Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
Meanwhile I see that Corbyn jnr and his erstwhile pillion companion Ms Abbott - a serving Labour MP - are backing Putin in his aggression towards Ukraine.
What a revolting lot they are.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the boundaries of the Ukraine SSR within the USSR are not sensible boundaries for an independent Ukrainian state.
Ukraine, as currently configured, is like Yugoslavia, or the Austro-Hungarian empire. *
Things will fall apart. They can fall apart slowly or quickly. Slow will cause more damage than quick.
(* Or the UK)
Are you suggesting these things are best determined by Mr Putin? Also I find it rather arrogant of you to assume that the UK will inevitably fall apart.
I think it is very, very, very unlikely that N Ireland will be with us in 50 years.
And Scotland must also be at least evens to leave on that timescale.
It seems more arrogant to assume that the UK will carry on for ever as some immutable state.
Even my mother (a DUP voter) thinks that NI will separate from GB. She says it has already started
It hasn't, Unionist Parties still win more votes than Nationalist Parties in NI.
Plus if Starmer becomes PM in 2024 as polls predict, he will align GB closer to the EEA and CU effectively removing the Irish Sea border anyway
It's the total of NONUnionist parties that counts. The folk in the middle are not going to be very impressed with the rUK government, and even less so with Mr Johnson than the Scots. Remember his personal rating is down there in the Moho level in NI.
The Scots have a distinct non-English identity and a number of them have a grudge against the English
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
Tughenhadt might be a good bet as next Foreign Sec, assuming he puts in a good showing in the process. If Rishi wins will be interesting what he does with Truss. Promotion to Chancellor or is she backbench Billy no mates with Hunt or Javid as Chancellor?
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
It looks like an ex-poly that got funding for a new campus and let the students design it.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
Perhaps this one would suit you better, however the sign outside says "Warning - may contain nuts"
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
Not really. The Soviet style parliament is the Slovak one posted above. By all means criticise the Holyrood building - in my view the exterior is somewhat compromised - but it doesn't look at all Soviet.
You clearly haven’t encountered the decaying Soviet Union’s sad stabs at late modernism
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
I shall have to remember to mention Tyneside, Tynemouth etc as frequently as possible in my posts from now on
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
I’m sure people would be wildly supportive of it, people are supportive of taxes especially if they are there to reduce their bills and they do not have to pay it.
So Javid wants to get the NHS waiting list time below a year by March 2025? I remember it being 18 weeks in the bad old days of the Labour government.
I'm finalising my proposed contract to go PAYE. For the first time ever I am not just taking private health insurance, I am writing it in blood into the contract.
I hope you didn't support lockdowns.
It wasn't the lockdowns that caused the waiting list, it was the pandemic. If the operating staff are working ICU then they aren't operating. They weren't furloughed!
"Stay at home. Protect the NHS".
Yes, the public stayed at home, NHS workers didn't. [gratuitous insult removed]
The public stayed home instead of getting their conditions seen to. And two years on, it's still essentially impossible for many of us to actually see a GP. We're reaping the whirlwind from changing the NHS into the National Covid Service.
Thats certainly the case, but not because of lockdown.
Unless you think that the blackout in 1940 caused fires and explosions across Britain's cities.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
It looks like an ex-poly that got funding for a new campus and let the students design it.
That's pre-wart, too. The security wart is at right angles and made out of a different stone/concrete, looks terrible added to the front.
@Morris_Dancer I'm sure concrete can look good, but here in dampest Scotland we don't have the sun to burn the rain off. So it stains.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
In the distance is the Royal High School - the SNP's and Independistas' preferred option, as I mentioned earlier. Athens of the North, Scottish Enlightenment and all that.
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
I shall have to remember to mention Tyneside, Tynemouth etc as frequently as possible in my posts from now on
The opportunities for messing Richard up are huge. The Tyndall effect, Tyndall National Institute, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, Tyndall Funds, etc, etc. Google just goes on and on and on.
Dans le contexte que nous connaissons, le sang-froid dont fait preuve le peuple ukrainien force le respect. Aux côtés de l’Allemagne, la France est déterminée à mettre fin au conflit.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
Unionists, nae taste.
Discuss.
Holyrood is lovely on the inside. Very calm.
There are three problems with the outside:
- Couldn't ruin the view from the palace. - the stupid security box extension wart on the original sweeping facade - concrete, rather than our lovely sandstone (or some fun with granite from Aberdeen, harling with shells from the Hebrides etc)
Could've looked like the extension to the national museum
The Museum extension was sandstone from Moray, Clashach Quarry on the coast I find on checking.
The Pmt does tbf use Caithness flagstone slabs - rather nice.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
I'm losing patience with Tory MPs but who do we see as possible candidates?
Sunak Truss Mordaunt Tugendhat Harper
Any others?
Raab and Patel and Gove and Hunt
Yes. Across the two posts looking like a good list.
However, as the secret voting whittles them down, they coalesce around their wings of the party? The next part of the game is who backs who when they either don’t run or get whittled out. Does it boil down to just two factions, right and centre, 1 candidate from each to the membership? Or are there other distinct platforms who can muscle in to the final 2? 🤔
Right vs centre doesn't exactly map onto or populist vs reality-based or authoritarian vs liberal - e.g. Johnson could be seen as economic centre, populist, authorisation; Sunak right, reality-based, liberal; Truss right, populist, authoritarian.... and so on.
I think I might increase my bet on Truss.
Yes I understand and agree with you. Yet it’s true as they are voted out the contest they will be courted by other candidates hopeful for some of their votes by the endorsement.
So playing with the list above, and adding Javid who surely tries to get 9 nominees, who is likely to side with who?
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
I shall have to remember to mention Tyneside, Tynemouth etc as frequently as possible in my posts from now on
The opportunities for messing Richard up are huge. The Tyndall effect, Tyndall National Institute, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, Tyndall Funds, etc, etc. Google just goes on and on and on.
Good points. I was a bit stumped. Both the former England rugby player and the judge have the wrong spelling
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
I shall have to remember to mention Tyneside, Tynemouth etc as frequently as possible in my posts from now on
I have a sudden urge to talk about my visit to Turkmenistan. It's a bit off the tourist track, but Altyndepe is worth the long trip.
And for unaccountable reasons I am re3calling my John Muir Way walkies through Tyninghame on the Lothian coast.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
It was Stormont - bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
I don't think the building is terrible - and I do like the gardens. But, it's nothing special.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
A quick google gives us this stout defence of Tadao Ando's Pavilion, from an architecture journal, which appears to be blaming the public for not liking it, Cafe Nero for using it, and the City Council for - well, I'm not sure what. https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/tadao-ando-demolition/
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
I shall have to remember to mention Tyneside, Tynemouth etc as frequently as possible in my posts from now on
The opportunities for messing Richard up are huge. The Tyndall effect, Tyndall National Institute, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, Tyndall Funds, etc, etc. Google just goes on and on and on.
Good points. I was a bit stumped. Both the former England rugby player and the judge have the wrong spelling
And did not JJ once discuss the diesels on the Oban line at Tyndrum?
