Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I saw a Change UK garden placard in the 2019 Euros. I am almost unique I suspect. Edit - Heidi Allens posts on Twitter amuse me. She tweets like has always been an enthusiastic Lib Dem and that we should probably ignore that whole Change fandango ever happened. Now let's all be quiet lest we summon Chukka from the abyss
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahah, that's quite OK, just me being puerile.
Given my penchant for puerility I'm utterly ashamed
Totally O/t but have spent much of the day watching our in-house SpringWatch. Four chicks hatched today and we’ve four eggs to go. One egg at least was laid a couple of days after the rest.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
All those Indie gains in 2019 locals, all Change had to do was offer independents the chance to 'associate' with the Independant Group for Change if they wished and given many might well have done given that initial burst they'd have had a movement going. Instead they went for that one who made odd remarks about skin tone, Nandos and letting Swinson get, and blow, the mojo. Hapless.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
It probably doesn't mean much - switching parties seems quite derriere these days.
Though Butt may find he has little in common with the gender-warriors of the SNP mainstream. One can only wonder how long it will be before we begin to see cracks.
My wife was just complaining to me again about the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables in New York.
I know why the UK has pretty good produce - it imports 70% of fruit and veg from Europe - but the US has the full North American bounty at its disposal.
Mystifying.
The US has a very powerful 'Farm lobby' and therefor big tariffs on food imports, making it impractical to import a lot of foods. This makes the farmers a tiny bit better off and reduces the quality and chose to the rest of the population.
But aren’t imports from Mexico tarriff-free? With Mexico, California, and Florida, you would think there would be good stuff.
America does very decent potatoes. A bag of idaho potatoes from Costco is a treat. Much more expensive than the UK though.
Sometimes american food is almost mystifyingly expensive - $4 for a sliced loaf, $3 for a 50p packet of biscuits, for example.
Big agri pumps out commoditised crap at high volume, and is protected behind steep tariffs.
The average farm size in the US is 444 acres, compared with 69 in France.
Add that to an undiscerning market…
And prioritising produce that survives transportation, long shelf life, and uniform appearance. We have the same problem here, if you don't have access to good local producers, and the ability to pay high prices.
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Vaguely tangentially, I found a copy of Lanark in a tiny bookshop in a reasonably remote place up-state.
When I posted that, my post was the only one there for some time. And then three others appeared, placed before mine. If this were a race, with betting opportunities, we would need an enquiry. As it is, it doesn't matter in the slightest, except that it provides an excuse for our PB Tories to make snarky comments about the Lib Dems.
In passing, I gather that Ben Bradshaw (Labour MP for neighbouring Exeter) has said that he expects the Lib Dems to win Tiverton & Honiton.
It matters so little you posted a whole paragraph setting the record straight… 😂😂
😁😁 Wrong again, Mr Waters. The reason we do it is because OGH encouraged us to do so, many moons ago. It was to test the working of the system. It seems to me that the system is not working entirely as it should.
Now two posts correcting me about something which “doesn’t matter in the slightest”…
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Definitely, a v.good insight into life in a Highland regiment immediately after the war as well as excellent entertainment. My dad loved them and no bigger fan of the Flashman books could you find.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
My wife was just complaining to me again about the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables in New York.
I know why the UK has pretty good produce - it imports 70% of fruit and veg from Europe - but the US has the full North American bounty at its disposal.
Mystifying.
The US has a very powerful 'Farm lobby' and therefor big tariffs on food imports, making it impractical to import a lot of foods. This makes the farmers a tiny bit better off and reduces the quality and chose to the rest of the population.
But aren’t imports from Mexico tarriff-free? With Mexico, California, and Florida, you would think there would be good stuff.
America does very decent potatoes. A bag of idaho potatoes from Costco is a treat. Much more expensive than the UK though.
Sometimes american food is almost mystifyingly expensive - $4 for a sliced loaf, $3 for a 50p packet of biscuits, for example.
Big agri pumps out commoditised crap at high volume, and is protected behind steep tariffs.
The average farm size in the US is 444 acres, compared with 69 in France.
Add that to an undiscerning market…
When I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago I tried to cobble together a decent picnic from a supermarket, that I could eat in my hotel room.
Nothing fancy: some nice cheese, pukka salami and ham, decent bread, good tomatoes, spring onions, fruit, bottle of red
Something you could do in almost any British supermarket above the level of an Aldi for about £15-£20
I tracked down a big local Louisiana supermarket which seemed to be halfway between a M&S and Wholefoods.
Everything was decidedly average, the salami was rubbish, the bread barely edible AND it cost me $50. Over £40
Might as well have had oysters in the French Quarter. Again
Britain is very well served by its supermarkets and America is downright strange when it comes to food. Restaurant food in Louisiana is very often excellent so I just don’t get it
My Aldi / Somerfield would have no problem with that , and Morrisons / mini-Coop would eat it for lunch.
I've just put some quite pleasant Aldi ostrich-steaks into the freezer.
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Very pleasantly readable, if perhaps now smacking of a more distant era than thjey seemed when I read them in the 1980s (I think) - but of course nane the waur. Definitely worth a go. I don't think that as a lead-swinger, McAuslan had quite the hidden depths of Svejk - but the effect on his officers and NCOs seems to have been very similar. The Otto Prohaska novels also of course give a (modern) prespective of the A-H empire but alas I have now read them all ...
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Vaguely tangentially, I found a copy of Lanark in a tiny bookshop in a reasonably remote place up-state.
You can find some very incongruous items in small, remote bookshops.
Never liked ‘Lanark’ the book; the wee burgh by the Clyde is fantastic. I did get into some other Alasdair Gray novels (Poor Things vg), but I love his graphic artwork. I’ve been very privileged to see some stunning works in private hands.
One of the most interesting aspects of WWI I've been learning about is how close the Russians came to winning their war, both in Europe, and Middle East. They really might have taken Vienna and Constantinople.
Are there any books you'd recommend on that?
Not yet. It's really just general history I'm reading at the moment.
As a very tangential comment I've been thinking of late that the food discussions on PB are sometimes reminiscent of Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk - the Austro-Hungarian (Czech, more specifically) soldiers trundling across the plains of Eastern Europe in their troop-train boxcars en route to the Eastern Front and arguing about how to cook pork crackling while the world goes to pot around them (not that they can do anything about it).
Apparently there is a tendency to have Svejk - themed restaurants all over the place these days, complete with graphics lifted from the original drawings for the books. No idea what that is about.
This has made me wonder if there is a decent film ...
I’m convinced there must be a strong connection between The Good Soldier Švejk and Sweden’s iconic comic soldier character 91:an Karlsson (and the Norwegian spinoff 91 Stomperud). And indeed with the American novel Catch-22 and other works.
The Good Soldier Švejk dates from the early 1920s:
GMF's McAuslan owes a bit to Svejk I think. I guess it's one of those archetypes but Svejk gets pretty much to the nub of it.
George MacDonald Fraser is one of my favourite Scottish writers. I’d much rather tackle his opus than Scott’s for example. But I’ve never read the McAuslan books. A good time investment?
Vaguely tangentially, I found a copy of Lanark in a tiny bookshop in a reasonably remote place up-state.
You can find some very incongruous items in small, remote bookshops.
Never liked ‘Lanark’ the book; the wee burgh by the Clyde is fantastic. I did get into some other Alasdair Gray novels (Poor Things vg), but I love his graphic artwork. I’ve been very privileged to see some stunning works in private hands.
