About the elderly our 8 year old grandson said to his Grandma a couple of days ago. 'How old are you Grandma?' When she replied 'I am 82' his face showed great concern as it is not on his agenda that his Grandma would not always be there for him
A bit harsh to describe an 8 year old as elderly. I know they start early these days.
He is a very wise young man and I am sure you understand my point
Is he a 'G' - down the family name line, and inheriting the castle? ( I know you don't have a castle)
About the elderly our 8 year old grandson said to his Grandma a couple of days ago. 'How old are you Grandma?' When she replied 'I am 82' his face showed great concern as it is not on his agenda that his Grandma would not always be there for him
A bit harsh to describe an 8 year old as elderly. I know they start early these days.
He is a very wise young man and I am sure you understand my point
Is he a 'G' - down the family name line, and inheriting the castle? ( I know you don't have a castle)
He is a Griff but there is no castle !!!
Well, I hope he thrives. If there's a little bit of the history that you and others have established then so much the better.
About the elderly our 8 year old grandson said to his Grandma a couple of days ago. 'How old are you Grandma?' When she replied 'I am 82' his face showed great concern as it is not on his agenda that his Grandma would not always be there for him
A bit harsh to describe an 8 year old as elderly. I know they start early these days.
He is a very wise young man and I am sure you understand my point
Better stay around then! Lots of good food, good walks, eliminate stress, stay young.
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
I'm getting to the point where I wish the bloody aliens just turn up and introduce themselves as transgender aliens who started COVID, just to shut Leon up.
It’s be a nice touch if they wear kilts and play the pipes.
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
It is comparing one group of people with another who commit terrible violence, just after an act of violence by that group.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
What have the Romans done for us?
At least they weren't woke.
… although they did enjoy slavery.
The Tories have gone so doo-lally that given a choice between
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
It is comparing one group of people with another who commit terrible violence, just after an act of violence by that group.
He is making a philosophical point which to me is interesting and has some merit. But off you go and do the snowflake thing. You're the kind of twat who would complain about being offended at a Jerry Sadowitz gig
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent ⚡️Governor: Russian army command leaves Kherson.
According to Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim, the Russian army command has been moving to the left bank of the Dnipro River. 4:39 PM · Aug 13, 2022
The Ukrainians have found a Russian general and not blown him up?
I dunno, standards are just dropping everywhere.
They have however wrecked the last vehicle bridge, at least for present. Looks a bit tricky West of the Dnieper for the Russians. They will be swimming home soon.
I'm getting to the point where I wish the bloody aliens just turn up and introduce themselves as transgender aliens who started COVID, just to shut Leon up.
It’s be a nice touch if they wear kilts and play the pipes.
If they did would you repatriate yourself? (You clearly miss some unscratched itch about the UK)
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
What have the Romans done for us?
At least they weren't woke.
You sure? Even bloody tables were declared female. Edit: more precisely, 'feminine'. Though they had a neuter gender as well. Would be useful today.
I think their enthusiastic embracing of slavery probably rules the Romans out from being very woke.....
Well all the men wore skirts. Who can forget Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in that tight, thigh-skimming number. Cleopatra didn't get a look in.
Not even when he crossed his legs?
They were on display almost the entire time istr. Pretty distracting.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax will almost certainly happen if Starmer becomes PM
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
What have the Romans done for us?
At least they weren't woke.
You sure? Even bloody tables were declared female. Edit: more precisely, 'feminine'. Though they had a neuter gender as well. Would be useful today.
I think their enthusiastic embracing of slavery probably rules the Romans out from being very woke.....
Well all the men wore skirts. Who can forget Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in that tight, thigh-skimming number. Cleopatra didn't get a look in.
Not even when he crossed his legs?
They were on display almost the entire time istr. Pretty distracting.
It is a great thing about cinema that we get to fall in love with impossible partners for a short while. And for that short while there's nobody to wreck the fantasy.
Regarding Covid, I think it's great that we seem to have got back to the vast majority of people, media, politicians etc not giving it one moments thought. I'm going to an event today that 12 month's ago I needed a Covid pass for and everyone would be wearing masks on the journey over. No more. Despite the latest ONS survey saying 1 in 25 have Covid right now. It's just background noise like every other virus, and there's no new Covid variant that will put us back in lockdown or in masks en mass.
Of the Covid response, my main criticism is that we were too accepting of restrictions after the elderly and vulnerable were double vaccinated. The removal of all restrictions should have happened prior to summer 2021 and have never returned in any form.
But it's behind us now, which isn't the case in every country, so it could be worse.
GDP is a funny metric though isn't it. Apparently one of the main reason for its Q2 fall was the winding down of Covid activity - track and trace and vaccinations etc. Yet it's surely a good thing that all that is no longer necessary.
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent ⚡️Governor: Russian army command leaves Kherson.
According to Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim, the Russian army command has been moving to the left bank of the Dnipro River. 4:39 PM · Aug 13, 2022
The Ukrainians have found a Russian general and not blown him up?
I dunno, standards are just dropping everywhere.
They have however wrecked the last vehicle bridge, at least for present. Looks a bit tricky West of the Dnieper for the Russians. They will be swimming home soon.
Imagine being on the enemy’s bridge rebuilding team. As soon as it looks like they might have one serviceable route over the river to Kherson, another HIMARS empties half a dozen rockets back onto the bridge!
If the general has left the city, the rest of the troops won’t know what to do with themselves, will use up all their ammo and - if they want to live - walk out with their hands up.
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
Lockdown was basically costless for fearful extremely-online people. It wasn't a zombie apocalypse. Serious disease mainly afflicted already-unwell people.
That graph is shocking: the poorest 20% in England & her satellite states are going to get absolutely hammered compared to the richest 20%.
