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Is everything alright Prime Minister? – politicalbetting.com

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    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    I absolutely don't think it should be a problem, and her specific hypothetical example is a bit silly, but she's not against the spirit of the times in making that complaint and questioning its application or non application.

    I'm slightly surprised that Cleopatra movie being made managed to (rightly) hold firm against criticisms of the ilk that an actor does not perfectly match the subject.

    Given Cleopatra was a believer in pagan gods god knows who they would have had to pick by tying themselves in knots over this piece of identity politics
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    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,189
    HYUFD said:

    Pope Francis hits out at 'selfish' couples who have pets instead of children

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10371579/Pope-Francis-hits-selfish-couples-pets-instead-children.html

    Well that's a line of reasoning that I failed to consider!
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    pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,132

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Is it the absence of the pointless tie? It is, isn't it?

    Women aren't expected to wear ties. Therefore, objecting to the lack of tie is sexist.

    Tread carefully, lest ye be cancelled.
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    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
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    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Alistair said:

    Hurrah for juries

    Balls to juries

    The system sucks and is in principle utterly incoherent. On the one hand juries are thought capable of coming to the right answer on complex questions resulting in potentially life imprisonment, on the other they are treated like utter imbeciles who have to be discharged if one of them might have seen a newspaper headline suggesting that the defendant is a bit of an arse.

    Look at the PC Andrew Harper murder trial: first, the jury was almost certainly intimidated. Secondly a juror was discharged after being seen to mouth "bye, boys" to the defendants - just the sort of fckwitted lowlife we want deciding whether people spend their lives behind bars. Thirdly it was *kept from the jury* that one of the Ds had recently said “You can’t touch me now ‘cos I’ve passed my driving test and if police try to stop me I will ram them.” That is MASSIVELY important evidence, but under the rules it is "more prejudicial than probative." If you were talking to intelligent adults you would say OK this is both prejudicial and probative: ignore the prejudicial, take account of the probative. If you don';t think they are capable of understanding and acting on that instruction, why the fck do you think they have any business deciding on an issue which has more than a £50 fine attached to it?
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    tlg86 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Pope Francis hits out at 'selfish' couples who have pets instead of children

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10371579/Pope-Francis-hits-selfish-couples-pets-instead-children.html

    Well that's a line of reasoning that I failed to consider!
    I'm sure somebody with an inappropriate sense of humour would like to point out the optics of the Roman Catholic complaining about fewer children in the world lends to a very distasteful, if accurate, punchline.
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    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,105
    malcolmg said:

    Andy_JS said:

    tlg86 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Four protesters have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage after toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.

    A jury at Bristol Crown Court cleared Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, Sage Willoughby, 22 and Milo Ponsford, 26, of charges, following a trial that lasted two weeks.

    https://news.sky.com/story/edward-colston-statue-four-protesters-found-not-guilty-of-criminal-damage-after-toppling-monument-of-slave-trader-12509488

    How does criminal damage not end up as a summary trial in front of magistrates?
    Perhaps it's because had they been convicted they'd have received lengthy custodial sentences.
    The thing about this case is the egregious neglect and intransigence of Bristol Council. Not just the statue, but the Colston Hall, Colston School etc. were just insults to a richly multi-cultural city. They did nothing for years, and the George Floyd case was the just trigger for people to finally take matters into their own hands. That statue should have come down decades ago.
    The George Floyd case has almost no relevance to the UK in my opinion.
    The George Floyd case was an example of US police brutality against Black people. That has its roots in systematic, institutionalised racism in American society. That in turn has its roots in slavery. Slavery was brought to America and the West Indies by the British. And specifically by men like Colston who controlled and enriched themselves from the slave trade. I don't think it takes too much effort to see that the two things are intrinsically linked.
    It was hundreds of years ago , get a life.
    If the events are so distant and meaningless to today then presumably there's no problem removing such an irrelevant statue...
    Of course these events aren't that distant at all and have cast a long and malign shadow.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited January 2022
    ..
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
  • Options

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
  • Options
    Dame Maureen probably also objected to American actor Tom Cruise playing German Resistance hero Colonel Graf von Stauffenberg in "Valkyrie".
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
  • Options

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    Wales weren't a great side at that point of Graham Henry's reign and beating England and denying you the title was pretty much the summit of ambition. Mind you I'm not sure that much has changed.

    Games at Wembley that year as the Millenniumm Stadium was being built were a pain in the arse. I do remember Tom Jones being wheeled out to Stoke the atmosphere pre-match and England battering us.

    Somehow we stayed in it though ad I remember turning round after a long celebration to say a few choice words to the English guy sat behind me who'd been pretty vocal all game. Needless to say he'd snuck out down the steps while the Welsh in the stand were in rapture.
  • Options

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
    OMG, just seen that Sir Ben was born in Yorkshire - what a dump!
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,375

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
  • Options
    Alistair said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    Are you talking about Krishna Pandit Bhanji?
    Who also has some Jewish antecedents I believe.

    I think Dame Maureen has got a bit addicted to having her opinions on various matters amplified.
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,923
    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Next thing you'll be telling me that all those people taking obscure medications for rare conditions which don't impact their ability to be high profile athletes but do give minor performance boosts are not all legit.

    It's also a rather ridiculous idea that he is being bullied if he faces negative consequences for not getting jabbed. That would be entirely his choice and he, and his supporters, should not whinge about it - it's not being respectful to him to exempt him from consequences, on the contrary it would minimise them by making their choice meaningless.

    If they uphold the medical justification then fine, he's met the rules sufficiently, but what a fortunate coincidence for him as anti-vaxxer.
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    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Also Brighton.
  • Options
    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?
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    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    Call me old fashioned but i long for the days when people's medical history was up to them not for the state to demand to see it
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892
    edited January 2022

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
    It was a memory I had spent two decades pushing right to the back of the brain, until some idiot on a blog triggered me! ;)
    1999 was also the year MU won the European Cup in the last minute.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    HYUFD said:

    Pope Francis hits out at 'selfish' couples who have pets instead of children

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10371579/Pope-Francis-hits-selfish-couples-pets-instead-children.html

    Shit, there was me thinking Welby had it sewn up in the bleating ninny stakes, and here is Frankie doing a Verstappen.

