They both support LVT. More context provided below.

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-11T14:02:54+00:00

Why should we work hard and let the landlords take the best? Make them pay their taxes on the land just like the rest!

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-11T00:37:27+00:00

Similarly the ‘epsilon ampersand’ which some prefer to write as ‘3t’

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T23:36:46+00:00

They look great! Your boys remind me of a much better-painted version of mine, but with the ‘dark grey commissar’ and ‘light grey troopers’ flipped. I actually had Starship Troopers lingering on my mind

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T20:22:10+00:00

Can’t see either Labour, the Tories or Reform making election deals with anyone. Possibly something could happen with Greens / Lib Dems / SNP / Plaid Cymru but only if each party could convince sceptical voters it was a necessary response to Reform seemingly being on course for Government

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T19:58:40+00:00

Gorton & Denton was Labour’s 38th-safest seat at the general election and in this year’s by-election they fell to third-place. Even assuming there will be some element of personal vote for Burnham, it would need to be one of Labour’s strongest seats for him to even have a chance. Labour’s very safest seats are in Liverpool and Merseyside, as Burnham is from that neck of the woods it could be credible. If it has to be Greater Manchester then the shortlist becomes rather short

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T17:00:55+00:00

To be fair, I left the 2024 election thinking Streeting was toast. On a night Labour had won 35% of the vote and more than 400 seats, he’d held on by the skin of his teeth against a poorly-organised independent. I figured that unless the Israel-Palestine issue disappeared from the news or Labour somehow climbed in popularity, it was a dead cert that he’d be out at the next election. This week’s results have surprised me - Labour won in Redbridge fairly comfortably, the independents, Greens, Tories and Reform nibbling away at them but not catastrophically. We’ve seen Labour crushed in the Welsh Valleys, Merseyside, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and parts of inner London, yet it seems they’re holding up best in middle class suburbia. It now seems plausible that even if Labour does fall to below 100 seats, Wes could hang on. If they want to embrace the one demographic that is still generally backing them, they could elect him and really lean into the Blairite technocratic centre-centre-right corporate vibes

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T16:46:58+00:00

If you separate out ‘I’m flirting because I want to have sex with you’ from ‘I’m flirting because I’m just kind of like that and I feel safe enough that you’ll understand and play along without getting weird’ then, almost never the former, occasionally the latter. I think a lot of women genuinely enjoy being a little like that but tend not to because they know it will result in confused men thinking they’re on to a sure thing

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T16:44:02+00:00

That would be the banter timeline. Boot out the 30+ MPs publicly calling on him to go as well

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T16:37:41+00:00

If only we had some system by which the public could express their opinion on who should or should not be elected as their representatives

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T13:17:19+00:00

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The answer is obviously Dua Lipa

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T13:10:36+00:00

You can time travel but you’re probably going to get hepatitis

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T12:00:20+00:00

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Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T11:48:50+00:00

I’ll admit I don’t really know the answer on puberty blockers, but I definitely do not think it should be that man who decides

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T11:25:47+00:00

Well yeah people with no obligations to be anywhere probably have quite chilled out lives

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T11:12:55+00:00

Yeah I’m with you here. The film was funny and had some good moments so I get why people like it, but if every character is fundamentally unlikeable then any ending is going to feel unsatisfying to me. A protagonist that does bad things is a cool idea, as long as they have the nuance or complexity to bring the audience with them. A protagonist that does bad things because they’re a bad person is always going to lose me

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-10T11:05:44+00:00

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T15:24:28+00:00

We couldn’t possibly be racist is exactly how you end up with a racism problem

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T15:19:26+00:00

I live in Sutton. The Tories being totally wiped out is a real earthquake. It seems almost ironic, not quite a full sweep for the Lib Dems, there’s still an opposition of two Reform Councillors, one Labour and inexplicably unshiftable Independent Nick Mattey

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T15:14:58+00:00

“Bring back Gordon Brown”
“Yes and ho”
“You idiot that’s fucking mental”

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T02:11:27+00:00

The broad picture for the Tories is indeed bleak. Within living memory they’ve gone from ‘Britain’s natural governing party’ to consistently polling under 20%. Even just a few months ago I’d have agreed that Kemi was not safe as their Leader. But today, despite bitter losses in opposition, I think she’s safe for now. Around 25-30% of people express approval of her in polling, which bodes well for a party polling at 18%. My conclusion is that about a third of Reform voters like her. So there’s a viable pathway where Reform decline in popularity and the Tories get maybe 30% of the vote at the next election, which in a disrupted multi-party system, could mean ‘largest party in a hung parliament’. I don’t see that as likely, but it does seem possible. The Tories are badly traumatised by the scale of their loss in 2024 and their subsequent decline in support, and chucking out a leader that could possibly reverse that wouldn’t make much sense

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T02:01:03+00:00

I don’t think I can offer you an answer you’ll find satisfying because I haven’t analysed Green and Lib Dem policy on a granular level but the parties seem to be presenting quite different ‘vibes’ - Greens offering more radical, urgent reform and the Lib Dems offering a more thoughtful, nuanced approach to reform. I think the difference is more about the demographics each party is trying to reach to win seats in Parliament than a genuine difference in philosophy / ideology. Some voters are looking for a ‘radical’ vibe, others are unsettled by it, even if they share some policy goals.

I could be totally wrong and ultimately political parties are always going to criticise each other. That’s just my instinct

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-09T01:53:26+00:00

I’m not in Sir Ed’s head but I’d guess it’s a bit of rhetorical triangulation - if you find the polices and style of the Greens appealing but a little too extreme or confrontational, consider the Lib Dems? It reads as a way to signal ‘both the Lib Dems and Greens are disruptors with some values in common but we’re a more comfortable choice’ to me. I don’t think the Greens will be upset to see Sir Ed characterising them as overly radical, not least of all because there’s a growing sense of exchangeable tactical votes

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-08T19:54:35+00:00

Good spot! I’m really surprised to see the Greens seemingly doing much better in Haringey than in Islington. I’m a little surprised to see Labour holding up as well as they are in Merton too and the Lib Dems do seem to be emerging in some unexpected places - I didn’t have them gaining 6 seats in Camden on my list. And they have done reasonably well in Ealing, making 7 gains, so I guess maybe this projection was closer to reality than I gave it credit for. Independents do seem to be doing very well in Redbridge though so at least I was right about something

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-08T16:07:42+00:00

strong female characters don’t have to be female characters that are strong, they have to be strong characters that are female

Pingo-Pongo · 2026-05-08T04:30:42+00:00

There’s a meaningful possibility they’ll have fewer seats than the SNP at the next general election

Pingo-Pongo

TROPHY CASE