While the poor suffer more than the rich nearly everywhere, they are better protected in France, Italy, Germany etc
Isn't the greatest per capita consumption of energy in Scandinavia? I am sure someone will find a graph that shows this. Clearing the roads of snow (for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres) and heating 200-300 sqm houses favoured by the most people through minus 30 degree winters is bound to use up vast amounts of energy, mainly oil and gas. It seems to me like, if you go through Sweden or Finland - which I have done a lot; much of it is actually also suburban sprawl. They have never built to any density because of the unlimited supply of land. This sprawl just goes on for miles. House after house (200-300 sqm) with 3-4 cars. Also... limited use of public transport. So the trains are empty and cost little or nothing to use. And lots are actually diesel. Even busses - massively subsidised and good, but not used all that much .. not on anything like the density in the UK. Because of the disparate suburban planning over the past decades , things like shopping centres and swimming pools are located out of centre. So to get from A to B by bus, even though its possible, it takes an hour to to a journey that takes 15 minutes by car. Outside the progressive cities with new apartment blocks and townhouse style developments, it seems like people are driving everywhere and aspiring to live to these timber framed modernist mansions. I don't see how that can all be improved particularly.
So even if you have redistributive policies in Sweden, it won't correct a more fundamental problem which will take a lot longer to resolve. By contrast, countries like the UK could adopt redistributive policies a lot more quickly and painlessly.
We have PB Scotch Experts. Now we have a PB Swedish Expert telling someone who lives in Sweden what living in Sweden is like. PB, there’s nothing like it!
Yeah, well firstly, you don't know anything about me and what I may or not know about Sweden. Secondly the poster just suggested that the country with the second highest per capita consumption of energy in the EU (IE Sweden) was a good country to be a consumer, when raw energy prices are rising very significantly. It is perfectly reasonable to point out in response that Sweden has an objective problem with consumption, even if the impact may be masked by redistributive policies.
Huh? It wasn’t me who said that, it was The Economist. Hint: click the link.
Yes... but you were agreeing with it. Leaving this aside, I would be interested in your thoughts about energy consumption in Sweden. Am I right or wrong in my basic analysis of the problem?
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax will almost certainly happen if Starmer becomes PM
What is devomax? What currently reserved powers would be devolved?
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
The comparison between "Islamic fundamentalists" and "wokeists"?
Some valid features, some not.
If we don't get into quarrel about the term 'woke', they both seem to be keen on banning or cancelling things they disapprove of.
Only one of the two believes in murdering people they disapprove of, though if we are fair it is a tiny deranged minority of Islamic fundamentalists who believe in doing that - though a larger minority express support, but oppose action on the basis that countries such as ours are not governed by a particular version of Islamic law.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
That’s the sort of list you would think a Labour party would want to implement. However, Scottish Labour opposed most of them.
Both Slab and the SLDs have been blinded by hatred. There are absolutely tons of policy areas where they have common cause with the SNP, but because they want to shag a different flag they pretend they oppose everything.
The problem isn't the Tory party, its the voters. People want contradictory things but refuse to accept there is a contradiction. A series of events have empowered them to believe their genuine ignorance on a subject holds the same weight as actual knowledge and experience. They aren't wrong, the experts are wrong.
There is a way through though - find us a new Blair or Thatcher, someone who does know what they are talking about and has political umph. People said "that is Boris" but as all but the remaining holdouts now accept Boris stood for nothing, with no great policies delivered and settled in his time.
Ummm, BoZo was the politician more than any other in my lifetime that told voters they could have contradictory things. Denied the contradictions. That experts were to be derided.
He was the problem
The fact his opponents failed to make their case shows how poor they were
Not entirely.
If you are in a debate with someone shameless and dishonest enough, it can be really hard to persuade an audience.
It tends to go this;
BORIS-ALIKE Something involving cake and eat it
RORY-ALIKE (because he at least tried) That's not possible- once you have eaten your cake, it's gone...
BORIS-ALIKE There you go, with your doomy gloomy negativity. Remember we are Great Britain! We are being held back by your fears... (Continues ad nauseum.)
Boris style cakeism is a really attractive prospectus. It's awfully hard to argue against, because deep down we want it to be true, and want to believe that there's some meanie stopping it being true for us. That's been the case since the apple/snake/Eve fiasco in Genesis.
It would have been better for the UK had someone successfully argued us out of Borisism, but I'm not convinced that was possible.
It would have been better for the Conservatives and the UK to have not fallen for Borisism, but that required human nature to be something it isn't.
The culpability for (gestures round) all of this belongs with the clique who proposed it, who lied to the public about it, who smeared and deposed those who questioned it.
Not particularly with those who fell for it, and certainly not with those who did their best to argue against it.
Unless you had a better plan to argue against Boris, in which case I'm all ears.
And unless he didn't vote for the Conservatives when Mr Johnson was their leader.
I want to make this clear
I supported Johnson on brexit, covid and Ukraine but he lost me from Paterson onwards
Starmer would have had our economy in lockdown forever if he could, and it is to Johnson's credit he opened the economy when he did
That's a very silly thing to write. Starmer wanted us "in lockdown forever"?
Profoundly stupid read of the situation that isn't worthy of yours usual sage analysis.
Forever is a stretch, but Starmer was ALWAYS on the side of more and longer restrictions.
I accept forever was one of my rather exaggerated comments but there is no doubt Starmer favoured a much stricter and longer lockdown and it was Johnson who made the correct decision and it has been proven as the right thing to do
It is rather hot and I apologise for my exaggeration
Boris caused longer lockdowns by always being slow to initiate a lockdown. Had we acted promptly, we would have better controlled infection rates and could’ve come out of lockdown sooner. It’s yet more short term thinking.
Oh what nonsense. Claimed by people who want to justify lockdowns. Taking away civil liberties as a precautionary measure is unacceptable and the virus would still be prevalent on our continent after any lockdown it wasn't a magic pill that would get rid of it.
What country in Europe successfully had a short, sharp lockdown that was rapidly ended and not repeated?
I can in hindsight point at a country and say we should have done that, Sweden. Can you name any country that had a rapid premature lockdown that worked, fixed things and meant coming out of lockdown sooner?
