How Populus could have been much worse for Labour
April 8th, 2009
Last night’s big news was the Populus survey for the Times showing that the Tories had extended their lead to 13% - which was in sharp contrast to YouGov the day before that had the gap in hung parliament territory - just 7%.
Well I’ve just got round to examining the detailed data and as shown above the poll would have been much worse for Brown’s party but for the so-called “spiral of silence” adjustment. Under this the pollsters that use it, ICM and Populus, allocate a proportion of the “don’t knows but will be voting” in accordance with what they said they did at the last election.
Normally this only shifts the numbers by a little bit. In this latest poll the change was quite marked.
I’ve no problems with the methodology but it is just the scale of the change this month that I’m highlighting.
MessageSpace Advertising
First
How?
Ouch!!
Labour are doomed - DOOMED!
Damn, so near to first.
lol, Labour OUT!
I have to say as overseer of the Met, Smith should go for this along with Quick - it might actually be a good reason for Gordon to sack her - he has a second chance now to do the right thing and ditch Jacqui Smuts.
It will be interesting to see how tactical unwind and shy Tory syndrome work at the next general election. Personally I hope Labour are shafted.
By the way, aren’t we due Smith’s statement nowish?
Labour and all it’s works stink, I’d be surprised if they got 25% in a GE.
The news just gets worse for Labour, I cannot remember if it was as bad as this for John Major, memory betrays me, but I don’t think it was, but then again the Conservatives had been in power of the equivalent of another Parliament…..
Mike
How much difference would it have made without the spiral of silence?
Brown is like Glenn Close in the bath at the end of “Fatal Attraction” - you know he’s dead (politically) but you can never relax.
That said, I can’t see Labour coming back from the appalling post Budget and post Euro Elections caning that they will take in the polls.
previous thread/is there any minimum qualification required to join the Police?
7 I have News 24 on on my PC, I will alert if she is going to speak, but nothing yet.
6. Our Great Leader is now in his Bunker.
11 5 ft 6 inches?
lol, Sky interviewer asked a local ‘which house were the arrests at’ - she got the reply ‘the one with the police outside’
hahaha
he did also add, awesomely to ‘what sort of people lived there?’ with ‘they kept themselves to themselves’ - straight out of the ‘being interviewed after an arrest in your street’ playbook
11
What constitutes a minimum qualification in modern Britain? Illiteracy?
14. 6 inches
I see why they are called the Plod!
11, in what respect, educational or security?
I’m assuming that the slight delay on Jacqui Smith’s statement reflects the fact that it needs some last minute modification.
John Craig ” This is becoming a political crisis for Jacqui Smith”
14. You’re joking MTF. I’ve seen absolute midgets in police uniform and I dont mean community officers either.
19 Everyones making sure their stories are straight.
Why is Steven Gerrard doing voiceovers for all these students being interviewed?
Previous thread: DV or Developed Vetting. Unrestricted access to TOP SECRET material.
The key difference (and expense) from the level below comes from DV requiring and allowing for the proverbial (and probably actual if necessary) going through of your dirty laundry(!)
DV is not simply about database checks - there are no limits ‘if justifiable’ to what can be pursued by the vetting people to ensure that a decision can be correctly made. It is extremely intrusive and comprehensive. Funnily enough I have absolutely no desire to add to this post.
Good spot, Mike. From a betting point of view, I think we need to try to understand as best we can how these adjustments are affecting the overall picture. It is clear that there are big changes in the party shares since 2005, and so adjustments made by the pollsters (based on experience in the previous two or three elections) may not be well-calibrated to the new circumstances.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the adjustments made are under-estimating the effect of previously disillusioned Tory voters (who may not have voted at all in 2001/2005) returning to the fold, and perhaps over-estimating the likelihood of Labour voters actually turning out on the day.
I could be kidding myself, of course. But I can’t think of any way of testing this hypothesis (short of asking Brown to call an election).
21 - The only time I have ever seen a PCSO they have been buying coffee in McDonalds or Starbucks.
18…i was thinking educationally.
26…PCSO=police constable sort of?
227, as far as I remember there is no minimum requirement. The forces carry out their own entrance exam. There are many excellent police officers who are former servicemen who have no formal qualifications for example.
11 previous thread/is there any minimum qualification required to join the Police?
These days it would seem that you need to be skilled in writing up reports that match those of your mates regardless of accuracy, bashing up innocent people, and working outside the law.
28
Pretty Crap Security Officer.
21 For plice officers I thought it had gone down from 56 ft 8 to 5 ft 6, I might be wrong./ obviously less for women pc’s
O/T: - credit to Irfan Ahmed (www.irfanahmed.org) for picking up this survey of every country in the EU’s prospective election outlook:
http://www.predict09.eu/default/en-us/state_analyses.aspx#united
A quick glance through the lists seems to suggest few earth-shaking outcomes expected - the predicted collapse of UKIP here is one of the biggest changes, and I’m not sure that will really happen (the name is a magnet for people of Europhobe leanings, even if they barely exist any more).
28 Police Community Support Officer. They have no power of arrest. But are much cheaper than PC’s…..
32 typos 5 ft 8 inches to 5 ft 6 inches!
26. Thats all they are good for!
And us fools pay for it all. Labour Stinks.
Obviously rules have changed…
Basic guidelines for applicants
As you might imagine, applicant guidelines are fairly comprehensive, but here are a few highlights:
there are no minimum or maximum height requirements
there is no formal educational requirement, but you will have to pass written tests
you must be either a British Citizen, a citizen of the EU or other states in the EEA, or a Commonwealth citizen or foreign national with indefinite leave to remain in the UK
although you may still be eligible to join the police service if you have minor convictions/cautions, there are certain offences and conditions that will make you ineligible. If you are at all unsure, contact your chosen force for more information.
you must physically and mentally be able to undertake police duties
29 - this is correct. It’s a series of exercises, reasoning and practical tests, verbal and written examinations, and things of that ilk. It takes pretty much an entire day to do.
The only thing that leads to an automatic fail is if you score badly in the ‘diversity’ section. Seriously - you can be as thick as crap, but you only fail automatically if you score badly in the bit about cuddling everyone.
34 - My sister deals with them frequently and they don’t even have the power of thought by all accounts.
GM police say 12 people arrested at 8 different addresses
Arrests up North now total 12.
Liverpool won’t be a happy place. Terror arrests and the footy team loses 3-1 to Chelsea.
40 Has JacqBoots made her statement yet?
hundreds of officers involved., some armed
43 no
43 - Nope. Nothing from her yet.
39. I try not to criticise them too much as it is a job I would never do. (Responsibility without power). But needless to say the vast majority are pretty ineffective.
37 MTF.
I do know that when I was a lad the mandatory minimum entrance height for the Metropolitan Police was 5ft 10ins.
