Iz 🌟

I really wasn't expecting this! Swedish song and a fucking TUNE. Sweden, you've got me on board this time.

I am biased but that KAJ performance felt like far more of a winning performance than Mans' clinical one. Holding onto cope for a bit longer.

Strong final this year, seeing the performance of Dolly Style, Greczula and particularly SCARLET is a reminder that Sweden can really do performances and great songs if they want to. God I would love any of those to be representing Sweden.

Also are you referring to LEE ANDERSON as the ex Labour Reform MP?

'You don't need [political] talent but you also need a cohesive message' - get out of here, you clearly don't understand how elections are won. Seriously, lay off the anecdotal analysis, I know just as many people (also 'real people' btw) who are fine with the government and are more worried about American foreign policy - and certainly in that age range. Similarly, to dismiss other votes as tribal but your 'attractive', slick Reform young conservative freak you're envisioning as just a purveyor of common sense is ludicrous. Some people are tribal of all political stripes, but many more are voting for what they agree with.

It is actually a supremely good thing that the UK has so far been relatively resistant to far-right politics. The reason, maybe our Westminster parliamentary system combined with FPTP is good for neutering insurgent populist strongmen and not giving them a base to build from (Johnson was never as dangerous as many of his counterparts across the globe and while Farage's successful maneuvering of the country to his warped aims should be noted, he's not been near the levers of power like say Orbán has and is too much of a known quantity to be given a chance), maybe the British character doesn't like the inevitable brashness that these figures present, but long may it continue. 'Young people' are far more likely to support Green or Liberal Demorats (the real realistic third option), or even the big two than Reform, I don't get where this lie comes from, a holdover from American talk of MAGA youth, itself an exaggeration, every poll cross tab shows that most of Reform's current support is among the over-50s. but basically every Reform figure, Farage included, is a deeply off-putting person outside of the base, I struggle to see how that becomes ever wide-appealing. Thankfully.

Polls are transient and don't tell us anything about the current party structure, they're a 14.3% vote party (2024), only a little bit off the 12.3% their effective ancestor UKIP got in 2015, and while polls are relatively accurate at the moment, there's nothing to suggest they'd get double that at any true electoral test, particularly when their party leadership acts in this way. With such a dearth of talent, they can't really put those poll results into a reality and Farage really is the only reason they have gotten this far. Their poll numbers are half the UKIP/strong-right-nutter vote and half apolitical people placing their desires for a party to "fix politics" onto a blank slate, if they see Reform doing stuff (or 'they're all the same' controversies like this Lowe thing!), they will likely be quickly dissatisfied again. I would LOVE them to dump Farage. Keep splitting, bozos.

Miriana on Newsnight about the controversy! love her commitment to 'I am just an innocent Maltese girl, it means a lot of things to different people, I am just serving singing 🥺'

in the best case, this is the first step on the road to their irrelevance and we don't need it for long if not, we'll chronicle what they do because for now they are getting a lot of attention (for balance, we do have a Lib Dem thread on page 2 that I've been meaning to bump as soon as we get a Lib Dem story worth posting for) And also an indication of what Reform would be like without him, directionless and a bunch of shouty blokes getting into fights with each other. Lowe thinks he talks a good game but his politics are shallow and his strategic skills are non-existent, and clearly from this, his character is wanting.

edited a title in, yes I've gone for the stereotypes, do they deserve it? also yes. and yes believe me we need one of these for the Farage fanclub/what might be threatening to become something more. Reform has referred Rupert Lowe, one of their 5 MPs, to the police. He's been very outspoken in his time in Parliament and is threatening to become a figure nearly as prominent as Farage in promoting himself. The police referral is over bullying in his office, and it seems like all the major 'figures' in the party are split over Lowe and Farage. so put simply, Reform seem to have this evening dissolved into civil war. Enjoy.

Actually, that is an interesting parallel between Maoism and MAGAism, the idea that the outside world has been taking advantage of them, that they have been historically wronged, and they need to become strong and powerful to fix this, so that historical injustices can be corrected. It's completely wrong-headed and illogical from an economic point of view, but lends itself well to protectionism. And proved wrong once Dengism made Maoism obsolete economically, and now of course modern China is all about cooperation across the world, Belt And Road etc. All ready to slide in as the economic leader of the world should, say, an America on top of the world decide to illogically retreat into isolationism.

