I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
I’m not sure why, but I reckon there’s a big overlap between PB contributors and prog rock lovers.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
@Leon the bassnectar remix of her song Lights is regarded by some as up there as one of the best electronic dance music tracks of its sub-genre.
It’s a good tune, but there’s a very long long history of dance remixes of slow pop tunes.
I’ll see your Bassnectar remix of Ellie Goulding, and raise you Armand van Helden’s remix of Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow”, from back in 1994. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sl9DkcBreNw
Hot railway news: the 118 Tavistock to Okehampton bus has been rebadged overnight and is now the 118 Tavistock to Okehampton Rail Link!
from Your Man On The Spot.
Was thinking about this again this morning, following yesterday's discussion.
For all my advocacy of left-of-centre politics, where was the Okehampton rail link under Tony Blair's Labour? All those years and bugger all development of south-west or indeed northern infrastructure.
They were London Metropolitans and ultimately we've all paid the price. It's easy to blame David Cameron but the causes lie deeper and further back.
Though I've wondered about offshore wind in due course being as beneficial as oil, as an energy supply export.
Though we will continue to need steel, oil and plastic in different combination, and there's no reason why these can't stay in the same places, or those places be repurposed.
One of their 'victim' areas is Port Talbot, which I would say has been poleaxed at least partly by the Welsh Govt's decision not to build an effective transport system to get there with.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
I’m not sure why, but I reckon there’s a big overlap between PB contributors and prog rock lovers.
nerdery
Age.
How many of that lot now live in London or SE? I recall an outrage bus full of pop stars now living in the SE demanding that the gallery in Gateshead was failing because it was short of money, when a trust endowed with a couple of % of their personal wealth would have fixed it forever.
My one conclusion from that map is that I heard of surprisingly few of them, and that Wiltshire is the most miserable place in the world.
Good header from @Cyclefree but I personally don't think there's much wrong with either the rules on MP 2nd jobs or their enforcement. Eg Paterson transgressed and he was caught. BJ & his cronies then intervened in bad faith. Far from the system not working it was (in their eyes) working only too well. So they tried to neuter it and get rid of the independent person in charge. This, together with corruption around government contracts, is the scandal and it's a humdinger.
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
I’m not sure why, but I reckon there’s a big overlap between PB contributors and prog rock lovers.
"Michael Liebreich, founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said Greta Thunberg and her youth movement are missing a trick.
“Instead of saying it’s all ‘blah, blah, blah,’ what Greta should be saying to governments and business is ‘I love your pledges, they’re great, now we’re going to hold you to it,” he said."
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
You were friends with Roland Gift? He drives me crazy.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
I’m not sure why, but I reckon there’s a big overlap between PB contributors and prog rock lovers.
Yep. Or should that be Yes?
The thing is, peak prog is basically 1970-1975, so to have enjoyed it first time round you have to be aged around (checks notes) 107.
Seems the Geordies prefer Gordon Sumner over Mark Knopfler.
(Actually I see that Sting and I attended the same university, he to do teacher training, me to do my CIPD).
I think the county only refers to where the artist is born, and it's the artist with most worldwide record sales in each county. So it doesn't matter who Geordies prefer, Sting has sold more records.
Knopfler was born in Glasgow. Dire Straits are on a playlist of Scottish artists I put together for Burns Night on that basis.
Which makes it even less relevant who Geordies prefer between him and Sting then!
Actually clicking on the link it says "County of origin", you are right it will have Mr Knopfler down a a Scot.
What do they use for bands, founding lead singer member ?
If so then The Cure (founded in my own home town of Crawley) isn't quite right as Robert Smith was actually born in Blackpool.
The map is ludicrous when you scrutinise it. No logic (some bands included, many not, whatever their actual birthplace) and a poor choice of artists, it’s certainly not sales
Herefordshire: Ellie Goulding??! What? Who?
Most of the Pretenders came from Herefordshire, I believe. A vastly more important musical presence who sold way more records than… Ellie Goulding
The non mention of Led Zeppelin is what kills it's cred for me.
Some bands are just forever associated with a particular city or county, regardless of where individuals might be born.
Soft Machine in Canterbury, Pulp in Sheffield, Blur in Essex, ELO or Black Sabbath in Brum, Nick Drake in Warwickshire, the Animals in Newcastle etc.
Some cities - London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Cambridge, Canterbury, and I guess Sheffield, have or had well defined “scenes” or even “sounds”.
Leeds seems to be a black hole; not much seems to have come from there.
Zeppelin were largely Brum, along with Sabbath. I had (perhaps erroneously) also thought that the third part of the "unholy trinity", Deep Purple were also Brum in their roots?
I agree, in my head, Led Zep are West Midlands. But they were formed, I think in London. Only Plant and Bonham were Midlanders.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
I was sick on James Dean Bradfield
Sometimes PBers make it so easy for me to make rude gags.
Seems the Geordies prefer Gordon Sumner over Mark Knopfler.
(Actually I see that Sting and I attended the same university, he to do teacher training, me to do my CIPD).
I think the county only refers to where the artist is born, and it's the artist with most worldwide record sales in each county. So it doesn't matter who Geordies prefer, Sting has sold more records.
Knopfler was born in Glasgow. Dire Straits are on a playlist of Scottish artists I put together for Burns Night on that basis.
Which makes it even less relevant who Geordies prefer between him and Sting then!
Actually clicking on the link it says "County of origin", you are right it will have Mr Knopfler down a a Scot.
What do they use for bands, founding lead singer member ?
If so then The Cure (founded in my own home town of Crawley) isn't quite right as Robert Smith was actually born in Blackpool.