Following the Swedish model would have been utterly catastrophic. Look at their death rates compared to their immediate neighbours. Thousands of additional people died in Sweden who did not need to because of the route they chose. And that is in spite of the fact that far more people in Sweden work from home anyway so the effects of a lockdown would have been considerably less on their economy.
Many - if not all - European countries got their policies wrong in the pandemic in one way or another. Sweden is certainly no exception.
The thousands of lives saved are people in institutions. If anything like the rest of Europe, these are places where most people have dementia and nobody is coming out alive. To sacrifice everyone's wellbeing for two years is an excessive price to pay for nursing home safety.
A completely false statement. Most of those who died were not people living in nursing homes. Of course if you are advocating just killing off older people to save money then you are welcome to make that claim but you will be treated with the contempt you deserve.
Not simply to save money. And nobody is proposing euthanasia, anyone who dies from a virus is dying from natural causes.
The NHS has never had a blank cheque and nor should it, as even others agree already.
If the cost of keeping one elderly and vulnerable person from having a death from entirely natural causes is ten million pounds and taking a thousand children out of education for six months then is it worthy of "contempt" to question whether that is an acceptable price?
Just stick your granny outside in the snow. If she dies of the cold then it is because of natural causes.
Twat.
Everyone's going to die. You won't live forever by shutting down public life forever. So yes, everything is about choices as to who should suffer to extend whose life, and the wellbeing we win or lose for everyone as a result.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax is beside the point. It just cuts Scotland further adrift - it promotes no mutual understanding or recognition between the constituent parts of the UK.
What we really need is a change for the whole UK. That change imo is a Council of the Isles that represents the home nations, and the UK Government, and has a veto on major strategic issues. 5 votes. So that in theory, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland could veto something like going to war. That's real influence, real recognition of nationhood.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
What have the Romans done for us?
At least they weren't woke.
You sure? Even bloody tables were declared female. Edit: more precisely, 'feminine'. Though they had a neuter gender as well. Would be useful today.
I think their enthusiastic embracing of slavery probably rules the Romans out from being very woke.....
Well all the men wore skirts. Who can forget Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in that tight, thigh-skimming number. Cleopatra didn't get a look in.
You are quite gay, aren't you?
I do have a feminine side, yes. Keep it hidden on here though in case people are discomforted which I don't want. So on here I'm Solid Bloke.
Prediction: When Trump wins he will attempt to disband the FBI as punishment. Just like his cult followers like Lake want.
Nothing can interfere with their hero's status as the new god and king of america.
My guess is that Leon's newest heart throb, Kari Lake, is NOT a true Trump cult follower, but rather another opportunist hoping to ride to power by publicly sucking up to the Sage > Suspect of Mar-a-Lardo.
For example, like Vance in Ohio and Oz in West New Jersey.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax will almost certainly happen if Starmer becomes PM
No chance.
1. He doesn’t want to 2. It’d be political suicide
His strategy is the same as Truss’s: oppose democracy and ignore the Jocks. That won’t work either. It’s a tactic, not a strategy.
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
Lockdown was basically costless for fearful extremely-online people. It wasn't a zombie apocalypse. Serious disease mainly afflicted already-unwell people.
You think it was costless for me? You try lockdown with a severely autistic child.
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent ⚡️Governor: Russian army command leaves Kherson.
According to Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim, the Russian army command has been moving to the left bank of the Dnipro River. 4:39 PM · Aug 13, 2022
The Ukrainians have found a Russian general and not blown him up?
I dunno, standards are just dropping everywhere.
They have however wrecked the last vehicle bridge, at least for present. Looks a bit tricky West of the Dnieper for the Russians. They will be swimming home soon.
Imagine being on the enemy’s bridge rebuilding team. As soon as it looks like they might have one serviceable route over the river to Kherson, another HIMARS empties half a dozen rockets back onto the bridge!
If the general has left the city, the rest of the troops won’t know what to do with themselves, will use up all their ammo and - if they want to live - walk out with their hands up.
At uni a friend of mine was doing civil engineering as part of the army's OTC. He was very realistic of the target that would be on his back if he had to rebuild a bridge in an active warzone.
(He also showed me the first GPS receiver unit I saw; a large unit he had 'borrowed' for a week from his group.)
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent ⚡️Governor: Russian army command leaves Kherson.
According to Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim, the Russian army command has been moving to the left bank of the Dnipro River. 4:39 PM · Aug 13, 2022
The Ukrainians have found a Russian general and not blown him up?
I dunno, standards are just dropping everywhere.
They have however wrecked the last vehicle bridge, at least for present. Looks a bit tricky West of the Dnieper for the Russians. They will be swimming home soon.
Imagine being on the enemy’s bridge rebuilding team. As soon as it looks like they might have one serviceable route over the river to Kherson, another HIMARS empties half a dozen rockets back onto the bridge!
If the general has left the city, the rest of the troops won’t know what to do with themselves, will use up all their ammo and - if they want to live - walk out with their hands up.
Certainly West of the Dnieper the supply situation will deteriote by the day, particularly if the Ukranians target the boat crossings, and bridge repair teams with artillery. I think the desperate Russian attacks are trying to push the Ukranians out of range for artillery.
It will be shooting fish in a barrel for Ukraine, particularly as they seem to have established local air superiority.
Relegation has to be a serious risk. I have rarely seen such a dysfunctional team in the EPL. The indivdual players are, in general, really good, but the sum is so much less than the parts and it is getting worse.
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
You shouldn't still be having to do this Andy - but big ups.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
SNP have done sod all, if they had done anything you'd be able to point out achievements
Says the PB Scotch expert. You Labourites are just as bad as your Tory buddies.
