On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
Not a clinician, but I have some experience of this (research has taken me into this area on a couple of occasions). Rigor mortis is typically quite short-term. Normal, as I understand it, for it to have passed well within four days.
Not sure of ambient temperature here, but clotting can also be slowed by low termperature, absence of clotting would make blood appear 'fresh'.
Starmer's approval ratings are certainly better than Corbyn's. However Labour's voteshare is, if anything, slightly less still than Corbyn got in 2017 even if still much better than Corbyn got in 2019.
Starmer's main success therefore has been in winning over voters who voted Labour in 2017 but LD or Conservative in 2019.
In terms of winning voters who voted Conservative in 2017 and 2019 he has been less successful and he has also lost a few voters who voted for Corbyn Labour to the Greens. That means it will likely still be a close election
The people who love Starmer the most are wealthy LibDems. That might well be enough for him to remove the Tory majority in GE 2024 ... if he is fighting Boris.
But, I am unconvinced that Boris will fight. Boris doesn't like to lose, and he must surely already be looking enviously at his lucrative post-PM opportunities.
I mean, furfucksake, even a completely talentless nonentity like Nick Clegg is now earning 2.7 million dollars a year.
He will certainly get more tactical votes from the LDs in Labour v Tory marginals than Corbyn.
Boris does not have the technical skills of Clegg for a big corporate board, his skills are in oratory and the lecture circuit.
To maximise his earnings there he needs to stay in No 10 as long as possible to get near Thatcher and Blair fees on the circuit and ideally raise his profile in the US further too at the same time
Well, HYUFD, you have posted a number of outrageous things in your time.
"... the technical skills of Clegg for a big corporate board".
But that wins the prize.
It wasn’t his technical skills for which he was hired, rather his political skills.
Clegg’s job is to tell governments of the world, that one of the most evil companies ever to have existed is really all smelling of roses and definitely doesn’t need to be regulated - then pivot to of course the industry needs to be regulated, and here is the regulation that we wrote as a huge barrier to entry for upstart competitors.
Ironically, the person who ended up doing best out of the Coalition is Nick Clegg after all
He's not paid $15m/year. He got $15m including his share options one year. That share option plan will be for 3/4 years. So it's really more like $4-5m year.
Not saying that that is peanuts... but he's not quite as well remunerated as you think.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
Yea, Scots Nats engaging in psychological projection as ever. What they want the world to believe is that their type of bigotry, division and hatred is OK.
Sweaty red faced gammon Brit Nat joins the fray. Frothing at the mouth and spouting lies as ever. Back under your rock creature.
Phoned for an appointment at my GP. The whole place is shut because the doctors all have covid.
Don't get me started ...
Do you have an out of hours drop in somewhere nearby? My wife has used this service when our surgery is not available. Did they give any other options for you?
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
I do not recall a 4-day gap. That seems completely made up.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
I don't see it that way. It's an attempt to point out that wanting to preserve the singularity of the UK is also nationalism. Which it is. Nationalism is simply the belief that a given nation should be a sovereign state. The difference is that one person's idea of the nation, Scotland, isn't sovereign, but another person's idea of the nation, the UK, is. There are a minority of racists on both sides, but mostly nationalists are fine. Most people are nationalists.
The founders of the SNP have very dodgy histories. It is extraordinary that SNP members shamelessly celebrate Arthur Donaldson. That would be like mainstream Tories celebrating Enoch Powell, or perhaps even Oswald Mosely.
On top of all that, you just have to see the posts of most of the Scots Nats on here. They don't just dislike Tories, they genuinely hate English people, just for being English. They are largely too thick or too prejudiced to realise that English people are really quite diverse folk and not all the same as their stereotyping pea-brains want to believe.
But then the SNP get 40-50% of the vote... do you actually think 40-50% of Scots are as you describe? I don't.
Also, nationalism is way older that fascism. I think I've said to you before you are definitely lacking in a long-view understanding of the phenomenon of nationalism, and I'll repeat that. It's why I included a very brief definition of what I consider nationalism to be, to help people understand what I'm actually saying when I use a word like "nationalism". It's a term that means different things to different people. I do not like your attempt to cast what I described as patriotism because, to me, patriotism means pride in your country, a belief that it is somewhat better than other countries. I think such a view is a little silly, so I would not describe myself as a patriot.
So, in summary, I AM a British nationalist because I would not want Britain to lose its independence to another country. I am POTENTIALLY also a Scottish nationalist because I am open to the idea of Scottish independence. If there was a referendum tomorrow I'd be frantically trying to make up my mind one way or the other today. I'm NOT a British patriot because I don't think Britain is intrinsically better than other nations, and I am NOT a Scottish patriot for the same reason.
If we can work our way through the semantics of this, I think it's pretty clear that most people are nationalists, and if you don't like that word we can agree on another, but it has to stand for the concept of wanting your nation to be politically independent, not being proud or being racist. These are three phenomena that deserve separate words.
A good post, but I think the difference between you and me is not that *I* am "lacking in a long-view understanding of the phenomenon of nationalism", but that you might be possibly guilty of something that most nationalists are guilty of: psychological projection. You are accusing me of something that is clearly a blind spot for you.
Perhaps, though, there is a need for better nomenclature. I am sure there is a great difference between those (and I can think of one who posts on here who would meet this) who would like independence because they believe in more localised governance. This might be a cloak of respectability of course, but one has to take some things at face value. There are definitely those that see themselves as nationalists both north and south of the border who simply hold that view because it is a tribal hatred of "the others". To believe this does not exist is naive. It is arguable as to how far it goes, but I suspect that it is very prevalent amongst Scottish nationalism (as it is/was with UKIP supporters), which is why I believe it to be so toxic.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
Western journalists have reported multiple times that corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition. Given the cold weather, they did not die within the last few days. Ukraine has invited in independent observers to collect evidence - which will include autopsies. War crimes tribunals require very high standards of proof.
It is not suspicious for news like this to take time to emerge given the conditions - and also the care with. which investigations are taking, and will take place.
Russia is pumping out multiple contradictory stories. Given what the semi almost certainly to have perpetrated, the denial is further evidence this was officially sanctioned.
That certainly is the view of Putin, Hamas and BJO. Can I add you to that list?
No, I was not a fan of Corbyn. I would not have voted for him under any circumstances. But he was a more honest leader than Starmer in that he tried to suggest alternatives to government policy that he believed in. As I say below Starmer has virtually nothing to say on any any of the major issues facing Britain. His only hope is that Johnson messes up so badly that he gets in by default. No wonder he has negative ratings.
Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin maxi and plans to integrate Jack Mallers Strike payment system through Twitter. Musk also owns billions of dollars of Bitcoin.
The annual Bitcoin conference is happening in Miami this week, last year the surprise announcement was the first country (El Salvador) to announce Bitcoin as legal tender.
Other countries, possibly Honduras, are expected to make a similar announcement this week, there are also rumours of Apple Pay integration with the Lightning network.
Twitter will eventually have venmo-style payment integration via the Bitcoin lightning network and there are eyes on it eventually becoming a competitor to the likes of Western Union for immigrants sending money to the folks back home.
Bitcoin is worse than a pyramid scheme.