    Also, a failure to practise what he preaches. Less with the choirboys, more with the nuns, before you start telling the rest of us what to do.
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    MaxPB said:

    Selebian said:

    MaxPB said:

    Selebian said:

    Stocky said:

    At least the Speccie is on the ball:

    https://data.spectator.co.uk/category/sage-scenarios

    That is very interesting. The Sages seem to be not very Sage like. Essentially it would seem that based on that data you need to take their least pessimistic forecast and then knock a bit more off to get the real world scenario.
    The Speccie has been rather selective in its choice of data, and rather misleading in its presentation, meaning it can be safely filed under 'garbage'. For example, they somehow omitted to display the chart (bottom left) of England hospitalisations against the LHSTM and other models:

    https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary/status/1478401755369164805
    I did wonder with the LSHTM 'in hospital' model (which is the closest the speccie includes) whether the difference might be they were working on a typical Delta length of stay (reasonable at the time), whereas Omicron seems to be giving shorter stays. The chart you highlight suggests that might be the case.
    Was it reasonable at the time? We had plenty of clinical evidence from South Africa that it wasn't the case. They also underestimated vaccine efficacy of one dose, two doses and three doses by quite some margin too iirc, they used something like 29% for two doses and 0% for one dose against hospitalisation. There was no reason to have such pessimistic inputs other than getting headline grabbing numbers to scare politicians into locking down.
    At the time, I think the pessimism on vaccine efficacy was far more open to criticism than assuming a similar length of stay. Given the lags, I doubt there was too much on mean LoS at the time (some data perhaps on more people being discharged early, enough for a sensitivity analysis, but I don't think I'd have put it in a central estimate).

    I agree that, in general, the model inputs were overly pessimistic. Certainly with hindsight. Some were obvious at the time, as you pointed out at the time.
    This has always been my point, if a lowly analyst such as myself can spot these issues where is the opposition within SAGE or any of the modelling teams. Why is no one saying "hang on a minute, are we really saying that 2 vaccine doses only does this and that three will be this low?" or "wait, do we really believe that people who got Delta will have no protection from severe symptoms with Omicron?"

    There just doesn't seem to be any feedback loop, or if there is one then it feels like the dissenters are simply ignored because they're going against whatever the agenda is. I've been inside teams where that happened, it leads to really bad decisions being made.
    There is a kernel of truth in there about the modellers. My suspicion is that they are pure mathematicians and do not necessarily work with empirical data. Consequently there is a tendency to be slow in updating assumptions, preferring parametric inputs rather than empirical data. There could also be a lack of appraisal skills for the merits of different forms of evidence such as the observational stuff coming out of South Africa and before hand Italy and China.

    Real world validation also requires data in real-time whereas modellers tend to work in static ways with model develoment, parameters set, reports written, dissemination to decision makers. All that might take a week or more which is a crucial lag within a pandemic. There is also, of course, no superhub with data flying in everywhere to be appraised by experts on interactive whiteboards. It's an amateur effort which has undoubtedly improved, but still, fundamentally just academics doing stuff alongside their day jobs.

    Unfortunately whatever useful point you do make is, as usual, spoiled/destroyed by the fact that you're a blagger. Your stock in trade is making multiple predictions for the future, predicting dead certs, hindsight predictions and telling tales about your mates in high places who know this and that, nod nod wink wink. You do this over hundreds if not thousands of posts. Why would you do that? Presumably you get a buzz from hoodwinking posters on here on something they can be hoodwinked on, being a canny bunch in general. The usual mechanism on here to spot the bullshitters, betting, is obviously not available.

    One way to counter all that is to clearly document your predictions contemporaneously. So despite it now getting easier.. what's your prediction on hospitalisations for England for the next two weeks? I recall you weren't particularly forthcoming before NYE.
  • Options
    noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,735
    edited January 2022

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Imagine casting for the Tiger Woods biopic. Alexa, pls find me all the suitable actors who are one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American, oh and with a bit of Dutch thrown in too for authenticity.
  • Options

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    Wales weren't a great side at that point of Graham Henry's reign and beating England and denying you the title was pretty much the summit of ambition. Mind you I'm not sure that much has changed.

    Games at Wembley that year as the Millenniumm Stadium was being built were a pain in the arse. I do remember Tom Jones being wheeled out to Stoke the atmosphere pre-match and England battering us.

    Somehow we stayed in it though ad I remember turning round after a long celebration to say a few choice words to the English guy sat behind me who'd been pretty vocal all game. Needless to say he'd snuck out down the steps while the Welsh in the stand were in rapture.
    I went to one England/Wales match around that time and we ended up singing 'Land not quite of my fathers' at the Welsh.

    I think Henry picked a few players who had a very tenuous links to Wales.
  • Options

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Funny how you object to juries nullifying Parliament's law (as they're entitled to do) as "Parliament sets the law" with BLM protestors ...

    Yet you're outraged at the Australian Parliament's Covid law being applied strictly for people going through passport control to enter Australia.

    Don't you see the hypocrisy?

    Do you want the law set by Parliament, either here or Australia, strictly enforced to the letter or not?
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,105

    One of those found innocent isn't even from sodding Bristol. They came all the way from Southampton. I was so offended on behalf of the people of Bristol having to walk past it, I came 100 miles to rip it down.

    I don't understand a jury finding them not guilty. The little scrotes should have got hard time.
    Yes. Perhaps juries should be replaced by a Star Chamber of right wing Conservative MPs
    If you're going to write the 2024 Tory manifesto at least make sure you get paid.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,923

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    Call me old fashioned but i long for the days when people's medical history was up to them not for the state to demand to see it
    Djokovic is using his "medical history" to exit a requirement that Australians generally can not. It's up to him to show it in the affirmative.
  • Options
    FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,046
    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    It would be callous to call it our OJ Simpson moment. But perhaps with that jury there was never going to be enough evidence.
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
    It was a memory I had spent two decades pushing right to the back of the brain, until some idiot on a blog triggered me! ;)
    1999 was also the year MU won the European Cup in the last minute.
    Not a good sporting year.

