be it. That so many inside Labour turn a blind eye to the activities of the anti-Semitic, fascist left is what will ensure the party gets beaten once more come the next general election.
What's the rosette Corby is wearing?
Even though I am no admirer of Corbyn I doubt if it is the BNP rosette it looks so eerily like. Maybe an oversized peace poppy?
It looks like a Suffragette rosette, white purple and green.
Is Corbyn pledging votes for women? Well, he could start with encouraging Asian women being allowed to fill out their own postal ballot... Just sayin'.
An interesting little clip here on Corbyn, Benn and a suffragette memorial:
Oh dear. Trying to frighten the voters by pointing at Labour policies is likely to backfire horribly. While I appreciate that the economy was a basket case in 2010, the fact of the matter is that we're still running a substantial deficit and a national debt of close to 90% of GDP. It's currently costing knocking on for £50bn p.a. to service that debt. Yes, it's been higher in the past yada yada, but that's not the point.
The Conservatives cannot trade on economic competence when we're still borrowing a billion quid a week, ten years after the crash.
From my perspective, the Tories are only slightly less bonkers than Labour.
Yet you voted for the Brexit that has driven them mad.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
A problem of course is that it is perfectly possible to criticise Israel without being anti semitic ("I disagree with Israeli policy on x" just as an example), but blatant anti semites attempt to spin what they say as the former even when it is clearly the latter (and is generally fairly easy to tell based on tone and content), undermining any non anti semitic critiques.
That's right up to a point. But if you give a detailed critical anaylsis of Israel's policies then someone will say you're anti-semitic, you deny it, they argue with the denial, and the public split the difference and think you're probably a bit anti-semitic.
Partly for family reasons (my mother worked for UNRRA when it helped Jewish victims after the war and was passionate about the debt owed to them) I regard myself as actively pro-semitic - I like the Jewish tradition and most of the values that it promotes. I'm also very critical of many of Israel's policies, even though I was on the Labour Friends of Israel executive. And I'm perfectly willing to express these views uncensored on Press TV when asked (as I was - they let me put the case for sanctions against Iran) and I'm willing to listen politely to militant pro-Palestinians and understand what they're unhappy about.
There are a few genuinely nasty people around and I favour throwing them out ASAP after due process. But I don't see it as a significant issue in British politics and think a lot of the criticism is politically motivated - you can spend a decade in any of the major parties and never meet anyone at any level who expresses any views about Israel or Judaism at all.
A path to a Labour victory has emerged in the forgotten by-election.
Jack Sergeant wins big in Alyn & Deeside with the Labour vote up 15 %.
"You're Labour – vote for young Jack. Labour needs a kicking for the way they treated poor old Carl – vote for his son, Jack."
For many, many reasons, a sad & highly disturbing by-election.
Given Labour have held the Assembly seat at Alyn and Deeside since 1999 and the parliamentary seat or its predecessors since 1945 the result was not very surprising
The most interesting thing is that -- given a difficult by-election held in disturbing circumstances that throw an unpleasant light on the workings on the Welsh Assembly Government -- Labour romped home.
Difficult questions were not answered, because they were not even asked.
A poor inarticulate candidate was kept off the media & kept out of the newspapers. He didn't even (shades of Theresa) turn up for the debates with the other candidates.
Superb news management by the 'Goodfellas' of Welsh Labour.
Carl got whacked by the 'made men', and the organisation closes ranks.
Oh dear. Trying to frighten the voters by pointing at Labour policies is likely to backfire horribly. While I appreciate that the economy was a basket case in 2010, the fact of the matter is that we're still running a substantial deficit and a national debt of close to 90% of GDP. It's currently costing knocking on for £50bn p.a. to service that debt. Yes, it's been higher in the past yada yada, but that's not the point.
The Conservatives cannot trade on economic competence when we're still borrowing a billion quid a week, ten years after the crash.
From my perspective, the Tories are only slightly less bonkers than Labour.
Yet you voted for the Brexit that has driven them mad.
Something of a non sequitur I feel. I voted to leave the EU. I don't remember the bit on the ballot paper that said 'but if you vote leave, your government will go insane'.
Substitute opposition for government and add single market before customs union and you could say the same about Labour. What exactly is their policy?
I think that's the point of Mr Schofield's #irony tag. For once the BBC interviewer seemed on top of her brief, pointing out the downsides of a customs union which RLB hid behind 'subject to negotiation' having previously said 'thats how they work'......
Substitute opposition for government and add single market before customs union and you could say the same about Labour. What exactly is their policy?
I think that's the point of Mr Schofield's #irony tag. For once the BBC interviewer seemed on top of her brief, pointing out the downsides of a customs union which RLB hid behind 'subject to negotiation' having previously said 'thats how they work'......
Mishal Hussein is far and away the best presenter on Today, IMO...
‘Britons liked what Jezza said and did’ Bingo. This is the simple small fact that all of the Westminste bubble interpreters of the election and post-election landscape are desperate to skirt around.
I think they liked the mood music and didn’t think about the details. If the Tories can focus on the details more effectively next time - and Labour being seen as a potential government will help - then there may be a more effective counterattack
Most people choose their party by the mood music. Values rather than policies, if you prefer.
Fear of the opposition is a motivator but fear can only motivate so far. Jezza gets it, with his vision of a society working together for the common good, with no-one left behind. It is a positive message* that inspires the young. The Tories have no positive vision, cannot offer hope, so remain hopeless.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
A problem of course is that it is perfectly possible to criticise Israel without being anti semitic ("I disagree with Israeli policy on x" just as an example), but blatant anti semites attempt to spin what they say as the former even when it is clearly the latter (and is generally fairly easy to tell based on tone and content), undermining any non anti semitic critiques.