Queensferry Crossing
Child Payment Baby Box
Free bus travel for under 22s
Free period products
Dentistry charges scrapped
Music tuition fees scrapped
Best Performing NHS in the UK
Extended free personal care
Record high health funding
A dozen new Social Security benefits
Free school meals for P1-3s
Best performing A&E in the UK
Record high investment in education
Declared a climate emergency - 1st in world
Planting 22 million trees a year
Scottish National Investment Bank
Building more affordable homes
Small Business Bonus
Expanded MA scheme
Expanded EMAS
School Clothing Grant
Young Person's Guarantee
Investing more in life sciences
Free eye tests
Record support for college students
New progressive tax system
Carer's Allowance Supplement
Record low crime - lowest in over 40 years
Young Carer Grant
Violence Reduction Unit
Record investment in active travel
Best Start Grant
Aberdeen Bypass
Driving forward land reform
Lowering emissions
More investment in Climate Justice Fund
National Islands Plan
Community Empowerment Act
National Marine Plan
Helping deliver COP26
Outperforming UK on foreign investment
Continuing to outperform UK on productivity
Delivering Equally Safe Fund
First gender neutral cabinet in the UK
Keeping Scottish Water in public hands
Ferguson's shipyard jobs saved
BiFab saved
Prestwick Airport saved
Violent crime down
Weapon/knife crime significantly down
Handling the Covid crisis
What have the Romans done for us?
At least they weren't woke.
You sure? Even bloody tables were declared female. Edit: more precisely, 'feminine'. Though they had a neuter gender as well. Would be useful today.
I think their enthusiastic embracing of slavery probably rules the Romans out from being very woke.....
Well all the men wore skirts. Who can forget Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in that tight, thigh-skimming number. Cleopatra didn't get a look in.
You are quite gay, aren't you?
I do have a feminine side, yes. Keep it hidden on here though in case people are discomforted which I don't want. So on here I'm Solid Bloke.
I've noticed it many times, so it's not that well hidden!
You have quite an effeminate commenting style, I sometimes wonder if you are a woman (don't take that the wrong way - or, er, the right way)(Oh, you know what I mean)
Effeminate is not pejorative. I mean it in the sense of "feminised masculine"
God, this is such a minefield, these days. No wonder I talk about aliens instead
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
It is comparing one group of people with another who commit terrible violence, just after an act of violence by that group.
He is making a philosophical point which to me is interesting and has some merit. But off you go and do the snowflake thing. You're the kind of twat who would complain about being offended at a Jerry Sadowitz gig
About the elderly our 8 year old grandson said to his Grandma a couple of days ago. 'How old are you Grandma?' When she replied 'I am 82' his face showed great concern as it is not on his agenda that his Grandma would not always be there for him
A bit harsh to describe an 8 year old as elderly. I know they start early these days.
He is a very wise young man and I am sure you understand my point
Is he a 'G' - down the family name line, and inheriting the castle? ( I know you don't have a castle)
Can you be sure of that? Wales is full of castles. Look at their heritage site, Cadw. It's not quite one castle per family but it can't be far off. https://cadw.gov.wales
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax will almost certainly happen if Starmer becomes PM
No chance.
1. He doesn’t want to 2. It’d be political suicide
His strategy is the same as Truss’s: oppose democracy and ignore the Jocks. That won’t work either. It’s a tactic, not a strategy.
His strategy is the same as Truss' to refuse indyref2 yes.
Starmer is however much more pro devomax than Truss and has already suggested a programme of more devolution under a Labour government he leads, with Gordon Brown lead adviser on that project
Prediction: When Trump wins he will attempt to disband the FBI as punishment. Just like his cult followers like Lake want.
Nothing can interfere with their hero's status as the new god and king of america.
My guess is that Leon's newest heart throb, Kari Lake, is NOT a true Trump cult follower, but rather another opportunist hoping to ride to power by publicly sucking up to the Sage > Suspect of Mar-a-Lardo.
For example, like Vance in Ohio and Oz in West New Jersey.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent ⚡️Governor: Russian army command leaves Kherson.
According to Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim, the Russian army command has been moving to the left bank of the Dnipro River. 4:39 PM · Aug 13, 2022
The Ukrainians have found a Russian general and not blown him up?
I dunno, standards are just dropping everywhere.
They have however wrecked the last vehicle bridge, at least for present. Looks a bit tricky West of the Dnieper for the Russians. They will be swimming home soon.
Imagine being on the enemy’s bridge rebuilding team. As soon as it looks like they might have one serviceable route over the river to Kherson, another HIMARS empties half a dozen rockets back onto the bridge!
If the general has left the city, the rest of the troops won’t know what to do with themselves, will use up all their ammo and - if they want to live - walk out with their hands up.
Certainly West of the Dnieper the supply situation will deteriote by the day, particularly if the Ukranians target the boat crossings, and bridge repair teams with artillery. I think the desperate Russian attacks are trying to push the Ukranians out of range for artillery.
It will be shooting fish in a barrel for Ukraine, particularly as they seem to have established local air superiority.
If they could retake Kherson without destroying the city or taking massive losses that would be great. The Russians might try a Dunkirk style retreat or otherwise have to surrender.
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
I know it’s bad to celebrate the misfortune of others, but I will make exceptions for the final Russian defeat in Ukraine, and Man United being relegated.
Prediction: When Trump wins he will attempt to disband the FBI as punishment. Just like his cult followers like Lake want.
Nothing can interfere with their hero's status as the new god and king of america.
My guess is that Leon's newest heart throb, Kari Lake, is NOT a true Trump cult follower, but rather another opportunist hoping to ride to power by publicly sucking up to the Sage > Suspect of Mar-a-Lardo.
For example, like Vance in Ohio and Oz in West New Jersey.
I agree - a phony. But that's kind of worse isn't it. I prefer my crazy bigots to be genuine.
I completely approve the sentiment in this Atlantic piece on the attempted murder of Rushdie.
