Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
It is possible to drink half with dinner, and take the rest away.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Well he does think the U.K. is comparable to Mugabes Zimbabwe or Saddams Iraq.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
You might be unsurprised to hear that I heartily approve.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
It is possible to drink half with dinner, and take the rest away.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
A dilemma I have often faced, and I have learned that the best way to do it is with a swagger
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
I am not driven mad by the Rwanda plan, in the way that some people are. But what is disingenuous about it, is that those deported are, as I understand it, required to seek asylum in Rwanda, not the UK. That is why it is unfair. If it was just a case of offshore processing, it would be a different situation.
Even in its current highly dysfunctional form, I don't think that Rwanda plan is actually as bad as some of the things that have gone on over the past decade or so in immigration policy. Lots of people with de facto citizenship have been stripped of their rights to live in the UK and banished to poor caribbean countries etc and have died there, for little more than irregularities in their paperwork or minor historic criminal offences. This work still going strong but has just been stripped back a bit to focus on 'unsavoury' characters who will attract little public sympathy. But it is still completely wrong on many levels.
In the end, this work was at its worst under the 'respectable' administration of the coalition government. So to my mind the fall of the liberal order is not a new thing. But previous governments did at least outwardly espouse some key principles that were contiguous with the twentieth century post war liberal order. The opportunist Johnson and his team of low rate philistines will just trash everything for short term political survival, with no idea about what they are there to do, except to indulge in vanity.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
Yes, agreed, it's tedious
They aren't homogenous and they aren't necessarily indicative
How about polls of the southwest, or posh Remainy south east England, or majorly BME seats, or the leafy burbs of the north?
The European court of human rights has made a dramatic 11th-hour intervention into the government’s controversial plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda that could ground the inaugural flight to the east African nation.
Lawyers for one of the asylum seekers due to fly this evening have made a successful emergency application to the ECHR after exhausting applications to UK courts.
The Government is useless, but in this particular respect would any future one do any better?
Nobody seems to have a clue how to create a workable system for dealing with those claiming asylum, in which the number of successful applicants permitted is anything other than "zero" or "everyone."
The alternative has been rehearsed on here, chiefly by @rcs1000.
I seem to recall that his argument consists largely of removing the pull factor of black and grey market employment, through a combination of extensive reform of employment practices and forcing us to have the hugely controversial and widely hated ID card scheme that was previously fought off when Tony Blair attempted to bring it in. This will, apparently, solve the problem for us by making virtually all the migrants magically vanish, because it is claimed to work in Norway. I remain very far from convinced.
Most likely such reforms would hardly put any of the boat people and other irregular migrants off, because they already have family and/or large diaspora communities here, a lot of them speak English, and because (despite its many faults) Britain is still a relatively nice place for people to come, otherwise they wouldn't bother as it is. So they'll keep coming.
And so we're back to the start again. How do you construct a system capable of resettling a quantity of asylum claimants that the electorate is willing to admit - 500, 5,000, 50,000, whatever - rather than none or all of them?
New report shows Scottish fishers have changed their tune on Brexit
APPGF’s report concluded: “Brexit appears to have been the final trigger for, in the words of one fisherman, ‘a perfect storm’.
“Adding to this is a sense of unfairness and frustration at the impacts of Brexit, which for some respondents appears to have been heightened by the expectations they held prior to the publication of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“One fisherman, when asked if any of the impacts he had experienced had been unexpected, answered ‘all of them, because we were told we would be getting the independence of our sovereign waters back and that has not happened’.”
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
I am not driven mad by the Rwanda plan, in the way that some people are. But what is disingenuous about it, is that those deported are, as I understand it, required to seek asylum in Rwanda, not the UK. That is why it is unfair. If it was just a case of offshore processing, it would be a different situation.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
New report shows Scottish fishers have changed their tune on Brexit
APPGF’s report concluded: “Brexit appears to have been the final trigger for, in the words of one fisherman, ‘a perfect storm’.
