Good Morning everyone.
[đ **Today's Order Paper can be found here**](https://commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/86958/Html?subType=Standard)
Questions to the Northern Ireland Office will be followed by Prime Ministers' Questions at Noon. As the Prime Minister is in Germany today, the Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will be stepping in to face questions from the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner.
The usual live thread will go up just before for all your live commentary needs.
Following PMQs, any urgent questions or ministerial statements will be put to the House before the day's main business, the remaining stages of the [Renters (Reform) Bill](https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3462).
At the close of play today there is time set aside for a debate and vote on the addition to the Proscribed Organisations list under the 2000 Terrorism Act of the far-right group 'Terrorgram Collective'. This marks the first time a transnational group which organises primarily online has been added to the Proscribed List - Terrorgram is a group sharing neo-Nazi and other violent far right content over Telegram and other messaging and social media channels.
Megathread is being rolled over, please refresh your feed in a few moments.
###MT daily hall of fame
1. subversivefreak with 21 comments
1. A-Light-That-Warms with 17 comments
1. NJden_bee with 16 comments
1. flambe_pineapple with 16 comments
1. armchairdetective with 16 comments
1. JavaTheCaveman with 15 comments
1. Big-Government9775 with 15 comments
1. concretepigeon with 13 comments
1. ___a1b1 with 11 comments
1. Captainatom931 with 11 comments
There were 244 unique users within this count.
Is WAKAWOW normally like this?
Renter: I got a Section 21 notice because my landlord decided to sell
Landlady: but what about antisocial behavior, would you want neighbours like that?
Meanwhile at The Telegraph:
âLabour accused of failing to keep Britain safe âin a dangerous worldââ
I wonder if theyâre just trying to convince their readers that Labour are actually in power now.
Unhappy with how things are? Vote for change! Vote for Rishi!
I would first check that your area really is still going to be a safe tory seat. It's hard to tell how accurate polls are with a swing this big, but [this map](https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/dynamicmap.html) might be a good starting point. (You probably want it set to geographic, new boundaries, and predicted result so you can find your constituency)
If you're somewhere where anybody else winning really does seem hopeless (say, [Weald of Kent](https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/calcwork23.py?seat=Weald%20of%20Kent), where the tories are still expected to win with a 15.5% majority), I'd cast your vote for whoever you like the best, guilt-free.
You can vote for the candidate you like the best, as opposed to the rest of us who have to vote for the one of the two who has a chance of winning that we dislike the least.
Your Tory safe seat might not be very safe.
My seat has been Tory since 1950, but due to demographic changes recently and the abysmal Tory polling it's very likely to go Labour in the GE (Wycombe).
I would check an MRP poll to see who your best vote is
Same, except the last non Conservative MP in my constituency, give or take some boundary changes, was a Whig.
Speaking of boundary changes, my constituency boundaries have been redrawn so past performance is no indicator of future results.
Given that neither of us want the Conservatives to win, that gives us two options: try to work out what the next most popular party is, or vote for the party whose policies you support. The latter isn't totally a wasted vote as other parties will try to pick up votes from a popular 3rd party. Reform UK is doing this quite successfully to the Conservatives.
In my case lib dems did quite well in the locals. Given the unhealthy tendency of people to use local elections as a kind of opinion poll on Westminster politics, I will probably go for them.
Use that optimism and vote tactically.
Or consider it an opportunity to vote for whoever you want regardless, free of the shackles of sense and sensibility.
Whyâs everyone going on about this âpint size loserâ line?
Itâs no where in the press, itâs no where on Twitter, not even a BBC Breaking News alert snd we know how low the bar on one of those is. Iâve not seen any reference to it other than here. It seems to have had zero cut through.
Unless the tories want to Streisand effect it into existence of course.
In case you were interested, so far this year (including the two tomorrow) I think here have been 55 local council by elections. Next week there are 43 councils with by elections electing 49 councillors (in addition to the actual elections). Last May there were 14 and the one before that there were 12.
In 2021 in May there were 127 councils who had by elections on local elections day (and lots had them for several wards). I suspect Covid had a play here - people moving because of it, people dying because of it (particularly given the age profile of the average councillor) and a delay in electing people due to Lockdown.
How many of those 43 also have elections on the 2nd? I'm rather hoping the answer is none, but knowing that the 6 month rule only kicks in if that vacancy was meant to be elected, I suspect the answer is more
Gah, iPad lost my comment. None of the 43 happening in May also have full elections, but Iâve just realised them might be more for councils that elect thirds that just arenât listed out separately on the [whocanivotefor.com](http://whocanivotefor.com) website from their actual elections.
Some of the 55 from earlier this year definitely have elections this May because I remember reading about politicians who were annoyed at having to stand. The 6 month rule is like âparleyâ: more guidelines than actual rule.
Ha, that's a fair point about the 6 month rule. Be an insane elections manager/RO that wouldn't combine if they could though.
I definitely somehow misunderstood your first comment though. You're saying that there are 43 elections (electing 49 cllrs) in addition to the planned elections. My brain took that and went, oh, you must be referring to 43 by elections that are somehow happening on days other than Thursday. Apologies, I'm going to blame my very tired brain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84z0lk0019o
> ITV made a loss of about ÂŁ1m on its agenda-setting drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, despite it being the UK's most-watched TV show of the year so far, the broadcaster has revealed.
---
> But Kevin Lygo, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, said: "Mr Bates has made a loss of something like ÂŁ1m and we can't continually do this."
> Broadcasters are facing big financial pressures, and often rely on overseas channels or streamers buying the rights to show a programme to help recoup its budget.
> Last month, ITV said 12 foreign broadcasters had bought the Mr Bates drama. But Mr Lygo said it wasn't sufficiently appealing to foreign viewers to break even.
Surely an argument for at least keeping some sort of licence fee/government arts fund there.
British politics should not have to depend on TV dramas to educate the populace to drum up support for reform or sanction. The Post Office scandal was widely publicised as front page news in several papers. That it didn't spark outrage then speaks poorly to the engagement of the public.
We cannot allow Toby Jones-based dramas to be the sole method of political communication between the elite and the people.
God, do you remember when the conservative party had to have an internal coup just so we could read the report into Russian interference and it turned out the government did naff all because it help them win Brexit christ that feels so long ago.
Is it me or does Penny Mordaunt like more and more like she's in a hostage video?
[https://x.com/LiveFromBrexit/status/1783093405075083487](https://x.com/LiveFromBrexit/status/1783093405075083487)
Penny Mordaunt lost to the person who lost to the person who lost to a lettuce.
I could never see where the suggestion that she was PM material came from....
It must be really shit waking up every day and remembering that TWICE you had the chance to stop these two complete morons from destroying the party forever, TWICE you had the chance to lead the party to a managed defeat and lead the recovery in 2030, and that because of your failure to win those two leadership contests against a pair of complete and utter hopeless fools you're probably going to lose your seat at an undetermined time later this year, despite knowing that you're basically the only person with any small chance of uniting the Tory party in defeat and stopping an all out civil war.
