The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
Seriously. If this isn't the time for a no-holds barred journalistic dive into the totally amoral, ideologically bonkers racket that is Mermaids, I don't know what is. They held the Tavistock ransom for years. They are still going. They are crazy. Children's bodies are at stake.
The endpoint of the Trans Madness is obvious. Doctors, shrinks and the rest will end up going to prison for what they have done to a lot of vulnerable kids (and their families)
Sadly, the lefty sociologists, pundits and Wokeists who pushed this creed, in the beginning, will probably get tenure
This place was set up under the auspices of the NHS? which means we funded it?
The Telegraph's handy cut-out-and-keep guide to Liz Truss's 2024 resignation honours list.
Unless panicked Tory MPs send in the letters in 2023....
Changing leaders twice before a GE would look ridiculous. Truss will be fighting the next GE.
She has the backing of less than a third of MPs. That's a lot of I told you so. If she is dire and Wallace can be persuaded to take the job in a coronation.....she's gone.
"Ooops. Sorry. My bad. Here's a PROPER PM though...."
Talking of Birmingham, this is in today’s Groaniad
Photos of Birmingham then and now
Thing is, in almost every picture, Birmingham “then” is obviously more beautiful than Birmingham “now”. Even the picture of bomb damage is more aesthetically pleasing than the picture of what replaced it
Well its a matter of taste, I would say New St looks a whole lot better now, for example. On the other hand since you became Pbs resident reactionary I would kind of expect you to take shelter in the past. Your bleats about COVID, Climate change, Putin et al does rather show someone who takes refuge in the past, because the present and the future are very scary to you. Personally I am an optimist: I think that there is no human problem that humans can not work out. Compared to 20 or 30 years ago I think Birmingham has improved greatly, so I wish a successful Commonwealth Games to all participating and I hope it remains the friendly games in a friendly and prosperous city.
Putin is winning. Time to flee west
Needs more 'mate'.
Back to Leon's original point: I'm all in with your position on Derby, but having looked at the Birmingham pics I simply don't agree. Admittedly it's difficult to take too much cheer from a black and white photo on an overcast day, but for me, from those photos - and from my own experience - Birmingham is looking better than at any stage in the past 100 years. Conceivably it was more handsome before the first world war. But even the interwar period - where other cities have a robust optimism, Birmingham looks an unprepossessing jumble. This isn't driven by economics - Birmingham did very very well in the pre- and post-war period - to the extent where government tried to constrain its growth (in theory to divert growth to struggling towns further north; in practice growth was diverted to London; cynical Brummies suspect this was the real motive all along). It's always been a bit of a jumble. My view is that the aesthetic trend in the 21st century for Birmnigham is much more positive than in the 20th.
Derby's an interesting city in this respect. It did not get comparatively heavily-bombed in the war, but if you look at the NLS maps, the city centre has totally changed over the last hundred years, with many of the city-centre streets not even respecting the previous layout. It has changed massively.
My dad is partly responsible for this; he claims there is not a street in the city centre that he has not demolished a building on, built on, or done footings for a building on...
A large part of the city centre (around Becketwall Lane and the old Debenhams) is currently being rebuilt, and a large portion of the area between the station and the shopping centre (Intu?) will be rebuilt in the next few years.
Does your Dad feel guilty? With all due respect, I hope he does
Ex PB-er @SeanT wrote about Derby and all this with his usual footling ignorance in the Spectator
He wasn't the architect. He was the demolition/building man. Nothing to feel guilty about. The guilty are the planners.
I cannot remember its name, but there was a *really* bad little shopping centre tucked in behind Debenhams/Mackwell Street. Even as a kid in the 80s, the shops were half-empty, and the concrete structure looked grey and dingy. That got swept away years ago.
IMV Derby is improving; a lot of work was done already between the station and Intu, and much of the city centre is being rebuilt. A tragedy was the loss of the old Assembly rooms by fire (*) in the 1960s, and the 1970s replacement is also closed due to a fire eight years ago. But there's a gem across the square: the Market Hall. And the Guild Hall as well.
That's a good article thanks, but it's possibly a little unfair to Derby.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
Salford. Some of it is very hip. Some of it same as ever with fewer guns. Other bits have always been surprisingly middle class suburbia.
I wonder if the Government (Truss) may need to temporarily effectively nationalise the gas supply.
If she does I expect it to command broad public support.
The free market works brilliantly at efficiently allocating resources and stimulating production and distribution, competitively, in normal times but if we get to the stage where we have a highly constrained supply and it costs households over £500 a month then we'll be in a bidding war where the wealthiest will be able to carry on as normal, at a very high cost, whilst a lot of ordinary people freeze.
That can't be allowed to happen.
And how exactly will nationalisation help? It's not possible with current technology to physical constrain the volume of gas used by domestic users, other than by giving them price signals which result in them voluntarily reducing consumption. Short of disconnecting users who use over a certain volume, all nationalisation will achieve is making the whole thing even more of the government's problem.
Do smart meters not allow the companies to switch the gas off and on to your house. This is certainly my understanding and there would be little difficulty for them to turn off gas till the following week when you reach the weekly cap
Smart meters do feck all.
If they were smart, they would have differential pricing built in, to encourage consumers to load switch to low demand periods, such as doing your laundry over night. But no such incentive exists, so our washing machine is chugging away right now.
Depends what tariff you are on but there is a further problem that low demand overnight correlates nicely with low solar electricity generation overnight. That might change once most drivers are charging their cars between getting home from work and leaving in the morning.
Which is why solar is a daft idea in the UK. Great where the peak power demand correlates with air conditioning use on hot sunny days, but useless on grim January evenings when our demand is at its maximum.
Not daft if it's cheap enough, which is increasingly the case. And it tends to be negatively correlated with the amount of wind.
It's always going to be relatively niche in the UK (unless we build solar farms in North Africa), but that doesn't mean it's useless.
Building a load of capacity with not only low load factor but which generates counter-cyclically with demand just means that we end up spending even more on capacity payments for dispatchable capacity to sit around not generating, and have to invest even more in storage vectors.
The solar generated on summer afternoons when it isn't needed can be used to produce electrolytic hydrogen which can then be stored until winter when it is needed for heating and peaking power generation.
For lots of people combining solar panels with a battery will make a huge amount of sense, particularly when they want to charge their electric car.
Except that the battery is in the car. However, you will be able to use the residual charge to meet the evening peak before charging overnight. If there is the incentive and mechanism to do so.
People will end up having another battery for the house. There will be lots of batteries.
The concern I have with this at the moment is the raw material resources needed to do this. We are talking vast amounts of material that has to be mined and refined.
Don't get me wrong, I think you are right and the battery route is sensible and welcome. I just don't see how we do it at the moment.
There's potential for a lot of technological development that might help us here, because the future demand will be so high. Different batteries that use more common materials. New mining and refining techniques.
It is a big ask, but government can play a useful role with some targeted investment to help things along.
The commitment to phase out ICE vehicles is also really helpful, because it provides more certainty of a future market, and so encourages private investment.
A commercially competitive zinc sulphur battery, fairly likely within the decade, would solve the raw materials problem.
IMHO one of the mistakes when they set up Formula E racing, was to use standard batteries. They should have made it much more of a prototype series for the powertrain, and we could have seen radical new chemistries being developed by universities and technology companies in public. Probably a few spectacular battery fires on the way too.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
Britain's largest vineyard is just outside Newent...
