What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
Liz Truss looks like the clear frontrunner on these figures. Can she gain support from enough MPs to make the final two?
I reckon she has the best chance of remaking the political terrain and building a new election-winning coalition, but she always seems to poll really badly.
The Truss v Hunt in the play-off, and I reckon The Truss wins.
Then we get a government run by The Truss and Priti, and all things are possible.
Zahawi or Wallace are more likely to win than either of those 2
Liz Truss looks like the clear frontrunner on these figures. Can she gain support from enough MPs to make the final two?
I reckon she has the best chance of remaking the political terrain and building a new election-winning coalition, but she always seems to poll really badly.
The Truss v Hunt in the play-off, and I reckon The Truss wins.
Then we get a government run by The Truss and Priti, and all things are possible.
Zahawi or Wallace are more likely to win than either of those 2
The government needs to Bring Back Hanging and make it a public sport. That's how they close the gap. Bread and Circuses for the plebs. Well OK, maybe not the bread.
The government needs to Bring Back Hanging and make it a public sport. That's how they close the gap. Bread and Circuses for the plebs. Well OK, maybe not the bread.
Well Love Island is back, so thats the circuses sorted...
Liz Truss looks like the clear frontrunner on these figures. Can she gain support from enough MPs to make the final two?
I reckon she has the best chance of remaking the political terrain and building a new election-winning coalition, but she always seems to poll really badly.
The Truss v Hunt in the play-off, and I reckon The Truss wins.
Then we get a government run by The Truss and Priti, and all things are possible.
If they are left in the play-off then, yes. But I'm not so sure about that. MPs will pay attention to the polling projections which may well give Ben Wallace a chance if he actually wants it, and runs a vigorous campaign. It will be interesting to see who the Boris loyalists swing behind - I think Wallace was part of BoJos team before he became leader.
The government needs to Bring Back Hanging and make it a public sport. That's how they close the gap. Bread and Circuses for the plebs. Well OK, maybe not the bread.
Well Love Island is back, so thats the circuses sorted...
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Were pheasant keepers particularly sparing of foxes before the hunting ban? Can't see it myself - if a fox takes a out a pen of pheasants the keeper can personally be in some serious shit.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Liz Truss looks like the clear frontrunner on these figures. Can she gain support from enough MPs to make the final two?
I reckon she has the best chance of remaking the political terrain and building a new election-winning coalition, but she always seems to poll really badly.
The Truss v Hunt in the play-off, and I reckon The Truss wins.
Then we get a government run by The Truss and Priti, and all things are possible.
Not sure about that.
IMO Hunt would have a better chance in GE vs Truss and the membership may agree. Hunt has much wider appeal. (Possibly unfair to Truss but there it is.)
I think you can safely assume she has, judging by that post.
Remember - she was one of the team of three who spoke in favour of Leave in the big final debate before the referendum. (The other two were Boris and Gisela Stuart).
The tragedy for the Tories is that the public was willing to give them the benefit of so much doubt over covid, Brexit issues, likely even the cost of living too. It's all been pissed up the wall by Boris though. If the Tories change leader I think they can still salvage perhaps a minority administration with the DUP again - but they seem unable to pull the trigger on Bozza.
The government needs to Bring Back Hanging and make it a public sport. That's how they close the gap. Bread and Circuses for the plebs. Well OK, maybe not the bread.
Well Love Island is back, so thats the circuses sorted...
Dare I ask what that is? Some ‘reality’ tv show?
I believe so, your honour. For the youth, mainly, and anyone else who want to either lust after attractive young people, or get off on fake relationships staged foe cash.
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Got my gas DD for next year. Doubled!
Mine's going to at least triple. Admittedly, it was quite low to start.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
Andrea Leadsom was a competent Minister, on top of her brief, and I always had the strong feeling she was sacked because of her annoying principles and integrity. This is revenge served very cold for her. It's also a classy statement, highlighting some positives, that gives her room for manoeuvre.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
I think you can safely assume she has, judging by that post.
Remember - she was one of the team of three who spoke in favour of Leave in the big final debate before the referendum. (The other two were Boris and Gisela Stuart).
The tragedy for the Tories is that the public was willing to give them the benefit of so much doubt over covid, Brexit issues, likely even the cost of living too. It's all been pissed up the wall by Boris though. If the Tories change leader I think they can still salvage perhaps a minority administration with the DUP again - but they seem unable to pull the trigger on Bozza.
Much my thoughts but I expect the vonc next week and even if he wins it I doubt he will last long
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Got my gas DD for next year. Doubled!
Ouch!
TBH I think we could be more careful. And will be. Of course we're in the fortunate position that it's not bank-breaking.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Central heating does not work quite as effectively you would wish it if cost-saving matters, perhaps? eg time delays to heat up the house, boilers operating on short cycles at low efficiency, heating it unnecessarily when a lower temperature is acceptable, condenser boilers not condensing, and so on.
