Things that make you :)

[billbedford]

Well, we're all of an age, more or less :-)

[john new]

I couldn't work out why the retiring PM's wife was wearing a dress that looked like First WW warship camouflage dazzle paint to distract submarine aiming? An anti-torpedo measure?

 

Edited July 5 by john new
Added a missed word

[franciswilliamwebb]

16 minutes ago, john new said:

I couldn't work out why the retiring PM's wife was wearing a dress that looked like First WW warship camouflage dazzle paint to distract submarine aiming? An anti-torpedo measure?

 

It had a certain shredded Union Jack quality to it, I thought😉

[97406]

When they announced the results in one of the constituencies early this morning, the mayor was there to do the job in all his robes and the regalia. The reporter (BBC I think) commented on him and that he’d come in fancy dress, then realised her slip up. That made me titter.

[Jol Wilkinson]

 

6 hours ago, Pebbles said:

The understood that she had only been made a Dame.

Well, if not entitled to sit in the House of Lords, she has still been given an honour which is the female equivalent of a Knighthood. On the basis of her achievements as an MP, a insult to her constituents. 

[jcredfer]

11 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Well, if not entitled to sit in the House of Lords, she has still been given an honour which is the female equivalent of a Knighthood. On the basis of her achievements as an MP, a insult to her constituents. 

 

The Honourable Mrs May has been given a Peerage, according to the News, which, should she accept it, will make her a member of the House of Lords.

 

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 

 

[melmerby]

40 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

 

The Honourable Mrs May has been given a Peerage, according to the News, which, should she accept it, will make her a member of the House of Lords.

 

A bit of (useless?) information:

The House of Lords is the only upper legistative chamber in the world with more members (currently 785) than the lower house (650).

It is the second largest legistative chamber in the world with only the Chinese People's Congress larger!😃

[KeithMacdonald]

[Dunsignalling]

7 hours ago, melmerby said:

8% drop in overall vote doesn't sound healthy. Many people were just fed up with present day politics.

 

One party doesn't increase it's vote share but gets more than 6x number of MPs but is only 4th in vote share

The winning party only increased it's vote by 2% but gets a thumping majority.

3rd place party on vote share only gets 4 seats.

 

This a case when first past the post gives a really freak result.☹️

 

 

 

Nothing freakish about it, if one main party maintains its share and its principal rival loses a huge chunk of theirs, FPTP makes a massive swing inevitable.

 

Losing the massive share was an equally inevitable result of prolonged, narcissistic, and often trivial infighting that was a blatant insult to the intelligence of an electorate under real pressure.

 

The outgoing PM is a very decent and capable man, but got the job of leading his party far too late to undo the damage caused by the looneytune element within it.

Edited July 5 by Dunsignalling

[John Besley]

On 01/07/2024 at 10:14, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 

 

Or as my son in law says who lives in Suffolk 'their Norfolking good' 

 

 

Edited July 5 by John Besley

[Pebbles]

1 hour ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Well, if not entitled to sit in the House of Lords, she has still been given an honour which is the female equivalent of a Knighthood. On the basis of her achievements as an MP, a insult to her constituents. 

But, maybe a close neighbour.

[melmerby]

50 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

Nothing freakish about it, if one main party maintains its share and its principal rival loses a huge chunk of theirs, FPTP makes a massive swing inevitable.

It's freaky because without the late intervention of a certain person, there's no doubt the loss of share would've been a lot less as the dissatisfied were less likely to go elsewhere.

His was the only other right of centre place for them to protest vote and stay on the right.

Most wouldn't've gone to Labour or Lib Dem and some likely will have stayed blue.

 

 

 

 

[97406]

5 hours ago, John Besley said:

 

Or as my son in law says who lives in Suffolk 'their Norfolking good' 

 

 

 

I recall a model railway with premises modelled on it under the name “Norfolk & Chance”.

[kevinlms]

Note how later versions of the car, had the * and # buttons added. It must have been decadic only originally. Probably because most local exchanges that it would be connected to, wouldn't be capable of DTMF dialling at the time.

