I see that Mr Macron has changed the colour of the blue in the French flag to follow the blue used by the Royal Navy since 1748, rather than EU Flag Blue.
Cool, if it helps him calm down. Spot the difference (France flag, EU flag, and podium):
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
But who (or where) abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so?
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
"More than 12 million pensioners will be hundreds of pounds worse off next year, as pensions will fail to keep pace with surging inflation."
So that's the red wall and the pensioners. Homeowners next?
What a bullshit article.
Inflation was 3.1% so pensions are going up by that.
The claim is that is less than inflation is going to be in the future . . . well yes maybe, but future inflation will be factored into future pension rises.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Harriet Sergeant @HarrietSergeant · 11m Immigration officials spot Swealmeen is a Jordanian economic migrant and not a Syrian refugee as he claims. Then what happens? Nothing. He still stays in this country. Our asylum system is in free fall.
I thought the chap was now dead, having blown himself up?
What am I missing?
Due to BREXIT, we are getting the members of the Spontaneous Combustion Challenged Community* with poor chemistry skills?
*Terrorist is so pejorative. Bit like Criminal - I prefer members of the Legally Challenged Community
SNP bloke on Politics Live welcomed Chope's intervention.
Actually, I think Chope is right on this. Simply brushing it away isn't really on, in my opinion.
I doubt Chope's motivations given his past history. If it keeps the story upfront to the benefit of those who care about standards that may well be unintentional on his part.
Conservative benches are almost entirely deserted ahead of the debate on the Govt Uturn on standards. Only independent MP Julian Lewis sitting behind frontbench
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Curious to see a lot of support for Palpatine upthread. I suspect many Home Counties Coruscentian Tories will never accept someone with such a strong regional Naboovian accent and who didn't go to the right academy. For others he will simply be not right wing enough.
Maybe. Maybe not. It depends as always what the choice is? Keeping the Empires lamps on or chaos under the Jedi.
It sounds like near perfect government under Palpatine, especially long term planning and delivering big infrastructure projects, so you have to wonder why the films told the story from perspective of the villains, trying to take everything back to days of liaises faire mystical rulers.
Liberal hippy Hollywood pushing its own agenda.
Say what you want about Palpatine but he did push through some sorely needed radical constitutional reform.
Death Stars of mass destruction ensure a peaceful galaxy.
Look how much jobs the Death Star alone created? Proper high skill high wage jobs. Business as usual engineering. A small army of inventory officers to keep it going. And Cleaners. Canteen staff.
Extraordinary. Mogg: "The tragedy that afflicted Mr Paterson coloured and clouded our judgement - and my judgement- incorrectly. And it is as simple and as sad as that." https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1460601297275658244
< You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Conservative benches are almost entirely deserted ahead of the debate on the Govt Uturn on standards. Only independent MP Julian Lewis sitting behind frontbench
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
But who (or where) abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so?
My island was apparently the part of england that hung onto paganism for the longest.
< You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
Wasn't there a case in the UK about someone who got into big trouble for using the word 'niggardly'?
My Dad almost lost his job as a teacher for calling a Nigerian kid a ‘tube’, something he’d heard on talk sport from Alan Brazil that he took to mean ‘you Wally’, which was reported as ‘jew’, and when Dad said the Nigerian kid hardly looked Jewish, that made it worse.
He was suspended from work, put on police bail, then accused of grooming kids because he used to give away the West Ham tickets he got as a coach there, and gave the poor kids a quid when they’d forgot their lunch - Trade Unions destroyed the schools allegations, a decent payout & reputation saved, but I think that episode has a lot to do with my journey from soppy benefit of the doubt giving lefty to UKIP member
Extraordinary. Mogg: "The tragedy that afflicted Mr Paterson coloured and clouded our judgement - and my judgement- incorrectly. And it is as simple and as sad as that." https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1460601297275658244
Well it is a better apology than Kwarteng at least.
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
But who (or where) abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so?
New one to me as well - in England, the Saxons who turned up to occupy senior management positions after the Romans divested their offshore holdings were initially pagan, but converted fairly rapidly to Christianity....
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Maybe our Parliament might have a think about the wisdom of procedural rules that allow a single member to throw such a big (and futile) spanner in the works?
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
Maybe our Parliament might have a think about the wisdom of procedural rules that allow a single member to throw such a big (and futile) spanner in the works?
I don’t think that procedure is necessarily a bad thing. Taking it away would only strengthen the executive over parliament.
Labour's @ThangamMP references Talking Heads' David Byrne as "the greatest pop star and songwriter of all time after Schubert" and asks @Jacob_Rees_Mogg if he knows "how did I get here?"
The reports on YCCC are awful, but so is the reporting. We do not need to have Paki and Monkey etc bleeped out - lets hear it. Its not being used as an abuse term now, its being used to call out the racists. Lets hear it so that we can shame them.
Naive. People have lost careers for using the n word, even when in context - eg to show how the word was used by someone else. That can now get you fired and cancelled
How is anyone to know if and when this arbitrary rule will be extended to the P word and beyond? They can’t. So they are understandably super cautious
I recall predicting many years ago that one day racist terms would be seen as much more toxic and offensive than swear words in the 1950s
And so it is. Perhaps that is a good thing, but my inner libertarian still thinks “they are just words, however stupid and ugly”
I don't see a binary distinction between words and actions. Words are the result of an action - the action of writing or speaking. And this action, the writing or speaking of words, can do real damage. It can do just as much damage as other types of actions, eg punching and slapping, sometimes more.
Do you think someone should lose their job for just quoting someone else using the N word?
Maybe. I'd have to know the circumstances. Also 'lose their job' would need clarifying. Eg fired vs feeling shamed out vs loss of freelance income, these are different.
General point, though, is that I sometimes hear "it's only words" as if words exist in a separate milder dimension to actions, and I don't really view it like that myself.
You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
I'm aware there are sometimes false accusations of racism which can lead to injustices to the individuals on the receiving end. However imo the problem of real and actual racism in society dwarfs that of false accusations of racism or hair trigger sensitivity to it. So I simply cannot get as animated as you do about the latter stuff. Indeed I find it pretty odd when people do. I also disagree that 'words' are inherently and always less harmful than actions and that the 'policing' of them is an affront to liberty. I find that view pretty odd too. So, you know, fine, you plough on in your 'space', but don't pretend you're educating anybody on this. All you're doing is riding a hobby horse.
