Suedehead2

Not a good look for a so-called patriotic party to be involved with someone dismissed from the armed services. Either they knew he was breaking impartiality rules, or their vetting process is still rubbish.

He has still broken the impartiality rules for members of the armed forces.

But he stood for a political party. Meanwhile, I have posted before about the perils of cutting and pasting election material. Every election produces examples of leaflets containing material from party HQ where the words "[candidate name]", "[ward name]" or "[local authority name]" have not been replaced. The party concerned is embarrassed, while the other parties have a laugh and hope it won't be them next time. It looks like one of the Reform councillors has committed a slightly more embarrassing version of this. He stated in his election literature that he would give up his day job if elected. It looks like he copied the pledge from his general election material. An MP's salary is enough to allow members to give up the day job. A county councillor's allowance is not. Oops.

If he wasn’t eligible to stand, he can’t stay.

One of the Farageistes elected in Warwickshire is reported to be a member of the armed services. That would make him ineligible to stand. A by-election already?

There are several posts above explaining how this deal is perfectly normal and is similar to those signed with other countries and with the EU. Why have you chosen to ignore that?

The EU is a trading bloc similar in size to the USA. That gives it a lot of power in trade negotiations. Now that we are no longer in the EU, the UK is a piddly little country desperate for any trade deals it can get. That is why, under the last government, we did such a terrible trade deal with Australia.

So you think the response to Putin should have been "Fine, take Ukraine. Are there any other countries you'd like to take over?".

The reciprocal NI arrangement is common in trade deals. The last government arranged the same thing with the EU. In this case, Indian staff of an Indian company who work briefly in the UK will not pay NI. They will continue to pay the Indian equivalent and will be entitled to Indian benefits. This is yet another story blown up out of all proportion by right-wing nutjobs.

The 1% Club is a great show. ITV deserve credit for putting it on in a prime Saturday night slot from the start. Lee Mack's hosting adds an extra element to it.

Favourite quiz show - Only Connect

Reform have already lost one of their newly-elected councillors in Shropshire. Shropshire councillor resigns from Reform UK after suspension - BBC News

2 - Adolescence

In another parallel with Canada, the Australian opposition leader has lost his seat.

Friday 2nd May Manchester City 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (20:00) Saturday 3rd May Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham (12:30) Everton 2-1 Ipswich Town Leicester City 2-2 Southampton Arsenal 2-1 AFC Bournemouth (17:30) Sunday 4th May Brentford 1-1 Manchester United (14:00) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Newcastle United (14:00) West Ham United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (14:00) Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool (16:30) Monday 5th May Crystal Palace 1-2 Nottingham Forest (20:00)

Labour have lost roughly two-thirds of the seats they were defending. The Tories have done even worse. The Lib Dems are in second place. Not that the BBC will bother to say anything about that. Tomorrow's papers will probably follow suit.