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
At the risk of pseudishness, it's a very organic building. There hardly any parallel lines, which is probably why it cost so much. As architects have built almost nothing but blocks for the past 500 years for major buildings. Holyrood is something different.
it’s not different and it’s not special. It is shit. Sometimes you just have to be honest
Look at it
It’s like some terrible Parliament from a little known republic in the USSR where they ran out of money after 3 months and decided to finish by glueing old toilets onto a bus station and said “fuck it, that will do”
Perhaps this one would suit you better, however the sign outside says "Warning - may contain nuts"
That looks like someone relocated Buckingham Palace to Windsor Great Park...
Meanwhile I see that Corbyn jnr and his erstwhile pillion companion Ms Abbott - a serving Labour MP - are backing Putin in his aggression towards Ukraine.
What a revolting lot they are.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the boundaries of the Ukraine SSR within the USSR are not sensible boundaries for an independent Ukrainian state.
Ukraine, as currently configured, is like Yugoslavia, or the Austro-Hungarian empire. *
Things will fall apart. They can fall apart slowly or quickly. Slow will cause more damage than quick.
(* Or the UK)
Are you suggesting these things are best determined by Mr Putin? Also I find it rather arrogant of you to assume that the UK will inevitably fall apart.
I think it is very, very, very unlikely that N Ireland will be with us in 50 years.
And Scotland must also be at least evens to leave on that timescale.
It seems more arrogant to assume that the UK will carry on for ever as some immutable state.
Even my mother (a DUP voter) thinks that NI will separate from GB. She says it has already started
It hasn't, Unionist Parties still win more votes than Nationalist Parties in NI.
Plus if Starmer becomes PM in 2024 as polls predict, he will align GB closer to the EEA and CU effectively removing the Irish Sea border anyway
It's the total of NONUnionist parties that counts. The folk in the middle are not going to be very impressed with the rUK government, and even less so with Mr Johnson than the Scots. Remember his personal rating is down there in the Moho level in NI.
The Scots have a distinct non-English identity and a number of them have a grudge against the English
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
There was a play from the 80s, Rat In the Skull, whereby an IRA suspect says to the interviewing RUC officer that they have more in common than he (the RUC officer) has with the Met police around them. That line has always stuck with me.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
The Whitehouse in Washington had the opposite happen to it. After the British set it on fire in 1812(ish) it was painted brilliant white to hide the soot stains and burn marks
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The "windfall" is in large part just spreading two years of profits over one.
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
So Javid wants to get the NHS waiting list time below a year by March 2025? I remember it being 18 weeks in the bad old days of the Labour government.
I'm finalising my proposed contract to go PAYE. For the first time ever I am not just taking private health insurance, I am writing it in blood into the contract.
I hope you didn't support lockdowns.
It wasn't the lockdowns that caused the waiting list, it was the pandemic. If the operating staff are working ICU then they aren't operating. They weren't furloughed!
"Stay at home. Protect the NHS".
Yes, the public stayed at home, NHS workers didn't. [gratuitous insult removed]
The public stayed home instead of getting their conditions seen to. And two years on, it's still essentially impossible for many of us to actually see a GP. We're reaping the whirlwind from changing the NHS into the National Covid Service.
Thats certainly the case, but not because of lockdown.
Unless you think that the blackout in 1940 caused fires and explosions across Britain's cities.
Turning the NHS into the National Covid Service was literally the point of lockdown. Stay at home, protect the NHS.
Warning shot from powerful backbencher here...Sir Bernard Jenkin tells PM: "He's got to sort this out, we are not interested in the optics, in some impression of a reset... we are looking for a change in the capability and the character of the government..." https://twitter.com/bernardjenkin/status/1491056394824560645
Interesting appointment. A job of going through the mound of EU legislation that was transposed into UK law, and identifying what can be got rid of.
A couple of good ideas already today, in revising the transport compensation scheme and not adopting the new EU car standards (which are easy if you’re VW Group or Daimler, but a pain in the arse if you’re Lotus or Aston Martin, let alone Ariel or Caterham).
It continues to baffle me (it may be your distance from the UK) that the red tape gets branded as being the EU's fault. We have drowned ourselves in Red Tape at huge cost and disruption, it wasn't there before Brexit and we chose to impose it on ourselves.
I will be delighted if Jacob Rees-Mogg gets the scissors out and frees the country from its red tape trade prison. But doing so will not be a Brexit bonus. Just a return to the status quo ante.
Incidentally, this idea that we start rolling back on safety standards. That is explicitly what this very government insisted it would not do.
I'm not aware of a proposal to "roll back on safety standards"?
Indeed. The proposal is simply not to enforce the next lot - for which there’s been lots of lobbying from the large German auto makers in this case, for competitive advantage in their home market. The UK will of course accept cars built to the new standard, and British auto makers who will to sell to the EU will need to comply.
But, the big but, the small British makers won’t be forced to, for their home market or other export markets.
Previously, we would have heard some shouting from the small manufacturers, but little or nothing will have changed, the European Parliament will vote it through and it will be introduced into British law on the nod.
What’s really changed, is that this is now a job for the UK Parliament to decide, and the decisionwill be taken purely in the interests of British consumers and manufacturers. I call it “Taking Back Control”.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
It was Stormont - bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities.
You old cynic Malmsy.
So are both sides of the divide comfortable using this building going forward?
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
It was Stormont - bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities.
Wiki says bitumen and cow manure - not sure of the ratio. Great for a quiz question!
Meanwhile I see that Corbyn jnr and his erstwhile pillion companion Ms Abbott - a serving Labour MP - are backing Putin in his aggression towards Ukraine.
What a revolting lot they are.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the boundaries of the Ukraine SSR within the USSR are not sensible boundaries for an independent Ukrainian state.
Ukraine, as currently configured, is like Yugoslavia, or the Austro-Hungarian empire. *
Things will fall apart. They can fall apart slowly or quickly. Slow will cause more damage than quick.
(* Or the UK)
Are you suggesting these things are best determined by Mr Putin? Also I find it rather arrogant of you to assume that the UK will inevitably fall apart.
I think it is very, very, very unlikely that N Ireland will be with us in 50 years.
And Scotland must also be at least evens to leave on that timescale.
It seems more arrogant to assume that the UK will carry on for ever as some immutable state.
Even my mother (a DUP voter) thinks that NI will separate from GB. She says it has already started
It hasn't, Unionist Parties still win more votes than Nationalist Parties in NI.
Plus if Starmer becomes PM in 2024 as polls predict, he will align GB closer to the EEA and CU effectively removing the Irish Sea border anyway
It's the total of NONUnionist parties that counts. The folk in the middle are not going to be very impressed with the rUK government, and even less so with Mr Johnson than the Scots. Remember his personal rating is down there in the Moho level in NI.
The Scots have a distinct non-English identity and a number of them have a grudge against the English
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
There was a play from the 80s, Rat In the Skull, whereby an IRA suspect says to the interviewing RUC officer that they have more in common than he (the RUC officer) has with the Met police around them. That line has always stuck with me.
When in New Orleans, some years ago, out of season (for a conference), I was wandering around.
I ended up having a beer in an empty bar in the early afternoon. Then I noticed the collecting tin and other stuff.
At the bar was on other customer. After a cautious chat, I found out that while he came from NI and had left due to the peace agreement, he was a Loyalist. He drank in that place because it felt something like home....