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/08/salman-rushdie-freedom-expression-attack/671134/ ...Maybe the most jolting immediate reaction was from PEN America: “We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil.” And it’s true: What other societies have given us murdered authors? Stalin’s Soviet Union is the one that comes quickest to my mind. Osip Mandelstam dying in a prison camp. Isaac Babel executed. The Yiddish poets and writers whom the dictator ordered shot in the basement of the Lubyanka prison. Rushdie has not been targeted by his own state, of course—after living in hiding for years in London, he has lived openly in New York for the past two decades. Again, we still don’t know why he was singled out for this brutality. But just as the mind recoils at the sight of a single book burned, the spilled blood of an author inspires revulsion....
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
It is comparing one group of people with another who commit terrible violence, just after an act of violence by that group.
He is making a philosophical point which to me is interesting and has some merit. But off you go and do the snowflake thing. You're the kind of twat who would complain about being offended at a Jerry Sadowitz gig
Death versus loss of freedoms is a false dichotomy. Death takes all freedoms. Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
Yes but that was largely pre vaccination
Yes. Post-vaccination, I've never supported lockdown. I've consistently argued that it was unnecessary post-vaccination, even during the rapid rise of Omicron.
As for Leon's PREVIOUS heartthrob, Sarah Palin . . .
Alaska Survey Research, July 20-25, n = 1,219 likely voters. 2.9% margin of error (full sample) Special Election for US House - Ranked Choice Voting
Mary Sattler Peltola (Democrat) 41% Nick Begich (Republican) 30% Sarah Palin (Republican) 29%
So appears that Peltola will make the final round, facing either Begich or Palin.
Based on above, appears that difference between 2nd and 3rd might be exceeding small, but decisive to final outcome.
Because ultimate winner of special election will depend on the flow of transfers - AND number of untransferable votes - from the eliminated candidate.
Also note that on the same ballot as US House special election, will be the REGULAR primary for US House as well as US Senate and other offices.
And in the regular primary - from which the top four votegetters will advance to the November general election - there are 21 candidates on the ballot for US House, including Palin, Begich and Peltola.
My guess is that they will all make the general election Top Four, along with one other; note that after the primary candidates may drop out, as did special US House primary top 4 finisher Al Gross after the special primary.
Much like 1 picture from a dalle prompt I want to see the other 5 pictures
The retired RAF press officer, Craig Lindsay - who has kept this image for 30 years - says he has seen all six. He says they are all very similar, except the "object" is in a different place in some
Now, he could easily be a liar and he could easily be part of an elaborate hoax, but that's an odd thing to do at the end of a long career, in your 80s
To channel Mr @moonshine if this is part of Disclosure, it makes bizarre sense. The powers that be are softening us up for the final revelation, but doing it sloooooowly so we don't panic. It has now been happening for several years. Getting retired people to do it is logical, they do not have careers to damage. So maybe Craig Lindsay got a call from the RAF saying "go ahead, you can release it now"
The timing is intriguing
Thr timing being about 25-30 years since the last burst of interst in UFOs, Project Blue Book, Fortean Times type stuff?
Is it 25-30 years? Dunno
I had almost zero interest in UFOs until @moonshine alerted me to the fact something genuinely odd was happening, UFO-wise, over in America, with ex presidents, CIA chiefs, NASA chiefs, senators, FBI dudes, generals, admirals, and more, all suddenly saying Yeah there is something up there and we don't know what it is
This surreal behaviour remains the most interesting anomalous phenomenon of all, absent a video of an alien buggering an elk
Have you seen Joe Rogan’s interview with Bob Lazar, watched so far by more than 40m people?
Lazar worked in Area 51, trying to reverse-engineer the alien spaceships they keep there. He doesn’t do many interviews, like one a decade.
That is fascinating. Rogan clearly believes him. The one thing I don't get is that he says that he went to MIT, who deny it. Surely he would have some records of his time at MIT to disprove that with written correspondence (ie a degree certificate, admissions certificate, receipt for payment of fees etc) Why would MIT deny that he went there when he could so easily disprove it? Something doesn't quite add up there.
Sadly, Jaime Herrera Beutler lost her primary to Trumpista Joe Kent. Beutler was one of the ten Republican members of the House who voted to impeach Donald Trump, and had been popular in her third district. The result was close, but she has conceded: https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20220802/federal-all.html
(I was expecting her to win, narrowly, and have a 50/50 chance in the general election, since she was leading from election day, until a few days ago. I was expecting her to pull it out, since most of the votes remaining to be counted were from Clark County, the most urban part of the district. What I think I missed was that the votes were being counted in the order that they came in, and Trumpistas were, on the average, voting later.)
As for Leon's PREVIOUS heartthrob, Sarah Palin . . .
Alaska Survey Research, July 20-25, n = 1,219 likely voters. 2.9% margin of error (full sample) Special Election for US House - Ranked Choice Voting
Mary Sattler Peltola (Democrat) 41% Nick Begich (Republican) 30% Sarah Palin (Republican) 29%
So appears that Peltola will make the final round, facing either Begich or Palin.
Based on above, appears that difference between 2nd and 3rd might be exceeding small, but decisive to final outcome.
Because ultimate winner of special election will depend on the flow of transfers - AND number of untransferable votes - from the eliminated candidate.
Also note that on the same ballot as US House special election, will be the REGULAR primary for US House as well as US Senate and other offices.
And in the regular primary - from which the top four votegetters will advance to the November general election - there are 21 candidates on the ballot for US House, including Palin, Begich and Peltola.
My guess is that they will all make the general election Top Four, along with one other; note that after the primary candidates may drop out, as did special US House primary top 4 finisher Al Gross after the special primary.
But did she invite woke aliens to Earth in order to propagate Covid?
I see ManU are even more shit then Leicester this year. Brendan may not be first in the sack race after all.
I threw (away) a fiver at Erik in the sack race since he might have the worst performance to expectations ratio, even if not the worst performance.
ETA took 20/1. Current 12/1 less tempting.
I don't think Brendan will last to the international break. Our owners are not quick to sack but have clearly lost faith, as have the players. The fans did a while ago.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
The difficulty is that we have to have some leniency in the 24/7 culture. Did the lack of immediate response indicate nervousness in his office on addressing the issue? Possibly but there are plenty of other reasons why he might not have been on twitter.