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
It really really is another Sackler. Agree 100%. A lot of dubious people making money, and a lot of quite strange people advancing patently mad theories
In one of several cases I know the girl who was diagnosed gender dysphoric and given actual bodychanging drugs was just - to my mind - somewhat on the spectrum and suffering from a lovelife rejection. So abjuring her femininity. The latter was probably, surely, temporary
But in *they* came with their bizarre and warped ideology
After nearly 12 years of having solar panels on my roof,and generating over 20,000 Kw-hours, I wondered if I could use it somehow to power an electric car in the future. I'm paid for everything I generate, even if I use it all myself. Thanks, Ed M.
Theoretically, I could, but new cars are out the question, and even secondhand ones are fiendishly expensive. Batteries are an option, I suppose, but I thought there was a loss of efficiency.
Correction, it's 40,000 Kw-hours
43p per kWh territory. Good call and thanks for being a pioneer.
I'm looking around for a regular diversion load for my solar too. Need to decide within about 6 months.
The classic is for hot water, either as a standalone tank, or to preheat the water input for your combi gas boiler if you have such. Phase change heat batteries were well-thought of but I am not sure how they are perceived now.
I wonder if the Government (Truss) may need to temporarily effectively nationalise the gas supply.
If she does I expect it to command broad public support.
The free market works brilliantly at efficiently allocating resources and stimulating production and distribution, competitively, in normal times but if we get to the stage where we have a highly constrained supply and it costs households over £500 a month then we'll be in a bidding war where the wealthiest will be able to carry on as normal, at a very high cost, whilst a lot of ordinary people freeze.
That can't be allowed to happen.
And how exactly will nationalisation help? It's not possible with current technology to physical constrain the volume of gas used by domestic users, other than by giving them price signals which result in them voluntarily reducing consumption. Short of disconnecting users who use over a certain volume, all nationalisation will achieve is making the whole thing even more of the government's problem.
Do smart meters not allow the companies to switch the gas off and on to your house. This is certainly my understanding and there would be little difficulty for them to turn off gas till the following week when you reach the weekly cap
Smart meters do feck all.
If they were smart, they would have differential pricing built in, to encourage consumers to load switch to low demand periods, such as doing your laundry over night. But no such incentive exists, so our washing machine is chugging away right now.
Depends what tariff you are on but there is a further problem that low demand overnight correlates nicely with low solar electricity generation overnight. That might change once most drivers are charging their cars between getting home from work and leaving in the morning.
Which is why solar is a daft idea in the UK. Great where the peak power demand correlates with air conditioning use on hot sunny days, but useless on grim January evenings when our demand is at its maximum.
Not daft if it's cheap enough, which is increasingly the case. And it tends to be negatively correlated with the amount of wind.
It's always going to be relatively niche in the UK (unless we build solar farms in North Africa), but that doesn't mean it's useless.
As I learnt recently*, electricity transmission is very expensive. A high capacity transmission line costs the same as a gas pipeline to build but it only carries 1/30th of the energy. As we move to a fully electric world, we need to localise electricity production.
* I got interested in energy policy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine . Despite Twitter's generally bad reputation, it's a great resource for expertise in niche topics you have an intelligent non-expert interest in
It's one reason for Rolls Royce's mini nuke power stations. Can be placed nearly anywhere to provide local baseline power and reduce the need for interconnections.
Try placing them "everywhere". They need a dedicated 24 hour armed police force to protect them.
Plus you try convincing the good LibDem voters of Nimby West to have a nuclear submarine moored up on their bit of the Thames (or wherever). Electoral suicide.
They really need to be placed in former nuclear power stations to make sense.
That seems to be the plan - former and existing power stations. The amount of buffer zone land is so large that you can lose a dozen mint reactors inside the sites pretty easily
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
It really really is another Sackler. Agree 100%. A lot of dubious people making money, and a lot of quite strange people advancing patently mad theories
In one of several cases I know the girl who was diagnosed gender dysphoric and given actual bodychanging drugs was just - to my mind - somewhat on the spectrum and suffering from a lovelife rejection. So abjuring her femininity. The latter was probably, surely, temporary
But in *they* came with their bizarre and warped ideology
It feels almost as if common sense has broken out all over.
Leaving some of PB's gammon in woke clothing extremists looking very exposed indeed. T&P.
Seriously. If this isn't the time for a no-holds barred journalistic dive into the totally amoral, ideologically bonkers racket that is Mermaids, I don't know what is. They held the Tavistock ransom for years. They are still going. They are crazy. Children's bodies are at stake.
Yes, to me, this is a bigger issue than cost of living. This is a bunch of weirdos trying to do irreparable harm to children, and far too many state institutions are passively encouraging it.
The endpoint of the Trans Madness is obvious. Doctors, shrinks and the rest will end up going to prison for what they have done to a lot of vulnerable kids (and their families)
Sadly, the lefty sociologists, pundits and Wokeists who pushed this creed, in the beginning, will probably get tenure
This place was set up under the auspices of the NHS? which means we funded it?
Yes. Why are you surprised?
Remember, when senior management team people involved with the Rotherham scandal got stressed, they got stays at the Priory private clinics/country clubs on the tax payer. No queues for them.
This energy thing is like that Pratchett gag about expensive boots being cheaper than cheap ones. A Charnwood c5 log burner, a chainsaw and a couple of acres of woodland, and off you go. Fuel crisis? What crisis?
The endpoint of the Trans Madness is obvious. Doctors, shrinks and the rest will end up going to prison for what they have done to a lot of vulnerable kids (and their families)
Sadly, the lefty sociologists, pundits and Wokeists who pushed this creed, in the beginning, will probably get tenure
This place was set up under the auspices of the NHS? which means we funded it?
Yes. Why are you surprised?
Remember, when senior management team people involved with the Rotherham scandal got stressed, they got stays at the Priory private clinics/country clubs on the tax payer. No queues for them.
I wonder if the real reason Truss is thumping Sunak is people want some of their money back.
Commonwealth Games must confront the truth about its sportswashing past The Games remain an uneasy celebration of ‘common values’ with nations the British empire once exploited
Tom Daley condemns homophobia across Commonwealth ahead of Games Gold medallist diver’s comments come ahead of opening ceremony in Birmingham on Friday
Quite why it's an issue when these awful countries compete at the Commonwealth Games but isn't an issue when they compete at the Olympic games is a bit of a mystery to me.
I suspect the answer lies in the original name of the Commonwealth Games.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Good. I look forward to it. I like small unfashionable towns. There's pleasure in being proved right about them and pleasure in being proved wrong.
For the northern leg of your tour, in addition to the obvious, I would add Halifax, Whitehaven, Malpas, Colne, Darlington, Blyth and Kirby Lonsdale. I'll leave you to decide which fall into which category.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
The 'old' Gorbals has been torn down and replaced with nice-to-middling new housing. If you want an interesting spot in Glasgow try Govanhill. You'll find reports varying from 'vibrant hipster hotspot' to 'grooming gangs, people smuggling and giant rats'.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
My kippers come from the Port of Lancaster smokehouse. Worth a look?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
My kippers come from the Port of Lancaster smokehouse. Worth a look?