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Piccadilly Gardens is a disgrace and has been for years. The centre of Manchester is a dump but down around King St West and St Anne's Square is much nicer. That whole part from mid-Deansgate up towards China town is about the best bit.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Surely no one would be fooled by a pile of dung that large ?
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
It was Stormont - bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities.
You old cynic Malmsy.
So are both sides of the divide comfortable using this building going forward?
As long as they get 6 figures from multiple jobs, they love it.
Not strenuous stuff - smashing teenagers kneecaps is hard work (for example), you know. Especially when you get into the later years and your own joints aren't what they were.
A decent fertiliser bomb weighs tons - shifting that lot will do your back easily.
EDIT: "bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities" was literally true - farms all around.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
Unionists, nae taste.
Discuss.
Donald Dewar was a decent lawyer, a good politician, but a hopeless quantity surveyor.
I think this was mentioned here previously - now officially announced:
Under a new £80 million contract with Bristol-based Centreline, four BAe146 aircraft, will be replaced by two more sustainable aircraft to continue the UK’s global engagement.
The new planes will be more sustainable thanks to their smaller engines, leading to a reduction in fuel burn and emissions. They will also be able to fly further, providing the UK greater opportunity to engage with key allies and partners.
Interesting appointment. A job of going through the mound of EU legislation that was transposed into UK law, and identifying what can be got rid of.
A couple of good ideas already today, in revising the transport compensation scheme and not adopting the new EU car standards (which are easy if you’re VW Group or Daimler, but a pain in the arse if you’re Lotus or Aston Martin, let alone Ariel or Caterham).
It continues to baffle me (it may be your distance from the UK) that the red tape gets branded as being the EU's fault. We have drowned ourselves in Red Tape at huge cost and disruption, it wasn't there before Brexit and we chose to impose it on ourselves.
I will be delighted if Jacob Rees-Mogg gets the scissors out and frees the country from its red tape trade prison. But doing so will not be a Brexit bonus. Just a return to the status quo ante.
Incidentally, this idea that we start rolling back on safety standards. That is explicitly what this very government insisted it would not do.
I'm not aware of a proposal to "roll back on safety standards"?
Indeed. The proposal is simply not to enforce the next lot - for which there’s been lots of lobbying from the large German auto makers in this case, for competitive advantage in their home market. The UK will of course accept cars built to the new standard, and British auto makers who will to sell to the EU will need to comply.
But, the big but, the small British makers won’t be forced to, for their home market or other export markets.
Previously, we would have heard some shouting from the small manufacturers, but little or nothing will have changed, the European Parliament will vote it through and it will be introduced into British law on the nod.
What’s really changed, is that this is now a job for the UK Parliament to decide, and the decisionwill be taken purely in the interests of British consumers and manufacturers. I call it “Taking Back Control”.
So... I had the original Tesla Roadster, and when you bought it you had to sign a bit of paper saying you accepted that - as Tesla produced fewer than X cars per year - it was exempt from complying with certain safety standards.
I don't think that's been removed, has it? (Fwiw, the US has similar exemptions for small car makers)
I think this was mentioned here previously - now officially announced:
Under a new £80 million contract with Bristol-based Centreline, four BAe146 aircraft, will be replaced by two more sustainable aircraft to continue the UK’s global engagement.
The new planes will be more sustainable thanks to their smaller engines, leading to a reduction in fuel burn and emissions. They will also be able to fly further, providing the UK greater opportunity to engage with key allies and partners.
So Javid wants to get the NHS waiting list time below a year by March 2025? I remember it being 18 weeks in the bad old days of the Labour government.
I'm finalising my proposed contract to go PAYE. For the first time ever I am not just taking private health insurance, I am writing it in blood into the contract.
I hope you didn't support lockdowns.
It wasn't the lockdowns that caused the waiting list, it was the pandemic. If the operating staff are working ICU then they aren't operating. They weren't furloughed!
"Stay at home. Protect the NHS".
Yes, the public stayed at home, NHS workers didn't. [gratuitous insult removed]
The public stayed home instead of getting their conditions seen to. And two years on, it's still essentially impossible for many of us to actually see a GP. We're reaping the whirlwind from changing the NHS into the National Covid Service.
Thats certainly the case, but not because of lockdown.
Unless you think that the blackout in 1940 caused fires and explosions across Britain's cities.
Turning the NHS into the National Covid Service was literally the point of lockdown. Stay at home, protect the NHS.
Nope, it was about limiting people-people contacts and thus reducing the chances of covid spreading. It worked too, but sadly before vaccines, when you come out of lockdown, covid starts spreading again. Happily vaccines have for the most part made covid less severe than seasonal flu (for the under 50's) and not much worse than seasonal flu (for over 50's). Of course the pandemic has caused huge back logs as routine treatments were not done, as hospitals were focusing on the most important thing at the time. There are still 13,000 people in hospital with covid today. Happily most of them won't die of covid, and many of them are there for something else, but its still putting pressure on that wasn't there in 2018. And then there are the knackered, demoralised staff to consider.
Meanwhile I see that Corbyn jnr and his erstwhile pillion companion Ms Abbott - a serving Labour MP - are backing Putin in his aggression towards Ukraine.
What a revolting lot they are.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the boundaries of the Ukraine SSR within the USSR are not sensible boundaries for an independent Ukrainian state.
Ukraine, as currently configured, is like Yugoslavia, or the Austro-Hungarian empire. *
Things will fall apart. They can fall apart slowly or quickly. Slow will cause more damage than quick.
(* Or the UK)
Are you suggesting these things are best determined by Mr Putin? Also I find it rather arrogant of you to assume that the UK will inevitably fall apart.
I think it is very, very, very unlikely that N Ireland will be with us in 50 years.
And Scotland must also be at least evens to leave on that timescale.
It seems more arrogant to assume that the UK will carry on for ever as some immutable state.
Even my mother (a DUP voter) thinks that NI will separate from GB. She says it has already started
It hasn't, Unionist Parties still win more votes than Nationalist Parties in NI.
Plus if Starmer becomes PM in 2024 as polls predict, he will align GB closer to the EEA and CU effectively removing the Irish Sea border anyway
It's the total of NONUnionist parties that counts. The folk in the middle are not going to be very impressed with the rUK government, and even less so with Mr Johnson than the Scots. Remember his personal rating is down there in the Moho level in NI.
The Scots have a distinct non-English identity and a number of them have a grudge against the English
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
There was a play from the 80s, Rat In the Skull, whereby an IRA suspect says to the interviewing RUC officer that they have more in common than he (the RUC officer) has with the Met police around them. That line has always stuck with me.
When in New Orleans, some years ago, out of season (for a conference), I was wandering around.
I ended up having a beer in an empty bar in the early afternoon. Then I noticed the collecting tin and other stuff.
At the bar was on other customer. After a cautious chat, I found out that while he came from NI and had left due to the peace agreement, he was a Loyalist. He drank in that place because it felt something like home....
'Sure, aren't we all descended from gun runners and assassins? Your money's no good here.'
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
Unionists, nae taste.
Discuss.
Holyrood is lovely on the inside. Very calm.
There are three problems with the outside:
- Couldn't ruin the view from the palace. - the stupid security box extension wart on the original sweeping facade - concrete, rather than our lovely sandstone (or some fun with granite from Aberdeen, harling with shells from the Hebrides etc)
Could've looked like the extension to the national museum
Sh!t, I’ve just realised that I’ve not been to Edinburgh city centre since the SP opened, more than two decades ago.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
It was Stormont - bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities.
