Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
If you really believe the average Tory voter in 2019 voted for Boris and Brexit because of Russian propoganda rather than as they wanted to regain sovereignty and control immigration, then I expect you also believe Elvis is still around too!
No.
What I was suggesting was that were the Brexit vote dragged over the line not by Johnson but by Putin, the whole pretext of "getting Brexit done" because it was the will of the people was no longer true.
I wasn't for one moment saying that the old Soviet Putin had a bearing on the 2019 election, more likely, it was the old Soviet Corbyn that made the difference.
I expect Boris to face a VoNC after the May locals.
I also expect him to win it.
But will he be holed below the waterline.
I'm guessing but I'd say between 100 and 140 votes against and 210-250 in favour. Some abstentions perhaps.
Ooh. That's getting close to the worst possible result for the Conservative Party as a whole. Good enough for Johnson that he's entitled to carry on, but with about a third voting against him in the privacy of the polling booth. Though presumably not in public.
The 1995 leadership election was Major 218 - Redwood 89, and that didn't really solve anything.
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
How many of those are Russian bots?
Who knows but here’s the data. There are some big markets he can go after there like India. He could build it up and drive some real revenue growth.
"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans," he added.
The days of @AnonymousEgg8724 look like they are going to be over. Clever thing is if people have to authenticate, they will know instantly a lot more about their users, which is very helpful for targeting ads.
Per that article by Jonathan Haidt we all read a few days ago, I now believe authentication should be mandated on platforms over a certain volume, ie Twitter, Facebook etc.
That instantly makes those platforms inaccessible for people who wish to remain anonymous for good reason.
I guess one of the advantages to Ryanair’s business model is that their reputation is already toilet level. Complaints on social media won’t make any difference. I’m on the plane now and they’ve just pulled out of a take off run and told us they need the engineer again..
If you start walking now G-Maps says only 242 hours to Calais...
And on to the airport! It’s a really nice one, but because it’s depressingly empty. There are two departure boards; less than half of one is filled.
I grabbed a quick beer before moving into the departure lounge. I was entertained by the little girl (four years old, I heard her declare) in the background, who’s been dancing and singing, in excellent English - I think to a Disney song - to her mum on the right.
Quite odd that the airport is so empty. Travel is experiencing a boom, especially in the USA and Europe (ex Ukraine, Moldova, etc). Who knows if it will continue, but Yay for the Return of Holibobs!
In my opinion, travel will continue to boom despite everything. There is SO much pent-up demand, so many people are yearning to get out and explore. It's a primal human need that has been repressed for two long terrible years, so people will sacrifice a lot of other things (Netflix subs, dinners out) to get their weeks in the sun or just Be Somewhere Else
I believe it’s almost empty because they overbuilt the airport, hoping for masses of Ryanair etc flights that never came. I’ve been called for boarding, but thought I could grab another beer given the queue!
25 years ago, I skydived into Girona airport a few times. The Empuriabrava Skydiving Centre had an agreement with them to use the place when the winds were too high at Empuriabrava, because Girona was so quiet.
We were jumping when a Ryanair flight came in. I have wondered what people on board would have said when they were looking out of the windows at all of us under our canopies and gliding in to the grass.
Maybe something like, “I didn’t realise they charged extra for landing and chucked you out if you didn’t pay the surcharge”
I remembered I had a video of that holiday, but the quality back then was dreadful. Anyway, I've captured a few stills from it from the Girona airport bit, for what it's worth:
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans," he added.
The days of @AnonymousEgg8724 look like they are going to be over. Clever thing is if people have to authenticate, they will know instantly a lot more about their users, which is very helpful for targeting ads.
Per that article by Jonathan Haidt we all read a few days ago, I now believe authentication should be mandated on platforms over a certain volume, ie Twitter, Facebook etc.
That instantly makes those platforms inaccessible for people who wish to remain anonymous for good reason.
I am aware there are drawbacks.
But I’m afraid these platforms are corrupting our democracy.
You would still be able to post anonymously in public, but would need to satisfy Twitter that you are real.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
Yes. Also I think the sheer size of America has something to do with it. Eg one of my examples - she's leaving on the midnight train to Chester. Assuming you're in, say, London or Birmingham, this does not have a finality about it. You immediately think, well give it a day or two and I'll pop up there myself and see how she's doing. And if you're in Manchester even more so - you could be there in half an hour.
Yes. And Brits (English especially) do irony all the time in everything even when they aren't meaning to, which qualifies all attempts at high romance, heroic etc.
'Weeping weeping multitudes Droop in a hundred ABC's'
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
So I won’t get ads for earwax removers or super duper binoculars !
I guess one of the advantages to Ryanair’s business model is that their reputation is already toilet level. Complaints on social media won’t make any difference. I’m on the plane now and they’ve just pulled out of a take off run and told us they need the engineer again..