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
It really really is another Sackler. Agree 100%. A lot of dubious people making money, and a lot of quite strange people advancing patently mad theories
In one of several cases I know the girl who was diagnosed gender dysphoric and given actual bodychanging drugs was just - to my mind - somewhat on the spectrum and suffering from a lovelife rejection. So abjuring her femininity. The latter was probably, surely, temporary
But in *they* came with their bizarre and warped ideology
I have some personal knowledge and experience of this which, for reasons which are I hope obvious, I do not wish to share in any detail. But it is one reason why I feel so strongly about this issue and why I get so angry with those unthinkingly coming out with facile slogans.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
This energy thing is like that Pratchett gag about expensive boots being cheaper than cheap ones. A Charnwood c5 log burner, a chainsaw and a couple of acres of woodland, and off you go. Fuel crisis? What crisis?
People who already had their usage down to very little, and were nearly independent of the grid are quite well-placed this year - having already done their bit.
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
It's devastating. How could an entire medical industry have grown up - seemingly overnight - based on such shoddy, politicised, highly-debatable science? It's like something out of Revolutionary Russia post 1917
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
You're on!
One of the few things that Simon Jenkins ever got right was his comment about Northern Market Towns.
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
It really really is another Sackler. Agree 100%. A lot of dubious people making money, and a lot of quite strange people advancing patently mad theories
In one of several cases I know the girl who was diagnosed gender dysphoric and given actual bodychanging drugs was just - to my mind - somewhat on the spectrum and suffering from a lovelife rejection. So abjuring her femininity. The latter was probably, surely, temporary
But in *they* came with their bizarre and warped ideology
I have some personal knowledge and experience of this which, for reasons which are I hope obvious, I do not wish to share in any detail. But it is one reason why I feel so strongly about this issue and why I get so angry with those unthinkingly coming out with facile slogans.
There are many of us with sad *personal* knowledge of this. Unfortunately
It's actually one of the rare areas where, when I go into a PB rant, I am speaking with sincere and direct experience
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
IS it being, forgive the term, gentrified in the way quite alot of places that used to be rough or have bad reputations have been.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
This adventure puts me in mind of Simon and Garfunkel's 'America'. Except 'gone to look for Britain' scans less well and implies less promise. But it shouldn't; this medium-sized but crowded country could keep a curious man going for decades. Drop me a line if you pass through Greater Manchester...
On Hartlepool, by the way: I haven't been since last century, but my memory of it was that as well as a lot of unprepossessing residential districts, the town contained the odd highlight worth making the visit for. The marina was nice - I bought a pair of trousers there - and the old headland is, um, atmospheric. I'm not claiming you'll want to move there. But it has its small charms, as almost everywhere does. You can at least see why those who live there stay.
In my opinion the figures should be something like this: [assumes the new boundaries are in force]
NOM 2.22 Con Maj 2.22 Lab Maj 10
I concur with your Lab Maj 10 opinion, for the simple reason that Anas Sarwar has stalled in the low 20s, and the English Midlands are still stubbornly sticking with the Tories.
However, your Con Maj 2.22 is waaaay too short. The economic shit has yet to hit the fan, and when it does the Tories are going to get all the blame.
NOM looks like a shoo in. Barring… events dear boy.
Labour largest party looks the safest bet.
I think that's right. I'm very struck by the huge personality choice in the Con-to-Lab switchers - 90% net negative about Boris is positively North Korean in unanimity, and 57% net positive about Starmer shows an enthusiasm not matched by any other part of the population with the possible exception of lifetime Labour voters. There is a chunk of people out there who totally agree with SKS's approach as the Ultimate Non-Boris.
That's probably largely immune to a popularity bounce for Truss. It's also unusual enough to make it unlikely that there will be lots more -note the 59% net negative about Starmer among the currently homeless 2019 Tories.
Starmer and Reeves will be putting forward some more concrete policy in September which may change some of that, and of course Truss may delight or disappoint beyond expectations. But as things stand, neither a Labour surge to overall majority nor a swingback to Tory majority looks likely.
Inicdentally, a Merit Award certificate from the General Secretary popped through the post for me yesterday, reflecting 50 years' membership, a nice thought. The progressive alternative to a telegram from the Queen. (Do telegrams still exist?)
I suspect the switchers (I am one) are:
Those who are trad Labour and have fallen out with Boris
Those who are dull centrist Tories (me) and notice a lot of dull centrism in SKS, though Davey is even duller.
If Tory members had any sense they would be vying for the dull centrist vote. They already have the Dorries and JRM vote. And hope that Labour left wreck SKS.
In truth the real wish among the centre ground electorate is nothing to do with ideology. It is to do with ordinary competence and basic honesty and having a serious plan.
Ideologically there are no excellent options in the western world at the moment. Only sub-optimal and worse ones.
In the world as it now is a Lab government reliant on the LDs look y far the better option, though well short of great.
I think the best bet for the LDs would be ditching Davey and going with Daisy Cooper - younger woman who is great at public speaking, affable, importantly wasn't in the coalition government and is willing to criticise it. Has interests in some big policy areas - specifically media oversight and such. I really think if the LDs swapped Davey for Daisy they could be looking at front bench politics again (within a Labour led government, of course).
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
It's devastating. How could an entire medical industry have grown up - seemingly overnight - based on such shoddy, politicised, highly-debatable science? It's like something out of Revolutionary Russia post 1917
Because the politics were more important than the science. Utterly terrifying.
After nearly 12 years of having solar panels on my roof,and generating over 20,000 Kw-hours, I wondered if I could use it somehow to power an electric car in the future. I'm paid for everything I generate, even if I use it all myself. Thanks, Ed M.
Theoretically, I could, but new cars are out the question, and even secondhand ones are fiendishly expensive. Batteries are an option, I suppose, but I thought there was a loss of efficiency.
Correction, it's 40,000 Kw-hours
43p per kWh territory. Good call and thanks for being a pioneer.
I'm looking around for a regular diversion load for my solar too. Need to decide within about 6 months.
The classic is for hot water, either as a standalone tank, or to preheat the water input for your combi gas boiler if you have such. Phase change heat batteries were well-thought of but I am not sure how they are perceived now.
Anecdotal from a friend - heating hot water is brilliant. Older folks, so happy to use when at its warmest, i.e. shower or bath before bed. However a decent hot water tank stays hot for ages (mine sometimes does not need heating in the morning if its warm the night before.
@Leon - if you want to understand a bit more about the sort of overlooked looked over but interesting towns in Cumbria, Melvyn Bragg's latest book on Wigton is well worth reading. I heard him give a talk about it just before lockdown when he was starting to write it.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
The 'old' Gorbals has been torn down and replaced with nice-to-middling new housing. If you want an interesting spot in Glasgow try Govanhill. You'll find reports varying from 'vibrant hipster hotspot' to 'grooming gangs, people smuggling and giant rats'.
Ah, you pre-empted me. Was in Govanhill yesterday as it happens, it was giving off the hipster vibe, particularly liked the Transylvannian coffee and wine shop. The whole southside seems to be a raging ferment of hipster enterprise, can't move for outside seating, speciality coffee beans and premises being ripped out to house some new business. Can't really square it with the economic outlook tbh.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
It's devastating. How could an entire medical industry have grown up - seemingly overnight - based on such shoddy, politicised, highly-debatable science? It's like something out of Revolutionary Russia post 1917
If you accuse everyone who speaks out against you as some kind of phobe (in this case homophobe or transphobe) it tends to silence any real opposition very quickly and in a short space of time under the cover of that darkness these kind of abusive practices thrive and "charities" like mermaids become a quasi thought police to keep everyone in line.