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
It will just be bad news after bad news with a set narrative. Tories need to break that before it becomes irreversible.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Not too sure the IOC will be particularly tolerant of heavy-handed policing at the Olympics. Certainly not as tolerant as UEFA, that’s for sure.
That said, they’ll still have to keep the local ruffians well away from the stadium somehow.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
It will just be bad news after bad news with a set narrative. Tories need to break that before it becomes irreversible.
No, no, no. I'm thoroughly enjoying watching charlatan Johnson's popularity collapse into the floor. Please don't stop it now.
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Got my gas DD for next year. Doubled!
Mine's going to at least triple. Admittedly, it was quite low to start.
I was offered triple over 12 months (900->2700), but they were trying to pull a fast one with an unregulated fixed tariff, whilst the regulated tariff which was not mentioned would be up 50% over the previous regulated tariff which was up to £1200 after my previous provider went phut.
In practice I control the DD number myself, and take monthly readings.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Central heating does not work quite as effectively you would wish it if cost-saving matters, perhaps? eg time delays to heat up the house, boilers operating on short cycles at low efficiency, heating it unnecessarily when a lower temperature is acceptable, condenser boilers not condensing, and so on.
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
Get a c.h. system that uses an external temperature sensor to control the heating. Ours does just fine in that regard.
Morning. That ComRes will surely spook the horses if there arent already 54 of them, plus Leadsom wading in..... I think its over for him. What ComRes does is both tentatively support a small labour bounce to over 40 but also poopoo the Redfield Tory bounce. Quite devastating if supported.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
It will just be bad news after bad news with a set narrative. Tories need to break that before it becomes irreversible.
Tories fourth in Wakefield, behind Mr H and the Lib Dems?
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
Steady on, Mr KJH. Young HY is a Conservative through and through. He has some difficulty in even imagining that things might work differently in other organisations.
In the Conservative Party the great leader decides absolutely everything. In effect, he is an omnipotent god - until he suddenly isn't. Then some very fast footwork is required. We saw that in young HY's case, when Cameron could do not wrong... and then Mrs May took over.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
Oh no it doesn't (sorry not sorry).
Seriously- what we need is some hypotheticals. How would you vote if X was the Conservative leader. Is there anyone out there who is tolerable to the Conservative membership and would meaningfully improve things nationwide.
There's no point breaking down the door the clown has locked himself behind if he gets replaced with an inferior clown.
As for the Rishi plan, I wonder if (to switch entertainment metaphors) the trouble is that we've worked out where the magician hid the rabbit, so the trick is less impressive secondtime round. I reckon he still had to do something along the lines of what he did, because otherwise the autumn would have been ugly. But even the loyalist press seemed underwhelmed.
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Got my gas DD for next year. Doubled!
Mine's going to at least triple. Admittedly, it was quite low to start.
There does seem to be some bizarre stuff going on with energy direct debits. We have both houses with Bulb. I sort out out main house, my wife our holiday home. I am £500+ in debt for our main home and not a squeak out of Bulb. My wife is being hassled by Bulb and now had the DD doubled for the holiday home even though we have been in credit for the entire winter. We pay more than we use yet the new DD is going to double! I can only assume this is because our usage in the holiday home is so mind bogglingly low crap algorithms are assuming it is wrong and we must also be able to afford that trivial increase. I'm guessing they are leaving the big one alone because they are frightened it will put us into fuel poverty and we will be onto BBC Watchdog.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
My best guess of the two that make it to the membership vote: Wallace and Hunt.
I don't think Wallace is PM material but at least he has a functioning brain.
Similarly I always found Hunt rather a slippery character but he is at least competent.
Either would be an improvement.
In her excellent book, Sasha Swire is scathing about Hunt. E.g. "The oily Jeremy Hunt" and "You could skid on the floor, it's so greasy. What is about Hunt? He has something about the Head Boy about him, the teacher's pet ... Do we really want such a goody-goody for leader?". And others.
And, reminding me of Johnson!: "No, Please [Hunt's} far to wet. It's only because he sucks up to you and tells you what you want to hear".
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Central heating does not work quite as effectively you would wish it if cost-saving matters, perhaps? eg time delays to heat up the house, boilers operating on short cycles at low efficiency, heating it unnecessarily when a lower temperature is acceptable, condenser boilers not condensing, and so on.
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
Get a c.h. system that uses an external temperature sensor to control the heating. Ours does just fine in that regard.
Technically that's called "Weather Compensation" I think. One of my possible upgrades this year. You can also get heat exchangers for the flue gases, but they have a long payback since modern boilers run at 94-94% efficiency, so there's not much heat left by then.
