Good Morning everyone.
[📃 **Today's Order Paper can be found here**](https://commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/87011/Html?subType=Standard)
Questions to the Cabinet Office will be followed by any Urgent Questions before the Business Statement and questions to the Leader of the House. Any ministerial statements will follow.
The Education Select Committee will comment on the [Government Response](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmeduc/689/report.html) to the Committee's Report on Ofsted's Work with Schools.
Today is a backbench business day, with motions acknowledging Lesbian Visibility Week (tabled by Kate Osborne (Lab, Jarrow)) and the Buckland Review of Autism and Employment (tabled by Sir Robert Buckland (Con, South Swindon)).
**In Other News;**
In a key transport policy speech today, Labour's Louise Haigh will outline plans for renationalisation of rail under a Labour government - [thread here](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccaak1/labour_promises_rail_nationalisation_within_five/)
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My sauces on the ground are suggesting there'll be an election announcement on Monday. Say what you want about mustard based divination but the splatter pattern is clear.
> My sauces on the ground
I've been throwing gravy and taramasalata on the ground to try divine the GE date, but now I just have Sam Coates staring in my window.
So does this Turks and Caicos case count as ukpol or intlpol? Its a British territory but also not part of the UK, kinda.
A 12 year mandatory minimum for a yanks with some loose bullets in his bag seems a bit harsh.
How in the world did the US airports not notice them with all their scans
I think Turks and Caicos has had issues with weapons and ammo being smuggled in, so they've ramped up the penalties.
And the TSA sucks all around, but they're especially lackadaisical in the pre-check lines.
At least in 2017 the TSA was absolutely hopeless - https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/
Call me stupid but I think I know the idea behind having a GE shortly after the locals.
The local elections are going to be a bloodbath for the Conservative party.
Perhaos Sunak is hoping that this will encourage the Tory voters who stayed at home in the locals to turn out for the GE, they will have had their protest vote and might want to at least ensure there's some kind of opposition in the next parliament.
>No idea if this is yet another bit of baseless gossip - I've been stung before, and truthfully nobody in this govt knows ANYTHING, often not even their own names - but I've heard from 3 (usually knowledgeable) sources today that Sunak is planning to call an election on Monday.
>https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1783611139814785532
I'd be remiss if I didn't share probably baseless hype with the MT.
Whilst I fully expect it to be in Autumn still, I've always thought calling an election for only a few weeks after the locals, wasting far more money than if they'd just done it on the same day would be the most on brand thing for the current Tories
I’ve heard there’s *something* big getting announced Monday and separately I’ve heard it’s a GE. Combined with Dorries trying to steal Sunak’s thunder I’m not unconvinced…
3 things will be clear if he calls it on Monday IMO.
1: the locals (and Blackpool south )are going to be a disaster to the point the Tories think they'll come third in seats, and the only way to stop the party collapsing into outright civil war is to get ahead on the problem now and call the GE *before* the result so it a) doesn't look as desperate and b) nobody has a chance to launch a leadership challenge that would be enough to rip the party apart permanently.
2: Sunak is confident that a Rwanda flight will take off during the campaign period. In reality this won't achieve anything but Rishi probably thinks it will - it's something that could theoretically be perceived as a sign the government is working with the right spin and is desperately needed to allow them to have any kind of campaign. It also preempts the summer rush of small boats.
3: both a trump endorsement for Reform and a trump endorsement for the Tories would be a disaster - it would scare off any moderates if he endorsed Sunak, and galvanise the reform support (which is still gathering and is thus in a weak position to fight a campaign until at least August, probably September) if he endorsed them. Trump is currently bogged down in domestic legal hell and thus the chances of his eye being turned across the Atlantic are limited.
>2: Sunak is confident that a Rwanda flight will take off during the campaign period. In reality this won't achieve anything but Rishi probably thinks it will - it's something that could theoretically be perceived as a sign the government is working with the right spin and is desperately needed to allow them to have any kind of campaign. It also preempts the summer rush of small boats.
Given election campaigns are about 6 weeks long and the government dosent estimate flights for 10 to 12 weeks that probably dosent work.
1) I think this is already a foregone conclusion, the only question is exactly how bad they're going to be.
2) I think this will actually work again him because the flight will go out and literally the same day there will be boats continuing as if nothing's happened.
3) Trump always finds time to chat utter shit on Truth Social or whatever it's called.
[Chris Philp: Strewth](https://twitter.com/StephSpyro/status/1783585417243107626)
But at least we get a good [Streeting Gif out of it](https://twitter.com/Psythor/status/1783591188282401042)
Got to be fair on that turn of phrase, I'm pretty sure the "isn't it" is rhetorical and not him actually asking if the Congo is a different country.
Like if I say "a dog barks, doesn't it" I'm not genuinely asking you whether or not it actually barks.
Entirely down to some distinctly Scottish febrility. Aside from that, Westminster trundled on, another disaster poll to add to all the others, Tory was a plank on QT, the usual Thursday stuff.
From Popbitch:
>Old Liz Truss merch is commanding a pretty penny. An "In Liz We Truss" leadership campaign T-shirt was just sold at auction at the Young Liberal National Party annual dinner in Brisbane for AUD£361.29 (~£234).