The left has always had a love of authoritarianism and silencing dissent. This is the result, kids being abused under the auspices of "helping".
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
It's devastating. How could an entire medical industry have grown up - seemingly overnight - based on such shoddy, politicised, highly-debatable science? It's like something out of Revolutionary Russia post 1917
Or see the developing Alzheimers issues... Gonna be a lot of fall out.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
You're on!
One of the few things that Simon Jenkins ever got right was his comment about Northern Market Towns.
What did he say?
He's a weird one, Jenkins. Often howlingly wrong, but he can write a fine line, and sometimes makes really acute judgements. He is genuinely good on architecture, his famous 1000 Churches book gets a lot of slack (perhaps out of envy for being so influential?) but it is often brilliantly right: he can sum up whole towns in a terse paragraph
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
IS it being, forgive the term, gentrified in the way quite alot of places that used to be rough or have bad reputations have been.
Not gentrified - just 'nice' new flats (I don't mean that in a patronising way - just in a 'ok, not showy' kind of way). https://goo.gl/maps/83FzswWYotEc9tNb9
For gentrified you can walk 10 minutes down the road to Strathbungo (and Govanhill - if you dare...).
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
I was in Bristol yesterday for the cricket. Not been there for quite a few years. Had a bit of West Coast US city vibe in that a load of homeless junkies on College Green openly shooting up / passed out, masses of boarded up shops in the centre. I presume pandemic / WFH has hit it hard.
Obviously Bristol well known for drugs scene and edgy, but that areas around used to be Gloucester Rd / St Paul etc. But I don't remember ever seeing smack heads injecting right next to a load of kids coming out their graduation ceremony. Also all up Gloucester, literally everything tagged to hell, not just empty walls, across windows / doors of open shops.
Even post 2008 city centre was still basically all the shops filled etc and very clean place.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Best and worst - Bradford - because it's Bradford but also because of Saltaire which is lovely...
@Leon - if you want to understand a bit more about the sort of overlooked looked over but interesting towns in Cumbria, Melvyn Bragg's latest book on Wigton is well worth reading. I heard him give a talk about it just before lockdown when he was starting to write it.
Cool. I will bring it with me. I really am going to do this. Why not? If it's not fun it will be, at least, enlightening
I might break into two sections, northern Britain then further south (the bits I don't know). I might even try for Northern Ireland (where I have only been once)
I hope to meet you on a fittingly windswept Cumbrian beach!
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
Cass published this letter today which would appear to be behind the closure of the Tavistock
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
It's devastating. How could an entire medical industry have grown up - seemingly overnight - based on such shoddy, politicised, highly-debatable science? It's like something out of Revolutionary Russia post 1917
Because the politics were more important than the science. Utterly terrifying.
And the money. Don't forget the money. The money given by a number of organisations to the lobbyists and the money to be made by the pharmaceutical companies and surgeons.
One of the puberty blocking drugs was developed to chemically castrate paedophiles. Its long term effects on children are horrific.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
I was in Bristol yesterday for the cricket. Not been there for quite a few years. Had a bit of West Coast US city vibe in that a load of homeless junkies on College Green openly shooting up / passed out, masses of boarded up shops in the centre. I presume pandemic / WFH has hit it hard.
Obviously Bristol well known for drugs scene and edgy, but that areas around used to be Gloucester Rd / St Paul etc. Also all up Gloucester, literally everything tagged to hell, not just empty walls, across windows / doors of open shops.
Even post 2008 city centre was still basically all the shops filled etc and very clean place.
God, that's sad. I got to know Bristol just pre-pandemic and I remember thinking: what a nice, proud, interesting city. Confusing and unique, with loads of history and charm (and the odd modern horror, but hey)
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
I was in Bristol yesterday for the cricket. Not been there for quite a few years. Had a bit of West Coast US city vibe in that a load of homeless junkies on College Green openly shooting up / passed out, masses of boarded up shops in the centre. I presume pandemic / WFH has hit it hard.
Obviously Bristol well known for drugs scene and edgy, but that areas around used to be Gloucester Rd / St Paul etc. Also all up Gloucester, literally everything tagged to hell, not just empty walls, across windows / doors of open shops.
Even post 2008 city centre was still basically all the shops filled etc and very clean place.
God, that's sad. I got to know Bristol just pre-pandemic and I remember thinking: what a nice, proud, interesting city. Confusing and unique, with loads of history and charm (and the odd modern horror, but hey)
Damn if it has turned into Venice Beach, LA
It wasn't quite west coast US 2020, but certainly a noticeably shitter place in the centre. By the night, there was mini hordes of zombies when I headed back post the cricket.
I didn't head up to Clifton way, which I presume is still its own little oasis of pseudo-socialists / greenies in their multi-million quids homes complaining about the evils of capitalism....the Islington of the West Country.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
I think people really need to be at least 18 and fund their own transitions tbh. It's a massive thing for anyone, certainly not to be undertaken in teenage years.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
Children in distress about their gender deserve good resources & support, delivered with compassion. What they DO NOT need is adults cheering on their distress, welcoming them to a political movement & pushing chemical castration.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Alness, Tain and, if you haven't before, Cromarty. For the north of England, make sure you go to Morley.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
It looks like there’s going to be a full clinical trial on whether puberty blockers are an effective treatment or not.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Oh for sure. I've been to York half a dozen times, likewise the Cotswolds. Enough, for now
The oystershack is just some sugar on the pill for me, after that I will dig deep. I really want to go to the places no one goes to (ie outsiders), or the big cities that too many Britons (especially in the south and London) blithely skip
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
The 'old' Gorbals has been torn down and replaced with nice-to-middling new housing. If you want an interesting spot in Glasgow try Govanhill. You'll find reports varying from 'vibrant hipster hotspot' to 'grooming gangs, people smuggling and giant rats'.
Ah, you pre-empted me. Was in Govanhill yesterday as it happens, it was giving off the hipster vibe, particularly liked the Transylvannian coffee and wine shop. The whole southside seems to be a raging ferment of hipster enterprise, can't move for outside seating, speciality coffee beans and premises being ripped out to house some new business. Can't really square it with the economic outlook tbh.
Yeah - I remember it being more famed for people fighting over methadone prescriptions. Now they're arguing about which type of Oat Milk to buy...
I can see why there has been reports of trouble at the cricket this summer. I witnessed some clearly coked up knobheads kicking off on the bus afterwards and couple of guys near me spent more time at the bar and "going to the toilets" than actually watching any cricket. In 4hrs they were 10 pints deep and whatever they have shoved up their noses.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Alness, Tain and, if you haven't before, Cromarty. For the north of England, make sure you go to Morley.
Superbly, I have never even HEARD of Alness and Tain. On the list. Thankyou. And Morley
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Didn't a similar political grouping do rather well in the recent Australian elections, defeating some liberals and helping Labour to win? That may be his inspiration.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
It looks like there’s going to be a full clinical trial on whether puberty blockers are an effective treatment or not.