Me neither re AG. Just one of those taste things.
Quite surprised to visit an English friend in his Camden townhouse and find John Byrne prints/paintings all the way down the staircase ...
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the strange things about Change UK was their name. In the face of a Conservative Party trying, following the referendum, to enact the most significant constitutional changes of the last 40 years, and a Labour Party trying to fairly fundamentally restructure British society, what characterised Change UK was an ardent desire for things not to change that much at all.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the strange things about Change UK was their name. In the face of a Conservative Party trying, following the referendum, to enact the most significant constitutional changes of the last 40 years, and a Labour Party trying to fairly fundamentally restructure British society, what characterised Change UK was an ardent desire for things not to change that much at all.
Well, it's not as if the 'Conservative' or 'Labour' meant much either ...
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
And a username with inspiration from another Scottish novelist turns up 😉
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
And a username with inspiration from another Scottish novelist turns up 😉
Quite. I'm (again) on the planet Golter at the moment ...
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
I hadn't the heart. I listened and sympathised, then changed the topic of conversation to brighter things. A cop-out, I know, but there's little point or pleasure to be gained from saying "I told you so" to someone who has enough problems already.
A glorious afternoon - I believe there's some football match in NW London. I remember when the racing would have to start early - three races from Newbury finish by 1.30 so we can get into the "build up" from Wembley. Is it me or has that kind of event faded from the public consciousness (until the inevitable disappointment of the World Cup Semi Final defat to (fill in the blank))?
The Cup Final, the Derby, the Beckton Alp Ascent, iconic national events now barely registering on the national psyche?
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
My wife was just complaining to me again about the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables in New York.
I know why the UK has pretty good produce - it imports 70% of fruit and veg from Europe - but the US has the full North American bounty at its disposal.
Mystifying.
The US has a very powerful 'Farm lobby' and therefor big tariffs on food imports, making it impractical to import a lot of foods. This makes the farmers a tiny bit better off and reduces the quality and chose to the rest of the population.
But aren’t imports from Mexico tarriff-free? With Mexico, California, and Florida, you would think there would be good stuff.
America does very decent potatoes. A bag of idaho potatoes from Costco is a treat. Much more expensive than the UK though.
Sometimes american food is almost mystifyingly expensive - $4 for a sliced loaf, $3 for a 50p packet of biscuits, for example.
Big agri pumps out commoditised crap at high volume, and is protected behind steep tariffs.
The average farm size in the US is 444 acres, compared with 69 in France.
Add that to an undiscerning market…
And prioritising produce that survives transportation, long shelf life, and uniform appearance. We have the same problem here, if you don't have access to good local producers, and the ability to pay high prices.
Where's here for you?
Ah - UK supermarkets.
I am comparing with the comparatively good supermarkets I had when I lived in the US, which were also terrible in the ways you describe (beautiful but flavour free meat, veg, cheese, and terrible bread)
The one thing that has changed is you can now get good bread in the us if you seek it out. I was in Austin, TX for a couple of weeks before lockdown 1, and there was a great French bakery on the corner by my Air Bnb.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
I hadn't the heart. I listened and sympathised, then changed the topic of conversation to brighter things. A cop-out, I know, but there's little point or pleasure to be gained from saying "I told you so" to someone who has enough problems already.
Unfortunately the power sharing arrangement might now be a problem for Northern Ireland. If the Unionists are top dog they get the benefit of having the first minister. Sinn Fein know that the alternative to power sharing is direct rule from Westminster which I think we can all agree they don't want. But what of the DUP? Is direct rule from Westminster such a bad thing if the alternative is a Sinn Fein led Assembly?
I'm not underplaying the specific issue of the border/protocol but the power sharing arrangement has collapsed before. Might it be the case that the DUP's reasons for not wanting to sit in Stormont may go beyond the protocol?
I do wonder if we need a fundamental re-think of Northern Ireland politics. Admittedly an increasing number of the people there no longer identify as Nationalist or Unionist. But the indefinite financial subsidy coming from Great Britain doesn't exactly create a sense of urgency to reform.
Given that Unionists and Nationalists are both well short of a majority, the answer must be to end compulsory power sharing. If the DUP wish to go into opposition, then they can do so.
Surely power sharing was not meant to be a permanent solution? It doesn't seem to be helping much anymore.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the strange things about Change UK was their name. In the face of a Conservative Party trying, following the referendum, to enact the most significant constitutional changes of the last 40 years, and a Labour Party trying to fairly fundamentally restructure British society, what characterised Change UK was an ardent desire for things not to change that much at all.
Yes. I doubt it would have helped their prospects, I just don't think the space was there for them, but perhaps going for something truly bland like the Centre Party or Moderate Party, as per some European examples, might have been more appropriate.
Edit:
I respected them for giving it a go though. Politics was a mess, and some MPs at least at least tried something rather than bow before the altar of party loyalty like most. There was a point where the party asked too much.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
Mm, interesting.
But there is certainly an issue with overall numbers, whether short term covid, job change, or overall reduction.
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the strange things about Change UK was their name. In the face of a Conservative Party trying, following the referendum, to enact the most significant constitutional changes of the last 40 years, and a Labour Party trying to fairly fundamentally restructure British society, what characterised Change UK was an ardent desire for things not to change that much at all.
Well, it's not as if the 'Conservative' or 'Labour' meant much either ...
Point out that those wearing the labels have espoused wildly, even diametrically, opposed positions as times have changes, and you just get some mumbling about broad tents.
A glorious afternoon - I believe there's some football match in NW London. I remember when the racing would have to start early - three races from Newbury finish by 1.30 so we can get into the "build up" from Wembley. Is it me or has that kind of event faded from the public consciousness (until the inevitable disappointment of the World Cup Semi Final defat to (fill in the blank))?
The Cup Final, the Derby, the Beckton Alp Ascent, iconic national events now barely registering on the national psyche?
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
If you're interested in what it is like to fight as a junior officer in the Russian infantry, I highly recommend this video made from the videos on a captured Russian's cell phone. Compelling, depressing, sad.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Can be a lot of job satisfaction in care work, but on the other hand conditions can be atrocious. Sometimes happens that staff to have to drive between appointments at either breakneck speed, or not get paid travelling time. Or both.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
She's not incontinent, but she has mobility issues and needs help with showering, etc. But, yes, you make a good point.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
We had it. Boris said he had a solution. He lied; he didn’t.
Forced to deliver, he put up taxes on working people. It is subsequently clear that the money will in fact go to the NHS instead and we’ll leave social care as a shit-show.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
Mm, interesting.
But there is certainly an issue with overall numbers, whether short term covid, job change, or overall reduction.
There were some interesting efforts to quantify the so-called “brexodus” but covid rather derailed that. Those with settled status who left during covid (or who flew in for one day to claim pre-settled status) have two years to begin or resume work here… Only once that period passes will we see how things shake out.
Are we going to rely on a workforce of low-paid immigrants for care or pay up for our own? It is a quality matter (taking the best from abroad?), a simple financial matter (keep wages down), or a moral matter (pro- or anti-?)
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
Impressively incontinent pun!
I did wonder whilst writing that comment if we should still use that phrase.
On balance, the government has simply decided to import carers from the Philippines instead of Spain, and sacrificed single market membership with the bargain.
