Thanks for the header. Much appreciated. Afternoon, everyone.
1 - I'm not absolutely clear why checks should be applied to *owners*, rather than the people who run the homes. Childcare professionals may not be good at running a business. 2 - I'm really not sure on this. If terrorists have been given effective amnesties, then I do not see why others should be different. 3 - Yes. 4 - This for me has a slight feel of aspects Zia-Ul-Haq's 'islamisation' of Pakistan in the late 1970s/1980s. A timebomb for the future. 5 - I found the report on Afghanistan interesting in that responsibility was (correctly) laid at the door of Govt leadership, even when the behaviour of groups / individuals trying to shoehorn their special interests onto the agenda was way over the line. 6 - Yes. I hope this will be a major campaigning point for parties at the next Election. Another reason for BoJoGo.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
So Sadio Mane wants to leave? Wasn't expecting that. Bayern apparently.
Liverpool have just signed yet another young attacking forward and I think another one is supposed to be joining this summer. Mane is now 30, one year left on this contract and I believe around this age is when the likes of Liverpool Brainiac statos advise the club to be much more cautious on the new size of new contracts.
So I presume competition for places plus BM have offered his a big deal while Liverpool unlikely to give his some bumper deal taking him from 31 to mid 30s.
And this isn’t new science. Wenger wouldn’t offer more than a one-year deal to anyone 30 or over. He got criticised for it and the club ended up giving stupid contracts to oldies.
Not just that. It (just about) stops the SNP even thinking about playing silly buggers.
(I don't think they would be wise to, anyway; the "we could back the Tories" card is high cost/low value to play. But it would be reassuring if it were out of circulation.)
Only for Little Englanders who prefer it rigged their way all the time. You arseholes would rather have a bunch of lying , stealing cheating arseholes in power as long as they are English.
I thought you didn’t like the SNP either.
I do not like the current SNP leadership, but certainly not happy with arsehole Little Englanders wanting us as a colony but unhappy that we might actually participate in the politics. F***ing Tory arses.
Talking about critical assessment, have you tried this stuff?
I got two cans of it in my latest mixed beer doorstep delivery from Flavourly, and am not impressed with it. Perhaps a personal thing. TBF the mixed packs do have an element of unexpected discovery in them, and I found the blackcurrant beer in the same mixed pack was rather pleasantly wersh for a summer late afternoon.
Bloody awful trend in "craft" beer at the moment to have all these artificially flavoured nonsense mimicking sweets, cakes, etc, often using ice cream concentrate flavourings. Its like alcopops for beer. If I want a millionaire shortbread tasting thing, I will buy some millionaire shortbread (soon to be renamed billionaire shortbread given the inflation).
Not just that. It (just about) stops the SNP even thinking about playing silly buggers.
(I don't think they would be wise to, anyway; the "we could back the Tories" card is high cost/low value to play. But it would be reassuring if it were out of circulation.)
Only for Little Englanders who prefer it rigged their way all the time. You arseholes would rather have a bunch of lying , stealing cheating arseholes in power as long as they are English.
I thought you didn’t like the SNP either.
I do not like the current SNP leadership, but certainly not happy with arsehole Little Englanders wanting us as a colony but unhappy that we might actually participate in the politics. F***ing Tory arses.
Talking about critical assessment, have you tried this stuff?
I got two cans of it in my latest mixed beer doorstep delivery from Flavourly, and am not impressed with it. Perhaps a personal thing. TBF the mixed packs do have an element of unexpected discovery in them, and I found the blackcurrant beer in the same mixed pack was rather pleasantly wersh for a summer late afternoon.
Bloody awful trend in "craft" beer at the moment to have all these artificially flavoured nonsense mimicking sweets, cakes, etc, often using ice cream concentrate flavourings. Its like alcopops for beer. If I want a millionaire shortbread tasting thing, I will buy some millionaire shortbread (soon to be renamed billionaire shortbread given the inflation).
It should be a crime punishable by jail.
I think I need to go and have a lie down, I agree with MalkyG on something. I am sure normal service will be resumed shortly.
Not just that. It (just about) stops the SNP even thinking about playing silly buggers.
(I don't think they would be wise to, anyway; the "we could back the Tories" card is high cost/low value to play. But it would be reassuring if it were out of circulation.)
Only for Little Englanders who prefer it rigged their way all the time. You arseholes would rather have a bunch of lying , stealing cheating arseholes in power as long as they are English.
I thought you didn’t like the SNP either.
