Brett-Butler

As has been pointed out by others on Twitter, if Labour go down this line of attack, it means that the record of their leader Keir Starmer as Director of Prosecutions up to 2013 becomes fair game.

I wish Humza all the best on his upcoming 3 months as leader of the SNP.

The BBC have started an interesting new podcast series called “How To Buy a Football Club”, which at the moment is focusing on the potential sale of Man Utd. It’s an interesting listen, especially for those of us who are interested in the financial aspects of the sale and it’s potential impacts.

Sounding the alarm bell that it is now 10 weeks until the Local Elections take place in England on 4th May 2022. It is also 12 weeks until the Local Elections In Northern Ireland on 18th May - these were delayed by 2 weeks so the counting didn't clash with the coronation of King Charles on 6th. I'm presuming the reason why it was delayed in NI but not in England is because Northern Irish local elections use Proportional Representation therefore take longer to count, whilst English local elections use the simpler & easier to count First Past The Post system. If you are in England, depending on what area you are in you may not be required to vote, as not all councils and local authorities will be up for election, and even within some local authorities not all seats will be up for election. As a starting point, you can check here for a basic overview to see if you are likely to be able to vote in May. One important note for those in England - this will be the first election where you will need to be required to show ID at the polling station. Usual forms of ID such as passports & Drivers' Licences will be accepted, but if you don't have one you can apply for a free Voters Authority Certificate. You can find out more at the Electoral Commission website. In Northern Ireland, all seats across all eleven NI councils will be fought. Unlike in England, voter ID has been in place here for some time (definitely during my adult lifetime), so we are used to it by this stage. Will likely be making my own predictions closer to the time, but interesting questions in England will be how far will the Tories fall in an election where they control many of the district councils, how much of a bounce will Keir Starmer's Labour have, and having won its first new council seat in 3 decades, will the SDP make it a second in Leeds?

Interesting they went for "She's In Fashion", given it's not one they play live as regularly since they reformed, but it was absolutely beautiful in that arrangement. "The Only Way..." is nice as well.

Absolutely wonderful. I really hope that they were able to record some of their own songs in the same session. It would be a travesty if Suede had access to the BBC Concert Orchestra and didn't get the chance to do "Still Life" with a full band.

If the Tories were nefariously smart, they would use this opportunity to call a Scottish referendum, when polling for a “Yes” vote is at its lowest in a decade and there’s no obvious leader within their wings to lead the party in the same way as Sturgeon when she took over. Can’t think of who could step into her shoes now, there aren’t that many household names that would be as effective a leader.

Absoulutely bonkers, but I guess that's what happens when you let a band whose debut album was called "Two dogs f*****" and whose live show involves them inserting objects into orifices take part in Eurovision. I will be interested to see if they have to make changes to the song one it takes part in Eurovision, although not for the reason you might expect - it sounds like there are samples of Crazy Frog in the backing track of the song, and I was convinced that there are rules that forbid the use of samples in any entries.

The candidates for the West Lancashire by-election, which takes place on 9th February following the resignation of Labour MP Rosie Cooper, have been announced - Liberal Democrats - Jo Barton Green - Peter Cranie Labour - Ashley Dalton Monster Raving Loony - Howling Laud Hope Reform UK - Jonathan Kay Conservative - Mike Prendergast Unlike a lot of by-elections in the last few years, there aren't as many parties fielding candidates, and there's only one party there that you could say that's a group of oddballs and weirdos, but that's enough about Reform UK. Will probably be a rather boring result, with Labour likely winning again with over half the votes.

From the PR, it looks like Popmaster will be moving to Greatest Hits Radio with him.

Listeners to Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo's film podcast might have been given a clue to the identity of Phoenix -

Although I'm sure Ladbaby could donate some of the £1.5m in cash they have in the company registered in their name relating to Ladbaby-related activities, which posted a presumed profit* of £600k in the year to August 2021. *Presumed as it is the difference in Reserves from one year to the next, he may have taken out dividends on top of this.

I had a look at the most recent Annual Report for the Trussell Trust (for the 20/21 year). Although Ladbaby's chart success is mentioned, it doesn't explicitly state how much of their income came from Ladbaby's campaign, and the notes of the account don't seem to shed any light on this either, I'm presuming the money raised for it is within the "Donations & Grants" part of their Fundraising income of £51.3m, but it doesn't give a breakdown of where this money came from. They aren't mentioned by name in the "Restricted Funds" note in the account either, which suggests that they haven't explicitly asked for the money to be used for one purpose or another. I also couldn't find any media reporting of how much money they've raised each year (albeit it was a very quick search, there may be some article I've missed), although I imagine a request for information could be raised with the Trussell Trust or the Charity Commission to find out this information.

Amazingly, it wouldn’t be his first appearance on a top 40 single - he was featured in “I Fought the Lloyds” by Oystar, which reached #25 in 2008.

Of course, silly me! Haven't taken a domestic flight in so long (and just back from a foreign one) that I'd forgotten that.

The Border Force are striking in between Christmas & New Year, during a period where we're flying out to London. Thankfully so far it's not affecting the London airports we're due to fly in to.

Another Labour MP has been suspended from the party, with Conor McGinn being relieved of the whip pending an investigation. The conspiracist in me says that some of the suspensions are for people that whips have known about for years, but didn't want to act upon lest the next election is tight and they need to hold on to them to prevent a future Labour minority government collapsing, but now that a Labour landslide is a real possibility they're attempting to chuck them out now so they won't be a millstone around the party's neck whilst in government, and because the Tories are also suspending many of their MPs as well it'll slip under the radar.

Is that the first time Beach House have made the Spotify top 200? Is it because of TikTok?

I've been on Popmaster twice, once when I was 19, and again in 2012. I didn't win either time, but still won a CD case and a "One Year Out" t-shirt respectively. One of the questions I got wrong was to complete the title of the Ultravox song "Reap The Wild...". I answered "Oats", which had Ken Bruce in stitches (the actual answer was "wind"). Also failed to recognise Jimmy Nail's "Ain't No Doubt", which is now forever etched in my mind. I've tried applying for it a few more times over the years since then with no luck, but would love a chance to try again just to win.

One thing worth watching out for in opinion polls in the next few weeks is the figures for Reform UK (aka the continuity Brexit Party). In two polls this weekend they've polled 9% and 8%, the highest they've polled under that name, and more than the Lib Dems. Whilst it could still be an anomaly due to some pollsters still including them as a default option for polling and being used as a "none of the above" protest with the respondees, if the numbers still remain high, and if they start getting notable numbers in polls where they're not listing as default option, it could cause further heartache for the Tories (especially if Nigel Farage decides he wants another crack at the whip). Although regardless of them gaining ground, they've no shot of actually gaining any meaningful power due to FPTP - one of the great ironies of UKIP's meteoric rise is that it could not have happened without the EU Parliament, as PR allowed them to gain a foothold in UK politics. @1591076228827860992

Never expected to be reminded of "We All Dream of a Team of Gary Breens" again for the first time in decades, even less so on Buzzjack!

Likely date of the election will be before Christmas, 15th December. Oh what fun. Will have to update the summery if the election is confirmed tomorrow.

Well, that ending.

Labour MP Christian Matheson has resigned after being found guilty of sexual misconduct. Not sure if a by-election or General Election will come first.

Her statement suggests we’ll have a new PM within a week, which means PM Rishi by next Friday.