That's right up to a point. But if you give a detailed critical anaylsis of Israel's policies then someone will say you're anti-semitic, you deny it, they argue with the denial, and the public split the difference and think you're probably a bit anti-semitic.
Partly for family reasons (my mother worked for UNRRA when it helped Jewish victims after the war and was passionate about the debt owed to them) I regard myself as actively pro-semitic - I like the Jewish tradition and most of the values that it promotes. I'm also very critical of many of Israel's policies, even though I was on the Labour Friends of Israel executive. And I'm perfectly willing to express these views uncensored on Press TV when asked (as I was - they let me put the case for sanctions against Iran) and I'm willing to listen politely to militant pro-Palestinians and understand what they're unhappy about.
There are a few genuinely nasty people around and I favour throwing them out ASAP after due process. But I don't see it as a significant issue in British politics and think a lot of the criticism is politically motivated - you can spend a decade in any of the major parties and never meet anyone at any level who expresses any views about Israel or Judaism at all.
It’s amazing how often Jeremy Corbyn finds himself sharing platforms and being photographed with the “very few” anti-Semites there are in and around the Labour party. Talk about bad luck!!
I see the traitorous tendency are out in force again for their annual attempt to sabotage the locals with a load of overblown anti-semitism stuff. So there is the odd nutter amongst the half a million members, fine, kick them out. Hardly a crisis. I was hoping the appalling duplicitous likes of Mann and Streeting, who do so much to damage their party, would have been shut up by that al-Jazeera documentary, but no, still a stuck record.
Bollocks. Labour has to be hard on on the shameful Jew-haters and holocaust deniers who bring discredit to the movement.
I do hope my PB Punting Pals have lumped on the POMS, as I suggested last nite.
Decent enough start.
That'sb ad luck. Almost forget about bad weather here, although it chucked it down one day last week. Full reply to end our previous correspondence at about 7.36am
I do hope my PB Punting Pals have lumped on the POMS, as I suggested last nite.
Decent enough start.
That'sb ad luck. Almost forget about bad weather here, although it chucked it down one day last week. Full reply to end our previous correspondence at about 7.36am
I'm hearing Thailand. Lucky you - one of the few countries I haven't visited and would like to.
Politics is about appearance. Mrs May isn't a good speaker, and never has been. She becomes shrill, races her words, and looks uncomfortable when asked an awkward question.
Jezza has improved his delivery and dresses less like an old tramp than he used to.
Gordon has moments when he appeared demented, and Ed had some peculiar facial contortions too. Cameron and Blair had the look, even if most of the content was vacuous.
The content and logic is less important than the look. The ones who take particular note of the content of a speech tend to be the ones whose mind is already made up. I'm looking at some of you on here.
I admit that not everyone is as shallow as me, but many are. But that may be because I assume every politician is lying anyway. That way, you're never disappointed.
Oh dear. Trying to frighten the voters by pointing at Labour policies is likely to backfire horribly. While I appreciate that the economy was a basket case in 2010, the fact of the matter is that we're still running a substantial deficit and a national debt of close to 90% of GDP. It's currently costing knocking on for £50bn p.a. to service that debt. Yes, it's been higher in the past yada yada, but that's not the point.
The Conservatives cannot trade on economic competence when we're still borrowing a billion quid a week, ten years after the crash.
From my perspective, the Tories are only slightly less bonkers than Labour.
Yet you voted for the Brexit that has driven them mad.
Something of a non sequitur I feel. I voted to leave the EU. I don't remember the bit on the ballot paper that said 'but if you vote leave, your government will go insane'.
So if you were only voting for a Brexit which everyone happily accepts, you'd be happy to see the whole thing called off ?
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
A path to a Labour victory has emerged in the forgotten by-election.
Jack Sergeant wins big in Alyn & Deeside with the Labour vote up 15 %.
"You're Labour – vote for young Jack. Labour needs a kicking for the way they treated poor old Carl – vote for his son, Jack."
For many, many reasons, a sad & highly disturbing by-election.
Given Labour have held the Assembly seat at Alyn and Deeside since 1999 and the parliamentary seat or its predecessors since 1945 the result was not very surprising
The most interesting thing is that -- given a difficult by-election held in disturbing circumstances that throw an unpleasant light on the workings on the Welsh Assembly Government -- Labour romped home.
Difficult questions were not answered, because they were not even asked.
A poor inarticulate candidate was kept off the media & kept out of the newspapers. He didn't even (shades of Theresa) turn up for the debates with the other candidates.
Superb news management by the 'Goodfellas' of Welsh Labour.
Carl got whacked by the 'made men', and the organisation closes ranks.
Certainly there was a personal vote for Carl Sargeant's son too, though he now has to deal with Carwyn Jones
The reason Labour cant win is because underneath the bonnet Corbyn Labour's policies and personalities are toxic to the majority of the public, not because they are "complacent"..
PB obsessing yet again about "presentation". This seems to be a particular problem with political anoraks.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
Politics is about appearance. Mrs May isn't a good speaker, and never has been. She becomes shrill, races her words, and looks uncomfortable when asked an awkward question.
Jezza has improved his delivery and dresses less like an old tramp than he used to.
Gordon has moments when he appeared demented, and Ed had some peculiar facial contortions too. Cameron and Blair had the look, even if most of the content was vacuous.
The content and logic is less important than the look. The ones who take particular note of the content of a speech tend to be the ones whose mind is already made up. I'm looking at some of you on here.
I admit that not everyone is as shallow as me, but many are. But that may be because I assume every politician is lying anyway. That way, you're never disappointed.