The map is ludicrous when you scrutinise it. No logic (some bands included, many not, whatever their actual birthplace) and a poor choice of artists, it’s certainly not sales
Herefordshire: Ellie Goulding??! What? Who?
Most of the Pretenders came from Herefordshire, I believe. A vastly more important musical presence who sold way more records than… Ellie Goulding
The non mention of Led Zeppelin is what kills it's cred for me.
Some bands are just forever associated with a particular city or county, regardless of where individuals might be born.
Soft Machine in Canterbury, Pulp in Sheffield, Blur in Essex, ELO or Black Sabbath in Brum, Nick Drake in Warwickshire, the Animals in Newcastle etc.
Some cities - London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Cambridge, Canterbury, and I guess Sheffield, have or had well defined “scenes” or even “sounds”.
Leeds seems to be a black hole; not much seems to have come from there.
Zeppelin were largely Brum, along with Sabbath. I had (perhaps erroneously) also thought that the third part of the "unholy trinity", Deep Purple were also Brum in their roots?
I agree, in my head, Led Zep are West Midlands. But they were formed, I think in London. Only Plant and Bonham were Midlanders.
If I was from Brum I would claim them.
50 years since Led Zep IV
Terrifying innit.
Although happily, a lot of those 70 or 71 albums are being very nicely remastered to celebrate their anniversary.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Good header from @Cyclefree but I personally don't think there's much wrong with either the rules on MP 2nd jobs or their enforcement. Eg Paterson transgressed and he was caught. BJ & his cronies then intervened in bad faith. Far from the system not working it was (in their eyes) working only too well. So they tried to neuter it and get rid of the independent person in charge. This, together with corruption around government contracts, is the scandal and it's a humdinger.
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
While I agree that the person at the top really matters, the rules are not working.
First they don't stop it happening, which is what we should be aiming for. Not catching after the event. Pre-approval makes the boundaries effective.
Second, what's the punishment? An absence from the House. Big bloody deal. The penalty needs to be financial ie the return of the money made.
Third, the rules seem to have a default assumption that MPs should use their status as MPs to get other paid work. I would like the assumption to be the other way around. Paid work only if it has nothing to do with being an MP and if you want to fight the corner of pressure groups, companies etc you do that as part of your job not in return for payment.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
Wasn't ELP's Lake in King Crimson?
Everyone's been in King Crimson.
Greg Lake sang and played on their first two records. Crimson have been through multiple line-ups, and been regularly collapsed, and revived by the one constant member, Robert Fripp. Fairly breathtaking range of musical styles over the years, the one constant being Fripp's demand for exemplary musicianship and a relative lack of interest in sales. Only the first phase of KC really qualifies as prog.
One of the red flags for many of us in the industry is if they admit their guilt early then they are hoping we don't investigate further and find more of their crimes.
Then you've got to write multiple victim impact statements and POCAs.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
When I was at college we booked Acker Bilk (etc) for one of our Rag events. I was on the committee so we met them in the equivalent of the green too . One of the band also gave my girlfriend a very large neat gin.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
My 1st wife fancied Roland Gift something rotten and she wasn't alone. Many were those who wouldn't have minded being nibbled at by that particular fine young cannibal.
Seems the Geordies prefer Gordon Sumner over Mark Knopfler.
(Actually I see that Sting and I attended the same university, he to do teacher training, me to do my CIPD).
I think the county only refers to where the artist is born, and it's the artist with most worldwide record sales in each county. So it doesn't matter who Geordies prefer, Sting has sold more records.
Knopfler was born in Glasgow. Dire Straits are on a playlist of Scottish artists I put together for Burns Night on that basis.
Which makes it even less relevant who Geordies prefer between him and Sting then!
Actually clicking on the link it says "County of origin", you are right it will have Mr Knopfler down a a Scot.
What do they use for bands, founding lead singer member ?
If so then The Cure (founded in my own home town of Crawley) isn't quite right as Robert Smith was actually born in Blackpool.
The map is ludicrous when you scrutinise it. No logic (some bands included, many not, whatever their actual birthplace) and a poor choice of artists, it’s certainly not sales
Herefordshire: Ellie Goulding??! What? Who?
Most of the Pretenders came from Herefordshire, I believe. A vastly more important musical presence who sold way more records than… Ellie Goulding
The non mention of Led Zeppelin is what kills it's cred for me.
Some bands are just forever associated with a particular city or county, regardless of where individuals might be born.
Soft Machine in Canterbury, Pulp in Sheffield, Blur in Essex, ELO or Black Sabbath in Brum, Nick Drake in Warwickshire, the Animals in Newcastle etc.
Some cities - London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Cambridge, Canterbury, and I guess Sheffield, have or had well defined “scenes” or even “sounds”.
Leeds seems to be a black hole; not much seems to have come from there.
Zeppelin were largely Brum, along with Sabbath. I had (perhaps erroneously) also thought that the third part of the "unholy trinity", Deep Purple were also Brum in their roots?
The original Purple members appear to have come from all over. The Hertfordshire connection seems to be that they occupied a country house in South Mimms when they first started recording.
One of the red flags for many of us in the industry is if they admit their guilt early then they are hoping we don't investigate further and find more of their crimes.
Then you've got to write multiple victim impact statements and POCAs.
After they're out, they should have to pay it all back.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
My 1st wife fancied Roland Gift something rotten and she wasn't alone. Many were those who wouldn't have minded being nibbled at by that particular fine young cannibal.
So your first wife, she drives me crazy is what you're telling us ?
