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Can anyone explain the mindset of anti-vaxxers like this? – politicalbetting.com

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  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,786
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    I would like to agree and hope you are right, but my experience of low key UK elections, typically parish but also borough is where it's an independent vs a political opponent the Indy wins, but as soon as two or more political opponents are involved it becomes political and the Indy gets squeezed.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,368
    kjh said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    I would like to agree and hope you are right, but my experience of low key UK elections, typically parish but also borough is where it's an independent vs a political opponent the Indy wins, but as soon as two or more political opponents are involved it becomes political and the Indy gets squeezed.
    Equally 2 independents against a political opponent and given that the political opponent is going to get 35-40% of the vote (and that's likely given the 2 party system in the US) than the person with the rosette is going to win as the 2 independents fight and split the remaining 60% of the votes.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859
    kjh said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    I would like to agree and hope you are right, but my experience of low key UK elections, typically parish but also borough is where it's an independent vs a political opponent the Indy wins, but as soon as two or more political opponents are involved it becomes political and the Indy gets squeezed.
    A nice illustration of how many of the votes for a party political candidate are actually votes against the other one!
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    Education is becoming just as politically-charged, as pretty much everything else in American society.

    The GOP reckon it was the number one reason behind their winning of the election for governor in Virginia, as large numbers of their voters are against changes being made to curricula in the past couple of years.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021
    Daily Mail - Testing shambles continues: Lateral flow and PCRs are STILL unavailable TODAY

    I see we are doing this again today....checks PCR availability. Full availability everywhere.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,630
    edited December 2021
    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation. The Hundred showed the next generation coming through.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is partly because of the focus on the former. Its mostly an issue with the batting and of you listen to the lies of Mo Ali he explained one half of the issue well and Liam Livingstone the other half.
  • Daily Mail - Testing shambles continues: Lateral flow and PCRs are STILL unavailable TODAY

    I see we are doing this again today....checks PCR availability. Full availability everywhere.

    And lateral flow tests? Pharmacies have been out of stock for days. Whether you can get them posted to you I'm not sure.

    And PCR tests are up and down like a yo-yo due to the way they are released.
  • "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,552
    It'll be interesting to scrutinise this page of endorsements from the 2019 Tory leadership election to see how many of, say, Jeremy Hunt's supporters are still in the Commons following GE2019.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorsements_in_the_2019_Conservative_Party_leadership_election
  • What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.
  • It is painful watching South Africa trying to bat to save a test match, painful because it reminds how pitiful England's performances have been.
  • What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    Wrongthink on the issues of cross dressing men being called women.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    What about the Dixie Chicks ?
  • Taz said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    What about the Dixie Chicks ?
    Didn't they also get cancelled for say something rude about George W. Bush?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
    Its not the all ECB fault. One half of the equation is to do with county game, which Mo Ali explained its time of year they play, the generak standard and also tactics....seaming ball, there is no point trying to bat for 6hrs, a ball has your name on it....instead they are told be aggressive, get 200-300 on the board, take on the 70 mph dobber.

    The other half is technique for especially T20, its akin to those people who specialises in "Long Drive" competitions in golf. Liam Livingstone explained how he has totally changed his technique so he can launch the ball consistency for 6. There is little concept of defence, its all power. Buttler and Bairstow have this issue.

    The second part s purely market economics. Why learn to be able to build a 6hr test innings when you can make million quid a year being as T20 gun for hire.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She’s a feminist, and feminism is now wrongthink.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,368
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    Education is becoming just as politically-charged, as pretty much everything else in American society.

    The GOP reckon it was the number one reason behind their winning of the election for governor in Virginia, as large numbers of their voters are against changes being made to curricula in the past couple of years.
    See again my post from yesterday regarding Oklahoma and trying to find another way to ban books.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376

    Taz said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    What about the Dixie Chicks ?
    Didn't they also get cancelled for say something rude about George W. Bush?
    Well remembered. Yes they did (I had to look it up)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks_controversy
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663
    Ho hum - another Brexit bonus...

    "The EU and the US reached a Halloween agreement to remove tariffs on a quota of steel and aluminium imported from the bloc into the US from 1 January, but tariffs will remain on all UK steel and aluminium exports after government talks failed to secure a matching breakthrough."

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/29/uk-steel-industry-braces-for-slump-in-trade-as-us-eu-tariffs-abolished
  • "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
    Its not the all ECB fault. One half of the equation is to do with county game, which Mo Ali explained its time of year they play, the generak standard and also tactics....seaming ball, there is no point trying to bat for 6hrs, a ball has your name on it....instead they are told be aggressive, get 200-300 on the board, take on the 70 mph dobber.

    The other half is technique for especially T20, its akin to those people who specialises in "Long Drive" competitions in golf. Liam Livingstone explained how he has totally changed his technique so he can launch the ball consistency for 6. Buttler and Bairstow have this issue.

    The second part s purely market economics. Why learn to be able to build a 6hr test innings when you can make million quid a year being a T20 gun for hire.
    I'm with Mike Atherton, the worst thing that happened to (test) cricket was India winning the world T20 in 2007.

    That doesn't happen and the IPL doesn't begin and up to that point India generally viewed T20 matches as hit and giggle stuff.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    Aston Villa ?
  • It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit
  • Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
  • Taz said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    Aston Villa ?
    Who can forget the controversy over which team David Cameron really supported? Or had vaguely heard of.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376
    Sandpit said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She’s a feminist, and feminism is now wrongthink.
    She didn’t take part in some recent documentary (which sounded like a fawning love fest of self congratulation by All participants from the reviews) about Harry Potter, she only featured in old interview footage from 2019.

    The reviews of the documentary are interesting, not for the JKR stuff, but for how cringeworthy it sounds
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    A month or so ago I asked the wise masses here whether to bother doing anything about rats in the garden. Ratman was just back for his second visit. Seems they are hungry for bait these dirty rats.

    In unrelated news, I was astonished to read today that Ghislaine Maxwell’s most recent visit to Buck House was in June 2019, mere weeks before Epstein’s re-arrest and death. This detail had passed me by until now.
  • What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,812
    I wouldn't wish Covid on anyone but if I had to make a choice....
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
    Its not the all ECB fault. One half of the equation is to do with county game, which Mo Ali explained its time of year they play, the generak standard and also tactics....seaming ball, there is no point trying to bat for 6hrs, a ball has your name on it....instead they are told be aggressive, get 200-300 on the board, take on the 70 mph dobber.

    The other half is technique for especially T20, its akin to those people who specialises in "Long Drive" competitions in golf. Liam Livingstone explained how he has totally changed his technique so he can launch the ball consistency for 6. Buttler and Bairstow have this issue.

    The second part s purely market economics. Why learn to be able to build a 6hr test innings when you can make million quid a year being a T20 gun for hire.
    I'm with Mike Atherton, the worst thing that happened to (test) cricket was India winning the world T20 in 2007.

