Begs the question why the LDs spectacularly underachieve at General Elections. It's not just resources. Even Clegg at peak underperformed. Odd.
I guess the LDs are for many primarily a protest vehicle.
The mistake many of us made in 2015 was in thinking that the Lib Dems could effectively run many by-election campaigns in parallel, and thereby hold onto more of their seats. So resources are likely a large part of the explanation.
The other thing is that, for better or for worse, our general elections have now mostly reduced to the question of which of the two party leaders people want to see as Prime Minister. Despite the best efforts of our next Prime Minister, Jo Swinson, it's much harder to convince the public that the Lib Dems are at the races in the national contest.
Winning here? Maybe. Winning nationwide? Lol, no.
The thing is their great strength in by-elections became their great weakness in 2015.
In a by-election they're a great repository for protest votes. They can say anything, do anything, stand for anything depending upon what is popular in that locale. No principles necessary.
They can say to right-leaning voters "vote for us, to stop the Labour Party" or to left-leaning ones "vote for us, to stop the Tories". They can tell NIMBYs that they're against property development, or tell young people they should be able to get on the ladder and not have to rent. Consistency doesn't matter in a by-election where you're just making a point of protest.
But choosing a government? That's different. If you stand for everything, then you stand for nothing. In 2015 it became a case of telling left-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in the Tories, while telling right-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in Labour.
If you're going to stand in the middle of the road, you're in danger of being hit by oncoming vehicles.
And if you way to the right or left, you're in the gutter.
You have to pick a side and get past the gutter to get safely to the pavement.
I don’t think you’re meant to be driving on the pavement however.
“Covid virus likely leaked from Wuhan lab: WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus
“According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the most likely explanation was a catastrophic accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, where infections first spread during late 2019, Daily Mail reported.”
Lol. And thus we come a complete full circle, where we end up admitting what was fucking obvious from the beginning, except to idiots
Basically, I am right about everything. Including DEM ALIENS
One 'news' source quotes another 'news' source (Daily Mail, should be enough said at this point), and if you read the actual Mail article, it a 'source' who says that the D-G said it in private. There's no there, there.
So if I were to quote it from here, I'd be quoting Leon who's quoting IndiaNews, who are quoting the Daily Mail who are quoting an anonymous source who claims the D-G said it in private but never in public, honest.
Looks legit to me.
Pretty feeble point, surely? I only know at about 250th hand that the battle of Trafalgar happened, but I am pretty confident it did.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Yes it does feel like Dacre sees Starmer as a threat but his attacks have been so cack handed-yesterday's was hilarious-that perhaps it's just that he's lost it.
It could be his staff are simply having fun presenting these batty front pages knowing he'll just sign them off.
Yesterday's looked like he'd forgotten who the government was.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
The Russians have taken 307,000 Ukrainian children over the border, and are going to give them a three-year 're-education' course. Russians can adopt them with minimal background checks.
*Anyone* who supports Russia in this hideous conflict is supporting evil. I don't care if you like their politics, or take umbrage at the fact the Ukrainians seem to like Boris, or you like anyone who is against us; you are supporting evil.
Another day, another post from Mr Jessop in which he tilts at those Russia-supporting windmills.
Is that the *best* thing you can think to say about the post? With all that horror, and you attack me for posting about it?
Yes, because it keeps begging the question, who are these “Russia supporters” that you keep railing against.
I just take it as given that Russia is currently a proto-fascist or full-fat fascist agent of evil. I think pretty much everyone on here does.
@Luckyguy1983@NickPalmer and @Roger have all exhibited somewhat pro-Russia or Ukraine-should-lose sympathies, to my mind
There may be others
Senator Joe McCarthy there....
Tis just the truth, as I see it
Also, it makes sense. PB is fairly representative of wider Britain (or geekland). I have members of my own family who are unexpectedly pro-Putin
Yeah. My mother is. I find it frustrating, bewildering and not a little upsetting.
To be fair, @Woger is not so much pro-Russian as concerned for the real victims in this -
The people who have been deprived of their yachts.
Think of all the young Russian ‘models’, and the young Western ‘actresses’, deprived of their ability to earn a living on the yachts of the Med this summer.
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
Did anyone think that the average trader went… 5000 miles from Chengdu to Venice?
That’s why Marco Polo was exceptional
The only exceptional thing with Marco Polo was that he wrote it all down, and only because later in life he was imprisoned and so bored he wanted something to while away the time.
He came from a large family business, many members of which lived and worked in China and along the Silk Road. It may actually have been quite a common experience, but they were there to get rich, not to write travelogues, history books or entertain flint dildo knappers. Many money-making enterprises intentionally did not keep, or systematically destroyed, archives. A much later example being the Swedish East India Company. They didn’t want the king, or anyone else, knowing how stinking rich they were.
Begs the question why the LDs spectacularly underachieve at General Elections. It's not just resources. Even Clegg at peak underperformed. Odd.
I guess the LDs are for many primarily a protest vehicle.
The mistake many of us made in 2015 was in thinking that the Lib Dems could effectively run many by-election campaigns in parallel, and thereby hold onto more of their seats. So resources are likely a large part of the explanation.
The other thing is that, for better or for worse, our general elections have now mostly reduced to the question of which of the two party leaders people want to see as Prime Minister. Despite the best efforts of our next Prime Minister, Jo Swinson, it's much harder to convince the public that the Lib Dems are at the races in the national contest.
Winning here? Maybe. Winning nationwide? Lol, no.
The thing is their great strength in by-elections became their great weakness in 2015.
In a by-election they're a great repository for protest votes. They can say anything, do anything, stand for anything depending upon what is popular in that locale. No principles necessary.
They can say to right-leaning voters "vote for us, to stop the Labour Party" or to left-leaning ones "vote for us, to stop the Tories". They can tell NIMBYs that they're against property development, or tell young people they should be able to get on the ladder and not have to rent. Consistency doesn't matter in a by-election where you're just making a point of protest.
But choosing a government? That's different. If you stand for everything, then you stand for nothing. In 2015 it became a case of telling left-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in the Tories, while telling right-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in Labour.
If you're going to stand in the middle of the road, you're in danger of being hit by oncoming vehicles.
And if you way to the right or left, you're in the gutter.
You have to pick a side and get past the gutter to get safely to the pavement.
I don’t think you’re meant to be driving on the pavement however.
“Covid virus likely leaked from Wuhan lab: WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus
“According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the most likely explanation was a catastrophic accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, where infections first spread during late 2019, Daily Mail reported.”