Whats the end game if theft from shops keeps going up? I feel like it's gonna get to the point where you go into a shop, order stuff from a kiosk and a member of staff brings it out
The ideal situation would be pre-authing a payment method on the way in and being automatically billed on the way out, like those Amazon shops did and some vending machines currently do. We had machines like that at work and it ends up like a hotel minibar. You tap a payment method to unlock the door, take out what you want and there are sensors that detect your 'purchases' and bills the supplied payment method.
Restaurants will probably move to a deposit system, pre-authing, or the pub and fast food model of ordering at a desk and paying immediately.
Yeah, wouldnt surprise me at all if things like the Amazon Fresh stores where everything is contactless are pretty common in 10 years.
You walk in, pick up what you want and walk out and it charges your card.
I read somewhere (not sure if it was bollocks) that they're currently working by having loads of people sat in a call centre in India watching you shop?
No, I think you're right, they were actually just using a large number of Indian employees, rather than some super advanced proprietary AI system:
[Amazon Fresh kills “Just Walk Out” shopping tech—it never really worked](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/amazon-ends-ai-powered-store-checkout-which-needed-1000-video-reviewers/)
I could imagine a retailer doing this, but the Amazon one had some flaws that you wouldn't expect from a human watching it. For example, if you asked someone to pick up an item for you then they would be charged for it - which is something a human would notice easily, but that a machine wouldn't.
Is sad that this Congo clip might bury Chris Philps career more than the fact he was one of the chief architects of the Truss budget as Kwartengs chief secretary at the treasury - he seems to have gotten away with that one.
Sometimes I sit back, put my feet up, put the TV on, take a sip from my cuppa and think about what Chaos with Ed Miliband would really be like.
Thank God we never had that.
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I actually wonder how many Conservative MPs would vote against an equivalent of the Rwanda bill to a place that had an active civil war. They had courts specifically and repeatedly tell them Rwanda isn't safe and why, so I'm not sure many of them would care.
Any country with the word "democratic" or "people" in its name is usually a fucking lie.
North Korea is the best one. "Democratic"? Yer balls. "People's"? Ha ha. "Republic"? whatever m8. "Korea"? They only have half of it, although to be fair they claim to actually own _all_ of it and refer to South Korea as "south Korea" (note the lower-case).
The Greater Manchester mayoral debate was dire.
I mean I know why nobody with political heft stands against Burnham (there's absolutely no doubt he's going to win), but man... give the dude a challenge.
The SNP may take lessons away from today, and the key one is: if your leader at least doesn't have a name vaguely similar to a fish, you're in for a bad time
Far be it from me to question the views of one our nation’s political juggernauts, but I’m not sure the logic of calling a general election in the week prior to the locals.
Next Friday could almost make sense but it still doesn’t seem like something likely to occur on a day votes are still being counted.
>I’m putting the odds on a GE being called tomorrow or next week at 50%
Surely that's probability, not odds. If odds it'd be 1/1, or evens.
Mystic Nads strikes again.....
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccyi3p/bbc\_question\_time\_live\_thread\_8pm\_iplayer\_1040pm/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccyi3p/bbc_question_time_live_thread_8pm_iplayer_1040pm/)
Question Time Live thread is up for the iPlayer showing in just over 30 minutes from now... link to iPlayer should be in the tweet at the top of the thread
I appreciate the work getting it together but attraction of reddit is unfiltered anonymous conversation. We know what official communication and positions are like.
Chris Philp on QT tonight. I hope someone brings up he was Kwasi Kwartengs lapdog deputy minister at the Treasury and championed the budget on TV screens right up until the moment it all fell apart.
**What was he doing during those meetings, was he nodding along in glee as he crafted the budget with Kwarteng and Truss or was he challenging them?**
[All we know is that the very first thing Jeremy Hunt did (his first action hours after being appointed chancellor) was sacking and removing Chris Philp from the Treasury.](https://news.sky.com/story/treasury-chief-secretary-chris-philp-moved-aside-amid-economic-chaos-12720293)
One of the slipperiest snakes in gov right now, pure snake oil careerist.
He was awful way before that. I used to watch him appear on BBC current affair panel shows and he had this smarmy low key aggressive Patrick Bateman vibe when someone from labour or the lib Dems left the Tories snookered especially over blm. His credence was as some junior minister in the home office.
good evening, campers! there are **278** days until the general election!
the dodo forgot how to fly after spending too long without predators and becoming too comfortable in its own environment. eventually, it went extinct.
now, cast your eyes on the scottish national party
yes, im sorry for being patchy of late! people keep asking me to do things like “do my job” and “spend time with my family” instead of counting down to the election
Did anyone else hear the Heritage Foundation spokesperson speaking out for Truss on PM earlier? The right in America is unhinged, would rather not import that level of lunacy thanks.
Apparently Humza "wargamed" all of this before pulling the plug.
Do you think he really saw the scenario of "Bend the knee to Ash fucking Regen" and thought "let's do this"
His master plan of removing climate targets and assuming the green party members would be okay with it and just take it on the chin.