According to an Italian fruit merchant I once met, the city with the very best fresh produce is Paris.
Is effectively centre of the entire European food market and gets first dibs on best produce due to size of population / most discerning customers.
Similar story with seafood in Spain: apparently all the freshly landed catch is trucked straight from Galicia, Asturias and the Med ports in the early hours to Madrid where the main wholesale markets are, then shipped back out to the rest of the country. So the freshest fish is in Madrid.
Not so in SE Spain where I live. The local fisherman and restauranteurs share out the catch every mlorning and the latter have it for sale in the afternoon and evenings. At the best places if something especially good has been landed they'll offer it as extras to the regular menu. You can get a top class meal here for around €35 a head including a decent ribera to wash it down.
If you're interested in what it is like to fight as a junior officer in the Russian infantry, I highly recommend this video made from the videos on a captured Russian's cell phone. Compelling, depressing, sad.
Totally O/t but have spent much of the day watching our in-house SpringWatch. Four chicks hatched today and we’ve four eggs to go. One egg at least was laid a couple of days after the rest.
A friend of mine in Kent has just hatched a couple of ducklings - I won the naming competition and opted for 'foie and gras' - I know not quite goslings but it made me chuckle!
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
Tying two themes together. Who'd work in care paying for your own vehicle when you're better paid in Lidl? There's the issue.
Totally O/t but have spent much of the day watching our in-house SpringWatch. Four chicks hatched today and we’ve four eggs to go. One egg at least was laid a couple of days after the rest.
A friend of mine in Kent has just hatched a couple of ducklings - I won the naming competition and opted for 'foie and gras' - I know not quite goslings but it made me chuckle!
There's a pub not far away from us where one can eat out in the sunshine, by a river. Did that a few days ago and there were what must have been day-old ducklings with their mother that we could watch while lunching. Foods good, too.
If you're interested in what it is like to fight as a junior officer in the Russian infantry, I highly recommend this video made from the videos on a captured Russian's cell phone. Compelling, depressing, sad.
He looks about 14, right down to the Stone Island t-shirt. At my advanced years a lot of young adults look about 14, mind.
Soldiers (especially officers) always look ridiculously young, I think.
I know that is a very carefully edited video, but to my untrained eye, they seem to have no idea how to respond when they start taking fire. They just sort of sit there.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
Tying two themes together. Who'd work in care paying for your own vehicle when you're better paid in Lidl? There's the issue.
It would be interesting to see a split between care-home workers and home-care workers.
My grandfather’s local council were willing to pay enormous amounts for at-home care, including cash for my grandmother to hire cleaners etc. Anything to avoid the £1000 a week cost of the care home. In the end it worked pretty well - he was in the home only at the end for six weeks.
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
Impressively incontinent pun!
I did wonder whilst writing that comment if we should still use that phrase.
We had the "take this down and apologise" tweet. Now we are into lawyers have been appointed, and tweets counting the number of views of the allegedly libellous content.
This is a very clear cut case of outright libel. So far I can see it has 19,300 views. You’d be wise to take it down and fully retract and apologise before you make this any worse for yourselves.
Gloves off. Lawyer instructed. 732,000 views and climbing. Daubney, Anderson, Fox and co are playing a very expensive game of chicken with someone who has a proven track record of crossing this particular road without fear nor favour. Good luck, boys. https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525448909002260482
Meanwhile, there's a bit of 2 way traffic, so a potential counterclaim. This one has been deleted, which is about how small and irrelevant Anderson has and no one has heard of him. And makes a comparison with Prince Andrew:
Meanwhile Anderson is getting "I hope you get cancer" emails.
One to watch from a distance. Probably all needs to be defused.
We had the "take this down and apologise" tweet. Now we are into lawyers have been appointed, and tweets counting the number of views of the allegedly libellous content.
This is a very clear cut case of outright libel. So far I can see it has 19,300 views. You’d be wise to take it down and fully retract and apologise before you make this any worse for yourselves.
Gloves off. Lawyer instructed. 732,000 views and climbing. Daubney, Anderson, Fox and co are playing a very expensive game of chicken with someone who has a proven track record of crossing this particular road without fear nor favour. Good luck, boys. https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525448909002260482
Meanwhile, there's a bit of 2 way traffic, so a potential counterclaim. This one has been deleted, which is about how small and irrelevant Anderson has and no one has heard of him. And makes a comparison with Prince Andrew:
Meanwhile Anderson is getting "I hope you get cancer" emails.
One to watch from a distance. Porbably all needs to be defused.
What was it Cameron said about too many Tweets make a ???
A critical factor is which Labour Party will turn up at the election. In my mind's eye I can see Labour possibly getting it right and maximising swing votes and Tory abstentions and even getting a majority. I can also very plausibly see them getting it wrong when their policies are examined in detail during a campaign. They are quite capable of losing 5-10% or even more via their manifesto and statements by MPs and shadow ministers.
The big natural advantage the Tories have over Labour is immigration, where the left just cannot help themselves take a "as many immigrants as possible" position. The Tories have done a good job ending unskilled immigration, but they have opened up low skilled immigration a lot, which undermines them. If they put up the income/salary thresholds to somewhere in the mid-30s they would have a very strong story to tell.
On a possibly not unrelated note, my Tory- and Brexit-voting elderly mother has just spent half the afternoon whinging to me about the poor service she is receiving from her home care company. Apparently this morning's carer arrived 20 minutes late and in a foul mood after being dragged out of bed to cover for yet another no-show new girl. The company is desperately short staffed and barely able to cope with their current workload, and it seems it's a similar story at other local care providers.
Did you join the dots for her?
Workforce characteristics
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers. The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity). The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point. However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
There's the knock-on effect of staff shortages in other industries, though. A typical sequence of events is that someone (typically British with few qualifications) starts work, finds it's harder than they thought, then packs it in a week later to work at Amazon instead.
Sounds like caring for the incontinent should pay significantly more than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a cliche, but we must “have the national conversation” that makes that possible. Theresa May tried, in a particularly cack-handed way.
She's not incontinent, but she has mobility issues and needs help with showering, etc. But, yes, you make a good point.
The NHS has just increased the nursing care supplement by 11% backdated to last April
Totally O/t but have spent much of the day watching our in-house SpringWatch. Four chicks hatched today and we’ve four eggs to go. One egg at least was laid a couple of days after the rest.
A friend of mine in Kent has just hatched a couple of ducklings - I won the naming competition and opted for 'foie and gras' - I know not quite goslings but it made me chuckle!
Are they well setup for the task?
Ducks are awful birds to look after imo; they get horribly filthy. (From experience)
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
We had the "take this down and apologise" tweet. Now we are into lawyers have been appointed, and tweets counting the number of views of the allegedly libellous content.
This is a very clear cut case of outright libel. So far I can see it has 19,300 views. You’d be wise to take it down and fully retract and apologise before you make this any worse for yourselves.
Gloves off. Lawyer instructed. 732,000 views and climbing. Daubney, Anderson, Fox and co are playing a very expensive game of chicken with someone who has a proven track record of crossing this particular road without fear nor favour. Good luck, boys. https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525448909002260482
Meanwhile, there's a bit of 2 way traffic, so a potential counterclaim. This one has been deleted, which is about how small and irrelevant Anderson has and no one has heard of him. And makes a comparison with Prince Andrew:
Meanwhile Anderson is getting "I hope you get cancer" emails.