Lol. And thus we come a complete full circle, where we end up admitting what was fucking obvious from the beginning, except to idiots
Basically, I am right about everything. Including DEM ALIENS
One 'news' source quotes another 'news' source (Daily Mail, should be enough said at this point), and if you read the actual Mail article, it a 'source' who says that the D-G said it in private. There's no there, there.
So if I were to quote it from here, I'd be quoting Leon who's quoting IndiaNews, who are quoting the Daily Mail who are quoting an anonymous source who claims the D-G said it in private but never in public, honest.
Looks legit to me.
Pretty feeble point, surely? I only know at about 250th hand that the battle of Trafalgar happened, but I am pretty confident it did.
You try that line of evidence in court.
"According to person A, person B says that person C says that someone he knows but can't name or quote directly says that someone else said something in private and with no other witnesses."
I think I'd like a bit more evidentiary strength in the chain.
I've got no dog in the fight - seems possible, albeit dramatic, but would require some decent evidence. Claims of hearsay of anonymous and unconfirmed hearsay are on the weak side.
We have plenty of evidence surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar and historians can point to some rather better evidence.
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Let's freeze the station pension and instead make it easier for people who actually do something useful to society to live
The idea of a 'station pension' is rather good.
(Cue ad)
"This poor station was abused by its owners in the sixties. Neglected for decades, we at the Station Pension Entitled Welfare (SPEW) will help save this station, and give it a good dotage."
Along with video of the decrepit North Wingfield Station. (*)
Begs the question why the LDs spectacularly underachieve at General Elections. It's not just resources. Even Clegg at peak underperformed. Odd.
I guess the LDs are for many primarily a protest vehicle.
The mistake many of us made in 2015 was in thinking that the Lib Dems could effectively run many by-election campaigns in parallel, and thereby hold onto more of their seats. So resources are likely a large part of the explanation.
The other thing is that, for better or for worse, our general elections have now mostly reduced to the question of which of the two party leaders people want to see as Prime Minister. Despite the best efforts of our next Prime Minister, Jo Swinson, it's much harder to convince the public that the Lib Dems are at the races in the national contest.
Winning here? Maybe. Winning nationwide? Lol, no.
The thing is their great strength in by-elections became their great weakness in 2015.
In a by-election they're a great repository for protest votes. They can say anything, do anything, stand for anything depending upon what is popular in that locale. No principles necessary.
They can say to right-leaning voters "vote for us, to stop the Labour Party" or to left-leaning ones "vote for us, to stop the Tories". They can tell NIMBYs that they're against property development, or tell young people they should be able to get on the ladder and not have to rent. Consistency doesn't matter in a by-election where you're just making a point of protest.
But choosing a government? That's different. If you stand for everything, then you stand for nothing. In 2015 it became a case of telling left-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in the Tories, while telling right-leaning voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could let in Labour.
If you're going to stand in the middle of the road, you're in danger of being hit by oncoming vehicles.
And if you way to the right or left, you're in the gutter.
You have to pick a side and get past the gutter to get safely to the pavement.
I don’t think you’re meant to be driving on the pavement however.
“Covid virus likely leaked from Wuhan lab: WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus
“According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the most likely explanation was a catastrophic accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, where infections first spread during late 2019, Daily Mail reported.”
Lol. And thus we come a complete full circle, where we end up admitting what was fucking obvious from the beginning, except to idiots
Basically, I am right about everything. Including DEM ALIENS
One 'news' source quotes another 'news' source (Daily Mail, should be enough said at this point), and if you read the actual Mail article, it a 'source' who says that the D-G said it in private. There's no there, there.
So if I were to quote it from here, I'd be quoting Leon who's quoting IndiaNews, who are quoting the Daily Mail who are quoting an anonymous source who claims the D-G said it in private but never in public, honest.
Looks legit to me.
Pretty feeble point, surely? I only know at about 250th hand that the battle of Trafalgar happened, but I am pretty confident it did.
You try that line of evidence in court.
"According to person A, person B says that person C says that someone he knows but can't name or quote directly says that someone else said something in private and with no other witnesses."
I think I'd like a bit more evidentiary strength in the chain.
I've got no dog in the fight - seems possible, albeit dramatic, but would require some decent evidence. Claims of hearsay of anonymous and unconfirmed hearsay are on the weak side.
We have plenty of evidence surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar and historians can point to some rather better evidence.
You can't, hearsay beyond first hand is never admissible
The point here is that we can all see what the Mail says unless we are deliberately not looking in order to make a point, so the chain is Paper says X said Y. Lots of stories are like that, people do say things privately they wouldn't say in public, and the interesting question is not Is XY true, but is X going to come out with a denial?
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
Going full on @Leon for a moment…. Sitting on our balcony last night on a Greek island, Antiparos in the Cyclades…. Suddenly a very bright light appears high in the sky… it stays steady then moves rapidly down to level with the horizon before moving eastwards at a level for what I’d estimate to be about 40 miles, judging by the islands in the far distance, in about five seconds… disappears then reappears more faintly moving at similar speed eastwards before disappearing over the horizon… changes of direction were instant… weird.
Let's freeze the station pension and instead make it easier for people who actually do something useful to society to live
You'll be putting us oldies into God's Waiting room next...
I am sure children and grandchildren of the elderly would comment their parents and grandparents have spent their life being useful, and not only raising their children, but also paying their taxes and contributing to their communities
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“ Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.”
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“ Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.”
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
What’s your game Pete? 🤔
I thought both Boris and Starmer were abysmal today and it is very disheartening
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“ Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.”
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
What’s your game Pete? 🤔
I thought both Boris and Starmer were abysmal today and it is very disheartening
That’s nearer the truth Big G, I doubt MexPete even watched.
The only thing of note was Ang been switched around. Harder to flash anyone from there?
Going full on @Leon for a moment…. Sitting on our balcony last night on a Greek island, Antiparos in the Cyclades…. Suddenly a very bright light appears high in the sky… it stays steady then moves rapidly down to level with the horizon before moving eastwards at a level for what I’d estimate to be about 40 miles, judging by the islands in the far distance, in about five seconds… disappears then reappears more faintly moving at similar speed eastwards before disappearing over the horizon… changes of direction were instant… weird.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
This is why BLM gets them so riled up. They don't like reminding that Britain's glorious history is built on such a heinous crime.