    The 1999 Ashes were like every other Ashes in the 90s too.
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
    It was a memory I had spend two decades pushing right to the back of the brain, until some idiot on a blog triggered me! ;)
    1999 was also the year MU won the European Cup in the last minute.
    Fun story about that.

    In 2006 we drew Manchester United in the FA Cup, and on the route from Manchester to Liverpool some enterprising Liverpool fans had put up dozens of banners saying

    'Manchester United fans: Come to Anfield and see the European Cup you won in 1999, now in permanent residence at Anfield'
  • Options

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Funny how you object to juries nullifying Parliament's law (as they're entitled to do) as "Parliament sets the law" with BLM protestors ...

    Yet you're outraged at the Australian Parliament's Covid law being applied strictly for people going through passport control to enter Australia.

    Don't you see the hypocrisy?

    Do you want the law set by Parliament, either here or Australia, strictly enforced to the letter or not?
    Look i generally agree with a lot of what you say and respect all of what you say , so tone down the hyperbole please. I said parliaments should set laws , I did not say I agree with all laws set and I certainly have the right to say a certain law is an ass . In that sense the state is bullying him even if legally (and I am not sure it is 100~% certain of the fact yet ) they have the "right" to question him
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
    I swear I've recently seen that described as 'problematic' and it wouldn't happen now. From some googling just now in addition to playing racist caricatures, anything to adjust one's skin tone is right out, whatever your descent.

    https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/10-most-uncomfortable-performances-actors-playing-different-race/the-love-guru

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/ehisosifo1/controversial-problematic-casting-decisions
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,105
    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,375

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    Call me old fashioned but i long for the days when people's medical history was up to them not for the state to demand to see it
    There are a few countries that have long demanded yellow fever vaccination for entry. Have you been objecting to them?

    Australia decided to have some new entry rules. You can either comply or not go there.

    And if you try and lie your way in, then you deserve to be booted out.
  • Options

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    Wales weren't a great side at that point of Graham Henry's reign and beating England and denying you the title was pretty much the summit of ambition. Mind you I'm not sure that much has changed.

    Games at Wembley that year as the Millenniumm Stadium was being built were a pain in the arse. I do remember Tom Jones being wheeled out to Stoke the atmosphere pre-match and England battering us.

    Somehow we stayed in it though ad I remember turning round after a long celebration to say a few choice words to the English guy sat behind me who'd been pretty vocal all game. Needless to say he'd snuck out down the steps while the Welsh in the stand were in rapture.
    I went to one England/Wales match around that time and we ended up singing 'Land not quite of my fathers' at the Welsh.

    I think Henry picked a few players who had a very tenuous links to Wales.
    I give you Shane Howarth. Kiwi rolled out on the basis of his granny who turned out not to be Welsh after all prematurely ending his international career.
  • Options

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Imagine casting for the Tiger Woods biopic. Alexa, pls find me all the suitable actors who are one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American, oh and with a bit of Dutch thrown in too for authenticity.
    and rubbish drivers of anything other than a golf club
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    Call me old fashioned but i long for the days when people's medical history was up to them not for the state to demand to see it
    There are a few countries that have long demanded yellow fever vaccination for entry. Have you been objecting to them?

    Australia decided to have some new entry rules. You can either comply or not go there.

    And if you try and lie your way in, then you deserve to be booted out.
    I wonder what life as a touring sportsman is like, if you happen to have a “DEPORTED” stamp in your passport..?
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Imagine casting for the Tiger Woods biopic. Alexa, pls find me all the suitable actors who are one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American, oh and with a bit of Dutch thrown in too for authenticity.
    The key is to wait for the children of people to grow up and have them play the role, like O'Shea Jackson Jr did for Ice Cube.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,989
    edited January 2022
    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Indeed, every Bristol seat was won by Corbyn Labour even in 2019. The jury verdict was always likely to favour the protestors.

    Though at least the statue is still in a museum even if probably rightly no longer on public display
  • Options
    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,177

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
  • Options

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,989
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Pope Francis hits out at 'selfish' couples who have pets instead of children

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10371579/Pope-Francis-hits-selfish-couples-pets-instead-children.html

    Shit, there was me thinking Welby had it sewn up in the bleating ninny stakes, and here is Frankie doing a Verstappen.

    Also, a failure to practise what he preaches. Less with the choirboys, more with the nuns, before you start telling the rest of us what to do.
    Still some way before the Roman Catholic church follows the Anglican church and allows priests and bishops to marry though
  • Options
    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
    I swear I've recently seen that described as 'problematic' and it wouldn't happen now. From some googling just now in addition to playing racist caricatures, anything to adjust one's skin tone is right out, whatever your descent.

    https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/10-most-uncomfortable-performances-actors-playing-different-race/the-love-guru

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/ehisosifo1/controversial-problematic-casting-decisions
    It's a bloody nightmare, try being the father of mixed race children.

    It is tedious beyond words trying to group people into groups like this.

    It is appearing needlessly on so many forms.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,206
    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

  • Options

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Funny how you object to juries nullifying Parliament's law (as they're entitled to do) as "Parliament sets the law" with BLM protestors ...

    Yet you're outraged at the Australian Parliament's Covid law being applied strictly for people going through passport control to enter Australia.

    Don't you see the hypocrisy?

    Do you want the law set by Parliament, either here or Australia, strictly enforced to the letter or not?
    Look i generally agree with a lot of what you say and respect all of what you say , so tone down the hyperbole please. I said parliaments should set laws , I did not say I agree with all laws set and I certainly have the right to say a certain law is an ass . In that sense the state is bullying him even if legally (and I am not sure it is 100~% certain of the fact yet ) they have the "right" to question him
    I'm not trying to use hyperbole my point is that just because Parliament passes the law quite rightly does not mean the law must be obeyed 100% of the time.

    The ability to break the law if you think it's the right thing to do, and the right to defend yourself to a jury of your peers before a conviction are two very important protections against an overbearing state.

    The Aussie state has the right to determine who is allowed into Australia or not.

    The British public has the right, via juries, to determine whether to convict or not.