This week's commentary can be found from the Blogs section or the Home Page of the Forums section.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary stays at the top of the singles chart for a seventh week. It is the longest continuous run at the top by a male solo artist since Noah Kahan’s Stick Season at the beginning of last year. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club is at number two for a fifth successive week, and a sixth in total. WizTheMC, along with Bees And Honey, continues to climb. Show Me Love is now at number three. Ed Sheeran slips to number four with Azizam. Ravyn lenae climbs four places to number five with Love Me Not. After last week’s miserable one new entry, this week there is a positive glut of them. There was a time when five new entries would be considered very low, but it now counts as a reasonably healthy number. Lorde started her career with the number one hit Royals in 2013. Sadly for her, she has yet to get a second top ten single. She has come close this week as What Was That enters at number eleven. Will she enjoy better luck next week? Benson Boone gets his fifth top forty single with Mystical Magical at number seventeen. It is only the second chart hit with those two words in the title, following the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour EP in 1967. Sleep Token, or more likely their record company, must be congratulating themselves on their decision to release several singles from their new album before the release of the album itself. Most rock bands struggle to get any hit singles from one album. Sleep Token have now had three from Even In Arcadia which is released next week (9 May). Damocles is the third of those songs; it is at number 25 this week. I wasn’t too impressed with Caramel, but this is a good deal better. Charli XCX made her chart debut as the featured artist on Icona Pop’s number one single I Love It in 2013. She continued to be a fairly regular visitor to the charts for the next few years. However, after 2018 she didn’t have a top forty hit as the lead artist until Beg For You in 2022. Since then she has resumed her regular visits to the chart and she has a new entry this week at number 34 with Party 4 U. The new entry most likely to make older people think “What on Earth is this? Do people call this music?” is probably Skye Newman’s Hairdresser at number 35. Its unusual instrumentation and strained vocals make it stand out, although not necessarily in a good way. It is, not surprisingly, the first chart hit to have the word hairdresser in its title. Teddy Swims’ Lose Control is at number 40 for the third time in four weeks. That will be the cause of dismay for some Radio 1 Chart Show listeners as they always play the song at number 40 unless it is something unbroadcastable. There was a battle between two new albums this week for the top of the albums chart between veteran Welsh band Stereophionics and Swedish rock band Ghost. When Monday’s update showed Stereophonics with a healthy lead, they appeared to have number one in the bag. After all, neither band would be expecting to add substantial sales from streams. Almost all of their sales would be actual sales of downloads or physical copies. However, Wednesday’s update showed that Stereophonics' lead had narrowed, suggesting that Ghost had a real chance of getting their first number one album. Eventually, though, Stereophonics held on and Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘En Cry, Make ‘Em Wait becomes their ninth number one album. Ghost have been achieving steadily higher positions with each new album. Most recently, Prequelle reached number three in 2018 (becoming their second top ten album) and Impera got to number two in 2022. They haven’t quite managed to complete that progression as Skeleta also gets to number two. If it is any consolation for their fans, it is at number one on the vinyl albums chart. Former talent show winner James Arthur gets his sixth top three album in six release with Pisces at number three. There are no prizes for guessing what his star sign is. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet makes another of its occasional visits to a position other than numbertwo. It is at number four this week. Rebecca Taylor, recording as Self Esteem, gets her first top ten album with A Complicated Woman at number five. The remaining two new entries are both by Scottish bands, one of which has been around for nine years and one that was probably formed before any members of the younger band were born. The newer of the two bands are folk pop band Tide Lines. Their last two albums have fallen just short of the top ten. Now they have done it again, but have come even closer to making it into the upper tier. Glasgow Love Story is a new entry at number eleven. Simple Minds released their first album in 1979 but didn’t score a major hit until their fifth release New Gold Dream in 1982 which peaked at number three. The next four albums, including a live compilation, all topped the chart. This week they have another live album in the chart. Live In The City Of Diamonds, recorded in Amsterdam last year, is at number twenty.

The Supplementary Vote system was silly, AV would have been a lot better. I'm not convinced the change made much difference, assuming people would have used their first preference in the same way .It is likely that Reform would have picked up very few second preferences and all the second preference votes going to Tories, Lib Dems and Greens would have been wasted. One of the problems with the mix of First Past The Post and all-up elections is that a party can go form having no councillors to having overall control overnight. There will now be six councils run by people with no experience whatsoever. The one hope is that they are visibly a disaster, thereby dissuading people from making the same mistake in a general election.

The record of the parties that preceded Reform is not good, The BNP and UKIP both won council seats. Almost all of those councillors lost their seats four years later because they proved themselves to be clueless loons. Unfortunately for some people, Reform might get the chance to show their incompetence by running councils or holding mayoralties.

If that happens, I expect the broadcasters to devote roughly 23 seconds to Lib Dem gains and the whole of the rest of the programme to Farage's fascists.

At the start of the year Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre looked like becoming PM with a healthy majority. Now it looks like he has lost his seat.

I would define my philosophy broadly as "My freedom ends where your nose begins". Therefore, I consider the right of the majority of people not to have to listen to someone else's choice of music, or whatever, on public transport to be more important than the right of someone to inflict their choices on others. I only wish it wasn't necessary for any party to have to consider having to legislate to encourage good manners.

Saturday 26th April Chelsea 2-0 Everton (12:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 West Ham United Newcastle United 3-0 Ipswich Town Southampton 0-2 Fulham Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Leicester City Sunday 27th April AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Manchester United (14:00) Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

If you're too young to remember the last government, you shouldn't be here. We have a minimum age of 13.