    That doesn't happen and the IPL doesn't begin and up to that point India generally viewed T20 matches as hit and giggle stuff.
    Ultimately it comes down to economics. The author is complaining about white middle class know nothings, but a full day at the cricket doesn't fit with many normal people's lives. The ECB have realised they need to make money and whack it cricket is popular as it does fit with the availability of people free time. So to stop the whole system imploding they have shuffled the system to prioritize white ball cricket.

    You see it in Australia too, they haven't sold out any of the tests, massive numbers of empty seats.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663
    Sandpit said:

    moonshine said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Just come up on my Facebook page. A picture of Epstein and Maxwell comfortably together.

    The caption is 'Love is finishing each others sentences'

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/874/591/e17.jpeg
    Not that picture, but possibly even better!

    Has a sentencing date been set?
    Looks like the sentencing hearing will be at a later date, presumably so that she and her lawyer can work out how many names she needs to give to authorities, in order to see her get out in a handful of years.

    She’s going to know an awful lot of names, at least two living Presidents were associates of Epstein.
    She'll need to give a lot more than names. They will want evidence.
    Far be it for me to spread conspiracy :-)

    But I find it hard to believe she will be allowed to bring down two American political dynasties and the British Royal Family.

    Presumably she has made arrangements so that upon her unfortunate sudden demise, her story would still be aired. But you would have thought Epstein would have done the same and apparently not.
    It’s going to be quite fascinating to see how this all plays out.

    Maxwell is 60 years old, she won’t fancy living out the rest of her life behind bars, and clearly has a lot of records of people who were involved with Epstein.

    There have been loads of conspiracy theories over the years about high-society pedophile rings - and while this isn’t quite that, it’s clear that many of the young ladies involved with Epstein and Maxwell were a little too young, and a lot of the people at the parties were in the top echelons of American (and British) society.

    The question is, therefore, will release of the contents of her little black book be a mitigating factor or an aggravating factor, when it comes to sentencing. Or will she get “suicided” like Epstein, so that it can never be released.
    Is there really any credibility in the suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide? Genuine question.

    I have not followed it that closely but I assumed the idea that he was bumped off to save embarassment was just a QAnon level conspiracy theory.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    I’ve seen a few ex pro’s saying pretty much the same thing as this Nick Compton tweet. Coaching and learning technique. Coaches want to be peoples mates. I don’t know myself but this seems a theme. Matt Prior wrote about coaching being an issue yesterday too.

    https://twitter.com/thecompdog/status/1475752915826614275?s=21
  • It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
  • Sandpit said:

    moonshine said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Just come up on my Facebook page. A picture of Epstein and Maxwell comfortably together.

    The caption is 'Love is finishing each others sentences'

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/874/591/e17.jpeg
    Not that picture, but possibly even better!

    Has a sentencing date been set?
    Looks like the sentencing hearing will be at a later date, presumably so that she and her lawyer can work out how many names she needs to give to authorities, in order to see her get out in a handful of years.

    She’s going to know an awful lot of names, at least two living Presidents were associates of Epstein.
    She'll need to give a lot more than names. They will want evidence.
    Far be it for me to spread conspiracy :-)

    But I find it hard to believe she will be allowed to bring down two American political dynasties and the British Royal Family.

    Presumably she has made arrangements so that upon her unfortunate sudden demise, her story would still be aired. But you would have thought Epstein would have done the same and apparently not.
    It’s going to be quite fascinating to see how this all plays out.

    Maxwell is 60 years old, she won’t fancy living out the rest of her life behind bars, and clearly has a lot of records of people who were involved with Epstein.

    There have been loads of conspiracy theories over the years about high-society pedophile rings - and while this isn’t quite that, it’s clear that many of the young ladies involved with Epstein and Maxwell were a little too young, and a lot of the people at the parties were in the top echelons of American (and British) society.

    The question is, therefore, will release of the contents of her little black book be a mitigating factor or an aggravating factor, when it comes to sentencing. Or will she get “suicided” like Epstein, so that it can never be released.
    Is there really any credibility in the suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide? Genuine question.

    I have not followed it that closely but I assumed the idea that he was bumped off to save embarassment was just a QAnon level conspiracy theory.
    A compromise conspiracy theory is that Epstein was allowed to commit suicide by having the guards nip out to lunch for an hour or several.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    Chill bro!
  • eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    Education is becoming just as politically-charged, as pretty much everything else in American society.

    The GOP reckon it was the number one reason behind their winning of the election for governor in Virginia, as large numbers of their voters are against changes being made to curricula in the past couple of years.
    See again my post from yesterday regarding Oklahoma and trying to find another way to ban books.
    I was very confused when I read about the Oklahoma book banning bill because I'm sure I read on here that only the Left wants to cancel things they don't agree with. 🤔
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747

    Sandpit said:

    moonshine said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Just come up on my Facebook page. A picture of Epstein and Maxwell comfortably together.

    The caption is 'Love is finishing each others sentences'

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/874/591/e17.jpeg
    Not that picture, but possibly even better!

    Has a sentencing date been set?
    Looks like the sentencing hearing will be at a later date, presumably so that she and her lawyer can work out how many names she needs to give to authorities, in order to see her get out in a handful of years.

    She’s going to know an awful lot of names, at least two living Presidents were associates of Epstein.
    She'll need to give a lot more than names. They will want evidence.
    Far be it for me to spread conspiracy :-)

    But I find it hard to believe she will be allowed to bring down two American political dynasties and the British Royal Family.

    Presumably she has made arrangements so that upon her unfortunate sudden demise, her story would still be aired. But you would have thought Epstein would have done the same and apparently not.
    It’s going to be quite fascinating to see how this all plays out.

    Maxwell is 60 years old, she won’t fancy living out the rest of her life behind bars, and clearly has a lot of records of people who were involved with Epstein.

    There have been loads of conspiracy theories over the years about high-society pedophile rings - and while this isn’t quite that, it’s clear that many of the young ladies involved with Epstein and Maxwell were a little too young, and a lot of the people at the parties were in the top echelons of American (and British) society.

    The question is, therefore, will release of the contents of her little black book be a mitigating factor or an aggravating factor, when it comes to sentencing. Or will she get “suicided” like Epstein, so that it can never be released.
    Is there really any credibility in the suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide? Genuine question.

    I have not followed it that closely but I assumed the idea that he was bumped off to save embarassment was just a QAnon level conspiracy theory.
    Why would you assume that?
  • It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    The fundamental problem with AV is that some of the voters get two votes, and some only get one.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582
    edited December 2021

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    It’s a difficult one, and throwing money at it is required but still might not be enough.