The problem isn't the Tory party, its the voters. People want contradictory things but refuse to accept there is a contradiction. A series of events have empowered them to believe their genuine ignorance on a subject holds the same weight as actual knowledge and experience. They aren't wrong, the experts are wrong.
There is a way through though - find us a new Blair or Thatcher, someone who does know what they are talking about and has political umph. People said "that is Boris" but as all but the remaining holdouts now accept Boris stood for nothing, with no great policies delivered and settled in his time.
Ummm, BoZo was the politician more than any other in my lifetime that told voters they could have contradictory things. Denied the contradictions. That experts were to be derided.
He was the problem
The fact his opponents failed to make their case shows how poor they were
Not entirely.
If you are in a debate with someone shameless and dishonest enough, it can be really hard to persuade an audience.
It tends to go this;
BORIS-ALIKE Something involving cake and eat it
RORY-ALIKE (because he at least tried) That's not possible- once you have eaten your cake, it's gone...
BORIS-ALIKE There you go, with your doomy gloomy negativity. Remember we are Great Britain! We are being held back by your fears... (Continues ad nauseum.)
Boris style cakeism is a really attractive prospectus. It's awfully hard to argue against, because deep down we want it to be true, and want to believe that there's some meanie stopping it being true for us. That's been the case since the apple/snake/Eve fiasco in Genesis.
It would have been better for the UK had someone successfully argued us out of Borisism, but I'm not convinced that was possible.
It would have been better for the Conservatives and the UK to have not fallen for Borisism, but that required human nature to be something it isn't.
The culpability for (gestures round) all of this belongs with the clique who proposed it, who lied to the public about it, who smeared and deposed those who questioned it.
Not particularly with those who fell for it, and certainly not with those who did their best to argue against it.
Unless you had a better plan to argue against Boris, in which case I'm all ears.
And unless he didn't vote for the Conservatives when Mr Johnson was their leader.
I want to make this clear
I supported Johnson on brexit, covid and Ukraine but he lost me from Paterson onwards
Starmer would have had our economy in lockdown forever if he could, and it is to Johnson's credit he opened the economy when he did
That's a very silly thing to write. Starmer wanted us "in lockdown forever"?
Profoundly stupid read of the situation that isn't worthy of yours usual sage analysis.
Forever is a stretch, but Starmer was ALWAYS on the side of more and longer restrictions.
I accept forever was one of my rather exaggerated comments but there is no doubt Starmer favoured a much stricter and longer lockdown and it was Johnson who made the correct decision and it has been proven as the right thing to do
It is rather hot and I apologise for my exaggeration
Boris caused longer lockdowns by always being slow to initiate a lockdown. Had we acted promptly, we would have better controlled infection rates and could’ve come out of lockdown sooner. It’s yet more short term thinking.
Oh what nonsense. Claimed by people who want to justify lockdowns. Taking away civil liberties as a precautionary measure is unacceptable and the virus would still be prevalent on our continent after any lockdown it wasn't a magic pill that would get rid of it.
What country in Europe successfully had a short, sharp lockdown that was rapidly ended and not repeated?
I can in hindsight point at a country and say we should have done that, Sweden. Can you name any country that had a rapid premature lockdown that worked, fixed things and meant coming out of lockdown sooner?
Following the Swedish model would have been utterly catastrophic. Look at their death rates compared to their immediate neighbours. Thousands of additional people died in Sweden who did not need to because of the route they chose. And that is in spite of the fact that far more people in Sweden work from home anyway so the effects of a lockdown would have been considerably less on their economy.
Many - if not all - European countries got their policies wrong in the pandemic in one way or another. Sweden is certainly no exception.
The thousands of lives saved are people in institutions. If anything like the rest of Europe, these are places where most people have dementia and nobody is coming out alive. To sacrifice everyone's wellbeing for two years is an excessive price to pay for nursing home safety.
A completely false statement. Most of those who died were not people living in nursing homes. Of course if you are advocating just killing off older people to save money then you are welcome to make that claim but you will be treated with the contempt you deserve.
Not simply to save money. And nobody is proposing euthanasia, anyone who dies from a virus is dying from natural causes.
The NHS has never had a blank cheque and nor should it, as even others agree already.
If the cost of keeping one elderly and vulnerable person from having a death from entirely natural causes is ten million pounds and taking a thousand children out of education for six months then is it worthy of "contempt" to question whether that is an acceptable price?
Just stick your granny outside in the snow. If she dies of the cold then it is because of natural causes.
Twat.
Everyone's going to die. You won't live forever by shutting down public life forever. So yes, everything is about choices as to who should suffer to extend whose life, and the wellbeing we win or lose for everyone as a result.
So I take you are one of the people who would visit an immunocompronised friend whilst you have Covid then?
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
15 years of PB and I can't recall a single SLab poster.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
He doesn't irritate me and I am a mostly life long Tory. I think he irritates a few people on the extremes because he is boringly electable, unlike Corbyn, so therefore they have to slag him off by saying he is boring. Your idol, Mr Johnson was definitely not boring but was a fucking disaster and the worst PM in the history of the UK. I would quite like a boring PM, but preferably not a labour one, though that looks very likely thanks to your mate "Boris".
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
The difficulty is that we have to have some leniency in the 24/7 culture. Did the lack of immediate response indicate nervousness in his office on addressing the issue? Possibly but there are plenty of other reasons why he might not have been on twitter.
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
15 years of PB and I can't recall a single SLab poster.
As for Leon's PREVIOUS heartthrob, Sarah Palin . . .
Alaska Survey Research, July 20-25, n = 1,219 likely voters. 2.9% margin of error (full sample) Special Election for US House - Ranked Choice Voting
Mary Sattler Peltola (Democrat) 41% Nick Begich (Republican) 30% Sarah Palin (Republican) 29%
So appears that Peltola will make the final round, facing either Begich or Palin.
Based on above, appears that difference between 2nd and 3rd might be exceeding small, but decisive to final outcome.
