'Joining David Dimbleby on the panel of BBC Question Time in York: Michael Gove MP, Education Secretary; Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Attorney General for Labour; Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party; Mark Littlewood, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs; and bestselling author Anthony Horowitz.'
As Avery so rightly pointed out, there will be a series of small improvements rolled out in the next couple of days. For now, I'm just keeping an eye on it, and making sure it works ok...
@Blue_rog Very draconian.As a techie, I thought a random alphanumeric string of eight digits was probably good enough. Apparently not.
Also, you should use weak passwords for sites like this, because assuming you use a limited set of strong passwords for online banking, email, etc. repeating them here could be very dangerous because Vanilla has weaker protection.
One day old and the housing first time buyer scheme in trouble! Was speaking to a girl today that's trying to sell a one bed. "That Osborne has screwed me up as I have no potential first time buyer - only buy to let merchants looking to get way under market prices and widow downsizers my potential market" Ahhhh, unintended consequences Georgie Porgie!
Recently Russian vessels docked in Beirut rather than its long established facility in Tartus in Syria. This didnt raise too much comment at the time and contrary to perception Tartus hasnt been a big facility for years and Russians downscaled it somewhat as the Syrian crisis dragged on.
It is, however, a live facility and plenty of Russian military and cargo vessels stop there until the sight of the Russians pulling into Beirut.
They've now gone public in Moscow officially saying uncertainty over Tartus has moved them to 'safer ports' for the time being. Apart from the symbolism on Moscow's part it reflects three things:
-A lot of people talk about the Alawite coast as some near oasis and impregnable at that. It isn't. As Ive mentioned here a few times, there rebels in that Alawite oasis, it is a conflict zone
-Its a recognition of the rebel capability to both strike at Tartus, at least from range, if not reach it yet
-Beirut has been used as a outlet for escaping Russian citizens airlifted out previously. It may be the chosen location again.
Russia has also changed its tone regarding the suspected chemical weapons incident in Aleppo. Initially they came straight out and said rebels did it. Now they've said its unclear and needs to be investigated and proven there was use of chemical weapons at all.
The murder of a pro Assad Sunni cleric should not surprise. I mentioned last week or so that there was a call from such a senior Sunni cleric for people to take up arms in Assad's favour. This, I suspect, is a response. Curiously his family reportedly got out of Syria this morning.
The fighting is still broadly going the rebels way overall with the advance from the Jordanian border north to Damascus posing a particular threat. Well armed and reportedly well trained, their distance to the capital is shorter. As yet though they have yet not got absolute superiority never mind supremacy
I think it will take a bit of settling in but first impressions are OK. I'm sure some of the add ons allow reply to other posters and smilies - depends how much OGH wants to spend :-)
The BBC's line is "Row over Budget home loans plan" - the opposition can always manufacture a row, we'll see how much ground it gets. Tim bang on Labour's line, though; an achievement in itself.
So before we get bogged down in the minutae of politics and betting (grin) can anyone hazard a guess at the composition of my dog. I've some suspicions but don't know for certain as we got her from the Dog's Trust
We have the new system and it's going to take a little while for me and and the rest of the team to get used to it. Please bear with us over the next day or do
One of their banks is reported to have just "hours" of liquidity left
There are also rumours that they're going to try to "haircut" Russian (mobster) deposits by 40%. How thick is the kevlar vest you're wearing, and do you have a food taster? Another way to put this: Do your prefer your poisoning by high-speed lead or polonium?
The other suggestion for the site is AdWords and AdSense. Both can bring in enough money to pay for Vanilla's fees.
Also, a plea to everyone out there, please turn off your advert blockers or add pb.com to your whitelist, advertisers can tell when their adverts are being blocked and Mike's rates will be adjusted accordingly.
On costs: might it be possible to get some bookies involved? I imagine the site drums up a fair bit of interest and I know William Hill, Ladbrokes and perhaps others have offered competitions and the like in the past.
My goodness, zerohedge is a hoot. Admittedly, a scarily deranged and ill-educated hoot. It reminds me - at the opposite extreme - of the blogs and websites that tipped the dodgiest dot coms in 1999.
@Tim You're quite right about Georgie Porgie having revealed himself as a socialist on housing. And just when the markets are about to top out as well. In fact this is as good timing as the Brown bottom on Gold in 2000. Heck, that's what politicians are useful for, to fade at the top and bottom of markets respectively. What should we call the coming denouement in housing - the 'Osborne flop'?
@rcs1000 You won't be saying that in 18 months time. Yes, there is some sensationalist stuff on zerohedge, but also a lot of good solid Austrian economic thinking.
'Property developers privately told planning rules to be liberalised yet again in weeks. That man Boles again caught on tape. Our splash tmrw' gallagher (and DT fp)
The UK government already has over £100 billion of mortgage assets on its book following transfer from Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley.
The mortgages run the full spectrum from buy-to-let, second home. first time purchases, new builds, older properties and loans on commercial buildings. Borrowers range from corporations to individuals in all demographic and regional groups. And what is more the UK taxpayer is taking 100% of the risk.
And this figure is just the direct mortgages. You then need to look at consequential risks arising out of the mortgage lending activity of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Groups, which dwarfs that of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley by about 20 times.
