Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
Interesting. I read it and enjoyed it although I don't think there was anything especially earth-shattering in in for anyone who'd spent any time thinking about these things. There's actually a term for white people who can't read books about racism because they get so defensive (white fragility). But you probably don't want to know that! 😉
That very phrase is attributing characteristics based on race.
Biden if he does not run again because of age will probably leave it until the last moment, ie mid to late 2023, to make such an announcement. If he makes that announcement too early he risks becoming a lame duck.
Harris generally polls even worse than Biden so I doubt would get the nomination even if she ran. AOC will likely run as the candidate of the Democratic woke and populist left, Sanders is too old to run again too, however if she got it the GOP would likely win a landslide victory outside of the inner cities and university towns.
So the Democrats best bet is a younger more centrist candidate like Buttigieg, the Transport Secretary, who did well in 2020 when he won the Iowa caucus. We also went to a talk in Oxford last week by Joseph Kennedy III who is similar to Buttigieg ideologically and could be an outside bet if he runs for and wins the Massachusetts governorship next year. Same goes for Beto O'Rourke in the unlikely event he manages to win the governorship in conservative Texas next year he has announced he is running for.
Surely any Governor newly-elected in 2023 is unlikely to start campaigning for the presidency in the same year?
Don't think that would stop them! O'Rourke would have huge momentum if he'd just flipped Texas.
Sure. But (1) the Democrats are likely to get a hammering in 2022 and Texas's demographics aren't changing that quickly to overcome that, and (2) if he had just flipped Texas against its history, he really ought to be embedding himself there rather than galivanting off campaigning for the presidency with the significant risk that he'd fall flat in the next campaign for both offices. If he does have a design on the White House, he ought to look to 2028.
President of the US is a much more important job than Governor of Texas. Also Texas will have 40 electoral votes, more than WI, MI and AZ combined. So in the event that the Dems discovered they had someone who had what it takes to win TX in a grim mid-term year, they should definitely make that person the nominee.
This is an unlikely counterfactual though, because of your point (1).
GA is a more likely place to get a promising new Dem governor, firstly because the demographics are better, secondly because half the GOP hates their own incumbent, and thirdly because Abrams is a better politician than O'Rourke.
Abrams is not even quoted on Betfair which means no-one betting on WH2024 has been bothered to ask Betfair to add her to the list. I'd be inclined to wait for news she (or anyone else) is actually running.
Biden if he does not run again because of age will probably leave it until the last moment, ie mid to late 2023, to make such an announcement. If he makes that announcement too early he risks becoming a lame duck.
Harris generally polls even worse than Biden so I doubt would get the nomination even if she ran. AOC will likely run as the candidate of the Democratic woke and populist left, Sanders is too old to run again too, however if she got it the GOP would likely win a landslide victory outside of the inner cities and university towns.
So the Democrats best bet is a younger more centrist candidate like Buttigieg, the Transport Secretary, who did well in 2020 when he won the Iowa caucus. We also went to a talk in Oxford last week by Joseph Kennedy III who is similar to Buttigieg ideologically and could be an outside bet if he runs for and wins the Massachusetts governorship next year. Same goes for Beto O'Rourke in the unlikely event he manages to win the governorship in conservative Texas next year he has announced he is running for.
Surely any Governor newly-elected in 2023 is unlikely to start campaigning for the presidency in the same year?
If Biden does not run again it may be the best chance to win the Presidency they ever get, they will run. By 2025 they would have been governor for nearly 3 years if elected, though they would then give it up if elected President.
Obama ran in 2008 having only been a Senator for 4 years, Cameron for Tory leader in 2005 having only been an MP for 4 years
Obama; quite a good example to follow. Cameron; not so much.
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
I've been rewatching The Last Kingdom and I've joked that Uhtred demonstrates "How To Make Enemies And Antagonize People" and that often seems to be the modus operandi of the Left.
Though you can also say the same of the Right, but it doesn't seem to hurt them as much.
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
Indeed.
"How hard can a website be? My 12 year old daughter can make one in 10 minutes...." etc etc
Mr. Z, normalising judging people based on their skin colour is repulsive. It's the textbook definition of racism.
The idea that bigotry's good if it's the 'right' kind is utterly despicable.
Mr. B, I've made a note of that link and will read it later, when I have the time.
There is no "judgment" involved in saying black people deserve a break, it isn't an assertion of their relative intrinsic worth but of the meaning of justice. And if white people hadn't treated non-white people the way they have we wouldn't need or be interested in the definition of racism.
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
I ran pressure groups for various products/industries based around their IT infrastructure. I was asked to run one for a group of very large retail companies. I was blown away by how good their IT people were, such that I wondered whether I could actually offer them anything. Manufacturing users seemed the worse and with them I struggled on getting them to understand what they needed to do.
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
The Lib Dems are disgusting. After trying to nefariously overturn a Democratic vote on Brexit, the most NIMBY party in existence now backs entrenched generational inequality in the tax system as well as giving grist to the antivaxxers mill. I'd probably vote Labour in the North Shropshire by-election.
Weren't you a LibDem council candidate back in 2017 ?
"Ms Price, headmistress of the prestigious, independent Benenden School in Kent, will tell her organisation's annual conference: "Adults comment that they feel today's teenagers are speaking a different language; that they can't say anything without being corrected or 'called out' by these PC children."
She says she is "weary of hearing the older generation say, 'you can't say anything any more'."
And she adds: "The fact is that times have changed, and we simply need to keep up with them."
So - the head of the head teachers association apparently no longer actually believes in free speech or indeed free enquiry any more, or indeed that childrens views should not actually even be challenged, according to this article by the BBC, which, appropriately enough, merely reports her views and does not even interrogate them.
It sounds more like the adults don’t like to be challenged
Isn’t the point of education to teach you how to think, rather than what to think?
Yes. It’s rather a good thing that the girls at Beneden are willing to challenge adults politely and respectfully
She assumes that all change is for the better. It isn't.
"Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you something to think about that you didn't make up yourself - a wise move at any age, but most especially at seventeen, when you are in the greatest danger of coming to annoying conclusions."
Fran Lebowitz
Not necessarily. She criticises adults who complain about being challenged by children. I think that’s a good thing. They are the future
"Ms Price, headmistress of the prestigious, independent Benenden School in Kent, will tell her organisation's annual conference: "Adults comment that they feel today's teenagers are speaking a different language; that they can't say anything without being corrected or 'called out' by these PC children."
She says she is "weary of hearing the older generation say, 'you can't say anything any more'."
And she adds: "The fact is that times have changed, and we simply need to keep up with them."
So - the head of the head teachers association apparently no longer actually believes in free speech or indeed free enquiry any more, or indeed that childrens views should not actually even be challenged, according to this article by the BBC, which, appropriately enough, merely reports her views and does not even interrogate them.
It sounds more like the adults don’t like to be challenged
Isn’t the point of education to teach you how to think, rather than what to think?
There is an important difference between what you think and using casual racism and bigotry to express it, all too often because people use words and phrases that were once commonplace without thought even although they are offensive to others. I will confess that I find some modern parlance, especially the pronouns, quite difficult but I have no desire to cause unnecessary offence and do my best. Its really a question of manners.
But this is not about using the right pronouns. It is convenient to think of it that way, but there is abundant evidence that it goes much further than that. Things like transgender rights and critical race theory need to be challenged, not just accepted uncritically as correct, as suggested by this headteacher. This is an attack on the whole idea of free enquiry. The alarming thing is that people in positions of power and authority go along with it. If you place any value on freedom of thought, these ideas must be fought and stopped, not pandered to or even humoured.
The Lib Dems are disgusting. After trying to nefariously overturn a Democratic vote on Brexit, the most NIMBY party in existence now backs entrenched generational inequality in the tax system as well as giving grist to the antivaxxers mill. I'd probably vote Labour in the North Shropshire by-election.
Weren't you a LibDem council candidate back in 2017 ?
Things have moved on since then.
Yes and no. There are plenty of LibDem candidates who have made perfectly intelligent and sensible comments in the past about being willing to look at the issue of legalising soft drugs, who have found themselves on the receiving end of the most scurrilous campaigns, particularly from Labour.
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
I ran pressure groups for various products/industries based around their IT infrastructure. I was asked to run one for a group of very large retail companies. I was blown away by how good their IT people were, such that I wondered whether I could actually offer them anything. Manufacturing users seemed the worse and with them I struggled on getting them to understand what they needed to do.
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
Yep - for a lot of people IT just needs to work because without it the only option is to shut up shop until it's fixed.
The level of IT in Manufacturing depends what it's being used for bill of materials not so important - hit pharmaceuticals or any other industry with exact measurements and its a very different world (similar to retail).
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
I've been rewatching The Last Kingdom and I've joked that Uhtred demonstrates "How To Make Enemies And Antagonize People" and that often seems to be the modus operandi of the Left.
Though you can also say the same of the Right, but it doesn't seem to hurt them as much.
