This is a local gunstore, for local mass murderers...
Tried to visit the gun store that sold weapons to the Uvalde gunman. Was stopped in parking lot by management. It’s open but I’m not allowed in. Asked why… “You have a notepad… and an accent.” https://twitter.com/DaveLeeFT/status/1529830077718044672
Apparently he spent $4000 on assault rifles. Age 18. That didn’t ring any tiny alarms?
I wonder if there is a legal case for charging the owner of the gun store with accessory to murder?
Not possible under US law. Gun merchants and manufacturers are specifically exempt from such liability claims.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
I assumed that was before the election, after Mr Sarwar's much touted announcement re no cooperation or at least coalition, but that is today.
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Jesus twitter is even more filthy than usual today. Lots of 'i work hard, me, wheres my handout' types convinced the disabled will be blowing their 'free money' on racing wheels for their chair or sex change operations for their guide dogs Bot tastic
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
I live in a tiny flat that is heated by my neighbours. The vast majority of my energy goes on my PS4 / PC and my gas powered power shower.
I'm currently trying to decide on what new DSLR to buy. I'm booking a holiday to the Alps and possibly Greece (hat tip @Leon). I've booked a posh restaurant for GFs birthday.
I've made hardly a dent in my pandemic savings, revaluation of my flat. I do not need £400. Give it to the minimum wage folk getting screwed by inflation.
Canon R5.
Very happy with my Sony, perfect for travel and wildlife.
Nice. I’m looking at R5, R6 and 5D IV, still can’t decide between them!
I expect the kit lens will be the limiting factor for all of them. Do you have a lens collection already?
Being contrary and a dinosaur, I have a Pentax DSLR but I expect mirrorless will win in the end and Pentax will eventually go bust through refusing to follow the trend.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Things like shark attacks is another example of that, where every single one is given massive coverage, such that people are convinced they are far more common than they really are.
Everyone gets £400, yes but the cap will have gone up £1400. Am I missing something?. Affluent pensioners get an extra £300 at Christmas and if on a diabled benefit another £150, again what am I missing. The more one looks at the policy the more unfait holes seem to appear.
Pensioners receive £400 towards their fuel bill and as my wife is over 80 we will receive a further £600 in December making £1,000 in total
Furthermore the triple lock is reinstated as official government policy with effect from next April providing a 9% increase in our pensions
This is far more than labour committed to and is surprising
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
And I bet at least half of those deaths involving cyclists were the fault of the pedestrian, walking blithely into the road in front of the cyclist while looking at their phone or listening to headphones. Seriously, why don't people look before they cross the road anymore? It's a nightmare cycling through Central London.
I was crossing the road on a green man and three cyclists cut across in front and behind me. Cyclists are a nightmare in Central London
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Indeed but note that neither Dearlove nor any of the others have denied that the leaked emails are genuine, just that we should remember their context. I expect every news outlet in the country will have downloaded the cache already.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Reporting is biased towards (a) the rare, and (b) the big.
Everyone gets £400, yes but the cap will have gone up £1400. Am I missing something?. Affluent pensioners get an extra £300 at Christmas and if on a diabled benefit another £150, again what am I missing. The more one looks at the policy the more unfait holes seem to appear.
Pensioners receive £400 towards their fuel bill and as my wife is over 80 we will receive a further £600 in December making £1,000 in total
Furthermore the triple lock is reinstated as official government policy with effect from next April providing a 9% increase in our pensions
This is far more than labour committed to and is surprising
That is going to be eye wateringly expensive. And I imagine the lack of other benefit uplifts to similar amounts going to get a lot of coverage.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
There does seem to be an amount of panic setting in in the failing independence camp
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
I was thinking about that the other day after hearing the statistic that guns have overtaken road traffic collisions as the leading cause of death among US children.
Obviously it's terrible that so many children are being killed with guns, but the way in which it was presented was that it was somehow more acceptable for a child to die on the road than by a gun, and that didn't quite sit right with me.
It's indicative of how normalised we are to the deaths caused by cars.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
There does seem to be an amount of panic setting in in the failing independence camp
Everyone gets £400, yes but the cap will have gone up £1400. Am I missing something?. Affluent pensioners get an extra £300 at Christmas and if on a diabled benefit another £150, again what am I missing. The more one looks at the policy the more unfait holes seem to appear.
Pensioners receive £400 towards their fuel bill and as my wife is over 80 we will receive a further £600 in December making £1,000 in total
Furthermore the triple lock is reinstated as official government policy with effect from next April providing a 9% increase in our pensions
This is far more than labour committed to and is surprising
That is going to be eye wateringly expensive.
Someone suggested the uprating of benefits next year including pensions will cost 25 billion
Following the Green gain in Spelthorne yesterday there are 3 more local elections today. There is a Con defence in North Kesteven, a Lab defence in Gedling, and a deferred election in Redbridge which is 3 Lab defences.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
I'm sure that's meant in a joking manner, but as a cyclist in Edinburgh, who has always been careful around pedestrians, but has faced continuous aggression from drivers, it actually makes me feel really threatened.