That Musk is involved with it is the one thing that makes me lose respect for him. I don't have much respect for Dorsey to lose in the first place.
A fair argument in, say, 2013. But it's 2022 and bitcoin has been around for 12 years now.
If I wanted to send $100 to El Salvador, Western Union would charge me $7.99. The idea of the lightning network is that you can convert dollar > bitcoin and back to dollar again and the transaction is instant and costs less than a cent.
Jack wants to enable that kind of remittance to happen via Twitter and I dare say that is why Musk has invested.
Is it a good investment? I don't know. Despite being around for a year in El Salvador bitcoin hasn't exactly caught on with a largely suspicious population who prefer to hoard physical dollars. However, that's the play.
It's estimated that about 1.7bn people are unbanked globally, which is a heck of an untapped market if this thing catches on.
The Lightning Network isn't magic, it doesn't do the currency conversion part and it only works if the recipient already has bitcoins. You can work around this by using a trusted party in the middle, but if you have a trusted party in the middle then you don't need the bitcoin part. Some sketchy companies have tried to obscure this fact by saying they're using the lightning network as "back-end rails" or some such, but it's all bullshit.
People sometimes use "bitcoin" as a general term for all the cryptocurrency tech that developed out of bitcoin, and somebody may well be able to ship a system with fast, cheap transfers, privacy and sufficient scale, but it won't involve the actual Bitcoin. It might be possible to change Bitcoin so that you could build such a system with it, but this won't happen, because it's been captured by reactionaries.
Just as a matter of interest, do you have any interest in any other blockchains that you might want to disclose at this point?
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
According to the great God Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis - "Contrary to folklore and common belief, rigor mortis is not permanent and begins to pass within hours of onset. Typically, it lasts no longer than eight hours at "room temperature".
Rigour Mortis was 'my' word.
They actually said this: 'It is of particular worry that all the bodies of the people whose images have been published by the Kiev regime are not stiffened after at least four days, have no typical cadaver stains, and the wounds contain unconsumed blood.'
However, given the info above, it's not a smoking gun.
Two years with no indication whatsoever as how he wants to change the country. No substantive ideas during the pandemic,nothing to say about economic policy, no alternatives offered to the government on foreign policy just more spending on everything but no new taxes. I am struggling to think of a worse opposition leader in the last 50 years. Hague maybe?
If you go to the Labour Party website, it has an analysis of the many political problems facing the UK which are real and important but are getting essentially no attention from the current government. This includes unaffordable housing, unaffordable childcare, lack of treatments for mental health conditions, lack of access to justice, lack of job security and so on.
As a piece of analysis I would say they are on the money. The problem is they don't answer the This Means That questions about what a Labour government would do in practice. Nevertheless they are further down the road than the actual government who could have real policies and do stuff right now.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
I do not recall a 4-day gap. That seems completely made up.
It’s a half truth, given the timing of the start of the Russian retreat. Propaganda thrives on half truths.
And as with Mariupol, @Luckyguy1983 seems to expect instantaneous and detailed reporting in what are battlefield conditions, which seems a strange entitlement.
Interesting Radio 2 phone-in on 'cakeage' - would you expect a 'cakeage' charge in a restaurant if you brought your own cake and the venue provided cutlery/crockery and served the cake etc.?
I didn't know Steve Wright in the afternoon was popular in the Kremlin.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
Western journalists have reported multiple times that corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition. Given the cold weather, they did not die within the last few days. Ukraine has invited in independent observers to collect evidence - which will include autopsies. War crimes tribunals require very high standards of proof.
It is not suspicious for news like this to take time to emerge given the conditions - and also the care with. which investigations are taking, and will take place.
Russia is pumping out multiple contradictory stories. Given what the semi almost certainly to have perpetrated, the denial is further evidence this was officially sanctioned.
I think we need to listen very carefully to Joe Biden when he says US intelligence indicates a Russian willingness / preparedness to use chemical weapons. So far US intelligence has been fairly spot on. What policy response do we expect from our leaders if/when that happens? Hopefully behind closed doors they are discussing at Nato / intergovernmental level what they would do. Such decisions are best taken without the emotion of the event clouding judgement.
Interesting Radio 2 phone-in on 'cakeage' - would you expect a 'cakeage' charge in a restaurant if you brought your own cake and the venue provided cutlery/crockery and served the cake etc.?
I didn't know Steve Wright in the afternoon was popular in the Kremlin.
Trick question - it was Jeremy Vine. You'll have to do better than that Comrade.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
According to the great God Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis - "Contrary to folklore and common belief, rigor mortis is not permanent and begins to pass within hours of onset. Typically, it lasts no longer than eight hours at "room temperature".
Rigour Mortis was 'my' word.
They actually said this: 'It is of particular worry that all the bodies of the people whose images have been published by the Kiev regime are not stiffened after at least four days, have no typical cadaver stains, and the wounds contain unconsumed blood.'
However, given the info above, it's not a smoking gun.
What would a smoking gun look like?
Perhaps some drone footage of them shooting a guy getting out of a civvy car with his hands up?
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
Yea, Scots Nats engaging in psychological projection as ever. What they want the world to believe is that their type of bigotry, division and hatred is OK.
Sweaty red faced gammon Brit Nat joins the fray. Frothing at the mouth and spouting lies as ever. Back under your rock creature.
Nasty, rude, prejudiced inarticulate xenophobe accuses someone else of being a "gammon". lol. Now if that is not a great example of psychological projection of a very typical Scottish Nationalist? You, Malcolm are a prejudiced small brained scumbag and are exactly what I was referring to. I am sure many posters on here would like you to crawl back under your rock. You certainly add nothing to this site other than reduce the otherwise high level of debate and average IQ.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
I do not recall a 4-day gap. That seems completely made up.
It’s a half truth, given the timing of the start of the Russian retreat. Propaganda thrives on half truths.
And as with Mariupol, @Luckyguy1983 seems to expect instantaneous and detailed reporting in what are battlefield conditions, which seems a strange entitlement.
Not at all, I just Googled and found the Russian MOD's statement on the matter. I give it no credibility, I have merely report that they say it.
That certainly is the view of Putin, Hamas and BJO. Can I add you to that list?
No, I was not a fan of Corbyn. I would not have voted for him under any circumstances. But he was a more honest leader than Starmer in that he tried to suggest alternatives to government policy that he believed in. As I say below Starmer has virtually nothing to say on any any of the major issues facing Britain. His only hope is that Johnson messes up so badly that he gets in by default. No wonder he has negative ratings.
That was largely Blair's strategy. It worked quite well for him.
That certainly is the view of Putin, Hamas and BJO. Can I add you to that list?
No, I was not a fan of Corbyn. I would not have voted for him under any circumstances. But he was a more honest leader than Starmer in that he tried to suggest alternatives to government policy that he believed in. As I say below Starmer has virtually nothing to say on any any of the major issues facing Britain. His only hope is that Johnson messes up so badly that he gets in by default. No wonder he has negative ratings.
As @FF43 has highlighted there is some detailed work on the Labour Party website. I suspect it is seldom mentioned on GBNews.
Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin maxi and plans to integrate Jack Mallers Strike payment system through Twitter. Musk also owns billions of dollars of Bitcoin.