It does of course work both ways. After their fourth election defeat in 1992, there were many who thought Labour could never win again. How, they argued, had Labour failed in the midst of a recession against an untried Prime Minister ? There were those who argued for an electoral pact with the LDs to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.
Conversely, there were those on the Conservative side who took 1992 as a sign they could never lose. After all the Maastricht in-fighting and an economic recession, we still won, they argued, and once the economy was back up and running, we would be invincible.
This validated a degree of self-indulgence which along with a host of other factors led to the events of May 1997.
It might be, and we're hearing it now from some of the Conservative partisans, the case that if you can still win a snap election with Theresa May of all people in charge imagine how much easier it would be as a planned election with someone else leading once all the Brexit negotiations are out of the way. After all, we could put any Conservative up against Corbyn and we'd win every time, wouldn't we ?
There's plenty of hubris in the Blue camp as well - the problem is in my experience nemesis is colour-blind.
I see SO, you get your news from and give credence to Guido - no wonder your posts seem like a Daily Express front page.
Are you saying that photograph has been doctored and the meeting made up? Providing endless gifts to Guido is a mistake. If you don’t agree, so be it. That so many inside Labour turn a blind eye to the activities of the anti-Semitic, fascist left is what will ensure the party gets beaten once more come the next general election.
What's the rosette Corby is wearing?
Even though I am no admirer of Corbyn I doubt if it is the BNP rosette it looks so eerily like. Maybe an oversized peace poppy?
It looks like a Suffragette rosette, white purple and green.
Is Corbyn pledging votes for women? Well, he could start with encouraging Asian women being allowed to fill out their own postal ballot... Just sayin'.
An interesting little clip here on Corbyn, Benn and a suffragette memorial:
Politics is about appearance. Mrs May isn't a good speaker, and never has been. She becomes shrill, races her words, and looks uncomfortable when asked an awkward question.
Jezza has improved his delivery and dresses less like an old tramp than he used to.
Gordon has moments when he appeared demented, and Ed had some peculiar facial contortions too. Cameron and Blair had the look, even if most of the content was vacuous.
The content and logic is less important than the look. The ones who take particular note of the content of a speech tend to be the ones whose mind is already made up. I'm looking at some of you on here.
I admit that not everyone is as shallow as me, but many are. But that may be because I assume every politician is lying anyway. That way, you're never disappointed.
It's not remotely shallow. Appearances are the best judge we have of the quality of people's judgement. People are poor at presentation as May typically make worse decisions than the polished, and it's an incorrect national tendency to believe the opposite that allowed Gordon Brown to feign competency purely on the back of incompetent communication.
It does of course work both ways. After their fourth election defeat in 1992, there were many who thought Labour could never win again. How, they argued, had Labour failed in the midst of a recession against an untried Prime Minister ? There were those who argued for an electoral pact with the LDs to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.
Conversely, there were those on the Conservative side who took 1992 as a sign they could never lose. After all the Maastricht in-fighting and an economic recession, we still won, they argued, and once the economy was back up and running, we would be invincible.
This validated a degree of self-indulgence which along with a host of other factors led to the events of May 1997.
It might be, and we're hearing it now from some of the Conservative partisans, the case that if you can still win a snap election with Theresa May of all people in charge imagine how much easier it would be as a planned election with someone else leading once all the Brexit negotiations are out of the way. After all, we could put any Conservative up against Corbyn and we'd win every time, wouldn't we ?
There's plenty of hubris in the Blue camp as well - the problem is in my experience nemesis is colour-blind.
There were even some who said the Tories would never win again after 1997 but the pendulum always swings back again eventually.
Of course history tells us winning most seats at a 4th successive general election is unlikely and of the 3 examples since the war, 1964, 1992 and 2010 the governing party has more often lost than it has won. However in none of those elections did the winning party get a big majority suggesting that the next general election will be close either way
The reason Labour cant win is because underneath the bonnet Corbyn Labour's policies and personalities are toxic to the majority of the public, not because they are "complacent"..
PB obsessing yet again about "presentation". This seems to be a particular problem with political anoraks.
I wish that was true, but it isn't:
Here is a list of problems facing the country. Could you say for each of them which political party you think would handle the problem best?
Labour lead over Con: NHS: +18 Immigration: -6 Laura Norder: -8 Education: +9 Tax: 0 Unemployment: +3 Economy: -9 Housing: +16 Brexit: -10 Defence: -13
The top five issues facing the country are: Brexit: 59 (Con lead 10) Health: 53 (Lab Lead 18) Immigration: 30 (Con lead 6) Economy: 26 (Con lead 9) Housing: 19 (Lab Lead 16)
I would say it was much of a muchness - once Brexit goes, Con are on Economy & Immigration - and immigration has been declining as a worry. Labour just need to plug on with 'NHS & Housing'. The Tories risk turning into a 'one trick pony' - the Economy - and that could easily turn sour.
Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
Read his quote again
He says there will definitely be a customs frontier, that will definitely not have any checks
This is not a question of technology. It's basic logic, Or lack of it.
That didn’t seem excritiating at all. They seemed to be talking past each other.
The questioner was focused on the bearing the ship was on; Thatcher on where it was a danger to soldiers. Ultimately in a time of war you are going to have to delegate authority to the executive but it seems pretty thin case that she gave an order she didn’t think was justified (and given the sensitivity the “trust me” may have been the only one possible even if unsatisfying)
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
And to write wimmin (because women has men in it ) or wombyn, because the etymology is apparently just that - women are chaps with wombs.
Whereas I believe the biological consensus* tends towards chaps being chicks with dicks.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Anna. She is genuinely funny, and as noted earlier, doesn't duck questions, even on an election night where she almost lost her seat.
But she is on the wrong side of public opinion on the EU.
The Lib Dems were on the wrong side of public opinion about Iraq at one point. Opinions change.
