European Politics discussion
Prederick wrote:
That Question Time video is toe curlingly embarrassing. There was a time an MP would resign after such a hideous ‘I’m exceptionally stupid’ gaff.
Today in wildly unsurprising news:
Conservatives crushed by ‘worst local election result’ in years
The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election.
The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to clinging on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.
The polling expert Prof John Curtice of Strathclyde University said the results added up to “one of the worst, if not the worst” performances by the Conservatives in four decades.
The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.
Keir Starmer hailed “seismic” results, including winning a landslide byelection in Blackpool South, with the third largest swing since the second world war, as well as mayoralties in the East Midlands, North East and North Yorkshire, which covers Sunak’s own constituency.
Labour also ousted a number of Tory police and crime commissioners, and took control of at least seven new councils, including in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire and Sussex in the south of England.
As of the BBC's current court, the Tories came into this with 463 councillors.
They have lost four hundred and thirty-three.
Good start.
Today in wildly unsurprising news:
Conservatives crushed by ‘worst local election result’ in years
The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election.
The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to clinging on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.
The polling expert Prof John Curtice of Strathclyde University said the results added up to “one of the worst, if not the worst” performances by the Conservatives in four decades.
The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.
Keir Starmer hailed “seismic” results, including winning a landslide byelection in Blackpool South, with the third largest swing since the second world war, as well as mayoralties in the East Midlands, North East and North Yorkshire, which covers Sunak’s own constituency.
Labour also ousted a number of Tory police and crime commissioners, and took control of at least seven new councils, including in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire and Sussex in the south of England.
As of the BBC's current court, the Tories came into this with 463 councillors.
They have lost four hundred and thirty-three.
I'm just going to say here that although these local elections in the UK have been utterly abysmal for the Tories, I'm not quite sure that they are quite the ringing endorsement of Labour that the labour party might have been hoping for. They have lost a lot of votes to "independent" candidates (i.e previous left wing Labour members Starmer has expelled from the party for being too Corbynite), and Starmer's stance on the conflict in Gaza / Israel has also clearly left them with big problems in Muslim majority areas of the Country as well.
Starmer's current "popularity" isn't because he's Keir Starmer. It's because he's not Rishi Sunak or any of the current Conservative Cabinet.
When do we get to see Dame Eddie Izzard as PM?
Oh, all the analysis I saw agrees with you Sorb, this wasn't exactly a huge victory for Labour, nor will it necessarily translate to a general election.
that said, the tories finished -370, which I'm pretty sure, even in Cricket, is getting your ass handed to you.
In one of the more self-serving actions so far this year, noted Right Wing Tory MP Natalie Elphike has defected to Labour today, just before PMQs.
There are a great many people in Labour very cross about this because she really doesn't stand for any of Labour's principles or Manifesto commitments, and has spent her entire political career voting against them.
While I do think that Starmer will win the next election, I can easily seem him not being PM for very long. I suspect once they have their majority, the Labour MPs knives will be out.
She also isn’t standing again. This is I think the second Tory MP who is retiring to switch as a F you to Sunak on the way out. It’s amazing how bad at people management Sunak is that this is happening.
Starmer and co are taking a strong line in selection so when/if Starmer wins. The vast majority of the new MPs will be Starmer vetted.
That said if the current poll numbers hold up they will have such a huge majority that itself will probably become a party discipline issue. Smaller majorities make it easier for the whips to keep everyone focused on getting the addenda through. Big majorities allow cliques to develop and become parties within the party.
Prederick wrote:I just found it interesting juxtaposed with the previous video, saying the UK tops the "underage drinking" charts at the same time.
If my booze-soaked upbringing in the UK of the 90s was any reflection, you could have cut the amount of underage drinking by double-digit percentages and still be "leading" the world on it.
Semi-related follow-up:
Spanish islands toughen curbs on party holidays
Spain's Balearic Islands are expanding curbs on street drinking and further restricting party boats in a bid to crack down on alcohol-fuelled holidays in tourist areas.
The government says the toughening of a law passed in 2020 will apply to popular hotspots including Playa de Palma and Magaluf in Majorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza.
People caught drinking outside of authorised areas will be fined between €500-1,500 (£430-1290).
Under the new law, coming into force on Saturday, the number of sanctions taken against foreigners will be counted and submitted to the respective embassies.
The legislation introduces tougher rules against party boats, which will be banned from getting closer than one nautical mile (1.852 km) of the designated areas. Picking up or disembarking passengers will continue to be banned.
Party boats had previously been banned from advertising in the three areas.
Luis Pomar, a press officer at the Balearic Islands tourism council, told the BBC that the 2020 law had been working to curb anti-social behaviour. He added that he hoped the law would no longer be needed “in three to four years, if we instil in people how to behave”.
Up to €16 million (£13.7m) will be spent on improving areas which see the most tourism.
The areas the law applies to have been modified at the request of the local authorities, the Balearic Islands said.
Mr Pomar said a commission on "the Promotion of Civility in Tourist Zones" would be expanded to include representatives of the countries whose tourists are most associated with problems - the UK and Germany.
The government reiterated that the 2020 law bans shops from selling alcohol between 21:30 and 08:00 local time (20:30-07:00 GMT).
