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Macron’s campaign gets knocked off course by the Corsican riots – politicalbetting.com

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  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,688
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    His dad had a bicycle as I recall.

    A reminder to us that for all Boris Johnson's stone cold heartlessness, the Conservative Party had and have even more objectionable operatives waiting in the wings.
    Epping's second finest contribution to Conservative politics.

    He was proper working class, mind. For that and other reasons I'd take him over the flsoj any day of the week.
    More house-trained polecats in politics please.

  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,454

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    geoffw said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    Instead of talking about France, could we discuss the Falkland Islands on this thread?

    We don't talk about them enough.

    (runs for cover)

    It’s really simple and well documented.

    (Okay, it’s very complex but still well documented)

    Seventeen planes out of Ascencion, refuelling each other in a carefully co-ordinated manner, to get one Vulcan to do one bombing run in Falkland, before returning to Ascencion without landing.


    Never was the F-111K so badly missed. The USAF used 20 KC-135 to put 20 F-111F over Libya on Eldorado Canyon flying a similar distance to Black Buck.
    Oh, I think talking about the Falklands is fine though it would have to be done only by those who were adults at the time.
    Can we make that a rule?

    I think talking about the Falklands is fine though it would have to be done only by those who were are adults
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,443

    Totally O/T, we have just priced for installing a new ASHP heating/hot water system in a small infants school.
    The school currently has an old oil fired boiler which will need removing. Normally we replace this with a modern gas boiler and new control panel. The average cost for such a project is around £65k

    The ASHP system for this small school requires 4 outdoor units and 11 indoor units, the pipework throughout the school has to be doubled in size as do the radiators. Significant building works are required to house all the new equipment. The electrical supply to the school has to be upgraded to 185mm cable to cope with the hugh increase in electricity required to power all the new equipment. And the funniest part is that the job includes for the installing of a small gas boiler as back up as they know the new system will not work.

    Our quote for the job is £410k.

    Its no wonder other Councils are abandoning the idea of ASHPs to heat their buildings.

    This and other bits of information that emerge suggest that on the whole with ASHP those unless you are very technically expert, don't be an early adopter. I slightly wonder whether it would be more efficient, because of the simplicity, in 50,000,000 UK locations to use renewables to generate vastly more electricity than presently and use it directly to heat, as with old fashioned electric water heaters, radiators etc. Much less efficient with electricity, but much more efficient in mass installation of systems.

  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    algarkirk said:

    Totally O/T, we have just priced for installing a new ASHP heating/hot water system in a small infants school.
    The school currently has an old oil fired boiler which will need removing. Normally we replace this with a modern gas boiler and new control panel. The average cost for such a project is around £65k

    The ASHP system for this small school requires 4 outdoor units and 11 indoor units, the pipework throughout the school has to be doubled in size as do the radiators. Significant building works are required to house all the new equipment. The electrical supply to the school has to be upgraded to 185mm cable to cope with the hugh increase in electricity required to power all the new equipment. And the funniest part is that the job includes for the installing of a small gas boiler as back up as they know the new system will not work.

    Our quote for the job is £410k.

    Its no wonder other Councils are abandoning the idea of ASHPs to heat their buildings.

    This and other bits of information that emerge suggest that on the whole with ASHP those unless you are very technically expert, don't be an early adopter. I slightly wonder whether it would be more efficient, because of the simplicity, in 50,000,000 UK locations to use renewables to generate vastly more electricity than presently and use it directly to heat, as with old fashioned electric water heaters, radiators etc. Much less efficient with electricity, but much more efficient in mass installation of systems.

    I think it is more that it is a whole building system. Great for new built houses, built to the right spec. Great for the kind of rip outs where you keep the front, the side walls, everything else goes (floors included).

    Saw a house 2 days ago where the builder had put one in for the little old lady who lived there. In the loft conversion, he also did, you could see daylight in the storage cupboards in the eaves of the roof...

    Scumbag....
  • Godwin's Lol
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Cyclefree said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    Instead of talking about France, could we discuss the Falkland Islands on this thread?

    We don't talk about them enough.

    (runs for cover)

    It’s really simple and well documented.

    (Okay, it’s very complex but still well documented)

    Seventeen planes out of Ascencion, refuelling each other in a carefully co-ordinated manner, to get one Vulcan to do one bombing run in Falkland, before returning to Ascencion without landing.


    Never was the F-111K so badly missed. The USAF used 20 KC-135 to put 20 F-111F over Libya on Eldorado Canyon flying a similar distance to Black Buck.
    Oh, I think talking about the Falklands is fine though it would have to be done only by those who were adults at the time.
    Can't tell if that is tongue in cheek or not. I am not shy about sharing my thoughts on the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC, but I have at least read a book about it, and lots of books about the book about it. HYUFD is at a slight disadvantage to some of us over the Falklands but he could rectify the situation by, again, reading a book or two. Or even wikipedia.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,872

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
    Sounds like an abusive relationship to me..

    ‘You’re nothing, without me you’d be on the streets you ungrateful bitch.’

    Let’s just call it a day and we can all move on.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    algarkirk said:

    Totally O/T, we have just priced for installing a new ASHP heating/hot water system in a small infants school.
    The school currently has an old oil fired boiler which will need removing. Normally we replace this with a modern gas boiler and new control panel. The average cost for such a project is around £65k

    The ASHP system for this small school requires 4 outdoor units and 11 indoor units, the pipework throughout the school has to be doubled in size as do the radiators. Significant building works are required to house all the new equipment. The electrical supply to the school has to be upgraded to 185mm cable to cope with the hugh increase in electricity required to power all the new equipment. And the funniest part is that the job includes for the installing of a small gas boiler as back up as they know the new system will not work.

    Our quote for the job is £410k.

    Its no wonder other Councils are abandoning the idea of ASHPs to heat their buildings.

