I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
This plan to get agency staff for the Railways? AIUI, agency staff are in short supply everywhere. And they are turning down work right now. So. Where do they come from?
It shows how little they actual understand about the things they are supposedly in charge of.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a qualified agency signalman and even if they did exist they won’t be qualified to run anything as all signal boxes require site specific knowledge that takes time to get
I am sure there are some non technical roles agency staff could do, but it seems a bit desperate.
Especially as one needs a certain minimum number of signalmen, for instance, to keep the railways running. And one can't simply make them work overtime. Classic disaster trigger (e.g. a signalling engineer caused a disaster by leaving some bare wiring in a signalbox as a result of being grossly overworked).
If I were a manager I wouldn't touch any derogation of regulations, either. That would be to accept liability for the ensuing crash.
Shades of Abermiwl, where untrained staff accidentally allowed a train onto a section which already contained an oncoming express, with disastrous consequences.
Quite (once I had worked out that this is the correct orthography for the location in question, which is better known in railway books by its anglicised version). But the problem remains, as with the signalling engineer incident (1988).
This threat to bring in blacklegs is so stupid, a few managers aside, that it must be a deliberate Tory attempt to inflame the strike and get better ratings for Big Dog.
It’s like an eighties greatest hits tour. We are already seeing pieces in big dog friendly papers about how labour MPs who support the strike have taken money from the Rail Unions.
Seventies, soon, with the power cuts and oil crisis.
Oh, "but the music".
For every magic memory by the Sex Pistols and The Clash there were ten by Joe Dolce, Paper Lace, Boney M, Rick Dees with his "Disco Duck"....
I think Rivers of Babylon is fab
And if that doesn't give you an earworm, Rasputin
Thinking about it they are the black Abba
They were the epitome of disco, criticism of Boney M is not allowed! Paper Lace can fuck off though. Nottingham Forest, Billy dont be a hero, orchestra/pop twats. That aside, every decade has its cheese. We will no doubt look back (or rather younger bears will) and cringe at todays novelty performers however much their teeny bopper fans think they are the absolute moon and cutting edge of cool.
Paper Lace only had the one big hit and a couple of minor ones. One of its former members wrote the opening credits music for Midlands today in the late eighties.
Boney M had far greater longevity and knocked out some belting tunes. Their cover of ‘Painter Man’ is a banger.
Of course famously there are currently more versions of Boney M touring than grains of sand in the world. They toured the USSR and had some of the best selling singles of the 70s, when it meant something. Legends.
Talking of grains of sand it is estimated for every grain of sand on earth there are 10,000 stars in the universe.
Known universe(s)....
In some universes in our multiverse Keir, Angie and Mary Foy really were working on curry 'n beer with the lads night.#eventhemostunlikelyuniversesexist
Could we postulate one in which Boris Johnson is hard-working, competent, honest and selflessly devoted to the welfare of the nation?
You see thats the one that breaks the whole multiverse theory #oneuniverseitis
That''s four separate universes!
I assume you used to discreetly dispense a soothing ointment for gents with a nasty little case of oneuniverseitis.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
Had Johnson lost the vote last week which wasn't I think remotely likely, we'd be in a very different place now.
The fundamental for those who don't like Johnson is whether any Conservative Government is always preferable to any Labour Government and, within that, whether there are any circumstances in which a period of renewal in Opposition is preferable to being in Government.
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
This plan to get agency staff for the Railways? AIUI, agency staff are in short supply everywhere. And they are turning down work right now. So. Where do they come from?
It shows how little they actual understand about the things they are supposedly in charge of.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a qualified agency signalman and even if they did exist they won’t be qualified to run anything as all signal boxes require site specific knowledge that takes time to get
It’s all to appear to be doing something.
Pretty much sums up Boris Johnson. No soul. No ideology. No coherence.
Just a muddled set of knee-jerk reactions to the latest crisis with the sole aim of holding onto power.
There is nothing that defines Johnson or his brand of conservativism. It’s power for the Sake of it with no aim or purpose.
Which is the point of being Oxford Union President, isn't it?
There are very few future PMs there. It's more Jeremy Thorpe and Gyles Brandreth than Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.
Might be a reason for that.
Certainly at least one Oxford Union President on that least who became PM other than Johnson, Edward Heath in 1938.
A few Presidents who nearly made it too, Michael Heseltine, Tony Benn and William Hague and one President, Philip May, who married a future PM
Here is Edward Heath giving evidence to a Select Committee on PMQs. At 43 minutes, he mentions the Oxford Union as a training ground. https://youtu.be/FcKxJZZP2Z4?t=2581s
There seems to be a dearth of senior politicians in the last 2-3 decades, even allowing for
The most recent really senior one was Michael Gove, and a few tiddlers (Sam Gyimah, Damian Hinds, Jeremy Quinn). Only Sam Gyimah since 1990, unless I missed some.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Just have been fake lucky, never even saw a union Jack and that in West coast LOL not spot
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
I think a distinguished PBer suggested recently that the English envied the French because they thought them sexy, so you may be on a promise.
It is interesting that those who say polls are irrelevant when they show the Tories doing badly suddenly proclaim Labour is screwed and struggling as soon as the polls change a bit.
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Just have been fake lucky, never even saw a union Jack and that in West coast LOL not spot
Maybe he saw a miners' fete or Common Riding? Can't think what it was otherwise. Bit early for the chaps in bowler hats and sashes.