    We can’t stop the $200k salaries at the top of the IPL, and the worry over time is that these can end up being $400k or $500k, there’s so much money in that competition and many other T20 competitions. Look at what’s happened in football, with rampant player salary inflation and average players now making £5m a year at top clubs.

    Can the ECB afford £400k or £500k for exclusive red-ball contracts, and keep up as the T20 salaries increase? Maybe they need to get some more commercial partnerships going at Lord’s, to raise more cash for the Test team.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021
    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    I’ve seen a few ex pro’s saying pretty much the same thing as this Nick Compton tweet. Coaching and learning technique. Coaches want to be peoples mates. I don’t know myself but this seems a theme. Matt Prior wrote about coaching being an issue yesterday too.

    https://twitter.com/thecompdog/status/1475752915826614275?s=21
    But the young players coming through have great technique.....just for a different game. They have all hit shots that no old school pro could ever imagine doing. It was jaw dropping when KP switch hit a shot, now its standard tool in the tool box.

    If you watched the Hundred every team had 20 year old English players who could just play incredible shots, score at 2 a ball with ease....this is where the money is.

    And the analysis of this is incredible. Its totally revolutionised the game.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,175

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    And this was the Guardian in 2019...

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/this-is-england-nation-unites-to-rejoice-in-cricket-world-cup-win

    However, Jacob Rees-Mogg attempted to make political capital from the victory with an off-key tweet saying that “we clearly don’t need Europe to win”. It was quickly pointed out that England did actually need Europe to win – in the form of Morgan, who is Irish.

    The actor Adil Ray went a step further by rejoicing in the diversity of the England team which, along with Morgan, also features players of West Indian, Pakistani and South African descent.

    Adil Ray OBE
    @adilray
    Thanks to Britain’s diversity, England won the @cricketworldcup for the very first time thanks to a Brit-Irishman, Kiwi, South African, West Indian and a Pakistani. This is England and it feels bloody fantastic. #cwc19 #England #cricket


    So Stokes is a Kiwi when we win and a player of "European heritage" when we lose.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,175
    Also from the Guardian hatchet job:

    England footballers take the knee. Its cricketers do not.

    Norwich City took the knee on Sunday. It didn't do them a lot of good.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376
    tlg86 said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    And this was the Guardian in 2019...

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/this-is-england-nation-unites-to-rejoice-in-cricket-world-cup-win

    However, Jacob Rees-Mogg attempted to make political capital from the victory with an off-key tweet saying that “we clearly don’t need Europe to win”. It was quickly pointed out that England did actually need Europe to win – in the form of Morgan, who is Irish.

    The actor Adil Ray went a step further by rejoicing in the diversity of the England team which, along with Morgan, also features players of West Indian, Pakistani and South African descent.

    Adil Ray OBE
    @adilray
    Thanks to Britain’s diversity, England won the @cricketworldcup for the very first time thanks to a Brit-Irishman, Kiwi, South African, West Indian and a Pakistani. This is England and it feels bloody fantastic. #cwc19 #England #cricket


    So Stokes is a Kiwi when we win and a player of "European heritage" when we lose.
    Out of a great sporting triumph we get joy sponges on all sides. Sad
  • BBC News - Covid: Nightingale surge hubs to be set up in eight hospitals, NHS England says
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59823652

    Why won't these NHS managers with their facts listen to the PB Virology experts. Tis but a cold, there is no threat to the NHS, drop all restrictions, huzzah!
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 21,968
    edited December 2021

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She's a feminist and feminism gets you cancelled. No penis and some people don't want you to speak.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747
    Eabhal said:

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    I thought it was a funny and insightful post.
    Yes. If CHB cannot see the friendly and good nature that Edmund’s post was made with, perhaps time to log off for a bit.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,859

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    The fundamental problem with AV is that some of the voters get two votes, and some only get one.
    err, no.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    Er, yes and no.

    The fact that the electorate changes for the final round from a group of reasonably well-qualified, self-interested and knowledgable people to a self-selected group of extremists can lead to some unfortunate results (see current leader).
  • eekeek Posts: 28,368
    edited December 2021

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    The problem is that it's highly contentious for the reasons @edmundintokyo talked about - mainly because both parties talk at cross purposes and never seem to understand that

    1) both sides do actually have valid points but
    2) what they are asking for is impossible because their desired fix creates the problem the other side is worried about (and is a problem that the other side just doesn't seem able to grasp or see)
    3) and no compromise is possible because it's very much a binary result that the other side cannot accept.

    We've covered the same issue here multiple times when talking about rapists ending up in Scottish Women's prisons because self identifying as a women is their "right". As it never ends well it's best to try and avoid the topic.

  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,523
    IanB2 said:

    kjh said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    I would like to agree and hope you are right, but my experience of low key UK elections, typically parish but also borough is where it's an independent vs a political opponent the Indy wins, but as soon as two or more political opponents are involved it becomes political and the Indy gets squeezed.
    A nice illustration of how many of the votes for a party political candidate are actually votes against the other one!
    Interesting point. For all my long party membership I could imagine voting for someone else in a parish council election, if it wasn't seen as politically significant. But I'd want to know more about what A. Smith actually thought. Virtually nobody is an entirely blank sheet of paper in politics, and issues with a political flavour are going to come up from time to time - curriculum issues, how to handle troublemakers, etc. If Smith said "Oh, I'm just a parent, I'll apply common sense" I'd see it as evasive or evidence that Smith has really never given serious issues a thought and is therefore unsuitable.
  • rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 8,296
    edited December 2021
    So have London cases peaked? If not, then we are surely going to go past the first wave's hospitalisation peak.
  • Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    It’s a difficult one, and throwing money at it is required but still might not be enough.

    We can’t stop the $200k salaries at the top of the IPL, and the worry over time is that these can end up being $400k or $500k, there’s so much money in that competition and many other T20 competitions. Look at what’s happened in football, with rampant player salary inflation and average players now making £5m a year at top clubs.

    Can the ECB afford £400k or £500k for exclusive red-ball contracts, and keep up as the T20 salaries increase? Maybe they need to get some more commercial partnerships going at Lord’s, to raise more cash for the Test team.
    Apropos of nothing but Sky next week will be airing a documentary series about Allen Stanford.

    https://twitter.com/south_shore_uk/status/1476178870634258435?s=21
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,747

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    Er, yes and no.

    The fact that the electorate changes for the final round from a group of reasonably well-qualified, self-interested and knowledgable people to a self-selected group of extremists can lead to some unfortunate results (see current leader).
    If the MPs were the only part of the process in 2019, Johnson would still have won a landslide.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376
    moonshine said:

    Eabhal said:

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    I thought it was a funny and insightful post.
    Yes. If CHB cannot see the friendly and good nature that Edmund’s post was made with, perhaps time to log off for a bit.
    Certainly made me smile and that whole toxic debate gives little to smile at.
  • eek said:

    It was a genuine question on JK Rowling to be honest, I haven't paid much attention to it.

