The chances of 40C have diminished somewhat. Cloud and breeze. Somewhere will, probably, still break the all time record however
And a host of lesser records will go. From overnight minima to records further north - indeed the north could experience a Canadian heat dome moment with temps shattering records by 3-5C
Do we perhaps spot the end of the ferret's tail?
My prediction two days ago was
Beat 40C: 30%
Beat the record: 50%
I stand by that today. Good solid prediction. I’ve no idea what yours is because you never made one
Sky today reports higher chances, 50% and 80%
edit screwed up link cos on fone
That's what is up on the Met Office website, too. Annoyingly it hasn't been updated since yesterday morning though.
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
The problem is that, whilst I'm sure Kemi had told the truth about her life story, she might not have told the whole truth...
The story which KB has allowed to develop is a good one, moving here to escape a bad country as a child, pulling herself up by her bootstraps (state school, McDonald's), proper degree (computing! white heat!).
The other bits of the story (daughter of globetrotting academic, second degree in law, worked in consultancy and financial services, associate director at Coutts and later at The Spectator)... they give a different impression. Not one that makes her ineligible, she's clearly very talented. And everyone prudent edits their life story to best effect. But it gives a different impression.
At least Rishi has never made a secret of his squillionaire credentials.
Most people have had a variety of life experiences and can spin it one way or another. I could tell you two different, completely true but partial, stories about my life that would make me sound like two entirely different people.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
Yes
But she is too young and callow tho. A few years in a tough job - Home Sec? - would season her nicely
You've put your finger on the nub of the issue there. There are 5 surviving candidates. 3 of them need a few years in a tough job to season them. Of the other two, well. It is Conservatives who are saying they weren't very good at them.
And that is largely the fault of the Conservative Party. Partly for chewing up and spitting out so many people in the last decade, partly because not BoJo's paranoia about developing alternatives to himself.
But maybe also, the Conservative Party as a whole wants things that can't be delivered, and should stop shouting "off with their head" when each bunch of great hopes turns into failures.
My son off to university next year is currently making pizzas in Sainsburys. His induction training included how to clear up vomit and faeces. He was then informed that a certain customer was known to relieve himself at the end of the bread aisle.
It’s a good education.
My first job was IT support for a corporate rollout of shiny new Windows 95.
My first job involved writing out pay packets for factory workers. This was in the days people were paid in cash, and The Sweeney (ask your gran) would show villains robbing the cash for payroll that was held in the safe overnight, or robbing security vans delivering cash to the factories.
In many parts of USA esp in mining area, $2 bills were considered unlucky, because back in the days when wages were paid in cash (an improvement over company script) it was too easy - it was common practice for employers to use them to reduce sheer bulk of payrolls.
From workers perspective, was also too easy to mistake a $2 for a $1 when buying stuff with their pay. So they'd turn down or tear off a corner to differentiate, and try to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
American's still aren't crazy about two-dollar bills. Though they are way more popular than three-dollar bills! Retailers in particular find them a pain in the ass, because there is no good place in the cash drawer for them. HOWEVER the US Treasury does NOT print many $2 these days.
I did not watch the debate. Did any of them talk about the cost of living and, if so, did they have any actual proposals, rather than simple platitudes?
We've been through this. They gave answers the voters want to hear. They did not "tell the truth" because voters will penalise them for doing so.
The bit you miss here is the evidence, which is reasonably convincing, that there is no political advantage to be had in honesty about a wide range of questions because of the nature of the voters.
Yes, we think they are all evasive, but no, a plurality generally don't vote for people who directly link expenditure with tax rises for ordinary people, and cuts with actual worse services for ordinary people.
Compare the wild enthusiasm for Rishi when dishing out free money, and now.
I know that Gordon Brown came unstuck on other issues, but one rather successful move IIRC was a 1p rise in NI specifically to fund a reduction in NHS waiting times to 18 weeks. People could see the precise impact on their finances and could envisage the benefit, and it did work out.
It works better with direct democracy. In Switzerland voters are confronted with these sorts of issues all the time - do you want to do scheme X that costs A, scheme Y that costs A/2, or nothing? The results are nuanced and not consistently extravagant or mean.
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
The problem is that, whilst I'm sure Kemi had told the truth about her life story, she might not have told the whole truth...
The story which KB has allowed to develop is a good one, moving here to escape a bad country as a child, pulling herself up by her bootstraps (state school, McDonald's), proper degree (computing! white heat!).
The other bits of the story (daughter of globetrotting academic, second degree in law, worked in consultancy and financial services, associate director at Coutts and later at The Spectator)... they give a different impression. Not one that makes her ineligible, she's clearly very talented. And everyone prudent edits their life story to best effect. But it gives a different impression.
At least Rishi has never made a secret of his squillionaire credentials.
Most people have had a variety of life experiences and can spin it one way or another. I could tell you two different, completely true but partial, stories about my life that would make me sound like two entirely different people.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
Though Mordaunts back story has as many threads. Father a teacher and ex Paratrooper, mother dying while she was a teenager, leaving her in a caring role. Working as a magicians assistant amongst other things. Married and divorced young etc. Plenty of threads there.
Yes I found it quite a powerful back story. Will certainly have forged her. Whether for better or worse the voters will decide.
My son off to university next year is currently making pizzas in Sainsburys. His induction training included how to clear up vomit and faeces. He was then informed that a certain customer was known to relieve himself at the end of the bread aisle.
It’s a good education.
My first job was IT support for a corporate rollout of shiny new Windows 95.
My first job involved writing out pay packets for factory workers. This was in the days people were paid in cash, and The Sweeney (ask your gran) would show villains robbing the cash for payroll that was held in the safe overnight, or robbing security vans delivering cash to the factories.
In many parts of USA esp in mining area, $2 bills were considered unlucky, because back in the days when wages were paid in cash (an improvement over company script) it was too easy - it was common practice for employers to use them to reduce sheer bulk of payrolls.