Puberty does not simply change one's body. It also helps the mind and brain grow up. Blocking that needs an awful lot of thought - far more than has been given to it. Leaving a child in an arrested state of development seems to me to be utterly cruel, especially since a lot of dysphoria eventually resolves itself anyway. Careful watching and waiting and appropriate therapy may be much more useful than a lifetime of drugs.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
Waiting lists for "life-changing surgery" are disastrously long, to the point where many transmen have been left with half finished surgeries for years. The stories of young people being referred to the GID and having to undergo a puberty they do not want because it takes years for a meeting and years for a prescription are much more common than those being rushed into things - and those being rushed into things are usually so because they understand if they say no at that point they would have to go through the entire process again, years and years of waiting.
Under 18s getting any type of surgery is exceptionally rare, and the scientific consensus on the effect of puberty blockers is they are safe with some complications, like most medication. More cis kids and cis women use puberty blockers and HRT than trans people - because early onset puberty and menopause are more common. I could go to my GP today and get testosterone blockers if I was unhappy with my receding hairline - it is the same drug. If a transwoman went to their GP for exactly the same drug, she could potentially be waiting years, with meeting after meeting, asking unscientific and invasive questions (such as personal sexual habits). This is nothing but medical gatekeeping and stigmatisation.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
Waiting lists for "life-changing surgery" are disastrously long, to the point where many transmen have been left with half finished surgeries for years. The stories of young people being referred to the GID and having to undergo a puberty they do not want because it takes years for a meeting and years for a prescription are much more common than those being rushed into things - and those being rushed into things are usually so because they understand if they say no at that point they would have to go through the entire process again, years and years of waiting.
Under 18s getting any type of surgery is exceptionally rare, and the scientific consensus on the effect of puberty blockers is they are safe with some complications, like most medication. More cis kids and cis women use puberty blockers and HRT than trans people - because early onset puberty and menopause are more common. I could go to my GP today and get testosterone blockers if I was unhappy with my receding hairline - it is the same drug. If a transwoman went to their GP for exactly the same drug, she could potentially be waiting years, with meeting after meeting, asking unscientific and invasive questions (such as personal sexual habits). This is nothing but medical gatekeeping and stigmatisation.
That's a polite and eloquent reply, thankyou
But my personal experience says otherwise. I have seen families broken by this ideology
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Oh for sure. I've been to York half a dozen times, likewise the Cotswolds. Enough, for now
The oystershack is just some sugar on the pill for me, after that I will dig deep. I really want to go to the places no one goes to (ie outsiders), or the big cities that too many Britons (especially in the south and London) blithely skip
I will report back honestly
On the back of the earlier 'Birmingham then and now' - possibly might be worth watching a few of Ian Nairn's UK architecture documentaries from the late 60s and 70s where he visited a lot of smaller towns and was mostly horrified at the terrible decisions planners were making. Revisiting a few choice spots to see if they've aged well or badly, been torn down etc.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
Hartlepool, yes - railway station, HMS Trincomalee (real sailing frigate in a rather tarted up mock film setty dock which is great for the children), Hartlepool museum almost next door with real maritime stuff eg local boats and stuff from the German shelling in WW1, and - further along - the Heugh Battery under the lighthouse for the views even if you don't like artillery and don't go into the battery proper. It's on a headland neart Hartlepool Chuirch.
Scarborough is very much a seaside resort but with a mediaeval core under a huge ruined castle - last time we were there we found Bee Orchids in the corner of the outer bailey next to Fox the Quaker's prison.
Further north the obvious places are Berwick (explore the mediaeval and Tudor town walls and barracks as well as the harbour), Bamburgh (bit of a honeypot), Lindisfarne (tidal island - but the time is well spent with a walk to the castle and widdershins around the eastern and northern coast).
Further north - St Abbs village and headland, Fast Castle, Siccar Point where Hutton gazed into the depths of time (but care - access can be difficult if wet - check first https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/huttons-unconformity/ ) - coastal walks either side of Dunbar (old seaport town), North Berwick and its law, Tantallon castle, Aberlady Bay and dunes.
But a more unusual exploration would be inland (as well?) - the realms beyond the Wall. Little explored. But for instance Wallington House, the Roman fort at High Rochester, then over Carter Bar and into the Border area with the abbeys and burghs - haven't been to Abbotsford for many years if ever. Dryburgh, Scott's View, Smailholm Tower, Melrose, Jedburgh Abbey. And, if further west enough, Hermitage in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
@Leon - if you want to understand a bit more about the sort of overlooked looked over but interesting towns in Cumbria, Melvyn Bragg's latest book on Wigton is well worth reading. I heard him give a talk about it just before lockdown when he was starting to write it.
Cool. I will bring it with me. I really am going to do this. Why not? If it's not fun it will be, at least, enlightening
I might break into two sections, northern Britain then further south (the bits I don't know). I might even try for Northern Ireland (where I have only been once)
I hope to meet you on a fittingly windswept Cumbrian beach!
Hastings is pretty down at heel.
You could go for "The Road to Hastings Pier", or alternatively "Down and Out in Hartlepool and Hastings" if you really want to emulate Orwell.
Didn't a similar political grouping do rather well in the recent Australian elections, defeating some liberals and helping Labour to win? That may be his inspiration.
Yes, climate action is welcome from the right or the left. BUT we have a FPTP electoral system, will The Climate Party take votes away from the loony faction of Tory MPs or will they take votes away from Greens, LibDems and Labour allowing those idiots to stay in place.
@Leon - if you want to understand a bit more about the sort of overlooked looked over but interesting towns in Cumbria, Melvyn Bragg's latest book on Wigton is well worth reading. I heard him give a talk about it just before lockdown when he was starting to write it.
Cool. I will bring it with me. I really am going to do this. Why not? If it's not fun it will be, at least, enlightening
I might break into two sections, northern Britain then further south (the bits I don't know). I might even try for Northern Ireland (where I have only been once)
I hope to meet you on a fittingly windswept Cumbrian beach!
Hastings is pretty down at heel.
You could go for "The Road to Hastings Pier", or alternatively "Down and Out in Hartlepool and Hastings" if you really want to emulate Orwell.
Yes, I know Hastings (so I shan't go, but thanks for the tip)
It is seriously down at heel but it has a new boho energy in the old centre, IIRC. I nearly ended up spending lockdown 1 there (for obscure reasons). Help
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
The drug company issue is the same with the treatment of every disease. Drug companies pay vast sums to ensure that the NHS buys their drugs for even vaster sums.
A lot of money could be saved by creating a new organisation, a sort of challenger to NICE, perhaps attached to a university, investigating and making available generic drugs, alternative treatments and therapies, and remedies that have fallen out of favour due to being unprofitable.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
Hartlepool, yes - railway station, HMS Trincomalee (real sailing frigate in a rather tarted up mock film setty dock which is great for the children), Hartlepool museum almost next door with real maritime stuff eg local boats and stuff from the German shelling in WW1, and - further along - the Heugh Battery under the lighthouse for the views even if you don't like artillery and don't go into the battery proper. It's on a headland neart Hartlepool Chuirch.
Scarborough is very much a seaside resort but with a mediaeval core under a huge ruined castle - last time we were there we found Bee Orchids in the corner of the outer bailey next to Fox the Quaker's prison.
Further north the obvious places are Berwick (explore the mediaeval and Tudor town walls and barracks as well as the harbour), Bamburgh (bit of a honeypot), Lindisfarne (tidal island - but the time is well spent with a walk to the castle and widdershins around the eastern and northern coast).
Further north - St Abbs village and headland, Fast Castle, Siccar Point where Hutton gazed into the depths of time (but care - access can be difficult if wet - check first https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/huttons-unconformity/ ) - coastal walks either side of Dunbar (old seaport town), North Berwick and its law, Tantallon castle, Aberlady Bay and dunes.
