Richard Appleby

Same here. I felt even better after I saved all my Twitter data locally, and then deleted all my tweets from X and locked my account.

Now I see some of the posts from over there and wonder what on earth anyone is still doing there.

For all the people romanticising the USA as being the best template for life (looking at you, Reform and the Tories) take a look at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1QvVnjiegE

Can we carry *them* away (somewhere that they can’t come back from)?

Totally agree. Or we need the rest of the parties to be sensible, and consider working together to keep Reform out, as the Greens new leader is talking about.

My worry is that with our political system, no Tory party is going to completely destabilise our politics. We can see it starting now with multiple parties, some with completely opposite agendas, all on similar levels of support. Power could seesaw back and forth with no forward momentum for the UK

I pulled up their list of current MPs earlier today for something else, and recognised surprisingly few names. And most of those were because they’d humiliated themselves during Brexit, Covid, or both. How the mighty has fallen.

Heh, I see what you did there 😂

Totally agree. There was never an easy course; but on balance I think neutralising (literally) the media, including social media, would have been a wise move.

Unfortunately Jenrick looks to be the front-runner of those out on manoeuvres.

Some doubts over there being a Tory party left for Reform to form a pact with. The splintering of the two major parties strengthening the smaller parties means we really need PR as never before, but hubris will stop Labour implementing it. I fear it could be quite chaotic for a time.

I think that’s the case with all the parties to at least some extent. Where are the substantial politicians of conviction? I blame the party system - it weeds out the free thinkers before they can even stand as a candidate.

I just looked up the list of current Tory MPs on Wikipedia. It’s a pretty short list of names I mostly didn’t recognise. The list of surviving “big names” from the last few years seems even shorter, and I agree, mostly keeping out of the news.

Agreed, it’s an emotional appeal by a real orator that is needed to try to capture the hearts and minds of these people. Labour has some, but will they be let off the leash?

Does he actually have any “reasonably normal” Tories left that he can expel?

There are times when a post comes along that seems so true, and yet so utterly depressing, I fear that it’s all just hopeless.
Congratulations, you are today’s winner. No prize, of course.

Certainly been more than one Tory politician that either thought that, or wanted to push it that way to the public. Looking at you, Mr Jenrick…

It might have bought him a longer honeymoon in which to try to sort the mess out before everyone started screaming to replace him.

Let’s fervently hope so. 🙏

Let’s hope someone in Labour gets tasked with keeping the receipts, and communicating those failures to the public.
(Forlorn hope, I know)

Starmer had his chance to tighten press regulation when he first came into power (it would have been top of my todo list) but he chose to do nothing. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I hope you’re right. But the polling people usually aren’t *that* far off. It’s weird enough to be worrying.

That explains so much…

The polls are worrying, even this far out from a GE. Will be telling what happens in the next set of locals.

I hope so. 🤞
I’d also like to hope that without Farage, Reform will sink back into oblivion again.

The polls are worrying, even if we are 4 years out from the next GE. Will be very telling to see what happens in the local elections.

Except it’s not funny any more, because it’s starting to look like they might just elect them…

And she thinks that’s a vote winner? Seriously?
Did she even look at how that’s working out in the USA?

Nothing truly gets deleted on the Internet… 😂

Breaks your fizzy rule, but I find a long glass of sparkling water with a slice or two of lime looks just like it’s a G&T, and gives you a chance to cleanse your palette between other drinks. Helps with hydration too.

My commiserations. Still, at least it was fun 😀