while we’re doing correct answers, this one is The Muppet Christmas Carol

NB the correct answer to favourite carol is Adeste Fideles (Xmas Morning Version) with the classic descant in verse three and The Chord in verse four. English lyrics acceptable but Latin preferred for maximum grew-up-Catholic nostalgia.

“Hi Michael, fancy taking a 33% increase to your bills and locking into a contract to get a little bit more data that your usage suggests you don’t need?”

I don’t know how good Starmer and Reeves are, but I suspect they’d need a bit of practice to get it down, it looked tricky.

but also I just think there has to be a middle ground between 2010s era very close alignment with LGBT groups and the current lack of anything at all

yeah it’s definitely hard - clearly I think they should change their position on trans rights, and I think part of the problem they’ve got into is that they haven’t had enough trusted relationships with people or orgs who can point out the problems with it

I do not accept that having disagreements over trans rights absolves today’s Labour politicians of the moral requirement to spend a fraction of the effort that yesterday’s Tories did on building a positive relationship with LGBT people and signalling it to their supporters. 2/2

Of course, by Pride season next year, he might find himself with more time on his hands anyway.

I recognise it’s a cheeky suggestion because the major Prides have mostly decided they don’t want politicians there. But I think that’s a bad state of affairs and he should try to change it, via personal outreach and policy shifts.

if a Prime Minister is going to be accused by the BBC of “putting party before country” every time they make a decision that doesn’t align with narrowly measured public opinion, then we deserve every stupid Prime Minister we get.

that’s even conceding that scrapping the two child cap is unpopular in the country, and actually I don’t concede that. yes, it polls badly. I think single issue polls where decisions require tradeoffs are much less valuable than we currently treat them as being.

True more broadly of all the “you fool! Income tax rises are unpopular” chatter. What about the current 2027-9 spending plans looks popular to you?!

That is, any chancellor was likely to tax and spend relative to the pre-election baseline. Reeves has done so more than a Tory would have done, but the baseline exaggerates the extent of it.