The purpose of PCSOs is to act the role of “Bobby on the Beat”. Since visible police presence on streets is more about making people feel secure rather than actually increasing their security, their existence is a highly sensible development.
They arrested a couple of people in Homebase in Clitheroe
Sorry, but I have come in late…what’s this about a statement from our esteemed Home Secretary? Is this to do with the Terrorism Arrests, or are we to expect a “Personal Statement”?
15 “he did also add, awesomely to ‘what sort of people lived there?’ with ‘they kept themselves to themselves’ - straight out of the ‘being interviewed after an arrest in your street’ playbook”
Classic. It’s as good as ‘nothing like that has happened round here before’; as if most of us would find proximity to the scene of a horrific murder a bonus when househunting.
Is it true that these people were only arrested because Bob Quick blew the operation prematurely?
50
Minimum Wage terrorists.
53
Yes.
48. Height restrictions were removed in order to encourage more applications from ethnic minorities. Though I don’t think the press release at the time put it quite like that……
53. Yes, looks very like it.
53/52/51
Noone knows if its a personal statement but doubtful as Jacquiboots will be showing she is “in charge”, likewise it is assumed its brought forward but noone knows for sure. seems likely.
55 - That’s a resigning issue, surely? A prematurely launched operation is a prelude to a failed operation as surely as night follows day.
54 - I was more thinking that places like that are a terrorists paradise. Nails, 2 core wire, fertilizer, containers, flammable liquids etc
59
Not in New Labour world it isn’t.
Further to 25: From Mike’s post: ‘Under this the pollsters that use it, ICM and Populus, allocate a proportion of the “don’t knows but will be voting” in accordance with what they said they did at the last election.’
Presumably this will have the effect of damping-down any shift in sentiment since 2005. If that is right, and given that we know there has been a big shift, the effect could be to over-state slightly Labour’s likely share of the vote.
Blimey, its the front page photo on the FT…. Bob Quick showing the security file.
56: Women maybe? Lower average height…
56. No the powers that be wanted coloured midgets in the force, to make equality.
Have they arrested anyone from SKY for broadcasting nasty adult films which her husband inadvertently stumbled upon one evening at Easter last year while looking for a rather interesting episode of Grand Designs set in Worcestershire featuring a chap who wants to work from his family’s second home while his busy wife copes with staying in her main residence, a small pied a terre in London?
No? I didnt think so.
As for the thread, clearly this just proves that as with so many other polls in the past 3 months, if the pollsters decided that indeed there is no spiral of silence we are in unchartered territory of the landslide variety.
49 - so you admit they’re a con, an illusion? They’re the equivalent in terms of providing safety to the public as those chemical protection suits the sailors on K-19 were told would shield them from radiation…
63 - I imagine it will be the front page on a lot of them. I would say he is toast.
Also it is now 10 o’clock youu would have thought the Home Secretary would have wanted to make the main evening news bulletins…
Typical of this Government that they manage to get awful headlines for the one issue that has the potential to save them - a massive increase in public concern over a terrorist threat.
68 or not……………?????????????????
top 3 stories on Sky news at 10 - Quick, the G20 police officer coming forward and an officer who killed a 16 year old by doing 90 in a 30 zone faces prison.
Have the police had a worse news cycle?
Bob Quick, is he the guy who accused the Tories of “acting in a wholly corrupt way” in relation to some leaks about his wife’s business interests?
Sky News at 10, the document detailed suspects, locations and officers involved.
33. Nick Palmer - I really don’t think that you should be publishing such ‘predictions’ (propaganda?) without a major health warning.
From what I can see the methodology used is nothing more than a stab in the dark. Especially, as I note that it predicts that the BNP will pick up votes from UKIP (hilarious) and then doesn’t even list the BNP in the prediction table, eventhough they would likely pass the Greens (whose vote is predicted to fall) and become the UK’s 5th largest party in the Euro’s.
Given the increases to Libdem and Labour vote predicted it’s clearly propaganda based on little more than wishful thinking…..
67 - Not really a con. Surveys consistently show that levels of public fear about being victims of crime exceed the actual risk. They also show that the public are strong supporters of visible police presence on the streets, even if the actual value of that presence in preventing crime is disputed.
PCSOs are a highly rational policy response to the above.
68/70. The BUNKER must be full to brimming this eveening. Lol.
tim, have you been briefed with the official line yet? What is the upside to all this that we mere plebs are missing?
76 - Do you think that a new mobile will be required?
Clearly one side effect from this set of raids will be a boost for the BNP and Tories in the north-west at the forthcoming elections and a problem for Labour who rely heavily on the “Asian” vote. How long before we get a comment from the MP for Dewsbury trying to appease the Asian community?
They arrested people in Clitheroe Homebase?? Perhaps al Qaeda were desperately trying to thieve some of those 88p bathplugs?
Memo to terrorists: just get elected as a Labour MP. Then you can have all the rubberised items you wants, on exes, plus TWO washing machines, three hundred grand a year, five plasma screen TVs, linen scatter cushions, gelignite, a barbecue set, semtex, and some coal.
77,nightshift should be starting any time,andrew bot.
73 - I really don’t see why Bob Quick hasn’t already resigned. I guess from the further delay to the Jacqui Smith statement that may be imminent.
alex, “visible police presence on the streets,” this is the nub of the point. They are not getting a visible police presence, they are getting police impersonators. Were I live the uniforms between the two are almost indistinguishable. That confusion is a deliberate policy to effectively dupe people into believing that police are in the area. They are pretty worthless apart from chatting to old ladies who think they are a lovely policeman.
Is there a tendency for terrorists to live in Labour held - at least till 2010 - seats?
72: yes.
82 - No-one resigns until they absolutely have to.
65 - On the subject of height, it’s rather odd that ‘thugs’ and ‘villains’ reguarly appear as strapping 6 footers on a diet of alko pops and curry take aways, whilst PC Plod is a 5’6” dwarf backed up by a featherweight community bint wearing inappropriate footwear.
Height sacrificed to appease short ethnics, fitness to appease women, swimming to get more Blacks in, wtf is next, compulsory acne to encourage the yoof?
83 - Quite. They fulfill their purpose at half the price of an actual policeman.
72 Bob Quick was also the man who ordered the arrest of Damian Green. Jackboots just defended Quick and trying to suggest this wasn’t a rushed operation.
Smith statement (not in person) congratulates old bill, decision not taken by politicians, and ploice held in high regard
Jackboots Jaqui excuses police operation and seemingly Bob Quick. What a Cow!
alex, you believe their purpose is to impersonate a police officer?
82 - haggling over the pension presumably.
So she can’t even face the cameras. Coward.
89. Smith is a waste of space. The ‘Do Nothing’ Home Secretary (well except milk her expenses)……
90 - Sky aren’t showing/reporting this…
90 Jackboots and Quick are the enemy within. Who will save us?
80 - You up already, Sean? Or just didn’t go to sleep in the first place?
