[mattomac]

All over the detail.

Also that baby in a pram does fucking nothing.... God i hate that term.

I assume she includes those claiming child benefit and also Pensioners who actually work

[Tubby Isaacs]

It says something about Badenoch and her media supporters that this is considered a clever point.

Relative poverty just tells you what proportion of households earn below 60% of median income. That’s not a measure of poverty at all.

It is a bad measure because in a booming economy, as incomes rise, more people can be classed as being in poverty even though their real income is rising.

And then during a recession like we had under the last Labour government, where GDP collapsed and unemployment went through the roof, relative poverty fell even though we were all poorer.

It's obviously partisan bullshit that she thinks he has to go back to 2009 for falling real incomes- that happened at various times from 2010-24 (though flukily for Cameron, not in 2014-5). But nobody seriously thinks that you solve child poverty by inducing a recession. It's almost like the experts have thought of this point, and have a variety of measures of income and poverty.

If she doesn't want to do this percentage, perhaps she can use cash figures. Real enough for her?

[The Weeping Angel]

Lordy.

[kreuzberger]

Funnily enough, within the last half hour I have messaged my kids, urging vaccinations and masks.

I only had A(H3N2) in January 2015, and that fucker robbed me of an entire month. H3N2 is worse. Being dead is not soooo likely - all things considered - but considering that a preferable option is as good as guaranteed.

Moreover, I could sleep off by noon the following day the side effects of this vax. The Kreuzette was up and making coffee by ten.

Couldn't these Nigerians just limit their messages to the promises of untold riches?

[Boiler]

One thing I learned about face masks this week: they're crap as dust masks in your loft. They are definitely meant to protect others from you, not the other way around.

[davidjay]

One thing I learned about face masks this week: they're crap as dust masks in your loft. They are definitely meant to protect others from you, not the other way around.

Now you're just being a woke sheep.

[RedSparrows]

It's remarkable how Badenoch is very happy to use the word 'traumatised' like that. That's usually a target for mockery amongst the anti-woke freedom fighters bla bla bla.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is where she is. Twitter.

She ought to have that word chucked back at her every time she talks tough.

[The Weeping Angel]

According to the Gaurdian, Badenoch treats PMQs like a pantomime; unfortunately, it seems to be working.

[mattomac]

Firstly it always has been and secondary who for? Nigel?

[Boiler]

More Kemikal Warfare:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx23pxxl7yno

Ms Davies, a vocal critic of trans women in women's sport, was nominated by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

[...]

Ms Davies will sit alongside ex-Tory cabinet minister John Redwood and journalist and historian Simon Heffer - who have also been handed peerages.

She has become an outspoken campaigner against allowing transgender athletes in female competitions in order to "protect women's sport".

The swimmer, who won a silver medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and two Commonwealth golds, denied that her comments were transphobic and claimed she had spoken to many other female athletes who "feel the same way as me".

[The Weeping Angel]

Firstly it always has been and secondary who for? Nigel?

This is from the Guardian's PMQs verdict.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 36e78dd704

Kemi Badenoch revealed earlier this year that, after struggling for a while with how to strategise PMQs, she decided that it was best to treat it as a panto. Today is the best example to date of how that has turned out to be her best decision yet. She opted for the gameshow skit from the panto experience, taunted Keir Starmer with a string of public sector performance questions, then mocked him mercilessly over his answers.

Of course, she was cherrypicking. You can’t measure how an organisation like the NHS, or the Department for Education, is performing with a single statistic. But in this setting, on this occasion, it didn’t matter. She sounded confident and right, and Starmer came across as floundering.

For most of this year Starmer has been able to see off Badenoch’s attacks at PMQs by referring to the Conservative party’s record in government (the worst in post-war history, according to the experts). And he has hit back by attacking Badenoch personally, as he did today, linking her with Liz Truss.

She’s obviously spent the morning rehearsing for The Liz Truss Show, she’s probably going to be the guest star next week, both of them talking about how Liz Truss was 100% right.

But what Liz Truss said was the Conservatives need to take responsibility for their 14 years of failure. That was Liz Truss, their former leader, so perhaps she’ll heed that, get up and say sorry.

But increasingly, at PMQs at least, these defence mechanisms are no longer working.

Why? Partly because Badenoch is getting sharper (a bit) and more confident (a lot). Partly it is because, as time goes on, attacks on the record of a government led by Rishi Sunak (remember him?) are losing resonance. But largely because of the prevailing political context; Badenoch has her own difficulties, but they are not as severe as Starmer. When someone is on the back foot already, it is easier to push them over.

Of course, you are entitled to ask whether Badenoch deserves credit for treating PMQs as a panto. One of Starmer’s virtues as a human being is that is fairy contemptuous of a lot of the flippant, performative guff that surrounds Westminster politics. (It is a feature of politics everywhere, but it is particularly prevalent here.) Badenoch, on the other hand, is increasingly comfortable operating in this medium. For her, today was a notable success.