I can’t as Bobby Brewster and the Winkers’ Club is clearly the superior title.

That’s not much.

It’s an incredibly complicated issue, even if you look at individual cases (like Caster Semenya) and there’s almost no easy way to define what you mean by a woman. Ultimately it’s down to the individual sporting organisations to decide how to call it based on expert advice and any decision is going to disadvantage some athletes. If they think the decision is wrong, then there should be a way to appeal decisions because it can come down to difficult analysis based on each individual’s life history.

A compelling argument I’ve heard is that the greatest performance enhancing drug is being exposed to testosterone during puberty and that seems to be the base line a lot of the sporting organisations use. However, even then it is difficult to call for individuals and would need expert testimony on each individual case.

you should never use Wikipedia as a source. and definitely not on politics.

I wasn’t. It’s there for further reading.

And the Award for Least Hateful Tory Student group goes to…

However, as Farage has already been spouting pro-Putin rhetoric, he’d probably see it as a great endorsement.

On the plus side, at least it is a lot clearer that voting for Farage is really furthering Putin’s agenda to erode Western democracy (not that we needed the help).

Pity they didn’t do anything when claims emerged of Russia interfering with the Brexit vote.

Yes, even if they never hit these “heights” again, the example of Europe is going to make electoral reform a real uphill fight.

I’m hoping more sensible thinking prevails - with PR, you’d likely have a majority Labour government for most of the time, backed by Greens and Lib Dems. Gordon Brown seems to be driving a lot of the ideas for improving our democracy but his focus seems to currently be the House of Lords, which is an easier one to implement (although likely not in a way that suits me - it’s sortition all the way for me), but I could see him chewing this one over afterwards. Realistically, Labour won’t do anything now but if their support collapses they may need other parties to prop them up after the next election and PR is likely to be the price for it.

It’s a concern of mine too. Next election we may have an incumbent Labour party that has done little to improve people’s lives (potentially despite their best efforts because the economy and national infrastructure is wrecked) and a Tory party wrecked for a generation and Reform could emerge as the protest vote or, worse, Reform merge with the Tories and Farage leads a BNP-lite party to victory. The latter might doom the Conservatives forever but after BoJo and Trump getting elected, and the rise of the right across Europe Farage worming his way to PM is not something we should dismiss too quickly.

It’s not too difficult to stick to that because here it’d be largely the Mail and a few tabloids, which tend not to be used in the serious news sections here anyway unless it’s a piss-take of the Mail.

That’s like shooting fish in a barrel. A harder challenge would be to find someone in Reform who isn’t awful.

Is Sunak really so stupid

Yes.

They are never going to say to vote tactically but resources will be targeted at constituencies where they stand a good chance of winning, which will have a similar effect. I’d respect them more if they said “we aren’t going to win in X, so vote Lib Dem/Green/SNP to really stick the boot in” as it might make all the difference.

The thing about Clacton is polling suggests Labour are in second, with Farage well ahead. So an argument could be made for Labour to step it up a gear there because if Farage messes up (perhaps by continuing to be a Putin stooge) they could sneak between a split Tory/Reform vote and get a cheeky win. Anything to keep Farage out of Parliament as his influence is corrosive. They may be calculating that Farage as an MP might be the nail in the Tory’s coffin for a generation but it may bite them in the arse.

It would have been difficult for him to deny as he was filmed doing it.

I bet Tennant is worried now as Sunak gives him both barrels and even Starmer is sticking the boot in, or whatever that half-arsed nonsense is all about.

That’s him.

Weird coincidence that this happened as four men were trespassing on his home in Yorkshire but it doesn’t seem like a coordinated thing.

Do not let the bigots and bullies win

Said one of the worst bigots and bullies in a party largely made up of some pretty terrible people.

It is also understood that the party will return £100,000 in donations to the businessman that he has made since Sir Keir Starmer took charge of Labour.

…

Posting on X, Mr Craig said he had “enjoyed the odd bet for fun” throughout his life, adding: "A few weeks ago when I thought I would never win this seat I put a bet on the Tories to win here with the intention of giving any winnings to local charities.

He clearly has more than enough cash, just donate straight to charity.

That would be the dream scenario and a decade back I’d be fine with rolling those dice but then BoJo and Trump got elected and I worry that an “outsider” populist candidate could pull off the same trick.