    This and other bits of information that emerge suggest that on the whole with ASHP those unless you are very technically expert, don't be an early adopter. I slightly wonder whether it would be more efficient, because of the simplicity, in 50,000,000 UK locations to use renewables to generate vastly more electricity than presently and use it directly to heat, as with old fashioned electric water heaters, radiators etc. Much less efficient with electricity, but much more efficient in mass installation of systems.

    Bring back storage heaters? Top up when the wind is blowing, no-one else needs the electricity and when it's cheap? With smart meters and better heat retention in the heaters a cheap and simple solution could work, perhaps?
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    I've got to say Falklandsgate has been one of the more amusing episodes lately and I was here for the MrEd micro-flounce and Thommo's 48 hour post-athon on how sending a letter wasn't sending a letter.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
    Sounds like an abusive relationship to me..

    ‘You’re nothing, without me you’d be on the streets you ungrateful bitch.’

    Let’s just call it a day and we can all move on.
    You were working as a teuchtar in a Highland bog
    When I met you
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,454

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
    Sounds like an abusive relationship to me..

    ‘You’re nothing, without me you’d be on the streets you ungrateful bitch.’

    Let’s just call it a day and we can all move on.
    Well, you were asked in 2014 - but you said you wanted to stay in this supposed abusive (yet lucrative) relationship....
  • HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    Oh you want to carry on do you, even though it ruined your evening?

    As pointed out by others your last post last night must have been the most ironic statement ever made in history. It was mindbogglingly you have so little self awareness.
    It was the truth and if it annoyed you tough
    What you posted about Vulcans plural being on the Falklands and available to bomb Argentina was laughable, demonstrable bollocks. See the image posted upthread as to the herculean efforts to get a single Vulcan over - not on - the Falklands to bomb the runway.

    "It was the truth". Are you really this self-inflated?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    top tip for anyone feeling like taking Zelensky's shilling:

    buy 75in or larger QLED telly

    watch first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in HD on it

    reconsider
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,371
    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    top tip for anyone feeling like taking Zelensky's shilling:

    buy 75in or larger QLED telly

    watch first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in HD on it

    reconsider
    Oh God, don't. I sued to work at a place making Set To Boxes, and one of the test streams we had was the first portion of Saving Private Ryan. There's lots of stuff happening on screen, changing rapidly, so it was good test to throw up artefacts. A lab would have loads of screens showing it, all around you, as you tried to work.

    It made me the person I am today.. . (polishes axe).

    Another good test stream was a picture of flames. Again, an image changing rapidly shows up artefacts. Now, where are the matches?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,058
    edited March 2022
    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    By the looks of Flightradar24 RSD78 to Novosibirsk you may well be literally correct.
  • I'd never heard of Anoosheh Ashoori before he was released last night.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,441
    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    The 2020’s will be known as the decade the world turned upside down and real life started parodying movies:

    Covid aping Contagion

    Putin aping Downfall

    Not looking forward to the real life remake of Independence Day however.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,645
    P & O??
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,162

    Is there any history of Putin trying to stir up trouble in Corsica?

    There you go!


  • AlistairMAlistairM Posts: 2,005
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,661

    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    top tip for anyone feeling like taking Zelensky's shilling:

    buy 75in or larger QLED telly

    watch first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in HD on it

    reconsider
    Oh God, don't. I sued to work at a place making Set To Boxes, and one of the test streams we had was the first portion of Saving Private Ryan. There's lots of stuff happening on screen, changing rapidly, so it was good test to throw up artefacts. A lab would have loads of screens showing it, all around you, as you tried to work.

    It made me the person I am today.. . (polishes axe).

    Another good test stream was a picture of flames. Again, an image changing rapidly shows up artefacts. Now, where are the matches?
    That's a glorious typo. I've witnessed more than one 'set to' related to control over a set-top box.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,645

    P & O??

    All sailings suspended ahead of a major announcement
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,872
    IshmaelZ said:

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
    Sounds like an abusive relationship to me..

    ‘You’re nothing, without me you’d be on the streets you ungrateful bitch.’

    Let’s just call it a day and we can all move on.
    You were working as a teuchtar in a Highland bog
    When I met you
    I crushed your face into the peat
    And took you out of the EU

    I’d say teuchter is more correct but am open to opinions on it.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,380
    geoffw said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    His dad had a bicycle as I recall.

    A reminder to us that for all Boris Johnson's stone cold heartlessness, the Conservative Party had and have even more objectionable operatives waiting in the wings.
    Epping's second finest contribution to Conservative politics.

    He was proper working class, mind. For that and other reasons I'd take him over the flsoj any day of the week.
    More house-trained polecats in politics please.

    Semi-house-trained I think was Michael Foot's description.

    I also recall that he had difficulty comparing those Russians who voted Communist 'because they wanted the Good Old Days' and people who voted Conservative in Britain for the same reason.
    Couldn't get his head around the similarity, as I recall.

    But he really looked after his wife after the Brighton atrocity.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Dura_Ace said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    Nobody really knows if they can kill another person until they're told to do it. US Army studies in Vietnam showed about 1 in 10 can. So you get a significant number of people who've joined up, gone through the training, deployed and then discover they can't do it.

    A number of RAF Tornado crew succumbed to late onset pacifism one the eve of Iraq 1. They were quietly ushered back to Germany for 'medical' reasons. These were people who gone through O&AS, IOT, EFT, BFT, TTTE, OCU, gone to a squadron and achieved 'Combat Ready' status. All of that took 5-7 years in which they were intensively conditioned in 'scenario fulfillment' (ie killing people) yet when the day came they couldn't...
    You get the same thing, to compare great things with little, with shooting deer. Lots of people who are perfectly OK shooting rifles at targets get "stag fever" when pointing one at live quarry and shake too much to hit it, whether from excitement or horror or whatever.
  • malcolmg said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Always the US lapdog
    Morad Tahbaz holds dual British and American citizenship. He lives mostly in the US, which is why the US State Dept. was making the case for him.

    He was released as part of this deal.
    Actually, he has triple Iranian-British-American citizenship. Otherwise he would never have got into Iran.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,833

    P & O??

