The PM’s closest aide, Craig Williams, put a bet on at the bookies on the likely election date three days before the announcement.
It doesn’t matter if this is was a fiver or fifty thousand pounds. It’s another self-inflicted wound and makes me think that the Conservative Party, as an entity, is killing itself.
If he is close to Sunak, he will know that insider trading is a serious offence. I know people will try the “harmless bit of fun” defence but it won’t wash. These people are idiots.
Freddy Steady says
They have no shame.
Sunak didn’t exactly come across well on tonight’s Sky appearance. Some awkward questions and moments. Think Starmer came across a bit more solid, if unspectacular.
garyt says
After the last few years I think we could stand a bit of ‘solid if unspectacular’.
fentonsteve says
I can’t be the only one longing for a bit of John Major-like dullness at the top. Vote grey!
Gatz says
Without thinking too much or looking it up, who is William Wragg?
If you’re anything like me, the name will ring a bell but you won’t be able to remember quite why. He’s the MP who resigned after he was trapped by Grindr kompromat and shared the private numbers of numerous parliamentary colleagues. The news broke in April. In normal times that’s the sort of story which would be talked (and gossiped about) for months. With this government we’re more likely to say, ‘I think I remember him. Remind me which scandal was he again?’
Let’s just flush the whole bloody lot, and let them rebuild from scratch.
fentonsteve says
Didn’t he write A New England for Kirsty MacColl?
fitterstoke says
Wragg appeared on my list! Posted on v1:
“ With due acknowledgement to The Trawl podcast:
When the Tories were shouting about Angela Rayner, most people were thinking –
yeah, but:
Menzies
Wragg
Mone
Johnson
Truss
Gibb
Ashcroft
Sunak
Hancock
Zahawi
Hunt
McVey
Pinscher
Bone
Jenrick
Braverman
Patel
Benton
Peerages
Donors
Expenses
Non-doms
Contracts
Apologies if I missed anyone’s favourite…”
Jaygee says
@fitterstoke
At last a UK World Cup Venality squad the equal of elite nations such
as China, the Philippines, Kenya and Nigeria,
fitterstoke says
Huzzah!
#worldleadingvenality
Jaygee says
SKS’s dad was a toolmaker?
You learn something new every day.
Skirky says
You’d think he’d have mentioned it.
thecheshirecat says
I knew. Fair play that he’s not played that card heavily.
RedLemon says
Does that make Kier a tool?
deramdaze says
Question: Who is going to have the most information about the result of the election?
Answer: It’s not the media, they’re largely clueless. It’s those inside No. 10, and the closer to July 4th we get, the more specific those details are likely to be.
I’d be amazed if the party who won the last election under Boris Johnson do not have numerous individuals, in the know, putting huge sums on specific details – it’s virtually their reason for existing.
They’ll do it by informing family and friends rather than going into Paddy Power themselves… not just who is going to win, that’s not going to make anyone serious wedge, but what the majority is going to be.
If you can predict that to within, say, one or two seats, and lump on big-time around July 2nd, you and your mates will make a killing.
Think: Referendum result, or PPE or, for that matter, someone spread-betting in the city before marrying a billionaire’s daughter. Ker-ching.
MC Escher says
I don’t understand this post. Could someone please help me out?
Jaygee says
@MC-Escher
I believe you are what DD might call a “dodger”
MC Escher says
Well I was born in the 60’s but I’m not sure that explains anything…
deramdaze says
Like you, it’s simple…
Do not be surprised post-election, if we find out that someone with prior knowledge of the result, puts money on that fact. Got that?
In 1992, when Kinnock did the infamous Sheffield rally, it’s on public record that he knew Labour had lost… I don’t think anyone in the audience did at the time, they were cheering. They thought Labour had won.
Now imagine if someone greedy had that information to hand, presumably more specific information than would have been the norm in 1992.
Get it now?
Not too difficult, is it? Do you want it in smaller words? Need any help to get to a polling station or how to fill in the form? Maybe ask the nice man to do it for you.
Twang says
My boss at the time put £100 on the Tories to win and got great odds.
Jaygee says
The Sheffield Rally apparently took place around a week before the vote.
While Kinnock may have had a strong feeling Labour had lost when addressing the Sheffield rally, to say he could have “known” the outcome is errant nonsense.
That said, his grandstanding in Sheffield almost certainly put a few voters off so maybe he had a punt on the outcome himself
chiz says
Yep Kinnock’s later admission that ‘It was already lost by then’ is him acknowledging that it had been a poor campaign, not admitting to election fraud. I mean, surely?