If you start walking now G-Maps says only 242 hours to Calais...
Heck, if he'd started from his hotel this morning, instead of fooling around with some he'd be half way there by now PROVIDED he limited his pit stops.
BUT can you imagine what might (or might NOT) happen, when BL showed up deeeeeeeply tanned claiming to be a British subject?
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
On songs depicting England, can I put in a bid for The Jam on London (1978). E.g:
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices Hating, waiting "Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?" And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry I'm on my way home to my wife She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork" I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick I could now smell their breath They smelt of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs And too many right wing meetings
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
The video to West End Girls is most definitely London! Shots of Waterloo station as it appeared in the '80s, Tower Bridge complete with a Leyland Titan bus, and a near traffic collision somewhere close to Piccadilly Circus!
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
But Russia already has troops there.
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
I expect Boris to face a VoNC after the May locals.
I also expect him to win it.
But will he be holed below the waterline.
I'm guessing but I'd say between 100 and 140 votes against and 210-250 in favour. Some abstentions perhaps.
Ooh. That's getting close to the worst possible result for the Conservative Party as a whole. Good enough for Johnson that he's entitled to carry on, but with about a third voting against him in the privacy of the polling booth. Though presumably not in public.
The 1995 leadership election was Major 218 - Redwood 89, and that didn't really solve anything.
Thatcher would have survived on this basis but I'm not sure a PM can carry with 100-140 MPs against him.
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
But Russia already has troops there.
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
Only 1500 or so Russian "Peacekeepers" at the moment.
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
I am not sure what point you are making. If your aforementioned Tory MP is right and MI6 are under the impression that Brexit was the will of Putin and not the British people shouldn't you be worried by that?
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
Yes. Also I think the sheer size of America has something to do with it. Eg one of my examples - she's leaving on the midnight train to Chester. Assuming you're in, say, London or Birmingham, this does not have a finality about it. You immediately think, well give it a day or two and I'll pop up there myself and see how she's doing. And if you're in Manchester even more so - you could be there in half an hour.
Yes, see also the paucity of British Road movies. There's no jeopardy at all - of course you'll get there. It's only a few hours away. To return to the Smiths though: 'London' - actually a song about Manchester at its nadir - is one of the finest road songs ever written. A short story in 14 lines. Nowadays it would be about the Ryanair from Gdansk. Anthrax covered it in the film 'Airheads'. A strange clash of Cookie' music tastes aged 14 and Cookie's music tastes aged 17.
Radio On is a good, albeit slightly disturbing British road movie. Very evocative of the late Seventies.
Thanks, and to @Gardenwalker too - will look it out.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
I'd say the PSB's song 'Kings Cross' is a better reflection of 1980's London. About arriving in London for the first time, to the 'atmospheric' Kings Cross as it was.
I knew the area in the early 1990s, and it's *massively* better now. But it has lost a certain something. Syringes, mostly.
Being Boring touches on some similar themes. Probably my favourite PSB song, and one of my favourite songs by anyone, a brilliantly crafted song that's somehow happy and sad at the same time, profound but also really light and ephemeral like a pop song should be. Also really life-affirming and a song to live by.
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
Being ineffective hasn't stopped the Russians from doing anything though.
And on to the airport! It’s a really nice one, but because it’s depressingly empty. There are two departure boards; less than half of one is filled.
I grabbed a quick beer before moving into the departure lounge. I was entertained by the little girl (four years old, I heard her declare) in the background, who’s been dancing and singing, in excellent English - I think to a Disney song - to her mum on the right.
Quite odd that the airport is so empty. Travel is experiencing a boom, especially in the USA and Europe (ex Ukraine, Moldova, etc). Who knows if it will continue, but Yay for the Return of Holibobs!
In my opinion, travel will continue to boom despite everything. There is SO much pent-up demand, so many people are yearning to get out and explore. It's a primal human need that has been repressed for two long terrible years, so people will sacrifice a lot of other things (Netflix subs, dinners out) to get their weeks in the sun or just Be Somewhere Else
I believe it’s almost empty because they overbuilt the airport, hoping for masses of Ryanair etc flights that never came. I’ve been called for boarding, but thought I could grab another beer given the queue!
25 years ago, I skydived into Girona airport a few times. The Empuriabrava Skydiving Centre had an agreement with them to use the place when the winds were too high at Empuriabrava, because Girona was so quiet.
We were jumping when a Ryanair flight came in. I have wondered what people on board would have said when they were looking out of the windows at all of us under our canopies and gliding in to the grass.