Incidentally, Anna Soubry's directness comes as no surprise to those of us who watched her on Central Weekend in the 1980s - the Jerry Springer Show of its time.
That didn’t seem excritiating at all. They seemed to be talking past each other.
The questioner was focused on the bearing the ship was on; Thatcher on where it was a danger to soldiers. Ultimately in a time of war you are going to have to delegate authority to the executive but it seems pretty thin case that she gave an order she didn’t think was justified (and given the sensitivity the “trust me” may have been the only one possible even if unsatisfying)
I always thought Thatcher did quite well in that exchange. The public I think quite obviously approved of her handling of the Falklands War too so it can't have been that damaging an interview...
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
And to write wimmin (because women has men in it ) or wombyn, because the etymology is apparently just that - women are chaps with wombs.
Whereas I believe the biological consensus* tends towards chaps being chicks with dicks.
Mr. Mark, that's the same thinking that has (genuinely) led some feminists to condemn history [his story]. It is, of course, from the Latin historia. Which is a feminine noun...
And to write wimmin (because women has men in it ) or wombyn, because the etymology is apparently just that - women are chaps with wombs.
Whereas I believe the biological consensus* tends towards chaps being chicks with dicks.
*I'm sure there are competing theories.
Male nipples?
I think men can lactate if they try hard enough (though why one would want to try hard at that is a mystery to me).
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
It does of course work both ways. After their fourth election defeat in 1992, there were many who thought Labour could never win again. How, they argued, had Labour failed in the midst of a recession against an untried Prime Minister ? There were those who argued for an electoral pact with the LDs to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.
Conversely, there were those on the Conservative side who took 1992 as a sign they could never lose. After all the Maastricht in-fighting and an economic recession, we still won, they argued, and once the economy was back up and running, we would be invincible.
This validated a degree of self-indulgence which along with a host of other factors led to the events of May 1997.
It might be, and we're hearing it now from some of the Conservative partisans, the case that if you can still win a snap election with Theresa May of all people in charge imagine how much easier it would be as a planned election with someone else leading once all the Brexit negotiations are out of the way. After all, we could put any Conservative up against Corbyn and we'd win every time, wouldn't we ?
There's plenty of hubris in the Blue camp as well - the problem is in my experience nemesis is colour-blind.
I remeber an interview Ken Clarke gave after the '97 defeat. It was along the lines of
'Ah well we could do with a holiday from government'
Little did he know that the Tories would be out of power for a decade
With regard to Theresa May, -yes she ran an appalling campaign, and yes she personally is completely unsuitable for leading a party in the modern media focussed world. When she feels awkward, her face contorts into that trademark grimace -which is usually the point that she is photographed for next day's newspapers.
In a sense it is a shame that is what the modern political world has. Churchill and Attlee would probably have the same problem.
With regard to Labour, Corbyn also is not good for handling the media and there have been many awkward moments with him too.
Labour's greatest mistake however is its hubris since the election. Labour lost the election, and the 40% it likes to boast about was largely due to its piling up votes in seats it already holds. Labour only won a similar number of seats that Gordon Brown won in 2010 on 29%.
It has been doing a lap of honour since last June, and statements that Labour is a "government in waiting" is taking the electorate for granted. Next time the Tories will have a better leader, better campaign, better manifesto, and next time a lot of voters will be voting to stop Corbyn knowing that he could win. Older voters who abstained last time will be queuing round the block.
Beware Labour. You are heading for a famous defeat.
"Whereas I believe the biological consensus* tends towards chaps being chicks with dicks."
The default is certainly female.
What is slightly amusing is what governs the process of sexual differentiation in the brain which begins in early uterine life.
Certain neurons in the male brain become primed to respond to sex hormones later in life in a male-like manner. Always leaving the toilet seat up, for instance.
However, the hormone that primes them is oestrogen (the female sex hormone) produced from testosterone via aromatase at various brain sites.
Mr. Divvie, the scientific consensus is that women are the base model, and men have the optional extras (jam jar-opening musculature, the ability to piss standing up etc).
.....
Edited extra bit: on a more serious note, you're right that all embryos start off female, which is why chaps have nipples. It may also explain why homosexuality is more common in men than women.
That didn’t seem excritiating at all. They seemed to be talking past each other.
The questioner was focused on the bearing the ship was on; Thatcher on where it was a danger to soldiers. Ultimately in a time of war you are going to have to delegate authority to the executive but it seems pretty thin case that she gave an order she didn’t think was justified (and given the sensitivity the “trust me” may have been the only one possible even if unsatisfying)
It was Adm of the Fleet Lewin who wanted to sink the Belgrano. He just asked Thatch if Conqueror could ignore the rules of engagement to do it and she agreed. Cdr Wreford-Brown had quite the summer that year. Shortly after sinking the Belgrano he sailed Conqueror to the arctic where he covertly severed and stole the towed array sonar off a Soviet ship.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
If there is no agreement, the EU will follow WTO rules, which it is obliged to do; as is the UK, of course.
The posters commenting on 'feminists' exhibit the same extremism as the extreme and/or political feminists they argue against. It's quite hilarious.
The reality is that the real centre ground in things like feminism is much more moderate; it is just that the loudmouths and extremists get the majority of the airtime and visibility.
In this it's like politics, where the prominent face of Labour is Corbynism, or the Conservatives the Brexiteers. It's easy for someone right-leaning to sneer at Labour and imagine every member to be a red-flag wielding Corbynista, Or for a left-winger to imagine that all Conservatives are entitled pricks such as JRM. It's easy to pigeonhole people you do not like when the reality is much more nuanced.