The annual Bitcoin conference is happening in Miami this week, last year the surprise announcement was the first country (El Salvador) to announce Bitcoin as legal tender.
Other countries, possibly Honduras, are expected to make a similar announcement this week, there are also rumours of Apple Pay integration with the Lightning network.
Twitter will eventually have venmo-style payment integration via the Bitcoin lightning network and there are eyes on it eventually becoming a competitor to the likes of Western Union for immigrants sending money to the folks back home.
Bitcoin is worse than a pyramid scheme.
That Musk is involved with it is the one thing that makes me lose respect for him. I don't have much respect for Dorsey to lose in the first place.
A fair argument in, say, 2013. But it's 2022 and bitcoin has been around for 12 years now.
If I wanted to send $100 to El Salvador, Western Union would charge me $7.99. The idea of the lightning network is that you can convert dollar > bitcoin and back to dollar again and the transaction is instant and costs less than a cent.
Jack wants to enable that kind of remittance to happen via Twitter and I dare say that is why Musk has invested.
Is it a good investment? I don't know. Despite being around for a year in El Salvador bitcoin hasn't exactly caught on with a largely suspicious population who prefer to hoard physical dollars. However, that's the play.
It's estimated that about 1.7bn people are unbanked globally, which is a heck of an untapped market if this thing catches on.
As someone who first bought Bitcoin at $3, the "cheap transactions for sending money abroad" argument was one of the key reasons for my purchase.
But Bitcoin today is 99.999% tulip speculation, 0.001% people using it for genuine economic utility. And that makes it far too volatile.
I wouldn't compare a financial instrument that's been appreciating for 12 years with several boom and bust cycles behind it to a one off mania for flowers that happened 400 years ago, but I do agree that people aren't spending it.
However I'd argue that simply holding on it is a genuine economic utility, the way people hold gold bars as a store of wealth, but don't tend to pay for their groceries in them.
A recent report by Fidelity described bitcoin as "high stakes game theory" and I'd tend to agree. But one man's high stakes game theory is another's pyramid scheme. The truth is that it's probably still too early to tell.
I bought in at about $10 but sadly swapped it for some goodies on the silk road a week later. If I'd kept it, I'd be posting this from a yacht. Possibly the most expensive trip in history, second only to Leon's Ayahuasca experience!
The mining of Bitcoin is an extravagant waste of energy. 0.5% of all energy, worldwide, is used simply to mine Bitcoin. And rising.
I fully expect it to be banned on this basis within the next few years.
A friend of mine has put a solar voltaic cell on his shed roof for that very purpose. Nonetheless, Bitcoin mining seems to me to be the very definition of absolute bollocks!
Bitcoin mining should be a very low return, low energy intensity way of verifying transactions on the Blockchain.
The problem is that Bitcoin became so valuable that massive resources poured into it to chase returns. Bitcoin difficulty is up something like 15,000x in the last decade.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
you prefer Little Englander
It would be more honest about their Anglophobia, so sure.
Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin maxi and plans to integrate Jack Mallers Strike payment system through Twitter. Musk also owns billions of dollars of Bitcoin.
The annual Bitcoin conference is happening in Miami this week, last year the surprise announcement was the first country (El Salvador) to announce Bitcoin as legal tender.
Other countries, possibly Honduras, are expected to make a similar announcement this week, there are also rumours of Apple Pay integration with the Lightning network.
Twitter will eventually have venmo-style payment integration via the Bitcoin lightning network and there are eyes on it eventually becoming a competitor to the likes of Western Union for immigrants sending money to the folks back home.
Bitcoin is worse than a pyramid scheme.
That Musk is involved with it is the one thing that makes me lose respect for him. I don't have much respect for Dorsey to lose in the first place.
A fair argument in, say, 2013. But it's 2022 and bitcoin has been around for 12 years now.
If I wanted to send $100 to El Salvador, Western Union would charge me $7.99. The idea of the lightning network is that you can convert dollar > bitcoin and back to dollar again and the transaction is instant and costs less than a cent.
Jack wants to enable that kind of remittance to happen via Twitter and I dare say that is why Musk has invested.
Is it a good investment? I don't know. Despite being around for a year in El Salvador bitcoin hasn't exactly caught on with a largely suspicious population who prefer to hoard physical dollars. However, that's the play.
It's estimated that about 1.7bn people are unbanked globally, which is a heck of an untapped market if this thing catches on.
As someone who first bought Bitcoin at $3, the "cheap transactions for sending money abroad" argument was one of the key reasons for my purchase.
But Bitcoin today is 99.999% tulip speculation, 0.001% people using it for genuine economic utility. And that makes it far too volatile.
I wouldn't compare a financial instrument that's been appreciating for 12 years with several boom and bust cycles behind it to a one off mania for flowers that happened 400 years ago, but I do agree that people aren't spending it.
However I'd argue that simply holding on it is a genuine economic utility, the way people hold gold bars as a store of wealth, but don't tend to pay for their groceries in them.
A recent report by Fidelity described bitcoin as "high stakes game theory" and I'd tend to agree. But one man's high stakes game theory is another's pyramid scheme. The truth is that it's probably still too early to tell.
I bought in at about $10 but sadly swapped it for some goodies on the silk road a week later. If I'd kept it, I'd be posting this from a yacht. Possibly the most expensive trip in history, second only to Leon's Ayahuasca experience!
Holding it confers no utility.
The utility comes in the ability to use the asset: and there it clearly has certain advantages over existing currencies. It also has some very significant disadvantages, that may be ameliorated by Lightning *if* that achieves widespread adoption. (Which, four years since launch, is far from clear. And it should be noted that if Lightning does take off, it removes many of the things about Bitcoin that people like.)
The thing that argues against it being attractive at current levels is that you don't need $200+bn of float to be able to act as a low cost intermediary for money transfers.
Some of those disadvantages may be ameliorated by Lightning.
Others are built in and will require much more work to fix, if indeed that's possible. Like what happens if you make a typo while sending a payment, or how to ensure your inheritors can get hold of the assets if you're unexpectedly hit by a bus.
There's a lot of issues with Bitcoin (and crypto more widely) that are solvable with enough careful thinking, but at the end of the day, blockchain is designed to be decentralised. And the overwhelming trend in finance over the past [long time period] has been towards the sorts of consumer protections that require accountable, centralised organisations.
Interesting Radio 2 phone-in on 'cakeage' - would you expect a 'cakeage' charge in a restaurant if you brought your own cake and the venue provided cutlery/crockery and served the cake etc.?
Never thought about it, but it doesn't seem unreasonable in theory if the venue is doing something for it (like providing cutlery and crockets and cutting and serving the cake).
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
That British Nationalists consistently contend this says more about them than it does about Scots and their chosen government.
"Civic and joyous". Do you get this sort of thing south of the border?
"The papers this morning report that the SNP member who posted about me being hung from a lamp post has been suspended. Good. Now that they've set the precedent that it's wrong to talk about the execution of your opponents (a low bar, I know) let's test if they mean it"
What bollox , personally I would have stuck him in his tuba. Another spineless wimpeering British nationalist unionist trying to make something out of nothing. The lampost would have snapped before he came to any harm in any case.