    All sailings suspended ahead of a major announcement
    P&O ferries, not P&O cruises, which has entirely different ownership nowadays.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,757
    Dura_Ace said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    Nobody really knows if they can kill another person until they're told to do it. US Army studies in Vietnam showed about 1 in 10 can. So you get a significant number of people who've joined up, gone through the training, deployed and then discover they can't do it.

    A number of RAF Tornado crew succumbed to late onset pacifism one the eve of Iraq 1. They were quietly ushered back to Germany for 'medical' reasons. These were people who gone through O&AS, IOT, EFT, BFT, TTTE, OCU, gone to a squadron and achieved 'Combat Ready' status. All of that took 5-7 years in which they were intensively conditioned in 'scenario fulfillment' (ie killing people) yet when the day came they couldn't...
    Apparently after the battle of Gettysburg lots of muskets were picked up unfired.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    St Nicola: "'NATO and the democratic world shouldn't be writing Putin blank cheques'

    Well, that's them telt.

    https://twitter.com/ITVBorderRB/status/1504094294080208896

    Only Nicola should get blank cheques, written by London...
    That’s what you Unionists keep on voting for, I just can’t work out why you seem so unhappy with the result.
    We like pointing out what ungrateful bastards you are....
    Sounds like an abusive relationship to me..

    ‘You’re nothing, without me you’d be on the streets you ungrateful bitch.’

    Let’s just call it a day and we can all move on.
    You were working as a teuchtar in a Highland bog
    When I met you
    I crushed your face into the peat
    And took you out of the EU

    I’d say teuchter is more correct but am open to opinions on it.
    you seem to be right. Plus it's more a Scot-on-Scot insult than a "unionist" one.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,380
    Dura_Ace said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    Nobody really knows if they can kill another person until they're told to do it. US Army studies in Vietnam showed about 1 in 10 can. So you get a significant number of people who've joined up, gone through the training, deployed and then discover they can't do it.

    A number of RAF Tornado crew succumbed to late onset pacifism one the eve of Iraq 1. They were quietly ushered back to Germany for 'medical' reasons. These were people who gone through O&AS, IOT, EFT, BFT, TTTE, OCU, gone to a squadron and achieved 'Combat Ready' status. All of that took 5-7 years in which they were intensively conditioned in 'scenario fulfillment' (ie killing people) yet when the day came they couldn't...
    My late father-in-law joined the RAF at the outbreak of war and went through flying training. Then it was discovered he had an eye problem and he was assigned to ground duties. However he then said he couldn't kill anyone, so was sent to Bomb Disposal, where he spent two years!
    Don't know what he have done if he'd actually passed his flying training.
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 4,264
    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    Funnily enough, from the 10 Russian VIP transports heading to deepest darkest Siberia he may literally be in a bunker with his closest military commanders: https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1504374496358187014
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,575
    edited March 2022

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    Oh you want to carry on do you, even though it ruined your evening?

    As pointed out by others your last post last night must have been the most ironic statement ever made in history. It was mindbogglingly you have so little self awareness.
    It was the truth and if it annoyed you tough
    What you posted about Vulcans plural being on the Falklands and available to bomb Argentina was laughable, demonstrable bollocks. See the image posted upthread as to the herculean efforts to get a single Vulcan over - not on - the Falklands to bomb the runway.

    "It was the truth". Are you really this self-inflated?
    There were plenty of bombing raids launched by Vulcans on the Argentines in the War.
    https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/artefact-month/raf-vulcan-black-buck-missions-thirty-years-ago

    We also had Sea Darts and Sea Wolfs to defend our ships going over there.

    It was a war of self defence after British territory was invaded, all armour potentially could have been used against the Argentines which they should have known when they invaded.

    We also of course had submarines with missiles which could have been parked off the Argentine coast until they withdrew. That is war
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,712
    Strange but true:

    Britain intervened in Corsica in the 1790s!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Corsican_Kingdom
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,678
    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    Totally O/T, we have just priced for installing a new ASHP heating/hot water system in a small infants school.
    The school currently has an old oil fired boiler which will need removing. Normally we replace this with a modern gas boiler and new control panel. The average cost for such a project is around £65k

    The ASHP system for this small school requires 4 outdoor units and 11 indoor units, the pipework throughout the school has to be doubled in size as do the radiators. Significant building works are required to house all the new equipment. The electrical supply to the school has to be upgraded to 185mm cable to cope with the hugh increase in electricity required to power all the new equipment. And the funniest part is that the job includes for the installing of a small gas boiler as back up as they know the new system will not work.

    Our quote for the job is £410k.

    Its no wonder other Councils are abandoning the idea of ASHPs to heat their buildings.

    This and other bits of information that emerge suggest that on the whole with ASHP those unless you are very technically expert, don't be an early adopter. I slightly wonder whether it would be more efficient, because of the simplicity, in 50,000,000 UK locations to use renewables to generate vastly more electricity than presently and use it directly to heat, as with old fashioned electric water heaters, radiators etc. Much less efficient with electricity, but much more efficient in mass installation of systems.

    Bring back storage heaters? Top up when the wind is blowing, no-one else needs the electricity and when it's cheap? With smart meters and better heat retention in the heaters a cheap and simple solution could work, perhaps?
    I lived in a house with storage heaters in the late 90s. They were bloody useless. The house was blisteringly hot between about 9pm and 11am, and freezing thereafter. They seemed able to store heat for no more than about 2 hours.
    Presumably they have improved since.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,790
    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    There's this Falklands alumnus, attorney general at the time.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Havers,_Baron_Havers

    Not dissimilar attitudes as some of the current Met officers.
    Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women."...


  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,400
    TOPPING said:

    malcolmg said:

    My nags for today , had poor day yesterday with non runners and others being donkeys. Tough racing today , winners will be hard to come by.
    @moonrabbit @stodge @ping

    EW Patent
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Singles EW
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Morning Malc just as well I go to Cheltenham for the booze and socialising racing not the money (although I did back Facile Vega as in an RP article prior to the meeting Willie Mullins, discussing his chances, had said of it "of all the runners I have I would want to be on Facile Vega..." which sounded pretty emphatic to me!)