    Incidentally I wholeheartedly agree that the Covid laws have gone way too far and need to be repealed. However in this instance I think your instincts are more right in your objections to the state seeking it must be obeyed with Covid rules ... Rather than the jury determining the state can't always get it's way with protestors.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
    It was a memory I had spent two decades pushing right to the back of the brain, until some idiot on a blog triggered me! ;)
    1999 was also the year MU won the European Cup in the last minute.
    Not a good sporting year.

    The 1999 Ashes were like every other Ashes in the 90s too.
    There were Ashes before 2005?
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725
    edited January 2022

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Erskine May

    Members should dress in business-like attire; this need not include a tie*. A Member has been allowed to continue speaking on condition that clothing with inappropriate visual content is covered. Members are not permitted to wear decorations in the House. The wearing of military insignia or uniform inside the Chamber is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House.

    *Formerly it was the custom for gentlemen Members to wear jackets and ties, but this was not enforced in all circumstances

    https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/section/4889/members-dress/

    Don't think it specifies beyond 'business like', so no. I'd prefer MPs be pretty formal in the House, but there's clearly wiggle room.
  • Options

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Looks like Ben is self identifying as a corporate hipster today - Quite brave actually given he lives in Mansfield
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,639
    I see the French ban on British travellers is going well:

    Précisément 332 252 cas positifs ont été recensés en 24 heures, nouveau record (208 099 mercredi dernier)

    • La moyenne sur la semaine écoulée frôle désormais les 200 000 cas par jour.


    https://twitter.com/nicolasberrod/status/1478791127406989314?s=21
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,923

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Hah. Fair point, isn't this sex discrimination ?
  • Options
    TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

    Survivors cannot win medals, only (dis)honorable mentions.
  • Options

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    No, but where a dress code is imposed in an institution it will often define it as usual business dress, which may well be ties for a man but wouldn't be for a woman. That's pretty common.

    However, the House of Commons no longer requires ties for men and I have no problem with the way this MP is dressed - don't care.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    felix said:

    felix said:

    eek said:

    Betting post on SNP constituencies

    There seem to be 20 or so where a bit of careful planning locally could result in a none SNP winner


    Patrick English
    @PME_Politics
    We've had Walls, Halos, and Heartlands. Now how about we get our very own Belt?

    Everyone, meet the "Yellow Belt".

    20 SNP seats where:
    Yellow circle Majority is under 10%, OR
    Flag of United Kingdom The 'Pro-Union' vote is underperforming based on demographics


    https://patrickenglish.substack.com/p/an-absolute-yellow-belter

    Depends on on how well the SNP does overall, if they get over 45% of the constituency vote they will completely dominate anyway. In the latest Redfield poll, despite Labour moving back into 2nd place the SNP lead over Labour is still the same as 2015. On those figures, only East Lothian is a sort of credible target for Labour.
    The problem with East Lothian (the new constituency is called East Lothian Coast by the way) is that the Tories also target that seat. Which one of the BritNat parties do Unionists vote for?
    There are no "BritNat" parties, except perhaps UKIP and its derivatives and the largely defuncted one that shares two of its initials and a lot of its modus operandi of division, prejudice and hatred with the one that you support.
    Yes, no party leaders make a point of displaying union jacks on zoom calls.
    Indeed.

    If Starmer is trying to do what it looks like he is trying to do then he is making a grave error. I’m sure a wise head will have a word.
    Maybe Nicola could be that wise head:


    Nicola could teach Keir lots of things. I’m sure they’ll get on fine together.
    I'm all for it - he'll fit neatly in her left pocket.
    Are you guys gonna run with that poster again?

    Hope so. The last one drove the SLabbers absolutely nuts.
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,105
    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
    While I don't agree with the Dame at all because I think the current trend of in effect suggesting actors should mirror their role in race/gender etc, that book did come to mind when I saw her comment, since people very much do complain about casting and race and, while counter examples exist, she probably is right about it being a bigger deal but for the subject in this case.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,957

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    Call me old fashioned but i long for the days when people's medical history was up to them not for the state to demand to see it
    There are a few countries that have long demanded yellow fever vaccination for entry. Have you been objecting to them?

    Australia decided to have some new entry rules. You can either comply or not go there.

    And if you try and lie your way in, then you deserve to be booted out.
    Yes. I'm sure I had that and a couple of others for a Taiwanese visa.
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    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Imagine casting for the Tiger Woods biopic. Alexa, pls find me all the suitable actors who are one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American, oh and with a bit of Dutch thrown in too for authenticity.
    The key is to wait for the children of people to grow up and have them play the role, like O'Shea Jackson Jr did for Ice Cube.
    Would only work if they have kids with someone the same racial background as themselves, which obviously happens a fair amount, but not very often for someone who is one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American.

    It is all silly, acting is make believe and supposed to challenge our imagination. Was "blacking up" wrong and offensive? The vast, vast majority of the time yes. But that is because of how it was done, not because it was done.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,206
    kle4 said:

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Erskine May

    Members should dress in business-like attire; this need not include a tie*. A Member has been allowed to continue speaking on condition that clothing with inappropriate visual content is covered. Members are not permitted to wear decorations in the House. The wearing of military insignia or uniform inside the Chamber is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House.

    *Formerly it was the custom for gentlemen Members to wear jackets and ties, but this was not enforced in all circumstances

    https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/section/4889/members-dress/

    Don't think it specifies beyond 'business like', so no. I'd prefer MPs be pretty formal in the House, but there's clearly wiggle room.
    Some of us are so old we remember Petra Kelly leading the first Green Party MPs into German Parliament. T-shirts, jeans, weird coloured shirts etc etc.

    Oh, the outrage.
  • Options
    GadflyGadfly Posts: 1,191
    Sandpit said:

    Four protesters have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage after toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.

    A jury at Bristol Crown Court cleared Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, Sage Willoughby, 22 and Milo Ponsford, 26, of charges, following a trial that lasted two weeks.

    https://news.sky.com/story/edward-colston-statue-four-protesters-found-not-guilty-of-criminal-damage-after-toppling-monument-of-slave-trader-12509488

    How does criminal damage not end up as a summary trial in front of magistrates?
    It's a 'either way offence' so the magistrates declined to hear the case and sent it upstairs, or the defendants elected for Crown Court. I suspect it will have been the latter, possibly in hope of a sympathetic jury or greater publicity.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Funny how you object to juries nullifying Parliament's law (as they're entitled to do) as "Parliament sets the law" with BLM protestors ...