    The issue seems to stem from whether there are multiple genders, from what I have read on Reddit

    If you managed to spend the last year on the internet without coming into contact with this particular controversy then just carry on doing what you've been doing, your social media streams are perfectly calibrated.
    Why are you shouting me down for asking a legitimate question? This has only come up because of the Harry Potter documentary that was just on. I wasn't aware that JK Rowling had been "cancelled"
    The problem is that it's highly contentious for the reasons @edmundintokyo talked about - mainly because both parties talk at cross purposes and never seem to understand that

    1) both sides do actually have valid points but
    2) what they are asking for is impossible because their desired fix creates the problem the other side is worried about (and is a problem that the other side just doesn't seem able to grasp or see)
    3) and no compromise is possible because it's very much a binary result that the other side cannot accept.

    We've covered the same issue here multiple times when talking about rapists ending up in Scottish Women's prisons because self identifying as a women is their "right". As it never ends well it's best to try and avoid the topic.

    Thank you - I'm not sure why this couldn't just be the initial reply.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    Sandpit said:

    moonshine said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Just come up on my Facebook page. A picture of Epstein and Maxwell comfortably together.

    The caption is 'Love is finishing each others sentences'

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/874/591/e17.jpeg
    Not that picture, but possibly even better!

    Has a sentencing date been set?
    Looks like the sentencing hearing will be at a later date, presumably so that she and her lawyer can work out how many names she needs to give to authorities, in order to see her get out in a handful of years.

    She’s going to know an awful lot of names, at least two living Presidents were associates of Epstein.
    She'll need to give a lot more than names. They will want evidence.
    Far be it for me to spread conspiracy :-)

    But I find it hard to believe she will be allowed to bring down two American political dynasties and the British Royal Family.

    Presumably she has made arrangements so that upon her unfortunate sudden demise, her story would still be aired. But you would have thought Epstein would have done the same and apparently not.
    It’s going to be quite fascinating to see how this all plays out.

    Maxwell is 60 years old, she won’t fancy living out the rest of her life behind bars, and clearly has a lot of records of people who were involved with Epstein.

    There have been loads of conspiracy theories over the years about high-society pedophile rings - and while this isn’t quite that, it’s clear that many of the young ladies involved with Epstein and Maxwell were a little too young, and a lot of the people at the parties were in the top echelons of American (and British) society.

    The question is, therefore, will release of the contents of her little black book be a mitigating factor or an aggravating factor, when it comes to sentencing. Or will she get “suicided” like Epstein, so that it can never be released.
    Is there really any credibility in the suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide? Genuine question.

    I have not followed it that closely but I assumed the idea that he was bumped off to save embarassment was just a QAnon level conspiracy theory.
    He was supposed to be on suicide watch, but the guards were asleep, the cameras not working, and the post-mortem suggested his injuries could be from strangulation rather than hanging.

    Now, it could all be co-incidence, he saw an opportunity and went for it in a clumsy way. But the conspiracy theorists are indeed having a field day with the story. There were definitely an awful lot of people happy to see him dead.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,355
    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    They need to somehow make a domestic first-class competition pay out, so that the players who might become good enough for the Test team can get paid good money while they try to get good enough.

    But I don't see any way that first-class cricket can compete with T20 and raise the same amount of money. Chances have to be high that cricket will ultimately become T20, and maybe one-dayers, with the multi-day matches being played occasionally as a novelty. That's already the status quo in women's cricket.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,561
    edited December 2021
    Taz said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    What about the Dixie Chicks ?
    They are now the Chicks.

    Being associated with the Confederate-era South is now bad branding....

    Nothing to do with dicks.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    moonshine said:

    darkage said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Foxy said:

    Pulpstar said:

    If you test positive lft do you still need a PCR because that is absolubtely bonkers if so right now.
    Bayes is free

    Under current rules, yes.

    Omicron seems harder to detect on LFTs. I know a few people with negative LFTs, sometimes serially, yet positive on PCR.
    Negative lfts, sure. But I'm on about positive ones. A positive lft should add straight to the case number.
    Its statistical madness to need PCR 'confirmation'
    How about this:

    - end routine mass testing and self isolation.
    - Seriousness of covid determined by hospital admissions where Covid is established as main cause.
    - Large scale ventillators and covid treatment facilities / Nightingale style - mass capacity. Reuse for next plague/pandemic.

    Edit - What was the problem with the original nightingale plan? Is it just capacity in the healthcare system and, if so, can we build that up instead of accepting endless economic and social harm?
    At a societal / civilisation scale, Covid-19 has been a bloody nose. It should have opened eyes to how unprepared we are for The Big One.

    Instead it’s all being used as a political football. We should be stockpiling and building up domestic supply capacity for the things that really do work and would be necessary to survive a pandemic that’s an order of magnitude more virulent.

    - FFP3 masks for whole population, hazmats for healthcare and emergency workers, not just sub grade PPE from Grabcoque’s pub landlord,
    - Easily deliverable nutrition, at least 6 months worth stockpiled
    - Vaccine supply chain (biological precursors, vials etc…)
    - Energy products
    - Other standard medical provisions

    Etc…

    Our strategic resilience is piss poor. Government should plan for an emergency where international trade more or less breaks down for a year. For which there are many potential causes. And then overlay pandemic preparedness on top.
    Much of which would be decent preparation for a nasty cyberwar which takes out essential systems internationally.
    Not particularly likely, but not particularly unlikely, either.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,011
    A new day, a new anecdote...

    I ordered a box of LFTs on Christmas Day. Still no indication that they have been dispatched.

    None available to order at the moment.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    It’s a difficult one, and throwing money at it is required but still might not be enough.

    We can’t stop the $200k salaries at the top of the IPL, and the worry over time is that these can end up being $400k or $500k, there’s so much money in that competition and many other T20 competitions. Look at what’s happened in football, with rampant player salary inflation and average players now making £5m a year at top clubs.

    Can the ECB afford £400k or £500k for exclusive red-ball contracts, and keep up as the T20 salaries increase? Maybe they need to get some more commercial partnerships going at Lord’s, to raise more cash for the Test team.
    The question is do young players even want to. Being a one day specalist is a lot more fun, easier on the body, get to travel the world, the big fan bases, the commercial opportunities....its a tough sell to say ignore all that, slog it out for peanuts playing 4 day cricket around the world in front of nobody.
  • BBC News - Covid: Nightingale surge hubs to be set up in eight hospitals, NHS England says
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59823652

    Why won't these NHS managers with their facts listen to the PB Virology experts. Tis but a cold, there is no threat to the NHS, drop all restrictions, huzzah!
    I'm pretty sure the "PB Virology experts" general opinion is that anyone unvaccinated who gets infected should be treated in a tent and leave the real beds to other people.

