@amijudjes @thisstuartlaws Ah, nice. Yeah, I was looking for a synonym for 'bumps' that I could remove from 'laughter in heaven' to leave the letters for 'negative'.
Helps to know how many letters in the answer haha.
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Francis Finch
1.2K posts
@Finchy_III @thisstuartlaws Good spot, didn’t see that. But the answer is “even”.
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I’ve been casually slipping in fake British sayings and words into conversation with my American partner - here’s the one’s she believes:
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@amijudjes @thisstuartlaws Haha I want the answer to be ‘negative’ somehow. Negative means no, and the letters for it are in “laughter in heaven”.
But I’m not sure that’s right
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@thisstuartlaws Office mates, we used to convene daily before starting work to do crossword. One clue became a motto we all shared thereafter:
No laughter in heaven without bumps.
Solution on a postcard (or here).
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@peterrhague Have always said this about Starmer. The ultimate lawyer-brain.
Something cannot be bad unless it breaks a rule or law.
It's also why he did not understand the furore over him having his wardrobe and footie tickets bought. Because it was 'within the rules'.
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It’s not that Starmer is immoral. I think he is actually amoral. To him there is no right or wrong. There is just “process” and “not process”. He literally can’t understand why people are angry at him. He diligently followed Process so should be getting good outcomes.
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@DPJHodges It's also very worrying that senior civil servants can make these decisions.
He personally circumvented the outcome of a failed security vetting procedure and is now using an excuse that Kafka would be proud of.
While, seemingly, keeping the government completely in the dark.
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Actually, this intervention is helpful to Downing Street on one level. Implies Robbins did not tell anyone in No.10 because he believed he was precluded from doing so. Doesn't answer the fundamental question of why he took the decision to override the vetting advice though.
Sam Coates Sky@SamCoatesSky
NEW Friends of sacked Foreign Office boss Olly Robbins are starting to hit back and say sacking baseless. I've been talking to ex National Cyber Security Centre boss Ciaran Martin - who is about to embark on a media round ** He says it is the job the FCDO - so it was ultimately Olly Robbins - to decide whether security clearance is granted or not. Usually the FCDO security department does it and most cases didn't reach his level, but the most senior ones (presumably Mandelson) do. ** It’s ENTIRELY up to them, working with information from his own department and UK Security Vetting. The FCDO / he does not “overturn” the decision of UKSV - he’s they only one that decides. ** He says that Robbins was +prohibited+ from sharing details of what goes into his vetting assessment. Vetting would not work if elements shared confidentially went public. He was on a duty not to relay the position of UKSV. That’s why ministers do on get told - he is under a duty not to pass on any details beyond a pass/fail recommendation. ** So Martin says: the idea that there was a “recommendation” that was the “overriden” is wrong. This is the characterisation of government. The only assessment made is that by Robbins, and he could not have passed on any additional details. ** Therefore he feels the sacking of Robbins has no basis and that Robbins is being treated badly. ** Robbins will go before the FCDO select committee, perhaps as early as next Tuesday Ciaran Martin will be on @skynews shortly
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@LukeTryl It also matters how much of a differentiator a strong anti-immigration stance is now.
I don't know enough about Danish politics to know what the other parties policies are. But if most of them have shifted to a stronger anti-immigration stance, then people focus on other stuff.
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Some muddled electoral timelines on Denmark and Social Democrats immigration reforms. Suggesting their poor result in this election shows that their more control policies didn’t help and possibly hurt them & the left can’t win on them. But that misses a whole election in between
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@ScottInLondonYa @tomhfh Many, many countries have Digital Nomad Visas. If you can work abroad from a laptop, and you're earning at least, say, £40K a year — you have dozens of options.
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@tomhfh Can we assume this will now change, given events and the attractiveness of Dubai?
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Can we stop calling the brain drain a false stat now?
Paul Johnson@PJTheEconomist
OBR: "reflects an assumption that net outflows by British national adults will be around 50,000 a year higher on average"
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@AaronBastani @holland_tom It's such a weird argument as well.
I'm not a fan of the Greens' current iteration, but the idea that they could be a single-issue party and remain credible as a party that could govern the nation is ridiculous.
They need to have (and have always had) a wider manifesto.
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@holland_tom They do both. I know Green members that cleaned rivers last weekend.
You doing your bit?
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I do wish they'd focus more on saving hedgehogs, I admit. x.com/KasraAarabi/st…
Kasra Aarabi@KasraAarabi
Deputy leader of @TheGreenParty, Mothin Ali, joins a rally in London in support of the Islamic regime in Iran—the same regime that has the official slogan “Death to England” & has plotted more than 20 terror attacks on British soil. The Greens are a threat to national security.
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@btharris93 Labour can't out-Reform Reform, and they certainly can't out-Green the Greens.
I think their best chance is basically to ditch Starmer after the May locals, and then hope for a random economic upturn.
It won't have much to do with their policies, but economic booms rarely do.
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I agree with this Labour source.
Labour can't out-left the Greens, and they certainly won't be able to outdo them on Palestine cult stuff.
The only way back for Labour is not to chase after the hard-left cranks they lost, but rather to take back to the centre.
Steven Swinford@Steven_Swinford
Sir Keir Starmer will face growing pressure to move to the left in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election defeat But some are urging him against doing so, warning that if Labour retreats to its comfort zone it will get 'shellacked' Here's a Labour source: "We must not learn the wrong lessons here. When labour tried socialism, we got shellacked - with our worst result since 1935. "When we campaigned in line with the mainstream of where the British public is, we won our second largest majority ever. "Some will want to retreat to their comfort zone - and that will be the long-term damage today's result could deliver." "The idea that we are losing Muslim voters over immigration is plain wrong. It's Gaza again, just like it was at the last election."