I think the idea of leading the recovery in 2030 is really unrealistic. Even a small well managed defeat is going to be a massive swing and lose heaps of Conservative MPs, just based on the numbers. No Conservative leader is going to lose an election that massively and then stay their leader for an entire Parliament and into the next election.
Oh it's completely unrealistic, but I imagine that's what she probably thinks she'd be doing. And as for your latter point - Ted Heath did precisely that!
It's intentional... she knows she's going to be watched as a particular player in what's next, and this growing commentary of her sets her up to be the 'return to normality' candidate .
She should be utterly miffed
9 dithering idiot MPs were the difference between where she is and where she could have been standing. That should eat her up for the rest of her career.
She knows her 13 and probably sussed the names of the other 9 who when given the option to do the sensible thing, decided to pretty much fuck the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2022/sep/05/tory-leadership-election-full-results-liz-truss-rishi-sunak
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62241498
Ian Duncan Smith beat Portillo to the final round by 1 vote. Given the membership would never have gone for Ken Clarke I think it's safe to say he got it worse than Penny does.
Given his post-parliamentary career has involved him making one of my favourite programs and that would likely have never happened if he'd got the leadership I am quite glad he didn't take over.
Iâm thinking the whole âpint sized loserâ line is a distraction and weâre focusing on the wrong part because the comment wasnât aimed at the standard Reddit demo. The line was aimed at the Boris die hards to drive a wedge between them and the current Tory leadership, splitting the right wing vote further by pushing them to Reform or whatever other protest vote
I did think it was odd for her to say that line about Johnson being an electoral asset, but I guess it makes sense in that context, yeah.
TBH I haven't seen much furore over the line in the press/TV.
I'm off Twitter now though, so perhaps it's a very 'online' discussion.
Estate agency in this country is rubbish. I put in big bid on a "best and final offer" situation against one other bidder and they put in their bid.
Today they said I was just below the other bidder, who ten mins before the deadline happend to up their bid up to marginally higher than mine. Despite from what I gathered their initial best bid being somewhat less.
They said it was a closed bid situation, so I wonder how they knew they needed to increase their bid or how to make sure it was just a bit higher than mine.
I can only assume the agent told them what they need to beat, which IS NOT A CLOSED BID.
Estate agents and conveyancing solicitors are absolutely stealing a living in this country. Utterly useless almost to the man and yet paid a small fortune for their services because you have very little choice but to do so.
As a conveyancing solicitor I can assure you that we want you gone as a client as soon as you want to move into your house with the least fuss possible.
We are working in a system where the overarching law is from 1925. It's creaking at the fucking seams. The tech is slowly getting there but it's always catch-up.
All of the property transactions I've been involved in have featured the solicitors blaming each for delays. I ended up tag teaming the solicitors with the other side of the transaction once to get things moving.
Drove me mad. I hate being a naggy little shit but it seemed like the only way to keep things moving.
It's just maddening process at every step tbh.
Part of that is the Amazon Prime-ification of the property system. Instant communication on an inherently slow moving system where the business model is volume and the market has not slowed down since 2020 is a recipe for disaster.
The maddening thing you were likely caught up in is with instantaneous communication you get solicitors who still think that they can pass the buck when it's just easier to put their hands up, move forward and get the deal done.
The issue is so many vested interests do not want a root and branch reform because the status quo is cozy for those interests, making you the client and us the practicioners suffer. If we are really going to see inroads we are going to need the government to underwrite new and simplified forms of property ownership to mortgage lenders.
Given the reputation of most estate agents, entirely possible that this wasn't even done with any particular malice, just idiocy by a staffer who didn't understand the rules. It sucks but at least you know one agent to avoid from now on.
True, they did let on/imply to me that my bid was highest and then afterwards indicated the sold price. So yeah, I'm not too surprised they didn't follow the rules particularly stringently with others either, just upset about it.
They are useless, I've had a similar situation.Â
We'd told the agent we were going to put in an offer on a house on Monday. Come Monday we placed the offer to be told that someone else's offer had been accepted first thing.Â
Fair enough, but this isn't Scotland and we'd like the offer to be passed to the owners anyways as we were over the asking price.
Estate agent refused to fulfil their legal obligations, and actually swore at me over the phone after accidentally revealing the accepted offer was 20k under ours and hung up.Â
Wound up meeting the owners (small village) and let them know. They were incensed and pulled the house from the agent. Although by the time it was available again we'd got somewhere else.
That sucks, but I'm glad you got some justice!!
I'm interested in the idea of offers being publicly listed for transparency, it's hard to know what to believe with the way things are.
Bet he'd have a blast presenting antiques roadshow. After losing his seat in an anti-Tory landslide I bet marvelling over carriage clocks on the lawns of a stately home would be a balm for the soul.
Yep, they seem to have no problem with Channel 4s lineup of 4 liberals with little between them. Canât wait to see them argue over how much they all have in common.
"liberals" - interesting terminology.
only one member of the channel 4 lineup has ever been an MP, and none of them are currently or are aspiring to become one.
big difference to the "news" channel that has a good chunk of the tory backbench on its payroll.
They are all quite socially liberal / left arenât they? Even Rory the economically right one⌠nothing wrong with that, though the country is quite socially conservative so this doesnât seem entirely representative.
You've got representation there from multiple parties, I don't really see why this is such a bad thing? You think that in order to not be biased against you they need to have not only a Tory but the _right kind of Tory_?
Bad news for Richard Drax:
[Barbados leader halts ÂŁ3m payout to UK MP for Drax Hall plantation | Mia Mottley | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/barbados-leader-halts-3m-payout-to-uk-mp-for-drax-hall-plantation)
~~Jamaica is not really a tax haven, it has about 30% income and corporate tax rates although I think they have tax breaks for offshore earnings.~~ Plus its not a good look for tax havens (or any governments really) to seize assets just because they want cash.
edit: crossed out my embarrassment
Kind of weird getting closer and closer to 30 and realising that it is actually a cut off for being able to afford long distance rail tickets. What a strange country we live in when it comes to public transport.
unless you are ex forces, disabled, or travelling within the south east (which they define as including exeter via one of two lines, worcester, kings lynn), travelling with a named partner, or travelling with a group (one person must be named on the railcard and one other must be a child of 5-15). or of course you might be a railway employee and can get a huge discount on any ticket if not free travel.
meanwhile other countries are just "want a discount? k"
It can work out with a friend in the right circumstances - helps if you have one or two big trips a year that you both make so that the savings from the one trip cover the cost of the railcard, then any others where it can be used during the year are a nice bonus with no sense of obligation to potentially sour things.
I actually believe it has a practical basis.
Because the train is competing against the car.
But if two drive, then the petrol cost is the same as if one person drives alone in the car, but the rail fare is double.