In arguing against the extremists, they devalue the real issues that face women. They also polarise the debate, and hurt the things they pretend to care about, such as men's issues.
(I'd also argue the extreme feminists do feminism and women harm for exactly this reason.)
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Northern Ireland will be smugglers' Heaven. The Transnistria of Western Europe.
The posters commenting on 'feminists' exhibit the same extremism as the extreme and/or political feminists they argue against. It's quite hilarious.
The reality is that the real centre ground in things like feminism is much more moderate; it is just that the loudmouths and extremists get the majority of the airtime and visibility.
In this it's like politics, where the prominent face of Labour is Corbynism, or the Conservatives the Brexiteers. It's easy for someone right-leaning to sneer at Labour and imagine every member to be a red-flag wielding Corbynista, Or for a left-winger to imagine that all Conservatives are entitled pricks such as JRM. It's easy to pigeonhole people you do not like when the reality is much more nuanced.
In arguing against the extremists, they devalue the real issues that face women. They also polarise the debate, and hurt the things they pretend to care about, such as men's issues.
(I'd also argue the extreme feminists do feminism and women harm for exactly this reason.)
We need a new gender free word to describe people who want equality of the sexes which would acknowledge that men need equality too. Equalist for example. Feminine is too women biased.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Forget the border controls for a second and ask yourself how the associated bureaucracy is consistent with our commitment to maintain alignment to support the all-island economy?
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Rob, Off topic. Has there been a cull of lower leagues from Crowd Scores? I ask as the Istmian Division one north and south seem to have disappeared. It means that I will have to go outside in the cold to follow the might Potters Bar Town FC
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
It's not just London but all our great Cities. If you think places like Manchester the bastion of the suffrgettes and the birthplace of Emiline Pankhurst will ever submit to the forces of ignorance and darkness which you represent I think you're mistaken. I'm absolutely convinced that Brexit in any form acceptable to it's architects will be overturned.
The posters commenting on 'feminists' exhibit the same extremism as the extreme and/or political feminists they argue against. It's quite hilarious.
The reality is that the real centre ground in things like feminism is much more moderate; it is just that the loudmouths and extremists get the majority of the airtime and visibility.
In this it's like politics, where the prominent face of Labour is Corbynism, or the Conservatives the Brexiteers. It's easy for someone right-leaning to sneer at Labour and imagine every member to be a red-flag wielding Corbynista, Or for a left-winger to imagine that all Conservatives are entitled pricks such as JRM. It's easy to pigeonhole people you do not like when the reality is much more nuanced.
In arguing against the extremists, they devalue the real issues that face women. They also polarise the debate, and hurt the things they pretend to care about, such as men's issues.
(I'd also argue the extreme feminists do feminism and women harm for exactly this reason.)
We need a new gender free word to describe people who want equality of the sexes which would acknowledge that men need equality too. Equalist for example. Feminine is too women biased.
@CarlottaVance - please never change your profile picture. I think the Tories would have won a majority if Theresa May had ever appeared with a lightsabre.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
I'm confident too. I'm continually having to remind people how much support we have outside of London. How seats in the Midlands and the North are now in play that wouldn't have been under Cammo.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
It's not just London but all our great Cities. If you think places like Manchester the bastion of the suffrgettes and the birthplace of Emiline Pankhurst will ever submit to the forces of ignorance and darkness which you represent I think you're mistaken. I'm absolutely convinced that Brexit in any form acceptable to it's architects will be overturned.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Presumably because we would have a different tariff environment.
Different tariff environment = opportunity to benefit by smuggling from one to the other
Opportunity to smuggle = criminal activity
Criminal activity = potential for undesirable groups to participate
Potential for undesirable groups to participate = 1970s
Presumably because we would have a different tariff environment.
Different tariff environment = opportunity to benefit by smuggling from one to the other
Opportunity to smuggle = criminal activity
Criminal activity = potential for undesirable groups to participate
Potential for undesirable groups to participate = 1970s
1970s = Troubles.
Switzerland has a (limited) FTA with China, while the EU does not. Yet smuggling between Switzerland and France is not a major (or even a minor) issue.
The EU's average external tariff is something like 2.7%. We're not - despite the dreams of some - going to meaningfully deviate from it. We're also unlikely to have more FTAs that the EU in the near future (indeed, I suspect we'll have quite a lot fewer for the next decade).
So I fail to see how a situation like the Swiss-French border is such a problem.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Rob, Off topic. Has there been a cull of lower leagues from Crowd Scores? I ask as the Istmian Division one north and south seem to have disappeared. It means that I will have to go outside in the cold to follow the might Potters Bar Town FC
I'm at CrowdScores tomorrow, and will get back to you,
After a year of exploring technological border solutions, the Irish Government has suddenly lost faith in this approach. One irony of its U-turn is that the entire European Union is working towards an electronic customs frontier.
All over the globe, customs procedures are being rapidly standardised and moved online via a framework introduced a decade ago by the World Customs Organisation. Any business can apply for customs and security accreditation by becoming what is known as an authorised economic operator (AEO)....
...If every UK and Irish firm with a cross-border supply chain became an AEO, Brexit would still give them an administrative task and a tariff burden – potentially an enormous one, in the case of agrifood. However, the practical operation of their businesses would be unaffected, unless there was a dramatic regulatory divergence. Nothing should get stuck in warehouses or lorries on the border, awaiting an inspection or a rubber stamp.
@PolhomeEditor: Tory Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin says “there is going to be a customs frontier at the points of entry between the European Union and United Kingdom”, but insists that won’t mean checks on the Irish border. #r4today
Oddly we had freedom of movement and customs controls between the UK and Ireland from 1922 right up to the creation of the EU in 1992 (bar a short period in WWII when FOM was restricted). I remember my father regularly being stopped and asked to open his car boot at ports on either side of the Irish Sea when we travelled their by ferry (pre Ryanair cheap fares) but no one ever even asked to see a driving licence let alone a passport as proof of ID or nationality for any of us.