    So it seems like the NHS Managers are listening to us. Good job!
  • Charles said:

    Charles said:

    MattW said:

    Charles said:

    eek said:

    FPT

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    The same people that said Delta was nothing to worry about, are those that are saying Omicron is nothing to worry about.

    So is anyone who said Delta was nothing to worry about, going to stick their head up and say this is different

    Who said Delta is nothing to worry about?
    I don't recall you calling for a lockdown when Delta was around, we didn't need one was what you and several others said. I remember arguing with you about it
    That's not the same thing, is it?
    My point is you were wrong then and so I am interested in people that did call for a lockdown then who don't think there is anything to worry about now.

    What I am hearing now is the same people that initially said "nothing to worry about" then said "lockdown isn't needed" then said "lockdown 2.0 isn't needed". It's the same people
    You keep making these massive sweeping generalisations.
    I have generally preferred not to make generalisations.

    And with that, good night.
    But the French elite are so paranoid about Brexit, so allergic to it and fearful of it, they set a low bar for its success. Britain surviving intact and not starving to death will probably seem quite successful to them. given their direful predictions of total British implosion.

    Then the next time the EU does something widely unpopular, eurosceptics across the continent will start to look longingly at independent London.

    This is the great French fear. By this guy's account it does stalk their nightmares.
    The French are trying to restrict travel to essential only.
    By blocking British residents of Belgium or the Netherlands who want to use EuroTunnel and transit France?
    Are the blocking British? Or just anyone who isn't EU/Schengen?
    Travel from the UK to France

    URGENT UPDATE FOR BRITISH RESIDENTS IN EU

    Following a French Government decision, on 28/12/2021, unless they hold French residency, British citizens are now considered 3rd country citizens and can no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU.


    https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/travelling-with-us/latest/covid-19/#foca
    Exactly. They aren't treating us differently. They're applying the 3rd country rules which our government demanded be imposed upon us.
    What’s the warning

    Be careful what you wish for - it may become true.
    I don't understand the complaints. What did they think "3rd country" meant? This is what they demanded and they've succeeded in being treated thus.

    Just wait until next week when the usual suspects try and blame the French for our lack of Border Control Posts, staff or computers.
    Except the rights of British citizens with legal residency in the EU that pre-dates Brexit have their rights protected by treaty.

    I think this is just Macron being a twat again, assuming the allegation is true.

    Blocking the UK, when Belgium had had case rates twice as high as our peak at that point for weeks was the action of a kneejerking numpty.
    It’s totally Macron being a twat.

    But it’s the resounding silence from the Remoaners that amuses
    Why should we comment? This is what Leavers wanted. To be outside the EU and to be treated like outsiders.

    Well congrats!
    Because it’s a breach of the Withdrawal Treaty in the same way that they got very excited about the administrative procedures on settled status.
    It is - in the same way that other border closures were breaches of other treaties like Schengen. But its a pandemic - temporary breaches are permitted.

    Again, we are being treated as we demanded - as a 3rd country. They had to arbitrate on which exceptions to their medically induced ban would exist and they have tret us like the rest of the world not Europe. At our request.

    You and others complaining demonstrates English exceptionalism at its finest. That "treat us like a 3rd country" actually meant "we don't want to be European but you will do what we bally well say because we are English and that means we get to make all the rules".
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,812
    RobD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Scott_xP said:

    🔴 NEW: Sajid Javid has told MPs there will be "no quick fix" to the growing Covid testing crisis, with officials warning that the system will be overwhelmed within days

    Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/29/covid-testing-tatters-sajid-javid-blames-huge-surge-demand/

    Looking calmly ahead for a moment, unless we get to a situation which normalises a pandemic as an endemic condition pretty quickly - say by mid 2022 - we are all going to go mad. This requires both facts (nearly everyone has had it, been vaccinated and continues to be, is a special case so in hiding, is already dead, or is in the Piers Corbyn camp so willingly accepts whatever comes their way from benign mother nature) and a collective effort of the will to see the matter in the same light as flu and other things which are around and can kill, but don't kill most of the people most of the time.

    The availability of testing is, for this future purpose, almost worthless. I should think there are literally millions of people who have (quietly) not yet Covid tested themselves on a single occasion. Let's get used to it.
    I've not yet had a Covid test. But then I don't go out much. ;)
    We had them when my daughter got a positive test. Since then we have used LFTs as a precautionary step, my daughter (same one) took one yesterday when she had a really sore throat and was feeling ill before she went for her driving lesson because she thought that was only fair when she was going to be in the car with her instructor for an hour. It was clear.

    900k PCR tests a day is a truly incredible number out of an adult population of roughly 55m. It is an astounding logistical achievement but it does seem inevitable as the current peak of Omicron cases occurs that it will be insufficient for a time if people use them the way I did, by having a test when a close contact from your household is positive.

    There has to be limits and there has to be priorities. I am disappointed that @Foxy's blood oxygen test is not being used more widely. It seems better suited to identify those who actually need help.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,561

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    You call it "AV". I call it "Keep Another IDS off the Ballot".

    I'm not sure what Labour would call it, but whatever it is, they want it - to Keep Another Corbyn off the Ballot....
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    Did she actually say that? I have zero interest in TERF wars, but my impression was that she said that trans rights couldn’t be at the expense of women’s rights
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663
    moonshine said:

    Sandpit said:

    moonshine said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Just come up on my Facebook page. A picture of Epstein and Maxwell comfortably together.

    The caption is 'Love is finishing each others sentences'

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/874/591/e17.jpeg
    Not that picture, but possibly even better!

    Has a sentencing date been set?
    Looks like the sentencing hearing will be at a later date, presumably so that she and her lawyer can work out how many names she needs to give to authorities, in order to see her get out in a handful of years.

    She’s going to know an awful lot of names, at least two living Presidents were associates of Epstein.
    She'll need to give a lot more than names. They will want evidence.
    Far be it for me to spread conspiracy :-)

    But I find it hard to believe she will be allowed to bring down two American political dynasties and the British Royal Family.

    Presumably she has made arrangements so that upon her unfortunate sudden demise, her story would still be aired. But you would have thought Epstein would have done the same and apparently not.
    It’s going to be quite fascinating to see how this all plays out.

    Maxwell is 60 years old, she won’t fancy living out the rest of her life behind bars, and clearly has a lot of records of people who were involved with Epstein.

    There have been loads of conspiracy theories over the years about high-society pedophile rings - and while this isn’t quite that, it’s clear that many of the young ladies involved with Epstein and Maxwell were a little too young, and a lot of the people at the parties were in the top echelons of American (and British) society.

    The question is, therefore, will release of the contents of her little black book be a mitigating factor or an aggravating factor, when it comes to sentencing. Or will she get “suicided” like Epstein, so that it can never be released.
    Is there really any credibility in the suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide? Genuine question.

