There’s a lot of anger, fear, disillusion and desperation in the country and the job of the LotO is to channel that and to transmute it to hope.
I personally have no faith in Keir, save that he is not a lying hound and I believe he is dedicated to public service.
But that’s not enough.
It is and it isn't. To an extent, the Opposition (in all its forms) is there to hold the Government to account and scrutiny and there's plenty of that going on though the extent to which some of the problems are truly the Government's "fault" and the extent to which they have been left holding the hand grenade with the pin out when the music stops is open to debate.
The other aspect of Opposition is less to say what you would do but what could and should be done - unless Johnson and the Government realise that while it's had a good run Conservatism, like Socialism, Marxism, Liberalism, Populism, Authoritarianism and a few others has had its time and give up - it's a minimum of two years before they will be in a position to do anything.
The problem with putting forward a good idea from Opposition is the Government steals it and claims it for their own. One could of course argue the long-term benefit of the country outweighs short-term advantage but we know politics doesn't work that way (regrettably).
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.
Hope that helps a bit.
All good advice.
Although one of my pet peeves is people trying to do with a big spreadsheet, what would be much better done with a small database.
I came across a big spreadsheet that had been converted from a small database once. I'm sure you would have loved the person responsible for that decision.
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.
He came, he saw, he made a pretty good point.
So you are unaware that *all* pensioners are bloated, plutocrat, neo-fascists, who after getting the working poor to load their Bentley-Of-The-Day with the large bags of platinum* that makes up their state pension, drive home, running over as many immigrants as possible.
Home being mansions so vast that selling one could solve the housing crisis. By itself.
*Gold would be too bulky.
I don't go with this 'young v old' argument. I think it's a false and unhelpful way of framing things.
That is the consistent view of the oldies who, err, are doing much better than the young from a world of asset inflation than workers. I wonder why!
I remember 2014. "If you Scots vote yes you'll need to pay roaming fees in England!"
If this is Brexit related, it would tend to add credibility to that prediction wouldn't it?
It was allowed by Brexit but not required. Giffgaff still has free roaming in the EU and some other locations, and if they can hold the line on that they'll win a lot of business.
Fundamentally, however, free roaming (EU or otherwise) is a subsidy of those who travel by those who don't.
LOL, YouTube just deleted a video uploaded by the US Congress, because they disagree with its content.
It’s from the Jan 6th committee hearing, and contains a video of Donald Trump that Youtube had previously banned. They also don’t think that it should be reinstated, irrespective of who uploaded it and the context around it.
So, Edmund Into Kyo on Twitter has come up with an interesting Trump VP pick:
Tulsi Gabbard
I mean she's pro-Putin, she's clearly bonkers, she's pro-Life, and she's also techinically a Democrat.
Why not?
It’s been suggested by a number of people, that perhaps the only way to bring the country back together is for a Presidential nominee to pick a running mate from across the aisle.
I still think DeSantis is the Republican nominee though, rather than Trump.
I remember 2014. "If you Scots vote yes you'll need to pay roaming fees in England!"
If this is Brexit related, it would tend to add credibility to that prediction wouldn't it?
It was allowed by Brexit but not required. Giffgaff still has free roaming in the EU and some other locations, and if they can hold the line on that they'll win a lot of business.
Fundamentally, however, free roaming (EU or otherwise) is a subsidy of those who travel by those who don't.
It might, theoretically, remove costs from the system by meaning that there is no longer a need to bill and to maintain separate register of costs per MB/SMS/minute by country of origin and country of destination.
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.
Yes, caution is fine, and he does have to be careful, but I don't want to see it trending to timid.
Keir is a waste of time. He’s done the unglamorous job of detoxifying the Labour Party, but now he needs to sod off in favour of someone who has an actual point of view.
I'm on the fence with him atm.
Part of Starmer's trouble is that, if anything, he's been too good as his job.