Maybe something like, “I didn’t realise they charged extra for landing and chucked you out if you didn’t pay the surcharge”
I remembered I had a video of that holiday, but the quality back then was dreadful. Anyway, I've captured a few stills from it from the Girona airport bit, for what it's worth:
Red Bull have got themselves into trouble this weekend with skydiving antics that ended with a plane crash. They asked the FAA for approval. The FAA said no. They went ahead and attempted the stunt...
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
But Russia already has troops there.
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
Sorry I wasn’t clear. That’s exactly what I meant.
This is (again assuming anything comes of it) about Ukraine, not Moldova.
First surprise was when out destination turned out to be 30 miles from where I thought I was going.
Second was when "boarding" consisted of a mad dash followed by a barroom brawl to "claim" our seats.
Of course, only paid 30 pounds or thereabouts for my one-way ticket from London (Stanstead) to Bologna (Forli) though guy in next seat told me I was being robbed (by Ryan Air not him fortunately).
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
So I won’t get ads for earwax removers or super duper binoculars !
Could he be looking to sell our data then.
If you aren't paying for it, you are the product.
I like Twitter, though a feed does need curating to get the best of it. If it becomes shite, like Facebook has, a new Social Media will pop up. It is a mobile audience and easy to move on.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
I'd say the PSB's song 'Kings Cross' is a better reflection of 1980's London. About arriving in London for the first time, to the 'atmospheric' Kings Cross as it was.
I knew the area in the early 1990s, and it's *massively* better now. But it has lost a certain something. Syringes, mostly.
I love that song.
It's a great one to stare out of train windows to whilst travelling.
I used to regularly travel from St Pancras to Derby. St Pancras was all faded grandeur: smoke-stained glass in the magnificent roof; HSTs in the trainshed; the hotel looking like an ancient silent-movie starlet. I loved it.
I was back there a couple of weeks ago with the little 'un. It's so saccharin now. It's better, but has lost all of its character.
I used to travel that route occasionally in the late 1980s - going into the ticket office (now a bar) just to see the stone carvings of trains. And all the more appreciated at the time after discovering Jack Simmons's classic book on the terminuys.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
And on to the airport! It’s a really nice one, but because it’s depressingly empty. There are two departure boards; less than half of one is filled.
I grabbed a quick beer before moving into the departure lounge. I was entertained by the little girl (four years old, I heard her declare) in the background, who’s been dancing and singing, in excellent English - I think to a Disney song - to her mum on the right.
Quite odd that the airport is so empty. Travel is experiencing a boom, especially in the USA and Europe (ex Ukraine, Moldova, etc). Who knows if it will continue, but Yay for the Return of Holibobs!
In my opinion, travel will continue to boom despite everything. There is SO much pent-up demand, so many people are yearning to get out and explore. It's a primal human need that has been repressed for two long terrible years, so people will sacrifice a lot of other things (Netflix subs, dinners out) to get their weeks in the sun or just Be Somewhere Else
I believe it’s almost empty because they overbuilt the airport, hoping for masses of Ryanair etc flights that never came. I’ve been called for boarding, but thought I could grab another beer given the queue!
25 years ago, I skydived into Girona airport a few times. The Empuriabrava Skydiving Centre had an agreement with them to use the place when the winds were too high at Empuriabrava, because Girona was so quiet.
We were jumping when a Ryanair flight came in. I have wondered what people on board would have said when they were looking out of the windows at all of us under our canopies and gliding in to the grass.
Maybe something like, “I didn’t realise they charged extra for landing and chucked you out if you didn’t pay the surcharge”
I remembered I had a video of that holiday, but the quality back then was dreadful. Anyway, I've captured a few stills from it from the Girona airport bit, for what it's worth:
Red Bull have got themselves into trouble this weekend with skydiving antics that ended with a plane crash. They asked the FAA for approval. The FAA said no. They went ahead and attempted the stunt...
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
So I won’t get ads for earwax removers or super duper binoculars !
Could he be looking to sell our data then.
If you aren't paying for it, you are the product.
I like Twitter, though a feed does need curating to get the best of it. If it becomes shite, like Facebook has, a new Social Media will pop up. It is a mobile audience and easy to move on.
Twitter needs to be private because its whole business model needs to be redesigned. That is extremely hard to do in the public markets when investors panic over quarterly numbers. Far better to be outside the scrutiny of investors.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
Yes. Also I think the sheer size of America has something to do with it. Eg one of my examples - she's leaving on the midnight train to Chester. Assuming you're in, say, London or Birmingham, this does not have a finality about it. You immediately think, well give it a day or two and I'll pop up there myself and see how she's doing. And if you're in Manchester even more so - you could be there in half an hour.
Yes. And Brits (English especially) do irony all the time in everything even when they aren't meaning to, which qualifies all attempts at high romance, heroic etc.
'Weeping weeping multitudes Droop in a hundred ABC's'
Yank not Brit.
