[Malcolm Armsteen]

Nargle Fargle is playing a blinder...

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Except now he's playing the race card...

Audience a bit stony faced.

[Youngian]

Urban crime is one of dozens of subjects Farage knows fuck all about beneath the surface. But he can sort it out over a pint with some common sense.

Who knew Lee Evans is the Plaid leader?

[Tubby Isaacs]

More on Mordaunt-Sunak. "This" is Sunak clearing off early yesterday.

[satnav]

These debates with 7 parties are a bit of a joke. Reform, Plaid Cymru and the Greens will not be getting anywhere near forming the next government but these debates put them on a par with the parties that could form the next government. This means that the smaller parties can make all kinds of promises that they know they will never have to deliver on.

[Youngian]

This means that the smaller parties can make all kinds of promises that they know they will never have to deliver on.

They can also speak home truths while Labour has to give Farage and the Tories a pass card on Brexit and immigration.
SNP’s Stephen Flynn strived both strains. Castigating Labour’s timidity while being ‘drill baby drill’ on oil and gas.

[mattomac]

Rayner carried the vase very well.

[Youngian]

That was the only explanation I could come up with when this story broke last night.
The Gammon hate Macron (Froggie), Scholz (Kraut), Biden (not Trump) and Zelensky (not Putin), Rishi mustn't be photographed with them.

You missed out handsome liberal ponce Trudeau.

There's an 80 year old tradition of overlooking the Canadians on D-Day.

A lot of shout outs for this Royal Winnipeg Rifles soldier who was shot six times on Juno beach and lived to see another day. Beam me up Scotty.

[safe_timber_man]

Just finished watching it and one of the take away's for me is how surprisingly unpopular Farage was, and how bad he looked. He didn't put in a bad performance (for his brand) at all, he did his usual distancing himself from 'the establishment' as if he isn't part of it, his chest thumping little speeches and was on good form at times, but it fell so flat and comes across as tired and boring now. He had a little pocket of support in the audience that I noticed he kept looking at, but on the whole it felt like they saw through him and just zoned out whenever he tried to land a punch. He was largely met with head shakes and groans. It was a pleasant surprise. Whenever the camera zoomed out he looked like a bit of a sorry little figure on the end in his crumpled suit. Obviously there was a lot more to take away from the debate but that really struck me because I thought tonight would be his bread and butter and was dreading seeing him grandstanding to a clapping audience. It's becoming increasingly clear he's now only comfortable in his GB News/Reform world but is losing it whenever he steps out into the glare and scrutiny he's now put himself up for.

On a side note, Mishal Husain, what an incredible job she did. A world away from the leaders debate car crash we witnessed. The format was better but she was just an absolute star.

[safe_timber_man]

Watching the 7-way debate.
I can see why Rayner won't go hard on Fargle

Why is that? I was disappointed by that and wasn't sure why she was holding back?

Flynn was out for blood though

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Because he is taking votes from the Tories, and she doesn't want to queer his pitch.

[Oboogie]

Who knew Lee Evans is the Plaid leader?

I was wracking my brain as to who he reminded me of, I'd just about convinced myself it was a bloke I worked with 40 years ago. But no, it's Lee Evans, so thanks for that.

[Youngian]

Depressed by the debates which for a large part was vacuous filibustering and I don’t blame the politicians. I’ve lost faith in the future and don’t believe ecological, political and economic problems facing the nation and the globe are fixable. Or that populations are persuadable to even make modest changes to their lives to prevent their grandchildren inheriting a hellhole or toilet of a planet. Cheery populists who pretend they do have the answers make me vomit even more. Of course I welcome a Labour government but don’t expect much beyond cleaning some of the shit off the walls the Tories have unnecessarily sprayed.

[kreuzberger]

That's a fair, if depressing, shout. But, I am not sure that the outcome of a vote on the Mad-Monkey Island will make any positive difference. A vote for lower taxation is a vote for the personal present; not much more than a referendum on how much of the boomers' selfish greed is acceptable.

Framed within the climate emergency is the result on Sunday evening on The Mainland where the drillers and burners of the racist right could quite conceivably set back policy by a couple of decades.

Meantime, love to the family, @Youngian, love to the family.

[Youngian]

Meantime, love to the family, @Youngian, love to the family.

Thanks although I’m not personally down, I’ve found happiness through simplistic serenity with nature and it looks like I’m getting my eco house projects off the drawing board this year. And I have an unlikely politician to thank for one of them, Michael Gove. But that’s a story for another day.

[davidjay]

I've done my first bit of campaigning and there's a definite feeling that Sutton Coldfield just might...

[slilley]

Repellent prick Chris Philps on Politics Live kept referring to Sunak missing ‘the French events.’ This guy might have hit the nail on the head.

I think there is more than a grain of truth to this. The schedule for the D Day events would have been worked out months ago. Long before there was going to be a General Election. Clearly Sunak and his SPADs thought being seen at any event not completely British would rile GB News and Reform, and so decided to stay away. A bad bad decision in its own right. D day was a combined operation involving a good number of nations and we should all recognise the contribution that every nation played. Its called diplomacy.

General Election called and ITV say they want to do a leader interview.Amazingly Downing Street offered up Thursday 6 June as a date. ITV accepted. The interview is due to be broadcast on Tuesday this coming week so plenty of time for alternative dates to be agreed, or ITV could have rejigged their schedule I am sure. Again no one on Sunak's team, or Sunak himself, or possibly David Cameron who was asked to deputise for Sunak and the International commemoration thought to raise Sunak's absence as an issue, or if they did they were over-ruled. At best he has been poorly advised. At worst he has decided he is not going to be filmed and photographed with Europeans because that will create a backlash. Instead he opted to stay away and projected an image not of Global Britain but of isolationist hermit Britain.

No doubt there are diplomats around the world studying how this looks and counting the days until some grown ups with a world view and not a UK only view are in charge and we can start to repair the damage to our international reputation which at present must be one of being insular, mean minded, petty, vindictive and even a touch xenophobic.

[Andy McDandy]

If you're not familiar with the concept, look into the sovereign individual theory (different to the freemen on the land crap). Advocated by, among others, Rees Mogg senior, it argues that the ultimate goal is to be rich enough to transcend nationalities. At a certain level, the lucky few will become like corporations while the rest of us are fodder.

I think that's his aim, hence the lack of interest in national leadership or international diplomancy.

[Bones McCoy]

Fuck up in planning and judgement.
Both necessary qualities of a national leader.

Permit me to state the obvious.
* The date of D-day's 80'th anniversary has been known for 80 years.
* It was Sunak and his advisors who set the date of the election.
* Sunak and his advisors will have negotiated with ITV to set the date of the interview.

If he claims that the date clash blindsided him, he's in the wrong profession (OK we already knew that).

[Tubby Isaacs]

At the risk of going all "no smoke without fire", there seems to be a few people saying Sunak initially planned to skip the whole thing. He's denied that. I wonder if somebody in the French Government might drop Sunak in it.