    Yesterday was a cracking day, that said. Quite surreal with essentially a morass of horses moving around the track everyone looking grey and brown behind the front runners. Shishkin didn't travel a yard and I'm not going to get into the should they/shouldn't they have watered debate - suffice to say that rain was showing on all weather apps on the Weds for days and yet unwatered/rained upon the ground would have probably been good/good to firm... Who'd be clerk of the course.

    Equally it was a good advert for honest racing to see Delta Work win when we were all imagining what would have happened in F1 with Jack Kennedy receiving instructions through his comms system to let Tiger Roll pass. The biggest mystery continues to be what the cross country race is for, that said.

    Have a great day today.
    So much booing for Delta Work! I don’t know how much you saw of the winning parade Topping, the horse was cross, reacting at the booing with longest face, chomping the bit, pulling towards the crowd trying to get in the enclosure and bite them! All the horses managed a slippery cross country very well. My horse came nowhere in it, there was a moment just after they had got over the bannisters with Mrs miggins garden gate and the duck pond to come I thought mine got a nudge.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    edited March 2022
    boulay said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    The 2020’s will be known as the decade the world turned upside down and real life started parodying movies:

    Covid aping Contagion

    Putin aping Downfall

    Not looking forward to the real life remake of Independence Day however.
    I look more to Death of Stalin for insight into the Kremlin

    An almost perfect film. Only Vasily Stalin lets it down.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,833
    edited March 2022
    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,455
    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    By the looks of Flightradar24 RSD78 to Novosibirsk you may well be literally correct.
    RSD79 just landed at Omsk, they do appear to be going all over the place.

    Presumably one of them is Putin, and they don’t want us to know which one.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,905
    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,872
    IshmaelZ said:

    FF43 said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/

    Men Joining Army In Wartime Expected To Fight Shock

    Good for them signing up, but wtf did they expect? A couple of weeks Instagram opportunities and home to a hero's welcome?

    TBF Army advertising doesn't stress opportunities for getting your head blown off. It's all about bonding and seeing the world.
    I always liked the one about the chap in the first Gulf war who developed a case of conscientious objection. After having served in the *Artillery* for a number of years. He stated that he hadn't joined the Army to kill people.

    I wonder what he thought those big noisy things were for?
    I think in 1982 Benn read a letter from a bloke in the Royal Marines saying he'd only signed up because unemployment and Fatcha. If it wasn't the RM it was certainly a similarly pointy-end sort of outfit, begging the question why he hadn't gone for the catering corps or similar

    top tip for anyone feeling like taking Zelensky's shilling:

    buy 75in or larger QLED telly

    watch first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in HD on it

    reconsider
    Just don't bother with the next 140 minutes just in case the soapy triteness gets the warmongering juices flowing again.
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,454
    edited March 2022
    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    By the looks of Flightradar24 RSD78 to Novosibirsk you may well be literally correct.
    RSD79 just landed at Omsk, they do appear to be going all over the place.

    Presumably one of them is Putin, and they don’t want us to know which one.
    Pardon my ignorance, but could this all just be members of the Duma going home? Why does it have to be Putin?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Nigelb said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    There's this Falklands alumnus, attorney general at the time.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Havers,_Baron_Havers

    Not dissimilar attitudes as some of the current Met officers.
    Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women."...
    You go through life thinking nothing much changes day to day, and then remember something like that. The past is a foreign country.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing. Whereas many EU countries are supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    There seems to be a sharing out of who supplies what - there was an FT article about that a while back, IIRC.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,306
    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Nice to live in a free, democratic country isn't it folks?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Chameleon said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    Funnily enough, from the 10 Russian VIP transports heading to deepest darkest Siberia he may literally be in a bunker with his closest military commanders: https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1504374496358187014
    Oh shit.

    Would anyone in the class like to suggest what he is most likely to be trying to avoid by going to Siberia?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,575
    Nigelb said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    There's this Falklands alumnus, attorney general at the time.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Havers,_Baron_Havers

    Not dissimilar attitudes as some of the current Met officers.
    Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women."...


    Nigel Havers father
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,270

    P & O??

    All sailings suspended ahead of a major announcement
    Starmer fans- please explain?
  • AlistairMAlistairM Posts: 2,005
    I don't know if this has been mentioned before but Zelensky gave the Germans a pretty hard time yesterday:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60774819?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6232f85d980bea49f4b7ce5b&Help came too late, Zelensky tells German politicians&2022-03-17T09:07:57.106Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:92d42354-e8f0-43ba-bda3-2d0deb85cf75&pinned_post_asset_id=6232f85d980bea49f4b7ce5b&pinned_post_type=share

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has concluded his address to the German Bundestag in Berlin.

    He thanked Germany for its assistance, but told lawmakers their support "came too late to stop war".

    "Why does 'never again' not apply," he asked. "What is Germany's historic responsibility towards Ukraine today?".

    Zelensky also criticised German leaders over the country's business interests in Russia.

    "We could see your willingness to continue to do business with Russia and now we're in the middle of the cold war," Zelesnky said.

    "And again this is something you have failed to see. You're still protecting yourself behind a wall that does not make it possible for you to see what we are going through."

    He concluded by calling for Germany to tackle Russian aggression and impose harsher sanctions on Moscow. "Peace is more important than income," he told MPs.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    Che Guevara (in the second list)
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,526
    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,455
    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.

    And bloody good they’ve been too. Keep’em coming!

    Each country has supplied what best they can, from Ukraine’s list of wants. They want equipment they know already, rather than something which will take time to train - hence the argument about the Polish MiG-29 planes, which are close to what Ukraine already flies.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    Oh you want to carry on do you, even though it ruined your evening?

    As pointed out by others your last post last night must have been the most ironic statement ever made in history. It was mindbogglingly you have so little self awareness.
    It was the truth and if it annoyed you tough
    What you posted about Vulcans plural being on the Falklands and available to bomb Argentina was laughable, demonstrable bollocks. See the image posted upthread as to the herculean efforts to get a single Vulcan over - not on - the Falklands to bomb the runway.