89: correct. I’m quite sure the decision wasn’t taken by politicians. After all, the Security Service and Greater Manchester / Merseyside Police Forces might well have decided to act all of their own volition!
91 - their purpose is to reassure people.
Sack Smith Quick!
88 Yes, and outside my 3rd floor windows, a couple of hogs were disturbing the pigeons.
She has to go
84.Bournville Observer April 8th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Yes so they can blend in with other groups. Inner city seats especially large cities tend to churn! If you are a terrorist of the kind the UK suffers now, you would not go and live in rural cambridgeshire! Though if terrorists did they would probably find themselves lynched by the good burghers of the area!
David Davis should be on good form - have any of the news programmes booked him in? Bob Quick is his sworn enemy.
Sky not just doing a hatchet job on Quick - they are dicing him up and leaving his gizzards out for passing wildlife.
102 She won’t.
95 it was on news 24 but NOT highlighted specifically, just, we have just received this statement IIRC in the middle of the report.
lol : Jacqui Smith congratulates police on successful anti-terrorism action! Well let’s wait and see, shall we…?
103 - Clitheroe?
That Home Sec statement was a disgrace, she should have made it in person. It didn’t have to be live, but it did have to be in person. What a joke. And to claim it has been a success when it had to be rushed forward due to a monumental f8ck up by the top terror plod…
33 - Euro Election Predictions care of Nick Palmer
Labour UP 6%! My ar*e - to quote Jim Royle NO CHANCE
108. She’ll say anything as long as it doesn’t mean she has to talk about her expenses!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/bob-quick-outburst-out-of-character-for-a-soul-of-discretion-1208494.html
Last paragraph
“[...]He was called Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s “favourite copper” after offering his support to plans to increase the detention limit for terrorist suspects to 42 days.”
You couldn’t make this up.
Yes, David Davis probably does love him…
Jon Craig: “full blown political crisis”
Jesus. We are actually governed my morons. I mean, I always knew Labour were hypocritical cereerist scumbags - didn’t we all? - but I also presumed they had a modicum of managerial skill.
As a (lefty) friend of mine put it tonight: “we knew they were c*nts, we didn’t know they were sh1t”.
I think that would make a fine epitaph for this entire Labour government, 1997-2010.
Labour: you knew they were c*nts, now you know they are sh1t. Vote Conservative.
109. Liverpool.
I’m puzzled at the non appearance of the various bots. Surely it doesn’t take this long to cobble together some spin and smear, and reprogram the bugg3rs?
117
It takes time to be given the line….
115
I’ll get a leaflet together tomorrow
BTW is there any situation in which the Home Secretary is actually required to make a decision? She doesn’t seem to think that making decisions is part of her job description.
111. The site linked is sponsored by the President of The EU. It’s a propaganda site.
Personally I think Mike Smithson should give Nick Palmer a yellow card for that one. Linking such garbage (without severe health warnings) on a betting site is rank irresponsibility!
To prempt the bots, what’s happened is the nasty Al Qaeda supporting Tories, were smearing Mrs Quick, which caused Mr Quick to get so angry, he forgot to hide the document.
75 - “Surveys consistently show that levels of public fear about being victims of crime exceed the actual risk. They also show that the public are strong supporters of visible police presence on the streets, even if the actual value of that presence in preventing crime is disputed.”
Alex, this is precisely the sort of crap I cannot stand. This isn’t dealing with the problem; it’s dealing with the consequences of the problem. People are afraid of crime because there’s lots of crime around, and telling them that it’s not so much of a problem isn’t the way to tackle it.
Both Quick and Jacqui should resign.
But of course, this is NuLabLand, where people don’t resign, it just doesn’t happen.
120 yes, she needs to decide on style and colour of furnishings for free sh!t for her ’seocnd home’
122 Could you squeeze a mention of IHT in there as well?
109 - Yvette Cooper
110 - The fact that the statement wasn’t live tells you everything you need to know about how well the operation is perceived to have gone by the Government. I suspect alex at 92 is right - they’re haggling over the pension.
126 you mean the wealthiest estates…
123 - that’s not what i said. There are two issues:
Crime and public fear of crime. Both need to be tackled. PCSOs are pretty useless at tackling the first but help to combat the second. They are not a substitute for tackling the first.
121
According to that nonsense site, the tories are going to get 33%, LDs 19% and the BNP nothing.
WTF?
Any front pages yet?
126 - Sure, the abolition of IHT, will only benefit the wealthiest 3000 Al Qaeda supporting terrorists in the country?
118. The Labour rebuttal supercomputer, 16k Spectrum with a RAM pack, is buzzing away trying to find a way of blaming the Tories.
132 only the FT on the BBC picture of Bob Quick
132 - Haven’t seen any yet.
127 - Mornington Crescent
134 - tim was very imaginative. Criticising Chris Grayling for not criticising the Home Secretary was rather Zen, I thought.
122 - I don’t think there are any Al Queda supporting Tories are there?
A few twits like Simon Jenkins who write that there’s no threat.
Famously published on the morning of the Madrid Bombings.
137 Una Stubbs is standing opened mouthed, as Lionel Blair…
139. Oh dear. More embarrassing under-performance from the farmy-farmer.
I see Labour have taken to spinning the Mrs Brown Lifetime Mortgage on the Flat Brown claimed expenses on as paying for Mrs Brown’s rented clothes!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/5125918/Prime-Ministers-wife-Sarah-Brown-rents-designer-clothes.html
Pathetic! Brown lined his pockets at tax payer expense. If the flat was valued at £700,000 as was reported at the time - Sarah could well have taken £350,000 in Equity out of it! Remember how much the flat cost originally and the number of years Brown has been claiming for it! Brown must think the electorate stupid!
139,bloody hell tim,you doing over time,where’s the nightshift.
Surveys show that people want more visible “police” presence. But for many i would think that they are happy with visible PCSO presence. At half the price they can provide the reassurance that people feel a visible police presence offers.
If you believe they are next to useless then it is reasonable to conclude that you think any steps taken to meet public demand in the area would be pointless.
139
Tim almost as good as Gordo telling R 2 listeners he had had been warning us about the credit crunch for years…
alex, fair enough, why not sack the pcso’s and employ more police who can deal with both your points. A pcso costs about 2/3 of what a pc does. I would rather have someone who has full powers for 1/3 extra in cost. We could make up the 1/3 extra by clearing out the police stations of the hundreds of people employed to shove paper from one desk to another.
So we have a home secretary who has to deal on the same day with a major terror cock-up, a police violence cock-up and a police speeding kills girl cock-up. Just as well we have a serious and respected HS and not some over promoted dinner lady who fiddles expenses for her housing and husband’s porn. It wouldn’t really do to have the HS being beyond a joke and a figure of loathing and ridicule on a day like today would it?
Off-topic: Who was it who was saying there were no savings to be made in the public sector?