You really are a sick little fascist and I would like to see you banned from this site for that sick post
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
According to the great God Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis - "Contrary to folklore and common belief, rigor mortis is not permanent and begins to pass within hours of onset. Typically, it lasts no longer than eight hours at "room temperature".
The end of rigor mortis was a plot point in one of the Peter Wimsey novels; blood clotting in another now I come to think about it.
But the objections are typical conspiracy fodder: answer them and more will be dreamt up as there is no level of evidence that could ever convince them they are wrong.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
Western journalists have reported multiple times that corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition. Given the cold weather, they did not die within the last few days. Ukraine has invited in independent observers to collect evidence - which will include autopsies. War crimes tribunals require very high standards of proof.
It is not suspicious for news like this to take time to emerge given the conditions - and also the care with. which investigations are taking, and will take place.
Russia is pumping out multiple contradictory stories. Given what the semi almost certainly to have perpetrated, the denial is further evidence this was officially sanctioned.
I think we need to listen very carefully to Joe Biden when he says US intelligence indicates a Russian willingness / preparedness to use chemical weapons. So far US intelligence has been fairly spot on. What policy response do we expect from our leaders if/when that happens? Hopefully behind closed doors they are discussing at Nato / intergovernmental level what they would do. Such decisions are best taken without the emotion of the event clouding judgement.
I have seen discussions on CNN here of ex-senior US generals (Chiefs of Staff level) talking about what could be the NATO responses.
FWIW, here is a good youtube video on how it is Russia has failed to gain air superiority in Ukraine, how that failure has impacted the ground war, and why it would be problematic for NATO to undertake a NFZ over Ukrainian airspace (the reason being the need to hit targets up to 200 miles inside Russian territory to suppress AA systems)
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
Extraordinary. I had no idea that covid app was still a thing.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
That British Nationalists consistently contend this says more about them than it does about Scots and their chosen government.
"Civic and joyous". Do you get this sort of thing south of the border?
"The papers this morning report that the SNP member who posted about me being hung from a lamp post has been suspended. Good. Now that they've set the precedent that it's wrong to talk about the execution of your opponents (a low bar, I know) let's test if they mean it"
What bollox , personally I would have stuck him in his tuba. Another spineless wimpeering British nationalist unionist trying to make something out of nothing. The lampost would have snapped before he came to any harm in any case.
Apparently the SNP have been in touch and may take action. Even they aren't as sanguine as you, Malc.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
According to the great God Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis - "Contrary to folklore and common belief, rigor mortis is not permanent and begins to pass within hours of onset. Typically, it lasts no longer than eight hours at "room temperature".
The end of rigor mortis was a plot point in one of the Peter Wimsey novels; blood clotting in another now I come to think about it.
But the objections are typical conspiracy fodder: answer them and more will be dreamt up as there is no level of evidence that could ever convince them they are wrong.
Handedness of organic molecules was another I recall - she did like her science.
That certainly is the view of Putin, Hamas and BJO. Can I add you to that list?
No, I was not a fan of Corbyn. I would not have voted for him under any circumstances. But he was a more honest leader than Starmer in that he tried to suggest alternatives to government policy that he believed in. As I say below Starmer has virtually nothing to say on any any of the major issues facing Britain. His only hope is that Johnson messes up so badly that he gets in by default. No wonder he has negative ratings.
That was largely Blair's strategy. It worked quite well for him.
Before my time, but wasn't Maggie's manifesto in 1979 remarkably tame given what was to come?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin maxi and plans to integrate Jack Mallers Strike payment system through Twitter. Musk also owns billions of dollars of Bitcoin.
The annual Bitcoin conference is happening in Miami this week, last year the surprise announcement was the first country (El Salvador) to announce Bitcoin as legal tender.
Other countries, possibly Honduras, are expected to make a similar announcement this week, there are also rumours of Apple Pay integration with the Lightning network.
Twitter will eventually have venmo-style payment integration via the Bitcoin lightning network and there are eyes on it eventually becoming a competitor to the likes of Western Union for immigrants sending money to the folks back home.
Bitcoin is worse than a pyramid scheme.
That Musk is involved with it is the one thing that makes me lose respect for him. I don't have much respect for Dorsey to lose in the first place.
A fair argument in, say, 2013. But it's 2022 and bitcoin has been around for 12 years now.
If I wanted to send $100 to El Salvador, Western Union would charge me $7.99. The idea of the lightning network is that you can convert dollar > bitcoin and back to dollar again and the transaction is instant and costs less than a cent.
Jack wants to enable that kind of remittance to happen via Twitter and I dare say that is why Musk has invested.
Is it a good investment? I don't know. Despite being around for a year in El Salvador bitcoin hasn't exactly caught on with a largely suspicious population who prefer to hoard physical dollars. However, that's the play.
It's estimated that about 1.7bn people are unbanked globally, which is a heck of an untapped market if this thing catches on.
The Lightning Network isn't magic, it doesn't do the currency conversion part and it only works if the recipient already has bitcoins. You can work around this by using a trusted party in the middle, but if you have a trusted party in the middle then you don't need the bitcoin part. Some sketchy companies have tried to obscure this fact by saying they're using the lightning network as "back-end rails" or some such, but it's all bullshit.
People sometimes use "bitcoin" as a general term for all the cryptocurrency tech that developed out of bitcoin, and somebody may well be able to ship a system with fast, cheap transfers, privacy and sufficient scale, but it won't involve the actual Bitcoin. It might be possible to change Bitcoin so that you could build such a system with it, but this won't happen, because it's been captured by reactionaries.
Just as a matter of interest, do you have any interest in any other blockchains that you might want to disclose at this point?
I build stuff on Ethereum, then also deploy it to anything compatible with a free software license, so Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, Gnosis Chain. My project's funded by donations but particularly by large ones from Gnosis (in GNO) and also has ETH, and some of the airdrops from Gitcoin and ENS. Polygon sent me like 10k as well, I think they sent me Tether which I immediately flipped for something less fraudulent.
I used to have bitcoins that I bought long ago for buttons but I sold them once it became clear it had failed for practical usage and turned into a pure number-go-up game.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
Extraordinary. I had no idea that covid app was still a thing.
Still going if you haven't deleted it from your phone. And no requirement to do anything anyway.
I'm having my first day for 6 weeks without a heavy student contact load (has been 6 and 7 hours most days). I sympathise massively with teachers who do this all the time. I find its not the teaching, its everything else that doesn't get done (emails, other jobs etc).
At least Easter is nearly here (or apparently here according to all those jetting off on hols. Have some schools broken up already?
Phoned for an appointment at my GP. The whole place is shut because the doctors all have covid.
Don't get me started ...
Do you have an out of hours drop in somewhere nearby? My wife has used this service when our surgery is not available. Did they give any other options for you?
I thought Heathner lived overseas in a different country? Sure that was a part of their early commentary.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
Extraordinary. I had no idea that covid app was still a thing.
Still going if you haven't deleted it from your phone. And no requirement to do anything anyway.
