I hope Rishi and his family are happy with Bozo & Nut Nut's choice of wallpaper.
I seriously doubt it, have you seen the work of their designer? It's chintzy and awful. Proper nouveau riche stylings.
Should suit him well...
Though I think no photos of the real flat have been yet published, just examples of her designs. I suspect that Carrie's choices will be pretty good, judging by how she dresses etc. She has good taste in most things, husbands excepted.
I work in IT, and use about 500MB/month of data on average.
Yeah but I bet you don’t watch Tik Tok or YouTube for hours a day.
... while not in range of a wifi you can use.
Who the hell needs to do that in this day and age?
My girlfriend uses many gigabytes a day listening to Spotify at work because they’re not allowed to have personal devices on WiFi
Does she not know there’s a download button on Spotify?
You can’t download the entire Spotify catalogue
I have a hundred hours or so of playlists downloaded, for commuting and office listening over a couple of weeks.
This is fascinating, today’s youngsters have apparently never known mobile data scarcity, so they are running through hundreds of gigs of data a month.
How much energy could we save, if they all stop doing that? And the crypto mining of course.
I’m 30 in a few weeks. Data hasn’t been scarce for at least 5+ years. Its there to be used.
I’m 44, and remember when GPRS was a new thing, and Blackberry made millions from their data compression algorithms and corporate device management software so that people could check their emails.
I use the mobile data for Signal, iMessage, email, sat nav, google and occasionally PB.
Acorn (well, Pace at that time...) had a project to make a fax compressor. You attach the unit to your fax machine, and it would compress the data before sending, to allow another unit to decompress it at the other end.
We were doing the work for a client, but AIUI there was an argument over patents (not at our end), and by the time that was nearly resolved, faxes had gone right out of fashion.
I've a working unit in the garage. Not a prototype; a fully boxed unit with manual.
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Very cool. Today’s kids can I guess add a modem handshaking noise, to the long list of things they won’t ever have heard.
Can you guess the age of a person by the speed of their first modem? Mine was 14.4k...
300 baud acoustic coupler, and also those expensive GPO/BT modems which gave you 1200 baud downstream and 75 baud upstream. Much of my first few years of work was dominated by battles with BT, trying to get at least something usable, when 9600 and then 14.4K modems were already cheaply available in the US but were illegal to use here. Thank God for Maggie who swept away all that BT monopoly nonsense, it really is hard for anyone who didn't experience the pre-Thatcher years to understand how spectacular the improvement was.
And yet BT have starved the nation of fibre optic investment to chase idiotic sports rights deals for TV channels they've now decided they don't want. Somewhere around £3bn has been spent on sports rights by BT over the last 5 years which could have been invested in ftth. Allowing BT to maintain their consumer facing business as well as own the network was an historic failure and now the UK is a fibre laggard across the world and people are just hoping that some altnet will post a leaflet into their letterbox because BT seem to be in no rush.
All because Gavin fancied a few outings to corporate boxes, er, no, sorry, competing with Sky for the "Quad Play".
It was almost as bad as screwing up Cellnet and ending up with buying EE.
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Not just tech. In 1900 the big issue was the projected exponential increase in the need for horses in cities (because of population changes). The problem was what to do with all the horse poop.
By 1910, no one was using horses....
I met a chap, once, a long while back, who was methodically building a Dreyer Table as his home project......
1910 retro computing.
Apparently, the original manual included instruction for what to do if all else failed, went something like
- Switch off the power. - Wait for the machine to stop. - Move all the controls to the start/0 position. - Check all the plugs by plugging them and plugging them in again. - Switch the power back on.
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Not just tech. In 1900 the big issue was the projected exponential increase in the need for horses in cities (because of population changes). The problem was what to do with all the horse poop.
By 1910, no one was using horses....
I met a chap, once, a long while back, who was methodically building a Dreyer Table as his home project......
1910 retro computing.
Apparently, the original manual included instruction for what to do if all else failed, went something like
- Switch off the power. - Wait for the machine to stop. - Move all the controls to the start/0 position. - Check all the plugs by plugging them and plugging them in again. - Switch the power back on.
My dad used to maintain the improved versions! The Admiralty Fire Control Table.
Boris official online campaign officer going into bat for him...the spin being it is a BBC / Guardian / Mirror trap to junk the Tories most successful asset. The Tory MPs surely not buying this.
Don't think that'll convince. I knew Boris was in big trouble when the best person his team could find to bat for him was Jacob Rees-Mogg who only managed to go down the cul-de-sac of attacking the Scottish Tory leader (who, earlier this year, had delivered the best-ever Tory result in a Holyrood election).
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
Not at the moment though. He needs to be the adult in the room compared to Johnson’s man-child.
That's true. The country weren't used to a Prime Minister who dressed up in a nurses uniform and pretended to perform a surgical procedures or in a policeman's uniform and pretended to do a drugs raid. When he first became leader he spent a lot of time in primary school classrooms sitting at little desks putting his hand up and asking questions....... Perhaps we should have seen the writing on the wall
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
It’s tricky if you’re not a natural wit, jokes just end up sounding like they were designed by your team rather than actual off the cuff zingers. My problem with Starmer’s wallpaper stunt was that it was obviously thought up by someone else and it was cringey as fuck, not its hilarity quotient.
Thatcher was a stranger to humour and it didn’t do her much harm, until she went off the deep end.
Thatcher could be very, very funny. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t mean to be.
Every Prime Minister needs a Willie
Pure Maggie!
One of my biggest guilty secrets is that I loved Maggie. She was addictive. Mesmerising. Terrifying. Monstrous. Disgusting. Evil. Otherworldly. Like that big snake Harry had to deal with in the second film.
She was the best thing on the telly back then. And that’s when telly was still good.
I was watching TV news in the US once with a parade of “on the one hand, on the other hand” bland politicians frightened of offending anyone when they cut to Downing St for an interview with Thatcher - the difference was electrifying - clear, decisive, to the point and expressed in plain simple English that had been nowhere near a Focus Group. No wonder foreigners were in thrall to her. Another classic “Mrs Thatcher, what does it feel like to have the other 11 members against you?” “It doesn’t matter if they’re wrong”.
