Right. Last one of these. Today my day has taken me to Flambards - a small but perfectly adequate theme park in Helston, because it's the kids' holiday too - which was exactly as you would expect, only much hotter. We rode Britain's most southerly roller coaster, which had not been on my bucket list but is nice enough to note. And then, having exhausted the possibilities there, we went to Swanpool Beach and hired some kayaks and paddled around the bay, visiting some inaccessible little beaches. That was a lovely little family adventure. And then we concluded the holiday by going into Falmouth, getting fish and chips, and eating them on the harbour front, which is one of life's major pleasures, especially in a harbour as wonderful and varied and properly working as Falmouth's: gigs and tugs and paddleboards and water taxis and sailing boats and massive naval ships and superyachts all rubbing shoulders. Very satisfying. And looking at all this gave an air of finality to the holiday - perhaps a reflection of my best childhood holidays, when I was my kids' age, which concluded with pulling out of St. Helier at 10pm, my mum weeping happy tears about how wonderful the holiday had been and how she didn't want it to end. Of course, we didn't get on a ferry: we drove back to the holiday house and packed while the kids played out with new friends, before my youngest crashed with over-tiredness. And tomorrow we will get up super-early for British self-catering's new standard throwing-out time of 9am before heading into Falmouth again to look at the National Maritime Museum ( now known, following my dyslexic middle daughter's rather wonderful misreading as the National Marmite Museum), playing the game of judge-the-right-time-to-leave-given-weather-and-longitude to best avoid the worst of the traffic home. Best case scenario is leave Falmouth about 2.30, get back to Manchester about 10. It's been well worth the journey though. It's been, I think, the best family holiday I've had. A demonstration that the correlation between the amount you spend on a holiday and the enjoyability of that holiday is weak; and that the importance of stimulation - of doing and seeing new things - is high. (Which is a bit if a problem, given our rather more expensive holiday we have booked in August to North Cornwall where we have, just about, done everything.) West Cornwall isn't for every family, but I think you'd be missing out not to try it at least once.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
I guess the boo constitutes the 'act' that causes the annoyance.
It's still quite a strange word salad:
78Intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance (1)A person commits an offence if— (a)the person— (i)does an act, or (ii)omits to do an act that they are required to do by any enactment or rule of law, (b)the person’s act or omission— (i)creates a risk of, or causes, serious harm to the public or a section of the public, or (ii)obstructs the public or a section of the public in the exercise or enjoyment of a right that may be exercised or enjoyed by the public at large, and (c)the person intends that their act or omission will have a consequence mentioned in paragraph (b) or is reckless as to whether it will have such a consequence. (2)In subsection (1)(b)(i) “serious harm” means— (a)death, personal injury or disease, (b)loss of, or damage to, property, or (c)serious distress, serious annoyance, serious inconvenience or serious loss of amenity.
Well, that's the libertarian principles of at least one of us fucked the next lockdown we get and he wants total freedom to walk around when he has covid. I really hadn't spotted the 'disease' bit.
Evening all! Had a bloody brilliant day trip with the family down Loch Ness to Fort William. Amazing that we can get up, go "looks like a nice day" and go looking for Nessie. Scotland - yes!
Anyway on topic, had no idea Truss was a LibDem. Had I know that I may not have rejoined the third time...
By road or cruiser
Twice we hired a cruiser on the Caley canal for a week and it was fabulous, not least navigating the locks at Fort Augustus
Road. Though cruiser would be great! Drove the whole length of the great glen, and the kids haven't been there since they were tiny. Neptune's Staircase at Banavie is still an amazing thing to look at - how long would it take a cruiser to get all the way down?
Did you see Nessie though?
When I was there with Fox Jr 1 and 2 aged 12 and 5, both Fox jr1 and I saw Nessie, but sadly Fox jr2 turned around and by then there were just ripples on the surface, so missed her. We have been teasing him about it since.
Sadly not. Though we did go past the joyous "Nessieland" at Drumnadrochit which looks like it was created by a 3 year old's guess as to what Nessie might look like. Loch Ness is absurdly deep with impossible to see into water - Boris's lost political charisma could have been dumped in there and would never be found again.
Evening all! Had a bloody brilliant day trip with the family down Loch Ness to Fort William. Amazing that we can get up, go "looks like a nice day" and go looking for Nessie. Scotland - yes!
Anyway on topic, had no idea Truss was a LibDem. Had I know that I may not have rejoined the third time...
By road or cruiser
Twice we hired a cruiser on the Caley canal for a week and it was fabulous, not least navigating the locks at Fort Augustus
Road. Though cruiser would be great! Drove the whole length of the great glen, and the kids haven't been there since they were tiny. Neptune's Staircase at Banavie is still an amazing thing to look at - how long would it take a cruiser to get all the way down?
We hired it from the Great Glen Water Park and managed to go to Banavie and then to Inverness and back to the water park in the week
And if I go Borgen, do I need to bother with seasons 2 and 3 which are ancient yet which I somehow missed?
TAK
We just watched RSC David Tennant as Richard II on Brit Box. Cracking script, amazing acting.
PS on topic, Truss looks about 12, yet she sounded just as pompous and patronising then as she does now, don’t you just want to put her in stocks and throw rotten fruit at her when she hits that self righteous note?
Evening all! Had a bloody brilliant day trip with the family down Loch Ness to Fort William. Amazing that we can get up, go "looks like a nice day" and go looking for Nessie. Scotland - yes!
Anyway on topic, had no idea Truss was a LibDem. Had I know that I may not have rejoined the third time...
By road or cruiser
Twice we hired a cruiser on the Caley canal for a week and it was fabulous, not least navigating the locks at Fort Augustus
Road. Though cruiser would be great! Drove the whole length of the great glen, and the kids haven't been there since they were tiny. Neptune's Staircase at Banavie is still an amazing thing to look at - how long would it take a cruiser to get all the way down?
Did you see Nessie though?
When I was there with Fox Jr 1 and 2 aged 12 and 5, both Fox jr1 and I saw Nessie, but sadly Fox jr2 turned around and by then there were just ripples on the surface, so missed her. We have been teasing him about it since.
Just been doung some constituency surfing and it occurs to me that the laughable 'red wall' threat from Boz supporters is a crock of crap. The red wall realignment is not some magical 2019 phenomena, that was just the year the waters overtopped. Its been a pattern since 2005/2010. Tories have been on the increase in these seats in a very recognisable pattern - increase from 2005 onwards, 2015 saw a levelling or slight dip but a large UKIP vote and falling labour share, increases into 2017 continuing with overtopping and gains 2019. Johnson did NOT deliver the red wall, he was a step in an ongoing process. The trend does not suggest removing him is a reset
There is no doubt however that it was only under Johnson, not May or Cameron that the redwall fell.
Had Hunt been Tory leader in 2019 he would not have had the appeal Boris did in the redwall and would almost certainly not have gained as many seats there as Boris did
It was very clearly part of a process. Boris Johnson may have accelerated it or enhanced it but it was going on anyway and removing him will not undo the progress made into 2019 (national swing and picture aside). There is no 'only Boris can win in the red wall'
Yes, as noted it may be he was the best placed person to win as big as they did in the Red Wall, but to rule anyone out at being able to do quite well there is to denigrate the party, which had made considerable progress there.
And the thing about Boris is he provokes intense passions, positive and negative. Lots of people always disliked him, the question is whether enough still like him. Even a base tires of its leader eventually.
Have they now? People will disagree. But election winners do step down or are defeated if they don't, even a 3 year old victory does not mean the victor will still be the best person.
The payroll is still ignoring public opinion, and a few clients in the Lords, but I sense a significant shift against Johnson in the broader Tory elite, including among Brexiteers. https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1532817518062055424
Downing Street is now more concerned about the loyalty of many of the Prime Minister’s previous supporters, in Tory safe seats in the south of England.
