My dad did lots of work on sewage farms. Tomato plants were everywhere for this reason.
As far as I know he was never brave enough to pick any ...
As I may have mentioned my dad fought in the Korean War. Though he didn’t talk that much abut it, one thing he did say was that the whole country smelled of shit. Human excrement was the main fertiliser and it being a largely agricultural country, the reek was pervasive. Bully beef and tinned jam all round..
I lived in Vienna for a while and that's an abiding memory I have from there, the smell of shit. Horses the source in this case, which they have a lot of, trotting around the place, but still not a great aroma, especially after a while.
But anyway, enough of the crap anecdotes.
Just been reading about Victorian cities. The shite dried and was pulverised by the wheels so there were clouds of the dust blowing around for people to breathe and into houses to permeate the carpets and contaminate the food.
I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate just how shit our media class is. Where is anyone asking these fucking questions of Rishi, why is the treasury using the same economic modelling that failed to predict the rise of the internet and halted our investment in fibre optic cabling in the early 2000s?
The media is full of innumerate twats who don’t do detail.
Did you know, BTW, Boris used to be a journalist?
Do you think a Treasury drone would be preferable to Boris?
Fair question.
Something I wish I understood about Sunak but don't;
Does he go along with Treasury penny pinching because he believes in it, or is he just too small in stature and ability to argue against it?
I wish he'd spent time running a spending department on the way up.
He didn't penny pinch at the last budget; he spent practically all the growth dividend didn't he?
1. No 2. What growth dividend
There definately was a growth dividend of IIRC about 3/4pc GDP for a year or two.
In case you didn’t notice, we had Covid and still haven’t recovered to pre-March 20 levels.
Talk of a dividend is Treasury spin.
They had more more cash in the current account than they suspected and Rishi spaffed it all.
I agree that a bit of Keynensianism wouldn't go a miss given low interest rates (but I guess that was kinda the furlough scheme) but he certainly wasn't penny pinching last budget.
Tell me, then, where did it go?
I can't remember at all where it went. I know it was only a few weeks ago. There was something about UC marginal tax.
But someone here had a wager on the amount of times Billion/s was stated and it came to about 50 I think.
There is a serious point there - I've considered voting YP in the past, but when I looked into the local council candidates a few years back they seemed to include "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Things may have changed. The YP will need to get their act together if they want to become a serious force.
It'll be interesting to see how it works out for David.
Which is why the news is interesting - David definitely being none of those things.
I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate just how shit our media class is. Where is anyone asking these fucking questions of Rishi, why is the treasury using the same economic modelling that failed to predict the rise of the internet and halted our investment in fibre optic cabling in the early 2000s?
Because you miss the point of these sessions. The media wants a sound bite and a quick tweet. They don’t want or need a meaningful discussion
I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate just how shit our media class is. Where is anyone asking these fucking questions of Rishi, why is the treasury using the same economic modelling that failed to predict the rise of the internet and halted our investment in fibre optic cabling in the early 2000s?
The media is full of innumerate twats who don’t do detail.
Did you know, BTW, Boris used to be a journalist?
Do you think a Treasury drone would be preferable to Boris?
Fair question.
Something I wish I understood about Sunak but don't;
Does he go along with Treasury penny pinching because he believes in it, or is he just too small in stature and ability to argue against it?
I wish he'd spent time running a spending department on the way up.
He didn't penny pinch at the last budget; he spent practically all the growth dividend didn't he?
1. No 2. What growth dividend
There definately was a growth dividend of IIRC about 3/4pc GDP for a year or two.
In case you didn’t notice, we had Covid and still haven’t recovered to pre-March 20 levels.
Talk of a dividend is Treasury spin.
They had more more cash in the current account than they suspected and Rishi spaffed it all.
I agree that a bit of Keynensianism wouldn't go a miss given low interest rates (but I guess that was kinda the furlough scheme) but he certainly wasn't penny pinching last budget.
Tell me, then, where did it go?
I can't remember at all where it went. I know it was only a few weeks ago. There was something about UC marginal tax.
But someone here had a wager on the amount of times Billion/s was stated and it came to about 50 I think.
I trust Rishi spent it wisely
There was no dividend, only that the numbers weren’t as bad as previously feared.
To the extent that Rishi is spending it is to maintain the comfort of the Tory’s elderly base, and to keep the NHS from collapsing.
No, don't like this post. It is Bad News that it is not going down. We need to drop the "oh aren't we/Boris marvellous for keeping our case numbers so low" nonsense. Our numbers have been a sustained dangerous high for several months and shows no signs of dissipating as we head into the danger period.
Would be interesting to see regional polling (assuming this is national? dead link btw). Why should the average person in the south be annoyed about this, bigger picture issues for the country, for sure, but anger - such as it is - is surely more likely in the affected areas?
There is a serious point there - I've considered voting YP in the past, but when I looked into the local council candidates a few years back they seemed to include "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Things may have changed. The YP will need to get their act together if they want to become a serious force.
It'll be interesting to see how it works out for David.
Yes. And formerly active in and extremely knowledgeable about the Conservative Party. Called the loss of majority the weekend before 2017 from his canvassing in Yorkshire. Astonishing folk on here so much that a few suspected his account had been hacked.
He did, and people did think that. He also rowed back on the comment later that day
Did he? The signs were all there in 2017. Folk simply refused to dispassionately see what was before their very eyes.
Edit. Quite a number hours after the first results. "Worst exit poll in history."
Yes, he posted that his canvassing feedback had made it seem likely May would lose the Tories Majority, which caused a great stir. I was one of the people who thought he’d been hacked I think. Later he posted that on reflection he might have been over doing it. But he was right first time
My dad did lots of work on sewage farms. Tomato plants were everywhere for this reason.