From the outside, it looks like he was elected to clean house, and hand over to the next Labour PM after losing in 2023. Sort of a left-wing Michael Howard 2003-5. Trouble is that his enemies in the party (Long-Bailey et al) and without (Big Dog) have been awful enough that he's running a couple of years ahead of schedule. And yes, he's not obvious casting for the next PM (though he may be the next PM the country needs because he's boring, he's hard to see as the next PM the country wants, if that makes sense).
But it's harsh to dump him for doing what he was put in place to do, better than anyone can reasonably have expected. And none of the other fixes that lever him out (FPN, unexpected medical crisis...) are things to be wished on him either.
I still think- from the outside, sure, that Labour's best bet is to have Starmer as the Kenneth Horne figure. The straght man in the centre, providing the gravity that the others orbit around.
Alastair Campbell is back advising Keir Starmer personally and is working behind the scenes on Labour's communications.
Great news for anyone interested in politics, of all stripes. A great ally, a worthy opponent.
My view of him is that he is a great political operator, and a thoroughly nasty person.
Well you would say that. Have you ever met him?
No, I haven't. But he was rather prominent in the public's eye for twenty years. Remember Gilligan/Kelly?
There's also the fact someone is willing to destroy people using the press, whilst talking very eloquently about his own mental health problems with depression.
And as for 'Well you would say that": there are many Labour and Lib Dem figures I admire, and I have said I'd be willing to vote for Starmer over Johnson.
So, Edmund Into Kyo on Twitter has come up with an interesting Trump VP pick:
Tulsi Gabbard
I mean she's pro-Putin, she's clearly bonkers, she's pro-Life, and she's also techinically a Democrat.
Why not?
It’s been suggested by a number of people, that perhaps the only way to bring the country back together is for a Presidential nominee to pick a running mate from across the aisle.
I still think DeSantis is the Republican nominee though, rather than Trump.
It would be great if that were to happen, and a politician were to reach across party lines.
Sadly, I think division is at least as much a consequence of social media and our own need to belong to a tribe. And politicians can only do so much.
Gabbard is also batshit crazy.
On DeSantis, I agree. And, fwiw, I think he would (a) stand by democratic norms, and (b) be a lot better than Trump.
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
So, Edmund Into Kyo on Twitter has come up with an interesting Trump VP pick:
Tulsi Gabbard
I mean she's pro-Putin, she's clearly bonkers, she's pro-Life, and she's also techinically a Democrat.
Why not?
It’s been suggested by a number of people, that perhaps the only way to bring the country back together is for a Presidential nominee to pick a running mate from across the aisle.
I still think DeSantis is the Republican nominee though, rather than Trump.
On PredictIt, DeSantis is now up to a 40% chance, ahead of Trump on 36%.
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.
Hope that helps a bit.
All good advice.
Although one of my pet peeves is people trying to do with a big spreadsheet, what would be much better done with a small database.
I came across a big spreadsheet that had been converted from a small database once. I'm sure you would have loved the person responsible for that decision.
Aarrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!
Bonus points if they managed to store it on the root of C: or on a machine with a local user profile, just to make sure it didn’t ever get backed up.
It was stored on a cloud file-sharing site, but instead of editing it in situ, people would typically download it, edit, and then upload. With obvious consequences.
At, so several people would download it at 9am, and upload it at 5pm, same file name, no version control, no backups…
Been there, seen that. Lots.
Use databases, people.
Also note that "Access" is not a member of the set "Databases"
This is just pure IT Dev snobbery. Anything that is usable by the layman becomes not quite right.
Access doesn't solve any of the problems that Excel has really.
It is no doubt fine for a single user, but no business should have much in the way of single user anything. For many many reasons.
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
Brown and Starmer make perfect pals tbf, dullest double act ever! Like if there was a spin off Cannon and Little comedy series in the 80s Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
I don’t know if I mentioned that I’m entirely self-taught on excel. Would that change how anybody judges my spreadsheet?