Many of those on the list for this week’s charm offensive represent constituencies in the south-east and south-west of England
➡️ The Telegraph understands that invitations for the meeting of wavering rebels in No10 have not yet been sent, with officials waiting to see whether the threshold has already been crossed before launching the charm offensive
Pass the sick bucket.
If these fools believe a single word that Johnson says during these charm offence meetings then they are even more stupid that we thought.
The payroll is still ignoring public opinion, and a few clients in the Lords, but I sense a significant shift against Johnson in the broader Tory elite, including among Brexiteers. https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1532817518062055424
Monday is going to be the day reality hits Boris and his ever reducing band of supporters
I really have been to all these Greenlandic places in Borgen. Quite nostalgic
Disko Bay is sensationally beautiful, yet disturbingly hostile
Meanwhile, a Georgian couple is having a massive row in the cobbled street downstairs and I can’t work out if he is about to rape her, she is about to kill him, or the whole think is a drunken nothing
or maybe they cannot decide how to kill you No its my fkin turn to fill the english pig - i sharpen knife all day !
Are the BBC and C4 "centre to centre left" or is it because they try to have a plurality of opinion whereas GB News (which I confess I've not watched) seems, from what I read, to be much less diverse and almost wholly either pro-Government or culturally "anti-left"? I've seen some on here moan about Sky News UK which apparently isn't Sky News Australia.
There's a paradox at work - the requirement for "free speech" on the one hand versus the advantages in a democratic culture of allowing a plurality of opinion.
Would you rather only hear the opinions you support or the views with which you agree or are you willing to be challenged and listen to contrary opinions? I'm in the latter camp.
We live in a largely free market economy in TV now as much as elsewhere, as I said if the Guardian wants to start a Woke left TV channel it can do. I sometimes listen to the main BBC news at 10pm or the ITV news at the same time, otherwise I now get most of my news and discussion from GB news which matches my worldview more
That though is the problem, isn't it? If all you want is news which re-enforces your worldview you end up in an echo chamber as we see in political debate in America and Australia and to an extent here.
Democracy flourishes when a plurality of voices are heard and argument is had across the political divide. If all we hear is what we want to hear we will stagnate politically and I'd argue culturally.
I should watch GB News - I should because it offers a different perspective. I shouldn't be afraid of that - no one should be afraid of hearing arguments which challenge or make you re-evaluate.
I watched GB News when it started up. I wasn't blown away and haven't watched it again. But goodness me it was refreshing to watch a news channel which didn't appear to dislike me. I am quite open to hearing perspectives which are not my own, but being metaphorically bashed over the head constantly by BBC worldview does get tiring.
Which BBC programmes are you talking about?
All of them
Well not all of them. News, obviously - though surprisingly often an element of impartiality creeps in. Almost all comedy, of course. Almost all drama. Though very occasionally not. Surprisingly often in the bits of sport the BBC still has. Nature documentaries are usually OK, though inevitably have the five minute section at the end about how dreadful humans are. Some music. That Top of the Pops series on the 80s, for example, managed to include little bits in the script about how dreadful the Tories were and how excited everyone in the 90s was that there would soon be a Labour government. And while I like Radio 6, it does have a certain BBC attitude it expects you to share. Quite a lot of its childrens' programming.
Only Connect manages to be on the BBC without hating its viewers. So not only Connect. And Not Going Out too. That doesn't drip BBC condescension either.
Despite its irritating qualities it is better than all the rest.
What are “all the rest”?
Meanwhile on “sweary Borgen” I have just heard my first “fuck” and it’s minute 43 of episode 1, season 4
We've had a Netflix subscription since the beginning of lockdown and we've watched The Crown (all episodes), Queen's Gambit (ditto), The Dig, and Don't Look up. The first two were great, The Dig and Don't Look Up were ok.
Everything else we have looked at on NF has been shite. Including Schitt's Creek, which is one joke played over and over.
If we were paying for NF (it's a 'borrowed' family account) we wouldn't bother. Amazon Prime is even worse - we only keep that going for the next day deliveries, and they are on borrowed time.
BBC, ITV and C4 each produce more watchable output than NF or AP imho.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
And if I go Borgen, do I need to bother with seasons 2 and 3 which are ancient yet which I somehow missed?
TAK
You don't need seasons 2 and 3. As I recall, the heroine was still PM in series 3, but she starts the new one as a Minister in a coalition under a sly Labour politician (prettier than the heroine) who schemes to undermine her. I'd go straight into the new series - ir's tauter than the amiable ramble that was the last series. And the sweating is like twice in an episode, less than a sensitive soul like you might encounter when nervously scanning PB.
Are the BBC and C4 "centre to centre left" or is it because they try to have a plurality of opinion whereas GB News (which I confess I've not watched) seems, from what I read, to be much less diverse and almost wholly either pro-Government or culturally "anti-left"? I've seen some on here moan about Sky News UK which apparently isn't Sky News Australia.
There's a paradox at work - the requirement for "free speech" on the one hand versus the advantages in a democratic culture of allowing a plurality of opinion.
Would you rather only hear the opinions you support or the views with which you agree or are you willing to be challenged and listen to contrary opinions? I'm in the latter camp.
We live in a largely free market economy in TV now as much as elsewhere, as I said if the Guardian wants to start a Woke left TV channel it can do. I sometimes listen to the main BBC news at 10pm or the ITV news at the same time, otherwise I now get most of my news and discussion from GB news which matches my worldview more
That though is the problem, isn't it? If all you want is news which re-enforces your worldview you end up in an echo chamber as we see in political debate in America and Australia and to an extent here.
Democracy flourishes when a plurality of voices are heard and argument is had across the political divide. If all we hear is what we want to hear we will stagnate politically and I'd argue culturally.
I should watch GB News - I should because it offers a different perspective. I shouldn't be afraid of that - no one should be afraid of hearing arguments which challenge or make you re-evaluate.
I watched GB News when it started up. I wasn't blown away and haven't watched it again. But goodness me it was refreshing to watch a news channel which didn't appear to dislike me. I am quite open to hearing perspectives which are not my own, but being metaphorically bashed over the head constantly by BBC worldview does get tiring.
Which BBC programmes are you talking about?
All of them
Well not all of them. News, obviously - though surprisingly often an element of impartiality creeps in. Almost all comedy, of course. Almost all drama. Though very occasionally not. Surprisingly often in the bits of sport the BBC still has. Nature documentaries are usually OK, though inevitably have the five minute section at the end about how dreadful humans are. Some music. That Top of the Pops series on the 80s, for example, managed to include little bits in the script about how dreadful the Tories were and how excited everyone in the 90s was that there would soon be a Labour government. And while I like Radio 6, it does have a certain BBC attitude it expects you to share. Quite a lot of its childrens' programming.
Only Connect manages to be on the BBC without hating its viewers. So not only Connect. And Not Going Out too. That doesn't drip BBC condescension either.
Despite its irritating qualities it is better than all the rest.
What are “all the rest”?
Meanwhile on “sweary Borgen” I have just heard my first “fuck” and it’s minute 43 of episode 1, season 4
We've had a Netflix subscription since the beginning of lockdown and we've watched The Crown (all episodes), Queen's Gambit (ditto), The Dig, and Don't Look up. The first two were great, The Dig and Don't Look Up were ok.
Everything else we have looked at on NF has been shite. Including Schitt's Creek, which is one joke played over and over.
If we were paying for NF (it's a 'borrowed' family account) we wouldn't bother. Amazon Prime is even worse - we only keep that going for the next day deliveries, and they are on borrowed time.
BBC, ITV and C4 each produce more watchable output than NF or AP imho.
Ozarks I enjoyed on Netflix and Clarkson's Farm and Deep water were brill on Amazon but i tend to agree
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration?
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
I was thinking of voting LibDem in the forthcoming T and H election, as I want Boris out. Reading this thread reminded my why I swore not to do that again.
Care to elaborate?
EU. The core leadership of the party would throw anything away, even liberalism and democracy, for it. The members used to be a bit more equivocal, and the voters at least in the SW were downright hostile.