One thing that strikes me about the Boris defenders that head onto the radio rounds (Bin Alofumi today for instance) - the reasons given for keeping him - tackling CoL, Ukraine, Brexit could frankly be done by anyone in the cabinet (Perhaps not Dorries or Mogg). There's no killer clincher as to why it HAS to be Boris.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
Oh no it doesn't (sorry not sorry).
Seriously- what we need is some hypotheticals. How would you vote if X was the Conservative leader. Is there anyone out there who is tolerable to the Conservative membership and would meaningfully improve things nationwide.
There's no point breaking down the door the clown has locked himself behind if he gets replaced with an inferior clown.
As for the Rishi plan, I wonder if (to switch entertainment metaphors) the trouble is that we've worked out where the magician hid the rabbit, so the trick is less impressive secondtime round. I reckon he still had to do something along the lines of what he did, because otherwise the autumn would have been ugly. But even the loyalist press seemed underwhelmed.
Those leadership hypotheticals do tend to favour the status quo though, usually i guess because of lower name recognition amongst the less interested politically. And much of the Tories current polling woe is much much lower certainty to vote rather than direct switchers. Thats almost all a Boris phenomenon.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
I'd have thought the policing would be different given that people going to the Olympics don't tend to spend the preceding five hours drinking in the city.
However, the Stade de France isn't in a purpose built Olympic Park. It isn't a particularly nice location, so all the other stuff to do with the locals, could be an issue.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
You're doing quite a shift for somebody who wasn't going to argue about fox hunting.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
"I'm not leaving until the bailiffs come". That was the latest email sent to me from a tenant. This is the third tenant this year I am evicting due to rent arrears.
In my entire landlord career of 20 years, I have never seen an environment turn so quickly and so badly – and that includes the financial crisis and pandemic. The amount of money owed in rental arrears is in the thousands of pounds and quickly rising. Supposedly good tenants are souring quickly and I am left wondering who I can trust."
That’s worrying, especially that this downturn doesn’t appear (yet!) to have high unemployment associated with it.
Is it a warning of unemployment to come, or is it a regulatory issue, that tenants have collectively realised they can get away for months without paying rent before they get evicted?
Got my gas DD for next year. Doubled!
Mine's going to at least triple. Admittedly, it was quite low to start.
There does seem to be some bizarre stuff going on with energy direct debits. We have both houses with Bulb. I sort out out main house, my wife our holiday home. I am £500+ in debt for our main home and not a squeak out of Bulb. My wife is being hassled by Bulb and now had the DD doubled for the holiday home even though we have been in credit for the entire winter. We pay more than we use yet the new DD is going to double! I can only assume this is because our usage in the holiday home is so mind bogglingly low crap algorithms are assuming it is wrong and we must also be able to afford that trivial increase. I'm guessing they are leaving the big one alone because they are frightened it will put us into fuel poverty and we will be onto BBC Watchdog.
Npower tried that with me once, years ago. They wanted an increase from £40 to £53 based on a dodgy estimate. When I sent them the correct readings proving I was well in credit they tried to increase my direct debit another 50% to £76.
What was bizarre was that they couldn't understand why I left them for somebody who charged exactly half the direct debit they wanted me to pay, based on my usage. They actually urged me to reconsider...and denied that their figures were wrong...
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
Rather too much attention was given to the line "seriously compromises the welfare of the fox".
Which of course it does - that's the whole point of fox control by whatever method!
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Central heating does not work quite as effectively you would wish it if cost-saving matters, perhaps? eg time delays to heat up the house, boilers operating on short cycles at low efficiency, heating it unnecessarily when a lower temperature is acceptable, condenser boilers not condensing, and so on.
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
Get a c.h. system that uses an external temperature sensor to control the heating. Ours does just fine in that regard.
Technically that's called "Weather Compensation" I think. One of my possible upgrades this year. You can also get heat exchangers for the flue gases, but they have a long payback since modern boilers run at 94-94% efficiency, so there's not much heat left by then.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
You're doing quite a shift for somebody who wasn't going to argue about fox hunting.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
Topping did kindly confirm my query re quite a few Tories being pro-fox - but as you say and as others have commented Mr J has made a big lurch to the right in recent weeks. And I suspect that the pro-fox element is in the wetter part of the Tory Party. So no, I wouldn't be surprised.
Which is more important, a live fox (or badger or chicken ...) or a live, pure Brexit?
Though I think that to tease the woke he might legislate for cockfighting as well, on social justice grounds.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
I'd have thought the policing would be different given that people going to the Olympics don't tend to spend the preceding five hours drinking in the city.
However, the Stade de France isn't in a purpose built Olympic Park. It isn't a particularly nice location, so all the other stuff to do with the locals, could be an issue.
Stade de France is earmarked as "The Olympic Stadium", and they are building the Aquatic Centre across from it.