Community Outreach Officer
LONDON BOROUGH OF SOUTHWARK
Salary: £25,923 - £31,527
You will assist with the development of a Parks Community Outreach Delivery Plan with responsibility for all aspects of its delivery through the provision of an annual programme of park-based community events and activities. Your role will include developing community links to encourage greater use and enjoyment of parks, as well as supporting groups to build capacity and deliver appropriate activities.
With knowledge of events, arts, education, youth, ecology or hard-to-reach groups within an open space context, you will have proven experience of the design and delivery of programmes of community events or activities. You will also be a highly effective communicator with good negotiating and organisational skills.
http://tinyurl.com/c4ekj4
140 - Let us welcome to the Innuendo Ball Mrs and Mrs …
144 And just when you thought you’d heard it all.
139 TIMBOT shouldn’t you be outside patrolling the outbuildings on Fantasy Farm, making sure that no nasty terrorists are stealing the fertiliser?
148 - Yes, closing parks would probably save a fair bit of money. Could sell them off to developers as well.
148 Parks Community. Is that composed of tramps and cider drinking youths?
148 - I love the way those adverts are written. The phrase “hard-to-reach groups within an open space context” cannot be bettered.
The shame of it is that at the core of that advert is a role that would do some public good if it were performed properly. With a job description like that, however, the chances of it being performed properly are negligible.
148
Just think, if there wasn’t an Outreach Officer, I would never be able to find the park in my borough. Thank god for the council.
151 - Nice bit of irony, alex. Who exactly was suggesting closing parks?
148 That is the most outrageous fuc*ing non-job pure waste of tax that I have ever seen. Labour in a nutshell.
This would never have happened if we had 42-day detention / the DNA of 92-year-old Mrs Miggins on file / magic, terrorist-detecting ID cards.
146 - Depends whether you think police on the streets in the numbers that PCSOs are make a genuine contribution to reducing crime (that PCSOs wouldn’t). I would suspect not. In which case you are wasting 1/3 of the cost, coz the police can’t be a “presence” and solve crimes at the same time.
151. Alex. There is a middle ground between closing parks and employing a Community Outreach Officer (Parks). You can keep the parks open, and let people, like, go in, if they, like, want to.
Looks like Newsnight are going to nail Bob Quick as well.
151 Can you read? Where did anyone mention closing parks? I’m sure the current mob have considered it - we’ve lost more school playing fields under this government than any previously.
144 - I accept that there will always be a degree of fear of crime, however low crime eventually gets. What I object to is putting someone on the streets who can only serve as a placebo for the fear of crime, and not deal with crime itself. Why not pay a bit more and a person out there who can do both?
33- 111- 121
Nick P
Regarding the predict09 “analysis” I agree with some of their predictions but some are bizarre:
- the Italian prediction is hideously wrong. Even excluding the communists, they forecast a higher score for the centre-left than for Berlusconi’s party (+ Lega Nord). This is contradicting botth all polls in the last year and all the results at regional and municipal level, showing a very strong domination by tyhe right.
- the French prediction is a bit strange, especially regarding the low figures (in seats) for MODEM and Greens. UMP and PS numbers seem a bit high.
- German numbers are not in luine with recent polls, the FDP in particular having a much bigger advantage over Greens and Die Linke. The SDP number is too high.
- In Ireland, I don’t know how they can predict a Fianna Fail victory in the current context
158
“In which case you are wasting 1/3 of the cost, coz the police can’t be a “presence” and solve crimes at the same time”.
Alex , on that basis , remove all police from the streets ……..and how many crimes would they solve?
“Famously published on the morning of the Madrid Bombings.”
Bombings which Spain’s compulsory ID card system failed to stop.
148 - Yes, closing parks would probably save a fair bit of money. Could sell them off to developers as well
F*ckwit.
One of the great things about a park is that I - and my children - actually know how to use it without the help of an “Outreach Officer”
So, keep the park, lose the public sector non-job, eh?
Blimey. Newsnight just said there were photos out there of this Secret document until the government put a D Notice on it. WTF.
164 - you are deliberately conflating the “preventative” and “reassurance” role of PCSOs with the crime detection and solving role of the police.
Nobody is suggesting the PCSOs should substitute for police doing genuine policework. They are suggesting that they can play a role by freeing up police time to do things for which they are paid extra.
Yes, if they had wanted to appoint a Park Keeper (i.e. someone to look after a public asset) it would be a justifiable expenditure. But an “Outreach Officer”?
I have posted until I’m blue in the face. Most if not all polls are biased in Labours’ favour. The mood in the real world puts them behind the LibDems. Of course Labour aren’t worried. The Glenrothes system is in place.
166 - Yeah that is why they moved the raids up. Quick is in up to his eyeballs.
OMG - Did Ken Livingstone say that if Bob Quick had to resign, Al Qaeda would be celebrating?
Ken defending Quick, surprise surprise…
Ken Livingstone is an utter fool… Secret documents are in a different league to anything else.
Desperation from the Govt - Ken Livingstone put up as spokesman on Newsnight.
148. Wanted: parkie. Skills: shouting at kids. Wage: pitiful.
What was wrong with that?
Further to 148:
MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY (MTFS)
2008/09 -2011/12
Financial Management
• To promote excellent financial management across the council
• To spend only within budgeted limits whilst sustaining and achieving performance improvement in line with strategic policies and priorities
• Containing unavoidable commitments to the absolute minimum
…
• To underpin all Council resource allocation decisions with financial reality and health checks
Appendix A
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Uploads/FILE_32095.pdf
To put this in perspective: a client of ours (a very large company) told me today that their Q1 2009 sales are down around 35% compared with Q1 2008. And they don’t operate in a sector which I would have thought was particularly badly hit.
Livingstone Oh dear.
174 It’s probably all Boris Johnsons fault. Zzzzz…
Let Livingstone get re-elected, *then* he can speak for NuLab.
Livingstone making Grayling look very very silly.
Livingstone talking about a Tory govt as if it were a certainty.
Bang goes another Nokia.
The proverbial newts come to mind
Quick has got to resign but if he does maybe our Jacqui will fall on her sword
182. as in tired and emotional?
I guess the debate over whether Obama should have bowed to the Saudi king has been entirely pointless since, according to the White House, it never happened!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0409/White_House_No_bow_to_Saudi.html
So who are you going to believe, the Messiah or your lying eyes? It’s called faith, people!
But at least two things have become clear: 1) everybody who saw it, including the Saudis and our own Socrates, thought it was a bow, and 2) protocol for U.S. presidents is to NOT bow to foreign leaders, whether they be democratically elected or chosen by God to lead their nations.
For the first time in a long time I have yelled at the TV over an interviewee. This was a secret document involving the details of a terror operation including suspects, locations and officers. It could have put lives at risk. Ken is a complete and total f8cking moron if he thinks that this is something you brush off as a simple mistake. What an utter and total w8nker.