    I have not followed it that closely but I assumed the idea that he was bumped off to save embarassment was just a QAnon level conspiracy theory.
    Why would you assume that?
    Occam's razor.

    How many people would need to be involved in a conspiracy to murder Epstein in prison and ensure it was covered up?
  • eekeek Posts: 28,368
    DavidL said:

    RobD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Scott_xP said:

    🔴 NEW: Sajid Javid has told MPs there will be "no quick fix" to the growing Covid testing crisis, with officials warning that the system will be overwhelmed within days

    Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/29/covid-testing-tatters-sajid-javid-blames-huge-surge-demand/

    Looking calmly ahead for a moment, unless we get to a situation which normalises a pandemic as an endemic condition pretty quickly - say by mid 2022 - we are all going to go mad. This requires both facts (nearly everyone has had it, been vaccinated and continues to be, is a special case so in hiding, is already dead, or is in the Piers Corbyn camp so willingly accepts whatever comes their way from benign mother nature) and a collective effort of the will to see the matter in the same light as flu and other things which are around and can kill, but don't kill most of the people most of the time.

    The availability of testing is, for this future purpose, almost worthless. I should think there are literally millions of people who have (quietly) not yet Covid tested themselves on a single occasion. Let's get used to it.
    I've not yet had a Covid test. But then I don't go out much. ;)
    We had them when my daughter got a positive test. Since then we have used LFTs as a precautionary step, my daughter (same one) took one yesterday when she had a really sore throat and was feeling ill before she went for her driving lesson because she thought that was only fair when she was going to be in the car with her instructor for an hour. It was clear.

    900k PCR tests a day is a truly incredible number out of an adult population of roughly 55m. It is an astounding logistical achievement but it does seem inevitable as the current peak of Omicron cases occurs that it will be insufficient for a time if people use them the way I did, by having a test when a close contact from your household is positive.

    There has to be limits and there has to be priorities. I am disappointed that @Foxy's blood oxygen test is not being used more widely. It seems better suited to identify those who actually need help.
    The blood oxygen test is great for telling you you need to go to hospital now - it's not so great for saying whether what you've got is Covid, a cold, flu or something else.
  • Pulpstar said:

    Foxy said:

    Pulpstar said:

    If you test positive lft do you still need a PCR because that is absolubtely bonkers if so right now.
    Bayes is free

    Under current rules, yes.

    Omicron seems harder to detect on LFTs. I know a few people with negative LFTs, sometimes serially, yet positive on PCR.
    Negative lfts, sure. But I'm on about positive ones. A positive lft should add straight to the case number.
    Its statistical madness to need PCR 'confirmation'
    They don't trust LFTs. Probably for good reason considering how many false results they churn out. But I do agree that they seem to be false negative as opposed to false positive.
  • Charles said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    Did she actually say that? I have zero interest in TERF wars, but my impression was that she said that trans rights couldn’t be at the expense of women’s rights
    As far as I understand it, I think she meant that there are only two sexes.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,355

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
    Its not the all ECB fault. One half of the equation is to do with county game, which Mo Ali explained its time of year they play, the generak standard and also tactics....seaming ball, there is no point trying to bat for 6hrs, a ball has your name on it....instead they are told be aggressive, get 200-300 on the board, take on the 70 mph dobber.

    The other half is technique for especially T20, its akin to those people who specialises in "Long Drive" competitions in golf. Liam Livingstone explained how he has totally changed his technique so he can launch the ball consistency for 6. Buttler and Bairstow have this issue.

    The second part s purely market economics. Why learn to be able to build a 6hr test innings when you can make million quid a year being a T20 gun for hire.
    I'm with Mike Atherton, the worst thing that happened to (test) cricket was India winning the world T20 in 2007.

    That doesn't happen and the IPL doesn't begin and up to that point India generally viewed T20 matches as hit and giggle stuff.
    You could argue that Test cricket's last chance was to see India win the inaugural World Test Championship, in the hope that it would send India wild over 6-day rain-affected cricket matches.

    "How I Killed Test Cricket" could be the title of Kyle Jamieson's future autobiography.
  • NerysHughesNerysHughes Posts: 3,375
    DavidL said:

    RobD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Scott_xP said:

    🔴 NEW: Sajid Javid has told MPs there will be "no quick fix" to the growing Covid testing crisis, with officials warning that the system will be overwhelmed within days

    Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/29/covid-testing-tatters-sajid-javid-blames-huge-surge-demand/

    Looking calmly ahead for a moment, unless we get to a situation which normalises a pandemic as an endemic condition pretty quickly - say by mid 2022 - we are all going to go mad. This requires both facts (nearly everyone has had it, been vaccinated and continues to be, is a special case so in hiding, is already dead, or is in the Piers Corbyn camp so willingly accepts whatever comes their way from benign mother nature) and a collective effort of the will to see the matter in the same light as flu and other things which are around and can kill, but don't kill most of the people most of the time.

    The availability of testing is, for this future purpose, almost worthless. I should think there are literally millions of people who have (quietly) not yet Covid tested themselves on a single occasion. Let's get used to it.
    I've not yet had a Covid test. But then I don't go out much. ;)
    We had them when my daughter got a positive test. Since then we have used LFTs as a precautionary step, my daughter (same one) took one yesterday when she had a really sore throat and was feeling ill before she went for her driving lesson because she thought that was only fair when she was going to be in the car with her instructor for an hour. It was clear.

    900k PCR tests a day is a truly incredible number out of an adult population of roughly 55m. It is an astounding logistical achievement but it does seem inevitable as the current peak of Omicron cases occurs that it will be insufficient for a time if people use them the way I did, by having a test when a close contact from your household is positive.

    There has to be limits and there has to be priorities. I am disappointed that @Foxy's blood oxygen test is not being used more widely. It seems better suited to identify those who actually need help.
    Apparently our testing system in this Country is a "shambles".
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,812

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue.
    Hey, the only world titles the men's side have ever won were when we members of the EU.

    But yes, we've sacrificed white ball cricket over test/red ball cricket.
    Its not the all ECB fault. One half of the equation is to do with county game, which Mo Ali explained its time of year they play, the generak standard and also tactics....seaming ball, there is no point trying to bat for 6hrs, a ball has your name on it....instead they are told be aggressive, get 200-300 on the board, take on the 70 mph dobber.

    The other half is technique for especially T20, its akin to those people who specialises in "Long Drive" competitions in golf. Liam Livingstone explained how he has totally changed his technique so he can launch the ball consistency for 6. Buttler and Bairstow have this issue.

    The second part s purely market economics. Why learn to be able to build a 6hr test innings when you can make million quid a year being a T20 gun for hire.
    I'm with Mike Atherton, the worst thing that happened to (test) cricket was India winning the world T20 in 2007.

