Graham Ward

Big number. Vince.

Needed much more pork and I’m not sure where the cheese slices fit into a pork pie inspired eat. Not unpleasant. Just nothing like a pork pie.

I’ll confess that I don’t really know who Ant Middleton is (but I do know he has nothing to do with PJ and Duncan). I don’t think that I want or need to know either.

Remember that long before Burnham became King of the North and true Labour’s last hope, Corbyn supporters were attacking him as literally being a Tory during the 2015 leadership contest. The Labour left don’t change, though many of their supporters have jumped ship to join the charlatan Polanski.

The Tories would have split, there would have been no election in 2017 or 2019 and Burnham would have beaten Osborne in a landslide in 2020. And Corbyn would have continued to attack him from the backbenches as he had every other Labour leader before.

It wasn’t just the far left - there were plenty of Tories who paid £3 to ensure we were lumbered with the unelectable Corbyn, who neither wanted nor expected to become leader. Burnham would have won easily. He would have enthusiastically supported Remain, and Brexit wouldn’t have happened.

Between Ed Miliband introducing the £3 supporters membership (party membership rose by a third in the final 24 hours of registration) and the likes of Lammy, Cox and Beckett lending Corbyn their nomination, immense harm was done to the party.

It’s even conceivable that he will still be Prime Minister. Equally, he may no longer be an MP by then. Never has UK domestic politics been so unpredictable.

Seemingly lacking an overarching philosophy (“Change” is not enough - particularly when so little appears to be changing), and without a massive support base within the party, he is isolated. I’m not discounting the chances that he survives this year and leads Labour into the next election.

That angers those who want a Labour leader to be more doctrinaire and less compromising. However he seems to lack many of the basic instincts of a politician, and is apparently oblivious to the “optics”.

I think his instincts are a long way to the left of where he is governing from. But he’s a pragmatist. He did what he had to do to become Labour leader and Prime Minister, and believes that he is now making difficult choices that will benefit the country in the long term.

I’m reading the interview with Leo Sayer in the Guardian and finding him remarkably likeable.

“Precision?”

They. Bombed. School. Kids.

Our biggest native land predator. One of the most resourceful and impactful animals in our environment. An animal we should be proud of. But I guess their role as natural conservationists makes them “woke”.

nigel farage tweet: The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes. This is the definition of woke.

i, for one, am delighted that we finally have a definition of “woke”

It’s the revenge of the crank left, whose response to Starmer’s “betrayal” of Corbyn is to paint him somewhere to the right of Thatcher.

I’m finding the Hundred auction strangely fascinating.

The atmosphere of total confusion is so much a part of it. We’re looking forward to it hitting the streamers so we can rewatch it now we know where it ends up.

I had a couple of seasons when my Notts Saturday started at Stoke Bardolph watching the under 21’s. Tommy Johnson, Mark Draper, James Walker etc. Accompanied by the odour of the sewage farm.

Second year in a row that my favourite best picture Oscar nominee is from Brazil. If anything, this is even better than I’m Still Here.

Hmmm…. A bit war crimie?

Actually, this on a banknote

I have just discovered that the Australian for draught excluder is “door sausage”. #FolkBitchTrio

If Starmer is still Labour leader at the end of the year then he will lead Labour into the next election, and a lot will change between then and 2029.

It’s understandable given that most of the seats where the Greens have a realistic chance of winning are held by Labour.

I didn’t like Starmer’s response to the Gorton and Denton by-election. It smacked of a bad loser refusing to listen to what the electorate had just told him. But the risk of sounding a bit playgroundy, Polanski started it with the ad hominems.

Then he’s preparing for opposition.

She was a generational leader. There’s really no-one amongst the Green Party leadership or the Labour left who comes close.

If we are to stop Reform in 2029, we need a broad coalition of the centre and the left. Polanski’s focus on attacking Labour and on winning seats from them doesn’t suggest that such a coalition interests him.

I wish Bluesky gave you a 60 second window for instant edits.