Sod's Law

I didn't say he should call it now (although he should if he has a shred of humanity and grace left), more that he should announce the date at the very least. A little certainty goes a long way, especially when you look at how packed the political calendar at the end of the year is looking.

Exactly. As I pointed out, it sends off the message to voters that he's holding the country hostage in order to eek out every little morsel of power that he can before the inevitable happens. Human beings resent uncertainty as a general rule and prolonging it will do his party no good.

October and November are both a horrible time to have an election due to the uncertainty it causes with conference season, the US elections and then the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings, and nobody wants another December election. There's just no good date to have it after September. I'm actually pretty pissed off that he hasn't announced the date already given that some rumours were speculating he was preparing to head to the palace right after the locals. Just announce the goddamn date, man. If it's not next month then at least tell us WHEN. His party might even have a slight uptick in the polls if he just said when the date was today and didn't give off the strong impression that he's holding the country hostage for shits and giggles.

Is this still all linked to the stabbing incident from several years ago?

Wow, turnout for the mayoral elections in my area was below 28%. The only real shocker with the results was that Reform was pipped by the Greens (bearing in mind that this is Anderson's neck of the woods). Looks like the guy from the campaign brochure with gaffer tape on his mouth who called himself 'the candidate they don't want' proved his point.

The way Paxman used to say 'twenty-oh-two' on University Challenge wound me up for some reason. Who says it like that?

Mulled over whether to bother turning out since I had a long road trip to make yesterday and there were only PCC and mayoral elections in my area, but did in the end. Polling station was predictably deserted. I figured that since turnout would be so low, my vote would probably have three times the power it would have in a general election and the mayor is still an untested role, so I may as well give them a chance. The result around here is expected to be extremely predictable so you won't see any coverage on the national news.

As this is one of those books where you'll be able to feel the burning glare of the person at the bookshop till judging you as you hand it over to be scanned, I'm not surprised no-one wants to be seen buying it. Or have their name and address attached to any copy of it sent in the post.

I'm kind of surprised there's any. QEII was a way more 'marketable' royal. I went on a visit to Hampton Court last summer and they still sold corgi keyrings, even though the corgis have been shuffled out to live with creepy Prince Andrew and the new King and Queen apparently only have two rescue Jack Russells (no keyrings of those, I'm afraid).

Probably resents being usurped by one of the more 'junior' crazies on this site.

My strategy of diversifying my targets by having as few names appear between separate dead pools as possible doesn't seem to be bearing fruit.

Sadly I picked him on the Electoral deadpool but not this one...

Frank Field: my first hit of the year.

Because FPTP has worked so well at preventing that...

He brings his stool for the photoshoots, so I heard.

Yeah, one benefit that was always said about FPTP was that it produced stable one party governments with a clear mandate and kept the loonie fringe parties out, an argument which has been shot to pieces in both Britain and America this past few years. The fact that Truss, Kwarteng, etc are still even in the Tory party speaks volumes. The loonies who would otherwise be in those fringe parties end up joining one of the main parties and morphing it out of all recognition. Like how Reagan would have despised Trump and what's become of his party today, playing along to Moscow's playbook. It's true that Reform UK may end up with a few seats if PR was introduced, but guess what? Coalition pacts between more moderate parties to keep the more fringe parties out of government exist in other countries. They can exist here.

If Sunak is still somehow PM by then, it'll be an open secret among the other heads of government that he most likely won't be for much longer. Question is does he spare himself the humiliation of attending an international conference as a lame duck PM whose word will mean nothing in a short space of time, or relish one last shot of looking like a big boy on the world stage?

Labour forming a coalition government with the Lib Dems (and the Lib Dems making a PR referendum a prerequisite for their support) would be the most likely avenue, but still by no means guaranteed unfortunately.

Beat me by one second. Damn it.

Scaling back official duties out of consideration for his age. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68874904

'Pattern of behaviour that falls below the standards expected of MPs'? Erm... surely those standards must have shrunk to that level a long time ago by now?

Looks like an RFK Jr man to me.

I know they can, but it's extremely unlikely based on what we've heard so far.

Even riskier in Texas, I imagine.

Richard Dawkins still going on a worldwide tour but he's 83 and had a stroke a few years ago. Out of the big four, there will only be Sam Harris left soon and he's the youngest by some margin.