I do not like the current SNP leadership, but certainly not happy with arsehole Little Englanders wanting us as a colony but unhappy that we might actually participate in the politics. F***ing Tory arses.
Talking about critical assessment, have you tried this stuff?
I got two cans of it in my latest mixed beer doorstep delivery from Flavourly, and am not impressed with it. Perhaps a personal thing. TBF the mixed packs do have an element of unexpected discovery in them, and I found the blackcurrant beer in the same mixed pack was rather pleasantly wersh for a summer late afternoon.
Bloody awful trend in "craft" beer at the moment to have all these artificially flavoured nonsense mimicking sweets, cakes, etc, often using ice cream concentrate flavourings. Its like alcopops for beer. If I want a millionaire shortbread tasting thing, I will buy some millionaire shortbread (soon to be renamed billionaire shortbread given the inflation).
Starbucks for Craft Beer.
Who buys craft beer, anyway? What's wrong with a good Shoreditch Shredded Wheat Cafe?
OT: Just realised that MTFC share colours with Ukraine. Hmmm.
Not just that. It (just about) stops the SNP even thinking about playing silly buggers.
(I don't think they would be wise to, anyway; the "we could back the Tories" card is high cost/low value to play. But it would be reassuring if it were out of circulation.)
Only for Little Englanders who prefer it rigged their way all the time. You arseholes would rather have a bunch of lying , stealing cheating arseholes in power as long as they are English.
I thought you didn’t like the SNP either.
I do not like the current SNP leadership, but certainly not happy with arsehole Little Englanders wanting us as a colony but unhappy that we might actually participate in the politics. F***ing Tory arses.
Talking about critical assessment, have you tried this stuff?
I got two cans of it in my latest mixed beer doorstep delivery from Flavourly, and am not impressed with it. Perhaps a personal thing. TBF the mixed packs do have an element of unexpected discovery in them, and I found the blackcurrant beer in the same mixed pack was rather pleasantly wersh for a summer late afternoon.
If I want a millionaire shortbread tasting thing, I will buy some millionaire shortbread (soon to be renamed billionaire shortbread given the inflation).
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
I don't think this has been mentioned yet on PB but I have to say I am rather disturbed by the fact that the BBC have reversed the hiring of a stand in radio presenter simply on the grounds he is left wing and anti-Boris Johnson.
Are we to see a situation where, every time there is a change of Government, the whole of the BBC presenting establishment has to be fired and rehired based on their political persuasion? Or do we want our presenters only to be drawn from the ranks of those who are so disengaged from life that they hold no political views at all?
I suspect I disagree with pretty much everyone of Mr Stadlen's political positions - though to be fair I have never actually heard of him before now - but unless he abuses his position as a presenter then he should not be barred from a job simply because he is critical of the Government.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
With all this so called intelligence why is the country in such a mess
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace these underperformers
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
With all this so called intelligence why is the country in such a mess
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace underperformers
Sunak as far as I can see is the only senior member of the Cabinet with a 1st class degree, certainly an Oxbridge 1st.
In the past plenty of senior Cabinet Ministers were in that category, Cameron, Hunt, Hague, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Portillo, Hurd, Redwood, Lawson, Healey, Jenkins, Wilson etc.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
Still doesn't make him brighter than either Boris or Starmer though. You just don't know (admitted neither do I). I have met fellows from Oxbridge who are definitely not as bright as many I have met with science degrees. I think, as I have said before you are unnecessarily in awe of your imagined betters. They aren't.
Not just that. It (just about) stops the SNP even thinking about playing silly buggers.
(I don't think they would be wise to, anyway; the "we could back the Tories" card is high cost/low value to play. But it would be reassuring if it were out of circulation.)
Only for Little Englanders who prefer it rigged their way all the time. You arseholes would rather have a bunch of lying , stealing cheating arseholes in power as long as they are English.
I thought you didn’t like the SNP either.
I do not like the current SNP leadership, but certainly not happy with arsehole Little Englanders wanting us as a colony but unhappy that we might actually participate in the politics. F***ing Tory arses.
Talking about critical assessment, have you tried this stuff?
I got two cans of it in my latest mixed beer doorstep delivery from Flavourly, and am not impressed with it. Perhaps a personal thing. TBF the mixed packs do have an element of unexpected discovery in them, and I found the blackcurrant beer in the same mixed pack was rather pleasantly wersh for a summer late afternoon.
Bloody awful trend in "craft" beer at the moment to have all these artificially flavoured nonsense mimicking sweets, cakes, etc, often using ice cream concentrate flavourings. Its like alcopops for beer. If I want a millionaire shortbread tasting thing, I will buy some millionaire shortbread (soon to be renamed billionaire shortbread given the inflation).