There is a clip going round of AI Wei Wei. He says that we are already living in an authoritarian society, but don't yet realise it.
Maybe our Parliament might have a think about the wisdom of procedural rules that allow a single member to throw such a big (and futile) spanner in the works?
I don’t think that procedure is necessarily a bad thing. Taking it away would only strengthen the executive over parliament.
Yep - Chope's complaint is that things get made into law without being properly discussed.
Usually it's just things he dislikes that he objects to but once in a while he throws a curveball.
After a few hours of standing on the Grassy Knoll, waving at passing cars and reciting the pledge of allegiance, the crowd retreated from heavy rains. Some said they expected a revelation Tuesday night at the Rolling Stones concert in Dallas. Others vowed to return at midnight to the Grassy Knoll, where they believe JFK Jr. will appear.
Micki Larson-Olson, who wore a QAnon-themed Captain America costume Tuesday, said she not only believes JFK Jr. is alive — she also believes that his father was never assassinated and that the 104-year-old former president will appear to help usher in a Trump-JFK Jr. administration.
How will she react when the former president and his dead son do not show up?
“We’ll figure that something happened in the plan that made it not safe to do it,” she said. “If it doesn’t go down how I believe it will, that’s OK. We’ll figure it just wasn’t the right time.”...
Wow, imagine the opening bars to Honky Tonk Women and instead of the girls jiving in from stage right it's Trump and a resurrected JFK. Talk about a jaw-dropping moment in history.
But seriously, a lot of this seems like mass mental illness to me, what's going on over there on the populist right of politics.
Labour's @ThangamMP references Talking Heads' David Byrne as "the greatest pop star and songwriter of all time after Schubert" and asks @Jacob_Rees_Mogg if he knows "how did I get here?"
And ye maye aske yowerself, 'How do Ich werke thys?' And ye maye aske yowerself, 'Wher ys that large destrier?' And ye maye tell yowerself, 'Thys nys nat my beautiful castle!' And ye maye tell yowerself, 'Thys nys nat my swift goshawk!'
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
The reports on YCCC are awful, but so is the reporting. We do not need to have Paki and Monkey etc bleeped out - lets hear it. Its not being used as an abuse term now, its being used to call out the racists. Lets hear it so that we can shame them.
Naive. People have lost careers for using the n word, even when in context - eg to show how the word was used by someone else. That can now get you fired and cancelled
How is anyone to know if and when this arbitrary rule will be extended to the P word and beyond? They can’t. So they are understandably super cautious
I recall predicting many years ago that one day racist terms would be seen as much more toxic and offensive than swear words in the 1950s
And so it is. Perhaps that is a good thing, but my inner libertarian still thinks “they are just words, however stupid and ugly”
I don't see a binary distinction between words and actions. Words are the result of an action - the action of writing or speaking. And this action, the writing or speaking of words, can do real damage. It can do just as much damage as other types of actions, eg punching and slapping, sometimes more.
Do you think someone should lose their job for just quoting someone else using the N word?
Maybe. I'd have to know the circumstances. Also 'lose their job' would need clarifying. Eg fired vs feeling shamed out vs loss of freelance income, these are different.
General point, though, is that I sometimes hear "it's only words" as if words exist in a separate milder dimension to actions, and I don't really view it like that myself.
You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
I'm aware there are sometimes false accusations of racism which can lead to injustices to the individuals on the receiving end. However imo the problem of real and actual racism in society dwarfs that of false accusations of racism or hair trigger sensitivity to it. So I simply cannot get as animated as you do about the latter stuff. Indeed I find it pretty odd when people do. I also disagree that 'words' are inherently and always less harmful than actions and that the 'policing' of them is an affront to liberty. I find that view pretty odd too. So, you know, fine, you plough on in your 'space', but don't pretend you're educating anybody on this. All you're doing is riding a hobby horse.
There is a clip going round of AI Wei Wei. He says that we are already living in an authoritarian society, but don't yet realise it.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
When the truth came out, I seem to recall hearing a journalist explaining how it had been covered up and everyone knew it was going on. Basically, the people "clearing" him were in on it as well.
This is another terrible terrible terrible mistake by Johnson.
Regardless of the cost, he relies on his new friends up north.
He risks losing the south and the north. I'm beginning to think a repeat of the Mayday 1997 carnage is on the cards.
I did originally think that the influx of northern MPs might lead to a realignment of the Tory party, at the lasting expense of Labour.
But now it seems that Johnson is determined to dump these voters at the first opportunity. What happens to a Tory party that has pissed off both its previous core vote in London & the home counties /and/ it’s new voters in the north is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think it can be anything good.
And worse the opposition has 2 separate parties both of whom can target different issues in the respective areas.
The Lib Dems will make inroads into the Tory's southern safe seats via Nimbyism and other local factors, Labour will recover some of their northern seats and the Tories will have little choice but to move further right.
That is possible. If Starmer becomes PM in 2023/24 in a hung parliament with some gains from the Tories in the Redwall and London, a few LD gains from the Tories in Remain and NIMBY areas of the South and some SNP gains from the Tories in Scotland then the Tories will move right in opposition.
It is not hard to see Patel or JRM becoming Tory Leader of the Opposition in a few years in a purer more rightwing Tory party in opposition much as Labour moved left in opposition to Ed Miliband and then Corbyn after losing power in 2010
Ooh..touting JRM for leader again. We all made a fortune laying him, the last time Tories starting suggesting he should lead.
Weird, the first thought parties seem to have when they get turfed out of government (in this case prospective) is “if we’re going to lose, let’s lose big!”.
3.5 at one point. The clear clear betting fav on the grounds the grass roots really liked him and he was a bit of a character. Incredible days. But then again, the bloke who won won for pretty much those reasons, so maybe it wasn't quite so absurd.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Ouch. I heard his name but wasn't paying too much attention at the time so missed what was said.
Has Bumble been suspended by Sky? I don't see how he can continue unsuspended after that, that's horrible if true.
It's all too cozy with Bumble, Blowers, etc (thank goodness Brian Johnston didn't live to see this). It breeds a toxic atmosphere cf the Sky Sports footie commentators and even the England squad - JT, Lamps, etc - although I have no knowledge or evidence of any similar behaviour in that squad.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Ouch. I heard his name but wasn't paying too much attention at the time so missed what was said.