MC Escher says
It was an honest question, delivered politely. If you can’t respond in the same manner, I suggest you get fucked.
Simple enough for you?
nigelthebald says
👏👏👏
nigelthebald says
Did you get out of bed the wrong side, @deramdaze?
Jaygee says
@nigelthebald
Those wrist and ankle restraints can be a bugger to gnaw through…
nigelthebald says
Tell me about it, @Jaygee! Having a stroke was a real eye-opener.
Jaygee says
Apologies, @nigelthebald. I did not know.
Hope you have made a full recovery and that I do not come to regret my rather inappropriate joke
nigelthebald says
That’s fine, @Jaygee – the joke was really funny.
As for recovery, the time elapsed between suffering the stroke and reaching my phone to call 999 – at least 5.5 hours – was well outside the golden period, so I’m not expecting any miracles. I had to learn how to walk again while in hospital last summer, and these days (without my rollator) I shuffle and lurch like a drunk Frankenstein’s monster. With it I can manage a couple of long walks a day, involving some longish, steep climbs, and even overtake the occasional able bodied person.
Annoyingly the invisible weights attached to my left wrist and ankle were removed about three weeks ago…only to be replaced with slightly heavier ones*. What works in my favour is that I’m really fucking stubborn, and will be going out for the first of my walks shortly.
* I had one of my routine brain tumour MRI scan check-ups on the 3rd…maybe Monday’s forthcoming phone consultation to learn the results will shed some light on this.
Jaygee says
@nigelthebald
Glad to hear you seem to be making such a strong recovery and fingers crossed for Monday, N
nigelthebald says
Thanks, @Jaygee!
retropath2 says
Seconded. We’ll be thinking of you on Monday.
H.P. Saucecraft says
My knee’s playing up a bit right now.
Tiggerlion says
All the best for Monday, Nigel!
Jaygee says
Anyone heard from NTB?
Hope all went well
retropath2 says
Stable seems to be the outcome. No worsening of the unwelcome visitor in his head, even if his right side gets symptomatically heavier.
nigelthebald says
*Left side, @retropath2!
(I’d actually already replied right down there ⬇︎ at what was – shortly after 07:00 – the bottom, George…
Jaygee says
@deramdaze
He didn’t take a punt on the outcome of the election.
He put a punt on when the election would take place.
Were the outgoing shower capable of predicting any kind of outcome with accuracy, they would not be heading for electoral oblivion come July 4th.
deramdaze says
Yeah, yeah when the election would take place… blah… blah…
Look, the people two or three days before the result who will be more in the know about the result will be the two main parties themselves. They’ve got thousands of people up-and-down the country on the campaign trail. Far more than any polling firm have to call up on.
Do not be surprised if we hear of big bets on the outcome in the months afterwards… just like we heard about after the Referendum result.
F*** me, is it ‘all be f***** stupid’ day? It might not happen, but I’d say the odds are about evens.
I hope the English football team are more on it than people on here today seem to be, otherwise they’re doomed… come back now lads.
Sitheref2409 says
I tend to find that if a lot of people are misunderstanding me, it’s normally because I haven’t communicated adequately.
H.P. Saucecraft says
… or because you’re making a bedrock bonkers argument, such as deramdaze does here. Nice that he calls everyone thick, though.
Leffe Gin says
I’m also happy to be called a dodger: it’s a badge of honour that I missed out on Cliff and the Shads. I am happy to have missed all the other stuff – good music, bad drugs, nasty itches – just for that. If this also makes me thick, then great, at least I’m happy.
mikethep says
Turns out the Tories are seriously short of people on the campaign trail. They’ve lost so many councillors, who usually do the hard yards, and members too. Anecdotal evidence says that candidates are turning up in cars, knocking on doors for 10 minutes and then buggering off again. The other parties (don’t know about Reform, I discard them utterly) are really going for it.
Lando Cakes says
The flaw in this argument is that the parties have no better idea of what the actual result will be than anyone else.
chiz says
It’s that Is he stupid or Is he corrupt thing again, isn’t it? In this case I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and go with stupid.
Tiggerlion says
I think he’s both.
Leedsboy says
My first thought when I read of the grindr issue. This one (both the nature of it and how soon it has come about after the last one) suggests he has doubled down on stupid.
Twang says
I agree with Tig (GE 2010 in joke).
Black Celebration says
I think that insider trading is rife and unchecked. So many useless people generating money from betting on things that they know are going to happen. I wouldn’t put it past these people to make this kind of clumsy-looking move to *appear* clueless in order to divert suspicion from far more sophisticated/shady financial dealings.