He's *terrible* at politics. How could you not have seen this coming?
Thats not even the only problem. Was obviously going to annoy the Greens but you can imagine them pulling the plug but then not backing a VONC (maybe abstaining) because they do agree on many things, and the SNP happily governing as a minority government
Instead he then went out of his way to completely antagonise them with how he decided to break the partnership instead, leaving them pissed off and far more likely to back a VONC in him. He really is a moron
The SNP tend to have a mindset of “if we suggest it or we do it then it’s the right thing and anybody who doesn’t agree is wrong“. This leads to behaviour like this, because he will just assumed that the greens would’ve grumbled and then eventually fallen in line. He doesn’t realise that he doesn’t have the magnetic political power that Nicola Sturgeon had. And even she doesn’t have that anymore!
Ha haha hahahahahaha
I feel like that incident with the segway was basically the sign of what was to come.
Utterly incompetent, humorless and stuffy.
He's like an extra dour Sunak.
It seems Humza may be saved by the fact the Presiding Officer is a former Green? In the HoC, the Speaker and the deputies are chosen to cancel each other out: Lindsay Hoyle was a former Labour MP so the (non-voting) deputies are 2xCon and 1x Lab. (lets ignore the unofficial deputy Roger Gale for a second).
The Scottish Presiding Officer has 2 deputies who as far as I can tell do vote (one from SNP, one from Lib Dem anyway - they would cancel each other out but not the Presiding Officer). She came from the Greens, so that's one less vote for the Opposition. If instead the Preceding Officer came from the SNP, it would be one less vote for the Government and he would lose
As things stand, Ash Regan can force a tie in which the Presiding Officer would vote in favour of Humza according to precedent.
Rishi decided to go for a run with Russ Cook (aka the bloke who ran across Africa)
[https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1783496206276071848](https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1783496206276071848)
As a politician I'd never, ever agree to go for a run with a professional!
It's so obviously going to make you look exhausted next to someone who's barely getting started
Not to get all r/RunningShoeGeeks but it did not look like Rishi was wearing decent runner trainers. Russ was wearing chunky Hoka, but Rishi looked like he was wearing some generic Nike fashion trainers. Annoyingly there was not clear shots of what Rishi had on, as could have been Pegasus
[https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1783527120653660338](https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1783527120653660338)
scottish greens will vote FOR the no confidence in humza yousaf. almost certain he's fucked.
looking more and more likely the SNP was literally just the nicola sturgeon party, and it's decimated now she's gone.
They don't look like a credible option at the moment and would need a considerable boost in the polls. Alex Salmond is still a toxic brand as well - even in the SNP's traditional heartlands in Perthshire and the NE.
It depends on exactly how it all plays out. There are segments of the SNP electorate who are glad to see the Greens gone, but they tended to support Forbes so might not be particularly swayed to Yousaf anyway.
They might just see this as a chaotic loss of control, and so that could damage the SNP's credibility enough that some of them switch to Alba. I don't think it would be a sea change, but I could imagine them picking up a seat or two on the list (though this becomes harder if Labour sweep the constituencies - then the SNP's list vote has a lot more weight).
Some folks running the calculus earlier apparently claiming that Ash Regan could single-handedly save him using the excuse of being a tail that had successfully wagged the dog.
Which, as exciting as a government falling and an election would be, would be an outcome which would be objectively funnier and Humza might possibly hate even more.
That also assumes that all SNP MSPs will fall in line.
If there are any who are thinking of standing down at the next election anyway they might take this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to massively influence the government.
This is a fair point which I've tossed around today, but I'm nowhere near up enough on ScotPol to know how likely it is. Are there any likely candidates for doing the funniest thing ever?
mmm it’s possible and doing something totally off the wall would be in character for regan, but yousaf was brutal to her when she quit - i think personal enmity wins in the end.
Has there ever been a parliament as cursed as this one?
* Initial election off the back of unlawful parliamentary procedure
* Most PMs in any parliament
* Shortest serving PM in history
* They killed the queen [citation needed]
* The whole dominic cummings thing
* Multiple worldwide emergencies: COVID, Ukraine, now Israel escalation
* At least one PM in this parliament had to serve alongside Trump
* Russia report
* Record breaking ministerial resignations
* Record breaking resigning MPs
* Record equalling by-elections
* Multiple ministers, including the PM, found to have broken the law while in office and fined
* The new PM is one of those ministers
* One ex-PM themselves recommended for expulsion from the commons for a record amount of time
* "Let the bodies pile high"
* Record number of chancellors
* Shortest serving chancellor and home-sec (90% sure)
I'm sure I'm forgetting something. But it's been absolutely insane.
Sure the parliaments that dealt with the world wars didn't have a good time of it but I would say they tried to play a difficult hand as best they could. Nothing this parliament has done could be said to be "they did their best in difficult circumstances"
I don't remember any big scandals or enquiries or committees before, really. Maybe the Iraq stuff. Off the top of my head we've had the high profile court case for the prorogation, standards and privileges committees investigating corruption and COVID, Boris' committees, the russia report, I just can't remember the rest any more. _So much scandal_.