One to watch from a distance. Porbably all needs to be defused.
What was it Cameron said about too many Tweets make a ???
About the only thing he ever got right...
TBF the comparison to PA was only that there was a physical similarity, in her eyes. I've seen a lot worse on PB.
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Under Delaware law a MAC requires c 40% permanent diminution in profits. I doubt this is a MAC.
But not sure Twitter want to sue - it will take several years and if they choose to enforce specific performance Musk will still be able to rely on his financing out (who would lend to someone who doesn’t want to borrow). So logically they should settle for $1bn but that’s not much in the scheme of things
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
Yes. I doubt it would have helped their prospects, I just don't think the space was there for them, but perhaps going for something truly bland like the Centre Party or Moderate Party, as per some European examples, might have been more appropriate.
This reminds me - there's a new series of Borgen. I think it's been shown... somewhere. But due for wide release on Netflix at the start of June.
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Under Delaware law a MAC requires c 40% permanent diminution in profits. I doubt this is a MAC.
But not sure Twitter want to sue - it will take several years and if they choose to enforce specific performance Musk will still be able to rely on his financing out (who would lend to someone who doesn’t want to borrow). So logically they should settle for $1bn but that’s not much in the scheme of things
Yes but if the 'bot" figures are way off, advertisers might be looking to sue for paying way over the odds, and the SEC might want to know why the discrepancy in filings between filing and reality (should the bot count be drastically different to 5%)
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
Jack Dorsey and Elon get on pretty well completely coincidentally
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
Have you seen the comical "sampling" they are doing to determine what the proportion of bots might be?
Something's fishy. And I think the fishy thing might be Musk's financial backing.
Well that took them 24 hours to make an about-turn. A few words in their ear by US and UK diplomats?
Much as I love my country, let's not pretend that any words from British diplomats would make any difference. Unless of course those words were 'What figure shall we make the cheque out for?'
My wife was just complaining to me again about the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables in New York.
I know why the UK has pretty good produce - it imports 70% of fruit and veg from Europe - but the US has the full North American bounty at its disposal.
Mystifying.
The US has a very powerful 'Farm lobby' and therefor big tariffs on food imports, making it impractical to import a lot of foods. This makes the farmers a tiny bit better off and reduces the quality and chose to the rest of the population.
But aren’t imports from Mexico tarriff-free? With Mexico, California, and Florida, you would think there would be good stuff.
America does very decent potatoes. A bag of idaho potatoes from Costco is a treat. Much more expensive than the UK though.
Sometimes american food is almost mystifyingly expensive - $4 for a sliced loaf, $3 for a 50p packet of biscuits, for example.
Big agri pumps out commoditised crap at high volume, and is protected behind steep tariffs.
The average farm size in the US is 444 acres, compared with 69 in France.
Add that to an undiscerning market…
When I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago I tried to cobble together a decent picnic from a supermarket, that I could eat in my hotel room.
Nothing fancy: some nice cheese, pukka salami and ham, decent bread, good tomatoes, spring onions, fruit, bottle of red
Something you could do in almost any British supermarket above the level of an Aldi for about £15-£20
I tracked down a big local Louisiana supermarket which seemed to be halfway between a M&S and Wholefoods.
Everything was decidedly average, the salami was rubbish, the bread barely edible AND it cost me $50. Over £40
Might as well have had oysters in the French Quarter. Again
Britain is very well served by its supermarkets and America is downright strange when it comes to food. Restaurant food in Louisiana is very often excellent so I just don’t get it
This is very true: decent cheese, ham and bread is hard to find. I mean, you can find it, but be prepared to search, and to pay through the nose.
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
There are some who find the idea of removing the bots from Twitter a bad idea.
Well that took them 24 hours to make an about-turn. A few words in their ear by US and UK diplomats?
Much as I love my country, let's not pretend that any words from British diplomats would make any difference. Unless of course those words were 'What figure shall we make the cheque out for?'
There’s a range of things going on here.
For instance, quite a few countries would have mentioned that if Turkey vetoed Finland & Sweden, then next time there is a Greece vs Turkey dispute….
Having multiple permanent members of the UN Security Council hacked of at you would be a potential issue as well…
Kamran Butt: Most successful Alba election candidate defects to SNP
Kamran Butt, who ran for Alex Salmond’s party in Glasgow’s Southside Central ward, was welcomed to the SNP by Scots Asians For Independence (SAFI) on Friday.
Butt was the Alba party’s most successful candidate at the council elections. He won 623 (roughly 8%) of the first preference votes in the ward in which he ran.
According to figures from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, none of Alba’s other 110 candidates managed to win more than 300 first preference votes.
The news of Butt’s defection comes as Alba leader Alex Salmond vowed to continue on despite the disappointing results for the party.
I supposed he calculated that support for Alba had bottomed out.
Alba's error was Change UKesque, not standing in the constituency part of the Holyrood election like Change not getting in on the locals. The SGreens were already there as an alternate for list purposes for nationalists. Then not standing in the by election nor any council by elections, they seemed to crave irrelevance and got it. I guess they might pick up disaffected Nats if no referendum occurs if they can hobble on till then. Edit - just noticed I completely missed the joke there. I'm very clever, honest.
Hahaha, I remember Change UK.
I had completely forgotten them.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
One of the strange things about Change UK was their name. In the face of a Conservative Party trying, following the referendum, to enact the most significant constitutional changes of the last 40 years, and a Labour Party trying to fairly fundamentally restructure British society, what characterised Change UK was an ardent desire for things not to change that much at all.
Yes. I doubt it would have helped their prospects, I just don't think the space was there for them, but perhaps going for something truly bland like the Centre Party or Moderate Party, as per some European examples, might have been more appropriate.
Edit:
I respected them for giving it a go though. Politics was a mess, and some MPs at least at least tried something rather than bow before the altar of party loyalty like most. There was a point where the party asked too much.
Yes, me too. It's a pity more MPs didn't take the plunge It was a shambles, though.
I notice the Daily Mail today and Boris Johnson's latest pronouncements.
He's clearly rattled and knows his Government is sinking fast because he's fallen back on the old tactic of Conservative Prime Ministers in trouble and that's to start telling people what to do. Major did this when he was on the way out.
To be honest, coming from Johnson, this is more ninny state than nanny state but as he's no longer a proper Conservative his closet authoritarianism is coming to the fore. He can no longer argue or convince because no one will listen, instead he has to cajole and coerce.
Conservative Governments are elected to manage the country - quietly, efficiently and effectively allowing people to live their own lives and take their own decisions, spend their own money and all of this with the minimum of Government interference. The role of Conservative Governments is to empower individuals, businesses and institutions to do what they do best.
If I wanted someone to tell me what to do, where to work and what to think I'd vote Labour - the current "Conservative" Government has failed, we all know it's failed and it is now marking time until its inevitable demise. As it has nothing useful to do, it is now just shouting at people and generally making a nuisance of itself.
If you're interested in what it is like to fight as a junior officer in the Russian infantry, I highly recommend this video made from the videos on a captured Russian's cell phone. Compelling, depressing, sad.
He looks about 14, right down to the Stone Island t-shirt. At my advanced years a lot of young adults look about 14, mind.
Soldiers (especially officers) always look ridiculously young, I think.
I know that is a very carefully edited video, but to my untrained eye, they seem to have no idea how to respond when they start taking fire. They just sort of sit there.
