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Ian Boucher

@desolationrow5.bsky.social
185 followers 97 following 4.9K posts
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 9h
I suspect he means that Labour down the years have had several battles with various entryist forms of the hard left that threatened the party’s existence and many on the left outside of Labour tend to accuse it of overcompensating but I think it’s understandable when you see how hard it is to fix!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 9h
But don’t worry we’ve got AI up next to save us….maybe for your sanity (if you haven’t been exposed already) avoid the latest interview from the AI minister. Because that just about finished me off this weekend!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 9h
I was thinking this weekend I’d make a pretty good advisor for the pm on the basis that all I’d have is ‘stop using x’ and ‘stop listening to anyone who uses x’.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 9h
Do most Jews think Israel should exist? I think I’m pretty confident in my answer to that one.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 13h
And the other 20% is trying desperately not to laugh as they slowly learn all the swear words!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 13h
Agree completely. Only one of mine wouldn’t touch jam to save her life. When given jam sandwiches at an after school event the other day the complaints were long and vociferous.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
Don’t think it’s the timing that bothered them. It was the idea they might have to pay more tax!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
Yeah as limited and fractious as we might view Starmer and the PLP behind him without it I don’t think it would have been fixable.
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Reposted by Ian Boucher
Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 14h
Fighting this flith is going to be agony for the Greens, much worse than it was for Labour, because there's no tradition or mechanisms for fighting entryism. And the way politics is evolving, you're not going to keep your seats as Greens anyway. You swerve the pain & may keep your seats as LibDems
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
Just one where I could say ‘yeah I trust you know what you are talking about’ would be a huge relief but I actually can’t imagine that. It feels like an illusion.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
One grounded in evidence ideally. But there is little chance of that.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
Me too!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 14h
To become LDs?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 15h
It’s self inflicted at least in part though. Once you start casting glances in the direction of these folks then you end up in this place.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 18h
I think it’s this coupled to the right wing supporting parts of our media have decided they need talk her up as they fear she may be the only horse they have to back! Which leads to said sort of focus group analysis necessarily dominating the conversation.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 20h
Yep.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 21h
Wtf is he talking about? Do any of these people have the first clue what they are talking about when it comes to AI or is it politically always going to be viewed as ‘magic beans’?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Polling at 17% and leader slipped into negative approval - going great! www.opinium.com/resource-cen...
opinium.com
Voting intention: 30 September 2026 - Opinium
See the full data tables here. Following Andy Burnham’s first Party Conference as Prime Minister, Labour are leading in the polls, with their highest
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Post Burnham speech focus group of wavering Labour voters from @luketryl.bsky.social I think sums it up. They like Burnham. A lot. They like his arguments till they hear opposing views. They don’t want to pay more tax at all! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘He feels more relatable’: Burnham’s conference speech wins praise from drifting Labour voters
The UK prime minister has earned his party a rehearing but the battle of public opinion is not yet won
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Im going to get my haircut as I reckon it will make me a millionaire using Tory maths!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is a rare occasion where I think what was said is completely unacceptable on every single level and should be reported as such by every single media outlet in the land. I suspect it won’t be though. A disgraceful thing to say and the people in that room guffawing along equally hideous.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Labour - we need a proper consultation but our next manifesto will contain a pledge to fix the pipe and we will say how we can pay for it. Tories - we need to cut the pipe now. Reform - this is what happens when you have uncontrolled borders Green - we will fix it but must check it’s not a Zionist
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Whenever I read things like this I go back to ‘Sunak was right’ on many Labour not knowing or understanding how to run a business and thus not understanding growth. Healey is a concern because his intellectual position seems inadequate to match AB’s ambition not because he doesn’t say growth enough!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
‘A lot of Labour people’ is that really the case? i genuinely don’t know but if lots of actual Labour people think that I’m giving up. I can imagine a lot of the Starmer stans might try and peddle that as a line and on social media who knows? But real world nobody can truly believe that can they?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is nonsense. The governing body who monitor clubs financial statements accounts and spending had no idea. Plus Burnham’s time as mayor covers only about 9 months of period the charges relate to.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Totally. They had no mission. No idea what legacy they wanted to leave. Indeed Starmer tried to at the end define his legacy as ‘winning an election’. Which is telling. Burnham has a mission - a real one - but lacks the conditions to make it viable.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Partly wanting to be liked but I think in 2024 it was also a desperate attempt to not face the reality. Reeves did interviews where it was abundantly clear in hindsight that deep down she knew the reality but didn’t want to face it for fear it broke the ming vase. Live in the momentism!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
And I think you have to bet on that or at least a scenario where things aren’t getting better. The past may not be a predictor for the future but I’d certainly not be betting on ‘blue skies ahead’!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The rules of the premier league were not intended to create a level playing field nor where they ever going to. They did the opposite. Man City breaking those rules is separate to the rules being absolutely dreadful if you care about competition.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I think fundamentally their problem is as simple as wanting to be a cost of living govt through a series of unpredictable crises being incompatible with ‘we need to fix the fiscal position now’. As soon as you say ‘we know people have had 20 years of hardship as a lab govt you are boxed in.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Well indeed the second question is ‘and when’?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
He’s already making that argument with ‘investing in success not paying for failure’ the bigger question as with anything is ‘how are you going to pay for it’?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
You said the country’s broken just forgot to tax it…..
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Someone needs to urgently get hold of Hilton’s laptop - dear god!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I think it would be odd if Burnham’s intention was SV given his rhetoric about making everyone’s vote count….
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Burnham is voting for reform? ;)
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I object entirely to the idea that the game should protect the clubs who have benefitted most from the expansion of of investment in the game and also that there is a hierarchy of good and bad money. Man Utd’s ownership in the last two decades for example.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Couldn’t disagree more with this. The premiership and clubs at its inception meant the game became primarily money driven. And instead of putting in rules to equalise competition the opposite happened. If Jack Walker wanted to help Blackburn compete why shouldn’t he without those rules in place?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Yeah one of the things that has changed is people’s perceptions of certainty. Speak to people in the early twenties entering job market and they no longer in some cases anticipate home ownership and think climate change will make ‘retirement’ a redundant concept for example.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s a bit late for that isn’t it?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Do we know why Toal hasn’t been involved with NI?
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I mean there are parties not promising massive tax cuts or unfunded spending. Let alone the two combined.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s a generation thinking differently to how you and I did though. Very differently. I work with quite a few and some are quite direct that life is hard but they’d rather enjoy themselves as much as possible now than worry about retirement. Different mindset tbh.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There is no route to higher spending and lower taxes currently and the LDs are simply not credible.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is true but the one promising a 17bn tax cut certainly is close to the bottom of the rung credibility wise! Especially considering they want to spend a lot of money. It’s nonsense politics.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Beyond the ‘many can’t afford to live and contribute’ thing there is also I think a generational view that living a miserable life in your 20’s to hopefully mean you live a slightly less miserable one if you make 70 is not a good trade!
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It isn’t they are talking about reducing the tax burden through a £17Bn income tax cut. That’s what they are offering. It is fantasy of course but only reinforces that they are not a credible party. 
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
He’s the Bob Dylan of politics imo so that fits well.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Lib Dem’s are currently a low tax party aren’t they? I mean they are currently offering tens of billions of tax cuts.
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Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Almost like Burnham’s argument that things that take a long time to implement are ducked because of short termist political cycle view might be right? Not like Kemi to make an oppositional argument that vindicates the argument of her opponent is it?
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