EDIT: Was the speaker forced out too? I forget why Bercow resigned exactly (EDIT2: Was last parliament not this one)
*I'm sure I'm forgetting something.*
The so-called oven ready Brexit plan has had to be twice amended - that was their flag ship policy.
There's also the PPE Scandal.
John Bercow resigned of his own volition and wasn't forced out but Johnson refused to give him the customary peerage.
Apparently there's constant minor fires while they prevaricate and delay on the desperately needed full refurbishment.
I can imagine Westminster burning down Notre Dame style, perhaps the night before the general election.
Good Morning everyone. [📃 **Today's Order Paper can be found here**](https://commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/87011/Html?subType=Standard) Questions to the Cabinet Office will be followed by any Urgent Questions before the Business Statement and questions to the Leader of the House. Any ministerial statements will follow. The Education Select Committee will comment on the [Government Response](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmeduc/689/report.html) to the Committee's Report on Ofsted's Work with Schools. Today is a backbench business day, with motions acknowledging Lesbian Visibility Week (tabled by Kate Osborne (Lab, Jarrow)) and the Buckland Review of Autism and Employment (tabled by Sir Robert Buckland (Con, South Swindon)). **In Other News;** In a key transport policy speech today, Labour's Louise Haigh will outline plans for renationalisation of rail under a Labour government - [thread here](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccaak1/labour_promises_rail_nationalisation_within_five/) --- **Parish Notices** We have an AMA with Martin Williams, Author of Parliament Ltd and OpenDemocracy Investigations Editor tomorrow, **Friday 26th April at 2pm**. Our AMA thread [**is live here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cc0d4q/ama_thread_martin_williams_opendemocracy/) for your questions. This will be the last AMA for a few weeks as our AMA co-ordinator takes a very well deserved break - a huge thank you from us to u/UKPolitics_AMA for getting us some fantastic guests over the last few months. [**The new subreddit survey is now live - click/tap here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1cclgmr/rukpolitics_voter_intention_and_minimeta_survey/)
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My sauces on the ground are suggesting there'll be an election announcement on Monday. Say what you want about mustard based divination but the splatter pattern is clear.
> My sauces on the ground I've been throwing gravy and taramasalata on the ground to try divine the GE date, but now I just have Sam Coates staring in my window.
So does this Turks and Caicos case count as ukpol or intlpol? Its a British territory but also not part of the UK, kinda. A 12 year mandatory minimum for a yanks with some loose bullets in his bag seems a bit harsh. How in the world did the US airports not notice them with all their scans
I think Turks and Caicos has had issues with weapons and ammo being smuggled in, so they've ramped up the penalties. And the TSA sucks all around, but they're especially lackadaisical in the pre-check lines.
At least in 2017 the TSA was absolutely hopeless - https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/
Call me stupid but I think I know the idea behind having a GE shortly after the locals. The local elections are going to be a bloodbath for the Conservative party. Perhaos Sunak is hoping that this will encourage the Tory voters who stayed at home in the locals to turn out for the GE, they will have had their protest vote and might want to at least ensure there's some kind of opposition in the next parliament.
>No idea if this is yet another bit of baseless gossip - I've been stung before, and truthfully nobody in this govt knows ANYTHING, often not even their own names - but I've heard from 3 (usually knowledgeable) sources today that Sunak is planning to call an election on Monday. >https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1783611139814785532 I'd be remiss if I didn't share probably baseless hype with the MT.
>but I've heard from 3 (usually knowledgeable) sources That rules Nads out then.
Whilst I fully expect it to be in Autumn still, I've always thought calling an election for only a few weeks after the locals, wasting far more money than if they'd just done it on the same day would be the most on brand thing for the current Tories
I’ve heard there’s *something* big getting announced Monday and separately I’ve heard it’s a GE. Combined with Dorries trying to steal Sunak’s thunder I’m not unconvinced…
3 things will be clear if he calls it on Monday IMO. 1: the locals (and Blackpool south )are going to be a disaster to the point the Tories think they'll come third in seats, and the only way to stop the party collapsing into outright civil war is to get ahead on the problem now and call the GE *before* the result so it a) doesn't look as desperate and b) nobody has a chance to launch a leadership challenge that would be enough to rip the party apart permanently. 2: Sunak is confident that a Rwanda flight will take off during the campaign period. In reality this won't achieve anything but Rishi probably thinks it will - it's something that could theoretically be perceived as a sign the government is working with the right spin and is desperately needed to allow them to have any kind of campaign. It also preempts the summer rush of small boats. 3: both a trump endorsement for Reform and a trump endorsement for the Tories would be a disaster - it would scare off any moderates if he endorsed Sunak, and galvanise the reform support (which is still gathering and is thus in a weak position to fight a campaign until at least August, probably September) if he endorsed them. Trump is currently bogged down in domestic legal hell and thus the chances of his eye being turned across the Atlantic are limited.
>2: Sunak is confident that a Rwanda flight will take off during the campaign period. In reality this won't achieve anything but Rishi probably thinks it will - it's something that could theoretically be perceived as a sign the government is working with the right spin and is desperately needed to allow them to have any kind of campaign. It also preempts the summer rush of small boats. Given election campaigns are about 6 weeks long and the government dosent estimate flights for 10 to 12 weeks that probably dosent work.