Because ultimate winner of special election will depend on the flow of transfers - AND number of untransferable votes - from the eliminated candidate.
Also note that on the same ballot as US House special election, will be the REGULAR primary for US House as well as US Senate and other offices.
And in the regular primary - from which the top four votegetters will advance to the November general election - there are 21 candidates on the ballot for US House, including Palin, Begich and Peltola.
My guess is that they will all make the general election Top Four, along with one other; note that after the primary candidates may drop out, as did special US House primary top 4 finisher Al Gross after the special primary.
But did she invite woke aliens to Earth in order to propagate Covid?
Mary Peltola? Doubt it!
As for Sarah Palin, only IF she could turn said aliens into a profit center. (As with Trump & nuke secrets.)
There's a really *nasty* comparison in that tweet, and I'm unsurprised that it's passed you by.
I really only posted it for the Sadowitz screenshot, but I now note he is comparing the cancellation of Sadowitz to the stabbing of Rushdie. Which seems perfectly fair, albeit controversial, they are both arguably symptoms of the same problem - the new censorship, which comes from many sides (two of them being Wokeness, and Islamic intolerence of critique)
It is comparing one group of people with another who commit terrible violence, just after an act of violence by that group.
He is making a philosophical point which to me is interesting and has some merit. But off you go and do the snowflake thing. You're the kind of twat who would complain about being offended at a Jerry Sadowitz gig
A "philosophical point"? ... lol
Ah, I only popped on for a minute and it is a @kinabalu and @leon punchup. Where is my popcorn?
Stuart and co fear Starmer because he'd run a good Government which would blunt the need for independence.
Perhaps the SNP should propose some policies and we can look at them. Their record in Government is a dismal failure.
Propose policies? Ho ho. There speaks someone firmly locked in Opposition Mode. FYI the SNP have been in government for fifteen years, and have now won eleven elections in a row. Lots of policies implemented and approved at the ballot box.
Welsh Labour, the only one in power, is closer to the SNP than Scottish or English Labour. Anas Sarwar would recoil in horror at some of the things Mark Drakeford says and does. Drakeford is riding high in the polls. Sarwar isn’t.
Do Scottish Labour have anyone of the quality of Mark Drakeford? No wonder Welsh Labour do well and Scottish Labour don’t.
They used to, at least at the top. But not since, I think, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
I had high hopes for Wendy Alexander. But she didn't really make much of a mark in the role. I don't know enough about internal SLab politics to know if she was being undermined/let-down by rival factions or was just 'not that good'.
That was a long time ago but from memory WA was widely regarded as being stabbed in the back by her friends*. Henry McLeish, her predecessor, was nominally forced out because of subletting his constituency office and forgetting to register it etc. This came out because the story emerged in a newspaper (can't recall which one). Howsoever that happened, as I recall Mr McLeish's leadership did not sit well with certain West Central Belt elements (he being from Fife).
*Edit: partly cos she wanted to take a pro-active approach and declare an indyref early, before the SNP had completely mobilised.
It still baffles me that SLab aren't even that big on Gordon Brown-esque 'Devo Max'. It seems like such an obvious policy play and yet...
Then again, many things about SLab baffle me.
Devo Max was, and is, a marketing ploy: all trappings no substance.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
Devomax is beside the point. It just cuts Scotland further adrift - it promotes no mutual understanding or recognition between the constituent parts of the UK.
What we really need is a change for the whole UK. That change imo is a Council of the Isles that represents the home nations, and the UK Government, and has a veto on major strategic issues. 5 votes. So that in theory, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland could veto something like going to war. That's real influence, real recognition of nationhood.
However, it is a novel idea. Undoubtedly attractive to many old Scottish Liberals, Home Rulers, (Proper) Scottish Tories and Radical Socialists. Shame they’re a’ deid!
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
He doesn't irritate me and I am a mostly life long Tory. I think he irritates a few people on the extremes because he is boringly electable, unlike Corbyn, so therefore they have to slag him off by saying he is boring. Your idol, Mr Johnson was definitely not boring but was a fucking disaster and the worst PM in the history of the UK. I would quite like a boring PM, but preferably not a labour one, though that looks very likely thanks to your mate "Boris".
One of the most competent managers I ever knew was utterly boring and beige. But immensely competent. One of the worst managers I ever knew was the exact opposite.
Although a touch of the showbiz is necessary in politics, a bit of salesmanship. Especially if you want to lead public opinion, rather than follow it.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
He doesn't irritate me and I am a mostly life long Tory. I think he irritates a few people on the extremes because he is boringly electable, unlike Corbyn, so therefore they have to slag him off by saying he is boring. Your idol, Mr Johnson was definitely not boring but was a fucking disaster and the worst PM in the history of the UK. I would quite like a boring PM, but preferably not a labour one, though that looks very likely thanks to your mate "Boris".
He offends a certain political sensibility- that politics is all about Great Characters. isam, late of this parish, was a great exponent of that theory.
It links to the eurothing as well- almost by definition, the EEC/EU system favours boring spods. And some flamboyant people hate that.
I worry that Starmer won't win, when push comes to shove. But whilst his worldview isn't mine, and I won't agree with everything he does, he's probably the PM the country nerds needs in 2024.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
He doesn't irritate me and I am a mostly life long Tory. I think he irritates a few people on the extremes because he is boringly electable, unlike Corbyn, so therefore they have to slag him off by saying he is boring. Your idol, Mr Johnson was definitely not boring but was a fucking disaster and the worst PM in the history of the UK. I would quite like a boring PM, but preferably not a labour one, though that looks very likely thanks to your mate "Boris".
One of the most competent managers I ever knew was utterly boring and beige. But immensely competent. One of the worst managers I ever knew was the exact opposite.
Although a touch of the showbiz is necessary in politics, a bit of salesmanship. Especially if you want to lead public opinion, rather than follow it.