All I can say is I feel really threatened by cyclists on pavements and road crossings and pelican crsossings. I have had some bad frights. And I never drive in Edinburgh.
I was most of all at risk when in the middle of hte road crossing a green man and a cyclists demo came barrelling straight at me and wouldn't stop at the red - I was really relieved when several dozen of the arrogant, self-entitled shites had finally passed within inches on all sides with me as piggy in the middle. One of those supposed reclaim the streets for cyclists things.
I live in the south suburbs of Edinburgh. I only drive into the city now when taking my mother in law to the eye pavilion for her check-ups. Mostly I use Lothian Buses, which are excellent.
The adoption of speed reductions 40->30 and 30->20 are bedding in with traffic flows slower than they were, but bearable. However, I have directly observed cyclists not using the lanes put in for them as part of the safer spaces schemes brought in during the pandemic.
In part this is because the schemes result in kerbside cycle lanes that cannot be cleaned by road sweepers, making them dangerous when wet. Also the council have not been mending potholes sufficiently and this creates real risk to life for cyclists and risk of damage to cars for drivers. If the council did more road maintenance, it would be better for all road users.
Interestingly this is something that our local Labour and Conservative councillors raised in their local election leaflets. I voted for both as a result. They were both elected. If the SNP council had paid more attention to bread and butter issues, they may have retained control of the council.
I live in a tiny flat that is heated by my neighbours. The vast majority of my energy goes on my PS4 / PC and my gas powered power shower.
I'm currently trying to decide on what new DSLR to buy. I'm booking a holiday to the Alps and possibly Greece (hat tip @Leon). I've booked a posh restaurant for GFs birthday.
I've made hardly a dent in my pandemic savings, revaluation of my flat. I do not need £400. Give it to the minimum wage folk getting screwed by inflation.
Canon R5.
Very happy with my Sony, perfect for travel and wildlife.
Looks good too. The Sony is a very high spec bridge camera rather than a DSLR, but great performance. Particularly on wildlife trips, I dislike changing lenses because of the dust and moisture, and weight is an issue too. You cannot take a picture through a lens left at home.
Indeed, the best camera is the one you have...
Although the people I see on wildlife trips are usually toting £10k Canon bazooka lenses.
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Yes, fair enough, that bit. It’s very hard to imagine a “deep state network” including Robert Tombs.
I’d like to see the emails though.
My guess would it that they are emails between people involved in the Brexit campaign, then moaning about May making a right hash of the deal negotiations and that the Tories need to get rid and that they will be writing / meeting with such and such a person to moan at them about how badly it is all going and that they need to change leader. And probably some hyperbolic talk of I can get such and such person in a position of power will listen to me.
And that is being spun as this group controls the world.
I managed to track down some stuff online.
It’s very largely bog standard lobbying stuff, although in this case the explicit objective was a hard Brexit and the deposition of May and replacement with Boris.
They had a mole inside the civil service leaking intel, and we’re funded by some offshore plutocrats.
The write pieces under pseudonyms for friendly publications like the Telegraph and at least discussed infiltrating “Best for Britain” (remainer organisation) with undercover operatives and spying on Olly Robbins.
The key players were Richard Dearlove and some defence guy called Gwythian Prins.
Interestingly they appear to have been still operating until v recently:
More recent emails show Prins’ enthusiasm for the Prime Minister has considerably waned. In January of this year, he wrote to Dearlove predicting Johnson’s imminent and welcome departure, and bemoaned the premier’s lack of “stamina” to truly “get Brexit done.”
“Sunak won’t do will he? He’s another globalonist [sic] Blairite at heart isn’t he? Like Boris?” Prins lamented, noting major Johnson donors had shifted their backing to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Yes, fair enough, that bit. It’s very hard to imagine a “deep state network” including Robert Tombs.
I’d like to see the emails though.
My guess would it that they are emails between people involved in the Brexit campaign, then moaning about May making a right hash of the deal negotiations and that the Tories need to get rid and that they will be writing / meeting with such and such a person to moan at them about how badly it is all going and that they need to change leader. And probably some hyperbolic talk of I can get such and such person in a position of power will listen to me.
And that is being spun as this group controls the world.
I managed to track down some stuff online.
It’s very largely bog standard lobbying stuff, although in this case the explicit objective was a hard Brexit and the deposition of May and replacement with Boris.
They had a mole inside the civil service leaking intel, and we’re funded by some offshore plutocrats.
The write pieces under pseudonyms for friendly publications like the Telegraph and at least discussed infiltrating “Best for Britain” (remainer organisation) with undercover operatives and spying on Olly Robbins.
The key players were Richard Dearlove and some defence guy called Gwythian Prins…
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
There does seem to be an amount of panic setting in in the failing independence camp
That is a Labour MSP, you do realise?