As far as I know he was never brave enough to pick any ...
As I may have mentioned my dad fought in the Korean War. Though he didn’t talk that much abut it, one thing he did say was that the whole country smelled of shit. Human excrement was the main fertiliser and it being a largely agricultural country, the reek was pervasive. Bully beef and tinned jam all round..
I lived in Vienna for a while and that's an abiding memory I have from there, the smell of shit. Horses the source in this case, which they have a lot of, trotting around the place, but still not a great aroma, especially after a while.
But anyway, enough of the crap anecdotes.
Just been reading about Victorian cities. The shite dried and was pulverised by the wheels so there were clouds of the dust blowing around for people to breathe and into houses to permeate the carpets and contaminate the food.
One day our descendants will be saying the same about particulates from road traffic.
(Another reason why Philip “two cars for every household; one motorway for every village” is probably wrong).
I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate just how shit our media class is. Where is anyone asking these fucking questions of Rishi, why is the treasury using the same economic modelling that failed to predict the rise of the internet and halted our investment in fibre optic cabling in the early 2000s?
The media is full of innumerate twats who don’t do detail.
Did you know, BTW, Boris used to be a journalist?
Do you think a Treasury drone would be preferable to Boris?
Fair question.
Something I wish I understood about Sunak but don't;
Does he go along with Treasury penny pinching because he believes in it, or is he just too small in stature and ability to argue against it?
I wish he'd spent time running a spending department on the way up.
He didn't penny pinch at the last budget; he spent practically all the growth dividend didn't he?
1. No 2. What growth dividend
There definately was a growth dividend of IIRC about 3/4pc GDP for a year or two.
In case you didn’t notice, we had Covid and still haven’t recovered to pre-March 20 levels.
Talk of a dividend is Treasury spin.
They had more more cash in the current account than they suspected and Rishi spaffed it all.
I agree that a bit of Keynensianism wouldn't go a miss given low interest rates (but I guess that was kinda the furlough scheme) but he certainly wasn't penny pinching last budget.
Tell me, then, where did it go?
I can't remember at all where it went. I know it was only a few weeks ago. There was something about UC marginal tax.
But someone here had a wager on the amount of times Billion/s was stated and it came to about 50 I think.
I trust Rishi spent it wisely
There was no dividend, only that the numbers weren’t as bad as previously feared.
To the extent that Rishi is spending it is to maintain the comfort of the Tory’s elderly base, and to keep the NHS from collapsing.
That’s it.
There was a dividend because recovery from pandemic is much better than we expected.
I suspect we're both getting a bit bored by this now.
He's slow to the party. 45 years ago I was on the terraces at Elland Road as the assembled masses regaled us with "YRA, we're Yorkshire's Republican Army, we're barmy".
No, don't like this post. It is Bad News that it is not going down. We need to drop the "oh aren't we/Boris marvellous for keeping our case numbers so low" nonsense. Our numbers have been a sustained dangerous high for several months and shows no signs of dissipating as we head into the danger period.
It's not going down. It's not going away. Despite what some might have you believe.
Called 2017 right so bluntly people thought he'd been hacked.
Yes he seemed to pick it up from canvasing on eve of poll and it was very blunt and out of character. Frankly I had assumed that he had just had a dodgy session like we all get, you know just a bit of bad luck in hitting a number of random switchers against the trend. Apparently not. It was the first indication of what was to come.
There is a serious point there - I've considered voting YP in the past, but when I looked into the local council candidates a few years back they seemed to include "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Things may have changed. The YP will need to get their act together if they want to become a serious force.
It'll be interesting to see how it works out for David.
Which is why the news is interesting - David definitely being none of those things.
Yep. I'll definitely take another look next time we have an election.
They don't have a candidate for the N Yorks PCC, interestingly. I know no one cares about that, but still...
Would be interesting to see regional polling (assuming this is national? dead link btw). Why should the average person in the south be annoyed about this, bigger picture issues for the country, for sure, but anger - such as it is - is surely more likely in the affected areas?
Not sure why the tweet is not available but if you look up yougov they do have regional figures
It’s very clear from listening to the prime minister that the rethink of the eastern leg of HS2 is all about the politics of a new trainline running through Tory seats in midlands without new stations. They’ve clearly been scarred by the first leg from London- Birmingham https://twitter.com/AnushkaAsthana/status/1461331841714167808
There is a “Midlands Engine” prospectus for new transport infrastructure which I presume will also never see the light of day.
There was nothing stopping Boris also funding that if he wanted to bribe those Tory seats.
No, Boris (and the country) has been fucked by Treasury and the Transport Ministry.
I’ll say it again, ex-London and the SE, U.K. economic performance is being overtaken by former Warsaw Pact countries.
My advice to young people living in the North is to move to London. Or perhaps better, just emigrate. This country doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to let you prosper.
Why can't a 'larger than life' PM with a landslide majority won substantially off the back of his own persona stand up to the Treasury?
Because he's never stood up to anyone in his life. He's always had someone to do the standing up for him. It was Gilligan for cycle lanes in London, Frost for Brexit, Cummings for various things, Bingham for vaccines.
It's clear he doesn't have anyone to drive through levelling-up, or infrastructure improvements, so it dies.
He's made the Gove appointment. I took that to be a sign of intent but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic there.
It's also a question whether he expects Mr Gove to succeed. And what the consequences might be for Mr Gove's career.
An interesting calculation - which now has to be redone.
Good point. Hates Gove because of what happened in the 2016 leadership contest and is dishing out a slow brutal retribution, putting him in a series of shitty hard work jobs where he can't shine. Latest this one. Yep, makes sense.
The risk being that Gove might do him in one more time.