AIUI the Liverpool supporters spent the preceding 2-3 hours in an orderly queue. Accepted, after some time in Le Pub.
Bugger. Now scouring the internet for 'I went to Berlin and all I got was lousy Covid' t shirts.
Shit.
Sorry.
I hope it's a very mild and quick passing one for you and those around you.
Granddaughter one and her beloved have just had a short dose of Covid; took them five days to get over it, which is lucky, because it's her birthday later this week and we're all going out to lunch.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
You were suggesting most LDs were republicans and disagreed with Davey, I was showing on the contrary most LD voters like Davey support our constitutional monarchy
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
Why they built the French national stadium in - literally - the worst, most dangerous part of France - is quite the mystery. I guess they hoped it would boost the area?
One thing that strikes me about the Boris defenders that head onto the radio rounds (Bin Alofumi today for instance) - the reasons given for keeping him - tackling CoL, Ukraine, Brexit could frankly be done by anyone in the cabinet (Perhaps not Dorries or Mogg). There's no killer clincher as to why it HAS to be Boris.
Because with a few exceptions the cabinet ministers and a good chunk of the junior ministers wouldn't get anywhere near office with someone competent in No10.
Simon Clarke as Chief Secretary FFS. They only hired him because he is very tall and it winds Rishi up (and it *genuinely* does according to multiple reports). But like one of the massive dinosaurs that evolve to be big, Simon's brain is small. Which is why he is happy to go out and parrot government lies in the morning which get reversed at lunchtime without thinking "this is a bad idea".
One thing that strikes me about the Boris defenders that head onto the radio rounds (Bin Alofumi today for instance) - the reasons given for keeping him - tackling CoL, Ukraine, Brexit could frankly be done by anyone in the cabinet (Perhaps not Dorries or Mogg). There's no killer clincher as to why it HAS to be Boris.
And once you accept that, you face the elephant in the room. He made rules that caused heartbreak, loneliness, separation, pain and mental health calamity for so many of us and consistently ignored them himself and allowed or indeed encouraged his staff to. The trust is broken, anger is commonplace and set in and the hope some had in him for Brexit etc is in most cases shot to pieces. Frankly, if the Tory MPs now stick with him, they can fuck right off for a decade or so. Its so blatantly time to act.
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Had ours off for weeks. Its back on now...
I'm constantly staggered by how warm people keep their houses.
I live in an C18th building; it isn't insulated. We wear jumpers. Pretty sure I couldn't live in a property with double glazing now.....
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Issue is not so much whether it is cruel as whether Mr Johnson will seek to bring it back: there's no argument that it is much argued about, making it a classic divisive woke/antiwoke issue for Mr J. to exploit, like statues and minims, furlongs and ells.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
You're doing quite a shift for somebody who wasn't going to argue about fox hunting.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
Topping did kindly confirm my query re quite a few Tories being pro-fox - but as you say and as others have commented Mr J has made a big lurch to the right in recent weeks. And I suspect that the pro-fox element is in the wetter part of the Tory Party. So no, I wouldn't be surprised.
Which is more important, a live fox (or badger or chicken ...) or a live, pure Brexit?
Though I think that to tease the woke he might legislate for cockfighting as well, on social justice grounds.
Assuming she's still around, might Carrie have objections to that?
I don't get this "turn the central heating off" malarkey. Just leave the thermostat where you want it, if the house is warm enough, the heating stays off, if it isn't, on it comes. Simple.
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
Central heating does not work quite as effectively you would wish it if cost-saving matters, perhaps? eg time delays to heat up the house, boilers operating on short cycles at low efficiency, heating it unnecessarily when a lower temperature is acceptable, condenser boilers not condensing, and so on.
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
Get a c.h. system that uses an external temperature sensor to control the heating. Ours does just fine in that regard.
Technically that's called "Weather Compensation" I think. One of my possible upgrades this year. You can also get heat exchangers for the flue gases, but they have a long payback since modern boilers run at 94-94% efficiency, so there's not much heat left by then.
and btw no need for any internal thermostats.
Yep.
One of the more interesting crossovers is that if the bills are low enough you end up with a 20 year payback on savings made by room timers / thermostats. So life just gets simpler.
There's also a limit on their sensitivity (unless you buy the right low-hysteresis ones) that makes control more sensitive than within +/- 1-2C a nonsense. Which also causes inefficiency in boiler control.
When my parents were restoring dad's old studio as a bungalow they got diverted by life (actually death - dad popped his clogs) and the architect went mad with 7 day timers in every room and entry phones and God Knows what else.
This is getting too nerdy, so I'm off to the shops.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
Why they built the French national stadium in - literally - the worst, most dangerous part of France - is quite the mystery. I guess they hoped it would boost the area?