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
Hi all. I have a problem regarding a neighbour. I am not new to this, I have seen neighbour disputes for many years and understand that the best answer is to try and talk to people to try and work through them. However, I am now dealing with a very difficult character, and even though I am continuing friendly engagement, the person in question is proving very stubborn and we are heading in to conflict. This has been going on for about 3 years and the situation is becoming really serious. The problem relates to remedial works to a building which we are co freeholders of (50/50) which need to occur to make it habitable and mortgageable. If they don't happen, the loss in value to each of our flats is in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. The actual cost of the remedial works, is in the tens of thousands of pounds. She doesn't see the point of the works, doesn't see the point of complying with any regulations, and assumes that all professionals are ripping people off. Basically, her perspective is hard to explain because it is irrational. She has had this standpoint for the 40 years she has lived in the flat. When there was a freeholder , he did the works, she sued him herself and lost badly; and was paying back the cost for 15 years. But thinks the court decision was a masonic conspiracy. She now believes irrationally that the Council should be paying for the works, which is nonsense. To try and avoid a legal conflict, I have even offered to just pay for all the works myself and take a charge on her flat, she can just pay me back when she sells it. But even reaching a reliable agreement on that is impossible.
The building is deteriorating and water is coming through the roof in various places. The final straw is this. She has now decided that she will just fix the one leak that is affecting her, by herself, and has appointed a cowboy builder for this single task. This is despite us being friendly, exchanging books, going around to each others flats for coffee etc. Is this the point where I give up and go to a lawyer? Is there any other possible way out?
My sympathies.
Quite a few older people believe that the cost of doing building works properly is a rip off, because they know someone who can patch it up with a bit of filler, for a tenner.
Hence the state of many houses when sold - "Requires updating".....
I know nothing about laws or neighbours but if "she" is prepared to pay for one repair, is it possible you could pay for the rest in some sort of combined operation? How much would that cost, against paying m'learned friends? That's a rhetorical question btw.
Could I please send an excel spreadsheet I made a couple of years ago to one (or more!) of you nerds to see if it helps me qualify as one?
I've just sent it to a potential employer to exhibit my excel nerdery and I'd like to know if it's worth sending..
Sorry to bore on about this, but I think I need to sell it better.
I may have made it sound more complex than it is by going on about nerds. It's hopefully quite a straightforward spreadsheet I made for a friend's cleaning company to plan and record her cleans, calculate her mileage, invoice clients and pay her employees.
It's got six tabs; three with info on distances, clients and staff, one for planning the month (which also works out the mileages) and two for making the invoices and payments.
I think it would only take a proper nerd a few minutes to give the kind of informal assessment I'd like.
Let's freeze the station pension and instead make it easier for people who actually do something useful to society to live
You'll be putting us oldies into God's Waiting room next...
I am sure children and grandchildren of the elderly would comment their parents and grandparents have spent their life being useful, and not only raising their children, but also paying their taxes and contributing to their communities
Someday the young will be elderly themselves
True, but there's an important difference.
There are a lot of people in their late 50's / early 60's who have worked out they can afford to retire up to a decade early. Hence, in part, the tight labour market.
Below them there are generations who may not be able to afford to retire at all.
Not all of that is the fault of older generations- though they have rewarded politicians who promised lower taxes during their working lives and now promise higher spending in their retirements.
And whilst people have paid their taxes, those taxes now look like they were not set at a level that pays for a good society. And that was a democratic choice.
No noticeable delay at passport control. Sent straight through without any questions, not even asking to see the Covid passport which they are supposed to AIUI. Had to ask to be stamped in. Maybe travelling with an EU passport holder helped, maybe it's just not as bad as the scare stories being put about.
Commuter train into the city centre: zero masks in evidence. At most half a dozen out of ~200 passengers on the plane (Norwegian abolished their mask rules a while ago and AFAICT doesn't even recommend them).
Travel update: Cambourne.
No noticeable delay in the waiting area (office); however there was a momentary problem on the landing, when I had to stoop down to pick up a couple of empty tea cups. The journey involved two flights (of stairs). I'm afraid the journey was definitely economy class, and I saw no sign of any stewardesses. There was a minor issue at my destination, as my hands were full when I had to pull open the door to the dining room. Some shuffling allowed me through and to the kitchen sink.
And I did not need to show my passport once!
I must say the lack of a stewardess on a flight that was essentially empty (I was the only passenger) is a poor indicator on Jessop Airways. I hear their rail services are better...
Travel update: Somerset.
Two hour queue through border control into the world's best guarded campsite this morning in 23C blazing sunshine.
Lovely weather this afternoon, but very hard to find shade.
Enjoy!
It will get a bit muddy though. 😕
Nah, the ground is too dry and the forecast rain too little. Festival-goers will be fine this year.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
Jesus, what a pinheaded post.
Slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830 - no it wasn't, because it was never legal here beyond about 1200.
Things have contexts, backstories, necessary conditions, stuff like that. What was the spinning jenny spinning? Where did the stuff come from? What happened to the stuff when it had been spun? Would the invention of the spinning jenny be more or less likely to occur in the absence of a source of, and market for, stuff? Go on, have a guess.
"According to person A, person B says that person C says that someone he knows but can't name or quote directly says that someone else said something in private and with no other witnesses."
I think I'd like a bit more evidentiary strength in the chain.
I've got no dog in the fight - seems possible, albeit dramatic, but would require some decent evidence. Claims of hearsay of anonymous and unconfirmed hearsay are on the weak side.
We have plenty of evidence surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar and historians can point to some rather better evidence.
I was an alien (what a surprise) from the collectivist Hive faction (honest, I didn't choose it...) seeking to establish a cross-species paradise on Earth. The 200 players were variously all the main countries, scientists, corporations and other aliens, including libertarians a la Bartholomew, kindly liberals a la Old King Cole, and nasty militarists. I negotiated a deal with the Chinese team ("all collectivists together, eh?"), who proved quite astonishingly unscrupulous to their human partners.
We were fairly successful in persuading countries to let us settle our giant domes in exchange for advanced technology. Unfortunately, Russia and America took the opportunity to try out the advanced weapons, wiping out most of the population of the developed world. So we ended the game with the aliens (who apparently were immune to radioactivity) in control of a largely derelict world.
I leave to others to draw appropriate conclusions. But it was good fun, and will be repeated - maybe next time we can get a PB team together.
https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1539587392511819781 NEW: UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace will visit Ankara tomorrow to discuss regional defense issues including possible cooperation in defense industry, says Turkish defense ministry
UK Foreign Minister Truss will also be in Turkey tomorrow
Which is not to suggest a direct link between the two things, but Turkey is certainly working hard to increase its regional influence.
Turkey seems to lead an utterly charmed existence, possibly because it has worked out how to threaten to go either way with credibility. It invades bits of Syria; nobody blinks. It seeks to act as an honest broker between Russia and Ukraine (rather than condemning Russia) and nobody makes so much as a murmur (whilst Germany and France get torrents of abuse for trying to keep the lights on). Russia for its part is happy to work with Turkey despite the latter recently beating it in a proxy war. It frustrates America's plans to draw Sweden and Finland into the NATO alliance. We could learn a lot from Turkey....
