"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Avoid Windows 11 for the time being, if you get the choice. And business laptops are more resilient than home ones.
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….
The 340-600 was indeed lovely.
787 moved the bar up, and A350 is at least level with it. If you’d have experienced them the other way around, you’d have been mighty impressed with the A350 and underwhelmed by the 787. The huge change in both, is the lower cabin altitude and higher humidity allowed by the carbon construction, great for reducing jet lag.
All this reminiscing about planes, it’s two years since I’ve been on one!
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?
There's no difficulty. BP for example did extraordinarily badly in 2020, and their profits for the previous four years were small given their size. Now they've made a decent profit, as is to be expected when oil prices rise. But if you're going to say that 'heads you lose, tails we wham you with an unexpected tax so that you also lose', what message does that send to any industry considering investing in the UK?
Richard T is spot-on. The idea of a 'windfall tax' is Ed-Milliband-style nonsense, which logically would imply that taxpayers should give them a subsidy if the price goes down again.
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.
Good grief, isn't that the shoebox right at the end of the Ness Bridge and under the castle?
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.
I’m only suggesting a bandage, not whole scale Marxism. The energy cap itself is closer to Marxism than a one off windfall tax.
What I am suggesting here is a bandage to a wound caused by rubbish government decades ago. Lady Thatcher had privatised energy before I was born. She was wrong. The wealth from North Sea Oil and Gas should instead have gone into a Sovereign Wealth Fund like the Norwegians done. The Norwegians done the right thing, UK under Thatcherism went the wrong way, did the wrong thing.
So that’s where we are, sticky plasters and bandages to the cost of living crisis is the very least the UK government now owes its people.
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Thanks to all for comments so far. Maintenance likely to be some hired in shitefest support company though in reality it won't be hardware maintenance will it. These things tend to work until they either get physically broken or they do a "security" update which slows it down to resemble the computer from the Lunar Rover.
Way way back in my Nestle days computers were all Dell - have they started building them properly now? Agree on weight, size is no bigger than a 13 / 14" screen just with the debate on aspect ratio. 16:9 too narrow for me and screens low res, will look at 16:10, prefer 3:2.
Will be docked as much as possible - I have an LG 34" ultrawide and I have budgeted for the same once we get an office to put them in. But need to work remotely hence the need for a screen thats not shitey, tolerable keyboard & trackpad etc.
I ended up driving the spec on new laptops in my last company. And had they not cut the budget at the last minute ("this one was cheaper and looked like its got all the same features" - it didn't...) the HP machine would have been ok until the hired in IT shitefest support company ruined them with a Windows / server combination that had the CPU meltdown when trying to open a spreadsheet.
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.
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.
These are really good replies thank you. 👍🏻
So Raab and Truss who ideologically should team up, won’t because of a spat over a mansion? That’s what’s going to drive this leadership election more than ideology and beliefs.
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
You keep posting the same bollocks in defence of the indefensible. Please remind me of the Gove incident as I don't remember it. Every incident like this is bad - the nutters don't care which party their target MP is in before they murder them.
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Matt screens and non-touch.
Gloss and touch and a screen resolution higher than "Full HD" a must for me
I like Tugendhat but think it highly unlikely he gets to the final 2. More likely Hunt would face Sunak in the membership vote or a rightwinger like Truss or Raab or Patel.
I also think the Leaver Sunak would easily beat the former Remainer Tugendhat in any membership vote.
Agreed. OGH is safe in his Rishi bet if Tugendhat is the other option.
I actually think he is safe in his bet regardless of who Rishi faces - unless it is discovered Rishi is the Downing Street partymeister....
As you two guys are far closer to Tory politics than Libdem supporting me, how possible are the following?
As the candidate to move Party to the centre, Hunt may not run himself but back Tugendhat instead?
From outside the tainted and discredited cabinet, Harper is the candidate of the right, Tuggendhat candidate to shift to centre, if those two names go forward to the membership, Harper is clear winner isn’t he? The mood of the party membership is to stay right or is there appetite to move to centre?
I'm not sure Hunt is ready to give up the chance to be PM just yet. He lost to Boris last time, but still had plenty of Westminster support (although many of those who were so fervently anti-Boris are no longer MP's....)