Has Bumble been suspended by Sky? I don't see how he can continue unsuspended after that, that's horrible if true.
It's all too cozy with Bumble, Blowers, etc (thank goodness Brian Johnston didn't live to see this). It breeds a toxic atmosphere cf the Sky Sports footie commentators and even the England squad - JT, Lamps, etc - although I have no knowledge or evidence of any similar behaviour in that squad.
Nothing wrong with Blowers, other than managing to get sent down from Cambridge.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
That really ought to be that for Lloyd. I've never particularly liked the guy, but I am quite shocked to read that about him.
Another bloke who comes across all 'persona' as opposed to person. It doesn't mean anything dark is being hidden but it does facilitate the hiding of it if it's there.
"More than 12 million pensioners will be hundreds of pounds worse off next year, as pensions will fail to keep pace with surging inflation."
So that's the red wall and the pensioners. Homeowners next?
What a bullshit article.
Inflation was 3.1% so pensions are going up by that.
The claim is that is less than inflation is going to be in the future . . . well yes maybe, but future inflation will be factored into future pension rises.
I broadly agree in that 3.1% isn't a high rate of inflation in the bigger picture, and there are inflationary pressures to worry about but not rampant ones.
However, if you know prices are increasing exponentially (i.e. that the rate of increase is itself accelerating) that can entail a real loss for people who get an increase at the prevailing inflation rate on an annual basis.
So in general terms, if you get an increase at the rate of inflation at the start of January, you're suddenly a fair bit better off than you were in December, but that erodes over the year and you are back where you started in December. With a steady inflation rate that's fine - you're a bit richer in the first half of the year and a bit poorer in the second half in real terms, but the tipping point is around June and it averages out. However, if inflation is accelerating, you can get to the tipping point much earlier than June, and it doesn't balance out - you are better off for a short period early in the year, but then worse off and MUCH worse off by the end (when you get an increase at the new inflation rate and return to where you were again. The reverse is true where inflation is falling.
This has been a real issue in the past when inflation has been increasing - small and regular increases become MUCH more attractive than a bigger annual rise. But it's in the noise in the current situation.
Debbonaire: Standards matter. Scrutiny matters. An independent system of holding everyone in public life to account matters
May: Owen Paterson broke the rules. The attempt by members of this house, aided and abetted by the govt, under cover of reform of the process, effectively to clear his name, was misplaced, ill judged and just plain wrong.
Here's the PBS interview with Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei
It is quite something. She is clearly expecting him to agree that Trump is the greatest threat, yet he demurs, then she is utterly mystified when he says America is heading into authoritarianism. She just can't get her head around it. What that might be. Woke. She actually looks upset
"Owen Paterson broke the rules. The attempt by members of this house, aided and abetted by the govt, under cover of reform of the process, effectively to clear his name, was misplaced, ill judged and just plain wrong."
Does he follow through with the question - Could you explain why the rush to reform the process has suddenly become so urgent?
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
Everybody, even if only tangentially involved, in pro cycling knew exactly what was going on with Lance. And every other GC contender before and after him. It was way more encompassing than just not reporting on Lance.
Pete Wishart, SNP: "The leader of the House's [Mogg] position is totally and utterly untenable. You can't come to this House and say one thing passionately... and then come back and say the exact opposite. To think you'll get away with it is beyond reason." https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1460607435547324416
The reports on YCCC are awful, but so is the reporting. We do not need to have Paki and Monkey etc bleeped out - lets hear it. Its not being used as an abuse term now, its being used to call out the racists. Lets hear it so that we can shame them.
Naive. People have lost careers for using the n word, even when in context - eg to show how the word was used by someone else. That can now get you fired and cancelled
How is anyone to know if and when this arbitrary rule will be extended to the P word and beyond? They can’t. So they are understandably super cautious
I recall predicting many years ago that one day racist terms would be seen as much more toxic and offensive than swear words in the 1950s
And so it is. Perhaps that is a good thing, but my inner libertarian still thinks “they are just words, however stupid and ugly”
I don't see a binary distinction between words and actions. Words are the result of an action - the action of writing or speaking. And this action, the writing or speaking of words, can do real damage. It can do just as much damage as other types of actions, eg punching and slapping, sometimes more.
Do you think someone should lose their job for just quoting someone else using the N word?
Maybe. I'd have to know the circumstances. Also 'lose their job' would need clarifying. Eg fired vs feeling shamed out vs loss of freelance income, these are different.
General point, though, is that I sometimes hear "it's only words" as if words exist in a separate milder dimension to actions, and I don't really view it like that myself.
You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
I'm aware there are sometimes false accusations of racism which can lead to injustices to the individuals on the receiving end. However imo the problem of real and actual racism in society dwarfs that of false accusations of racism or hair trigger sensitivity to it. So I simply cannot get as animated as you do about the latter stuff. Indeed I find it pretty odd when people do. I also disagree that 'words' are inherently and always less harmful than actions and that the 'policing' of them is an affront to liberty. I find that view pretty odd too. So, you know, fine, you plough on in your 'space', but don't pretend you're educating anybody on this. All you're doing is riding a hobby horse.
There is a clip going round of AI Wei Wei. He says that we are already living in an authoritarian society, but don't yet realise it.
If we are we need a new term for societies where freedom of speech and behaviour is severely restricted.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
That really ought to be that for Lloyd. I've never particularly liked the guy, but I am quite shocked to read that about him.
Another bloke who comes across all 'persona' as opposed to person. It doesn't mean anything dark is being hidden but it does facilitate the hiding of it if it's there.
I've met Bumble. After a day at a test match at the Oval. We were in a pub
We were three drunk guys who just wanted his opinion on the cricket. He could have told us to leg it, or walked away, I doubt we were that entertaining
He talked with us for half an hour, affable and rather charming, exactly as he is on TV/radio. He gave us his honest opinion, he was thoughtful, he had a drink with us, then he wished us well. If there is an inner Nazi in him I'd be amazed
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
Ouch. I heard his name but wasn't paying too much attention at the time so missed what was said.
Has Bumble been suspended by Sky? I don't see how he can continue unsuspended after that, that's horrible if true.
