Turkey: On the good news front the Kurdish PKK and the Turkish state appear to be on the verge of a peace deal if the messages from the jailed PKK leader are anything to go by.
@Y0kel, the reply plug-in is a paid addition, just use the "@" sign and then the person's username and it will at least be highlighted who you are talking to. It's similar to how the old RSS comment feed used to work.
I'm a Junction (Islington/Holloway) ward voter, though I voted by post as I'm in Korea this week. Slick Labour leaflets well-timed for my postal vote; LibDems delivered one leaflet early; Greens delivered one late, both competing for the throw-the-rascals-out vote (the LibDems in particular going mainly on "do you really want yet another Labour councillor, how about a different voice?" Surprised by the scanty Green effort as they've targeted the area. Labour hold expected, but will be interesting to see who is second and whether it's close.
The new system seems OK though it ate my first message because I'd not registered yet and was annoyingly bossy about choosing a very strong password - it simply wouldn't accept the fairly strong one that I use for other demanding systems like my office network. But hey, I can live with that as it should recognise me on next posting.
Has the esteemed member for Brighton Pavilion replied to the Budget today? I bet she was in a hissy fit about the new home building scheme, and exempting the Pottery Industry from carbon emissions. I'm sure the good folk of the Potteries will be running to Mr Osborne in droves!
I've often said, PB doesn't need a like or a dislike button.
It needs a "That's the most stupid thing I've ever read, you deserve to be simultaneously kicked in the throat and sodomised by a honey badger" button.
@Neil I've seen her blow her top on occasions. I wonder what she makes of all the cold weather around the globe this winter. Haven't heard much about global warming or its modern equivalent 'climate change'. Funny that. But we have the all too real consequence of the lights going out literally in Britain in 3 years time thanks to the idiotically inspired energy policy over the past quarter of a century - governments of both hues included.
Very interetsing article by Peter Watt on Labour Uncut. He argues that the really winner in the budget was Nick Clegg - and that Labour have seriously misjudged him.
Congrats to all concerned on a superior commenting system.
But may I enquire what has become of the back catalogue?
OGH used, quite rightly, to assert that the million or two comments represented a valuable historical artefact, while the rest of us simply mined them for risible past predictions.
One of the many problems with Disqust was the disappearance of all comments prior to 2008.
But now they've all gone and never called me mother. Shall we ever see their like again?
1) this is much nicer than Disqus. It will be unmourned. If it costs more, regulars should be asked to contribute.
2) another firm preference for newest first.
3) Babergh is one of Britain's most picturesque councils with a phenomenal number of listed buildings, thanks to the wool trade in the Middle Ages. Gainsborough was born in the west of the borough and Constable painted some of his most famous works in the east of the borough.
The high tax free allowance is a daft policy. Regressive, expensive, achieves little. It would have been much, much better to spend the money on tax credits or similar.
Not necessarily having kids, no. But tax credits make sure that a finite chunk of cash is targeted at those who needed it most.
Whereas most of the cash from a raising of the tax-free threshold goes to those higher up the income scale.
If you earned 10k you should have been eligible for working tax credits, housing benefit etc, much more help than a few quid from raising the tax-free rate.
@carl I lived with my parents at the time so my disposable income was just fine. I wouldn't have dreamt of moving out on that salary tbh. This was in 2003ish btw.
I'll respectfully disagree with you on the allowance vs credits.
@Neil No I wouldn't want her to draw conclusions. We have millions of years worth of data to prove conclusively that CO2 hardly has any impact on the climate.
Do the Russians really have loads of spare cash? As a state they don't really.0
The Cypriots may play the Russian line as I thought they would but I suspect the Russia style deal though it has popular appeal right now has a number of major stumbling blocks:
-It would threaten Cyrprus' European links -It may have ramifications vis a vis the Turkish Cypriot side, particularly if Russia demands some serious concessions on military affairs as well as economic. -The Cypriot politicians know the Russians are not coming to be nice. They may be hacked at the Germans but they are not without knowledge that Russia comes with plenty of burdens
The Europeans know this, Cyprus politically has been moving more and more into the Western European sphere and for its political elite to do a 180 turn is a big move.