Noted! "Here, the intersection of the timeless moment Is England and nowhere. Never and always".
Brits do irony all the time. Especially the English.
The Hut Group business model is one of the most frustrating experiences....the price is never the price, you need to suffer huge deluge of marketing ad emails in order to get the "discount" code to pay the proper price, and if you leave the mailing list you will never get access to them.
I really like Huel for not doing this, i am sure they could copy THG model to drive even more sales
I fully believe that one of the reasons that the west 'won' capitalism is that since the days of the Co-op, the price WAS the price. It built trust and made commerce so much more straightforward. Ditto, this is why car supermarkets have usurped the old 'haggle with the dealer and leave feeling cheated' model. Models where the price varies on a whim drive all but the battiest customers away.
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
But Russia already has troops there.
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
Only 1500 or so Russian "Peacekeepers" at the moment.
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
So I won’t get ads for earwax removers or super duper binoculars !
Could he be looking to sell our data then.
If you aren't paying for it, you are the product.
I like Twitter, though a feed does need curating to get the best of it. If it becomes shite, like Facebook has, a new Social Media will pop up. It is a mobile audience and easy to move on.
Yeah, if you’re not happy ask for a refund.
Twitter could go from strength to strength or be another MySpace or friends reunited.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
Thought it was but on just now reading the lyrics you're right - it isn't.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
Yes. Also I think the sheer size of America has something to do with it. Eg one of my examples - she's leaving on the midnight train to Chester. Assuming you're in, say, London or Birmingham, this does not have a finality about it. You immediately think, well give it a day or two and I'll pop up there myself and see how she's doing. And if you're in Manchester even more so - you could be there in half an hour.
Yes, see also the paucity of British Road movies. There's no jeopardy at all - of course you'll get there. It's only a few hours away. To return to the Smiths though: 'London' - actually a song about Manchester at its nadir - is one of the finest road songs ever written. A short story in 14 lines. Nowadays it would be about the Ryanair from Gdansk. Anthrax covered it in the film 'Airheads'. A strange clash of Cookie' music tastes aged 14 and Cookie's music tastes aged 17.
Radio On is a good, albeit slightly disturbing British road movie. Very evocative of the late Seventies.
Thanks, and to @Gardenwalker too - will look it out.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
I'd say the PSB's song 'Kings Cross' is a better reflection of 1980's London. About arriving in London for the first time, to the 'atmospheric' Kings Cross as it was.
I knew the area in the early 1990s, and it's *massively* better now. But it has lost a certain something. Syringes, mostly.
Being Boring touches on some similar themes. Probably my favourite PSB song, and one of my favourite songs by anyone, a brilliantly crafted song that's somehow happy and sad at the same time, profound but also really light and ephemeral like a pop song should be. Also really life-affirming and a song to live by.
Eighth Wonder (fronted by Patsy Kensit) had a hit with "I'm not Scared". It was penned by the PSB and this is their version:
The real reason for the Rwanda plan? Looks like the Navy and MoD refused to carry out pushbacks in the English channel, leaving the PM and Home Sec to look for other options.
The Hut Group business model is one of the most frustrating experiences....the price is never the price, you need to suffer huge deluge of marketing ad emails in order to get the "discount" code to pay the proper price, and if you leave the mailing list you will never get access to them.
I really like Huel for not doing this, i am sure they could copy THG model to drive even more sales
I fully believe that one of the reasons that the west 'won' capitalism is that since the days of the Co-op, the price WAS the price. It built trust and made commerce so much more straightforward. Ditto, this is why car supermarkets have usurped the old 'haggle with the dealer and leave feeling cheated' model. Models where the price varies on a whim drive all but the battiest customers away.
Drives me f##king nuts. THG products are fine e.g. MyProtein, are perfectly fine (not the best of the best, but decent enough at the "discount" price). The problem is you buy a few protein bars and my sodding inbox gets jammed up with 35% off this, 50% off that, 70% off etc etc etc.
Huel has the opposite approach. Very simple pricing, a discount if you do subscription, and in my experience they never bother you trying to constantly upsell you with special offers etc. You buy the stuff, it arrives next day, and that's it.
IF there was an operational PB BOTTLE BUS then we (or rather it) would be available (theoretically) to collect BlancheLivemore whenever he gets to where ever he's flying into, and transport him in comfort and style as befits a PBer to his own humble abode and welcome bed.
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
I am not sure what point you are making. If your aforementioned Tory MP is right and MI6 are under the impression that Brexit was the will of Putin and not the British people shouldn't you be worried by that?
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
It would not matter to the Brexiteers if Putin's henchmen were caught stuffing ballot boxes on the Referendum night. The Holy Brexit has now happened and it must last forever.
For the Brexiteers, it appears that the end DOES justify the means
I expect Boris to face a VoNC after the May locals.