    That doesn't happen and the IPL doesn't begin and up to that point India generally viewed T20 matches as hit and giggle stuff.
    Ultimately it comes down to economics. The author is complaining about white middle class know nothings, but a full day at the cricket doesn't fit with many normal people's lives. The ECB have realised they need to make money and whack it cricket is popular as it does fit with the availability of people free time. So to stop the whole system imploding they have shuffled the system to prioritize white ball cricket.

    You see it in Australia too, they haven't sold out any of the tests, massive numbers of empty seats.
    In fairness they are not seeing much competitive cricket if they do turn up.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Taz said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    What about the Dixie Chicks ?
    Didn't they also get cancelled for say something rude about George W. Bush?
    They said the war in Iraq was wrong.

    Which is fine.

    And then added that they couldn’t support American soldiers fighting in an illegal war.

    Which didn’t go down so well with the country music set…
  • eek said:

    DavidL said:

    RobD said:

    algarkirk said:

    Scott_xP said:

    🔴 NEW: Sajid Javid has told MPs there will be "no quick fix" to the growing Covid testing crisis, with officials warning that the system will be overwhelmed within days

    Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/29/covid-testing-tatters-sajid-javid-blames-huge-surge-demand/

    Looking calmly ahead for a moment, unless we get to a situation which normalises a pandemic as an endemic condition pretty quickly - say by mid 2022 - we are all going to go mad. This requires both facts (nearly everyone has had it, been vaccinated and continues to be, is a special case so in hiding, is already dead, or is in the Piers Corbyn camp so willingly accepts whatever comes their way from benign mother nature) and a collective effort of the will to see the matter in the same light as flu and other things which are around and can kill, but don't kill most of the people most of the time.

    The availability of testing is, for this future purpose, almost worthless. I should think there are literally millions of people who have (quietly) not yet Covid tested themselves on a single occasion. Let's get used to it.
    I've not yet had a Covid test. But then I don't go out much. ;)
    We had them when my daughter got a positive test. Since then we have used LFTs as a precautionary step, my daughter (same one) took one yesterday when she had a really sore throat and was feeling ill before she went for her driving lesson because she thought that was only fair when she was going to be in the car with her instructor for an hour. It was clear.

    900k PCR tests a day is a truly incredible number out of an adult population of roughly 55m. It is an astounding logistical achievement but it does seem inevitable as the current peak of Omicron cases occurs that it will be insufficient for a time if people use them the way I did, by having a test when a close contact from your household is positive.

    There has to be limits and there has to be priorities. I am disappointed that @Foxy's blood oxygen test is not being used more widely. It seems better suited to identify those who actually need help.
    The blood oxygen test is great for telling you you need to go to hospital now - it's not so great for saying whether what you've got is Covid, a cold, flu or something else.
    Though why does anyone vaccinated need to know whether the virus they've got is Covid, a cold, flu or something else?
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376
    Charles said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She says chicks with dicks aren't chicks.

    That's what it boils down to.
    Did she actually say that? I have zero interest in TERF wars, but my impression was that she said that trans rights couldn’t be at the expense of women’s rights
    Pretty much it in a nutshell.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:
    It's also spectacularly dumb.

    If I were a zero information voter faced with a choice for my school of:

    A Smith, Independent Parent
    B Jones, Republican/Democrat

    I would almost certainly pick Mr Smith. Parents want someone who will listen to them, not to their political masters.
    If you haven't registered an affiliation, you might not even be allowed to vote under some of the loopiest proposals (and that's a quarter of the Florida electorate).
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,918

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    You call it "AV". I call it "Keep Another IDS off the Ballot".

    I'm not sure what Labour would call it, but whatever it is, they want it - to Keep Another Corbyn off the Ballot....
    IDS won the Tory leadership under the party's AV system once Portillo and Davis and Ancram were knocked out and he was the only alternative left to Ken Clarke
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,175
    I think taking Test matches off free to air TV was a huge mistake. There's no way I'd have been interested in cricket without being exposed to cricket on TV as a child.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She’s a feminist, and feminism is now wrongthink.
    She didn’t take part in some recent documentary (which sounded like a fawning love fest of self congratulation by All participants from the reviews) about Harry Potter, she only featured in old interview footage from 2019.

    The reviews of the documentary are interesting, not for the JKR stuff, but for how cringeworthy it sounds
    I believe she was *excluded from* not “didn’t take part in” the documentary
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,918

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    Peak Guardian.

    They do realise the England cricket team was regularly thrashed 5-0 in Australia before Brexit.

    As had been pointed out too England only won the world Cup after the Brexit vote
  • HYUFD said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    You call it "AV". I call it "Keep Another IDS off the Ballot".

    I'm not sure what Labour would call it, but whatever it is, they want it - to Keep Another Corbyn off the Ballot....
    IDS won the Tory leadership under the party's AV system once Portillo and Davis and Ancram were knocked out and he was the only alternative left to Ken Clarke
    How was a party that chose IDS over Ken Clarke ever let back into Downing Street?
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,355
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    It’s a difficult one, and throwing money at it is required but still might not be enough.

    We can’t stop the $200k salaries at the top of the IPL, and the worry over time is that these can end up being $400k or $500k, there’s so much money in that competition and many other T20 competitions. Look at what’s happened in football, with rampant player salary inflation and average players now making £5m a year at top clubs.

    Can the ECB afford £400k or £500k for exclusive red-ball contracts, and keep up as the T20 salaries increase? Maybe they need to get some more commercial partnerships going at Lord’s, to raise more cash for the Test team.
    The ECB have just launched a new, even shorter, format of the game in order to raise cash. They know where the money is. The Head of cricket in Ireland has said that staging a Test match loses them money.

    Unless you can make more money out of first-class cricket by selling it to spectators and fans then it's only going to end one way.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,663
    moonshine said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    Er, yes and no.

    The fact that the electorate changes for the final round from a group of reasonably well-qualified, self-interested and knowledgable people to a self-selected group of extremists can lead to some unfortunate results (see current leader).
    If the MPs were the only part of the process in 2019, Johnson would still have won a landslide.
    Only if a lot of Gove's supporters switched to Johnson in a final round, something they had not previously shown much sign of doing.
  • HYUFD said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    If this was an attempt to troll by throwing out a casual reference to an issue that excites two rival tribes of the angriest people on the internet and doing an innocent face then please do it somewhere else. If you're going to do that kind of trolling here, the only permitted subject is AV.
    I am thinking about doing one of Sunday's pieces on the Tory leadership election rules and the fact the Tories use a form of quasi-AV to elect their leader.

    Multiple rounds of voting, the candidate with the least votes get eliminated, and we only have a winner when someone gets 50% plus of the votes.
    You call it "AV". I call it "Keep Another IDS off the Ballot".