Er no, 'fraid not. Most people are self-taught in Excel in my experience.
How many make it to MATCH() and INDEX()?
Well now that's a different question.
Fluency with Excel formulae and functions is not that uncommon in my experience working in IT and business in financial services, say 40% of users maybe? In the broader world of office admin I bet a much smaller % make much use of the 'database' functions for example.
(Macros and VBA scripting is the next level; though you have to question why choose Excel if you're tackling something that needs a lot of VBA. But I've used it for home projects a few times or to do some quick data manipulation.)
I've no wish to knock where you've got to, though. Well done. Keep trying new things and pushing what you can do. Excel's capabilities are significantly under-exploited by most people.
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
Brown and Starmer make perfect pals tbf, dullest double act ever! Like if there was a spin off Cannon and Little comedy series in the 80s Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
So, Edmund Into Kyo on Twitter has come up with an interesting Trump VP pick:
Tulsi Gabbard
I mean she's pro-Putin, she's clearly bonkers, she's pro-Life, and she's also techinically a Democrat.
Why not?
It’s been suggested by a number of people, that perhaps the only way to bring the country back together is for a Presidential nominee to pick a running mate from across the aisle.
I still think DeSantis is the Republican nominee though, rather than Trump.
In the early days that was how it worked, the losing Presidental candidate became the VP, as I recall.
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
Brown and Starmer make perfect pals tbf, dullest double act ever! Like if there was a spin off Cannon and Little comedy series in the 80s Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
Brown and Starmer make perfect pals tbf, dullest double act ever! Like if there was a spin off Cannon and Little comedy series in the 80s Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
Much of Blair's success was down to Gordon Brown.
And black magic
I don't doubt it - and I agree on the public level Blair was much better but the policy ideas and slogans often came from Brown.
For example "tough on crime and the causes of crime"
On the Excel front - it surprises me how little investment there is in training admin staff how to take advantage of it. I know people who use it who don't even realise you can do things like `SUM()` and so developers are paid to replicate Excel instead. To those users it's just a bit list of rows with no functionality beyond splitting them into columns.
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.
Sadly, a surprisingly large number of Americans (including those of a liberal hue) seem to think London is like Mexico City.
I’ve never quite managed to work that one out.
Was there one outlier year, where there were more murders in London than NYC, which got a shedload of coverage over there and led to the distorted view?
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Interesting. I cant imagine SKS provoking such a strong reaction. He's so milquetoast
As far as I understand it, Blair thinks Starmer is useless and heading for defeat and is annoyed that Starmer criticised him publicly over Iraq. And Starmer thinks Blair is past it. Keir is a good friend of Gordon Brown which I am sure does not help things.
Brown and Starmer make perfect pals tbf, dullest double act ever! Like if there was a spin off Cannon and Little comedy series in the 80s Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
Much of Blair's success was down to Gordon Brown.
And black magic
I don't doubt it - and I agree on the public level Blair was much better but the policy ideas and slogans often came from Brown.
For example "tough on crime and the causes of crime"
I don’t know if I mentioned that I’m entirely self-taught on excel. Would that change how anybody judges my spreadsheet?
Er no, 'fraid not. Most people are self-taught in Excel in my experience.
How many make it to MATCH() and INDEX()?
Well now that's a different question.
Fluency with Excel formulae and functions is not that uncommon in my experience working in IT and business in financial services, say 40% of users maybe? In the broader world of office admin I bet a much smaller % make much use of the 'database' functions for example.
(Macros and VBA scripting is the next level; though you have to question why choose Excel if you're tackling something that needs a lot of VBA. But I've used it for home projects a few times or to do some quick data manipulation.)
I've no wish to knock where you've got to, though. Well done. Keep trying new things and pushing what you can do. Excel's capabilities are significantly under-exploited by most people.
I see that Mick Lynch is on Question Time tommorow. I normally am not a fan of blood sports, but on this occasion I will make an exception. And some popcorn.