I also expect him to win it.
But will he be holed below the waterline.
I'm guessing but I'd say between 100 and 140 votes against and 210-250 in favour. Some abstentions perhaps.
Ooh. That's getting close to the worst possible result for the Conservative Party as a whole. Good enough for Johnson that he's entitled to carry on, but with about a third voting against him in the privacy of the polling booth. Though presumably not in public.
The 1995 leadership election was Major 218 - Redwood 89, and that didn't really solve anything.
Thatcher would have survived on this basis but I'm not sure a PM can carry with 100-140 MPs against him.
Yup. The other comparison is TMay in December 2018. 200-117 was a win, but not a useful one. On the other hand, if BoJo wins under the rules and wants to stay, I don't think there is anything the malcontents can do.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Plus making defense coordination with Poland, Baltics AND Finland within NATO stronger & more effective.
Just had an email from someone called Evri to deliver a parcel to us and are calling themselves the new Hermes
I assume this is legitimate but has anyone come across this company yet ?
The company is legit, but were you definitely expecting a parcel to be delivered by them? Double check the email address etc. It is well know very popular scam at the moment where you get a text / email from the likes of Hermes.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
No. It can also be found in our big cities. See below
“Krakatoa, East of Penge”, as Monty Python once joked. I accept your qualifier about the gritty romance of certain “dirty old towns”, but Britain excels in a geographical bathos which is entirely alien to US culture.
One of my earliest geographical discoveries, was looking at a map and realizing that Krakatoa is WEST of Java.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Plus making defense coordination with Poland, Baltics AND Finland within NATO stronger & more effective.
It would pretty well end any chance of Russia causing trouble in that part of the world.
Do we have any Alabama experts on the board today?
I have one day here in the far north west bit. Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals. By the mighty Tennessee River
I was gonna hike the river or some canyons.... but it's decided to rain. Heavily (the first day of bad weather after a week of pure sun - which returns tomorrow, huzzah)
Things To Do In Alabama When It Rains. Are there any? I thought of driving to Alabama's Most Depressing Town, say Selma, or Bessemer, to indulge in a day of Full on Feasting on American Declinism, but are they that bad? I want BAD. I want Mississippi BAD. Detroit BAD. Shuttered streets, empty factories, fentanyl addicts, desolate malls, maybe a rich Woke student shouting at poor white people about their privilege - in the rain.
Where can I get that?
Quick YouTube (there are channels dedicated to driving the "hood" of these kind of places), Bessemer looks pretty bad. Worst of those kind of places I have been, Gary, Indiana.
Gary, Indiana at one point was the murder capital of the US. You are right, FU, it is a horrible little town on the Southwest corner of Lake Michigan. So depressing. Stopped once on the way from Chicago to Warsaw, Indiana and my hosts were amazed I'd gotten out alive!!!
I know Indiana quite well from the David Soul song Silver Lady. The wind and rain cuts through you, there, and leaves you chilled to the bone. Bleak, as you say. Best to play the song rather than visit. This applies to quite a few places in America, come to think of it. Galverston is another good example. Just play the song and leave it at that.
Sorry, K, but you do not know shit about Indiana, which is a VERY diverse state plenty of great places & people from Lake Michigan dunes to the banks of the Ohio River. Or Galveston for that matter.
Ignorance does NOT become you.
Yes, I'm sure. Only kidding. Or only not kidding in the sense there often IS a mismatch between how a song makes a place sound and the more prosiac reality of that place - and since songs usually talk about American places it's American places that are romanticized (in this way) the most. Pity but that's how it is.
By the time I got to Romford. I wish they all could be Liverpudlian girls. It took me 4 days to hitchhike from Doncaster And now he's leaving ... on the midnight train to Chester.
We lack the cultural confidence to write this sort of stuff.
It’s not cultural confidence, per se.
England is an essentially suburban nation. It’s place-names mostly evoke a kind of pooterish quality, or at best a sense of pastoral tranquility.
America has the high romance of “the West”, frontier-land. Discovery. Danger. Danmnation.
In Britain such qualities can perhaps only be found, vanishingly, in the Celtic nations.
No. It can also be found in our big cities. See below
“Krakatoa, East of Penge”, as Monty Python once joked. I accept your qualifier about the gritty romance of certain “dirty old towns”, but Britain excels in a geographical bathos which is entirely alien to US culture.
One of my earliest geographical discoveries, was looking at a map and realizing that Krakatoa is WEST of Java.
Depends which way you travel…
Ah yes, the scenic route . . . though West Bromwich (East or West) . . .
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Fine, then why try to join NATO ?
They can’t feel that effective if they suddenly crap themselves and abandon their cherished neutrality and principles when the going gets a little tough.
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
So I won’t get ads for earwax removers or super duper binoculars !
