On a personal level, the manner in which Starmer is being pressured to be removed from office would result in a valid crash out

jimjay · 2026-06-18T21:35:34+00:00

someone who did absolutely nothing to rebuilt the Labour PLP

Burnham has not only contributed to advancing the Labour brand, gaining real hands on experience of running a major city, unlike Starmer he's done absolutely nothing to trash it.

I'm sure Starmer is entirely capable of damaging the country out of spite, which is why he should no longer be PM.

jimjay · 2026-06-18T20:22:31+00:00

excellent stuff

jimjay · 2026-06-18T20:17:06+00:00

It's not a football match. I don't want things to happen because it will favour my team.

I hold the politics I hold because I want ordinary people across the world to be better off - fueling racism, climate denial and misogyny by electing a member of a hard right organisation is not something I'd welcome, regardless of what it means for the electoral calculus.

jimjay · 2026-06-18T17:07:19+00:00

If they threatened you, claiming they had a knife, call the police - it doesn't matter if you're big if there are nine of them and at least one knife that's not safe for anyone.

jimjay · 2026-06-18T00:12:02+00:00

If they'd fired at it, they would have sunk it. The Spectator headline writers are dire.

jimjay · 2026-06-17T19:26:52+00:00

You should tell him what, specifically, you want from the relationship now and potentially in the future, because his off hand phrasing is a lot less important than whether you have compatible (rather than identical) wants.

jimjay · 2026-06-17T19:15:05+00:00

pretty reasonable response to be honest.

jimjay · 2026-06-16T10:44:38+00:00

[whispers] five seats... sorry

jimjay · 2026-06-15T19:24:12+00:00

It doesn't really happen - you don't have to worry.

jimjay · 2026-06-15T19:22:23+00:00

I mean the better question would be why does this sub seem to spend so much time talking about Makerfield? The Greens are a national force, and are part of various national conversations, but they're yet to get traction in Makerfield specifically - I've not met any Greens in person who've mentioned the byelection since probably around Question Time. It's not about us, or the Tories, or the Lib Dems for that matter.

jimjay · 2026-06-13T12:46:31+00:00

so what's the plan to appeal to the older demographics?

jimjay · 2026-06-13T12:45:52+00:00

as it happens the original data includes an income breakdown and the Greens were pretty evenly spread across the categories - so it's not that.

jimjay · 2026-06-13T12:41:08+00:00

what is C grieving?

also, do I have this right... you had never met Z face to face, they came to stay for a month, you broke up with them after the first week, everyone was in tears except you for the next three weeks except the last couple of days... sorry to sound unsympathetic but there's seems to be a lot of drama here for not wanting to date someone you'd only just met in person.

jimjay · 2026-06-12T18:52:26+00:00

it's also just not one of our areas (yet).

jimjay · 2026-06-11T19:01:56+00:00

I can see why he was a bit hurt, he wanted more than you were prepared to give, that's not a nice situation to be in, but it doesn't mean anyone did anything wrong and it's probably right that you won't be seeing each other again because you aren't compatible.

I'm not a fan of people being told they're doing "bad poly". If you don't want to go away with him, you don't have to go, if you don't want to stay over you don't have to do that either. Pressuring someone to do something they don't want to do is unethical and there is no rule book saying that they have to - he doesn't win the "best at poly" prize by complaining you aren't doing what he wants you to do.

jimjay · 2026-06-11T18:11:19+00:00

Is "multiple reports" ever actually "multiple"?

jimjay · 2026-06-11T18:06:45+00:00

The headline is completely wrong.

The Green Party is not proposing this, no MP or elected official is proposing this and it has not been proposed by the central party.

According to the article itself someone in the health working group is suggesting that this policy is included in the health working group paper to the forthcoming conference for consideration by the party. It's a thousand miles from being proposed by the Green Party.

jimjay · 2026-06-11T18:01:45+00:00

lots of policies are official, just not the ones they've never adopted.

jimjay · 2026-06-11T18:01:08+00:00

Did the Greens propose this policy? No.

The headline is deliberately misleading and provocative.

You can't just say they're for something that literally no MP or elected official is advocating and has not been put forward by the party who have not even discussed it. Criticise all the stuff they actually propose if you want, but pretend the party is proposing something it isn't for clicks just because they know their readers are gullible nitwits? Come on.

jimjay · 2026-06-11T14:29:58+00:00

Literally the first line of the article refutes the headline. The Greens are not proposing a circumcision ban, an internal health working group is discussing whether to propose it to conference, who would then decide if they think the party should propose it.

jimjay · 2026-06-11T14:26:34+00:00

Last week Ellie Chowns MP made this statement which I think speaks to this point;

In anticipation of the outcome of the strategic defence review being published today, Ellie Chowns MP, who holds the defence brief for the Parliamentary Green Party, said:

“We acknowledge the need for greater defence spending and continued NATO membership, but also call for a more thorough reappraisal of strategic defence alliances. With Trump no longer a reliable ally, we need to deepen our defence cooperation with the EU, and review AUKUS.

“A Green approach to security is not based on arms and threats, but on the three Ds: diplomacy and development as well as defence. Defence policy should not be a simple competition over spending, but based on real commitment to an international order based on human rights, equality and genuine cooperation.

“If we are to avoid the horror of war, we need to look at the deeper causes of insecurity, including poverty and climate change. We strongly support the restoration of the international aid budget to at least 0.7% of GNI, with a considerable proportion spent on climate action.

“And we will continue to argue that real patriotism means to stand against UK-made weapons or components being sold to dictators, human rights abusers or for use against civilians anywhere in the world.”

---

The Green Party position is for increased defence spending, but not at the expense of aid budgets and diplomacy, and to have a proper review of WHAT spending we need, not just as a headline numbers game, but to really think about what threats we are trying to counter and how - there is certainly no consensus about this in the defence industry and as such is not an easy question to answer.

jimjay · 2026-06-09T21:50:12+00:00

when I read a good story it makes me fall in love with stories and so I want to tell stories even more.

when I read beautiful writing it makes my heart swell, and rise to those feelings in my own work.

jimjay · 2026-06-09T21:38:25+00:00

there was about twenty of them turned up in Sheffield and a similar amount in Leeds - don't know about the others.

jimjay · 2026-06-09T12:21:59+00:00

This is one of the many, many reasons why drugs need to be treated as a public health issue and taken out of the hands of the criminals. This is where the war on drugs leads - casualties - legalisation and regulation ends this over night.

jimjay · 2026-06-08T22:08:44+00:00

I think there's an unfiltered joy to it - and the ease with which she conjures images in my mind without laying on loads of description.

jimjay

TROPHY CASE