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
As far as I understand it Blair thinks Starmer is useless.
Blsir thinks everyone except Blair is iseless
No as in I think they hate each other.
Who would Blair back as leader?
I don't know - have only heard this from Keir's side of things - but Blair would presumably be behind somebody like Wes Streeting. Or Jess Phillips.
Would be interesting (and very useful for betting purposes) if you could find a more definitive answer!!
I don't really have anyone in Blair's team but I can ask around a bit.
The question around who would win the leadership next is more interesting. I think Wes stands a decent chance because most of the hardcore Corbynites have left.
On the Excel front - it surprises me how little investment there is in training admin staff how to take advantage of it. I know people who use it who don't even realise you can do things like `SUM()` and so developers are paid to replicate Excel instead. To those users it's just a bit list of rows with no functionality beyond splitting them into columns.
I did a day long course on it once, and have forgotten most of it, but have a friend who uses it every day - they are treated like a wizard, a master of hidden mysteries who, if one can gain their favour, will dispense their spreadsheet wisdom to the deserving. The powerful and influential practically bid for their assistance.
Edit: Discovering text to column and concatenate was a seminal moment for many, do not knock it.
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
Given apparent bias is an acknowledged thing, never mind actual, it should be a no brainer not to permit it.
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.'
You have to hand it to Mick Lynch - regardless of one’s views about the RMT strike he is a class act. Cool as a cucumber - just turns these various high profile, highly strung journalists to jelly.
Nobody thought it possible that Bob Crow could be replaced. But, Lynch has done it.
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.
Hope that helps a bit.
All good advice.
Although one of my pet peeves is people trying to do with a big spreadsheet, what would be much better done with a small database.
I came across a big spreadsheet that had been converted from a small database once. I'm sure you would have loved the person responsible for that decision.
Aarrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!
Bonus points if they managed to store it on the root of C: or on a machine with a local user profile, just to make sure it didn’t ever get backed up.
It was stored on a cloud file-sharing site, but instead of editing it in situ, people would typically download it, edit, and then upload. With obvious consequences.
At, so several people would download it at 9am, and upload it at 5pm, same file name, no version control, no backups…
Been there, seen that. Lots.
Use databases, people.
Also note that "Access" is not a member of the set "Databases"
This is just pure IT Dev snobbery. Anything that is usable by the layman becomes not quite right.
Access doesn't solve any of the problems that Excel has really.
It is no doubt fine for a single user, but no business should have much in the way of single user anything. For many many reasons.
+1 - both access and excel are single user software products, great to use yourself - creator of problems when more than 1 person uses them at the same time.
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.'
Hmm, who is a more credible spokesperson for the White House? The White House's official spokesperson, speaking on the record?
Or an anonymous, unnamed, "insider" being quoted by the Grauniad?
I'd not trust either one. Official spokesman lie through their teeth all the time (which is actually surprisingly rare for actual politicians), sometimes for diplomacies sake, but insides are usually just rancid shit stirrers.
I see that Mick Lynch is on Question Time tommorow. I normally am not a fan of blood sports, but on this occasion I will make an exception. And some popcorn.
I'm still no wiser as to whether I should include my spreadsheet on relevant job applications..
I'm worried that it might make me appear either over or under qualified for jobs, depending on the job.
Are there jobs for people that can make quite helpful spreadsheets?
Honestly, I wouldn't. Just state you are fluent with Excel and can use it to simplify business processes.
If they ask you can always hit them with a ROUNDUP of the EXACT SUM of your knowledge of COMPLEX INDEX and LOOKUP functions and say NOW MATCH that KURT! (Assuming you're being interviewed by Kurt obvs.)
(Btw, I was just looking on MS help site and see that INDEX and MATCH are both in the MS list of their top 10 most popular functions. Just sayin)
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
But WTAF is the Tory party doing taking ANY Russian money in the current climate? They should have run a mile!
