Best Of

Housing is what the government should be concentrating on -

- building more
- Building a variety of high quality homes
- sorting out the post-Grenfell mess
- Training proper construction tradesmen and craftsmen
- Improving standards in existing homes
- Sorting out leasehold issues & the rental market

Not faffing around calling Reform voters names.

Peter Apps who has written extensively about Grenfell and the housing market could give them a few ideas.

They should just get on with their fucking job rather than making adenoidal speeches written by half-witted interns and AI which sound like the sort of rubbish you see printed on overpriced mugs.

When the population is increasing by a half to three-quarters of a million a year net, it's going to be almost impossible to build enough homes.

Enjoy it while it lasts. We’re heading into a century of population shrinkage. Within our lifetimes there’ll be nobody left but crusty old codgers, of whatever skin colour.

Indeed: I suspect we're about to swap one mistake for another; we're going to go from the problems of too many people arriving, to the problem of a shrinking population (and a rapidly worsening dependency ratio).

I blame Boris.

To be fair to Boris, he's done his best to keep the number of British people growing.

Naples sitrep

Pizza still the best in the world

Coffee probably ditto

City total chaos and mess almost everywhere. But safer than it was. But my god the litter and graffiti

Still my favourite Italian city. Top 10 worldwide

Decent chocolate too https://gay-odin.it/?srsltid=AfmBOoq4Z5iRa5xXHldw2l1zFSoxjnpP0-tr3iHbx_oG6KsL3X-HJZUA

I've already given him my polite request / order.

Il quartiere spagnolo - named thus because it was where the Spanish soldiers where housed when the Spanish took over Naples. It was around this time that my mother's family came to Naples - the family name is Spanish, from the town in Spain where they came from, and many of the boy's first names have also been Spanish. The main street abutting this area was always known as Via Toledo (and still is by some) but was renamed Via Roma after unification.

Neapolitan is not a dialect but a separate language and Neapolitan humour, theatre and life is hard to understand well without some knowledge of it. Listen to la Tamurriata Nera being sung - it's a world away from the Italy of Milan or Florence. Absolutely glorious, though, despite the subject matter -
https://youtu.be/_U8Xp4IMG-I?si=ojrX56IlVr2EKGs3

Waiting for yet another diagnostic test result - pancreas this time. 2025 is proving to be a bit of an annus horribilis.

Still, I hope to be able to travel soon. See Naples and Die and so on.

Peter Zeihan posts an interesting 5 minute talk on Russia's current problems with it's oil industry. But wtf has happened to his hair?
https://youtu.be/Rs-zQppucJA?si=EyJ3_4E9lJzaLqko

Russia dropping tarrifs on *IMPORTS* of oil and gas has to be one of the craziest stories today, in among a sea of crazy stories.

https://x.com/delfoo/status/1972945908146045207

It’s much worse than they’re letting on, Ukranian “kinetic sanctions” are working, and the russian economy is going to be totally screwed if they have to import fuel for the winter, if they even find anyone to sell it to them.

The queues for petrol are already damn close to Moscow, and RT propogandists were talking this morning about the benefits of battlefield cavalry, because they’re out of proper vehicles.

What is it they say about things happening slowly, then happening quickly?

This is a very astute post. The thing about totalitarian regimes is that nothing shows, but when a crack appears in the regime it can travel very fast. Right now, millions of Russians (probably many tens of millions) of Russians dislike the regime for one reason or another: maybe they're living in poverty, or they've lost a child, or they're scared of being conscripted, or they're negatively impacted by sanctions, or whatever.

While stepping out of line is expensive (Russia has a pretty nasty security aparatus), people keep their heads down.

But at some point, resistance happens. And then when one person resists, it lowers the cost for the second.

Cracks can open up very quickly, and regimes which looked so solid can fall remarkably quicky.

Maybe (hopefully) now is the time.

I listened to the Starmer speech and I'd give it maybe 7./10.

Party political conferences are for tribal speeches, in addition to political, and Farage is the correct target for now. I don't think Starmer went for Farage anything like hard enough, and I hope he makes a suitably blunt response to whatever Farage says. He needs to define

SKS is not a great orator, and it shows.

Listening to Farage's response, he is upset at being called out for what he is.

LOL I see that Nigel is wibbling on about Anfifa, just like Trump (Antifa? In the UK? Where?), and he's shocked, shocked I tell you.

Farage appears to have no ideas that didn't originate in the US, these days.

Antifa, FFS.

The whole of the UK right seems to be in thrall to US brainrot. They need to get off Twitter and start living in the real world.