I'm with Mike on the Buttigieg tip (though at 50/1 rather than 66/1) but disagree on both Biden and Harris. I think he will want to stand again if he can. Possibly health or political concerns could put paid to that ambition but he's giving plenty of indications that that ambition is there. Mind you, even if it wasn't there, there are sound political reasons to give the impression of it.
As for Harris, I don't think she'd get a clear run even if she was already president - though that would depend very much on her approval ratings, which would no doubt get a honeymoon boost. To that extent, *when* Biden stood down (or vacated the office in some other, less controlled, way) is critical. If next year or early 2023, Harris has a horrible time with a Republican congress; if mid-2023, her honeymoon period will be fading come the primaries but would likely have been strong enough to put some off running when they would normally have been establishing campaigns; if late-2023, she probably walks it; if into 2024, then all hell breaks loose as the primaries are thrown into chaos - particularly if Biden has a major (maybe controlling) share of delegates built up.
But the last time a VP got promoted mid-term, in 1976, Ford very nearly lost the nomination to Reagan. If Harris is called on to do likewise in the next 18 months, I could well see a challenge to her running strongly.
In 1976 there were significant policy differences between Ford and Reagan.
Does that apply between Harris and any other possible Democrat ?
Interesting to see Amol Rajan described as “ambitious” in the Mail’s article about the Palace documentary.
Someone doesn’t want him to get Laura K’s gig
Is "ambitious" an insult now? Is it one of those words that upper middle class white people use to describe non upper middle class white people who don't know their place?
It can be - like “worthy”.
May be it’s just me but when you see a piece that is critical of the BBC documentary described as being written by “the ambitious Amol Rajan”… I don’t know… it’s probably factual but definitely has an edge to it.
I'm with Mike on the Buttigieg tip (though at 50/1 rather than 66/1) but disagree on both Biden and Harris. I think he will want to stand again if he can. Possibly health or political concerns could put paid to that ambition but he's giving plenty of indications that that ambition is there. Mind you, even if it wasn't there, there are sound political reasons to give the impression of it.
As for Harris, I don't think she'd get a clear run even if she was already president - though that would depend very much on her approval ratings, which would no doubt get a honeymoon boost. To that extent, *when* Biden stood down (or vacated the office in some other, less controlled, way) is critical. If next year or early 2023, Harris has a horrible time with a Republican congress; if mid-2023, her honeymoon period will be fading come the primaries but would likely have been strong enough to put some off running when they would normally have been establishing campaigns; if late-2023, she probably walks it; if into 2024, then all hell breaks loose as the primaries are thrown into chaos - particularly if Biden has a major (maybe controlling) share of delegates built up.
But the last time a VP got promoted mid-term, in 1976, Ford very nearly lost the nomination to Reagan. If Harris is called on to do likewise in the next 18 months, I could well see a challenge to her running strongly.
In 1976 there were significant policy differences between Ford and Reagan.
Does that apply between Harris and any other possible Democrat ?
In 1976 Ford lost to Carter having narrowly beaten Reagan for the GOP nomination.
Only in 1980 when Reagan finally won the GOP nomination were the GOP able to regain the White House and beat Carter.
That is not a good omen for the Democrats in 2024 if VP Harris does end up their nominee, perhaps after, like Ford, taking the Presidency midterm
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
It's "only" £3bn.
Personally, even as someone that has built simple websites, and been involved in more complex things, I still struggle to picture a team of 3,000 developers. 300 I can envisage. But logically the world's largest websites have many more, even than that.
Biden if he does not run again because of age will probably leave it until the last moment, ie mid to late 2023, to make such an announcement. If he makes that announcement too early he risks becoming a lame duck.
Harris generally polls even worse than Biden so I doubt would get the nomination even if she ran. AOC will likely run as the candidate of the Democratic woke and populist left, Sanders is too old to run again too, however if she got it the GOP would likely win a landslide victory outside of the inner cities and university towns.
So the Democrats best bet is a younger more centrist candidate like Buttigieg, the Transport Secretary, who did well in 2020 when he won the Iowa caucus. We also went to a talk in Oxford last week by Joseph Kennedy III who is similar to Buttigieg ideologically and could be an outside bet if he runs for and wins the Massachusetts governorship next year. Same goes for Beto O'Rourke in the unlikely event he manages to win the governorship in conservative Texas next year he has announced he is running for.
Surely any Governor newly-elected in 2023 is unlikely to start campaigning for the presidency in the same year?
Don't think that would stop them! O'Rourke would have huge momentum if he'd just flipped Texas.
Sure. But (1) the Democrats are likely to get a hammering in 2022 and Texas's demographics aren't changing that quickly to overcome that, and (2) if he had just flipped Texas against its history, he really ought to be embedding himself there rather than galivanting off campaigning for the presidency with the significant risk that he'd fall flat in the next campaign for both offices. If he does have a design on the White House, he ought to look to 2028.
President of the US is a much more important job than Governor of Texas. Also Texas will have 40 electoral votes, more than WI, MI and AZ combined. So in the event that the Dems discovered they had someone who had what it takes to win TX in a grim mid-term year, they should definitely make that person the nominee.
This is an unlikely counterfactual though, because of your point (1).
GA is a more likely place to get a promising new Dem governor, firstly because the demographics are better, secondly because half the GOP hates their own incumbent, and thirdly because Abrams is a better politician than O'Rourke.
Abrams is not even quoted on Betfair which means no-one betting on WH2024 has been bothered to ask Betfair to add her to the list. I'd be inclined to wait for news she (or anyone else) is actually running.
I mean, it's probably going to be Biden or Harris... She's a more plausible shot than maybe 2/3 of the names on the Betfair list though.
"Ms Price, headmistress of the prestigious, independent Benenden School in Kent, will tell her organisation's annual conference: "Adults comment that they feel today's teenagers are speaking a different language; that they can't say anything without being corrected or 'called out' by these PC children."
She says she is "weary of hearing the older generation say, 'you can't say anything any more'."
And she adds: "The fact is that times have changed, and we simply need to keep up with them."
So - the head of the head teachers association apparently no longer actually believes in free speech or indeed free enquiry any more, or indeed that childrens views should not actually even be challenged, according to this article by the BBC, which, appropriately enough, merely reports her views and does not even interrogate them.
It sounds more like the adults don’t like to be challenged
Isn’t the point of education to teach you how to think, rather than what to think?
There is an important difference between what you think and using casual racism and bigotry to express it, all too often because people use words and phrases that were once commonplace without thought even although they are offensive to others. I will confess that I find some modern parlance, especially the pronouns, quite difficult but I have no desire to cause unnecessary offence and do my best. Its really a question of manners.
But this is not about using the right pronouns. It is convenient to think of it that way, but there is abundant evidence that it goes much further than that. Things like transgender rights and critical race theory need to be challenged, not just accepted uncritically as correct, as suggested by this headteacher. This is an attack on the whole idea of free enquiry. The alarming thing is that people in positions of power and authority go along with it. If you place any value on freedom of thought, these ideas must be fought and stopped, not pandered to or even humoured.
"If you place any value on freedom of thought, these ideas must be fought and stopped"
You, ummm, don't seem to be following your own advice.
Surely they should be challenged and tested.
While I have been extremely critical of CRT on this board, I suspect there may well be elements of it that are not without merit.
When you come out and throw the whole of trangender and CRT in a single bucket, and say it must be 'fought and stopped' then aren't you behaving just as rashly?
I haven't ever come out 'against' transgender rights or CRT. These are things that need to be discussed and it is only possible to do this where there is an atmosphere of free enquiry, which this type of statement works directly against; because the headteacher is effectively saying that teenagers views on these contentious issues should not be challenged.
You don't know she says that at all.
Have you read the transcript of the speech? Or just the edited highlights from a 22 year old BBC reporter who just grabbed the tastiest lines to wrap a story around
Sorry for the delayed response. But I think it is important to.
Firstly, there is no transcript available, as far as I know, because the news article is reporting a speech that is yet to even be made. So, it has the hallmarks of a PR exercise, where highlights of the speech are released to the media for maximum impact. Even if the rest of the speech is more measured, which it probably is; it is clearly being peddled for a reason. It should be treated as a political statement.
The wording reported above and in the article- which will have been carefully thought out and signed off by the organisation - is quite inflammatory. She is not saying "schools should respect and engage with students views on contentious social issues". What she is effectively saying is that adults should follow the boundaries on speech that are set by children. The implication is, if children deem something to be racist or hateful, then it shouldn't be said or taught.
This is a new phenomenon that simply didn't exist until 2020. It would have been ridiculed by the same people who are now in full support of this thinking.
So if you keep saying to yourself you know lots of girls who passed through Benenden who are not like this, it means little: we are in year 2 of the revolution, and unless the adults in the room take back control, this type of thinking will simply ruin the whole education system.