    "It was the truth". Are you really this self-inflated?
    There were plenty of bombing raids launched by Vulcans on the Argentines in the War.
    https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/artefact-month/raf-vulcan-black-buck-missions-thirty-years-ago

    We also had Sea Darts and Sea Wolfs to defend our ships going over there.

    It was a war of self defence after British territory was invaded, all armour potentially could have been used against the Argentines which they should have known when they invaded.

    We also of course had submarines with missiles which could have been parked off the Argentine coast until they withdrew. That is war
    This is laughable. Do keep going. A wonderful advert for your party.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,306

    malcolmg said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Always the US lapdog
    Morad Tahbaz holds dual British and American citizenship. He lives mostly in the US, which is why the US State Dept. was making the case for him.

    He was released as part of this deal.
    Which has nothing to do with the substantive issue, which is that the British Government is not operating an independent foreign policy.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Seriously, Putin leaving Moscow for a distant and disguised destination, after last night's rant, is very, very frightening.

    dunno what to do about it, but if you want to sellotape brown paper over the windows there has never been a better time.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,872
    edited March 2022
    The unending fight against vile antisemitism news.




  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Sandpit said:

    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.


    3,615 NLAW to Ukraine from the UK.

    It's Biden who's doing the big loot drops now.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,441
    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    And the chaps who go up to Oxford/Cambridge and suddenly start wearing tweeds and changing their accent morphing into Sebastian Flyte meets JRM and becoming more “public schoolboy” than the actual public school boys.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,400
    malcolmg said:

    My nags for today , had poor day yesterday with non runners and others being donkeys. Tough racing today , winners will be hard to come by.
    @moonrabbit @stodge @ping

    EW Patent
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Singles EW
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Totally agree with you Malc, difficult races to call if Allaho don’t win probably no winner today. But I feel lifted you havn’t given up on Champ either, and we are both on Sire Du Berlais too.

    But despite boxes of non runners still huge fields for the two handicaps. I’ve spent hours trying to not miss something.

    *Betting Post 🐎 Day 3

    The drama continues. And it was drama yesterday, with weather forecasters getting Cotswold weather wrong, expecting no rain so they watered the course! And then it rained all day. The two big match ups probably ruined by the ground getting heavy. Many punters had probably selected on understanding good to soft or even ante bet on horses withdrawn last minute

    I have the going as soft for today, my advice is bet opposite today than yesterday - I picked on Wednesday horses to win whose chances only improve if it gets softer. The rain has gone, it will dry with each passing hour of the festival, so I think no need to go for mudlarks, anticipate soft, softish in places, and on to good, soft in places on gold cup day.

    I have four wins from 8 tips so far, but don’t go overboard on my tips today thinking I have form, I won’t! I don’t feel nearly as confident about three of them as yesterday. This is because the races look more open. A day to back with the head I think.

    These are horses I am on today, and analysis why.

    14:10 Sire Du Berlais
    A case in point. A three mile handicap hurdle with 20+ riders on a drying track. But Sire Du Berlais is twice a winner of this race, in 2020 on soft year before good to soft, in both wins judged the race perfectly to be ahead at finish, and build up this season is clearly with this race in mind I think. There are other challengers, but the class and around the block knowledge we are investing into is good value for some sort of return.

    14:50 Allaho NAP
    Cool head says Something has to go wrong not to have at least one winner in our slip today. Betting forecast suggests pick e/w bet for second for better odds, but far too open race for second I think.

    15:30 Champ
    I ❤️ Champ but don’t let that put you off on a day for head over heart. There’s no problem with distance, maybe like it firmer going, form is always there for a wonder horse, and should be fresh. The problem is the opponents are worthy, so much so bookies and pundits have forsaken Champ, like something from High Noon. But this horse is a born winner, won’t go down without a fight. Join me on Champ and get set for the showdown. Don’t forsake me oh my darling 😍

    16:10 The Glancing Queen
    Now a 2m4f handicap chase with about 20 entrants. The Glancing Queen last start was on news years day at Cheltenham over this distance on soft, coming second to L'Homme Presse - I think all that points to expecting a good effort at least. Don’t start singing till wins in bag.

    Good luck and have a great day.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,790

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    By the looks of Flightradar24 RSD78 to Novosibirsk you may well be literally correct.
    RSD79 just landed at Omsk, they do appear to be going all over the place.

    Presumably one of them is Putin, and they don’t want us to know which one.
    Pardon my ignorance, but could this all just be members of the Duma going home? Why does it have to be Putin?
    Or heading for asylum in China.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857

    malcolmg said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Always the US lapdog
    Morad Tahbaz holds dual British and American citizenship. He lives mostly in the US, which is why the US State Dept. was making the case for him.

    He was released as part of this deal.
    Which has nothing to do with the substantive issue, which is that the British Government is not operating an independent foreign policy.
    You mean having a foreign policy which it coordinates with others?

    Yes, that is crazy. That kind of thinking leads to signing treaties with other countries about trade, immigration, common standards.....

    There was a big discussion about this recently. Can't remember the exact topic.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,455
    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Sounds like some sort of a bankruptcy followed by immediate asset sale. Could be insurance or legal technicality that requires vessels to be re-registered with the new entity by the authorities at the port.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,712
    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    Wot? No Jesus!
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,479
    Cookie said:

    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    Totally O/T, we have just priced for installing a new ASHP heating/hot water system in a small infants school.
    The school currently has an old oil fired boiler which will need removing. Normally we replace this with a modern gas boiler and new control panel. The average cost for such a project is around £65k

    The ASHP system for this small school requires 4 outdoor units and 11 indoor units, the pipework throughout the school has to be doubled in size as do the radiators. Significant building works are required to house all the new equipment. The electrical supply to the school has to be upgraded to 185mm cable to cope with the hugh increase in electricity required to power all the new equipment. And the funniest part is that the job includes for the installing of a small gas boiler as back up as they know the new system will not work.

