anything on Sky, Netflix , Amazon, Youtube or even the BBC ! that is best to watch halloween related tonight? Not into torture horror and prefer gothic horror stuff in the main
Britbox has loads of great Hammer Horror classics. Grab a free trial.
If SKS want's to just be known as Keir Starmer in the chamber he should have the good grace to relinquish his title.
Maybe he does it just to annoy you
That would be "delusions of grandeur"
You're quite right. Let's go in the other direction: What's it to you?
I'm anti Blair's party and fairly sure Keith is utilising loopholes so that he comes across as more common for the sake of working class votes.
Tribalist wittering, then.
Perhaps - But my point is valid enough.
If you accept a title and then want drop it when you're one of the few potential candidates to be PM then something is amiss.
Being honest about going to a private school and advertising the facthe is a knight of the realm isn't going to help Labour's efforts to contrast themselves with the Tories as out of touch posh boys though
Indeed - the farce has to stop - He should be known as SKS in the chamber or relnquish the title.
You never use people’s name in the Commons
Your average MP is a “honourable member”
A privy counsellor is a “right honourable member”
With SKS I don’t know if he would qualify as a “learned” (lawyer - but might be QC or judge not just DPP) or “gallant”… (I know it’s military but maybe a knight would count…)
[I know they’ve been dropped, but imagine calling LOTO the Right Honourable, Learned and Gallant member for Holborn and St Pancras)
The speaker refers to MPs by their name - so you're factually incorrect.
I think Bercow “modernised” things after I’d finished my degree in constitutional government
It was actually Michael Martin who started calling MPs by name.
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
But you do get the trick or treaters mums dressed up in witches outfits. So not all bad.
Surely if serious (meaningful ie with China and India and USA on board) actions are to com from this climate summit it would have been better to host it in China.that way you get buy-in more from the only country that can really do anything substantial? As Nick Palmer said yesterday China will respond if it feels it is not been bossed to by the west
China is, I think, interested.
They have a lot of snow to melt, and a significant number of coastal cities under some threat. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau for a start.
BA has just warned me that the French have decided to quarantine the plane and test every passenger…
At a minimum this will delay, but suspect they won’t let us in if any one on the plane tests positive
Bastards.
Surely you are not objecting to a sovereign country controlling its borders?
They have the sovereign right to do it
I have the absolute right to be pissed off about it
Just tell them who you are, Charles.
Why would that make a difference?
I’m just a modestly successful City professional
OK tell them who your mother is
Or your mentor
My mother is a retired teacher living in the south of England. My mentor was many things in his life, but the most important role in his own mind was as a humble servant of God.
If SKS want's to just be known as Keir Starmer in the chamber he should have the good grace to relinquish his title.
Maybe he does it just to annoy you
That would be "delusions of grandeur"
You're quite right. Let's go in the other direction: What's it to you?
I'm anti Blair's party and fairly sure Keith is utilising loopholes so that he comes across as more common for the sake of working class votes.
Tribalist wittering, then.
Perhaps - But my point is valid enough.
If you accept a title and then want drop it when you're one of the few potential candidates to be PM then something is amiss.
Being honest about going to a private school and advertising the facthe is a knight of the realm isn't going to help Labour's efforts to contrast themselves with the Tories as out of touch posh boys though
Indeed - the farce has to stop - He should be known as SKS in the chamber or relnquish the title.
You never use people’s name in the Commons
Your average MP is a “honourable member”
A privy counsellor is a “right honourable member”
With SKS I don’t know if he would qualify as a “learned” (lawyer - but might be QC or judge not just DPP) or “gallant”… (I know it’s military but maybe a knight would count…)
[I know they’ve been dropped, but imagine calling LOTO the Right Honourable, Learned and Gallant member for Holborn and St Pancras)
The speaker refers to MPs by their name - so you're factually incorrect.
I think Bercow “modernised” things after I’d finished my degree in constitutional government
It was actually Michael Martin who started calling MPs by name.
I liked them being referred to by constituency. It's a reminder of why they're there.
BA has just warned me that the French have decided to quarantine the plane and test every passenger…
At a minimum this will delay, but suspect they won’t let us in if any one on the plane tests positive
Bastards.
Surely you are not objecting to a sovereign country controlling its borders?
They have the sovereign right to do it
I have the absolute right to be pissed off about it
Just tell them who you are, Charles.
