Best Of

We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation

“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”

“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.

The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK:
1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes
2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials
3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers
4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”

https://x.com/mr_james_c/status/2031670381254173069?s=46

Incredible. You can't even be right when you quote someone else.

1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes - historical figures have only been on banknotes since the 70s. The monarch has ony been on them since the 50s. Clearly we were in a void of unremembering before then only to be enlightened when the Bank of England put the Duke of Wellington on fivers.
2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials Jury trials are not being "removed". They are being limited, not removed.
3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers Hereditary peers are being removed from the Legislature. HM Government is the executive.
4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies. Oh fuck off, seriously, just fuck off.

You are, in many ways, a remarkable human being. Not remarkable in the way that, say, Napoleon was remarkable, or Keats, or even that bloke who free-climbed El Capitan in under four hours. No. You are remarkable in a much rarer, much more statistically improbable sense. You have never, in living memory, been right about anything. You provide the dark mirror to reliable epistemic guidance.

My last putdown really hurt you, didn't it? It was two days back. Get over it, man

Seems like an apposite riposte to me.
And rather more polite.

Thanks, I always strive for politesse, as you know. I regard it as my duty to raise the tone on PB

I should also point out, on topic, that today I received a peice of fossilised Burmese amber, from the Cretaceous. It contains a perfectly preserved tiny red spider. Trapped, in that amber, 100 million years ago. When dinosaurs stomped the earth

It's a magical thing. I can stare at it for ages, hypnotised. A warm frozen golden glowing jewel of deeptime, a kind of ultra-ruby, prised from the Tiara of Antiquity

I AM GETTING WELL INTO FOSSILS

Perfectly natural since you are a fossil.

Has somebody already done that? Suppose they have.

No, you can proudly take ownership of this incredibly unexpected joke, which shows one of the many facets of your dazzling intellect, your gift for surreal yet exhilarating wordplay. It's all yours!

We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation

“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”

“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.

The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK:
1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes
2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials
3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers
4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”

https://x.com/mr_james_c/status/2031670381254173069?s=46

The bank notes is because it’s time to start the next set of security redesigns - and the BoE decided to have a public consultation on it. Surely they remember Boaty McBoatface but clearly they didn’t

What’s wrong with just doing the security redesign?

A public consultation will likely get hijacked by the sort of people who think we shouldn’t have a king and that Churchill was the bad guy in WWII.

The $100 Bill has been a Benjamin Franklin for decades.

Well... I don't think we should have a King, but I'm adamant Winston Churchill was a hero and definitely the good guy in WWII.
Even back in 1919, he stood up for the Indians murdered by General Dyer.

Glasgow Central Station update. Network Rail now have some access to the site, and are carrying out inspections, but the fire scene is still under control of the fire service. Once the fire service hands it to the council, there needs to be a decision on whether to shore up or demolish the Gordon St facade, and that needs to be done before the roads can reopen. There’s two lower-level platforms through which trains are passing. The main station won’t be open before Monday, and even then there might be only limited platforms and entrances available.

https://x.com/clyde1news/status/2031702994841116734

Network rail will be under huge pressure to get things moving again. Platforms with lower numbers are closer to Union street, may be a case of shuffling as many passengers through the Hope Street entrance. I would not be surprised if upper level remained out of action for more than a week, there will be a lot of structure to check and some demolition may be needed first

When you see the drone photos its very fortunate the main station building didn't catch fire

It is becomiming very obvious that Starmer listened to Morgan McSweeney's advice who was a prodigy of Mandleson

Rigby suggesting Starmer was a passenger in this rather than overseeing it

How can a PM be a passenger when appointing the UK ambassador to the US ?

Have you never heard of delegation

You are meant to delegate administrative tasks, not your frontal lobe.

Im delegating appointing the ambassador to the USA to the tea lady, i am busy with the business of feeding Larry some dreamies

What if he prefers Bonkers to Dreamies? I think we need an Inquiry.

Larry has class. Of course he prefers dreamies

Its another nothing burger everyone will get very excited about.

The due diligence files simply collate what was already in the public eye at the time of his appointment as ambassador, and actually for many years before that. So these concerns could have been raised at the time of appointment, yet there were not just govt supporters but Spectator and Telegraph journalists praising Mandelson's appointment as sensible real politik knowing full well he was a wrong un.

Starmer took a risk on the appointment as he specifically wanted someone comfortable dealing with immoral, untrustworthy wrong uns, so chose our best immoral untrustworthy wrong un. That was a reasonable choice at the time for those who believe real politik can outrank moral considerations and an immoral choice for those who prefer to stay true to their values even when there are associated costs. Nothing in the reports changes any of that.