    Our quote for the job is £410k.

    Its no wonder other Councils are abandoning the idea of ASHPs to heat their buildings.

    This and other bits of information that emerge suggest that on the whole with ASHP those unless you are very technically expert, don't be an early adopter. I slightly wonder whether it would be more efficient, because of the simplicity, in 50,000,000 UK locations to use renewables to generate vastly more electricity than presently and use it directly to heat, as with old fashioned electric water heaters, radiators etc. Much less efficient with electricity, but much more efficient in mass installation of systems.

    Bring back storage heaters? Top up when the wind is blowing, no-one else needs the electricity and when it's cheap? With smart meters and better heat retention in the heaters a cheap and simple solution could work, perhaps?
    I lived in a house with storage heaters in the late 90s. They were bloody useless. The house was blisteringly hot between about 9pm and 11am, and freezing thereafter. They seemed able to store heat for no more than about 2 hours.
    Presumably they have improved since.
    I had a similar experience when I first moved to London a couple of decades ago, and briefly stayed in an empty council flat that was being prepared for sale. In many cases, the heaters would be roasting hot at night-time, necessitating the opening of every window in the middle of winter. By 5am they would cease emitting heat, thus making the emergence from bed a harrowing, freezing experience.

    Did anyone, anywhere master them?
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,872
    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.


    3,615 NLAW to Ukraine from the UK.

    It's Biden who's doing the big loot drops now.
    Lol.

    Well 3,615 could be described as somewhere around 20,000.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,757

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    Tebbit was tough and had guts, so no wonder you were not a fan
    Oh you want to carry on do you, even though it ruined your evening?

    As pointed out by others your last post last night must have been the most ironic statement ever made in history. It was mindbogglingly you have so little self awareness.
    It was the truth and if it annoyed you tough
    What you posted about Vulcans plural being on the Falklands and available to bomb Argentina was laughable, demonstrable bollocks. See the image posted upthread as to the herculean efforts to get a single Vulcan over - not on - the Falklands to bomb the runway.

    "It was the truth". Are you really this self-inflated?
    There were plenty of bombing raids launched by Vulcans on the Argentines in the War.
    https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/artefact-month/raf-vulcan-black-buck-missions-thirty-years-ago

    We also had Sea Darts and Sea Wolfs to defend our ships going over there.

    It was a war of self defence after British territory was invaded, all armour potentially could have been used against the Argentines which they should have known when they invaded.

    We also of course had submarines with missiles which could have been parked off the Argentine coast until they withdrew. That is war
    This is laughable. Do keep going. A wonderful advert for your party.
    He said all this last night. With the exception of sea dart the rest is nonsense.
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,454
    Sandpit said:

    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Sounds like some sort of a bankruptcy followed by immediate asset sale. Could be insurance or legal technicality that requires vessels to be re-registered with the new entity by the authorities at the port.
    Got to be
  • Chameleon said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    Funnily enough, from the 10 Russian VIP transports heading to deepest darkest Siberia he may literally be in a bunker with his closest military commanders: https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1504374496358187014
    Even the Russians need to practice dispersal of their people. Except that they are being dispersed to bases that NATO already knows about and would be primary 3C targets if this all kicked off.

    So lets all calm back down, they aren't about to start a nuclear war.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    And the chaps who go up to Oxford/Cambridge and suddenly start wearing tweeds and changing their accent morphing into Sebastian Flyte meets JRM and becoming more “public schoolboy” than the actual public school boys.
    https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/middle-class-ketamine-users-risk-delusions-of-cool-201111184562


    “The potency of Ketamine is such it can make a barrister’s son from Windsor believe he is someone called ‘DJ Che Headfuck’ and organise dubstep raves in pub skittle alleys that smell of piss.

    “Besides an obsession with ‘free parties’ and evil-looking mongrel dogs called things like Bender, there is a general sense of existing outside of the capitalist ‘regime’.

    “Apparently the buying and selling of drugs isn’t a capitalist transaction if you either spend the money on Special Brew or just lose it down the back of a car seat.”
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Don't think so (I used to do marine insurance law, and can't think what the technicality would be). More likely fear of arrest by suppliers, e.g. if they are getting fuel on tick from French bunkering agents. french courts are pretty third world in Fr plaintiff vs Anglo Saxon defendant claims and couldeasily authorise arrest if the Fr suppliers think the restructuring or whatever jeopardises their claims.

    Could all be precipitated by the oil price hike on top of covid.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,455
    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.


    3,615 NLAW to Ukraine from the UK.

    It's Biden who's doing the big loot drops now.
    Ah okay, maybe 20k was the total rather than the UK donation. My bad.

    Yes, the US are getting going with the kit now, which should help things along a bit (to put it mildly).
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    edited March 2022
    IanB2 said:

    P & O??

    All sailings suspended ahead of a major announcement
    P&O ferries, not P&O cruises, which has entirely different ownership nowadays.
    Thank goodness for that - just bought some shares in Carnival (the only ones that have gone up!)

    BBC report:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,905
    IshmaelZ said:

    Seriously, Putin leaving Moscow for a distant and disguised destination, after last night's rant, is very, very frightening.

    dunno what to do about it, but if you want to sellotape brown paper over the windows there has never been a better time.

    It’s probably a feint but it’s still disturbing. If it’s not a feint…

    😶
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,454
    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.


    3,615 NLAW to Ukraine from the UK.

    It's Biden who's doing the big loot drops now.
    Ah okay, maybe 20k was the total rather than the UK donation. My bad.

    Yes, the US are getting going with the kit now, which should help things along a bit (to put it mildly).
    3,615 as of 9 March. So probably higher now (but only a bit)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,790
    IshmaelZ said:

    Nigelb said:

    kjh said:

    I found yesterday quite cathartic bizarrely. Why? Well I am clearly not a fan of Thatcher, but I found myself defending her from @HYUFD mad demonic catagorisation of her. This was a new and refreshing experience for me. The more I thought about it the more I thought about the fact that (with the exception of Tebbit) the Thatcher Govt was made up of grown ups regardless of what I thought of their policies. Made me feel much happier.

