I like containers. But they do have a habit of nurturing cludgy temporary hacks into permanent infrastructure, by sweeping all the ugly bits under the big whale-shaped rug.

I suppose this is the challenges for Reform. UKIP seemed to get a pass on much of its crankiness by being seen as a largely single issue protest party.

But now Breixt it is “done” and Reform has to present itself as a fully formed alternative to the traditional parties of governance. Which it turn means it will be under much greater scrutiny, and really challenge the appeal of the party outside it’s core.

Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the “sponging gender” and should be “deprived of health care”.

Crikey. Farage’s new crop are making the likes of Godfrey Bloom look tame.

It’s the ones that are thinking it but managing to not say it aloud that we really should worry about.

The format excluded any proper discussion and left space only for the pre-rehearsed soundbites we all expect anyway. Combined with the ineffective moderation and the whole thing was a tedious watch, shambles over substance.

ITV took 70 minutes of my life and I want them back.

Well it shuts up the conspiracists claiming Farage had himself milkshaked by a Reform supporter as some of 5d chess false flag thing I suppose.

The military part of the proposed new national service is going to be optional however, those “conscripted” can choose a civilian volunteering path instead. So I’m not sure how this scheme would help with the threat of future conflict when nobody chooses the military option.

It’s a ridiculous gimmick to distract from the Tories failures in areas people do care about.

Seems a hard sell to go subscription on such a niche platform. I wish anyone luck that could challenge the Apple/Android duopoly though.

As an aside, can we get back into desktop cubes again? With all the upheaval in Windows land it’s the sort of eye candy that can win over new Linux users.

Surprised to see Gove go, like him or loathe him he’s always seemed a survivor.

At this rate there’s going to be a real vacuum of senior figures to take the reins once Sunak goes.

Any distro should be fairly stable and supported on an older Thinkpad.

I’m currently using Debian stable on my X220 and it’s rock solid.

Hopefully that’s the end of the Rwanda policy for good then. I’m a bit surprised he didn’t try to ram it through before calling the election, he seemed to be staking so much on it.

But now they can use it a campaign point for ”stopping the boats” instead - safe in the knowledge they’ll now not have to see it through to the end.

I wonder why he’s not standing this time. Maybe he doesn’t want the embarrassment of losing a 9th parliamentary election. Or perhaps he wants to ensure he has to ties for an eventual return to the Conservative Party.

Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband

David Cameron, May 2015

Oh how I wish we chose chaos with Ed Miliband.

Disappointing the non-terminal route was rejected, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

Starmer has made previous pledges to bring forward a vote in the UK parliament, with an election now confirmed hopefully we can make similar progress.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we?

While he is taking a break from YouTube, perhaps Tom Scott can put together a sequel.

Parliament will be dissolved on 30th May. When the Commons is dissolved all business is ended and MPs stop being MPs. When the Lords dissolves business ends but Lords still remain Lords.

The government still remains and ministers keep their positions, but is effectively only a caretaker for the pre-election period, and cannot enact new polices except in exceptional circumstances.

The campaign period proper starts once Parliament is dissolved. Parties will publish manifestos shortly after, TV debates may be organised etc.

I was starting to think they would dither their way into defaulting to January at the rate they had been going.

My worst fear is not a Tory comeback but a lurch in more radical and populist direction if Labour fail to start visibly turning things around after the first term. It’s unrelated to expect many if any first term miracles considering the state the country is in, but people are going to need to feel some sort of progress to stop the frustration boiling over.

About bloody time.

It’s been raining hard nearly all day today, only just stopped. But I guess it’s true that every cloud has a silver lining.