Final point on why we're all fucked by the Treasury's addiction to outdated models - they are unable to deal with the concept of making something where nothing previously existed. It's why we're in the slow lane for investment outside of a few specialist areas funded by the MoD budget (which the treasury has repeatedly tried to cut). If something is zero in a model it can't ever really amount to much more than that. We've failed to invest in the "zero" value places and "zero" value trade relationships because the treasury has deemed them unworthy by the models. It's a completely farcical way to run a country.
Today they have reasserted the dominance of this failed predictive model in the UK, we're all going to have to get used to it because Labour or Tory, the same wankers in the treasury pushing the same broken models will exist and the nation will be starved of any kind of investment beyond maintenance of what already exists and a few token bits here and there.
Fibre optic is the classic example of this, 20 years ago countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere were investing billions into fibre optic cabling despite the value of the internet and ecommerce being fairly low compared to where it is now. We had that opportunity but the same arseholes in the treasury blocked it because the multiplier on increasing the value of the internet was poor at the time. The bean counters can't see beyond their spreadsheets and the rubbish outputs they get from them. We're going to keep missing opportunities until someone goes in and sacks them all.
Electric vehicles another case in point. S Korea, a smaller economy, will have perhaps a quarter of the world market for battery manufacturing. One of their leading companies was an oil refiner until recently.
I keep banging on about renewables but it is an area where we should be leading the world. We can and should be developing and building our own wind turbines and battery storage facilities for use here and export. Be developing and building our own Hydrogen from seawater processing plants for use here and export. Using the expertise and natural resources we have to make ourselves relevant and self-sufficient.
But we aren't. Because investment is communism, and takes longer than the next election. So actually still being ahead in the polls is actually Better for Britain than a viable long-term future actually.
Hydrogen from water is a fools errand. Thermodynamic efficiency of electrolysis is appealing... So, unless you can do something interesting with catalysts.....
(Snip)
In most cases, I'd agree. However, where the source of renewable electricity is cheap and plentiful, yet the sink is far away, it may make sense. Like the JCB deal for green hydrogen from Australia.
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
No, don't like this post. It is Bad News that it is not going down. We need to drop the "oh aren't we/Boris marvellous for keeping our case numbers so low" nonsense. Our numbers have been a sustained dangerous high for several months and shows no signs of dissipating as we head into the danger period.
Sustained dangerous high? The vast majority of those cases are amongst children. Deaths are the important figure, and those remain far below the previous peaks.
Would be interesting to see regional polling (assuming this is national? dead link btw). Why should the average person in the south be annoyed about this, bigger picture issues for the country, for sure, but anger - such as it is - is surely more likely in the affected areas?
Not sure why the tweet is not available but if you look up yougov they do have regional figures
Thanks. Tweet deleted maybe, can't see anything in their feed.
TLDR: North more against (cancellation), under 50s against cancellation, over 65s pro cancellation; Con and Leave pro cancellation; no Con and remain anti cancellation
It’s very clear from listening to the prime minister that the rethink of the eastern leg of HS2 is all about the politics of a new trainline running through Tory seats in midlands without new stations. They’ve clearly been scarred by the first leg from London- Birmingham https://twitter.com/AnushkaAsthana/status/1461331841714167808
There is a “Midlands Engine” prospectus for new transport infrastructure which I presume will also never see the light of day.
There was nothing stopping Boris also funding that if he wanted to bribe those Tory seats.
No, Boris (and the country) has been fucked by Treasury and the Transport Ministry.
I’ll say it again, ex-London and the SE, U.K. economic performance is being overtaken by former Warsaw Pact countries.
My advice to young people living in the North is to move to London. Or perhaps better, just emigrate. This country doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to let you prosper.
Why can't a 'larger than life' PM with a landslide majority won substantially off the back of his own persona stand up to the Treasury?
Because he's never stood up to anyone in his life. He's always had someone to do the standing up for him. It was Gilligan for cycle lanes in London, Frost for Brexit, Cummings for various things, Bingham for vaccines.
It's clear he doesn't have anyone to drive through levelling-up, or infrastructure improvements, so it dies.
He's made the Gove appointment. I took that to be a sign of intent but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic there.
Yes, Gove has had a reputation of being able to drive change through (at Education) and of being able to form his own view (at Environment) that might surprise people in being not completely wrong all the time. So appeared to be a sign of serious intent.
Clear now that Johnson doesn't forgive him for 2016, and Gove is now in charge of a zombie department.
Yep, pettiness is a big driver with Johnson. I think that's right and it explains this.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
It’s very clear from listening to the prime minister that the rethink of the eastern leg of HS2 is all about the politics of a new trainline running through Tory seats in midlands without new stations. They’ve clearly been scarred by the first leg from London- Birmingham https://twitter.com/AnushkaAsthana/status/1461331841714167808
There is a “Midlands Engine” prospectus for new transport infrastructure which I presume will also never see the light of day.
There was nothing stopping Boris also funding that if he wanted to bribe those Tory seats.
No, Boris (and the country) has been fucked by Treasury and the Transport Ministry.
I’ll say it again, ex-London and the SE, U.K. economic performance is being overtaken by former Warsaw Pact countries.
My advice to young people living in the North is to move to London. Or perhaps better, just emigrate. This country doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to let you prosper.
Why can't a 'larger than life' PM with a landslide majority won substantially off the back of his own persona stand up to the Treasury?
Because he's never stood up to anyone in his life. He's always had someone to do the standing up for him. It was Gilligan for cycle lanes in London, Frost for Brexit, Cummings for various things, Bingham for vaccines.
It's clear he doesn't have anyone to drive through levelling-up, or infrastructure improvements, so it dies.
He's made the Gove appointment. I took that to be a sign of intent but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic there.
It's also a question whether he expects Mr Gove to succeed. And what the consequences might be for Mr Gove's career.
An interesting calculation - which now has to be redone.