Why would that make a difference?
I’m just a modestly successful City professional
OK tell them who your mother is
Or your mentor
My mother is a retired teacher living in the south of England. My mentor was many things in his life, but the most important role in his own mind was as a humble servant of God.
Still not getting why it would make a difference
So these people are nobody special, and neither are you?
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
Whilst I quite like Halloween (although in a more slightly serious vain than the kids version) I know what you mena about face paint and face disguise in particular . I went to my sisters 90s themed birthday party some years ago and it was disconcerting to me in the extreme to talk sensibly to a doctor (sister in NHS so has a lot of medic friends) who was dressed in full Austin Powers gear including facepaint. Really offputting - Me ? I went as John Major with natural greyness being added to with a blue rosette and a tin of peas (no face paint) - Only consolation was there was a lot of spice girls there
anything on Sky, Netflix , Amazon, Youtube or even the BBC ! that is best to watch halloween related tonight? Not into torture horror and prefer gothic horror stuff in the main
Probably not what you're looking for, but we've just watched Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas which is on Disney+ and is our annual traditional Halloween movie to watch with the kids.
BA has just warned me that the French have decided to quarantine the plane and test every passenger…
At a minimum this will delay, but suspect they won’t let us in if any one on the plane tests positive
Bastards.
Welcome to Brexit.
It has fuck all to do with Brexit. You really are getting desperate if you try that one. France pulled exactly the same stunt on traffic through the channel tunnel before we had even left the EU. It is just what France do.
Its what they always do. French customs were a bastard way back when, it was only the Eu and Schengen which stopped them.
Anyway, they are a sovereign country exercising control of their border. Exactly the kind of thing Charles is in favour of.
There's no inconsistency in supporting countries having certain powers while being critical of what they do with them. I would have thought someone who voted for Brexit and then did nothing but complain about it would understand this.
I'm not complaining about foreign countries doing what we do. Its the hilarious English exceptionalism that makes me laugh most - we want to control our borders but expect foreigners not to do the same.
How would you feel if we used covid as a pretext for tightening the border? In favour or against?
anything on Sky, Netflix , Amazon, Youtube or even the BBC ! that is best to watch halloween related tonight? Not into torture horror and prefer gothic horror stuff in the main
Probably not what you're looking for, but we've just watched Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas which is on Disney+ and is our annual traditional Halloween movie to watch with the kids.
Thanks - have seen that (he is a very good director ) when my daughter was younger so I will pass that
If SKS want's to just be known as Keir Starmer in the chamber he should have the good grace to relinquish his title.
Maybe he does it just to annoy you
That would be "delusions of grandeur"
You're quite right. Let's go in the other direction: What's it to you?
I'm anti Blair's party and fairly sure Keith is utilising loopholes so that he comes across as more common for the sake of working class votes.
Tribalist wittering, then.
Perhaps - But my point is valid enough.
If you accept a title and then want drop it when you're one of the few potential candidates to be PM then something is amiss.
Being honest about going to a private school and advertising the facthe is a knight of the realm isn't going to help Labour's efforts to contrast themselves with the Tories as out of touch posh boys though
Indeed - the farce has to stop - He should be known as SKS in the chamber or relnquish the title.
You never use people’s name in the Commons
Your average MP is a “honourable member”
A privy counsellor is a “right honourable member”
With SKS I don’t know if he would qualify as a “learned” (lawyer - but might be QC or judge not just DPP) or “gallant”… (I know it’s military but maybe a knight would count…)
[I know they’ve been dropped, but imagine calling LOTO the Right Honourable, Learned and Gallant member for Holborn and St Pancras)
The speaker refers to MPs by their name - so you're factually incorrect.
I think Bercow “modernised” things after I’d finished my degree in constitutional government
It was actually Michael Martin who started calling MPs by name.
I liked them being referred to by constituency. It's a reminder of why they're there.
I thought Bercow did both name and constituency just to show off?
Today the older daughter (15) and me went out for the day. She said she was bored in E Finchley and demanded a change
So I took her, with much yawning on her part, to see the world's oldest wooden church (Greensted, in Essex).