Personally, I think Erdoğan is ghastly and could do with putting firmly in his place, but there is no doubt that in terms of near inexplicable Western support (going back to the days of the Crimean War), Turkey does very well.
I am also reminded of a story when we were in the EU, of a car factory closing in the UK, relocating to Turkey because the company was a recipient of an EU development grant!
Erodgan plays Turkey's geopolitical position well. They are (and always have been) at a pivotal location between east and west, and he plays east and west off each other well. Whoever controls that region of the world will always be in that fortunate position.
But Turkey has ?eight? neighbours, and has had problematic relations with all of them in the last century, if not more recently - and he's not helping by actually fighting some of them. He is also looking at whoever will support Turkey best if one or more of those neighbours starts getting frisky in return.
I reckon Turkey will always be neither east nor west politically.
Quite right (last para), but therein lies the lesson for the UK. In foreign relations you buy your enemies and sell your friends (we do it enough ourselves). I am also reminded of the Cod wars, where (to oversimplify the situation) Iceland won, by threatening to cosy up to the USSR.
The UK is firmly in the US's pocket, our role to give their world dominance a bit of legitimacy and class, like Judi Dench doing a cameo in a Vin Diesel film. Thus we get walked over. If we had retained a far greater degree of autonomy, as many other countries have done, we would be treated with a great deal more respect.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
Jesus, what a pinheaded post.
Slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830 - no it wasn't, because it was never legal here beyond about 1200.
Things have contexts, backstories, necessary conditions, stuff like that. What was the spinning jenny spinning? Where did the stuff come from? What happened to the stuff when it had been spun? Would the invention of the spinning jenny be more or less likely to occur in the absence of a source of, and market for, stuff? Go on, have a guess.
Yeah of course the West's rise to pre-eminence relative to others is a complex matter, it wasn't me that said it was all down to slavery, it was you.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
Star Sports' The Polling Station on tomorrow's by-elections. Late money in T&H for Conservatives. LibDems want cars to drive their activists round the more rural parts. High turnout possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utrVi8mcbYc
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“ Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.”
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
What’s your game Pete? 🤔
I thought both Boris and Starmer were abysmal today and it is very disheartening
That’s nearer the truth Big G, I doubt MexPete even watched.
The only thing of note was Ang been switched around. Harder to flash anyone from there?
Phillipson had great pair of shoes on.
I didn't. I listened on 5 Live. Starmer was absolutely dreadful. He used to get the better of Johnson every week. It's like he's given up, hence my Durham comment.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
I do, and it is, but he was absolutely s*** again. I hate to say this, but I am coming over to BJO way of thinking.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
Mick Lynch is my new hero - brilliant, even if you don't agree with him. Anybody interested in seeing his highlights could scroll down the RMT Twitter feed (which is also very good):
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
I do, and it is, but he was absolutely s*** again. I hate to say this, but I am coming over to BJO way of thinking.
Yet he is still the first Labour leader to consistently lead as preferred PM since Blair
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
Mick Lynch is my new hero - brilliant, even if you don't agree with him. Anybody interested in seeing his highlights could scroll down the RMT Twitter feed (which is also very good):
If only the Labour Party were so slick and incisive.
To be fair to SKS, slick Mick doesn’t need to appeal to a vast swathe of the electorate so can take and defend very firm narrow positions. SKS has to appeal to the left but also not scare the horses with those in the soft centre right he needs to become PM so not really a fair comparison.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
The excel version doesn't have any #REF? errors in it. I've not spent much time on google sheets so not sure where they've come from. Is it IFERROR not working the same?
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
Mick Lynch is my new hero - brilliant, even if you don't agree with him. Anybody interested in seeing his highlights could scroll down the RMT Twitter feed (which is also very good):
If only the Labour Party were so slick and incisive.
To be fair to SKS, slick Mick doesn’t need to appeal to a vast swathe of the electorate so can take and defend very firm narrow positions. SKS has to appeal to the left but also not scare the horses with those in the soft centre right he needs to become PM so not really a fair comparison.
Point taken, though I didn't mention SKS - I was comparing the RMT's campaigning with Labour's, though the issue you mention still applies.
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
I don't think he's alleging that the protests were not 'largely peaceful' in crude percentage terms, but that the phrase itself is ludicrous, like the curate describing his egg as 'good in parts' - politeness bordering on farce in the face of a rotten egg. How many injurious assaults on police officers do you consider to be acceptable in this situation?
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
Get on Youtube, type "pmqs" into its search engine and take your choice of half a dozen recordings of today's PMQs and make up your own mind.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Actually that article makes me really angry. He is guilty of exactly what he accuses others of.
He writes: Let me give you an example. When the New England Journal of Medicine argued that “sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility”, few of us were surprised.
The New England Journal of Medicine did no such thing. The New England Journal of Medicine published a research paper on the effects on the mental health of intersex and transgender people by moving "such designations below the line" which "wouldn’t compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm."
So: (1) it is not the NEJM suggesting anything, it is a research paper published by them (2) the research paper does not suggest removing sex designations from birth certificates, it suggests moving them below the line, because that would improve the mental health outcomes of transgender people
Now, we can argue about whether it is sensible or right to do such a thing. But the Unherd article is either poorly researched (i.e. he doesn't know how academic publications work, and didn't bother reading the paper he precised), or is deliberately disingenuos - i.e. exactly the crime he accuses others of.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
I hope you are joking about RT and Cairns
It is possible that @Mexicanpete is really Drakeford? 👍
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
Get on Youtube, type "pmqs" into its search engine and take your choice of half a dozen recordings of today's PMQs and make up your own mind.
I heard it on 5 Live. There is no swift riposte from Starmer any more. Blackford still gets the better of Johnson, so it's not that Johnson has improved.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“ Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.”
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
What’s your game Pete? 🤔
I thought both Boris and Starmer were abysmal today and it is very disheartening
That’s nearer the truth Big G, I doubt MexPete even watched.
The only thing of note was Ang been switched around. Harder to flash anyone from there?
Phillipson had great pair of shoes on.
I didn't. I listened on 5 Live. Starmer was absolutely dreadful. He used to get the better of Johnson every week. It's like he's given up, hence my Durham comment.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
I hope you are joking about RT and Cairns
It is possible that @Mexicanpete is really Drakeford? 👍
Point taken, though I didn't mention SKS - I was comparing the RMT's campaigning with Labour's, though the issue you mention still applies.
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
I’m sure he has the ability but I’m sure that being a form of “one trick pony” is a lot easier because you can focus and not have to stray into territory you don’t necessarily agree with but have to Pretend you do to get elected.