A famously good business atmosphere, one where an outside force can impact one's profits on a whim. Anyway, if that was the logic, the answer is not blanket tariffs on all goods from a country, it's rules on third country rerouting and properly determining the originator of a good like the UK has so as to stop tariff evasion. This all just falls apart if you think about it for 5 seconds and remove nationalistic brainrot from your head. I think in your desperation to prove immigration the greatest of all evils you are misreading me, I have never said immigration was a necessity, the very simple argument that I could draw with fucking crayons is more people of working-age are good and when a country lacks those, it's good to bring them in because they will stimulate the economy. Obvious example is the gulf states, though of course I wouldn't hold that up as a positive example of immigration as the working conditions for migrants there is tantamount to slavery, but this also applies to a large part of the immigration that western nations see. China of course has never needed immigration in the past because they've had a large population, though more would never hurt their economic outlook - and actually to maintain their economic level they're actually going to need immigrants pretty quickly because their population is ageing below replacement rate quite fast - and on a bigger scale than their neighbours that's going to hit hard - there are ghost cities all over the country already. Not sure what their recent economic expansion has to do with anything, that's just an unparalleled miracle led by Dengism's liberalising reforms and carried through the next three decades. When the consequences of their current youth unemployment and deflation hit, that's not going to be majorly to do with the US putting tariffs on them, from their perspective they have a whole world to sell to, it'll be the poor worker's rights slowing down productivity and the local Xi Jinping Thought nationalism that doesn't offer any fixes.

I hope this isn't cope because I am really excited about this, the music video really sells it, they look like they're having fun and so the stage show one would hope is similar. It's an interesting country-pop song and that's often quite hard to do.

*taking notes* China's economic strength is due to them not being politically correct, hmm, hmm, fascinating If tariffs are the way forward and will save the west from economic oblivion, why is the supreme orange leader folding like a house of cards as soon as the economic impact of tariffs make themselves known and he talks to the leaders he's putting them on. For that matter, why is he putting tariffs on his allies at all? They're a delicate economic tool to be used in the right circumstance* and he wields them like a blunt instrument. *like, for example, SOME forms of import/export with a country that undercuts with backwards labour laws like China (the real reason they do so well, they have so many people, if they had more immigration they could do even more! pretty basic stuff), but blanket tariffs are not good for the issuing country, it harms US trade, it harms US consumers, it may harm the Chinese but they have the easiest route out of it by pivoting their exports somewhere else.

lol my long-term allergy to sending wide-appealing songs finally catching up with me Klum was my one bulwark I had left! maybe I'll play competitively a bit more often x

Congratulations Patrick, really pleased to see you finally win - even if I wasn't on board with the song this time. thank you to everyone who helped me get a niche entry (for BJSC) in the final and do comparatively well, it's always nice when BJSC's genre locks open up a bit and especially because, although I don't consider this a 'joke entry' it's definitely got more of the 'for fun' aesthetic than most of my entries. Amazing to see Chikoi The Maid top 5 though, would have never called that (completely deserves it)

It is just going to be like this month after month now, isn't it, announce something drastic and stupid, reality and economic signs dip, walk back and climb down. Sheinbaum and Trudeau are going to be pleased, not sure anyone in America should be. Notably, Trump's approval ratings on the average poll tracker has just now crossed into the negative, becoming the second-fastest administration in US history to reach that milestone (44 days), after his first (16 days). They've never seen anything like this before. (rip 538)

Greenfroze ❤️ pretty sure at this stage of the results I have more votes that are 18s than those that are not 💀

4 years after FAKE TYPE, I finally get to the final with the iconic 18s or nothing entry *.* thank you Cow (and Addy)

Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed it, I hoped some would find it a fun time; certainly the best way to get off 0

this, also my song at the bottom of the scoreboard just looks wrong, someone help it out pls

had no idea what people were talking about with Klum as a contender and it being Rose Gray tracks because she has always sounded like nothing special to me lol (soz x) My instinct is a Bronzil victory, looking forward to seeing what actually goes down.

The BBC have said they were not involved in the decision over the Maltese entry.

It has a few shades of older, good British entries to it. I always like songs with an inventive structure, and the vocals are good, I think this is very promising at an early stage. An eye-catching stage show to punctuate it, and we could be on to something. Very much above the average for modern UK entries at least on song and I'll definitely take that.

I enjoyed Starmer's well-timed 'And we were doing so well' when she pivoted on to a more standard attack line for the last question - laughs on both sides of the chamber. But easily her best PMQs, even if the bar was on the floor. I get the feeling Badenoch's having to tread really carefully right now, it might be she's been made aware that she's potentially quite vulnerable to a leadership challenge in the near future.