I am very fond of stouts and porters - and that bit of the beer world has gone loopy for 'double cream marshmallow maple strawberry milk-shake' kind of flavourings. Often ludicrously high abv too. Might as well just have a pint of port and open a box of Quality Street.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
As a history graduate, eh, it's a fair cop.
Yes sorry about that. I think I might have made a few enemies. Of course I'm not biased at all with my maths degree.
But basically I just don't assume someone is clever because they have a degree, especially from Oxbridge. There is a better chance they are, but it's not a given. A friend of mine is brilliant. I posted about him the other day. He was a high flying consultant, but left school to join the Navy without a CSE to his name.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
Still doesn't make him brighter than either Boris or Starmer though. You just don't know (admitted neither do I). I have met fellows from Oxbridge who are definitely not as bright as many I have met with science degrees. I think, as I have said before you are unnecessarily in awe of your imagined betters. They aren't.
Having a science degree does not automatically make you a genius too but obviously most scientists will do science research or work for a corporation or in medicine not go into politics. As I have already pointed out Redwood's success in the city as an analyst shows he was not exactly innumerate either
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
With all this so called intelligence why is the country in such a mess
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace underperformers
Sunak as far as I can see is the only senior member of the Cabinet with a 1st class degree, certainly an Oxbridge 1st.
In the past plenty of senior Cabinet Ministers were in that category, Cameron, Hunt, Hague, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Portillo, Hurd, Redwood, Lawson, Healey, Jenkins, Wilson etc.
Sunak is the only cabinet member that is articulate, but that doesn't change my attitude that intelligence is an essential pre cursor to being a sensible politician
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
With all this so called intelligence why is the country in such a mess
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace these underperformers
To be fair Redwood has been nowhere near the levers of power for 25 years…
I don't think this has been mentioned yet on PB but I have to say I am rather disturbed by the fact that the BBC have reversed the hiring of a stand in radio presenter simply on the grounds he is left wing and anti-Boris Johnson.
Are we to see a situation where, every time there is a change of Government, the whole of the BBC presenting establishment has to be fired and rehired based on their political persuasion? Or do we want our presenters only to be drawn from the ranks of those who are so disengaged from life that they hold no political views at all?
I suspect I disagree with pretty much everyone of Mr Stadlen's political positions - though to be fair I have never actually heard of him before now - but unless he abuses his position as a presenter then he should not be barred from a job simply because he is critical of the Government.
Not sure. If this is correct (published by Guido, but it was wrong the BBC would have pushed back) he was continuing being nakedly partisan up until mere days ago. Is that tenable for a BBC presenter on a rolling News (Radio 5) channel? I'd say they may have violated their own standard.
More like a recruiting process off the rails, perhaps? Or a horribly poor sense of judgement on Standen's part.
One could understand if it was 5 years ago, but whilst he has been after the job?
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
With all this so called intelligence why is the country in such a mess
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace underperformers
Sunak as far as I can see is the only senior member of the Cabinet with a 1st class degree, certainly an Oxbridge 1st.
In the past plenty of senior Cabinet Ministers were in that category, Cameron, Hunt, Hague, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Portillo, Hurd, Redwood, Lawson, Healey, Jenkins, Wilson etc.
Sunak is the only cabinet member that is articulate, but that doesn't change my attitude that intelligence is an essential pre cursor to being a sensible politician
I think that's true. However. A genuine intellectual curiosity is more important. There are plenty of folk spectacularly knowledgeable with little interest or knowledge outside their own narrow field. And plenty others who have formed their views decades ago and see no reason to change their views in light of new circumstances. Redwood strikes me as being similar to Corbyn in that regard.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
Still doesn't make him brighter than either Boris or Starmer though. You just don't know (admitted neither do I). I have met fellows from Oxbridge who are definitely not as bright as many I have met with science degrees. I think, as I have said before you are unnecessarily in awe of your imagined betters. They aren't.
Having a science degree does not automatically make you a genius too but obviously most scientists will do science research or work for a corporation or in medicine not go into politics. As I have already pointed out Redwood's success in the city as an analyst shows he was not exactly innumerate either
As I keep saying I never said he was stupid. I don't know why you keep thinking I did. I just said you don't know he is cleverer than Boris or Starmer which is what you said.