The Troika has deliberately left the crappy decision to the Cypriot government on raising the cash, if they want to leave the average Cypriot citizen alone then they'll have to hit the wealthy depositors hard or dump their gold reserves to mitigate.
There is also some doubt that the Russians will bite though there are attractions.
On topic - congratulations to Harry on an excellent, well-researched article. It deserves more consideration than it's getting, but we're all too busy playing with our new toy. Junction ward in Islington will be the most interesting result, I suspect.
Did anyone comment earlier on this marvellously comical piece of self-imprtance in today's Grauniad:
Three-score academics, including an Oxonian knight of the realm, managed to get together in 5 hours after Osborne's budget speech to proclaim "a people's assembly".
Still, it represents progress of a sort. 364 academics memorably opposed Margaret Thatcher. Only 60 could raise the energy to oppose George Osborne.
@tim. More important than that. George is starting the part "nationalisation" of privately owned housing stock. Presumably, when these propoperties are sold , pro-rata sale proceeds will go to HMG.
Funny , we criticised banks and building societies from giving 95-100% loans. Now , effectively the government will guarantee that.
Actually, I am all for it. My only surprise is that a capitalist, non-interventionist government is doing this.
If this comes off, we are in for another housing boom. I am going for 3/4 houses. I only ahve to find about 5% myself.
Why not give a similar guarantee to lending to SME's ?
really hard to sign up. wouldn't accept my gmail password, wanted a very long and complex password to be happy. other than that well done guys, thanks (test post comment edit)
PtP: The Large Hadron Collider is able to measure the space of time before I decided how to vote.
Yes, the Like/Dislike stuff was tiresome - we all know who the interesting posters are, and also (like the "doing a good job" leader polls) they blurred "I think you wrote a well-argued post there, thank you for the interesting contribution even if I disagreed with it" with "I so agree with you, man, all the other parties suck".
But having a response option would be nice. Inicdentally, I was sort of getting used to the new Disqus, once people mostly stopped posting responses and likes/dislikes to mess up the order. Could have lived with it, and still could if Vanilla proves unaffordable. But I know that's heresy.
@Surbiton So you think more debt is going to solve all our troubles? Try telling that to the people of Cyprus right now! So much capital going into non-productive enterprises such as housing - what's that going to do for the future productive capacity of the economy - absolutely nothing! But the very real debt servicing costs have to be met. All the while, precious capital which should be flowing into productive enterprises is being diverted into this folly. Its the economics of the madhouse. All our capital misallocation over the past 30 years has done enough damage already, this is just the icing on the cake before it all collapses in the biggest credit deflation in history. And how will all those new homeowners under this wretched scheme feel about Mr Osborne then?
1. Vanilla is much easier on the eye scanning threads, but boy is it fussy about passwords! Still when it's done it's done.
2. I've found a downside to living in the deep south. Last week highs were in the 70s. The last few days have been below freezing overnight, and struggled to the mid 40s during the day. The result is I have a fast developing mega-cold, with pronounced - as they say it here - post-nasal drip - so my nose is red and sore and I have a voice like the mating call of a rusty file, as it's already gone to my chest.
But mainly kudos to OGH and Robert for reacting so quickly when Disqus became - for PB - essentially unusable. That can't have been a pleasant surprise.
It ought to be worth at least 7 bn euro to the EU to prevent a Russian naval base on Cypress. We could kick in a couple of billion instead of buying one of our (useless) carriers* - or cancel our (even more useless) F35* purchase and fund the whole lot in exchange for a share of the offshore gas exploration rights. We might even turn a profit.
*It is the particular carriers & aircraft which are likely to be useless rather than the weapons class in general.