Good point. Hates Gove because of what happened in the 2016 leadership contest and is dishing out a slow brutal retribution, putting him in a series of shitty hard work jobs where he can't shine. Latest this one. Yep, makes sense.
The risk being that Gove might do him in one more time.
Doesn't matter if there is already a queue forming, does it? If.
No, don't like this post. It is Bad News that it is not going down. We need to drop the "oh aren't we/Boris marvellous for keeping our case numbers so low" nonsense. Our numbers have been a sustained dangerous high for several months and shows no signs of dissipating as we head into the danger period.
You've been sharing this hyperventilating bullshit for months now. Still no danger.
The numbers are perfectly fine. Most don't get sick from these cases, some people do get sick, we live with that. Get over it already.
There is a serious point there - I've considered voting YP in the past, but when I looked into the local council candidates a few years back they seemed to include "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Things may have changed. The YP will need to get their act together if they want to become a serious force.
It'll be interesting to see how it works out for David.
My dad voted for them at GE19.
I don't wish to impugn his character
Parl candidate presumably better checked - I can understand oddities getting candidature for council positions (happens for the main parties too, as we've seen!)
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
No it doesn't, but it is unfortunate for the cause that he has some skeletons in the closet. It's not like Rosa Parks was the first person to protest on a bus, but others were not in the right time or place, or were not the right fit for some reason.
Had this come to light back when the story was not garnering much national attention it might have stopped it in its tracks. As it is there is enough corroboration and testimony and initial actions that hopefully momentum is on the side of taking effective action.
Edit: There is one potentially relevant part of it though, as his saying he checked his account suggests to me that he had completely forgotten it had happened, which I can believe, but he was pretty critical of people not seeing/remembering things.
Becoming apparent what the plan really was. Make enough bullshit promises about Brexit opportunities and levelling up to win a majority. Use this to enrich further yourself and your already wealthy mates. In this sense, the pandemic has been a Godsend. Loads more juicy contracts and appointments to trough, and 18 months where everyone was too blindsided to notice. They'll probably get away with it too.
Yes, the pandemic was brilliant for Johnson. Cover for all sorts.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
Absolutely. He has done a valuable thing in exposing racism in cricket. However, it does open a question as to whether he was as much a part of the toxic culture as people he complains about.
Letter to Boris Johnson from 30 northern leaders (incl. one Tory, Bolton's Martyn Cox): "Your decision, contrary to your ambition to “level-up” the North, runs the risk of holding back our regional economies & compromising our plans to cut carbon emissions, just days after COP26" https://twitter.com/helenpidd/status/1461366060691570699/photo/1
It makes him as bad* as those he has been accusing. But it doesn't do anything to reduce the seriousness of his allegations against YCCC.
*historically, at least and maybe not as bad - maybe better, maybe worse - depends how you rate different levels of bigotry, not sure it's that important to come to a conclusion on that
It seemed to persuade Big G though, so that’s another election Boris will be able to rely on a vote in Panty y Coed.
I am content with today's announcement no matter how much sniping I receive
Of course you are, that’s my point.
As we see in the poll breakdown, these measures so have support from the grasping elderly, who are voting - perhaps rationally - to maintain the country in stagnation.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Sure, but isn't this whole story about what people did years ago?
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Indeed. It doesn't detract from what has been said and can't be unsaid at Headingley, Chelmsford, Taunton, ...
It seemed to persuade Big G though, so that’s another election Boris will be able to rely on a vote in Panty y Coed.
I am content with today's announcement no matter how much sniping I receive
Anything to ensure money is spent on your usually triple-locked pension and NHS...
I am sure you are aware that the NHS here in Wales is the responsibility of Drakeford and Welsh Labour and it has been announced in the last half an hour of it's worst ever performance
The pension rise is 3.1% in 22 and not triple locked
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Sure, but isn't this whole story about what people did years ago?
No, the Rafiq stuff is about now.
You've got people in charge at Yorkshire right now who think using Zimbo for Zimbabwe is racist and worth of disciplinary action but calling someone a Paki isn't.
It makes him as bad* as those he has been accusing. But it doesn't do anything to reduce the seriousness of his allegations against YCCC.
*historically, at least and maybe not as bad - maybe better, maybe worse - depends how you rate different levels of bigotry, not sure it's that important to come to a conclusion on that
He was an 18-19 year old in a laddish culture. Just a good thing Spurs didn't play against Barnsley often.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Sure, but isn't this whole story about what people did years ago?
No, the Rafiq stuff is about now.
You've got people in charge at Yorkshire right now who think using Zimbo for Zimbabwe is racist and worth of disciplinary action but calling someone a Paki isn't.
Thanks, I was focusing too much on the Vaughn aspect.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
Absolutely. He has done a valuable thing in exposing racism in cricket. However, it does open a question as to whether he was as much a part of the toxic culture as people he complains about.
It provides evidence for the assertion once often made by @SeanT, late of this parish, that racism is a natural and inevitable part of the human condition, against which struggle is vain and futile.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
Absolutely. He has done a valuable thing in exposing racism in cricket. However, it does open a question as to whether he was as much a part of the toxic culture as people he complains about.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
Absolutely. He has done a valuable thing in exposing racism in cricket. However, it does open a question as to whether he was as much a part of the toxic culture as people he complains about.
Sub optimal tactics here. If you are going on this sort of campaign and you know perfectly well there is stuff in the public domain that shows meaningful inconsistency (and all younger people know what social media is about, and how it will be tracked) then you say so during your opening shots and before the press gets hold of it first. The golden rule is 'Thou shalt not be found out'. If you find yourself out first and say so, it softens the whole thing.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
Absolutely. He has done a valuable thing in exposing racism in cricket. However, it does open a question as to whether he was as much a part of the toxic culture as people he complains about.