It will be interesting to see if the PB Tories "big up" Boris afterwards! "I thought he did rather well. Starmer was rubbish..."
Graham Brady has a rather tricky seat (6k majority) to defend on the edge of Greater Manchester (or Cheshire if you are posh).... I siuspect he may be the 54th....
He'd be in Boris Johnson territory there... writing to himself.
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
Not at the moment though. He needs to be the adult in the room compared to Johnson’s man-child.
That's true. The country weren't used to a Prime Minister who dressed up in a nurses uniform and pretended to perform a surgical procedures or in a policeman's uniform and pretended to do a drugs raid. When he first became leader he spent a lot of time in primary school classrooms sitting at little desks putting his hand up and asking questions....... Perhaps we should have seen the writing on the wall
Hadn't thought of it that way, but you have a point. A cosplay PM. Mrs T did have her moments, that DPM jacket in a Challenger tank turret, but very rarely. Which other pols do it a lot? Ruth Davidson?
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Not just tech. In 1900 the big issue was the projected exponential increase in the need for horses in cities (because of population changes). The problem was what to do with all the horse poop.
By 1910, no one was using horses....
I met a chap, once, a long while back, who was methodically building a Dreyer Table as his home project......
1910 retro computing.
Apparently, the original manual included instruction for what to do if all else failed, went something like
- Switch off the power. - Wait for the machine to stop. - Move all the controls to the start/0 position. - Check all the plugs by plugging them and plugging them in again. - Switch the power back on.
So, much like Windows?
Oh, yes, Those things had little windows soi you could watch the gubbins and read off the results directly.
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Not just tech. In 1900 the big issue was the projected exponential increase in the need for horses in cities (because of population changes). The problem was what to do with all the horse poop.
By 1910, no one was using horses....
I met a chap, once, a long while back, who was methodically building a Dreyer Table as his home project......
1910 retro computing.
Apparently, the original manual included instruction for what to do if all else failed, went something like
- Switch off the power. - Wait for the machine to stop. - Move all the controls to the start/0 position. - Check all the plugs by plugging them and plugging them in again. - Switch the power back on.
So, much like Windows?
Oh, yes, Those things had little windows soi you could watch the gubbins and read off the results directly.
PS See; multiple windows and bars around with little controls:
It's surprising how fast tech can go out of fashion.
Not just tech. In 1900 the big issue was the projected exponential increase in the need for horses in cities (because of population changes). The problem was what to do with all the horse poop.
By 1910, no one was using horses....
I met a chap, once, a long while back, who was methodically building a Dreyer Table as his home project......
1910 retro computing.
Apparently, the original manual included instruction for what to do if all else failed, went something like
- Switch off the power. - Wait for the machine to stop. - Move all the controls to the start/0 position. - Check all the plugs by plugging them and plugging them in again. - Switch the power back on.
So, much like Windows?
Oh, yes, Those things had little windows soi you could watch the gubbins and read off the results directly.
There is a later Admiralty Fire Control table on HMS Belfast, IIRC, that is basically a souped up Dreyer.
The chap I met said that he reckoned it was *better* than the Pollen table - that the scholarship on it was largely wrong.
Not that surprising given London, especially Inner London, was Remain central. The only reason most Tory MPs in Remain seats in London in 2019 held their seats was to keep out Corbyn, wealthy Remainers see Starmer as much less of a threat.
Tories doing a bit better in Outer London though were a few areas like Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering voted Leave on 25% than Inner London, where every borough voted Remain and the Tories are on just 18%. That suggests the Tories could not only lose Wandsworth and Barnet in May but even lose Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea on a really bad night
Last Starmer interview I read said that there was no question of Rejoining in his mind. We were OUT, end of.
What that suggests is that, in his mind, apart from a few committed Europeans like myself banging on about it, he doesn't expect the EU to be an issue at the next, and indeed next but one election.
So whether an area was Leave or Remain in 2016 will be immaterial. The issue will be the Governments overall competence.
For Remainers the best policy is to sit tight for a while. The economy is clearly on a lower growth path post-Brexit and people will increasingly notice. Wait for about five years and there will be a clear majority for rejoin, or at least for EEA membership. That's the time to organise a vote to make it happen. In the meantime, just sit back and let Brexit fail on its own. Don't create a stabbed in the back myth for Brexiteers by hastening its end.
Yes, pretty soon we will see that the lying bunch of chancers weren't suddenly competent at trade and foreign policy, but screwed that up too.
Lib Dems will push for SM membership, but not Rejoin in the short term. The SNP, PC and SF will be for their nations to Rejoin as independent states.
Ultimately the biggest obstacle to Rejoin will be the break up of the UK. Without Scotland and NI the hurdle to Rejoin gets a lot higher.
Or being completely surrounded by EU states may change the calculation for a lot of people.
Hmm. Strange definition of completely surrounded given that our largest border by far will continue to be with the sea. And being completely surrounded by EU countries doesn't seem to have made the Swiss more pro-EU. Quite the reverse in fact.
Unless you are a very strong swimmer the sea border thing is not really relevant. Spain's longest border is also with the sea, ditto Italy's. Unlike those countries, you won't easily be able to leave the rUK without entering EU waters or airspace unless you take a very narrow corridor over Cornwall. The landlocked position of Switzerland is ameliorated by the fact it is in the Schengen area. That is an element of EU integration we didn't even subscribe to when we were in, so its absence from the EU has no practical day-to-day effects.
I had assumed that since you were talking about changing public opinion you were talking psychologically not practically. And unless you believe the EU would decide to block all access except that Cornish corridor - which would be an 'interesting' claim then it makes not one bit of difference who owns those waters.
I hope Rishi and his family are happy with Bozo & Nut Nut's choice of wallpaper.
I seriously doubt it, have you seen the work of their designer? It's chintzy and awful. Proper nouveau riche stylings.
Should suit him well...
Though I think no photos of the real flat have been yet published, just examples of her designs. I suspect that Carrie's choices will be pretty good, judging by how she dresses etc. She has good taste in most things, husbands excepted.
The main reason (well, perhaps not the main one) for wanting a change of Prime Minister is the hope the new Premier will grant an interview from inside the flat, so we can see the notorious wallpaper. Older PBers will remember David Cameron showing off his shiny new kitchen.