Could he be looking to sell our data then.
If you aren't paying for it, you are the product.
I like Twitter, though a feed does need curating to get the best of it. If it becomes shite, like Facebook has, a new Social Media will pop up. It is a mobile audience and easy to move on.
The stupid business news (or at least rumour since I only saw it flash up as an update, and not looked into it) would be Netflix considering adding ads. I'd considered their lack the primary benefit of the service.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Fine, then why try to join NATO ?
They can’t feel that effective if they suddenly crap themselves and abandon their cherished neutrality and principles when the going gets a little tough.
For same reason Hungary and Poland are glad they joined, even though THEY are run by Putinists.
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Fine, then why try to join NATO ?
They can’t feel that effective if they suddenly crap themselves and abandon their cherished neutrality and principles when the going gets a little tough.
Because it is a win/win. We gain from their military and expertise, they gain from not being alone.
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
I am not sure what point you are making. If your aforementioned Tory MP is right and MI6 are under the impression that Brexit was the will of Putin and not the British people shouldn't you be worried by that?
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
It would not matter to the Brexiteers if Putin's henchmen were caught stuffing ballot boxes on the Referendum night. The Holy Brexit has now happened and it must last forever.
For the Brexiteers, it appears that the end DOES justify the means
No, that's nonsense. Anyone who votes a certain way believes they reached their opinion independently. If your side wins the election, generalising from yourself, it is natural to think the impact of advertising on people who voted the same way as you was minimal. If the other side wins - how can people think such a thing? - they must have been misled - they can't possibly have chosen to vote that way independently. But actually manipulating the result somehow (which is pretty hard to do, but let that pass) is a different matter. Winners of elections think their cause right because the arguments convinced more people - but that doesn't hold if it turns out that wasn't actually the case. To be clear, I've been a Brexiteer since long before it was unfashionable. I think Brexit was right whether Putin wanted it or not. I'm pleased the country voted for it and pleased it was implemented and more confident about the future than I would be were we still in the EU. I don't think we got it wrong. But if it turned out that in reality more people voted Remain but that Remain votes had somehow been 'stolen' by Putin then I don't think Leave would continue to be a tenable position. The democratic decision is the right one. I condemn the lies and dubious practices which go along with it and went along with the referendum. Probably due in large part to my own preferences and due to living in Remainia, I saw much more of this on the Remain side than the Leave side.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
On songs depicting England, can I put in a bid for The Jam on London (1978). E.g:
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices Hating, waiting "Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?" And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry I'm on my way home to my wife She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork" I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick I could now smell their breath They smelt of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs And too many right wing meetings
The North East doesn't get many references, but Bryan Ferry managed to snuck in Newcastle and Washington, Co. Durham, in "You Can Dance" (La Dolce Vita was a well-known Geordie nightclub back in the day):
From Brady Square up to Jesmond Dene And in La Dolce Vita I'll find my beauty queen In England there's a moment One nation in a groove All the music and emotion Will make you wanna move
So Sweden doesn’t want to know for many years about NATO yet now the Russians are invading Ukraine it suddenly wants our protective umbrella just because it suddenly feels vulnerable.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Sweden’s military is quite effective and, over the years, they’ve become a bit expert at dealing with Russian incursions.
Fine, then why try to join NATO ?
They can’t feel that effective if they suddenly crap themselves and abandon their cherished neutrality and principles when the going gets a little tough.
For same reason Hungary and Poland are glad they joined, even though THEY are run by Putinists.
Not really given they joined when their was no conflict raging with Russia and other European nations at the time.
Putin's finest at work creating "reason" for their puppet government to request (more) Russian troops & etc.
Where is he going to get these troops from?
Press gang more unfortunate minorities into conscription, sadly.
Very ineffective.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
But Russia already has troops there.
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
Sorry I wasn’t clear. That’s exactly what I meant.
This is (again assuming anything comes of it) about Ukraine, not Moldova.
An interesting things (well interesting to me) is that for the most part the 'Russian' troops in Transnistria are actually locals. The population of the province is about equal parts Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan, the Russian government has been keen to hand out passports to any Russian there who want one, which means that the young men are eligible for there conscription time. the Russians have realised that its cheaper to keep the conscripts from the area in area, theatre than send Russians form Russia, so does that. it send a few to command and specialist, but for the most part its men form the area.
Predictions (mine): Trump to be reinstated Character limit to be increased to 420 General standard of public discourse to worsen markedly. Hopefully it* will just die.
*edit for ambiguity: Twitter, not public discourse
He will add an edit button He will look to generate far more money from it. He’s paying $202 per active user.
$202 per active user is insane.
No doubt there is method to his madness.
He must be looking to monetise it far more than it is already. Surely.
Though he has said he will make it ad free.