It's all too cozy with Bumble, Blowers, etc (thank goodness Brian Johnston didn't live to see this). It breeds a toxic atmosphere cf the Sky Sports footie commentators and even the England squad - JT, Lamps, etc - although I have no knowledge or evidence of any similar behaviour in that squad.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
Everybody, even if only tangentially involved, in pro cycling knew exactly what was going on with Lance. And every other GC contender before and after him. It was way more encompassing than just not reporting on Lance.
Reminds me of the time when a friend of mine at some drinks party said that XXXX (internationally renowned sportsman) was a shagger and hence their performance was so bad.
And then a couple of weeks later I was speaking to a coach in the sport and repeated this and he said bloody hell if randoms at drinks parties know then everyone knows.
< You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
Wasn't there a case in the UK about someone who got into big trouble for using the word 'niggardly'?
My Dad almost lost his job as a teacher for calling a Nigerian kid a ‘tube’, something he’d heard on talk sport from Alan Brazil that he took to mean ‘you Wally’, which was reported as ‘jew’, and when Dad said the Nigerian kid hardly looked Jewish, that made it worse.
He was suspended from work, put on police bail, then accused of grooming kids because he used to give away the West Ham tickets he got as a coach there, and gave the poor kids a quid when they’d forgot their lunch - Trade Unions destroyed the schools allegations, a decent payout & reputation saved, but I think that episode has a lot to do with my journey from soppy benefit of the doubt giving lefty to UKIP member
Almost every country outside the west are just falling about laughing at this situation, as well as large parts of Eastern Europe; when they hear about things like this.
We claim to be for freedom and against authoritarianism, but increasingly the opposite is true.
"More than 12 million pensioners will be hundreds of pounds worse off next year, as pensions will fail to keep pace with surging inflation."
So that's the red wall and the pensioners. Homeowners next?
What a bullshit article.
Inflation was 3.1% so pensions are going up by that.
The claim is that is less than inflation is going to be in the future . . . well yes maybe, but future inflation will be factored into future pension rises.
I broadly agree in that 3.1% isn't a high rate of inflation in the bigger picture, and there are inflationary pressures to worry about but not rampant ones.
However, if you know prices are increasing exponentially (i.e. that the rate of increase is itself accelerating) that can entail a real loss for people who get an increase at the prevailing inflation rate on an annual basis.
So in general terms, if you get an increase at the rate of inflation at the start of January, you're suddenly a fair bit better off than you were in December, but that erodes over the year and you are back where you started in December. With a steady inflation rate that's fine - you're a bit richer in the first half of the year and a bit poorer in the second half in real terms, but the tipping point is around June and it averages out. However, if inflation is accelerating, you can get to the tipping point much earlier than June, and it doesn't balance out - you are better off for a short period early in the year, but then worse off and MUCH worse off by the end (when you get an increase at the new inflation rate and return to where you were again. The reverse is true where inflation is falling.
This has been a real issue in the past when inflation has been increasing - small and regular increases become MUCH more attractive than a bigger annual rise. But it's in the noise in the current situation.
That's just swings and roundabouts though. The inflation figure is set at 3.1% as that's what it was on the predetermined and set date.
Yes when inflation increases there's a delayed reaction until you get the rise, but when there's falling inflation then you get the increase even though its no longer required as much. Indeed with the 2.5% floor then pensioners have been substantially better off not worse off.
There needs to be a formula to calculate it and the only reasonable one is to have inflation at a set point of time and use that - not start second guessing whether inflation will be up or down next year. If inflation was 5% in September but only forecast to be 3% next year would the author of the article find it acceptable to raise pensions by 3% instead of 5%? 🤔
The reports on YCCC are awful, but so is the reporting. We do not need to have Paki and Monkey etc bleeped out - lets hear it. Its not being used as an abuse term now, its being used to call out the racists. Lets hear it so that we can shame them.
Naive. People have lost careers for using the n word, even when in context - eg to show how the word was used by someone else. That can now get you fired and cancelled
How is anyone to know if and when this arbitrary rule will be extended to the P word and beyond? They can’t. So they are understandably super cautious
I recall predicting many years ago that one day racist terms would be seen as much more toxic and offensive than swear words in the 1950s
And so it is. Perhaps that is a good thing, but my inner libertarian still thinks “they are just words, however stupid and ugly”
I don't see a binary distinction between words and actions. Words are the result of an action - the action of writing or speaking. And this action, the writing or speaking of words, can do real damage. It can do just as much damage as other types of actions, eg punching and slapping, sometimes more.
Do you think someone should lose their job for just quoting someone else using the N word?
Maybe. I'd have to know the circumstances. Also 'lose their job' would need clarifying. Eg fired vs feeling shamed out vs loss of freelance income, these are different.
General point, though, is that I sometimes hear "it's only words" as if words exist in a separate milder dimension to actions, and I don't really view it like that myself.
You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
I'm aware there are sometimes false accusations of racism which can lead to injustices to the individuals on the receiving end. However imo the problem of real and actual racism in society dwarfs that of false accusations of racism or hair trigger sensitivity to it. So I simply cannot get as animated as you do about the latter stuff. Indeed I find it pretty odd when people do. I also disagree that 'words' are inherently and always less harmful than actions and that the 'policing' of them is an affront to liberty. I find that view pretty odd too. So, you know, fine, you plough on in your 'space', but don't pretend you're educating anybody on this. All you're doing is riding a hobby horse.
There is a clip going round of AI Wei Wei. He says that we are already living in an authoritarian society, but don't yet realise it.
If we are we need a new term for societies where freedom of speech and behaviour is severely restricted.
Has it entered your tiny tiny brain that when you have Vladimir Putin AND Ai Weiwei both saying the exact same thing: the West is having a Cultural Revolution, Woke is like Marxism, we are damaging our own societies, then there may just be a fucking problem? Maybe they have a point?
< You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
Wasn't there a case in the UK about someone who got into big trouble for using the word 'niggardly'?
My Dad almost lost his job as a teacher for calling a Nigerian kid a ‘tube’, something he’d heard on talk sport from Alan Brazil that he took to mean ‘you Wally’, which was reported as ‘jew’, and when Dad said the Nigerian kid hardly looked Jewish, that made it worse.