Reminds me of the scene from Silicon Valley tv show were they hatch a plan to access to 1000s of mobile phones by offering a modified version of the app for a tech conference. When one of them says won't everybody just delete that app at the end of the conference, they go through their own phones reading out apps they still have on there.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Phoned for an appointment at my GP. The whole place is shut because the doctors all have covid.
Don't get me started ...
Do you have an out of hours drop in somewhere nearby? My wife has used this service when our surgery is not available. Did they give any other options for you?
I thought Heathner lived overseas in a different country? Sure that was a part of their early commentary.
I think is in the UK now (allegedly) and also likes to criticise UK stuff. She has lived and taught in many foreign countries (allegedly). She also wants to live off the grid and get back to nature, although you have to wonder where the solar panels are going to come from to power her off grid house...
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
I don't see it that way. It's an attempt to point out that wanting to preserve the singularity of the UK is also nationalism. Which it is. Nationalism is simply the belief that a given nation should be a sovereign state. The difference is that one person's idea of the nation, Scotland, isn't sovereign, but another person's idea of the nation, the UK, is. There are a minority of racists on both sides, but mostly nationalists are fine. Most people are nationalists.
On top of all that, you just have to see the posts of most of the Scots Nats on here. They don't just dislike Tories, they genuinely hate English people, just for being English.
I don't think that is true. I think they hate the fact that the English are part of the country that their fellow Scots wanted to remain a part of. If it weren't for the pesky English we'd be an independent nation-type thinking.
And of course everything is amplified on PB.
As for nationalism, well we are certainly seeing one manifestation of it right now in Eastern Europe, to everyone's disgust.
See, for me, Ukraine's fight for independence is nationalism and Russia's attempt to annex the Ukrainian nation is imperialism. I'm don't want to tell you you're wrong in your use of words, but it's totally alien from my own understanding.
So what is the word you would use for the political ideology that says the people of Ukraine should be able to choose their own destiny free from control from outside?
A perfectly legitimate one (four words).
But nations change all the time and over time. Coming back to Bobbitt, he describes a move from the State Nation to the Nation State (am really going to have to re-read him) and all the implications of what a nation says it will do for example for its citizens (a state nation makes itself responsible for the well-being of its citizens; a nation state adds democracy to that).
Who is to say Cornwall couldn't declare independence and if it did what would Westminster do (we know what @HYUFD would do).
Nationalism therefore is fluid. It can be defined as you define it: I'm happy with what I have I just want to preserve its integrity, and it can be defined as V Putin defines it - I want to reassemble Greater Russia.
Yes, and perhaps I should your insight to mine: no nation is eternal. Viability and kinship change over time, driven (per Bobbitt) by technology and overlapping ideological innovations. What makes a state legitimate today might not have existed yesterday and may cease to be tomorrow. We should be comfortable seeing these changes and adapting to them, which is why I'm happy to be on the fence about Scotland's independence. There's new information coming in all the time. I can imaging a scenario where I'd be happy for the UK to be absorbed into a larger confederation, but not right now, so for now count me as a British nationalist, not as a patriot, not as a racist, and not as someone whose view is unyielding. A country is a tool for its people, not as a thing worthy of its own existence separate from that.
I think the way we're doing wrt Scotland it in the UK (as is) is about right. Ask people and let there be a debate about it; then vote. The $64,000 question is of course the frequency of the vote. I don't have any great insight into that but it does seem to me that Brexit did fundamentally change Scotland's status.
I think the judgement on whether or not its too soon should be taken democratically. We have a parliament, there's a majority there for a referendum, let's just get it done. People who think it's too soon, I sympathise, but you didn't win the election.
Also, I know it's close. I don't think it's a bad thing to say that the benefit of the doubt should be given to more democracy, not less. The opposite to that view is... unattractive.
It's more challenging than that because Scotland at its last vote said it wanted to be a part of the UK so under those conditions, the "we have a parliament" is surely the UK parliament, as dictated by the IndyRef.
On Russian TV - talk show says Bucha is part of an Anglosaxon campaign to discredit Russia. Macron also gets mentioned for his comments earlier about war crimes. Footage shown on a loop tagged “FAKE” in English.
Russian propaganda experts, and they are experts, probably understand that they need to have these images De-credibalised in the eyes of Russians, or they would seep in anyway people would be shocked, so its a case of getting ahead of events. will it work? Sadly probably yes.
The Russians are claiming that the war-crimes were discovered 4 days after the Ukrainians reported that there were no Russian forces in the city, and that in a 4 day period you would expect rigour mortis (if that is the term) to have stiffened the bodies and for there not to be fresh blood on the wounds. Perhaps a PB medic could opine.
Western journalists have reported multiple times that corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition. Given the cold weather, they did not die within the last few days. Ukraine has invited in independent observers to collect evidence - which will include autopsies. War crimes tribunals require very high standards of proof.
It is not suspicious for news like this to take time to emerge given the conditions - and also the care with. which investigations are taking, and will take place.
Russia is pumping out multiple contradictory stories. Given what the semi almost certainly to have perpetrated, the denial is further evidence this was officially sanctioned.
I think we need to listen very carefully to Joe Biden when he says US intelligence indicates a Russian willingness / preparedness to use chemical weapons. So far US intelligence has been fairly spot on. What policy response do we expect from our leaders if/when that happens? Hopefully behind closed doors they are discussing at Nato / intergovernmental level what they would do. Such decisions are best taken without the emotion of the event clouding judgement.
I have seen discussions on CNN here of ex-senior US generals (Chiefs of Staff level) talking about what could be the NATO responses.
FWIW, here is a good youtube video on how it is Russia has failed to gain air superiority in Ukraine, how that failure has impacted the ground war, and why it would be problematic for NATO to undertake a NFZ over Ukrainian airspace (the reason being the need to hit targets up to 200 miles inside Russian territory to suppress AA systems)
The video is dated 11 March, but it holds up well, and explains a lot.
If the numbers are to be believed, Russia's Air Force is being wiped out even absent a NFZ. I suspect the Nato response will be determined by the delivery method of any chemical weapons. If its short to medium range shelling, I'd expect a volley of US cruise missiles on all such Russian positions in occupied Ukraine. If it's delivered by cross border missiles, then it's time to get your iodine supplements...
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
He always is. Did he tell a joke at all?
Two, I think. Can't remember them though. I never do with jokes.
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
He always is. Did he tell a joke at all?
Two, I think. Can't remember them though. I never do with jokes.
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
Better than Content Provider? Well worth it if so.
I fear Mariupol will make this look like a walk in the park. The Russians have been there since the start along with masses of the Chechen nutters who have a reputation for a wilful ignorance of any international conventions of PoW and non-combatants.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
I predict something like Con 39% Lab 36%.
My prediction a few weeks ago was basically that we could maybe see one or two Tory leads between now and the locals but not necessarily any more than that. I also don't expect more than a 5% Labour lead in the near future.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
I don't see it that way. It's an attempt to point out that wanting to preserve the singularity of the UK is also nationalism. Which it is. Nationalism is simply the belief that a given nation should be a sovereign state. The difference is that one person's idea of the nation, Scotland, isn't sovereign, but another person's idea of the nation, the UK, is. There are a minority of racists on both sides, but mostly nationalists are fine. Most people are nationalists.