The Times have got an article on the virus situation in Europe, it's extremely gloomy. Fingers crossed that our strategy of chasing herd immunity in the summer and autumn has worked. I really can't do another lockdown.
The wave is spreading inexorably westwards on mainland Europe - the panic in Germany I was writing about the other night, vaxports reinstated in Denmark, lockdown for the unvaccinated in Austria, and a partial lockdown for everyone in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, cases here are on a steady downward trajectory: there's reason to suppose that the unspoken but clearly deliberate tactic of saturating schoolkids with the virus, so most've them have already had it before Winter really starts to bite, is working.
I think there's a decent chance we get away without a new wave of rules in this country, and if there is any significant tumbling backwards (such as insistence upon the dreaded masks here, there and everywhere) then it's more likely to be down to wetting over flu piling on top of Covid, rather than Covid itself.
Actual lockdowns are probably over. Quite beside the fact that the country can't afford to pay for them, they would completely shred what's left of the Government's reputation.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
Wasn't ELP's Lake in King Crimson?
Everyone's been in King Crimson.
Greg Lake sang and played on their first two records. Crimson have been through multiple line-ups, and been regularly collapsed, and revived by the one constant member, Robert Fripp. Fairly breathtaking range of musical styles over the years, the one constant being Fripp's demand for exemplary musicianship and a relative lack of interest in sales. Only the first phase of KC really qualifies as prog.
If Crimson is basically Fripp, then Dorset (Wimborne) should be the county for them on the map.
There is very old bbc documentary which I have somewhere on VHS tape about his growing up in that part of the world. iirc he was about to train to become an estate manager when he suddenly took fright and headed to london with his guitar. I think in the film he actually goes to see his mate who he was going to train with who actually became an estate manager.
Seems the Geordies prefer Gordon Sumner over Mark Knopfler.
(Actually I see that Sting and I attended the same university, he to do teacher training, me to do my CIPD).
I think the county only refers to where the artist is born, and it's the artist with most worldwide record sales in each county. So it doesn't matter who Geordies prefer, Sting has sold more records.
Knopfler was born in Glasgow. Dire Straits are on a playlist of Scottish artists I put together for Burns Night on that basis.
Which makes it even less relevant who Geordies prefer between him and Sting then!
Erm... Pink Floyd - Cambridge? Surely one of the biggest worldwide sellers of all time.
Nick Mason was a Brummie. Still is.
Yes, but the core members, Syd and Roger were from Cambridge , not sure about others and then Dave Gilmour who joined later was also from Cambridge. Plenty of Cambridge references in songs and album covers by Storm Thorgerson who went to school with Syd and Roger
Definitely a Cambridge band. “Grantchester Meadows” on Ummagumma…
This is a stretch.
Nick Mason is from Surrey (went to Frensham Heights) and Richard Wright was from Middlesex.
After Syd Barrett's departure in 1968, of the four settled members of Pink Floyd, two had nothing to do with Cambridge.
But the two that did wrote and sung almost all the songs, and the one that left wrote and sung all the early ones, so they were the most influential, and all from Cambridge
The Times have got an article on the virus situation in Europe, it's extremely gloomy. Fingers crossed that our strategy of chasing herd immunity in the summer and autumn has worked. I really can't do another lockdown.
The wave is spreading inexorably westwards on mainland Europe - the panic in Germany I was writing about the other night, vaxports reinstated in Denmark, lockdown for the unvaccinated in Austria, and a partial lockdown for everyone in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, cases here are on a steady downward trajectory: there's reason to suppose that the unspoken but clearly deliberate tactic of saturating schoolkids with the virus, so most've them have already had it before Winter really starts to bite, is working.
I think there's a decent chance we get away without a new wave of rules in this country, and if there is any significant tumbling backwards (such as insistence upon the dreaded masks here, there and everywhere) then it's more likely to be down to wetting over flu piling on top of Covid, rather than Covid itself.
Actual lockdowns are probably over. Quite beside the fact that the country can't afford to pay for them, they would completely shred what's left of the Government's reputation.
As a mate said to me yesterday, what's the CMP going to do - persuade Johnson to go to Sunak to ask for another £100billion of printed money to fund a new lockdown and furlough?
Good header from @Cyclefree but I personally don't think there's much wrong with either the rules on MP 2nd jobs or their enforcement. Eg Paterson transgressed and he was caught. BJ & his cronies then intervened in bad faith. Far from the system not working it was (in their eyes) working only too well. So they tried to neuter it and get rid of the independent person in charge. This, together with corruption around government contracts, is the scandal and it's a humdinger.
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
While I agree that the person at the top really matters, the rules are not working.
First they don't stop it happening, which is what we should be aiming for. Not catching after the event. Pre-approval makes the boundaries effective.
Second, what's the punishment? An absence from the House. Big bloody deal. The penalty needs to be financial ie the return of the money made.
Third, the rules seem to have a default assumption that MPs should use their status as MPs to get other paid work. I would like the assumption to be the other way around. Paid work only if it has nothing to do with being an MP and if you want to fight the corner of pressure groups, companies etc you do that as part of your job not in return for payment.
Yep, I don't disagree with this, I wouldn't even oppose a ban on 2nd jobs, just to really nail any last semblance of Conflict of Interest, but I'm keen for the focus to stay on Johnson and I do think removing his baleful influence is (easily) the biggest single thing that would improve matters.
Really quite extraordinary that that isn't headline news, given it's from the horse's mouth, and how often the argument of a false prospectus has been completed dismissed by the media in favour of the one of Hard Brexit being "democracy".
One of the red flags for many of us in the industry is if they admit their guilt early then they are hoping we don't investigate further and find more of their crimes.