She loved it. She loved it so much she demanded to see, afterwards, the nearby Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker, southern England's main nuclear shelter for bigwigs from 1950-1990. It is massively quirky but surprisingly fascinating
I have a charming geek daughter who, it turns out, LOVES history and politics. Yay
The day ended with us eating sandwiches in the car park of Tesco Extra in Romford, and very pleasant it was
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
Whilst I quite like Halloween (although in a more slightly serious vain than the kids version) I know what you mena about face paint and face disguise in particular . I went to my sisters 90s themed birthday party some years ago and it was disconcerting to me in the extreme to talk sensibly to a doctor (sister in NHS so has a lot of medic friends) who was dressed in full Austin Powers gear including facepaint. Really offputting - Me ? I went as John Major with natural greyness being added to with a blue rosette and a tin of peas (no face paint) - Only consolation was there was a lot of spice girls there
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I like that people have a day where they can let their imagination run wild with costumes etc if its safe and permissible to do so. Nothing offputting about it at all for me.
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
Whilst I quite like Halloween (although in a more slightly serious vain than the kids version) I know what you mena about face paint and face disguise in particular . I went to my sisters 90s themed birthday party some years ago and it was disconcerting to me in the extreme to talk sensibly to a doctor (sister in NHS so has a lot of medic friends) who was dressed in full Austin Powers gear including facepaint. Really offputting - Me ? I went as John Major with natural greyness being added to with a blue rosette and a tin of peas (no face paint) - Only consolation was there was a lot of spice girls there
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I like that people have a day where they can let their imagination run wild with costumes etc if its safe and permissible to do so. Nothing offputting about it at all for me.
Not sure why I dislike disguise in general - maybe a deeper inner dislike of anything not genuine and pretending to be something they are not? Its a weird feeling.
Why so serious ? Well I just prefer serious and sometime dark things - I like the occult ,gothic fiction ,graveyards and witchcraft etc for instance. I find it fascinating without being OTT about it of course!
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
Whilst I quite like Halloween (although in a more slightly serious vain than the kids version) I know what you mena about face paint and face disguise in particular . I went to my sisters 90s themed birthday party some years ago and it was disconcerting to me in the extreme to talk sensibly to a doctor (sister in NHS so has a lot of medic friends) who was dressed in full Austin Powers gear including facepaint. Really offputting - Me ? I went as John Major with natural greyness being added to with a blue rosette and a tin of peas (no face paint) - Only consolation was there was a lot of spice girls there
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I like that people have a day where they can let their imagination run wild with costumes etc if its safe and permissible to do so. Nothing offputting about it at all for me.
Not sure why I dislike disguise in general - maybe a deeper inner dislike of anything not genuine and pretending to be something they are not? Its a weird feeling.
Why so serious ? Well I just prefer serious and sometime dark things - I like the occult ,gothic fiction ,graveyards and witchcraft etc for instance. I find it fascinating without being OTT about it of course!
Me too. And as an extra factor I get a strong feeling of 'eugh' from stuff on people's faces.
I might watch the seriously scary original Halloween film tonight. Haven't seen it for about 20 years. Apparently most of the sequels are rubbish by comparison.
CrossCountry services diverted via Laverstock Curve (rarely used track) - wonder if that was involved.
Doesn't that bypass the tunnels east of the city and join the line coming in from the north? Assuming it's the curve I'm thinking of. So they would have to reverse but they could still make the station.
CrossCountry services diverted via Laverstock Curve (rarely used track) - wonder if that was involved.
Doesn't that bypass the tunnels east of the city and join the line coming in from the north? Assuming it's the curve I'm thinking of. So they would have to reverse but they could still make the station.
Actually, belay that. Looks like Laverstock was in use yesterday, but NOT today.
You aren't meant to be happy. You're meant to be scared shitless.
I loathe halloween for many reasons. One of them, I realised today, is the synthetic quality of it. Artificial fabrics and artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Everything is artificial. If it was an alcoholic drink it would be a brightly coloured alcopop. It is definitely the ugliest of red letter days. Compare with bonfire night in five days time (hooray!) - parkin, treacle toffee, thick woolly jumpers. Beer. And explosives. A thick aura of cordite hanging in the air. Lovely.
Another reason I loathe halloween is that I have (I have realised as I have aged) not quite a phobia, but a strong aversion to cosmetics. Face paints and make up provoke a strong feeling of disgust. Which is my problem and mine alone - but it doesn't make for a happy halloween.