He was suspended from work, put on police bail, then accused of grooming kids because he used to give away the West Ham tickets he got as a coach there, and gave the poor kids a quid when they’d forgot their lunch - Trade Unions destroyed the schools allegations, a decent payout & reputation saved, but I think that episode has a lot to do with my journey from soppy benefit of the doubt giving lefty to UKIP member
Almost every country outside the west are just falling about laughing at this situation, as well as large parts of Eastern Europe; when they hear about things like this.
We claim to be for freedom and against authoritarianism, but increasingly the opposite is true.
Outside of China, Russia and some MENA countries, I don't think they are laughing at our Wokemare, I think they are worried and appalled - like Ai Weiwei. The West is meant to be the bastion of Free Speech and Liberty. We are cheerfully burning all that down in the name of some surreal "social progress" which means men can go into ladies toilets
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
But who (or where) abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so?
New one to me as well - in England, the Saxons who turned up to occupy senior management positions after the Romans divested their offshore holdings were initially pagan, but converted fairly rapidly to Christianity....
It seems very early for that.
Even the Edict of Milan (Constantine) wasn't until 313 (?) AD.
I've always associated Dark Ages with a period in either the second part of the first millenium 1000 AD, or a period in the middle ages, which is why I'm asking.
Theresa May's damning indictment of the Johnson government. When St Theresa of the Wheat Field shines like a beacon of probity and good governance you know the current lot are a long way from being right.
The faces of the Tory benches while Chope is wittering on are a picture. Visible shaking of heads and raising of eyebrows.
Some of them actually believe there are major constitutional issues at play here. But people complained about often try to make simple matters complicated and of supreme importance. Bottom line is whatever flaws of process may or may not exist, the issues for Paterson were just not that complicated.
On another subject, another thing this shows is that local media isn't dead yet. My view - and this is blether rather than me knowing what I'm talking about - is that the MEN is more influential in GM than any of the national papers. I'm sure the same is true of the Echo on Merseyside, the Chronicle in the North East, the Yorkshire Post in Yorkshire, and so on. This makes me happy and slightly proud for reasons I can't quite place.
Jennifer Williams is a very fine journalist. I have been following her work for a while. Well worth reading.
On another subject, another thing this shows is that local media isn't dead yet. My view - and this is blether rather than me knowing what I'm talking about - is that the MEN is more influential in GM than any of the national papers. I'm sure the same is true of the Echo on Merseyside, the Chronicle in the North East, the Yorkshire Post in Yorkshire, and so on. This makes me happy and slightly proud for reasons I can't quite place.
Jennifer Williams is a very fine journalist. I have been following her work for a while. Well worth reading.
Did you see Simon Reeve’s new show, ‘The Lakes’ at the weekend? All about Cumbria
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
That really ought to be that for Lloyd. I've never particularly liked the guy, but I am quite shocked to read that about him.
Another bloke who comes across all 'persona' as opposed to person. It doesn't mean anything dark is being hidden but it does facilitate the hiding of it if it's there.
I've met Bumble. After a day at a test match at the Oval. We were in a pub
We were three drunk guys who just wanted his opinion on the cricket. He could have told us to leg it, or walked away, I doubt we were that entertaining
He talked with us for half an hour, affable and rather charming, exactly as he is on TV/radio. He gave us his honest opinion, he was thoughtful, he had a drink with us, then he wished us well. If there is an inner Nazi in him I'd be amazed
Some of this starts to feel like a witch hunt
Well thanks for NOT after all icing me. That's the main thing.
I like DL as a broadcaster and I don't doubt your anecdote about him here. But I can't help noting how you yet again seem more exercised by false accusations of (eg) racism and misogyny - "witchhunt!" - than by the genuine article. Maybe, like with isam, there's a deeply personal reason for it. But not to pry.
Anyway you take my point, I hope, about how a very strong, kind of separate persona - in the case 'Bumble' - can act as a buffer between the world and the real person. How it facilitates bluff, diversion, distraction etc and so can allow these types, if they are so inclined, to get away with things others couldn't. You must know what I mean? We have one as PM, of course.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
That really ought to be that for Lloyd. I've never particularly liked the guy, but I am quite shocked to read that about him.
Another bloke who comes across all 'persona' as opposed to person. It doesn't mean anything dark is being hidden but it does facilitate the hiding of it if it's there.
I've met Bumble. After a day at a test match at the Oval. We were in a pub
We were three drunk guys who just wanted his opinion on the cricket. He could have told us to leg it, or walked away, I doubt we were that entertaining
He talked with us for half an hour, affable and rather charming, exactly as he is on TV/radio. He gave us his honest opinion, he was thoughtful, he had a drink with us, then he wished us well. If there is an inner Nazi in him I'd be amazed
Some of this starts to feel like a witch hunt
Well thanks for NOT after all icing me. That's the main thing.
I like DL as a broadcaster and I don't doubt your anecdote about him here. But I can't help noting how you yet again seem more exercised by false accusations of (eg) racism and misogyny - "witchhunt!" - than by the genuine article. Maybe, like with isam, there's a deeply personal reason for it. But not to pry.
Anyway you take my point, I hope, about how a very strong, kind of separate persona - in the case 'Bumble' - can act as a buffer between the world and the real person. How it facilitates bluff, diversion, distraction etc and so can allow these types, if they are so inclined, to get away with things others couldn't. You must know what I mean? We have one as PM, of course.
Do our usernames and the persona’s we cultivate on here do the same?
< You're so tediously myopic. Do you never do any research? Explore? Find out stuff? Or is it just easier to sit in a contented little bien pensant bubble in your leafy Belsize Park pub.
I'm bored of educating you, and I shall stop interacting with you shortly. But there are countless examples of people being sacked for using the N word
One of my favourites, a professor replaced for using a Chinese word that SOUNDS like the N word
"In a controversial decision, the University of Southern California replaced a professor of business communication with another instructor in one of his classes for saying a Chinese word that sounds like an English slur."
There's hundreds. That's 2 minutes Googling. Which you are apparently unable to do
Wasn't there a case in the UK about someone who got into big trouble for using the word 'niggardly'?
My Dad almost lost his job as a teacher for calling a Nigerian kid a ‘tube’, something he’d heard on talk sport from Alan Brazil that he took to mean ‘you Wally’, which was reported as ‘jew’, and when Dad said the Nigerian kid hardly looked Jewish, that made it worse.