I have knocked on literally thousands of doors for the LibDems. I was always bemused when other canvassers would report that Europe never came up, whereas I would receive it loud and clear at 120 decibels. I guess you hear what you want to hear.
I recall the LibDems staging a strop when their demand to get an in/out referendum was turned down. Of course when they (we) did get offered one a few years later they voted against it, duly lost it and used every trick in the Trump book to frustrate its implementation (with the honourable exception of the late great Paddy Ashdown).
Democracy when it suits doesn't work for me so I left the party after 28 years. Since then they seems to have been captured by the worst excesses of student extremism and pretty much reject the Enlightenment never mind about classical liberalism.
I actually think Jeremy Corbyn has a stronger grip on reality than the likes of Layla Moran.
A Lib Dem that gets it! Bravo
OK an ex Lib Dem, but still
Yes, the attempts to thwart the 2016 vote were Trumpite, minus the flares and buffalo horns. It was still a shameful bid to subvert democracy
I could actually vote for a really liberal, really democratic Lib Dem party. Socially relaxed, fiscally prudent, friendly to all our neighbours (including the EU), sound on defence and the union, strong on the Enlightenment, not full of Woke lefty idiots or lying greedy Tories. Sadly, I can’t see that in the LDs right now
"strong on the Enlightenment" - lol.
Yeah, you know: Free Speech. No de facto blasphemy laws. That kinda shit
There were, and are, several 'Enlightenments', just as there were several 'Reformations'.
Yeah but the Enlightenment that matters is one many of us are attached to. Unfortunately, much of the modern left seems content to throw it in the bin. Free speech, democracy, rule of law etc.
Bullshit!
Democracy? The Enlightenment is generally reckoned to have occurred through the 17th and 18th centuries. What was the state of democracy in the UK by 1800? What percentage of the adult population do you think had a vote?
Free Speech? In 1795, the Parliament enacted the Treason Act and Seditious Meetings Act to suppress the burgeoning Radical movement calling for Parliamentary reform.
Democracy and Free Speech were only won because left-wing activists fought for them.
Rule of Law? Ask Johnson about that one.
Just because the Enlightenment promoted certain ideas doesn't mean the institutions around them magically caught up. The gap between the new thinking and the old way of doing things was what the violent upheavals of the 19th Century was about. And yes, the old left did fight passionately for these things, before the new left started embracing immigration amnesties and blasphemy bans. Or valuing speech based on the identity of who said it rather than its content.
I won't even indulge the whataboutism of the last line.
I don't think the right have a great track record on free speech, democracy or the rule of law.
Indeed, which is why it’s surprising that it’s flipped, with the free speech defenders now mostly on the right and the more censorious attitudes coming from the left. What caused the switch?
Many things, including the death of communism leading to a lack of ideological direction, especially taken in tandem with atheism (remember a lot of left wing thought used to be quite religious: Methodism overlapped with British socialism, for instance)
Identity politics - Woke - rushed to fill the gaping void. Very successfully. As it is a form of secular religion. So it ticked all the boxes
However in a religion the holy thing trumps all else so all the Enlightenment values got dumped in favour of extreme social justice for the intersectionally oppressed
The joke in all of this is that intersectionality is about considering all the different parts of identity. So if you consider race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, socioeconomic class, you start to get into pretty small segments. If you start adding in other things that affect life experience and treatment, you can add physical attractiveness, height, weight, family size, birth order, rural vs urban, age, medical conditions, neurodivergence and so on. Ultimately, you splice the population down to the individual level, at which point we return to the Enlightenment and liberalism after all.
Its not exactly the same but sort of along the same lines when there was an experiment in Australia to find the "average" Australian - by looking for somebody who was average height , average income , average weight , etc - when they got down to about 7 categories of which they got an average for each category there was nobody in Australia who was actually average!
The average human has one testicle.
I would have thought the median and the mode was zero, while the mean will be around 0.95.
More data needed, given that there are more men than women in the world:
Gender Ratio in the World in 2021 is 101.68 males per 100 females
"The sex ratio at birth is 107 boys per 100 girls" which is much more than I would have expected. I thought it was more like 102/103.
Yes, that surprised me too. What I found shocking, though, is that the scale of gender selection in China and India is sufficient to skew the statistics so far away from the natural value in those countries.
It's intriguing to me that most of Africa is 1.02/03.
You know, everyone talks about China and India skewing the birth figures, and they are numbers two and three on the list for the highest proportion of boys vs girls at birth.
But they are not the worst culprit. No, the worst culprit - at birth - is a European country, a member of EFTA no less, where males outnumber females 1.26 to 1 at birth.
Vatican?
Not a member of EFTA.
Can you think of any other reasons why it might be an unlikely choice?
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
The problem of the music industry is that after Radiohead, what more can be said?
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
It is the rules
I know. But why? And are they optimal? I think not.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Are the BBC and C4 "centre to centre left" or is it because they try to have a plurality of opinion whereas GB News (which I confess I've not watched) seems, from what I read, to be much less diverse and almost wholly either pro-Government or culturally "anti-left"? I've seen some on here moan about Sky News UK which apparently isn't Sky News Australia.
There's a paradox at work - the requirement for "free speech" on the one hand versus the advantages in a democratic culture of allowing a plurality of opinion.
Would you rather only hear the opinions you support or the views with which you agree or are you willing to be challenged and listen to contrary opinions? I'm in the latter camp.
We live in a largely free market economy in TV now as much as elsewhere, as I said if the Guardian wants to start a Woke left TV channel it can do. I sometimes listen to the main BBC news at 10pm or the ITV news at the same time, otherwise I now get most of my news and discussion from GB news which matches my worldview more
That though is the problem, isn't it? If all you want is news which re-enforces your worldview you end up in an echo chamber as we see in political debate in America and Australia and to an extent here.
Democracy flourishes when a plurality of voices are heard and argument is had across the political divide. If all we hear is what we want to hear we will stagnate politically and I'd argue culturally.
I should watch GB News - I should because it offers a different perspective. I shouldn't be afraid of that - no one should be afraid of hearing arguments which challenge or make you re-evaluate.
I watched GB News when it started up. I wasn't blown away and haven't watched it again. But goodness me it was refreshing to watch a news channel which didn't appear to dislike me. I am quite open to hearing perspectives which are not my own, but being metaphorically bashed over the head constantly by BBC worldview does get tiring.
Which BBC programmes are you talking about?
All of them
Well not all of them. News, obviously - though surprisingly often an element of impartiality creeps in. Almost all comedy, of course. Almost all drama. Though very occasionally not. Surprisingly often in the bits of sport the BBC still has. Nature documentaries are usually OK, though inevitably have the five minute section at the end about how dreadful humans are. Some music. That Top of the Pops series on the 80s, for example, managed to include little bits in the script about how dreadful the Tories were and how excited everyone in the 90s was that there would soon be a Labour government. And while I like Radio 6, it does have a certain BBC attitude it expects you to share. Quite a lot of its childrens' programming.
Only Connect manages to be on the BBC without hating its viewers. So not only Connect. And Not Going Out too. That doesn't drip BBC condescension either.
Despite its irritating qualities it is better than all the rest.
What are “all the rest”?
Meanwhile on “sweary Borgen” I have just heard my first “fuck” and it’s minute 43 of episode 1, season 4
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
I was thinking of voting LibDem in the forthcoming T and H election, as I want Boris out. Reading this thread reminded my why I swore not to do that again.
Care to elaborate?
EU. The core leadership of the party would throw anything away, even liberalism and democracy, for it. The members used to be a bit more equivocal, and the voters at least in the SW were downright hostile.
I have knocked on literally thousands of doors for the LibDems. I was always bemused when other canvassers would report that Europe never came up, whereas I would receive it loud and clear at 120 decibels. I guess you hear what you want to hear.
I recall the LibDems staging a strop when their demand to get an in/out referendum was turned down. Of course when they (we) did get offered one a few years later they voted against it, duly lost it and used every trick in the Trump book to frustrate its implementation (with the honourable exception of the late great Paddy Ashdown).