At the time of the introduction of the 2020 law, the regional government said it was the first in Europe to restrict the promotion and sale of alcohol in certain tourist zones.
It said the new measures would "fight excesses" and "force a real change in the tourism model of those destinations".
But some locals complained that the law would hurt businesses.
From what I understand, Georgians overwhelmingly want to be part of the EU and have all the benefits of European integration. Russia would burn that country to cinders like it is trying to do to Ukraine before it lets that happen. Without NATO expansion, that is precisely what will end up happening.
Some real movie shit going on in France today:
Two French prison officers have been killed in an ambush on a prison van near Rouen in Normandy.
Prisoner Mohamed Amra - known as "The Fly" - was being taken from court to a prison when a car rammed the prison van at a toll booth.
Gunmen then opened fire at prison officers, with two officers killed and two critically injured.
Several hundred police officers and gendarmes have been deployed to carry out a manhunt.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that "everything is being done to find the perpetrators".
Prosecutors identified the inmate who was freed as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994.
Amra was convicted of burglary on 10 May and had been indicted by prosecutors in Marseille for a kidnapping that led to a death.
I thought that only happened in movies.
It's a last minute documentary entry at Cannes.
I hope he chokes on Putin's phallus.
Attack is 'shocking for the whole of Slovakia', says journalist
Lukas Ondercanin, a foreign news editor for Slovak Daily News based in Bratislava, says the assassination attempt was “shocking for the whole of Slovakia”.Speaking to the BBC, he says the current situation in Slovakia is “very polarised” and that there’s “a lot of hate speech on social media”.
“There will be a big discussion about what’s next for Slovak democracy,” he notes, adding that protests against Fico’s government organised by the opposition were meant to take place tonight but were cancelled following the attack.
As we've been reporting, thousands of Slovaks have been protesting against the proposed reform of the public broadcaster in recent weeks. The national broadcaster is to be shut down in June and replaced with a new body with a new director.
“The mood now is very bad in the country,” Ondercanin says.
We've just heard from two members of Slovakia's government who were giving a press briefing on Prime Minister Fico who was shot earlier today. If you missed it, here's what they had to say:
- Defence Minister Robert Kalinak said Fico was still in surgery and had been for hours. He also thanked the teams "fighting to save Fico's life".
- He described the PM's health status as "really serious" and said there was no good news at the moment
- Matus Sutaj Estok, Minister of Interior, spoke next and described today's shooting as an attack on democracy
- He told the briefing, the assailant shot the PM "five times" and that early investigations indicated that the attack was "political"
- Estok blamed hate speech spread on social media for today's shooting and urged citizens not to "respond to hate with hate"
- He added that protection would be provided to constitutional officials as well as other groups who could be subject to similar attacks, including journalists and public figures
- Estok addressed the media and accused them of contributing to the climate that led to today's shooting saying, "Many of you were those who were sowing this hatred"
- He ended the address by telling the media that they had a "social responsibility" to combat hate being spread
Fico supporters denouncing hate speech is rich.
Why Britain is the world’s worst on homelessness
(Financial Times Paywall)
When people picture homelessness, they tend to imagine people sleeping rough on the street, tipped into insecurity by substance use problems. Viewed this way, one might imagine the US would rank highest in any international comparison.
Wrong. The main form of homelessness is people living in temporary accommodation, the main driver is an inability to afford housing, and America is not even particularly close to the worst. The UK holds that ignominious title, with an astonishing one in 200 households living in emergency lodging outside the formal housing sector.
Eh. I get the point. But living on the street is still worse than living in temporary accomodations.
I suspect this is what a worse economy with the remnants of a better social safety net looks like (UK).
I wonder how common this sort of appointment with reality is. I suspect it is a lot more common in private than in public.
What is with the cow pasture video for the first minute?
Edit- Ah. It's a save British Farming post. missed the split second logo at the start
I wonder how common this sort of appointment with reality is. I suspect it is a lot more common in private than in public.
It would be common enough given my conversations at rugby matches involving English teams. Oborne admitted that he never considered how Northern Ireland would be resolved post Brexit which, to be fair, was pretty standard across the board in Britain at the time. To be frank, a random punter at a rugby game I can forgive for not knowing the full context of geopolitical situations but I really don't think you can go on claiming any expertise in the area, as he does, if you had such a glaring blind spot.
That all said, Oborne is still worth listening to. A little arrogant and self-righteous but not afraid to change his mind and provides valid if not solid justifications.
PM apology after infected blood scandal cover-up
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he is truly sorry for the failures over the infected blood scandal, calling it a decades-long moral failure.
He was responding to the public inquiry's report into the scandal, which has seen 30,000 people infected from contaminated blood treatments.
It found authorities covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks.
Mr Sunak described it as a "day of shame for the British state".
The Infected Blood Inquiry accused doctors, government and the NHS of letting patients catch HIV and hepatitis.
About 3,000 have since died and more deaths will follow.
The inquiry said victims had been failed "not once but repeatedly" by doctors, the NHS, government and others responsible for their safety.
Mr Sunak told the House of Commons he was "truly sorry" for the failures.
"Today's report shows a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life. I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology."
He said the attitude of denial was hard to comprehend and was to "our eternal shame".
And he promised to pay "whatever it costs" in compensation payments to victims, with details to follow on Tuesday.
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