The video has a considerable resemblance to pro-Russian stuff I have been sent (via relatives) - the squalor and milling about pointlessly in particular.
I think it is a matter of expectations & standards in society in general
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Under Delaware law a MAC requires c 40% permanent diminution in profits. I doubt this is a MAC.
But not sure Twitter want to sue - it will take several years and if they choose to enforce specific performance Musk will still be able to rely on his financing out (who would lend to someone who doesn’t want to borrow). So logically they should settle for $1bn but that’s not much in the scheme of things
Yes but if the 'bot" figures are way off, advertisers might be looking to sue for paying way over the odds, and the SEC might want to know why the discrepancy in filings between filing and reality (should the bot count be drastically different to 5%)
I don’t think the number of bots impacts twitter’s advertising revenue as the revenue comes from screen views and bots are usually apis
A glorious afternoon - I believe there's some football match in NW London. I remember when the racing would have to start early - three races from Newbury finish by 1.30 so we can get into the "build up" from Wembley. Is it me or has that kind of event faded from the public consciousness (until the inevitable disappointment of the World Cup Semi Final defat to (fill in the blank))?
The Cup Final, the Derby, the Beckton Alp Ascent, iconic national events now barely registering on the national psyche?
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
Well that took them 24 hours to make an about-turn. A few words in their ear by US and UK diplomats?
No surprise, the real veto on their entry was never going to be Turkey but whether Putin decides to invade Finland and Sweden before their NATO application is completed.
Unlikely but we will find out in the next few weeks
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Under Delaware law a MAC requires c 40% permanent diminution in profits. I doubt this is a MAC.
But not sure Twitter want to sue - it will take several years and if they choose to enforce specific performance Musk will still be able to rely on his financing out (who would lend to someone who doesn’t want to borrow). So logically they should settle for $1bn but that’s not much in the scheme of things
Yes but if the 'bot" figures are way off, advertisers might be looking to sue for paying way over the odds, and the SEC might want to know why the discrepancy in filings between filing and reality (should the bot count be drastically different to 5%)
I don’t think the number of bots impacts twitter’s advertising revenue as the revenue comes from screen views and bots are usually apis
I shall watch what happens with interest. Always nice when you can enjoy it going wrong on any side. It's been an awfully febrile atmosphere for a simple buyout
Conservative Governments are elected to manage the country - quietly, efficiently and effectively allowing people to live their own lives and take their own decisions, spend their own money and all of this with the minimum of Government interference. The role of Conservative Governments is to empower individuals, businesses and institutions to do what they do best.
That sounds like your opinion of what they are supposed to do, and what they might tell themselves they do. As far as I can see Conservative governments tell people what to do just as much as Labour governments - once you get in, policies and behaviours you would decry suddenly become acceptable. Hence why localism is constantly preached but rarely realised - because Westminster, and Whitehall, don't like giving up power. Whitehall is just more honest about that.
So. We don't really import from India. But the world price will rise again. Not good news. But much, much worse for impoverished countries.
The last time we saw global food scarcity it kicked off the Arab spring. We haven’t even seen the beginning of this story.
The fallout from the idiotic decisions around lockdowns will end up with more dying from famine than the virus would have killed. I remember the criticism from the western world when India refused lockdowns for the the second than third waves of the virus but in retrospect the decision from the Indian government is correct. Imagine how bad things would be if the government had a second and third lockdown, there's would simply be people dying of starvation over the next year.
Yes, agreed. Covid (like Brexit!) isn’t over by a long shot.
What's extremely galling is that none of those people who lead the criticism of the Indian decision or the UK decision to reopen have apologised for being so extremely wrong. There are too many scientists who were captured by idiotic virtue signalling around "must save every life, must blame governments for anyone who dies from COVID" without thinking through the consequences of their agenda. It was plainly obvious that decisions on lockdowns would lead to global shortages of basic goods, people on PB and all across the City have been saying it for months.
I hope that we learn the lessons from this and next time governments doesn't just take advice from science and take a much wider view including the economy and ensuring future prosperity even if it means making sacrifices today.
To my mind, the worst by far were the "Lockdown Sceptics" - who were horribly wrong on every turn. And not only have they never apologised for being wrong, they've continually doubled down on it and tried to rewrite history.
- Toby Young - dishonest and stupid, and platforming the other idiots. - Mike Yeadon - Literally nuts. His made-up crap about fertility and vaccines literally killed people. - Ivor Cummins - A fraud and a grifter - Carl Heneghan - "Evidence Based Medicine" has never been so wrong - Sunetra Gupta - Seriously, why anyone was listening to this person past May 2020 beggars belief - Claire Craig and the rest of HART and its offshoots (David Paton, Ros Jones, Norman Fenton, Karol Sikora, Malcolm Kendrick, Tony Hinton, Damian Wilde, Anna Rayner, Will Jones) who have assiduously aimed to sow distrust in vaccines from day one. (Linked offshoots being Us For Them, PCR Claims, NHS100K, UK Medical Freedom, Safer To Wait, "British Nursing Alliance", Childrens Covid Vaccine Advisory Group). Have harassed schools and vaccine centres, and lied consistently to try to sabotage the vaccine rollout. - Their pets in the media, including Julia Hartley-Brewer (TalkRADIO), Lucy Johnston (Express), Allison Pearson (Telegraph), Isabel Oakeshott (Telegraph) and plenty others - The Covid Research Group of the Tories, plus the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG (set up by the CRG and sympathisers and broadcasting HART Groups misinformation around Parliament)
I still think the Tiers system could have worked to avoid any lockdowns after the first one, if not actively sabotaged by the idiots above with their narratives around false positives, casedemics, "masks don't work", "it's a trade off between economy and health", "it's only really old people who die a little early," "did they have underlying conditions?", "the numbers on deaths are wrong", and always getting their misinformation out again and again and again. The Mail and Telegraph and Talk Radio were the worst, but other offenders are available.
And the bloody Great Barrington Declaration and the fact they actually got to brief the Government (who were listening to Gupta and Heneghan as late as October 2020!?).
To be fair, I'd put Toby Young into a gulag on St Kilda just for all the god damned antivax shite he's been spewing relentlessly for well over a year (because he had to downplay the prospect of a vaccine initially, as the idea of suppression was "until a vaccine" is available, thus "we may never have a vaccine" and "it doesn't protect against serious illness" and later "it doesn't stop infection" and all the bollocks about "it kills more than the virus, which is going away magically on its own.")
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
Note Morrison still leads as preferred PM though, if Newspoll has the same 2PP error it did in 2019 it would actually be about Labor 50% Coalition 50%
Morrison's lead is 43-42 with Newspoll so far from convincing. The other question is the extent to which the Australian pollsters have compensated (or over-compensated) for what happened last time.
Complicating matters further is the divergence between states so piling up votes in one State isn't helpful if you are losing marginal seats on the other side of that vast country.
This piece may be of interest suggesting Labor will win 80, the Coalition 63 and the others 8.
Well that took them 24 hours to make an about-turn. A few words in their ear by US and UK diplomats?
No surprise, the real veto on their entry was never going to be Turkey but whether Putin decides to invade Finland and Sweden before their NATO application is completed.
Unlikely but we will find out in the next few weeks
Russia isn’t going to invade Sweden or Finland.
To have even a vague chance of that, they would have to move ground forces into position. All the build up stuff.
They haven’t done this. So they have nothing to invade with.