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@simon4124 @AyoCaesar In fairness, he practised what he preached!
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@AyoCaesar Wrote about capitalism whilst scrounging every bit of money he could off anybody he could, including getting mortgages and loans.
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Karl Marx wrote about capitalism, and you'll never guess what he wanted...
Richard Eden@richardaeden
Turkey voting for Christmas? Philippa Gregory, who made her fortune writing historical novels about the Royal Family, says Monarchy should be abolished. Read Tuesday's Eden Confidential social diary: dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/arti…
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@AaronBastani Honestly think Owen comes across really badly here.
A huge proportion of the population are not policy wonks or deeply embedded in the minutiae of politics.
So yes, their in-person interactions with the people representing a party are going to carry a lot of weight.
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It’s amusing but this is folk wisdom.
Chinese communists took this stuff seriously!
Owen Jones@owenjonesjourno
One of the most surreal answers I've ever been given.
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@DavidLaneDesign @RLWButler RRL is great. Have to save up several years when I want to buy anything though haha.
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@christopherhope I don't particularly like the Greens, but that JL poll does feel a little low for them. That's their same share as 2024.
Gut feeling says YouGov is probably a bit closer to reality.
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Pollsters YouGov and JL Partners don’t agree on Reform UK’s lead in the polls quite dramatically today … Who is right?
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@moveincircles "Bryan is an exemplary journalist whose voice has been quietly honed over more than a decade at the Guardian. His style is consistent, recognisable and rooted in years of craft. That's not imitation — it's dedication."
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A spokesperson for the Guardian posted: “This allegation is not just false - it’s preposterous. Here are five ways Bryan’s style has remained consistent over the last 11 years:…”
Max Tani@maxwelltani
A spokesperson for the Guardian says this is false: "Bryan is an exemplary journalist, and this is the same style he’s used for 11 years writing for the Guardian, long before LLM’s existed. The allegation is preposterous."
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@raphaeldogg This has nothing to do with viability of business.
Employers are simply choosing not to hire young people at the minimum wage because they can likely find people with more experience for that price.
That's what happens when minimum wage gets high. People don't hire newbs.
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'Minimum wage increases.'
I don't know how often it has to be said before you imbeciles get it; if your business can't afford to pay a liveable wage, you don't have a viable business. You have a business reliant on subsidy.
The Telegraph@Telegraph
🔴 Britain’s youth unemployment rate has risen above Europe’s for the first time as a Bank of England official blamed minimum wage increases for pricing young people out of work Find out more ⬇️ telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/…
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@Socrates133 @AaronBastani That's not massively surprising at all (at least where I live).
A decent minority of Green voters prior to Polanksi were rural Nimbys. Instinctively conservative, but pro-environment (at least locally).
Not surprising they're not on-board for radical leftism.
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@AaronBastani Whenever I see stats like this I always wonder about the oddities: who are the 3% of 2024 Green voters who thought 'fuck this, I'm voting Tory next time'?
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This is wild.
8% of Labour’s 2024 voters are going to Reform.
27% are going to the Greens.
Labour is presently keeping less than half of its vote 🤯
NJ@NoJusticeMTG
*twenty seven* percent of 2024 labour voters going Green. This is what 'shaking off the fleas' looks like
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@tomhfh Depends on the ISA. Stocks and shares ISA over time will likely have outpaced inflation on the student loan.
Or skip the ISA bit entirely and just invest directly.
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I started overpaying my student loan five years ago.
Even then (when the interest rate was much lower) it was obvious that every marginal pound is best 'saved' in clearing the loan asap.
It's dumb to save extra money in an ISA if you're facing high loan repayments.
I knew I couldn't guarantee a return of ~6% on savings but I was adding 6% to my student debt, so the best form of 'saving' was paying off early.
If you're saving money but facing a big interest rate on your student loan, you should put your savings into paying off the loan instead.
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@Suffragent_ This is untrue. A lot of them aren't in office anymore.
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75% of England's Mayors are muslim. What's going on?
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@SkipMcQueen A poll commissioned by the Lefty Stats account put Labour massively ahead in Corbyn's seat. It looked very competitive for them.
Crazy how far off that poll ended up being, by the way.
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It didn't stop Labour funnelling resources into Islington North, did it?
Owen Winter@OwenWntr
Find it weird that these guys never adjusted to the reality that Labour came nowhere near winning Clacton. Funnelling resources into the seat was never going to overturn the 30-point gap (but it might've cost Labour elsewhere)
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@KeithWoodsYT I don't think Farage wants to be prime minister. He likes to throw shade from the sidelines while collecting a pay packet.
The thought of being PM, and the responsibility of power, is probably terrifying for him.
I expect him to manufacture a grievance and resign before 2029.
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This is such an astonishing own goal by Farage. There were projections last year showing Reform on course for a historic landslide that would wipe out the Tories. And all they had to do was NOT be Labour or the Conservative Party.
Then Farage welcomes a bunch of failures from the previous government into his party leadership, and their lead immediately starts collapsing. Terrible political instincts.
Europa.com@europa
🇬🇧 A new YouGov poll shows support for Reform is declining. Reform fell to 25%, with Labour now trailing by just 4%. In a poll by the same company 6 weeks ago, Reform led Labour by 10%. This comes after a number of high profile defections from the Conservative party who served in the last government. The number of voters who see Reform as different to the Conservative Party has fallen sharply from last year, with most saying it makes them less likely to support the party. Follow: @europa
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