Farage was a similar one trick where his big thing was Brexit and was very very weak and shallow on everything else - a view I developed from the joy of having lunch with him once and then spending the afternoon chewing the fat over lots of wine. He was an absolute lightweight on joined up thinking and wider policies but still attracted loads of people to his banner - can you imagine if by someone quirk of fate he had become PM - would possibly be worse than the current one trick pony who specialised in being a clown and didn’t realise that if he wanted to be ring master he couldn’t be the clown anymore or the circus would fall apart, as it is….
Talking of experts and the media lying to us, I seem to be the only person who has noticed the falsehood of the widely-disseminated comments about how unfair it is that 'pensioners' will be getting a 10% or so increase in income, when people of working age will get much less. (Tellingly, those making such comments never seem to mention benefits claimants, who will be getting the same increase).
Of course it's only the very poorest pensioners - those entirely or very nearly entirely dependent on the state pension with no other income - who will get that inflation-linked increase in their income. The state pension is around £10K a year, with some getting quite a bit less, and a few getting a little more from residual SERPS benefits etc. So anyone dependent on it for the bulk of their income is not exactly living the life of Riley.
The other elements of the income of pensioners who are better off than this will, for the most part, increase by far less than inflation, if at all (unless they are retired railway workers, of course). So the statement that "pensioners' income will increase by 10%" is, to use the technical term, codswallop. It seems to be too much to expect the media, and politicians, to be accurate about things like this.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
"In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines."
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
Those comments by our Brexiters that the US was cool, like, relaxed, with the breach of treaty in NI by the UK?
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
Point taken, though I didn't mention SKS - I was comparing the RMT's campaigning with Labour's, though the issue you mention still applies.
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
I’m sure he has the ability but I’m sure that being a form of “one trick pony” is a lot easier because you can focus and not have to stray into territory you don’t necessarily agree with but have to Pretend you do to get elected.
Farage was a similar one trick where his big thing was Brexit and was very very weak and shallow on everything else - a view I developed from the joy of having lunch with him once and then spending the afternoon chewing the fat over lots of wine. He was an absolute lightweight on joined up thinking and wider policies but still attracted loads of people to his banner - can you imagine if by someone quirk of fate he had become PM - would possibly be worse than the current one trick pony who specialised in being a clown and didn’t realise that if he wanted to be ring master he couldn’t be the clown anymore or the circus would fall apart, as it is….
Johnson would have been fine as a clown with an 'eminence grise' behind him doing 80% of the thinking and work. Loved even. Sadly the nearest two people to that were Carrie and Dom, who despite undoubted merits in some areas, were also deeply flawed.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
It depends doesn't it: if there's a million people in a demonstration, and 999,950 peacefully march through the streets, while 50 have a barney with the police and 27 are injured, I'd say it had been largely peaceful.
What percentage of people committing violence do you think are needed, before you can say it wasn't largely peaceful?
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Sorry for the late response, but I was golfing with RT and Alun Cairns, and they said much the same as me.
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
Get on Youtube, type "pmqs" into its search engine and take your choice of half a dozen recordings of today's PMQs and make up your own mind.
I heard it on 5 Live. There is no swift riposte from Starmer any more. Blackford still gets the better of Johnson, so it's not that Johnson has improved.
Starmer made the same point about bankers three times iirc. This might be a return to the old Blairite/Cameroon conventional wisdom that PMQs itself did not matter provided your man got the right short clip for the news and social media. A shame if so.
Those comments by our Brexiters that the US was cool, like, relaxed, with the breach of treaty in NI by the UK?
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
"In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines."
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
Hmm. The 18th-19th century sailing ship was as good as it gets machine wise without steam power (and steam hammers, and so on). The Americans hadn't invented cotton-picking machines. They did invent a cotton processing machine, but that just increased the demand for cotton ...
Those comments by our Brexiters that the US was cool, like, relaxed, with the breach of treaty in NI by the UK?
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
"In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines."
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
It was early mechanisation - and specifically the invention of the cotton gin - which led to the worst brutalities of plantation slavery in the US, since cotton picking could not be mechanised, and demand for the raw material soared.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
Mick Lynch is my new hero - brilliant, even if you don't agree with him. Anybody interested in seeing his highlights could scroll down the RMT Twitter feed (which is also very good):
Those comments by our Brexiters that the US was cool, like, relaxed, with the breach of treaty in NI by the UK?
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
Well given you were appalled at the prospect of a trade deal with the US when Trump was President, why should we be bothered if we don't get one now Biden is President? Removing the Irish Sea border is more important
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
"In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines."
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
Slavery was a dead end - precisely because of the failure to substitute mechanical power for human power.
Which is a large part of why the North won the US Civil War. The descriptions of the state of development in the Southern US vs the North pre war are very instructive. The North was pulling away, faster and faster.
On PMQs: on a couple of occasions I have listened to the leaders' exchange at PMQs on the radio, and then later watched it on TV/Internet (*). It might just be me, but the events 'feel' different when listening on the radio when compared to watching them on TV, as if the rhetoric matters more when there are no visual images.
There's often a lot of fake news, mainly from right-wing sources, about how dangerous London is. Utter nonsense. It's probably the second-safest big city in the world after Tokyo.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
Depends what the injuries are. I remember there were some protests after which the British police totted up their total number of injuries to imply the protest had been violent. It later transpired that these injuries had included bee stings and sundry other ailments not all of which could be attributed to the protestors.
I am working out where to go next, after I’ve finished Armenia and Georgia. I’ve kind of had enough of post USSR states, charmingly ramshackle as they are. That said, I am drawn to the Stans, particularly Kyrgyzstan, which looks small enough to see in a week
But where else could I go within striking distance of the Caucasus? I don’t want to double back to europe. Is there anywhere in India that has decent weather in July? Ladakh sounds like it does, but what the hell is Ladakh?!
I always fancied the area around the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan. It is supposed to be where much of our hard fruit - apples, pears etc - originated. Apparently they still have wild apple forests there.
Really anywhere along the old Silk Route looks amazing. I think perhaps Samarkand in Uzbekistan looks the best, both because of its amazing architecture and its almost mythical history.
Yes, the Tien Shan would be on my list too.
Mrs Flatlander had a tutor that spent a lot of time investigating the origins of the domestic apple and he was the first to confirm it had come from there (using early DNA analysis).
Wow that is brilliant. Travelling the Silk Road has always been my life's ambition. When I was a Kid I imagined doing it by horseback. Then when I got to old for such idiocy I decided it would be better by 4WD. Now I wonder if I could do the whole lot by train.