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
Have you seen the comical "sampling" they are doing to determine what the proportion of bots might be?
Something's fishy. And I think the fishy thing might be Musk's financial backing.
It's the valuation, I think Musk has realised he can probably find a way to cut the price by 20-30% and still pay a premium over the current market value as well as get approval from the shareholders who have realised how little value Twitter actually has.
In financial terms Musk has sold enough Tesla shares and has external investors and financing to see it through, I'm just not sure they want to at $44bn when tech stocks have seen value drops of 20-40% since the bid was made.
Well that took them 24 hours to make an about-turn. A few words in their ear by US and UK diplomats?
No surprise, the real veto on their entry was never going to be Turkey but whether Putin decides to invade Finland and Sweden before their NATO application is completed.
Unlikely but we will find out in the next few weeks
Russia isn’t going to invade Sweden or Finland.
To have even a vague chance of that, they would have to move ground forces into position. All the build up stuff.
They haven’t done this. So they have nothing to invade with.
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
Note Morrison still leads as preferred PM though, if Newspoll has the same 2PP error it did in 2019 it would actually be about Labor 50% Coalition 50%
Morrison's lead is 43-42 with Newspoll so far from convincing. The other question is the extent to which the Australian pollsters have compensated (or over-compensated) for what happened last time.
Complicating matters further is the divergence between states so piling up votes in one State isn't helpful if you are losing marginal seats on the other side of that vast country.
This piece may be of interest suggesting Labor will win 80, the Coalition 63 and the others 8.
No party leader who has led on the final preferred PM poll with Newspoll has ever lost an Australian Federal election, although a number whose party has trailed on 2PP has gone on to win.
Of course in 2019 the Coalition lost the 2PP in every Australian state and territory except Queensland and Western Australia but still won enough marginal seats elsewhere and those states by big enough margins to win
Twitter buyout getting interesting. If the Twitter board has been ummmm under estimating the number of bot accounts then it gives Musk either an out or the chance to get in even lower and leaves the board in a difficult position.
Well, it does appear that Musk’s team are uncovering things in their due diligence, that one might not necessarily expect to find at a public company.
The other problem is that Tesla shares have fallen more than 40% from their highs, meaning Musk needs to put up a lot more of them in collateral.
So. We don't really import from India. But the world price will rise again. Not good news. But much, much worse for impoverished countries.
The last time we saw global food scarcity it kicked off the Arab spring. We haven’t even seen the beginning of this story.
The fallout from the idiotic decisions around lockdowns will end up with more dying from famine than the virus would have killed. I remember the criticism from the western world when India refused lockdowns for the the second than third waves of the virus but in retrospect the decision from the Indian government is correct. Imagine how bad things would be if the government had a second and third lockdown, there's would simply be people dying of starvation over the next year.
Yes, agreed. Covid (like Brexit!) isn’t over by a long shot.
What's extremely galling is that none of those people who lead the criticism of the Indian decision or the UK decision to reopen have apologised for being so extremely wrong. There are too many scientists who were captured by idiotic virtue signalling around "must save every life, must blame governments for anyone who dies from COVID" without thinking through the consequences of their agenda. It was plainly obvious that decisions on lockdowns would lead to global shortages of basic goods, people on PB and all across the City have been saying it for months.
I hope that we learn the lessons from this and next time governments doesn't just take advice from science and take a much wider view including the economy and ensuring future prosperity even if it means making sacrifices today.
To my mind, the worst by far were the "Lockdown Sceptics" - who were horribly wrong on every turn. And not only have they never apologised for being wrong, they've continually doubled down on it and tried to rewrite history.
- Toby Young - dishonest and stupid, and platforming the other idiots. - Mike Yeadon - Literally nuts. His made-up crap about fertility and vaccines literally killed people. - Ivor Cummins - A fraud and a grifter - Carl Heneghan - "Evidence Based Medicine" has never been so wrong - Sunetra Gupta - Seriously, why anyone was listening to this person past May 2020 beggars belief - Claire Craig and the rest of HART and its offshoots (David Paton, Ros Jones, Norman Fenton, Karol Sikora, Malcolm Kendrick, Tony Hinton, Damian Wilde, Anna Rayner, Will Jones) who have assiduously aimed to sow distrust in vaccines from day one. (Linked offshoots being Us For Them, PCR Claims, NHS100K, UK Medical Freedom, Safer To Wait, "British Nursing Alliance", Childrens Covid Vaccine Advisory Group). Have harassed schools and vaccine centres, and lied consistently to try to sabotage the vaccine rollout. - Their pets in the media, including Julia Hartley-Brewer (TalkRADIO), Lucy Johnston (Express), Allison Pearson (Telegraph), Isabel Oakeshott (Telegraph) and plenty others - The Covid Research Group of the Tories, plus the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG (set up by the CRG and sympathisers and broadcasting HART Groups misinformation around Parliament)
I still think the Tiers system could have worked to avoid any lockdowns after the first one, if not actively sabotaged by the idiots above with their narratives around false positives, casedemics, "masks don't work", "it's a trade off between economy and health", "it's only really old people who die a little early," "did they have underlying conditions?", "the numbers on deaths are wrong", and always getting their misinformation out again and again and again. The Mail and Telegraph and Talk Radio were the worst, but other offenders are available.
And the bloody Great Barrington Declaration and the fact they actually got to brief the Government (who were listening to Gupta and Heneghan as late as October 2020!?).
To be fair, I'd put Toby Young into a gulag on St Kilda just for all the god damned antivax shite he's been spewing relentlessly for well over a year (because he had to downplay the prospect of a vaccine initially, as the idea of suppression was "until a vaccine" is available, thus "we may never have a vaccine" and "it doesn't protect against serious illness" and later "it doesn't stop infection" and all the bollocks about "it kills more than the virus, which is going away magically on its own.")
That's such a load of waffle Andy, you have been completely captured by the "must save all lives" idea. I remember when you were against the full reopening last June and then again in last July churning out data to support your position which all turned out to be wrong.
The lockdown sceptics were right, we all should have listened to them rather than dismiss their concerns as you are doing now and did all through the crisis (I also admit I did it, and it was wrong of me to do that).
We should have resisted the second lockdown entirely and the first should have ended far sooner and it was a huge error to bring back restrictions for Omicron.
As it stands hundreds of millions across the world are facing food shortages and 10-20% price inflation, this is a far, far worse outcome than anything that COVID could have inflicted directly. The obsessive attitude around ensuring all those 80+ year olds didn't die of a new disease has destroyed the life chances of young people and will result in the deaths of many, many millions from famine this summer.
You and I were wrong, they were right. At least I recognise it, sadly I think you will never be able to get away from the delusional thinking that lockdown was helpful. The scientists that backed and forced the government into lockdown two should be put on a very public trial and have all of their funding cut for good. I really can't begin to tell you how much I have come to loathe the politicisation of science and the scientists who have engaged in it. Any single one who briefed the media should be barred from any government funding or serving on any government committee again.
So. We don't really import from India. But the world price will rise again. Not good news. But much, much worse for impoverished countries.
The last time we saw global food scarcity it kicked off the Arab spring. We haven’t even seen the beginning of this story.
The fallout from the idiotic decisions around lockdowns will end up with more dying from famine than the virus would have killed. I remember the criticism from the western world when India refused lockdowns for the the second than third waves of the virus but in retrospect the decision from the Indian government is correct. Imagine how bad things would be if the government had a second and third lockdown, there's would simply be people dying of starvation over the next year.