Democracy when it suits doesn't work for me so I left the party after 28 years. Since then they seems to have been captured by the worst excesses of student extremism and pretty much reject the Enlightenment never mind about classical liberalism.
I actually think Jeremy Corbyn has a stronger grip on reality than the likes of Layla Moran.
A Lib Dem that gets it! Bravo
OK an ex Lib Dem, but still
Yes, the attempts to thwart the 2016 vote were Trumpite, minus the flares and buffalo horns. It was still a shameful bid to subvert democracy
I could actually vote for a really liberal, really democratic Lib Dem party. Socially relaxed, fiscally prudent, friendly to all our neighbours (including the EU), sound on defence and the union, strong on the Enlightenment, not full of Woke lefty idiots or lying greedy Tories. Sadly, I can’t see that in the LDs right now
"strong on the Enlightenment" - lol.
Yeah, you know: Free Speech. No de facto blasphemy laws. That kinda shit
There were, and are, several 'Enlightenments', just as there were several 'Reformations'.
Yeah but the Enlightenment that matters is one many of us are attached to. Unfortunately, much of the modern left seems content to throw it in the bin. Free speech, democracy, rule of law etc.
Bullshit!
Democracy? The Enlightenment is generally reckoned to have occurred through the 17th and 18th centuries. What was the state of democracy in the UK by 1800? What percentage of the adult population do you think had a vote?
Free Speech? In 1795, the Parliament enacted the Treason Act and Seditious Meetings Act to suppress the burgeoning Radical movement calling for Parliamentary reform.
Democracy and Free Speech were only won because left-wing activists fought for them.
Rule of Law? Ask Johnson about that one.
Just because the Enlightenment promoted certain ideas doesn't mean the institutions around them magically caught up. The gap between the new thinking and the old way of doing things was what the violent upheavals of the 19th Century was about. And yes, the old left did fight passionately for these things, before the new left started embracing immigration amnesties and blasphemy bans. Or valuing speech based on the identity of who said it rather than its content.
I won't even indulge the whataboutism of the last line.
I don't think the right have a great track record on free speech, democracy or the rule of law.
Indeed, which is why it’s surprising that it’s flipped, with the free speech defenders now mostly on the right and the more censorious attitudes coming from the left. What caused the switch?
Many things, including the death of communism leading to a lack of ideological direction, especially taken in tandem with atheism (remember a lot of left wing thought used to be quite religious: Methodism overlapped with British socialism, for instance)
Identity politics - Woke - rushed to fill the gaping void. Very successfully. As it is a form of secular religion. So it ticked all the boxes
However in a religion the holy thing trumps all else so all the Enlightenment values got dumped in favour of extreme social justice for the intersectionally oppressed
The joke in all of this is that intersectionality is about considering all the different parts of identity. So if you consider race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, socioeconomic class, you start to get into pretty small segments. If you start adding in other things that affect life experience and treatment, you can add physical attractiveness, height, weight, family size, birth order, rural vs urban, age, medical conditions, neurodivergence and so on. Ultimately, you splice the population down to the individual level, at which point we return to the Enlightenment and liberalism after all.
Its not exactly the same but sort of along the same lines when there was an experiment in Australia to find the "average" Australian - by looking for somebody who was average height , average income , average weight , etc - when they got down to about 7 categories of which they got an average for each category there was nobody in Australia who was actually average!
The average human has one testicle.
I would have thought the median and the mode was zero, while the mean will be around 0.95.
More data needed, given that there are more men than women in the world:
Gender Ratio in the World in 2021 is 101.68 males per 100 females
"The sex ratio at birth is 107 boys per 100 girls" which is much more than I would have expected. I thought it was more like 102/103.
Yes, that surprised me too. What I found shocking, though, is that the scale of gender selection in China and India is sufficient to skew the statistics so far away from the natural value in those countries.
It's intriguing to me that most of Africa is 1.02/03.
You know, everyone talks about China and India skewing the birth figures, and they are numbers two and three on the list for the highest proportion of boys vs girls at birth.
But they are not the worst culprit. No, the worst culprit - at birth - is a European country, a member of EFTA no less, where males outnumber females 1.26 to 1 at birth.
Vatican?
Not a member of EFTA.
Can you think of any other reasons why it might be an unlikely choice?
Of course, the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù is actually across the border in Rome.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
FreakyTrigger's "Popular", which reviews every No. 1 up to (so far) 2003, is absolutely brilliant on this... I've lost entire evenings to reading it. You'll be reading about Pet Shop Boys and M/A/R/R/S one minute, Jive Bunny the next.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
There was a zoom event that evening - was advertised. Held it up as auctioning it off for donations perhaps? Not that interesting. If campaigning is allowed - and it was allowed - then was said football shirt related to the campaigning event? If yes then its allowed.
We can do this all night...
But how many people do you need in a room for that? If was permitted but only where absolutely necessary
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
The payroll is still ignoring public opinion, and a few clients in the Lords, but I sense a significant shift against Johnson in the broader Tory elite, including among Brexiteers. https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1532817518062055424
Monday is going to be the day reality hits Boris and his ever reducing band of supporters
The crowd were presumably erring on the side of being royal lovers, otherwise why stand there for hours?
They know Johnson oversaw parties whilst the Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral.
Johnson may as well have killed a corgi with his bare hands whilst drinking a glass of champers and shouting 'one rule for us'.
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
It is the rules
I know. But why? And are they optimal? I think not.
I’m not so sure. If you haven’t formed your opinion by now on whether the leader is up to the job or not, what would a few weeks do to convince? And who would campaign? I think the immediate vote allows a pulse to be taken to see which way the wind is blowing. Often winning still means the incumbent has lost, it just may not be Instant.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
I really do not want Starmer to resign but he made his decision not me
I actually am quite relaxed with Starmer as I expect he will really struggle when he has to make difficult decisions and in the heat of an election campaign
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
It is the rules
I know. But why? And are they optimal? I think not.
The 1922 seem happy with them and they do have the power to change them
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuf
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Meg White says hi.
Mo Tucker says howdy.
Sheila E? I like Meg. But I'm a White Stripes fan, not Velvet Underground. Here is a list. There's quite a few I've never heard of. But quite a few I didn't realise.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
The problem of the music industry is that after Radiohead, what more can be said?
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
The sad thing about all this for me is that even if people at the event, up to and including Starmer, get fpns, the huge difference is it seems to have been a one off, late in the pandemic, we’re possibly mistakes were made. The contrast to the culture in No 10 is stark. What we’ve seen from those on No 10, a lot of them civil service, but under the gaze on the conservative government, was breathtaking. They knew it was wrong. A lot of staff didn’t take part and even raised concerns. But too many are just entitled wankers who couldn’t give a shit.
I was thinking of voting LibDem in the forthcoming T and H election, as I want Boris out. Reading this thread reminded my why I swore not to do that again.
Care to elaborate?
EU. The core leadership of the party would throw anything away, even liberalism and democracy, for it. The members used to be a bit more equivocal, and the voters at least in the SW were downright hostile.
I have knocked on literally thousands of doors for the LibDems. I was always bemused when other canvassers would report that Europe never came up, whereas I would receive it loud and clear at 120 decibels. I guess you hear what you want to hear.
I recall the LibDems staging a strop when their demand to get an in/out referendum was turned down. Of course when they (we) did get offered one a few years later they voted against it, duly lost it and used every trick in the Trump book to frustrate its implementation (with the honourable exception of the late great Paddy Ashdown).
Democracy when it suits doesn't work for me so I left the party after 28 years. Since then they seems to have been captured by the worst excesses of student extremism and pretty much reject the Enlightenment never mind about classical liberalism.
I actually think Jeremy Corbyn has a stronger grip on reality than the likes of Layla Moran.
