sadoldgit

I think a lot of people thought that the Left would play Starmer like a cheap fiddle. This has been a marker that he isn’t a soft touch. No matter what you think about the cap, and Labour clearly don’t agree with it, having done their sums and decided to deal with child poverty in other ways for now, it would have been weak and disingenuous to buckle on that position at the first hurdle. Finally, a PM with some integrity and backbone who is not going to make promises he can’t keep. Today’s PMQ’s was a grown up affair for a change. No doubt that had lots to do with it being the first one of a new parliament and it will go back to its usual pantomime in future, but a pleasant change to hear MPs behave as grown ups.

A good appraisal of her performance on the James O’Brien show, LBC, yesterday. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/23/listeners-tuning-in-to-lbc-saw-softer-side-to-suella-braverman

I’d rather that he signed a new contract and stays as he is one of our best players. What will be will be though.

Starmer showing he’s the boss. https://news.sky.com/story/amp/labour-suspend-seven-mps-who-rebelled-over-two-child-benefit-cap-13183879

How do you explain the many members of the Democratic Party who have been calling for him not to stand? It seems that you are seeking a conspiracy where there isn’t one. He has made the decision not to stand. He probably should have made it much earlier, but it is done. What is the problem?

If Donald Trump wins in November he will be President until 2029.

Joe Biden is not running for President. Donald Trump is.

She was the host on LBC this today for 3 hours. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she has been part and parcel of the Tory car crash government and had championed some of its worst policies. Her last caller was a trans and called her out over her unhelpful comments about trans people. She almost fell over herself in her efforts to be empathetic to them and couldn’t have sounded more insincere if she tried. She is a perfect fit for Reform.

And yet Donald Trump could do so from January.

What is the point of them electing a leader who would look at home in the Reform Party? If they go down that road they will continue to split the well right of centre vote. Their best bet is to reframe themselves as the One Nation party of old (yes, I know that branding was a load of crap but it worked for many in Middle England). Their problem is that there are few moderates left, only a bunch of head banging swivels. There is no room in the current electoral system for two very similar parties if one of them is serious about forming a government on its own. If they were to form a coalition down the line they would have the same problem Cameron had with the far right in his party. The electorate here doesn’t like extremists. No matter what Duckie thinks, their best chance of power is moving towards the centre and letting Farage hoover up the other nut jobs. Pinkos they may be Duckie, but they will poll more votes than your buddy Farage. There aren’t enough of people like you to get him the top job. He will always be a fringe operator. There aren’t enough people here who want him as our PM.

No surprise here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-secret-service-chief-resigns-following-trump-assassination-attempt-media-2024-07-23/

If they weren’t privy to his doctor’s reports and going by what he was telling them that is not lying. He has been adamant all along that he was up to the job. Perhaps they were all telling him behind the scenes that he wasn’t, but not a good look for those working closely with him to call him out publically. You don’t see many Republican’s calling out Trump’s lack of cognitive ability. It’s a bit rich for them to call out the Democrats over Biden when they are supporting the biggest fruitcake ever to stand/be elected as POTUS.

More civilian deaths. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/22/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas

The footage of him posted since he contracted Covid make him look even more fragile so it is not beyond the realms of possibility that this was what made the decision for him to stand down inevitable. The important thing is that he has decided not to run rather what made him change his mind. There was certainly plenty of pressure being put on him to stand down from within the party.

Bibi Stockholm to be dumped. https://news.sky.com/story/bibby-stockholm-barge-to-be-closed-amid-labour-asylum-overhaul-13183761 Imagine what we could have done with the asylum seekers issue if the 1000 people employed to deal with the Rwanda plan had been assigned to clearing that backlog.

I really don’t think that the odd link to a pertinent story is going to cause problems for the thread. I think that the purile use of laughing emojis is a bigger issue, but we all have our own opinions. If someone else had posted the link without comment I doubt if it would have attracted any attention, but there we are.

“Honest Bob” the current front runner. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/robert-jenrick-emerges-as-tory-leadership-frontrunner-in-new-poll/ar-BB1qr4Kw?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=b49b9eaaf1854370b274d29f6d8c3502&ei=11

Braverman is sitting in on the James O’Brien show on LBC this morning. It sounds like she has already shot her bolt with the party and could be on her way to Reform. The future is looking pretty grim for them at the moment and Farage must be licking his lips at the prospect of picking up the dregs of the party unless they can find someone to sort them out.

We will know the new Tory party leader on Saturday 2nd November.

What a total waste of money. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/migrants-rwanda-cost-hotels-taxpayer-small-boats-channel-gangs-yvette-cooper-b1172158.html

Plenty of people post articles and do not comment. Most if not all are self explanatory. If I post an article pertinent to the topic of the thread, why do I necessarily always have to also post a comment about the article? This is getting a bit silly isn’t it? The article I posted concerned the tightening of Israel’s grip on Gaza. I didn’t consider that it required any further comment from me but it is clearly pertinent to the discussions here. Given a number of people here would prefer if I didn’t comment, I was doing them a favour wasn’t I? 😉

Yes I did. So what? Whelk was the one making an issue about it.

Hopefully he now has an opponent (if it is Kamala Harris) who will challenge him more than Biden could in his current state. Trump has a problem with strong, smart women. She will tie him in knots, the problem is how many people can’t or don’t want to see him for what and who he is. Biden doesn’t have the mental agility to trade blows with him. Harris does. He probably had it sown up before. Now he has a proper fight on his hands.

Which kind of falls flat when you consider that Trump has already served one term as President.

The sticking point with WHU seems to be the selling price.