    Yet you're outraged at the Australian Parliament's Covid law being applied strictly for people going through passport control to enter Australia.

    Don't you see the hypocrisy?

    Do you want the law set by Parliament, either here or Australia, strictly enforced to the letter or not?
    Look i generally agree with a lot of what you say and respect all of what you say , so tone down the hyperbole please. I said parliaments should set laws , I did not say I agree with all laws set and I certainly have the right to say a certain law is an ass . In that sense the state is bullying him even if legally (and I am not sure it is 100~% certain of the fact yet ) they have the "right" to question him
    I'm not trying to use hyperbole my point is that just because Parliament passes the law quite rightly does not mean the law must be obeyed 100% of the time.

    The ability to break the law if you think it's the right thing to do, and the right to defend yourself to a jury of your peers before a conviction are two very important protections against an overbearing state.

    The Aussie state has the right to determine who is allowed into Australia or not.

    The British public has the right, via juries, to determine whether to convict or not.

    Incidentally I wholeheartedly agree that the Covid laws have gone way too far and need to be repealed. However in this instance I think your instincts are more right in your objections to the state seeking it must be obeyed with Covid rules ... Rather than the jury determining the state can't always get it's way with protestors.
    You sound soooo like that bloke Tompkins who used to post here. Would you say that jury trials are nimble, vs judge only which is sclerotic?
  • Options
    MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    edited January 2022
    IshmaelZ said:

    Carnyx said:

    My take on PMQs is late because I have caught up on it on YouTube because the weather is nice here and I went out for a hike. And I have been into loft of my Dads house. Back in my loungewear now.

    Important stuff first. Rayners hair is on a journey. I don’t like it now, but a lob will be great for her. It didn’t look great today from the back for someone using a “brush your hair” attack. I don’t even like it from the front, maybe that is just me as there is zilch about Rayner or her politics I like. But the dress was cool. If we had a lady Primeminister that is exactly the type of dress imo as I would play safe - it’s already easy to stand out in a room of men in their best suits, it doesn’t need extra femininity or anything to go on to distract from what you are saying, your style choice in those situations has to support what you are saying imo. My girlfriend certainly trusts me when I pick things out for her.

    Johnson’s hair is on a journey too. It looks awful now. It doesn’t suit his head or face - whoever posted yesterday it makes him look more thuggish is spot on. I think it’s been forced on him by his better haircut ravaged by time. All it will do is associate in minds of voters this is a different Boris Johnson than Love Actually Boris they loved and voted for, which is the last thing he needs.

    Boris is in trouble, but I’m not picking this up on PB.com. Just about all 360 degree factions around in the commons called for fuel vat axe to help the “heat or eat” families yet Boris fought back against this £1.5B U turn.

    Where do you stand on this Big G and HYUFD? Boris position right or wrong? U turn and axe it at such small cost, or continue to have everyone against the position?

    Do you think this is being unconsciously referenced, I wonder?

    https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/scapegoat
    “ He even advised fellow artist, John Everett Millais, who was travelling to the region to grow a beard to make himself less desirable to local men.” 😂
    Millais should have painted the divine Angela, and given her some hairdressing tips

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Mariana_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
    Well no, I wouldn’t suggest this style choice for “ar Angela”. She don’t strike me as someone aching for a man. 🤭

    At first you think Mariana a great painting, based on what you see. And then you know he has brought together many ideas from literature and poetry, but hardly subtly dropped them in has he? What do you make of his mouse from a perspective of realism?

    But it is where he creates his own Mariana from his own touches this for me he is at his best, somethings from his own life we cannot clearly understand, there just isn’t enough of here.

    So a painting to be admired, not valued?

    It’s just me, but I normally measure against some words by Klimt “Whoever wants to know something about me should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want.”

    Doing that here, what does it say about John Millais?

    (I guess what I’m saying is cheesy, but I spent too long at college answering that I found paintings that the teachers didn’t like me saying it! They preferred I said passé lol)
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    I was at university in Wales. That was a very long one mile walk home wearing a white jersey…
    Oh my word, you have my sympathies.
    It was a memory I had spent two decades pushing right to the back of the brain, until some idiot on a blog triggered me! ;)
    1999 was also the year MU won the European Cup in the last minute.
    Not a good sporting year.

    The 1999 Ashes were like every other Ashes in the 90s too.
    There were Ashes before 2005?
    I was the POME Bastard going to school downunder in the 90s, that's an emotional scar that will never be forgotten.

    I was in the MCG for an ODI in 1999. It was like men versus boys. England were bowled out and we only took a single Aussie wicket.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,588
    HYUFD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Indeed, every Bristol seat was won by Corbyn Labour even in 2019. The jury verdict was always likely to favour the protestors.

    Though at least the statue is still in a museum even if probably rightly no longer on public display
    Mrs Thatcher almost won all 4 seats in 1987.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892

    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
    I swear I've recently seen that described as 'problematic' and it wouldn't happen now. From some googling just now in addition to playing racist caricatures, anything to adjust one's skin tone is right out, whatever your descent.

    https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/10-most-uncomfortable-performances-actors-playing-different-race/the-love-guru

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/ehisosifo1/controversial-problematic-casting-decisions
    It's a bloody nightmare, try being the father of mixed race children.

    It is tedious beyond words trying to group people into groups like this.

    It is appearing needlessly on so many forms.
    Was it Chief Justice Roberts or Dave Chapelle, who said that the way to end racism, is to stop treating people differently based on the colour of their skin?
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,164

    Sandpit said:

    The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of crowd restrictions in Wales

    Would be fantastic. Let's do it. Posted about this earlier.
    The WRU are caught between a rock and a hard place. Finances are not in a great shape and they would be banking £13.5m from the 3 home games.

    While on the other hand, they are currently renegotiating the terms of a £20m loam from Welsh Government and will not be keen to wind Drakeford and his zealots up further.