A Lib Dem that gets it! Bravo
OK an ex Lib Dem, but still
Yes, the attempts to thwart the 2016 vote were Trumpite, minus the flares and buffalo horns. It was still a shameful bid to subvert democracy
I could actually vote for a really liberal, really democratic Lib Dem party. Socially relaxed, fiscally prudent, friendly to all our neighbours (including the EU), sound on defence and the union, strong on the Enlightenment, not full of Woke lefty idiots or lying greedy Tories. Sadly, I can’t see that in the LDs right now
"strong on the Enlightenment" - lol.
Yeah, you know: Free Speech. No de facto blasphemy laws. That kinda shit
There were, and are, several 'Enlightenments', just as there were several 'Reformations'.
Yeah but the Enlightenment that matters is one many of us are attached to. Unfortunately, much of the modern left seems content to throw it in the bin. Free speech, democracy, rule of law etc.
Bullshit!
Democracy? The Enlightenment is generally reckoned to have occurred through the 17th and 18th centuries. What was the state of democracy in the UK by 1800? What percentage of the adult population do you think had a vote?
Free Speech? In 1795, the Parliament enacted the Treason Act and Seditious Meetings Act to suppress the burgeoning Radical movement calling for Parliamentary reform.
Democracy and Free Speech were only won because left-wing activists fought for them.
Rule of Law? Ask Johnson about that one.
Just because the Enlightenment promoted certain ideas doesn't mean the institutions around them magically caught up. The gap between the new thinking and the old way of doing things was what the violent upheavals of the 19th Century was about. And yes, the old left did fight passionately for these things, before the new left started embracing immigration amnesties and blasphemy bans. Or valuing speech based on the identity of who said it rather than its content.
I won't even indulge the whataboutism of the last line.
I don't think the right have a great track record on free speech, democracy or the rule of law.
Indeed, which is why it’s surprising that it’s flipped, with the free speech defenders now mostly on the right and the more censorious attitudes coming from the left. What caused the switch?
Many things, including the death of communism leading to a lack of ideological direction, especially taken in tandem with atheism (remember a lot of left wing thought used to be quite religious: Methodism overlapped with British socialism, for instance)
Identity politics - Woke - rushed to fill the gaping void. Very successfully. As it is a form of secular religion. So it ticked all the boxes
However in a religion the holy thing trumps all else so all the Enlightenment values got dumped in favour of extreme social justice for the intersectionally oppressed
The joke in all of this is that intersectionality is about considering all the different parts of identity. So if you consider race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, socioeconomic class, you start to get into pretty small segments. If you start adding in other things that affect life experience and treatment, you can add physical attractiveness, height, weight, family size, birth order, rural vs urban, age, medical conditions, neurodivergence and so on. Ultimately, you splice the population down to the individual level, at which point we return to the Enlightenment and liberalism after all.
Its not exactly the same but sort of along the same lines when there was an experiment in Australia to find the "average" Australian - by looking for somebody who was average height , average income , average weight , etc - when they got down to about 7 categories of which they got an average for each category there was nobody in Australia who was actually average!
The average human has one testicle.
I would have thought the median and the mode was zero, while the mean will be around 0.95.
More data needed, given that there are more men than women in the world:
Gender Ratio in the World in 2021 is 101.68 males per 100 females
"The sex ratio at birth is 107 boys per 100 girls" which is much more than I would have expected. I thought it was more like 102/103.
Yes, that surprised me too. What I found shocking, though, is that the scale of gender selection in China and India is sufficient to skew the statistics so far away from the natural value in those countries.
It's intriguing to me that most of Africa is 1.02/03.
You know, everyone talks about China and India skewing the birth figures, and they are numbers two and three on the list for the highest proportion of boys vs girls at birth.
But they are not the worst culprit. No, the worst culprit - at birth - is a European country, a member of EFTA no less, where males outnumber females 1.26 to 1 at birth.
Vatican?
Not a member of EFTA.
Can you think of any other reasons why it might be an unlikely choice?
Of course, the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù is actually across the border in Rome.
Silly me.
Yes - it’s extraterritorial also doesn’t specialise in maternity
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
Naughty, naughty. Video featuring Jerry Sadowitz. Cancelled cos he would insist on saying Jimmy Savile was a paedophile. Superb up close magician. Unacknowledged hero.
Are the BBC and C4 "centre to centre left" or is it because they try to have a plurality of opinion whereas GB News (which I confess I've not watched) seems, from what I read, to be much less diverse and almost wholly either pro-Government or culturally "anti-left"? I've seen some on here moan about Sky News UK which apparently isn't Sky News Australia.
There's a paradox at work - the requirement for "free speech" on the one hand versus the advantages in a democratic culture of allowing a plurality of opinion.
Would you rather only hear the opinions you support or the views with which you agree or are you willing to be challenged and listen to contrary opinions? I'm in the latter camp.
We live in a largely free market economy in TV now as much as elsewhere, as I said if the Guardian wants to start a Woke left TV channel it can do. I sometimes listen to the main BBC news at 10pm or the ITV news at the same time, otherwise I now get most of my news and discussion from GB news which matches my worldview more
That though is the problem, isn't it? If all you want is news which re-enforces your worldview you end up in an echo chamber as we see in political debate in America and Australia and to an extent here.
Democracy flourishes when a plurality of voices are heard and argument is had across the political divide. If all we hear is what we want to hear we will stagnate politically and I'd argue culturally.
I should watch GB News - I should because it offers a different perspective. I shouldn't be afraid of that - no one should be afraid of hearing arguments which challenge or make you re-evaluate.
I watched GB News when it started up. I wasn't blown away and haven't watched it again. But goodness me it was refreshing to watch a news channel which didn't appear to dislike me. I am quite open to hearing perspectives which are not my own, but being metaphorically bashed over the head constantly by BBC worldview does get tiring.
Which BBC programmes are you talking about?
All of them
Well not all of them. News, obviously - though surprisingly often an element of impartiality creeps in. Almost all comedy, of course. Almost all drama. Though very occasionally not. Surprisingly often in the bits of sport the BBC still has. Nature documentaries are usually OK, though inevitably have the five minute section at the end about how dreadful humans are. Some music. That Top of the Pops series on the 80s, for example, managed to include little bits in the script about how dreadful the Tories were and how excited everyone in the 90s was that there would soon be a Labour government. And while I like Radio 6, it does have a certain BBC attitude it expects you to share. Quite a lot of its childrens' programming.
Only Connect manages to be on the BBC without hating its viewers. So not only Connect. And Not Going Out too. That doesn't drip BBC condescension either.
Despite its irritating qualities it is better than all the rest.
What are “all the rest”?
Meanwhile on “sweary Borgen” I have just heard my first “fuck” and it’s minute 43 of episode 1, season 4
We've had a Netflix subscription since the beginning of lockdown and we've watched The Crown (all episodes), Queen's Gambit (ditto), The Dig, and Don't Look up. The first two were great, The Dig and Don't Look Up were ok.
Everything else we have looked at on NF has been shite. Including Schitt's Creek, which is one joke played over and over.
If we were paying for NF (it's a 'borrowed' family account) we wouldn't bother. Amazon Prime is even worse - we only keep that going for the next day deliveries, and they are on borrowed time.
BBC, ITV and C4 each produce more watchable output than NF or AP imho.
Ozarks I enjoyed on Netflix and Clarkson's Farm and Deep water were brill on Amazon but i tend to agree
I have a deep aversion to Clarkson so really couldn't face it but I do concede that by all reports it made great television.
Actually, I should have added The Marvelous Mrs Maisel season 1 to my AP list. We enjoyed it but not enough to bother with season 2 as it seemed to have run its course and looked like falling foul of the US TV disease of milking a good idea dry.
And if I go Borgen, do I need to bother with seasons 2 and 3 which are ancient yet which I somehow missed?