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
Critical race theory surfaced in the early 80s. Eddo-Lodge was born in 1989, so I'm not sure what your point is ?
My point is a simple one.
Our goal - as a society and as individuals - should be such that everyone is judged based on their own character and abilities, not on their skin colour.
If people are being treated differently, then that is a problem. If organizations seem to treat black and white employees or customers or members of the public differently, then that is a problem. And I very much believe that there is instutionalised racism out there that needs to be confronted.
Now, do I believe that the average African-American faces more challenges than the average White American? Then the answer is yes.
But do I believe that Malia and Sasha Obama are more discriminated against, and likely to have worse life outcomes, than the white children of meth addicts in a poverty stricken town in West Virginia?
"Teesport is wonderful" says Bozo to an audience at Port of Tyne.
Could have been worse. Could have been mixing it up with somewhere in the South.
Still bucket of cold sick levels.
I remain convinced that he'll eventually leave office discredited, or even disgraced, and will come to be seen as one of the most inadequate PMs of all time.
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
'Integrating various systems' seems to me a bare minimum of what setting up a business is, by definition. If you want a ready made web portal/delivery system you buy a pre existing business or make a bid for Amazon.
Integrating various systems in such a way as to make, eventually, a profit is exactly the hard part of business, which is why most people aren't very good at it.
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
I've been rewatching The Last Kingdom and I've joked that Uhtred demonstrates "How To Make Enemies And Antagonize People" and that often seems to be the modus operandi of the Left.
Though you can also say the same of the Right, but it doesn't seem to hurt them as much.
left-right divide in this country is about 50-50, no?
On the subject of the US Presidential election, there's one other big story that's not being covered:
The fall out between Trump and DeSantis.
Trump wants DeSantis to rule out a 2024 run. DeSantis, on the other hand, is not yet willing to do so.
Now, I don't think DeSantis beats Trump in the event Trump runs. But I also think that DeSantis is correctly adjudging that he wants to be close to Trump... but not too close.
De Santis may not even be governor of Florida after next year given Charlie Crist beats him in some Florida governor polls if he gets the Democratic nomination
1. If he ran against Harris, he'd be crucified by the progressive wing. Yes, he is gay but, given he is a white male, running against a black woman can only go one way in today's Democrat party, especially as Harris is the sitting VP and shows no signs of stepping down (nor does her career suggest she would anyway, especially when she is so close to the Presidency);
People say this sort of thing a lot, and yet we have the recent example of the nomination race in 2020, and several white males lasted longer in that nomination contest than Harris, the black woman. It just isn't true.
Now it might be different when she's the VP running for nomination, but that would be because she's the VP, not because she's a black woman.
I think the VP part and the black woman part go together; It'll be much harder for a white man to dislodge a black woman who looks like the next in line.
This is why I think if Biden stands down in good time, keep an eye out for another black woman who could take on Kamala - particularly Stacey Abrams who could easily be the only Dem success story in 2022 if the Georgia Trumpists decide to punish their GOP incumbent for being insufficiently helpful with the attempted coup.
I think she will be harder to dislodge - but not impossible.
Harris has a lack of support from the progressive wing of the Democrats - based on her time as a prosecutor. A number of African Americans are not fans either.
Just the African Americans she locked up, or more than that?
"Ms Price, headmistress of the prestigious, independent Benenden School in Kent, will tell her organisation's annual conference: "Adults comment that they feel today's teenagers are speaking a different language; that they can't say anything without being corrected or 'called out' by these PC children."
She says she is "weary of hearing the older generation say, 'you can't say anything any more'."
And she adds: "The fact is that times have changed, and we simply need to keep up with them."
So - the head of the head teachers association apparently no longer actually believes in free speech or indeed free enquiry any more, or indeed that childrens views should not actually even be challenged, according to this article by the BBC, which, appropriately enough, merely reports her views and does not even interrogate them.
It sounds more like the adults don’t like to be challenged
Isn’t the point of education to teach you how to think, rather than what to think?
There is an important difference between what you think and using casual racism and bigotry to express it, all too often because people use words and phrases that were once commonplace without thought even although they are offensive to others. I will confess that I find some modern parlance, especially the pronouns, quite difficult but I have no desire to cause unnecessary offence and do my best. Its really a question of manners.
But this is not about using the right pronouns. It is convenient to think of it that way, but there is abundant evidence that it goes much further than that. Things like transgender rights and critical race theory need to be challenged, not just accepted uncritically as correct, as suggested by this headteacher. This is an attack on the whole idea of free enquiry. The alarming thing is that people in positions of power and authority go along with it. If you place any value on freedom of thought, these ideas must be fought and stopped, not pandered to or even humoured.
Head of School at ASL is leaving Jan 1.
Enough parents voted with their feet, after being told they were all racist by their own children?
1. If he ran against Harris, he'd be crucified by the progressive wing. Yes, he is gay but, given he is a white male, running against a black woman can only go one way in today's Democrat party, especially as Harris is the sitting VP and shows no signs of stepping down (nor does her career suggest she would anyway, especially when she is so close to the Presidency);
People say this sort of thing a lot, and yet we have the recent example of the nomination race in 2020, and several white males lasted longer in that nomination contest than Harris, the black woman. It just isn't true.
Now it might be different when she's the VP running for nomination, but that would be because she's the VP, not because she's a black woman.
I think the VP part and the black woman part go together; It'll be much harder for a white man to dislodge a black woman who looks like the next in line.
This is why I think if Biden stands down in good time, keep an eye out for another black woman who could take on Kamala - particularly Stacey Abrams who could easily be the only Dem success story in 2022 if the Georgia Trumpists decide to punish their GOP incumbent for being insufficiently helpful with the attempted coup.
I think she will be harder to dislodge - but not impossible.
Harris has a lack of support from the progressive wing of the Democrats - based on her time as a prosecutor. A number of African Americans are not fans either.
Just the African Americans she locked up, or more than that?
If you read up - they are tired of hard charging prosecutors who feed the prison-industrial-complex with fresh meat. Some of her decisions as a prosecutor were extremely questionable.
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
I ran pressure groups for various products/industries based around their IT infrastructure. I was asked to run one for a group of very large retail companies. I was blown away by how good their IT people were, such that I wondered whether I could actually offer them anything. Manufacturing users seemed the worse and with them I struggled on getting them to understand what they needed to do.
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
Yep - for a lot of people IT just needs to work because without it the only option is to shut up shop until it's fixed.
The level of IT in Manufacturing depends what it's being used for bill of materials not so important - hit pharmaceuticals or any other industry with exact measurements and its a very different world (similar to retail).
Yep. Did one for pharma as well. Almost gone thru my entire repertoire now.
What's the betting... five, six "rebels"? The Conservative party hasn't show itself lately to have much backbone.This morning's potential rebellion is this afternoon's damp squib.
Well, and this is one reason why I think Laura K would be wrong for Today as her forte is analysis and back channel knowledge, she said that there were not enough rebels for the bill not to pass but that there was a hope that it would receive a bumpier ride in the Lords.
By pushing it through today there isn't enough time for MPs to see the issue it will cause up North - because it basically says - we will protect children down South who will inherit 70-90% of their parents assets, up North you may get 50% if you are lucky.
Alternatively, you know that tax increase we put through on your income ? We'll use it to protect the homes of the wealthy. Levelling up...
Well put.
I note Roz Altmann last night said the effective cost is not £86k but about £150k for most people when you add in costs not covered. A point I keep making to @HYUFD when he states the not so well off will still inherit.
So thanks Boris, as a retired well off pensioner it's a big win for me and my children. I would just like to thank the not so well off for their contributions.
The median house price in seats the Conservatives held in 2019 is £270,000. It would be political suicide for the Tories to go back to May's dementia tax plans and just have £100,000 of estate exempt from care costs with no cap as those seats could potentially lose £170,000 on average and more in the wealthier areas, leading to large scale switching to ReformUK and handing seats in the South to the LDs in particular. The £86.000 cap is far better for them. Those voters are the Tory base. Costs not covered only relate to residential care which only a minority will have, not care at home. Even then £150k is still lower than £170k.
In the RedWall the £86,000 cap is still better for those who face residential care costs and domestic care costs levied on their estate excluding the family home than the current situation where there is no limit on care costs with only £23,250 protected from liability
You can keep repeating this HYUFD, but it doesn't get away from the fact that poorer people are subsidizing the well off. There are lots of people who will inherit nothing who are paying extra NI so I can pass on more to my children. I don't pay any extra NI and I don't need that subsidy.
The Tory base is still home owners and especially wealthier home owners not the poor. Even in 2019 most of those in social housing voted Labour. In any case the genuinely poor will not be hit by this proposal as the state already pays for their care costs anyway and they have few if any assets and are not home owners. The vast majority of home owners though ie those with properties worth £150,000 or more will be better off under these plans and able to protect more of their estate than they are now even if the proposals may be fractionally worse for those with a £100,000 estate only. However even the latter are still likely to be home owners not in social housing or reliant on housing benefits and not genuinely poor.