He was suspended from work, put on police bail, then accused of grooming kids because he used to give away the West Ham tickets he got as a coach there, and gave the poor kids a quid when they’d forgot their lunch - Trade Unions destroyed the schools allegations, a decent payout & reputation saved, but I think that episode has a lot to do with my journey from soppy benefit of the doubt giving lefty to UKIP member
Almost every country outside the west are just falling about laughing at this situation, as well as large parts of Eastern Europe; when they hear about things like this.
We claim to be for freedom and against authoritarianism, but increasingly the opposite is true.
In large parts of Eastern Europe they "monkey chant" at our black footballers.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
Everybody, even if only tangentially involved, in pro cycling knew exactly what was going on with Lance. And every other GC contender before and after him. It was way more encompassing than just not reporting on Lance.
I remember watching the Tour in a shared house in the early 90's and someone there had been a keen amateur competitor but had given it up. She told me that they all had their little medical kits and that it was all fake. Rather naively I couldn't quite believe that they were all cheats, but she was of course right.
It isn't just cycling that had (or has) an Omerta though.
With regard to the cricket, I wonder if it isn't really drinking culture that is at the heart of this. If you aren't a drinker, then you can never be 'part of the team'. The clubhouse is never quite separated from the competitive sport.
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Much worse than that.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
That really ought to be that for Lloyd. I've never particularly liked the guy, but I am quite shocked to read that about him.
Another bloke who comes across all 'persona' as opposed to person. It doesn't mean anything dark is being hidden but it does facilitate the hiding of it if it's there.
I've met Bumble. After a day at a test match at the Oval. We were in a pub
We were three drunk guys who just wanted his opinion on the cricket. He could have told us to leg it, or walked away, I doubt we were that entertaining
He talked with us for half an hour, affable and rather charming, exactly as he is on TV/radio. He gave us his honest opinion, he was thoughtful, he had a drink with us, then he wished us well. If there is an inner Nazi in him I'd be amazed
Some of this starts to feel like a witch hunt
Well thanks for NOT after all icing me. That's the main thing.
I like DL as a broadcaster and I don't doubt your anecdote about him here. But I can't help noting how you yet again seem more exercised by false accusations of (eg) racism and misogyny - "witchhunt!" - than by the genuine article. Maybe, like with isam, there's a deeply personal reason for it. But not to pry.
Anyway you take my point, I hope, about how a very strong, kind of separate persona - in the case 'Bumble' - can act as a buffer between the world and the real person. How it facilitates bluff, diversion, distraction etc and so can allow these types, if they are so inclined, to get away with things others couldn't. You must know what I mean? We have one as PM, of course.
Do our usernames and the persona’s we cultivate on here do the same?
Yes. Some posters post as 100% themselves and some have created personas with varying degrees of separation from the real person. Those with personas then use them in different ways. Much easier to do this on the internet cf the flesh & blood world of course.
The Indie has it in for the PM's Dad; like son, like father? 'Two women — including Tory MP Caroline Nokes — have accused Boris Johnson’s father Stanley of inappropriately touching them.
Ms Nokes, who is the chair of the parliamentary women and equalities committee, said the 81-year-old smacked her “on the backside about as hard as he could” during a party conference in 2003.
The elder Mr Johnson declined to comment about her allegation made to Sky News, other than to say he has “no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all”.'
Apparently he smacked her hard on the bum and said, "oh, Romsey, you've got a lovely seat." Romsey being her constituency.
It doesn't sound sexual assault territory, and indeed many will find it absolutely trivial and even borderline funny, but I just don't understand the brain chemistry of blokes who behave like this. Where does it come from?
It comes in part from the fact that too many men (not you, I hope) do think it is "trivial" and "borderline funny" and so do not call it out.
How many times were you smacked hard on the bottom at a work event? And how would you have reacted if you had been?
And yet, as I have written, women routinely endure this sort of stuff and worse. Perhaps if we slapped men or punched them in the face every time they did this, the extensive bruising they would suffer might give men a bit of a clue? Dunno. Not in favour of violence. But relying on men being good chaps and calling out those chaps who are being bad chaps hasn't really worked, has it?
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
Everybody, even if only tangentially involved, in pro cycling knew exactly what was going on with Lance. And every other GC contender before and after him. It was way more encompassing than just not reporting on Lance.
I remember watching the Tour in a shared house in the early 90's and someone there had been a keen amateur competitor but had given it up. She told me that they all had their little medical kits and that it was all fake. Rather naively I couldn't quite believe that they were all cheats, but she was of course right.
It isn't just cycling that had (or has) an Omerta though.
With regard to the cricket, I wonder if it isn't really drinking culture that is at the heart of this. If you aren't a drinker, then you can never be 'part of the team'. The clubhouse is never quite separated from the competitive sport.
I think that's a good point. The whole jug thing (if you do something good like score a 50 or take five wickets, you have to buy a jug of beer) isn't great in my opinion.
King Cole, the bit after the Western Empire falls and before the Norman Conquest (especially pre-Alfred) is not the most popular in history for the general public.
What annoys me is every single damned documentary or drama (well, the vast majority) are fixated retelling stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth II when (even just looking at England) there are so many more interesting and neglected events and characters to consider.
"The Vikings" did rather well from depicting the period, and the spin off "Vikings: Valhalla" covering the later period before the Norman conquest looks promising.
The period that seems to be lacking is the early post Roman period. In a generation or two, we abandoned roads, towns and the trappings of urban life, turning back to subsistence farming and more egalitarian social structures.
Perhaps we can find out about the latter in person, second time around?
The Dark Ages were only dark in the sense of the abandonment of Christianity, and also literacy. It happened between 409 and 450 or so, so a couple of generations. There seems surprisingly little evidence of resistance to going back to a simpler more sustainable communitarian lifestyle once the Romans stopped enforcing the alternative.
Who abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so? Not really my period.
(or is that the joke I just edited out?) (Blockquote maybe borked warning)
The reason that there was little resistance was that when armed, competent invaders showed up, the locals had next to no military capability. Sharp swords make sharp arguments.
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
But who (or where) abandoned Christianity in 409->450 or so?
New one to me as well - in England, the Saxons who turned up to occupy senior management positions after the Romans divested their offshore holdings were initially pagan, but converted fairly rapidly to Christianity....
It seems very early for that.
Even the Edict of Milan (Constantine) wasn't until 313 (?) AD.
