Jenny1

...that was easy. Turnout 1979 76% Turnout 2015 66.1 %

Absolutely! You used to see many more in the 'old days', didn't you? Growing up in Kent in the 1970s I remember a lot of boards supporting different candidates in front gardens - and actually massive great hoardings erected in fields! Usually for Conservatives of course, this being a rural farming community. You were left in no doubt that the landowners were Tory through and through. In the nearby towns - Folkestone and Dover - there'd be more of a Labour and Liberal following - and actually more posters in windows rather than boards on sticks in gardens. I actually quite enjoyed the whole 'event' of an election. I was brought up by parents who were never shy of expressing an opinion and my father listened to political news coverage avidly. I seem to have noticed a general decline both in the display of posters supporting candidates and political engagement over the years. Would be interested to know what the percentage turn out was in 1979 compared with 2015 - will have to look for that.

Even he knows that Sadiq Khan outclasses him by miles, and he can't bear it.

Good Masha Gessen piece on how Trump's incompetence and the establishment of autocracy are two sides of the same coin. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/sunday/trumps-incompetence-wont-save-our-democracy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0&referer=https://t.co/AkmIjvkqft?amp=1

rahrahrah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Boris Johnsons behaviour gets more and more > bizarre. He is a spoilt bully. Yes. He is.

keano77 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If Trump can > negotiate a better agreement he will be doing the > planet a favour. But he won't though, will he? Why on earth would that be a priority for this administration? Mike Pence (quoted by Fox News) 'For some reason, this issue of climate change has emerged as a paramount issue for the left - in this country and around the world'. They have no interest in the issue at all. As far as they're concerned it's not even 'a thing'.

...to add - agree on your interpretation of what motivated TM to call the election, red devil.

Yes. And he looks happy to job-share the 'Leader of the Free World' role with Merkel and Trudeau. It'll be really interesting to see how far France changes. That France is essentially 'unchangeable' seems to have been a mantra for a very long time. It can't hold true forever.

I see red devil. Thanks. Yes - I'm sure that's right. She'll have to deliver a proper majority to be safe.

...just saw reference to the fact that Macron referred to 'the US Federal Government' withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, not 'the US'. He's a sharp guy. I wish we had politicians in this country with similar mental capacities.

Thanks for the article link red devil. But I don't altogether agree with the perspective it offers. I'm not fully convinced that an increased Tory majority will make any difference at all to Brexit. Even if you accept the adversarial model of negotiations with the EU that many on the Tory right and UKIP like to push (which I don't), I can't see an increased majority 'strengthening' TM's hand in such a scenario. Why would it make any difference at all to the perspective and approach of our current 27 European partners? On the other hand I agree that a 'bad' result for TM - which could be anything from a slightly increased majority to a hung parliament - will certainly re-ignite old divisions in the Tory party between Eurosceptics and Europhiles. And actually that would be a good thing. It would lead to some proper debate as to what it is we actually want to get out of these negotiations, and the most sensible way of conducting them in order to achieve those goals.

No way of knowing. Up to senior Tories after the election to judge if the result was good enough. Personally I think she's ineffectual - can't even say 'Brexit negotiations' without a quaver in her voice. As Suzanne Moore wrote on Twitter - it's a mystery as to why TM wants to be PM - most of the time she looks like she's going to be sick.

Thanks Saffron. Very interesting piece. So yes - with California and New York City in a leadership role, we might be entering an era of reduced US Federal control and increased State and City power. From a historical/political perspective that would be fascinating.

Yes. I wonder how badly the Tories would have to do in the election to feel they wanted to ditch TM? They're usually quite efficient at getting rid of unwanted leaders. If she slightly improves her majority I suppose that might be enough to keep her in post. She seems to isolate herself - even within her own party. Was Edward Heath a bit like that? I seem to remember he was.

I'm left wondering how far US cities and states might be able to create an alternative power structure in the country. The mayors and governors pledging to support the Paris Accord and the sanctuary city network could act as a model for that. That's the strength of the federal system I guess - it offers a powerful alternative to Presidential control.

I actually like seeing a variety of political posters in windows. It shows a degree of serious engagement with the electoral process. I've never had any sympathy with people who don't even vote and yet feel free to grumble about the society they live in.

That's very interesting BrandNewGuy. Do you see many peregrine falcons in the area? I meant to say thank you very much for collating the dates of the arrival of the swifts. It astonishes me how punctual they are. I suppose they must be sensitive to day length? Though some of their wintering grounds won't have much yearly variation in hours of daylight. But I believe some migrate from as far as South Africa? Almost unbelievable. I understand it was a great conundrum to Victorian naturalists as to where they went in the winter. As to what people say about reduced numbers. Yes - I've noticed that too. Let's just hope the decline can be reversed. Is lack of nesting sites the main problem? The loss of the old hospital onion towers probably removed one site.

Thanks for the article link JohnL. Interesting. And yes, I agree about Afghanistan. I'm quite old enough to remember that too, sadly! As the Vanity Fair piece says, this is really about a long history of incompetent, short-sighted and often self-defeating foreign policy.

JRK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the Hard pears claiming to > be 'ripe & ready' at M&S I think they're a bit silly to make that claim for pears which are notorious for being as hard as nails before becoming ripe for ten minutes and then turning to pulp. Perhaps there are some varieties that behave differently - but I've not found them.

Hi KidKruger. I'm not responding to anyone saying that here.

As I remember it, Middle East pundits who warned that a war against Saddam Hussein would fuel the growth of global terrorism did so because of an 'indirect' rather than a 'direct' causative link. Anti-western terrorism was of course already 'out there' because of Bin Laden. However they pointed out that a war in Iraq, particularly one launched with no proper reconstruction plan in place, would lead to intense social and political instability. This chaos would, in turn (amongst many other damaging effects), create a breeding ground for extremist groups. It made complete sense at the time - and it makes complete sense now. But it's not as simple as 'Lots of extremist hate the West because of the war in Iraq'. The real crime, in my view, was not putting together an intelligent reconstruction scheme before launching the war to topple Saddam. If the US and UK governments had listened to the 'experts' they wouldn't have made this mistake - and we wouldn't have the problems we currently have. 'Experts' are there for a reason.

Definite swift sighting. Five wheeling low over Mr Liu Chinese Restaurant! I guess the cloud cover brings them down. They ARE back. Will set the official 'return of swifts to ED 2017' date as May 6th - unless anyone can report an earlier sighting.

Think I just heard a swift. Did I dream it, or are they back?

I've had this on and off for twenty years. My GP has too - ironically enough. In the first instance take rest and treat it like flu. There's almost certainly a viral cause for most people. Some people benefit from the retraining of the vestibular system - your GP can give you exercises. If you only experience dizziness when you turn in one direction there's a manoeuvre that some GPs can do on your neck that helps (but not all GPs are trained in this). Some people get benefit from cranio-sacral osteopathy (I've certainly been cured of individual outbreaks by this - though it doesn't stop it recurring). It's worth trying a good vitamin b complex tablet as sometimes this helps me.

???? Wrote: the insult/anti-illectual thing was/is to do with > the abstract intellectualism of philosophy I think > - we've always been fine with the more pragmatic > academic subjects I'd disagree with that actually ????. If you think back to the eighteenth, nineteenth and even early twentieth centuries most of the British innovators in the fields of engineering and medicine had to go to Germany, or sometimes France, to get an education. We were obsessed with the supremacy of 'The Classics' in higher education for a long time, to the detriment of science and technology. Scotland was ahead of England in that regard. As to Wales and the Tories. Shocking.