From workers perspective, was also too easy to mistake a $2 for a $1 when buying stuff with their pay. So they'd turn down or tear off a corner to differentiate, and try to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
American's still aren't crazy about two-dollar bills. Though they are way more popular than three-dollar bills! Retailers in particular find them a pain in the ass, because there is no good place in the cash drawer for them. HOWEVER the US Treasury does NOT print many $2 these days.
You could of course solve that easily by simply having different colours and sizes.
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
I knew the Tele was going to the dogs when they put up a pic of Meteors attached to a story about those mythical buried Spitfires in Burma a few years ago.
In case we have any Joe Abercrombie fans, here's an out of date and very brief review of the final part of the Shattered Sea series (I always find book 3 tricky because it's essentially a case of buying it or shunning it for those who already like the characters/world because they've bought two books of the series).
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
The problem is that, whilst I'm sure Kemi had told the truth about her life story, she might not have told the whole truth...
The story which KB has allowed to develop is a good one, moving here to escape a bad country as a child, pulling herself up by her bootstraps (state school, McDonald's), proper degree (computing! white heat!).
The other bits of the story (daughter of globetrotting academic, second degree in law, worked in consultancy and financial services, associate director at Coutts and later at The Spectator)... they give a different impression. Not one that makes her ineligible, she's clearly very talented. And everyone prudent edits their life story to best effect. But it gives a different impression.
At least Rishi has never made a secret of his squillionaire credentials.
Most people have had a variety of life experiences and can spin it one way or another. I could tell you two different, completely true but partial, stories about my life that would make me sound like two entirely different people.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
Though Mordaunts back story has as many threads. Father a teacher and ex Paratrooper, mother dying while she was a teenager, leaving her in a caring role. Working as a magicians assistant amongst other things. Married and divorced young etc. Plenty of threads there.
Yes I found it quite a powerful back story. Will certainly have forged her. Whether for better or worse the voters will decide.
Backstories matter when they focus on what people actually did with their lives. You cannot be trusted when you claim to want to help others when all you have done is made money or climbed the greasy pole.
To that end Mourdants story is relatively good, even if she’s spent most of here time doing PR and hasn’t done much outside party politics. Sunak is all about wealth.
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
The problem is that, whilst I'm sure Kemi had told the truth about her life story, she might not have told the whole truth...
The story which KB has allowed to develop is a good one, moving here to escape a bad country as a child, pulling herself up by her bootstraps (state school, McDonald's), proper degree (computing! white heat!).
The other bits of the story (daughter of globetrotting academic, second degree in law, worked in consultancy and financial services, associate director at Coutts and later at The Spectator)... they give a different impression. Not one that makes her ineligible, she's clearly very talented. And everyone prudent edits their life story to best effect. But it gives a different impression.
At least Rishi has never made a secret of his squillionaire credentials.
Most people have had a variety of life experiences and can spin it one way or another. I could tell you two different, completely true but partial, stories about my life that would make me sound like two entirely different people.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
Though Mordaunts back story has as many threads. Father a teacher and ex Paratrooper, mother dying while she was a teenager, leaving her in a caring role. Working as a magicians assistant amongst other things. Married and divorced young etc. Plenty of threads there.
Penny Mordaunt is related to Philip Snowden, George Lansbury and Angela Lansbury.
Mix them all up, you've got strange remake of "The Manchurian Candidate". OR new episode of "Murder She Wrote"
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
The problem is that, whilst I'm sure Kemi had told the truth about her life story, she might not have told the whole truth...
The story which KB has allowed to develop is a good one, moving here to escape a bad country as a child, pulling herself up by her bootstraps (state school, McDonald's), proper degree (computing! white heat!).
The other bits of the story (daughter of globetrotting academic, second degree in law, worked in consultancy and financial services, associate director at Coutts and later at The Spectator)... they give a different impression. Not one that makes her ineligible, she's clearly very talented. And everyone prudent edits their life story to best effect. But it gives a different impression.
At least Rishi has never made a secret of his squillionaire credentials.
Most people have had a variety of life experiences and can spin it one way or another. I could tell you two different, completely true but partial, stories about my life that would make me sound like two entirely different people.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
Though Mordaunts back story has as many threads. Father a teacher and ex Paratrooper, mother dying while she was a teenager, leaving her in a caring role. Working as a magicians assistant amongst other things. Married and divorced young etc. Plenty of threads there.
Penny Mordaunt is related to Philip Snowden, George Lansbury and Angela Lansbury.
Mix them all up, you've got strange remake of "The Manchurian Candidate". OR new episode of "Murder She Wrote"
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
I've been trying to work out what Mordaunt was talking about with her "top 180 innovations" and her lament that none of them are used in the NHS.
It's very difficult to work out what she means. So I went to look at the top ten out of this list of the top forty-five, figuring that obviously they'd be in the top 180, and tried to imagine what she'd mandate.
Firstly - every hospital must have a reflecting telescope on the roof, as invented by Isaac Newton.
Secondly - every hospital must have mass-produced toothbrushes. Frankly, I'm shocked that no-one in the NHS uses toothbrushes, if she's right; this must be changed.
I'm not clear as to where the NHS can use seed drills, but we can ask each hospital to come up with their own plans.
And as for steam engines at number four - well, it'd be nice to see a comeback, I suppose. Steam-operated MRI machines, perhaps?
If hospitals don't use tin cans in their canteens, perhaps they should from now on.
Using modern torpedoes might stretch the imagination, but Penny will provide.
As for thermos flasks, hovercraft, turbo-jet engines, and pneumatic tyres - well. For some, I'd have thought they are used where necessary; for others, the mind boggles.
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
Searching for "180 innovations," the only thing I did find was this, but I'd hope to have misunderstood, because "a full range of health and beauty products" might not help the current loading in the NHS.
My son off to university next year is currently making pizzas in Sainsburys. His induction training included how to clear up vomit and faeces. He was then informed that a certain customer was known to relieve himself at the end of the bread aisle.