Now it’s a source of national humiliation
It made no sense at all to build the stadium where they did, without also clearing the slums actively regenerating the whole area around it.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
You're doing quite a shift for somebody who wasn't going to argue about fox hunting.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
Topping did kindly confirm my query re quite a few Tories being pro-fox - but as you say and as others have commented Mr J has made a big lurch to the right in recent weeks. And I suspect that the pro-fox element is in the wetter part of the Tory Party. So no, I wouldn't be surprised.
Which is more important, a live fox (or badger or chicken ...) or a live, pure Brexit?
Though I think that to tease the woke he might legislate for cockfighting as well, on social justice grounds.
Assuming she's still around, might Carrie have objections to that?
She's not an elected MP [edit] or Peer, so I couldn't possibly take that into account any more than the opinion of any voter.
On that side of politics more generally: also, it's not as if HMG hadn't already done its best to tear up its own green agenda in a panic by going for more oilfields rasther than renewables, etc., by way of *medium/long term* planning. Bit hard on the polar bears, though, not to mention the folk living in Pennan, Bosham, Portsea, etc. etc.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
You were suggesting most LDs were republicans and disagreed with Davey, I was showing on the contrary most LD voters like Davey support our constitutional monarchy
No I wasn't. It is amazing how you can misread posts. Your ability to misunderstand stuff is truly awesome.
I was simply pointing out that we LDs are not in awe of our betters like you, i.e. Davey isn't god. We all think for ourselves and are not guided by our supreme leader.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
Why they built the French national stadium in - literally - the worst, most dangerous part of France - is quite the mystery. I guess they hoped it would boost the area?
Now it’s a source of national humiliation
It made no sense at all to build the stadium where they did, without also clearing the slums actively regenerating the whole area around it.
Indeed. Stratford was hardly a desirable location when we built ours.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
It's not a massive issue for me but if perchance there was a Referendum on keeping the monarchy I think I'd vote No. That's a change of heart compared to say 10 years ago.
The reason? Because the institution we have with its pomp and scale is really a hangover from our grand imperial past. It feels out of time now. More than this, it feels absurd and just a touch embarrassing. I get that feeling more than I do the rather heavier sense of it reinforcing white supremacy and class privilege. I also think it infantilizes us a bit. Along with the harmless and positive aspects it does that. Which is not a great thing esp when we have a PM doing the same albeit in a different way.
So, on balance with the monarchy, a la Duncan Bannatyne on Dragons Den - it's a No from me.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Pritis 24 election manifesto will be led by the restoration of the death penalty, not just for cop killers but also random foxes.
Allowing fox-hunting seems morally unsound to me on two grounds, but why should I be surprised at anything this administration does?
a) Always look for any upper class/lower class differential in any 'morality'-driven regulation. Cf. divorce under the C of E of old (Scotland was a bit more sensible, not sure about Wales). In this case fox hunting is definitely toff territory, largely upper class/snobbish activity (albeit with quite a few prole followers) - but why allow nobby blood sports when banning working class ones such as cock fighting and bull baiting?
b) foxes obv don't like being hunted*, but cockerels are only too happy to have a scrap, like squaddies of different regiments in an Aldershot pub, so who's being unkind to whom?
*On empirical grounds. They run away. Cf. M. S. Dawkins's 1970s/1980s research on hens, which showed that they preferred not to live in a battery cage but in the more old fashioned alternative, simply by giving them the option.
There is plenty of treatment of animals which people disagree over. Look at the cracking social media campaign that VFC is conducting right now.
One of the criteria to be applied to any activity, from riding ponies to foxhunting to keeping goldfish to having a domestic dog to having a dairy herd to zapping a fly should be - is it cruel.
And it was determined that foxhunting was not cruel.
That said, now is not the time to have a vote to bring back foxhunting. Not least because it would be defeated. Badly.
Well said. People who think fox hunting was cruel never bothered to read the burns report because they were far too consumed by their prejudice and general hatred of genuinely rural people that don't share their plastic view of the countryside.
Quality erasure of "genuinely rural people" who think fox hunting is a bag of shite.
Or are you only genuinely rural if you think fox hunting is good?
The genuinely rural realise that death and suffering among foxes has rocketed since the hunting act because people used to want there to be some foxes. Now they don't farmers and pheasant shoots splat them with nightsights by the dozen. The wounded ones die of gangrene because they don't lick their wounds (only tamed canids do)
I am sure a countryman like you knows all that. But hey, increased animal suffering Vs spiting the toffs...
Yes, famously farmers upon seeing a fox would think "I could shoot this fucker worrying my livestock right now but I better leave it around for some wankers to chase in 3 months time".
