UK Election: Poll predicts huge win for Labour

A new poll commissioned by the right leaning Daily Telegraph suggests Labour is heading for a landslide win in the July 4th election. The poll puts Labour on course to win more than 500 seats in the next parliament, while the Conservatives may hold as few as 53 seats. If this proves even remotely accurate, it will deliver the largest electoral majority in British history and leave the Conservative Party on political life support. Among the secondary parties, the Liberal Democrats are predicted to be only a few seats short of the Tories while the secessionist Scottish National Party would see its numbers drop by 40 to just eight. More than half of current ministers are believed in danger of losing their seats, including Rishi Sunak who could become the first sitting Prime Minister to lose his seat in a general election. The right-wing Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) headed by Nigel Farage is not expected to win any seats but is likely to contribute to the Tory collapse. 

The poll is a bit of an outlier, with most others showing a big win for Labour but not quite the existential collapse of the Tories that this one is predicting. And the pollsters acknowledge that around 100 seats are close enough that some could remain Conservative. But even in a best-case scenario for the Conservatives, Labour is likely to walk away with a de facto election proof majority leaving them firmly in government for at least the next ten years.

Story here (paywalled)

Report: Vatican considering crack down on Tridentine Mass

Rorate Caeli reports that "the most credible sources" are warning of an effort within the Holy See to impose what may amount to a near total ban on the pre-Vatican II Catholic Mass. Details, such as they are, can be found at the link.

Pope Francis is well known for his hostility to Catholic traditionalists and has already taken steps to restrict the use of the older sacramental rites. If the report is accurate, this would be a massive escalation of his campaign to suppress the ancient liturgical patrimony of the Western Church.

Update: There have been some follow-up posts over at Rorate that are worth a read. The contempt for traditionalist Catholics behind this movement is quite shocking. On which note, it bears repeating that any church that holds these kinds of views, or believes a single bishop has the right and authority to suppress the liturgical patrimony of more than a billion people, is one that we Orthodox can never be in communion with. 

Presbyterian troubles

And then there is this.

Ivory Coast Breaks with United Methodists

The Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast has broken with the United Methodist Church following the US church's adoption of pro-alphabet rules and guidelines at its recent general conference. This effectively removes around 1.2 million members from the global United Methodist Church at a stroke.

Back (sort of)

The most unpleasant road trip I can remember is over. What should have lasted three days turned into almost a week as I was stricken by a nasty case of what turned out to be Norovirus. For three full days I was flat on my back (when not dashing for the bathroom) in a Red Roof Inn off I 95 in a small town in Georgia. Thank God for the sympathetic staff at the hotel and the local urgent care clinic who, when I finally broke down and went, swiftly diagnosed the illness and hooked me up to an IV to help rehydrate me and mitigate the nausea. The illness has now passed but I am still extremely run down. I hope to catch up with the backlogged emails etc. over the next couple of days.