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
The EU will impose a hard border on its Celtic satrapy.
We keep hearing this - but can anyone really see the EU enforcing ROI to build a unilateral border ?
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
"Hard border" doesn't mean a wall.
It means some sort of physical infrastructure on the RoI side - just the 300 border crossing points to take care of..
It doesn't even need to be that many: like on the Swiss-French border, you would have permanently manned customs posts on the dozen major arteries, and occasional pop up checks on minor roads.
Rob, Off topic. Has there been a cull of lower leagues from Crowd Scores? I ask as the Istmian Division one north and south seem to have disappeared. It means that I will have to go outside in the cold to follow the might Potters Bar Town FC
I'm at CrowdScores tomorrow, and will get back to you,
I do find the claims of rampant left wing Antisemitism a bit hypocritical; the press and Tories went full on with Ed Miliband's dad being unBritish and trying being a communist revolutionary - no anti Semitic undertones there at all...
And not to mention the Othering of Ed Miliband with some very anti Jewish methods - there was a great article at the time about how the "bacon sandwich" episode had undertones of anti Jewish sentiment in line with the historical tendency for gentiles testing forced converts were not "secret Jews" with sausage.
Now we have a Mogg defender who goes to parties in Nazi uniform, and antisemites in UKIP were widely ignored because, well, UKIP got a free pass on most things.
Antisemitism is a problem all of us face within a culture that only really stopped being overtly antisemitic because of the Holocaust (which is why so many antisemites want to deny it). Cultural attitudes, even after something like that, do not change overnight (especially when it had been built over the best part of 1,800 years due to Christianity's stranglehold over power in the West)
Really interesting piece* from Freakonomics on the gender pay gap at Uber - despite the algorithms being gender-blind, there is an observed 7% gap in pay-per-hour.
20% is explained by choices about where and when to drive 30% is explained by additional returns to experience (men stick on Uber for longer, and do more hours per week as well) 50% is explained by driving speed!
* podcast, but with transcript - please can we consider getting one for Polling Matters?
The reason Labour cant win is because underneath the bonnet Corbyn Labour's policies and personalities are toxic to the majority of the public, not because they are "complacent"..
PB obsessing yet again about "presentation". This seems to be a particular problem with political anoraks.
I wish that was true, but it isn't:
Here is a list of problems facing the country. Could you say for each of them which political party you think would handle the problem best?
Labour lead over Con: NHS: +18 Immigration: -6 Laura Norder: -8 Education: +9 Tax: 0 Unemployment: +3 Economy: -9 Housing: +16 Brexit: -10 Defence: -13
The top five issues facing the country are: Brexit: 59 (Con lead 10) Health: 53 (Lab Lead 18) Immigration: 30 (Con lead 6) Economy: 26 (Con lead 9) Housing: 19 (Lab Lead 16)
I would say it was much of a muchness - once Brexit goes, Con are on Economy & Immigration - and immigration has been declining as a worry. Labour just need to plug on with 'NHS & Housing'. The Tories risk turning into a 'one trick pony' - the Economy - and that could easily turn sour.
it so clearly IS true. There were unique circumstances in 2017. If the NHS was the decisive issue then Labour would have won every election since the war. It hasnt.
Corbyn's programme is one that a majority will not vote for. This will become apparent when scrutinised.
Presumably because we would have a different tariff environment.
Different tariff environment = opportunity to benefit by smuggling from one to the other
Opportunity to smuggle = criminal activity
Criminal activity = potential for undesirable groups to participate
Potential for undesirable groups to participate = 1970s
1970s = Troubles.
Switzerland has a (limited) FTA with China, while the EU does not. Yet smuggling between Switzerland and France is not a major (or even a minor) issue.
The EU's average external tariff is something like 2.7%. We're not - despite the dreams of some - going to meaningfully deviate from it. We're also unlikely to have more FTAs that the EU in the near future (indeed, I suspect we'll have quite a lot fewer for the next decade).
So I fail to see how a situation like the Swiss-French border is such a problem.
We are talking about an organisation that would take cows from one side of the border to the other repeatedly in order to qualify for Brussels' subsidies. If there is an opportunity, it will be exploited.
Comments
But she is on the wrong side of public opinion on the EU.
Jack Sergeant wins big in Alyn & Deeside with the Labour vote up 15 %.
"You're Labour – vote for young Jack. Labour needs a kicking for the way they treated poor old Carl – vote for his son, Jack."
For many, many reasons, a sad & highly disturbing by-election.
There are also potentially 4 years until the next general election and with the Tories and Labour roughly neck and neck and no alternative Tory leader polling better against Corbyn than May and a number polling worse, there is no urgency for a leadership change especially with the technical Brexit negotiations going on which are more May's forte.
Now I best be off before a discussion on the use of niggardly begins.
I just listened to that. Less shouty than normal, but that isn't saying much.
On topic, I remain confident about the next election. Of course there is no guarantee that we win, but assuming we have delivered Brexit, the economy has done reasonably well, and our new leader avoids elementary mistakes in the campaign, we have a good chance.
What we absolutely must do is highlight the faults of Labour policies in detail. People will be paying more attention next time.
Even within London, my millennial mates have almost all accepted Brexit. By 2022, who knows what we'll be fighting the election on. Delivery, competence and some sort of tempered, achievable vision based on home ownership would, on past performance, likely be enough to maintain Tory dominance.
Isn’t there a temple you could go to visit?
On topic: apologies to whoever said it can’t remember who but having policies beats not having policies all day long. However whacko they may be.