Funnily enough, I think that Boris's focus on Levelling-Up was a huge opportunity for the Tories to consolidate their position following the Brexit breakthrough. Whoever succeeds him needs to double-down on that, don a hard-hat, and get themselves to as many building sites in the North as possible. The success of Ben Houchen (Tees Valley Mayor) and the Hartlepool by-election are indications of how this could play out if the Tories resist the temptation to revert to type. And, let's face it, a less-than-scintillating London lawyer-type like Keir Starmer is not terribly well-placed to counter it.
Unless Sunak undergoes a remarkable transformation upon moving next door, it seems as though he will be least likely to do that, as he is fresh from nixing a whole bunch of Northern infrastructure spending.
A curious situation where the candidate who polls best right now also seems to be worst-placed strategically to keep the Tory coalition together.
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
Not at the moment though. He needs to be the adult in the room compared to Johnson’s man-child.
That's true. The country weren't used to a Prime Minister who dressed up in a nurses uniform and pretended to perform a surgical procedures or in a policeman's uniform and pretended to do a drugs raid. When he first became leader he spent a lot of time in primary school classrooms sitting at little desks putting his hand up and asking questions....... Perhaps we should have seen the writing on the wall
Hadn't thought of it that way, but you have a point. A cosplay PM. Mrs T did have her moments, that DPM jacket in a Challenger tank turret, but very rarely. Which other pols do it a lot? Ruth Davidson?
I thought quite a lot of politicians did that stuff -
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
It’s tricky if you’re not a natural wit, jokes just end up sounding like they were designed by your team rather than actual off the cuff zingers. My problem with Starmer’s wallpaper stunt was that it was obviously thought up by someone else and it was cringey as fuck, not its hilarity quotient.
Thatcher was a stranger to humour and it didn’t do her much harm, until she went off the deep end.
Thatcher could be very, very funny. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t mean to be.
Every Prime Minister needs a Willie
Pure Maggie!
One of my biggest guilty secrets is that I loved Maggie. She was addictive. Mesmerising. Terrifying. Monstrous. Disgusting. Evil. Otherworldly. Like that big snake Harry had to deal with in the second film.
She was the best thing on the telly back then. And that’s when telly was still good.
I was watching TV news in the US once with a parade of “on the one hand, on the other hand” bland politicians frightened of offending anyone when they cut to Downing St for an interview with Thatcher - the difference was electrifying - clear, decisive, to the point and expressed in plain simple English that had been nowhere near a Focus Group. No wonder foreigners were in thrall to her. Another classic “Mrs Thatcher, what does it feel like to have the other 11 members against you?” “It doesn’t matter if they’re wrong”.
Saw Mrs T at a tree-planting ceremony in her constituency. A hole had been dug, a decorous sapling standing by, and a silver spoon to sprinkle compost on the roots. "That's not deep enough," announced the first lord of the treasury, "give me a shovel." A proper size 12 shovel was duly provided and she set about digging and digging a deeper and deeper hole. Hushed assembled company gazed in rapture for at least 10 minutes.
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Land enough blows on Johnson and more letters will go in.
Or does he row back, hoping they keep the man who will shortly be the most unpopular PM since polling began?
He needs to pulverise him with wit. Not his forte unfortunately.
Why? I'm fucking sick of comedians in politics. Give me sensible people like Starmer or Hunt.
The killer line can destroy in a way nothing else can and wit makes a line more memorable. People don't enjoy watching someone being beaten up.
During the first Starmer attack dog PMQ's his most memorable effective and oft repeated line was one about Ant and Dec. Not even particularly funny but the only one that stays in the memory and the laughter brought everyone on side
Not at the moment though. He needs to be the adult in the room compared to Johnson’s man-child.
That's true. The country weren't used to a Prime Minister who dressed up in a nurses uniform and pretended to perform a surgical procedures or in a policeman's uniform and pretended to do a drugs raid. When he first became leader he spent a lot of time in primary school classrooms sitting at little desks putting his hand up and asking questions....... Perhaps we should have seen the writing on the wall
Hadn't thought of it that way, but you have a point. A cosplay PM. Mrs T did have her moments, that DPM jacket in a Challenger tank turret, but very rarely. Which other pols do it a lot? Ruth Davidson?
I thought quite a lot of politicians did that stuff -
etc
Does BJ do more?
Fair point. Looking at Ms Harman, however, she's wearing a stab vest, nothing more, so arguably H&S applied to any visitor to workplace - like the hair net on a food factory production line, or a hard hat with corporate logo, hi-vis and wellies on a building site.
Mr J wore rather more - to the degree that one wonders if he was breaching the regulations that apply to all of us (!).
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Rishi Sunak is the most popular politician in the Red Wall. He is also the only politician with a positive rating.
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
Also, it does not show up as a new line/para in the Preview when editing.
Not that surprising given London, especially Inner London, was Remain central. The only reason most Tory MPs in Remain seats in London in 2019 held their seats was to keep out Corbyn, wealthy Remainers see Starmer as much less of a threat.
Tories doing a bit better in Outer London though were a few areas like Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering voted Leave on 25% than Inner London, where every borough voted Remain and the Tories are on just 18%. That suggests the Tories could not only lose Wandsworth and Barnet in May but even lose Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea on a really bad night
Last Starmer interview I read said that there was no question of Rejoining in his mind. We were OUT, end of.
What that suggests is that, in his mind, apart from a few committed Europeans like myself banging on about it, he doesn't expect the EU to be an issue at the next, and indeed next but one election.
So whether an area was Leave or Remain in 2016 will be immaterial. The issue will be the Governments overall competence.
For Remainers the best policy is to sit tight for a while. The economy is clearly on a lower growth path post-Brexit and people will increasingly notice. Wait for about five years and there will be a clear majority for rejoin, or at least for EEA membership. That's the time to organise a vote to make it happen. In the meantime, just sit back and let Brexit fail on its own. Don't create a stabbed in the back myth for Brexiteers by hastening its end.
Yes, pretty soon we will see that the lying bunch of chancers weren't suddenly competent at trade and foreign policy, but screwed that up too.
Lib Dems will push for SM membership, but not Rejoin in the short term. The SNP, PC and SF will be for their nations to Rejoin as independent states.