Whilst I quite like Halloween (although in a more slightly serious vain than the kids version) I know what you mena about face paint and face disguise in particular . I went to my sisters 90s themed birthday party some years ago and it was disconcerting to me in the extreme to talk sensibly to a doctor (sister in NHS so has a lot of medic friends) who was dressed in full Austin Powers gear including facepaint. Really offputting - Me ? I went as John Major with natural greyness being added to with a blue rosette and a tin of peas (no face paint) - Only consolation was there was a lot of spice girls there
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I like that people have a day where they can let their imagination run wild with costumes etc if its safe and permissible to do so. Nothing offputting about it at all for me.
CrossCountry services diverted via Laverstock Curve (rarely used track) - wonder if that was involved.
Doesn't that bypass the tunnels east of the city and join the line coming in from the north? Assuming it's the curve I'm thinking of. So they would have to reverse but they could still make the station.
Will be interesting to hear what's happened. Would be incredibly unlucky if there was a derailment and a SPAD, so got to believe that there's a wrong-side failure in the signalling.
If SKS want's to just be known as Keir Starmer in the chamber he should have the good grace to relinquish his title.
Maybe he does it just to annoy you
That would be "delusions of grandeur"
You're quite right. Let's go in the other direction: What's it to you?
I'm anti Blair's party and fairly sure Keith is utilising loopholes so that he comes across as more common for the sake of working class votes.
Tribalist wittering, then.
Perhaps - But my point is valid enough.
If you accept a title and then want drop it when you're one of the few potential candidates to be PM then something is amiss.
Being honest about going to a private school and advertising the facthe is a knight of the realm isn't going to help Labour's efforts to contrast themselves with the Tories as out of touch posh boys though
Labouor obsess about this too much though - The northern working class dont really give a toss , the only thing that gets their back is is faking it . If you look at Boris's biggest fans it is the nothern working class precisely because they find Boris genuine (in the sense of not trying to hide who he is ) and not patronising
I completely agree. The contortions Sir Keir's fans twist themselves into because they are so desperate for him to be seen as legit working class are ludicrous. The plain fact is that, if you are going to sell yourselves as the other side of the coin to lofty elites, having a privately educated Knight of the Realm, best known for trying to thwart Brexit, as your front man is a tough ask
Don't know about SKS's fans but his haters certainly go to a lot of trouble. Not easy to keep banging on about his "private school education" as if it were remotely akin to toff factory Eton, or to always always always make sure to refer to him as "Sir Keir" in best passive aggressive style, like the bloke passed over for promotion calling his erstwhile mate who got the job "boss" even when they're down the pub, but yet they seem to manage it, these people. Don't they?
Do people do that Boss thing?
The Sir thing underlines his apparatchik background. Is there an uncooler job in the country than DPP? He is in nominal charge of all police prosecutions including for illegal immigration, smoking the odd spliff and everything else. How does this play wiv da yoof? He is The Man. He is Mr Julie's been working for the Drug Squad.
But the thing that really gets me is this "oiks prefer authentic toffs to upwardly mobile ex oiks". Hate that notion. I wouldn't if it didn't have some truth to it but I fear it does. In fact I know it does.
Yes, I think there is something to that. Class privilege is well established in Britain, but there is something of a threat in an upwardly mobile person ascending to the top. It rather throws the spotlight on why the observer remains an "oik".
I think that this is part of the reason that some PBers focus so much on proving that Starmer has benefited from privilege at school etc.
At odds, too, with 'working class aspiration' in its Thatcherite spirit of getting on and UP. Wanting your kids to do better than you, to make that jump. With this attitude you'd rather they didn't. It's actually more in line with the trad left collectivist call of "rise WITH your class not out of it." Yet it benefits the Tories atm. Strange and messy world.
Look, compared to the last three, maybe even the last seven labour leaders, Kier's ok. I think he's been on the wrong side of the argument on many, many times, but from my perspective that's what I'd expect of a Labour leader. But - didn't his dad own a toolmaking business? He's hardly starting out of the rough streets of Harpurhey (feel free to insert your own local equivalent). I don't object to that, of course. But accusations that people are trying to paint you as middle class when you actually are middle class feel a bit misty. I may be wrong about his background, but my understanding was that his background is fairly middling.