However the Tory party will support its base first, always. That is what it is elected for. If you disagree then you will have to elect a Labour government backed by the LDs and SNP to see any change.
Ironically the Tories are likely to get far more damage in North Shropshire where your party has cleverly attacked the Tory candidate for backing NI for pensioners amongst its core vote than from the Boris social care plans
a) People who don't have significant assets still pay the extra NI so are contributing to my care costs so are impacted without getting anything in return.
b) You keep referring to people being better off. As Tories often tell us 'there is no money tree', so who is paying for it if not the well off? Doesn't that only leave the less well off to foot the bill?
c) I don't care about what is best for a party. I care about what is right. Personally I would abolish NI and roll it into income tax.
a) Not if they inherit from their parents in due course and their parents are home owners, especially in the South.
b) Everyone will pay up to £86,000 in care costs even under these plans and the home will no longer be exempt from care costs for at home care unlike now in return for the care costs cap for residential and at home care.
c) I wouldn't, I would ringfence NI just for the state pension, healthcare and contributory JSA based on the original principles of NI.
However there is no doubt the Tory candidate has made a gaffe in N Shropshire saying pensioners should pay NI given the seat is full of Tory pensioners who could go LD in the by election in protest now the LDs have attacked the Tory candidate for saying pensioners should be liable for NI
On the subject of the US Presidential election, there's one other big story that's not being covered:
The fall out between Trump and DeSantis.
Trump wants DeSantis to rule out a 2024 run. DeSantis, on the other hand, is not yet willing to do so.
Now, I don't think DeSantis beats Trump in the event Trump runs. But I also think that DeSantis is correctly adjudging that he wants to be close to Trump... but not too close.
The one candidate that Trump is worried about?
If someone forces a primary rather than a coronation then just maybe, the gods willing, it will become obvious that Trump is too old or infirmed by then.
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
Critical race theory surfaced in the early 80s. Eddo-Lodge was born in 1989, so I'm not sure what your point is ?
My point is a simple one.
Our goal - as a society and as individuals - should be such that everyone is judged based on their own character and abilities, not on their skin colour.
If people are being treated differently, then that is a problem. If organizations seem to treat black and white employees or customers or members of the public differently, then that is a problem. And I very much believe that there is instutionalised racism out there that needs to be confronted.
Now, do I believe that the average African-American faces more challenges than the average White American? Then the answer is yes.
But do I believe that Malia and Sasha Obama are more discriminated against, and likely to have worse life outcomes, than the white children of meth addicts in a poverty stricken town in West Virginia?
No, I don't.
"Race is an issue but poverty is a bigger issue" is probably right, and definitely whataboutery.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
What's the betting... five, six "rebels"? The Conservative party hasn't show itself lately to have much backbone.This morning's potential rebellion is this afternoon's damp squib.
Well, and this is one reason why I think Laura K would be wrong for Today as her forte is analysis and back channel knowledge, she said that there were not enough rebels for the bill not to pass but that there was a hope that it would receive a bumpier ride in the Lords.
By pushing it through today there isn't enough time for MPs to see the issue it will cause up North - because it basically says - we will protect children down South who will inherit 70-90% of their parents assets, up North you may get 50% if you are lucky.
Alternatively, you know that tax increase we put through on your income ? We'll use it to protect the homes of the wealthy. Levelling up...
Well put.
I note Roz Altmann last night said the effective cost is not £86k but about £150k for most people when you add in costs not covered. A point I keep making to @HYUFD when he states the not so well off will still inherit.
So thanks Boris, as a retired well off pensioner it's a big win for me and my children. I would just like to thank the not so well off for their contributions.
You are very unlikely to spend anywhere near that much on care.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Whataboutery raised to an art form. Do you think the plight of the present day poor American black is independent of the historical background? Or that you can't move in the poorer areas of Detroit without having to dodge cannonades of money and privilege?
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
I ran pressure groups for various products/industries based around their IT infrastructure. I was asked to run one for a group of very large retail companies. I was blown away by how good their IT people were, such that I wondered whether I could actually offer them anything. Manufacturing users seemed the worse and with them I struggled on getting them to understand what they needed to do.
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
Retail and hospitality IT is pretty resilient, because it has to be.
My knowledge is a few years out of date now, but each till would hold a local copy of the current and previous prices and promos databases, to which they could fall back in an emergency. Updates were done on tills sequentially as the cashier changed. Each till also had a UPS good for a couple of hours, and there were a number of fallback GPRS-based card charging machines around. It was bloody difficult to actually close a supermarket with an IT failure. Restaurants would have a ‘master’ till with a UPS, that would last long enough to print out bills for all the tables. Hotels also have a fair amount of redundancy, often print an hourly list of checked-in rooms with outstanding bill amounts.
My current job is working in utility infrastructure, and there’s actually a lot less redundancy required there! If the control systems go down, they can run things manually pretty much indefinitely - by design.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
He was cringworthy - it was just embarrassing and his mps need to act, as unfortunately no-one else can in the short term, i.e. upto 3 years to next GE
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
How long after manumission do you think it takes for the harms of slavery to disappear? A week? A generation? Ten generations?
What's the betting... five, six "rebels"? The Conservative party hasn't show itself lately to have much backbone.This morning's potential rebellion is this afternoon's damp squib.
Well, and this is one reason why I think Laura K would be wrong for Today as her forte is analysis and back channel knowledge, she said that there were not enough rebels for the bill not to pass but that there was a hope that it would receive a bumpier ride in the Lords.
By pushing it through today there isn't enough time for MPs to see the issue it will cause up North - because it basically says - we will protect children down South who will inherit 70-90% of their parents assets, up North you may get 50% if you are lucky.
Alternatively, you know that tax increase we put through on your income ? We'll use it to protect the homes of the wealthy. Levelling up...
Well put.
I note Roz Altmann last night said the effective cost is not £86k but about £150k for most people when you add in costs not covered. A point I keep making to @HYUFD when he states the not so well off will still inherit.
So thanks Boris, as a retired well off pensioner it's a big win for me and my children. I would just like to thank the not so well off for their contributions.
The median house price in seats the Conservatives held in 2019 is £270,000. It would be political suicide for the Tories to go back to May's dementia tax plans and just have £100,000 of estate exempt from care costs with no cap as those seats could potentially lose £170,000 on average and more in the wealthier areas, leading to large scale switching to ReformUK and handing seats in the South to the LDs in particular. The £86.000 cap is far better for them. Those voters are the Tory base. Costs not covered only relate to residential care which only a minority will have, not care at home. Even then £150k is still lower than £170k.
In the RedWall the £86,000 cap is still better for those who face residential care costs and domestic care costs levied on their estate excluding the family home than the current situation where there is no limit on care costs with only £23,250 protected from liability
You can keep repeating this HYUFD, but it doesn't get away from the fact that poorer people are subsidizing the well off. There are lots of people who will inherit nothing who are paying extra NI so I can pass on more to my children. I don't pay any extra NI and I don't need that subsidy.
The Tory base is still home owners and especially wealthier home owners not the poor. Even in 2019 most of those in social housing voted Labour. In any case the genuinely poor will not be hit by this proposal as the state already pays for their care costs anyway and they have few if any assets and are not home owners. The vast majority of home owners though ie those with properties worth £150,000 or more will be better off under these plans and able to protect more of their estate than they are now even if the proposals may be fractionally worse for those with a £100,000 estate only. However even the latter are still likely to be home owners not in social housing or reliant on housing benefits and not genuinely poor.
However the Tory party will support its base first, always. That is what it is elected for. If you disagree then you will have to elect a Labour government backed by the LDs and SNP to see any change.
Ironically the Tories are likely to get far more damage in North Shropshire where your party has cleverly attacked the Tory candidate for backing NI for pensioners amongst its core vote than from the Boris social care plans
a) People who don't have significant assets still pay the extra NI so are contributing to my care costs so are impacted without getting anything in return.
b) You keep referring to people being better off. As Tories often tell us 'there is no money tree', so who is paying for it if not the well off? Doesn't that only leave the less well off to foot the bill?
c) I don't care about what is best for a party. I care about what is right. Personally I would abolish NI and roll it into income tax.
a) Not if they inherit from their parents in due course and their parents are home owners, especially in the South.
b) Everyone will pay up to £86,000 in care costs even under these plans and the home will no longer be exempt from care costs for at home care unlike now in return for the care costs cap for residential and at home care.
c) I wouldn't, I would ringfence NI just for the state pension, healthcare and contributory JSA based on the original principles of NI.
However there is no doubt the Tory candidate has made a gaffe in N Shropshire saying pensioners should pay NI given the seat is full of Tory pensioners who could go LD in the by election in protest now the LDs have attacked the Tory candidate for saying pensioners should be liable for NI
The point behind a) was all those people who won't inherit anything but who are subsidizing my care through extra NI contributions. This applies to lots of people.