“Adding to this is a sense of unfairness and frustration at the impacts of Brexit, which for some respondents appears to have been heightened by the expectations they held prior to the publication of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“One fisherman, when asked if any of the impacts he had experienced had been unexpected, answered ‘all of them, because we were told we would be getting the independence of our sovereign waters back and that has not happened’.”
Remember that dodgy poll of a small number of well off skippers of large boats which was presented on PB as representative of the entire industry, including processing onshore? It's certainly not ging to be representative now of the big skippers.
The European court of human rights has made a dramatic 11th-hour intervention into the government’s controversial plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda that could ground the inaugural flight to the east African nation.
Lawyers for one of the asylum seekers due to fly this evening have made a successful emergency application to the ECHR after exhausting applications to UK courts.
The Government is useless, but in this particular respect would any future one do any better?
Nobody seems to have a clue how to create a workable system for dealing with those claiming asylum, in which the number of successful applicants permitted is anything other than "zero" or "everyone."
The alternative has been rehearsed on here, chiefly by @rcs1000.
I seem to recall that his argument consists largely of removing the pull factor of black and grey market employment, through a combination of extensive reform of employment practices and forcing us to have the hugely controversial and widely hated ID card scheme that was previously fought off when Tony Blair attempted to bring it in. This will, apparently, solve the problem for us by making virtually all the migrants magically vanish, because it is claimed to work in Norway. I remain very far from convinced.
Most likely such reforms would hardly put any of the boat people and other irregular migrants off, because they already have family and/or large diaspora communities here, a lot of them speak English, and because (despite its many faults) Britain is still a relatively nice place for people to come, otherwise they wouldn't bother as it is. So they'll keep coming.
And so we're back to the start again. How do you construct a system capable of resettling a quantity of asylum claimants that the electorate is willing to admit - 500, 5,000, 50,000, whatever - rather than none or all of them?
Regardless of what we do tougher and tougher measures will be enacted over the next half century by every western country for the simple reason that the populations will demand them as climate change fuels the rush of refugees. Figures I have seen bandied around are in billions of displaced people. There is no way populations are going to stand for that.
Even if you took the figure as a low ball 500 million splitting them over 28 countries of the EU is going to have people demanding there governments do something to stop it.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
Aeroplane.
Atmosphere craft. (Fide the Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, for those who remember it.)
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
It's a cracking narrative history, full of gorgeous and appalling detail. My god, the Portuguese were BRUTAL. They took over most of Asia in about 20 years by being the Imperialist version of ISIS
And now they eat custard tarts, and think about sardines
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
Labour 10pts ahead in these seats.
SKS 0pts ahead of Boris
Massive drag on Labour success
How well did Corbyn poll in these seats?
Is Starmer 20 points ahead of that position yet, or more?
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
A dilemma I have often faced, and I have learned that the best way to do it is with a swagger
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
A waiter in a restaurant once gave me a very disapproving look when I ordered a bottle of wine while dining alone.
"Would that be one glass, sir?" he asked, with a disapproving arch of his eyebrow.
"Oh god no," I replied. "I'll just have it with a straw."
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
A dilemma I have often faced, and I have learned that the best way to do it is with a swagger
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
A waiter in a restaurant once gave me a very disapproving look when I ordered a bottle of wine while dining alone.
"Would that be one glass, sir?" he asked, with a disapproving arch of his eyebrow.
"Oh god no," I replied. "I'll just have it with a straw."
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
I would recommend the Lusiads, the classic epic poem, it explains a lot of how the Portuguese saw and continue to see themselves.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
Yes, agreed, it's tedious
They aren't homogenous and they aren't necessarily indicative
How about polls of the southwest, or posh Remainy south east England, or majorly BME seats, or the leafy burbs of the north?
They keep coming up with similar results too. So of limited utility really. With exactly the same costs. A poll of the SW (or any other region as a whole) would be good. Or. How the Top 40 Lib Dem target seats? Or the 40 most marginal Tory seats they didn't gain in 2019? Or the Top 40 Labour marginals? That may add to the sum of knowledge. The Red Wall is becoming so totemic that it is in serious danger of obscuring where the real story might be. I suspect the 40 most rural seats would be eye opening. @IshmaelZ has been banging on about it. And the evidence from by elections and the relatively few rural Councils which voted was that this is where the Tory collapse is. But we don't know. Because no one polls it.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
Brazilian Portuguese has actually retained more of the Latinate pronunciation.