    No doubt my bubble will be burst by examples of idiots from that era, but currently I'm very relaxed in my view.

    There's this Falklands alumnus, attorney general at the time.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Havers,_Baron_Havers

    Not dissimilar attitudes as some of the current Met officers.
    Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women."...
    You go through life thinking nothing much changes day to day, and then remember something like that. The past is a foreign country.
    Read David Peace's Red Riding novels, if you want to revisit.
    Relentlessly grim, but they do give an authentic flavour of the time.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857
    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    IanB2 said:

    Interesting to see from the FT that the UK supplies to Ukraine appear limited to anti-armour weapons, medical supplies, and clothing, as also are many other countries. Whereas much of the EU is also supplying small arms and ammunition, and several are supplying anti-aircraft kit, artillery and shells, with Germany also supplying armoured vehicles.

    The largest UK contribution is the anti-tank NLAW, somewhere around 20,000 of them.


    3,615 NLAW to Ukraine from the UK.

    It's Biden who's doing the big loot drops now.
    Ah okay, maybe 20k was the total rather than the UK donation. My bad.

    Yes, the US are getting going with the kit now, which should help things along a bit (to put it mildly).
    I think 20K was the total UK buy.

    I have heard that the Thales factory in NI is rather busy. Between this and the Starstreak thing, they will be having a good war.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,380
    edited March 2022
    IshmaelZ said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    Che Guevara (in the second list)
    Where does Jesus fit in?

    Edit; just seen Sunil's asked there same question. But son (?) of a tradesman; lower-middle class?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Sandpit said:

    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Sounds like some sort of a bankruptcy followed by immediate asset sale. Could be insurance or legal technicality that requires vessels to be re-registered with the new entity by the authorities at the port.
    Got to be
    Nope. fear of saisie conservatoire by garlic chewing scoundrels across the channel for unpaid debts.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,306
    edited March 2022

    malcolmg said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Always the US lapdog
    Morad Tahbaz holds dual British and American citizenship. He lives mostly in the US, which is why the US State Dept. was making the case for him.

    He was released as part of this deal.
    Which has nothing to do with the substantive issue, which is that the British Government is not operating an independent foreign policy.
    You mean having a foreign policy which it coordinates with others?

    Yes, that is crazy. That kind of thinking leads to signing treaties with other countries about trade, immigration, common standards.....

    There was a big discussion about this recently. Can't remember the exact topic.
    The word 'coordinating' is doing a great deal of heavy lifting in that sentence, and you know it. The fact is that Ratcliffe has languished in Iran for 6 extra months because the British Government was forbidden by a foreign government from buying the freedom of a British subject. The US would not have dreamed of 'coordinating' their foreign policy with us in this manner. That should make us all deeply troubled and not a little ashamed. But it will be ignored, because it's too uncomfortable.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,831

    TOPPING said:

    malcolmg said:

    My nags for today , had poor day yesterday with non runners and others being donkeys. Tough racing today , winners will be hard to come by.
    @moonrabbit @stodge @ping

    EW Patent
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Singles EW
    Sire Du Berlais 14:10 Cheltenham
    Champ 15:30 Cheltenham
    Imperial Alcazar 16:10 Cheltenham

    Morning Malc just as well I go to Cheltenham for the booze and socialising racing not the money (although I did back Facile Vega as in an RP article prior to the meeting Willie Mullins, discussing his chances, had said of it "of all the runners I have I would want to be on Facile Vega..." which sounded pretty emphatic to me!)

    Yesterday was a cracking day, that said. Quite surreal with essentially a morass of horses moving around the track everyone looking grey and brown behind the front runners. Shishkin didn't travel a yard and I'm not going to get into the should they/shouldn't they have watered debate - suffice to say that rain was showing on all weather apps on the Weds for days and yet unwatered/rained upon the ground would have probably been good/good to firm... Who'd be clerk of the course.

    Equally it was a good advert for honest racing to see Delta Work win when we were all imagining what would have happened in F1 with Jack Kennedy receiving instructions through his comms system to let Tiger Roll pass. The biggest mystery continues to be what the cross country race is for, that said.

    Have a great day today.
    So much booing for Delta Work! I don’t know how much you saw of the winning parade Topping, the horse was cross, reacting at the booing with longest face, chomping the bit, pulling towards the crowd trying to get in the enclosure and bite them! All the horses managed a slippery cross country very well. My horse came nowhere in it, there was a moment just after they had got over the bannisters with Mrs miggins garden gate and the duck pond to come I thought mine got a nudge.
    People are quick to say the booing was in good spirits but I didn't hear anything as I wasn't in that area.

    Not sure how slippery the x-country course was, it looked like the ground was pretty good vs the main course but as I said I'm not entirely sure I see the point of the race. As for the timber to sober you up it is worth watching some runnings of the Maryland Hunt Cup and marvel at them flying those pretty solid obstacles.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,455

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Putin speech with subtitles

    https://twitter.com/sfmnemonic/status/1504244193660571651

    jawdropping, but actually also encouraging. A speech from a man who is in the bunker and knows it.

    By the looks of Flightradar24 RSD78 to Novosibirsk you may well be literally correct.
    RSD79 just landed at Omsk, they do appear to be going all over the place.

    Presumably one of them is Putin, and they don’t want us to know which one.
    Pardon my ignorance, but could this all just be members of the Duma going home? Why does it have to be Putin?
    I don’t think they would usually leave simultaneously on 10 government planes.

    RSD3 looks like he’s landing at Kogalym, which from the map is 150km from any other airfield! Russia is a damn big place.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    Leon said:

    boulay said:

    boulay said:

    It’s quite interesting contrasting France and the UK very generally on regional identity and separatism.

    Both countries are a larger version of their original cores through war/conquest or absorption.