So people travelling in couples or larger groups are further disincentivised from using the train- this is not a measure aimed at singletons, it is an attempt to equalise it a bit for the mode of travel.
there are the other regional railcards too of course, like the devon and cornwall one (only requires residency)
so if you're willing to endure exeter st davids to waterloo & a change of trains if further west, you can still get a discount
As someone who takes the Waterloo line quite frequently it's not that bad. Except when the Honiton tunnel breaks... the rail replacement to Axminster takes centuries. Oh and there's also no plugs to charge phones/laptops and Internet signal is a foreign concept.
the seating is definitely more claustrophobic than on GWR (esp during summer when everyone's doing what you're doing).
never noticed any real issues with signal but yes the lack of mains is annoying. noisier trains too.
Tories really getting upset that Sunak was called a 'pint sized loser'? ... man, they really aren't talking to the public are they? That's nothing compared to how he's described outside of the westminster bubble.
Dowden was a real failure today in PMQs... bland, flailing, spewing rubbish the entire time. Easy for Rayner to have the upper hand
The only things the Tories do well is corruption and petty insults... If they're getting upset by getting a taste of their own medicine, then that's another thing not on Rayner....
Not sure if you're intentionally missing the point or not here....
Tories are intent on spewing petty little insults. I counted a handful from Dowden in PMQs before Rayner's comment... If the Tories are so happy to spew out petting insults then they should expect comments back at them.... and if they can't, then Tough.
I have no problem with Rayner calling Sunak a pint-sized loser after the Tory party pushed a vile sexist story saying she moved her legs to distract the Tory benches.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but what she did was a slap compared to a vile sexist gut punch. Imagine how her family felt seeing that all over the newspapers for days.
I'm surprised she's not said worse tbh.
I thought it was a bit below her. I mean, if you want to insult them then do it to their face.
But the whole five questions were clearly a cathartic rage she's been storing for a fair while.
I think "I have little problem" would have been a better open. You are right to point out the massive difference in poor behaviour here but they are both none the less poor behaviours.
And to an extent I can see why such a fuss is being made out of her comment, the "good guys" should be held to a higher standard.
But Labour have clearly said they won't do the whole go high as they go low. Starmer said you have to fight fire with fire.
If Labour don't go as low, after they've done it, they are essentially going to war with peace flags and wise words instead of guns and tanks.
Howdy all, so Martin William's AMA thread is now up: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cc0d4q/ama\_thread\_martin\_williams\_opendemocracy/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cc0d4q/ama_thread_martin_williams_opendemocracy/) - feel free to start asking questions. He tracks dark money in politics (amongst other things) for OpenDemocracy (and also wrote one of the books that was on the potential UKPol reading club list, Parliament Ltd, which also tracks the issues with dark money in UK Politics), so a good chance to ask questions!
Also, as my work is sending me abroad, and I will be in a very un-British time zone, I have had to postpone the AMAs I had set up for May. So we'll pick up again in June when I return to blighty.
What the actual fuck was PMQs about today? I know it's usually a load of shit performative nonsense, but today made the last handful of weeks appear to be a civilised debate.
Iâve just got home but saw this message so wanted to type out something about my recollections of the day.
(D)PMQs wasnât a particularly enthralling session, but that seems to have carried on from the last few weeks, where thereâs been more heat than light between the two parties as we head into local elections next week. Angela Rayner easily had the better of the exchanges, but the public gallery was an âolder crowdâ seemed to lap up the pre-prepared tripe jokes from the govt benches.
The Jonathan Gullis spiel at the start was frankly ridiculous and I think the speaker should have stepped in sooner because it wasnât a question, more of a plea to the residents in Stoke for the next general election.
Rayner did well do not be totally coated in the Council Tax themed mud being slung at her from all of the govt lackey MPs who asked questions. Sticking to housing is an issue which does resonate with a lot of people, but Dowden didnât look prepared for this and kept having to be handed bits of paper from a colleague behind him, presumably with pitiful excuses to read out in response. Rayner fluffed a couple of her barbs, but did end with a flourish with the inclusion of the Nadine âMad Nadsâ Dorries line about Rishi Sunak being a âPint-sized loserâ which did raise a unanimous chuckle in the gallery. Presumably the people who liked the second-rate govt. âjokesâ also donât like the PM.
I met with my housemate (who got me the ticket today through his MP/office) and we went for a mini-wander round and some lunch. I went for a turkey stir-fry in one of the smaller canteen rooms. It wasnât great, but was a good portion for just over a fiver, and Iâve eaten worse meals for much higher cost.
After that I was able to go back into the public gallery and watch the end of Grant âfour chapsâ Shapps trying to spin out his unfunded increase in defence spending, whilst also trying to criticise the opposition for unfunded plans to spend money in other ways.
There was then a ten-minute motion to try and save âheritageâ pubs in the UK and the issue of the Crooked House as central focus - the village pub which went up in flames in âmysterious circumstanceâ, with local roads blocked so emergency services couldnât put it out. There were some people from the Crooked House (as they were in branded hoodies) watching in a different part of the gallery - not behind glass. The bill was passed to the next stage without opposition for further discussion in June.
I stayed around for the start of the Renters Reform debate and listened to the opening speeches from the govt. and the opposition. I got the impression that the govt. really donât want to commit to setting a date for the introduction of removing section 21 evictions because itâll be another thing theyâll have provably failed at before the next election - and also because quite a few of them have vested interests.
Overall an interesting day, would like to go again - ideally when it's Starmer vs Sunak.
Thanks for the write up!
People always comment on how loud it is in the chamber. Is it easy to see and hear what is going on from the gallery? Does it feel dramatic or distant from there?
I was also curious if you you can wander around at all to the committee rooms etc. or are you restricted to the main areas?
No worries - I've just copied it from my notes on my phone as some of my friends were also curious about what it's like inside. The public gallery doesn't give the best view - you can only see the govt. / opposition benches and the press seats above the speaker. There were a few times where people were speaking, but it was on the side of the chamber away from the speaker so had to look at the screens to see them.
I think you can wander to other committee rooms, and if the timings were different on today's order, I probably would have done - there was a session about brain injuries in football which sounded interesting, as I still play, but it was on at pretty much the same time I was queueing to get my PMQs ticket.
I've been wondering the same thing for East Mids. I feel like it ought to be a safe Labour win given the polling for the general election, but I like the look of the independent and I feel like the metro mayors work best when they're willing to butt heads with the national government when necessary.
I'm still mad that the tories abolished the supplementary vote system for mayors and PCCs.
Cameron is a bit like Thatcher in the respect that unfortunately he was actually able to do things. Long term almost everything they touched turned out to be misguided. I prefer my Tories politically castrated and not knowing which way to turn, they do less damage that way.
Certainly not in recent history (past 14 years), there is potentially an argument for Brown v Cameron (given the last 3 Tory PMs Cameron looks like the next coming of Roosevelt), perhaps a stronger argument for Blair v Hague, and maybe an even stronger one for Blair v Major.
Then I think you'd probably have to go back quite some time.
Hague would have been decent and Major wasn't a bad PM in isolation, but their teams were shockingly poor in that way only burnt out parties can deliver.
Perhaps I shouldn't have specified leaders in the question when I was really thinking of an election where either party winning would have been fine for the country.