Polish is odd. Excessive Slavic consonant clusters but nasal vowels.
Had Khinkali and a glass of saperavi in Poznań tonight, now in a craft beer bar.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
Though as broadly similar to other Northern and Midlands seats, it here any reason to belive the Lab and Tory holds are looking very different? Or similar areas in Wales, or other bits of England?
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
Reminds me of when I ordered a half litre with my lunch in Italy, and the waiter said, “no, that’s too much, you want a quartino”
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
It's a cracking narrative history, full of gorgeous and appalling detail. My god, the Portuguese were BRUTAL. They took over most of Asia in about 20 years by being the Imperialist version of ISIS
And now they eat custard tarts, and think about sardines
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
I would recommend the Lusiads, the classic epic poem, it explains a lot of how the Portuguese saw and continue to see themselves.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
Though as broadly similar to other Northern and Midlands seats, it here any reason to belive the Lab and Tory holds are looking very different? Or similar areas in Wales, or other bits of England?
New York’s highest court rejected former President Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to avoid testifying in the state attorney general’s civil investigation into his business practices, clearing the way for his deposition next month.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
Aeroplane.
Atmosphere craft. (Fide the Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, for those who remember it.)
Look & Learn? Can't remember a thing about it except that I used to absolutely long for it to be Friday and the next installment.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
Reminds me of when I ordered a half litre with my lunch in Italy, and the waiter said, “no, that’s too much, you want a quartino”
A half litre seemed par for the course in Albania, but it was mostly with dinner rather than lunch. I normally got a free raki, too.
You wouldn't guess it's a notionally Muslim country. Although apparently Bektashi are allowed to drink so it's a popular sect.
Was unaware the Nation's League is being used to seed the Euros groups. Right now we're getting relegated, and seeded in the second group. Bring Johnny Bairstow on!
Labour could maybe repossess Leon’s empty home without getting involved in pesky human rights claims if we pulled out of the ECHR. One to think about
The overwhelming majority of the world copes just fine outside of the ECHR.
While Vladimir Putin spent decades ruling Russia inside it.
The ECHR is a bad joke. Why shouldn't we leave it?
You're talking even more shite than when you said Owen Paterson had no appellate process.
Give me one good reason we should be in an ECHR that Vladimir Putin's Russia was in until only a couple of months ago, rather than out of it like Australia, New Zealand and Canada?
Given your earlier comments about abrograting international treaties the nuance and facts would be lost on you.
It would have to be very nuanced to somehow mean that a legal system that is worthy of Vladimir Putin for two decades, but without Aus, NZ, Canada or plenty of others is something to aspire to be a part of.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
Is there any evidence that the Rwanda plan has any popular support?
Yes - a YouGov poll on Monday suggested 44% in favour, 40% against, 16% don't know.
Of course, much will depend on success or failure. That's a fairly even divide, and you can see it shifting rather a lot. My personal view is it is quite likely to be an expensive failure, but I accept that my opinion on the morality of it probably biases me.
Put it this way.
The number of people leaving on an airplane today is in single figures. Perhaps low single figures (I heard seven this morning, I don't know now.)
The number of people arriving on small boats today was 250.
Now let's be clear- for those seven, it's a really really terrible thing to happen in their already terrible lives. The fact that my government is doing this makes me less proud to be British.
But the cold hard number is that 7 is 3 percent of 250. And a 97% chance of success is what would normally be described as a pretty sure thing. And the odds are better than that really, becuase there will be more boats tomorrow and the next day.
There are lots of ways of stopping the evil of the small boat trafficers. The trouble is that they all involve letting more people in (by making the legal routes available) or, worse than that, co-operating with France. And since the UK isn't prepared to do either of those things, and ideally many British people wouldn't admit anyone at all, the government is reduced to shouting and acting like a thug.
Aeroplane.
Atmosphere craft. (Fide the Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, for those who remember it.)