I've always associated Dark Ages with a period in either the second part of the first millenium 1000 AD, or a period in the middle ages, which is why I'm asking.
Dark Ages to me means that period when the absence of Christianity/literacy means there was a bit of a lacuna in recorded history. In England a relatively short period maybe AD400 - 800. We really know very little about the end of Roman Britain and the Germanic settlers had started to make their presence known. In Scandinavia it is different: not a lot is known pre 1000 or so, and in Sweden everything before 1200 might as well be Prehistory.
Here's the PBS interview with Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei
It is quite something. She is clearly expecting him to agree that Trump is the greatest threat, yet he demurs, then she is utterly mystified when he says America is heading into authoritarianism. She just can't get her head around it. What that might be. Woke. She actually looks upset
Ian Dale on Politics Live says that members of staff at Sky were livid that they were cutting the sound on the Rafiq testimony today. Apparently Sky played it unfiltered after they had complaints from their staff.
Did they cover the bit when Rafiq criticised David Lloyd?
I haven't seen the testimony myself, just heard what Dale said about it.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Back when the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations came out (12 years ago now!) there was an interview with an ex-golfing journalist who had tried to write a story on Woods, many years before. Woods' management got to hear about it, and the golfing journalist was immediately an ex-golfing journalist. Others received threats about losing access if they wrote stories.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Didn't some journalists have their careers ruined over Lance Armstrong?
It wouldn't surprise me. But wasn't that a slightly different situation? From memory, allegations had always surrounded Armstrong, and he had always been cleared. That makes writing 'the truth' somewhat harder - especially given his backstory wrt cancer.
Everybody, even if only tangentially involved, in pro cycling knew exactly what was going on with Lance. And every other GC contender before and after him. It was way more encompassing than just not reporting on Lance.
I remember watching the Tour in a shared house in the early 90's and someone there had been a keen amateur competitor but had given it up. She told me that they all had their little medical kits and that it was all fake. Rather naively I couldn't quite believe that they were all cheats, but she was of course right.
By those on the inside doping isn't even thought of as 'cheating' as it has been a part of the sport's culture for so long. Just the methods and techniques change. I did injectable PEDs when I was a semi pro but I wish I had fully committed and done a lot more.
Steroids, epo and testosterone are still absolutely rife in amateur competition where the controls are much weaker.
Talking of standards debate, I see that Kwasi Kwarteng has given an apology - of sorts - to the Standards Commissioner.
Perhaps that'll teach him to stop being Johnson's nodding dog in future.
He didn't apologise at all, for all it included the word sorry. He pretended he had not meant what he said, without proferring an alternative explanation for what he said because he could not, blamed that others had 'interpreted' what he said that way and was sorry for the 'impression' that he had not maintained high standards.
I'm sure you've read even more weaselly letters than his in your time, but it was still a shameful example of a non-apology and by implication suggesting everyone is a fool if they believe his words.
So I doubt he'll have learned a thing.
I agree. It is not an apology at all. I was being sarcastic.
Comments
Cool, if it helps him calm down. Spot the difference (France flag, EU flag, and podium):
https://news.sky.com/story/emmanuel-macron-changed-colour-of-french-flag-to-revive-a-symbol-of-the-revolution-12469156
MPs will vote later on formally reversing a government plan to revamp the system for monitoring their behaviour.
Ministers proposed the controversial overhaul earlier this month, whilst blocking the suspension of Tory MP Owen Paterson.
They then abandoned the idea, after an outcry from opposition MPs and some Tories.
A bid to quietly confirm the U-turn on Monday was thwarted by a Tory MP.
Christopher Chope objected to a government motion to abandon the revamp, which it had tried to get approved without a debate.
Instead, the government has had to reschedule the vote for Tuesday. It will now take place after a one-hour Commons debate.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59301710
The process of robbing the locals when you felt like it, evolved into "You can't tax those peasants. They are my peasants"....
You could call that an egalitarian social structure. Depends which end of the sword you are holding, I suppose.
On the Digital Spy thread, it was suggested that Lloyd tried to influence journalists into playing down the allegations.
Actually, I think Chope is right on this. Simply brushing it away isn't really on, in my opinion.
Inflation was 3.1% so pensions are going up by that.
The claim is that is less than inflation is going to be in the future . . . well yes maybe, but future inflation will be factored into future pension rises.
‘I sat in front of national TV and talked about the dark places this whole episode has got me into and what’s happened since then? Denial, briefings, cover-ups, smearing.
‘High-profile media people messaging other members of the media who supported me saying stuff like, “The club houses are the life blood of a club and Asian players don’t go in there”, “Getting subs out of Asian players is like getting blood out of stone”.
‘And then personally this guy doesn’t even know me, has never spent any time with me, is talking about my personal drinking, going out and socialising.
‘That was David Lloyd, he’s been an England coach, commentator, and I found it disturbing because Sky are supposedly doing this amazing work on bringing racism to the front and within a week of me speaking out that’s what I got sent to me. And I thought, “Gosh, there’s some closet racists and we need to do something about it”.’
https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/16/azeem-rafiq-implicates-david-lloyd-and-alex-hales-criticises-joe-root-15608541/
*Terrorist is so pejorative. Bit like Criminal - I prefer members of the Legally Challenged Community
Only independent MP Julian Lewis sitting behind frontbench
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1460598614837891082/photo/1
Now @theresa_may has arrived on the backbench though, just as Jacob Rees-Mogg takes his place.
Christopher Chope has now arrived, as has Bill Cash.
Among just 7 Conservatives present on backbenches.
#theaudacityofchope
Has Bumble been suspended by Sky? I don't see how he can continue unsuspended after that, that's horrible if true.
Floor waxing - a zillion square miles of shiny, shiny floor....
EDIT: And Health & Safety officers. Not railings round *anything*
https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1460601297275658244
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/30/an-english-teacher-who-misexplained-niggardly-now-faces-hearing-keep-his-job/
Nearly lost his job, which is exaggerated but in the correct direction.
Not aware of any in the UK.
I'd say that organisitions so sensitized that they are too scared to name the 'offensive' things they are discussing have lost their moral centre.
Threats to journalists can work, sadly.
Some might say we never let it go.