Then you've got to write multiple victim impact statements and POCAs.
After they're out, they should have to pay it all back.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
My 1st wife fancied Roland Gift something rotten and she wasn't alone. Many were those who wouldn't have minded being nibbled at by that particular fine young cannibal.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Meanwhile 1000 people crossed the Channel YESTERDAY. That’s 1/3 of a million a year. And this is mid November. When it’s meant to stop
The Tories need a solution, fast
With so many bridges having been burnt with neighbours, I can't see one coming any time soon. They've supposedly alighted on the bizarre solution of processing people in Albania - which is a fitting metaphor for Brexit, in itself - but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon, either.
I didn't realise Olivia Newton-John was from Cambridge. Apparently her father worked for MI5 at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Poor old London. Could have had Bowie instead they get Sir Elton.
Sir Elton has sold a crazy amount of records, only behind the Beatles in the UK.
Yep. And the Rubettes probably sold more than Roxy Music. That comparison is perhaps being a bit unfair to Sir Elt.
Little know fact. Both Bryan Ferry and Elton John auditioned as a singer for King Crimson. Both turned down. Some guy, Robert Fripp. (King Crimson, BTW, are well worth discovering if you've hitherto overlooked them. And are still touring.)
Wasn't ELP's Lake in King Crimson?
Everyone's been in King Crimson.
Greg Lake sang and played on their first two records. Crimson have been through multiple line-ups, and been regularly collapsed, and revived by the one constant member, Robert Fripp. Fairly breathtaking range of musical styles over the years, the one constant being Fripp's demand for exemplary musicianship and a relative lack of interest in sales. Only the first phase of KC really qualifies as prog.
If Crimson is basically Fripp, then Dorset (Wimborne) should be the county for them on the map.
There is very old bbc documentary which I have somewhere on VHS tape about his growing up in that part of the world. iirc he was about to train to become an estate manager when he suddenly took fright and headed to london with his guitar. I think in the film he actually goes to see his mate who he was going to train with who actually became an estate manager.
They compare notes on their lives.
Fripp, of course, went on to marry Toyah Willcox, and they have been amusing us all through lockdown with their Sunday Lunches on YouTube. Watch and Shudder...
Good header from @Cyclefree but I personally don't think there's much wrong with either the rules on MP 2nd jobs or their enforcement. Eg Paterson transgressed and he was caught. BJ & his cronies then intervened in bad faith. Far from the system not working it was (in their eyes) working only too well. So they tried to neuter it and get rid of the independent person in charge. This, together with corruption around government contracts, is the scandal and it's a humdinger.
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
While I agree that the person at the top really matters, the rules are not working.
First they don't stop it happening, which is what we should be aiming for. Not catching after the event. Pre-approval makes the boundaries effective.
Second, what's the punishment? An absence from the House. Big bloody deal. The penalty needs to be financial ie the return of the money made.
Third, the rules seem to have a default assumption that MPs should use their status as MPs to get other paid work. I would like the assumption to be the other way around. Paid work only if it has nothing to do with being an MP and if you want to fight the corner of pressure groups, companies etc you do that as part of your job not in return for payment.
Yep, I don't disagree with this, I wouldn't even oppose a ban on 2nd jobs, just to really nail any last semblance of Conflict of Interest, but I'm keen for the focus to stay on Johnson and I do think removing his baleful influence is (easily) the biggest single thing that would improve matters.
Agreed. Our governmental conventions depend so much on those in power being basically "good chaps". When they aren't, the whole thing falls over. Even the best rules aren't proof against someone who doesn't believe in any self-restraint at all.
But even when Johnson goes we should not breathe a sigh of relief and assume that our problems are over. We really need to strengthen our democracy because next time the PM might be someone who is less obviously shameless but equally damaging.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
Oh dear I bet we know each other.
Why "oh dear"? You are privileged. As am sure am I.
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
The French were doing fuck all about the migrant boats before we left and they're doing fuck all now.
Numbers are noticeably higher. The French have no incentive at all now ; negotiations are complete and we're out. Speaking honestly it wouldn't be my highest priority if I was Macron, either.
Meanwhile 1000 people crossed the Channel YESTERDAY. That’s 1/3 of a million a year. And this is mid November. When it’s meant to stop
The Tories need a solution, fast
They should put Priti Patel on the case, she'd sort it.
Her career is in the balance now. If she can’t stop this. 1000 a day in November is an invasion and it’s only going to get worse. We may have to accept very unpleasant measures that make us feel very bad
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
Oh dear I bet we know each other.
Are you by any chance the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks?
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
Yes, they might be jumping the gun. The Dutch equivalent of SAGE is advising a three-week partial lockdown but I'm not sure if a decision had been made yet.
Good header from @Cyclefree but I personally don't think there's much wrong with either the rules on MP 2nd jobs or their enforcement. Eg Paterson transgressed and he was caught. BJ & his cronies then intervened in bad faith. Far from the system not working it was (in their eyes) working only too well. So they tried to neuter it and get rid of the independent person in charge. This, together with corruption around government contracts, is the scandal and it's a humdinger.
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
While I agree that the person at the top really matters, the rules are not working.
First they don't stop it happening, which is what we should be aiming for. Not catching after the event. Pre-approval makes the boundaries effective.
Second, what's the punishment? An absence from the House. Big bloody deal. The penalty needs to be financial ie the return of the money made.
Third, the rules seem to have a default assumption that MPs should use their status as MPs to get other paid work. I would like the assumption to be the other way around. Paid work only if it has nothing to do with being an MP and if you want to fight the corner of pressure groups, companies etc you do that as part of your job not in return for payment.