Re your comments about scientists not necessarily being geniuses, well obviously, but you also can't do a maths or physics degree without being pretty bright. Also I think you are wrong regarding what graduates with science degrees do. Lots do go into the city sadly as they are sought after. In my son's case he was head hunted in his 2nd and 3rd and 4th year to work in the city and paid enormous eye watering amounts of money during the summer. He decided to stay at Cambridge to do his PhD though, although it meant he could pay off his loan and have saving to keep him going.
But I used the word "war" for 2 reasons: the material just released shows the use of army battalions to crush the Uighurs and it is also how Uighur representatives have described it - as a war on their people and culture by the Chinese State.
I find the claims of "Never Again" which get trotted out at regular intervals on memorial days increasingly hollow.
"Again and Again" would be more accurate.
Pretty well what Zelensky has said in relation to the Russian attempt to wipe out Ukraine.
I think we do need different words for "trying to wipe out a culture" and "trying to kill everyone who is part of a culture". Both are horrible, but the former tends to involve censorship and "forced reeducation", while the latter involves mass murder on an industrial scale. Genocide is for many people associated with the latter - specifically with the Nazi attempt to kill every single Jewish person - and using it about stopping people from practicing their culture is an unhelpful analogy which both downgrades the Holocaust (which really wasn't mainly about closing synagogues and persecuting anyone practising Judaism) and undermines the current crimes (because it sounds exaggerated).
It feels awkward, even suspicious, to try to distinguish levels of horror, but being clear what we mean is important. Calling the Uighur oppression "a war on an entire culture" feels the right phrase, and entirely wicked in itself.
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
All of these things are being done to the Uighurs by the Chinese state on the orders of the Chinese leadership at the highest level.
I don't think this has been mentioned yet on PB but I have to say I am rather disturbed by the fact that the BBC have reversed the hiring of a stand in radio presenter simply on the grounds he is left wing and anti-Boris Johnson.
Are we to see a situation where, every time there is a change of Government, the whole of the BBC presenting establishment has to be fired and rehired based on their political persuasion? Or do we want our presenters only to be drawn from the ranks of those who are so disengaged from life that they hold no political views at all?
I suspect I disagree with pretty much everyone of Mr Stadlen's political positions - though to be fair I have never actually heard of him before now - but unless he abuses his position as a presenter then he should not be barred from a job simply because he is critical of the Government.
People celebrating this would be the first to complain about cancel culture if it was someone they supported.
It’s not something to be welcomed. Stadlen posts drivel on Twitter and even posts stuff about his ability as a boxer. But should he be unhired as a consequence. Should people only work in the media if they have no politics.
Fourth comment is pushing the claims of John Redwood. Oh pretty please!
PM Redwood could be a dark horse, he would stand as the candidate to return the party to pure Thatcherism as he did against Major in 1995 if he stood. However the membership did not get a say then, now they do. In the unlikely event he got to the final 2 with MPs after Boris lost a VONC then Redwood could win the membership on a pure Thatcherite, hard Brexit platform and become the new PM
John Redwood as PM would be a dream for the opposition in my opinion.
Maybe but he would still get at least 2 years as PM to run a pure Thatcherite government. He is also extremely intelligent, far more so than Boris or Starmer for that matter
I wasn't disagreeing with you at all. However with regard to your last post how do you know he is more intelligent? I don't think there is any obvious way of telling. Boris and Starmer are both clearly quite bright. Also intelligence comes in many forms and I would say he definitely does not have emotional intelligence whereas Boris and Starmer clearly do have more.
He is a distinguished fellow of All Souls College as well as having had a very successful City career before politics.
I was not talking about emotional intelligence but intellect
That doesn't mean he is more intelligent than Boris or Starmer of course which was the point being made and they are both clearly pretty bright.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
He got a 1st class degree from Oxford, unlike them and you don't get invited to be a fellow of All Souls at 21 as he was unless you not only get a 1st but a top 1st. The fact he was a successful city analyst and investor before politics also shows he can handle numbers too
Still doesn't make him brighter than either Boris or Starmer though. You just don't know (admitted neither do I). I have met fellows from Oxbridge who are definitely not as bright as many I have met with science degrees. I think, as I have said before you are unnecessarily in awe of your imagined betters. They aren't.
Having a science degree does not automatically make you a genius too but obviously most scientists will do science research or work for a corporation or in medicine not go into politics. As I have already pointed out Redwood's success in the city as an analyst shows he was not exactly innumerate either
As I keep saying I never said he was stupid. I don't know why you keep thinking I did. I just said you don't know he is cleverer than Boris or Starmer which is what you said.