    Certainly pre Xmas they've been keen to support WG in public health measures, I don't know if that view has changed.

    Anyway as someone who has tickets for all 5 of Wales games (Ireland looking unlikely unfortunately given Irish restrictions on crowds and their hospitality rules), I hope they do it and stick to fingers up to this nonsense. 4 trips to London please, including Twickenham.

    Anyway, forget the WRU, the whole of the Wales will be flooded with the tears of Cardiff publicans and restaurateurs if Drakeford and his precautionary public health crusade continues and their 6 Nations bonanza is nixed again.
    Is Drakeford really going to insist that the games are staged in Wales inside an empty stadium? That seems bonkers.
    If he does that, the WRU are going to want to be paid out by Drakeford, for the money they would have made selling a couple of hundred thousand tickets. £20m or so should cover it.

    Not to mention the sporting penalty of playing their ‘home’ matches with no atmosphere.
    Nonsense, the sheep botherers used to play their matches at Wembley, bloody bastards denied England the title in 1999.
    And what a day that was. Scott Gibbs what a hero. ;-)
    One of the worst days of my life.

    At university my Welsh friends unbearable at that time, they were more happy that they have denied England the title than actually winning.
    Wales weren't a great side at that point of Graham Henry's reign and beating England and denying you the title was pretty much the summit of ambition. Mind you I'm not sure that much has changed.

    Games at Wembley that year as the Millenniumm Stadium was being built were a pain in the arse. I do remember Tom Jones being wheeled out to Stoke the atmosphere pre-match and England battering us.

    Somehow we stayed in it though ad I remember turning round after a long celebration to say a few choice words to the English guy sat behind me who'd been pretty vocal all game. Needless to say he'd snuck out down the steps while the Welsh in the stand were in rapture.
    I went to one England/Wales match around that time and we ended up singing 'Land not quite of my fathers' at the Welsh.

    I think Henry picked a few players who had a very tenuous links to Wales.
    England on the other hand are far more sophisticated. Give a promising youngster from Llandovery College, Christ College Brecon or Cowbridge Comp. a scholarship to Hartpury College and Bob's your uncle, a signature for England on residency grounds.

    They tried to get Louis Rees-Zammit to sign but we fought the bounders off.
  • Options

    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

    Sounds like he survived so no Darwin Award.

    That's not the Loony John formerly of this parish is it?
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,989
    edited January 2022
    Andy_JS said:

    HYUFD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Indeed, every Bristol seat was won by Corbyn Labour even in 2019. The jury verdict was always likely to favour the protestors.

    Though at least the statue is still in a museum even if probably rightly no longer on public display
    Mrs Thatcher almost won all 4 seats in 1987.
    Mirrors the national trend. Cities have moved more to Labour since the 1980s, Northern and Midlands ex mining and industrial areas have moved more to the Conservatives
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892
    edited January 2022

    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

    Sounds like he survived so no Darwin Award.

    That's not the Loony John formerly of this parish is it?
    No. This guy is John O’Looney.

    Our @JohnLoony was called John, his surname being a matter of public record on numerous occasions, as he was a candidate for the OMRLP.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,206

    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

    Sounds like he survived so no Darwin Award.

    That's not the Loony John formerly of this parish is it?
    Could be. LOL.

    I love the idea of a funeral director arguing against the existence of a sometimes mortal disease.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    I am genuinely suprised that anyone is suprised by the verdict:

    1) they clearly did it
    2) the average Bristolian was happy they did it.

    Pick 12 average Bristolians and I'm suprised the verdict wasn't that the prosecution should be thrown in the slammer.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,892

    "A leading British anti-vaxxer has admitted he 'felt terrible' after going into hospital with Covid-19 - a virus which he previously claimed was just a 'common cold'. John O'Looney (right), of Milton Keynes, finally conceded that coronavirus was real and 'very nasty' after he was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit with it last month. The 53-year-old funeral director has become a figurehead for anti-vaxxers with his social media videos that make unproven claims about the pandemic and vaccines. "

    Mail

    John O'Loon more likely. Darwin award medalist.

    Sounds like he survived so no Darwin Award.

    That's not the Loony John formerly of this parish is it?
    Could be. LOL.

    I love the idea of a funeral director arguing against the existence of a sometimes mortal disease.
    Conflict of interest, your honour!
  • Options
    MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    kle4 said:

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Erskine May

    Members should dress in business-like attire; this need not include a tie*. A Member has been allowed to continue speaking on condition that clothing with inappropriate visual content is covered. Members are not permitted to wear decorations in the House. The wearing of military insignia or uniform inside the Chamber is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House.

    *Formerly it was the custom for gentlemen Members to wear jackets and ties, but this was not enforced in all circumstances

    https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/section/4889/members-dress/

    Don't think it specifies beyond 'business like', so no. I'd prefer MPs be pretty formal in the House, but there's clearly wiggle room.
    Some of us are so old we remember Petra Kelly leading the first Green Party MPs into German Parliament. T-shirts, jeans, weird coloured shirts etc etc.

    Oh, the outrage.
    Seriously, that is what this dress code is trying to avoid isn’t it “free Bristol’s four” t-shirts etc.

    Angela Rayner was dressed spot on for PMQs today.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,164

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    It would be callous to call it our OJ Simpson moment. But perhaps with that jury there was never going to be enough evidence.
    Juries like Sovereign Parliaments are faulty when they don't give us the answers the Conservative establishment desire. A point of order, can we prorogue juries too?
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725
    edited January 2022

    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Imagine casting for the Tiger Woods biopic. Alexa, pls find me all the suitable actors who are one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American, oh and with a bit of Dutch thrown in too for authenticity.
    The key is to wait for the children of people to grow up and have them play the role, like O'Shea Jackson Jr did for Ice Cube.
    Would only work if they have kids with someone the same racial background as themselves, which obviously happens a fair amount, but not very often for someone who is one quarter Thai, one quarter Chinese, one quarter Caucasian, one eighth African American and one eighth Native American.

    It is all silly, acting is make believe and supposed to challenge our imagination. Was "blacking up" wrong and offensive? The vast, vast majority of the time yes. But that is because of how it was done, not because it was done.
    It's a real pet peeve of mine. As you say there are clearly plenty of instances where we'd all now just say 'Er, no'. But people really do get in a huff about these things when the basic principle of acting means you don't need to perfectly match a character, or even necessarily be that close.