Yep, I don't disagree with this, I wouldn't even oppose a ban on 2nd jobs, just to really nail any last semblance of Conflict of Interest, but I'm keen for the focus to stay on Johnson and I do think removing his baleful influence is (easily) the biggest single thing that would improve matters.
Agreed. Our governmental conventions depend so much on those in power being basically "good chaps". When they aren't, the whole thing falls over. Even the best rules aren't proof against someone who doesn't believe in any self-restraint at all.
But even when Johnson goes we should not breathe a sigh of relief and assume that our problems are over. We really need to strengthen our democracy because next time the PM might be someone who is less obviously shameless but equally damaging.
As often also mentioned, the U.S. is in urgent need of parallel safeguards for a more efficient Trump, too.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
From the Graun:
The Netherlands will become the first western European country to impose a partial lockdown since the summer, Dutch media have reported, introducing strict new measures from Saturday in the face of record numbers of new Covid-19 infections.
The restrictions, due to be announced by the prime minister, Mark Rutte, on Friday evening and to last at least three weeks, include the closure of bars, restaurants and non-essential shops from 7pm, the public broadcaster NOS said.
And I agree re: lockdowns. Locking people up over and over and over and over again indefinitely is madness.
The French were doing fuck all about the migrant boats before we left and they're doing fuck all now.
Numbers are noticeably higher. The French have no incentive at all now ; negotiations are complete and we're out. Speaking honestly it wouldn't be my highest priority if I was Macron, either.
It's largely French regional politics. The French locals *hate* the refugees. Why stop them leaving?
They love to talk about what each party involve says at the high level. But there is next to no information that allows the reader to judge who is right. What is the evidence of trade inversion, which is one key test? Doesn't say. What is the evidence of how stringent the EU is being on checks? Doesn't say. What are the actual changes in checks the UK wants? Which categories of goods not checked or what information should be not given? Doesn't say. What would be the scale of the impacts if those checks were relaxed? Doesn't say.
It just seems like lazy reporting. If you ever listen to an RTE broadcast, they go into precisely this stuff, despite far lower resources. It's just sloppiness from the BBC and the lack of actual fact base is a big part of everyone interpreting things through existing prejudices and making us more politically divided.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
All your suggestions are far more impractical than an ID card scheme.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
We could stop the less developed world learning/speaking English of course.
Though I've wondered about offshore wind in due course being as beneficial as oil, as an energy supply export.
Though we will continue to need steel, oil and plastic in different combination, and there's no reason why these can't stay in the same places, or those places be repurposed.
One of their 'victim' areas is Port Talbot, which I would say has been poleaxed at least partly by the Welsh Govt's decision not to build an effective transport system to get there with.
Transport is one of the key issues. The north east has pitiful transport links and has to beg for scraps off the table.
Cases in the Netherlands per person are about 50% higher than they are in the UK at present. The problem for them is that we are almost at winter and they haven't been building up community immunity over the Summer or doing boosters. Other countries in Europe will not be far behind. Belgium, Austria and Ireland are probably worse already. I don't see how a "unvaccinated-only" lockdown can possibly be enforced.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
All your suggestions are far more impractical than an ID card scheme.
My solution is simple.
Anyone entering the UK without valid documents is deemed to have enlisted in the Royal Navy under a revived Conscription Act. Said enlistment begins the moment they are picked up by the RN, and continues for 7 years. No shore leave - just transferred from ship to ship as they return.
This solves the manning problem in the Royal Navy - and they must be good seamen to make it across the Channel - and the refugee crisis in one go.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
I once saw a member of the Wurzels on the bus. More interestingly, my wife knew and still knows some of Syd Barrett's London coterie, which included both Jonathan Meades and the man who unfortunately and supposedly drove Syd Barrett mad, by dropping daily acid in his coffee.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
All your suggestions are far more impractical than an ID card scheme.
That's easier said than done without triggering a vanity by election in Haltemprice and Howden.
The French were doing fuck all about the migrant boats before we left and they're doing fuck all now.
Numbers are noticeably higher. The French have no incentive at all now ; negotiations are complete and we're out. Speaking honestly it wouldn't be my highest priority if I was Macron, either.
It's largely French regional politics. The French locals *hate* the refugees. Why stop them leaving?
Besides which, if people are either determined or desperate enough then nothing will stop them unless the authorities are willing to let them die wholesale, as we see in the Mediterranean migrant drownings, and as we are starting to see on the Belarusian border. Lukashenko has weaponised those migrants; the Poles (and, by extension, the rest of the EU, which is backing them) won't let him get away with it. So, unless the Belarusian Government is willing to let aid agencies help them, the migrants will all perish of exposure over the Winter.
The British Government isn't nasty enough to shoot the boat people and isn't competent enough to offshore them, so they'll just keep coming. They are so many unwanted parcels being passed across borders. The French want rid of them, so are delighted to let them board their dinghies. So long as some of them can still get through the remaining gaps in the EU's external frontier, those that want to come here will eventually turn up along the shores of the Channel - and we'll have no choice but to take the whole lot in.
In effect, the judges have said that men can choke a woman to death during sex and then defend themselves by saying that she asked for it. The "rough sex" defence was meant to have been abolished in the Domestic Abuse Act last year.
And so a man kills a woman and gets four and a half years. Four and a half years for a woman's life. In reality he will be inside for about two.
But yeah let's have campaigns instead against Violence Against Women and Girls. A bit of PR words, that should do it.
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
Dutch media have had it for a few hours already, official announcement this evening.