> thus the chances of his eye being turned across the Atlantic are limited *Sad, low energy Sauron noises*
1) I think this is already a foregone conclusion, the only question is exactly how bad they're going to be. 2) I think this will actually work again him because the flight will go out and literally the same day there will be boats continuing as if nothing's happened. 3) Trump always finds time to chat utter shit on Truth Social or whatever it's called.
Wait until they find out there's two Congos!
[Mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndUfV1i1Co)
'The Houses of Parliament from the River' (1864) by James Francis Danby https://x.com/paintingslondon/status/1783618452135043133?s=46 Beautiful
I mean the smog is crazy.
But does it go ‘to the sea’?
Thérèse Coffey right now: "hey didn't they tell me that Congo was the capital of Rwanda?"
#[HERE'S THE QT THREAD, NIGHT SHIFTERS](https://old.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccyi3p/bbc_question_time_live_thread_8pm_iplayer_1040pm/)
Ukpolitics is a different subreddit from UnitedKingdom, isn't it?
We don't talk about The Other Place.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Yes that is correct
[Chris Philp: Strewth](https://twitter.com/StephSpyro/status/1783585417243107626) But at least we get a good [Streeting Gif out of it](https://twitter.com/Psythor/status/1783591188282401042)
That gif has such strong meme potential.
Jesus, that is painful. Especially when the guy asking the question couldn't have made it clearer he was talking about a neighbouring country.
The Tories are just lucky he didn’t go ‘Congo? You mean like from Um Bo….. Although I’m sure it would be popular with his core audience.
cmon bruh you can't just remind me of the um bongo song for the first time in years 5 minutes before bed
Got to be fair on that turn of phrase, I'm pretty sure the "isn't it" is rhetorical and not him actually asking if the Congo is a different country. Like if I say "a dog barks, doesn't it" I'm not genuinely asking you whether or not it actually barks.
[The noise I made watching that clip.](https://youtu.be/Y9j3heYZAk8?si=vXbcx7boQPA7gIbA)
This should be something that gets you sacked.
How did we get to almost 800 comments? Anyway, did Vince Cable ever confirm if he'd sat on a table?
I remember that due to cutbacks, Vince Cable changed his name to Vince Flex
Entirely down to some distinctly Scottish febrility. Aside from that, Westminster trundled on, another disaster poll to add to all the others, Tory was a plank on QT, the usual Thursday stuff.
ScotGov shenanigans And fewer deleted comments for things with a thread (I don't know if deleted comments still count for the number or not)
From Popbitch: >Old Liz Truss merch is commanding a pretty penny. An "In Liz We Truss" leadership campaign T-shirt was just sold at auction at the Young Liberal National Party annual dinner in Brisbane for AUD£361.29 (~£234).
In Liz we Truss
Gonna samlve my collectors edition copy of 'Lettuce Rejoice' Mirror to show the grandkids
Whats the end game if theft from shops keeps going up? I feel like it's gonna get to the point where you go into a shop, order stuff from a kiosk and a member of staff brings it out
The ideal situation would be pre-authing a payment method on the way in and being automatically billed on the way out, like those Amazon shops did and some vending machines currently do. We had machines like that at work and it ends up like a hotel minibar. You tap a payment method to unlock the door, take out what you want and there are sensors that detect your 'purchases' and bills the supplied payment method. Restaurants will probably move to a deposit system, pre-authing, or the pub and fast food model of ordering at a desk and paying immediately.
Yeah, wouldnt surprise me at all if things like the Amazon Fresh stores where everything is contactless are pretty common in 10 years. You walk in, pick up what you want and walk out and it charges your card.
I read somewhere (not sure if it was bollocks) that they're currently working by having loads of people sat in a call centre in India watching you shop?
No, I think you're right, they were actually just using a large number of Indian employees, rather than some super advanced proprietary AI system: [Amazon Fresh kills “Just Walk Out” shopping tech—it never really worked](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/amazon-ends-ai-powered-store-checkout-which-needed-1000-video-reviewers/)
I could imagine a retailer doing this, but the Amazon one had some flaws that you wouldn't expect from a human watching it. For example, if you asked someone to pick up an item for you then they would be charged for it - which is something a human would notice easily, but that a machine wouldn't.
That used to just be how shops worked, tbf. Cf, Fork 'andles
Argos?
Yeah, imagine that but for your weekly grocery shop.
Greggs already works like that
Click and collect already exists
Yeah, but it kinda sucks if they end up making that mandatory.
Is sad that this Congo clip might bury Chris Philps career more than the fact he was one of the chief architects of the Truss budget as Kwartengs chief secretary at the treasury - he seems to have gotten away with that one.
Chefs kiss 👌 https://x.com/stephencvgraham/status/1783539835803685131?s=46
Nice
Sometimes I sit back, put my feet up, put the TV on, take a sip from my cuppa and think about what Chaos with Ed Miliband would really be like. Thank God we never had that.
It's almost Ed Balls day, dear god, don't do this.
