[Tubby Isaacs]

I missed the rest of Kemi''s rant. Labour not a serious party apparently, because it's still led by Jez in her mind.

Is he saying this national service bollocks is "giving future generations the skills they need to face global threats?"

[Tubby Isaacs]

Worth clicking on the rest of that tweet. She savages Labour for having a "review". Aren't they having a Royal Commission?

[Tubby Isaacs]

This one?

This is good on the polling methods.

The Red pollsters, as I understand it, just leave out Don't Knows.
The Yellow ones ask a follow up question to the Don't Knows about who they lean towards (called a Squeeze question)
The Green ones make assume lots of Don't Knows will actually vote for who they did last time (I think).

I think I prefer the Yellow method but each to their own.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There is a movement that others have pointed out. It's the Greens dropping. But all their supporters in my constituency asssures me they're going to come second. guess we'll see.

[davidjay]

I would have thought that if there was going to be a shift it would have been when the election was called and shit started to get serious.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just the 27 point lead with yougov then.

[Youngian]

Get some in!*

* A popular sit com from the late 70s about national service

[Tubby Isaacs]

Majority in this seat is 23,000.

I suppose it makes more sense to campaign here than Wimbledon.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Blue collar Rishi genius latest. "We can't spend this free money you gave us", say firms.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Slight practical problem with the universities-apprenticeships announcement.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Lucy Allan could be standing for Reform. I wonder if any more retirers could be doing that?

https://inews.co.uk/news/lucy-allan-tal ... on-3080423

[Tubby Isaacs]

Gillian stuck it to Tony Blair by doing an apprenticeship. Except she didn't, because she completed a degree while she was working, which was one of the things Blair anticipated lots of people would want to do and included it in his target.

Have a guess which qualification makes it on to Gillian's CV. Yep, it's the degree!

[Bones McCoy]

Another funny guy.

[Watchman]

Majority in this seat is 23,000.

I suppose it makes more sense to campaign here than Wimbledon.

You would think if he needed to boost the Tory vote he would have visited the next door constituency; North West Leicestershire, current MP Looney Tunes Bridgen. Either he really has given up, or just as likely he was afraid of meeting some “interesting” points of view

[Tubby Isaacs]

You would think if he needed to boost the Tory vote he would have visited the next door constituency; North West Leicestershire, current MP Looney Tunes Bridgen. Either he really has given up, or just as likely he was afraid of meeting some “interesting” points of view

I would think he went to a few constituencies round there. Nuneaton and N Warwickshire-Bedworth are next door. Maybe he did NW Leicestershire too. Hinckley and Bosworth looks vulnerable to tactical voting.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Unbelievably, they're still tripping up on this.

Why didn't they just say 16, as effectively extended work experience, much simpler? I think they must have started with "put em in the army" and worked backwards from that.

[Andy McDandy]

Cast your minds back to internment in Northern Ireland. Aside from the utter stupidity of locking up hundreds and thousands of thus far non-political young men with a few hardcore IRA recruiters, suddenly doing cartwheels over this captive audience*, there were further implications.

Marriages broken up. Studies and apprenticeships interrupted, or ruined. Elderly parents left without carers. Many left unemployed, and thanks to the big gaps on their CVs, unemployable (as if things weren't bad enough for them already).

Nowhere have I seen in this 'plan' any indication of how people choose their NS path. Or indeed, if it's chosen for them. Hence the suspicion voiced already that it'll be the trenches for the scum, and a couple of afternoons tidying the park for the nice kids.

*Or going further back, Mussolini trying it with the Mafia.

[Oboogie]

I note it's only "England football stars" that are exempt, not Welsh, NI or Scottish. And what about all the English club players who've never earned an England cap and aren't likely to messing about on Salisbury Plain?

[Bones McCoy]

An irony is that England football stars probably share many qualities with an ideal military recruit.
* Obvious physical characteristics.
* Work well in a team context.
* Determination to win.
* Already passed through as many as 12 layers of selection.

[Tubby Isaacs]

).

Nowhere have I seen in this 'plan' any indication of how people choose their NS path. Or indeed, if it's chosen for them. Hence the suspicion voiced already that it'll be the trenches for the scum, and a couple of afternoons tidying the park for the nice kids.

My Dad, because of some special circumstances, didn't do the full period of regular national service, but was made to do a load of weekend TA as well. This was less than convenient seeing he was working in the family butcher's business, with Saturday the busiest day. I wonder if somebody better connected weould have got excused the TA but whatever, I can at least see a military logic to it. I don't see much logic in making a modern day version of my Dad give up 12 weekends.

It's not exactly unusual to work weekends these days. Did nobody in the Government think about building some flexibility in? Reminds me of during Covid where they didn't know that carers worked on several sites.