The French were doing fuck all about the migrant boats before we left and they're doing fuck all now.
Numbers are noticeably higher. The French have no incentive at all now ; negotiations are complete and we're out. Speaking honestly it wouldn't be my highest priority if I was Macron, either.
It's largely French regional politics. The French locals *hate* the refugees. Why stop them leaving?
Besides which, if people are either determined or desperate enough then nothing will stop them unless the authorities are willing to let them die wholesale, as we see in the Mediterranean migrant drownings, and as we are starting to see on the Belarusian border. Lukashenko has weaponised those migrants; the Poles (and, by extension, the rest of the EU, which is backing them) won't let him get away with it. So, unless the Belarusian Government is willing to let aid agencies help them, the migrants will all perish of exposure over the Winter.
The British Government isn't nasty enough to shoot the boat people and isn't competent enough to offshore them, so they'll just keep coming. They are so many unwanted parcels being passed across borders. The French want rid of them, so are delighted to let them board their dinghies. So long as some of them can still get through the remaining gaps in the EU's external frontier, those that want to come here will eventually turn up along the shores of the Channel - and we'll have no choice but to take the whole lot in.
But that's it. Even with a humane/spineless government like ours, the numbers could get so big the UK will have to let many die
Let's say the EU frontier crumbles in the East and south and hundreds of thousands get in. Quite possible, if not probable. Why not just wave them through, when so many of them want to go to the UK?
They speak English, if they speak any foreign language
Then we could see 2000 or 4000 or 6000 crossing in a day (the numbers have already doubled in a year or so). THAT is utterly unsustainable. It could be half a million a year, total. A million.
At that point the grim decision would be taken. Don't let them cross.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Mrs C and, I, both double-vaccinated caught Covid. Did we spread it; don’t think so. We were staying with relatives for a few days before, and they’ve both been fine. Boosters today so should be OK for a while at least.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
I think it's just what we all know. Der Spiegel is talking apocalyptically about "Germany's corona disaster" with millions of unvaccinated people facing a "Delta winter".
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
Dutch media have had it for a few hours already, official announcement this evening.
Yes, seems almost certain. You were right. New lockdowns in mainland Europe. Please God they don't come here
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Sounds like the former. I think that the Germans are panicking because they are entering a phase of the pandemic where, whilst case rates aren't remotely as bad as they have been in previous peaks in Britain, they are worse then they have ever experienced before - and climbing.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
Can we stop and fact check please: 1. Asylum Seeker. Ability to claim benefits: zero. 2. Illegal not formally here. Ability to claim benefits: zero
EU migrants could claim benefits. Not these poor sods on dinghies. Its an outright lie to pretend they are coming here for benefits they have no ability to claim.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Sounds like the former. I think that the Germans are panicking because they are entering a phase of the pandemic where, whilst case rates aren't remotely as bad as they have been in previous peaks in Britain, they are worse then they have ever experienced before - and climbing.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
Drosten: "We have to maneuver slowly and carefully into the endemic phase without our health system collapsing due to excessive demands and deaths like in Great Britain."
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Sounds like the former. I think that the Germans are panicking because they are entering a phase of the pandemic where, whilst case rates aren't remotely as bad as they have been in previous peaks in Britain, they are worse then they have ever experienced before - and climbing.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
Yes that was my assumption. Let's hope we are right. The Germans do not quite seem psychologically prepared; they should also be boostering everyone in sight, right now. Having no one in charge at the top is probably not helping
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Mrs C and, I, both double-vaccinated caught Covid. Did we spread it; don’t think so. We were staying with relatives for a few days before, and they’ve both been fine. Boosters today so should be OK for a while at least.
I know lots of double-vaccinated people who have now had Covid, including myself. All mildly. I am still hearing news every week of additional families who almost all seem to get it. There is some definite gap-filling still going on. When I was at the pub on Tuesday it has become a banter-topic over who has had it and who is yet to. Those who have had it generally think the others just need to get it done and out the way.
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
Can we stop and fact check please: 1. Asylum Seeker. Ability to claim benefits: zero. 2. Illegal not formally here. Ability to claim benefits: zero
EU migrants could claim benefits. Not these poor sods on dinghies. Its an outright lie to pretend they are coming here for benefits they have no ability to claim.
That's true. Quite a few are coming for what they perceive to be a less excluding and more promising in the long-term climate than France ; I've heard that quite often.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Sounds like the former. I think that the Germans are panicking because they are entering a phase of the pandemic where, whilst case rates aren't remotely as bad as they have been in previous peaks in Britain, they are worse then they have ever experienced before - and climbing.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
Yes that was my assumption. Let's hope we are right. The Germans do not quite seem psychologically prepared; they should also be boostering everyone in sight, right now. Having no one in charge at the top is probably not helping
My German colleague was making this precise point when I spoke to him this week. Says there is no one making the big decisions currently.
I'd wait until there's a more legitimate source than "disclosetv" for confirmation on that.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
Dutch media have had it for a few hours already, official announcement this evening.
Yes, seems almost certain. You were right. New lockdowns in mainland Europe. Please God they don't come here
It seems harsh in the circumstances but if we can avoid lockdown when other countries in Europe have to then does that give us an economic advantage? One would assume it does but there must be knock-on effects for us of continental Europe locking down again.
Only on PB could a simple map of musicians by county provoke such an outpouring of quibbling, pedantry, nit-picking and whataboutery. Along with useless trivia, personal anecdotes and opinion. Superb. Keep it up.
OK then.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
You were friends with Roland Gift? He drives me crazy.