Look & Learn? Can't remember a thing about it except that I used to absolutely long for it to be Friday and the next installment.
Yes, spot on. One PB pedantry: my dim memory was that it was originally in Ranger comic, but that merged with Look and Learn ca. 1966-ish, bringing the Trigans with it. Very odd combination, in hindsight, of Buck Rogers meets Gibbon.
SKS fans please explain LAB 10& AHEAD IN RED WALL. SKS massive drag on Labour
Redfield & Wilton Strategies @RedfieldWilton · 1h At this moment, which of the following individuals do those in the Red Wall think would be the better PM for the UK? (12-13 June)
Boris Johnson 37% (+2) Keir Starmer 37% (+1) Don't know 25% (-3)
Changes +/- 6 June.
That's not "in the country", that's in a set of seats that the Conservatives won last time by around ten percentage points.
It's a bit irritating to keep getting polling from these particular 40 seats. Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
Though as broadly similar to other Northern and Midlands seats, it here any reason to belive the Lab and Tory holds are looking very different? Or similar areas in Wales, or other bits of England?
Well we don't know. Because nobody polls them.
Doesn't the Yougov MRP cover pretty much the whole country? It certainly did some Welsh seats, as well as Southern places like Peterborough, Canterbury and Ipswich.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
Reminds me of when I ordered a half litre with my lunch in Italy, and the waiter said, “no, that’s too much, you want a quartino”
A half litre seemed par for the course in Albania, but it was mostly with dinner rather than lunch. I normally got a free raki, too.
You wouldn't guess it's a notionally Muslim country. Although apparently Bektashi are allowed to drink so it's a popular sect.
The world is crying out for pint or half litre wine bottles. Someone here pointed out the other day that the 75cl size is not based on the capacity of drinkers for wine but of the average glass blower's lungs. A true revelation.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
Reminds me of when I ordered a half litre with my lunch in Italy, and the waiter said, “no, that’s too much, you want a quartino”
A half litre seemed par for the course in Albania, but it was mostly with dinner rather than lunch. I normally got a free raki, too.
You wouldn't guess it's a notionally Muslim country. Although apparently Bektashi are allowed to drink so it's a popular sect.
The world is crying out for pint or half litre wine bottles. Someone here pointed out the other day that the 75cl size is not based on the capacity of drinkers for wine but of the average glass blower's lungs. A true revelation.
Looks like England's coming home early from Qatar.
I think these four games are at completely the wrong time. End of a long season. The World Cup is bang in the middle of the season and should suit the European sides well.
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
A dilemma I have often faced, and I have learned that the best way to do it is with a swagger
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
A waiter in a restaurant once gave me a very disapproving look when I ordered a bottle of wine while dining alone.
"Would that be one glass, sir?" he asked, with a disapproving arch of his eyebrow.
"Oh god no," I replied. "I'll just have it with a straw."
There are two negatives to NOT ordering a bottle of wine (apart from the obvious).
Firstly, the wines by the glasses are usually not the best choice. You also don’t know how long they have been open.
The second, with half bottles, is that the rule is that the larger the bottle, the better it is for the wine. So, with a half bottle, the wine is somewhat inferior to a full bottle
If she gives you more grief, ask her to confirm that the service charge is optimal. That should get her attention.
🔺 Update: Boris Johnson has opened the door to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to remove illegal migrants from the UK
I find it difficult to describe the PM as anything other than wicked, and the UK as fucked.
Which western countries do you think are going in the right direction?
Few to none.
The liberal order which I took for granted growing up is under concerted attack.
It's very depressing. It is under attack from the worst kinds of illiberalism from both the left and the right. But this is bad. Johnson will happily ditch the entire basis of the post war system of universal human rights, to stay in Downing Street for a few more months. As others have said, once the ECHR goes, then it is few steps to restoring capital punishment. A popular policy in the red wall. All the work done over the last 80 years to end the death penalty in the developing world .... trashed.
