Brett-Butler

Cardinal Prevost elected Pope Leo XIV, first pope from the USA. Now that’s a message.

Think it will be a Pius this time around. Also, as today now is officially New Pope Day, as per tradition, every member of Buzzjack must gift Buzzjack’s Catholic, Brett-Butler, the princely sum of One Battenberg.

WHITE SMOKE!

The conclave begins today. There’ll be one vote today, followed by two daily until a pope is elected with a 2/3 majority. I will guess that by Friday evening we will have a new pope The last two popes elected were ones that I was unfamiliar with before the conclave, so although there are a few names bandied around in the Cathlosphere, I doubt it’ll be a frontrunner. I’m rooting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

Ed Davey has taken a break from his extended gap year joviality to announce Lib Dem plans to introduce legislation to fine anyone who plays music on public transport without headphones. I will let the below to sum up my feelings on this -

I was 15 when John Paul II died, although it happened during a half-term Easter holiday, so by the time I’d come back the shock had passed, although my RE teacher (who used to be in the IRA, but that’s another story) was still really shook by it.

And even more unusually, none are Irish, the only current Irish cardinal is too old, although there a few Irish-American candidates.

There’ll be a conclave in the next few weeks, where all cardinals below the age of 80 meets up to elect the new pope. The cardinals will vote until one candidate gets a 2/3 majority of the votes. The number of cardinals in the conclave should be capped at 120, but given at the moment there are more that 130 “papible” cardianals, I’m note sure if that means that some of these will not take part in the vote.

As Buzzjack’s Catholic, absolutely devastating news for me to wake up to. My cousin and her girlfriend were in Rome for Francis’ Easter Sunday address, so will have been some of the last people to see the current Pope in person. When it comes to Popes, it usually won’t be until years and decades later until we can take in his full impact on the world, but for now he’ll be known for his focus on the poor, being the first non-European pope in a millennia, and making political leaders all across the political spectrum reflect on their actions. There’ll be a conclave in a few weeks to decide the new pope, which I will be following with great interest.

I can’t think of the last time an arrest warrant has been issued against a British MP by another country - BBC NewsBangladesh issues arrest warrant for British MP Tulip SiddiqSiddiq is one of 50 names in an arrest warrant linked to allegations of corruption by her aunt, the former PM of Bangladesh.There’s a strong possibility that this will end up with a by-election (the Liberal Democrats are already looking for candidates to stand according to the Tomorrow’s MPs Twitter/X account).

That’s the age demographic of people who watch linear TV these days.

She’s the one that got Bo Selecta banned from streaming. She also hosted the morning chat show on ITV before Jeremy Kyle, which was in a similar vein albeit less confrontational.

Labour supporter in 2024 who has just inherited an ancient monkey’s paw - “I wish that Jacob Rees-Mogg loses his seat to a Labour MP, who makes a name for himself in the next parliament.” *Monkey paw retracts menacingly*

With a 10% tariff, plus tariff-free trade with the EU block, Northern Ireland could end up as a surprise winner in this trade war. As long as there's still an economy.

The candidates for the Runcorn and Helsby have been announced - Catherine Anne Blaiklock (English Democrats) Dan Clarke (Liberal Party) Chris Copeman (Green Party) Paul Duffy (Liberal Democrats) Peter Ford (Workers Party) Howling Laud Hope (Monster Raving Loony Party) Sean Houlston (Conservatives) Jason Philip Hughes (Volt UK) Alan McKie (independent) Graham Harry Moore (English Constitution Party) Paul Andrew Murphy (Social Democratic Party) Sarah Pochin (Reform) Karen Shore (Labour) John Stevens (Rejoin EU) Michael Williams (independent) As expected, as it is the first by-election of the new parliament, the high profile nature of this election has seen a mammoth candidate list, where outside the 3 parties who could realistically win the seat are many smaller parties who are presumably more involved to gain publicity for their party/themselves rather than hoping to actually win (those of us with a long memory can remember the high-profile Corby by-election of 2012, where one of the candidates was Mr Mozzarella, a character from the JustEat adverts). Alongside the usual parties, there is the pan-European centre-left party Volt UK, Rejoin UK, whose raison d'etre is left to your imagination, and the deputy leader of George Galloway's Workers Party. Those nostalgic for the heady days of 1987 will be glad to know that alongside the Liberal Democrats, there are also candidates from the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Catherine Blaiklock, who founded the Brexit Party before Nigel Farage forced her out, is standing for the far-right English Democrats. As sometimes happens, there is a party running I'd never heard of before now, the English Constitution Party. As they split off from the English Democrats, and have expressed admiration for ousted Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, you can probably guess where they are on the spectrum. The by-election is on 1 May, the same date as the local elections in many parts of England. Despite talks of a Reform gain, I'm still forecasting a Labour win, albeit with a margin that will make Keir Starmer a bit unsettled.

Do you have the weekend figures for “Time Travel is Dangerous”? I went to see it on Saturday and it had a decent cast of household British comedy names in supporting roles, but seems to have gone completely under the radar (there were only 3 people at our screening, including me and my wife).

Also hope that Butler, Blake & Grant hold onto the top 40. It features members of two of my favourite bands, Bernard Butler formerly of Suede (and half of my namesake), Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, as well as James Grant, who has done some interesting stuff over the years (albeit not someone I was familiar with before this album).

How many sales have the last few Darkness albums sold? Is it likely that they will end up selling more copies of this album in week 1 than some of their other albums have in years?

Me please.

Britain Elects/New Statesman currently predicting a slight Labour win. Their analysis is quite interesting, as the seat is split into areas that are equally as likely to vote for Labour and Reform (as well as a few Tory leaning ones) New StatesmanA Reform Labour showdown looms in the Runcorn by-electionThe polls are fractured, but Farage’s party fancies its chances.

One suspects that Mike Amesbury was holding off of resigning his seat long enough until Reform started to dip in the polls, hence why he waited until after the weekend. I’m going to predict a Labour win in this one, albeit one by a slim margin, as I suspect quite a fair few voters will want to give Labour a bloody nose (if you’ll pardon the expression given the reason for this by-election).

I’m sure Keir Starmer will be very happy about this Trump endorsement, I imagine he would see a Prime Minister getting his seal of approval as a very fine thing indeed. Apropos of nothing, here’s a Tweet from a few years back - @1134833523959971840

Labour Party news to watch out for this week- the six month suspension of the seven Labour MPs that voted to scrap the Catholic tax (two child benefit cap) is due to end this week (if my maths are correct). I’m predicting that 2 of them will not return to the fold.

It’s a remarkable coincidence that rumours of Franz Ferdinand performing at Eurovision just happen to coincide with the release of their new album. As much as I’d love to see it, unfortunately I think it’ll be someone else. Interestingly, it’s not the first time their name has come up. They were rumoured to be performing the Greek entry way back in 2005!

If you’re hoping it’s Alice Cooper instead of Marti Pellow because the latter is a born again Christian, then I’ve got some disappointing news for you.