blandy

No, I insist - thank you, Snowy.

Thanks for posting someone else's tweet But seriously, almost no-one thinks Labour can get a majority, not even most Labour politicians - we remember that they were basically all terrified of an election and voting against one in the run up to the end of October. In part, rightly to stop "No Deal", but absolutely they didn't want one because they knew they'd lose seats not gain them, as well.

File under "no sh!t, sherlock". Next week "Boris Johnson seen as dishonest"

I had a racing snail once. I thought maybe if I take him out of his shell, the weight loss and streamlining will make him even faster. But it actually made him more sluggish.

I learnt two things from traps. In the Radar section where I used to work, in trap 1, on the left hand wall it said "How Radar works - look Right" and on the right hand wall it said "How Radar works - look left " The other thing I learnt was a poem in a german school bogs. In diesem Hause wohnt ein Geist, der jedem der zu lange scheißt von unten in die Eier beißt. Mir hat er nicht in die Eier gebissen ich hab Ihm auf den Kopf geschschissen. which translates as: In this house there lives a ghost, anyone who sits here pooing to long will be bitten from below in the "eggs". He hasn't bitten me in the "eggs" I have pooed on his head.

Tautologies - PIN number, DMZ zone, that sort of thing. Unecessary repetition of things, over and over again, doubling up something to no purpose and just going on and on about the same thing, all the time, endlessly, for aboslutely ages, even though you've already made the point twice before at least, probably three times or four times maybe. What a load of prolix.

Boris Johnson said Strummer once wrote to him - so a more impeccable and beyond reproach source it's hard to find.

Yeah. I remember 4 things from that gig, the gig itself was excellent, seeing that goth lass there who had also been at the Björk gig the week before in Blackpool - what are the chances!, the queue to get to the ticket machine and out of the car park after - so going to the square peg instead and the queue still being there an hour later, and obviously meeting up with Simon.

There are others too. Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey etc.- not and never mainstream, but with a really big group of fans and huge back Catalogues who did or do fill big venues and who have a mixed age and gender audience of devotees.

Not in my opinion. For example side project Grinderman. @bickster and myself went to them in Manchester, in the big Academy. Rammed, and with the kindest will in the world none of their sounds are really famous or even well known. Him and his band are popular despite not much radio play. Even the TV has only started using his songs relatively recently. anyway, his sideline will make sure he’s always ok Release the Pigeons

I'll take your word on it. I wonder how many tax havens under British control have been closed down? These sunny islands the the rich people have still seem highly non-transparent and rather popular with the extraordinarily wealthy. Caymens is it, Panama, Virgin Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Man (not so sunny) - I mean there may be legitimate arguments for them behaving as they do, but somehow....

picky picky picky pedant!

In their own circles, maybe, and even then not really. Phillip Green? the general public hates it and resents it.

It's not great, and I hesitate to defend the tories, but personally, there's a difference to speaking to ex-terrorists, or dealing with them, post a piece settlement and encouraging them while they are active. If they renounce violence and have ceased involvement, then at some point we have to move on. An elected MP, whether the likes of Gerry Adams or this Unionist goon is not the same as an active terrorist or terrorist leader. Maybe thats' why?

Very true. All the parties have a range of political outlooks amongst supporters and MPs and activists. With the LDs importing from Labour and Tory rebels, there's quite a wide range in there. I think it's a case of where the centre (for a party) sits and then the distances to the outriders. I get the feeling that the tories don't really have a central core any more - the ERG throwers have temporary sway and Johnson just goes with whatever he feels will keep in in his job - there's no idealism for anything from him. With labour, it's gone around the cult of Jeremy on the leftish edge, and then a load of outriders more central. That too feels like it could crack, particularly as Catweazle is filling places for candidates with his friends and associates wherever he can. Lib Dems are sort of centre ground, leading out each way as you say, over quite a wide range, but it's not an extreme that's in control. Their "extremes" are compatible with Labour right and Tory left, with Swinson pretty much in the middle of their left-ish of centre overall place.

I dunno, Tony. Maybe if the party go back to what they were, but if they stay at the extremes then the who "game" fails. I rest of n a way I hope they do and it does, because the range of public opinion is not reflected in politics. The extreme Brexit types and the extreme militant types see hope in Tories and Labour, but the rest of us, not so much. If those parties vote share keeps falling, ventrally there will be enough to get a new system - PR based.

I struggle to see Corbyn and Swinson working together. They have changed though. Their membership, as far as I can divine bitterly regrets that they "enabled" bad tory things, I think their MPs also feel the same (maybe not the recent defectors, mind). Their policies are not dissimilar to Labour's in a lot of areas. They're better on Brexit (though it would be hard not to be). Childcare, Environment and other stuff is along the lines of when they were more progressive, as you said, than Labour. They're economically not so very left wing as Corbyn. As @desensitized43 mentioned, they've lost an awful lot of trust through tuition fees pledge breaking, the idiots, and that distrust will remain for a long while, I imagine. Through my eyes, though some of the bile towards them from Labour #JC4PM types is extremely tribal.

The last line is the best "As a result, you should take these recommendations with a pinch of salt, and if you do feel you need to use these websites, compare the results the different ones give."

So parties can change, right? Different leaders take them in different directions, for better or worse. Judge the Libs on what they did over 9 years ago under Clegg, but not on more recent policy and votes?

Distrust of a party is fine and well founded. Blind refusal to engage with them is foolish and tribal. "They worked with Tories so we can't trust them" is a strange approach for all those twitterers who yearn for the return of Chris Williamson, who very much worked with the tories on Derby council.

Indeed. Which is why it's so important to have effective measures in place, not frilly warm words. The sentiment is admirable, the execution has to be effective and practical. Being right minded, but useless with it is just a waste. In the end a tory who sets out to help the privileged or a socialist who wants to make things fairer but doesn't have a way of doing so in an area is ultimately the same thing to those who need the help.

Which is fair enough. Though the LDs are indeed not contesting some seats. Green, Plaid etc the same. Labour is essentially giving the tories a pass in some seats, by opposing Greens LDs etc. I see that many people feel the way you say about the LDs being yellow tories. And their record doesn't help there, in that they did coalition with the tories. Personally I don't see it that way, but it's a fair enough view, I guess, especially for the tribal.

Ah, OK. Then my objection is that you cannot punish people or businesses for acting legally. That's the whole thing with loopholes - they're legal.

Over the past few years, LD/Green/SNP/Plaid have asked About to join them in a pact opposing Brexit and so on. Labour declined. It's true that the votes in parliament have seen Tories, LDs, Green/SNP/Plaid/Independents vote together and plan together under Cooper, Kinnock Grieve Letwin etc. but Labour has kept its distance. As I've posted earlier today, the LDs have to say "Corbyn's an arse" because they want to attract Tory retainers to their Remain cause. They don't do that by saying "Vote LD, get Corbyn" It's also the case that a lot of Labour MPs and voters don't think Corbyn is fit to be PM, either. I can't vote. I will be absent on the date, and I found out my postal vote application went through, but the paper form won't arrive in time. I'd probably vote either Green or LD here - Green because their environmental policies are something I strongly agree with, or LD because they are possibly least badly placed to finish second to the Tory who will get in again here, but I share a lot of the cynicism about them, but they're not, at least, as damaging as the Tories or Corbyn.

Possibly so, but as the minor party in a coalition Government you could ask argue that they acted as a (small party) break on the Tories wilder plans as much as they could. They got eaten alive for it, as well. I think they wouldn't make that 'mistake" again. either with the Tories or with Labour's madder plans. But it's by the by because Labour won't, for their own selfish reasons, co-operate.