It’s a good education.
My first job was IT support for a corporate rollout of shiny new Windows 95.
My first job involved writing out pay packets for factory workers. This was in the days people were paid in cash, and The Sweeney (ask your gran) would show villains robbing the cash for payroll that was held in the safe overnight, or robbing security vans delivering cash to the factories.
In many parts of USA esp in mining area, $2 bills were considered unlucky, because back in the days when wages were paid in cash (an improvement over company script) it was too easy - it was common practice for employers to use them to reduce sheer bulk of payrolls.
From workers perspective, was also too easy to mistake a $2 for a $1 when buying stuff with their pay. So they'd turn down or tear off a corner to differentiate, and try to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
American's still aren't crazy about two-dollar bills. Though they are way more popular than three-dollar bills! Retailers in particular find them a pain in the ass, because there is no good place in the cash drawer for them. HOWEVER the US Treasury does NOT print many $2 these days.
You could of course solve that easily by simply having different colours and sizes.
Saddened by your reflexive anti-Americanism! Amplified NOT mitigated by your obvious logic!!
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
I knew the Tele was going to the dogs when they put up a pic of Meteors attached to a story about those mythical buried Spitfires in Burma a few years ago.
I'd rather not imagine that image, thanki you very much - but you're right about the DT. Though it also reflects the collapse in the experience of its readership. *Hundreds* of retired admirals would have written in if they had dared to perpetrated that faux pas only a few decades back.
Health. Elephant in the room is that it's becoming unaffordable and, long-term, people are going to need to save to supplement the NHS in retirement in the same way they do for pensions to supplement state pensions.
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
"Aye, aye, sir!"
With Carrie as the captain’s horn blower?
Was going to add, that I'm positive that Capt. Mordaunt is VERY experienced at repelling borders.
I did not watch the debate. Did any of them talk about the cost of living and, if so, did they have any actual proposals, rather than simple platitudes?
We've been through this. They gave answers the voters want to hear. They did not "tell the truth" because voters will penalise them for doing so.
Even the "most sophisticated electorate in the world"? Surely not?
Just back from the morning walk to get the RP and unfortunately the Daily Mail for Mrs Stodge (in East Ham, it's provided with its own brown bag) - the latter seems to be now backing Liz Truss and is still anti-Mordaunt.
My daily temperature check of right-wing Britain via Talk Tv and it appears their callers have fallen head over heels for Badenoch. I don't know what the threshold is on the next ballot but presumably the aim is to cut the field down to three by Monday evening.
To what extent, I wonder, is Badenoch simply the front for a Gove administration? The MPs would never elect Gove (nor would the membership probably) but in Badenoch there is a vehicle for Gove's ideas and policies which may yet be successful in the sea of electoral hazard.
Wasn't the same true of Thatcher in 1975 - she was really the front for Joseph and the monetarists? I don't really know what Gove's brand of conservatism looks like - too many have cited his intelligence for it not to be a given and to be fair it has been widely reported he is open and amenable to opposing views in a way many other aren't - @NickPalmer has spoken to this during Gove's time at DEFRA for example.
That being said, there's a lot more to put on the bones of what Badenoch/Gove do actually believe and want and whether in the current circumstances they'll be doing much more than firefighting.
My son off to university next year is currently making pizzas in Sainsburys. His induction training included how to clear up vomit and faeces. He was then informed that a certain customer was known to relieve himself at the end of the bread aisle.
It’s a good education.
My first job was IT support for a corporate rollout of shiny new Windows 95.
My first job involved writing out pay packets for factory workers. This was in the days people were paid in cash, and The Sweeney (ask your gran) would show villains robbing the cash for payroll that was held in the safe overnight, or robbing security vans delivering cash to the factories.
My job at the Wimpy paid £1.50 per hour for a 10 hour day, six day week, paid in a cash paypacket on Friday night. The staff were an interesting inverted society of students like myself, supervised by permanent staff who had left school at 16. We were much the same age and after closing at 2100 we all piled down the pub, so little was left by Monday. It was fun, for a few months. Cleaning out the fat fryers was the worst bit, but I have had worse jobs since.
My first job was in the late 70s, serving petrol. In those days you went out and put it in for them. I was paid 75p per hour plus a bonus of 10p per hour if the manual till was within 50p by the end of the shift. For info, 4 Star was 73p a gallon, don't know how much derv was, only lorries used that. ( I was in the sixth form then)
I've been trying to work out what Mordaunt was talking about with her "top 180 innovations" and her lament that none of them are used in the NHS.
It's very difficult to work out what she means. So I went to look at the top ten out of this list of the top forty-five, figuring that obviously they'd be in the top 180, and tried to imagine what she'd mandate.
Firstly - every hospital must have a reflecting telescope on the roof, as invented by Isaac Newton.
Secondly - every hospital must have mass-produced toothbrushes. Frankly, I'm shocked that no-one in the NHS uses toothbrushes, if she's right; this must be changed.
I'm not clear as to where the NHS can use seed drills, but we can ask each hospital to come up with their own plans.
And as for steam engines at number four - well, it'd be nice to see a comeback, I suppose. Steam-operated MRI machines, perhaps?
If hospitals don't use tin cans in their canteens, perhaps they should from now on.
Using modern torpedoes might stretch the imagination, but Penny will provide.
As for thermos flasks, hovercraft, turbo-jet engines, and pneumatic tyres - well. For some, I'd have thought they are used where necessary; for others, the mind boggles.
I heard a theory she was referring to products from healthcare provider 180 Innovations http://www.180innovations.com not being used in the NHS for whatever reason. May be nonsense.
I've been trying to work out what Mordaunt was talking about with her "top 180 innovations" and her lament that none of them are used in the NHS.
It's very difficult to work out what she means. So I went to look at the top ten out of this list of the top forty-five, figuring that obviously they'd be in the top 180, and tried to imagine what she'd mandate.