I know you would ring fence NI and of course that is what NI is meant to be for anyway really, but reality kicks in and we all know it goes into one bucket of money.
Re your comment about the candidate making a gaffe. Yes you are right, but it is sad that this is a gaffe and that the LDs will also naturally exploit it. I don't know what the LD policy is on NI. I would hope to amalgamate with Income Tax and if that is the case then it is somewhat opportunistic for them to attack the Tory candidate on this. But you know - by elections!
Just one of the times the PM lost his place in his keynote speech to the @CBItweets going out live to the nation and the international business community. This time for a full 30 seconds, shuffling papers and going "blast it". ~AA
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Exactly. Who do people think brought Africans to the slave ports on the coast of Africa?
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
Critical race theory surfaced in the early 80s. Eddo-Lodge was born in 1989, so I'm not sure what your point is ?
My point is a simple one.
Our goal - as a society and as individuals - should be such that everyone is judged based on their own character and abilities, not on their skin colour.
If people are being treated differently, then that is a problem. If organizations seem to treat black and white employees or customers or members of the public differently, then that is a problem. And I very much believe that there is instutionalised racism out there that needs to be confronted.
Now, do I believe that the average African-American faces more challenges than the average White American? Then the answer is yes.
But do I believe that Malia and Sasha Obama are more discriminated against, and likely to have worse life outcomes, than the white children of meth addicts in a poverty stricken town in West Virginia?
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Interesting to see Amol Rajan described as “ambitious” in the Mail’s article about the Palace documentary.
Someone doesn’t want him to get Laura K’s gig
Is "ambitious" an insult now? Is it one of those words that upper middle class white people use to describe non upper middle class white people who don't know their place?
Blimey race gets everywhere. Perhaps it should, I don't know.
The only discussions I can remember here about Rajan have been how one might say that his is more a Radio 5 Live voice than a R4 voice and then also, having listened to him on the Today Prog, how he is excellent in that role.
Edit: although that last could just be me.
It's just interesting that a word like "ambitious" should get applied to him, don't you think, since I am guessing everyone in a senior position in the world of political and news journalism is ambitious. If feels like one of those words that's a subtle rebuke used by those who can afford to keep their ambition masked - because they have networks or patronage to support them or simply because they know that when the time comes they won't be overlooked.
I genuinely don't see it like that which is not to say that wasn't the Mail's intention.
Ambitious maybe, as in we are hearing a lot more about him than previously. I wouldn't have recognised the voice at all until he appeared on Today. And I was surprised to see that he did the Palace documentary so he is def more visible (audible?) than hitherto so that could qualify as ambitious. Next he'll be co-presenting Bake Off.
I am sure it was the Mail’s intention. Policing the borders of the English establishment is one of the functions it has awarded itself.
Amol Rajan is an interesting candidiate.
I'm more tolerant of his style than I used to be, and I think he would be an OK candidate.
On the care controversy there is a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding of the issues
My sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to go into nursing care for the last 18 months of her life
As it was cancer, this came under CHC (continuing health care) and was paid by the Wales NHS and it would be in England as far as I am aware. She surrendered her pension but did not pay anything further
Dementia is not seen as the same as cancer and other terminal illness and this is simply wrong
If it was recognised, most of this controversy would disappear as the various NHS authorities pay the cost in their budgets
However, this raises big questions on the funding of the NHS and may well account for the fight I had with Wales NHS to win the entitlement my sister had to CHC, as they tried everything to avoid conceding her right to this care
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Glad to hear the PM has had a successful trip to the CBI.
Perhaps his inability to turn over a page from one pile and place it onto the other pile explains how he got lost in his own Brexit deal.
Incidentally, telling the Port of Tyne how wonderful the competing Teesport Freeport is - top marks for baiting. Can he tell us why we had to leave the EU to deliver said Freeport?
What's the betting... five, six "rebels"? The Conservative party hasn't show itself lately to have much backbone.This morning's potential rebellion is this afternoon's damp squib.
Well, and this is one reason why I think Laura K would be wrong for Today as her forte is analysis and back channel knowledge, she said that there were not enough rebels for the bill not to pass but that there was a hope that it would receive a bumpier ride in the Lords.
By pushing it through today there isn't enough time for MPs to see the issue it will cause up North - because it basically says - we will protect children down South who will inherit 70-90% of their parents assets, up North you may get 50% if you are lucky.
Alternatively, you know that tax increase we put through on your income ? We'll use it to protect the homes of the wealthy. Levelling up...
Well put.
I note Roz Altmann last night said the effective cost is not £86k but about £150k for most people when you add in costs not covered. A point I keep making to @HYUFD when he states the not so well off will still inherit.
So thanks Boris, as a retired well off pensioner it's a big win for me and my children. I would just like to thank the not so well off for their contributions.
The median house price in seats the Conservatives held in 2019 is £270,000. It would be political suicide for the Tories to go back to May's dementia tax plans and just have £100,000 of estate exempt from care costs with no cap as those seats could potentially lose £170,000 on average and more in the wealthier areas, leading to large scale switching to ReformUK and handing seats in the South to the LDs in particular. The £86.000 cap is far better for them. Those voters are the Tory base. Costs not covered only relate to residential care which only a minority will have, not care at home. Even then £150k is still lower than £170k.
In the RedWall the £86,000 cap is still better for those who face residential care costs and domestic care costs levied on their estate excluding the family home than the current situation where there is no limit on care costs with only £23,250 protected from liability
You can keep repeating this HYUFD, but it doesn't get away from the fact that poorer people are subsidizing the well off. There are lots of people who will inherit nothing who are paying extra NI so I can pass on more to my children. I don't pay any extra NI and I don't need that subsidy.
The Tory base is still home owners and especially wealthier home owners not the poor. Even in 2019 most of those in social housing voted Labour. In any case the genuinely poor will not be hit by this proposal as the state already pays for their care costs anyway and they have few if any assets and are not home owners. The vast majority of home owners though ie those with properties worth £150,000 or more will be better off under these plans and able to protect more of their estate than they are now even if the proposals may be fractionally worse for those with a £100,000 estate only. However even the latter are still likely to be home owners not in social housing or reliant on housing benefits and not genuinely poor.
However the Tory party will support its base first, always. That is what it is elected for. If you disagree then you will have to elect a Labour government backed by the LDs and SNP to see any change.
Ironically the Tories are likely to get far more damage in North Shropshire where your party has cleverly attacked the Tory candidate for backing NI for pensioners amongst its core vote than from the Boris social care plans
a) People who don't have significant assets still pay the extra NI so are contributing to my care costs so are impacted without getting anything in return.
b) You keep referring to people being better off. As Tories often tell us 'there is no money tree', so who is paying for it if not the well off? Doesn't that only leave the less well off to foot the bill?
c) I don't care about what is best for a party. I care about what is right. Personally I would abolish NI and roll it into income tax.
a) Not if they inherit from their parents in due course and their parents are home owners, especially in the South.
b) Everyone will pay up to £86,000 in care costs even under these plans and the home will no longer be exempt from care costs for at home care unlike now in return for the care costs cap for residential and at home care.
c) I wouldn't, I would ringfence NI just for the state pension, healthcare and contributory JSA based on the original principles of NI.
However there is no doubt the Tory candidate has made a gaffe in N Shropshire saying pensioners should pay NI given the seat is full of Tory pensioners who could go LD in the by election in protest now the LDs have attacked the Tory candidate for saying pensioners should be liable for NI
The point behind a) was all those people who won't inherit anything but who are subsidizing my care through extra NI contributions. This applies to lots of people.
I know you would ring fence NI and of course that is what NI is meant to be for anyway really, but reality kicks in and we all know it goes into one bucket of money.
Re your comment about the candidate making a gaffe. Yes you are right, but it is sad that this is a gaffe and that the LDs will also naturally exploit it. I don't know what the LD policy is on NI. I would hope to amalgamate with Income Tax and if that is the case then it is somewhat opportunistic for them to attack the Tory candidate on this. But you know - by elections!
a) If they are under 50 and not likely to inherit anything and did not vote Leave in 2016 they are almost certainly not Tory voters anyway and already voting Labour or LD even in 2019 so nothing lost there from the perspective of a Tory government.
There is no reason a government with the will to do so could not ringfence NI.
Clearly based on their leaflet attacking the Tory candidate for in the past proposing to make pensioners pay NI the LDs are opposed to that now.
So if the Tories do see a significant cut in their majority in North Shropshire or lose the seat not only can we blame Paterson, we can also blame a policy of making NI payable by pensioners by the Tory candidate and thanks to the LD by election campaign ensure this Tory government does not touch such a policy with a bargepole
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Mr. Farooq, CRT (critical race theory) is a brand of identity politics that judges people based on the colour of their skin, and removes Asians (in the American parlance, so Koreans/Japanese/Chinese) from the category of ethnic minorities because their academic and occupational attainment levels rather undermine the case of evil white oppression.