Yes and I am very happy for labour to take on the SNP, bit like old times !!!!
I think Hope has misconstrued this and Hammond letter has been in for months
hammond website
Since 9 December I have been critical of the Prime Minister’s behaviour and the culture that existed in Number 10. All I can do as a backbencher is speak out and submit a letter. I guide everyone to my website statements where I have said for several months I already have done all I can as a backbencher.
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Indeed but note that neither Dearlove nor any of the others have denied that the leaked emails are genuine, just that we should remember their context. I expect every news outlet in the country will have downloaded the cache already.
It seems very weak stuff. A load of Brexit supporters moaning about Brexit, a civil servant leaking some info to them, and contacting people they know in politics to demand they get rid of May. Hardly the illuminati, and I think all Tory MPs were getting bombarded with get May out messages at that point.
I imagine exactly the same has been happening with Best for Britain and the other anti-Brexit groups, but lobbying for a second vote, organising donations to people like Steve Bray, etc.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
And I bet at least half of those deaths involving cyclists were the fault of the pedestrian, walking blithely into the road in front of the cyclist while looking at their phone or listening to headphones. Seriously, why don't people look before they cross the road anymore? It's a nightmare cycling through Central London.
I was crossing the road on a green man and three cyclists cut across in front and behind me. Cyclists are a nightmare in Central London
Other cyclists are awful I agree, I've almost been taken out by them while cycling myself. Invariably some middle aged man in lycra with calf muscles like hams. But the sheer number of people who walk into the road (not at a crossing) without looking at all is staggering. I've had a near miss already with a jogger (headphones in obvs) who ran out right in front of me, I am sure I will have a nasty accident soon.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
I'm sure that's meant in a joking manner, but as a cyclist in Edinburgh, who has always been careful around pedestrians, but has faced continuous aggression from drivers, it actually makes me feel really threatened.
All I can say is I feel really threatened by cyclists on pavements and road crossings and pelican crsossings. I have had some bad frights. And I never drive in Edinburgh.
I was most of all at risk when in the middle of hte road crossing a green man and a cyclists demo came barrelling straight at me and wouldn't stop at the red - I was really relieved when several dozen of the arrogant, self-entitled shites had finally passed within inches on all sides with me as piggy in the middle. One of those supposed reclaim the streets for cyclists things.
I live in the south suburbs of Edinburgh. I only drive into the city now when taking my mother in law to the eye pavilion for her check-ups. Mostly I use Lothian Buses, which are excellent.
The adoption of speed reductions 40->30 and 30->20 are bedding in with traffic flows slower than they were, but bearable. However, I have directly observed cyclists not using the lanes put in for them as part of the safer spaces schemes brought in during the pandemic.
In part this is because the schemes result in kerbside cycle lanes that cannot be cleaned by road sweepers, making them dangerous when wet. Also the council have not been mending potholes sufficiently and this creates real risk to life for cyclists and risk of damage to cars for drivers. If the council did more road maintenance, it would be better for all road users.
Interestingly this is something that our local Labour and Conservative councillors raised in their local election leaflets. I voted for both as a result. They were both elected. If the SNP council had paid more attention to bread and butter issues, they may have retained control of the council.
Hmm, that's interesting, though elsewhere I've seen the reverse pattern - SNP to Labour control correlating with a sharp deterioration in potholes etc. May well be a more general issue such as the covid backlog. But it's well within the rules of the game for opponents to score what they can!
This is a local gunstore, for local mass murderers...
Tried to visit the gun store that sold weapons to the Uvalde gunman. Was stopped in parking lot by management. It’s open but I’m not allowed in. Asked why… “You have a notepad… and an accent.” https://twitter.com/DaveLeeFT/status/1529830077718044672
Apparently he spent $4000 on assault rifles. Age 18. That didn’t ring any tiny alarms?
I wonder if there is a legal case for charging the owner of the gun store with accessory to murder?
Probably not. The gun industry has its own special federal law absolving it from any legal responsibility for the actions of gun owners.
A Congress which gave a damn would repeal it tomorrow.
Everyone gets £400, yes but the cap will have gone up £1400. Am I missing something?. Affluent pensioners get an extra £300 at Christmas and if on a diabled benefit another £150, again what am I missing. The more one looks at the policy the more unfait holes seem to appear.
Pensioners receive £400 towards their fuel bill and as my wife is over 80 we will receive a further £600 in December making £1,000 in total
Furthermore the triple lock is reinstated as official government policy with effect from next April providing a 9% increase in our pensions
This is far more than labour committed to and is surprising
Worth noting that it seems largely deficit funded.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
There does seem to be an amount of panic setting in in the failing independence camp
That is a Labour MSP, you do realise?
Yes and I am very happy for labour to take on the SNP, bit like old times !!!!
You'd better read it again. It's a MSP precisely unhappy at allying with the Tories.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Almost as many Americans died in car crashes in each year during the Vietnam War than died in the entire Vietnam War.