But a more unusual exploration would be inland (as well?) - the realms beyond the Wall. Little explored. But for instance Wallington House, the Roman fort at High Rochester, then over Carter Bar and into the Border area with the abbeys and burghs - haven't been to Abbotsford for many years if ever. Dryburgh, Scott's View, Smailholm Tower, Melrose, Jedburgh Abbey. And, if further west enough, Hermitage in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
More interesting than the usually touristed would be to explore the towns of the Northumberland coast. Tynemouth old posh, Whitley Bay upcoming hipster, Blyth junkies, Ashington (2 miles from the coast) deprived ex-mining and Berwick historic market town. You'll see plenty of contrasts there.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Can't disagree with any of that. But my understanding was that Lisa Nandy was always rather keen on the identity stuff? I may be entirely wrong. On the article linked to: New Statesman being a bit careless with the details. They're not monkeys at Knowsley, they're baboons. Look:
@Leon - if you want to understand a bit more about the sort of overlooked looked over but interesting towns in Cumbria, Melvyn Bragg's latest book on Wigton is well worth reading. I heard him give a talk about it just before lockdown when he was starting to write it.
Cool. I will bring it with me. I really am going to do this. Why not? If it's not fun it will be, at least, enlightening
I might break into two sections, northern Britain then further south (the bits I don't know). I might even try for Northern Ireland (where I have only been once)
I hope to meet you on a fittingly windswept Cumbrian beach!
Hastings is pretty down at heel.
You could go for "The Road to Hastings Pier", or alternatively "Down and Out in Hartlepool and Hastings" if you really want to emulate Orwell.
Two things worth seeing in Hastings: the old town, with some rather pretty medieval houses, and the multi-storey fisherman's huts on the beach, which look almost Bergen-esque. Fishing boats are launched and retrieved from the beach here, there being no harbour. Fun to watch.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Can't disagree with any of that. But my understanding was that Lisa Nandy was always rather keen on the identity stuff? I may be entirely wrong. On the article linked to: New Statesman being a bit careless with the details. They're not monkeys at Knowsley, they're baboons. Look:
Er, baboons are monkeys (subgroup of the Old World monkeys) ... so both of you are right!
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
West Coast, Cowal Peninsula - single track roads and island hopping to Arran, Bute, Islay etc. You'd love Mount Stuart on Bute if you've not visited before.
I wonder if the Government (Truss) may need to temporarily effectively nationalise the gas supply.
If she does I expect it to command broad public support.
The free market works brilliantly at efficiently allocating resources and stimulating production and distribution, competitively, in normal times but if we get to the stage where we have a highly constrained supply and it costs households over £500 a month then we'll be in a bidding war where the wealthiest will be able to carry on as normal, at a very high cost, whilst a lot of ordinary people freeze.
That can't be allowed to happen.
And how exactly will nationalisation help? It's not possible with current technology to physical constrain the volume of gas used by domestic users, other than by giving them price signals which result in them voluntarily reducing consumption. Short of disconnecting users who use over a certain volume, all nationalisation will achieve is making the whole thing even more of the government's problem.
Do smart meters not allow the companies to switch the gas off and on to your house. This is certainly my understanding and there would be little difficulty for them to turn off gas till the following week when you reach the weekly cap
Smart meters do feck all.
If they were smart, they would have differential pricing built in, to encourage consumers to load switch to low demand periods, such as doing your laundry over night. But no such incentive exists, so our washing machine is chugging away right now.
Depends what tariff you are on but there is a further problem that low demand overnight correlates nicely with low solar electricity generation overnight. That might change once most drivers are charging their cars between getting home from work and leaving in the morning.
Which is why solar is a daft idea in the UK. Great where the peak power demand correlates with air conditioning use on hot sunny days, but useless on grim January evenings when our demand is at its maximum.
Not daft if it's cheap enough, which is increasingly the case. And it tends to be negatively correlated with the amount of wind.
It's always going to be relatively niche in the UK (unless we build solar farms in North Africa), but that doesn't mean it's useless.
As I learnt recently*, electricity transmission is very expensive. A high capacity transmission line costs the same as a gas pipeline to build but it only carries 1/30th of the energy. As we move to a fully electric world, we need to localise electricity production.
* I got interested in energy policy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine . Despite Twitter's generally bad reputation, it's a great resource for expertise in niche topics you have an intelligent non-expert interest in
It's one reason for Rolls Royce's mini nuke power stations. Can be placed nearly anywhere to provide local baseline power and reduce the need for interconnections.
Try placing them "everywhere". They need a dedicated 24 hour armed police force to protect them.
Plus you try convincing the good LibDem voters of Nimby West to have a nuclear submarine moored up on their bit of the Thames (or wherever). Electoral suicide.
AIUI the Govt are after about 16, and they are most likely to be at existing nuclear power station sites.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
Hartlepool, yes - railway station, HMS Trincomalee (real sailing frigate in a rather tarted up mock film setty dock which is great for the children), Hartlepool museum almost next door with real maritime stuff eg local boats and stuff from the German shelling in WW1, and - further along - the Heugh Battery under the lighthouse for the views even if you don't like artillery and don't go into the battery proper. It's on a headland neart Hartlepool Chuirch.
Scarborough is very much a seaside resort but with a mediaeval core under a huge ruined castle - last time we were there we found Bee Orchids in the corner of the outer bailey next to Fox the Quaker's prison.
Further north the obvious places are Berwick (explore the mediaeval and Tudor town walls and barracks as well as the harbour), Bamburgh (bit of a honeypot), Lindisfarne (tidal island - but the time is well spent with a walk to the castle and widdershins around the eastern and northern coast).
Further north - St Abbs village and headland, Fast Castle, Siccar Point where Hutton gazed into the depths of time (but care - access can be difficult if wet - check first https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/huttons-unconformity/ ) - coastal walks either side of Dunbar (old seaport town), North Berwick and its law, Tantallon castle, Aberlady Bay and dunes.
But a more unusual exploration would be inland (as well?) - the realms beyond the Wall. Little explored. But for instance Wallington House, the Roman fort at High Rochester, then over Carter Bar and into the Border area with the abbeys and burghs - haven't been to Abbotsford for many years if ever. Dryburgh, Scott's View, Smailholm Tower, Melrose, Jedburgh Abbey. And, if further west enough, Hermitage in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
More interesting than the usually touristed would be to explore the towns of the Northumberland coast. Tynemouth old posh, Whitley Bay upcoming hipster, Blyth junkies, Ashington (2 miles from the coast) deprived ex-mining and Berwick historic market town. You'll see plenty of contrasts there.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
It looks like there’s going to be a full clinical trial on whether puberty blockers are an effective treatment or not.
Puberty does not simply change one's body. It also helps the mind and brain grow up. Blocking that needs an awful lot of thought - far more than has been given to it. Leaving a child in an arrested state of development seems to me to be utterly cruel, especially since a lot of dysphoria eventually resolves itself anyway. Careful watching and waiting and appropriate therapy may be much more useful than a lifetime of drugs.
Discovering whether puberty blockers are better or worse than the alternatives is presumably the purpose of the clinical trial. The history of medicine is littered with truths that people believed to be true that turned out not to be - perhaps the prescription of puberty blockers is a net wrong, as you clearly believe & perhaps it is a net good, as many trans activists believe.