It's rampantly racist while pretending to be virtuous by opposing the 'inherent white supremacy' of the system. It's the sort of muddled nonsense that saw people claim Rittenhouse was a white supremacist, when everyone he shot at was, er, white.
Plenty of stuff on Twitter about it, including overtly racist takes on hiring practices:
That is the Republican definition, which they invented in order to argue against. As the Atlantic article I linked to above sets out.
Actually, I think you overstate things.
Have you read "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race"?
It's British, rather than American, but it's very title gets your (or at least my) back up. Would it be acceptable for me to write a book called "Why I'm no longer talking to black people about business"? Of course not.
What's worse is that I'm sure there is stuff in there that is probably going to be eye opening. I am certain that there remains institutional racism out there that needs to be confronted. But I was unable to finish reading the first chapter of the book, so much did it get my back up.
If you're antagonizing me, and causing me to act all prickly, then you're probably losing the argument.
Critical race theory surfaced in the early 80s. Eddo-Lodge was born in 1989, so I'm not sure what your point is ?
My point is a simple one.
Our goal - as a society and as individuals - should be such that everyone is judged based on their own character and abilities, not on their skin colour.
If people are being treated differently, then that is a problem. If organizations seem to treat black and white employees or customers or members of the public differently, then that is a problem. And I very much believe that there is instutionalised racism out there that needs to be confronted.
Now, do I believe that the average African-American faces more challenges than the average White American? Then the answer is yes.
But do I believe that Malia and Sasha Obama are more discriminated against, and likely to have worse life outcomes, than the white children of meth addicts in a poverty stricken town in West Virginia?
No, I don't.
I don't think there's all that much there that even some radical proponents of CRT would argue against. I'm not a massive enthusiast for CRT myself, but it's not an unreasonable point of view for societal analysis, particularly with respect to US society. My point is more that those who condemn it outright seem to believe a lot of stuff about it which simply isn't true.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Interesting to see Amol Rajan described as “ambitious” in the Mail’s article about the Palace documentary.
Someone doesn’t want him to get Laura K’s gig
Is "ambitious" an insult now? Is it one of those words that upper middle class white people use to describe non upper middle class white people who don't know their place?
Blimey race gets everywhere. Perhaps it should, I don't know.
The only discussions I can remember here about Rajan have been how one might say that his is more a Radio 5 Live voice than a R4 voice and then also, having listened to him on the Today Prog, how he is excellent in that role.
Edit: although that last could just be me.
It's just interesting that a word like "ambitious" should get applied to him, don't you think, since I am guessing everyone in a senior position in the world of political and news journalism is ambitious. If feels like one of those words that's a subtle rebuke used by those who can afford to keep their ambition masked - because they have networks or patronage to support them or simply because they know that when the time comes they won't be overlooked.
I genuinely don't see it like that which is not to say that wasn't the Mail's intention.
Ambitious maybe, as in we are hearing a lot more about him than previously. I wouldn't have recognised the voice at all until he appeared on Today. And I was surprised to see that he did the Palace documentary so he is def more visible (audible?) than hitherto so that could qualify as ambitious. Next he'll be co-presenting Bake Off.
I am sure it was the Mail’s intention. Policing the borders of the English establishment is one of the functions it has awarded itself.
Amol Rajan is an interesting candidiate.
I'm more tolerant of his style than I used to be, and I think he would be an OK candidate.
I was initially put off by his more "casual" (for want of a much better word) delivery - but on listening to him he's an effective and persistent interviewer - probing without hectoring and not letting politicians fob him off by answering the question they wished he'd asked rather than the one he did - I think he'd be a good choice.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
Glad to hear the PM has had a successful trip to the CBI.
Perhaps his inability to turn over a page from one pile and place it onto the other pile explains how he got lost in his own Brexit deal.
Incidentally, telling the Port of Tyne how wonderful the competing Teesport Freeport is - top marks for baiting. Can he tell us why we had to leave the EU to deliver said Freeport?
1. We did not need to leave the EU for Freeports 2. Freeports don’t create wealth, they just displace it. 3. Freeports are pretty much the sum of this government’s growth policy.
I remember when this country was really moving forward - catching up with its peers and in some cases overtaking it.
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
What's the betting... five, six "rebels"? The Conservative party hasn't show itself lately to have much backbone.This morning's potential rebellion is this afternoon's damp squib.
Well, and this is one reason why I think Laura K would be wrong for Today as her forte is analysis and back channel knowledge, she said that there were not enough rebels for the bill not to pass but that there was a hope that it would receive a bumpier ride in the Lords.
By pushing it through today there isn't enough time for MPs to see the issue it will cause up North - because it basically says - we will protect children down South who will inherit 70-90% of their parents assets, up North you may get 50% if you are lucky.
Alternatively, you know that tax increase we put through on your income ? We'll use it to protect the homes of the wealthy. Levelling up...
Well put.
I note Roz Altmann last night said the effective cost is not £86k but about £150k for most people when you add in costs not covered. A point I keep making to @HYUFD when he states the not so well off will still inherit.
So thanks Boris, as a retired well off pensioner it's a big win for me and my children. I would just like to thank the not so well off for their contributions.
You are very unlikely to spend anywhere near that much on care.
Unless you go to Barchester.
But it’s an insurance policy in case you do
Presumably the Reverend Slope sells the policies as a sideline?
People say it is up to Tory MPs, but my question is what's going on in Boris' own head.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
Surely he is just bumbling along as he always does. OK so he crashed the car into the ditch. But he's done that so many times and always got away with it, so why change tack and actually try and plan for competence?
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
But sloppy too. Stoke does not have a "Labour town hall", the council is run by the Tories, which you'd have thought would be pretty vital context for an article like this. It doesn't even mention that the Tories flipped all four formerly Labour seats in the Potteries in 2019 which is quiet extraordinary if you have any understanding of what Stoke is like and its political history.
However he does get one thing right. Bet365 does indeed employ "thousands", actually over 4,000. (I looked it up as I couldn't believe it). Am I alone in finding this pretty depressing?
This is a betting site, at least in name, and in this very thread's header, so we are unlikely to be distressed by the existence of bookmakers, even if we do object to some of their practices. Though tbh I too would have found it surprising that Bet365 in particular employs so many, given it does not have a large chain of shops.
Software can consume workers like no-one business and it's complex because they need to handle things in real time.
You also have customer service, marketing....
Indeed - the belief that you "buy some software" and setup a business is pernicious and distorts the reality of what running an online business is really about..
Th online bit just means that the front end is online. The rest of the business still has to exist.
A close relative who setup a small delivery business was somewhat interested to find that a combined web portal/warehouse system is quite definitely not available off the shelf. He ended up paying a fair bit to integrate various systems.
I’ve dealt with many customers and potential customers over a few years of working in IT consultancy, who seemed to think that a retail website is something that can be done in a few days and for a few hundred quid.
Yes, you can set up something with Squarespace, if the business is a sideline that generates a handful of orders a day - but if you need to do anything more complicated or start integrating business processes, the costs quickly rise by orders of magnitude.
B365 annual turnover is going to be in the tens of *billions*. They regularly make the news for paying hundreds of millions in dividends. The software also needs to have a lot of backstops, escalations and real-time feedback loops integrated into it, and a single mispricing can cost them a fortune.
I ran pressure groups for various products/industries based around their IT infrastructure. I was asked to run one for a group of very large retail companies. I was blown away by how good their IT people were, such that I wondered whether I could actually offer them anything. Manufacturing users seemed the worse and with them I struggled on getting them to understand what they needed to do.
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
Retail and hospitality IT is pretty resilient, because it has to be.
My knowledge is a few years out of date now, but each till would hold a local copy of the current and previous prices and promos databases, to which they could fall back in an emergency. Updates were done on tills sequentially as the cashier changed. Each till also had a UPS good for a couple of hours, and there were a number of fallback GPRS-based card charging machines around. It was bloody difficult to actually close a supermarket with an IT failure. Restaurants would have a ‘master’ till with a UPS, that would last long enough to print out bills for all the tables. Hotels also have a fair amount of redundancy, often print an hourly list of checked-in rooms with outstanding bill amounts.
My current job is working in utility infrastructure, and there’s actually a lot less redundancy required there! If the control systems go down, they can run things manually pretty much indefinitely - by design.
I don't have the technical knowledge to know to be honest. My role was to organise them as an effective pressure group of organisations, but what came over was the senior retail guys and gals were really on the ball whereas some of the IT lot in a number of medium sized manufacturing companies were, well what shall we say, not too bright.
I organised a group that specialised in making large one off machines. They were also impressive, but again I guess you have to be when each build is unique.
People say it is up to Tory MPs, but my question is what's going on in Boris' own head.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
Surely he is just bumbling along as he always does. OK so he crashed the car into the ditch. But he's done that so many times and always got away with it, so why change tack and actually try and plan for competence?