Firstly - every hospital must have a reflecting telescope on the roof, as invented by Isaac Newton.
Secondly - every hospital must have mass-produced toothbrushes. Frankly, I'm shocked that no-one in the NHS uses toothbrushes, if she's right; this must be changed.
I'm not clear as to where the NHS can use seed drills, but we can ask each hospital to come up with their own plans.
And as for steam engines at number four - well, it'd be nice to see a comeback, I suppose. Steam-operated MRI machines, perhaps?
If hospitals don't use tin cans in their canteens, perhaps they should from now on.
Using modern torpedoes might stretch the imagination, but Penny will provide.
As for thermos flasks, hovercraft, turbo-jet engines, and pneumatic tyres - well. For some, I'd have thought they are used where necessary; for others, the mind boggles.
Steam engines: well, where does the electricity come from to power the hospital? Okay, only some these days, but anything nuke or coal fired goes through a steam turbine.
Not sure about gas fired power stations - direct drive from gas combustion turbine? but then they'd tick the turbojet box anyway.
THermoses (aka Kelvin flasks), absolutely - to keep samples cool for instance. Or food warm. And pneumatic tyres on ambulances and trolleys (very important).
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
That is certainly correct.
Many non-Tories have (rightly) hat-tipped the Tories for the diverse range of candidates in the Leadership.
However, all that will be lost if it is Rishi versus Liz to the members because that will just be Oxford PPE versus Oxford PPE.
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Are you saying she didn't flip burgers in McDonalds? What point are you making exactly? And are you suggesting that Nigeria being a country with a corruption problem means her relative is therefore automatically suspect and perhaps even Kemi herself because she is a relative?
I think if Kemi was on the political left this is the kind of stuff that would face a significant backlash.
It's always those on the left that actually perpetrate the more egregious discrimination...
The star of the show was Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Perfectly balanced gave everyone an equal chance let the program flow and as a result we all found out what we needed to know. Rarely have I seen one of those run as smoothly or be as invigilated so well.
The other notable feature was that all six were sons and daughters of professionals with a degree of public service in their chosen profession. There was a time when a line up like that could only have been for leader of the Labour Party. Quite depressing that with those backgrounds all six seemed so devoutly Thatcherite.
2 are children of university professors. As a university professor, it makes me glad I don’t have kids.
Badenoch's Professorial mother is a first cousin of the Vice President of Nigeria, someone now running for President.
There is a small possibility that we will have a PM who is first cousin (once removed) to the President of Nigeria. A famously corrupt group as someone once said:
Her burger flipping at McDonalds is about as accurate a background story as how Sunak was a waiter in a Southampton curry house.
Both backgrounds sound in the same kind of parish as you. Have none of the little foxes ever had that kind of a summer job?
My first job when I left school was in a DIY shop. My wife still finds this incredibly funny.
It’s been said that one of the biggest disadvantages of low-skilled EU immigration, was that it filled a lot of the retail and hospitality work traditionally done by students during the holidays.
There’s a generation of young adults, educated at universities over the past decade, who have never done menial or minimum-wage work, and therefore never had to interact with the general public.
I'm surprised you think those who go to uni never work in menial or minimum wage work. I worked in a bar when I was in Aber, for example. Not that it was a particularly difficult job as it was in Borth and except in high summer there was never anyone there!
Everyone I knew at university in the late 2000s did minimum wage jobs, even the middle class kids. Try renting at university city prices without one. It probably messed up a couple of educations.
I worked as a cleaner then my dad got me a summer job down the pit. Preferred the cleaning.
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
I do hope a future PM will change that committee's name to something less crass and American sounding.
The ERG and the Right want to be the power behind the throne. They've backed Truss for that reason but it's clear that at least some are not convinced - look at Steve Baker's words when he 'backed' Truss.
If Truss bombs again, then the ERG has an issue. Stick with her, knowing that many Tory MPs are like 'she's going to lose me my seat'? Not everyone has the luxury of a 31K majority like Francois does.
Over the next 48 hours, the ERG faction is going to have to decide what to do. I can actually see a situation where she goes out after Tuggy.
Reflecting on the debate last night - is there any realistic chance Truss makes it through to final two and wins?
Surely not?!
If Truss can nause up a debate, then so can Mordaunt or Sunak tomorrow or next week. There are three people playing for two places (sorry, Tom and Kemi). There is also the factor that for many MPs on the right, Truss is the only game in town (since it is only me who suspects Rishi is secretly Thatcherite). Sure, Truss is a goal down but there is another debate tomorrow before Tugendhat is voted out Monday, then another debate Wednesday.
One slip up I think Penny is making is this “the other contenders have got it in for me” line. She did it at the debate too and I think it landed badly.
I get the feeling Penny has actually been affected by having all these colleagues come out and say how utterly s**t at her job she was and I think it’s made her quite defensive. That in itself plays to a lack of experience at the top table which is a bit concerning. She needs to be able to rise above it - “I don’t want to talk about who is saying what but I do want to say in those roles I achieved X, Y, Z so I don’t accept those accounts”. I’m not sure getting into scraps with the other candidates is a great place to be when endorsements and transfers are going to be the name of the game in the coming days.
She’s do well to have practiced some better responses by Sunday.
Figurehead surely? A newspaper editor's typo? The masthead is (depending on the vessel) the grating at the crosstrees at the base of the uppermost mast, and being sent to the masthead to cool off for a few hours was a traditional punishment in sailing navy days, especially for the younger trainee crew such as midshipmen.
Inspires the image of Lieutenant Bush ordering a rorty midshipman to get astride Penny to cool off.
I knew the Tele was going to the dogs when they put up a pic of Meteors attached to a story about those mythical buried Spitfires in Burma a few years ago.
Another example of the Tele going to the dogs: in the Travel Section today Fuerteventura is descibed as a Balearic Island. Doesn't the paper employ sub-editors any more?