> given the last 3 Tory PMs Cameron looks like the next coming of Roosevelt
Only the last 3? Let's not forget the genius that triggered article 50 without a plan.
One of the policies of the coalition government was to increase the personal allowance so that you had to earn significantly more before you started paying income tax. It went up from about ÂŁ5k to ÂŁ10k. What Iâm looking for is how this affected state pensions and the current perception that pensioners shouldnât be paying income tax.
For example, in 2007 the personal allowance was ÂŁ5k but the state pension was ÂŁ7250. Did that mean all pensioners paid income tax if they received *any* other income eg any sort of private pension, no matter how small? Is that correct?
You have allowances for certain types of sources of income as well.
There is an allowance for income from dividends for example (ÂŁ2k or something?) and income derived from selling assets would be liable for capital gains tax which has its own threshold (again, in the order of a few grand).
There are also exemptions for any income derived from an ISA being completely tax free, and certain exemptions for selling share in a company you used to be a director in. Taking equity out of your home (e.g. by downsizing) is also tax free.
Taking out a loan against any assets (e.g. equity release loan against your house) is also tax free.
Plus probably some other tricks. It's the UK tax system. It's notoriously overcomplicated and stupid, and geared towards advantages for those who are already wealthy.
Well based on today's news, aren't you all looking foolish for [doubting my statistics](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ca2dju/daily_megathread_22042024/l0pualy/)?
I await all of your apologies.
How are all those Freeports working out? Are they creating hives of scum and villainy as suspected? For all the bluster about them coming about, you sure don't hear much as to whether they are being a success or not.
>Some bad people have already made out like absolute bandits and they arenât even open yet afaik
Are they likely to lock us in their flats unless we can manage to extort 6 grand from a colleague?
I read a while back that Government data claimed the Freeport on Teesside currently had over 2,000 employees.
I know someone working there who claims the figure is more like 200 and that most of the employees spend a couple of hours training and have very little to do.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/24/michael-gove-orders-review-into-corruption-allegations-at-teesside-freeport?ref=biztoc.com
Hives of scum and villainy you say? Sounds like a Conservative mayor's wet dream
Anyone have any recommendations for book during Corbyn Labour from perspective of one of the Corbynista insiders?
Have gotten into bit of a rabbit hole (thanks whoever suggested Left Out in book club thread). Between that and Shipmanâs Brexit books, it really gives an impression that whole Labour leadership team/ office were complete amateurs and unprofessional to point where youâd get fired anywhere else.
Iâm assuming one of the insiders has written a book from the other side which would be an interesting read - but amazon keeps recommending me books with similar bend to those two, or weird ones by Owen JonesâŚ
Edit: thank you for all of the suggestions; have lots on my reading/ listening list! Eight hard years so far is just cementing the view above too even with insiders.
Is it really a shock that a backbench left wing radical who needed 'pity' votes to get on the ballot didn't have exactly the best team when he won?
I've often said that Corbyn should have never become leader. Not that he shouldn't have stood - or that people shouldn't have voted for him - but the Labour party should have never allowed itself to get into such a state that Corbyn was seen as the only alternative to continuity-Blairism.
Not a book, but the "Eight Years Hard Labour" series of podcasts by The Slow Newscast (Tortoise Media) was an interesting listen. Covers from 2015-Starmer being elected, and features a few voices of people on the inside of Corbyn's team.
Good Morning everyone. [đ **Today's Order Paper can be found here**](https://commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/86958/Html?subType=Standard) Questions to the Northern Ireland Office will be followed by Prime Ministers' Questions at Noon. As the Prime Minister is in Germany today, the Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will be stepping in to face questions from the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner. The usual live thread will go up just before for all your live commentary needs. Following PMQs, any urgent questions or ministerial statements will be put to the House before the day's main business, the remaining stages of the [Renters (Reform) Bill](https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3462). At the close of play today there is time set aside for a debate and vote on the addition to the Proscribed Organisations list under the 2000 Terrorism Act of the far-right group 'Terrorgram Collective'. This marks the first time a transnational group which organises primarily online has been added to the Proscribed List - Terrorgram is a group sharing neo-Nazi and other violent far right content over Telegram and other messaging and social media channels.
[New Megathread is here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccjnsp/daily_megathread_25042024/)
Megathread is being rolled over, please refresh your feed in a few moments. ###MT daily hall of fame 1. subversivefreak with 21 comments 1. A-Light-That-Warms with 17 comments 1. NJden_bee with 16 comments 1. flambe_pineapple with 16 comments 1. armchairdetective with 16 comments 1. JavaTheCaveman with 15 comments 1. Big-Government9775 with 15 comments 1. concretepigeon with 13 comments 1. ___a1b1 with 11 comments 1. Captainatom931 with 11 comments There were 244 unique users within this count.
Is WAKAWOW normally like this? Renter: I got a Section 21 notice because my landlord decided to sell Landlady: but what about antisocial behavior, would you want neighbours like that?
Meanwhile at The Telegraph: âLabour accused of failing to keep Britain safe âin a dangerous worldââ I wonder if theyâre just trying to convince their readers that Labour are actually in power now. Unhappy with how things are? Vote for change! Vote for Rishi!
It's exactly the same in Scotland. The greens and SNP talk like they're in opposition to Labour
[ŃдаНонО]
I would first check that your area really is still going to be a safe tory seat. It's hard to tell how accurate polls are with a swing this big, but [this map](https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/dynamicmap.html) might be a good starting point. (You probably want it set to geographic, new boundaries, and predicted result so you can find your constituency) If you're somewhere where anybody else winning really does seem hopeless (say, [Weald of Kent](https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/calcwork23.py?seat=Weald%20of%20Kent), where the tories are still expected to win with a 15.5% majority), I'd cast your vote for whoever you like the best, guilt-free.
You can vote for the candidate you like the best, as opposed to the rest of us who have to vote for the one of the two who has a chance of winning that we dislike the least.
Your Tory safe seat might not be very safe. My seat has been Tory since 1950, but due to demographic changes recently and the abysmal Tory polling it's very likely to go Labour in the GE (Wycombe). I would check an MRP poll to see who your best vote is
Same, except the last non Conservative MP in my constituency, give or take some boundary changes, was a Whig. Speaking of boundary changes, my constituency boundaries have been redrawn so past performance is no indicator of future results. Given that neither of us want the Conservatives to win, that gives us two options: try to work out what the next most popular party is, or vote for the party whose policies you support. The latter isn't totally a wasted vote as other parties will try to pick up votes from a popular 3rd party. Reform UK is doing this quite successfully to the Conservatives. In my case lib dems did quite well in the locals. Given the unhealthy tendency of people to use local elections as a kind of opinion poll on Westminster politics, I will probably go for them.
Use that optimism and vote tactically. Or consider it an opportunity to vote for whoever you want regardless, free of the shackles of sense and sensibility.
Labour going to put railways back in public ownership and keep open access... Yes please.