Edit: my total was
2 x houses with a couple of metres of bunting, or a few flags on sticks in flowerpots 1 x old folks home with the above combined
vs
2 Ukrainian flags
vs
1 unidentifiable (by me) flag of a football club (?)
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
Get rid of Boris and we can all enjoy just hating and laughing at Labour above all things. Tories for messing up running the country, Labour as figures of hate and ridicule. LDs for super pantie bunching earnestness about extraordinarily irrelevant things and breaking cardboard box blue walls with a big orange hammer. The natural UK order.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
Get rid of Boris and we can all enjoy just hating and laughing at Labour above all things. Tories for messing up running the country, Labour as figures of hate and ridicule. LDs for super pantie bunching earnestness about extraordinaily irrelevant things and breaking cardboard box blue walls with a big orange hammer. The natural UK order.
I don’t like laughing at any party. But then I used to think the Tories were a proud institution. They no longer are.
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
You can 'un-woke' fairly easily. It's not a bad scenario for Mordaunt.
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
I don't. I like what I like, and I couldn't give even the tiniest of shits whether that puts me in a minority of one, or whether it puts me in with the Guardian readers, the lumpen proles, Hitler, or anyone else. I can't imagine being so ludicrously weak minded and insecure as to stop liking something because of the others who liked or disliked it.
Chill pill in order I think
There's a legitimate issue of over exposure. The Mona frigging Lisa may be a good painting, Beethovens setting of the ode to joy may be ok music, but they are both so over exposed it is no longer possible to tell. I like the Doors a lot, there is nothing wrong with Light My Fire, but when I hear it played I think fuck not this again, and am very grateful that the end and wtmo are too long for the radio
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Just have been fake lucky, never even saw a union Jack and that in West coast LOL not spot
Maybe he saw a miners' fete or Common Riding? Can't think what it was otherwise. Bit early for the chaps in bowler hats and sashes.
Morning Carnyx, they were out in force Sunday recently, droves of them
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Well I wasn’t all around Scotland, but I was quite surprised that there were only 2 street party requests in its largest city and the capital of ultra Unionism. On the aforementioned social media I saw a lot of people moaning about councils and the SG not organising events which begged the question why they didn’t get off their arses and organise something themselves.
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Just have been fake lucky, never even saw a union Jack and that in West coast LOL not spot
Maybe he saw a miners' fete or Common Riding? Can't think what it was otherwise. Bit early for the chaps in bowler hats and sashes.
Morning Carnyx, they were out in force Sunday recently, droves of them
Ah. I see the migration season has begun. We don't get them over here in the east nearly so much.
And morning Malky! Intermittent sun and showers here ...
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
I was surprised on the upside at the levels of celebration I saw around Scotland. I suppose we all see what we're looking for.
Just have been fake lucky, never even saw a union Jack and that in West coast LOL not spot
I was between Perthshire and the East Coast. And it's not that I saw scores of jubilant merry makers spontaneously breaking out into the National Anthen, it was more that it was marked in small ways and in various nice events. My expectations were very low tbf.
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
Hmm, some of the those quotes look to be from just one person, though. I can't see the the Conservative grassroots getting behind Nadim Zahawi, to be perfectly honest. Mordaunt looks the more likely out of those two, to me.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
There wasn't much round this bit of England. Mind you. We are north of Gretna so that might explain it.
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
You can 'un-woke' fairly easily. It's not a bad scenario for Mordaunt.
Assad stan to Penny Dreadful simp is quite a journey.
On topic, there wil be a Tory poll lead about a fortnight after fuel duty gets suspended.
Hmmm. I'm still not sure you really get the national mood in your UAE hideaway.
I don't think any of us really 'get' the national mood. Few of us talk with wide swathes of the population, especially about politics. We have family and friends, often of similar backgrounds to our own, and many of us frequent comfortable echo chambers on the Internet.
Are discussions I have with parents in the schoolground whilst waiting for their kids to come out of class representative of a 'national mood' , or just ones of certain geographic and economic basis?
Then there's the issue of what you hear: if I am talking with someone who is very left-wing, I am unlikely to talk about privatisation unless I know them very well. I'm more likely just to nod and listen.
We can only see a tiny slice of that national mood.
I'd go further (having agreed with everything you posted) and ask if there is even such a thing as a "national mood" any more. We are more and more polarised and divided, and the government's only consistent policy is to fan these flames and makes us ever more so.
I'd suggest that last weekend was a prime example of us having a 'national mood'. Millions of people having a good time and getting to know each other on a rather spurious basis.
Then there's the question of whether there was ever really a 'national mood'. Even during World War II there were plenty of dissenting voices and moods that varied from: "Let's go and kill all the vile Hun!" through "Let's just go, get the job done and get home," to "We shouldn't fight, war's bad". Then there were the black marketeers and strikers who were not exactly fitting in with what we see as the mood at the time.
Indeed. I think Angus Calder's 'The people's war' was quite a shock at the time of publication in 1969, for its revisionist take, though (slightly surprisingly) I haven't read his later 'Myth of the Blitz'.
