So bloody inevitable. Conservative grey suits should (but won't) take note of this new data point of Kemi Badenoch's inadequacy.
Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 59m agoJoshua Bonehill-Paine steps back from being a Conservative council candidate following backlash
A side note to this insanity. There's a clear pattern from Badenoch of demeaning local public service, diminishing their contributions to society - hence why she thinks 'nice Lib Dems fix church roofs' is such a derogatory statement. It's going to become a lot more jarring with talk of devolution.
James Austin@jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 8h agoThis is *such* a revealing line about Kemi's world view and contempt for those who do the day to day work of keeping our society functioning
Kemi Badenoch has many flaws but an inability to recognise wounds which need to be cauterised as quickly as possible, and an impulse instead to double down, is a serious one.
That Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a suitable Tory candidate but Grant Shapps and Gavin Barwell have been excluded is quite a good indicator of how many seats the Tories will realistically regain at the next election.
Notable for how low trust is in politicians just now. Though in my view the anonymous person who made this comment had a much sharper grasp of parliamentary democracy than most pundits. Liz Truss failed this test. Rishi Sunak did not.
Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · yesterdayFavourite quote: "When it comes to meeting world leaders, they’re not going to go, ‘Oh, he likes The Smiths, so we’ll do a deal with him’."
There is nothing the British public would not ban, given the chance.
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · yesterday56% of Britons would support a ban on the sale of disposable barbecues, amid wildfires across the UK triggering renewed calls for supermarkets to stop selling them during summer months Support: 56% Oppose: 25% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
Does anyone know a plumber? The sky appears to be leaking in EC3.
Hormones are a fascinating thing. I was just (rightly) told off by the gym manager for slamming weights down at the end of a particularly heavy set. I knew I was in the wrong but the hormonal drive to stand my ground was intense. I overcame it and did apologise, but the experience was revealing.
I was musing again on the paradox that it's often the people who are freest and most vociferous with their opinions who are most fragile about encountering the different opinions of others.
I got a (genuine) email from Wise telling me that my account had been restricted and to click on a link to sort that out. Obviously I did no such thing but if financial institutions are going to use the exact same format as fraudsters they have to accept responsibility when fraudsters fool clients.
About that hosepipe ban. There's a leak on Battersea Park Road that's been running like this all day. Thames Water still haven't started fixing it.
Since it is directly on point, a pic of me in my pool.
Alastair Meeks@alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 2d agoThis may be my most elite post ever, but I used to own a private swimming pool and you wouldn't fill it from a hosepipe (it would take FOREVER). If you're building a new private swimming pool, you need a direct connection to mains water to fill (and refill) it.
If it ever happens I'll make sure to take a picture from my flat balcony.
Andrew Sissons@acjsissons.bsky.social · 2d agoFun fact: as part of their Water Resources Management Plans, water companies are required to assess the full range of options for securing water supplies, which includes... ...towing *icebergs* up the Thames
Without downloading new pics what’s it like dating you
James Ball@jamesrball.com · 3d agoWithout downloading new pics what’s it like dating you
That old Dorothy Thompson article "Who Goes Nazi?" is astute on this. "Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi." There are a lot of very old school Conservative churchgoing women who would not dream of supporting Christian nationalism.
James Austin@jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 2d agoA huge issue for the populist right in adopting Christianity so heavily as a identity marker against Muslims, is that the core theology of Christianity very explicitly rejects their ideas.
Once again I am unreasonably annoyed that Merriam Webster doesn't list "treecreeper" as a single word, though that is common usage.
Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, Paks, is shut because the Danube is so low. That might not sound that big a deal but it supplies more than a third of Hungary’s electricity. Meanwhile, Hungary is enduring a heatwave. Climate change can bite in many different ways.
Articles like this are what happen when a newspaper without standards employs a journalist without integrity. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Ceuta is what happens when you’re not serious about migration
Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t seem to care about the tide of people rushing the Spanish border. Voters in Britain will
thetimes.com
To my mind, anything that exists as a list of very loosely connected symptoms that can't be tested for, for which there is no known underlying physical pathology & which mostly lives on NHS paperwork is an administrative convenience. The suffering is real, but the disease isn't.
Let’s imagine that Reform continue to sink under the weight of the financial allegations against them. Where do their radicalised supporters go? It’s hard to imagine all that many of them returning to support an establishment party. So do Restore benefit or do they retreat to abstaining?
The waters lap ever higher. The really interesting phase looks to be after the initial findings of electoral reporting malpractice when the investigation starts into where the money actually came from. And that could be like a St Catherine’s Wheel.
Cat Neilan@catneilan.bsky.social · 3d agoNew: A business that made a six-figure donation to Reform UK received interest-free loans of £67m from unnamed “related companies” in the months before, raising questions about the possible origin of the funds. observer.co.uk/news/politic...
I like having a bean to cup coffee machine but I swear that using it is like playing fuzzduck. Every third time it needs refilling with water, every fifth time the grounds need emptying. Bonus for beans running low and the periodic need to run a cleaning programme and descale the blighter.
I can’t remember a time in my lifetime when (thanks to the US example) written constitutions had worse repute, and Andy Burnham aspires to use up vast amounts of political capital unnecessarily to set Britain down that path? Not a good sign.
Oh, and good morning to everyone except Octopus Energy who have sent me a revised bill of £952, in large part covering a period where they have explicitly confirmed in writing I have no more to pay, and who are now not answering emails on the point.
Let's be generous and assume the Conservatives are in the running in 300 seats at the next election (though I'd like to see a list of those before accepting that). They would need to convert most of them into wins to form the next government. 1/3
Alastair Meeks@alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 4d agoA party with a long history of claiming to be a truly national party has not just retreated to the shires, it isn’t even a serious consideration in large parts of the country. 2/3
That Restore tally in Manchester will worry Reform*. If Restore take 30% of the far right vote everywhere, that would be a hammer blow to Reform’s chances. *It should worry all of us that so high a percentage will vote for such an extreme party, even on a low turnout.