You old cynic Malmsy.
So are both sides of the divide comfortable using this building going forward?
It is already in use. It is not far from central Belfast which has an airport, ferry terminal, motorway and rail connections. They are not going to move it to somewhere like Cookstown just because it is a bit more central. Cookstown is renowned for sausages, not transport links
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Surely no one would be fooled by a pile of dung that large ?
Lord Craigavon was PM of Northern Ireland for 18 years.
Maybe they thought the Germans, like them, would be unable to see through a lot of old bullshit?
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The "windfall" is in large part just spreading two years of profits over one.
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
The government breaking election promise and dismantling the triple lock is what actually hurts pensioners.
But you miss the point entirely, neither pensions, investments like green investments are not being touched by a tax on a windfall that is due to market crazy market volatility, because crazy market volatility was not factored in as a given in the first place. Was it?
The bit you can’t get your head round is in the term windfall. It’s a windfall. Outside of BAU.
In fact it’s such a windfall, not only are pensions not harmed only also gain windfall after the tax is taken, but the tax goes directly to help those pensioners deep in fuel poverty. That’s a win win 🙂
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Surely no one would be fooled by a pile of dung that large ?
If it was good enough for Spitfires and A13 tanks, not to mention the ordinary brown job in his battledress, to be painted or dyed shitty brown with some green, ditto RAF hangars, then why not?
So Javid wants to get the NHS waiting list time below a year by March 2025? I remember it being 18 weeks in the bad old days of the Labour government.
I'm finalising my proposed contract to go PAYE. For the first time ever I am not just taking private health insurance, I am writing it in blood into the contract.
I hope you didn't support lockdowns.
It wasn't the lockdowns that caused the waiting list, it was the pandemic. If the operating staff are working ICU then they aren't operating. They weren't furloughed!
"Stay at home. Protect the NHS".
Yes, the public stayed at home, NHS workers didn't. [gratuitous insult removed]
The public stayed home instead of getting their conditions seen to. And two years on, it's still essentially impossible for many of us to actually see a GP. We're reaping the whirlwind from changing the NHS into the National Covid Service.
Thats certainly the case, but not because of lockdown.
Unless you think that the blackout in 1940 caused fires and explosions across Britain's cities.
Turning the NHS into the National Covid Service was literally the point of lockdown. Stay at home, protect the NHS.
Nope, it was about limiting people-people contacts and thus reducing the chances of covid spreading. It worked too, but sadly before vaccines, when you come out of lockdown, covid starts spreading again. Happily vaccines have for the most part made covid less severe than seasonal flu (for the under 50's) and not much worse than seasonal flu (for over 50's). Of course the pandemic has caused huge back logs as routine treatments were not done, as hospitals were focusing on the most important thing at the time. There are still 13,000 people in hospital with covid today. Happily most of them won't die of covid, and many of them are there for something else, but its still putting pressure on that wasn't there in 2018. And then there are the knackered, demoralised staff to consider.
Yup - staying at home was to try and reduce the number of COVID cases at any one time to try and stop the NHS collapsing.
This meant that the NHS, just, managed to deal with COVID cases and the most urgent other medical stuff.
But because we don't have a spare 100% of capacity in the NHS, this meant that a lot of stuff stopped happening. Mainly because of the staffing requirements for treating COVID - very staff intensive.
Use of MV beds has roughly halved in the last month
In hospital is going down slower
So the strain is easing. But there is a still a massive load on the NHS caused by all of this....
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Surely no one would be fooled by a pile of dung that large ?
When WW3 comes, that infamous new hotel in Edinburgh will be the safest place to be
Meanwhile I see that Corbyn jnr and his erstwhile pillion companion Ms Abbott - a serving Labour MP - are backing Putin in his aggression towards Ukraine.
What a revolting lot they are.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the boundaries of the Ukraine SSR within the USSR are not sensible boundaries for an independent Ukrainian state.
Ukraine, as currently configured, is like Yugoslavia, or the Austro-Hungarian empire. *
Things will fall apart. They can fall apart slowly or quickly. Slow will cause more damage than quick.
(* Or the UK)
Are you suggesting these things are best determined by Mr Putin? Also I find it rather arrogant of you to assume that the UK will inevitably fall apart.
I think it is very, very, very unlikely that N Ireland will be with us in 50 years.
And Scotland must also be at least evens to leave on that timescale.
It seems more arrogant to assume that the UK will carry on for ever as some immutable state.
Even my mother (a DUP voter) thinks that NI will separate from GB. She says it has already started
It hasn't, Unionist Parties still win more votes than Nationalist Parties in NI.
Plus if Starmer becomes PM in 2024 as polls predict, he will align GB closer to the EEA and CU effectively removing the Irish Sea border anyway
It's the total of NONUnionist parties that counts. The folk in the middle are not going to be very impressed with the rUK government, and even less so with Mr Johnson than the Scots. Remember his personal rating is down there in the Moho level in NI.
The Scots have a distinct non-English identity and a number of them have a grudge against the English
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
There was a play from the 80s, Rat In the Skull, whereby an IRA suspect says to the interviewing RUC officer that they have more in common than he (the RUC officer) has with the Met police around them. That line has always stuck with me.
That is still true. Part of the problems in NI stem from the bi-polar citizenship. Except for the diehards, being "Northern Irish" obviously confers some degree of "Irish". The clue is in the description
Anyone else thinking JRM's Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency brief sounds a bit like Jim Hacker's Department for Administrative Affairs?
Brexit Opportunities brief tacked on after all the proper departments refused it?
As recently pointed out, Jacob Rees-Mogg was only ever "in" the Cabinet in order to protect Boris from charges of selling-out Brexit. JRM was the intellectual part of the ERG, and Boris was suspected of being a remainer posing as a leaver. Brexit Opportunities might be meaningless and certainly powerless (as any legislation would presumably belong to an established department such as Business, the FCO or the Treasury) but it protects Boris's flank.
Little known fact about Stormont - because it was brilliant white, during the war they covered it with bullsh*t to make it harder to see from the air. After the war when they scrapped it off, they discovered that it had stained and this resulted in the off-white colour that we have today.
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
Would it have been easier to use paint?
Very short of it at the time. Was needed for all sorts of other camoulfage. And sharn was in abundant supply in NI.
Surely no one would be fooled by a pile of dung that large ?
When WW3 comes, that infamous new hotel in Edinburgh will be the safest place to be
Just looked, BTW. Still not posting on Twitter again. I suspect lawyers.
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The "windfall" is in large part just spreading two years of profits over one.
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
The government breaking election promise and dismantling the triple lock is what actually hurts pensioners.
But you miss the point entirely, neither pensions, investments like green investments are not being touched by a tax on a windfall that is due to market crazy market volatility, because crazy market volatility was not factored in as a given in the first place. Was it?
The bit you can’t get your head round is in the term windfall. It’s a windfall. Outside of BAU.
In fact it’s such a windfall, not only are pensions not harmed only also gain windfall after the tax is taken, but the tax goes directly to help those pensioners deep in fuel poverty. That’s a win win 🙂
The oil and gas business has always been cyclic - in the good times you invest, and kind of huddle up for the bad times.