To what extent, I wonder, is Badenoch simply the front for a Gove administration? The MPs would never elect Gove (nor would the membership probably) but in Badenoch there is a vehicle for Gove's ideas and policies which may yet be successful in the sea of electoral hazard.
Wasn't the same true of Thatcher in 1975 - she was really the front for Joseph and the monetarists? I don't really know what Gove's brand of conservatism looks like - too many have cited his intelligence for it not to be a given and to be fair it has been widely reported he is open and amenable to opposing views in a way many other aren't - @NickPalmer has spoken to this during Gove's time at DEFRA for example.
Presumably Gove is also intelligent enough to be well aware of all the historical examples of supposedly puppet PMs turning out to have their own ideas of what to do and kicking the behind-the-scenes guy out when they end up having a difference of opinion. If it's not a genuine partnership then it'll be Badenoch's brand of conservatism that matters, not Gove's, by the time of the next election.
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
I do hope a future PM will change that committees name to something less crass and American sounding.
Cabinet Office Briefing Room A - I think genuinely an uncontrived, happenstance acronym.
Yes, the downgrades have begun, as is often the case as the event nears. It’s now forecast to be a mild 39c in London. Wrap up warm!
Good news is the nighttime forecast has dropped to 19. Might actually be possible to get some sleep.
I'm not sure where these 'downgrades' are. MO have 42C here in the Flatlands in their high resolution model:
There is a hint that high cloud associated with the front might limit Tuesday's max, but it is effin hot all the way.
I think it is almost certain somewhere will see 40C.
Edit: Also, don't see anything lower than 26C in London on Monday night
It's certainly not being downgraded up here at all! A couple of days ago it was 23° predicted. Now 27 on Met Office, 31 on that map.
The North is understandably getting excited about potentially nabbing the all time temperature record from the posh Southern spots that have held it for decades. Cheltenham, Faversham, Cambridge (well OK Faversham isn’t that posh but Brogdale farm is very bucolic). Could we see a new record holder somewhere like Doncaster? A new red hot wall. Levelling up in action, all thanks to Boris.
But a late spin up of hot continental EU air on Tuesday afternoon might just threaten this and send the record back to Kent again. Yet more broken promises to the North.
I don't think Mordaunt was that poor, Truss didn't do that great, Sunak did OK but it was Tugendhat who actually won the debate with viewers. However it is still Tory members who have the final say
Yep good point. CH4 viewers and Tory members are very different kettles of fish. Truss going down badly last night could be great for her. Shows she's annoying all the right people and might well have increased her appeal to the grassroots. Can she make the final vs Sunak though? Where will those Tug and Badenoch votes go? It's on a knife edge. Next week will be impossibly tense and exciting. My hunch - more will go to Sunak than people think and he'll end up with a good lead in MPs. Then has 6 weeks to overturn his deficit cf Mordaunt or Truss with the members. Maybe he can do it. Betting, I've taken my Mordaunt profits and no new bets for now.
I nearly cashed out of PM last night but decided to stick around in the hope she makes the final two. I'm now in the RS camp.
I've cashed in my 66s on PM. One of those hunches that came off.
Betting aside, I think the Cons picking her over Sunak would be eccentric.
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
I do hope a future PM will change that committees name to something less crass and American sounding.
Cabinet Office Briefing Room A - I think genuinely an uncontrived, happenstance acronym.
They could just hold the meetings in room B.
I am aware of where the name comes from, and I stand by my comment.
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
I do hope a future PM will change that committee's name to something less crass and American sounding.
Active Defence Deliberations - Emergency Response? It's a bit more British and low key!
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
I don't think Mordaunt was that poor, Truss didn't do that great, Sunak did OK but it was Tugendhat who actually won the debate with viewers. However it is still Tory members who have the final say
Yep good point. CH4 viewers and Tory members are very different kettles of fish. Truss going down badly last night could be great for her. Shows she's annoying all the right people and might well have increased her appeal to the grassroots. Can she make the final vs Sunak though? Where will those Tug and Badenoch votes go? It's on a knife edge. Next week will be impossibly tense and exciting. My hunch - more will go to Sunak than people think and he'll end up with a good lead in MPs. Then has 6 weeks to overturn his deficit cf Mordaunt or Truss with the members. Maybe he can do it. Betting, I've taken my Mordaunt profits and no new bets for now.
I nearly cashed out of PM last night but decided to stick around in the hope she makes the final two. I'm now in the RS camp.
I've cashed in my 66s on PM. One of those hunches that came off.
Betting aside, I think the Cons picking her over Sunak would be eccentric.
For a magician's assistant she is pretty but dull. She is no Debbie McGhee!
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
And I honestly think the wealth angle is going to really, really hurt him.
Cameron had a similar problem on a much lower private wealth (but more old money) but he was able to neutralise it with his personal experiences with the NHS. What Sunak lacks is a story - he is a rich man playing at politics.
I did not watch the debate. Did any of them talk about the cost of living and, if so, did they have any actual proposals, rather than simple platitudes?
Cutting taxes sorts things apparently. Which is great because everyone likes that anyway. All gain no pain. Easy peasy this macro economic management stuff. Don't know why it creates so much argument.
Yup, I think with Kemi, the fact that she has multiple threads to her life is a huge positive. Loads of our politicians simply go directly from Oxford or Cambridge into a think tank then into the party and then a SpAd, eventually becoming an MP when enough credit has been built up for a run at a safe seat.
That is certainly correct.
Many non-Tories have (rightly) hat-tipped the Tories for the diverse range of candidates in the Leadership.
However, all that will be lost if it is Rishi versus Liz to the members because that will just be Oxford PPE versus Oxford PPE.
Lincoln College Oxford versus Merton College Oxford. A true cross-section of the nation.
