Brett-Butler

I came down with a respiratory illness a few weeks ago that felt Covid-y, although whilst I had it I continually tested negative, so I’m not sure whether it was a variant that doesn’t show up on the older tests or something else entirely. I ended up missing work for a few days with it, and it went on for so long that I was prescribed antibiotics to get it shifted, something I really don’t like taking for reasons I’ve mentioned over the years, and something I didn’t have to do even when I was off sick for a week with COVID. I haven’t had a booster since it stopped being mandatory, but will likely look into it once it’s rolled out to my age range.

Tom Waits is one of the most respected and covered artists ever, yet doesn’t have a top 75 hit to his name in his own right. Similarly, The Velvet Underground are one of the most influential bands ever, but never made the top 40 and their only top 75 single was a live version of “Venus In Furs” released in the 90s. Lou Reed did have a few hits as a solo artist though.

Missed out on the Head to Head league, but thought I’d join the Main League this week, in case you were wondering whom the new person is.

The right decision. He’ll probably end up making a move to Saudi Arabia. He’d fit in well there.

There’s to be a by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West after the recall petition to unseat ex-SNP Margaret Ferrier was successful. I expect this will be a Labour vs SNP dogfight, with Labour coming up trumps.

Keir Starmer, the man who when faced with an open goal, thinks he's playing rugby. Ditching the 2 Child Policy (or as I call it, the Catholic Tax) is such a no-brainer, a policy that should win plaudits for Labour from both the economic left-wingers and from socially conservative pro-family voters (and those who are both). Such an easy win, yet one Starmer refuses to grasp.

Boris Johnson has resigned. There will be a by-election to Uxbridge. Ruddy hell.

She got in, in spite of her party running one more candidate in the area than they should have.

The count in the Northern Irish local elections are currently taking place. The final results won't be known until tomorrow evening, but so far the big headline is that there has been a massive surge for Sinn Fein. As it stands with around 40% of the seats declared, their vote is up 8% on 2019, and have currently gained 11 councilors (largely at the expense of the SDLP, although they have have won a few seats I expected them to lose), including winning seats in areas previously believed unthinkable for the party. The DUP are down 1.5% but have only lost 2 seats to date, Alliance are the only other party to gain seats at this point, with a 2% increase in votes and a net gain of 3 seats. TUV's vote share is also up, although this hasn't transferred into any seat gains so far.

Musically Australia is the entry that is most up my metaphorical street. Hope it does okay.

Scooch haven't earned this.

Someone in Belgium got the memo.

The government has nationalised another rail service by proxy - the TransPennine Express has lost its contract for the North of England and parts of Scotland.

It’s a pity that “In the Meantime” hasn’t had the same boost from GOTG. If there’s ever a song I’d love to see get a proper 2nd wind, it’s that one.

She's a family friend of my fianceé. Got us a nice engagement present and is coming to our wedding. Just to note she's not standing in my constituency. From what I've heard, it's a mixture of a number of factors. One is that the SDLP appear to be more focused away at Westminster than it is on local issues that he'd rather they focused on like the cost of living crisis and poverty. Given that winning those two seats at Westminster has been their only election success in the past 5 years I can understand why, but quite short-sighted as I can see them losing both seats next year (to Sinn Fein in Foyle and Alliance in Belfast South). I also believe that internal SDLP politics played a role as well. He was overlooked for the Assembly Elections last year - had he stood in Belfast North he would have kept the seat for the party by a landslide, although given that their deputy leader and minister stands in that area how that could have worked in practice would have been tricky. Also, given that the SDLP more or less thought (prior to McCusker leaving) that they were going to get a "free" seat in Oldpark due to McCusker's personal vote, they appear to have parachuted in a candidate from outside the area that the party hierarchy are in favour of (who flopped in the Assembly elections), rather than a candidate local to the Oldpark area - I think I read somewhere that the graphics were published by the party with the 2 candidates before he was made aware who his running "mate" was to be. So from my understanding, a mixture of internal & external politics.