TAK
You don't need seasons 2 and 3. As I recall, the heroine was still PM in series 3, but she starts the new one as a Minister in a coalition under a sly Labour politician (prettier than the heroine) who schemes to undermine her. I'd go straight into the new series - ir's tauter than the amiable ramble that was the last series. And the sweating is like twice in an episode, less than a sensitive soul like you might encounter when nervously scanning PB.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
The problem of the music industry is that after Radiohead, what more can be said?
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
The problem of the music industry is that after Radiohead, what more can be said?
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuf
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Meg White says hi.
Mo Tucker says howdy.
Sheila E? I like Meg. But I'm a White Stripes fan, not Velvet Underground. Here is a list. There's quite a few I've never heard of. But quite a few I didn't realise.
Some greats in there. I have a soft spot for the Bangles.
I loved it when they released a cover of "Going Down to Liverpool" and were interviewed. They didn't know what a UB40 was, so had misunderstood the whole song, and played it like a Californian slacker song.
Meanwhile. Someone seems to be celebrating the Jubilee by riding a souped up dirt bike round and round the town down every quiet street keeping everyone awake. Party of law and order my arse. If he was doing it as a protest... Rather than just being a total arsehole.
Back from two days camping out in front of St Pauls, draped in union jacks, forcing away all genuine flagshagging royalist loons, just so our secret undercover remainer cell could boo Johnson for twenty seconds. I can’t believe Dorries rumbled us, she’s sharp that one. https://twitter.com/ottocrat/status/1532836588337741824
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuf
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Meg White says hi.
Mo Tucker says howdy.
Sheila E? I like Meg. But I'm a White Stripes fan, not Velvet Underground. Here is a list. There's quite a few I've never heard of. But quite a few I didn't realise.
The payroll is still ignoring public opinion, and a few clients in the Lords, but I sense a significant shift against Johnson in the broader Tory elite, including among Brexiteers. https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1532817518062055424
Monday is going to be the day reality hits Boris and his ever reducing band of supporters
The crowd were presumably erring on the side of being royal lovers, otherwise why stand there for hours?
They know Johnson oversaw parties whilst the Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral.
Johnson may as well have killed a corgi with his bare hands whilst drinking a glass of champers and shouting 'one rule for us'.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
To be fair 1992 saw the release of an absolutely endurong classic of a track. It was absolutely everywhere but suprisingly only the 13th best selling song of the year, behind tosh such as Baker Street by Undercover, Stay and Heal The World.
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration? Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
If the PM has lost the confidence of their party, then by extension they've lost the confidence of the House. Best to get rid of them as soon as possible. You really don't want to drag out the process.
On the war, rumours of France and Sweden providing anti ship missiles. Putin also meeting with the head of the African Union in Sochi and General Dvornikov may have been fired.
Whilst they have made some slow progress through Lukansk they still need to cross the river and it is increasingly difficult to see Russia making major territorial advances now. The number one priority should be ending the naval blockade both for Ukraine's economy and global food supply reasons.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
I really do not want Starmer to resign but he made his decision not me
I actually am quite relaxed with Starmer as I expect he will really struggle when he has to make difficult decisions and in the heat of an election campaign
Yes BigG. you called this right from the start. Johnson did nothing, no Abba parties, no Birthday parties in No 10, so nothing to investigate. Starmer on the other hand was banged to rights by Ivo Delingpole, the Mail, and on here by you. Black hat time.
If Starmer does go down, it does prove one thing, Johnson really is above the law.
On the war, rumours of France and Sweden providing anti ship missiles. Putin also meeting with the head of the African Union in Sochi and General Dvornikov may have been fired.
Whilst they have made some slow progress through Lukansk they still need to cross the river and it is increasingly difficult to see Russia making major territorial advances now. The number one priority should be ending the naval blockade both for Ukraine's economy and global food supply reasons.
If he's firing General Dvornikov then Putin's done i reckon.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
I really do not want Starmer to resign but he made his decision not me
I actually am quite relaxed with Starmer as I expect he will really struggle when he has to make difficult decisions and in the heat of an election campaign
Yes BigG. you called this right from the start. Johnson did nothing, no Abba parties, no Birthday parties in No 10, so nothing to investigate. Starmer on the other hand was banged to rights by Ivo Delingpole, the Mail, and on here by you. Black hat time.
If Starmer does go down, it does prove one thing, Johnson really is above the law.
I comprehensively have condemned Boris on here and either you are not reading my posts or just being disingenuous
Boris must go and my local mps will affirm I sent them e mails demanding he goes
I do care about honesty and integrity and I also do not want Starmer to resign as he is beatable by someone not as toxic as Boris
A question. If 54 letters are reached we then have a vote probably in 24 or 48 hours. My question. What's the bloody hurry? I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration?
The Premiership would not change for weeks, perhaps months, depending on the length of a leadership contest, as you allude to. As to open debate and period of reflection about throwing him out as party leader, that is precisely what has been going on for over half a year.
Evening all! Had a bloody brilliant day trip with the family down Loch Ness to Fort William. Amazing that we can get up, go "looks like a nice day" and go looking for Nessie. Scotland - yes!
Anyway on topic, had no idea Truss was a LibDem. Had I know that I may not have rejoined the third time...
By road or cruiser
Twice we hired a cruiser on the Caley canal for a week and it was fabulous, not least navigating the locks at Fort Augustus
Road. Though cruiser would be great! Drove the whole length of the great glen, and the kids haven't been there since they were tiny. Neptune's Staircase at Banavie is still an amazing thing to look at - how long would it take a cruiser to get all the way down?
It is quite something. Met some friends on the loch who were transiting in their yacht from Banavie and went up the canal to Inverness, locking down the Clachnaharry staircase to the entrance basin, a few years back. Takes a while, but IIRC the gates are single (no intervening levels between locks), which helps. Nice B&B near the Clachnaharry staircase too.
A problem with the loch BTW is the u-shaped glacial basin - anchorages are very limited as the loch floor drops away so sharply. One may need to book ahead in busy season; our friends had this problem.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Certainly so. The Joy of Easy listening though doesn’t just cover some great music, but also great cultural analysis. Music has a meaning, and Nancy Sinatra, The Carpenters* and Herb Alpert all give a perspective on life in the Sixties.
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
Meg White says hi.
Mo Tucker says howdy.
Evelyn Glennie says Boom-bang-a-bang.
And Honey Lantree deserves a mention as, arguably, the first if not the best.
Evening all! Had a bloody brilliant day trip with the family down Loch Ness to Fort William. Amazing that we can get up, go "looks like a nice day" and go looking for Nessie. Scotland - yes!
Anyway on topic, had no idea Truss was a LibDem. Had I know that I may not have rejoined the third time...
The tenses are a bit confusing, aren't they? I think she stopped being a Lib Dem about 30 years ago. I think you are unlikely to meet up with her at any Lib Dem meeting nowadays.
Forgotten about that one. Thanks for posting. This is now the music of the swing demographic.
That's absolutely brilliant. How did I miss that first time round?
It is. It reminds me of the idea of going into care homes and playing Vera Lynn. When the residents want Beatles, Stones and the Who. The swing demographic are the e generation now.
Not going to lie, top 40 best selling singles in '99 has a hell of a lot of novelty songs in it
"The Joy of Easy Listening" on BBC4 is just brilliant telly. I can't imagine it being done by a commercial channel.
One of the biggest antidotes to wanky "music was better in year X" is Radio 2's Pick of the Pops. Actually hearing the non-entity mediocrity that filled the charts shows that nostalgia for music of times past is based on either massive survivorship bias of just knowing the best tunes from the period or the amazing coincidence that pop music was at its best when the speaker was a teenager.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff Radiohead.
FTFY
The problem of the music industry is that after Radiohead, what more can be said?
Forgotten about that one. Thanks for posting. This is now the music of the swing demographic.
That's absolutely brilliant. How did I miss that first time round?