It's more complicated than that. First off the hunt spends a lot of time visiting said farmer (who might easily hunt or have a hunting daughter/family himself) for precisely these reasons. To ensure that there is understanding and agreement (areas to avoid, making good afterwards, etc). Farmers who are anti-hunting are left alone and no one goes near their land.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
You're doing quite a shift for somebody who wasn't going to argue about fox hunting.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
I thought I'd come back in with one (count them) post on it just to set the record straight.
And yes I bet the antis miss using 'kinetic' methods with young girls on ponies.
As for BoJo he's not going to bring a vote as I said because there isn't even a majority in his own party and as of yet I can't see Lab (a Lab without Kate Hoey) voting for it.
Anyway after watching that youtube vid I'm now in much more of a position to explain to you the glide path of a 5th generation platform so if you needed any help on it just message me.
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
You were suggesting most LDs were republicans and disagreed with Davey, I was showing on the contrary most LD voters like Davey support our constitutional monarchy
No I wasn't. It is amazing how you can misread posts. Your ability to misunderstand stuff is truly awesome.
I was simply pointing out that we LDs are not in awe of our betters like you, i.e. Davey isn't god. We all think for ourselves and are not guided by our supreme leader.
Hmm, HYUFD rather missed my point that he should have said "four main parties". Unless he thinks Scotland is a republic?
If the tories want to win the next election, the time to act is now.
The cabinet need a good sweeping out and a roll of the dice for replacements. Rees-Mogg, Patel, Dorries, all need to be ditched.
Its got a feeling of more coordination now with the Leadsom intervention. I wonder if she's had the nod from someone inside cabinet to start the boulders tumbling
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
You were suggesting most LDs were republicans and disagreed with Davey, I was showing on the contrary most LD voters like Davey support our constitutional monarchy
No I wasn't. It is amazing how you can misread posts. Your ability to misunderstand stuff is truly awesome.
I was simply pointing out that we LDs are not in awe of our betters like you, i.e. Davey isn't god. We all think for ourselves and are not guided by our supreme leader.
Hmm, HYUFD rather missed my point that he should have said "four main parties". Unless he thinks Scotland is a republic?
"It is a moment often seen in the downward trajectory of embattled prime ministers: a whirl of new policy ideas intended to appeal to voters, but which are in fact more often aimed at placating their own MPs. Boris Johnson is, some would argue, approaching this point.
In recent days Downing Street has briefed in favour of grammar schools and imperial measurements. Earlier weeks saw forays into other Conservative comfort zones, including bashing the EU and talking up fossil fuels.
Such nostalgia politics is routinely promoted by Conservative backbenchers. But it is one of the paradoxes of Tory party politics that the more secure a prime minister is in office, the less they have to indulge these ideas."
If Johnson loses both by-elections he'll have to go Full Tonto and offer a vote on fox hunting.
Our best hope there is: monarchy abolished, SF start taking seats, hold whip hand in minority government. In the meantime there's always the Emerald Isle. Begorrah.
None of the 3 main party leaders now want to abolish the monarchy, nor is it even a priority for SF who just want to be governed by Dublin not London
You do know that Davey isn't god don't you. He doesn't decide LD policy.
62% of LD voters also want to keep the monarchy, significantly higher than the 43% of Labour voters who want to keep the monarchy even if not quite as high as the 86% of Conservative voters who want to keep the monarchy
And what on earth has that got to do with what I said? Your response had no relevance to the point I was making. I was simply pointing out that as usual you are in awe of the people at the top of the hierarchy. All I care about is his views are largely in accordance with the party and liberal philosophy. I am not in awe of our lord's and masters.
You were suggesting most LDs were republicans and disagreed with Davey, I was showing on the contrary most LD voters like Davey support our constitutional monarchy
I think Carnyx was being facetious. The comment was top 3 parties in favour of monarchy, then his comment was "Oh, LDs not then?. I took that to mean a genial poke at the libdems losing 3rd party status in Westminster.
@leon makes the pertinent point here. This poll comes after the money has been splashed. Suggests the public may have made up their minds. I expected a large swingback after the cash. Nowt at all. Opinions seem to range between. Not before time. Why does X get Y and I only get Z? To those who say we can't afford it at all. That's the problem when your big reveal is exactly what everyone expected.
What strikes me is the pathetic inertia and complacency of the UEFA and FIFA officials, even when told of the horrible chaos outside the stadium, going on there and then. Shameful
The Olympic Games will be fun in 2024.
Rugby World Cup there first. Saturday will ultimately save France from a worse bashing - they will throw everything at it to ensure nothing like it happens during the World Cup - I imagine the police will be ringing the whole area to avoid the mugging etc rather than focussing onwards on the fans.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
The French public and media are not buying the minister’s feeble diversions, however. He’s getting fierce criticism from Left and Right. The Left are blaming the government and police, the Right are blaming the scum of the suburbs, and the socialists that try to excuse them
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
And the Spanish media is filled with similar accounts of chaos and mugging gangs.