I don't think Mordaunt was that poor, Truss didn't do that great, Sunak did OK but it was Tugendhat who actually won the debate with viewers. However it is still Tory members who have the final say
Yep good point. CH4 viewers and Tory members are very different kettles of fish. Truss going down badly last night could be great for her. Shows she's annoying all the right people and might well have increased her appeal to the grassroots. Can she make the final vs Sunak though? Where will those Tug and Badenoch votes go? It's on a knife edge. Next week will be impossibly tense and exciting. My hunch - more will go to Sunak than people think and he'll end up with a good lead in MPs. Then has 6 weeks to overturn his deficit cf Mordaunt or Truss with the members. Maybe he can do it. Betting, I've taken my Mordaunt profits and no new bets for now.
I nearly cashed out of PM last night but decided to stick around in the hope she makes the final two. I'm now in the RS camp.
I've cashed in my 66s on PM. One of those hunches that came off.
Betting aside, I think the Cons picking her over Sunak would be eccentric.
For a magician's assistant she is pretty but dull. She is no Debbie McGhee!
She seems incredibly sad. Don't know whether something has happened in her life, but it's not great timing if so. Look at her recent Ministerial photos on Twitter. The lights are on but she seems miles away.
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
I do hope a future PM will change that committee's name to something less crass and American sounding.
It isn't a committee. It's a room where emergency committees including and chaired by cabinet ministers meet. But they are strictly speaking ad hoc so don't have names.
Really they should make it more formal and call it the Emergency Response Committee.
To what extent, I wonder, is Badenoch simply the front for a Gove administration? The MPs would never elect Gove (nor would the membership probably) but in Badenoch there is a vehicle for Gove's ideas and policies which may yet be successful in the sea of electoral hazard.
Wasn't the same true of Thatcher in 1975 - she was really the front for Joseph and the monetarists? I don't really know what Gove's brand of conservatism looks like - too many have cited his intelligence for it not to be a given and to be fair it has been widely reported he is open and amenable to opposing views in a way many other aren't - @NickPalmer has spoken to this during Gove's time at DEFRA for example.
Presumably Gove is also intelligent enough to be well aware of all the historical examples of supposedly puppet PMs turning out to have their own ideas of what to do and kicking the behind-the-scenes guy out when they end up having a difference of opinion. If it's not a genuine partnership then it'll be Badenoch's brand of conservatism that matters, not Gove's, by the time of the next election.
Indeed and I'm not suggesting a Johnson-Cummings type relationship by any means but his experience of Cabinet (he's been round that table, with one interruption, more or less constantly since 2010) and working with civil service and Government will be invaluable for a Prime Minister who, arguably, comes in with less experience than any leader since Cameron. How that will evolve is, as you say, open to question and history does suggest it doesn't end well (do we see a Bismarck type departure for Gove?) but the extent to which Badenoch's conservatism will be shaped by Gove's input and influence remains a question I'd love to ask.
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
I don't like him, particularly his, reminiscent of Showaddywaddy, rockabilly drainpipe trousers three inches shy of his shoes. But I speak as I find. Tugenhadt, Badenoch, and Mordaunt may all make average Junior Ministers, but they are not Prime Minister material. Truss is barely human, which unfortunately leaves Sunak.
That's an interesting point - two of the three top contenders probably do have self-doubt issues that are impacting their performance. For PM, it's what you mention below. For LT, it looks like the classic "paralysis by analysis" and being so scared of blowing things that she actually does blow it.
Of the two, I think PM's issues are probably the easiest to get past. You can put yourself in a mind of "fuck em" and be yourself. I'm less sure on LT's issues and I can see a situation where she has a semi-meltdown in the debates if the stress gets to her.
One slip up I think Penny is making is this “the other contenders have got it in for me” line. She did it at the debate too and I think it landed badly.
I get the feeling Penny has actually been affected by having all these colleagues come out and say how utterly s**t at her job she was and I think it’s made her quite defensive. That in itself plays to a lack of experience at the top table which is a bit concerning. She needs to be able to rise above it - “I don’t want to talk about who is saying what but I do want to say in those roles I achieved X, Y, Z so I don’t accept those accounts”. I’m not sure getting into scraps with the other candidates is a great place to be when endorsements and transfers are going to be the name of the game in the coming days.
She’s do well to have practiced some better responses by Sunday.
It's not just the extremism. It's the sheer batshit fruit loopery of it all. These people seem to have barely any passing contact with reality. They really should be kept away from all sharp objects.
Another favourite: "Bodies are not inherently male or female."
We live in an Age of Stupid.
And, sadly, it does not appear to cost those who come out with such harmful and extremist nonsense.
It does give a flavour of what it must have been like to live during times when lepers were accused of poisoning the water supply or the Great Cat Massacre.
Are we in the situation where Truss gets to be PM no matter what?
No - I expect it will be Sunak v Mordaunt as I do not see the continuation Johnson group, including ERG having the backing of the majority of conservative mps who face losing their seats at any suggestion Johnson is influencing them
Mind you, the mail is on a hatchet job and is so far pro Johnson, they are furious and incandescent that he has been removed
It is resembling Corbyn in the latter days before his party realised just how toxic he is and to be fair to Starmer, he has drained the swamp.
The conservatives are at a pivot point and take the wrong road they will be in opposition in 24
Anyway I have decided to watch the golf and sport today and relax, before we face a 340 mile drive to Pitlochry on Tuesday of all days
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
Frankly it is ridiculous the men in suits haven't stopped this circus and just made Sunak PM so we can all sleep at nights.
He is obviously clever, diligent, hard working, sober and sensible. He doesn't come across as someone who the job will send demented which can't be said of every one of the other candidates.
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
Frankly it is ridiculous the men in suits haven't stopped this circus and just made Sunak PM so we can all sleep at nights.
He is obviously clever, diligent, hard working, sober and sensible. He doesn't come across as someone who the job will send demented which can't be said of every one of the other candidates.
Health. Elephant in the room is that it's becoming unaffordable and, long-term, people are going to need to save to supplement the NHS in retirement in the same way they do for pensions to supplement state pensions.
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
I'm not hopeful.
Euthanasia has to be the solution. I remember a play with Leonard Rossiter which was blackly funny, about how you'd contact the NHS who'd send someone round to give your elderly relative a quick jab.