    I recall an article with Henry Golding talking about how some people complained he wasn't asian enough for his role in Crazy Rich Asians, but not white enough for his role in Snake Eyes and just being like 'I'm playing a character, not their background!'.
  • Options
    kle4 said:

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
    While I don't agree with the Dame at all because I think the current trend of in effect suggesting actors should mirror their role in race/gender etc, that book did come to mind when I saw her comment, since people very much do complain about casting and race and, while counter examples exist, she probably is right about it being a bigger deal but for the subject in this case.
    One of Baddiel’s observations is that it is fashionable amongst progressives to call for gay characters to be played by gay actors, etc, etc, but there isn’t a similar call for Jewish characters to be played by Jewish actors, and no outcry if it happens from the people who would complain if, say, a white actor blacked up to play Mandela.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725
    Sandpit said:

    kle4 said:

    Dame Helen Mirren has been criticised after she was cast as Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir despite not being Jewish.

    Actress Dame Maureen Lipman said Dame Helen should not have been asked to play the Israeli leader, adding that she was uncomfortable with the casting.

    A publicity image of the film Golda, where Dame Helen portrayed Ms Meir during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, showed Dame Helen covered in prosthetic to look more like the politician.

    Dame Maureen told the Jewish Chronicle: 'The Jewishness of the character is so integral. I'm sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn't even go there.'

    Does she remember that Sir Ben played a brown chap called Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1982?
    That would be Krishna Pandit Bhanji who played Gandhi.
    I swear I've recently seen that described as 'problematic' and it wouldn't happen now. From some googling just now in addition to playing racist caricatures, anything to adjust one's skin tone is right out, whatever your descent.

    https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/10-most-uncomfortable-performances-actors-playing-different-race/the-love-guru

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/ehisosifo1/controversial-problematic-casting-decisions
    It's a bloody nightmare, try being the father of mixed race children.

    It is tedious beyond words trying to group people into groups like this.

    It is appearing needlessly on so many forms.
    Was it Chief Justice Roberts or Dave Chapelle, who said that the way to end racism, is to stop treating people differently based on the colour of their skin?
    You're living in the past, Granddad. Can't fight any ongoing systemic issues and bring us all together without being hyper conscious of differences at all times. Apparently. Because it's that or you don't care. Apparently.
  • Options
    moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,244

    kle4 said:

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
    While I don't agree with the Dame at all because I think the current trend of in effect suggesting actors should mirror their role in race/gender etc, that book did come to mind when I saw her comment, since people very much do complain about casting and race and, while counter examples exist, she probably is right about it being a bigger deal but for the subject in this case.
    One of Baddiel’s observations is that it is fashionable amongst progressives to call for gay characters to be played by gay actors, etc, etc, but there isn’t a similar call for Jewish characters to be played by Jewish actors, and no outcry if it happens from the people who would complain if, say, a white actor blacked up to play Mandela.
    I think it’s outrageous that in Sausage Party, that they didn’t cast a real sausage to play the lead roles but a bunch of white dudes.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,923
    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
    lol another inheritor like @Dura_Ace
  • Options
    MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    HYUFD said:

    Andy_JS said:

    HYUFD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Indeed, every Bristol seat was won by Corbyn Labour even in 2019. The jury verdict was always likely to favour the protestors.

    Though at least the statue is still in a museum even if probably rightly no longer on public display
    Mrs Thatcher almost won all 4 seats in 1987.
    Mirrors the national trend. Cities have moved more to Labour since the 1980s, Northern and Midlands ex mining and industrial areas have moved more to the Conservatives
    Why?

    Are you saying the people there change views, or the demographic itself changed? Like children of miners now live in conorbations not their area of birth? Like me! Last 40 years have made a big movement around?
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,164

    tlg86 said:

    Were the four prosecuted for dumping the statue in the water? I'd have thought that would have warranted a separate charge.

    Are yes, disposing of inert or non-hazardous waste without complying with the provisions of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
    From what I could see the statue of Colston was regarded as toxic, so a breach, perhaps of the Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005.
  • Options

    tlg86 said:

    Were the four prosecuted for dumping the statue in the water? I'd have thought that would have warranted a separate charge.

    Are yes, disposing of inert or non-hazardous waste without complying with the provisions of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
    From what I could see the statue of Colston was regarded as toxic, so a breach, perhaps of the Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005.
    Even worse!
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,725

    kle4 said:

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
    While I don't agree with the Dame at all because I think the current trend of in effect suggesting actors should mirror their role in race/gender etc, that book did come to mind when I saw her comment, since people very much do complain about casting and race and, while counter examples exist, she probably is right about it being a bigger deal but for the subject in this case.
    One of Baddiel’s observations is that it is fashionable amongst progressives to call for gay characters to be played by gay actors, etc, etc, but there isn’t a similar call for Jewish characters to be played by Jewish actors, and no outcry if it happens from the people who would complain if, say, a white actor blacked up to play Mandela.
    I think he's right about that, and that was probably her thinking. I do think though that the solution is to not have such an outcry over 'authenticity' of casting in the first place, not add more outcry criteria.

    Blacking up, aside from anything else, would almost always be a detracting distraction not worth doing regardless of any inappropriateness.
  • Options
    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
    lol another inheritor like @Dura_Ace
    If the Epping Conservatives have their way that is the future! Inherit or suck it up and stop moaning.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,977

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Why should the Australian authorities turn a blind eye to making false medical statements? Which seems to be a thing in tennis.
    I didn't think there was issue with criminals going to Oz?
  • Options
    Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,386
    kle4 said:

    Another Tory MP follows Boris Johnson's lead and doesn't dress appropriately.


    Nothing wrong with that. Are ties mandatory for women in the house?
    Erskine May

    Members should dress in business-like attire; this need not include a tie*. A Member has been allowed to continue speaking on condition that clothing with inappropriate visual content is covered. Members are not permitted to wear decorations in the House. The wearing of military insignia or uniform inside the Chamber is not in accordance with the long-established custom of the House.