The candidates (apart from Hunt) with any chance of getting put to the membership will be from the Cabinet.
Doesn't this depend on the circumstances of Johnson's departure and how thoroughly he has managed to make the existing Cabinet complicit in defending him? E.g. you can imagine a situation where the final partygate report makes it impossible for some of his most enthusiastic supporters to retain any credibility due to the untrue defences they have been prepared to make on the radio - that's just a hypothetical example, but given his record of co-opting others to defend his unacceptable behaviour, it's likely that the particular piece of unacceptable behaviour that finally sees him removed from office will cause collateral damage to some of his current allies.
His current allies don't number his likely replacements.....
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
I don't remember the Tories behind called scum from the despatch box, but am pretty sure that the Speaker would have had an issue with it if it had happened.
💥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
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
Calm down, dear. For what it is worth you are not altogether wrong, but synthetic outrage is part of the game. Starmer was attacked by Corbynite nutters, 90% of what they were shouting was nothing to do with Starmer, and as a Boris hater I privately find the whole incident satisfying and rather funny, but officially I am outraged, do you hear? That is how it works.
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.
Good grief, isn't that the shoebox right at the end of the Ness Bridge and under the castle?
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?
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.
Recommend Microsoft Surface Laptop 4. Decent 3x2 touchscreen, great keyboard. Overall nice. Downside is lack of ports but that doesn't appear to be your priority. Reasonably priced for the spec and quality.
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.
These are really good replies thank you. 👍🏻
So Raab and Truss who ideologically should team up, won’t because of a spat over a mansion? That’s what’s going to drive this leadership election more than ideology and beliefs.
If Truss looks likely to win, I'm sure that Raab would be happy to team up with her based on the shared ideology of "it's a good idea to have Raab in the cabinet"
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Thanks to all for comments so far. Maintenance likely to be some hired in shitefest support company though in reality it won't be hardware maintenance will it. These things tend to work until they either get physically broken or they do a "security" update which slows it down to resemble the computer from the Lunar Rover.
Way way back in my Nestle days computers were all Dell - have they started building them properly now? Agree on weight, size is no bigger than a 13 / 14" screen just with the debate on aspect ratio. 16:9 too narrow for me and screens low res, will look at 16:10, prefer 3:2.
Will be docked as much as possible - I have an LG 34" ultrawide and I have budgeted for the same once we get an office to put them in. But need to work remotely hence the need for a screen thats not shitey, tolerable keyboard & trackpad etc.
I ended up driving the spec on new laptops in my last company. And had they not cut the budget at the last minute ("this one was cheaper and looked like its got all the same features" - it didn't...) the HP machine would have been ok until the hired in IT shitefest support company ruined them with a Windows / server combination that had the CPU meltdown when trying to open a spreadsheet.
Always choose from the laptops that offer Windows Pro, they’re generally the business range, a little more expensive but more stable in configuration for central management and with 3-year hardware warranty. I usually go for Dell XPS range, or Lenovo.
Left-field option is the Microsoft Surface tablet, which is surprisingly good at the higher specs, if you are mostly in office or home locations with proper screens and keyboards for the big spreadsheets. I use these for senior management, and battery really does last all day.
Most laptops are not really upgradeable any more, so get at least 16GB RAM and i7 processor.
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.)
Cf Herefordshire, which is full of old red sandstone buildings. Look at these 1000 year old carvings from Kilpeck church. As expressive today as the moment they were carved. I took this photo late last November
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?
There is a lot I would like to say about this topic given my day job but given this place is not entirely anonymous I'll hold off, other than to say that anyone suggesting something like a windfall tax for multinationals that make almost all (in some cases more than 100%) of their profits outside the UK need to think through the actual practical and legal basis on which they would levy it.
Much easier where there are predominantly UK domestic income earners, like the old privatised utilities in 1997.
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.
Granite city has a lot of granite shocker.
I like the grey buildings on the grey skyline - suits the overall atmosphere.
💥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
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent.
I think that is spot-on, by the guy who used to run polling for No 10 under Theresa May.
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.)