Tim is presumably watching an entirely different Livingstone…
Quite clear that labour have decided Bob Quick must be saved. Does this mean that 1) they can’t trust any other copper, 2) Bob Quick has got dirt.
180 TIMBOT, not as ridiculous as Bob Quick flashing classified documents at Fleet Streets finest.
Livingstone seemed to think that releasing secret documents and jeopardising an entire operation didn’t even warrant an investigation.
And seemed to think that no senior individual in any organisation should ever be held accountable because it would be a “waste of their training”.
The Met won’t like the Times leader either:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6062351.ece
74/111/121: duh, it’s not propaganda for anyone, it’s from an independent consultant Burson Marsteller, who have no party agenda that I know of - moreover, as 95% of the report isn’t about Britain at all, jsfl and aguecheek are really being too touchy. The British predictions reflect the recent polls on the European elections, though as I said I think these underestimate the UKIP score.
PCSOs now have all-party support, I think? There was a period when the tories rubbished them on the lines of some of the posts above, but they’ve proved popular and I thought the opposition to them had been quietly dropped. People want to see a reassuring figure around who they can talk to about current problems - they don’t always require an instant arrest, and some of the PCSOs have proved especially popular because they’re not tied down with the elaborate business of arrests and taking evidence, but are simply around in the patch all the time. The three-tier structure seems sensible to me: mobile police in cars for fast reaction, a beat officer to coordinate activity in a particular ward, and a couple of PCSOs for routine patrols and intelligence-gathering.
“if Bob Quick had to resign, Al Qaeda would be celebrating”
Instead they’re celebrating about the fact that they’re up against a bunch of corrupt, lying incompetents.
180. Is that the same tim who thinks the NF did better in the 70s than the BNP are doing now? Hell-o?
NF councillors in the 1970s: zero - 1.
BNP councillors now: around 56.
Twat-bot.
180
Good one Tim, only you could come up with that, any rational person would say otherwise. Grayling was very sensible and unconfrontational and made the necessary sensible points, exactly the right tone. Ken looked like he was the bitter old man that he is.
175 No Sean not a parkie. The job logic goes something like this:
Parks are there for our good citizens to live part of their utopian healthy lifestyles that we determine for them. Unfortunately in this part of sarf London the citizenry are feckless druggies, crims, waynetta slobs and benefits spongers. I know! Let’s employ someone to try and organise Fun Days and nannying campaigns to get these wasters away from the Playstation / B&H / Special Brew / bed and into the lovely park. That wouldn’t be waste of other people’s money at all.
On the strength of Livingstone tonight, I’m glad I voted Boris.
186 - Apologies for that rant, my fuse just blew on that one.
195 - I think Livingstone was pre-prepared for Grayling calling for Quick’s and/or Smith’s resignation, and wasn’t capable of adjusting when Grayling was more restrained.
Not Paxmans finest hour, why did he not ask Livingstone on what evidence does he base his assertion that Al Queda will be celebrating if Quick goes. If that’s all they’ve got it’s a poor show
You get the feeling Quick must have dirt on Nulab over the Damien Green affair.
196 - If the job were done properly, it would be well worth it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have public spaces that the general public (as opposed to druggies and criminals) actually used and enjoyed?
Unfortunately, that job advert won’t get the right candidate because it might just as well have been written in Estonian.
Ken is the Jean-Luc Godard of politicians — youthful charisma and daring ending up as bitter, monotone self-righteousness.
200 - I’m sure they’ll be delighted. They can then get wedding cars at low low prices.
On Livingstones’ performance on newsnight, never mind Al Quieda I’m offering up a prayer for the very fact than Boris is London Mayor and not Ken.
201 if he does, they will tread carefully after the hissy fit he threw at the Tories over the leak on the car business.
194,your totally correct seant,labour have given birth to a far left party,why has’nt this become a bigger story.
163: yes, agree with your comments on some of the Burson Marsteller predictions, though Fianna Fail seems to have come off the floor in the last poll. The German assessment seems likely to have predated the recent FDP surge.
What would be handy and is an odd omission is a total of the changes to the various EP groups that would result from all the predicted changes.
202
Disagree. If the parks are worth going to, people will go. No need to employ an ‘outreach officer’. I live in the borough.
205 Yes, but didn’t he have to issue an unreserved apology over that rant?
Livingstone was a disgrace! Using the threat of terrorism to play base party politics and suggesting that anyone criticizing Bob Quick’s appalling blunder was practically in league with Al-Qaeda.
201 Quick’s probably got one over on Jacqboots as well, regarding the Close Protection Officer’s timesheets that show when she was (or wasn’t) in residence at her sisters.
202 Maybe they should police the parks! There is no excuse whatsoever for spending tens of thousands of other people’s money on ‘Outreach’. Our country can no longer afford such PC bullshit by a wide margin.
Smith on the BBC, REFUSING to discuss Bob Quick. This is an outrage!
184 … you may think that, ….
More relevant if a grade 4 (middle ranking) civil servant had revealed a (probably top) secret document, they would be out of the door immediately. It’s just inconcievable how Quick could have done this. Presumably he had been reading it in the car, but why didn’t he just slip it back into the folder? Can’t he remember how at least two cabinet ministers were zapped in the same way walking into Downing Street over the past year? But perhaps the UK security services don’t use high powered long range digital cameras??
210 - Quite.
Jacqui Smith has faced the cameras to basically repeat her written statement. Asked about Quick she said that the focus was on the ongoing operation.
209 yes. he did - thats why Labour will treat him carefully is he has ‘dirt’ - he is a rather quirky and unpredictable character apparantly prone to over dramatic hissy spats
208 - If the parks are filled with junkies and criminals, people won’t go. I live in an inner city borough too and am glad to have local parks that I can use. As chance would have it, mine aren’t run by my local borough, which frankly is a relief for me. The one nearby that it does run is run abysmally.
202 antifrank - Yes, it might be nice. But the country’s on its knees, financially, with public finances in an absolutely dire state. It’s the continued lack of realism in the public sector that is so staggering. They say they want to “contain unavoidable commitments to the absolute minimum”, but this looks like one extremely avoidable commitment.
202 - Quite. It is the language of the advert that is the problem more than necessarily the actual job itself - although limiting the job to “parks” seems a little bit wasteful.
(this sort of thing is typical of the annual TPA’s “useless jobs list” which usually has 2 or 3 highly important jobs on it, and have obviously only been chosen because it is quite difficult for a layman to work out what they actually involve).
185- S and S
I saw this Politico article and comments were biting for Ben Smith who titles his article “no bow”, repeats the moronic lie from the unidentified “aide” and says Obama “tilted” when anybody watching the video in his own article sees Obama profoundly bowing (head at the level of his waist).
The lie from the aide (he shook hands and, as he is taller, had to put his head down a bit) is probably the most creative (but imbecilic) spin since the 2005 GE incident when Blair was booed in a school and number 10 explained that children were “booming” him (shouting “boom” as a mark of appreciation apparently).