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
Why they built the French national stadium in - literally - the worst, most dangerous part of France - is quite the mystery. I guess they hoped it would boost the area?
Now it’s a source of national humiliation
It made no sense at all to build the stadium where they did, without also clearing the slums actively regenerating the whole area around it.
Indeed. Stratford was hardly a desirable location when we built ours.
The French decided to take the equivalent of a random 150m x 100m piece of land between Brixton and Streatham, and put the national stadium there, with no other improvements to the area, making sure that all the stadium’s visitors would have to park in or walk through the dodgiest part of the city to get there.
Comments
https://twitter.com/britainelects/status/1531554047983030273?s=21&t=3hKEGfosZyHqgG1CUMQg6g
Come on @HYUFD join those of us calling for Boris to go
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1531304901900439552?s=20&t=6A5BMHW6uHNBP5ahqo-eMg
P.S. Our heating is on right now. 10degC outside.
If that sort of behaviour happened at the World Cup then it would point to the police/authorities but if they do everything to avoid it they will no doubt say “see, we told you it was those naughty Liverpool fans”.
I see the French sports minister has doubled down blaming it on Liverpool “letting their fans out into the wild”. If that’s the case they seem to have encountered the savages of St Denis on this safari. Who knew that the suburbs of Paris were the “wilds”?
IMO Hunt would have a better chance in GE vs Truss and the membership may agree. Hunt has much wider appeal. (Possibly unfair to Truss but there it is.)
Remember - she was one of the team of three who spoke in favour of Leave in the big final debate before the referendum. (The other two were Boris and Gisela Stuart).
A significant announcement,
If the Tories change leader I think they can still salvage perhaps a minority administration with the DUP again - but they seem unable to pull the trigger on Bozza.
Very popular.
That’s a particularly terrible poll for the Tories because it means Sunak’s giveaway has done nothing, indeed they are even further behind, and are now heading for a catastrophic defeat
Time to get rid of Boris and Sunak. The panto needs to end
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36593120
Johnson, Leadsom, Stuart versus Davidson, Khan, O'Grady
1. keeping quiet in public and
2. re-assessing whether it is wise.
Similarly I always found Hunt rather a slippery character but he is at least competent.
Either would be an improvement.
Virtually no one - in France - is blaming the Liverpool fans. Across all the newspapers it is “France wins the trophy for incompetence “ or “France is humiliated on the world stage”. They are taking it seriously and it is still front page news
If the house is superinsulated and properly airtight different considerations apply, eg if the house temp goes down less than 1C in 24 hours if left with no heating in winter.
Now scouring the internet for 'I went to Berlin and all I got was lousy Covid' t shirts.
That said, they’ll still have to keep the local ruffians well away from the stadium somehow.
I have been snotty for the past 5 or 6 days, but the LFT says it isn't Covid.
In practice I control the DD number myself, and take monthly readings.
I think its over for him.
What ComRes does is both tentatively support a small labour bounce to over 40 but also poopoo the Redfield Tory bounce. Quite devastating if supported.
In the Conservative Party the great leader decides absolutely everything. In effect, he is an omnipotent god - until he suddenly isn't. Then some very fast footwork is required. We saw that in young HY's case, when Cameron could do not wrong... and then Mrs May took over.
And of course there are people who live in the countryside who are anti-hunting. Not everyone outside the cities and suburbs supports hunting, and that's fine. Plenty do, however.
But the bigger point is more important, and you make it yourself - you accept that one way or another the fox gets it. Either by being shot (good luck with that but of course it happens) or snaring or gassing or being hunted by hounds.
And funnily enough of all of those methods the only one AFAIA that has had a whole enquiry dedicated to it is the last, hunting by hounds, and that enquiry determined that such activity was not cruel.
Seriously- what we need is some hypotheticals. How would you vote if X was the Conservative leader. Is there anyone out there who is tolerable to the Conservative membership and would meaningfully improve things nationwide.
There's no point breaking down the door the clown has locked himself behind if he gets replaced with an inferior clown.
As for the Rishi plan, I wonder if (to switch entertainment metaphors) the trouble is that we've worked out where the magician hid the rabbit, so the trick is less impressive secondtime round. I reckon he still had to do something along the lines of what he did, because otherwise the autumn would have been ugly. But even the loyalist press seemed underwhelmed.
And, reminding me of Johnson!: "No, Please [Hunt's} far to wet. It's only because he sucks up to you and tells you what you want to hear".
Must be quite a shock for Macron and friends that the strategy of "1) Blame the Brits" followed by "2) Lie your heads off" has stopped working.
Even France 24 are calling them out on it.