Caroline hasnt been leader for some time. My preferred choice in the election came nowhere. I self-censor when it comes to commenting on the new leader (though she hasnt been that bad, I must say). The leader is just a spokesperson, no real power that I can see.
Auckland is a criminally small ground for playing modern test match cricket! Feel sorry for Monty and any spinner on this pitch. I wouldn't want to be Cook in the dressing room at lunchtime!
Comments
It won't be as much as that. If it is, we're back to Disqus I guess!
I said it just now, but make sure you look into AdSense and AdWords.
Is this easily configurable?
Ah right. I got that well wrong at the first time of asking.
It is for me. Also with newest first you can load all the comments in one thread... I had a white screen/7 pages to click through when oldest first.
It's oldest first if you access the discussion from your Vanilla dashboard, I've found.
The new system seems OK though it ate my first message because I'd not registered yet and was annoyingly bossy about choosing a very strong password - it simply wouldn't accept the fairly strong one that I use for other demanding systems like my office network. But hey, I can live with that as it should recognise me on next posting.
Dont be silly, Caroline doesnt do hissy fits.
How do you revert back to newest first?
Anyone done this?
Warning: Savers with money in UK branches of Laiki - the Cypriot bank at heart of crisis - may be at risk
Do you have your dashboard at the top of the screen?
Go back to the main site, rather than the discussion on vanilla
If Disqus was free and your Ad revenue is circa $6.5k then Vanilla really isn't an option without a 'transformational change' in business model.
Unless you paid server charges independently of Disqus software licensing.
I've often said, PB doesn't need a like or a dislike button.
It needs a "That's the most stupid thing I've ever read, you deserve to be simultaneously kicked in the throat and sodomised by a honey badger" button.
Yes to 'dashboard' which is more like a thin ribbon or menu bar.
As Jonathan says, certain posters will be distraught.
Like to tell us how you voted, Nick? ;-)
Getting rid of the "Like" button is great news. Hated that popularity contest.
I wish I could like your post.
Oh wait
Brilliant! That did the trick.
Now have Vanilla embedded within PB WordPress template, thread ordered newest first and comment box at top.
What more could a boy want?
I'm sure you wouldnt want her to make the silly error of drawing conclusions about climate trends from current weather conditions.
Mike Smithson invests to grow, progressive and enlightened, we salute!
But may I enquire what has become of the back catalogue?
OGH used, quite rightly, to assert that the million or two comments represented a valuable historical artefact, while the rest of us simply mined them for risible past predictions.
One of the many problems with Disqust was the disappearance of all comments prior to 2008.
But now they've all gone and never called me mother. Shall we ever see their like again?
2) another firm preference for newest first.
3) Babergh is one of Britain's most picturesque councils with a phenomenal number of listed buildings, thanks to the wool trade in the Middle Ages. Gainsborough was born in the west of the borough and Constable painted some of his most famous works in the east of the borough.
The high tax free allowance is a daft policy. Regressive, expensive, achieves little. It would have been much, much better to spend the money on tax credits or similar.
I never saw a tax credit in my life, even whilst earning £10k. Did it revolve around you needing to have kids or some such ?
What happened to Caroline Lucas?
Yes I have - no problem.
Edit - at least I think I have!
A trifle risky if you're logged into Google under, ahem, a different name.
Yes from google
Shouldn't you chose an avatar less revealing of your appearance?
(test linking to sunil)
Not necessarily having kids, no. But tax credits make sure that a finite chunk of cash is targeted at those who needed it most.
Whereas most of the cash from a raising of the tax-free threshold goes to those higher up the income scale.
If you earned 10k you should have been eligible for working tax credits, housing benefit etc, much more help than a few quid from raising the tax-free rate.
I'll respectfully disagree with you on the allowance vs credits.
http://politicalbetting.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/268/#Comment_268
Test
I'm not sure what that achieved!