"Windfall" taxes have been proposed before. Whenever they are implemented, in various countries, the result is damage to investment part of the cycle.
Which is why the SNP are opposed to them, for example.
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I think this was mentioned here previously - now officially announced:
Under a new £80 million contract with Bristol-based Centreline, four BAe146 aircraft, will be replaced by two more sustainable aircraft to continue the UK’s global engagement.
The new planes will be more sustainable thanks to their smaller engines, leading to a reduction in fuel burn and emissions. They will also be able to fly further, providing the UK greater opportunity to engage with key allies and partners.
As someone said of the -146 - the only aircraft with 5 APUs!
The Airbus A340-300 had 5 APUs too.
The -146 has had its day though, modern planes are much cheaper to fly and keep airworthy.
The unkind remarked that the 340-300 relied on the curvature of the earth to gain altitude!
I did like the 340-600 though - lovely and quiet - now sadly gone - I was a tad underwhelmed by the 350 - had hoped Airbus could pull off the same trick again, but I found it little different to the 787.
At 40 years in service the -146 has had a good innings. I notice the RAF omitted to mention where the Dassault is built….
Shirley-Anne Somerville accuses opposition MSPs of "deliberately misunderstanding" plans to "undercut" some school classroom doors as part of efforts to improve ventilation. She says this may actually be needed if installation of extractor fans changes the air pressure in a room …..
The "misunderstanding" may stem somewhat from the fact this is completely different from the reasoning the Scottish government was offering last week - Nicola Sturgeon certainly never mentioned concerns about changes in air pressure in a lengthy FMQs exchange on the topic
They’re fire doors! You can’t just change two lines of a building code, it needs to be considered as a whole.
If you want to put huge ventilation fans in the windows to move air around, then you need to re-evaluate airflows and fire retardance *for each building*. Cutting holes in the fire doors simply replaces one risk with another.
The Manx Tynwald is probably the most Covid-safe parliament in the world:
Do you realise how much you have just screwed up my search facility with that one careless post?!!!!
Now as long as this thread is active I will have to put an extra letter into the search when I go looking to see if I have had any replies to my comments.
Aaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!
Manx Tyndall has a ring to it
Would be a top name for a WWE wrestler.
'He fights like he has three legs and he'll shove your Tourist Trophy up your ass'
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Tadao Ando designs exquisitely chaste churches in Japan, out of this same raw concrete. Like Corbusier did
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
I'm losing patience with Tory MPs but who do we see as possible candidates?
Sunak Truss Mordaunt Tugendhat Harper
Any others?
Raab and Patel and Gove and Hunt
Yes. Across the two posts looking like a good list.
However, as the secret voting whittles them down, they coalesce around their wings of the party? The next part of the game is who backs who when they either don’t run or get whittled out. Does it boil down to just two factions, right and centre, 1 candidate from each to the membership? Or are there other distinct platforms who can muscle in to the final 2? 🤔
Right vs centre doesn't exactly map onto or populist vs reality-based or authoritarian vs liberal - e.g. Johnson could be seen as economic centre, populist, authorisation; Sunak right, reality-based, liberal; Truss right, populist, authoritarian.... and so on.
I think I might increase my bet on Truss.
Yes I understand and agree with you. Yet it’s true as they are voted out the contest they will be courted by other candidates hopeful for some of their votes by the endorsement.
So playing with the list above, and adding Javid who surely tries to get 9 nominees, who is likely to side with who?
I think it's really hard to call the likely groupings, because they divide along (at least) 3 axes. Up to 2019 I'd have expected the divide to be populist vs reality-based by the final two, but Johnson did a good job of getting rid of many members of the reality-based faction of conservatism.
I am not at all convinced that any possible alliances are driven by shared values rather than "will supporting this person save my seat?" and "will standing down my leadership bid at this stage get me a better cabinet job with this person rather than that person?". To some extent that's always true but it's far more obvious with the current front-runners - because you probably wouldn't be in a Johnson cabinet unless you prioritised advancement over values.
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I always found HP laptops to be underpowered and unreliable. The best business laptops I had over the years were Dells. My current aged Dell Latitide has a lovely keyboard and is still running after 7 years.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Tadao Ando designs exquisitely chaste churches in Japan, out of this same raw concrete. Like Corbusier did
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
For an unhappy reason I've had to spend more time in Aberdeen over the last year than in the last five. Granite is terrible in the rain and even in bright sunshine it's weird, all that sparkling mica. It should be used sparingly, far too late for Aberdeen of course.
Interesting appointment. A job of going through the mound of EU legislation that was transposed into UK law, and identifying what can be got rid of.
A couple of good ideas already today, in revising the transport compensation scheme and not adopting the new EU car standards (which are easy if you’re VW Group or Daimler, but a pain in the arse if you’re Lotus or Aston Martin, let alone Ariel or Caterham).
It continues to baffle me (it may be your distance from the UK) that the red tape gets branded as being the EU's fault. We have drowned ourselves in Red Tape at huge cost and disruption, it wasn't there before Brexit and we chose to impose it on ourselves.
I will be delighted if Jacob Rees-Mogg gets the scissors out and frees the country from its red tape trade prison. But doing so will not be a Brexit bonus. Just a return to the status quo ante.
Incidentally, this idea that we start rolling back on safety standards. That is explicitly what this very government insisted it would not do.
I'm not aware of a proposal to "roll back on safety standards"?
Indeed. The proposal is simply not to enforce the next lot - for which there’s been lots of lobbying from the large German auto makers in this case, for competitive advantage in their home market. The UK will of course accept cars built to the new standard, and British auto makers who will to sell to the EU will need to comply.
But, the big but, the small British makers won’t be forced to, for their home market or other export markets.
Previously, we would have heard some shouting from the small manufacturers, but little or nothing will have changed, the European Parliament will vote it through and it will be introduced into British law on the nod.
What’s really changed, is that this is now a job for the UK Parliament to decide, and the decisionwill be taken purely in the interests of British consumers and manufacturers. I call it “Taking Back Control”.
So... I had the original Tesla Roadster, and when you bought it you had to sign a bit of paper saying you accepted that - as Tesla produced fewer than X cars per year - it was exempt from complying with certain safety standards.
I don't think that's been removed, has it? (Fwiw, the US has similar exemptions for small car makers)
In the UK you have a process called Single Vehicle Approval (SVA), which is a little like the “Experimental” aircraft category in the USA, in exempting small manufacturers from an awful lot of paperwork. It’s something the UK and USA does well, and the EU doesn’t like at all!
Ford Motorsport managed, a few years ago, to put lights and indicators on a single-seat racing car, and persuade the DVLA to give it a number plate. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tmZMwk14r4c
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The "windfall" is in large part just spreading two years of profits over one.
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
It is stupid to keep calling this a windfall tax. Up until 2016 all oil companies paid Petroleum Revenue Tax - between 62% and 81% on oil and gas production after all costs. This existed from the mid 1970s and is still in existence as a framework but is simply zero rated. All the Government would have to do is increase the rate from zero to something suitable.
I have said this before many times but what scares Oil Companies away is not the tax rate but the lack of stability in the UK regulatory and taxation system. If you are looking to bring a field into production you are looking at at least 5 or 6 years and often the best part of a decade from first seismic exploration to first oil. The investment needed is vast and no one wants to commit that sort of money if the whole financial basis is going to be changed before you have even started drilling wells.
