@davidmcw @cathalcoleman11 Beat his arse, David (metaphorically speaking, of course, we're Trinity Arts Block graduates and therefore above such things)!
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Rob Lamontagne
1.4K posts
Rob Lamontagne
@tbotp
I don't even endorse my own tweets. Irish-educated American and Australia-to-UK migrant with the Canadian name. TCD/ANU, teacher.
London Katılım Şubat 2011
444 Takip Edilen65 Takipçiler
This article is long on rhetoric and short on the composition, and analysis of the local entrepreneurial class.
David McWilliams@davidmcw
Ireland's job creation record is possibly the most impressive in the world, bar China.
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@RealAirPower1 How effective is it in Ukraine against the Russians?
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While high-end assets like THAAD and the F-35 grab all the headlines, a "blue-collar" hero, as I like to call it, is quietly winning the drone war every night. The RAF Regiment’s Rapid Sentry system, deployed around Erbil, Iraq, has notched an incredible tally of ~50 Iranian drone intercepts since February 28. To put that in perspective, Rapid Sentry has downed roughly 10 times as many drones as the RAF’s fighter jets in the same theater! It’s the ultimate goalkeeper: a VSHORAD designed exclusively to tackle low and slow threats like the Shahed-136. 1/2
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer @arisroussinos The evolution thesis seems more convincing! and empirically morr supported.
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@tbotp @arisroussinos The traditional view is that the ancestors of the English arrived from across the north sea, found the place full of Celtic Britons, and conquered and displaced them, thereby creating England as a settler society. It is now thought more intermingling and interbreeding happened.
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If you live in London, you should know that Brân (raven), son of Llŷr, had his head, lopped off in a battle with invading Irish, buried on Tower Hill to protect the kingdom, at which Branwen died of a broken heart. This is England’s deep mythology too.
Aris Roussinos@arisroussinos
Everyone in Britain is heir to an extremely complex & ancient Celtic mythological cycle of native gods & heroes, just like Ireland, but set in the country in which they live, yet the British educational system actively ignores it. I doubt 1/10000 children could name a British god
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer @arisroussinos Did the Englisc arrive from elsewhere, or did they evolve in situ?
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@arisroussinos It is the deep mythology of the land that became England, but I am not sure we can refer to anything as English until the English arrived.
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Because libs are so fucking bad at speaking in moral terms they shy away from this; they always want to ascribe rational motives to their enemies. But they won’t try to define the enemy’s moral system, moral motives. And it’s a huge failure.
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Something Dems/libs need to start doing (which the left and the right both do) is go out and ascribe nasty motives to the enemy—explain their moral worldview in your own terms. It’s incredibly effective, and helps define your own morality as negation
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer @MarkElliottSmi1 Fair, but if we're to have them, I want the Lords Spiritual looking like a papal conclave: headgear of all kinds, beards, etc
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@tbotp @MarkElliottSmi1 Irish and Welsh bishops used to sit in the Lords, but ceased to do so when the Church of Ireland and Church in Wales were disestablished.
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I’m really sorry, but this makes no sense. What is the point of the Lords Spiritual when the only way of remaining in the Lords is to avoid being seen there in the first place?
Richard Bastable@rmbastable
No, that’s not at all what I meant. What I meant is that if all the bishops turned up at once then it would amplify and hasten cries to abolish their seats in the Lords.
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My grandma’s family had a farm in Louisiana for generations. When it went under in the 50s, she didn’t look for another farm to live/work on. My grandma moved to New Orleans, took a typing class, and got a job as a secretary at Tulane so her kids could get free tuition
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer @MarkElliottSmi1 Why are the Lords Spiritual only from one church in a country with 4 national churches, and a wide variety of organised religions?
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@MarkElliottSmi1 This is reason number 972 why we need a proper written constitution: where else are members of a legislative chamber terrified of using its proper powers, from fear that if they do they will be purged out of it? The absolutism inherent in parliamentary sovereignty is showing.
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer Wonder how that would break out on variety, not just size - eg, Spanish electorates that vary massively in numbers elected and proportionality. (I'm a fan of uniform, multimember constituencies.)