Ultimately the biggest obstacle to Rejoin will be the break up of the UK. Without Scotland and NI the hurdle to Rejoin gets a lot higher.
Or being completely surrounded by EU states may change the calculation for a lot of people.
Hmm. Strange definition of completely surrounded given that our largest border by far will continue to be with the sea. And being completely surrounded by EU countries doesn't seem to have made the Swiss more pro-EU. Quite the reverse in fact.
Unless you are a very strong swimmer the sea border thing is not really relevant. Spain's longest border is also with the sea, ditto Italy's. Unlike those countries, you won't easily be able to leave the rUK without entering EU waters or airspace unless you take a very narrow corridor over Cornwall. The landlocked position of Switzerland is ameliorated by the fact it is in the Schengen area. That is an element of EU integration we didn't even subscribe to when we were in, so its absence from the EU has no practical day-to-day effects.
I had assumed that since you were talking about changing public opinion you were talking psychologically not practically. And unless you believe the EU would decide to block all access except that Cornish corridor - which would be an 'interesting' claim then it makes not one bit of difference who owns those waters.
Bit of a straw man there - there are many any varied administrative hassles up to and not necessarily including "blocking access". The practical then translates into the psychological. The waters don't matter, unless you are a fisherman, it's what happens when you get to the other side of them that matters. And in the case of Ireland who will have no desire nor need to stay in the CTA post unification, and Scotland, who will want to reorientate towards the EU, that hassle will involve having to pay for the EU equivalent of ESTA.
It's academic and I've no desire to re-run these arguments. I've been content to sit back and watch the whole fiasco fail from the 2019 election on and I should stick to that policy. It's working so far.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
Also, it does not show up as a new line/para in the Preview when editing.
Does anyone know how to remove a draft comment (on phone)?
They are still there when I refresh, even after I've deleted and saved draft etc.
Rishi Sunak is the most popular politician in the Red Wall. He is also the only politician with a positive rating.
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
The joys of using someone else’s software, where updates break stuff. But we’ve been through the joys of our own too, with a different set of challenges.
On topic, I don’t envy those trying to work out where to draw the line where a protest becomes a riot.
Surely it is not that hard?
Protest: lots of people and noise, probably a lot of litter
Riot: Things being broken, wrecked or burnt, people with injuries
It is not hard.
Protest: An angry event supported by right- minded Conservatives.
Riot: Any event that would be opposed by right- minded Conservatives.
After the first Countryside Alliance march in London (the one where little old ladies were buying bin bags to pick up rubbish) I talked to some friends in the protesting line. Tree hugging types - literally. Climbing trees to stop them get cut down etc.
They found the march threatening and described feeling in fear.
Talking to them, it wasn't that anyone had done or said anything, in particular.
Just that, for the first time in their lives, they had encountered a mass protest by people they regarded as "other". Not on their side...
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
Well, this is one of the advantages of living with someone who also values good home-cooked food. You can take turns. Then there are many meals which keep well, so you can eat them two days in a row, or freeze well, so you can cook several dinners at a time.
Put that all together and you might end up only cooking "properly" for one or two evenings a week (but eating delicious and nutritious home cooked food almost every day).
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
You don't need to do it every evening as you can batch cook and block freeze. It really is quite simple.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Yeah, that’s a dick move, Prime Minister. Well done Dominic, thankfully London Bridge is still standing.
Not that surprising given London, especially Inner London, was Remain central. The only reason most Tory MPs in Remain seats in London in 2019 held their seats was to keep out Corbyn, wealthy Remainers see Starmer as much less of a threat.
Tories doing a bit better in Outer London though were a few areas like Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering voted Leave on 25% than Inner London, where every borough voted Remain and the Tories are on just 18%. That suggests the Tories could not only lose Wandsworth and Barnet in May but even lose Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea on a really bad night
Last Starmer interview I read said that there was no question of Rejoining in his mind. We were OUT, end of.
What that suggests is that, in his mind, apart from a few committed Europeans like myself banging on about it, he doesn't expect the EU to be an issue at the next, and indeed next but one election.
So whether an area was Leave or Remain in 2016 will be immaterial. The issue will be the Governments overall competence.
For Remainers the best policy is to sit tight for a while. The economy is clearly on a lower growth path post-Brexit and people will increasingly notice. Wait for about five years and there will be a clear majority for rejoin, or at least for EEA membership. That's the time to organise a vote to make it happen. In the meantime, just sit back and let Brexit fail on its own. Don't create a stabbed in the back myth for Brexiteers by hastening its end.
Yes, pretty soon we will see that the lying bunch of chancers weren't suddenly competent at trade and foreign policy, but screwed that up too.
Lib Dems will push for SM membership, but not Rejoin in the short term. The SNP, PC and SF will be for their nations to Rejoin as independent states.
Ultimately the biggest obstacle to Rejoin will be the break up of the UK. Without Scotland and NI the hurdle to Rejoin gets a lot higher.
Or being completely surrounded by EU states may change the calculation for a lot of people.
Hmm. Strange definition of completely surrounded given that our largest border by far will continue to be with the sea. And being completely surrounded by EU countries doesn't seem to have made the Swiss more pro-EU. Quite the reverse in fact.
Unless you are a very strong swimmer the sea border thing is not really relevant. Spain's longest border is also with the sea, ditto Italy's. Unlike those countries, you won't easily be able to leave the rUK without entering EU waters or airspace unless you take a very narrow corridor over Cornwall. The landlocked position of Switzerland is ameliorated by the fact it is in the Schengen area. That is an element of EU integration we didn't even subscribe to when we were in, so its absence from the EU has no practical day-to-day effects.
I had assumed that since you were talking about changing public opinion you were talking psychologically not practically. And unless you believe the EU would decide to block all access except that Cornish corridor - which would be an 'interesting' claim then it makes not one bit of difference who owns those waters.
Bit of a straw man there - there are many any varied administrative hassles up to and not necessarily including "blocking access". The practical then translates into the psychological. The waters don't matter, unless you are a fisherman, it's what happens when you get to the other side of them that matters. And in the case of Ireland who will have no desire nor need to stay in the CTA post unification, and Scotland, who will want to reorientate towards the EU, that hassle will involve having to pay for the EU equivalent of ESTA.