Norway gets this. They have a marginal tax rate of 78% on oil company profits (22% Corporation tax plus 56% Special petroleum tax). But companies are fighting to get licences there because it is a very stable financial and regulatory environment in which to make the huge investments needed. They know that decade after decade the Noggies have kept things the same. Meanwhile our Government changes the whole thing every 4 or 5 years.
Make a commitment to a stable operating environment and the companies will accept the tax hit. Otherwise they will continue to look elsewhere in the world to make their investments.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
Unionists, nae taste.
Discuss.
Donald Dewar was a decent lawyer, a good politician, but a hopeless quantity surveyor.
Have you seen the building the UK government wanted the Scottish Parliament to go in? It looks like a Georgian barracks. Also I can tell you that for all it's beauty MPs moan like crazy if you arrange a meeting in the Palace instead of Portcullis House.
Warning shot from powerful backbencher here...Sir Bernard Jenkin tells PM: "He's got to sort this out, we are not interested in the optics, in some impression of a reset... we are looking for a change in the capability and the character of the government..." https://twitter.com/bernardjenkin/status/1491056394824560645
Boris only does the optics. What on earth else does Bernard Jenkin expect?
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I always found HP laptops to be underpowered and unreliable. The best business laptops I had over the years were Dells. My current aged Dell Latitide has a lovely keyboard and is still running after 7 years.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
I'm seriously looking at swapping the company machines from Dell to the LG Gram series. It's a slight compromise on build quality but the 16" screen is a winner when the laptop weighs 1.2KG
In what I think is huge danger to the government getting re-elected, Clear water developing now between government and opposition over a big call in credit crunch management. Libdems throwing their weight behind windfall tax on the energy firms making higher profits.
The windfall could not have been budgeted in in terms of investment, so cannot harm any investment if the windfall is merely taxed? If tax system cannot take into account vast profits are being made simply from market volatility, surely that is simply wrong, a bit of Robin Hood in these situations is only fair and good if Capitalism is to work properly? Otherwise you will endorse impoverished consumers having to pay through the nose for energy vital to them, at the same time those who own the energy firms are raking in profit. That has to be both capitalism gone wrong and an insane political position to defend?
Has there been any polling on Windfall tax in last few weeks?
What about the losses they made in the previous financial year?
Utterly wiped out by the windfall.
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
The "windfall" is in large part just spreading two years of profits over one.
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
The government breaking election promise and dismantling the triple lock is what actually hurts pensioners.
But you miss the point entirely, neither pensions, investments like green investments are not being touched by a tax on a windfall that is due to market crazy market volatility, because crazy market volatility was not factored in as a given in the first place. Was it?
The bit you can’t get your head round is in the term windfall. It’s a windfall. Outside of BAU.
In fact it’s such a windfall, not only are pensions not harmed only also gain windfall after the tax is taken, but the tax goes directly to help those pensioners deep in fuel poverty. That’s a win win 🙂
Yeah, it's a windfall. If you ignore the previous year.
Taxing Big Bad Oil because they're Big and Bad and because you're envious is a terrible, terrible plan for the reasons @Richard_Tyndall eloquently lays out.
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I always found HP laptops to be underpowered and unreliable. The best business laptops I had over the years were Dells. My current aged Dell Latitide has a lovely keyboard and is still running after 7 years.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
HP = 'Horrible Product.'
That said, I've got one netbook of theirs that still works after twelve years. And a laptop that was dead after three.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Tadao Ando designs exquisitely chaste churches in Japan, out of this same raw concrete. Like Corbusier did
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
For an unhappy reason I've had to spend more time in Aberdeen over the last year than in the last five. Granite is terrible in the rain and even in bright sunshine it's weird, all that sparkling mica. It should be used sparingly, far too late for Aberdeen of course.
Yes I believe you are right. As a CornishmanI should know this. Granite can be very depressing, as bad as concrete
What is the main stone used in Inverness? That works a treat. A lovely city
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I always found HP laptops to be underpowered and unreliable. The best business laptops I had over the years were Dells. My current aged Dell Latitide has a lovely keyboard and is still running after 7 years.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
I'm seriously looking at swapping the company machines from Dell to the LG Gram series. It's a slight compromise on build quality but the 16" screen is a winner when the laptop weighs 1.2KG
For me, the keyboard is the dealbreaker. I hate those cheap, nasty, rubber button keyboards that seem to be all the rage at the moment. My daughter's Mac has them and they are rubbish.
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
Unionists, nae taste.
Discuss.
Donald Dewar was a decent lawyer, a good politician, but a hopeless quantity surveyor.
Have you seen the building the UK government wanted the Scottish Parliament to go in? It looks like a Georgian barracks. Also I can tell you that for all it's beauty MPs moan like crazy if you arrange a meeting in the Palace instead of Portcullis House.
THis one? It is an annexe to Holyrood, the equivalent I suppose of Portcullis Ho in being an office annexe.
Laptops - anyone got any thoughts on things like screens? I really like a 3:2 screen, especially useful for when undocked as there is just so much more screen. And HD is a bit low-res these days so at least a 2k screen.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I always found HP laptops to be underpowered and unreliable. The best business laptops I had over the years were Dells. My current aged Dell Latitide has a lovely keyboard and is still running after 7 years.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
Dell or Lenovo Thinkpad imo. If this is for your new work gig, who will be maintaining it? Size and weight (or lack of) are important if you will be travelling a lot. If at a fixed location, get an external monitor or two. Concur re memory: at least 16 and preferably 32GB. SSDs and in particular NVMe are fast enough.
It is stupid to keep calling this a windfall tax. Up until 2016 all oil companies paid Petroleum Revenue Tax - between 62% and 81% on oil and gas production after all costs. This existed from the mid 1970s and is still in existence as a framework but is simply zero rated. All the Government would have to do is increase the rate from zero to something suitable.
I have said this before many times but what scares Oil Companies away is not the tax rate but the lack of stability in the UK regulatory and taxation system. If you are looking to bring a field into production you are looking at at least 5 or 6 years and often the best part of a decade from first seismic exploration to first oil. The investment needed is vast and no one wants to commit that sort of money if the whole financial basis is going to be changed before you have even started drilling wells.
Norway gets this. They have a marginal tax rate of 78% on oil company profits (22% Corporation tax plus 56% Special petroleum tax). But companies are fighting to get licences there because it is a very stable financial and regulatory environment in which to make the huge investments needed. They know that decade after decade the Noggies have kept things the same. Meanwhile our Government changes the whole thing every 4 or 5 years.
Make a commitment to a stable operating environment and the companies will accept the tax hit. Otherwise they will continue to look elsewhere in the world to make their investments.
Yes, as I've mentioned before, the then CEO of Novartis - one of the world's largest multinational companies - told me that he wasn't necessarily bothered by high tax rates or strict regulation, so long as they were predictable, since you could then make a solid long-term assessment of what would be profitable. He much preferred that to a political environment in which parties competed to offer different models, even if some of them were temporarily attractive, since it was impossible to make investments on that basis.