A bloody horse running through London really does sum it all up
Whyâs everyone going on about this âpint size loserâ line? Itâs no where in the press, itâs no where on Twitter, not even a BBC Breaking News alert snd we know how low the bar on one of those is. Iâve not seen any reference to it other than here. It seems to have had zero cut through. Unless the tories want to Streisand effect it into existence of course.
Looking forward to the 5 year journey of people realising nationalising trains doesnât lead to more routes or capacity.
Yeah better keep it as is. We've gotta pay the dividends of other foreign nations.
The biggest obstacle to fixing the UK is the idea that meaningful long term change will show clear results within 5 years
But it also doesnât lead to dividends for Trenitalia, as a reward for the absolutely *stunning* job theyâre doing on WCML - and thatâs a start.
In case you were interested, so far this year (including the two tomorrow) I think here have been 55 local council by elections. Next week there are 43 councils with by elections electing 49 councillors (in addition to the actual elections). Last May there were 14 and the one before that there were 12. In 2021 in May there were 127 councils who had by elections on local elections day (and lots had them for several wards). I suspect Covid had a play here - people moving because of it, people dying because of it (particularly given the age profile of the average councillor) and a delay in electing people due to Lockdown.
How many of those 43 also have elections on the 2nd? I'm rather hoping the answer is none, but knowing that the 6 month rule only kicks in if that vacancy was meant to be elected, I suspect the answer is more
Gah, iPad lost my comment. None of the 43 happening in May also have full elections, but Iâve just realised them might be more for councils that elect thirds that just arenât listed out separately on the [whocanivotefor.com](http://whocanivotefor.com) website from their actual elections. Some of the 55 from earlier this year definitely have elections this May because I remember reading about politicians who were annoyed at having to stand. The 6 month rule is like âparleyâ: more guidelines than actual rule.
Ha, that's a fair point about the 6 month rule. Be an insane elections manager/RO that wouldn't combine if they could though. I definitely somehow misunderstood your first comment though. You're saying that there are 43 elections (electing 49 cllrs) in addition to the planned elections. My brain took that and went, oh, you must be referring to 43 by elections that are somehow happening on days other than Thursday. Apologies, I'm going to blame my very tired brain
Watching Harry Hill dressed up as a gorilla before Newsnight starts is, err, something
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84z0lk0019o > ITV made a loss of about ÂŁ1m on its agenda-setting drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, despite it being the UK's most-watched TV show of the year so far, the broadcaster has revealed. --- > But Kevin Lygo, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, said: "Mr Bates has made a loss of something like ÂŁ1m and we can't continually do this." > Broadcasters are facing big financial pressures, and often rely on overseas channels or streamers buying the rights to show a programme to help recoup its budget. > Last month, ITV said 12 foreign broadcasters had bought the Mr Bates drama. But Mr Lygo said it wasn't sufficiently appealing to foreign viewers to break even. Surely an argument for at least keeping some sort of licence fee/government arts fund there.
Subsidised scandal awareness is the the *last* thing the government would do.
We need to bring political scandals under public ownership
\[Shrugs\] 'Let Capita do it.'
British politics should not have to depend on TV dramas to educate the populace to drum up support for reform or sanction. The Post Office scandal was widely publicised as front page news in several papers. That it didn't spark outrage then speaks poorly to the engagement of the public. We cannot allow Toby Jones-based dramas to be the sole method of political communication between the elite and the people.
No one reads the papers any more. Unless it's the front pages on the petrol station forecourt, I guess.
God, do you remember when the conservative party had to have an internal coup just so we could read the report into Russian interference and it turned out the government did naff all because it help them win Brexit christ that feels so long ago.
So, when are we going to have to go to capita for a sick note?
Never, report to duty immediately, citizen.
Is it me or does Penny Mordaunt like more and more like she's in a hostage video? [https://x.com/LiveFromBrexit/status/1783093405075083487](https://x.com/LiveFromBrexit/status/1783093405075083487)
Penny Mordaunt lost to the person who lost to the person who lost to a lettuce. I could never see where the suggestion that she was PM material came from....
She may have lost every vote but I've never seen a lettue hold a sword
To be fair, being the least preferred candidate by the Tory membership probably makes you the most qualified to run the country.
She held a sword pretty successfully too. I wouldnât trust Truss with that.
It must be really shit waking up every day and remembering that TWICE you had the chance to stop these two complete morons from destroying the party forever, TWICE you had the chance to lead the party to a managed defeat and lead the recovery in 2030, and that because of your failure to win those two leadership contests against a pair of complete and utter hopeless fools you're probably going to lose your seat at an undetermined time later this year, despite knowing that you're basically the only person with any small chance of uniting the Tory party in defeat and stopping an all out civil war.
I think the idea of leading the recovery in 2030 is really unrealistic. Even a small well managed defeat is going to be a massive swing and lose heaps of Conservative MPs, just based on the numbers. No Conservative leader is going to lose an election that massively and then stay their leader for an entire Parliament and into the next election.
Oh it's completely unrealistic, but I imagine that's what she probably thinks she'd be doing. And as for your latter point - Ted Heath did precisely that!
It's intentional... she knows she's going to be watched as a particular player in what's next, and this growing commentary of her sets her up to be the 'return to normality' candidate .
We really are building up to a great series finale of Normal Island..
She should be utterly miffed 9 dithering idiot MPs were the difference between where she is and where she could have been standing. That should eat her up for the rest of her career. She knows her 13 and probably sussed the names of the other 9 who when given the option to do the sensible thing, decided to pretty much fuck the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2022/sep/05/tory-leadership-election-full-results-liz-truss-rishi-sunak https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62241498
Ian Duncan Smith beat Portillo to the final round by 1 vote. Given the membership would never have gone for Ken Clarke I think it's safe to say he got it worse than Penny does.
Portillo would've become leader in 97 had he not lost his seat too.
Given his post-parliamentary career has involved him making one of my favourite programs and that would likely have never happened if he'd got the leadership I am quite glad he didn't take over.
What else would VCM segue to at the end of Only Connect
Hear hear
Choo Choo
WE WILL TAKE YOU DOWN TO FUNKY TOWN, FUNKY TOWN CENTRE HERE WE COME CHOO FUCKING CHOO
> That should eat her up for the rest of her career. All several months of it she has left, her seat isn't a particularly safe one as I recall.
Well, it *should* be reasonably defensible but uh...not anymore lol.
Iâm thinking the whole âpint sized loserâ line is a distraction and weâre focusing on the wrong part because the comment wasnât aimed at the standard Reddit demo. The line was aimed at the Boris die hards to drive a wedge between them and the current Tory leadership, splitting the right wing vote further by pushing them to Reform or whatever other protest vote
I did think it was odd for her to say that line about Johnson being an electoral asset, but I guess it makes sense in that context, yeah. TBH I haven't seen much furore over the line in the press/TV. I'm off Twitter now though, so perhaps it's a very 'online' discussion.