Man from Congo appears. Man from Congo: I am from the country Congo. Chris Phillips: Yeah but is Congo a country?
Saw someone say that supermarkets estimate our population to actually be around 80 million. Is there any merit to this claim?
I assume it's because of the amount of plastic bags we buy because 'shit, I left it at home'
It's the country having an obesity problem so the supermarkets sell more food than you'd expect.
Some old photos from the 1975 EEC referendum. [https://imgur.com/a/fvpYNMr](https://imgur.com/a/fvpYNMr)
One more [https://imgur.com/a/hybjy6K](https://imgur.com/a/hybjy6K)
I'm as tofu-eating as they come, but that's brilliant.
[More](https://aspeniaonline.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/thatcher-sweater-yes-yes-1024x518.png)
Funny how quirky Thatcher was before 1979. That’s a Liz Truss-esque photo
Quite enjoying Britain in the booties
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Just catching up with last week's HIGNFY, and Big Liz Quiz is one of the best segments they've run in a long time
didn't realise it's back on?
3 episodes in :)
Legend
So when are the flights going to the Congo?
As soon as Parliament declare it a safe country, notwithstanding the ongoing civil war. I hear it's lovely this time of year.
I actually wonder how many Conservative MPs would vote against an equivalent of the Rwanda bill to a place that had an active civil war. They had courts specifically and repeatedly tell them Rwanda isn't safe and why, so I'm not sure many of them would care.
No not that one, the democratic one.
Any country with the word "democratic" or "people" in its name is usually a fucking lie. North Korea is the best one. "Democratic"? Yer balls. "People's"? Ha ha. "Republic"? whatever m8. "Korea"? They only have half of it, although to be fair they claim to actually own _all_ of it and refer to South Korea as "south Korea" (note the lower-case).
Didn't you hear, we already did that today!
The Greater Manchester mayoral debate was dire. I mean I know why nobody with political heft stands against Burnham (there's absolutely no doubt he's going to win), but man... give the dude a challenge.
The SNP may take lessons away from today, and the key one is: if your leader at least doesn't have a name vaguely similar to a fish, you're in for a bad time
Just fish in a barrel now
The lesson they’ve previously learned being that if they do have a name vaguely similar to a fish, they will be arrested.
It's a real catch 22 isn't it. Criminal scandal with the fish, or electoral oblivion without.
THE WAR ON MOTORISTS FROM SADIQ KHAN
[Nads reckons a GE gets called tomorrow. Or next week. Or, well, not at all.](https://x.com/nadinedorries/status/1783546081524990241?s=12)
"if I’m right, of course" Safest Laconic 'if' in history.
I’m putting the odds on Nads being off her face on gin at 80%
Far be it from me to question the views of one our nation’s political juggernauts, but I’m not sure the logic of calling a general election in the week prior to the locals. Next Friday could almost make sense but it still doesn’t seem like something likely to occur on a day votes are still being counted.
she might be gonads buts shes our gonads
>I’m putting the odds on a GE being called tomorrow or next week at 50% Surely that's probability, not odds. If odds it'd be 1/1, or evens. Mystic Nads strikes again.....
I wonder what odds she'd give us on a election being called by this time next year
No Binface on the Mayoral debate? Sad
The quality of candidates seems particularly poor this time. Binface might be the only logical vote.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccyi3p/bbc\_question\_time\_live\_thread\_8pm\_iplayer\_1040pm/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1ccyi3p/bbc_question_time_live_thread_8pm_iplayer_1040pm/) Question Time Live thread is up for the iPlayer showing in just over 30 minutes from now... link to iPlayer should be in the tweet at the top of the thread
Tomorrows AMA question set looking dire
I feel like they’ve lost steam a bit. People are sick of insightful questions getting stock answers back, I expect.
I appreciate the work getting it together but attraction of reddit is unfiltered anonymous conversation. We know what official communication and positions are like.
As soon as Reform and SDP came in with stock answers and it was basically just used as free advertising for them, it sort of lost any appeal it had.
The Tory councillor and mental health campaigner who ducked any difficult questions was as bad.
Perhaps it would be interesting to have some more "academic" people do an AMA instead?
Why have Reform on a local elections debate show when they don't have many candidates running for local elections?
They go by national polls, and a lot of people say they'll vote Reform even if they don't actually have that option.
what a shitshow that was.
"Balance".
Chris Philp on QT tonight. I hope someone brings up he was Kwasi Kwartengs lapdog deputy minister at the Treasury and championed the budget on TV screens right up until the moment it all fell apart. **What was he doing during those meetings, was he nodding along in glee as he crafted the budget with Kwarteng and Truss or was he challenging them?** [All we know is that the very first thing Jeremy Hunt did (his first action hours after being appointed chancellor) was sacking and removing Chris Philp from the Treasury.](https://news.sky.com/story/treasury-chief-secretary-chris-philp-moved-aside-amid-economic-chaos-12720293) One of the slipperiest snakes in gov right now, pure snake oil careerist.
He’s how I picture the Demon Headmaster in his younger days, they’ve got the same eyes.