On top of all that, you just have to see the posts of most of the Scots Nats on here. They don't just dislike Tories, they genuinely hate English people, just for being English.
I don't think that is true. I think they hate the fact that the English are part of the country that their fellow Scots wanted to remain a part of. If it weren't for the pesky English we'd be an independent nation-type thinking.
And of course everything is amplified on PB.
As for nationalism, well we are certainly seeing one manifestation of it right now in Eastern Europe, to everyone's disgust.
See, for me, Ukraine's fight for independence is nationalism and Russia's attempt to annex the Ukrainian nation is imperialism. I'm don't want to tell you you're wrong in your use of words, but it's totally alien from my own understanding.
So what is the word you would use for the political ideology that says the people of Ukraine should be able to choose their own destiny free from control from outside?
A perfectly legitimate one (four words).
But nations change all the time and over time. Coming back to Bobbitt, he describes a move from the State Nation to the Nation State (am really going to have to re-read him) and all the implications of what a nation says it will do for example for its citizens (a state nation makes itself responsible for the well-being of its citizens; a nation state adds democracy to that).
Who is to say Cornwall couldn't declare independence and if it did what would Westminster do (we know what @HYUFD would do).
Nationalism therefore is fluid. It can be defined as you define it: I'm happy with what I have I just want to preserve its integrity, and it can be defined as V Putin defines it - I want to reassemble Greater Russia.
Yes, and perhaps I should your insight to mine: no nation is eternal. Viability and kinship change over time, driven (per Bobbitt) by technology and overlapping ideological innovations. What makes a state legitimate today might not have existed yesterday and may cease to be tomorrow. We should be comfortable seeing these changes and adapting to them, which is why I'm happy to be on the fence about Scotland's independence. There's new information coming in all the time. I can imaging a scenario where I'd be happy for the UK to be absorbed into a larger confederation, but not right now, so for now count me as a British nationalist, not as a patriot, not as a racist, and not as someone whose view is unyielding. A country is a tool for its people, not as a thing worthy of its own existence separate from that.
I think the way we're doing wrt Scotland it in the UK (as is) is about right. Ask people and let there be a debate about it; then vote. The $64,000 question is of course the frequency of the vote. I don't have any great insight into that but it does seem to me that Brexit did fundamentally change Scotland's status.
I think the judgement on whether or not its too soon should be taken democratically. We have a parliament, there's a majority there for a referendum, let's just get it done. People who think it's too soon, I sympathise, but you didn't win the election.
Also, I know it's close. I don't think it's a bad thing to say that the benefit of the doubt should be given to more democracy, not less. The opposite to that view is... unattractive.
It's more challenging than that because Scotland at its last vote said it wanted to be a part of the UK so under those conditions, the "we have a parliament" is surely the UK parliament, as dictated by the IndyRef.
Yes, but obviously in terms of self determination, it's the self that should determine.
In terms of self determination, it is the UK government not Holyrood that gets the final say on the Union under the Scotland Act 1998, that applied in 2014 as much as now.
In any case even referendums granted and won have no legal force unless Westminster implements the result. Hence the Brexit referendum result of 2016 did not result in the UK leaving the EU until 2020 as the UK government consistently refused to implement the result until Boris won a Conservative majority in December 2019
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
horse - you weren't shouted down, another poster (incorrectly) pointed out that they trail the poll each week in the same way. You were right to spot the difference, but you were not shouted down. Unless you define shouting down as disagreeing?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
Phoned for an appointment at my GP. The whole place is shut because the doctors all have covid.
Don't get me started ...
Do you have an out of hours drop in somewhere nearby? My wife has used this service when our surgery is not available. Did they give any other options for you?
I thought Heathner lived overseas in a different country? Sure that was a part of their early commentary.
I think is in the UK now (allegedly) and also likes to criticise UK stuff. She has lived and taught in many foreign countries (allegedly). She also wants to live off the grid and get back to nature, although you have to wonder where the solar panels are going to come from to power her off grid house...
And she posts through a compromised PC because of her connections to the security service.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
He always is. Did he tell a joke at all?
Two, I think. Can't remember them though. I never do with jokes.
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
Better than Content Provider? Well worth it if so.
I think so, yes. Get to a gig if you can, is my advice.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
horse - you weren't shouted down, another poster (incorrectly) pointed out that they trail the poll each week in the same way. You were right to spot the difference, but you were not shouted down. Unless you define shouting down as disagreeing?
BTW hope the nausea is better now!
Hi tubbs,
Yes I've been taking the Doxycycline before getting up and about and feeling better.
I will see in three weeks if it has removed the infection in my nose.
Good to see another friendly discussion about Scotland on here today! 👍
It's the big issue of the day, innit? Unlike yesterday, when gender identification was the big issue. We are so in touch with the person on the Number 23 omnibus.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
He always is. Did he tell a joke at all?
Two, I think. Can't remember them though. I never do with jokes.
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
Better than Content Provider? Well worth it if so.
I think so, yes. Get to a gig if you can, is my advice.
Just checked. First I'd heard of a tour. Sold out nearby
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
The accuracy of detecting where you got COVID from will be about the same as the OBR forecasts for future growth. When COVID is endemic in society, its really isn't doing anything to stop transmission.
The problem as some of us stated right from way way way way back was that due to the combination of the gatekeeping Apple and Google enforce and that Western societies won't tolerant the level of state sponsored spying deployed by China and South Korea, it was a massive waste of time, energy and money.
And as we see now in South Korea, with Omicron, even though they have redoubled their efforts, expanded the level of surveillance, increased staffing, even their technological solution is no match.
So they have spent millions and millions and millions on what you think is useful which is effectively an egg timer and a webpage with links, the first of course anybody can set on their own mobile (those who really care about sticking to isolation will do so, those that don't won't take any notice of the app anyway).
This link (Guardian report from 2008) goes some way to explaining why Zelinskyy targeted Merkel and Sarkozy in his address.
The usual suspects (France and Germany, with support from Italy) didn't want to put Putin's nose out of joint by agreeing to a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.
UK, US and the Baltics have always been more realistic about Russia.
"At a Nato summit in Bucharest in April President George Bush pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be awarded the MAP, but he was defeated by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia.
"The summit agreed a contradictory compromise, denying the two countries the MAP while stating they would eventually become Nato members. The summit instructed today's meeting to review those decisions. With British and east European support, the Americans argued last night that the deadlock could be broken by pushing ahead on the membership path outside the MAP.
"Germany, Spain, Italy and others disagreed, contending that there could be no Nato membership process without it."
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
I always thought the thumbnail of your avatar was a kind of cat wearing a native American headdress. It was only when I saw the bigger version that I realised it was a horse.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Phoned for an appointment at my GP. The whole place is shut because the doctors all have covid.
Don't get me started ...
Do you have an out of hours drop in somewhere nearby? My wife has used this service when our surgery is not available. Did they give any other options for you?
I thought Heathner lived overseas in a different country? Sure that was a part of their early commentary.
I think is in the UK now (allegedly) and also likes to criticise UK stuff. She has lived and taught in many foreign countries (allegedly). She also wants to live off the grid and get back to nature, although you have to wonder where the solar panels are going to come from to power her off grid house...