For all the beating that social media gets it’s decent at dispelling the national myth stuff. Last weekend I was surprised at just how much genuine participation in the royal jamboree there was south of Gretna and how much genuine indifference there was north of it. If we’d only had the media package available in say 1977, ie a fawning BBC and deranged tabloids, the myth of an all consuming national Platty Joobs would be well on its way to be established. We wouldn’t have royalists gloomily prognosticating about what a disaster King Charles will be within a week of the Windsorgasm either.
There wasn't much round this bit of England. Mind you. We are north of Gretna so that might explain it.
A lot of it in surprising bits of the big cities, I think. Plenty around here in diverse West London, and nearer my older stamping ground in North London. Quite a few parties in Brixton and Peckham too, apparently.
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
I don't. I like what I like, and I couldn't give even the tiniest of shits whether that puts me in a minority of one, or whether it puts me in with the Guardian readers, the lumpen proles, Hitler, or anyone else. I can't imagine being so ludicrously weak minded and insecure as to stop liking something because of the others who liked or disliked it.
Chill pill in order I think
There's a legitimate issue of over exposure. The Mona frigging Lisa may be a good painting, Beethovens setting of the ode to joy may be ok music, but they are both so over exposed it is no longer possible to tell. I like the Doors a lot, there is nothing wrong with Light My Fire, but when I hear it played I think fuck not this again, and am very grateful that the end and wtmo are too long for the radio
I am not actually annoyed, I was using hyperbole. Besides, I misunderstood Kinnabula's point.
This is a theme I feel quite strongly about. It goes back to Brexit and being questioned about how I could support something espoused by [insert racist scumbag here]. It didn't even compute for me that there would be people who would change their mind on an important issue for reasons like that.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
This plan to get agency staff for the Railways? AIUI, agency staff are in short supply everywhere. And they are turning down work right now. So. Where do they come from?
It shows how little they actual understand about the things they are supposedly in charge of.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a qualified agency signalman and even if they did exist they won’t be qualified to run anything as all signal boxes require site specific knowledge that takes time to get
It’s all to appear to be doing something.
Pretty much sums up Boris Johnson. No soul. No ideology. No coherence.
Just a muddled set of knee-jerk reactions to the latest crisis with the sole aim of holding onto power.
There is nothing that defines Johnson or his brand of conservativism. It’s power for the Sake of it with no aim or purpose.
Which is the point of being Oxford Union President, isn't it?
There are very few future PMs there. It's more Jeremy Thorpe and Gyles Brandreth than Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.
Might be a reason for that.
Certainly at least one Oxford Union President on that least who became PM other than Johnson, Edward Heath in 1938.
A few Presidents who nearly made it too, Michael Heseltine, Tony Benn and William Hague and one President, Philip May, who married a future PM
Here is Edward Heath giving evidence to a Select Committee on PMQs. At 43 minutes, he mentions the Oxford Union as a training ground. https://youtu.be/FcKxJZZP2Z4?t=2581s
There seems to be a dearth of senior politicians in the last 2-3 decades, even allowing for
The most recent really senior one was Michael Gove, and a few tiddlers (Sam Gyimah, Damian Hinds, Jeremy Quinn). Only Sam Gyimah since 1990, unless I missed some.
I reckon it's the difference between being famous for having a talent and being famous for being famous.
Oxford Union stuff is a great training in winning debates and winning elections. But there's no content, it's all about the rhetoric and personality. And if that's all you have, reality will find you out.
Which is what's happening to Johnson. With the added twist that his content-free electioneering skills make him hard to depose, even when that's in the Conservative Party's interests.
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
You can 'un-woke' fairly easily. It's not a bad scenario for Mordaunt.
Assad stan to Penny Dreadful simp is quite a journey.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
I understand Biden is about to send Mexicans to Spain
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
With Abba, I think it's just over-familiarity. By chance I discovered that they recorded a lot of their songs in Spanish and it was like listening to them with fresh ears.
Some of it, yes, but some of that in turn comes from the reappraisal. Don't get me wrong, I quite like them. The reappraisal from cheese to banging pop group I largely go along with. It's just the extra mile towards 'one of the finest music combos ever' where I demur and get off.
Yes, in the Spanish works well, esp Fernando which is an utter dirge as regards the original (imo) but in the Spanish somehow acquires lilt and gravitas.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
The Home Office is apparently planning a new propaganda campaign in France, with a picture of a dangerously over-full dinghy, and the caption : "Planning to come the UK illegally ? You could end up in Rwanda."
I don't think the ultimate objective is to promote Rwanda as a great WFH and lifestyle working opportunity, to be perfectly honest.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
If they are not successful what happens?
Back to country of origin. Presumably as far as can be determined.
This plan to get agency staff for the Railways? AIUI, agency staff are in short supply everywhere. And they are turning down work right now. So. Where do they come from?
It shows how little they actual understand about the things they are supposedly in charge of.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a qualified agency signalman and even if they did exist they won’t be qualified to run anything as all signal boxes require site specific knowledge that takes time to get
It’s all to appear to be doing something.
Pretty much sums up Boris Johnson. No soul. No ideology. No coherence.
Just a muddled set of knee-jerk reactions to the latest crisis with the sole aim of holding onto power.
There is nothing that defines Johnson or his brand of conservativism. It’s power for the Sake of it with no aim or purpose.
Which is the point of being Oxford Union President, isn't it?
There are very few future PMs there. It's more Jeremy Thorpe and Gyles Brandreth than Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.
Might be a reason for that.
