bickster

I think the direction of travel really does depend on who is left standing. I also think they really need to start deciding who the leader will be in 2049 It really is an existential crisis they face. There will be no easy merge with Farage, Farage won’t take them over, of the people likely to be left standing there's talk of Pritti Patel becoming the “unity” candidate. Yeah that’s Patel who has been photographed partying with Farage at Tory conference. They either split or one half leaves but if they split, it won’t be until there’s a death match for the branding (a la Labour recently) If they split, it could be the softer types joining the LibDems or it could be the nutters joining Reform but again that all depends on the numbers It'll also take longer than 13 years to recover from the position they'll be left in It also makes me wonder why Farage would want to join the Tories apart from the branding he’d be gaining nothing and stands to lose a lot

Africa Oye in Sefton Park my favourite price not a cloud in sight bumping into old friends and the smell of weed everwhere Best the city has to offer year in year out Even a pint is only £6

Even worse…

Absolutely f***ing awful, not even remotely funny

The honest answer is not effectively enough because it won’t be inside the single market because they are too timid to do that and they are repeatedly on record as saying they won’t. The rise of Farage won’t make that any easier for them.

Well that one has a saucer full of secrets

He has the best of intentions I think but Labour don't like collaborators

Wonder if more of these will appear

I suppose it is… if you don’t have a long enough attention span

There’s an implied identical

One for @Seat68

Oh we have a contender for dumbest electoral complaint. You mean the person of voting age on the electoral roll? How on earth did they get her details. (And given she’s in Scotland has been on it since 16!)

Case in point… A what tax exactly? How would such a tax work?

My understanding is that they are legal. There is nothing stopping you lying about another party's policy as far as I'm aware. There are rules about misrepresenting other candidates (see Phil Woolas). There’s also a bit of a fuss about them claiming to be emergency alerts but let’s face it these are FB ads. But yes there are less stringent rules about political advertising than there is actual product advertising (and they are controlled by completely different Quangos)

Yeah yeah Tories lying about Labour so nothing new… but it’s that last one that amused me Labour will flatten the green belt… It’s going to take some feat of engineering to turn the Cotswolds into a plain let alone Snowdonia and the Lake District

She makes Andrea Jenkins seem like a civilised and respectable human being. That’s all I’m saying

The Johnny Mercer thing is also blowing up all over the place. He carried in on later… Then early this morning said he was leaving it there. Drawing a line under it. Except he didn’t, he’s at least 6 more tweets into it now and the first was only about 30 minutes later. I’m just enjoying how internally raging he is about something a journalist printed a year ago and has never been said by his opponent… ever. The smell of desperation is great and his seat is now on my watchlist for election night

This might go down as one of the most dumb election complaints ever

The subset of vehicles on the Liverpool side where it’s worth paying the £2 is very small You have to heading in the Chester direction AND be over half way between the bridge and the tunnel Or from the North of Liverpool and be close to the M57 AND heading in the direction of Chester again But the really stupid thing is that it’s designed for people heading to the M6 The other stupid thing about it is that is was built because of all the moaning from Runcorn residents about the queue for the previously unrolled QEII bridge. Now there’s two bridges and both are tolled, resulting in less traffic going through Runcorn but Halton residents (Runcorn and Widnes) don’t pay. It’s a proper result for the Haltonians and the company running the bridge and absolutely no-one else. Most people avoid it and that chucks more traffic onto the M6 before the Thelwall Viaduct which is just gross stupidity

Paying £2 to save 5 minutes Expressway through Widnes, M62, M6 is literally about 5 mins longer. Never use it unless I'm forced to but yes, the 24 hours (or nearly 48 in your case) to pay is just an excuse to raise more money in fines.The whole concept of that bridge pisses me off

The amusing thing about Liverpool is the “express” lane can often take longer than the normal lane

Yes I'm in agreement but if there’s one thing the LibDems have always done is switch it about. That isn’t a compliment, I've criticised them an awful lot for it. I'm also of the opinion that despite the loud noise from the left (and the Faragists) that Labour and Tory are the same, post election that will not be the narrative from the media. Within 6 months they'll be the second incarnation of Stalin. The VAT on private schools, the rumoured and signalled increases in inheritance tax / capital gains tax will cement it. As ever it'll be about public perception and not so much actual policy.

That was very much post-1997

Agree with a lot of that reasoning, I just see their new home as the LibDems, who are far more One-Nation than the Greens will ever be.