Guiri says
Looking on from a rightward shifting mainland Europe I’m amazed at the negativity towards Starmer and co. Ok neither he nor they are exciting, but a properly left wing Labour party wouldn’t have a chance. And some dull but competent management is something sorely lacking in too many countries right now. Appreciate what you’ve got, one country, after far too long, finally heading in a vaguely sensible direction.
Twang says
The left, or Left, would far rather lose with unsullied principles than make a few compromises and win.
chiz says
Imagine if they accidentally won. Who would they blame for everything then?
Jaygee says
@chiz
The would identify and begin discrediting a small number of their
fellow left-wingers (an elite if you will) for not being sufficiently Left
Boneshaker says
I still stand by my doomsday scenario for this election, i.e….
Labour wins by a huge majority.
Tory party implodes, ditches Sunak and elects Braverman / Farage / A.N. Other right wing loon as leader.
Labour loses office after 5 years due to febrile world situation / unresolvable crap inheritance from Tories.
Tory party / Reform UK / A.N. Other combo embraces far right as only viable alternative.
Britain elects far right government.
Chaos ensues.
It’s being so cheerful that keeps me going, though I have heard this scenario postulated elsewhere.
fentonsteve says
Add to that: Biden scrapes in for another term in 2024, and Trump returns as POTUS in 2028.
We’re all doomed.
davebigpicture says
Trump will be dead, in prison or even more of a dribbling mess by 2028.
fentonsteve says
Fingers crossed, eh?
Mike_H says
I predict Trump, if still alive in 2028, will be too far from sane for even the most rabid American right-wingers to vote for. But not in jail.
mikethep says
He’s too far from sane already. A bunch of swivel-eyed Trumpistas turned up at the Omaha Beach memorial ceremony and sat there wearing MAGA hats. Nobody prepared to go to those lengths is going to be put off by Trump’s mental health. They’ll probably vote for him even if he’s dead.
Boneshaker says
It seems Trump now has Aussie pop sensation Holly Valance in his corner, so anything is possible. Holly’s credentials include being a close personal friend of Nigel Farage and believing climate change is a load of old tosh.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1ddj1z8n8go
chiz says
Five Years, that’s all we’ve got? So Bowie was right, eventually
H.P. Saucecraft says
His brain hurt like a whorehouse, though.
Rigid Digit says
Here’s an observation (possibly a naïve one): has anyone else noticed the rising tide of the far right in Europe since Brexit?
Maybe, just maybe, the UKs presence in Brussels was keeping a liberal lid on things …
If Brexit means Brexit, then the UK should not be following like eurosheep down the far-right path
(I think I know the point I’m trying to make)
fentonsteve says
I also noted Putin’s threat to nuke Western Europe. Now that we’re no longer in Europe, thank goodness for Brexit, eh?
Rigid Digit says
Are the Tories setting themselves up to lose?
(from about 3:45)
hubert rawlinson says
This seems to have deterred canvassers from knocking.
Gatz says
I had my first ever doorstep canvasser in 25 years of living here (and as I’ve just accepted an offer on this place quite possibly the last). It was the local Conservative MP, in Chelmsford, a seat which normally has a blue rosette nailed to it. Current polls suggest that it is now a 3 way seat and a good chance of the Conservatives coming 3rd, and that was before Farage started his shit-stirring.
By the by, she took personal credit for the work my own team does which came as a pleasant surprise to them when I WhatsApped them. From the sounds of it we can all put our feet up because she does it all.
thecheshirecat says
Love it. I must get one. I am already on MVM’s mailing list. Not that any canvassers would find me down here in Sleepy Hollow.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Is that a UPVC sash window, Hubes?
Jaygee says
Possible gap in the market for Saucecraft Inc?
hubert rawlinson says
I’m afraid it is, oh saucy one.
H.P. Saucecraft says
It looks right and works better and last longer than wood. My first house had the wood originals, with their creaky guillotine operation and hugely complicated maintenance, so I congratulate you on your sympathetic upgrading.
kalamo says
This is of course, nonsense. UPVC begins to discolour after a few years, wood will last forever if maintained.
H.P. Saucecraft says
@kalamo – nonsense, eh? Wood splits, rots, joints weaken. Heat expands the frame, making the windows stick. The glazing requires re-puttying, the sash ropes replacing, requiring very tricky dismantling and reassembly. To properly repaint a sash window you need to take the bastard completely apart, and to keep it running smoothly and weathertight is a bleedin’ nightmare.