Certainly at least one Oxford Union President on that least who became PM other than Johnson, Edward Heath in 1938.
A few Presidents who nearly made it too, Michael Heseltine, Tony Benn and William Hague and one President, Philip May, who married a future PM
Here is Edward Heath giving evidence to a Select Committee on PMQs. At 43 minutes, he mentions the Oxford Union as a training ground. https://youtu.be/FcKxJZZP2Z4?t=2581s
There seems to be a dearth of senior politicians in the last 2-3 decades, even allowing for
The most recent really senior one was Michael Gove, and a few tiddlers (Sam Gyimah, Damian Hinds, Jeremy Quinn). Only Sam Gyimah since 1990, unless I missed some.
I reckon it's the difference between being famous for having a talent and being famous for being famous.
Oxford Union stuff is a great training in winning debates and winning elections. But there's no content, it's all about the rhetoric and personality. And if that's all you have, reality will find you out.
Which is what's happening to Johnson. With the added twist that his content-free electioneering skills make him hard to depose, even when that's in the Conservative Party's interests.
Jacob Rees Mogg and Ann Widdecombe were Union Librarians. Harold Macmillan and Lord Salisbury were Union Secretaries who went on to be PM. Macmillan and Widdecombe were also Treasurer.
However you have to go back to Gladstone to find the last Oxford Union President who became PM before Heath and Johnson (although Heseltine was deputy PM and a former President). Although Hague was a Union President who became Leader of the Opposition.
Thorpe as mentioned was a past President who became Liberal leader, former SDP leader and Labour leadership candidate Roy Jenkins was an active Union member and stood for President but lost
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes. S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke. That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
One MP said 'the one im supporting is definitely the unity candidate' Another disagreed and said 'no, the one im supporting is' Not disfunctional.
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
The Home Office is apparently planning a new propaganda campaign in France, with a picture of a dangerously over-full dinghy, and the caption : "Planning to come the UK illegally ? You could end up in Rwanda."
I don't think the ultimate objective is to promote Rwanda as a great WFH and lifestyle working opportunity, to be perfectly honest.
The govt has said only a limited number will be sent. Which makes me think that for any would-be asylum seeker with a laptop and rudimentary risk assessment software (or alternatively the calculator on their phone) it will be simple to work out the trivial increase in risk of being sent to Rwanda vs dying on the way over.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
This plan to get agency staff for the Railways? AIUI, agency staff are in short supply everywhere. And they are turning down work right now. So. Where do they come from?
It shows how little they actual understand about the things they are supposedly in charge of.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a qualified agency signalman and even if they did exist they won’t be qualified to run anything as all signal boxes require site specific knowledge that takes time to get
I am sure there are some non technical roles agency staff could do, but it seems a bit desperate.
Especially as one needs a certain minimum number of signalmen, for instance, to keep the railways running. And one can't simply make them work overtime. Classic disaster trigger (e.g. a signalling engineer caused a disaster by leaving some bare wiring in a signalbox as a result of being grossly overworked).
If I were a manager I wouldn't touch any derogation of regulations, either. That would be to accept liability for the ensuing crash.
Shades of Abermiwl, where untrained staff accidentally allowed a train onto a section which already contained an oncoming express, with disastrous consequences.
Quite (once I had worked out that this is the correct orthography for the location in question, which is better known in railway books by its anglicised version). But the problem remains, as with the signalling engineer incident (1988).
This threat to bring in blacklegs is so stupid, a few managers aside, that it must be a deliberate Tory attempt to inflame the strike and get better ratings for Big Dog.
It’s like an eighties greatest hits tour. We are already seeing pieces in big dog friendly papers about how labour MPs who support the strike have taken money from the Rail Unions.
Seventies, soon, with the power cuts and oil crisis.
Oh, "but the music".
For every magic memory by the Sex Pistols and The Clash there were ten by Joe Dolce, Paper Lace, Boney M, Rick Dees with his "Disco Duck"....
I think Rivers of Babylon is fab
And if that doesn't give you an earworm, Rasputin
Thinking about it they are the black Abba
I used to go to Sana'a in Yemen (in the time before the Saudis and Iranians decided to flatten, it as a neutral venue for a proxy war). One of the more surreal experiences was being woken by the call to prayers starting with the central Rasputin theme played on what I can only think was a Rolf Harris Stylophone.
I relayed this to a very skeptical colleague, who at that point had not visited. But once he did "Bloody hell.....Ra-ra-rasputin at some ungodly hour....why???"
I do miss stuff like that, not having travelled abroad now for 3 years.
Sicily is 3 hours and £60 quid away
Sitting in the piazza del Duomo in Ortygia, thinking the world really is Italy, and the rest
That fish restaurant just up the hill on the mainland side of the causeway used to be really good, some years back. Name began with P I think?
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
The Home Office is apparently planning a new propaganda campaign in France, with a picture of a dangerously over-full dinghy, and the caption : "Planning to come the UK illegally ? You could end up in Rwanda."
I don't think the ultimate objective is to promote Rwanda as a great WFH and lifestyle working opportunity, to be perfectly honest.
The govt has said only a limited number will be sent. Which makes me think that for any would-be asylum seeker with a laptop and rudimentary risk assessment software (or alternatively the calculator on their phone) it will be simple to work out the trivial increase in risk of being sent to Rwanda vs dying on the way over.