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@tbotp Yes, but bonus systems don't tend to use five seat STV, more life vast multi-member list constituencies with low effective thresholds (although there might be high imposed thresholds, because the same logic that argues fro a majority bonus also tends to like high thresholds).
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I'm intrigued by 'majority bonus proportional representation': PR, but with bonus seats for the plurality winner. A 10% allocation of bonus seats means a party winning 45% of votes would get an overall majority. 1/
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer This is already delivered by the effective threshold of votes to seats. You don't need 5-seat STV and some kind of bonus, it's part of the result.
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And there *is* something arbitrary about it: Why 10% bonus? Why not 5%, or 20%? It seems as if the rules, not the voters, pick the majority (this is to some extent true of all electoral systems, but it *feels* especially blatant with a majority bonus, and feelings matter). 5/
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@ScottMoore0 As they say, the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland.
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I’ve been adding election results to the Boundaries Website recently.
And there have been approx 1 million ‘Labour’ parties in NI
NI Labour Party
Labour Party of Northern Ireland
Labour ‘87
Newtownabbey Labour Party
Derry Labour and Trade Union
Labour Coalition
etc
Jerome Sneed Democrat@avrilbradley23
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@politicalmath *slaps the roof of the franchise*
You can fit so many Duncans Idaho in this thing.
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There are three left leaning independent candidates running in red states this cycle: Dan Osborn in Nebraska, Seth Bodnar in Montana, and Brian Bengs in South Dakota. Why aren't there center-right indies running for Senate in blue states?
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@Dr_W_E_Bulmer Who speaks today of the NZ or Qld or QC LegCos of yesteryear? Well, at least one researcher!
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I wish people would see this with a bit of comparative and historical context. This reform merely drags the UK into the C19th, when appointed second chambers were a norm of British constitutionalism in the Empire: e.g. Canadian Senate, NZ Legislative Council.
Ally Mackenzie 🇬🇧@allymackenzie17
The House of Lords is now dead. Soon only a nominated husk will remain. A sad day for us British Constitutionalists.
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@simongerman600 @MappingFL I've long argued Worcester County, Mass. has always been a Southern fifth column undermining the Commonwealth!
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Pretty crazy data mapped here by @MappingFL: The 1919 US House vote on the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote showed geographic patterns very familiar to students of history...
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@judeinlondon Ironically, my local councillors and local council leadership (bar one guy specifically) are a) competent, b) left, and c) Labour. I'm as shocked as anyone, but there it is.
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@JoshHousden Which one would have more chances: North or South London? I reckon the belt of possibilities runs south to north in eastern London, Dalston to Brixton?
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What's the most interesting county or region I should map next? For any party, not just the Greens
(Before anyone asks for London: I'd need to split it into multiple parts)
Josh Housden@JoshHousden
GE2024 - Green Party vote share across Greater Manchester Top 5 constituencies: 🟢 Manchester Rusholme (23.5%) 🟢 Manchester Withington (19.4%) 🟢 Manchester Central (16.1%) 🟢 Gorton & Denton (13.2%) 🟢 Salford (13.1%) Census level estimate 👇
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@PENELOPTICON Mass Dems saw successful political competition and genuinely were blown away. 'Wait, you can just...run? Whenever you want? And win? This truly is the Anointed One. Leave this Wrentham Adonis be; he is truly Chosen.'
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I feel like it should be known that Elizabeth Warren was the absolute last-ditch choice in 2012, a Hail Mary draft campaign by activists after every Massachusetts Democrat that mattered decided that Scott Brown was unbeatable 2 years in advance
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Rob Lamontagne retweetledi
Indeed, can you imagine if we elected a PM who would disrupt this last 25 years of unbroken success, victory, prosperity and joyful national harmony
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@edhodgsoned @charliemansell Or it shows that Labour under its disastrous leadership has become so toxic that it's united its formerly potential voters in a way no competent party could.
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Green's performance yesterday was historic - but the scale is lower when you account for the the Workers' Party standing aside and endorsing them.
Accounting for this makes the seat Labour's 89th safest, not it's 35th, and brings green gains closer to other gains made in 2024.
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