And she posts through a compromised PC because of her connections to the security service.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
horse - you weren't shouted down, another poster (incorrectly) pointed out that they trail the poll each week in the same way. You were right to spot the difference, but you were not shouted down. Unless you define shouting down as disagreeing?
BTW hope the nausea is better now!
Hi tubbs,
Yes I've been taking the Doxycycline before getting up and about and feeling better.
I will see in three weeks if it has removed the infection in my nose.
Hope you are well.
Good stuff! Yep all good chez tubbs, enjoying a more relaxed monday after a busy few weeks,
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
I don't see it that way. It's an attempt to point out that wanting to preserve the singularity of the UK is also nationalism. Which it is. Nationalism is simply the belief that a given nation should be a sovereign state. The difference is that one person's idea of the nation, Scotland, isn't sovereign, but another person's idea of the nation, the UK, is. There are a minority of racists on both sides, but mostly nationalists are fine. Most people are nationalists.
On top of all that, you just have to see the posts of most of the Scots Nats on here. They don't just dislike Tories, they genuinely hate English people, just for being English.
I don't think that is true. I think they hate the fact that the English are part of the country that their fellow Scots wanted to remain a part of. If it weren't for the pesky English we'd be an independent nation-type thinking.
And of course everything is amplified on PB.
As for nationalism, well we are certainly seeing one manifestation of it right now in Eastern Europe, to everyone's disgust.
See, for me, Ukraine's fight for independence is nationalism and Russia's attempt to annex the Ukrainian nation is imperialism. I'm don't want to tell you you're wrong in your use of words, but it's totally alien from my own understanding.
So what is the word you would use for the political ideology that says the people of Ukraine should be able to choose their own destiny free from control from outside?
A perfectly legitimate one (four words).
But nations change all the time and over time. Coming back to Bobbitt, he describes a move from the State Nation to the Nation State (am really going to have to re-read him) and all the implications of what a nation says it will do for example for its citizens (a state nation makes itself responsible for the well-being of its citizens; a nation state adds democracy to that).
Who is to say Cornwall couldn't declare independence and if it did what would Westminster do (we know what @HYUFD would do).
Nationalism therefore is fluid. It can be defined as you define it: I'm happy with what I have I just want to preserve its integrity, and it can be defined as V Putin defines it - I want to reassemble Greater Russia.
Yes, and perhaps I should your insight to mine: no nation is eternal. Viability and kinship change over time, driven (per Bobbitt) by technology and overlapping ideological innovations. What makes a state legitimate today might not have existed yesterday and may cease to be tomorrow. We should be comfortable seeing these changes and adapting to them, which is why I'm happy to be on the fence about Scotland's independence. There's new information coming in all the time. I can imaging a scenario where I'd be happy for the UK to be absorbed into a larger confederation, but not right now, so for now count me as a British nationalist, not as a patriot, not as a racist, and not as someone whose view is unyielding. A country is a tool for its people, not as a thing worthy of its own existence separate from that.
I think the way we're doing wrt Scotland it in the UK (as is) is about right. Ask people and let there be a debate about it; then vote. The $64,000 question is of course the frequency of the vote. I don't have any great insight into that but it does seem to me that Brexit did fundamentally change Scotland's status.
I think the judgement on whether or not its too soon should be taken democratically. We have a parliament, there's a majority there for a referendum, let's just get it done. People who think it's too soon, I sympathise, but you didn't win the election.
Also, I know it's close. I don't think it's a bad thing to say that the benefit of the doubt should be given to more democracy, not less. The opposite to that view is... unattractive.
It's more challenging than that because Scotland at its last vote said it wanted to be a part of the UK so under those conditions, the "we have a parliament" is surely the UK parliament, as dictated by the IndyRef.
Yes, but obviously in terms of self determination, it's the self that should determine.
In terms of self determination, it is the UK government not Holyrood that gets the final say on the Union under the Scotland Act 1998, that applied in 2014 as much as now.
In any case even referendums granted and won have no legal force unless Westminster implements the result. Hence the Brexit referendum result of 2016 did not result in the UK leaving the EU until 2020 as the UK government consistently refused to implement the result until Boris won a Conservative majority in December 2019
I know all this, you seem to not understand the word "should".
Oh, and you're slightly wrong in that A50 was triggered before the 2019 election and therefore leaving the EU would have happened unless the government actively decided to delay or cancel that. These little factual details obviously don't matter to you, but they do to me.
Parliament consistently voted to delay Brexit and extend the deadline for over 3 years after the 2016 EU referendum was won by Leave. The EU happily agreed.
Hence as I said the referendum result was not respected until a pro Brexit majority in the House of Commons was won by Boris at the 2019 general election.
Therefore referendums in the UK or any part of the UK and referendum results are irrelevant unless the UK Parliament is willing to grant them and then to vote to implement the result too
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
He always is. Did he tell a joke at all?
Two, I think. Can't remember them though. I never do with jokes.
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
Better than Content Provider? Well worth it if so.
I think so, yes. Get to a gig if you can, is my advice.
Just checked. First I'd heard of a tour. Sold out nearby
Shame. It's all delayed cos of the pandemic. I bought my ticket in Sept 2019, so you would've been lucky to get one now.
He's got a website with a mailing list, get signed up. He's got something else in the pipeline.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
I always thought the thumbnail of your avatar was a kind of cat wearing a native American headdress. It was only when I saw the bigger version that I realised it was a horse.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
horse - you weren't shouted down, another poster (incorrectly) pointed out that they trail the poll each week in the same way. You were right to spot the difference, but you were not shouted down. Unless you define shouting down as disagreeing?
BTW hope the nausea is better now!
Hi tubbs,
Yes I've been taking the Doxycycline before getting up and about and feeling better.
I will see in three weeks if it has removed the infection in my nose.
Hope you are well.
Good stuff! Yep all good chez tubbs, enjoying a more relaxed monday after a busy few weeks,
Glad you're doing well tubbs, a well deserved quieter day for you
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
I hope you are well.
I am, and it's nice to see you back to you're old feisty form.
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
I always thought the thumbnail of your avatar was a kind of cat wearing a native American headdress. It was only when I saw the bigger version that I realised it was a horse.
Controversial (?) comment: I prefer Safari over Chrome
Yep. Me too. One of several Apple packages that is superior to the standard for most applications.
Numbers is often better than Excel, Keynote better than PowerPoint and Pages better than Word, simply because they look better and make for great-looking reports for work.
I still use the industry-standard packages a fair bit, but Apple produce great software that really looks good and has a great UX – very underrated by unimaginative PC Botherers in my experience.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I have long since come to the conclusion that it really is that simple (or should be).
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
BREAKING: Over 80 LGBT and HIV organisations in the UK have pulled out of the government’s international LGBT conference this summer due to trans conversion therapy being excluded from the ban.
Makes the conference essentially pointless. Hugely embarrassing for govt.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
horse - you weren't shouted down, another poster (incorrectly) pointed out that they trail the poll each week in the same way. You were right to spot the difference, but you were not shouted down. Unless you define shouting down as disagreeing?
BTW hope the nausea is better now!
Hi tubbs,
Yes I've been taking the Doxycycline before getting up and about and feeling better.