In the end, Boris Johnson exemplifies the ancient wisdom that it is easier to tear things down than it is to build them up. He's achieved nothing and just trashed everything. The EU. Ideas of economic competence. Human rights. Northern Ireland. The standing of politicians and civil servants. The truth and the value of it. There is absolutely nothing he has done as PM that he can point to that amounts to success. His regime is like a parasite destroying the host.
Hyperventilating twat
You can't even make your travelogue a fraction as interesting Blanche Livermore manages. Even your insults are somehow drippy and wet.
"I know, I'm going to make a comment about Rwanda, because that will make me sound caring and aware, but because I am a pompous old cock with a tiny brain, who actually doesn't give a fuck about stupid Africans and their squitty little countries, I'm going to make a special effort and get the spelling wrong, like no one else on earth has ever done. I am going to call it RUANDA."
I know you are looking outdo yourself on the twatometer, breaking your previous records, but have a read of this, before you show yourself as so thick, light refracts around you.
I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and say that, given Roger's IQ is probably sub 85, he didn't spend hours researching the Deep Etymology of the term "Rwanda", he just had no fucking clue how to spell it, and, more piquantly, couldn't be arsed to check
I know. Radical!
I know Roger's professional accomplishments, he's got an IQ higher than that.
Commenting on other posters IQ is something @leon does regularly. I don't know why he does it on clearly bright people. It comes over very badly, although I can be criticized for doing so regularly for HYUFD so maybe I'm no better.
in this case, I genuinely think Roger is quite dim. My comments are sincere
Sorry, Rog
Don't know what you think of me then as I do try and wind you up frequently, although I do enjoy your posts.
I always find you quite affable. I am glad you are enjoying Lisbon!
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
An odd lot in lots of ways. Latinate language but spoken as if it were Germanic, and what is with the -acion to -ao termination change? Spaniards tell me that Italian is much more comprehensible than Portuguese. And our only serious rivals when it came to the slave trade. Must read some hist to understand why they stayed at resolutely separate from Spain
I would recommend the Lusiads, the classic epic poem, it explains a lot of how the Portuguese saw and continue to see themselves.
Even if the activists win, it’s a classic case of “win the battle, lose the war” from them. All this does is energise the Tory base and the papers. It’s got everything - asylum seekers, lefty lawyers, middle class activists and now the ECHR stopping at least one deportation. All it will lead to is the Govt stepping up things and saying to its supporters “they are still trying to stop us”.
I wonder what the Human Rights QC SKS thinks about it…
Where do PBers stand on the question of ordering a whole bottle of wine when eating alone in a restaurant? My default is I will have a half bottle when it's on offer, but if not it's expensive and inconvenient to buy by the glass. But the waitress gave me a very disapproving, are you expecting someone else sort of look.
A dilemma I have often faced, and I have learned that the best way to do it is with a swagger
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
A waiter in a restaurant once gave me a very disapproving look when I ordered a bottle of wine while dining alone.
"Would that be one glass, sir?" he asked, with a disapproving arch of his eyebrow.
"Oh god no," I replied. "I'll just have it with a straw."
There are two negatives to NOT ordering a bottle of wine (apart from the obvious).
Firstly, the wines by the glasses are usually not the best choice. You also don’t know how long they have been open.
The second, with half bottles, is that the rule is that the larger the bottle, the better it is for the wine. So, with a half bottle, the wine is somewhat inferior to a full bottle
If she gives you more grief, ask her to confirm that the service charge is optimal. That should get her attention.
The third is the relative price of wine in bottles, and glasses, in restaurants.
I have no problem at all ordering a whole bottle - I just make sure I get the cork and take half of it away with me.
It's the perfect demonstration as to why we need modern pints of champagne. Plus the latter would offend some of the right people.
Even if the activists win, it’s a classic case of “win the battle, lose the war” from them. All this does is energise the Tory base and the papers. It’s got everything - asylum seekers, lefty lawyers, middle class activists and now the ECHR stopping at least one deportation. All it will lead to is the Govt stepping up things and saying to its supporters “they are still trying to stop us”.
I wonder what the Human Rights QC SKS thinks about it…
The line "what would you do, then" will be telling. Oxfam need to activate their think tank.