It's academic and I've no desire to re-run these arguments. I've been content to sit back and watch the whole fiasco fail from the 2019 election on and I should stick to that policy. It's working so far.
Sorry but you are the one bringing up straw men. This is nothing to do with fishing rights or anything like that. This is purely in terms of people's views of membership of the EU. And if you weren't able to convince people to stay in when they were literally enmeshed in the EU then why do you think having a couple of EU neighbours is going to make a difference?
Much like the rest of the discussion earlier I am afraid that the idea that people are going to be ready to rejoin for many decades is just so much wishful thinking. All the more so as the EU becomes ever more integrated and resembling a single state.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
If he can get that story into the front pages, that would be a major win for Labour.
Interesting story from Australia. Suggestion that kids going back to school will need to do 2 LFTs per week like they should do here. The difference is that in Australia that you have to pay for your own LFTs and due to the Australian shortage they are not cheap.
I'll repeat what I've said here before. The massive infrastructure and supplies we put in place around testing in the UK does not get the credit that it deserves.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
HM
I'm a republican so I don't know these things.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
HM
I'm a republican so I don't know these things.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
Well, this is one of the advantages of living with someone who also values good home-cooked food. You can take turns. Then there are many meals which keep well, so you can eat them two days in a row, or freeze well, so you can cook several dinners at a time.
Put that all together and you might end up only cooking "properly" for one or two evenings a week (but eating delicious and nutritious home cooked food almost every day).
Exactly how we work. But I can see that cooking for one is a bugger.
Rishi Sunak is the most popular politician in the Red Wall. He is also the only politician with a positive rating.
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
Also, it does not show up as a new line/para in the Preview when editing.
Does anyone know how to remove a draft comment (on phone)?
They are still there when I refresh, even after I've deleted and saved draft etc.
Delete your draft comment, replace it with something tiny - a full stop or a single space - and wait a short while for it to auto-save.
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
You don't need to do it every evening as you can batch cook and block freeze. It really is quite simple.
Frozen food gets a bad rep because
- A lot of crap food comes frozen - A lot pf people defrost things at full power in the microwave. so it comes out half frozen, half over cooked. Turn down the power to minimum for 10 minutes....
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch sounds pretty good to me.
Bit of a mouthful.
I love pork pies I do!
Meanwhile. Isn’t Pork Pie Plot the save Boris Daily Mail and others used, actually not a unnecessary blue on blue insult straight out of Johnson’s clueless number 10 cabal? 10 redwallers considered putting letters in after PMQs, but after insults from number 10 and the Daily Mail front page, 12 put their letters in this morning?
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
Also, it does not show up as a new line/para in the Preview when editing.
Does anyone know how to remove a draft comment (on phone)?
They are still there when I refresh, even after I've deleted and saved draft etc.
Delete your draft comment, replace it with something tiny - a full stop or a single space - and wait a short while for it to auto-save.
Indeed. It's why quite often you see a full stop at the top of the comment exchange. Because they (me, quite often) have forgotten to remove it.
Do you not remember DisQus? By comparison Vanilla is fine.
The trouble with Vanilla is every now and then they change something for no apparent reason and so we get, for instance, as @TOPPING noted in this subthread, unwanted paragraph breaks.
The joys of using someone else’s software, where updates break stuff. But we’ve been through the joys of our own too, with a different set of challenges.
I hope you grasped the integration and triggers - the rest of it is just backend admin improvements and prettier templates if you use vanilla as your hosting platform.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
HM
I'm a republican so I don't know these things.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch sounds pretty good to me.
Bit of a mouthful.
I love pork pies I do!
Meanwhile. Isn’t Pork Pie Plot the save Boris Daily Mail and others used, actually not a unnecessary blue on blue insult straight out of Johnson’s clueless number 10 cabal? 10 redwallers considered putting letters in after PMQs, but after insults from number 10 and the Daily Mail front page, 12 put their letters in this morning?
Now I want a pork pie. With mustard. Or better still - HP sauce!
The article indicates that the best time in terms of vaccine effectiveness is right at the start of their winter in a few months time. I am not convinced but this at all. I think that due to their incredibly low acquired immunity through infection that there is no good time for it at all. Due to pressure on hospitals I would think that the Summer would be "better" and that it would make more sense to relax things now.
I still don't think NZ is actually ready for this from a society perspective. They see no Covid death as acceptable and are nowhere near where we are in terms of viewing Covid now like the Flu. They are 2 years behind us mentally.
I do wonder how they will view things if they are still a couple of islands locked off from the rest of the world when everyone else is basically living their lives as normal.
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch sounds pretty good to me.
Bit of a mouthful.
I love pork pies I do!
Meanwhile. Isn’t Pork Pie Plot the save Boris Daily Mail and others used, actually not a unnecessary blue on blue insult straight out of Johnson’s clueless number 10 cabal? 10 redwallers considered putting letters in after PMQs, but after insults from number 10 and the Daily Mail front page, 12 put their letters in this morning?
Now I want a pork pie. With mustard. Or better still - HP sauce!
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
HM
I'm a republican so I don't know these things.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
HM Government HMS Victory
Etc
If I ever met the good lady, I'd call her Elizabeth, as that's her name.
Incidentally I've become a fan of Harry's Farm (Clarkson's neighbour) on youtube. He's extremely unimpressed with the government's new agricultural policy. In particular with how Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland will be able to maintain farm payments as they are withdrawn in England (one to watch there). Government seems to be focusing solely on the environment/biodiversity and not bothering at all with food security.
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
If he can get that story into the front pages, that would be a major win for Labour.
I think it’s a difficult PMQs for Starmer. Expectations management is impossible for him in this one, short of ripping off Boris head and shitting down the hole it’s going to look like a dud performance from Starmer. He has to be careful what he says about the coming war, he needs much better answers to his own lockdown party photo than he had last weekend, he has to be careful to how he reacts to Boris using lockdown lifting today - anything like “shouldn’t lift it to save PMs skin but follow the science” is instant ten points off Labour!