Could be megalomania. I view him as a sort of high tech, cutting edge Robert Maxwell. That's not to allege he's a crook, I'm just talking about the aura he emits to me. Very smart, very driven, very egotistical.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. One of the very best London songs - up there with Waterloo Sunset and London Calling. Also Rainy Night in Soho and Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. London gets some terrific tunes.
Rainy Night in Soho is the best London song IMHO. I don't really think of West End Girls as a London song, though, I think it's more universal than that ("in every city in every nation...").
On songs depicting England, can I put in a bid for The Jam on London (1978). E.g:
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices Hating, waiting "Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?" And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry I'm on my way home to my wife She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork" I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick I could now smell their breath They smelt of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs And too many right wing meetings
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
I am not sure what point you are making. If your aforementioned Tory MP is right and MI6 are under the impression that Brexit was the will of Putin and not the British people shouldn't you be worried by that?
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
It would not matter to the Brexiteers if Putin's henchmen were caught stuffing ballot boxes on the Referendum night. The Holy Brexit has now happened and it must last forever.
For the Brexiteers, it appears that the end DOES justify the means
No, that's nonsense. Anyone who votes a certain way believes they reached their opinion independently. If your side wins the election, generalising from yourself, it is natural to think the impact of advertising on people who voted the same way as you was minimal. If the other side wins - how can people think such a thing? - they must have been misled - they can't possibly have chosen to vote that way independently. But actually manipulating the result somehow (which is pretty hard to do, but let that pass) is a different matter. Winners of elections think their cause right because the arguments convinced more people - but that doesn't hold if it turns out that wasn't actually the case. To be clear, I've been a Brexiteer since long before it was unfashionable. I think Brexit was right whether Putin wanted it or not. I'm pleased the country voted for it and pleased it was implemented and more confident about the future than I would be were we still in the EU. I don't think we got it wrong. But if it turned out that in reality more people voted Remain but that Remain votes had somehow been 'stolen' by Putin then I don't think Leave would continue to be a tenable position. The democratic decision is the right one. I condemn the lies and dubious practices which go along with it and went along with the referendum. Probably due in large part to my own preferences and due to living in Remainia, I saw much more of this on the Remain side than the Leave side.
Brexit is here to stay, success or failure.
Nonetheless you are completely ignoring the point that MI6 say Putin impacted the result. So Beverly is correct the end does justify the means, to you at least.
Am I trolling here? Perhaps just a little bit, so I apologise. But these crazy cats are trying to take this to court. I’m not sure whether I admire them or think they’re batshit crazy…
I know it probably won’t happen, but what if it did, what if they could get a court to declare that the referendum wasn’t a free and fair election cos of Russian interference? God that would unleash a shitstorm.
I mean, I’m as Remainy as they come but Jesus, I’m not sure I’d want to go through something like that…
If the vote had been compromised by Russia, the only fair course of action would be to rerun the EU Referendum, we are not a Russian autocracy, we are a democracy after all.
Anyway, on topic, if Johnson is deposed, what happens to the wallpaper?
We are a parliamentary democracy not a direct democracy, as the 2016 to 2019 period proved it was only getting a Tory majority in December 2019 that delivered Brexit through Parliament into law in 2020.
The referendum result itself changed nothing legally
You say that now...evidence item 1 m'lud, the prorogation of Parliament.
All the Brexiteers were crying foul. "The sovereign 2017 Parliament is undemocratic because it will not enact the will of the people, who voted (in a non- binding referendum) to leave the EU".
Now I am not blaming you HY, you are, like myself a good honest yeoman serf who voted Remain.
Yes but the prorogation of Parliament made sod all difference. Parliament still refused to vote for Brexit and the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional anyway.
Only the Tory majority in December 2019 delivered Brexit as I said
I have been somewhat (OK very) flippant, and technically you are right about Johnson's 2019 manifesto and subsequent Parliamentary landslide being sovereign. It is a tricky conundrum nonetheless if Putin directly and substantively changed the course of British history by chicanery against the real express will of the people.
Lawmaking power in the UK only comes from the will of the people in general elections not referendums in reality.
We have had far too many referendums in recent years, personally I would gladly never see another referendum held in the UK again. Just let the elected House of Commons have the final say on UK law
Yes but, if the HoC has had it's final say on faulty evidence furnished by an enemy power are you not uncomfortable with that?
I am very disturbed that armed with such incendiary information Mrs May chose to hide the facts.
You are hanging on a a shoogly peg
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
I am not sure what point you are making. If your aforementioned Tory MP is right and MI6 are under the impression that Brexit was the will of Putin and not the British people shouldn't you be worried by that?
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
I’m saying that the article you linked to contains zero evidence just hearsay.