I blame all this 'taking the knee' nonsense. If only England could copy the anti-woke authoritarianism of Hungary and model ourselves on Orban, our footballers could focus on winning.
Worth noting that the TCA we signed with the EU provides that if either side ‘denounces’ the ECHR, all cooperation on law enforcement and justice could be suspended immediately. Police would lose access to EU crime databases, we couldn’t send back fugitives from justice etc. https://twitter.com/jonlis1/status/1536762150672379905
Worth noting that the TCA we signed with the EU provides that if either side ‘denounces’ the ECHR, all cooperation on law enforcement and justice could be suspended immediately. Police would lose access to EU crime databases, we couldn’t send back fugitives from justice etc. https://twitter.com/jonlis1/status/1536762150672379905
I believe the ECHR is a requirement on the UK (and maybe also Ireland?) in the GFA also.
Comments
I knew there was an answer. Thank you.
"Si, a WHOLE bottle, grazie". Confident smile, stare hard at the waitress - and what are you going to do about it?
Absolute insouciance. Works a treat
I used to feel self conscious, dining alone, but I had to do it so often in my job I developed a carapace. Now I do not give a tiny little F, and when YOU clearly don't care, no one else does either
I positively relish it, a lot of the time, these days. Whip out my iPad, relax, have an argument on PB or Whatsapp, chill, wine, sleep. Lush
Even in its current highly dysfunctional form, I don't think that Rwanda plan is actually as bad as some of the things that have gone on over the past decade or so in immigration policy. Lots of people with de facto citizenship have been stripped of their rights to live in the UK and banished to poor caribbean countries etc and have died there, for little more than irregularities in their paperwork or minor historic criminal offences. This work still going strong but has just been stripped back a bit to focus on 'unsavoury' characters who will attract little public sympathy. But it is still completely wrong on many levels.
In the end, this work was at its worst under the 'respectable' administration of the coalition government. So to my mind the fall of the liberal order is not a new thing. But previous governments did at least outwardly espouse some key principles that were contiguous with the twentieth century post war liberal order. The opportunist Johnson and his team of low rate philistines will just trash everything for short term political survival, with no idea about what they are there to do, except to indulge in vanity.
Why do folk want to fight the last war? We know nothing of opinion of the majority of northern seats (which are Labour, though you wouldn't know it). Nor of the many long-standing Tory seats across the north. Where there were some very poor Tory results in the Councils.
They aren't homogenous and they aren't necessarily indicative
How about polls of the southwest, or posh Remainy south east England, or majorly BME seats, or the leafy burbs of the north?
Most likely such reforms would hardly put any of the boat people and other irregular migrants off, because they already have family and/or large diaspora communities here, a lot of them speak English, and because (despite its many faults) Britain is still a relatively nice place for people to come, otherwise they wouldn't bother as it is. So they'll keep coming.
And so we're back to the start again. How do you construct a system capable of resettling a quantity of asylum claimants that the electorate is willing to admit - 500, 5,000, 50,000, whatever - rather than none or all of them?
APPGF’s report concluded: “Brexit appears to have been the final trigger for, in the words of one fisherman, ‘a perfect storm’.
“Adding to this is a sense of unfairness and frustration at the impacts of Brexit, which for some respondents appears to have been heightened by the expectations they held prior to the publication of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“One fisherman, when asked if any of the impacts he had experienced had been unexpected, answered ‘all of them, because we were told we would be getting the independence of our sovereign waters back and that has not happened’.”
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/local/4408839/new-report-shows-scottish-fishers-have-changed-their-tune-on-brexit/
Have you encountered saudade, the Portuguese melancholy? It is definitely a thing. They stare to the west and look mournful, and wistful. They are much more abashed than the Spanish
KILLER question by @JayneSeckerSky:
"How would have fared if you'd been put on a plane to Rwanda?"