He was suspended from work, put on police bail, then accused of grooming kids because he used to give away the West Ham tickets he got as a coach there, and gave the poor kids a quid when they’d forgot their lunch - Trade Unions destroyed the schools allegations, a decent payout & reputation saved, but I think that episode has a lot to do with my journey from soppy benefit of the doubt giving lefty to UKIP member
Audacity of Chope? Love it!
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/all-transport-links-with-leeds-to-be-severed-20211116214349
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbq3kc29Tmg
Here for it, tbh
https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1460602638714683392
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtM75JJcCKM
Usually it's just things he dislikes that he objects to but once in a while he throws a curveball.
But seriously, a lot of this seems like mass mental illness to me, what's going on over there on the populist right of politics.
And ye maye aske yowerself, 'Wher ys that large destrier?'
And ye maye tell yowerself, 'Thys nys nat my beautiful castle!'
And ye maye tell yowerself, 'Thys nys nat my swift goshawk!'
https://twitter.com/LeVostreGC/status/1459612237119700992
“just plain wrong”
Taking no interventions, she intends to make her points uninterrupted
“a mistake to think that because someone broke the rules, the rules are wrong”
Fuck off.
However, if you know prices are increasing exponentially (i.e. that the rate of increase is itself accelerating) that can entail a real loss for people who get an increase at the prevailing inflation rate on an annual basis.
So in general terms, if you get an increase at the rate of inflation at the start of January, you're suddenly a fair bit better off than you were in December, but that erodes over the year and you are back where you started in December. With a steady inflation rate that's fine - you're a bit richer in the first half of the year and a bit poorer in the second half in real terms, but the tipping point is around June and it averages out. However, if inflation is accelerating, you can get to the tipping point much earlier than June, and it doesn't balance out - you are better off for a short period early in the year, but then worse off and MUCH worse off by the end (when you get an increase at the new inflation rate and return to where you were again. The reverse is true where inflation is falling.
This has been a real issue in the past when inflation has been increasing - small and regular increases become MUCH more attractive than a bigger annual rise. But it's in the noise in the current situation.
Debbonaire: Standards matter. Scrutiny matters. An independent system of holding everyone in public life to account matters
May: Owen Paterson broke the rules. The attempt by members of this house, aided and abetted by the govt, under cover of reform of the process, effectively to clear his name, was misplaced, ill judged and just plain wrong.
It is quite something. She is clearly expecting him to agree that Trump is the greatest threat, yet he demurs, then she is utterly mystified when he says America is heading into authoritarianism. She just can't get her head around it. What that might be. Woke. She actually looks upset
https://twitter.com/FiringLineShow/status/1459209079830765574?s=20
https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1460607435547324416
Speaking up for a ship after it has sunk.
We were three drunk guys who just wanted his opinion on the cricket. He could have told us to leg it, or walked away, I doubt we were that entertaining
He talked with us for half an hour, affable and rather charming, exactly as he is on TV/radio. He gave us his honest opinion, he was thoughtful, he had a drink with us, then he wished us well. If there is an inner Nazi in him I'd be amazed
Some of this starts to feel like a witch hunt
Commentators compelled to behave like @Morris_Dancer
And then a couple of weeks later I was speaking to a coach in the sport and repeated this and he said bloody hell if randoms at drinks parties know then everyone knows.
We claim to be for freedom and against authoritarianism, but increasingly the opposite is true.
Yes when inflation increases there's a delayed reaction until you get the rise, but when there's falling inflation then you get the increase even though its no longer required as much. Indeed with the 2.5% floor then pensioners have been substantially better off not worse off.
There needs to be a formula to calculate it and the only reasonable one is to have inflation at a set point of time and use that - not start second guessing whether inflation will be up or down next year. If inflation was 5% in September but only forecast to be 3% next year would the author of the article find it acceptable to raise pensions by 3% instead of 5%? 🤔
@qikipedia
The oldest surviving British joke dates to the 10th century. It goes:
Q: What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?
A: A key
https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/1460609374163017736
Even the Edict of Milan (Constantine) wasn't until 313 (?) AD.
I've always associated Dark Ages with a period in either the second part of the first millenium 1000 AD, or a period in the middle ages, which is why I'm asking.
Theresa May's damning indictment of the Johnson government. When St Theresa of the Wheat Field shines like a beacon of probity and good governance you know the current lot are a long way from being right.
By the look on his face, even he can see some of the walls around the hole he is in.
Makes the point that Tories are baracking what was the government’s position just recently.
Nice dig at the member for Delyn.
They really do need to retire. Pathetic.
Actually a short speech, simply making the point that Paterson should simply have accepted his punishment.
Opens with the charge sheet against Paterson.
“completely mystified why the PM moved heaven and earth to try and prevent Paterson being sanctioned”
Claims the Tories told their side that their original motion has been “squared off with the opposition”
Argues that the way the government has handled the whole affair has added to the Paterson family’s distress.
Praises the new Tory MPs for recognising from the outset that the government’s handling was wrong from the beginning.
I like DL as a broadcaster and I don't doubt your anecdote about him here. But I can't help noting how you yet again seem more exercised by false accusations of (eg) racism and misogyny - "witchhunt!" - than by the genuine article. Maybe, like with isam, there's a deeply personal reason for it. But not to pry.
Anyway you take my point, I hope, about how a very strong, kind of separate persona - in the case 'Bumble' - can act as a buffer between the world and the real person. How it facilitates bluff, diversion, distraction etc and so can allow these types, if they are so inclined, to get away with things others couldn't. You must know what I mean? We have one as PM, of course.
“the last three weeks have been shameful for the house”
Motion carried without opposition. The debate has silenced even Chope.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to give a State of the Nation address around 6pm.
It isn't just cycling that had (or has) an Omerta though.
With regard to the cricket, I wonder if it isn't really drinking culture that is at the heart of this. If you aren't a drinker, then you can never be 'part of the team'. The clubhouse is never quite separated from the competitive sport.
How many times were you smacked hard on the bottom at a work event? And how would you have reacted if you had been?
And yet, as I have written, women routinely endure this sort of stuff and worse. Perhaps if we slapped men or punched them in the face every time they did this, the extensive bruising they would suffer might give men a bit of a clue? Dunno. Not in favour of violence. But relying on men being good chaps and calling out those chaps who are being bad chaps hasn't really worked, has it?
Steroids, epo and testosterone are still absolutely rife in amateur competition where the controls are much weaker.