I think Hope has misconstrued this and Hammond letter has been in for months
hammond website
Since 9 December I have been critical of the Prime Minister’s behaviour and the culture that existed in Number 10. All I can do as a backbencher is speak out and submit a letter. I guide everyone to my website statements where I have said for several months I already have done all I can as a backbencher.
Iirc, him, Nokes and Brine are thd last remaining of 'the 21' ?
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time. M&S has been troubled for a long time now, failure to modernise and move with the times.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time.
I’m thinking more of the food.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
I think Hope has misconstrued this and Hammond letter has been in for months
hammond website
Since 9 December I have been critical of the Prime Minister’s behaviour and the culture that existed in Number 10. All I can do as a backbencher is speak out and submit a letter. I guide everyone to my website statements where I have said for several months I already have done all I can as a backbencher.
Iirc, him, Nokes and Brine are thd last remaining of 'the 21' ?
Sounds about right. now has a maj of 628 over libdems.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time.
I’m thinking more of the food.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
I would still say John Lewis / Waitrose is a better example. I don't think M&S necessarily even delivers quality on clothes these days.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
Does beg the question as to why the SNP have been able to go with coalition with Labour in D&G which you said wouldn't happen and form minority administrations in Midlothian and E Dunbartonshire but have been unable to form agreements with other parties in other areas?
Mr Sarwar before the election, denying any Labour coalition with anyone else, which is why I was so surprised at D&G. Obvs this gives Labour some right in the result, but whyt did Mr S rule that out an initio?
Coalitions in general - meh, quite normal. As is the complaining from opponents who get left out. All part of hte game. But when one football club manager announces that his team is going to play solitaire on its own, and then suddenly decide after all it's OK to join in ...
One of Anas’s MSPs must now think Edinburgh SLab are worthless.
There does seem to be an amount of panic setting in in the failing independence camp
That is a Labour MSP, you do realise?
Yes and I am very happy for labour to take on the SNP, bit like old times !!!!
You'd better read it again. It's a MSP precisely unhappy at allying with the Tories.
A couple are but this is the real danger for the SNP going forward
BBC: "The BBC has announced that it plans to stop airing CBBC and BBC Four as traditional broadcast channels."
How bloody ridiculous. They bring back BBC3 (aimed at 'the youth' who don't watch normal telly) and then get rid of BBC4 (aimed at the more mature viewers who do watch normal telly). Who makes these decisions?
Absolutely
Oldies won't be able to find 4, and Da Yoof won't watch a TV
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Yes. IMO most anti cyclist sentiment is derived from selection bias. A cyclist ignore the highway code it is remembered and anecdotes are created as they are the other. A motorist breaks the code its not remarkable just something that happens as they are in group.
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
BBC: "The BBC has announced that it plans to stop airing CBBC and BBC Four as traditional broadcast channels."
How bloody ridiculous. They bring back BBC3 (aimed at 'the youth' who don't watch normal telly) and then get rid of BBC4 (aimed at the more mature viewers who do watch normal telly). Who makes these decisions?
Absolutely
Oldies won't be able to find 4, and Da Yoof won't watch a TV
Crackers
All about making a political point...that's all that is important. Your coverage of The Proms cut from telly by the nasty Tories, while nobody watches tractor racing on BBC Three.
I live in a tiny flat that is heated by my neighbours. The vast majority of my energy goes on my PS4 / PC and my gas powered power shower.
I'm currently trying to decide on what new DSLR to buy. I'm booking a holiday to the Alps and possibly Greece (hat tip @Leon). I've booked a posh restaurant for GFs birthday.
I've made hardly a dent in my pandemic savings, revaluation of my flat. I do not need £400. Give it to the minimum wage folk getting screwed by inflation.
Canon R5.
Very happy with my Sony, perfect for travel and wildlife.
Nice. I’m looking at R5, R6 and 5D IV, still can’t decide between them!
I expect the kit lens will be the limiting factor for all of them. Do you have a lens collection already?
Being contrary and a dinosaur, I have a Pentax DSLR but I expect mirrorless will win in the end and Pentax will eventually go bust through refusing to follow the trend.
I do prefer a proper optical viewfinder though.
Mirrorless is great if you’re a contrarian dinosaur. I’ve a collection of 1950s Asahi lenses (the company which became Pentax), which I use with an adapter. Makes using manual lenses simple.
Cyclists seem uniquely aggressive in the UK. I suspect it’s because we’re not a very bicycle-friendly nation (as polls show) so cyclists feel they have to fight for the right to be on the road. This creates a vicious, er, cycle - where others perceive them as aggressive so the tension worsens
I’ve nearly been run over by several in Regent’s Park - whizzing through red lights at speed - not giving a fuck - even though multiple kids cross ti get into the park. Wankers
Other countries don’t seem to have this pestilence of super-charged twats going as fast as they can within city centres
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Things like shark attacks is another example of that, where every single one is given massive coverage, such that people are convinced they are far more common than they really are.