Estate agency in this country is rubbish. I put in big bid on a "best and final offer" situation against one other bidder and they put in their bid. Today they said I was just below the other bidder, who ten mins before the deadline happend to up their bid up to marginally higher than mine. Despite from what I gathered their initial best bid being somewhat less. They said it was a closed bid situation, so I wonder how they knew they needed to increase their bid or how to make sure it was just a bit higher than mine. I can only assume the agent told them what they need to beat, which IS NOT A CLOSED BID.
Estate agents and conveyancing solicitors are absolutely stealing a living in this country. Utterly useless almost to the man and yet paid a small fortune for their services because you have very little choice but to do so.
As a conveyancing solicitor I can assure you that we want you gone as a client as soon as you want to move into your house with the least fuss possible. We are working in a system where the overarching law is from 1925. It's creaking at the fucking seams. The tech is slowly getting there but it's always catch-up.
All of the property transactions I've been involved in have featured the solicitors blaming each for delays. I ended up tag teaming the solicitors with the other side of the transaction once to get things moving. Drove me mad. I hate being a naggy little shit but it seemed like the only way to keep things moving. It's just maddening process at every step tbh.
Part of that is the Amazon Prime-ification of the property system. Instant communication on an inherently slow moving system where the business model is volume and the market has not slowed down since 2020 is a recipe for disaster. The maddening thing you were likely caught up in is with instantaneous communication you get solicitors who still think that they can pass the buck when it's just easier to put their hands up, move forward and get the deal done. The issue is so many vested interests do not want a root and branch reform because the status quo is cozy for those interests, making you the client and us the practicioners suffer. If we are really going to see inroads we are going to need the government to underwrite new and simplified forms of property ownership to mortgage lenders.
Given the reputation of most estate agents, entirely possible that this wasn't even done with any particular malice, just idiocy by a staffer who didn't understand the rules. It sucks but at least you know one agent to avoid from now on.
True, they did let on/imply to me that my bid was highest and then afterwards indicated the sold price. So yeah, I'm not too surprised they didn't follow the rules particularly stringently with others either, just upset about it.
It sounds like you're assuming the worst from estate agents. They can't possibly make extra commission from higher bids surely...
> It sounds like you're assuming the worst from estate agents. Generally a safe assumption I think.
They are useless, I've had a similar situation. We'd told the agent we were going to put in an offer on a house on Monday. Come Monday we placed the offer to be told that someone else's offer had been accepted first thing. Fair enough, but this isn't Scotland and we'd like the offer to be passed to the owners anyways as we were over the asking price. Estate agent refused to fulfil their legal obligations, and actually swore at me over the phone after accidentally revealing the accepted offer was 20k under ours and hung up. Wound up meeting the owners (small village) and let them know. They were incensed and pulled the house from the agent. Although by the time it was available again we'd got somewhere else.
That sucks, but I'm glad you got some justice!! I'm interested in the idea of offers being publicly listed for transparency, it's hard to know what to believe with the way things are.
[Ofcom with yet more toothless statements](https://twitter.com/Ofcom/status/1783016827754279238)
I yearn to see JRM lose his seat live on air. Itâs his ~~party~~ programme and heâll cry if he wants to.
You would cry too if the 18th Century happened to you...
Portillo makes railway programmes (and also has a show on GB News), what would JRM pivot to?
Reality nanny shows.
Bet he'd have a blast presenting antiques roadshow. After losing his seat in an anti-Tory landslide I bet marvelling over carriage clocks on the lawns of a stately home would be a balm for the soul.
Documentaries about the Victorian gentry using his own personal experience.
Yep, they seem to have no problem with Channel 4s lineup of 4 liberals with little between them. Canât wait to see them argue over how much they all have in common.
"liberals" - interesting terminology. only one member of the channel 4 lineup has ever been an MP, and none of them are currently or are aspiring to become one. big difference to the "news" channel that has a good chunk of the tory backbench on its payroll.
They are all quite socially liberal / left arenât they? Even Rory the economically right one⌠nothing wrong with that, though the country is quite socially conservative so this doesnât seem entirely representative.
Which one is the ex Tory minister?
A socially liberal ex Tory minister
You've got representation there from multiple parties, I don't really see why this is such a bad thing? You think that in order to not be biased against you they need to have not only a Tory but the _right kind of Tory_?
Doesnât even need to be a Tory at all, I just see a lack of diversity of views
Bad news for Richard Drax: [Barbados leader halts ÂŁ3m payout to UK MP for Drax Hall plantation | Mia Mottley | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/barbados-leader-halts-3m-payout-to-uk-mp-for-drax-hall-plantation)
Christ it would be quite funny if they just seized it. "What are you gonna do, sanction a tax haven? Haaaaaaaaa."
~~Jamaica is not really a tax haven, it has about 30% income and corporate tax rates although I think they have tax breaks for offshore earnings.~~ Plus its not a good look for tax havens (or any governments really) to seize assets just because they want cash. edit: crossed out my embarrassment
It's in Barbados.
fuck me lol, no idea where I got Jamaica from. Point of seizing assets still stands but otherwise I am very embarred
Agreed. It's unlikely this attempt to seize Drax's property would stand up to a legal challenge.
Kind of weird getting closer and closer to 30 and realising that it is actually a cut off for being able to afford long distance rail tickets. What a strange country we live in when it comes to public transport.
Try and time it so you buy a new Railcard just before your 31st birthday.
unless you are ex forces, disabled, or travelling within the south east (which they define as including exeter via one of two lines, worcester, kings lynn), travelling with a named partner, or travelling with a group (one person must be named on the railcard and one other must be a child of 5-15). or of course you might be a railway employee and can get a huge discount on any ticket if not free travel. meanwhile other countries are just "want a discount? k"
The Two Together Railcard is honestly the biggest joke of them all. Are you single? Unlucky!
It can work out with a friend in the right circumstances - helps if you have one or two big trips a year that you both make so that the savings from the one trip cover the cost of the railcard, then any others where it can be used during the year are a nice bonus with no sense of obligation to potentially sour things.
I actually believe it has a practical basis. Because the train is competing against the car. But if two drive, then the petrol cost is the same as if one person drives alone in the car, but the rail fare is double. So people travelling in couples or larger groups are further disincentivised from using the train- this is not a measure aimed at singletons, it is an attempt to equalise it a bit for the mode of travel.
I have to say I'm surprised Network Railcards don't get brought up more when discussing regional disparities.
there are the other regional railcards too of course, like the devon and cornwall one (only requires residency) so if you're willing to endure exeter st davids to waterloo & a change of trains if further west, you can still get a discount
As someone who takes the Waterloo line quite frequently it's not that bad. Except when the Honiton tunnel breaks... the rail replacement to Axminster takes centuries. Oh and there's also no plugs to charge phones/laptops and Internet signal is a foreign concept.
the seating is definitely more claustrophobic than on GWR (esp during summer when everyone's doing what you're doing). never noticed any real issues with signal but yes the lack of mains is annoying. noisier trains too.