 

https://gizmodo.com.au/2022/08/telecom-australia-phone-car/

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

It's freaky because without the late intervention of a certain person, there's no doubt the loss of share would've been a lot less as the dissatisfied were less likely to go elsewhere.

His was the only other right of centre place for them to protest vote and stay on the right.

Most wouldn't've gone to Labour or Lib Dem and some likely will have stayed blue.

 

 

 

 

My constituency (or more precisely the parts of the two adjacent ones from which it has been created) has a very small core (4%) Labour vote which was largely unaltered, so substantial numbers clearly did defect from blue to orange as well as whatever colour the garage door is painted. 

 

Nationally, it seems likely (and in some seats was clear) that the certain person also attracted Brexit-voting  and anti-immigrant voters from Labour.

 

The difference being that they managed to attract enough disaffected Conservative voters (and tactically-voting Lib Dems traditionally finishing third) to make up the loss.

 

The real cause of the Conservative losses was the slapstick comedy act the disintegrating party became over the last three years, with its latest leader arriving far too late to restore self-discipline and credibility.  

 

Edited July 6 by Dunsignalling

[fulton]

15 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

I can remember door to door canvassing and loads of leaflets, what has happened?

 

 

 

Locally only one party was trying hard, lots of leaflets, door to door and "personal" letters from their leader and deputy, polling day had a phone call reminding me to vote, and 8.00pm a knock on the door offering to take me to the polling station if I had not already voted, which I had, their efforts did pay off.

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks,

 

The Norfolk brothers used to come up regularly at work, said with a comedy Geordie accent as in Norfolk N Hope and Norfolk N Chance.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks,

 

In our constituency the most effort at leafletting was made by Team Red and an independent candidate, who was aiming to split the Team Red Muslim vote.

 

Only one-off from Teams Blue and Orange.

 

Team Farago had a prominent local poster presence, due to their candidate being a former mayor and a one-time local councillor. He came second ultimately.

 

Nobody bothered to actually ring the door bell - must be the dog 😂

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[franciswilliamwebb]

15 hours ago, melmerby said:

I can remember door to door canvassing and loads of leaflets, what has happened?

Very much depends on the commitment of the local party members, especially whether they’re doers rather than hangers-on.

 

SWMBO has been leafleting, doorstepping and talking for months now - and grumbling about those who won’t pull their weight!

[H2O]

12 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Well, if not entitled to sit in the House of Lords, she has still been given an honour which is the female equivalent of a Knighthood. On the basis of her achievements as an MP, a insult to her constituents. 

I think tradition has it that ex prime ministers are elevated to the house of lords if they choose.  Obviously they can't be an MP too so often this happens after they loose their seat or stand down.

 

I think the original thinking was that experienced politicians would be a benefit to the upper chamber.

 

I hope and pray there is a requirement to be PM for more than 2 months, else there could be a very recent ex Norfolk MP headed upstairs :-(

 

PS After a bit of searching I can't find anything to confirm that ex PMs can claim entry to the lords so we may be spared after all :-)

Edited July 6 by H2O
Added PS

[billbedford]

16 hours ago, melmerby said:

I can remember door to door canvassing and loads of leaflets, what has happened?

 

The interwebs?

[MJI]

One last political thing.

 

History will be kind to Major.

History will be ambivalent to Blair.

History will be cruel to Johnson.

History will forget Truss.

[Jol Wilkinson]

1 hour ago, billbedford said:

 

The interwebs?

We received one printed missive each from the Labour and Lib Dem candidates but five from the incumbent Conservative. Possibly an indication of the concern of the Tories of their weak position, confirmed when a large majority was overturned and the Labour candidate won.

 

Communication through Facebook, blogs, etc. is usually seen as the favoured means communication by the young, but I wonder to what extent they bothered to vote. The turnout was low.

Edited July 6 by Jol Wilkinson
Additional text

[2750Papyrus]

We were moved into a different constituency.  We did receive a pamphlet from the sitting MP, which listed the things he had done but didn't say which party he represented!.  He lost...