The question is: why the lie?
201/211 Its quite apalling to think that both statements may well be true.
207. I thought those British predictions were well out.
The BNP is the one to watch in these Euro’s I think. Labour could well suffer a collapse with BNP benifiting. I don’t think the LD’s have much going for them either as there is no Iraq war this time and i don’t see a wish for further rampant EU fedralism.
The Tories could well poll above 40% this time as well.
214 - Smith said she had no control over the operation, being an “operational” matter. In that case there seems no reason why she can’t direct her own “focus” elsewhere!
215 Agree. Well either he is prone to temperamental outbursts in which case he shouldn’t be in charge of sensitive operations like that, or he is plainly just incompetent in which case he is probably overpromoted.
Either way he should go.
200. Yes, I can see it. I can literally see Usama Bin Lden pulling a party popper over the head of Ayman al Zarhawi, in their fiendish hideout in the Swat Valley.
Asked by a baggy-trousered underling why they are celebrating, the two bearded super-terrorists will caper about the cavern, then shout out loud: Alahu Akhbar, Bob Quick may have to resign! Go and buy some non-alcoholic Bacardi Breezers!
213
The Official Secrets Act 1989 (extract):
(3) A person who is or has been a Crown servant or government contractor is guilty of an offence if without lawful authority he makes a damaging disclosure of any information, document or other article relating to security or intelligence which is or has been in his possession by virtue of his position as such but otherwise than as mentioned in subsection (1) above.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) above a disclosure is damaging if—
(a)
it causes damage to the work of, or of any part of, the security and intelligence services; or
(b)
it is of information or a document or other article which is such that its unauthorised disclosure would be likely to cause such damage or which falls within a class or description of information, documents or articles the unauthorised disclosure of which would be likely to have that effect.
.
See that last paragraph. We shouldn’t be talking about Quick’s resignation, but his prosecution. When I signed and worked under the OSA, I would be in a lot of trouble if I did what Bob Quick did.
217 -Councils would do better to look closely at their management structures (I use the phrase loosely) if they want to make meaningful cuts.
221 - Do the BNP have a particularly potent message for the Euros? Local elections are far more their thing, I would have thought.
219- The aide was probably at a loss for words when asked about the incident and, rather than admit the obvious, which is embarrassing, he made something up.
By the way, the non-bow is also described as a “dip.” This is getting funnier by the day! The remaining question: will the mainstream media continue to suppress this story as it evolves by way of aides lying to cover it up. The last thing the Obama sycophants in the MSM want is for ordinary Americans by the millions to see Obama humiliating himself on their television screens.
Anyway the good news is that Liverpool have been put back in their place
Sky Paper Review is with Kelvin Mackenzie… that will be fun!!
225 councilhousetory: You are forgetting the immortal words of Sir Humphrey: “Bernard, the purpose of the Official Secrets Act is not to protect secrets, but to protect officials”
221,and the lib dems will pay for they betrayal on they no vote on the lisbon treaty,where cleggover marched his band of sandle wearers out of the commons,pathetic.
231 - Yes Minister, the most amusing user manual ever made.
221 - Mixed news for the Tory partners in Europe.
Hurrah - Rabid Homophobes of the Polish Law and Justice Party to more than double their representation.
But terrible news for Hague.
Latvian SS supporters projected to fall from 4 seats to one.
Sounds like Hague jumped onto the war memorabilia bandwagon just before the wheels came off.
207- Nick P
They have done it on their main page http://www.predict09.eu/default/en-us.aspx
EPP 249
Soc 209
ALDE 87
british Con + allies 56
Far left 48
Greens 39
The changes in terms of seats are not easy to read as 49 seats are abolished (a total of 736, 785 in 2004).
Summary: only the far left would gain seats, all big groups would lose some manpower, especially the EPP (due to the defection of eurosceptics).
it seems that Barroso will gain a second term (especially if, as I suspect, Italy provides more EPP seats than predicted in this study)
225, cht, excellent post. As I have said previously people have lost their jobs for considerably less than what Quick has done in front of literally millions of witnesses. Prosecution is not too far fetched in this case.
231
Sir Humphrey should be required viewing for 22nd Century students studying our bureaucracy.
192 “PCSOs now have all-party support, I think? There was a period when the tories rubbished them on the lines of some of the posts above, but they’ve proved popular and I thought the opposition to them had been quietly dropped.”
Is a single word of that true? Or are we looking at Nick Palmer spin combined with wishful thinking. PCSOs aren’t remotely popular they are still a expensive joke, nobody is remotely reassured, have the Tories dropped opposition not as far as I am aware. I hope not probably just busy trying to tackle Broken/Economy and Britain where I am sure PCSO will not feature in the future.
236
Not in the public interest….. (not in Labour’s interest)
234- It looks like the one major left-wing party in Europe that’s set to substantially increase its presence in the European Parliament (according to Nick’s article) is the German SPD, which stands at about 25% in the polls for the next parliamentary elections! What a funny system.
236
Indeed. And if anyone wants to read the OSA for themselves, here’s a link:
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?activeTextDocId=1351839
God knows what the Americans must think of us. No wonder the UK is the main CIA target for counter-terrorist operations. They sure as hell can’t rely on our police to do the job.
235 -
british Con + allies 56
Even Cameron doesn’t know who the allies ( or should that be Axis) are, so where does that figure come from?
240- S and S
Well they polled 21% in the 2004 election so even 25 would be an improvement.
234. Sounds like Hague jumped onto the war memorabilia bandwagon just before the wheels came off.
Nevermind, I am sure he will present you with a medal for fighting the last war with such distinction!
Some of the front pages
http://www.politicshome.com/landing.aspx#7078
tim, are you feeling a bit hungry at the moment. It must be awful not to get relieved on time by andrew b and let you go and get something to eat. The low blood sugar is affecting your trolling powers, it appears that you are caught in a repetitive feedback loop and unable to air any other topics.
243- tim
Read the site I linked to, and Nick’s link.
242. What I want to know is why are they still letting people in from there?
246 - So far it is looking lethal for Quick.
O/T: Why do the inhabitants of the country that gave the world Leonardo da Vinci and Dante keep electing this imbecile?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/08/italy-earthquake-berlusconi
222 If it’s an operational matter, over which politicians have no control, what was Quick doing at no 10 briefing the PM before the arrests? Asking him at which point he should make the arrests to fit in with the Grid?
246
Quick is finished. He just has to decide the manner of his parting.
You wouldnt let the Met organise a farting contest in a baked beans factory.
Tonight’s headlines:
Bad news for Labour
tim tries to change the subject
Blair: Pope should “rethink Catholicism”
Ursine arboreal defecation to be banned by Jackiboots
251 Because they also gave the world Mussolini and the Mafia.
255 Bears climb trees to take a sh1t? Maybe the Pope will decide that homosexuality is fine, after all.
256 - Not to forget the Borgia’s and Machiavelli.