In other words, you’re talking complete rubbish in your first paragraph.
EDIT the rest is self-deluding nonsense too but not as immediately amenable to empirical disproof.
Anyway been to most of the local ones. And, granddaughters due home from school any minute!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42969566
I'm talking about real, on the doorstep support and enthusiasm for the Tories in places that would not have been imagined in 2010.
Oh, and I'm talking keeping our vote share above 40%.
The trick with the next election will be doing all we can to ensure that the Labour vote falls below 35% again.
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/
Oh dear. Trying to frighten the voters by pointing at Labour policies is likely to backfire horribly. While I appreciate that the economy was a basket case in 2010, the fact of the matter is that we're still running a substantial deficit and a national debt of close to 90% of GDP. It's currently costing knocking on for £50bn p.a. to service that debt. Yes, it's been higher in the past yada yada, but that's not the point.
The Conservatives cannot trade on economic competence when we're still borrowing a billion quid a week, ten years after the crash. That borrowing is broadly equal to our annual debt servicing cost, so it doesn't even have the risible fig leaf of 'borrowing to invest'.
From my perspective, the Tories are only slightly less bonkers than Labour.
You’re talking hogwash.
https://twitter.com/itvnews/status/960971791119380480
And that was before the days of the Internet. Odd what we both made work perfectly fine for 70 years - most of which was long before the troubles started - can't be made to work again using modern thechnology.
Partly for family reasons (my mother worked for UNRRA when it helped Jewish victims after the war and was passionate about the debt owed to them) I regard myself as actively pro-semitic - I like the Jewish tradition and most of the values that it promotes. I'm also very critical of many of Israel's policies, even though I was on the Labour Friends of Israel executive. And I'm perfectly willing to express these views uncensored on Press TV when asked (as I was - they let me put the case for sanctions against Iran) and I'm willing to listen politely to militant pro-Palestinians and understand what they're unhappy about.
There are a few genuinely nasty people around and I favour throwing them out ASAP after due process. But I don't see it as a significant issue in British politics and think a lot of the criticism is politically motivated - you can spend a decade in any of the major parties and never meet anyone at any level who expresses any views about Israel or Judaism at all.
Difficult questions were not answered, because they were not even asked.
A poor inarticulate candidate was kept off the media & kept out of the newspapers. He didn't even (shades of Theresa) turn up for the debates with the other candidates.
Superb news management by the 'Goodfellas' of Welsh Labour.
Carl got whacked by the 'made men', and the organisation closes ranks.
Fear of the opposition is a motivator but fear can only motivate so far. Jezza gets it, with his vision of a society working together for the common good, with no-one left behind. It is a positive message* that inspires the young. The Tories have no positive vision, cannot offer hope, so remain hopeless.
*I remain very anti his economic policy.
I do hope my PB Punting Pals have lumped on the POMS, as I suggested last nite.
Decent enough start.
Full reply to end our previous correspondence at about 7.36am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O184yGKknSQ
"Malan goes biggedy-biggedy-bong..."
Jezza has improved his delivery and dresses less like an old tramp than he used to.
Gordon has moments when he appeared demented, and Ed had some peculiar facial contortions too. Cameron and Blair had the look, even if most of the content was vacuous.
The content and logic is less important than the look. The ones who take particular note of the content of a speech tend to be the ones whose mind is already made up. I'm looking at some of you on here.
I admit that not everyone is as shallow as me, but many are. But that may be because I assume every politician is lying anyway. That way, you're never disappointed.
Unicorns were not on the ballot paper.
Would be the new "Berlin's Wall" - the footage of EU commissioned workmen putting up barriers between the North and South will be terrible optics.
The reason Labour cant win is because underneath the bonnet Corbyn Labour's policies and personalities are toxic to the majority of the public, not because they are "complacent"..
PB obsessing yet again about "presentation". This seems to be a particular problem with political anoraks.
It does of course work both ways. After their fourth election defeat in 1992, there were many who thought Labour could never win again. How, they argued, had Labour failed in the midst of a recession against an untried Prime Minister ? There were those who argued for an electoral pact with the LDs to maximise the anti-Conservative vote.
Conversely, there were those on the Conservative side who took 1992 as a sign they could never lose. After all the Maastricht in-fighting and an economic recession, we still won, they argued, and once the economy was back up and running, we would be invincible.
This validated a degree of self-indulgence which along with a host of other factors led to the events of May 1997.
It might be, and we're hearing it now from some of the Conservative partisans, the case that if you can still win a snap election with Theresa May of all people in charge imagine how much easier it would be as a planned election with someone else leading once all the Brexit negotiations are out of the way. After all, we could put any Conservative up against Corbyn and we'd win every time, wouldn't we ?
There's plenty of hubris in the Blue camp as well - the problem is in my experience nemesis is colour-blind.
Of course history tells us winning most seats at a 4th successive general election is unlikely and of the 3 examples since the war, 1964, 1992 and 2010 the governing party has more often lost than it has won. However in none of those elections did the winning party get a big majority suggesting that the next general election will be close either way
Here is a list of problems facing the country. Could you say for each of them which political party you think would handle the problem best?
Labour lead over Con:
NHS: +18
Immigration: -6
Laura Norder: -8
Education: +9
Tax: 0
Unemployment: +3
Economy: -9
Housing: +16
Brexit: -10
Defence: -13
The top five issues facing the country are:
Brexit: 59 (Con lead 10)
Health: 53 (Lab Lead 18)
Immigration: 30 (Con lead 6)
Economy: 26 (Con lead 9)
Housing: 19 (Lab Lead 16)
I would say it was much of a muchness - once Brexit goes, Con are on Economy & Immigration - and immigration has been declining as a worry. Labour just need to plug on with 'NHS & Housing'. The Tories risk turning into a 'one trick pony' - the Economy - and that could easily turn sour.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/yzgd1a3wr0/TimesResults_180129_Trackers_VI.pdf
He says there will definitely be a customs frontier, that will definitely not have any checks
This is not a question of technology. It's basic logic, Or lack of it.
