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Rockets

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Everything posted by Rockets

  1. We really really need Spitting Image back, they would have had a field day with the previous lot and this lot... I agree that laughing and ridiculing politicians is one of the ways we hold them accountable and our cultural heritage is laced with great examples, Private Eye, Spitting Image etc etc
  2. What a great idea that it is, very clever - a win/win! I had wondered what they were when I saw them when they were first put in.
  3. Or promote them to be a member of the Cabinet.....;-)
  4. I think this story will run a bit - Labour HQ has said she went because "further details have come to light". Which is political speak for "what is about to come to light was not something we were aware of so don't blame us". i.e. casting her adrift politically and suggesting she did not tell them the full story to cover their own backs. Clearly the police must have thought something unusual was happening to charge her with that - we will probably find out over the weekend. The problem is when you preach that "we're not like them" and then you act like them then it makes you look like hypocrites. In isolation this could be managed but it's another example of Labour saying one thing and doing another - Cash for Access, the clothing debacle, MP punching constituents etc etc etc. It casts all politicians in a bad light.
  5. Yes, to a many I am sure it underlines the difference. But to many it will reinforce the similarity. That is the bigger risk of the two. They will be hoping the Assisted Dying vote drowns out her resignation and that becomes the focus.
  6. Jumping to conclusions again Earl - you don't actually know it was a push bike do you.....;-)
  7. Yes that is absolutely right but when Keir Starmer has said (during partygate) "lawbreakers cannot be lawmakers" you have to question how she ever got appointed to the cabinet. Was anyone doing any due diligence? The fact she resigned so quickly might also suggest as more details of the case come out it may become more damaging to both her and the party. Wasn't it someone switching the phone back on again that triggered the police to get back in touch with her? Yet another massive own-goal.
  8. Could be an interesting few days for Louise Haigh.... BBC News - Haigh admits pleading guilty to 2014 criminal offence https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2l95750v08o
  9. Yup I am looking at you Snowy....;-)
  10. Did I wake up in some parallel universe - listened in to Keir's press conference today and he was saying immigration was out of control, the Tories had been running an Opens Borders Experiment and his party were going to get on top of it.....sounded very much like a right-wing Tory pitch....;-) Also, does the ONS not have an element of responsibility - these are, after all, their figures that are being continually revised - is their data collection/analysis robust? Or is the suggestion that there was political interference in the numbers that were being published by the Tories?
  11. Good grief - the Foundation for Integrated Transport put money up to fund this research....why is it when it comes to anything active travel or the anti-car lobby that people are happy to fritter money away.....the world has gone utterly mad....? The author who received the money is a "freelance journalist, author and speaker specialising in cycling and urban transport." Of course they are....
  12. Clearly there is going to be no election but it was interesting listening to the Rest Is Politics this week where they discuss this and they did a really good breakdown on the risk to Rachel Reeves and this budget and that is a lack of growth and no clear plan on where growth is going to come from. Rory Stewart breaks down, very coherently, why Labour have a huge battle ahead and how their policies and budget could become a problem and echos much of which has been said on here (but without the raw emotion!!! ;-)) They also said, and this is a big issue for Labour, that Keir's approval ratings are now at -38 (and those are Liz Truss levels) and, at the same point in his tenure Tony Blair was at +68. Well worth a listen, especially if people want to hear balanced discussion around a variety of subjects.
  13. DKHB.. I am not the one fixating on the use of the word accident! 😉
  14. If only people spent as much energy on solving problems instead of fixating on the use of the word accident....very reflective of how completely bonkers the world we live in has become. Because the very point is you do not know that the accident was caused by poor driving. You're jumping to your ideologically driven hopes and conclusions. Again. It was dead until someone took umbrage about the use of the word accident. And I checked the dictionary again and the word still works really well for what happened here: accident /ˈaksɪd(ə)nt/ noun 1. an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. "he had an accident at the factory"
  15. BBC News - Reeves tells businesses no more tax rises as she defends Budget - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33ek51rx57o
  16. Does anyone know whether a bot farm could do this given it needs a postcode? Does it ask you to confirm your email address like council ones do? If it is a bot farm they seemingly have good knowledge of Labour heartlands given London hasn't responded as strongly as others and nor have Bristol, Cardiff and Bath!!! 😉 If this is all bot farm it's getting a lot of attention. BBC News - Keir Starmer: I'm not surprised some want general election re-run - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2r4g98gjo
  17. Only ill-informed, inaccurate and ill conceived posts in their mind apparently.....and then they laugh.... I suspect they only laugh when they don't have a credible counter argument...
  18. They must be happy that the new £2m junction is not safe for pedestrians, that London buses are slowing down and the Dulwich LTN cameras are raking it in for the council. They do find the oddest things funny - what a bizarre sense of humour they have.