It is not George Osborne that has put the taxpayer into the mortgage risk market! It was your idol Alistair and Gord himself.
Poll in Cyprus: 2 out of 3 Cypriots would abandon the Euro and link up with Russia! www.abc.es/economia/20130321/abci-chipre-rusia-crisis-201303211813.html
Comments
Thanks one and all for this.
The future starts here - until it changes again.
Much better than Discus
deleted
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/ferdinand-in-hair-appointment-clash-2013031963144
You are dropping your aitches!
I know - I had to add it on a previous upgrade. Can't recall why now tbh.
Also, you should use weak passwords for sites like this, because assuming you use a limited set of strong passwords for online banking, email, etc. repeating them here could be very dangerous because Vanilla has weaker protection.
The only thing Ave it and I need back now is our smileys. Robert? Those were the days!
Can you adjust your avatar pic?
I think you have cropped the chin.
A metaphor for the forthcoming Labour government I hope.
There may be too much whitespace in the current template design.
The close line-spacing of basic WordPress suited PB more than this version, especially if the threads are to be divided into pages as current.
Is this configurable?
If so, what is everyone else's view?
Recently Russian vessels docked in Beirut rather than its long established facility in Tartus in Syria. This didnt raise too much comment at the time and contrary to perception Tartus hasnt been a big facility for years and Russians downscaled it somewhat as the Syrian crisis dragged on.
It is, however, a live facility and plenty of Russian military and cargo vessels stop there until the sight of the Russians pulling into Beirut.
They've now gone public in Moscow officially saying uncertainty over Tartus has moved them to 'safer ports' for the time being. Apart from the symbolism on Moscow's part it reflects three things:
-A lot of people talk about the Alawite coast as some near oasis and impregnable at that. It isn't. As Ive mentioned here a few times, there rebels in that Alawite oasis, it is a conflict zone
-Its a recognition of the rebel capability to both strike at Tartus, at least from range, if not reach it yet
-Beirut has been used as a outlet for escaping Russian citizens airlifted out previously. It may be the chosen location again.
Russia has also changed its tone regarding the suspected chemical weapons incident in Aleppo. Initially they came straight out and said rebels did it. Now they've said its unclear and needs to be investigated and proven there was use of chemical weapons at all.
The murder of a pro Assad Sunni cleric should not surprise. I mentioned last week or so that there was a call from such a senior Sunni cleric for people to take up arms in Assad's favour. This, I suspect, is a response. Curiously his family reportedly got out of Syria this morning.
The fighting is still broadly going the rebels way overall with the advance from the Jordanian border north to Damascus posing a particular threat. Well armed and reportedly well trained, their distance to the capital is shorter. As yet though they have yet not got absolute superiority never mind supremacy
Can't wait to get posting.
well done RCs, and all else involved.
Why have you got a picture of John Lithgow as your avatar?
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQzMzUyNDkzNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTMwNTU5MQ@@._V1._SY314_CR18,0,214,314_.jpg
If you put up the donate button, I'm sure people will be willing to make a donation.
Edited extra bit: seems to work...
Worth it if it works, after the disqus horror.
Donate.
Easy, this vanilla lark.
And just to prove that the Cyp-riots don't just happen at the Laver Arena every January, now its for real in the homeland:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-21/cyp-riots-begin
In the first hour you are at 1,400 page views.
Say 20,000 per day.
That's 600,000 a month.
Does that mean a bill of several hundred pounds a month?
Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with taking advantage of the elderly L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, his lawyer said.
http://news.sky.com/story/1068144/nicolas-sarkozy-charged-in-corruption-probe
this?
300k page impressions/month = $149
1m+ page impressions/month = $549 ("starts at")
So this is going to be a $2k-$7k licensing and support cost at list prices.
One of their banks is reported to have just "hours" of liquidity left
There are also rumours that they're going to try to "haircut" Russian (mobster) deposits by 40%. How thick is the kevlar vest you're wearing, and do you have a food taster? Another way to put this: Do your prefer your poisoning by high-speed lead or polonium?
In that case vanilla will want $6.5k/year.
ouch.
http://vanillaforums.com/plans
"Can you put advertising on Vanilla?"
Please let the answer be no. At least not "sponsored" posts.
Also, a plea to everyone out there, please turn off your advert blockers or add pb.com to your whitelist, advertisers can tell when their adverts are being blocked and Mike's rates will be adjusted accordingly.
Vanilla looks expensive, so I wouldn't begrudge Mike putting some adverts on
I've set it for newest first because I think that is a lot easier to use on mobile devices.
The New Yorker blog is silly.
The UK government already has over £100 billion of mortgage assets on its book following transfer from Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley.
The mortgages run the full spectrum from buy-to-let, second home. first time purchases, new builds, older properties and loans on commercial buildings. Borrowers range from corporations to individuals in all demographic and regional groups. And what is more the UK taxpayer is taking 100% of the risk.
And this figure is just the direct mortgages. You then need to look at consequential risks arising out of the mortgage lending activity of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Groups, which dwarfs that of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley by about 20 times.
It is not George Osborne that has put the taxpayer into the mortgage risk market! It was your idol Alistair and Gord himself.
Think, boy, think!
www.abc.es/economia/20130321/abci-chipre-rusia-crisis-201303211813.html