💥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 appointment is great news for remainers or EEA/EFTA fans because Mogg being the face of anything is going to do it collateral damage. We need to get back to a healthy level of debate over our relationship with EU after a couple of years where it's been the topic that dare not speak its name at least on the Labour benches.
Now we are all agree the UK isn't rejoining any time soon there is no reason the trading relationship should not be scrutinised much more aggressively.
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
You are like a broken record. No it wasn't alright to hassle Gove. Calling someone scum is also unacceptable. None of that is any excuse for a PM resorting to repeating conspiracy stuff at the despatch box. For the umpteenth time 2 wrongs do not make a right.
Covid case numbers showing a huge drop from last week. 112K -> 66K in a week. Almost all other metrics are down. For the first time in ages the number of patients on ventilators has gone up, by 2. Hopefully soon we can scrap the last vestiges of Covid regulations. I think in a month's time if the numbers keep going as they are we should even remove the need for people with Covid to isolate.
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
You keep posting the same bollocks in defence of the indefensible. Please remind me of the Gove incident as I don't remember it. Every incident like this is bad - the nutters don't care which party their target MP is in before they murder them.
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?
There's no difficulty. BP for example did extraordinarily badly in 2020, and their profits for the previous four years were small given their size. Now they've made a decent profit, as is to be expected when oil prices rise. But if you're going to say that 'heads you lose, tails we wham you with an unexpected tax so that you also lose', what message does that send to any industry considering investing in the UK?
Richard T is spot-on. The idea of a 'windfall tax' is Ed-Milliband-style nonsense, which logically would imply that taxpayers should give them a subsidy if the price goes down again.
You are just politically piddling about here with that post.
Here’s a couple more words for you.
Crisis. Morality.
The cost of living crisis is a CRISIS. Millions of struggling families and pensioners should not be left to face this situation alone, as a nation we should do what we can to act and help. It is MORALLY right to look to those benefiting from this crisis, to make a contribution to those suffering this crisis.
The bottom line is we have not gone far enough or fast enough transitioning to green. But it’s a genuine cost of living crisis today that needs a genuine urgent intervention from government, not a paltry £200 loan that is debt to pay back. The unexpected windfall has brought winners who are best placed to help make a contribution to help with this crisis.
Some of the windfall lifted and given to those hurting most, this is a strong argument, the lazy ideological arguments against it are so limp. Politicians are there to put ideology and partisanship aside at time of crisis, and help the people, you can only be on right side of the politics if on the right side of morality and the just cause, otherwise what are politicians there for, to serve just one of the Two Nations the Queen rules over?
Covid case numbers showing a huge drop from last week. 112K -> 66K in a week. Almost all other metrics are down. For the first time in ages the number of patients on ventilators has gone up, by 2. Hopefully soon we can scrap the last vestiges of Covid regulations. I think in a month's time if the numbers keep going as they are we should even remove the need for people with Covid to isolate.
💥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
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent.
I think that is spot-on, by the guy who used to run polling for No 10 under Theresa May.
The only polling BoZo is looking at is how many letters are there.
If smearing Starmer keeps the letter count down he will do it all day
💥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
Good. That seems to show the Mexicanpete's view that it was a masterstroke is a minority in the general public as it is here. those are really quite healthy majorities in our normally divided society.
It also makes future smears against Starmer harder - people will remember the failed operation.
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Matt screens and non-touch.
Gloss and touch and a screen resolution higher than "Full HD" a must for me
Order paracetamol with your laptop unless the wall behind you is pitch black
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
I don't remember the Tories behind called scum from the despatch box, but am pretty sure that the Speaker would have had an issue with it if it had happened.
Labour's deputy leader has apologised for using the word "scum" during a debate over coronavirus restrictions.
Angela Rayner made the comment in the Commons on Wednesday during a speech by Tory MP Chris Clarkson.
💥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
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent.
I think that is spot-on, by the guy who used to run polling for No 10 under Theresa May.
Pre partygate Bozo might have got away with this but now not so as that attempt at deflection has just reinforced his negatives.
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?