It leaves @nadhimzahawi floundering and trying to argue the fact that his parents were lucky enough to flee on a plane directly to the UK, somehow, makes all the difference. ~AA https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1536747012091158534/video/1
SKS 0pts ahead of Boris
Massive drag on Labour success
Even if you took the figure as a low ball 500 million splitting them over 28 countries of the EU is going to have people demanding there governments do something to stop it.
https://www.amazon.com/Conquerors-Portugal-Forged-Global-Empire/dp/0571290906/ref=pd_sbs_sccl_2_2/143-9415367-8839337?pd_rd_w=7D4AZ&content-id=amzn1.sym.3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_p=3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_r=20ZM7CGWFB2ZDVDGTR49&pd_rd_wg=TrNhd&pd_rd_r=745a422e-213e-4a58-b0b4-f2e58350134d&pd_rd_i=0571290906&psc=1
(Sorry for the hideous URL)
It's a cracking narrative history, full of gorgeous and appalling detail. My god, the Portuguese were BRUTAL. They took over most of Asia in about 20 years by being the Imperialist version of ISIS
And now they eat custard tarts, and think about sardines
Is Starmer 20 points ahead of that position yet, or more?
"Would that be one glass, sir?" he asked, with a disapproving arch of his eyebrow.
"Oh god no," I replied. "I'll just have it with a straw."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os_Lusíadas
A poll of the SW (or any other region as a whole) would be good. Or. How the Top 40 Lib Dem target seats? Or the 40 most marginal Tory seats they didn't gain in 2019? Or the Top 40 Labour marginals?
That may add to the sum of knowledge.
The Red Wall is becoming so totemic that it is in serious danger of obscuring where the real story might be.
I suspect the 40 most rural seats would be eye opening. @IshmaelZ has been banging on about it. And the evidence from by elections and the relatively few rural Councils which voted was that this is where the Tory collapse is.
But we don't know. Because no one polls it.
Polish is odd. Excessive Slavic consonant clusters but nasal vowels.
Had Khinkali and a glass of saperavi in Poznań tonight, now in a craft beer bar.
Reminds me of when I ordered a half litre with my lunch in Italy, and the waiter said, “no, that’s too much, you want a quartino”
A whole bottle of whisky, on the other hand…
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1536801248011337732
You wouldn't guess it's a notionally Muslim country. Although apparently Bektashi are allowed to drink so it's a popular sect.
Bring Johnny Bairstow on!
“Stop calling me boring, Keir Starmer tells shadow cabinet”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/14/stop-calling-me-boring-keir-starmer-tells-shadow-cabinet
WTF!
Looks like England's coming home early from Qatar.
England 0-2 Hungary
If you feel the need for something interesting to read that does not talk about lawyers at all, try this - https://twitter.com/legalfeminist/status/1536768244987600896?s=21&t=fXAMyIctWNz3O3Z1uzV8Zg.
Firstly, the wines by the glasses are usually not the best choice. You also don’t know how long they have been open.
The second, with half bottles, is that the rule is that the larger the bottle, the better it is for the wine. So, with a half bottle, the wine is somewhat inferior to a full bottle
If she gives you more grief, ask her to confirm that the service charge is optimal. That should get her attention.
Even if the activists win, it’s a classic case of “win the battle, lose the war” from them. All this does is energise the Tory base and the papers. It’s got everything - asylum seekers, lefty lawyers, middle class activists and now the ECHR stopping at least one deportation. All it will lead to is the Govt stepping up things and saying to its supporters “they are still trying to stop us”.
I wonder what the Human Rights QC SKS thinks about it…
Southgate must go tonight
England 3 down
Edit: and now down to 10 men
There's a supremely well organised campaign to undermine it.
I reckon it's because England have suddenly got good at cricket again, and they're not allowed to be good at more than one thing at once.
Now, I know what it feels like to be a Scotland supporter.
Sent Stones off
I have no problem at all ordering a whole bottle - I just make sure I get the cork and take half of it away with me.
It's the perfect demonstration as to why we need modern pints of champagne. Plus the latter would offend some of the right people.
It’s frustrating we can’t put limits on and qualify these rights.
He brings on Maguire of all people when you are 3 down
4-0
Embarrassing from England
https://twitter.com/kevverage/status/1536698342805323776
It seems to have more holes than one of Rab C Nesbit's string vests.