Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2026 9:10 pm Tell us more.

Was she pressed on the effect of subsidizing the rich to buy energy they don't need in a worldwide shortage?

Well... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002vc5k

Boiler wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2026 10:32 pm
Well... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002vc5k

I can't face that, so I'll take a guess: let's spend a load of money on everything except Defence, and someone else will pay for it?

He really is incredibly petty.

Ohhh ... bitch fight!

Is she exaggerating here? Lots of people have become MPs before her, including from parties that have no interest in being cosy and club-like. I can't recall anyone being as shocked and stunned as she seems to be. Do Green MPs who hang around for ages waiting for votes not drink as well?

Maybe Sian Berry and Adrian Ramsey knock em back. There used to be a bar the Tories called the Kremlin which was occupied by Labour MPs and union leaders 'on business' taking advantage of Westminster's very reasonable drink prices. Fights weren't a rarity.

I cannot believe MPs drink alcohol. I've never heard of them doing that before.

Sam Rushworth is suggesting the notorious boozy culture in parliament is a thing of the past just like other professions. He has been there longer than two weeks unlike Hannah Spencer, the Poundshop Mhairi Black.

Problem seems to be that LD and Greens can say whatever they like but Labour cannot answer back.

I am getting tired of this new Green MP already...... Effectively she's become "well at least she isn't Goodwin", but the real loses seem to be Gorton and Denton. Then again they could have voted Labour.

Replace Labour because some Labour MPs have said that it’s not unreasonable to have a drink when you’re waiting around all hours to vote?

This reminds me of (of all people) Peter Mandelson on Any Questions 30 odd years ago talking up some comments the then Government had made on the D Day anniversary into a big political issue. It’s pathetic stuff.

Ellie Chowns and Carla Denyer may fancy a drink occasionally. Hope for their sake they aren’t seen having one now.

mattomac wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2026 1:10 pm Problem seems to be that LD and Greens can say whatever they like but Labour cannot answer back.

I am getting tired of this new Green MP already...... Effectively she's become "well at least she isn't Goodwin", but the real loses seem to be Gorton and Denton. Then again they could have voted Labour.

Absolutely. I get that they're a small (parliamentary) party, so they'll have to be creative about how they get attention, but the other MPs (elected before Zack) seem to get on with it much more than she does. This constant personalizing is going to get very wearing. Has she done any green politics since election?

Farage of course has something to say in defence MPs having an honest pint after work. Apparently its mad to stop them when you want to legalise heroin like the Greens or something.
Maybe Farage and Polanski could govern together. To implement their simple common sense plans. Running the country, how hard's that?

Fair play to Ellie Chowns here. She knows that the leader talks rubbish.

Polanski defended the Green party’s drugs policy, saying it wants not just to legalise drugs but “regulate” them too. He told Sky News that, under the party’s plans, the supply of harder drugs would be in “the hands of a medical health professional”.

Seems to be a mix of decriminalization and prescribing to addicts. I could be persuaded of that.

Glad to see there is some sense.

The big, big problem there is that drugs is one of those topics where it's impossible to have a grown-up debate. You can't say that a different approach might be worth a look with being accused of wanting heroin given to children.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2026 5:05 pm

Polanski defended the Green party’s drugs policy, saying it wants not just to legalise drugs but “regulate” them too. He told Sky News that, under the party’s plans, the supply of harder drugs would be in “the hands of a medical health professional”.

Seems to be a mix of decriminalization and prescribing to addicts. I could be persuaded of that.

Here's another two concepts Zack and his interviewees conflate;.public control and public ownership in relation to buses. He also throws out an economic multiplier stat I 've never heard before: for every Pound spent on buses generates four Pounds to the economy. According to whom? No source offered up from Zack.

I don't get why they just don't go and say the government needs to go further and faster on renewables. This current war has shown the danger in relying on fossil fuels, and we need to be energy independent to lower fuel bills. Throw in some opposition to nuclear power, and they're away instead of this nonsense.

Youngian wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:23 pm
Here's another two concepts Zack and his interviewees conflate;.public control and public ownership in relation to buses. He also throws out an economic multiplier stat I 've never heard before: for every Pound spent on buses generates four Pounds to the economy. According to whom? No source offered up from Zack.

He's probably on surer ground than normal with this stuff. There are always estimates around this sort of thing, even if some of them come from what Zack would normally call "lobbyists". I wouldn't say that the estimates are always dodgy though.

On a tangent, I recall this bloke is quite interesting on buses in cities. Vincent Stops, former Hackney Councillor with responsibility for planning transport.

https://www.onlondon.co.uk/author/vincentstops/

His argument is that cycling gets undue attention, and buses too little (he's not a fan of private cars, and I can recall him getting stick from the Tories at Hackney for that). He's strongly critical of Bozo and Sadiq for this, seeing them as a break from the bus-focussed Ken Livingstone. I think it's worth taking him seriously, even if it sounds a bit contrarian.