Yes, agreed. Covid (like Brexit!) isn’t over by a long shot.
What's extremely galling is that none of those people who lead the criticism of the Indian decision or the UK decision to reopen have apologised for being so extremely wrong. There are too many scientists who were captured by idiotic virtue signalling around "must save every life, must blame governments for anyone who dies from COVID" without thinking through the consequences of their agenda. It was plainly obvious that decisions on lockdowns would lead to global shortages of basic goods, people on PB and all across the City have been saying it for months.
I hope that we learn the lessons from this and next time governments doesn't just take advice from science and take a much wider view including the economy and ensuring future prosperity even if it means making sacrifices today.
To my mind, the worst by far were the "Lockdown Sceptics" - who were horribly wrong on every turn. And not only have they never apologised for being wrong, they've continually doubled down on it and tried to rewrite history.
- Toby Young - dishonest and stupid, and platforming the other idiots. - Mike Yeadon - Literally nuts. His made-up crap about fertility and vaccines literally killed people. - Ivor Cummins - A fraud and a grifter - Carl Heneghan - "Evidence Based Medicine" has never been so wrong - Sunetra Gupta - Seriously, why anyone was listening to this person past May 2020 beggars belief - Claire Craig and the rest of HART and its offshoots (David Paton, Ros Jones, Norman Fenton, Karol Sikora, Malcolm Kendrick, Tony Hinton, Damian Wilde, Anna Rayner, Will Jones) who have assiduously aimed to sow distrust in vaccines from day one. (Linked offshoots being Us For Them, PCR Claims, NHS100K, UK Medical Freedom, Safer To Wait, "British Nursing Alliance", Childrens Covid Vaccine Advisory Group). Have harassed schools and vaccine centres, and lied consistently to try to sabotage the vaccine rollout. - Their pets in the media, including Julia Hartley-Brewer (TalkRADIO), Lucy Johnston (Express), Allison Pearson (Telegraph), Isabel Oakeshott (Telegraph) and plenty others - The Covid Research Group of the Tories, plus the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG (set up by the CRG and sympathisers and broadcasting HART Groups misinformation around Parliament)
I still think the Tiers system could have worked to avoid any lockdowns after the first one, if not actively sabotaged by the idiots above with their narratives around false positives, casedemics, "masks don't work", "it's a trade off between economy and health", "it's only really old people who die a little early," "did they have underlying conditions?", "the numbers on deaths are wrong", and always getting their misinformation out again and again and again. The Mail and Telegraph and Talk Radio were the worst, but other offenders are available.
And the bloody Great Barrington Declaration and the fact they actually got to brief the Government (who were listening to Gupta and Heneghan as late as October 2020!?).
To be fair, I'd put Toby Young into a gulag on St Kilda just for all the god damned antivax shite he's been spewing relentlessly for well over a year (because he had to downplay the prospect of a vaccine initially, as the idea of suppression was "until a vaccine" is available, thus "we may never have a vaccine" and "it doesn't protect against serious illness" and later "it doesn't stop infection" and all the bollocks about "it kills more than the virus, which is going away magically on its own.")
An outstanding post. We need another on the zero covid types, tho.
Semi 0n-topic: There are both Aldi and Lidl stores in Pennsylvania. (I have been away from the state too long to know whether they have had any effect on the politics there.)
(In the greater Seattle area, where I live, there are many Trader Joe's, and they are one of the places I buy food, though the quality of their produce does not quite match that of the closest local store, Metropolitan, a unit of a small Seattle-area chain.)
Comments
Edit - Heidi Allens posts on Twitter amuse me. She tweets like has always been an enthusiastic Lib Dem and that we should probably ignore that whole Change fandango ever happened.
Now let's all be quiet lest we summon Chukka from the abyss
https://mobile.twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1525463427619115010
One egg at least was laid a couple of days after the rest.
It just goes to show how badly things go without effective local organization, and central purpose.
Very good.
I've just put some quite pleasant Aldi ostrich-steaks into the freezer.
Never liked ‘Lanark’ the book; the wee burgh by the Clyde is fantastic. I did get into some other Alasdair Gray novels (Poor Things vg), but I love his graphic artwork. I’ve been very privileged to see some stunning works in private hands.
Quite surprised to visit an English friend in his Camden townhouse and find John Byrne prints/paintings all the way down the staircase ...
In 2020/21, around 84% of the adult social care workforce identified as British, 7% (113,000 jobs) identified as of an EU nationality and 9% (137,000 jobs) of a non-EU nationality. Therefore, on average, the adult social care sector showed a slightly greater reliance on non-EU workers than EU workers.
The adult social care sector (16% non-British) was more diverse than the population of England in terms of nationality (8% with no British identity).
The proportion of the adult social care workforce with a British nationality has remained consistent over the past seven years (from 2012/13 to 2020/21), varying by less than one percentage point.
However, the composition of the non-British workforce has changed. Over the same period, the proportion of the workforce holding an EU (non-British) nationality had increased by two percentage points and the percentage of those of non-EU nationality decreased by three percentage points.
A glorious afternoon - I believe there's some football match in NW London. I remember when the racing would have to start early - three races from Newbury finish by 1.30 so we can get into the "build up" from Wembley. Is it me or has that kind of event faded from the public consciousness (until the inevitable disappointment of the World Cup Semi Final defat to (fill in the blank))?
The Cup Final, the Derby, the Beckton Alp Ascent, iconic national events now barely registering on the national psyche?
Our antipodean cousins have their own election next Saturday and PB's Aussie counterpart is the wonderful pollbludger.net which goes into over-analysis of every poll and discussion in extremis of every piece of political minutiae (so not like us at all).
Here's a thread from yesterday:
https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/05/13/newspoll-54-46-to-labor-15/
I am comparing with the comparatively good supermarkets I had when I lived in the US, which were also terrible in the ways you describe (beautiful but flavour free meat, veg, cheese, and terrible bread)
The one thing that has changed is you can now get good bread in the us if you seek it out. I was in Austin, TX for a couple of weeks before lockdown 1, and there was a great French bakery on the corner by my Air Bnb.
Edit:
I respected them for giving it a go though. Politics was a mess, and some MPs at least at least tried something rather than bow before the altar of party loyalty like most. There was a point where the party asked too much.
But there is certainly an issue with overall numbers, whether short term covid, job change, or overall reduction.
https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1525227799052787712
Boris said he had a solution.
He lied; he didn’t.
Forced to deliver, he put up taxes on working people. It is subsequently clear that the money will in fact go to the NHS instead and we’ll leave social care as a shit-show.
Are we going to rely on a workforce of low-paid immigrants for care or pay up for our own? It is a quality matter (taking the best from abroad?), a simple financial matter (keep wages down), or a moral matter (pro- or anti-?)
Not so in SE Spain where I live. The local fisherman and restauranteurs share out the catch every mlorning and the latter have it for sale in the afternoon and evenings. At the best places if something especially good has been landed they'll offer it as extras to the regular menu. You can get a top class meal here for around €35 a head including a decent ribera to wash it down.
At my advanced years a lot of young adults look about 14, mind.
Who'd work in care paying for your own vehicle when you're better paid in Lidl?
There's the issue.
Foods good, too.
I know that is a very carefully edited video, but to my untrained eye, they seem to have no idea how to respond when they start taking fire. They just sort of sit there.