I'm still no wiser as to whether I should include my spreadsheet on relevant job applications..
I'm worried that it might make me appear either over or under qualified for jobs, depending on the job.
Are there jobs for people that can make quite helpful spreadsheets?
So just describe your general competence with Excel, describe briefly this tool as an example, but don't send the spreadsheet unless requested. It's not really possible to anticipate every question an employer might ask. So have it ready, but don't dump it on them.
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
But WTAF is the Tory party doing taking ANY Russian money in the current climate? They should have run a mile!
I'm still no wiser as to whether I should include my spreadsheet on relevant job applications..
I'm worried that it might make me appear either over or under qualified for jobs, depending on the job.
Are there jobs for people that can make quite helpful spreadsheets?
So just describe your general competence with Excel, describe briefly this tool as an example, but don't send the spreadsheet unless requested. It's not really possible to anticipate every question an employer might ask. So have it ready, but don't dump it on them.
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
But WTAF is the Tory party doing taking ANY Russian money in the current climate? They should have run a mile!
It was mildly interesting that Keir Starmer chose a different donation to raise at PMQs today:
"But I did note that on Monday they found time to go to a lavish ball, where the Prime Minister sold a meeting with himself for £120,000 to a donor. If there is money coming his way, he is there."
Irrespective of whether that is dodgy by virtue of her husband's connections, I don't see any reason a political party needs to receive such large donations from someone.
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
But WTAF is the Tory party doing taking ANY Russian money in the current climate? They should have run a mile!
Selling things to Russians may not be sanctioned if the item for sale is souls...
Comments
The other aspect of Opposition is less to say what you would do but what could and should be done - unless Johnson and the Government realise that while it's had a good run Conservatism, like Socialism, Marxism, Liberalism, Populism, Authoritarianism and a few others has had its time and give up - it's a minimum of two years before they will be in a position to do anything.
The problem with putting forward a good idea from Opposition is the Government steals it and claims it for their own. One could of course argue the long-term benefit of the country outweighs short-term advantage but we know politics doesn't work that way (regrettably).
Interesting that 'no backtracking on brexit' Starmer would employ a peoples vote zealot
Tulsi Gabbard
I mean she's pro-Putin, she's clearly bonkers, she's pro-Life, and she's also techinically a Democrat.
Why not?
Alistair Campbell has a crush on Brittney Spears.
I just thought you should know that.
But he has a very strong track record of being ‘Correct’ Horse Battery when it comes to internal Labour politics…
Fundamentally, however, free roaming (EU or otherwise) is a subsidy of those who travel by those who don't.
It’s from the Jan 6th committee hearing, and contains a video of Donald Trump that Youtube had previously banned. They also don’t think that it should be reinstated, irrespective of who uploaded it and the context around it.
Commentary https://youtube.com/watch?v=BG66A7E1kyE (Breaking Points).
It is extremely hot here in South West London today.
I still think DeSantis is the Republican nominee though, rather than Trump.
It might also not.
From the outside, it looks like he was elected to clean house, and hand over to the next Labour PM after losing in 2023. Sort of a left-wing Michael Howard 2003-5. Trouble is that his enemies in the party (Long-Bailey et al) and without (Big Dog) have been awful enough that he's running a couple of years ahead of schedule. And yes, he's not obvious casting for the next PM (though he may be the next PM the country needs because he's boring, he's hard to see as the next PM the country wants, if that makes sense).
But it's harsh to dump him for doing what he was put in place to do, better than anyone can reasonably have expected. And none of the other fixes that lever him out (FPN, unexpected medical crisis...) are things to be wished on him either.
I still think- from the outside, sure, that Labour's best bet is to have Starmer as the Kenneth Horne figure. The straght man in the centre, providing the gravity that the others orbit around.
https://twitter.com/BNNUK/status/1539370008421203972
It’s the hope that kills you 😉
There's also the fact someone is willing to destroy people using the press, whilst talking very eloquently about his own mental health problems with depression.