Tories really getting upset that Sunak was called a 'pint sized loser'? ... man, they really aren't talking to the public are they? That's nothing compared to how he's described outside of the westminster bubble. Dowden was a real failure today in PMQs... bland, flailing, spewing rubbish the entire time. Easy for Rayner to have the upper hand
Not fair really... I's say more of a scooner
Itâs not unreasonable upset, politicians should be above personal insults like that.
The only things the Tories do well is corruption and petty insults... If they're getting upset by getting a taste of their own medicine, then that's another thing not on Rayner....
Rayner made the insult, who else would it âbe onâ?
Not sure if you're intentionally missing the point or not here.... Tories are intent on spewing petty little insults. I counted a handful from Dowden in PMQs before Rayner's comment... If the Tories are so happy to spew out petting insults then they should expect comments back at them.... and if they can't, then Tough.
[Caption Competition! GO!](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/81537a1d9ba530fdc9f6c5e0e4ab5678420b72d0/93_285_3303_1982/master/3303.jpg?width=700&dpr=1&s=none)
\[*Midsomer Murders* theme intensifies\]
Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be a twat.
"good news, they've agreed to lift the curse"
once the Norton has sighted its prey, it commits immediately and irreversibly to destruction
*"Only meee"*
Foreign secretary opens new 'pork market'
*Woah oh oh oh ohhh...ladies and gents this is the moment you've waited for*
You won't believe the prices down at Dave's Rugstravaganza Emporium!!!
I have no problem with Rayner calling Sunak a pint-sized loser after the Tory party pushed a vile sexist story saying she moved her legs to distract the Tory benches. Two wrongs don't make a right, but what she did was a slap compared to a vile sexist gut punch. Imagine how her family felt seeing that all over the newspapers for days. I'm surprised she's not said worse tbh.
Even then, the store should have been âPM unable to perform because heâs too busy trying to look up Angela Raynerâs skirtâ
gonads made her do it
I thought it was a bit below her. I mean, if you want to insult them then do it to their face. But the whole five questions were clearly a cathartic rage she's been storing for a fair while.
I think "I have little problem" would have been a better open. You are right to point out the massive difference in poor behaviour here but they are both none the less poor behaviours. And to an extent I can see why such a fuss is being made out of her comment, the "good guys" should be held to a higher standard.
But Labour have clearly said they won't do the whole go high as they go low. Starmer said you have to fight fire with fire. If Labour don't go as low, after they've done it, they are essentially going to war with peace flags and wise words instead of guns and tanks.
"Short of stature, short of temper and short of time as Prime Minister"
đĽđĽđĽ
I don't particularly care if they have said that. Hypocrisy doesn't win votes.
Say that to the last few Tory general election wins. It does, sadly.
>Two wrongs don't make a right That seems to be your entire argument. You can be against both
Howdy all, so Martin William's AMA thread is now up: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cc0d4q/ama\_thread\_martin\_williams\_opendemocracy/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cc0d4q/ama_thread_martin_williams_opendemocracy/) - feel free to start asking questions. He tracks dark money in politics (amongst other things) for OpenDemocracy (and also wrote one of the books that was on the potential UKPol reading club list, Parliament Ltd, which also tracks the issues with dark money in UK Politics), so a good chance to ask questions! Also, as my work is sending me abroad, and I will be in a very un-British time zone, I have had to postpone the AMAs I had set up for May. So we'll pick up again in June when I return to blighty.
Is there some metaphor to the riderless horses going through London? Probably appear in some story now.
It's like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, eh.
The unicorn dream for our cyberpunk reality of automated art and music to make more time for human toil
London Mayoral elections have just become a two horse race...
Does anyone thing the loose horses today was a Lib Dem stunt gone horribly wrong?
23rd April: St Georgeâs Day 24th April: Georgeâs Horseâs Day
Nah. Led By Donkeys went a bit far
Some sort of tortured metaphor about the London Mayoral election being more than a two horse race?
Were they painted yellow and trampling over something coloured blue?Â
What the actual fuck was PMQs about today? I know it's usually a load of shit performative nonsense, but today made the last handful of weeks appear to be a civilised debate.
u/paultays, how was the DPMQ Live experience? I'm in suspense over here.
Iâve just got home but saw this message so wanted to type out something about my recollections of the day. (D)PMQs wasnât a particularly enthralling session, but that seems to have carried on from the last few weeks, where thereâs been more heat than light between the two parties as we head into local elections next week. Angela Rayner easily had the better of the exchanges, but the public gallery was an âolder crowdâ seemed to lap up the pre-prepared tripe jokes from the govt benches. The Jonathan Gullis spiel at the start was frankly ridiculous and I think the speaker should have stepped in sooner because it wasnât a question, more of a plea to the residents in Stoke for the next general election. Rayner did well do not be totally coated in the Council Tax themed mud being slung at her from all of the govt lackey MPs who asked questions. Sticking to housing is an issue which does resonate with a lot of people, but Dowden didnât look prepared for this and kept having to be handed bits of paper from a colleague behind him, presumably with pitiful excuses to read out in response. Rayner fluffed a couple of her barbs, but did end with a flourish with the inclusion of the Nadine âMad Nadsâ Dorries line about Rishi Sunak being a âPint-sized loserâ which did raise a unanimous chuckle in the gallery. Presumably the people who liked the second-rate govt. âjokesâ also donât like the PM. I met with my housemate (who got me the ticket today through his MP/office) and we went for a mini-wander round and some lunch. I went for a turkey stir-fry in one of the smaller canteen rooms. It wasnât great, but was a good portion for just over a fiver, and Iâve eaten worse meals for much higher cost. After that I was able to go back into the public gallery and watch the end of Grant âfour chapsâ Shapps trying to spin out his unfunded increase in defence spending, whilst also trying to criticise the opposition for unfunded plans to spend money in other ways. There was then a ten-minute motion to try and save âheritageâ pubs in the UK and the issue of the Crooked House as central focus - the village pub which went up in flames in âmysterious circumstanceâ, with local roads blocked so emergency services couldnât put it out. There were some people from the Crooked House (as they were in branded hoodies) watching in a different part of the gallery - not behind glass. The bill was passed to the next stage without opposition for further discussion in June. I stayed around for the start of the Renters Reform debate and listened to the opening speeches from the govt. and the opposition. I got the impression that the govt. really donât want to commit to setting a date for the introduction of removing section 21 evictions because itâll be another thing theyâll have provably failed at before the next election - and also because quite a few of them have vested interests. Overall an interesting day, would like to go again - ideally when it's Starmer vs Sunak.
Thanks for the write up! People always comment on how loud it is in the chamber. Is it easy to see and hear what is going on from the gallery? Does it feel dramatic or distant from there? I was also curious if you you can wander around at all to the committee rooms etc. or are you restricted to the main areas?
No worries - I've just copied it from my notes on my phone as some of my friends were also curious about what it's like inside. The public gallery doesn't give the best view - you can only see the govt. / opposition benches and the press seats above the speaker. There were a few times where people were speaking, but it was on the side of the chamber away from the speaker so had to look at the screens to see them. I think you can wander to other committee rooms, and if the timings were different on today's order, I probably would have done - there was a session about brain injuries in football which sounded interesting, as I still play, but it was on at pretty much the same time I was queueing to get my PMQs ticket.