I understand (as in half listened to someone going on about it on radio 4) that the silk road was a bit less glamorous than it sounds because goods didn't typically travel end-to-end in the hands of one merchant. Usual pattern was a series of small steps so you'd go 25 miles down your end of it, sell your stuff and push off home. The guy you had sold to would go a further 25 miles...
But of course - that's why all the stops on the way were so wealthy. They weren't just there to provide the 12th Century version of a Holiday Inn Express, they were vibrant trading posts which pulled in local agriculture and manufacturing. And they also allowed information about demand for individual items to travel back again.
I was looking at historical global GDP shares recently, China and India looked to be way ahead of Europe until that renaissance thingy.
It was the slave trade that tipped the balance, not the rennaissance (a handful of poncy scholars working out how to read Aristotle in the original greek). British Empire enthusiasts love us being the home of the Industrial Revolution but that was predicated on the Slave Revolution which preceded it.
There's me thinking it was the incredible engineering feats of Brunel & Co, along with the stunning industrial innovations like Arkwright's water thingy and Hargreaves Spinning whatsit. Plus massive advances in materials making such as the Bessemer process
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
The Renaissance period saw the beginnings of scientific ship building - ship sizes rose quite rapidly. People look at the largest ships and say nothing much changed - but it was the mode of ship sizes that increased. As did sail designs and other ship handling techniques. The astronomers came up with better and better navigation techniques.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
"In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines."
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
It was early mechanisation - and specifically the invention of the cotton gin - which led to the worst brutalities of plantation slavery in the US, since cotton picking could not be mechanised, and demand for the raw material soared.
Yet strangely, in other parts of the world, cotton production was managed without slavery.
As the South found out when they tried to use King Cotton as a weapon.
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
Depends what the injuries are. I remember there were some protests after which the British police totted up their total number of injuries to imply the protest had been violent. It later transpired that these injuries had included bee stings and sundry other ailments not all of which could be attributed to the protestors.
There's often a lot of fake news, mainly from right-wing sources, about how dangerous London is. Utter nonsense. It's probably the second-safest big city in the world after Tokyo.
I am trying hard to think of an actual "don't go there" location in London. Some of the larger and older housing estates are a bit rough, but nothing like the gang areas of various US cities. Or the districts in Paris.....
The Russians have taken 307,000 Ukrainian children over the border, and are going to give them a three-year 're-education' course. Russians can adopt them with minimal background checks.
*Anyone* who supports Russia in this hideous conflict is supporting evil. I don't care if you like their politics, or take umbrage at the fact the Ukrainians seem to like Boris, or you like anyone who is against us; you are supporting evil.
Another day, another post from Mr Jessop in which he tilts at those Russia-supporting windmills.
Is that the *best* thing you can think to say about the post? With all that horror, and you attack me for posting about it?
Yes, because it keeps begging the question, who are these “Russia supporters” that you keep railing against.
I just take it as given that Russia is currently a proto-fascist or full-fat fascist agent of evil. I think pretty much everyone on here does.
@Luckyguy1983@NickPalmer and @Roger have all exhibited somewhat pro-Russia or Ukraine-should-lose sympathies, to my mind
There may be others
Senator Joe McCarthy there....
'Are you now or have you ever been a person who thought Putin was a bulwark against the forces of Woke that are destroying Western Judaeo-Christian civilisation?'
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
It depends doesn't it: if there's a million people in a demonstration, and 999,950 peacefully march through the streets, while 50 have a barney with the police and 27 are injured, I'd say it had been largely peaceful.
What percentage of people committing violence do you think are needed, before you can say it wasn't largely peaceful?
Well, injured cops is only a proxy for overall violence. Let's say they dish out 10 injuries for one received, that's300 odd injuries overall. Let's say for every incident of injury there's another 10 where no significant injury occurs but the incident is still not peaceful (shouty confrontations etc), you are in to the 3,000s. If you are talking 100,000 overall, I wouldn't call 3% negligible
The second paragraph doesn't inspire much confidence:
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
Disagree. Dunno what it's like in LA but 27 cops injured in one go in London doesn't feel largely peaceful to me
Depends what the injuries are. I remember there were some protests after which the British police totted up their total number of injuries to imply the protest had been violent. It later transpired that these injuries had included bee stings and sundry other ailments not all of which could be attributed to the protestors.
Are those bees actually Woke Alien Bees?
Asking for a friend.
Unsurprisingly, the police weren't able to identify them. I've found the report again, and the sting was caused "by possible wasp".
Ha, Radio 4’s Women’s Hour and Emma Barnett with the scoop of the day - the only interview with the artist currently at number 1 in the pop charts. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_shEiWaW34k
Those comments by our Brexiters that the US was cool, like, relaxed, with the breach of treaty in NI by the UK?
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
Well given you were appalled at the prospect of a trade deal with the US when Trump was President, why should we be bothered if we don't get one now Biden is President? Removing the Irish Sea border is more important
The excel version doesn't have any #REF? errors in it. I've not spent much time on google sheets so not sure where they've come from. Is it IFERROR not working the same?
Ok, I'll bite, as no one else seems to.
From a quick look I'd just suggest maybe consider improving the look and feel a bit: protect or hide the cells you don't want people to mess with, shade it to make it clear which cells are for data entry and which are to display results. Hide the 'admin' or reference data tabs too for tidiness. A spreadsheet title in row 1 would be nice too.
I think the indexing and use of IFERROR all looks rather complicated but it's difficult to tell if there's a simpler way as I am obviously not conversant with what the spreadsheet is aiming to do (though I can guess of course).
The #REF? error in Googlesheets is due to differences between Google and Excel I think, because if I download a copy as .xlsx and open with Excel they go away again.
You might want to edit the addresses in the 'Worker Info' tab in the version posted on Google if those are real addresses.
Apols if that seems a bit negative and misses the point. If someone said 'I can get Excel to do stuff and here's an example', I'd say 'yeah, looks like it'. If someone was saying 'I've got this super Excel app that really makes it worth employing me'... er... no, not on it's own.
It's striking the amount of opprobrium that The Mail is pouring over Sir Keir personally at the moment. I don't recall them being this brutal with Miliband, Brown or even Blair or Corbyn. Odd. Sir Keir seems a ludicrously unlikely bogeyman.
Shows both the threat they think SKS and the scale of the problems they think Bozo has.
Johnson absolutely tonked Starmer today at PMQs.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
You keep saying this, Pete, after every PMQs, whether he did or not. I suspect you are a cchq troll.
Pete does a special line in irono-masochism. It's good once you get into it.
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
I do, and it is, but he was absolutely s*** again. I hate to say this, but I am coming over to BJO way of thinking.
But not all the way to preferring the Magnificent Muscly Man, I hope. Or that's me and you done.
Comments
It could be his staff are simply having fun presenting these batty front pages knowing he'll just sign them off.