A properly run trial will hopefully give us answers to that question that aren’t skewed by our own personal prejudices.
The alt right were going after Nandy the other day for her stand on biological male trans lags being able to select women's prisons.
Not sure if Lisa holds that view.
Lisa Nandy prompts me for Leon. Wigan is an interesting place. Much, much nicer than it's reputation. Historic, with nightlife, and culturally distinct from both Manchester and Liverpool. A cavalier island in puritan Lancashire.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
West Coast, Cowal Peninsula - single track roads and island hopping to Arran, Bute, Islay etc. You'd love Mount Stuart on Bute if you've not visited before.
And there's Rothesay on Bute, which is elegant but rather depressed seaside town (as you're looking for that sort of thing).
footpaths, footpaths, footpaths Ordnance maps, compass, pack, sustenance thinking and books. Once on a walk from Bristol to Bath I followed a Greenway tunnel through closed 'round by vegetation. At the top a blond friendly Saxon farmer and his smiley blond son offered me water from their farmyard tap. The path then led to the edge of a field. Standing with my back to an eerie impenetrable standing of woods and looking out over the rolling field my mind wandered to our history. Ordinary folk plowing and harvesting, sweaty. To their ancestors back in time. To the Romans and their spas. To prehistory. To the ice age when this wasn't an island but covered in ice. When Neanderthal man roamed over Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. To Africa where many subspecies of folk evolved and strove and evolved. To the super continent Pangea. To the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago. To the formation of the Solar system, hammered and violent. To the slow creation of the Sun as hydrogen gas coalesced from the death spasms of earlier stars to began fusing to form heavier elements that became us. To the big bang. To unanswered questions.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
For Glasgow the Necropolis which provided many a consoling walk during Covid; good views, cathedral, museum of religion and not least all that death. Worst of Edinburgh probably somewhere round the Royal Mile, the levels of tourist tat verges on the grotesque. Muirhouse used to be one of the worst of the estates with some competition but haven’t been there for an age; probably organic delis and chai houses now.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Borders is lovely. Take the A7 from Carlisle to Edinburgh, lots of nice towns on the way.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Where's the bit of E'boro that Welsh describes in trainspotting? Is that Leith?
Tho I remember it being windswept, gritty but still quite picturesque rather than grim
Scotland does have some shite towns tho. The old mining towns around Glasgow are some of the most depressing on earth. And this is not a sectarian jibe, rUK has equally shitty towns (my God, parts of S Wales or north of Brum), and Scotland also has some of the most majestic scenery on earth (not true of north Birmingham)
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Glasgow? Very soft spot for the Kelvingrove Park (and the Hunterian Museum and AG, Kelvingrove Museum, and the Kelvin Halls) and the drive out along the Dunfermline Road seeing the old tenements and docks peeping between the blocks on the left, and past the Forth-Clyde Canal end, till one gets to Dunfermline with the Castle on the hill and - a hidden gem - the Denny Test Tank below. The Castle is like Edinburegh and Stirling - one of the great choke points of the realm.
Necropolis above the Cathedral then walk down the High St to the courthouse and Green? Some pretty mixed urban scenery there, not to mention locals. Not sure how safe the Necro is these days to explore.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Well if you're going for lived experience: it often strikes me that the most-experienced parts of our country are the least visited: the suburbs. I'm quite a fan of a suburb. Suburbs work. Manchester City Centre for example might be big and brash and an array of experiences, but most of us spend our time in Timperley/Monton/Offerton/Crumpsall/Chadderton.
(This reminds me of one of the most British pieces of music ever written: Sheffield Sex City, by Pulp, the opening to which is just Jarvis Cocker reading out a lot of Sheffield suburbs (as well as the small town of Wombwell outside of Barnsley, because it sounds vaguely rude). Weirdly evocative.)
I once had a job which involved looking at potential sites for housing land. I saw a lot of bits of the country no-one really visits. It was pretty varied: I spent days in South Lakeland, Ryedale, Wiltshire, but also days in Walsall, Bolton, North Warwickshire. But even the boring bits of Britain are interesting if you look at them in the right way.
Comments
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
"Ooops. Sorry. My bad. Here's a PROPER PM though...."
I cannot remember its name, but there was a *really* bad little shopping centre tucked in behind Debenhams/Mackwell Street. Even as a kid in the 80s, the shops were half-empty, and the concrete structure looked grey and dingy. That got swept away years ago.
IMV Derby is improving; a lot of work was done already between the station and Intu, and much of the city centre is being rebuilt. A tragedy was the loss of the old Assembly rooms by fire (*) in the 1960s, and the 1970s replacement is also closed due to a fire eight years ago. But there's a gem across the square: the Market Hall. And the Guild Hall as well.
That's a good article thanks, but it's possibly a little unfair to Derby.
(*) I think the frontage is preserved at Crich.
Some of it is very hip. Some of it same as ever with fewer guns. Other bits have always been surprisingly middle class suburbia.
In one of several cases I know the girl who was diagnosed gender dysphoric and given actual bodychanging drugs was just - to my mind - somewhat on the spectrum and suffering from a lovelife rejection. So abjuring her femininity. The latter was probably, surely, temporary
But in *they* came with their bizarre and warped ideology
I'm looking around for a regular diversion load for my solar too. Need to decide within about 6 months.
The classic is for hot water, either as a standalone tank, or to preheat the water input for your combi gas boiler if you have such. Phase change heat batteries were well-thought of but I am not sure how they are perceived now.
We need to see prosecutions
Leaving some of PB's gammon in woke clothing extremists looking very exposed indeed. T&P.
Remember, when senior management team people involved with the Rotherham scandal got stressed, they got stays at the Priory private clinics/country clubs on the tax payer. No queues for them.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/28/centre-right-climate-party-ed-gemmell-launches-oust-tory-mps-opposing-climate-action
1650: lots of fun
1654: not as good as last time
1658: are we sure this is a good idea?
1662: thank God that's over
I like small unfashionable towns. There's pleasure in being proved right about them and pleasure in being proved wrong.
For the northern leg of your tour, in addition to the obvious, I would add Halifax, Whitehaven, Malpas, Colne, Darlington, Blyth and Kirby Lonsdale. I'll leave you to decide which fall into which category.
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
https://cass.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cass-Review-Letter-to-NHSE_19-July-2022.pdf
The bit on “harmless” (sic) Puberty Blockers is shocking:
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function6 (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty- blockers on neurocognitive development.
Please PM me?
It's actually one of the rare areas where, when I go into a PB rant, I am speaking with sincere and direct experience
Except 'gone to look for Britain' scans less well and implies less promise. But it shouldn't; this medium-sized but crowded country could keep a curious man going for decades.
Drop me a line if you pass through Greater Manchester...
On Hartlepool, by the way: I haven't been since last century, but my memory of it was that as well as a lot of unprepossessing residential districts, the town contained the odd highlight worth making the visit for. The marina was nice - I bought a pair of trousers there - and the old headland is, um, atmospheric.
I'm not claiming you'll want to move there. But it has its small charms, as almost everywhere does. You can at least see why those who live there stay.
Was in Govanhill yesterday as it happens, it was giving off the hipster vibe, particularly liked the Transylvannian coffee and wine shop. The whole southside seems to be a raging ferment of hipster enterprise, can't move for outside seating, speciality coffee beans and premises being ripped out to house some new business. Can't really square it with the economic outlook tbh.