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Possible timeline A storming Johnson PMQs performance today Covid restrictions eased substantially Gray report produces no surprises Wavering Tory MPs pull back from the brink Tories ease back towards parity in the polls Not saying it will happen. But it's far from impossible.
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch sounds pretty good to me.
Bit of a mouthful.
I love pork pies I do!
Meanwhile. Isn’t Pork Pie Plot the save Boris Daily Mail and others used, actually not a unnecessary blue on blue insult straight out of Johnson’s clueless number 10 cabal? 10 redwallers considered putting letters in after PMQs, but after insults from number 10 and the Daily Mail front page, 12 put their letters in this morning?
Quite probably. They seem to have changes the policy of shooting at their own feet with a pistol... and are using a machine gun now....
For those who still care about UK/EU relations, the EU side admits to being “charmed” by @trussliz last week. She will now meet @MarosSefcovic in Bxl next Monday. Despite - or because of - the madness in Westminster, things are looking up for UK/EU 1/
An interesting thread. A bit more realism in the Brexit process would be welcome; delivering the outcome will be a real test of her political skills however.
For those who still care about UK/EU relations, the EU side admits to being “charmed” by @trussliz last week. She will now meet @MarosSefcovic in Bxl next Monday. Despite - or because of - the madness in Westminster, things are looking up for UK/EU 1/
An interesting thread. A bit more realism in the Brexit process would be welcome; delivering the outcome will be a real test of her political skills however.
That’s just the EU backsliding to their old position: no changes possible hu
For those who still care about UK/EU relations, the EU side admits to being “charmed” by @trussliz last week. She will now meet @MarosSefcovic in Bxl next Monday. Despite - or because of - the madness in Westminster, things are looking up for UK/EU 1/
An interesting thread. A bit more realism in the Brexit process would be welcome; delivering the outcome will be a real test of her political skills however.
That’s just the EU backsliding to their old position: no changes possible just some
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
You don't need to do it every evening as you can batch cook and block freeze. It really is quite simple.
Frozen food gets a bad rep because
- A lot of crap food comes frozen - A lot pf people defrost things at full power in the microwave. so it comes out half frozen, half over cooked. Turn down the power to minimum for 10 minutes....
I just warm the blocks up in a saucepan over a low heat with a splash of water to counteract the drying effect of freezing. You can leave it for 20 minutes while you do something else and you don't get any of the problems associated with microwaves.
For those who still care about UK/EU relations, the EU side admits to being “charmed” by @trussliz last week. She will now meet @MarosSefcovic in Bxl next Monday. Despite - or because of - the madness in Westminster, things are looking up for UK/EU 1/
An interesting thread. A bit more realism in the Brexit process would be welcome; delivering the outcome will be a real test of her political skills however.
That’s just the EU backsliding to their old position: no changes possible just some cosmetic tweaks
Whips office sounds quietly confident not enough MPs will submit letters to trigger a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson. The rebellion is being likened to eating candy floss: lots of colorful mess but lots of air inside. https://twitter.com/e_casalicchio/status/1483764956189368320
Not that surprising given London, especially Inner London, was Remain central. The only reason most Tory MPs in Remain seats in London in 2019 held their seats was to keep out Corbyn, wealthy Remainers see Starmer as much less of a threat.
Tories doing a bit better in Outer London though were a few areas like Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering voted Leave on 25% than Inner London, where every borough voted Remain and the Tories are on just 18%. That suggests the Tories could not only lose Wandsworth and Barnet in May but even lose Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea on a really bad night
Last Starmer interview I read said that there was no question of Rejoining in his mind. We were OUT, end of.
What that suggests is that, in his mind, apart from a few committed Europeans like myself banging on about it, he doesn't expect the EU to be an issue at the next, and indeed next but one election.
So whether an area was Leave or Remain in 2016 will be immaterial. The issue will be the Governments overall competence.
For Remainers the best policy is to sit tight for a while. The economy is clearly on a lower growth path post-Brexit and people will increasingly notice. Wait for about five years and there will be a clear majority for rejoin, or at least for EEA membership. That's the time to organise a vote to make it happen. In the meantime, just sit back and let Brexit fail on its own. Don't create a stabbed in the back myth for Brexiteers by hastening its end.
Yes, pretty soon we will see that the lying bunch of chancers weren't suddenly competent at trade and foreign policy, but screwed that up too.
Lib Dems will push for SM membership, but not Rejoin in the short term. The SNP, PC and SF will be for their nations to Rejoin as independent states.
Ultimately the biggest obstacle to Rejoin will be the break up of the UK. Without Scotland and NI the hurdle to Rejoin gets a lot higher.
Or being completely surrounded by EU states may change the calculation for a lot of people.
Hmm. Strange definition of completely surrounded given that our largest border by far will continue to be with the sea. And being completely surrounded by EU countries doesn't seem to have made the Swiss more pro-EU. Quite the reverse in fact.
Unless you are a very strong swimmer the sea border thing is not really relevant. Spain's longest border is also with the sea, ditto Italy's. Unlike those countries, you won't easily be able to leave the rUK without entering EU waters or airspace unless you take a very narrow corridor over Cornwall. The landlocked position of Switzerland is ameliorated by the fact it is in the Schengen area. That is an element of EU integration we didn't even subscribe to when we were in, so its absence from the EU has no practical day-to-day effects.
I had assumed that since you were talking about changing public opinion you were talking psychologically not practically. And unless you believe the EU would decide to block all access except that Cornish corridor - which would be an 'interesting' claim then it makes not one bit of difference who owns those waters.
Bit of a straw man there - there are many any varied administrative hassles up to and not necessarily including "blocking access". The practical then translates into the psychological. The waters don't matter, unless you are a fisherman, it's what happens when you get to the other side of them that matters. And in the case of Ireland who will have no desire nor need to stay in the CTA post unification, and Scotland, who will want to reorientate towards the EU, that hassle will involve having to pay for the EU equivalent of ESTA.
It's academic and I've no desire to re-run these arguments. I've been content to sit back and watch the whole fiasco fail from the 2019 election on and I should stick to that policy. It's working so far.
There are huge numbers of Irish people living and working in Britain. I don't see the Irish government wanting to walk away from the CTA post-unification - and I'd imagine ending it would do a lot to alienate those who would prefer Union with London to Union with Dublin.