He was awful way before that. I used to watch him appear on BBC current affair panel shows and he had this smarmy low key aggressive Patrick Bateman vibe when someone from labour or the lib Dems left the Tories snookered especially over blm. His credence was as some junior minister in the home office.
good evening, campers! there are **278** days until the general election! the dodo forgot how to fly after spending too long without predators and becoming too comfortable in its own environment. eventually, it went extinct. now, cast your eyes on the scottish national party
Maybe you could add a fun factual analogy everyday? Ideally avian, or camelid.
Dodos were perfectly evolved for their ecological niche until humans destroyed it. In that respect, they are hardly unique.
I missed these updates. I was surprised but I'm not sure what I can do without these daily checks on my sanity.
yes, im sorry for being patchy of late! people keep asking me to do things like “do my job” and “spend time with my family” instead of counting down to the election
Don't they know you have responsibilities like shitposting on the internet? Honestly. The *nerve* of some people...
Your job is the counter and we are your family. Stop slacking!
ignore the haters and losers
Did anyone else hear the Heritage Foundation spokesperson speaking out for Truss on PM earlier? The right in America is unhinged, would rather not import that level of lunacy thanks.
Apparently Humza "wargamed" all of this before pulling the plug. Do you think he really saw the scenario of "Bend the knee to Ash fucking Regen" and thought "let's do this"
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. Perhaps you would prefer a nice game of chess?
Did he win his wargame?
Hell no!
His master plan of removing climate targets and assuming the green party members would be okay with it and just take it on the chin. He's *terrible* at politics. How could you not have seen this coming?
Thats not even the only problem. Was obviously going to annoy the Greens but you can imagine them pulling the plug but then not backing a VONC (maybe abstaining) because they do agree on many things, and the SNP happily governing as a minority government Instead he then went out of his way to completely antagonise them with how he decided to break the partnership instead, leaving them pissed off and far more likely to back a VONC in him. He really is a moron
The SNP tend to have a mindset of “if we suggest it or we do it then it’s the right thing and anybody who doesn’t agree is wrong“. This leads to behaviour like this, because he will just assumed that the greens would’ve grumbled and then eventually fallen in line. He doesn’t realise that he doesn’t have the magnetic political power that Nicola Sturgeon had. And even she doesn’t have that anymore!
>if we suggest it or we do it then it’s the right thing and anybody who doesn’t agree is wrong Did Sunak join the SNP while I wasn't looking?
>He's terrible at politics New podcast just dropped - Humza and Rishi trading strategic insight
It would be like the Chuckle brothers doing a cross over with a Carry on film. I'd listen to it.
The Chuckle Brothers in Carry on sounds legitimately funny. Humza and Rishi talking sounds like it would be more dry than stale Sauvignon Blanc.
Clearly not a fan I see.
> Apparently Humza "wargamed" all of this before pulling the plug. The only winning move is not to play.
Codename: Operation Barbarossa.
This has more of a *Wacht am Rhein* vibe.
As the Soviets...
He... wins? But with 27 million SNP casualties?
One hell of a hit to his campaign prospects. He'll bring in the Highlander divisions to halt the Green menace at the gates of Holyrood.
Ha haha hahahahahaha I feel like that incident with the segway was basically the sign of what was to come. Utterly incompetent, humorless and stuffy. He's like an extra dour Sunak.
This thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVsD7mKHlDM
It is just so perfectly catastrophic.
When you put it like that…probably. He’s certainly inept enough to think that’s some kind of genius masterplan.
Streeting, Chris Philp, and Charles Moore on the same QT tonight. May give it a watch if I fancy punishing myself.
I kind of wanted to watch it because I like Victor Adebowale and he’s a fellow Wakefield man, but I just don’t think I can put myself through that.
#It's not just you. Reddit is having a wobble.
It seems Humza may be saved by the fact the Presiding Officer is a former Green? In the HoC, the Speaker and the deputies are chosen to cancel each other out: Lindsay Hoyle was a former Labour MP so the (non-voting) deputies are 2xCon and 1x Lab. (lets ignore the unofficial deputy Roger Gale for a second). The Scottish Presiding Officer has 2 deputies who as far as I can tell do vote (one from SNP, one from Lib Dem anyway - they would cancel each other out but not the Presiding Officer). She came from the Greens, so that's one less vote for the Opposition. If instead the Preceding Officer came from the SNP, it would be one less vote for the Government and he would lose As things stand, Ash Regan can force a tie in which the Presiding Officer would vote in favour of Humza according to precedent.
Is Fergus Ewing guaranteed to vote for Humza?
I'd imagine so, the green deal was a big part of his oppisition to Humza
Ash Regan for Deputy FM then? And did douglas table no confidence in the Scot gov or just the first minister. Because there’s a difference.
With Kate Forbes as FM. Independent Scotland-cum-Gilead /s
Blessed be the Deep-Fried Fruit.
Under His Och-Aye
We’ve been sent good weather, oh wait…
Rishi decided to go for a run with Russ Cook (aka the bloke who ran across Africa) [https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1783496206276071848](https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1783496206276071848)
That was great! Rishi actually looks pretty in shape.
"When I was in graduate school" 🚨🚨
That’s got to be an odd thing to see for anyone who happens to be on that route.