There are plenty of historical examples of people/groups complaining about racism real, actual racism and being racist themselves.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
No, but it is revealing. Ollie Robinson was pilloried for similar. Don't forget Rafiq's relationship with Ballance too.
I'm not defending racists, but people in glass houses...
Final point on why we're all fucked by the Treasury's addiction to outdated models - they are unable to deal with the concept of making something where nothing previously existed. It's why we're in the slow lane for investment outside of a few specialist areas funded by the MoD budget (which the treasury has repeatedly tried to cut). If something is zero in a model it can't ever really amount to much more than that. We've failed to invest in the "zero" value places and "zero" value trade relationships because the treasury has deemed them unworthy by the models. It's a completely farcical way to run a country.
Today they have reasserted the dominance of this failed predictive model in the UK, we're all going to have to get used to it because Labour or Tory, the same wankers in the treasury pushing the same broken models will exist and the nation will be starved of any kind of investment beyond maintenance of what already exists and a few token bits here and there.
Fibre optic is the classic example of this, 20 years ago countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere were investing billions into fibre optic cabling despite the value of the internet and ecommerce being fairly low compared to where it is now. We had that opportunity but the same arseholes in the treasury blocked it because the multiplier on increasing the value of the internet was poor at the time. The bean counters can't see beyond their spreadsheets and the rubbish outputs they get from them. We're going to keep missing opportunities until someone goes in and sacks them all.
Electric vehicles another case in point. S Korea, a smaller economy, will have perhaps a quarter of the world market for battery manufacturing. One of their leading companies was an oil refiner until recently.
I keep banging on about renewables but it is an area where we should be leading the world. We can and should be developing and building our own wind turbines and battery storage facilities for use here and export. Be developing and building our own Hydrogen from seawater processing plants for use here and export. Using the expertise and natural resources we have to make ourselves relevant and self-sufficient.
But we aren't. Because investment is communism, and takes longer than the next election. So actually still being ahead in the polls is actually Better for Britain than a viable long-term future actually.
Hydrogen from water is a fools errand. Thermodynamic efficiency of electrolysis is appealing... So, unless you can do something interesting with catalysts.....
(Snip)
In most cases, I'd agree. However, where the source of renewable electricity is cheap and plentiful, yet the sink is far away, it may make sense. Like the JCB deal for green hydrogen from Australia.
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
Long distance HVDC interconnect a better one. Morocco/UK is nothing; Chile is proposing a trans Pacific cable to Asia.
That's with current technology. Economic large scale electrolysis needs further technical development, though it's getting closer.
It seemed to persuade Big G though, so that’s another election Boris will be able to rely on a vote in Panty y Coed.
I am content with today's announcement no matter how much sniping I receive
Anything to ensure money is spent on your usually triple-locked pension and NHS...
I am sure you are aware that the NHS here in Wales is the responsibility of Drakeford and Welsh Labour and it has been announced in the last half an hour of it's worst ever performance
The pension rise is 3.1% in 22 and not triple locked
Why do you think I included the word "usually" - as for the NHS even in Wales it's still 100% paid for by tax payers money...
My dad did lots of work on sewage farms. Tomato plants were everywhere for this reason.
As far as I know he was never brave enough to pick any ...
As I may have mentioned my dad fought in the Korean War. Though he didn’t talk that much abut it, one thing he did say was that the whole country smelled of shit. Human excrement was the main fertiliser and it being a largely agricultural country, the reek was pervasive. Bully beef and tinned jam all round..
I lived in Vienna for a while and that's an abiding memory I have from there, the smell of shit. Horses the source in this case, which they have a lot of, trotting around the place, but still not a great aroma, especially after a while.
But anyway, enough of the crap anecdotes.
Just been reading about Victorian cities. The shite dried and was pulverised by the wheels so there were clouds of the dust blowing around for people to breathe and into houses to permeate the carpets and contaminate the food.
Thankfully not quite that bad in Vienna. They did shovel it up fairly frequently. It is a vivid memory though. After work, super cold, huddled in a heavy coat, standing at a stall in the grand central square, slugging schnapps and eating a big sausage, the smell of horse poo all around, wondering wtf I was doing there.
Had a bit of a game at the walk-in vaccination centre today.
I took my 16 year old for her second vaccination and they sat her down, took her details, and on discovering her age said she wasn't eligible.
The nurse pulled her supervisor over (he was wearing NHS clothing) and he started spouting the rules that second jabs only allowed for vulnerable 16/17 year olds unless within three months of 18th bday. I pointed out that he was quoting the old rules which changed on Monday and that the new rules were affective immediately.
He hadn't a clue what I was talking about - Googled a bit and obviously found something and said "well we haven't been informed - come back after next Tuesday (??) our indemnity won't' cover etc etc ...".
So my daughter, who I had taken out of school to attend, rolled her sleeve back up and they cracked on with my booster jab instead.
On standing up to leave the supervisor motioned for us to sit down while he made a call and then back-tracked and gave her the jab.
Amazing that I knew more about vaccine eligibility than the staff in the vaccination centre.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
He can do what he likes, I don't care. It makes him look a bit of a prick though; sanctimonious and pious about how the likes of Joe Root are so used to casual racism that they don't remember hearing it in nightclubs, then found to be an anti-semite himself
There was an article in The Times which had those sort of figures.
I don't doubt the number, rather the claim that every single one of them was completely false.
Pretty much were, just remember Boris Johnson's speech outside No 10 when he became PM and compare with today.
On the HS2 stuff he is lying so much you can smell the bullshit in Chile.
That's why I'd like to see it fact checked, with each statement shown to have been false. I think that would be a pretty powerful thing for the opposition to show.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
No, but it is revealing. Ollie Robinson was pilloried for similar. Don't forget Rafiq's relationship with Ballance too.