Spot on! Which makes any Tory who says this is a real policy and will work either thick or a damned liar.
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
So that would mean Gladstone, Heath and Johnson and Cameron could never have become PM, Hague and Ed Miliband could never have become Leader of the Opposition, Heseltine could never have become Deputy PM, Jeremy Hunt and David Miliband and Liz Truss could never have become Foreign Secretary, Sunak and Philip Hammond and Nigel Lawrence could never have become Chancellor, Yvette Cooper could not be Shadow Home Secretary and Rachel Reeves could not be Shadow Chancellor to name but a few.
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
So that would mean Gladstone, Heath and Johnson and Cameron could never have become PM, Hague and Ed Miliband could never have become Leader of the Opposition, Heseltine could never have become Deputy PM, Hunt and David Miliband could never have become Foreign Secretary, Sunak and Philip Hammond and Nigel Lawrence could never have become Chancellor, Yvette Cooper could not be Shadow Home Secretary to name but a few.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
Not a bad policy.
Alan Johnson in an interview the other day bought up the old american joke that "anyone who wants to be President should be barred for life from applying".
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Yawn, should I become dictator for the day I would make membership of the Oxford Union or even just applying for that fucking PPE course come with a lifetime bar from running for office.
So that would mean Gladstone, Heath and Johnson and Cameron could never have become PM, Hague and Ed Miliband could never have become Leader of the Opposition, Heseltine could never have become Deputy PM, Hunt and David Miliband could never have become Foreign Secretary, Sunak and Philip Hammond and Nigel Lawrence could never have become Chancellor, Yvette Cooper could not be Shadow Home Secretary to name but a few.
And the children held hands and sang for a beautiful new world lay before them
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
The Home Office is apparently planning a new propaganda campaign in France, with a picture of a dangerously over-full dinghy, and the caption : "Planning to come the UK illegally ? You could end up in Rwanda."
I don't think the ultimate objective is to promote Rwanda as a great WFH and lifestyle working opportunity, to be perfectly honest.
The govt has said only a limited number will be sent. Which makes me think that for any would-be asylum seeker with a laptop and rudimentary risk assessment software (or alternatively the calculator on their phone) it will be simple to work out the trivial increase in risk of being sent to Rwanda vs dying on the way over.
Spot on! Which makes any Tory who says this is a real policy and will work either thick or a damned liar.
According to a Facebook post, one of those shortly be deported is the son of one of the Afghan interpreters attached to our forces. The father's dead apparently.
The highly anticipated judgment in the libel action brought by multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr will be handed down this week. The landmark verdict will potentially have huge ramifications for press freedom and investigative reporting.
Mrs Justice Steyn will deliver her judgment by email on Monday morning. The decision will be the culmination of an often rancorous three-year legal battle and could send a chilling effect throughout British journalism.
I wonder if the Guardian will be reporting objectively on this one .
Personally I am hoping it will have ramifications for journalistic competence (see the industrial scale production of corrections following CC's articles).
Do journalists take out professional indemnity insurance? Perhaps they should.
I wonder if the Guardian will bail her out if she does lose. Or does their support for her stop short of that?
Arron Banks presumably hopes so. Whatever the merits, suing individual journalists rather than their publishers is surely a sinister development.
Normally you sue the individual/organisation with the deepest pockets. But given Banks's wealth, I assume he thought it more amusing to sue Cadwalladr personally.
"Do journalists take out professional indemnity insurance"
Certainly should do if you are freelancer.
Did Banks sue the Guardian as well? And what was the outcome? Genuine question - I don't know.
The G has a tax-sheltered £1bn endowment iirc.
Cadwalladr has already raised approx £825,000 via crowd funding.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
Abuse is always unnecessary
Except against people you don’t agree with politically when you engage and cheer people on doing it.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
Abuse is always unnecessary
Except against people you don’t agree with politically when you engage and cheer people on doing it.
Fuck off you twat
I really do not think this forum deserves such a response but I will leave it to others to judge
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Why would you stop being a fan just because others overrate them?
An excellent question.
One just does
My Italian waiter has arbitrarily decided I am French and I have managed to keep up the act for so far 4 interactions with him (he is speaking English to the next table). Inexplicably pleased about this
I don't. I like what I like, and I couldn't give even the tiniest of shits whether that puts me in a minority of one, or whether it puts me in with the Guardian readers, the lumpen proles, Hitler, or anyone else. I can't imagine being so ludicrously weak minded and insecure as to stop liking something because of the others who liked or disliked it.
Chill pill in order I think
There's a legitimate issue of over exposure. The Mona frigging Lisa may be a good painting, Beethovens setting of the ode to joy may be ok music, but they are both so over exposed it is no longer possible to tell. I like the Doors a lot, there is nothing wrong with Light My Fire, but when I hear it played I think fuck not this again, and am very grateful that the end and wtmo are too long for the radio
Yes, this is all I really mean. If most people like something more than I do it feels wrong to describe myself as a "fan" of that thing. Fandom involves liking something more than the average bear does.
Eg I like carrots but not to an unusual extent. Therefore it's wrong to say I'm a fan of carrots. But imagine I like carrots just the same amount as before but with the difference that most people hate carrots. Now it does make sense to say I'm a fan of carrots.
Edit: on reflection a slightly different point to yours but complementary to it.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
Abuse is always unnecessary
Except against people you don’t agree with politically when you engage and cheer people on doing it.