Comments
A Tory MP told him that MI6 had concluded that and informed Mrs May…
What I was suggesting was that were the Brexit vote dragged over the line not by Johnson but by Putin, the whole pretext of "getting Brexit done" because it was the will of the people was no longer true.
I wasn't for one moment saying that the old Soviet Putin had a bearing on the 2019 election, more likely, it was the old Soviet Corbyn that made the difference.
https://twitter.com/samramani2/status/1518677525681033224
He probably will lose interest.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/
https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1518595106730881024
Anyway, I've captured a few stills from it from the Girona airport bit, for what it's worth:
But I’m afraid these platforms are corrupting our democracy.
You would still be able to post anonymously in public, but would need to satisfy Twitter that you are real.
If this really is a false flag, I presume it’s to allow Putin to open up another front on Ukraine. Russia stations (some) troops in the Transdniester which are currently sitting there doing nothing.
It’s contribution to NATO and the costs are going to be what ?
Could he be looking to sell our data then.
BUT can you imagine what might (or might NOT) happen, when BL showed up deeeeeeeply tanned claiming to be a British subject?
Free trip to sunny Rwanda!
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices
Hating, waiting
"Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?"
And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry
I'm on my way home to my wife
She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick
I could now smell their breath
They smelt of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs
And too many right wing meetings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3j2NYZ8FKs
I think it is just a way to tie up Ukranians on that border.
Substitute something that wasn't super, smashing, great and in Britain's best interests like Brexit, maybe for some other military, foreign or home intervention that could have compromised our standing in the world, should we be comfortable with that?
Putin's malign will in this instance is probably beyond salvation now. Less so when Mrs May got to hear about it.
That’s exactly what I meant.
This is (again assuming anything comes of it) about Ukraine, not Moldova.
First surprise was when out destination turned out to be 30 miles from where I thought I was going.
Second was when "boarding" consisted of a mad dash followed by a barroom brawl to "claim" our seats.
Of course, only paid 30 pounds or thereabouts for my one-way ticket from London (Stanstead) to Bologna (Forli) though guy in next seat told me I was being robbed (by Ryan Air not him fortunately).
I like Twitter, though a feed does need curating to get the best of it. If it becomes shite, like Facebook has, a new Social Media will pop up. It is a mobile audience and easy to move on.
https://www.flyingmag.com/faa-pulls-pilot-certificate-of-youtuber-for-intentional-airplane-crash/
Is England and nowhere. Never and always".
Brits do irony all the time. Especially the English.
Models where the price varies on a whim drive all but the battiest customers away.
Twitter could go from strength to strength or be another MySpace or friends reunited.
With Musk at the helm it won’t be dull.
This is Kermodes review:
https://youtu.be/d3M7dPb6-dc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ZjdZDQqpw
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/priti-patel-channel-migrant-boats-send-back-france-plan-legal-challenge-1593148
Huel has the opposite approach. Very simple pricing, a discount if you do subscription, and in my experience they never bother you trying to constantly upsell you with special offers etc. You buy the stuff, it arrives next day, and that's it.
Just sayin'.
For the Brexiteers, it appears that the end DOES justify the means
I seem to remember him telling us that there was approx. zero chance of Sweden giving up her treasured neutrality.
They can’t feel that effective if they suddenly crap themselves and abandon their cherished neutrality and principles when the going gets a little tough.
What would German support be worth given their current stance on the Ukraine conflict ?
Anyone who votes a certain way believes they reached their opinion independently. If your side wins the election, generalising from yourself, it is natural to think the impact of advertising on people who voted the same way as you was minimal. If the other side wins - how can people think such a thing? - they must have been misled - they can't possibly have chosen to vote that way independently.
But actually manipulating the result somehow (which is pretty hard to do, but let that pass) is a different matter. Winners of elections think their cause right because the arguments convinced more people - but that doesn't hold if it turns out that wasn't actually the case.
To be clear, I've been a Brexiteer since long before it was unfashionable. I think Brexit was right whether Putin wanted it or not. I'm pleased the country voted for it and pleased it was implemented and more confident about the future than I would be were we still in the EU. I don't think we got it wrong. But if it turned out that in reality more people voted Remain but that Remain votes had somehow been 'stolen' by Putin then I don't think Leave would continue to be a tenable position.
The democratic decision is the right one. I condemn the lies and dubious practices which go along with it and went along with the referendum. Probably due in large part to my own preferences and due to living in Remainia, I saw much more of this on the Remain side than the Leave side.
From Brady Square up to Jesmond Dene
And in La Dolce Vita I'll find my beauty queen
In England there's a moment
One nation in a groove
All the music and emotion
Will make you wanna move
Quite a cool vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfE85HfYzHs
New thread
Yep
There it is
Nonetheless you are completely ignoring the point that MI6 say Putin impacted the result. So Beverly is correct the end does justify the means, to you at least.