Total bollocks. Brexit in a nutshell.
The questioner was focused on the bearing the ship was on; Thatcher on where it was a danger to soldiers. Ultimately in a time of war you are going to have to delegate authority to the executive but it seems pretty thin case that she gave an order she didn’t think was justified (and given the sensitivity the “trust me” may have been the only one possible even if unsatisfying)
*I'm sure there are competing theories.
Incidentally, Anna Soubry's directness comes as no surprise to those of us who watched her on Central Weekend in the 1980s - the Jerry Springer Show of its time.
The public I think quite obviously approved of her handling of the Falklands War too so it can't have been that damaging an interview...
'Ah well we could do with a holiday from government'
Little did he know that the Tories would be out of power for a decade
In a sense it is a shame that is what the modern political world has. Churchill and Attlee would probably have the same problem.
With regard to Labour, Corbyn also is not good for handling the media and there have been many awkward moments with him too.
Labour's greatest mistake however is its hubris since the election. Labour lost the election, and the 40% it likes to boast about was largely due to its piling up votes in seats it already holds. Labour only won a similar number of seats that Gordon Brown won in 2010 on 29%.
It has been doing a lap of honour since last June, and statements that Labour is a "government in waiting" is taking the electorate for granted. Next time the Tories will have a better leader, better campaign, better manifesto, and next time a lot of voters will be voting to stop Corbyn knowing that he could win. Older voters who abstained last time will be queuing round the block.
Beware Labour. You are heading for a famous defeat.
"Whereas I believe the biological consensus* tends towards chaps being chicks with dicks."
The default is certainly female.
What is slightly amusing is what governs the process of sexual differentiation in the brain which begins in early uterine life.
Certain neurons in the male brain become primed to respond to sex hormones later in life in a male-like manner. Always leaving the toilet seat up, for instance.
However, the hormone that primes them is oestrogen (the female sex hormone) produced from testosterone via aromatase at various brain sites.
.....
Edited extra bit: on a more serious note, you're right that all embryos start off female, which is why chaps have nipples. It may also explain why homosexuality is more common in men than women.
The reality is that the real centre ground in things like feminism is much more moderate; it is just that the loudmouths and extremists get the majority of the airtime and visibility.
In this it's like politics, where the prominent face of Labour is Corbynism, or the Conservatives the Brexiteers. It's easy for someone right-leaning to sneer at Labour and imagine every member to be a red-flag wielding Corbynista, Or for a left-winger to imagine that all Conservatives are entitled pricks such as JRM. It's easy to pigeonhole people you do not like when the reality is much more nuanced.
In arguing against the extremists, they devalue the real issues that face women. They also polarise the debate, and hurt the things they pretend to care about, such as men's issues.
(I'd also argue the extreme feminists do feminism and women harm for exactly this reason.)
Link
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/961180562177191936
Has there been a cull of lower leagues from Crowd Scores?
I ask as the Istmian Division one north and south seem to have disappeared.
It means that I will have to go outside in the cold to follow the might Potters Bar Town FC
'Ignorance and darkness'. Grow up Roge.
Different tariff environment = opportunity to benefit by smuggling from one to the other
Opportunity to smuggle = criminal activity
Criminal activity = potential for undesirable groups to participate
Potential for undesirable groups to participate = 1970s
1970s = Troubles.
The EU's average external tariff is something like 2.7%. We're not - despite the dreams of some - going to meaningfully deviate from it. We're also unlikely to have more FTAs that the EU in the near future (indeed, I suspect we'll have quite a lot fewer for the next decade).
So I fail to see how a situation like the Swiss-French border is such a problem.
All over the globe, customs procedures are being rapidly standardised and moved online via a framework introduced a decade ago by the World Customs Organisation. Any business can apply for customs and security accreditation by becoming what is known as an authorised economic operator (AEO)....
...If every UK and Irish firm with a cross-border supply chain became an AEO, Brexit would still give them an administrative task and a tariff burden – potentially an enormous one, in the case of agrifood. However, the practical operation of their businesses would be unaffected, unless there was a dramatic regulatory divergence. Nothing should get stuck in warehouses or lorries on the border, awaiting an inspection or a rubber stamp.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/newton-emerson-brexit-will-worsen-border-smuggling-1.3174833
And not to mention the Othering of Ed Miliband with some very anti Jewish methods - there was a great article at the time about how the "bacon sandwich" episode had undertones of anti Jewish sentiment in line with the historical tendency for gentiles testing forced converts were not "secret Jews" with sausage.
Now we have a Mogg defender who goes to parties in Nazi uniform, and antisemites in UKIP were widely ignored because, well, UKIP got a free pass on most things.
Antisemitism is a problem all of us face within a culture that only really stopped being overtly antisemitic because of the Holocaust (which is why so many antisemites want to deny it). Cultural attitudes, even after something like that, do not change overnight (especially when it had been built over the best part of 1,800 years due to Christianity's stranglehold over power in the West)
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-can-uber-teach-us-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
TL;DR it's not discrimination per se:
20% is explained by choices about where and when to drive
30% is explained by additional returns to experience (men stick on Uber for longer, and do more hours per week as well)
50% is explained by driving speed!
* podcast, but with transcript - please can we consider getting one for Polling Matters?
Corbyn's programme is one that a majority will not vote for. This will become apparent when scrutinised.