A little discolouration after a few years (and who are you to talk) is a trifling disadvantage in comparison.
kalamo says
A repainted sash window is a thing of beauty. A faded plastic one, a drab alternative.
hubert rawlinson says
Thank you, we wanted them in keeping with the house.
@kalamo they seem to have kept their colour very well for the moment.
kalamo says
Your window does look very nice, and framed with tasteful planting, though I do prefer to see the glazing bars such as those in Downing Street. I expect Sir Keir will have the uPVC boys along soon.
Jaygee says
Well he is committed to greater transparency
Leffe Gin says
They are like a band where all of the original members have quit, but they still keep fielding ringers and putting out albums.
Kaisfatdad says
Wonderful comment from @mikethep:
“They’ll probably vote for him even if he’s dead.”
We are entering an exciting new era of politics where the candidates no longer need to be alive.
Jaygee says
Looks like all the dead people who’ve cast their votes in US and various other elections over the years may finally be getting the candidate they deserve
Boneshaker says
He’s already brain dead. The rest of him just needs to catch up.
Mike_H says
Looks like Farage and Reform are taking votes from the disgruntled Tory headbangers while the LibDems are taking votes from disenchanted former Labour supporters as well as moderate former Tories. Reform’s polling figures seem to be catching up on the LibDems since Farage came onboard.
Labour are still 20 points ahead of the Tories, though. And the amount of campaign donations they’ve received is far more than the Tories, whose financial support has plummeted.
Gatz says
So Starmer is on course for a mahoosive majority on barely 40% of the vote, which unlikely to attract him to Hubes’ appeal for PR.
Gatz says
Something that occurred to me today. We often refer to the Conservatives (or the Tories), the Lib Dem’s, the Nationalists, the Greens and so on. But never the Labours.
fitterstoke says
Good point.
In the spirit of James Blaast (late of this parish)
we should call them The Labours, henceforth.
hubert rawlinson says
But which labour to tackle first?
Slaying the Nemean lion
Slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra
Capturing the Ceryneian Hind
Capturing the Erymanthian Boar
Cleaning the Augean stables in a single day
Slaying the Stymphalian birds
Capturing the Cretan Bull
Stealing the Mares of Diomedes
Obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons
Obtaining the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon
Stealing three of the golden apples of the Hesperides
Capturing and bringing back Cerberus
Jaygee says
The Labours of Boris Johnson
salwarpe says
Well, that’s the cretin bull, right there.
H.P. Saucecraft says
hahalol
chiz says
Electing the Circleas Tamer
Hawkfall says
Some of those labours look more difficult than others, don’t they? I concede that cleaning the Augean stables has a time limit, but there’s a big difference between mucking out horse shite and killing the Hydra.
H.P. Saucecraft says
How long, realistically, is it going to take to slice off nine snake heads? A vorpal blade could scatter the lot in a few seconds. You’d have to clean out the stables IN A SINGLE DAY, but there’s apparently no time limit when it comes to beheading a Hydra. You could creep up, lop one off, and run away while the remaining heads gazed in shock at a spouting neck (fun fact – the snake, uniquely among amphibians, is all neck). Sneak back under the cover of night, or posing as a Hydra Prosthetic Head supplier, and hack off one or two more, as opportunity allows. A little thought along these lines shows beheading a Hydra to be a walk in the park compared to shifting all that shit in the allotted time.
chiz says
That’s a load of horseshit! Those horses are going to keep shitting. Let’s say 200 stalls in the stables. By the time you get round once, half of them are going to be poopy again. You’d be the Sisyphus of shit. Although as a labour it would be a good test of – wait for it – What Kind of Man-u-re.
By the way, Hercules was an utter dick over the stables thing. Basically he smacked a hole in either end of the building and diverted a river through it, therefore ‘cleaning’ it in roughly the same way you’d do the dishes with a fire hose.
H.P. Saucecraft says
And what of obtaining the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon? Surely a reasonable offer based on current bovine market value would suffice, perhaps with a little sweetener bunged in? “Herculean tasks” MY ARSE.
chiz says
Obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons – just select what colour, click Buy Now and she’ll even deliver it
H.P. Saucecraft says
“Slaying the Stymphalian birds”? Since when has slaying birds been necessary? You might slay an enemy army, or an opponent in the gladiatorial ring, but who slays a bird? Here again we see Hercules bigging up what is a perfectly ordinary act usually accomplished by strewing some poison around or catching them in a net. “I slay birds, me!”
chiz says
It’s the worst kind of pimped-up CV. ‘During my Labours I stole three of the golden apples of the Hesperides’ = ‘I once scrumped some French Golden Delicious off a Greek prostitute”
Side note: is it possible to scrump anything other than apples? For example can you scrump underwear off a washing line?
hubert rawlinson says
@chiz ask Arnold Layne.