  19. Snowy speaks everyone - hara!!! It's a miracle - they found their voice. A bit like hearing Teller speak!
  20. I said they are peering into the hole - not in it....yet!!! 😉 I think they know what they want to do but they also know how difficult it is going to be to do it and they knew it before the election but, clearly, could not verbalise the challenge ahead. They lent in way too much on the "we're not that lot and that lot are awful". They used the 24 hour news and social cycle to keep driving home that message - they got social media cheerleaders to ram home the point for them and call out the evil of Tory behaviour and drown out any semblance of rational election debate. Labour got into power and then started behaving exactly how the Tories had been and suddenly those very tactics are now being played back to them and now they are being drowned out. I am not convinced Labour have enough talent on the front benches in this particular cabinet to turn this around - I fear they lack the experience and leadership to be able to try and navigate the choppy waters they are facing - some them act like councillors rather than cabinet members. I watch so many media interviews with various cabinet ministers and they look out of their depth and seem utterly clueless on what line they should be pitching - it's car crash interview after car crash interview and the more they keep using the "after 14 years of Tory rule" as an excuse for everything, a bit like the "I am a son of a toolmaker" people will think they are all spin and no substance.
  21. I agree as well but Labour are losing control of the narrative on every single policy they have announced. And that is incredibly dangerous for them. After 120 days they find themselves peering into a hole not dissimilar to that the hole the Tories found themselves in - a hole so deep (of their own making) that there was no way they were going to be able to convince anyone anything they were doing was good. Unfortunately, the easily led, vocal and angry are the people who often determine the outcome of an election and, as Labour are finding to their cost right now, they are also the quickest to turn. This is why the "no tax increases on working people" was an absolute ticking time-bomb that Labour planted on themselves. Completely agree but I fear we are heading for repeated one-term governments - which seems to be a global trend post pandemic - people no longer have patience with political parties or politicians - they want change now but Covid, the oil crisis, geo-political challenges and war mean that change will be likely be generational - there are no quick fixes anymore.
  22. The problem is these interventions are designed with input from the cycle-lobby so, of course, pedestrian safety is never a priority - if pedestrian safety was a factor then things like floating bus-stops would never, ever be allowed. Too many in the active travel community have become blinkered by cycling and the over-stated role they say it will have in helping climate change - most of the leaders in the active travel community come from the cycle lobby so this can come as no surprise. P.S. I do love the things that Snowy finds funny - really paints them in a bad light (cue Snowy laughing at this too! ;-))
  23. Malumbu, yes there are some extreme views being voiced on this thread (many of which I do not agree with - on both sides I hasten to add) but do not try to pigeon-hole people as lunatic fringes. The Democrats tried that in the US election and it backfired massively - why? Because swing voters and some who you would expect to be die-hard Democrats voted for Trump because they weren't hearing anything of substance from the Democrats about the things that mattered to them. And this is the very threat we all face from populism - that populists throw dog whistles out to anyone and everyone on the basis that "the incumbents aren't listening to you/are ignoring you". In fact, the tactic that Labour used in the election campaign to blame everything on Tory incompetence and corruption is now being played back to them. I think the government has 6 - 9 months to try and stop this turning into a massive train-wreck of a parliament and we all have to hope they can do so because the alternative direction of travel is an absolute disaster in waiting. I often say it's the people who do not need to say anything who are benefiting the most at a time of crisis - be wary when your political opponents are letting you do all the talking (and this applies in equal measure to people outside and inside your own party).
  24. Who is the person that signed it from South Georgia Islands! 😉 I think the distribution of non-UK looks as you would expect on the basis of UK ex-pats living abroad but the only one that stood out was the 31 responses from China and I did wonder whether UK government websites would be readily accessible in China - although the 422 responses from Hong Kong may validate that they must be! Whatever the true situation the fact that this petition is getting such traction suggests the government are struggling to cut through - which they are. But clearly, there will not be an election for many years yet, but I think this does go to show that electorates (not only in the UK) are very impatient right now and that is a massive risk to any party in power and if, like Labour, you get elected on the change ticket and you affect change that the majority think help them or the country then you're in for a really, really rough ride. Labour is really struggling to sell it's vision and get people on the journey with them and for every story we are going to read about pensioners not able to heat their homes or farmers protesting about inheritance tax then the worse it will become. Next we are going to start hearing about the impact of the budget on small (and big) businesses and that will likely impact growth and our ability to control inflation and if that does happen then Rachel Reeves has a big problem on her hands (and Keir is likely to start looking for a scapegoat).
  25. Sephiroth, where is the data for non-UK people? Thanks
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