Gloucester Saint

Nigel Lawton’s quote in the 1980s about our electorate wanting Western European public services and North American levels of taxation are as pertinent as ever. They’ll always be disillusioned whoever is in power.

People also voted for the austerity which is why the ‘Hostile Environment’ didn’t translate practically. They can vote for who they want but all we’ll get is the ‘politicians are all the same’ when their council tax goes up 9% like it just has in Reform-led Worcs CC. Voters might not like experts like Paul Johnson of the IFS but he’s an expert for a reason - he’s often correct. If immigration’s your top priority, there’s no DOGE or anything left to cut. It needs paying for and that means all of us.

58-3, need to get to lunch losing max only one more wicket. With Essex winning the toss on a green slow seamer with their attack, it was going to be tricky. Agree with @Window Cleaner on Prest at #3, it’s not working and his technique is nowhere near Bethell. Let’s accept defeat on Yusuf and bring in an international batsman there so Tom can bat at #5.

That’s not really accurate though, see my post about the Reddit thread below. Straw and May ran Home Offices very hostile to illegal immigration. Ultimately, because of austerity, Brexit and Covid, the reality on the ground is that the enforcement posts aren’t there in the sane numbers and very thinly spread in a more complex and dangerous world. Illigal immigration as #1 priority means tax hikes and benefits bill reductions = fact. And wards such Millbrook, Coxford etc have some of lowest economic activity and highest welfare bills in Southampton. Clear disconnect to reality.

Quite. Quelle surprise it’s the Brexit voting areas being daft. Still a belief in Unicorns. 🦄

One of the better Reddit threads here on how slogans don’t make any difference in the logistics of stopping the boats (that includes Starmer and Smash the Gangs, Badenoch and leaving ECHR - totally irrelevant - and Reform deploying the Navy (really daft) The boats are only a small % of overall illegal immigration but visually a huge part of it in the areas voting Reform. The only reducing of illegal immigration will happen with long-term judicial reform, policy changes which incorporate international partners and a huge crackdown on the shadow economy which is the main incentive to come here in the first place. All of that costs large additional investment in Border Force, HMRC, Police, judicial system for even faster processing. If people are willing 5-10p extra income tax to fund it, fine.

Hope they’ve been saving up, that St George’s flag will be very costly https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y68r40yzgo

Big time - the Leeds away element still had some of the ‘you’re going to get your fucking heads kicked in’ element from their late 1960s and 1970s heyday. It was a mess. My recollection is that the band were encouraged to finish up. I did go to their Maple Leaf gig which was better but not by a huge amount.

I can’t stand Polanski but where he does have a micro point is that Farage, Tice and now Jenryck are only scrutinised by Private Eye, Times, Mirror, Guardian and occasionally the Mail when Badenoch complains (or so the rumour goes). The level of sycophancy from the DT, Express and BBC leadership is vile when those three have very chequered recent histories.

Baz will be on his way regardless, he’s certainly not ‘fine’ for the Championship as Stoke has underlined in italics. It’ll cost the club to loan him to a level he can perform at but that’s the final price hopefully paid from the horrific summer 2022 transfer window but needs must. I don’t think he will want to be at SFC after three droppings and two loans out either.

Not sure what emoji to put in reaction to that, but clearly the Salmond saga hasn’t led to lessons learned. In other news, Polanski’s nose grows https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5pgv35y7eo

If Ramsdale was told that Peretz would be first choice, he’d be straight onto his agent. All it takes is a first choice keeper in a major league to do their ACL in the opening game - or in the WC even - and a move possibility opens up.

And a tantrum/hangover from the Tynecastle result. Win the Hearts game and that article doesn’t exist.

And again, the Evertonian variety. Semenyo was abused by the red half in August when still a Bournemouth player https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cedpnxqwg29o

I sense a spittle flecked response is being composed elsewhere (Dubai/Thailand) as I type myself….

Got his moustache caught in the electronic turnstile? Or they might have declined to provide a bespoke space in the bike racks for his Penny Farthing. I once saw one of those being ridden around Freemantle after a beer festival at the Waterloo Arms. Surely Hopback beers aren’t THAT strong I thought to myself….

Ditto. No such restrictions on my vote next year unless there’s an edict from SWF.

You’ve pre-emptied what they really want to do but scared of the backlash post-ICE debacle. They are a plastic Trump tribute act so it’s a logical step.

They’re two ends of the same populist wedge. Both also been caught using anti-Semitic messaging during this local elections campaign. Reform-led councils have been a disaster so far plagued by infighting/bans for racism and I can’t envisage Green-led councils being much better, if at all, quite frankly.

It’s Corbyn’s lot who have dropped away from the Labour hard left Polanski is trying to appeal to and which Reform are trying to attack as they’re both trying to gain ground next week as insurgent parties. Labour, Tory and coalition record shows a clear scepticism of asylum seekers (as opposed to economic migration). Straw’s Home Office arguably set the tone for Teresa May’s.

Egg is probably nearer to the reality, if such centres existed they’d go to areas with the infrastructure to handle it rather than say rural Herefordshire where the Greens have been gaining ground.

Personally, I don’t think it would be but it’s a political weapon the two populist parties are using against each other. Fundamentally, Reform’s policies are unworkable and it would be like the hotels on steroids with Farage and Lowe’s loony football casual element attracted to them like wasps around a jam jar in August. British people won’t stand for an ICE type border force either, the current one needs to be resourced properly instead.

The Greens are left wing populists. Corbynites are not establishment political people any more than Reform are. Anyway, Yusuf had it right when he said getting a Reform government elected will be a waste of his time. Easy bruise to punch repeatedly nearer the GE with loads of posters of his words. Neighnouring Worcs aren’t enjoying their 9% council tax rise either.

The whole idea is borrowed from MAGA anyway and look how that’s gone with ICE losing their shit and murdering their own citizens. But they aren’t going to get a majority, not even close, and no-one else will collaborate with them now so it won’t be a problem. Believe it or not, plenty of people who vote for the other three parties are fine with economic migrants who significantly improve our private sector and economy and wary of asylum cases being too high. Greens under Polanski are tossers but punishing areas where 30% or lower gets a Green council is dickhead politics.

Given they’d already appointed Nathan Jones, Ruben Selles, and Will Still, all within 3 years, the scepticism was quite reasonable.