I'm not defending racists, but people in glass houses...
At least
1) he didn't delete it quietly 2) stood up and immediately said that he was responsible 3) gave a proper sincere apology and removed it.
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
No, but it is revealing. Ollie Robinson was pilloried for similar. Don't forget Rafiq's relationship with Ballance too.
I'm not defending racists, but people in glass houses...
At least
1) he didn't delete it quietly 2) stood up and immediately said that he was responsible 3) gave a proper sincere apology and removed it.
Why delete it/remove it? It benefits him rather than anyone else
Final point on why we're all fucked by the Treasury's addiction to outdated models - they are unable to deal with the concept of making something where nothing previously existed. It's why we're in the slow lane for investment outside of a few specialist areas funded by the MoD budget (which the treasury has repeatedly tried to cut). If something is zero in a model it can't ever really amount to much more than that. We've failed to invest in the "zero" value places and "zero" value trade relationships because the treasury has deemed them unworthy by the models. It's a completely farcical way to run a country.
Today they have reasserted the dominance of this failed predictive model in the UK, we're all going to have to get used to it because Labour or Tory, the same wankers in the treasury pushing the same broken models will exist and the nation will be starved of any kind of investment beyond maintenance of what already exists and a few token bits here and there.
Fibre optic is the classic example of this, 20 years ago countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere were investing billions into fibre optic cabling despite the value of the internet and ecommerce being fairly low compared to where it is now. We had that opportunity but the same arseholes in the treasury blocked it because the multiplier on increasing the value of the internet was poor at the time. The bean counters can't see beyond their spreadsheets and the rubbish outputs they get from them. We're going to keep missing opportunities until someone goes in and sacks them all.
Electric vehicles another case in point. S Korea, a smaller economy, will have perhaps a quarter of the world market for battery manufacturing. One of their leading companies was an oil refiner until recently.
I keep banging on about renewables but it is an area where we should be leading the world. We can and should be developing and building our own wind turbines and battery storage facilities for use here and export. Be developing and building our own Hydrogen from seawater processing plants for use here and export. Using the expertise and natural resources we have to make ourselves relevant and self-sufficient.
But we aren't. Because investment is communism, and takes longer than the next election. So actually still being ahead in the polls is actually Better for Britain than a viable long-term future actually.
Hydrogen from water is a fools errand. Thermodynamic efficiency of electrolysis is appealing... So, unless you can do something interesting with catalysts.....
(Snip)
In most cases, I'd agree. However, where the source of renewable electricity is cheap and plentiful, yet the sink is far away, it may make sense. Like the JCB deal for green hydrogen from Australia.
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
Long distance HVDC interconnect a better one. Morocco/UK is nothing; Chile is proposing a trans Pacific cable to Asia.
It'd be interesting to see the viability of a HVDC link from Oz to Asia, yet alone the UK ...
(As it happens, much of Asia has a great deal of renewable electricity potential of their own. Oz needs other markets long-term.)
Rafiq posting a couple of stupid things as a teenager does not excuse the institutional racism of YCCC done by adults against the same teenager and later as a man.
No, but it is revealing. Ollie Robinson was pilloried for similar. Don't forget Rafiq's relationship with Ballance too.
I'm not defending racists, but people in glass houses...
At least
1) he didn't delete it quietly 2) stood up and immediately said that he was responsible 3) gave a proper sincere apology and removed it.
Well he had no option given the evidence provided. Easy to deny something if you are relying in hearsay alone, as we have seen already.
Had a bit of a game at the walk-in vaccination centre today.
I took my 16 year old for her second vaccination and they sat her down, took her details, and on discovering her age said she wasn't eligible.
The nurse pulled her supervisor over (he was wearing NHS clothing) and he started spouting the rules that second jabs only allowed for vulnerable 16/17 year olds unless within three months of 18th bday. I pointed out that he was quoting the old rules which changed on Monday and that the new rules were affective immediately.
He hadn't a clue what I was talking about - Googled a bit and obviously found something and said "well we haven't been informed - come back after next Tuesday (??) our indemnity won't' cover etc etc ...".
So my daughter, who I had taken out of school to attend, rolled her sleeve back up and they cracked on with my booster jab instead.
On standing up to leave the supervisor motioned for us to sit down while he made a call and then back-tracked and gave her the jab.
Amazing that I knew more about vaccine eligibility than the staff in the vaccination centre.
Not really - I find that after 30 seconds of targeted research I'm usually more aware of the rules than the person I'm talking to.
It seemed to persuade Big G though, so that’s another election Boris will be able to rely on a vote in Panty y Coed.
I am content with today's announcement no matter how much sniping I receive
Anything to ensure money is spent on your usually triple-locked pension and NHS...
I am sure you are aware that the NHS here in Wales is the responsibility of Drakeford and Welsh Labour and it has been announced in the last half an hour of it's worst ever performance
The pension rise is 3.1% in 22 and not triple locked
Have you thought about moving to England to reacquaint yourself with a perfect service?
Final point on why we're all fucked by the Treasury's addiction to outdated models - they are unable to deal with the concept of making something where nothing previously existed. It's why we're in the slow lane for investment outside of a few specialist areas funded by the MoD budget (which the treasury has repeatedly tried to cut). If something is zero in a model it can't ever really amount to much more than that. We've failed to invest in the "zero" value places and "zero" value trade relationships because the treasury has deemed them unworthy by the models. It's a completely farcical way to run a country.
Today they have reasserted the dominance of this failed predictive model in the UK, we're all going to have to get used to it because Labour or Tory, the same wankers in the treasury pushing the same broken models will exist and the nation will be starved of any kind of investment beyond maintenance of what already exists and a few token bits here and there.
