Will Cooling

Will Cooling

@willcooling.bsky.social

2618

Posts

Writes & Hosts the It Could Be Said substack & podcast; https://itcouldbesaid.substack.com/.

Writes a fortnightly column for CityAM and has contributed to a variety of outlets on politics, sport or pop culture.

All opinions his own & not of any employer.

Posts Replies Media

I don't think the party, any party, going to have the stomach for a second round of bloodletting after all this, and the convention really isn't set up to select a nominee. I also wouldn't over read talk of processes - a lot of that is tactical about how to best present Harris's coronation

Father Time is the only champion that remains undefeated

I think so, and I've read American journalists who have said that's what people semi-close to him are saying. Indeed that is the text of the Clooney article.

I just don't think people who are willing to vote Democrat, are set against voting for a Black person, especially one who (tiptoes around American racial sensitivities) like Obama does not conform to any community's preconceptions about African-Americans

Absolutely the latter - Pelosi coming forward marked a step change. I want to know who made the call for the early debate & why? Was that Biden Team over confidence or was that them trying to stop this all happening in May/June by telling the serious figures that Joe will prove the doubters wrong

I don't think its a coincidence that the coup is finally working as the plotters finally begrudgingly accept she will be the nominee rather than continue fantasies of a contested convention

I honestly think Kamala can do it. I think under the radar she's caught fire, and it SO FUCKING LONG since the Americans had a non-elderly person run for President (Clinton was 69 on election day in 2016) that I think her running will be a real breath of fresh air

"Caught fire" is the wrong phrase - "hit form" is a better description

I'm always one of life's optimists 😂

Gotta cheer yourself up about how close America is to getting to choose between two mixed-ethnicity couples that head blended families

As Napoleon said, give me a lucky general over a good one

James Cooray Smith

Not even MacDonald. He like Wilson did it second time round as ex-PMs, but MacDonald had only been leader for just over a year when Baldwin called a snap election

This is the tone they should have been hitting from the start archive.ph/01fU6

David was never going to be leader after Brown, the Brownites would have made common cause with the left to run a candidate that did better with the membership; as they did in 2010. His only chance was when Blair resigned, by being the change candidate. But he was too close/loyal to Blair to do that

This is why I never buy "greatest prime ministers we never had" - if they were up to it, they'd have gotten it. Even edge cases like John Smith pass the rule - his failure to push aside Kinnock during the 87 parliament spoke to his reluctance to ruffle weathers within the Labour Party

What is fascinating is how similar the push to remove Biden, if its successful, bears to removing Johnson. Which on one level talks to Johnson's weird presidential affect, but also how we sometimes overrate the importance of systems in politics. To paraphrase Jurassic Park - "politics finds a way"

I can't help but think that if you polled a random selection of people, and said this advert has been withdrawn due to the model's stance on Israel/Palestine, a lot of people would assume it was because of pro-Palestinians complaining about an Israeli model being celebrated.

I also think its telling that Ken Clarke was seemingly the activists choice in 1997 but not in 2001. Immediately after a bruising defeat you kinda want someone to tell you that the party's great and that you're great for having supported it. Cleverly can do that in a way I think Badenoch won't

Not just hyping up the debate - moving it forward so it was abnormally early. As bad as things seem, the democrats only have a semi-chance to save themselves because unusually the first debate was before the convention

Especially when you consider his son stood trial and was convicted - the emotional toll of that occuring in public would take a lot out of people much younger than him

If there's one thing everyone knows about academics, its that they are the very last people to have hang ups about markers of status or prestige which are completely impenetrable to most people....

Honestly, "for every £1 of spending, x% must be spent on maintenance and refurbishment" wouldn't be the worst idea for a fiscal rule to stop governments cutting corners on stuff that doesn't catch the voters eye until it fail

Agree - I said that in another leg of the thread, it's a huge problem and I think part of the solution is that regulators have to treat it in the same way we do capital requirements for banks where we go 'you must have a certain amount of this', because otherwise it doesn't happen.

Magnificent Ewa of Judgement

If the force is a constant across the universe, maybe gravity is too? Clearly they're interconnected given mastering force allows you to manipulate the speed yourself or other objects move.

Outlook and Teams still being up when everything else is down, really is the "your school doesn't get a snow day like the kids down the road" of office work

Reposted by

Ending the pop polls has not had the expected beneficial effects, reports my Productivity Department. But here comes the head of my Doomscrolling Department and wow there's a guy with something to smile about

@stephenkb.bsky.social looking for the local angle. Is there any evidence of Starmer and Harris's paths crossing when he was DPP and she was California's AG?

Also Harris is fine. She over thought it in 2020 by trying to triangulate too much, but you watch her this year she can deliver a pretty good campaign speech. And she really does make Trump and Biden seem ancient

School Newspapers maybe also separating the politics nerds into partisans and news junkies at earlier stage, as well?

I see semafor is completely unending it'd user interface in a way that goes against it'd fundamental mission statement. I'm sure that says nothing bad about its a viability as a business once the VC money runs out