Fuck off you twat
I really do not think this forum deserves such a response but I will leave it to others to judge
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Very articulate Rwandan spokesperson on LBC explaining the asylum agreement.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
You don't seem to be in a very good mood this morning. Perhaps time to step away from the keypad and get some air?
Horse. Please stop this. You're better than this. You are letting yourself down, and IMHO heading for a ban.
If that’s the case then so be it.
This forum operates in such a way that abuse and rudeness to a couple of specific users is cheered on and tolerated and then they pile onto anyone who calls it out. I have pointed this out and it never changes.
I like you OKC but on this you have a total blind spot.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
Horse, what do you gel out of being like this? Are you enjoying it? You don’t like a certain poster? Fine. Ignore him. You frequently post interesting things with insight from labour, and it seems you have some links to close to the inner circle. There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
You don't seem to be in a very good mood this morning. Perhaps time to step away from the keypad and get some air?
I’m not in a good mood because HYUFD spent the whole of yesterday being abused and shouted at and nothing was done.
I’ve called out the user in question who now plays the victim even though he said the same things to HYUFD yesterday.
I stand by everything I’ve done. If that results in a ban then that’s fine, I’ll go knowing I did the right thing.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
Horse, what do you gel out of being like this? Are you enjoying it? You don’t like a certain poster? Fine. Ignore him. You frequently post interesting things with insight from labour, and it seems you have some links to close to the inner circle. There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
And yet this user is constantly rude and abusive to HYUFD. Why don’t you call that out?
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
Horse, what do you gel out of being like this? Are you enjoying it? You don’t like a certain poster? Fine. Ignore him. You frequently post interesting things with insight from labour, and it seems you have some links to close to the inner circle. There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
And yet this user is constantly rude and abusive to HYUFD. Why don’t you call that out?
The difference is he disagrees without resorting to swearing, as far as I can tell.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
Horse, what do you gel out of being like this? Are you enjoying it? You don’t like a certain poster? Fine. Ignore him. You frequently post interesting things with insight from labour, and it seems you have some links to close to the inner circle. There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
And yet this user is constantly rude and abusive to HYUFD. Why don’t you call that out?
The difference is he disagrees without resorting to swearing, as far as I can tell.
No he doesn’t. Look at what he said yesterday and was cheering on. Literally bullying a user off this site.
Again I like you but you have a total blind spot on this.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
Horse, what do you gel out of being like this? Are you enjoying it? You don’t like a certain poster? Fine. Ignore him. You frequently post interesting things with insight from labour, and it seems you have some links to close to the inner circle. There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
And yet this user is constantly rude and abusive to HYUFD. Why don’t you call that out?
The difference is he disagrees without resorting to swearing, as far as I can tell.
No he doesn’t. Look at what he said yesterday and was cheering on. Literally bullying a user off this site.
Again I like you but you have a total blind spot on this.
To be honest I was playing cricket all day yesterday, and have desire to read old threads. Just wanting a chill Sunday.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
Tube drivers aren't the ones striking though.
They aren't but that's what people see in terms of transport workers going on strike
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
Horse, that is beyond unnecessarily unpleasant. Please delete.
I see the waverers are back on team Tory again. They were wavering for a whole week this time
I would just comment that the 148 and those of us who support them are not 'waverers' but conservatives who want Boris ousted, but support the conservative party against a labour government
There is a difference
Remember when you said your vote was up for grabs and you could vote Labour.
Another lie.
It was nor a lie at the time, but circumstances have changed and the 148 conservatives have my full support and while I did vote for Blair twice, Starmer and labour are not Blair or his labour no matter how much they playact
You’re a big fat liar
There is absolutely no need for such personal abuse
Maybe step back from your key board
Just like when you spent yesterday abusing HYUFD.
Hypocrite and twat
You don't seem to be in a very good mood this morning. Perhaps time to step away from the keypad and get some air?
I’m not in a good mood because HYUFD spent the whole of yesterday being abused and shouted at and nothing was done.
I’ve called out the user in question who now plays the victim even though he said the same things to HYUFD yesterday.
I stand by everything I’ve done. If that results in a ban then that’s fine, I’ll go knowing I did the right thing.
I would remind you that you suggested @HYUFD is being paid to post on here and have not apologised to him for something manifestly untrue
You have this strange concept that vigorous debate is abuse and shouting out when you are more than able to shout and abuse yourself as evidenced on here this morning
This forum has been excellent today with lots of intense debate then you decide to embark on abusive language which was entirely unnecessary
However, it is for others to decide if it is acceptable but for me I find it sad that you feel a need to express yourself in this manner today
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I saw one from i think YouGov. Against but not by an overwhelming margin
Can we discuss Lisa Nandy who apparently would be a political genius.
She came out and supported the strikes. I’m not sure that was a great move.
To get back onto political discussion, I agree this is an important question. All the pieces are in flux as regards the parties' approach to strikes, and I don't think the Tories are sure where to stand either. Two weeks ago they were throwing up an awful lot of hot air about supporting the sacked P&O workers, because they're aware of the precedent they set by promoting themselves as the party of the workers over the "metropoiltan" elite. We've had five years of Brexit rhetoric about fighting for the working class, as I mentioned below, so this is a crucial moment.