Do the Russians really have loads of spare cash? As a state they don't really.0
The Cypriots may play the Russian line as I thought they would but I suspect the Russia style deal though it has popular appeal right now has a number of major stumbling blocks:
-It would threaten Cyrprus' European links
-It may have ramifications vis a vis the Turkish Cypriot side, particularly if Russia demands some serious concessions on military affairs as well as economic.
-The Cypriot politicians know the Russians are not coming to be nice. They may be hacked at the Germans but they are not without knowledge that Russia comes with plenty of burdens
The Europeans know this, Cyprus politically has been moving more and more into the Western European sphere and for its political elite to do a 180 turn is a big move.
The Troika has deliberately left the crappy decision to the Cypriot government on raising the cash, if they want to leave the average Cypriot citizen alone then they'll have to hit the wealthy depositors hard or dump their gold reserves to mitigate.
There is also some doubt that the Russians will bite though there are attractions.
I suspect the Germans will not blink.
It means you can not only identify the plonker you disagree with but also the precise piece of nonsense you are answering.
http://politicalbetting.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/277/#Comment_277
Copy and paste the relevant text stills seems easier somehow.
Did anyone comment earlier on this marvellously comical piece of self-imprtance in today's Grauniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/20/budget-shows-tories-true-colours
Three-score academics, including an Oxonian knight of the realm, managed to get together in 5 hours after Osborne's budget speech to proclaim "a people's assembly".
Still, it represents progress of a sort. 364 academics memorably opposed Margaret Thatcher. Only 60 could raise the energy to oppose George Osborne.
Funny , we criticised banks and building societies from giving 95-100% loans. Now , effectively the government will guarantee that.
Actually, I am all for it. My only surprise is that a capitalist, non-interventionist government is doing this.
If this comes off, we are in for another housing boom. I am going for 3/4 houses. I only ahve to find about 5% myself.
Why not give a similar guarantee to lending to SME's ?
Yep... have just realised it's useful if you're responding to something way down the thread.
This is a bit like when you've first booked into your hotel room and go round trying all the lights/rifling through the freebies.
Yes, the Like/Dislike stuff was tiresome - we all know who the interesting posters are, and also (like the "doing a good job" leader polls) they blurred "I think you wrote a well-argued post there, thank you for the interesting contribution even if I disagreed with it" with "I so agree with you, man, all the other parties suck".
But having a response option would be nice. Inicdentally, I was sort of getting used to the new Disqus, once people mostly stopped posting responses and likes/dislikes to mess up the order. Could have lived with it, and still could if Vanilla proves unaffordable. But I know that's heresy.
1. Vanilla is much easier on the eye scanning threads, but boy is it fussy about passwords! Still when it's done it's done.
2. I've found a downside to living in the deep south. Last week highs were in the 70s. The last few days have been below freezing overnight, and struggled to the mid 40s during the day. The result is I have a fast developing mega-cold, with pronounced - as they say it here - post-nasal drip - so my nose is red and sore and I have a voice like the mating call of a rusty file, as it's already gone to my chest.
But mainly kudos to OGH and Robert for reacting so quickly when Disqus became - for PB - essentially unusable. That can't have been a pleasant surprise.
We could kick in a couple of billion instead of buying one of our (useless) carriers* - or cancel our (even more useless) F35* purchase and fund the whole lot in exchange for a share of the offshore gas exploration rights.
We might even turn a profit.
*It is the particular carriers & aircraft which are likely to be useless rather than the weapons class in general.
Caroline hasnt been leader for some time. My preferred choice in the election came nowhere. I self-censor when it comes to commenting on the new leader (though she hasnt been that bad, I must say). The leader is just a spokesperson, no real power that I can see.
Auckland is a criminally small ground for playing modern test match cricket! Feel sorry for Monty and any spinner on this pitch. I wouldn't want to be Cook in the dressing room at lunchtime!
LibDem 363 Lab 278 Con 229 UKIP 193 ED 51
LD gain from third place
The LD candidate is the county councillor who is already in full swing for re-election in a few weeks time.