Oh indeed. There was a comedian in the US who got in a lot of trouble for a sketch about a man eaten by a shark a few years ago.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Almost as many Americans died in car crashes in each year during the Vietnam War than died in the entire Vietnam War.
And way more have died this Century than in both world wars combined.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Yes. IMO most anti cyclist sentiment is derived from selection bias. A cyclist ignore the highway code it is remembered and anecdotes are created as they are the other. A motorist breaks the code its not remarkable just something that happens as they are in group.
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
I can't remember the last time I saw a car run a red light. Cyclists? All the bloody time.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
Presumably the thinking behind the anti-SNP coalition in Edinburgh, is to completely nix the idea of a wildcat referendum, and force Holyrood to think about the (failure of) domestic policy such as education, policing and transport?
No, coalitions per se are quite normal, though Labour do have a tendency to go anti SNP out of sheer spite. The current issue is the way in which Mr Sarwar tried to get extra votes before the election by saying Labour wouldn't enter into any coalitions.*
*I suspect weasel wording - collaboration is somehow OK, but we have to see the details for coalitions before we can be sure.
Out of sheer spite? Oh come on! SNP wish to break up the UK, which is fairly fundamental to UK parties, quite aside from the pretty unsavoury aspects of nationalism per se. It doesn't need to be spite, it is sensible politics.
You're pleasantly innocent of the nature of the Slab pooch and its reaction to having its perpetual dinner bowl sharply removed.
And you are still confounding nationalism with pro autonomy. Come to think of it, you must have been voting Tory for many years, or am I wrong? Now that is a ferociously UK nationalist party, to the degree that its main supporters here actively advocate armed invasion and even insurrection against opponents. And your hostility to SNP and PC rather implies your converse wish to support the nationalist integrity of the UK.
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Indeed but note that neither Dearlove nor any of the others have denied that the leaked emails are genuine, just that we should remember their context. I expect every news outlet in the country will have downloaded the cache already.
Of course, because trivial bollocks from years ago is their oxygen at the moment.
I live in a tiny flat that is heated by my neighbours. The vast majority of my energy goes on my PS4 / PC and my gas powered power shower.
I'm currently trying to decide on what new DSLR to buy. I'm booking a holiday to the Alps and possibly Greece (hat tip @Leon). I've booked a posh restaurant for GFs birthday.
I've made hardly a dent in my pandemic savings, revaluation of my flat. I do not need £400. Give it to the minimum wage folk getting screwed by inflation.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time. M&S has been troubled for a long time now, failure to modernise and move with the times.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
But that model is also been stretched now.
The model of Marks & Spencer closures as a sign of a town's decline can probably be extended to all major shops, including Debenhams, Waitrose and, as you say, John Lewis. It is part of the hollowing out of left-behind towns. As I suggested the other day, this might also be why HMG wants to end WFH in order to reinvigorate the high street as part of "levelling up".
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time. M&S has been troubled for a long time now, failure to modernise and move with the times.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
But that model is also been stretched now.
The model of Marks & Spencer closures as a sign of a town's decline can probably be extended to all major shops, including Debenhams, Waitrose and, as you say, John Lewis. It is part of the hollowing out of left-behind towns. As I suggested the other day, this might also be why HMG wants to end WFH in order to reinvigorate the high street as part of "levelling up".
As far as “towns” go, I’d have thought WFH might actually boost the high street.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Yes. IMO most anti cyclist sentiment is derived from selection bias. A cyclist ignore the highway code it is remembered and anecdotes are created as they are the other. A motorist breaks the code its not remarkable just something that happens as they are in group.
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
I can't remember the last time I saw a car run a red light. Cyclists? All the bloody time.
They run red lights because “it’s safer that way”. That’s quite possibly true but it has now evolved into a culture where they deem themselves above the Highway Code. Cycling down pavements, going the wrong way on one way streets. And so on
It’s not selection bias. I have seen more anti social behaviour from cyclists than I have seen from drivers (tho of course a driver who nearly hits you and doesn’t give a toss is way more dangerous)
The website - titled "Very English Coop d'Etat" - says it has published private emails from former British spymaster Richard Dearlove, leading Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart, pro-Brexit historian Robert Tombs, and other supporters of Britain's divorce from the EU, which was finalized in January 2020.
Sounds like somebody has fallen for repeating Russian propaganda.
It’s almost as if the Russians have been targeting both sides of every contentious issue, with the intention of sowing division rather than any particular outcome.
No shit Sherlock. Anyone who believes the Russia Report that there was no Russian interference in British elections and referenda needs the Gullibility Award I handed to another poster who doesn't believe Boris Johnson lied to parliament.
Dearlove has already confirmed the accuracy of the emails, so it’s not “propaganda” as Sandpit suggests.
That isn't what he has said...
"Dearlove, who led Britain's foreign spy service - known as MI6 - between 1999 and 2004, told Reuters the leaked material should be treated with caution"....Dearlove said that the emails captured a "legitimate lobbying exercise which, seen through this antagonistic optic, is now subject to distortion."