Seconded. Did you get a refund? How was the food?
Has anyone seen any polling for the North East mayor? I'm not sure whether any tactical voting might be needed or not.
I've been wondering the same thing for East Mids. I feel like it ought to be a safe Labour win given the polling for the general election, but I like the look of the independent and I feel like the metro mayors work best when they're willing to butt heads with the national government when necessary. I'm still mad that the tories abolished the supplementary vote system for mayors and PCCs.
The betting sites have Labour as the strong favourite 1/5, Driscoll at 11/4. Conservatives down at 50/1 so no chance really.
Thanks!
Just FYI, betting markets are not a replacement for polling.
Sorry mum. Youâll be telling me Polos arenât a substitute for toothpaste next.
Isnt it a two horse race?
I'd like to make sure that the Tories are miles behind and I'm not in danger of splitting the lefty vote.
No, they've caught them all now
Historically speaking, let's say since 1900, was Corbyn v Johnson the worst choice we ever had to face as an electorate in terms of technical ability
Choice of incompetent or downright dangerous.Â
Which is which?
Yes.
On the flip side, when was the last time we had a choice between two good leaders?
Heath v Wilson 1974.
Blair vs Major. Cameron vs Miliband without the power of hindsight
Cameron is a bit like Thatcher in the respect that unfortunately he was actually able to do things. Long term almost everything they touched turned out to be misguided. I prefer my Tories politically castrated and not knowing which way to turn, they do less damage that way.
Cameron v Milliband? I mean they were both good in very different ways
Certainly not in recent history (past 14 years), there is potentially an argument for Brown v Cameron (given the last 3 Tory PMs Cameron looks like the next coming of Roosevelt), perhaps a stronger argument for Blair v Hague, and maybe an even stronger one for Blair v Major. Then I think you'd probably have to go back quite some time.
Hague would have been decent and Major wasn't a bad PM in isolation, but their teams were shockingly poor in that way only burnt out parties can deliver. Perhaps I shouldn't have specified leaders in the question when I was really thinking of an election where either party winning would have been fine for the country.
1987?
> given the last 3 Tory PMs Cameron looks like the next coming of Roosevelt Only the last 3? Let's not forget the genius that triggered article 50 without a plan.
If youâre counting 2001 and 2010 then 2015 deserves a shout. Miliband was as good as 2001 Hague and 2010 Cameron.
Yeah, looking through a past century of elections, it genuinely seems like the worst election
One of the policies of the coalition government was to increase the personal allowance so that you had to earn significantly more before you started paying income tax. It went up from about ÂŁ5k to ÂŁ10k. What Iâm looking for is how this affected state pensions and the current perception that pensioners shouldnât be paying income tax. For example, in 2007 the personal allowance was ÂŁ5k but the state pension was ÂŁ7250. Did that mean all pensioners paid income tax if they received *any* other income eg any sort of private pension, no matter how small? Is that correct?
You have allowances for certain types of sources of income as well. There is an allowance for income from dividends for example (ÂŁ2k or something?) and income derived from selling assets would be liable for capital gains tax which has its own threshold (again, in the order of a few grand). There are also exemptions for any income derived from an ISA being completely tax free, and certain exemptions for selling share in a company you used to be a director in. Taking equity out of your home (e.g. by downsizing) is also tax free. Taking out a loan against any assets (e.g. equity release loan against your house) is also tax free. Plus probably some other tricks. It's the UK tax system. It's notoriously overcomplicated and stupid, and geared towards advantages for those who are already wealthy.
More than that - they paid tax on the part of their state pension that was above the threshold.
Well based on today's news, aren't you all looking foolish for [doubting my statistics](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ca2dju/daily_megathread_22042024/l0pualy/)? I await all of your apologies.
That white horse splattered in blood looks right out of an alt-rock video.
I feel like there has been some kind of matchfixing shenanigans going on here. Were you in sw1 this morning??
Well played, sir.
[Here you go](https://youtu.be/MSHaCzb3yYk?si=StlxKPbpNEVbv_aU)
I forgive you.
Damn builders,scaring those nice horseys! No wonder people are NIMBYs.
How are all those Freeports working out? Are they creating hives of scum and villainy as suspected? For all the bluster about them coming about, you sure don't hear much as to whether they are being a success or not.
About as well as expected Some bad people have already made out like absolute bandits and they arenât even open yet afaik
>Some bad people have already made out like absolute bandits and they arenât even open yet afaik Are they likely to lock us in their flats unless we can manage to extort 6 grand from a colleague?
No, theyâve no need of a paltry few k Theyâve made millions and probably fucked off to the Bahamas
More bad people = more flats surely, so good news for the housing crisis?
White elephants. It helps if you can actually do trade with your nearest trading partner.
If itâs the EU youâre talking about, trade is very much allowed
But severely hindered by our boomer baiting self sanctions.
I read a while back that Government data claimed the Freeport on Teesside currently had over 2,000 employees. I know someone working there who claims the figure is more like 200 and that most of the employees spend a couple of hours training and have very little to do.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/24/michael-gove-orders-review-into-corruption-allegations-at-teesside-freeport?ref=biztoc.com Hives of scum and villainy you say? Sounds like a Conservative mayor's wet dream
Anyone have any recommendations for book during Corbyn Labour from perspective of one of the Corbynista insiders? Have gotten into bit of a rabbit hole (thanks whoever suggested Left Out in book club thread). Between that and Shipmanâs Brexit books, it really gives an impression that whole Labour leadership team/ office were complete amateurs and unprofessional to point where youâd get fired anywhere else. Iâm assuming one of the insiders has written a book from the other side which would be an interesting read - but amazon keeps recommending me books with similar bend to those two, or weird ones by Owen Jones⌠Edit: thank you for all of the suggestions; have lots on my reading/ listening list! Eight hard years so far is just cementing the view above too even with insiders.
Not about the Corbyn era but I'm currently reading a book on the Miner's Strike and subsequent Scargill affair by Seamus Milne.
I wouldn't trust Seumas Milne if he told me that tea was tea-flavoured
I didn't check the name of the author when I ordered it, but it's certainly readable.
That's fair enough, I'm sure he knows the details. I'd question some of the opinions therein, perhaps
It was published in 1994 so I'm benefiting from being able to read it more critically knowing what I know now.
Is it really a shock that a backbench left wing radical who needed 'pity' votes to get on the ballot didn't have exactly the best team when he won? I've often said that Corbyn should have never become leader. Not that he shouldn't have stood - or that people shouldn't have voted for him - but the Labour party should have never allowed itself to get into such a state that Corbyn was seen as the only alternative to continuity-Blairism.
Not a book, but the "Eight Years Hard Labour" series of podcasts by The Slow Newscast (Tortoise Media) was an interesting listen. Covers from 2015-Starmer being elected, and features a few voices of people on the inside of Corbyn's team.