Back in the late 19s0s, he was voted one of the sexiest men alive. I was most annoyed I wasn't on the list, even though I was in my teens.
He also acted. If you want a weird film, then 'Sammy and Rosie get laid' is an (ahem) 'classic' film that must have been a gift to his acting skills...
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
Can we stop and fact check please: 1. Asylum Seeker. Ability to claim benefits: zero. 2. Illegal not formally here. Ability to claim benefits: zero
EU migrants could claim benefits. Not these poor sods on dinghies. Its an outright lie to pretend they are coming here for benefits they have no ability to claim.
That's true. Quite a few are coming for what they perceive to be a less excluding and more promising in the long-term climate than France ; I've heard that quite often.
They have often been lied to about the situation in the UK.
Certainly there is a higher expectation of work - the French are really, really hostile to illegal immigrants in the Calais area. One chap who thought to offer some cash in hand work, found his business premises burnt down.
This paragraph from the Times article Max mentions is troubling
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
Sounds like the former. I think that the Germans are panicking because they are entering a phase of the pandemic where, whilst case rates aren't remotely as bad as they have been in previous peaks in Britain, they are worse then they have ever experienced before - and climbing.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
Drosten: "We have to maneuver slowly and carefully into the endemic phase without our health system collapsing due to excessive demands and deaths like in Great Britain."
Er, what? Do they really believe this??
He's a German Health Minister, not a Handelsblatt Journalist or the president of France
Comments
from Your Man On The Spot.
I’ll see your Bassnectar remix of Ellie Goulding, and raise you Armand van Helden’s remix of Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow”, from back in 1994.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=sl9DkcBreNw
For all my advocacy of left-of-centre politics, where was the Okehampton rail link under Tony Blair's Labour? All those years and bugger all development of south-west or indeed northern infrastructure.
They were London Metropolitans and ultimately we've all paid the price. It's easy to blame David Cameron but the causes lie deeper and further back.
Though I've wondered about offshore wind in due course being as beneficial as oil, as an energy supply export.
Though we will continue to need steel, oil and plastic in different combination, and there's no reason why these can't stay in the same places, or those places be repurposed.
One of their 'victim' areas is Port Talbot, which I would say has been poleaxed at least partly by the Welsh Govt's decision not to build an effective transport system to get there with.
How many of that lot now live in London or SE? I recall an outrage bus full of pop stars now living in the SE demanding that the gallery in Gateshead was failing because it was short of money, when a trust endowed with a couple of % of their personal wealth would have fixed it forever.
My one conclusion from that map is that I heard of surprisingly few of them, and that Wiltshire is the most miserable place in the world.
Last night I did discover an unexpectedly great dance song. Friendships, by Pascal Letoublon
It has inspired a brilliant dance craze worldwide. Watch this to the end, I guarantee it will leave you smiling
https://youtu.be/Dh4sjcsIE_E
What's the way forward on standards in public life? Well it's no surprise that they plummet when we have a PM utterly devoid of them himself. There's the problem right there. So the answer isn't new rules & new systems, it lies with the voters from whom he derives his power. Via first opinion polls and then voting booths they need to deliver a clear message in the requisite simple 3 word format for our times: Taxi For Johnson.
“Instead of saying it’s all ‘blah, blah, blah,’ what Greta should be saying to governments and business is ‘I love your pledges, they’re great, now we’re going to hold you to it,” he said."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/12/china-final-giant-piece-surprisingly-successful-cop26/
Another highly optimistic piece from AEP. This must be some kind of record.
Roland Gift of the Fine Young Cannibals came to my birthday parties. He and I were friends for a while. I went out with the artist brother of the lead guitarist of The Buzzcocks. I knew Tony Wilson and hung out at the Hacienda and his home in my dissolute past.
Will that do?
But look at the timescale. Three years from arrest to sentence, and that is despite their guilty pleas. The Justice Secretary really needs to pull his finger out. If the criminal justice system is to be effective, it needs to be timely.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hsbc-managers-jailed-900k-fraud-customers-accounts-b965646.html
I did not peek, and I hope he did not either.
Although happily, a lot of those 70 or 71 albums are being very nicely remastered to celebrate their anniversary.
First they don't stop it happening, which is what we should be aiming for. Not catching after the event. Pre-approval makes the boundaries effective.
Second, what's the punishment? An absence from the House. Big bloody deal. The penalty needs to be financial ie the return of the money made.
Third, the rules seem to have a default assumption that MPs should use their status as MPs to get other paid work. I would like the assumption to be the other way around. Paid work only if it has nothing to do with being an MP and if you want to fight the corner of pressure groups, companies etc you do that as part of your job not in return for payment.
One of the red flags for many of us in the industry is if they admit their guilt early then they are hoping we don't investigate further and find more of their crimes.
Then you've got to write multiple victim impact statements and POCAs.
I think there's a decent chance we get away without a new wave of rules in this country, and if there is any significant tumbling backwards (such as insistence upon the dreaded masks here, there and everywhere) then it's more likely to be down to wetting over flu piling on top of Covid, rather than Covid itself.
Actual lockdowns are probably over. Quite beside the fact that the country can't afford to pay for them, they would completely shred what's left of the Government's reputation.
https://youtu.be/okzGINsQIlc
Young people all over the world just dancing themselves stupid - but doing it brilliantly. By the sea. In a garage. On a street. In a car park
After two years of bloody horror, it feels joyous
I tried to learn the Shuffle Dance last night. Let’s just say it’s quite hard if you’re over 49. Or 25?