I think the thing that will hurt is questions about whether this will happen at the 2024 Olympics. eg Will anybody standing in a queue or presenting a ticket at a turnstyle at Paris 2024 be at risk of random assault by Police Officers with Pepper Spray, and how will such police officers be held to account.
I think this is what it takes. When Margaret Thatcher was toppled it took a right-left from Geoffrey Howe and Michael Heseltine.
https://news.sky.com/story/ex-cabinet-minister-andrea-leadsom-condemns-boris-johnsons-unacceptable-failings-of-leadership-over-partygate-12624626
However, the Stade de France isn't in a purpose built Olympic Park. It isn't a particularly nice location, so all the other stuff to do with the locals, could be an issue.
Sorry.
I hope it's a very mild and quick passing one for you and those around you.
The real tragic loss to the traditional culture of countryside acitvities was how the proliferation of smartphones turned sabbing from the more traditional 'kinetic' methods to just doing videos.
I will be fucking amazed if "Sneaky Strawhead" (as the Russians call him) doesn't throw out the offer of a vote on FH to try to appeal to the hypertensive wing of his MPs and try to save his flabby skin.
What was bizarre was that they couldn't understand why I left them for somebody who charged exactly half the direct debit they wanted me to pay, based on my usage. They actually urged me to reconsider...and denied that their figures were wrong...
Which of course it does - that's the whole point of fox control by whatever method!
Which is more important, a live fox (or badger or chicken ...) or a live, pure Brexit?
Though I think that to tease the woke he might legislate for cockfighting as well, on social justice grounds.
"the fuse is getting closer to the dynamite here and it's speeding up....the Conservative Party is moving faster towards a vote of confidence or no confidence." @TimesRadio
https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1531565273622499329
AIUI the Liverpool supporters spent the preceding 2-3 hours in an orderly queue. Accepted, after some time in Le Pub.
Now it’s a source of national humiliation
Simon Clarke as Chief Secretary FFS. They only hired him because he is very tall and it winds Rishi up (and it *genuinely* does according to multiple reports). But like one of the massive dinosaurs that evolve to be big, Simon's brain is small. Which is why he is happy to go out and parrot government lies in the morning which get reversed at lunchtime without thinking "this is a bad idea".
Frankly, if the Tory MPs now stick with him, they can fuck right off for a decade or so. Its so blatantly time to act.
I live in an C18th building; it isn't insulated. We wear jumpers. Pretty sure I couldn't live in a property with double glazing now.....
As someone travelling a lot right now, do you have a suspicion as to where you caught it? Plane? U-bahn?
One of the more interesting crossovers is that if the bills are low enough you end up with a 20 year payback on savings made by room timers / thermostats. So life just gets simpler.
There's also a limit on their sensitivity (unless you buy the right low-hysteresis ones) that makes control more sensitive than within +/- 1-2C a nonsense. Which also causes inefficiency in boiler control.
When my parents were restoring dad's old studio as a bungalow they got diverted by life (actually death - dad popped his clogs) and the architect went mad with 7 day timers in every room and entry phones and God Knows what else.
This is getting too nerdy, so I'm off to the shops.
On that side of politics more generally: also, it's not as if HMG hadn't already done its best to tear up its own green agenda in a panic by going for more oilfields rasther than renewables, etc., by way of *medium/long term* planning. Bit hard on the polar bears, though, not to mention the folk living in Pennan, Bosham, Portsea, etc. etc.
The cabinet need a good sweeping out and a roll of the dice for replacements. Rees-Mogg, Patel, Dorries, all need to be ditched.
I was simply pointing out that we LDs are not in awe of our betters like you, i.e. Davey isn't god. We all think for ourselves and are not guided by our supreme leader.
The reason? Because the institution we have with its pomp and scale is really a hangover from our grand imperial past. It feels out of time now. More than this, it feels absurd and just a touch embarrassing. I get that feeling more than I do the rather heavier sense of it reinforcing white supremacy and class privilege. I also think it infantilizes us a bit. Along with the harmless and positive aspects it does that. Which is not a great thing esp when we have a PM doing the same albeit in a different way.
So, on balance with the monarchy, a la Duncan Bannatyne on Dragons Den - it's a No from me.
And yes I bet the antis miss using 'kinetic' methods with young girls on ponies.
As for BoJo he's not going to bring a vote as I said because there isn't even a majority in his own party and as of yet I can't see Lab (a Lab without Kate Hoey) voting for it.
Anyway after watching that youtube vid I'm now in much more of a position to explain to you the glide path of a 5th generation platform so if you needed any help on it just message me.
For research purposes you understand.
This poll comes after the money has been splashed.
Suggests the public may have made up their minds.
I expected a large swingback after the cash. Nowt at all.
Opinions seem to range between. Not before time. Why does X get Y and I only get Z? To those who say we can't afford it at all.
That's the problem when your big reveal is exactly what everyone expected.