There's no difficulty. BP for example did extraordinarily badly in 2020, and their profits for the previous four years were small given their size. Now they've made a decent profit, as is to be expected when oil prices rise. But if you're going to say that 'heads you lose, tails we wham you with an unexpected tax so that you also lose', what message does that send to any industry considering investing in the UK?
Richard T is spot-on. The idea of a 'windfall tax' is Ed-Milliband-style nonsense, which logically would imply that taxpayers should give them a subsidy if the price goes down again.
You are just politically piddling about here with that post.
Here’s a couple more words for you.
Crisis. Morality.
The cost of living crisis is a CRISIS. Millions of struggling families and pensioners should not be left to face this situation alone, as a nation we should do what we can to act and help. It is MORALLY right to look to those benefiting from this crisis, to make a contribution to those suffering this crisis.
The bottom line is we have not gone far enough or fast enough transitioning to green. But it’s a genuine cost of living crisis today that needs a genuine urgent intervention from government, not a paltry £200 loan that is debt to pay back. The unexpected windfall has brought winners who are best placed to help make a contribution to help with this crisis.
Some of the windfall lifted and given to those hurting most, this is a strong argument, the lazy ideological arguments against it are so limp. Politicians are there to put ideology and partisanship aside at time of crisis, and help the people, you can only be on right side of the politics if on the right side of morality and the just cause, otherwise what are politicians there for, to serve just one of the Two Nations the Queen rules over?
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
You keep posting the same bollocks in defence of the indefensible. Please remind me of the Gove incident as I don't remember it. Every incident like this is bad - the nutters don't care which party their target MP is in before they murder them.
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
You keep posting the same bollocks in defence of the indefensible. Please remind me of the Gove incident as I don't remember it. Every incident like this is bad - the nutters don't care which party their target MP is in before they murder them.
He was shouted at for "protecting peados", exactly the same as what was shouted at to SKS.
Appalling. So why is the PM backing these lunatics by whipping up their hard right conspiracy theory lunacy? Does he want another MP murdered?
You appear to be defending it because you don't think one side condemns the other enough. Would that also extend to the actual murder of an MP by nutjobs? Because I think we're all equally appalled whatever the party.
Again, stop posting such utter bollocks in defence of the indefensible.
💥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
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent.
I think that is spot-on, by the guy who used to run polling for No 10 under Theresa May.
The only polling BoZo is looking at is how many letters are there.
If smearing Starmer keeps the letter count down he will do it all day
I'd have thought it would increase the letter count, at least if it's done as crudely and indefensibly as the Savile smear.
He's obviously running scared and that is affecting his entire political performance. He used to be good at attacking Starmer, with jibes such as 'Captain Hindsight' which were effective because they related to a genuine weak point of Starmer. Now he's just flailing around.
Peter Thiel to Exit Meta’s Board to Support Trump-Aligned Candidates
The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
I don't remember the Tories behind called scum from the despatch box, but am pretty sure that the Speaker would have had an issue with it if it had happened.
Labour's deputy leader has apologised for using the word "scum" during a debate over coronavirus restrictions.
Angela Rayner made the comment in the Commons on Wednesday during a speech by Tory MP Chris Clarkson.
Interesting - thanks for digging that out. Notable that it wasn't from the despatch box and even so the Speaker criticised it at the time, and she apologised. But other than that, the Tories are being treated unfairly.
(Also notable that I wrote "behind" rather than "being" above)
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
Calm down, dear. For what it is worth you are not altogether wrong, but synthetic outrage is part of the game. Starmer was attacked by Corbynite nutters, 90% of what they were shouting was nothing to do with Starmer, and as a Boris hater I privately find the whole incident satisfying and rather funny, but officially I am outraged, do you hear? That is how it works.
Piers Corbynite nutters, not Jeremy Corbynite nutters, just for clarity. Most of these loons who hang around Westminster hassling everybody regardless of party are conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers/anti-lockdowners from the far right and/or QAnon type stuff, not the left. Hence their excitement at being able to add "paedophile" to their repertoire. It's a global conspiracy, innit?
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?