Yesterday's looked like he'd forgotten who the government was.
P.S. I wonder if Starmer has had the heads up from Durham that an FPN is on the way.
“Thunderstorm warning issued by Met Office for southern England with torrential rain expected
Thousands of people heading to Glastonbury Festival could bear the brunt of the conditions.”
“festival-goers will "definitely need their wellies because conditions will take a bit of a wetter turn"
“Flooding may also cause some road closures, homes and businesses could be flooded as well as the possibility of fast flowing floodwater causing danger to life”
Meanwhile…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2562305
Siestard, showered, clean thong, heading out for more St Julian’s nite life 💃🏻
https://www.maltainfoguide.com/st-julians-malta-night-photos.html
https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1539566923003854849
He came from a large family business, many members of which lived and worked in China and along the Silk Road. It may actually have been quite a common experience, but they were there to get rich, not to write travelogues, history books or entertain flint dildo knappers. Many money-making enterprises intentionally did not keep, or systematically destroyed, archives. A much later example being the Swedish East India Company. They didn’t want the king, or anyone else, knowing how stinking rich they were.
"According to person A, person B says that person C says that someone he knows but can't name or quote directly says that someone else said something in private and with no other witnesses."
I think I'd like a bit more evidentiary strength in the chain.
I've got no dog in the fight - seems possible, albeit dramatic, but would require some decent evidence. Claims of hearsay of anonymous and unconfirmed hearsay are on the weak side.
We have plenty of evidence surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar and historians can point to some rather better evidence.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/gcn4fpj2y#?date=2022-06-22
Broadly, isn't it the working out for Northern Monkey's mindstate at Glastonbury 2000, had it been raining, across a selection of possible narcotics?
Apparently twice!
(Cue ad)
"This poor station was abused by its owners in the sixties. Neglected for decades, we at the Station Pension Entitled Welfare (SPEW) will help save this station, and give it a good dotage."
Along with video of the decrepit North Wingfield Station. (*)
(*) Thankfully, now being restored: https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/wingfield-station-restoration-worlds-oldest-7012075
Freezing wages is good enough for those working now you're an oldie.
I'm noticing a pattern. Why's it not good enough for you now?
The point here is that we can all see what the Mail says unless we are deliberately not looking in order to make a point, so the chain is Paper says X said Y. Lots of stories are like that, people do say things privately they wouldn't say in public, and the interesting question is not Is XY true, but is X going to come out with a denial?
Someday the young will be elderly themselves
Anyone else who watched it agree with Pete’s bizarre spin?
How can anyone who never answers any question, rants out the same tractor stats each week, and was markedly half hearted as he performed today achieve a PMQ tonking?
It was dull from everyone except Caroline Lucas, but if anything Starmer’s “you are the government, talk it and sort it” attack had the upper hand.
What’s your game Pete? 🤔
It's from my Premier League TV picks spreadsheet. It lets me know the first week that Sky showed a particular team.
There's probably some other Excel functions that would make it very easy, but I don't know them.
It’s flipping hot. I have already forgotten what clouds look like.
The only thing of note was Ang been switched around. Harder to flash anyone from there?
Phillipson had great pair of shoes on.
Don’t forget SAS Urinating, get it done and all packed away before pee patrol come round the corner.
I may have made it sound more complex than it is by going on about nerds. It's hopefully quite a straightforward spreadsheet I made for a friend's cleaning company to plan and record her cleans, calculate her mileage, invoice clients and pay her employees.
It's got six tabs; three with info on distances, clients and staff, one for planning the month (which also works out the mileages) and two for making the invoices and payments.
I think it would only take a proper nerd a few minutes to give the kind of informal assessment I'd like.
There are a lot of people in their late 50's / early 60's who have worked out they can afford to retire up to a decade early. Hence, in part, the tight labour market.
Below them there are generations who may not be able to afford to retire at all.
Not all of that is the fault of older generations- though they have rewarded politicians who promised lower taxes during their working lives and now promise higher spending in their retirements.
And whilst people have paid their taxes, those taxes now look like they were not set at a level that pays for a good society. And that was a democratic choice.
And all the while it was those eleven year old chimney sweeps!! who knew!! meanwhile slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830s.
Slavery was abolished in Britain in the 1830 - no it wasn't, because it was never legal here beyond about 1200.
Things have contexts, backstories, necessary conditions, stuff like that. What was the spinning jenny spinning? Where did the stuff come from? What happened to the stuff when it had been spun? Would the invention of the spinning jenny be more or less likely to occur in the absence of a source of, and market for, stuff? Go on, have a guess.
I was an alien (what a surprise) from the collectivist Hive faction (honest, I didn't choose it...) seeking to establish a cross-species paradise on Earth. The 200 players were variously all the main countries, scientists, corporations and other aliens, including libertarians a la Bartholomew, kindly liberals a la Old King Cole, and nasty militarists. I negotiated a deal with the Chinese team ("all collectivists together, eh?"), who proved quite astonishingly unscrupulous to their human partners.
We were fairly successful in persuading countries to let us settle our giant domes in exchange for advanced technology. Unfortunately, Russia and America took the opportunity to try out the advanced weapons, wiping out most of the population of the developed world. So we ended the game with the aliens (who apparently were immune to radioactivity) in control of a largely derelict world.
I leave to others to draw appropriate conclusions. But it was good fun, and will be repeated - maybe next time we can get a PB team together.
The UK is firmly in the US's pocket, our role to give their world dominance a bit of legitimacy and class, like Judi Dench doing a cameo in a Vin Diesel film. Thus we get walked over. If we had retained a far greater degree of autonomy, as many other countries have done, we would be treated with a great deal more respect.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-61890804
But anyway, Keir out, Mick in! I don't whether it'll work but he's doing some terrific tory trashing telly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utrVi8mcbYc
"The experts are lying to you
Their laundering of the truth is deliberate and tactical
Andrew Doyle"
https://unherd.com/2022/06/the-experts-are-lying-to-you/
https://twitter.com/RMTunion
If only the Labour Party were so slick and incisive.
This produced a merchant commerce revolution. Hence Venice etc.
At the same time the acceleration of wind and water power was quite profound - racing past what the Romans had done.
In both case, the key was removing human and animal power from the job and replacing them with machines.
The industrial revolution was when the missing pieces - steam power - slotted in to existing knowledge. It then became a self referential process of increasing capability. As steam powered machines were used to build steam powered machines.....
Beergate has taken the wind out of Starmer's sails. He just needs to go now, he is a liability, and the Daily Mail scents blood.