My grandfather’s local council were willing to pay enormous amounts for at-home care, including cash for my grandmother to hire cleaners etc. Anything to avoid the £1000 a week cost of the care home. In the end it worked pretty well - he was in the home only at the end for six weeks.
We had the "take this down and apologise" tweet. Now we are into lawyers have been appointed, and tweets counting the number of views of the allegedly libellous content.
This is a very clear cut case of outright libel. So far I can see it has 19,300 views. You’d be wise to take it down and fully retract and apologise before you make this any worse for yourselves.
https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525152756901847040
389k views!
https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525210096032169985
Gloves off. Lawyer instructed. 732,000 views and climbing. Daubney, Anderson, Fox and co are playing a very expensive game of chicken with someone who has a proven track record of crossing this particular road without fear nor favour. Good luck, boys.
https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1525448909002260482
Meanwhile, there's a bit of 2 way traffic, so a potential counterclaim. This one has been deleted, which is about how small and irrelevant Anderson has and no one has heard of him. And makes a comparison with Prince Andrew:
Meanwhile Anderson is getting "I hope you get cancer" emails.
One to watch from a distance. Probably all needs to be defused.
On the license plate shown above, what is the symbol between the letters and numbers, and what does it symbolize?
About the only thing he ever got right...
Ducks are awful birds to look after imo; they get horribly filthy. (From experience)
Geese are well-scrubbed by comparison.
But not sure Twitter want to sue - it will take several years and if they choose to enforce specific performance Musk will still be able to rely on his financing out (who would lend to someone who doesn’t want to borrow). So logically they should settle for $1bn but that’s not much in the scheme of things
Something's fishy. And I think the fishy thing might be Musk's financial backing.
For instance, quite a few countries would have mentioned that if Turkey vetoed Finland & Sweden, then next time there is a Greece vs Turkey dispute….
Having multiple permanent members of the UN Security Council hacked of at you would be a potential issue as well…
It was a shambles, though.
He's clearly rattled and knows his Government is sinking fast because he's fallen back on the old tactic of Conservative Prime Ministers in trouble and that's to start telling people what to do. Major did this when he was on the way out.
To be honest, coming from Johnson, this is more ninny state than nanny state but as he's no longer a proper Conservative his closet authoritarianism is coming to the fore. He can no longer argue or convince because no one will listen, instead he has to cajole and coerce.
Conservative Governments are elected to manage the country - quietly, efficiently and effectively allowing people to live their own lives and take their own decisions, spend their own money and all of this with the minimum of Government interference. The role of Conservative Governments is to empower individuals, businesses and institutions to do what they do best.
If I wanted someone to tell me what to do, where to work and what to think I'd vote Labour - the current "Conservative" Government has failed, we all know it's failed and it is now marking time until its inevitable demise. As it has nothing useful to do, it is now just shouting at people and generally making a nuisance of itself.
I think it is a matter of expectations & standards in society in general
Unlikely but we will find out in the next few weeks
- Toby Young - dishonest and stupid, and platforming the other idiots.
- Mike Yeadon - Literally nuts. His made-up crap about fertility and vaccines literally killed people.
- Ivor Cummins - A fraud and a grifter
- Carl Heneghan - "Evidence Based Medicine" has never been so wrong
- Sunetra Gupta - Seriously, why anyone was listening to this person past May 2020 beggars belief
- Claire Craig and the rest of HART and its offshoots (David Paton, Ros Jones, Norman Fenton, Karol Sikora, Malcolm Kendrick, Tony Hinton, Damian Wilde, Anna Rayner, Will Jones) who have assiduously aimed to sow distrust in vaccines from day one. (Linked offshoots being Us For Them, PCR Claims, NHS100K, UK Medical Freedom, Safer To Wait, "British Nursing Alliance", Childrens Covid Vaccine Advisory Group). Have harassed schools and vaccine centres, and lied consistently to try to sabotage the vaccine rollout.
- Their pets in the media, including Julia Hartley-Brewer (TalkRADIO), Lucy Johnston (Express), Allison Pearson (Telegraph), Isabel Oakeshott (Telegraph) and plenty others
- The Covid Research Group of the Tories, plus the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG (set up by the CRG and sympathisers and broadcasting HART Groups misinformation around Parliament)
I still think the Tiers system could have worked to avoid any lockdowns after the first one, if not actively sabotaged by the idiots above with their narratives around false positives, casedemics, "masks don't work", "it's a trade off between economy and health", "it's only really old people who die a little early," "did they have underlying conditions?", "the numbers on deaths are wrong", and always getting their misinformation out again and again and again. The Mail and Telegraph and Talk Radio were the worst, but other offenders are available.
And the bloody Great Barrington Declaration and the fact they actually got to brief the Government (who were listening to Gupta and Heneghan as late as October 2020!?).
To be fair, I'd put Toby Young into a gulag on St Kilda just for all the god damned antivax shite he's been spewing relentlessly for well over a year (because he had to downplay the prospect of a vaccine initially, as the idea of suppression was "until a vaccine" is available, thus "we may never have a vaccine" and "it doesn't protect against serious illness" and later "it doesn't stop infection" and all the bollocks about "it kills more than the virus, which is going away magically on its own.")
Complicating matters further is the divergence between states so piling up votes in one State isn't helpful if you are losing marginal seats on the other side of that vast country.
This piece may be of interest suggesting Labor will win 80, the Coalition 63 and the others 8.
https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/05/12/yougov-mrp-poll-part-two-labor-80-seats-coalition-63-others-8/
To have even a vague chance of that, they would have to move ground forces into position. All the build up stuff.
They haven’t done this. So they have nothing to invade with.
In financial terms Musk has sold enough Tesla shares and has external investors and financing to see it through, I'm just not sure they want to at $44bn when tech stocks have seen value drops of 20-40% since the bid was made.
Of course in 2019 the Coalition lost the 2PP in every Australian state and territory except Queensland and Western Australia but still won enough marginal seats elsewhere and those states by big enough margins to win
The lockdown sceptics were right, we all should have listened to them rather than dismiss their concerns as you are doing now and did all through the crisis (I also admit I did it, and it was wrong of me to do that).
We should have resisted the second lockdown entirely and the first should have ended far sooner and it was a huge error to bring back restrictions for Omicron.
As it stands hundreds of millions across the world are facing food shortages and 10-20% price inflation, this is a far, far worse outcome than anything that COVID could have inflicted directly. The obsessive attitude around ensuring all those 80+ year olds didn't die of a new disease has destroyed the life chances of young people and will result in the deaths of many, many millions from famine this summer.
You and I were wrong, they were right. At least I recognise it, sadly I think you will never be able to get away from the delusional thinking that lockdown was helpful. The scientists that backed and forced the government into lockdown two should be put on a very public trial and have all of their funding cut for good. I really can't begin to tell you how much I have come to loathe the politicisation of science and the scientists who have engaged in it. Any single one who briefed the media should be barred from any government funding or serving on any government committee again.
We need another on the zero covid types, tho.
The number of flights taking off from LBA seems to have significantly increased today.
Gone are the silent afternoons of those halcyon days of the first lockdown.
(In the greater Seattle area, where I live, there are many Trader Joe's, and they are one of the places I buy food, though the quality of their produce does not quite match that of the closest local store, Metropolitan, a unit of a small Seattle-area chain.)