People say it is up to Tory MPs, but my question is what's going on in Boris' own head.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
Surely he is just bumbling along as he always does. OK so he crashed the car into the ditch. But he's done that so many times and always got away with it, so why change tack and actually try and plan for competence?
I think thats right its all factored in with Boris.
Its completely unfair but why would anyone even think of replacing him when he can literally get away with anything with enough people to win the next GE
People say it is up to Tory MPs, but my question is what's going on in Boris' own head.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
Surely he is just bumbling along as he always does. OK so he crashed the car into the ditch. But he's done that so many times and always got away with it, so why change tack and actually try and plan for competence?
The obvious explanation.
I'm just struck how the PBTories always condemn President Biden if he loses his place for a few seconds - obvious senility, etc. etc. Will be interesting to see how they explain this.
Boris probably is a drinker, but that is not necessary to explain this latest incident.
The truth is, he’s lazy and ill-prepared, and he genuinely gives no fucks about Tyne or Tees.
Remember that he wrote the UN speech on the train up to New York from Washington. Who knows how much prep went into adding Peppa Pig to his previous Kermit the Frog embarrassment. Or how much of a site he has had prepping for the speech.
What does it matter anyway? They're just the CBI. Many of them won't have voted Tory anyway in 2019 so can be ignored and anyway the Tories have a majority of 80 and anyway the latest poll shows that people don't care about business experts and anyway there is no way there will be a vote on Tyneside independence under Boris anyway.
I'm just struck how the PBTories always condemn President Biden if he loses his place for a few seconds - obvious senility, etc. etc. Will be interesting to see how they explain this.
BoZo the bumbling idiot is the man they voted for.
People say it is up to Tory MPs, but my question is what's going on in Boris' own head.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
Surely he is just bumbling along as he always does. OK so he crashed the car into the ditch. But he's done that so many times and always got away with it, so why change tack and actually try and plan for competence?
The obvious explanation.
I'm just struck how the PBTories always condemn President Biden if he loses his place for a few seconds - obvious senility, etc. etc. Will be interesting to see how they explain this.
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
This is the interior of the third and latest VVIP aircraft Johnson has acquired with taxpayers' money (while cutting the RAF's transport fleet by 30%).
Do you think Carrie is ready to give that up next year when they hardly got to go anywhere on it due to Covid? Johnson is there for the long haul - literally and figuratively.
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
This is the interior of the third and latest VVIP aircraft Johnson has acquired with taxpayers' money.
Do you think Carrie is ready to give that up next year when they hardly got to go anywhere on it due to Covid? Johnson is there for the long haul - literally and figuratively.
Presumably that's why she forgave him after the (inevitable) superinjunction incident.
Do you think Carrie is ready to give that up next year when they hardly got to go anywhere on it due to Covid? Johnson is there for the long haul - literally and figuratively.
Why do you assume Carrie's ambition ends with BoZo?
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
This is the interior of the third and latest VVIP aircraft Johnson has acquired with taxpayers' money (while cutting the RAF's transport fleet by 30%).
Do you think Carrie is ready to give that up next year when they hardly got to go anywhere on it due to Covid? Johnson is there for the long haul - literally and figuratively.
Boris’s unprecedented fondness for “private” jets doesn’t seem to have been picked up by the satirists yet.
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
I don't think I could even drink six pints, so that makes me a teetotaller.
Interesting to see Amol Rajan described as “ambitious” in the Mail’s article about the Palace documentary.
Someone doesn’t want him to get Laura K’s gig
Is "ambitious" an insult now? Is it one of those words that upper middle class white people use to describe non upper middle class white people who don't know their place?
Blimey race gets everywhere. Perhaps it should, I don't know.
The only discussions I can remember here about Rajan have been how one might say that his is more a Radio 5 Live voice than a R4 voice and then also, having listened to him on the Today Prog, how he is excellent in that role.
Edit: although that last could just be me.
It's just interesting that a word like "ambitious" should get applied to him, don't you think, since I am guessing everyone in a senior position in the world of political and news journalism is ambitious. If feels like one of those words that's a subtle rebuke used by those who can afford to keep their ambition masked - because they have networks or patronage to support them or simply because they know that when the time comes they won't be overlooked.
I genuinely don't see it like that which is not to say that wasn't the Mail's intention.
Ambitious maybe, as in we are hearing a lot more about him than previously. I wouldn't have recognised the voice at all until he appeared on Today. And I was surprised to see that he did the Palace documentary so he is def more visible (audible?) than hitherto so that could qualify as ambitious. Next he'll be co-presenting Bake Off.
I am sure it was the Mail’s intention. Policing the borders of the English establishment is one of the functions it has awarded itself.
Amol Rajan is an interesting candidiate.
I'm more tolerant of his style than I used to be, and I think he would be an OK candidate.
He'd be a damn sight better than the current incumbent.
Interesting to see Amol Rajan described as “ambitious” in the Mail’s article about the Palace documentary.
Someone doesn’t want him to get Laura K’s gig
Is "ambitious" an insult now? Is it one of those words that upper middle class white people use to describe non upper middle class white people who don't know their place?
Blimey race gets everywhere. Perhaps it should, I don't know.
The only discussions I can remember here about Rajan have been how one might say that his is more a Radio 5 Live voice than a R4 voice and then also, having listened to him on the Today Prog, how he is excellent in that role.
Edit: although that last could just be me.
It's just interesting that a word like "ambitious" should get applied to him, don't you think, since I am guessing everyone in a senior position in the world of political and news journalism is ambitious. If feels like one of those words that's a subtle rebuke used by those who can afford to keep their ambition masked - because they have networks or patronage to support them or simply because they know that when the time comes they won't be overlooked.
I genuinely don't see it like that which is not to say that wasn't the Mail's intention.
Ambitious maybe, as in we are hearing a lot more about him than previously. I wouldn't have recognised the voice at all until he appeared on Today. And I was surprised to see that he did the Palace documentary so he is def more visible (audible?) than hitherto so that could qualify as ambitious. Next he'll be co-presenting Bake Off.
I am sure it was the Mail’s intention. Policing the borders of the English establishment is one of the functions it has awarded itself.
Amol Rajan is an interesting candidiate.
I'm more tolerant of his style than I used to be, and I think he would be an OK candidate.
He'd be a damn sight better than the current incumbent.
The fear is that Laura K then goes to Today.
Mind you, I switched off permanently during the latter era of John “Brexit makes me hard” Humphries.
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
I don't think I could even drink six pints, so that makes me a teetotaller.
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
That is a 'cheeky pint' around my neck of the woods
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
I don't think I could even drink six pints, so that makes me a teetotaller.
Thinking about how big a 'big bottle' might be for you, I'm reminded that I used to share a house in my post-uni, first job days, with someone who was a salesman/trade rep for a cider company and always brought home the rejects and defectives. Often the only defect on a large bottle was a damaged label ...
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
‘A drink’, is the amount one can consume, and still plausibly say to the missus “I just had the one”.
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Exactly. Who do people think brought Africans to the slave ports on the coast of Africa?
Several thoughts One is publicity..... lot of talk, books etc about slaves in the US. We know more about them than the folk in the Caribbean islands. As a subsidiary, Haiti has been largely ignored. Then there are numbers. The 'Atlantic Triangle' was a major European industrial exercise. Lack of publicity also accounts for the ignorance of the East African slave trade, from Ethiopia southwards to Madagascar, in which the Arabs, and particularly the Omani's, raided inland, taking slaves for rich, and not so rich, Arabs. And, especially, from Ethiopia, lighter skinned women. This was rather like the Norse slave traffic to Iceland, in which they took women from Ireland and the Hebrides.
"heavy cold" is a euphemism I'm going to adopt for a large bottle of beer straight out of the fridge.
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
I offer also this gem, from a friend. A 'drink' was defined as six pints, so going for a drink, actually meant a session. Fewer than six pints did not count...
‘A drink’, is the amount one can consume, and still plausibly say to the missus “I just had the one”.
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Exactly. Who do people think brought Africans to the slave ports on the coast of Africa?
Oh, OK then. Enslaving bad, trading in slaves morally neutral?
Mr. Z, you're aware that Africans enslaved one another quite a lot too, right? And white people (Norse era) likewise? And white slaves were claimed by the barbary pirates?
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
Exactly. Who do people think brought Africans to the slave ports on the coast of Africa?
Several thoughts One is publicity..... lot of talk, books etc about slaves in the US. We know more about them than the folk in the Caribbean islands. As a subsidiary, Haiti has been largely ignored. Then there are numbers. The 'Atlantic Triangle' was a major European industrial exercise. Lack of publicity also accounts for the ignorance of the East African slave trade, from Ethiopia southwards to Madagascar, in which the Arabs, and particularly the Omani's, raided inland, taking slaves for rich, and not so rich, Arabs. And, especially, from Ethiopia, lighter skinned women. This was rather like the Norse slave traffic to Iceland, in which they took women from Ireland and the Hebrides.