Re your comments about scientists not necessarily being geniuses, well obviously, but you also can't do a maths or physics degree without being pretty bright. Also I think you are wrong regarding what graduates with science degrees do. Lots do go into the city sadly as they are sought after. In my son's case he was head hunted in his 2nd and 3rd and 4th year to work in the city and paid enormous eye watering amounts of money during the summer. He decided to stay at Cambridge to do his PhD though, although it meant he could pay off his loan and have saving to keep him going.
Even if some go into the City too, for the money rather than making direct use of their science degree, that will still be more than the number who go into politics
Comments
1 - I'm not absolutely clear why checks should be applied to *owners*, rather than the people who run the homes. Childcare professionals may not be good at running a business.
2 - I'm really not sure on this. If terrorists have been given effective amnesties, then I do not see why others should be different.
3 - Yes.
4 - This for me has a slight feel of aspects Zia-Ul-Haq's 'islamisation' of Pakistan in the late 1970s/1980s. A timebomb for the future.
5 - I found the report on Afghanistan interesting in that responsibility was (correctly) laid at the door of Govt leadership, even when the behaviour of groups / individuals trying to shoehorn their special interests onto the agenda was way over the line.
6 - Yes. I hope this will be a major campaigning point for parties at the next Election. Another reason for BoJoGo.
Also his degree is in history (and apologies to history graduates here) but I would be more impressed with someone with a maths or physics degree.
Downing Street has always insisted that the Abba party did not happen.
Read the article in full here 👇
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/29/sue-gray-told-abba-party-least-four-times-partygate-report/
Who buys craft beer, anyway? What's wrong with a good Shoreditch Shredded Wheat Cafe?
OT: Just realised that MTFC share colours with Ukraine. Hmmm.
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/thorntons-billionaire-brownie-fingers-milk-chocolate-x5
https://www.carnation.co.uk/recipes/billionaires-shortbread-recipe
https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/trillionaire-shortbread-chocolates.html
I don't think this has been mentioned yet on PB but I have to say I am rather disturbed by the fact that the BBC have reversed the hiring of a stand in radio presenter simply on the grounds he is left wing and anti-Boris Johnson.
Are we to see a situation where, every time there is a change of Government, the whole of the BBC presenting establishment has to be fired and rehired based on their political persuasion? Or do we want our presenters only to be drawn from the ranks of those who are so disengaged from life that they hold no political views at all?
I suspect I disagree with pretty much everyone of Mr Stadlen's political positions - though to be fair I have never actually heard of him before now - but unless he abuses his position as a presenter then he should not be barred from a job simply because he is critical of the Government.
Maybe those ordinary folk with plain common sense should replace these underperformers
In the past plenty of senior Cabinet Ministers were in that category, Cameron, Hunt, Hague, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Portillo, Hurd, Redwood, Lawson, Healey, Jenkins, Wilson etc.
Hopefully no Tears of Rage before then.
But basically I just don't assume someone is clever because they have a degree, especially from Oxbridge. There is a better chance they are, but it's not a given. A friend of mine is brilliant. I posted about him the other day. He was a high flying consultant, but left school to join the Navy without a CSE to his name.
It’s good. Needs a bit of narrative arc but he really does it. Hats off
But I can’t find the one where he actually GOES to Abkhazia. Can anyone help?
More like a recruiting process off the rails, perhaps? Or a horribly poor sense of judgement on Standen's part.
One could understand if it was 5 years ago, but whilst he has been after the job?
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2022/05/monaco-post-race-analysis-2022.html
Redwood strikes me as being similar to Corbyn in that regard.
Re your comments about scientists not necessarily being geniuses, well obviously, but you also can't do a maths or physics degree without being pretty bright. Also I think you are wrong regarding what graduates with science degrees do. Lots do go into the city sadly as they are sought after. In my son's case he was head hunted in his 2nd and 3rd and 4th year to work in the city and paid enormous eye watering amounts of money during the summer. He decided to stay at Cambridge to do his PhD though, although it meant he could pay off his loan and have saving to keep him going.
Here is the UN definition of genocide -
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
All of these things are being done to the Uighurs by the Chinese state on the orders of the Chinese leadership at the highest level.
NEW THREAD
It’s not something to be welcomed. Stadlen posts drivel on Twitter and even posts stuff about his ability as a boxer. But should he be unhired as a consequence. Should people only work in the media if they have no politics.
Ah but no. That’s him meeting Abkhaz refugees in Georgia. Not actually going to Abkhazia
Anyone else?