248 - It claims the Tories will Ally with Fianna Fail
Little tennis tip for tonight: Hewitt-3.5 hcap, odds 2/3 at willhill. He looks back on form, after several injury scares leading to bad results recently, and utterly annihilated his last opponent (the aptly-named Junqueira). Today he faces Roitman, who is in awful form, rubbish to start with, and tends to capitulate before he steps on court against decent opposition. At odds 3.25+, he’s only won once in his career - a retiral.
253 ditto Smith.
Did I confuse ‘arboreal’ for ’sylvian’ or somesuch? Sorry.
Did tim’s latest attempt to out-Goebbels Goebbels just get snipped? There *is* a God after all!
263
tim editing his own rubbish.
263 - It did, and yes there is.
260 Andrew - Thanks for that - you certainly make a very convincing case for Hewitt and I’m on with Hills.
The papers are dire for Quick… The Mirror headline of “PC Clod” is damning, I think only hte express went on a non-Quick lead.
258- tim
Fini’ s party is no more. It has merged with berlusconi’s party. And fini is the architect of a profound change in his party. The remaining fascists have left and created other groups ( la destra and msi)
260. Thanks Andrew, I am on.
268
Tim and facts are non sequitors
Why is Derek Draper posting as “tim”?
Becoming Labour’s favourite copper is the kiss of death to your career.
Front pages
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/The-Papers—National-Newspaper-Front-Pages-On-Thursday-April-9-2009/Media-Gallery/200904215258559?lpos=UK_News_Left_Promo_Region_0&lid=GALLERY_15258559_The_Papers_-_National_Newspaper_Front_Pages_On_Thursday%2C_April_9%2C_2009
272 - You can just tell that the tabloid headlines when he goes will be Bob Quit…
259 Let me get this right - a group of European politicians who have no ability to prevent 75% of the legislation affecting Britain may or may not sit with another much smaller group of European politicians who have no ability to prevent legislation, to eat their packed lunches.
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!!!!!!
I know the job requires you to put in the hours, tapping away at the keyboard and making random accumulations of letters on the screen, regardless of how much of a prat you might look - but for the record: your are making a spectacular arse of yourself, Bot Unit #1.
Get some self respect, man: take a night off. All this ingratiating yourself with the Labour powers-that-be; you might as well spend your days sucking up to Sir Clive Sinclair for his massive contribution to wheeled transport.
Labour = dead duck, mostly plucked of feathers after being tossed around as a play-thing by a pack of dogs, now slowly floating down a lifeless canal, and about to spend its last putrifying days trapped in the rusting hulk of a supermarket trolley.
I don’t think Clegg has thought through his latest attempt to seize the initiative…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6062719.ece
276 “Furniture, building work and taxis could no longer be claimed under Mr Clegg’s proposals.”
Martin Day, someone at The Times is giving a nod in your direction!!!
Just looking at the stories regatrding the arrests. The cops are telling people at the university tio stay away from windows in case there was a bomb. That doesnt fit with the idea they had to push the operation forward. Clearly the bods on the ground have a long list of items they are trained to do including the extremely unlikely.
Kelvin Mackenzie is his usual restrained self
re 30 oh come on you need some training to pin down an entirely innocent man and fire seven bullets into his head and then lie through your teeth about it for evermore. That must take a few lessons in police school.
33. Right, quick post before I go to bed.
Nick, thanks for the link, but I think those predictions are unrealistic.
Some respectable posters on here (David Herdson?) were predicting Labour could easily go SUB-20% so to suggest that they’ll put on 6% is pretty optimistic.
The Conservatives would also be disappointed with anything less than 35%. We’d want to better our 1999 %vote (if not seat tally, which is almost impossible now)
I think we may see something like this in % vote
Con 37.5
Lab 20.0
LD 16.0
UKIP 9.5
GREEN 5.0
BNP 6.0
SNP 2.5
PC 1
OTHRS 3.5
But don’t ask me how that converts to MEP seats..
re 33 Nick you think that the Tories really will only have a 4.8% lead over Labour in June?
Hang on I must go and protect the car from the pig excrement.
277. Funny you should say that! But Brown of course is one of the MP’s who has taken equity out of a flat paid for by the tax payer!
I must impress Clegg that’s three times he has copied what I have blogged.
First He started quoting Neil Kinnock at Pmq’s!
Trying to be poulist!
Second, He did that Times Piece after I had been doing alot of posts about the Full Monty!
Third, He has latched on to what I have been saying about El Gordo - the fat ones expenses the Lifetime Mortgages and expenses Brown pocketed for a 14 Years on that flat!
Nick Clegg = Yellow Taxi’s!
re 44 we must be grateful that they haven’t killed anyone in their trigger-happiness then.
Labour must be so pleased they are seen as Bob Quick’s best friends.
A discredited policeman, supported by a discredited Home Secretary, supported by a discredited Prime Minister.
Even more fantastic was Quick also having papers referring to the planned media strategy. This is getting ridiculous. This is what you do. You arrest people and you DO NOT have a media strategy, you arrest if necessary release a statement about the arrest of people and no more.
Why has to Met not reported on Green yet?
He appears to be still on bail.
286 - Yes but that is the whole thing now isn’t it, it isn’t about doing but getting the credit for doing.
Has swollen-headed, tiny-eyed weasel-faced sub-moron and professional Jacqubooted Terror-Ubersturmfuhrer Bob Quick been ejected from Jacqui’s arse yet?
Poor old Bob, what a ʇunɔ.
289 - Nope not yet…
I also predict that the MER will achieve offical European Parliamentary Party status within the lifetime of the next european parliament with the necessary number of member countries (8 states I think?) and numbers - i.e. by 2014.
Latvia, Lithunia, Poland, Italy and Denmark all have parties with potential members. Especially if UEN collapes.
I also predict it will be third in size (and overtake ALDE) within 10 years.
(Casino starts counting the seconds until TIMBOT comes back with the “fascists and loons” repost…)
Kelvin has a broom pushing thing tonight
291 I thought Tim had a problem with herd mentality.
Ironic he seems to value it in Europe.
260 Hewitt vs Roitman
Andrew - I’ve been looking at the other markets for this match and in view of your comments a 2-0 sets victory for Hewitt looks very likely for Hewitt - in fact this looks a slightly safer bet to me than the -3.5 game handicap you suggested, yet the best odds (with Blue Square & 888) are slightly better at 8/11 or 0.73/1, as opposed to 0.67/1. In fact Hills were offering exactly the same odds, but these narrowed to 4/6 just as I was trying to place a bet, so I hopped off to Blue Square!
What are your views of a 2-0 sets win?
DID YOU KNOW THAT WILLIAM HAGUE HAS BEEN NEGOTIATING WITH THE LATVIAN WAFFEN SS?