Yep, he's from an ordinary background. Neither licking lumps of coal for supper (on a good day) nor hyper privileged product of Eton. He, like Johnson, describes his personal backstory without shame or artifice. It's utter crap to make out Johnson is "authentic" and Starmer's a fake in this regard. And I do mean that. It's not crap, it's UTTER crap. Anybody comes out with that and I know there's something amiss with their wiring. Point is, this stuff shouldn't matter but if it does it ought to be Starmer benefiting. The notion of voting for Boris Johnson because Keir Starmer isn't "proper" working class is absolutely cuckoo. It's like something out of Catch 22. And another thing I've noticed is that Johnson for some reason hatdly ever has to talk about his background. All sorts of minutae about Starmer seem to fascinate people but Johnson? Nope. No interest. No issue. Really really odd. Really really annoying. I think all this is telling us something about ourselves, something not great.
NOTHING about Starmer fascinates anybody because he is fundamentally fucking boring. In 50 years time being boring will perhaps be a protected characteristic and that will read as oddly as saying Starmer is useless because he is black, gay or female. Nevertheless, he is a boring person trying to do an interesting person's job, and there's no way round that
I think I would quite like a boring person doing the PM job. Not sure why anyone thinks they need to be 'interesting'. I would just settle for competent.
I thought John Major was a good PM precisely because he was boring most of the time.
Will be interesting to hear what's happened. Would be incredibly unlucky if there was a derailment and a SPAD, so got to believe that there's a wrong-side failure in the signalling.
If they were using an avoiding line yesterday, mights there be engineering works ongoing? In which case, coupled to the weather, they might have destabilised the approach to the tunnel and caused a landslide, that derailed the train and knocked out the signalling?
Would explain a great many things.
But we don't know yet. Heck, we don't even know how many people are hurt or even dead yet, although I hope Sandy is right and they have got everyone out.
BA has just warned me that the French have decided to quarantine the plane and test every passenger…
At a minimum this will delay, but suspect they won’t let us in if any one on the plane tests positive
Bastards.
Surely you are not objecting to a sovereign country controlling its borders?
They have the sovereign right to do it
I have the absolute right to be pissed off about it
Just tell them who you are, Charles.
Why would that make a difference?
I’m just a modestly successful City professional
OK tell them who your mother is
Or your mentor
My mother is a retired teacher living in the south of England. My mentor was many things in his life, but the most important role in his own mind was as a humble servant of God.
Still not getting why it would make a difference
So these people are nobody special, and neither are you?
By God, he's got it ... I think he's got it ...
I believe he is in the Cadet branch of the family.
Today the older daughter (15) and me went out for the day. She said she was bored in E Finchley and demanded a change
So I took her, with much yawning on her part, to see the world's oldest wooden church (Greensted, in Essex).
She loved it. She loved it so much she demanded to see, afterwards, the nearby Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker, southern England's main nuclear shelter for bigwigs from 1950-1990. It is massively quirky but surprisingly fascinating
I have a charming geek daughter who, it turns out, LOVES history and politics. Yay
The day ended with us eating sandwiches in the car park of Tesco Extra in Romford, and very pleasant it was
If SKS want's to just be known as Keir Starmer in the chamber he should have the good grace to relinquish his title.
Maybe he does it just to annoy you
That would be "delusions of grandeur"
You're quite right. Let's go in the other direction: What's it to you?
I'm anti Blair's party and fairly sure Keith is utilising loopholes so that he comes across as more common for the sake of working class votes.
Tribalist wittering, then.
Perhaps - But my point is valid enough.
If you accept a title and then want drop it when you're one of the few potential candidates to be PM then something is amiss.
Being honest about going to a private school and advertising the facthe is a knight of the realm isn't going to help Labour's efforts to contrast themselves with the Tories as out of touch posh boys though
Labouor obsess about this too much though - The northern working class dont really give a toss , the only thing that gets their back is is faking it . If you look at Boris's biggest fans it is the nothern working class precisely because they find Boris genuine (in the sense of not trying to hide who he is ) and not patronising
I completely agree. The contortions Sir Keir's fans twist themselves into because they are so desperate for him to be seen as legit working class are ludicrous. The plain fact is that, if you are going to sell yourselves as the other side of the coin to lofty elites, having a privately educated Knight of the Realm, best known for trying to thwart Brexit, as your front man is a tough ask
Don't know about SKS's fans but his haters certainly go to a lot of trouble. Not easy to keep banging on about his "private school education" as if it were remotely akin to toff factory Eton, or to always always always make sure to refer to him as "Sir Keir" in best passive aggressive style, like the bloke passed over for promotion calling his erstwhile mate who got the job "boss" even when they're down the pub, but yet they seem to manage it, these people. Don't they?