66. Spacehog - In The Meantime Absolutely chuffed to see Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 reigniting interest in this somewhat forgotten 90s banger.

He has featured on a #1 album *slightly* more recently, albeit in a more low-key way. He provided handclaps on the song "Filmstar" by Suede, taken from their #1 album "Coming Up" in 1996, although his role on this didn't become wider public knowledge until Brett Anderson mentioned it in his 2nd autobiography.

A) They did, they won a 2nd seat in the Middleton Park area of Leeds, winning a seat from Labour.

The number of candidates each party are running in the Northern Ireland elections on May 18th are as follows - Sinn Féin: 162 DUP: 152 Alliance: 110 UUP: 101 SDLP: 86 TUV: 46 Greens: 37 Aontú: 19 PBP: 16 Workers Party: 7 Conservatives: 5 PUP: 4 Cross-Community Labour Alternative: 2 IRSP: 2 Socialist Party: 2 Independents: 56 My early predictions are that Sinn Fein will be the largest party of local government following the elections, the DUP will treat water with a similar number of seats or marginal losses, Alliance will surge, and both UUP and SDLP will suffer catastrophic losses (with the latter having one of the notable local government stories in the run up to the election when Paul McCusker, one of their most popular Belfast councilor with such a strong personal vote that he polled more than 2 quotas the last time the elections were held,left the party acrimoniously and is now running as an independent this time around). Of the smaller parties, I expect the Greens to continue to lose ground, the same with the Trotskyite PBP. the TUV should gain a few seats at DUP/UUPs expense, whilst Aontú will likely double the seats they gained last time. It'll also be the first election where I will be actively cheering for a particular unionist candidate to make their way over the line come May 18th.

Suspending the whip was the right decision in this case. I doubt she'll be joining Corbyn in the Peace & Justice Party. I imagine she'll visit a synagogue and a Travellers' Community in the next few days, "lessons will be learned", then have the whip quietly restored in a few weeks.

I also believe that in some councils there are non-compete agreements between Labour and the Lib Dems and the Lib Dem/Greens to maximise their chances of beating the Tory in their constituency.

It’s not as good as the Presidents of the United States of America song of the same name though.

The number of candidates from each party taking part in the Local Elections in England on 4th May are (source: Election Maps UK) - Conservative: 7,512 (93%) Labour: 6,232 (77%) Liberal Democrats: 4,816 (60%) Green: 3,322 (41%) Independents: 1,870 (23%) Locals: 827 (10%) Reform UK: 471 (6%) TUSC: 254 (3%) Heritage Party: 64 (1%) UKIP: 45 (1%) Freedom Alliance: 40 (0%) Yorkshire Party: 38 (0%) SDP: 36 (0%) Lincolnshire Independents: 23 Alliance for Democracy & Freedom: 22 Liberal: 16 Communist Party of Britain: 14 Britain First: 8 British Democrats: 8 Monster Raving Looney: 6 CPA: 6 Women's Equality Party: 6 There's also a spreadsheet if you want to find who is running in a specific location, or see where a particular party is running. The Tories, Labour & Lib Dems are standing in a plurality of seats, and the Greens are standing in a substantial amount as well. The Freedom Alliance are remarkably still going strong, long after their r'aison d'etre has long faded. The only party on the list I wasn't previously familiar with on that list (which tells you how much of a politics nerd I can be) is Alliance for Democracy & Freedom. Although given that they talk about "medical apartheid" on their website, and given their party leader bangs on about experimental vaccinations (despite being a medical doctor), you can guess what their orientation is. Outside of whether the Tories will suffer massive losses, I will be keeping a close eye as to the fortunes of the SDP. They won their first new seat in a generation at the local elections in 2022 when they picked up a seat in Leeds, and will be standing candidates in 13 wards in the council this year, including in the one they won in 2022. The nominations for the local elections in Northern Ireland closes on 24th April, and I'll include an update on candidate numbers here once these are confirmed.

Sign me up please.

Very few appropriate songs making the Easter #1. The only real exceptions are "Miracle", and "Back For Good".