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
The left has always had a love of authoritarianism and silencing dissent. This is the result, kids being abused under the auspices of "helping".
He's a weird one, Jenkins. Often howlingly wrong, but he can write a fine line, and sometimes makes really acute judgements. He is genuinely good on architecture, his famous 1000 Churches book gets a lot of slack (perhaps out of envy for being so influential?) but it is often brilliantly right: he can sum up whole towns in a terse paragraph
For gentrified you can walk 10 minutes down the road to Strathbungo (and Govanhill - if you dare...).
Obviously Bristol well known for drugs scene and edgy, but that areas around used to be Gloucester Rd / St Paul etc. But I don't remember ever seeing smack heads injecting right next to a load of kids coming out their graduation ceremony. Also all up Gloucester, literally everything tagged to hell, not just empty walls, across windows / doors of open shops.
Even post 2008 city centre was still basically all the shops filled etc and very clean place.
I might break into two sections, northern Britain then further south (the bits I don't know). I might even try for Northern Ireland (where I have only been once)
I hope to meet you on a fittingly windswept Cumbrian beach!
One of the puberty blocking drugs was developed to chemically castrate paedophiles. Its long term effects on children are horrific.
https://gids.nhs.uk/news-and-events/regional-model-for-gender-care-announced-for-children-and-young-people/?fbclid=IwAR0bYxsglAdkhhkr1roYFgiXAcaoOeoIquIZslP9qeFyaWfaNYOzJ25PxZc
Damn if it has turned into Venice Beach, LA
I didn't head up to Clifton way, which I presume is still its own little oasis of pseudo-socialists / greenies in their multi-million quids homes complaining about the evils of capitalism....the Islington of the West Country.
couple of things.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them.
2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor.
3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
What they DO NOT need is adults cheering on their distress, welcoming them to a political movement & pushing chemical castration.
https://twitter.com/BluskyeAllison/status/1552634812413972484
The oystershack is just some sugar on the pill for me, after that I will dig deep. I really want to go to the places no one goes to (ie outsiders), or the big cities that too many Britons (especially in the south and London) blithely skip
I will report back honestly
Still rough as f**k in bits though.
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1552622178486607877
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Under 18s getting any type of surgery is exceptionally rare, and the scientific consensus on the effect of puberty blockers is they are safe with some complications, like most medication. More cis kids and cis women use puberty blockers and HRT than trans people - because early onset puberty and menopause are more common. I could go to my GP today and get testosterone blockers if I was unhappy with my receding hairline - it is the same drug. If a transwoman went to their GP for exactly the same drug, she could potentially be waiting years, with meeting after meeting, asking unscientific and invasive questions (such as personal sexual habits). This is nothing but medical gatekeeping and stigmatisation.
But my personal experience says otherwise. I have seen families broken by this ideology
Scarborough is very much a seaside resort but with a mediaeval core under a huge ruined castle - last time we were there we found Bee Orchids in the corner of the outer bailey next to Fox the Quaker's prison.
Further north the obvious places are Berwick (explore the mediaeval and Tudor town walls and barracks as well as the harbour), Bamburgh (bit of a honeypot), Lindisfarne (tidal island - but the time is well spent with a walk to the castle and widdershins around the eastern and northern coast).
Further north - St Abbs village and headland, Fast Castle, Siccar Point where Hutton gazed into the depths of time (but care - access can be difficult if wet - check first https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/huttons-unconformity/ ) - coastal walks either side of Dunbar (old seaport town), North Berwick and its law, Tantallon castle, Aberlady Bay and dunes.
But a more unusual exploration would be inland (as well?) - the realms beyond the Wall. Little explored. But for instance Wallington House, the Roman fort at High Rochester, then over Carter Bar and into the Border area with the abbeys and burghs - haven't been to Abbotsford for many years if ever. Dryburgh, Scott's View, Smailholm Tower, Melrose, Jedburgh Abbey. And, if further west enough, Hermitage in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
You could go for "The Road to Hastings Pier", or alternatively "Down and Out in Hartlepool and Hastings" if you really want to emulate Orwell.
BUT we have a FPTP electoral system, will The Climate Party take votes away from the loony faction of Tory MPs or will they take votes away from Greens, LibDems and Labour allowing those idiots to stay in place.
It is seriously down at heel but it has a new boho energy in the old centre, IIRC. I nearly ended up spending lockdown 1 there (for obscure reasons). Help
Hartlepool is terra incog
A lot of money could be saved by creating a new organisation, a sort of challenger to NICE, perhaps attached to a university, investigating and making available generic drugs, alternative treatments and therapies, and remedies that have fallen out of favour due to being unprofitable.
Tynemouth old posh, Whitley Bay upcoming hipster, Blyth junkies, Ashington (2 miles from the coast) deprived ex-mining and Berwick historic market town.
You'll see plenty of contrasts there.
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
But my understanding was that Lisa Nandy was always rather keen on the identity stuff? I may be entirely wrong.
On the article linked to: New Statesman being a bit careless with the details. They're not monkeys at Knowsley, they're baboons. Look:
Not sure if Lisa holds that view.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Ook!
A properly run trial will hopefully give us answers to that question that aren’t skewed by our own personal prejudices.
https://twitter.com/NottsCC/status/1552641510419709952
A cavalier island in puritan Lancashire.
Ordnance maps, compass, pack, sustenance
thinking and books.
Once on a walk from Bristol to Bath I followed a Greenway tunnel through closed 'round by vegetation. At the top a blond friendly Saxon farmer and his smiley blond son offered me water from their farmyard tap.
The path then led to the edge of a field. Standing with my back to an eerie impenetrable standing of woods and looking out over the rolling field my mind wandered to our history. Ordinary folk plowing and harvesting, sweaty. To their ancestors back in time. To the Romans and their spas. To prehistory. To the ice age when this wasn't an island but covered in ice. When Neanderthal man roamed over Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. To Africa where many subspecies of folk evolved and strove and evolved. To the super continent Pangea. To the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago. To the formation of the Solar system, hammered and violent. To the slow creation of the Sun as hydrogen gas coalesced from the death spasms of earlier stars to began fusing to form heavier elements that became us. To the big bang. To unanswered questions.
Tho I remember it being windswept, gritty but still quite picturesque rather than grim
Scotland does have some shite towns tho. The old mining towns around Glasgow are some of the most depressing on earth. And this is not a sectarian jibe, rUK has equally shitty towns (my God, parts of S Wales or north of Brum), and Scotland also has some of the most majestic scenery on earth (not true of north Birmingham)
Necropolis above the Cathedral then walk down the High St to the courthouse and Green? Some pretty mixed urban scenery there, not to mention locals. Not sure how safe the Necro is these days to explore.
(This reminds me of one of the most British pieces of music ever written: Sheffield Sex City, by Pulp, the opening to which is just Jarvis Cocker reading out a lot of Sheffield suburbs (as well as the small town of Wombwell outside of Barnsley, because it sounds vaguely rude). Weirdly evocative.)
I once had a job which involved looking at potential sites for housing land. I saw a lot of bits of the country no-one really visits. It was pretty varied: I spent days in South Lakeland, Ryedale, Wiltshire, but also days in Walsall, Bolton, North Warwickshire. But even the boring bits of Britain are interesting if you look at them in the right way.