I'm confident the CTA will continue for at least another century.
Rishi Sunak is the most popular politician in the Red Wall. He is also the only politician with a positive rating.
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
The German press is having fun trying to translate the so-called 'Pork Pie Putsch' against Boris Johnson. „Schweinefleisch-Pasteten-Putsch“ doesn't quite have the same ring to it welt.de/politik/auslan…
Focus on claim Bojo tried to go and see queenie while infectious and Dom C stopped him. NOT a party claim so not vulnerable to the Wait for S Gray to report counter.
That really would kill him stone dead
Wow, I didn't know that! He could have done for HRH, what a thoughtless dick!
HM
I'm a republican so I don't know these things.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
HM Government HMS Victory
Etc
If I ever met the good lady, I'd call her Elizabeth, as that's her name.
Rubbish you'd quiver like a jelly and call her Your Majesty.
The article indicates that the best time in terms of vaccine effectiveness is right at the start of their winter in a few months time. I am not convinced but this at all. I think that due to their incredibly low acquired immunity through infection that there is no good time for it at all. Due to pressure on hospitals I would think that the Summer would be "better" and that it would make more sense to relax things now.
I still don't think NZ is actually ready for this from a society perspective. They see no Covid death as acceptable and are nowhere near where we are in terms of viewing Covid now like the Flu. They are 2 years behind us mentally.
I do wonder how they will view things if they are still a couple of islands locked off from the rest of the world when everyone else is basically living their lives as normal.
Yes, I said at the time that Jacinda's timetable was madness. I'm not sure if it's changed but it was originally 30 April to open up –– as you say on the cusp of their winter. Even my NZ friends who were once full-on covid gloaters are sick of it and cannot grasp her logic.
On topic, I don’t envy those trying to work out where to draw the line where a protest becomes a riot.
Surely it is not that hard?
Protest: lots of people and noise, probably a lot of litter
Riot: Things being broken, wrecked or burnt, people with injuries
It is not hard.
Protest: An angry event supported by right- minded Conservatives.
Riot: Any event that would be opposed by right- minded Conservatives.
After the first Countryside Alliance march in London (the one where little old ladies were buying bin bags to pick up rubbish) I talked to some friends in the protesting line. Tree hugging types - literally. Climbing trees to stop them get cut down etc.
They found the march threatening and described feeling in fear.
Talking to them, it wasn't that anyone had done or said anything, in particular.
Just that, for the first time in their lives, they had encountered a mass protest by people they regarded as "other". Not on their side...
I was being flippant so I apologise.
You have a very serious point, but then so do those who are concerned the Police and Crime Bill is an attempt to politicise the police.
Let's take some examples from history to back my flippancy up, and how Priti Patel might view them.
Extinction Rebellion: riot
Blockade of fuel depots 2000(?) : protest (although very similar in effect to extinction rebellion)
Rishi Sunak is the most popular politician in the Red Wall. He is also the only politician with a positive rating.
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
Possible timeline A storming Johnson PMQs performance today Covid restrictions eased substantially Gray report produces no surprises Wavering Tory MPs pull back from the brink Tories ease back towards parity in the polls Not saying it will happen. But it's far from impossible.
Another left leaning poster desperate desperate desperate for Johnson to stay and Rishi not to come. Far from impossible interpretation of your post isn’t it? 🙂
Possible timeline A storming Johnson PMQs performance today Covid restrictions eased substantially Gray report produces no surprises Wavering Tory MPs pull back from the brink Tories ease back towards parity in the polls Not saying it will happen. But it's far from impossible.
Very unlikely I should say. One puzzle for me over the past several weeks has been the rising £ - good for me with my UK pensions all converted to €s and now at relatively high levels. Is is because BJ is toast? Or are other factors in play. I genuinely have no clue.
Incidentally, it's not just the cost of food. It's also the quality. I've really noticed some rubbish especially in fruit and veg.
Like many people I take evasive action to avoid some of the creeping increases - some ready meals (my staple fare) remain cheap, but you have to avoid lazily sticking to what you usually get as the price nudges upwards. I do notice some sneaky unadvertised cuts in quantity, though tbh it's probably healthy to eat a bit less.
Nick I think PB should club together to buy you a cook book.
I find it baffling - and inordinately annoying - that a super-bright open-minded guy like Nick can’t be bothered to teach himself to cook. Ready meals are full of shit, and cooking should be something we all learn.
I’d be up for making a donation to the Nick Cook Book Fund.
There are good quality ready meals available from a supermarket near you. It's not just cheap meat, salt and sugar any more.
Saw this in my coffee break - sympathy appreciated! I wouldn't normally chat about my private life but since you kindly ask - I've had some gentle tuition from Cyclefree and other friends and can now make an omelette and enjoy some pasta dishes, and occasionally do.
But it's a trade-off. I've three paid jobs (the animal welfare day job, translation and Council exec), an unpaid job (CLP chair), and diverse fun interests (movies, computer games...). I enjoy them all, and although I also enjoy good food I'm OK with passable food. I give most of my income away (lingering traces of my communist past - to each according to need and all that) so I'm reluctant to give up the revenue as someone will lose out if I do, and nudging 72 I'm puzzlingly healthy - no issues whatever. I optimise by never spending more than 10 minutes on making a meal unless I'm in company, and eating it while doing something else. I know it's a bit odd and I don't urge it on anyone, but it works for me.
Sympathise. Ever since I was a child I've been struck by the disparity between the time it takes to cook a decent meal and the time it takes to consume one. OK, if you actually enjoy the process of cooking, but I resent the time it takes and the hassle. Once in a while, fine, but every evening?
Well, this is one of the advantages of living with someone who also values good home-cooked food. You can take turns. Then there are many meals which keep well, so you can eat them two days in a row, or freeze well, so you can cook several dinners at a time.
Put that all together and you might end up only cooking "properly" for one or two evenings a week (but eating delicious and nutritious home cooked food almost every day).
Exactly how we work. But I can see that cooking for one is a bugger.
It really isn't.
Batch cook and freeze in single sized portions. It really is quite simple.
I do wonder if PB is overrepresented by slightly geeky middle-aged blokes who were looked after for far too long by their mothers.