It is. It reminds me of the idea of going into care homes and playing Vera Lynn. When the residents want Beatles, Stones and the Who. The swing demographic are the e generation now.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
The sad thing about all this for me is that even if people at the event, up to and including Starmer, get fpns, the huge difference is it seems to have been a one off, late in the pandemic, we’re possibly mistakes were made. The contrast to the culture in No 10 is stark. What we’ve seen from those on No 10, a lot of them civil service, but under the gaze on the conservative government, was breathtaking. They knew it was wrong. A lot of staff didn’t take part and even raised concerns. But too many are just entitled wankers who couldn’t give a shit.
Whatever the outcome of the police investigation there is no equivalence between the single event late on in the pandemic in Durham and the events that have gone in Downing Street throughout the lockdowns.
Starmer has also done the honourable thing and said he will resign if fined. Couldn't be more different from Johnson's attitude.
Back from two days camping out in front of St Pauls, draped in union jacks, forcing away all genuine flagshagging royalist loons, just so our secret undercover remainer cell could boo Johnson for twenty seconds. I can’t believe Dorries rumbled us, she’s sharp that one. https://twitter.com/ottocrat/status/1532836588337741824
Dorries has become the cabinet's answer to Comical Ali.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Gaidai said that previously Russian troops had controlled 70% of the city but the Ukrainian army had counterattacked and pushed some of them out...
I guess the boo constitutes the 'act' that causes the annoyance.
It's still quite a strange word salad:
78Intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance (1)A person commits an offence if— (a)the person— (i)does an act, or (ii)omits to do an act that they are required to do by any enactment or rule of law, (b)the person’s act or omission— (i)creates a risk of, or causes, serious harm to the public or a section of the public, or (ii)obstructs the public or a section of the public in the exercise or enjoyment of a right that may be exercised or enjoyed by the public at large, and (c)the person intends that their act or omission will have a consequence mentioned in paragraph (b) or is reckless as to whether it will have such a consequence. (2)In subsection (1)(b)(i) “serious harm” means— (a)death, personal injury or disease, (b)loss of, or damage to, property, or (c)serious distress, serious annoyance, serious inconvenience or serious loss of amenity.
Well, that's the libertarian principles of at least one of us fucked the next lockdown we get and he wants total freedom to walk around when he has covid. I really hadn't spotted the 'disease' bit.
That's an interesting thought.
I interpreted that as relating to Insulate Britain and others blocking ambulances, and causing death or injury to hospital patients.
But then I've had the experience of going into respiratory arrest immediately on arriving in hospital in a car as an ambulance would be too slow - when they asked me to blow into a tube so they could see just how weak my breathing was. I was told that at that point lots of lights and alarms all went off.
Which I think all underlines that the wording is not tight enough.
"Jet2 boss blames airport chaos on 'lazy Brits who live off benefits and Brexit' Steve Heapy was reported to have made the comment during a meeting this week with British Airways and easyJet calling for more help to resolve staff shortages causing huge passenger queues"
Comical Nad’s complaints seem to have had the desired effect.
The only thing that happened today in the Jubilee celebrations that could not have been foreseen and was therefore newsworthy was the response of the public to Johnson. Utterly bizarre that no mention of it in @BBCNews headlines, and half a line re ‘mixed reception’ in report… https://mobile.twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1532770500996485126
Though TBF it’s equally likely the BBC didn’t want to sour her Maj’s celebrations.
Back from two days camping out in front of St Pauls, draped in union jacks, forcing away all genuine flagshagging royalist loons, just so our secret undercover remainer cell could boo Johnson for twenty seconds. I can’t believe Dorries rumbled us, she’s sharp that one. https://twitter.com/ottocrat/status/1532836588337741824
"Flagshagging loons" from someone whose claim to fame is knitting EU flag hats.
Comical Nad’s complaints seem to have had the desired effect.
The only thing that happened today in the Jubilee celebrations that could not have been foreseen and was therefore newsworthy was the response of the public to Johnson. Utterly bizarre that no mention of it in @BBCNews headlines, and half a line re ‘mixed reception’ in report… https://mobile.twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1532770500996485126
Though TBF it’s equally likely the BBC didn’t want to sour her Maj’s celebrations.
"Jet2 boss blames airport chaos on 'lazy Brits who live off benefits and Brexit' Steve Heapy was reported to have made the comment during a meeting this week with British Airways and easyJet calling for more help to resolve staff shortages causing huge passenger queues"
"Jet2 boss blames airport chaos on 'lazy Brits who live off benefits and Brexit' Steve Heapy was reported to have made the comment during a meeting this week with British Airways and easyJet calling for more help to resolve staff shortages causing huge passenger queues"
Comical Nad’s complaints seem to have had the desired effect.
The only thing that happened today in the Jubilee celebrations that could not have been foreseen and was therefore newsworthy was the response of the public to Johnson. Utterly bizarre that no mention of it in @BBCNews headlines, and half a line re ‘mixed reception’ in report… https://mobile.twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1532770500996485126
Though TBF it’s equally likely the BBC didn’t want to sour her Maj’s celebrations.
That commitment to Free Speech didn't last long...
"Jet2 boss blames airport chaos on 'lazy Brits who live off benefits and Brexit' Steve Heapy was reported to have made the comment during a meeting this week with British Airways and easyJet calling for more help to resolve staff shortages causing huge passenger queues"
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
The sad thing about all this for me is that even if people at the event, up to and including Starmer, get fpns, the huge difference is it seems to have been a one off, late in the pandemic, we’re possibly mistakes were made. The contrast to the culture in No 10 is stark. What we’ve seen from those on No 10, a lot of them civil service, but under the gaze on the conservative government, was breathtaking. They knew it was wrong. A lot of staff didn’t take part and even raised concerns. But too many are just entitled wankers who couldn’t give a shit.
Yes and the user in question is DESPERATE to make them seem equivalent. When we all know they are not.
He is desperate, desperate to vote for BoJo again but he needs Starmer to be guilty so he doesn't look like he is changing his opinion on a whim, again.
Independent reporting Starmer is asked in his questionnaire from Durham Police about the football shirt he was photographed holding up
Interesting development
Have they asked whether it was pilau or plain rice yet, Big G? I know that was a detail you were especially interested in.
You tried to close this story down from day one and continue your assignine comments
Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July
"Maybe wait for the decision of Durham Police which is due by mid July" seems like sound advice you might want to follow yourself, maybe?
Reporting an article from the independent seems to have triggered the sensitivities of some on here
I did not invent the story they consider newsworthy
Your desire to see SKS come a cropper shines through.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
I really do not want Starmer to resign but he made his decision not me
I actually am quite relaxed with Starmer as I expect he will really struggle when he has to make difficult decisions and in the heat of an election campaign
Yes BigG. you called this right from the start. Johnson did nothing, no Abba parties, no Birthday parties in No 10, so nothing to investigate. Starmer on the other hand was banged to rights by Ivo Delingpole, the Mail, and on here by you. Black hat time.
If Starmer does go down, it does prove one thing, Johnson really is above the law.
I comprehensively have condemned Boris on here and either you are not reading my posts or just being disingenuous
Boris must go and my local mps will affirm I sent them e mails demanding he goes
I do care about honesty and integrity and I also do not want Starmer to resign as he is beatable by someone not as toxic as Boris
The mask slips.
This isn't about ethics or morals, it's about winning an election. You almost had us fooled that you actually cared for a moment - but you do not.
I remember you saying your vote was up for grabs, ROFL.
Comments
Right. Last one of these. Today my day has taken me to Flambards - a small but perfectly adequate theme park in Helston, because it's the kids' holiday too - which was exactly as you would expect, only much hotter. We rode Britain's most southerly roller coaster, which had not been on my bucket list but is nice enough to note. And then, having exhausted the possibilities there, we went to Swanpool Beach and hired some kayaks and paddled around the bay, visiting some inaccessible little beaches. That was a lovely little family adventure. And then we concluded the holiday by going into Falmouth, getting fish and chips, and eating them on the harbour front, which is one of life's major pleasures, especially in a harbour as wonderful and varied and properly working as Falmouth's: gigs and tugs and paddleboards and water taxis and sailing boats and massive naval ships and superyachts all rubbing shoulders. Very satisfying. And looking at all this gave an air of finality to the holiday - perhaps a reflection of my best childhood holidays, when I was my kids' age, which concluded with pulling out of St. Helier at 10pm, my mum weeping happy tears about how wonderful the holiday had been and how she didn't want it to end.