Fibre optic is the classic example of this, 20 years ago countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere were investing billions into fibre optic cabling despite the value of the internet and ecommerce being fairly low compared to where it is now. We had that opportunity but the same arseholes in the treasury blocked it because the multiplier on increasing the value of the internet was poor at the time. The bean counters can't see beyond their spreadsheets and the rubbish outputs they get from them. We're going to keep missing opportunities until someone goes in and sacks them all.
Electric vehicles another case in point. S Korea, a smaller economy, will have perhaps a quarter of the world market for battery manufacturing. One of their leading companies was an oil refiner until recently.
I keep banging on about renewables but it is an area where we should be leading the world. We can and should be developing and building our own wind turbines and battery storage facilities for use here and export. Be developing and building our own Hydrogen from seawater processing plants for use here and export. Using the expertise and natural resources we have to make ourselves relevant and self-sufficient.
But we aren't. Because investment is communism, and takes longer than the next election. So actually still being ahead in the polls is actually Better for Britain than a viable long-term future actually.
Hydrogen from water is a fools errand. Thermodynamic efficiency of electrolysis is appealing... So, unless you can do something interesting with catalysts.....
(Snip)
In most cases, I'd agree. However, where the source of renewable electricity is cheap and plentiful, yet the sink is far away, it may make sense. Like the JCB deal for green hydrogen from Australia.
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
Long distance HVDC interconnect a better one. Morocco/UK is nothing; Chile is proposing a trans Pacific cable to Asia.
That's with current technology. Economic large scale electrolysis needs further technical development, though it's getting closer.
The numbers suggest some strange alternatives - at the current rate of fall in the cost of batteries we might not be far off the idea of electricity tankers. Vehicles (maybe even ships) whose job it is transport power.
It makes him as bad* as those he has been accusing. But it doesn't do anything to reduce the seriousness of his allegations against YCCC.
*historically, at least and maybe not as bad - maybe better, maybe worse - depends how you rate different levels of bigotry, not sure it's that important to come to a conclusion on that
He was an 18-19 year old in a laddish culture. Just a good thing Spurs didn't play against Barnsley often.
Yep, I worded my comment a bit clumsily. What I mean is that even if he was as bad as the people he has been accusing, his allegations are just as serious as they were before this came out.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Sure, but isn't this whole story about what people did years ago?
No, its about what people did a few weeks ago.
It was the YCCC refusing to take action against anyone today and calling it 'banter' rather than having serious apologies etc that led to this blowing up.
No, he has confirmed it is, and is ashamed of his behaviour. What more do you want him to do?
A good apology too.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
Sure, but isn't this whole story about what people did years ago?
No, its about what people did a few weeks ago.
It was the YCCC refusing to take action against anyone today and calling it 'banter' rather than having serious apologies etc that led to this blowing up.
Sorry about that. As mentioned above, I was focusing too much on the Vaughn aspect and not the wider story.
Final point on why we're all fucked by the Treasury's addiction to outdated models - they are unable to deal with the concept of making something where nothing previously existed. It's why we're in the slow lane for investment outside of a few specialist areas funded by the MoD budget (which the treasury has repeatedly tried to cut). If something is zero in a model it can't ever really amount to much more than that. We've failed to invest in the "zero" value places and "zero" value trade relationships because the treasury has deemed them unworthy by the models. It's a completely farcical way to run a country.
Today they have reasserted the dominance of this failed predictive model in the UK, we're all going to have to get used to it because Labour or Tory, the same wankers in the treasury pushing the same broken models will exist and the nation will be starved of any kind of investment beyond maintenance of what already exists and a few token bits here and there.
Fibre optic is the classic example of this, 20 years ago countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere were investing billions into fibre optic cabling despite the value of the internet and ecommerce being fairly low compared to where it is now. We had that opportunity but the same arseholes in the treasury blocked it because the multiplier on increasing the value of the internet was poor at the time. The bean counters can't see beyond their spreadsheets and the rubbish outputs they get from them. We're going to keep missing opportunities until someone goes in and sacks them all.
Electric vehicles another case in point. S Korea, a smaller economy, will have perhaps a quarter of the world market for battery manufacturing. One of their leading companies was an oil refiner until recently.
I keep banging on about renewables but it is an area where we should be leading the world. We can and should be developing and building our own wind turbines and battery storage facilities for use here and export. Be developing and building our own Hydrogen from seawater processing plants for use here and export. Using the expertise and natural resources we have to make ourselves relevant and self-sufficient.
But we aren't. Because investment is communism, and takes longer than the next election. So actually still being ahead in the polls is actually Better for Britain than a viable long-term future actually.
Hydrogen from water is a fools errand. Thermodynamic efficiency of electrolysis is appealing... So, unless you can do something interesting with catalysts.....
(Snip)
In most cases, I'd agree. However, where the source of renewable electricity is cheap and plentiful, yet the sink is far away, it may make sense. Like the JCB deal for green hydrogen from Australia.
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
Long distance HVDC interconnect a better one. Morocco/UK is nothing; Chile is proposing a trans Pacific cable to Asia.
It'd be interesting to see the viability of a HVDC link from Oz to Asia, yet alone the UK ...
(As it happens, much of Asia has a great deal of renewable electricity potential of their own. Oz needs other markets long-term.)
"We're doubling capacity between Manchester and Leeds". That is a patent lie. As there is no new line between Leeds and Manchester what they are building spews its high speed trains onto the existing network. As I keep pointing out, when you try and run faster trains on the existing network you reduce capacity.
They are currently already committed to (and have started) an upgrade between Huddersfield and Dewsbury. That plus continuing the wires on the existing line will be it until 2042 when the new high speed line across the Pennines opens. Not a doubling of capacity.