The claim is "they are part of a group of hardline pro-Brexit figures secretly calling the shots in the United Kingdom.".
That's full on Carole Conspiracy stuff.
Indeed but note that neither Dearlove nor any of the others have denied that the leaked emails are genuine, just that we should remember their context. I expect every news outlet in the country will have downloaded the cache already.
Of course, because trivial bollocks from years ago is their oxygen at the moment.
Cyclists seem uniquely aggressive in the UK. I suspect it’s because we’re not a very bicycle-friendly nation (as polls show) so cyclists feel they have to fight for the right to be on the road. This creates a vicious, er, cycle - where others perceive them as aggressive so the tension worsens
I’ve nearly been run over by several in Regent’s Park - whizzing through red lights at speed - not giving a fuck - even though multiple kids cross ti get into the park. Wankers
Other countries don’t seem to have this pestilence of super-charged twats going as fast as they can within city centres
I nearly walked into a cyclist who was hurtling along the pedestrian bit outside Basingstoke station a few weeks ago. Had been a second earlier I'd have been absolutely clattered.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time. M&S has been troubled for a long time now, failure to modernise and move with the times.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
But that model is also been stretched now.
The model of Marks & Spencer closures as a sign of a town's decline can probably be extended to all major shops, including Debenhams, Waitrose and, as you say, John Lewis. It is part of the hollowing out of left-behind towns. As I suggested the other day, this might also be why HMG wants to end WFH in order to reinvigorate the high street as part of "levelling up".
Shopping in small towns is so poor though. The only decent small towns for this are the posh places with interesting independent stores, other than that it is either online or destination shopping. Even things like clothes have gone online, with lots of returns if you don't like it when tried on.
So, this is probably Sunaks last chance. He should focus on sidelining the PM and hope enough now see him as a credible option and put the letters in. If it goes to VONC, quit and vote against him given hes finished anyway if he stands by a wounded elephant seal.
Cyclists seem uniquely aggressive in the UK. I suspect it’s because we’re not a very bicycle-friendly nation (as polls show) so cyclists feel they have to fight for the right to be on the road. This creates a vicious, er, cycle - where others perceive them as aggressive so the tension worsens
I’ve nearly been run over by several in Regent’s Park - whizzing through red lights at speed - not giving a fuck - even though multiple kids cross ti get into the park. Wankers
Other countries don’t seem to have this pestilence of super-charged twats going as fast as they can within city centres
As a recent convert to cycle commuting I think that one issue is that it still feels fairly unsafe cycling on the road, and this discourages more risk averse or less confident cyclists from using the roads. This means that a high proportion of cyclists are aggressive risk taking types, and their behaviour then sets the norm. So for instance, generally speaking I don't cycle through red lights, but I do sometimes eg when there are no other road users or pedestrians crossing, especially if it's just a left turn. If everyone else is doing it too you feel a bit stupid waiting there, it is much easier and often safer just to go with the flow and do what everyone else is doing. My general philosophy of road usage as a cyclist and a driver is to pay most attention to those more vulnerable than you. For a cyclist that means pedestrians, and for a motorist that means cyclists.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time.
I’m thinking more of the food.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
I'm still wondering why I can't get a food delivery from M&S. It's quite annoying.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Yes. IMO most anti cyclist sentiment is derived from selection bias. A cyclist ignore the highway code it is remembered and anecdotes are created as they are the other. A motorist breaks the code its not remarkable just something that happens as they are in group.
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
I can't remember the last time I saw a car run a red light. Cyclists? All the bloody time.
I'm not saying that cyclists are brilliant. For sure the type of transport dictates which rule breaking is more common. Just that inconsiderate driving will not be remembered to the extant that cycling will.
Do you really remember the driver that cut you up on the roundabout? Or was doing 100+ on the motorway? Or ignored the zebra crossing you were waiting at?
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Harvard Psycology Professor Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’, came up with the statistic that more Americans die every year in plane crashes, than in car crashes - if all you do is watch is the national news networks and count the deaths. A significant number surveyed by pollsters agree.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Yup, it’s totally irrational. I’ll post it later, but there’s a graph showing worldwide commercial flight numbers (or hours), vs fatalities (or fatal accidents) over the last three or four decades. The deaths are declining as the flight numbers increase - dramatically in both cases.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time.
I’m thinking more of the food.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
I'm still wondering why I can't get a food delivery from M&S. It's quite annoying.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time.
I’m thinking more of the food.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
I'm still wondering why I can't get a food delivery from M&S. It's quite annoying.
We haven’t discussed the very minor brouhaha about M&S pulling out of town centres in favour of out-of-town malls.
Blame anti-parking local governments.
Not seen it but am reminded of this:-
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose. Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
M&S is one of the best things about the UK, and so I think Kellner’s analysis is very savvy.