Do people do that Boss thing?
The Sir thing underlines his apparatchik background. Is there an uncooler job in the country than DPP? He is in nominal charge of all police prosecutions including for illegal immigration, smoking the odd spliff and everything else. How does this play wiv da yoof? He is The Man. He is Mr Julie's been working for the Drug Squad.
But the thing that really gets me is this "oiks prefer authentic toffs to upwardly mobile ex oiks". Hate that notion. I wouldn't if it didn't have some truth to it but I fear it does. In fact I know it does.
Yes, I think there is something to that. Class privilege is well established in Britain, but there is something of a threat in an upwardly mobile person ascending to the top. It rather throws the spotlight on why the observer remains an "oik".
I think that this is part of the reason that some PBers focus so much on proving that Starmer has benefited from privilege at school etc.
At odds, too, with 'working class aspiration' in its Thatcherite spirit of getting on and UP. Wanting your kids to do better than you, to make that jump. With this attitude you'd rather they didn't. It's actually more in line with the trad left collectivist call of "rise WITH your class not out of it." Yet it benefits the Tories atm. Strange and messy world.
Look, compared to the last three, maybe even the last seven labour leaders, Kier's ok. I think he's been on the wrong side of the argument on many, many times, but from my perspective that's what I'd expect of a Labour leader. But - didn't his dad own a toolmaking business? He's hardly starting out of the rough streets of Harpurhey (feel free to insert your own local equivalent). I don't object to that, of course. But accusations that people are trying to paint you as middle class when you actually are middle class feel a bit misty. I may be wrong about his background, but my understanding was that his background is fairly middling.
Yep, he's from an ordinary background. Neither licking lumps of coal for supper (on a good day) nor hyper privileged product of Eton. He, like Johnson, describes his personal backstory without shame or artifice. It's utter crap to make out Johnson is "authentic" and Starmer's a fake in this regard. And I do mean that. It's not crap, it's UTTER crap. Anybody comes out with that and I know there's something amiss with their wiring. Point is, this stuff shouldn't matter but if it does it ought to be Starmer benefiting. The notion of voting for Boris Johnson because Keir Starmer isn't "proper" working class is absolutely cuckoo. It's like something out of Catch 22. And another thing I've noticed is that Johnson for some reason hatdly ever has to talk about his background. All sorts of minutae about Starmer seem to fascinate people but Johnson? Nope. No interest. No issue. Really really odd. Really really annoying. I think all this is telling us something about ourselves, something not great.
You really are upset aren't you?
Annoyed, as I said, and with very good reason. I recommend it.
Comments
Fingers crossed not serious but I do worry particularly as trains busier with it being Halloween
"How big a disaster is this on a scale of 9 to 10?"
Sounded a bit like some of our broadcasters on Covid and Brexit issues over the past couple of years
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-59103664
They have a lot of snow to melt, and a significant number of coastal cities under some threat. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau for a start.
Plus 90% of the people live in the Eastern half.
Still not getting why it would make a difference
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59114569
By God, he's got it ... I think he's got it ...
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1454906747257331712/photo/1
There was a very lucky escape on the WCML a few years ago when trains nearly collided at Watford:
http://www.rail.co.uk/rail-news/2016/landslip-causes-derailment-in-watford-tunnel-closing-west-coast-main-line/
Carry on Emmanuelle, Goodbye Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle: First Contact, and Emmanuelle Escapes from Hell seem promising.
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I like that people have a day where they can let their imagination run wild with costumes etc if its safe and permissible to do so. Nothing offputting about it at all for me.
Why so serious ? Well I just prefer serious and sometime dark things - I like the occult ,gothic fiction ,graveyards and witchcraft etc for instance. I find it fascinating without being OTT about it of course!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-59103664
1L53 (https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L52648/2021-10-31/detailed#allox_id=1) has run in to the back of 1F30 (https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G57571/2021-10-31/detailed)
https://twitter.com/philatrail/status/1454909476948033536
Will be interesting to hear what's happened. Would be incredibly unlucky if there was a derailment and a SPAD, so got to believe that there's a wrong-side failure in the signalling.
Would explain a great many things.
But we don't know yet. Heck, we don't even know how many people are hurt or even dead yet, although I hope Sandy is right and they have got everyone out.