Best Of

"Middle-class white men banned from public sector internship
National Audit Office’s six-week paid programme only accepts female, black heritage or lower socio-economic applicants" (£)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/06/middle-class-white-men-banned-from-public-sector-internship/

Thames Water hosting a refugee only recruitment day !!

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/insight/thames-water-defends-refugee-only-careers-day-amid-backlash/gm-GM8D04174F?gemSnapshotKey=GM8D04174F-snapshot-1

This one had me thinking. Normally refugees have neither the 'right to work' or the 'right to rent' - unless they have been granted refugee status i.e. have been confirmed as genuine refugees. Once given the 'right to work' they need to be economically active and TW must be canvassing for skills within the refugee cohort. There are definitely a lot of skills there, from my experience.

This then begs the question which no doubt the usual suspects will raise such as :

* are they simply economic migrants hiding among refugees
* are they stealing jobs that the domestic population could do
* are they just here for the benefits (a high proportion of those on benefits are in work)

People will have their own views. The main issue though is that in a nation bound by the rule of law (one assumes) once their status has been confirmed, they are here legally for work and accommodation purposes. Unless of course you do something on a bus you shouldn't.

People complain about refugees not making an adequate economic contribution. Then when somebody does something to try to help them overcome the additional hurdles they face so they can make that economic contribution, the same people shout and scream about that too.

It's similar to the complaints about them not speaking English.
And then protests about English classes.

O/T with apologies for diverting a thread right away but the Guardian have now published their readers' list of 100 greatest novels and it looks a lot better to me than the authors' and critics' list from a few weeks ago:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/jun/06/readers-top-100-novels-of-all-time

Amazed to see Memoirs of Hadrian on there. And deservedly. I thought I was the only person that had read it.

Not at all. A stunningly good book and an incredibly moving one. I rate it even higher than I Claudius as the foremost example of the genre. Read it when I was in my late teens and never forgot it.

Oooohhhh... I love I, Claudius. I reread (for the third time) last year, and it was every bit as good as I remembered.

I must try Memoirs of Hadrian.

Scotland was probably after London one of the better results for the Tories in May. Although the Scottish Tories still lost MSPs whereas London Tories made net gains of council seats, they held most of their Holyrood constituencies. Whereas in provincial England outside London lots of Tory councillors lost their seats particularly to Reform and Scottish Tories got a higher voteshare in the Holyrood vote than Welsh Tories did in the Senedd.

Kemi also still has a reasonable 20% favourable rating in Scotland. The Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine Holyrood seat which largely overlaps with the Aberdeen South Westminster seat was also one of a minority of constituencies in Scotland where the Tories beat Reform and were still in the top 2 against the SNP. Indeed the Tories were just 4% behind the SNP so if they squeeze the 17% who voted Reform then they could beat the SNP and win the seat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_Deeside_and_North_Kincardine

Arbroath is the type of seat Labour might win back if Burnham wins the Makerfield by election and replaces Starmer as Labour leader and PM but it won't while Starmer remains PM which he still will be when the by elections are held

How is going from 31 MSPs to 12 in Scotland one of the Tories' "better results"?

Because the rest were worse. Hardly a difficult concept.

O/T with apologies for diverting a thread right away but the Guardian have now published their readers' list of 100 greatest novels and it looks a lot better to me than the authors' and critics' list from a few weeks ago:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/jun/06/readers-top-100-novels-of-all-time

War and Peace is number 6. So people really have finished reading it?!

Not a lot of laughs in that list.
In general, to my slight frustration, people seem to devalue things which make them laugh. But being genuinely funny at the same time as doing creativity should be genuinely impressive.
This is also true of poetry and pop music.

That's a bit harsh: I'm genuinely fond of @williamglenn.

"Middle-class white men banned from public sector internship
National Audit Office’s six-week paid programme only accepts female, black heritage or lower socio-economic applicants" (£)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/06/middle-class-white-men-banned-from-public-sector-internship/

Are white, middle-class heterosexual men the most put upon cohort in UK society?

That's not the point. This is officially sanctioned discrimination by sex and race, and that will create injustice.

If you play this game, you create social division.

No you won't!

Correcting an injustice might make those who benefitted from it agrieved, but it doesn't make them victims.

Treating people discriminated against by the system doesn't mean punishing those who had benefitetd from it.

I'd be up set if a car iIbought turned out to be stolen and had to be returned to it's owner, but I wouldn't blame them or say I should be allowed to keep it.

Nor if I had no idea it was stolen would I be prosecuted.

When we abolished slavery we compensated Slave owners not Slaves.

Apparently the logic being that the slaves were benefitting from their fredom, but the owners were losing their right to own other people and would have to pay people instead.

We sort of thought Slavery was a one of fee as opposed to paying in instalments.

The idea that white people are losing out because others are being treated just like them is just bizarre!

Peter.