The difficulty is always the starting point. Oil companies have undoubtedly done extraordinarily well lately. Do we tax that more highly to help the other sectors of the economy, and then settle down to a long-term plan, or do we just accept it as natural fluctuation?
💥69% say PM responsible for LOTO being harassed 💥54% 2019 Con also say this 💥68% say he should publicly apologise to Starmer 💥68% say he should withdraw comments 💥64% say politics has gotten nastier in last 5 yrs
I think this was mentioned here previously - now officially announced:
Under a new £80 million contract with Bristol-based Centreline, four BAe146 aircraft, will be replaced by two more sustainable aircraft to continue the UK’s global engagement.
The new planes will be more sustainable thanks to their smaller engines, leading to a reduction in fuel burn and emissions. They will also be able to fly further, providing the UK greater opportunity to engage with key allies and partners.
As someone said of the -146 - the only aircraft with 5 APUs!
The Airbus A340-300 had 5 APUs too.
The -146 has had its day though, modern planes are much cheaper to fly and keep airworthy.
Not to mention the cabin air issues....
Oh yes, all the crews that definitely didn’t get some very nasty side-effects, including cancer, from breathing contaminated cabin bleed air for hundreds of hours a year.
I do like Rees-Mogg as Minister for Brexit Opportunities. An excellent job for a man who likes a good lie-down.
I can see many richly global regulatory-avoiding opportunities, like a finely aged honey. Somerset Capital Management must be licking its lips, as Rees-Mogg reclines almost horizontally on the Commons benches.
Boris might just have played a blinder here. The grumblings amongst the euro-sceptic Right have increasingly been that Brexit is naff simply because Boris is useless. But if the very high priest of Brexit, JRM, can't salvage it then Boris wriggles free from much of the criticism. Cummings, Frost and now JRM - Boris is bringing them all down with him!
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Tadao Ando designs exquisitely chaste churches in Japan, out of this same raw concrete. Like Corbusier did
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
For an unhappy reason I've had to spend more time in Aberdeen over the last year than in the last five. Granite is terrible in the rain and even in bright sunshine it's weird, all that sparkling mica. It should be used sparingly, far too late for Aberdeen of course.
Yes I believe you are right. As a CornishmanI should know this. Granite can be very depressing, as bad as concrete
What is the main stone used in Inverness? That works a treat. A lovely city
A good question - apparently various coastal quarries in the Old Red Sandstone nearby. (The ORS also provides the stone for Wick btw.)
Here’s a good PB quiz, as I sip my gin under the tropical moon
Here are some kiwis protesting vax outside the NZ Parliament. From the groaniad
Look at he state of that building. Is this the ugliest Parliament building in the world, or is that still Holyrood? Can anyone think of a worse example?
And what is the best?
That looks much better than Holyrood
Holyrood is a disaster. Nice on the inside, hideous on the outside. Should be flattened the minute the structure has served it’s useful life. About 40 years is fair service?
Under no circumstances should money be wasted on renovation.
Dewar was a sneeky wee bastard.
I see from some online lists of “the ten ugliest buildings in the world” that Holyrood AND the Kiwi Parliament both make the list, so this is clearly a keenly fought contest
The tragedy is that Holyrood is in EDINBURGH, one of the loveliest cities on the globe. It would be fine, if still weird and hideous, in Swindon or Stockport. It’s like putting the old Birmingham Bull Ring in Venice
Actually I like Holyrood. It wasn't worth the money spent on it - I think you should be disciplined with the public purse. But it is a genuinely interesting piece of modern architecture, of which there is very little in Scotland.
Actually in my experience architects of my acquaintance seem quite keen on it. Whether that's a good thing..
One of them was able to clear up one minor mystery for me, why a (as I thought) pistol grip motif was repeated on the exterior; they are trees apparently. Boring..
Architects defending enormously expensive architecture. Amazebombs. Next thing you’ll have virologists denying that risky virological research could possibly lead to a lab leak, and that coronavirus must have come from a pangolin fucking a wasp in a pet shop
Holyrood reminds me a little of the British Library. Both enormously expensive. Both long delayed. Both intensely disappointing. Both have rather fine interiors, but sad exteriors. Tho Holyrood is much uglier
Both are stoutly defended by architects. Of course
It was an observation, not a stout defence of architects. As with dildo knappers, it's always interesting to hear a professional view.
I wasn’t arguing with you (for once) just pointing out that professionals always circle the wagons, when their professions comes under “attack”
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
In Piccadilly Gardens, in Manchester - Manchester's largest, though certainly not its most splendid, public open space*, there is a building known as 'Tado Ando's pavilion', designed by renowned Japanese architect Tado Ando.
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
Tadao Ando designs exquisitely chaste churches in Japan, out of this same raw concrete. Like Corbusier did
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
For an unhappy reason I've had to spend more time in Aberdeen over the last year than in the last five. Granite is terrible in the rain and even in bright sunshine it's weird, all that sparkling mica. It should be used sparingly, far too late for Aberdeen of course.
Yes I believe you are right. As a CornishmanI should know this. Granite can be very depressing, as bad as concrete
What is the main stone used in Inverness? That works a treat. A lovely city
Sandstone I think? Quite mixed though. Inverness has had its problems.
Comments
As you say, us knappers are no different
Holyrood is an aesthetic disaster. If you ever do go indy, the first thing you should do is knock it down, along with the Turd
Ulster folk are much the same but with the dial turned up to 11.
Even to a lot of the Unionist population, the border with the Republic is viewed as a very porous thing and none of them think twice about crossing the border. That is why the introduction of a "hard border" would be an utter disaster. To many except the most die-hard types, it would be like rebuilding the Berlin Wall and about as popular.
Brexit Opportunities brief tacked on after all the proper departments refused it?
You are defending no tax on windfall whilst consumers pay through the nose and struggle?
Unless you think that the blackout in 1940 caused fires and explosions across Britain's cities.
@Morris_Dancer I'm sure concrete can look good, but here in dampest Scotland we don't have the sun to burn the rain off. So it stains.
Dans le contexte que nous connaissons, le sang-froid dont fait preuve le peuple ukrainien force le respect. Aux côtés de l’Allemagne, la France est déterminée à mettre fin au conflit.
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1491062805235068929?s=20&t=k83p23d4dhC24zmfW-TldQ
PS
Found it ...
https://edinburghgeolsoc.org/downloads/lbgcleaflet_canongatewalla4.pdf
The bulls*t has since moved indoors
(OK - technically, it was cattle dung, but bullsh*t is a subset of that and it works better for story telling)
It is horrible. It's basically a concrete wall.
Just have a look:
https://www.google.com/search?q=tadao+ando+manchester&rlz=1C1GCEB_enGB948GB949&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYvceNr_D1AhXMX8AKHTjdDlkQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1536&bih=754&dpr=1.25&safe=active&ssui=on
The only people I have ever heard with a good word to say about it are architects.
*Picadilly Gardens should be one of Britain's great urban spaces. At one time it was a Victorian urban gardens. However, it's dominated by the ugliest building in Manchester; one quarter of the space is a half-arsed bus station; the fountains and grass are poorly maintained, and there are rather too many alcoholics and drugged-up zombies for comfort. Really, a horrible and pointless concrete wall is the least of its problems.