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
Is it though? You sound like some Brexit voters with their nostalgia glasses on all the time. M&S has been troubled for a long time now, failure to modernise and move with the times.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
But that model is also been stretched now.
The model of Marks & Spencer closures as a sign of a town's decline can probably be extended to all major shops, including Debenhams, Waitrose and, as you say, John Lewis. It is part of the hollowing out of left-behind towns. As I suggested the other day, this might also be why HMG wants to end WFH in order to reinvigorate the high street as part of "levelling up".
WFH would massively invigorate the average High St. Working in offices shifts the spending to large city centres.
Because working with the Toreeees is always evil - except when the SNP do it.....
I'm not a Green/SNP ultra but this is a complete disaster for those of us who engage in the extreme sport "cycling about in Edinburgh".
The Tories are rabidly pro-driver here. It's honestly impossible to find a reason to vote for the neanderthals either on a national or local basis - everything is a culture war. I think they associate bikes with wokeists.
I am no fan of the democratic abomination where a tiny group of 13 Labour councillors can control a council comprised of 63 elected members, but in what respect is the new Labour minority administration “a complete disaster” for cyclists? I got the impression that Scottish Labour is quite pro-cycling? Or are the Edinburgh Labourites uncharacteristically pro-car?
(Incidentally, the centre-right are very pro-cycling in many European countries, so the hostility of the ones on the big island is a bit of a mystery. Surely we ought to be encouraging healthy and cheap activities? Makes our cities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. Reduces heart-lung and obesity catastrophe. Is fun!! Or ought to be…)
If they could ban cyclists in Edinburgh it would considerably increase my safety and life expectancy and that of all other pedestrians.
Seems unlikely.
'Of around 400 pedestrians killed in collisions in the UK each year, about 2.5 involve a bicycle. Put it another way: more than 99% of pedestrian collision deaths in this country involve a motorised vehicle.'
As you push them back into their cars you many well be increasing your own risk.
It is astonishing to witness the media prominence given to (relatively rare) rail, maritime and aviation loss of life and life-changing disability injuries whereas the literally daily carnage caused by motor vehicles gets a brief mention on page 32, if you’re lucky.
Yes. IMO most anti cyclist sentiment is derived from selection bias. A cyclist ignore the highway code it is remembered and anecdotes are created as they are the other. A motorist breaks the code its not remarkable just something that happens as they are in group.
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
I can't remember the last time I saw a car run a red light. Cyclists? All the bloody time.
I'm not saying that cyclists are brilliant. For sure the type of transport dictates which rule breaking is more common. Just that inconsiderate driving will not be remembered to the extant that cycling will.
Do you really remember the driver that cut you up on the roundabout? Or was doing 100+ on the motorway? Or ignored the zebra crossing you were waiting at?
One thing to be in another car, another not to be. And cars don't normally drive on pavements. Unlike cyclists, who are sometimes actually encouraged to do so.
Comments
Bot tastic
Blame anti-parking local governments.
The reality is a difference of two orders of magnitude, and three orders of magnitude if you ignore recreational aviation. More than 100 people die in car crashes, every day in the US.
Being contrary and a dinosaur, I have a Pentax DSLR but I expect mirrorless will win in the end and Pentax will eventually go bust through refusing to follow the trend.
I do prefer a proper optical viewfinder though.
https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1529839505183756294
Furthermore the triple lock is reinstated as official government policy with effect from next April providing a 9% increase in our pensions
This is far more than labour committed to and is surprising
Obviously it's terrible that so many children are being killed with guns, but the way in which it was presented was that it was somehow more acceptable for a child to die on the road than by a gun, and that didn't quite sit right with me.
It's indicative of how normalised we are to the deaths caused by cars.
They are in denial of just how toxic Boris has become
The adoption of speed reductions 40->30 and 30->20 are bedding in with traffic flows slower than they were, but bearable. However, I have directly observed cyclists not using the lanes put in for them as part of the safer spaces schemes brought in during the pandemic.
In part this is because the schemes result in kerbside cycle lanes that cannot be cleaned by road sweepers, making them dangerous when wet. Also the council have not been mending potholes sufficiently and this creates real risk to life for cyclists and risk of damage to cars for drivers. If the council did more road maintenance, it would be better for all road users.
Interestingly this is something that our local Labour and Conservative councillors raised in their local election leaflets. I voted for both as a result. They were both elected. If the SNP council had paid more attention to bread and butter issues, they may have retained control of the council.
Although the people I see on wildlife trips are usually toting £10k Canon bazooka lenses.
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/gwythian-prins
They seem to have some real weirdos in these sinecures.
The Deeply Risible State.
hammond website
Since 9 December I have been critical of the Prime Minister’s behaviour and the culture that existed in Number 10. All I can do as a backbencher is speak out and submit a letter. I guide everyone to my website statements where I have said for several months I already have done all I can as a backbencher.
I imagine exactly the same has been happening with Best for Britain and the other anti-Brexit groups, but lobbying for a second vote, organising donations to people like Steve Bray, etc.