Labour should adopt the Miliband, German-style consensual and workers-on-boards stance, but, the Tories ? I really haven't the faintest idea what they should do, and it could be another real crisis moment for them, when the working class rhetoric clashes into the demands of their donors for the decisive time.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
It's not really a niche position. You can see from the opinions on here.
@HYUFD I am sure you know that I was joking when I said you were being paid to post on here but if that wasn't clear then I do apologise. As you know I think you are one of the kindest and best posters here.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
On the rail strike, one of th3 big issues is that rail use is still down since the pandemic, and frankly a lot of people are far more set up to wfh than two years ago. Can’t get to the office in 2019 - real pain in the arse, trying to sort work environments etc. Can’t get to the office in 2022 - no problem reactivate pandemic plan, or just carry on what’s already happening. (Won’t work for all, of course). So to the public, overstretched NHS workers deserve a big pay rise if possible, while the railways don’t. Not saying that’s fair, but that’s how some will see it.
@HYUFD I am sure you know that I was joking when I said you were being paid to post on here but if that wasn't clear then I do apologise. As you know I think you are one of the kindest and best posters here.
It was not clear. Nuance is lost on forum posts, as others have found out!
@HYUFD I am sure you know that I was joking when I said you were being paid to post on here but if that wasn't clear then I do apologise. As you know I think you are one of the kindest and best posters here.
It was not clear. Nuance is lost on forum posts, as others have found out!
Well I thought in the context of the discussion we were having it was clear but I'm happy to clarify that I was joking.
It would be very out of character for me to attack HYUFD because I like him and also respect what he has to say. He receives the most awful abuse on here from two particular users on a daily basis and I would not want to contribute to that.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
Tube drivers aren't the ones striking though.
They aren't but that's what people see in terms of transport workers going on strike
That’s what people in London see in terms of transport workers going on strike.
I think Abba have gone from underrated to overrated. Boney M for me are still in underrated territory. Very much so in fact. I recently wrote a spoof song "Mad Bad Vlad Putin" to the tune of Ra Ra Rasputin which involved listening to the original several times and left me thinking, gosh great song actually (theirs not mine) and which then took me down a rabbit hole of other stuff by them. Some minor gems! To mention just 2: Belfast, a punchy protest about the Troubles that you could dance to, and a more than passable disco ballady treatment of Neil Young's Heart Of Gold which had me smiling and thinking where has THAT been all my life? Big stage presence too, the live versions often better than the record. So, yes, Boney M rocked. Course they will one day get discovered again by opinion formers and then it'll swing the other way and they'll get ridiculously overrated like Abba. But until then I'm a fan.
Agree. Boney M's output is fantastic.
I was genuinely surprised when I sank into it. As I say, for work purposes, but it didn't feel like work at all.
Helpfully 1c gives you the option to state 'items should not be sold in imperial measures'.
From all the shouting - especially on Euro-twitter I admit - I thought we already had a law which had mandated Groats for everything, and made commas in large numbers subject to the death or deportation to St Helena penalties.
Johnson is caught in a catch 22 at present, he needs to shore up Southern seats but by doing that he's abandoning the North.
And that is fundamentally why those seats have swung back to Labour. Recall that these seats were held under some pretty terrible leaders Like Foot, so it should not be a surprise that Starmer will take them back even if he's not in Blair leagues of "good".
Frankly I still believe in the value of what he's doing, which is destroying the left from the inside and allowing Labour to be in Government soon.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I think this one is very unpopular because of how much Tube drivers get paid.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
Tube drivers aren't the ones striking though.
They aren't but that's what people see in terms of transport workers going on strike
That’s what people in London see in terms of transport workers going on strike.
I hear it from plenty of people outside London too.
To me Tube drivers just show how good effective trade unions are however inconvenient the strikes are.
Who really should go on strike is bus drivers who get paid sod all.
Was talking to someone high up in the supply teaching business on Thursday. The position as regards September vacancies in schools in the NE is utterly dire. There is a very real prospect of classes being sent home. 3% this year and 2% the next is not going to help.
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I saw one from i think YouGov. Against but not by an overwhelming margin
A lot of people here appear to be presuming that strike action is loathed by the electorate. I am not convinced. Have we seen any recent polling on the strike? In past cases, public opinion has often been quite supportive of strike actions.
I saw one from i think YouGov. Against but not by an overwhelming margin
Comments
There is a difference
The fundamental for those who don't like Johnson is whether any Conservative Government is always preferable to any Labour Government and, within that, whether there are any circumstances in which a period of renewal in Opposition is preferable to being in Government.
With that, the cafe is about to open...
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-is-beyond-saving-inside-a-stunned-conservative-party-plotting-to-find-a-new-leader-1681006
Mad Nad fucked up the confidence vote whipping operation by going full tonto on Rat Eyes.
S/Lt (Acting) Mordaunt is too woke.
That one with the enormous head is the frontrunner apparently.
The most recent really senior one was Michael Gove, and a few tiddlers (Sam Gyimah, Damian Hinds, Jeremy Quinn). Only Sam Gyimah since 1990, unless I missed some.
I see that Lee Anderson is not on the list
I hadn't realised they only had the post for about 8-10 weeks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Oxford_Union
Another lie.
Oh well dishonesty is Tory MO
Edit: my total was
2 x houses with a couple of metres of bunting, or a few flags on sticks in flowerpots
1 x old folks home with the above combined
vs
2 Ukrainian flags
vs
1 unidentifiable (by me) flag of a football club (?)