Russia getting weapons tech support from Iran. https://mobile.twitter.com/elisabethmalom1/status/1548254209379774466 A Russian delegation has visited an airfield in central #Iran at least twice in the last month to examine weapons-capable drones- US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Iran preparing to begin training #Russian forces on how to operate them as early as late July.
Health. Elephant in the room is that it's becoming unaffordable and, long-term, people are going to need to save to supplement the NHS in retirement in the same way they do for pensions to supplement state pensions.
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
I'm not hopeful.
I suggested individual savings accounts, analogous to SIPPs for health and social in my first PB header:
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
Frankly it is ridiculous the men in suits haven't stopped this circus and just made Sunak PM so we can all sleep at nights.
He is obviously clever, diligent, hard working, sober and sensible. He doesn't come across as someone who the job will send demented which can't be said of every one of the other candidates.
Mr Ed, call me Dr Suspicious if you like, but do I get the distinct impression you are not a big admirer of Mr Sunak?
Health. Elephant in the room is that it's becoming unaffordable and, long-term, people are going to need to save to supplement the NHS in retirement in the same way they do for pensions to supplement state pensions.
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
I'm not hopeful.
Euthanasia has to be the solution. I remember a play with Leonard Rossiter which was blackly funny, about how you'd contact the NHS who'd send someone round to give your elderly relative a quick jab.
Health. Elephant in the room is that it's becoming unaffordable and, long-term, people are going to need to save to supplement the NHS in retirement in the same way they do for pensions to supplement state pensions.
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
I'm not hopeful.
Euthanasia has to be the solution. I remember a play with Leonard Rossiter which was blackly funny, about how you'd contact the NHS who'd send someone round to give your elderly relative a quick jab.
Dr Shipman was ahead of his time.
Especially now Covid has led some of us to think there is nothing wrong with killing old crumblies. One fear I've heard is that Shipman has made doctors even more wary of providing effective pain relief to the terminally ill.
Would say not. I still think the membership are going to be for Mordaunt, and in the absence of her then Rishi. Truss? No. Just.....no.
Sunak was head and shoulders more convincing than anyone else last night.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
He is all presentation, and deeply tainted by hanging on too long with Dead Dog.
Frankly it is ridiculous the men in suits haven't stopped this circus and just made Sunak PM so we can all sleep at nights.
He is obviously clever, diligent, hard working, sober and sensible. He doesn't come across as someone who the job will send demented which can't be said of every one of the other candidates.
Mr Ed, call me Dr Suspicious if you like, but do I get the distinct impression you are not a big admirer of Mr Sunak?
Anyone else annoyed that the BBC uses a different agency to the Met office? I think our national institutions should be aligned.
Getting weird inconsistencies in their website, using met office warnings but meteogroup forecasts.
Just go to the Met Office website, app and forecasts on YouTube direct. Then it really doesn't matter what forecasts the BBC chooses to pay for.
It's interesting that the Met Office only have about 12,000 views for their weather forecast this morning. One of the great advantages of the web is disintermediation, allowing people to cut out the middlemen and go to the source direct, but masses more people are still seeing the BBC Weather forecasts created with the American weather forecast model.
Comments
Annoyingly it hasn't been updated since yesterday morning though.
0956 today
A COBRA meeting will be held later to discuss the heatwave as forecasts suggest a new record UK temperature could be set early next week.
Meteorologists have said there is an 80% chance the mercury will top the UK's record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019.
There is a 50% chance of temperatures reaching 40C (104F) somewhere in the UK on Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing its first-ever red warning for extreme heat.
A couple of days ago it was 23° predicted. Now 27 on Met Office, 31 on that map.
But maybe also, the Conservative Party as a whole wants things that can't be delivered, and should stop shouting "off with their head" when each bunch of great hopes turns into failures.
From workers perspective, was also too easy to mistake a $2 for a $1 when buying stuff with their pay. So they'd turn down or tear off a corner to differentiate, and try to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
American's still aren't crazy about two-dollar bills. Though they are way more popular than three-dollar bills! Retailers in particular find them a pain in the ass, because there is no good place in the cash drawer for them. HOWEVER the US Treasury does NOT print many $2 these days.
It works better with direct democracy. In Switzerland voters are confronted with these sorts of issues all the time - do you want to do scheme X that costs A, scheme Y that costs A/2, or nothing? The results are nuanced and not consistently extravagant or mean.
I knew the Tele was going to the dogs when they put up a pic of Meteors attached to a story about those mythical buried Spitfires in Burma a few years ago.
Truss has no support !
To that end Mourdants story is relatively good, even if she’s spent most of here time doing PR and hasn’t done much outside party politics. Sunak is all about wealth.
I’m surprised at James Cleverley supporting her - he always seemed sort of sensible
Mix them all up, you've got strange remake of "The Manchurian Candidate". OR new episode of "Murder She Wrote"
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-next-pm-the-conservative-debate/on-demand/74604-001
It's very difficult to work out what she means. So I went to look at the top ten out of this list of the top forty-five, figuring that obviously they'd be in the top 180, and tried to imagine what she'd mandate.
Firstly - every hospital must have a reflecting telescope on the roof, as invented by Isaac Newton.
Secondly - every hospital must have mass-produced toothbrushes. Frankly, I'm shocked that no-one in the NHS uses toothbrushes, if she's right; this must be changed.
I'm not clear as to where the NHS can use seed drills, but we can ask each hospital to come up with their own plans.
And as for steam engines at number four - well, it'd be nice to see a comeback, I suppose. Steam-operated MRI machines, perhaps?
If hospitals don't use tin cans in their canteens, perhaps they should from now on.
Using modern torpedoes might stretch the imagination, but Penny will provide.
As for thermos flasks, hovercraft, turbo-jet engines, and pneumatic tyres - well. For some, I'd have thought they are used where necessary; for others, the mind boggles.