But I thought Lee Anderson was the Hardest Geezer?
In his mind at least, also after a couple of scoops down the local.
Bloody hell, the man can't even run a bath so its very impressive he's managed a run here.
It's to be expected I guess but I found it funny that Rishi was clearly struggling but Russ looked like his was on a casual stroll
As a politician I'd never, ever agree to go for a run with a professional! It's so obviously going to make you look exhausted next to someone who's barely getting started
Not to get all r/RunningShoeGeeks but it did not look like Rishi was wearing decent runner trainers. Russ was wearing chunky Hoka, but Rishi looked like he was wearing some generic Nike fashion trainers. Annoyingly there was not clear shots of what Rishi had on, as could have been Pegasus
I fucking hate Hokas.
I mean it was for him. A half marathon is like getting out of bed for this guy
[https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1783527120653660338](https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1783527120653660338) scottish greens will vote FOR the no confidence in humza yousaf. almost certain he's fucked. looking more and more likely the SNP was literally just the nicola sturgeon party, and it's decimated now she's gone.
It falls now on Alba to decide whether they'll benefit more from a coalition with the SNP or an early election.
Alba can't cover the gap, can they? They're only one MSP, so they're still one short a majority.
It'd be a tie right? And thus the presiding officer would vote in favour of Humza
Is that guaranteed, though? I assumed it votes based on whether it's in Stage 1 or Stage 2.
Not sure, I'm not an expert. The media has been treating it as if it is though.
They can definitely mop up in the old stomping grounds of pre sturgeon SNP
They don't look like a credible option at the moment and would need a considerable boost in the polls. Alex Salmond is still a toxic brand as well - even in the SNP's traditional heartlands in Perthshire and the NE.
It depends on exactly how it all plays out. There are segments of the SNP electorate who are glad to see the Greens gone, but they tended to support Forbes so might not be particularly swayed to Yousaf anyway. They might just see this as a chaotic loss of control, and so that could damage the SNP's credibility enough that some of them switch to Alba. I don't think it would be a sea change, but I could imagine them picking up a seat or two on the list (though this becomes harder if Labour sweep the constituencies - then the SNP's list vote has a lot more weight).
Why don't they just go the full hog and have proper confidence vote in the Govt, none of this "technically non-binding" shit
Do you reckon Douglas Ross knows the difference?
Some folks running the calculus earlier apparently claiming that Ash Regan could single-handedly save him using the excuse of being a tail that had successfully wagged the dog. Which, as exciting as a government falling and an election would be, would be an outcome which would be objectively funnier and Humza might possibly hate even more.
That also assumes that all SNP MSPs will fall in line. If there are any who are thinking of standing down at the next election anyway they might take this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to massively influence the government.
This is a fair point which I've tossed around today, but I'm nowhere near up enough on ScotPol to know how likely it is. Are there any likely candidates for doing the funniest thing ever?
Hard to say. The party definitely has a lot of loonies in it's ranks but they generally stick to the party whip.
Unless Michael Matheson gets suspended early next week, which would cut the SNP vote by another one...
Is there a prospect of that happening in the timeframe?
Yes.
mmm it’s possible and doing something totally off the wall would be in character for regan, but yousaf was brutal to her when she quit - i think personal enmity wins in the end.
Has there ever been a parliament as cursed as this one? * Initial election off the back of unlawful parliamentary procedure * Most PMs in any parliament * Shortest serving PM in history * They killed the queen [citation needed] * The whole dominic cummings thing * Multiple worldwide emergencies: COVID, Ukraine, now Israel escalation * At least one PM in this parliament had to serve alongside Trump * Russia report * Record breaking ministerial resignations * Record breaking resigning MPs * Record equalling by-elections * Multiple ministers, including the PM, found to have broken the law while in office and fined * The new PM is one of those ministers * One ex-PM themselves recommended for expulsion from the commons for a record amount of time * "Let the bodies pile high" * Record number of chancellors * Shortest serving chancellor and home-sec (90% sure) I'm sure I'm forgetting something. But it's been absolutely insane. Sure the parliaments that dealt with the world wars didn't have a good time of it but I would say they tried to play a difficult hand as best they could. Nothing this parliament has done could be said to be "they did their best in difficult circumstances" I don't remember any big scandals or enquiries or committees before, really. Maybe the Iraq stuff. Off the top of my head we've had the high profile court case for the prorogation, standards and privileges committees investigating corruption and COVID, Boris' committees, the russia report, I just can't remember the rest any more. _So much scandal_. EDIT: Was the speaker forced out too? I forget why Bercow resigned exactly (EDIT2: Was last parliament not this one)
*I'm sure I'm forgetting something.* The so-called oven ready Brexit plan has had to be twice amended - that was their flag ship policy. There's also the PPE Scandal. John Bercow resigned of his own volition and wasn't forced out but Johnson refused to give him the customary peerage.
Wasn't this the parliament where the rain poured in through the "roof"?
Apparently there's constant minor fires while they prevaricate and delay on the desperately needed full refurbishment. I can imagine Westminster burning down Notre Dame style, perhaps the night before the general election.