    *Formerly it was the custom for gentlemen Members to wear jackets and ties, but this was not enforced in all circumstances

    https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/section/4889/members-dress/

    Don't think it specifies beyond 'business like', so no. I'd prefer MPs be pretty formal in the House, but there's clearly wiggle room.
    What about poppies? Are they decorations?
  • Options
    moonshine said:

    kle4 said:

    Or maybe Dame Maureen objected to Sir Ben playing the Jewish accountant Yitzhak Stern in "Schindler's List"?

    I read David Baddiel’s short polemic ‘Jews Don’t Count’ over the Xmas break, where he considers this very issue of Kingsley playing Stern and Gandhi, amongst many other things. I found it very interesting, worth a read if anyone’s interested.

    He examines the view of Jews on and by the progressive left. Obvs Corbyn and the party under him get a few mentions.
    While I don't agree with the Dame at all because I think the current trend of in effect suggesting actors should mirror their role in race/gender etc, that book did come to mind when I saw her comment, since people very much do complain about casting and race and, while counter examples exist, she probably is right about it being a bigger deal but for the subject in this case.
    One of Baddiel’s observations is that it is fashionable amongst progressives to call for gay characters to be played by gay actors, etc, etc, but there isn’t a similar call for Jewish characters to be played by Jewish actors, and no outcry if it happens from the people who would complain if, say, a white actor blacked up to play Mandela.
    I think it’s outrageous that in Sausage Party, that they didn’t cast a real sausage to play the lead roles but a bunch of white dudes.
    Baddiel was wary of the practice of that whole approach to casting you’re lampooning. His point was that so-called progressive people didn’t extend their approach to casting gay, blacks, whatever minority or characteristic a character may have, to the casting of Jewish characters. He highlights an inconsistency in the progressive approach. That, in that instance, Jews don’t count.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
    lol another inheritor like @Dura_Ace
    It might be possible to tunnel far enough down to find the point of that post. But ars longa, vita brevis.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,977

    dixiedean said:

    Novak now in solitary without his mobile at the airport.

    This is profoundly depressing . I have had the jabs but respect everybody' right to not have intrusive injections if they do not want them.He is obviously very principled about this himself yet is getting bullied by people, media and even the state about this personal decision. It is an alarming negative trait of human nature that they will bully if they think they have right on their side
    So principled that his medical exemption seems a bit... interesting.

    The number of other players that have such "medical exemptions" suggest that either severe conditions are endemic in high end tennis, or some doctors are liars.

    Given that the Australian authorities have started looking at this we are going to be seeing some fun over the next few days.
    Which would get pathetic given its one player with a personal decision he made . The whole covid governance is frankly pathetic though
    Funny how you object to juries nullifying Parliament's law (as they're entitled to do) as "Parliament sets the law" with BLM protestors ...

    Yet you're outraged at the Australian Parliament's Covid law being applied strictly for people going through passport control to enter Australia.

    Don't you see the hypocrisy?

    Do you want the law set by Parliament, either here or Australia, strictly enforced to the letter or not?
    Look i generally agree with a lot of what you say and respect all of what you say , so tone down the hyperbole please. I said parliaments should set laws , I did not say I agree with all laws set and I certainly have the right to say a certain law is an ass . In that sense the state is bullying him even if legally (and I am not sure it is 100~% certain of the fact yet ) they have the "right" to question him
    I'm not trying to use hyperbole my point is that just because Parliament passes the law quite rightly does not mean the law must be obeyed 100% of the time.

    The ability to break the law if you think it's the right thing to do, and the right to defend yourself to a jury of your peers before a conviction are two very important protections against an overbearing state.

    The Aussie state has the right to determine who is allowed into Australia or not.

    The British public has the right, via juries, to determine whether to convict or not.

    Incidentally I wholeheartedly agree that the Covid laws have gone way too far and need to be repealed. However in this instance I think your instincts are more right in your objections to the state seeking it must be obeyed with Covid rules ... Rather than the jury determining the state can't always get it's way with protestors.
    I have to say that if I were on the Jury I would have been inclined to convict. I don't hold with the logic that just because we don't like something it gives us the right to go out and destroy it. I also don't believe that hurt feelings are a defence.

    But I am glad that the jury felt that, based on their own views of the case, they were able to acquit. The law is not always right and if the jury felt there was a reasonable defence in this case which over-ruled the precise letter of the law then we should be pleased we live in a country where they can still return such verdicts. Otherwise we are left with the Chinese and their new computerised judicial judgements.
    There were, I think, in times past, many who owed their lives and their freedom to juries like that. And those decisions brought about a change in the law.
  • Options
    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,177

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    Whatever the rights and wrongs of Colton, I’d quite like to stop judging historical figures by the laws, morals and customs of the present day.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,989
    edited January 2022

    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
    lol another inheritor like @Dura_Ace
    If the Epping Conservatives have their way that is the future! Inherit or suck it up and stop moaning.
    No, you will still be able to make a fortune in the City or in property development or tech or if you are a top footballer or celebrity as well
  • Options
    HYUFD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Bristol is probably where you'd want to be tried if you were a lefty vegan knitting statue botherer.

    Maybe not the best place to locate a statue of a slave trader then. Perhaps they could have moved it to somewhere where white supremacists who murder children for profit are accorded the respect they're due.
    God, but you're lovely when you're angry.

    The whole point about Colston was that he was quite markedly less of a c--t than about 98% of his fellow slave traders in that he spent yuge sums of money on Bristol centric philanthropy rather than just being a rich c--t.

    Also, are slave traders white supremacists? Do they murder children (seems a negation of their basic business model) and where's the money in child murder anyway?
    I think you need to educate yourself about slavery and the slave trade.
    I am 1. a professional historian and 2. the beneficiary of a reasonable chunk of a 19th century "cotton merchant's" fortune.

    Thanks for the advice though.
    lol another inheritor like @Dura_Ace
    If the Epping Conservatives have their way that is the future! Inherit or suck it up and stop moaning.
    No, you will still be able to make a fortune in the City or in property development or tech or if you are a top footballer or popular as well
    Or donate to the right politicians.....
This discussion has been closed.