So playing with the list above, and adding Javid who surely tries to get 9 nominees, who is likely to side with who?
https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/tadao-ando-demolition/
Why do you want to levy even more tax on companies that make up a large share of ordinary people's pensions?
But, the big but, the small British makers won’t be forced to, for their home market or other export markets.
Previously, we would have heard some shouting from the small manufacturers, but little or nothing will have changed, the European Parliament will vote it through and it will be introduced into British law on the nod.
What’s really changed, is that this is now a job for the UK Parliament to decide, and the decisionwill be taken purely in the interests of British consumers and manufacturers. I call it “Taking Back Control”.
So are both sides of the divide comfortable using this building going forward?
I ended up having a beer in an empty bar in the early afternoon. Then I noticed the collecting tin and other stuff.
At the bar was on other customer. After a cautious chat, I found out that while he came from NI and had left due to the peace agreement, he was a Loyalist. He drank in that place because it felt something like home....
Not strenuous stuff - smashing teenagers kneecaps is hard work (for example), you know. Especially when you get into the later years and your own joints aren't what they were.
A decent fertiliser bomb weighs tons - shifting that lot will do your back easily.
EDIT: "bullshit was free and available, on site, in vast quantities" was literally true - farms all around.
The -146 has had its day though, modern planes are much cheaper to fly and keep airworthy.
I don't think that's been removed, has it? (Fwiw, the US has similar exemptions for small car makers)
Happily vaccines have for the most part made covid less severe than seasonal flu (for the under 50's) and not much worse than seasonal flu (for over 50's).
Of course the pandemic has caused huge back logs as routine treatments were not done, as hospitals were focusing on the most important thing at the time. There are still 13,000 people in hospital with covid today. Happily most of them won't die of covid, and many of them are there for something else, but its still putting pressure on that wasn't there in 2018. And then there are the knackered, demoralised staff to consider.
It turned out that that, too, was bullshit.
Maybe they thought the Germans, like them, would be unable to see through a lot of old bullshit?
But you miss the point entirely, neither pensions, investments like green investments are not being touched by a tax on a windfall that is due to market crazy market volatility, because crazy market volatility was not factored in as a given in the first place. Was it?
The bit you can’t get your head round is in the term windfall. It’s a windfall. Outside of BAU.
In fact it’s such a windfall, not only are pensions not harmed only also gain windfall after the tax is taken, but the tax goes directly to help those pensioners deep in fuel poverty. That’s a win win 🙂
This meant that the NHS, just, managed to deal with COVID cases and the most urgent other medical stuff.
But because we don't have a spare 100% of capacity in the NHS, this meant that a lot of stuff stopped happening. Mainly because of the staffing requirements for treating COVID - very staff intensive.
Use of MV beds has roughly halved in the last month
In hospital is going down slower
So the strain is easing. But there is a still a massive load on the NHS caused by all of this....
https://twitter.com/turdhotel?lang=en
"Windfall" taxes have been proposed before. Whenever they are implemented, in various countries, the result is damage to investment part of the cycle.
Which is why the SNP are opposed to them, for example.
But, a lot of manufacturer "business" laptops have HD 16:9 screens. No need for faffy docking stations now when a single USB-c cable does everything, so why bother with a "business" machine at all? Went through a succession of HP Probooks in other businesses and frankly they were shite.
Apparently I need Windows Pro, but can see that I can buy a product key to swap installed Home (more choice) for Pro for £20. So genuinely thinking about an Acer Spin 5 - screen I want, fast processor and lots of memory, stylus, convertible. Had a succession of Acer machines at home and they seem to be good kit.
I did like the 340-600 though - lovely and quiet - now sadly gone - I was a tad underwhelmed by the 350 - had hoped Airbus could pull off the same trick again, but I found it little different to the 787.
At 40 years in service the -146 has had a good innings. I notice the RAF omitted to mention where the Dassault is built….
If you want to put huge ventilation fans in the windows to move air around, then you need to re-evaluate airflows and fire retardance *for each building*. Cutting holes in the fire doors simply replaces one risk with another.
'He fights like he has three legs and he'll shove your Tourist Trophy up your ass'
Of course they work really well in eagerly maintained Zen gardens, with Japanese sunshine to help, it all feels very calming and right, and the concrete has a purity like sincere prayer
But in a rainy city centre in northern England? FFS no. You want good granite or Portland stone or some such, you want solid but uplifting architecture, noble and obviously imposing, and not something that looks like a urinal from day one
Architects are generally vain fools and the people that employ them are often worse
I am not at all convinced that any possible alliances are driven by shared values rather than "will supporting this person save my seat?" and "will standing down my leadership bid at this stage get me a better cabinet job with this person rather than that person?". To some extent that's always true but it's far more obvious with the current front-runners - because you probably wouldn't be in a Johnson cabinet unless you prioritised advancement over values.
Satire is over.
Whatever you buy, have it shipped with the maximum amount of memory it can manage. That is way, way more important than processor speed or GPU type.
Ford Motorsport managed, a few years ago, to put lights and indicators on a single-seat racing car, and persuade the DVLA to give it a number plate. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tmZMwk14r4c
I have said this before many times but what scares Oil Companies away is not the tax rate but the lack of stability in the UK regulatory and taxation system. If you are looking to bring a field into production you are looking at at least 5 or 6 years and often the best part of a decade from first seismic exploration to first oil. The investment needed is vast and no one wants to commit that sort of money if the whole financial basis is going to be changed before you have even started drilling wells.
Norway gets this. They have a marginal tax rate of 78% on oil company profits (22% Corporation tax plus 56% Special petroleum tax). But companies are fighting to get licences there because it is a very stable financial and regulatory environment in which to make the huge investments needed. They know that decade after decade the Noggies have kept things the same. Meanwhile our Government changes the whole thing every 4 or 5 years.
Make a commitment to a stable operating environment and the companies will accept the tax hit. Otherwise they will continue to look elsewhere in the world to make their investments.
https://ao.com/product/16z90pkaa82a1-lg-gram-laptop-black-90646-251.aspx.
Taxing Big Bad Oil because they're Big and Bad and because you're envious is a terrible, terrible plan for the reasons @Richard_Tyndall eloquently lays out.
That said, I've got one netbook of theirs that still works after twelve years. And a laptop that was dead after three.
Budget cosplay
What is the main stone used in Inverness? That works a treat. A lovely city
Westminster has become hysterical in the face of this completely mundane incident.
Fraser Myers"
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/08/keir-starmer-was-heckled-so-what/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensberry_House
Holyrood Parliament IS the building the UKG wanted for Holyrood.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
The difficulty is always the starting point. Oil companies have undoubtedly done extraordinarily well lately. Do we tax that more highly to help the other sectors of the economy, and then settle down to a long-term plan, or do we just accept it as natural fluctuation?
💥69% say PM responsible for LOTO being harassed
💥54% 2019 Con also say this
💥68% say he should publicly apologise to Starmer
💥68% say he should withdraw comments
💥64% say politics has gotten nastier in last 5 yrs
1,094 UK adults, 8 Feb 2022
https://twitter.com/SavantaComRes/status/1491068135793106944
An oxymoron for a moron?
http://edinburghgeolsoc.org/eg_pdfs/edinburgh-geologist-62-supp-mcmillan-building-stones.pdf
Inverness has had its problems.
He even remembered to remove the hard hat that is welded to his head.