[Tubby Isaacs]

Party discipline going well.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Telling Michelle O’Neill you want to draft her grandchildren into the British army wasn’t a task Baker was seeking.

Steve Baker is sounding more and more like a deprogrammed cult member who’s looking for an escape plan.

He's also helpfully put a blog post.

[Youngian]

A lot of complexities to unpack there for a political philosophy discussion. But everything’s simple for a simple libertarian.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just caught a few seconds of Seb Payne on Times Radio on youtube.

Asked if he'd have fancied doing it, he said "Well, I was a very nerdy youngster, and one of the options is cybersecurity". No fruit picking for Seb then. Anyway, the idea of 17 year old computer hobbyists being brought in for meaningful work is surely bollocks. What about the security clearance? That's expensive enough for full time staff, let alone somebody who's showing up for 2 weekends a month for a year. And this is specialized (and I'd guess) overwhelmingly graduate work. It's not 1970s California where Seb can slot right in on the back of attending computer clubs and experimenting in his garage.

[slilley]

I am old enough to have seen a good few election campaigns and I do not think I have seen one unravel as much so quickly as the one being mounted by the Conservative Party. The mis-steps seem to be coming along daily, along with policy ideas clearly scribbled on the back of an envelope and rushed out without any real thought or stress test. They seem to be in a complete death spiral thrashing around spouting anything they will get them attention. The Sleepy Keir jibe is just plain childish and symptomatic of their complete desperation

[satnav]

The omnishambles continues a pace Tory MP Lucy Allen who is stepping down at the election has given her backing to the Reform Party candidate in her old constituency.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Think it's going to be an effort to pass David Lammy off as Louis Farrakhan, to be honest. And there's probably a diminishing market for "tried to stop Brexit".

Someone points out BTL that Cameron as PM got this dangerous radical Lammy to do a review of the criminal justice system.

Amateurs. At least get somebody else to send this out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The omnishambles continues a pace Tory MP Lucy Allen who is stepping down at the election has given her backing to the Reform Party candidate in her old constituency.

She's a nasty bit of work- last time I saw her was lying about women's toilets being scrapped in The Barbican.

Nice that she couldn't even wait for the election was over to shit on her Tory successor.

[Spoonman]

The omnishambles continues a pace Tory MP Lucy Allen who is stepping down at the election has given her backing to the Reform Party candidate in her old constituency.

...and her local Tories have responded...

[Tubby Isaacs]

"Don't vote Labour in Chesham and Amersham", says Rishi.

Given that Labour got 1.6% in the by-election, this is a message that's likely to be heeded.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Absolute jokers.

Gap years abroad were much rarer in my day, but one of my friends spent a year working on a kibbutz. I thought that sort of practical life experience is what the young needed more of, but seems like the Conservative Party now thinks that's a diabolical lead-swinging liberty. Couldn't "national service" wait till he came back for his university course? Or the national service be done in a 24 day block before he went?

The last one is even better. What does that mean? The unpaid carer is replaced by a paid carer (at the government's expense, presumably)?

And somebody who joins the military might not get out of voluntary military service?!

Better still, don't answer any questions. Just say that's a matter for the Royal Commission.

[Youngian]

"Don't vote Labour in Chesham and Amersham", says Rishi.

Given that Labour got 1.6% in the by-election, this is a message that's likely to be heeded.

Amersham’s such an irrelevant paper candidate constituency for Labour it wouldn’t matter if they ran a dead person.

[Bones McCoy]

Two things here:

We won't have a conservative govt post-election, so National Service is as dead as a dead cat.

Let's visit Laa-la land with a Tory win.
The policy will take over a year to set up, so we're condemning today's 17 and below age groups to this.
Those who won't have had a vote.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha ha ha.

Even Harry Cole's having a laugh at Badenoch for this rubbish. If you think a policy is rubbish, you don't then say "Kudos for thinking about civic pride, fair dos!" There's an equally funny bit where she attacks votes at 16 for not helping growth, the NHS or reducing migration. How much doees Kemi's trademark trans issues help any of those?

Hasn't she rather admitted there that the voluntary work is free labour for the NHS? I'm old enough to remember when we staffed it properly.

And they keep talking like Labour isn't going to publish a manifesto. It may or may not be any good, but can't they see the "Here's the plan you asked for!" coming?

[Youngian]

Ever considered reaching out instead of belittling young people in order to expand your moribund voting base?

[satnav]

Yesterday Sarah Vine was losing her shit about 16 year olds getting the vote. Clearly she thinks that because her two kids went off the rails when they were 16 all other 16 year olds are the same. Fortunately most 16 year olds don't have a druggie and an alcoholic as role models when growing up.

[Youngian]

Daft cunt isn’t even standing. No sign of Reform logos on his account.

[Crabcakes]

I’m assuming at this stage the deliberate theme of the Tory campaign is hypocrisy? Starmer is too old, but is 15 years younger than the age they expect people to work until. Kids are too young to vote at 16 but can do national service and go abroad and be shot at. Kids never do anything, other than be locked inside for 2 years largely without complaint compared to the likes of Corbyn senior, Fox etc., but it’s pensioners who can have loads more tax free cash.

This is just the worst campaign I’ve ever seen. It’s so bad, even Jezza would have been in with a serious shout of winning if he’d faced this.

[Abernathy]

Daft cunt isn’t even standing. No sign of Reform logos on his account.

The ones that "challenge" opponents to TV debates are the ones that desperately know they are in for a massive kicking at the polls. Which is why Sunak apparently wants to debate with Starmer every fucking week until the election.

[soulboy]

Regarding Kemi's comment

They are *obsessed* with tinkering with the constitution to their benefit.

What constitution? Some people have been spending too long with the MAGA crowd.

Secondly, tinkering? Like photo IDs, removing the supplementary vote at mayoral elections and allowing ex-pats to vote in UK elections for the rest of their lives? Admittedly it hasn't worked out like that but I am not certain that the Tories reasons for these changes were entirely altruistic.