    In the UK the “absorbed/conquered” parts have kept very strong visible identities and different levels of their own independent decision making away from London which have evolved over time but still have strong cultural identities and differences.

    The degrees are wide from Scotland, Wales and NI to Cornish or Yorkshire identity.

    France however had been very good/very brutal at suppressing the identities of their equivalents with a long focus on being totally “French”.

    So whilst areas such as Brittany, Savoie and Basque pockets have independence movements they aren’t very strong and probably mirror Cornish independence movements.

    Areas that weren’t historically “France” that aren’t Brittany and Savoie such as Aquitaine and Gascony are very much brought into the whole French demos.

    It’s understandable why Corsica is more of an outlier as was always treated slightly badly by France in a cultural sneer kind of way - Napoleon was mocked non stop at military school for being a Corsican, treated like an educated monkey.

    I would be surprised if this was a larger issue for France but interesting to see how it pans out.

    True, but didn't stop the French making him an emperor! And the "educated monkey" rewrote their constitution on his days off from conquering most of Europe.

    Do the French still have that mocking attitude to Corsica?
    To be honest I’m not sure how modern French see Corsicans but at the time of Napoleon it was seen as very backwards and different - I would guess very much like how a lot of English viewed Ireland and the Irish at the same time. Interesting that Napoleon and Wellington were both from places that were looked down on by the people who worshipped them later!
    Hitler, Austria. Franco, Galicia. Stalin, Georgia. Thatcher, Grantham

    It’s a known phenomenon. The outsider - usually middle or lower middle class - aspires to take over the metropole, and is more patriotic than the posher types in the capital

    By contrast, religious or nihilistic revolutionaries tend to come from the upper middle or upper classes. Buddha. Bin Laden. Muhammad. Corbyn

    Che Guevara (in the second list)
    Where does Jesus fit in?
    depends if Joseph was a carpenter carpenter or a Lord Linley carpenter. Could be the latter if "Born of David's line" is right in the carol.
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,454
    IshmaelZ said:

    Sandpit said:

    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Sounds like some sort of a bankruptcy followed by immediate asset sale. Could be insurance or legal technicality that requires vessels to be re-registered with the new entity by the authorities at the port.
    Got to be
    Nope. fear of saisie conservatoire by garlic chewing scoundrels across the channel for unpaid debts.
    Cairnryan–Larne?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    Sandpit said:

    carnforth said:

    Per the BBC, P&O not liquidating, announcement will “secure future” and “has the support of existing owners”. So why must the ships remain in port for a few hours? Some insurance technicality?

    Sounds like some sort of a bankruptcy followed by immediate asset sale. Could be insurance or legal technicality that requires vessels to be re-registered with the new entity by the authorities at the port.
    Got to be
    Nope. fear of saisie conservatoire by garlic chewing scoundrels across the channel for unpaid debts.
    Cairnryan–Larne?
    guinness-swilling scoundrels
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,857

    malcolmg said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Exclusive:

    Britain was on the cusp of signing a near identical deal for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Anoosheh Ashoori last Summer

    But it was blocked by the US because it wanted the deal to include Morad Tahbaz

    Iran refused


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-on-way-to-tehran-airport-tc90f2lkn

    Always the US lapdog
    Morad Tahbaz holds dual British and American citizenship. He lives mostly in the US, which is why the US State Dept. was making the case for him.

    He was released as part of this deal.
    Which has nothing to do with the substantive issue, which is that the British Government is not operating an independent foreign policy.
    You mean having a foreign policy which it coordinates with others?

    Yes, that is crazy. That kind of thinking leads to signing treaties with other countries about trade, immigration, common standards.....

    There was a big discussion about this recently. Can't remember the exact topic.
    The word 'coordinating' is doing a great deal of heavy lifting in that sentence, and you know it. The fact is that Ratcliffe has languished in Iran for 6 extra months because the British Government was forbidden by a foreign Government from buying the freedom of a British subject. The US would not have dreamed of 'coordinating' their foreign policy with us in this manner. That should make us all deeply troubled and not a little ashamed. But it will be ignored, because it's too uncomfortable.
    "Forbidden" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence - the UK government could have put the cash on a plane and ignored what the US government said.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,064

    Bloody hell, it's still 1982 on here, I see. How depressing.

    Music's great though....
    A very subjective opinion. 1982 to 1987 was for me the nadir of chart music, there was some good behind the scenes music but with a few notable exceptions, most of it was just throw away pop. I'd also include post 2010 as I hate most songs that use autotune*, but I am aware that my music knowledge of the last decade is so weak I cannot really form an objective opinion.

    *my problem with autotune is not that singers are "cheating", but that it changes the harmonics of the voice and reduces the richness of the human voice. I've also heard the argument that many singers these days will just do two takes and rely on the production to clean up all the blemishes, whereas the traditional approach was to continue rerecording until you really hit that fawless performance.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,905
    So now we’re calmly discussing whether the Russian president is about to drop The Bomb

    2022 is great. And it’s still only March
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,645
    BBC forced to admit there is 'absolutely no evidence' Corbyn is or was an antisemite.

    Ian Austin/Telegraph forced into a humiliating and very expensive public apology about Labour staffer Laura Murray.

    Looks like the tide's finally turning.

    PB leaves itself open to action by allowing Posters such as Heathener to continue to call Corbyn an Anti Semite
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    BBC forced to admit there is 'absolutely no evidence' Corbyn is or was an antisemite.

    Ian Austin/Telegraph forced into a humiliating and very expensive public apology about Labour staffer Laura Murray.

    Looks like the tide's finally turning.

    PB leaves itself open to action by allowing Posters such as Heathener to continue to call Corbyn an Anti Semite

    Eppur si, muove...
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,011
    Fishing said:

    Instead of talking about France, could we discuss the Falkland Islands on this thread?

    We don't talk about them enough.

    (runs for cover)

    If Putin invades Corsica I bet Macron will nuke Russia.
    No way. He's a bit of a boyo, Macron is, but he's no Maggie Thatcher.
This discussion has been closed.