I will see in three weeks if it has removed the infection in my nose.
Hope you are well.
Be careful in sunshine. Not really a problem ATM, but Doxycycline plus strong sunlight can lead to a rash.
Comments
Not sure of ambient temperature here, but clotting can also be slowed by low termperature, absence of clotting would make blood appear 'fresh'.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/07/ftse-bosses-pay-average-9am#:~:text=FTSE 100 chief executives were,Office for National Statistics figures..
Makes him probably the highest earning former UK Cabinet Minister too
Perhaps, though, there is a need for better nomenclature. I am sure there is a great difference between those (and I can think of one who posts on here who would meet this) who would like independence because they believe in more localised governance. This might be a cloak of respectability of course, but one has to take some things at face value. There are definitely those that see themselves as nationalists both north and south of the border who simply hold that view because it is a tribal hatred of "the others". To believe this does not exist is naive. It is arguable as to how far it goes, but I suspect that it is very prevalent amongst Scottish nationalism (as it is/was with UKIP supporters), which is why I believe it to be so toxic.
Ukraine has invited in independent observers to collect evidence - which will include autopsies. War crimes tribunals require very high standards of proof.
It is not suspicious for news like this to take time to emerge given the conditions - and also the care with. which investigations are taking, and will take place.
Russia is pumping out multiple contradictory stories. Given what the semi almost certainly to have perpetrated, the denial is further evidence this was officially sanctioned.
That certainly is the view of Putin, Hamas and BJO. Can I add you to that list?
No, I was not a fan of Corbyn. I would not have voted for him under any circumstances. But he was a more honest leader than Starmer in that he tried to suggest alternatives to government policy that he believed in. As I say below Starmer has virtually nothing to say on any any of the major issues facing Britain. His only hope is that Johnson messes up so badly that he gets in by default. No wonder he has negative ratings.
They actually said this: 'It is of particular worry that all the bodies of the people whose images have been published by the Kiev regime are not stiffened after at least four days, have no typical cadaver stains, and the wounds contain unconsumed blood.'
However, given the info above, it's not a smoking gun.
As a piece of analysis I would say they are on the money. The problem is they don't answer the This Means That questions about what a Labour government would do in practice. Nevertheless they are further down the road than the actual government who could have real policies and do stuff right now.
https://labour.org.uk/stronger-together/britain-2030/
Propaganda thrives on half truths.
And as with Mariupol, @Luckyguy1983 seems to expect instantaneous and detailed reporting in what are battlefield conditions, which seems a strange entitlement.
Perhaps some drone footage of them shooting a guy getting out of a civvy car with his hands up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVXi3AGagw
The problem is that Bitcoin became so valuable that massive resources poured into it to chase returns. Bitcoin difficulty is up something like 15,000x in the last decade.
Others are built in and will require much more work to fix, if indeed that's possible. Like what happens if you make a typo while sending a payment, or how to ensure your inheritors can get hold of the assets if you're unexpectedly hit by a bus.
There's a lot of issues with Bitcoin (and crypto more widely) that are solvable with enough careful thinking, but at the end of the day, blockchain is designed to be decentralised. And the overwhelming trend in finance over the past [long time period] has been towards the sorts of consumer protections that require accountable, centralised organisations.
But the objections are typical conspiracy fodder: answer them and more will be dreamt up as there is no level of evidence that could ever convince them they are wrong.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
FWIW, here is a good youtube video on how it is Russia has failed to gain air superiority in Ukraine, how that failure has impacted the ground war, and why it would be problematic for NATO to undertake a NFZ over Ukrainian airspace (the reason being the need to hit targets up to 200 miles inside Russian territory to suppress AA systems)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpzUCSdxi7k
The video is dated 11 March, but it holds up well, and explains a lot.
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/gender-reassignment-provisions-equality-act
The law as it is written not as Stonewall thinks it should be written.
Lily-livered, the lot of them, eh?
Apparently being a teacher is a symptom of Covid:
“ feeling tired or exhausted”
I used to have bitcoins that I bought long ago for buttons but I sold them once it became clear it had failed for practical usage and turned into a pure number-go-up game.
At least Easter is nearly here (or apparently here according to all those jetting off on hols. Have some schools broken up already?
Did he tell a joke at all?
Third time I've seen him, and the best I think. Worth seeing this tour.
https://twitter.com/Nrg8000/status/1510544022951329795
Well worth it if so.
My prediction a few weeks ago was basically that we could maybe see one or two Tory leads between now and the locals but not necessarily any more than that. I also don't expect more than a 5% Labour lead in the near future.
https://youtu.be/ylqQCwvC6Bw
In any case even referendums granted and won have no legal force unless Westminster implements the result. Hence the Brexit referendum result of 2016 did not result in the UK leaving the EU until 2020 as the UK government consistently refused to implement the result until Boris won a Conservative majority in December 2019
BTW hope the nausea is better now!
This decision shows the the forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards cryptoassets in the UK. https://twitter.com/hmtreasury/status/1510971092072079360/photo/1
Yes I've been taking the Doxycycline before getting up and about and feeling better.
I will see in three weeks if it has removed the infection in my nose.
Hope you are well.
The problem as some of us stated right from way way way way back was that due to the combination of the gatekeeping Apple and Google enforce and that Western societies won't tolerant the level of state sponsored spying deployed by China and South Korea, it was a massive waste of time, energy and money.
And as we see now in South Korea, with Omicron, even though they have redoubled their efforts, expanded the level of surveillance, increased staffing, even their technological solution is no match.
So they have spent millions and millions and millions on what you think is useful which is effectively an egg timer and a webpage with links, the first of course anybody can set on their own mobile (those who really care about sticking to isolation will do so, those that don't won't take any notice of the app anyway).
The usual suspects (France and Germany, with support from Italy) didn't want to put Putin's nose out of joint by agreeing to a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.
UK, US and the Baltics have always been more realistic about Russia.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/02/ukraine-georgia
"At a Nato summit in Bucharest in April President George Bush pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be awarded the MAP, but he was defeated by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia.
"The summit agreed a contradictory compromise, denying the two countries the MAP while stating they would eventually become Nato members. The summit instructed today's meeting to review those decisions. With British and east European support, the Americans argued last night that the deadlock could be broken by pushing ahead on the membership path outside the MAP.
"Germany, Spain, Italy and others disagreed, contending that there could be no Nato membership process without it."
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Hence as I said the referendum result was not respected until a pro Brexit majority in the House of Commons was won by Boris at the 2019 general election.
Therefore referendums in the UK or any part of the UK and referendum results are irrelevant unless the UK Parliament is willing to grant them and then to vote to implement the result too
He's got a website with a mailing list, get signed up. He's got something else in the pipeline.
I hope you are well.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/apr/20/interview-june-brown-dot-cotton-eastenders
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1510986153457033220
Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6SU-MvR8_M
Numbers is often better than Excel, Keynote better than PowerPoint and Pages better than Word, simply because they look better and make for great-looking reports for work.
I still use the industry-standard packages a fair bit, but Apple produce great software that really looks good and has a great UX – very underrated by unimaginative PC Botherers in my experience.
Makes the conference essentially pointless. Hugely embarrassing for govt.
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1510990344866967555