"We're tripling capacity between Liverpool and Manchester". With a line that utilises the existing run out of Lime Street to Liverpool South Parkway. So thats bollox as well.
"There are going to be people who want everything at once". Thats OK. Because instead of giving people HS2 in full and NPR by 2043, instead we are Speeding Up by offering much less by 2043.
Comments
Deaths at 199 minus 9.8%
Admissions at 799 minus 2.9%
My daughter, her husband and 12 year old son all tested positive this week, are in isolation but working from home
Not feeling great but the vaccines doing the job and possibly keeping them out of hospital
But someone here had a wager on the amount of times Billion/s was stated and it came to about 50 I think.
I trust Rishi spent it wisely
https://twitter.com/simon_reeve/status/1461343749749891077?s=21
To the extent that Rishi is spending it is to maintain the comfort of the Tory’s elderly base, and to keep the NHS from collapsing.
That’s it.
(Another reason why Philip “two cars for every household; one motorway for every village” is probably wrong).
I suspect we're both getting a bit bored by this now.
I'm taking a screen-break.
1,000+ deaths a week is not minor.
Take care y'all.
They don't have a candidate for the N Yorks PCC, interestingly. I know no one cares about that, but still...
The reality: Mersey metro mayor Steve Rotheram on the govt’s “offer” of a new Liverpool rail station….if Liverpool pays for it
"My wife says I can have a Lamborghini if I pay for it"
https://twitter.com/Rob_Merrick/status/1461369210752413698
https://twitter.com/eliorlevy/status/1461366522308354048
In Oz, you could build massive solar and wind power plants, far in excess of national consumption. Hydrogen - despite its transportation difficulties - is an interesting way of exporting that power thousands of miles to customers.
NHS Wales worst performance and under unsustainable pressure
I was listening to Nicky Campbell on R5L this morning (and earlier in the week) whilst driving. He was almost raising Rafiq to sainthood.
Yep, and it looks as though they're genuine: he's apologised.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/azeem-rafiq-apologises-for-antisemitic-text-messages-87snclgr5
Anyway, here's the web link for those interested:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2021/11/18/98559/1
TLDR: North more against (cancellation), under 50s against cancellation, over 65s pro cancellation; Con and Leave pro cancellation; no Con and remain anti cancellation
More next @SkyNews https://twitter.com/skysarahjane/status/1461370951422066690/photo/1
The numbers are perfectly fine. Most don't get sick from these cases, some people do get sick, we live with that. Get over it already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDRrl1pq3I
Parl candidate presumably better checked - I can understand oddities getting candidature for council positions (happens for the main parties too, as we've seen!)
What Labour needs to do is focus on the broken promises and repeat them until they are remembered.
https://twitter.com/lisanandy/status/1461372213182054411
https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1461336742913527814
Had this come to light back when the story was not garnering much national attention it might have stopped it in its tracks. As it is there is enough corroboration and testimony and initial actions that hopefully momentum is on the side of taking effective action.
Edit: There is one potentially relevant part of it though, as his saying he checked his account suggests to me that he had completely forgotten it had happened, which I can believe, but he was pretty critical of people not seeing/remembering things.
*historically, at least and maybe not as bad - maybe better, maybe worse - depends how you rate different levels of bigotry, not sure it's that important to come to a conclusion on that
As we see in the poll breakdown, these measures so have support from the grasping elderly, who are voting - perhaps rationally - to maintain the country in stagnation.
There's a difference between bad remarks made by people years ago that they apologise for when brought up - and doing racist stuff today and covering it up when people complain.
The pension rise is 3.1% in 22 and not triple locked
You've got people in charge at Yorkshire right now who think using Zimbo for Zimbabwe is racist and worth of disciplinary action but calling someone a Paki isn't.
I'd prefer to think that wasn't true.
On the HS2 stuff he is lying so much you can smell the bullshit in Chile.
I'm not defending racists, but people in glass houses...
Morocco/UK is nothing; Chile is proposing a trans Pacific cable to Asia.
That's with current technology.
Economic large scale electrolysis needs further technical development, though it's getting closer.
I took my 16 year old for her second vaccination and they sat her down, took her details, and on discovering her age said she wasn't eligible.
The nurse pulled her supervisor over (he was wearing NHS clothing) and he started spouting the rules that second jabs only allowed for vulnerable 16/17 year olds unless within three months of 18th bday. I pointed out that he was quoting the old rules which changed on Monday and that the new rules were affective immediately.
He hadn't a clue what I was talking about - Googled a bit and obviously found something and said "well we haven't been informed - come back after next Tuesday (??) our indemnity won't' cover etc etc ...".
So my daughter, who I had taken out of school to attend, rolled her sleeve back up and they cracked on with my booster jab instead.
On standing up to leave the supervisor motioned for us to sit down while he made a call and then back-tracked and gave her the jab.
Amazing that I knew more about vaccine eligibility than the staff in the vaccination centre.
1) he didn't delete it quietly
2) stood up and immediately said that he was responsible
3) gave a proper sincere apology and removed it.
(As it happens, much of Asia has a great deal of renewable electricity potential of their own. Oz needs other markets long-term.)
Am I missing something?
It was the YCCC refusing to take action against anyone today and calling it 'banter' rather than having serious apologies etc that led to this blowing up.
They are currently already committed to (and have started) an upgrade between Huddersfield and Dewsbury. That plus continuing the wires on the existing line will be it until 2042 when the new high speed line across the Pennines opens. Not a doubling of capacity.
"We're tripling capacity between Liverpool and Manchester". With a line that utilises the existing run out of Lime Street to Liverpool South Parkway. So thats bollox as well.
"There are going to be people who want everything at once". Thats OK. Because instead of giving people HS2 in full and NPR by 2043, instead we are Speeding Up by offering much less by 2043.
Wazzock.