Tories for messing up running the country, Labour as figures of hate and ridicule. LDs for super pantie bunching earnestness about extraordinarily irrelevant things and breaking cardboard box blue walls with a big orange hammer.
The natural UK order.
There's a legitimate issue of over exposure. The Mona frigging Lisa may be a good painting, Beethovens setting of the ode to joy may be ok music, but they are both so over exposed it is no longer possible to tell. I like the Doors a lot, there is nothing wrong with Light My Fire, but when I hear it played I think fuck not this again, and am very grateful that the end and wtmo are too long for the radio
of them
And morning Malky! Intermittent sun and showers here ...
Mind you. We are north of Gretna so that might explain it.
This is a theme I feel quite strongly about. It goes back to Brexit and being questioned about how I could support something espoused by [insert racist scumbag here]. It didn't even compute for me that there would be people who would change their mind on an important issue for reasons like that.
The interviewer was unaware that the asylum claims were to be processed in Rwanda and successful applicants would get to stay in Rwanda. ie it is not an offshore processing facility. I thought that was well known and a supposed feature not a bug.
Oxford Union stuff is a great training in winning debates and winning elections. But there's no content, it's all about the rhetoric and personality. And if that's all you have, reality will find you out.
Which is what's happening to Johnson. With the added twist that his content-free electioneering skills make him hard to depose, even when that's in the Conservative Party's interests.
Yes, in the Spanish works well, esp Fernando which is an utter dirge as regards the original (imo) but in the Spanish somehow acquires lilt and gravitas.
I don't think the ultimate objective is to promote Rwanda as a great WFH and lifestyle working opportunity, to be perfectly honest.
However you have to go back to Gladstone to find the last Oxford Union President who became PM before Heath and Johnson (although Heseltine was deputy PM and a former President). Although Hague was a Union President who became Leader of the Opposition.
Thorpe as mentioned was a past President who became Liberal leader, former SDP leader and Labour leadership candidate Roy Jenkins was an active Union member and stood for President but lost
Another disagreed and said 'no, the one im supporting is'
Not disfunctional.
Maybe step back from your key board
Hypocrite and twat
And thank you
The G has a tax-sheltered £1bn endowment iirc.
Cadwalladr has already raised approx £825,000 via crowd funding.
We will hear tomorrow.
Fuck off you twat
She came out and supported the strikes. I’m not sure that was a great move.
Eg I like carrots but not to an unusual extent. Therefore it's wrong to say I'm a fan of carrots. But imagine I like carrots just the same amount as before but with the difference that most people hate carrots. Now it does make sense to say I'm a fan of carrots.
Edit: on reflection a slightly different point to yours but complementary to it.
This forum operates in such a way that abuse and rudeness to a couple of specific users is cheered on and tolerated and then they pile onto anyone who calls it out. I have pointed this out and it never changes.
I like you OKC but on this you have a total blind spot.
There is no need to endlessly be deliberately rude. Ismael is much better at it...
I’ve called out the user in question who now plays the victim even though he said the same things to HYUFD yesterday.
I stand by everything I’ve done. If that results in a ban then that’s fine, I’ll go knowing I did the right thing.
Again I like you but you have a total blind spot on this.
Helpfully 1c gives you the option to state 'items should not be sold in imperial measures'.
Of course my solution to that is to pay nurses and doctors more but then I believe in aspiration where the Tories prefer to pull people down
You have this strange concept that vigorous debate is abuse and shouting out when you are more than able to shout and abuse yourself as evidenced on here this morning
This forum has been excellent today with lots of intense debate then you decide to embark on abusive language which was entirely unnecessary
However, it is for others to decide if it is acceptable but for me I find it sad that you feel a need to express yourself in this manner today
I've been on a digital detox as I wait for my new HP Envy 14 from Currys.
Labour should adopt the Miliband, German-style consensual and workers-on-boards stance, but, the Tories ? I really haven't the faintest idea what they should do, and it could be another real crisis moment for them, when the working class rhetoric clashes into the demands of their donors for the decisive time.
Can’t get to the office in 2019 - real pain in the arse, trying to sort work environments etc.
Can’t get to the office in 2022 - no problem reactivate pandemic plan, or just carry on what’s already happening.
(Won’t work for all, of course).
So to the public, overstretched NHS workers deserve a big pay rise if possible, while the railways don’t. Not saying that’s fair, but that’s how some will see it.
It would be very out of character for me to attack HYUFD because I like him and also respect what he has to say. He receives the most awful abuse on here from two particular users on a daily basis and I would not want to contribute to that.
Thanks for the link.
And that is fundamentally why those seats have swung back to Labour. Recall that these seats were held under some pretty terrible leaders Like Foot, so it should not be a surprise that Starmer will take them back even if he's not in Blair leagues of "good".
Frankly I still believe in the value of what he's doing, which is destroying the left from the inside and allowing Labour to be in Government soon.
My central forecast remains a Hung Parliament.
To me Tube drivers just show how good effective trade unions are however inconvenient the strikes are.
Who really should go on strike is bus drivers who get paid sod all.
The position as regards September vacancies in schools in the NE is utterly dire.
There is a very real prospect of classes being sent home.
3% this year and 2% the next is not going to help.