There's no difficulty. BP for example did extraordinarily badly in 2020, and their profits for the previous four years were small given their size. Now they've made a decent profit, as is to be expected when oil prices rise. But if you're going to say that 'heads you lose, tails we wham you with an unexpected tax so that you also lose', what message does that send to any industry considering investing in the UK?
Richard T is spot-on. The idea of a 'windfall tax' is Ed-Milliband-style nonsense, which logically would imply that taxpayers should give them a subsidy if the price goes down again.
You are just politically piddling about here with that post.
Here’s a couple more words for you.
Crisis. Morality.
The cost of living crisis is a CRISIS. Millions of struggling families and pensioners should not be left to face this situation alone, as a nation we should do what we can to act and help. It is MORALLY right to look to those benefiting from this crisis, to make a contribution to those suffering this crisis.
The bottom line is we have not gone far enough or fast enough transitioning to green. But it’s a genuine cost of living crisis today that needs a genuine urgent intervention from government, not a paltry £200 loan that is debt to pay back. The unexpected windfall has brought winners who are best placed to help make a contribution to help with this crisis.
Some of the windfall lifted and given to those hurting most, this is a strong argument, the lazy ideological arguments against it are so limp. Politicians are there to put ideology and partisanship aside at time of crisis, and help the people, you can only be on right side of the politics if on the right side of morality and the just cause, otherwise what are politicians there for, to serve just one of the Two Nations the Queen rules over?
Yeah, but it's not a windfall.
it’s “an undeserved fluke caused by craziness in the market (a crazy man fixing the market) that is hurting millions of everyday people” on that basis a contribution must come from it to help the everyday people who are suffering from the same craziness in the market.
Capitalism isn’t like deckchair gardening. It needs intervention or else you create Two Nations out of one.
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Thanks to all for comments so far. Maintenance likely to be some hired in shitefest support company though in reality it won't be hardware maintenance will it. These things tend to work until they either get physically broken or they do a "security" update which slows it down to resemble the computer from the Lunar Rover.
Way way back in my Nestle days computers were all Dell - have they started building them properly now? Agree on weight, size is no bigger than a 13 / 14" screen just with the debate on aspect ratio. 16:9 too narrow for me and screens low res, will look at 16:10, prefer 3:2.
Will be docked as much as possible - I have an LG 34" ultrawide and I have budgeted for the same once we get an office to put them in. But need to work remotely hence the need for a screen thats not shitey, tolerable keyboard & trackpad etc.
I ended up driving the spec on new laptops in my last company. And had they not cut the budget at the last minute ("this one was cheaper and looked like its got all the same features" - it didn't...) the HP machine would have been ok until the hired in IT shitefest support company ruined them with a Windows / server combination that had the CPU meltdown when trying to open a spreadsheet.
Always choose from the laptops that offer Windows Pro, they’re generally the business range, a little more expensive but more stable in configuration for central management and with 3-year hardware warranty. I usually go for Dell XPS range, or Lenovo.
Left-field option is the Microsoft Surface tablet, which is surprisingly good at the higher specs, if you are mostly in office or home locations with proper screens and keyboards for the big spreadsheets. I use these for senior management, and battery really does last all day.
Most laptops are not really upgradeable any more, so get at least 16GB RAM and i7 processor.
As mentioned earlier, definitely W10 over W11.
Out of curiosity what is the difference between a "business range" laptop preinstalled with Pro and a consumer range one preinstalled with Home when they are the same hardware?
I can find quite a few examples on both Dell and Acer stores where the business model is the same hardware - chassis, screen, processor, memory. Admittedly many more of the Dell business machines have the same matt Full HD screens that @Beibheirli_C loves and I hate...
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.
Gloss or matte (like paint)? Touchscreen or not?
Thanks to all for comments so far. Maintenance likely to be some hired in shitefest support company though in reality it won't be hardware maintenance will it. These things tend to work until they either get physically broken or they do a "security" update which slows it down to resemble the computer from the Lunar Rover.
Way way back in my Nestle days computers were all Dell - have they started building them properly now? Agree on weight, size is no bigger than a 13 / 14" screen just with the debate on aspect ratio. 16:9 too narrow for me and screens low res, will look at 16:10, prefer 3:2.