There was, for instance, Omar Jimenez’s coverage of protests in Kenosha for CNN, described as “mostly peaceful” in the chyron running under the report in spite of the clearly visible backdrop of burning cars and buildings. Similarly, the BBC was roundly mocked for its description of “largely peaceful” protests in London, in which 27 police officers were injured.
Without evidence of the size of the protests, and therefore the relative frequency of the non-peaceful incidents, it is hard to judge whether they were or were not "mostly" or "largely" peaceful.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Nh-WkzzsZw91eNs5WWxBV13UB3K5W3Uk8UpHm5TXLrI/edit?usp=sharing
The excel version doesn't have any #REF? errors in it. I've not spent much time on google sheets so not sure where they've come from. Is it IFERROR not working the same?
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
Wakefield (LAB GAIN):
LAB 48%
CON 31%
IND 9%
YSP 4%
Tiverton & Honiton (LDM GAIN):
LDM 47%
CON 42%
LAB 5%
#DoubleTroubleByElectionBonanza
Election Maps UK prediction. Posted as i think probably not far off. Although if the Tories lose Tiv, theyd settle for over 40% in this climate
He writes:
Let me give you an example. When the New England Journal of Medicine argued that “sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility”, few of us were surprised.
The New England Journal of Medicine did no such thing. The New England Journal of Medicine published a research paper on the effects on the mental health of intersex and transgender people by moving "such designations below the line" which "wouldn’t compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm."
So:
(1) it is not the NEJM suggesting anything, it is a research paper published by them
(2) the research paper does not suggest removing sex designations from birth certificates, it suggests moving them below the line, because that would improve the mental health outcomes of transgender people
Now, we can argue about whether it is sensible or right to do such a thing. But the Unherd article is either poorly researched (i.e. he doesn't know how academic publications work, and didn't bother reading the paper he precised), or is deliberately disingenuos - i.e. exactly the crime he accuses others of.
https://twitter.com/TomChivers/status/1539601696745291776
The New York Times is absolutely convinced that rugby players are called "ruggers"
Point taken, though I didn't mention SKS - I was comparing the RMT's campaigning with Labour's, though the issue you mention still applies.
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
I’m sure he has the ability but I’m sure that being a form of “one trick pony” is a lot easier because you can focus and not have to stray into territory you don’t necessarily agree with but have to Pretend you do to get elected.
Farage was a similar one trick where his big thing was Brexit and was very very weak and shallow on everything else - a view I developed from the joy of having lunch with him once and then spending the afternoon chewing the fat over lots of wine. He was an absolute lightweight on joined up thinking and wider policies but still attracted loads of people to his banner - can you imagine if by someone quirk of fate he had become PM - would possibly be worse than the current one trick pony who specialised in being a clown and didn’t realise that if he wanted to be ring master he couldn’t be the clown anymore or the circus would fall apart, as it is….
Of course it's only the very poorest pensioners - those entirely or very nearly entirely dependent on the state pension with no other income - who will get that inflation-linked increase in their income. The state pension is around £10K a year, with some getting quite a bit less, and a few getting a little more from residual SERPS benefits etc. So anyone dependent on it for the bulk of their income is not exactly living the life of Riley.
The other elements of the income of pensioners who are better off than this will, for the most part, increase by far less than inflation, if at all (unless they are retired railway workers, of course). So the statement that "pensioners' income will increase by 10%" is, to use the technical term, codswallop. It seems to be too much to expect the media, and politicians, to be accurate about things like this.
There's 3.1m involuntary transatlantic migrants would like a word about that
Turns out they were mince.
'The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
"Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020. [...]
They also put paid to inferences that the criticism by a recent bipartisan congressional delegation was limited to the Irish caucus on Capitol Hill and heavily influenced by Sinn Féin.
The Biden administration has also clarified remarks by the White House spokesperson last week that there would be no link between the UK’s unilateral action and trade talks between Washington and London. “It is true that there is no formal linkage between the protocol and a free trade agreement, but the current situation does not create a conducive environment,” the insider said.'
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/22/brexit-unilateral-action-northern-ireland-protocol-us-uk-trade-deal
You rightly say that SKS has to appeal to the left (among other things). Yes he does, and he's not doing that at the moment. He's risking losing more votes than he gains by not appealing to the left - and by the left I mean moderate people like me, not Corbynites, who want the balance tilted more towards working people and away from lining the pockets of the wealthy. He can do that without scaring the horses, I think.
I’m sure he has the ability but I’m sure that being a form of “one trick pony” is a lot easier because you can focus and not have to stray into territory you don’t necessarily agree with but have to Pretend you do to get elected.
Farage was a similar one trick where his big thing was Brexit and was very very weak and shallow on everything else - a view I developed from the joy of having lunch with him once and then spending the afternoon chewing the fat over lots of wine. He was an absolute lightweight on joined up thinking and wider policies but still attracted loads of people to his banner - can you imagine if by someone quirk of fate he had become PM - would possibly be worse than the current one trick pony who specialised in being a clown and didn’t realise that if he wanted to be ring master he couldn’t be the clown anymore or the circus would fall apart, as it is….
Johnson would have been fine as a clown with an 'eminence grise' behind him doing 80% of the thinking and work. Loved even. Sadly the nearest two people to that were Carrie and Dom, who despite undoubted merits in some areas, were also deeply flawed.
What percentage of people committing violence do you think are needed, before you can say it wasn't largely peaceful?
Which is a large part of why the North won the US Civil War. The descriptions of the state of development in the Southern US vs the North pre war are very instructive. The North was pulling away, faster and faster.
(*) I'm a sucker for punishment.
As the South found out when they tried to use King Cotton as a weapon.
Asking for a friend.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/dec/15/kingsnorth-climate-change-environment-police
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_shEiWaW34k
No Radio 1 appearances for Kate Bush!
From a quick look I'd just suggest maybe consider improving the look and feel a bit: protect or hide the cells you don't want people to mess with, shade it to make it clear which cells are for data entry and which are to display results. Hide the 'admin' or reference data tabs too for tidiness. A spreadsheet title in row 1 would be nice too.
I think the indexing and use of IFERROR all looks rather complicated but it's difficult to tell if there's a simpler way as I am obviously not conversant with what the spreadsheet is aiming to do (though I can guess of course).
The #REF? error in Googlesheets is due to differences between Google and Excel I think, because if I download a copy as .xlsx and open with Excel they go away again.
You might want to edit the addresses in the 'Worker Info' tab in the version posted on Google if those are real addresses.
Apols if that seems a bit negative and misses the point. If someone said 'I can get Excel to do stuff and here's an example', I'd say 'yeah, looks like it'. If someone was saying 'I've got this super Excel app that really makes it worth employing me'... er... no, not on it's own.
Hope that helps a bit.