Comments
Though you can also say the same of the Right, but it doesn't seem to hurt them as much.
"How hard can a website be? My 12 year old daughter can make one in 10 minutes...." etc etc
What dawned on me was if the tills went down in Tesco they were stuffed. If the Bill of Materials went down in a manufacturing company they would muddle through in the short term.
Things have moved on since then.
The level of IT in Manufacturing depends what it's being used for bill of materials not so important - hit pharmaceuticals or any other industry with exact measurements and its a very different world (similar to retail).
Does that apply between Harris and any other possible Democrat ?
May be it’s just me but when you see a piece that is critical of the BBC documentary described as being written by “the ambitious Amol Rajan”… I don’t know… it’s probably factual but definitely has an edge to it.
Only in 1980 when Reagan finally won the GOP nomination were the GOP able to regain the White House and beat Carter.
That is not a good omen for the Democrats in 2024 if VP Harris does end up their nominee, perhaps after, like Ford, taking the Presidency midterm
Personally, even as someone that has built simple websites, and been involved in more complex things, I still struggle to picture a team of 3,000 developers. 300 I can envisage. But logically the world's largest websites have many more, even than that.
Still bucket of cold sick levels.
Firstly, there is no transcript available, as far as I know, because the news article is reporting a speech that is yet to even be made. So, it has the hallmarks of a PR exercise, where highlights of the speech are released to the media for maximum impact. Even if the rest of the speech is more measured, which it probably is; it is clearly being peddled for a reason. It should be treated as a political statement.
The wording reported above and in the article- which will have been carefully thought out and signed off by the organisation - is quite inflammatory. She is not saying "schools should respect and engage with students views on contentious social issues". What she is effectively saying is that adults should follow the boundaries on speech that are set by children. The implication is, if children deem something to be racist or hateful, then it shouldn't be said or taught.
This is a new phenomenon that simply didn't exist until 2020. It would have been ridiculed by the same people who are now in full support of this thinking.
So if you keep saying to yourself you know lots of girls who passed through Benenden who are not like this, it means little: we are in year 2 of the revolution, and unless the adults in the room take back control, this type of thinking will simply ruin the whole education system.
Our goal - as a society and as individuals - should be such that everyone is judged based on their own character and abilities, not on their skin colour.
If people are being treated differently, then that is a problem. If organizations seem to treat black and white employees or customers or members of the public differently, then that is a problem. And I very much believe that there is instutionalised racism out there that needs to be confronted.
Now, do I believe that the average African-American faces more challenges than the average White American? Then the answer is yes.
But do I believe that Malia and Sasha Obama are more discriminated against, and likely to have worse life outcomes, than the white children of meth addicts in a poverty stricken town in West Virginia?
No, I don't.
Integrating various systems in such a way as to make, eventually, a profit is exactly the hard part of business, which is why most people aren't very good at it.
b) Everyone will pay up to £86,000 in care costs even under these plans and the home will no longer be exempt from care costs for at home care unlike now in return for the care costs cap for residential and at home care.
c) I wouldn't, I would ringfence NI just for the state pension, healthcare and contributory JSA based on the original principles of NI.
However there is no doubt the Tory candidate has made a gaffe in N Shropshire saying pensioners should pay NI given the seat is full of Tory pensioners who could go LD in the by election in protest now the LDs have attacked the Tory candidate for saying pensioners should be liable for NI
If someone forces a primary rather than a coronation then just maybe, the gods willing, it will become obvious that Trump is too old or infirmed by then.
I travel in hope.
Everyone has ancestors who were both slaves and slave owners. Condemning people today for things they've never done and seeking to throw money and privilege at others for events they never suffered is to divorce responsibility from reality.
https://twitter.com/IainDale/status/1462727357404520454?s=20
That was one of the weirdest Boris Johnson speeches yet, he described Peppa Pig as a “Picasso like hairdryer”, made brrm noises like a car, lost his place for 20 seconds, & said young people need to get back to the office because “Mother Nature does not like us working from home
https://twitter.com/STVColin/status/1462728496296480774?s=20
Unless you go to Barchester.
But it’s an insurance policy in case you do
My knowledge is a few years out of date now, but each till would hold a local copy of the current and previous prices and promos databases, to which they could fall back in an emergency. Updates were done on tills sequentially as the cashier changed. Each till also had a UPS good for a couple of hours, and there were a number of fallback GPRS-based card charging machines around. It was bloody difficult to actually close a supermarket with an IT failure. Restaurants would have a ‘master’ till with a UPS, that would last long enough to print out bills for all the tables. Hotels also have a fair amount of redundancy, often print an hourly list of checked-in rooms with outstanding bill amounts.
My current job is working in utility infrastructure, and there’s actually a lot less redundancy required there! If the control systems go down, they can run things manually pretty much indefinitely - by design.
Although I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
I know you would ring fence NI and of course that is what NI is meant to be for anyway really, but reality kicks in and we all know it goes into one bucket of money.
Re your comment about the candidate making a gaffe. Yes you are right, but it is sad that this is a gaffe and that the LDs will also naturally exploit it. I don't know what the LD policy is on NI. I would hope to amalgamate with Income Tax and if that is the case then it is somewhat opportunistic for them to attack the Tory candidate on this. But you know - by elections!
https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1462731920085762049/video/1
Ironically, it’s the bit in his speech where he talks about ‘growing confidence.’ https://twitter.com/Aiannucci/status/1462732961170825218
I'm more tolerant of his style than I used to be, and I think he would be an OK candidate.
My sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to go into nursing care for the last 18 months of her life
As it was cancer, this came under CHC (continuing health care) and was paid by the Wales NHS and it would be in England as far as I am aware. She surrendered her pension but did not pay anything further
Dementia is not seen as the same as cancer and other terminal illness and this is simply wrong
If it was recognised, most of this controversy would disappear as the various NHS authorities pay the cost in their budgets
However, this raises big questions on the funding of the NHS and may well account for the fight I had with Wales NHS to win the entitlement my sister had to CHC, as they tried everything to avoid conceding her right to this care
Perhaps his inability to turn over a page from one pile and place it onto the other pile explains how he got lost in his own Brexit deal.
Incidentally, telling the Port of Tyne how wonderful the competing Teesport Freeport is - top marks for baiting. Can he tell us why we had to leave the EU to deliver said Freeport?
There is no reason a government with the will to do so could not ringfence NI.
Clearly based on their leaflet attacking the Tory candidate for in the past proposing to make pensioners pay NI the LDs are opposed to that now.
So if the Tories do see a significant cut in their majority in North Shropshire or lose the seat not only can we blame Paterson, we can also blame a policy of making NI payable by pensioners by the Tory candidate and thanks to the LD by election campaign ensure this Tory government does not touch such a policy with a bargepole
Anyway, time for his mps to take the action needed to end his premiership
I'm not a massive enthusiast for CRT myself, but it's not an unreasonable point of view for societal analysis, particularly with respect to US society. My point is more that those who condemn it outright seem to believe a lot of stuff about it which simply isn't true.
Does he think everything is OK?
Is he mentally trying a fightback?
Is he resigned to leaving next year and doesn't really care?
2. Freeports don’t create wealth, they just displace it.
3. Freeports are pretty much the sum of this government’s growth policy.
I remember when this country was really moving forward - catching up with its peers and in some cases overtaking it.
It’s just sad to see this decline.
Just a general observation.
I organised a group that specialised in making large one off machines. They were also impressive, but again I guess you have to be when each build is unique.
The truth is, he’s lazy and ill-prepared, and he genuinely gives no fucks about Tyne or Tees.
Its completely unfair but why would anyone even think of replacing him when he can literally get away with anything with enough people to win the next GE
Sorry, I'm not coming to the parkrun today, I've got a heavy cold.
What does it matter anyway? They're just the CBI. Many of them won't have voted Tory anyway in 2019 so can be ignored and anyway the Tories have a majority of 80 and anyway the latest poll shows that people don't care about business experts and anyway there is no way there will be a vote on Tyneside independence under Boris anyway.
No further explanation needed
Do you think Carrie is ready to give that up next year when they hardly got to go anywhere on it due to Covid? Johnson is there for the long haul - literally and figuratively.
Looks to me as though it could have its own 'Wall of Champions'.
Is there a market on a safety car yet ?
Mind you, I switched off permanently during the latter era of John “Brexit makes me hard” Humphries.
Thanks in advance.
Then there are numbers. The 'Atlantic Triangle' was a major European industrial exercise.
Lack of publicity also accounts for the ignorance of the East African slave trade, from Ethiopia southwards to Madagascar, in which the Arabs, and particularly the Omani's, raided inland, taking slaves for rich, and not so rich, Arabs. And, especially, from Ethiopia, lighter skinned women.
This was rather like the Norse slave traffic to Iceland, in which they took women from Ireland and the Hebrides.