Will be docked as much as possible - I have an LG 34" ultrawide and I have budgeted for the same once we get an office to put them in. But need to work remotely hence the need for a screen thats not shitey, tolerable keyboard & trackpad etc.
I ended up driving the spec on new laptops in my last company. And had they not cut the budget at the last minute ("this one was cheaper and looked like its got all the same features" - it didn't...) the HP machine would have been ok until the hired in IT shitefest support company ruined them with a Windows / server combination that had the CPU meltdown when trying to open a spreadsheet.
Always choose from the laptops that offer Windows Pro, they’re generally the business range, a little more expensive but more stable in configuration for central management and with 3-year hardware warranty. I usually go for Dell XPS range, or Lenovo.
Left-field option is the Microsoft Surface tablet, which is surprisingly good at the higher specs, if you are mostly in office or home locations with proper screens and keyboards for the big spreadsheets. I use these for senior management, and battery really does last all day.
Most laptops are not really upgradeable any more, so get at least 16GB RAM and i7 processor.
As mentioned earlier, definitely W10 over W11.
Out of curiosity what is the difference between a "business range" laptop preinstalled with Pro and a consumer range one preinstalled with Home when they are the same hardware?
I can find quite a few examples on both Dell and Acer stores where the business model is the same hardware - chassis, screen, processor, memory. Admittedly many more of the Dell business machines have the same matt Full HD screens that @Beibheirli_C loves and I hate...
Traditionally, the business range use the same chipsets for a couple of years, whereas the home ranges are all mongrels of whatever was available in the factory, of which there might only ever be a few hundred examples and the most minor of failures results in a write-off. The business range will have 3y warranty and probably 3y more of paid support if required. The home ranges don’t get tested much for stuff like driver compatibility, so are more unreliable in service.
The hardware specs can look deceptively similar, but the actual hardware can be quite different.
Comments
"The idea that they were being whipped up, encouraged or incited by a prime minister they hate, and who imposed the very policies they are angry about, is absurd. "
Not according to posters on here, its all BJs fault.
When the same group did exactly the same to Michael Gove in October that was perfectly OK as he was a Tory.
I don't remember the speaker doing a special annoucemnent to Parliament about calling Tories "scum"the day after.
787 moved the bar up, and A350 is at least level with it. If you’d have experienced them the other way around, you’d have been mighty impressed with the A350 and underwhelmed by the 787. The huge change in both, is the lower cabin altitude and higher humidity allowed by the carbon construction, great for reducing jet lag.
All this reminiscing about planes, it’s two years since I’ve been on one!
Richard T is spot-on. The idea of a 'windfall tax' is Ed-Milliband-style nonsense, which logically would imply that taxpayers should give them a subsidy if the price goes down again.
https://www.google.com/maps/@57.4758371,-4.2278536,3a,75y,54.02h,83.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssp4PN0-z9Jtq3YQEvRW0Lg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
What I am suggesting here is a bandage to a wound caused by rubbish government decades ago. Lady Thatcher had privatised energy before I was born. She was wrong. The wealth from North Sea Oil and Gas should instead have gone into a Sovereign Wealth Fund like the Norwegians done. The Norwegians done the right thing, UK under Thatcherism went the wrong way, did the wrong thing.
So that’s where we are, sticky plasters and bandages to the cost of living crisis is the very least the UK government now owes its people.
https://www.bcd-urbex.com/old-royal-high-school-new-parliament-house-edinburgh-scotland/
Seen in, for example, equalities legislation, where ‘racism’ means ‘the victim said it was racism’
Way way back in my Nestle days computers were all Dell - have they started building them properly now? Agree on weight, size is no bigger than a 13 / 14" screen just with the debate on aspect ratio. 16:9 too narrow for me and screens low res, will look at 16:10, prefer 3:2.
Will be docked as much as possible - I have an LG 34" ultrawide and I have budgeted for the same once we get an office to put them in. But need to work remotely hence the need for a screen thats not shitey, tolerable keyboard & trackpad etc.
I ended up driving the spec on new laptops in my last company. And had they not cut the budget at the last minute ("this one was cheaper and looked like its got all the same features" - it didn't...) the HP machine would have been ok until the hired in IT shitefest support company ruined them with a Windows / server combination that had the CPU meltdown when trying to open a spreadsheet.