Bullingdon lol.
@291:
Is it really good idea to have a Europarl grouping that sounds like a cut-price German supermarket?
Nothing scares the opposition more than their people being taken out of circulation without fanfare. Days with a lack of information in the public domain, no leaks about the nature of plots, nothing, especially when some will most likely be released and they will alert suspicion amongst their own kind whilst others get charged.
The only times to send out information are a) when you have to and b) when you use it to watch others who you are watching reaction to this information.
voreas at 238 - I don’t know for sure. We’ve noticed that local Tory campaigns have stopped criticising PCSOs and started to demand more of them, and the only references to them that I can see on the national site are a couple of criticisms that there aren’t enough, e.g. David Davis last year:
“The public want visible policing yet they [the Government] ditch their target for 24,000 PCSO’s and tie up officers in so much red tape they spend less than 20 percent of police time on patrol.”
This appears to concede the point that PCSOs deliver visible policing. But there are plenty of Tories here who can contradict me if I’m wrong and they really would get rid of them. There was once a Tory plan (you can find it by googling) to replace them by some sort of super-PCSOs who would be almost but not quite as good as regulars (e.g. they would have the piower of arrest), but I’ve not heard of that for some years.
296 - It seems oddly appropriate.
Come on people, you don’t really think there’s been an imminent terrorist plot do you?
Government, and Home Secretary in particular, in a spot of bother. What will get the news off the front pages? It’s a testament to Labour’s complete ineptitude that they even cock-up an attempt at news management.
300 - i think we can over analyse these things. This is the problem with crying wolf too much. However i suspect from the noises coming out of the Northern rozzers that there might be something in this.
@301:
Let’s have a spread bet on how many of the 12 arrested you think will actually be convicted of a terrorist offence.
302 - Yes but that is different to whether or not there was a plot.
@302:
As you said, these things are falsifiable.
And since the last ‘major terrrst plot’ that Jacquboots Bob and his little chorus of leather-clad shock troops uncovered appeared to be both scientifically impossible, somewhat contradictory and logistically implausible, I’m not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
What is going on at the white house? After the Reset & DVD gifts, Obama is bowing to the Saudi King?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WlqW6UCeaY
It really looks like America has been tricked into electing someone who is not as he claimed.
304 - Yes but the police seem absolutely incandesant about this… so one suspects that he f*cked up huge. If it was a pretend plot I doubt they would care.
304: Martin. It wasn’t impossible: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/10/liquid_bomb_verdicts/
Remember Lewis Page’s background…
Also, all but one of the suspects is up for a retrial… The 9th was fully acquitted I think.
302. How about a double with how many will lodge successful asylum claims?
302/307 Ahh. Life in Labour’s Britain.
I know a lawyer who worked on asylum cases for a while. She only lost one case. It was the only one she thought was genuine.
Labour Carlisle mayor Jailed for theft:
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/former_cumbrian_mayor_jailed_for_stealing_38_000?referrerPath=2.1823/home
309
Bloody hell. The story says she’s only 49. She looks at least 20 years older than that in the photo.
309. Former Mayor, of many years ago…
310 Not stealing it to buy moisturiser.
310. That’s what i thought as well.
It is in the daily telegraph but I cannot link as it gets stuck in the filter due to P0K€r being in the link.
310. Hard living up here in north cumbria..
313. Its a sad case really, i heard her partner offered to pay off the debt, but the offer was refused.
I dont know her personally, but my colleagues on the council who did, says she was the kind of person who made an impact in her time…
Oh now I feel mean.
I’ve just arrived and wanted to check the progress of the Long March to a Million. It’s now 1,538 to go (compared with 2,912 just over 24 hours ago. Assuming that there will be a Long March Bounce of a few extra hundred messages, I reckon my prediction of 11pm tonight is still fairly accurate. Meanwhile, I’ll do some other interneting and then read through the threads and then come back.
294: sorry Peter, missed your post till now, and it’s started (Hewitt crushing him it seems, hold, break to love, hold).
Generally speaking you’re prolly right, 2-0 at those odds is nicer than -3.5, but Roitman has a bit of a a habit of nicking 2nd sets, then giving up badly when he falls behind in the final set. Thus you could imagine something like a single break in the first, ie 64, then a 57 or 67, then 62 and the hcap covers. Hewitt is also a little prone to dropping sets and having to grind it out, as his serve isn’t always the weapon it once was.
I hope the news does Mike’s site the service it deserves by delivering up something juicy for the big one.
Bob Quick returning Jackie’s husband’s DVDs in one of his limos at the tax payers expense will do.
318 Eh?? I thought this was going to be a piece of cake for Hewitt, what’s all this about him losing the second set?
(Only joking - I expect to win both bets …. better make that I hope to win both bets!
320: well, just covering all the bases
I’ve been burned so often with 2-0s where the better player gets lazy and drops a set, then concentrates and runs away with it (Murray has a real habit of doing that).
Anyway, doubt it’ll make a difference for you, Hewitt took opening set 61, and broke immediately in the 2nd. Cakewalk it is….
320 Andrew - that 1st set scoreline appears to make your bet safe - I’m now sweating, well concentrating shall we say, on my own. In my ignorance I actually thought this match was to be played this evening (Thursday), not right now! Still, I hope to go to bed fairly soon, a happy man.
323?
Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but Politics Home have a poll on EU membership.
http://www.politicshome.com/Landing.aspx?Blog=7069&perma=link
22% maintain status quo
19% become more engaged with EU
24% become less engaged with the EU
27% withdraw completely from the EU
Andrew - thanks for that very tasty winning tennis tip and of course my 2-0 sets win by Hewitt proved a winner too. Earlier this evening I backed Cardiff to win vs Derby, so it’s been 3 wins out of three, admittedly all odds-on but a nice combined profit of £50 …. that should put food on the table over Easter!
325 Hope JD Wetherspoon have already (or going to) open a pub near the pub you named and shamed
(BTW,which football club (if any) do you support-I’d have hazarded a guess at Chelsea or Fulham,or maybe QPR if you’re a traditionalist-just making polite conversation before seeking sweet repose..)
Is somewhere there?
. Lurkers?
@327: Sort of; got bogged down in co-author feedback for Chapter 3 of the book I’m writing, and lost track of the time.
@327: But the surprising absence of people to fill me in on current Lib Dem thinking at 2am means I’m off to bed.
329-
Good luck with the book.
317- Yes, it’s gonna be a wild one!
*submits comment*
url
320 It does seem a sad case. People who are in the grip of an addiction will do all sorts of things that are out of character.
Interesting to see how skewed these numbers get. In Scotland for instance, the SNP have a commanding lead over Labour but only their UK percentage is published. Also the BNP which you just happened to miss out, which got the same as UKIP but more than the greens is missed off. Why are the Greens seen as the largest smaller party when they can not poll a third of what the BNP do ?
Three hundred and forty-first!