A much bigger blow for the women was the recent closure of Marks & Spencer. ‘There’s nothing nice here any more,’ ‘Nowhere to get something special – nowhere for presents,’ ‘Nowhere with good-quality things – nice knickers.’ I was struck by the powerful impact of the loss of M&S as the pollster Peter Kellner had sent me an interesting article a few months before, pointing out how M&S store closures in small towns could be mapped closely to the Brexit-voting seats that Labour lost. He suggested that we might think of M&S as the canary in the mine, an early prediction of future demise in towns that have lost their sense of purpose.
Beyond the Red Wall. Deborah Mattinson.
The gun industry has its own special federal law absolving it from any legal responsibility for the actions of gun owners.
A Congress which gave a damn would repeal it tomorrow.
Largest lead for Labour since invasion of Ukraine.
Westminster Voting Intention (25 May):
Labour 40% (+1)
Conservative 31% (-2)
Liberal Democrat 14% (+2)
Green 5% (–)
Scottish National Party 4% (–)
Reform UK 3% (-1)
Other 2% (-1)
Changes +/- 22 May
All Net Approval Ratings
(25 May):
Keir Starmer: -4% (+3)
Rishi Sunak: -16% (-1)
Boris Johnson: -28% (-8)
Changes +/- 22 May
I find the issue interesting as Britain really really should try to avoid the US model of dead town and nearby strip mall.
If you were to pick a store, John Lewis seems much more the "best of British" values. Great service, fair deal for the workers, high quality products while not ripping you off on price.
But that model is also been stretched now.
Westminster Voting Intention (25 May):
Labour 40% (+1)
Conservative 31% (-2)
Liberal Democrat 14% (+2)
Green 5% (–)
Scottish National Party 4% (–)
Reform UK 3% (-1)
Other 2% (-1)
Changes +/- 22 May
https://t.co/lgVZ7wLOi2 https://t.co/4BawPP62Wr
Largest lead for Labour since invasion of Ukraine.
Westminster Voting Intention (25 May):
Labour 40% (+1)
Conservative 31% (-2)
Liberal Democrat 14% (+2)
Green 5% (–)
Scottish National Party 4% (–)
Reform UK 3% (-1)
Other 2% (-1)
Changes +/- 22 May
Great poll for the LDs.
But I do know people who rely on M&S for clothings basics. They tend to be poorer and maybe older, but M&S delivers quality.
Oldies won't be able to find 4, and Da Yoof won't watch a TV
Crackers
I've always felt that cycling on Britain's roads is the closest to active discrimination I can get in the UK. The power dynamic is huge and you're entirely at the whim of what feels to be a capricious often actively malicious percentage of road users.
The majority of drivers are lovely and courteous, 5% are ignorant and 1% are bastards.
I’ve a collection of 1950s Asahi lenses (the company which became Pentax), which I use with an adapter. Makes using manual lenses simple.
I’ve nearly been run over by several in Regent’s Park - whizzing through red lights at speed - not giving a fuck - even though multiple kids cross ti get into the park. Wankers
Other countries don’t seem to have this pestilence of super-charged twats going as fast as they can within city centres
Ed Davey, the Phoenix.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-uJ17Evs0U
He ended up talking about it on stage afterwards.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=v0OmticDIIc
125/2 off 9 overs !!!
Ed, if you are reading, nobody knows who are you are, love.
You need a visual brand. Suggest outdoors / hiking clothing, since you appear to be from the Peak District.
https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-digital-cameras/superzoom-cameras/dc-tz200eb.html
40 + 14 + 5 = 59.
It’s big city centres that are suffering.
It’s not selection bias. I have seen more anti social behaviour from cyclists than I have seen from drivers (tho of course a driver who nearly hits you and doesn’t give a toss is way more dangerous)
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1529729614309900290
The sight of Republican politicians decrying politics after every mass killing, as though politics isn’t their effing job…
https://twitter.com/GraphCrimes/status/1529541852851994625?s=20&t=s9ayTPaHhfMaEX6dIS4Uog
Tory MP: “If we have Johnson at the next election then my voters will vote Lib Dem. If we don’t, they won’t.”
Guardian
Davey must be praying that Johnson stays now. Yesterday was a great day for the Opposition.
That is my next crazy prediction
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1529755971874168832?s=20&t=lS_-5WQhjPtHnbKbmQMvxA
Westminster voting intention:
LAB: 38% (+1)
CON: 32% (-2)
LDEM: 13% (+2)
GRN: 8% (+1)
via
@KantarPublic
, 19 - 23 May
Chgs. w/ Apr
My general philosophy of road usage as a cyclist and a driver is to pay most attention to those more vulnerable than you. For a cyclist that means pedestrians, and for a motorist that means cyclists.
Do you really remember the driver that cut you up on the roundabout? Or was doing 100+ on the motorway? Or ignored the zebra crossing you were waiting at?
Fucking hell
Best shot at a boost near term is Tiverton.