Comments
Though I think no photos of the real flat have been yet published, just examples of her designs. I suspect that Carrie's choices will be pretty good, judging by how she dresses etc. She has good taste in most things, husbands excepted.
It was almost as bad as screwing up Cellnet and ending up with buying EE.
PS With an oil can, so far as I know ...
"Read his lips"
Protest: An angry event supported by right- minded Conservatives.
Riot: Any event that would be opposed by right- minded Conservatives.
https://twitter.com/germanatpompey/status/1483683574809247746?s=21
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neilwat/10253176024
The chap I met said that he reckoned it was *better* than the Pollen table - that the scholarship on it was largely wrong.
NEW @JLPartnersPolls for @Channel4News: the Conservatives face wipe-out in the Red Wall.
Labour now lead by 11 points, with 48% to the Tories’ 37%.
If repeated at an Election, the Tories would lose all but 3 of their 45 Red Wall seats. (1/17)
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1483742661999837187?s=20
A curious situation where the candidate who polls best right now also seems to be worst-placed strategically to keep the Tory coalition together.
etc
Does BJ do more?
Voters’ primary hesitation about voting Conservative is Boris Johnson.
Johnson’s leadership & No10 parties are the main reasons given for what puts them off most about voting for the party. (3)
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1483742667745943556?s=20
Mr J wore rather more - to the degree that one wonders if he was breaching the regulations that apply to all of us (!).
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/tv-radio/line-duty-creator-mocks-boris-25635602
While some ministers have seen their ratings fall, he retains a +22% net positive rating, significantly above Starmer, Truss, Johnson and Priti Patel. (10)
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1483742692345630725?s=20
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1483742661999837187?s=20
"it's the dreadful refusal to accept that he could be in the wrong, it's always someone else's fault...
my view is that he did a great job getting us through Brexit, now fuck off"
https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1483760878721847299
It's academic and I've no desire to re-run these arguments. I've been content to sit back and watch the whole fiasco fail from the 2019 election on and I should stick to that policy. It's working so far.
Not to mention another national treasure. (It should be remembered that he was in Scotland, where masking indoors was most certainly required.)
They are still there when I refresh, even after I've deleted and saved draft etc.
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1483742694463741954?s=20
'Asked who they prefer as PM, 42% of Red Wall voters opt for Rishi Sunak, with just 24% saying Boris Johnson.
Conservative 2019 voters are also more likely to pick the Chancellor by 44% to 40%.'
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1483761470672359427
Worst sex sandwich ever.
Here’s a Vanilla marketing manager explaining how much better their product got last year:
https://blog.vanillaforums.com/vanilla-feature-roundup-2021
I’m a tech guy, and don’t understand half of the gobbledegook in that piece.
They found the march threatening and described feeling in fear.
Talking to them, it wasn't that anyone had done or said anything, in particular.
Just that, for the first time in their lives, they had encountered a mass protest by people they regarded as "other". Not on their side...
Put that all together and you might end up only cooking "properly" for one or two evenings a week (but eating delicious and nutritious home cooked food almost every day).
Much like the rest of the discussion earlier I am afraid that the idea that people are going to be ready to rejoin for many decades is just so much wishful thinking. All the more so as the EU becomes ever more integrated and resembling a single state.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-19/hunter-parents-unhappy-return-to-school-regular-covid-testing/100767314
I'll repeat what I've said here before. The massive infrastructure and supplies we put in place around testing in the UK does not get the credit that it deserves.
Even so, I would nonetheless to do my level best to avoid infecting HM with Covid 19.
At that rate Bozza would be the only National Treasure left...
HMS Victory
Etc
- A lot of crap food comes frozen
- A lot pf people defrost things at full power in the microwave. so it comes out half frozen, half over cooked. Turn down the power to minimum for 10 minutes....
A solid Yes 60% would be the icing on the cherry on the gateaux at the moment
Meanwhile. Isn’t Pork Pie Plot the save Boris Daily Mail and others used, actually not a unnecessary blue on blue insult straight out of Johnson’s clueless number 10 cabal? 10 redwallers considered putting letters in after PMQs, but after insults from number 10 and the Daily Mail front page, 12 put their letters in this morning?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/explained-why-the-timing-of-omicrons-arrival-matters/O4OUNGNDNM2MA5ACRVN75OB5LE/
The article indicates that the best time in terms of vaccine effectiveness is right at the start of their winter in a few months time. I am not convinced but this at all. I think that due to their incredibly low acquired immunity through infection that there is no good time for it at all. Due to pressure on hospitals I would think that the Summer would be "better" and that it would make more sense to relax things now.
I still don't think NZ is actually ready for this from a society perspective. They see no Covid death as acceptable and are nowhere near where we are in terms of viewing Covid now like the Flu. They are 2 years behind us mentally.
I do wonder how they will view things if they are still a couple of islands locked off from the rest of the world when everyone else is basically living their lives as normal.
©Leon & HYUFD.
https://www.rishisunak.com/news/why-i-will-vote-britain-leave-eu-0
Incidentally I've become a fan of Harry's Farm (Clarkson's neighbour) on youtube. He's extremely unimpressed with the government's new agricultural policy. In particular with how Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland will be able to maintain farm payments as they are withdrawn in England (one to watch there). Government seems to be focusing solely on the environment/biodiversity and not bothering at all with food security.
You see what I mean?
A storming Johnson PMQs performance today
Covid restrictions eased substantially
Gray report produces no surprises
Wavering Tory MPs pull back from the brink
Tories ease back towards parity in the polls
Not saying it will happen. But it's far from impossible.
https://twitter.com/e_casalicchio/status/1483764956189368320
I'm confident the CTA will continue for at least another century.
You have a very serious point, but then so do those who are concerned the Police and Crime Bill is an attempt to politicise the police.
Let's take some examples from history to back my flippancy up, and how Priti Patel might view them.
Extinction Rebellion: riot
Blockade of fuel depots 2000(?) : protest (although very similar in effect to extinction rebellion)
Formal announcement coming in five minutes
https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1483767025935790081
Batch cook and freeze in single sized portions. It really is quite simple.
I do wonder if PB is overrepresented by slightly geeky middle-aged blokes who were looked after for far too long by their mothers.