So Raab and Truss who ideologically should team up, won’t because of a spat over a mansion? That’s what’s going to drive this leadership election more than ideology and beliefs.
The company I work for now is currently replacing all the Lenovo kit with Dell. They are much better.
Harrumph.
Bangladesh is the most disappointing place I've ever been for architecture.
Left-field option is the Microsoft Surface tablet, which is surprisingly good at the higher specs, if you are mostly in office or home locations with proper screens and keyboards for the big spreadsheets. I use these for senior management, and battery really does last all day.
Most laptops are not really upgradeable any more, so get at least 16GB RAM and i7 processor.
As mentioned earlier, definitely W10 over W11.
Cf Herefordshire, which is full of old red sandstone buildings. Look at these 1000 year old carvings from Kilpeck church. As expressive today as the moment they were carved. I took this photo late last November
Much easier where there are predominantly UK domestic income earners, like the old privatised utilities in 1997.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/vladimir-putin-massive-table
I like the grey buildings on the grey skyline - suits the overall atmosphere.
Sorry to hear about your unhappy reason.
Never look at anything in the Latitude 3/5 series but the 7/9000 series are well built and not that expensive when you use Dell's outlet store.
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent.
I think that is spot-on, by the guy who used to run polling for No 10 under Theresa May.
What's going on with the figure on the left, btw ?
Now we are all agree the UK isn't rejoining any time soon there is no reason the trading relationship should not be scrutinised much more aggressively.
He was shouted at for "protecting peados", exactly the same as what was shouted at to SKS.
Here’s a couple more words for you.
Crisis. Morality.
The cost of living crisis is a CRISIS. Millions of struggling families and pensioners should not be left to face this situation alone, as a nation we should do what we can to act and help. It is MORALLY right to look to those benefiting from this crisis, to make a contribution to those suffering this crisis.
The bottom line is we have not gone far enough or fast enough transitioning to green. But it’s a genuine cost of living crisis today that needs a genuine urgent intervention from government, not a paltry £200 loan that is debt to pay back. The unexpected windfall has brought winners who are best placed to help make a contribution to help with this crisis.
Some of the windfall lifted and given to those hurting most, this is a strong argument, the lazy ideological arguments against it are so limp. Politicians are there to put ideology and partisanship aside at time of crisis, and help the people, you can only be on right side of the politics if on the right side of morality and the just cause, otherwise what are politicians there for, to serve just one of the Two Nations the Queen rules over?
If smearing Starmer keeps the letter count down he will do it all day
It also makes future smears against Starmer harder - people will remember the failed operation.
Angela Rayner made the comment in the Commons on Wednesday during a speech by Tory MP Chris Clarkson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54638267.amp
A significant amount: 39%
A fair amount: 26%
A small amount: 18%
Not at all: 17% https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1491079444487974914/photo/1
For more on this and other news visit http://news.sky.com
Was that also exactly what the loto has accused him of doing the previous week?
This thread is 2/3s of the reason we have a New Thread
You appear to be defending it because you don't think one side condemns the other enough. Would that also extend to the actual murder of an MP by nutjobs? Because I think we're all equally appalled whatever the party.
Again, stop posting such utter bollocks in defence of the indefensible.
He's obviously running scared and that is affecting his entire political performance. He used to be good at attacking Starmer, with jibes such as 'Captain Hindsight' which were effective because they related to a genuine weak point of Starmer. Now he's just flailing around.
The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/technology/peter-thiel-facebook.html
(Thiel has given $10m to JD Vance for a run for Senate in Ohio. A name imho to watch PB betting guys)
(Also notable that I wrote "behind" rather than "being" above)
Capitalism isn’t like deckchair gardening. It needs intervention or else you create Two Nations out of one.
I can find quite a few examples on both Dell and Acer stores where the business model is the same hardware - chassis, screen, processor, memory. Admittedly many more of the Dell business machines have the same matt Full HD screens that @Beibheirli_C loves and I hate...
The hardware specs can look deceptively similar, but the actual hardware can be quite different.