Mike_H says
Stymphalian Bird Nuggets, HP.
Nutriciousness, deliciousness …
Jaygee says
@chiz
Much the same strategy as used by the US when “saving” rural villages from commie gooks
Black Celebration says
So we can conclude that the ancient Greeks had no issue with dumping raw sewage into a river.
Honestly, if it was good enough for Heracles..,surely that holds more weight than some namby pamby woke snowflake has-been pop star from Derry.
If the Germans kicked off again I know who I’d rather have on my side.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Fun fact – the snake is a reptile, not an amphibian, uniquely or otherwise.
hubert rawlinson says
Not forgetting when you chop one head off the Hydra two replace it.
Mike_H says
Yes.
It’s all or nothing when you’re Hydra decapitating.
Best bring a flamethrower.
H.P. Saucecraft says
I see the flaw inherent in this task, and one that renders it null and void. The imperative is to “slay the nine-headed Hydra”, is it not? But cutting one head off would result in two replacing it; it becomes the ten-headed Hydra, which is not mentioned in the contract. If some bureaucratic busybody ordered that the extra head be cut off, thereby making it again eligible for task-centric decapitation, the two replacement heads would create an eleven-headed monster again exempt from Herculean slaying. They simply have not thought this through.
hubert rawlinson says
Beware the hydra.
I wonder if Leonard Cohen came across any on Hydra.
salwarpe says
I think the Chelsea Hotel was where Leonard took head.
Jaygee says
@salwarpe
In a room a young housemaid called Tracy
Emin had failed to properly tidy
Freddy Steady says
I can’t bring myself to share it but has anyone else seen Suella Braverman’s Tik Tok video?
hubert rawlinson says
Watched it with the sound off, seemed appropriate.
Freddy Steady says
Even then it’s gruesome
Black Celebration says
Back to the OP, two candidates are now being questioned and the Campaign Manager, whose wife is one of those candidates – has also stood down with immediate effect. Given how disastrous their campaign has been, this may give Sunak just the boost he needs!
To add to the fun they recently released a piece of film on social media featuring a roulette wheel and “don’t bet on Labour”. This has been hastily withdrawn.
No one did this to them, the entity is destroying itself from the inside.
hubert rawlinson says
Give them a break they have to make up their missing wages come the 5th of July.
Mike_H says
None of them will be feeling any kind of pinch when their parliamentary careers derail in July.
They are unlikely to be seen at jobcentres anywhere, unless assessing them as development/investment opportunities.
Jaygee says
The fact that there is money to be made, regardless of how grubbily,
Is sufficient
hubert rawlinson says
I sincerely hope their employment prospects are severely diminished, I doubt if they will be but I can hope.
The only thing that interest this shower of shit is money and the accumulation of it no matter how it’s achieved.
Gatz says
Rory Stewart has mentioned this on The Rest is Politics, seeing former colleagues using their Parliamentary passes to mingle in the Commons’ cafes and bars because they could only get lobbying work once out of frontline politics.
Mike_H says
This amused me, from the current edition of ©Private Eye (#1626).
nigelthebald says
Oops- sorry @Jaygee for my tardiness in replying, and thank you everyone for your kind words here and elsewhere!
Unless things go pear-shaped in the next couple of months it was sadly my last chat with my gorgeous locum oncology consultant – were I thirty-five years younger, she’d still be way out of my league – as the permanent post holder will be back from maternity leave by the time I have my next routine consultation in December.
As for the scan on the third of this month, the images showed, reassuringly, no change in the remnants of the tumour, which does however leave unanswered the question of why my left side problems have worsened somewhat in the last month*. The scan images have, at my request, been sent on to the neurosurgeons at Addenbrooke’s, as I’m expecting to be speaking with one of them around the end of next month.
*Stubbornness being my ally, I’m just getting on with things as usual. My morning weights session is next on today’s agenda…
Jaygee says
Glad to hear Mon went OK. Hoping your upcoming news from Addenbroke is equally positive
fentonsteve says
Best news I’ve had all week.
Leffe Gin says
I’m relieved to hear it. Keep on keeping on.
retropath2 says
Right? Left? Lucky I was never a surgeon, eh, @nigelthebald
nigelthebald says
🤣🤣🤣
Mike_H says
“That strange half-dreaming, half-awake sensation, coming-to after surgery and wondering if I’d been operating on the right patient..”