Of course, we didn't get on a ferry: we drove back to the holiday house and packed while the kids played out with new friends, before my youngest crashed with over-tiredness. And tomorrow we will get up super-early for British self-catering's new standard throwing-out time of 9am before heading into Falmouth again to look at the National Maritime Museum ( now known, following my dyslexic middle daughter's rather wonderful misreading as the National Marmite Museum), playing the game of judge-the-right-time-to-leave-given-weather-and-longitude to best avoid the worst of the traffic home. Best case scenario is leave Falmouth about 2.30, get back to Manchester about 10.
It's been well worth the journey though.
It's been, I think, the best family holiday I've had. A demonstration that the correlation between the amount you spend on a holiday and the enjoyability of that holiday is weak; and that the importance of stimulation - of doing and seeing new things - is high. (Which is a bit if a problem, given our rather more expensive holiday we have booked in August to North Cornwall where we have, just about, done everything.) West Cornwall isn't for every family, but I think you'd be missing out not to try it at least once.
Pop music always was and always will be filled with commercial rubbish that makes no long lasting impression along with the good stuff.
Wonderful holiday
PS on topic, Truss looks about 12, yet she sounded just as pompous and patronising then as she does now, don’t you just want to put her in stocks and throw rotten fruit at her when she hits that self righteous note?
And the thing about Boris is he provokes intense passions, positive and negative. Lots of people always disliked him, the question is whether enough still like him. Even a base tires of its leader eventually.
Have they now? People will disagree. But election winners do step down or are defeated if they don't, even a 3 year old victory does not mean the victor will still be the best person.
If these fools believe a single word that Johnson says during these charm offence meetings then they are even more stupid that we thought.
https://ballotbox.scot/le22-precarious-position
No its my fkin turn to fill the english pig - i sharpen knife all day !
Everything else we have looked at on NF has been shite. Including Schitt's Creek, which is one joke played over and over.
If we were paying for NF (it's a 'borrowed' family account) we wouldn't bother. Amazon Prime is even worse - we only keep that going for the next day deliveries, and they are on borrowed time.
BBC, ITV and C4 each produce more watchable output than NF or AP imho.
@Dannythefink typically understated and wise
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/69dd59e4-e34e-11ec-8bdd-c253e043f5f0?shareToken=5eda5784e47b749423e2b91ed5837b6f
*was Karen Carpenter the best female drummer of all time?
My question. What's the bloody hurry?
I mean. We get weeks for a GE. Weeks for a leadership election. Months for referenda. Doesn't throwing out or keeping the PM merit some open debate and a period of reflection and consideration?
Was the system designed specifically for a LOTO?
https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/1532829826293321729
But why? And are they optimal? I think not.
For me as a left-supporter but not a Labour Party member the outcome of the investigation will be a win either way. Either SKS is cleared and the contrast with Johnson is clear, or he is fined, resigns, and Johnson looks even worse. In the latter case Labour also get a more charismatic leader.
So all in all I am pretty relaxed about this.
Silly me.
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/populist/
I’m glad that poorer people than you are paying their license fees so that you can enjoy subsidised TV
I am of course talking about EBENEEZER GOODE
https://youtu.be/YFJdUJg4wOk
They know Johnson oversaw parties whilst the Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral.
Johnson may as well have killed a corgi with his bare hands whilst drinking a glass of champers and shouting 'one rule for us'.
I actually am quite relaxed with Starmer as I expect he will really struggle when he has to make difficult decisions and in the heat of an election campaign
Very surreal.
That's how it works. Something for everyone.
Here is a list. There's quite a few I've never heard of. But quite a few I didn't realise.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-female-drummers/?amp
Video featuring Jerry Sadowitz.
Cancelled cos he would insist on saying Jimmy Savile was a paedophile.
Superb up close magician. Unacknowledged hero.
Actually, I should have added The Marvelous Mrs Maisel season 1 to my AP list. We enjoyed it but not enough to bother with season 2 as it seemed to have run its course and looked like falling foul of the US TV disease of milking a good idea dry.
Esher Good
Esher Good
Eben-Esher Good
You did a gig with the Shamen?
Gear coming on, my friend. Respect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_mcxvrw&ab_channel=DieAntwoord
I loved it when they released a cover of "Going Down to Liverpool" and were interviewed. They didn't know what a UB40 was, so had misunderstood the whole song, and played it like a Californian slacker song.
Party of law and order my arse.
If he was doing it as a protest...
Rather than just being a total arsehole.
https://twitter.com/ottocrat/status/1532836588337741824
Including this one where they just replaced the whole song with a ripping tb-303 bassline.
https://youtu.be/9opP17P0hm4
Whilst they have made some slow progress through Lukansk they still need to cross the river and it is increasingly difficult to see Russia making major territorial advances now. The number one priority should be ending the naval blockade both for Ukraine's economy and global food supply reasons.
If Starmer does go down, it does prove one thing, Johnson really is above the law.
This is now the music of the swing demographic.
Boris must go and my local mps will affirm I sent them e mails demanding he goes
I do care about honesty and integrity and I also do not want Starmer to resign as he is beatable by someone not as toxic as Boris
How much bloody time do they need?
A problem with the loch BTW is the u-shaped glacial basin - anchorages are very limited as the loch floor drops away so sharply. One may need to book ahead in busy season; our friends had this problem.
4/1 Jubilee celebrations
1/5 Two cousins just got hitched
https://twitter.com/TroonLifeboat/status/1532682255801503745?t=e_DPajb3isGtArGm2KA9CQ&s=19
And Honey Lantree deserves a mention as, arguably, the first if not the best.
The swing demographic are the e generation now.
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/record-labels-dig-their-own-grave?s=w
Starmer has also done the honourable thing and said he will resign if fined. Couldn't be more different from Johnson's attitude.
It sounds as though Ukraine laid something of a trap for the Russians in Sievierodonetsk.
https://mobile.twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1532823505968013314
Governor: Russians control 50% of Sievierodonetsk after Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Gaidai said that previously Russian troops had controlled 70% of the city but the Ukrainian army had counterattacked and pushed some of them out...
I interpreted that as relating to Insulate Britain and others blocking ambulances, and causing death or injury to hospital patients.
But then I've had the experience of going into respiratory arrest immediately on arriving in hospital in a car as an ambulance would be too slow - when they asked me to blow into a tube so they could see just how weak my breathing was. I was told that at that point lots of lights and alarms all went off.
Which I think all underlines that the wording is not tight enough.
Steve Heapy was reported to have made the comment during a meeting this week with British Airways and easyJet calling for more help to resolve staff shortages causing huge passenger queues"
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jet2-boss-blames-airport-chaos-27137175
The only thing that happened today in the Jubilee celebrations that could not have been foreseen and was therefore newsworthy was the response of the public to Johnson. Utterly bizarre that no mention of it in
@BBCNews headlines, and half a line re ‘mixed reception’ in report…
https://mobile.twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1532770500996485126
Though TBF it’s equally likely the BBC didn’t want to sour her Maj’s celebrations.
https://twitter.com/elisabethbraw/status/1532831197851701252
Four @lufthansa customer service agents at @MUC_Airport, 100s of people still waiting, and now they're closing for the night. Nobody has a hotel room.
An Italian next to me says I should write "vergogna".
He is desperate, desperate to vote for BoJo again but he needs Starmer to be guilty so he doesn't look like he is changing his opinion on a whim, again.
But we see through it.
This isn't about ethics or morals, it's about winning an election. You almost had us fooled that you actually cared for a moment - but you do not.
I remember you saying your vote was up for grabs, ROFL.
Watched the service this evening. That booing took me aback.
It's over ... isn't it?