And as for 'Well you would say that": there are many Labour and Lib Dem figures I admire, and I have said I'd be willing to vote for Starmer over Johnson.
Sadly, I think division is at least as much a consequence of social media and our own need to belong to a tribe. And politicians can only do so much.
Gabbard is also batshit crazy.
On DeSantis, I agree. And, fwiw, I think he would (a) stand by democratic norms, and (b) be a lot better than Trump.
Is Piers ok
It is no doubt fine for a single user, but no business should have much in the way of single user anything. For many many reasons.
Blair though is definitely past it, i can barely summon the energy to hate him
Campbell or Mandelson reappearing would do wonders for the Boris "Red Wall" vote. They cannot be serious, surely? Digging up the past never works.
Fluency with Excel formulae and functions is not that uncommon in my experience working in IT and business in financial services, say 40% of users maybe? In the broader world of office admin I bet a much smaller % make much use of the 'database' functions for example.
(Macros and VBA scripting is the next level; though you have to question why choose Excel if you're tackling something that needs a lot of VBA. But I've used it for home projects a few times or to do some quick data manipulation.)
I've no wish to knock where you've got to, though. Well done. Keep trying new things and pushing what you can do. Excel's capabilities are significantly under-exploited by most people.
I remember creating a really long formula including CONCATENATE which I feared may kill me due to ennui.
For example "tough on crime and the causes of crime"
America’s most dangerous cities – St Louis, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland – suffer murders at nearly 20 times that rate.
That is quite the difference.
Agreed. I’d see a DeSantis candidacy as a relief.
Obviously I would never vote for him in a million years, were I American, but he does at least seem within the basic parameters of sane.
I'm worried that it might make me appear either over or under qualified for jobs, depending on the job.
Are there jobs for people that can make quite helpful spreadsheets?
Would be interesting (and very useful for betting purposes) if you could find a more definitive answer!!
Clamp down with a severe reduction in scale of acceptable donation, from any person or group, and if they cannot survive, tough.
The question around who would win the leadership next is more interesting. I think Wes stands a decent chance because most of the hardcore Corbynites have left.
https://www.netweather.tv/forum/topic/97087-storms-and-convective-discussion-1st-may-2022-onwards/page/144/#comment-4682375
Edit: Discovering text to column and concatenate was a seminal moment for many, do not knock it.
I am indeed. A lot better than a few months ago when, amongst other things, I broke a rib. And peace has broken out on here too
I hope you are okay.
Not as fondly as AndyJS's, but that one made me actual money.
(Missed the edit window)
https://twitter.com/BBCFLauraKT/status/1539679203054047232?t=vU38AGbTQ9m2v-RiORHumw&s=19
BREAKING: Jerry Hall is set to divorce Rupert Murdoch after being upset at him living much longer than she expected x
Or an anonymous, unnamed, "insider" being quoted by the Grauniad?
Nobody thought it possible that Bob Crow could be replaced. But, Lynch has done it.
[checks wine stocks]
We both squirted our custard into her. Now we are custard cousins.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=custard cousins
If they ask you can always hit them with a ROUNDUP of the EXACT SUM of your knowledge of COMPLEX INDEX and LOOKUP functions and say NOW MATCH that KURT! (Assuming you're being interviewed by Kurt obvs.)
(Btw, I was just looking on MS help site and see that INDEX and MATCH are both in the MS list of their top 10 most popular functions. Just sayin)
80% soft left/social democrats
10% very hard left
10% Blairite/right wing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61080537
I honestly thought there was no way Moron could look like more of a dickhead than he is.
Well, we all make mistakes.
"But I did note that on Monday they found time to go to a lavish ball, where the Prime Minister sold a meeting with himself for £120,000 to a donor. If there is money coming his way, he is there."
Roman's reactions would be great.
I think I traumatised a few PBers when I talked about Donald Trump 'tossing the salad' in prison.