    I'm not sure what Labour would call it, but whatever it is, they want it - to Keep Another Corbyn off the Ballot....
    IDS won the Tory leadership under the party's AV system once Portillo and Davis and Ancram were knocked out and he was the only alternative left to Ken Clarke
    How was a party that chose IDS over Ken Clarke ever let back into Downing Street?
    They sorted themselves out, we chose Cameron over David Davis, and the other lot let Gordon Brown into Downing Street.
  • Ho hum - another Brexit bonus...

    "The EU and the US reached a Halloween agreement to remove tariffs on a quota of steel and aluminium imported from the bloc into the US from 1 January, but tariffs will remain on all UK steel and aluminium exports after government talks failed to secure a matching breakthrough."

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/29/uk-steel-industry-braces-for-slump-in-trade-as-us-eu-tariffs-abolished

    That is Good News for blighty. We don't want to be glad-handed with some namby-pamby European agreement. We want our OWN agreement with the US to make our steel 10% cheaper than the Europeans. That way by the time we add on the cost of customs to ship our part-made steel to the EU and back again (having shut UK finishing plants for various things we need) it will be the same price. Huzzah!
  • Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    I don't know the solution. The other problem is English players used to spend the off season in places like Australia or South Africa, now there is always some whack it cricket to play instead, where few weeks work is worth a years salary.
    It’s a difficult one, and throwing money at it is required but still might not be enough.

    We can’t stop the $200k salaries at the top of the IPL, and the worry over time is that these can end up being $400k or $500k, there’s so much money in that competition and many other T20 competitions. Look at what’s happened in football, with rampant player salary inflation and average players now making £5m a year at top clubs.

    Can the ECB afford £400k or £500k for exclusive red-ball contracts, and keep up as the T20 salaries increase? Maybe they need to get some more commercial partnerships going at Lord’s, to raise more cash for the Test team.
    The question is do young players even want to. Being a one day specalist is a lot more fun, easier on the body, get to travel the world, the big fan bases, the commercial opportunities....its a tough sell to say ignore all that, slog it out for peanuts playing 4 day cricket around the world in front of nobody.
    And if the money is with one day or shorter cricket, isn't that because that's where the public interest is?

    First class cricket is a glorious thing, but that's not enough to ensure its survival. For a long time, county championship cricket has survived on cross-subsidy, and Test cricket might be going the same way.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,376
    Charles said:

    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    What is going on with JK Rowling? This issue seems to have totally passed me by.

    She’s a feminist, and feminism is now wrongthink.
    She didn’t take part in some recent documentary (which sounded like a fawning love fest of self congratulation by All participants from the reviews) about Harry Potter, she only featured in old interview footage from 2019.

    The reviews of the documentary are interesting, not for the JKR stuff, but for how cringeworthy it sounds
    I believe she was *excluded from* not “didn’t take part in” the documentary
    You’re quite correct on that, my error.

    Also this

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jk-rowling-fantastic-beasts-trailer-b1976465.html
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,989
    edited December 2021
    In terms of batting the couple of really revealing segments sky have done was Buttler with Flintoff and Livingstone with KP.

    We all remember Flintoff as this powerful batsman. They asked him to try and hit some 4s and 6s off throwdowns and then Buttler and basically said your technique is all wrong for doing this...watch...and proceeded to make Flintoff look like a weak old man, despite towering over Buttler. He explained to Flintoff you were taught to hit straight through the ball, straight bat, solid wrists etc, thats all wrong if you want to maximise power for one day cricket.

    Then the same with Livingstone and KP. KP was trying to launch these balls, Livingstone came in and just smashed it so much further...again he said to KP, no your technique is wrongz Jos Buttler showed me this and then I worked on my own method....focus on bat speed. Livingstone went on to say his technique is built, a good hit is miles over the boundary, a bad hit can still get there.

    It was a revealing insight how they have developed techniques optimised for a particular type of cricket, its no wonder they struggle in another form.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    Sandpit said:

    "English cricket is at risk of becoming a metaphor for Brexit, deluded about its abilities and achievements, promoting itself as the envy of the world when it is not, and resentful of its critics." Martin Kettle...

    ....Cricket is ruled by upper-class white men, deluded about their abilities. It’s hard not to see a parallel between the Ashes shambles and Brexit


    https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1476474159945424898

    My word, we were shit before Brexit but I can see why the analogy appeals to some.

    That is absolute tosh. England white ball has been revolutionised over the past few years and enormous strength in depth. England could put out a 3rd XI in ODis or T20s and still be competitive with any nation.

    Test cricket, nobody is deluded that there is an issue there, it is because of the focus on the former.
    The question is how to change it, when all the teenage cricketers coming through know they can earn six figures in a month playing whack-ball in India?

    Can they raise enough cash for central Test contracts, to make it worthwhile for players to persue Test cricket as a viable career? Would probably need to be a couple of million a year, spread over half a dozen core team members who will only play first class cricket.
    They need to somehow make a domestic first-class competition pay out, so that the players who might become good enough for the Test team can get paid good money while they try to get good enough.

    But I don't see any way that first-class cricket can compete with T20 and raise the same amount of money. Chances have to be high that cricket will ultimately become T20, and maybe one-dayers, with the multi-day matches being played occasionally as a novelty. That's already the status quo in women's cricket.
    The only way I could see a domestic FC competition paying out, would be to significantly reduce the number of sides. The problem with which is the existing county structure. You’d need maybe half a dozen sides, perhaps with invitational teams from SA and Aus added. There’s pretty much no gate revenue, so you’d need to sell it to TV, who much prefer the crash-bang-wallop product. You’d need to pay those 100 ish players £100k each too, as 18 year olds. So you’ve gone from needing £2-3m for a Test side, to needing £12-13m for a whole layer of cricket below.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,368

    Ho hum - another Brexit bonus...

    "The EU and the US reached a Halloween agreement to remove tariffs on a quota of steel and aluminium imported from the bloc into the US from 1 January, but tariffs will remain on all UK steel and aluminium exports after government talks failed to secure a matching breakthrough."

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/29/uk-steel-industry-braces-for-slump-in-trade-as-us-eu-tariffs-abolished

    That is Good News for blighty. We don't want to be glad-handed with some namby-pamby European agreement. We want our OWN agreement with the US to make our steel 10% cheaper than the Europeans. That way by the time we add on the cost of customs to ship our part-made steel to the EU and back again (having shut UK finishing plants for various things we need) it will be the same price. Huzzah!
    How do you make it cheaper than zero tariff?

  • A new day, a new anecdote...

    I ordered a box of LFTs on Christmas Day. Still no indication that they have been dispatched.

    None available to order at the moment.

    Tbf, today is only the second working day since you ordered the LFTs. Whether they have any to send you has yet to be determined.
This discussion has been closed.