Ben Ansell

definitely lots of insider trading on prediction markets, but I think people often don't realize that for every suspicious incident, there are thousands that would have looked suspicious if their longshot bets had been right. trying to flag them in advance gives a lot of false positives

Couple of assists in about ten minutes of playtime for Johnson?

Very unfortunate and very funny

<shocked face>

Knew it. Only The Lady for me

Great, now Farage will be insisting on a recount of the Country Life editorial board or possibly ending their state funding.

Doing it 50% time from a cottage in Bruton

Khan nailed this point today

Bored of it now tbh

Its genuinely mad that we are, arguably, the most successful multicultural state on earth and instead of celebrating that we...

...keep trying to copy nations who have very evidently done worse at it than us

No mercy for liberalism

At this point, it pains me to say, I think the last government was more comfortable with Britain’s successful multiculturalism than this one is…

Also - and this is killing me - this is Mahmood’s responsibility too. She could be dealing with this rather than posturing about deporting care workers.

Let’s put it this way, police numbers don’t usually appear as major fiscal balance shifting figures in OBR reports.

Intriguing that on the very day most of us first hear about DV, their chief executive was indisposed. How unfortunate.

Incidentally this is where Blair era social authoritarianism was more notable - eg Asbos.

Crime would have been a much better socially authoritarian policy to crack down on - not least because of people being pissed off with petty crime.

Tbh there are also the Lib Dems who may end up being an option in lots of other seats. So far LD and Labour voters have been very tactical (less true wrt Greens) but I can see that fraying.

Indeed it would be good to have a Labour Party that can shrug off some of these policies and provide people nervous about the Greens with a good option

The death of the housing ladder

The average income of a first-time buyer is £61k. But the average second or third-time buyer is earning £91k!

Poor price growth in starter homes, plus rising moving costs, is trapping Brits in the first homes they buy

www.thetimes.com/article/9302...

I would also prefer it if Mahmood didn’t extend ILR to the most restrictive time to wait in the Western world for new arrivals. But one thing at a time I guess.

Most people opposing Labour’s immigration policy do not want free borders. We do however want Labour not to suddenly and unprecedentedly change the rules for settlement on people who already arrived here five years ago. That is hardly an especially liberal demand

Obviously I’m not a huge fan of Mahmood’s policy but I think a case can be made for stricter rules for new arrivals and over asylum. What sticks in the craw for me is the retrospective stuff and their absolute refusal to engage with why people might be upset about it.

This story has been puzzling, because im still not clear exactly what is meant to have happened where, or why DV insists there was egregious family voting but the council seems so sure nothing was raised with them on the day (bar one concern, I’m told, which apparently turned out to be innocent)

Numbers entering are coming down very rapidly. Continuing with the retrospective ILR stuff isn’t needed if that’s the concern.

Actually not sure they need to do that if they either change leader or Starmer remains but they can the retrospective ILR stuff. The problem is that they are insisting on much more draconian policies than the previous government, which shockingly their voters hate.

It has improved massively under McTague IMO. Whether it is really the left-leaning Spectator is more open to question.

Liam you are asking me to substantiate a claim I spammed out and all I can tell you is it’s Sunday…

You win one by-election by six votes and suddenly you’re claiming voter fraud and the need for recounts for ones you lose by thousands…

Think it actually might be more severe than the US