Maybe my kids can teach me
There is very old bbc documentary which I have somewhere on VHS tape about his growing up in that part of the world. iirc he was about to train to become an estate manager when he suddenly took fright and headed to london with his guitar. I think in the film he actually goes to see his mate who he was going to train with who actually became an estate manager.
They compare notes on their lives.
Yeh, right...
The Tories need a solution, fast
Though I will say that he was genuinely nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIiGhwLgBUw
But even when Johnson goes we should not breathe a sigh of relief and assume that our problems are over. We really need to strengthen our democracy because next time the PM might be someone who is less obviously shameless but equally damaging.
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1459119157295861761
The French were doing fuck all about the migrant boats before we left and they're doing fuck all now.
Sad if true. Its an utter failure to allow the exit wave to happen in the summer and autumn.
Zero Covid zealots may call me callous from being accepting of the fact some people will die from endemic Covid - but this is the alternative and its worse.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2405168-omt-adviseert-korte-beperkte-lockdown-daarna-2g-kabinet-moet-nog-beslissen
https://twitter.com/MattCartoonist/status/1458850093319299076
Impose a border. Stop them at sea and tow them back with just enough fuel to reach France, or process them in some obscure corner of the world that's either freezing cold or boiling hot.
We should also have contributory or time-based benefits, but the political class won't even countenance removing a prime draw for migrants.
And, of course, we should invade France.
The Netherlands will become the first western European country to impose a partial lockdown since the summer, Dutch media have reported, introducing strict new measures from Saturday in the face of record numbers of new Covid-19 infections.
The restrictions, due to be announced by the prime minister, Mark Rutte, on Friday evening and to last at least three weeks, include the closure of bars, restaurants and non-essential shops from 7pm, the public broadcaster NOS said.
And I agree re: lockdowns. Locking people up over and over and over and over again indefinitely is madness.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-59256153
They love to talk about what each party involve says at the high level. But there is next to no information that allows the reader to judge who is right. What is the evidence of trade inversion, which is one key test? Doesn't say. What is the evidence of how stringent the EU is being on checks? Doesn't say. What are the actual changes in checks the UK wants? Which categories of goods not checked or what information should be not given? Doesn't say. What would be the scale of the impacts if those checks were relaxed? Doesn't say.
It just seems like lazy reporting. If you ever listen to an RTE broadcast, they go into precisely this stuff, despite far lower resources. It's just sloppiness from the BBC and the lack of actual fact base is a big part of everyone interpreting things through existing prejudices and making us more politically divided.
Anyone entering the UK without valid documents is deemed to have enlisted in the Royal Navy under a revived Conscription Act. Said enlistment begins the moment they are picked up by the RN, and continues for 7 years. No shore leave - just transferred from ship to ship as they return.
This solves the manning problem in the Royal Navy - and they must be good seamen to make it across the Channel - and the refugee crisis in one go.
"There are other reasons to be concerned. “The Delta variant has reshuffled the cards,” Drosten, one of Angela Merkel’s most trusted scientific advisers, said. “Soon it will very swiftly become transmissible among the vaccinated.""
Is he just saying what we all know, vaxxed people can still spread the bug? If this is news to the Germans then it might explain the panic. Or is this some new development, or variant, or what?
The British Government isn't nasty enough to shoot the boat people and isn't competent enough to offshore them, so they'll just keep coming. They are so many unwanted parcels being passed across borders. The French want rid of them, so are delighted to let them board their dinghies. So long as some of them can still get through the remaining gaps in the EU's external frontier, those that want to come here will eventually turn up along the shores of the Channel - and we'll have no choice but to take the whole lot in.
In effect, the judges have said that men can choke a woman to death during sex and then defend themselves by saying that she asked for it. The "rough sex" defence was meant to have been abolished in the Domestic Abuse Act last year.
And so a man kills a woman and gets four and a half years. Four and a half years for a woman's life. In reality he will be inside for about two.
But yeah let's have campaigns instead against Violence Against Women and Girls. A bit of PR words, that should do it.
Sickening.
Let's say the EU frontier crumbles in the East and south and hundreds of thousands get in. Quite possible, if not probable. Why not just wave them through, when so many of them want to go to the UK?
They speak English, if they speak any foreign language
Then we could see 2000 or 4000 or 6000 crossing in a day (the numbers have already doubled in a year or so). THAT is utterly unsustainable. It could be half a million a year, total. A million.
At that point the grim decision would be taken. Don't let them cross.
Boosters today so should be OK for a while at least.
If things carry on as they are for another few days in our respective countries then we'll reach crossover in terms of case rates, and that's despite the fact that Germany has more restrictions and conducts a lot fewer tests per capita. Some of their hospitals are also starting to scream like the NHS, and they have a lower vaccination rate.
That's what's going on here. There's no sign of any new variant that is vastly more potent or transmissible than Delta.
1. Asylum Seeker. Ability to claim benefits: zero.
2. Illegal not formally here. Ability to claim benefits: zero
EU migrants could claim benefits. Not these poor sods on dinghies. Its an outright lie to pretend they are coming here for benefits they have no ability to claim.
Drosten: "We have to maneuver slowly and carefully into the endemic phase without our health system collapsing due to excessive demands and deaths like in Great Britain."
He also acted. If you want a weird film, then 'Sammy and Rosie get laid' is an (ahem) 'classic' film that must have been a gift to his acting skills...
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sammy-and-rosie-get-laid-1987
Certainly there is a higher expectation of work - the French are really, really hostile to illegal immigrants in the Calais area. One chap who thought to offer some cash in hand work, found his business premises burnt down.
He's a German Health Minister, not a Handelsblatt Journalist or the president of France
He must know this is drivel