If it's Penny v. Sunak I think Betfair goes 1.6 v. 2.67 - with some value on Penny (who should then be 1.4)
If it's Truss v. Sunak then I think both near evens, and then with some value on Truss (who should be 1.8-1.9)
The political skill here will be to introduce such a reform whilst dodging the inevitable "destroying the NHS" or "privatising the NHS" straplines. Have state pensions been 'destroyed' by the introduction of private ones ?
I'm not hopeful.
Could use a proxy server I suppose but life's too short.
Reported their confirmation email as spam.
Just back from the morning walk to get the RP and unfortunately the Daily Mail for Mrs Stodge (in East Ham, it's provided with its own brown bag) - the latter seems to be now backing Liz Truss and is still anti-Mordaunt.
My daily temperature check of right-wing Britain via Talk Tv and it appears their callers have fallen head over heels for Badenoch. I don't know what the threshold is on the next ballot but presumably the aim is to cut the field down to three by Monday evening.
To what extent, I wonder, is Badenoch simply the front for a Gove administration? The MPs would never elect Gove (nor would the membership probably) but in Badenoch there is a vehicle for Gove's ideas and policies which may yet be successful in the sea of electoral hazard.
Wasn't the same true of Thatcher in 1975 - she was really the front for Joseph and the monetarists? I don't really know what Gove's brand of conservatism looks like - too many have cited his intelligence for it not to be a given and to be fair it has been widely reported he is open and amenable to opposing views in a way many other aren't - @NickPalmer has spoken to this during Gove's time at DEFRA for example.
That being said, there's a lot more to put on the bones of what Badenoch/Gove do actually believe and want and whether in the current circumstances they'll be doing much more than firefighting.
I wonder how many of the ERG are taking Chairman Mark Francois' calls today? He was already getting flak for saying they had to row in behind her.
I suspect most of the people who go onto to televised debates just hope to survive with their campaign still afloat. Truss failed that test.
Not sure about gas fired power stations - direct drive from gas combustion turbine? but then they'd tick the turbojet box anyway.
THermoses (aka Kelvin flasks), absolutely - to keep samples cool for instance. Or food warm. And pneumatic tyres on ambulances and trolleys (very important).
Many non-Tories have (rightly) hat-tipped the Tories for the diverse range of candidates in the Leadership.
However, all that will be lost if it is Rishi versus Liz to the members because that will just be Oxford PPE versus Oxford PPE.
The ERG and the Right want to be the power behind the throne. They've backed Truss for that reason but it's clear that at least some are not convinced - look at Steve Baker's words when he 'backed' Truss.
If Truss bombs again, then the ERG has an issue. Stick with her, knowing that many Tory MPs are like 'she's going to lose me my seat'? Not everyone has the luxury of a 31K majority like Francois does.
Over the next 48 hours, the ERG faction is going to have to decide what to do. I can actually see a situation where she goes out after Tuggy.
I get the feeling Penny has actually been affected by having all these colleagues come out and say how utterly s**t at her job she was and I think it’s made her quite defensive. That in itself plays to a lack of experience at the top table which is a bit concerning. She needs to be able to rise above it - “I don’t want to talk about who is saying what but I do want to say in those roles I achieved X, Y, Z so I don’t accept those accounts”. I’m not sure getting into scraps with the other candidates is a great place to be when endorsements and transfers are going to be the name of the game in the coming days.
She’s do well to have practiced some better responses by Sunday.
They could just hold the meetings in room B.
But a late spin up of hot continental EU air on Tuesday afternoon might just threaten this and send the record back to Kent again. Yet more broken promises to the North.
Betting aside, I think the Cons picking her over Sunak would be eccentric.
I had been of the opinion, probably from what I read on here, that Mordaunt (who I still suspect will win) would tear Starmer apart when she becomes PM. On last night's performance that isn't going to happen. Sunak, on the other hand...
Plus non-dom, Green Card, talking about austerity when he's so rich etc
Cameron had a similar problem on a much lower private wealth (but more old money) but he was able to neutralise it with his personal experiences with the NHS. What Sunak lacks is a story - he is a rich man playing at politics.
“Support for cheese loving politician (5)”
Australia have worked out how to beat this plodding England squad: just run at them
Really they should make it more formal and call it the Emergency Response Committee.
"Truss now regularly crops up in crossword clues. I’ve seen this in the Times and the Telegraph.
“Support for cheese loving politician (5)”"
A hyphen should be included with 'cheese loving'.
Anyway, I must be off.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-50s-to-be-offered-covid-19-booster-and-flu-jab-this-autumn
That's an interesting point - two of the three top contenders probably do have self-doubt issues that are impacting their performance. For PM, it's what you mention below. For LT, it looks like the classic "paralysis by analysis" and being so scared of blowing things that she actually does blow it.
Of the two, I think PM's issues are probably the easiest to get past. You can put yourself in a mind of "fuck em" and be yourself. I'm less sure on LT's issues and I can see a situation where she has a semi-meltdown in the debates if the stress gets to her.
Mind you, the mail is on a hatchet job and is so far pro Johnson, they are furious and incandescent that he has been removed
It is resembling Corbyn in the latter days before his party realised just how toxic he is and to be fair to Starmer, he has drained the swamp.
The conservatives are at a pivot point and take the wrong road they will be in opposition in 24
Anyway I have decided to watch the golf and sport today and relax, before we face a 340 mile drive to Pitlochry on Tuesday of all days
He is obviously clever, diligent, hard working, sober and sensible. He doesn't come across as someone who the job will send demented which can't be said of every one of the other candidates.
He would also sell Ukraine down the river.
https://mobile.twitter.com/elisabethmalom1/status/1548254209379774466
A Russian delegation has visited an airfield in central #Iran at least twice in the last month to examine weapons-capable drones- US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Iran preparing to begin training #Russian forces on how to operate them as early as late July.
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/07/01/three-score-and-ten-has-the-nhs-reached-the-end-of-its-natural-life/