I can remember Cameron being slagged off for being a "chameleon" and too this or too that. It is just people like my dear friend @leon trying very hard to continue a negative meme, which will work to some extent, except, I think people are really not bothered if he is boring, any more than people were bothered about Cameron having gone to Eton.
It's a great video, and the MIG-29 is the most beautiful aircraft ever built.
As an aside, at about 1min11s in, he does a roll, and the camera remains static. How's that done, or am I missing something obvious?
Gyroscopic camera. Quite common these days and used from everything from Eurovision, to Glastonbury to MiG29s.
Ah thanks. I wouldn't have expected a gyroscope to remain quite so static when thrown about like that. Thanks.
Tech is amazing.
For all gullible idiots like to chunder on about aliens, the tech we live with every day is damned-near miraculous.
I've seen them in most places but the best was at the smaller stages at Glastonbury. The cameraman was holding up a camera in a gyroscope above his head moving through a bustling crowd and the image on the big screen was very stable. They're very good these days.
Sadly, Jaime Herrera Beutler lost her primary to Trumpista Joe Kent. Beutler was one of the ten Republican members of the House who voted to impeach Donald Trump, and had been popular in her third district. The result was close, but she has conceded: https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20220802/federal-all.html
(I was expecting her to win, narrowly, and have a 50/50 chance in the general election, since she was leading from election day, until a few days ago. I was expecting her to pull it out, since most of the votes remaining to be counted were from Clark County, the most urban part of the district. What I think I missed was that the votes were being counted in the order that they came in, and Trumpistas were, on the average, voting later.)
Yes. When JHB was less than 300 votes ahead of Kent the Friday after Primary Day, I hoped she'd survive, but feared she would not, for the reason you give: trend of latter vote counts.
Note that as a general rule of thumb in WA State, ballots that arrive earliest get processed AND counted soonest.
Strong contrast with words and behavior of Joe Kent, who day after primary was on Steve Bannon's scumcast or whatever it is, spreading usual guff about how fact he was behind in the count was ipso facto proof of fraud.
Wonder IF he thinks that HIS narrow lead is also proof positive of hanky-panky?
Of course not! Seeing as how he's yet another Putinist punk politico.
Speaking of poor Rushdie, Keir Starmer has only just now come out and said anything about the stabbing. Took him a whole day
I'm not sure that will be foremost of Mr Rushdie's concerns.
Starmer is cackhanded at this stuff. If you are going to express regrets and concern, do it quick, make it sincere. Why on earth wait a whole day, rubbing everyone the wrong way?
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
Do your Lefty friends ever say anything that doesn't make the case for the conservative viewpoint?
Comments
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-62510392
Quite an achievement at 82. Just the thought of climbing InPinn sets me shivering...
The Tories have gone so doo-lally that given a choice between
A. reintroducing slavery
B. being woke
… they’d probably choose A.
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1558298834782003200?t=kkL2HVqczIEIVkIVj4HV3g&s=19
The Republican Accountability Project
@AccountableGOP
.
@KariLake wants to disband the FBI.
https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1558108473447120899
Death takes all freedoms.
Locked in a casket is the ultimate lockdown.
A child losing a parent will have far worse mental health issues; these should not be glossed over. The majority of mental health issues were due to the disease, its effects, and fears for loved ones. And, yes, a not-inconsiderable amount due to lockdowns and restrictions. No-one's saying they were cost-free. Just that the cost of not doing them was greater than the cost of doing them.
Anyone who still tries to argue that Covid merely kills those on the verge of death after all this time can be either not arguing in good faith or so intent on their position that they push away all evidence.
It's not just about death and never has been: ten times as many are hospitalised, and the hospitalisation rate goes down slower than the straight fatality rate (it's why the IFR is higher in less developed countries even though the average age is far lower - those in middle-age and sometimes younger saved by hospital assistance here are not saved there).
The post-infection damage is a big issue. Even mild infections carry an elevated risk of heart and circulatory problems going forwards; those hospitalised have far greater risks. Not to mention the poorly understood and poorly defined Long Covid, which is a problem even if we don't fully understand it.
Ignoring it was not an option "to save the economy." People tend to notice when others are dropping down in the street and reduce activity all round. The worst economic impact comes along with the worst covid impact. Control covid and control the economic damage.
Nothing can interfere with their hero's status as the new god and king of america.
For the simple reason that it is impossible without English consent. Never gonna happen.
If the general has left the city, the rest of the troops won’t know what to do with themselves, will use up all their ammo and - if they want to live - walk out with their hands up.
Some valid features, some not.
If we don't get into quarrel about the term 'woke', they both seem to be keen on banning or cancelling things they disapprove of.
Only one of the two believes in murdering people they disapprove of, though if we are fair it is a tiny deranged minority of Islamic fundamentalists who believe in doing that - though a larger minority express support, but oppose action on the basis that countries such as ours are not governed by a particular version of Islamic law.
What we really need is a change for the whole UK. That change imo is a Council of the Isles that represents the home nations, and the UK Government, and has a veto on major strategic issues. 5 votes. So that in theory, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland could veto something like going to war. That's real influence, real recognition of nationhood.
For example, like Vance in Ohio and Oz in West New Jersey.
1. He doesn’t want to
2. It’d be political suicide
His strategy is the same as Truss’s: oppose democracy and ignore the Jocks. That won’t work either. It’s a tactic, not a strategy.
You try lockdown with a severely autistic child.
(He also showed me the first GPS receiver unit I saw; a large unit he had 'borrowed' for a week from his group.)
It will be shooting fish in a barrel for Ukraine, particularly as they seem to have established local air superiority.
You have quite an effeminate commenting style, I sometimes wonder if you are a woman (don't take that the wrong way - or, er, the right way)(Oh, you know what I mean)
Effeminate is not pejorative. I mean it in the sense of "feminised masculine"
God, this is such a minefield, these days. No wonder I talk about aliens instead
https://cadw.gov.wales
Starmer is however much more pro devomax than Truss and has already suggested a programme of more devolution under a Labour government he leads, with Gordon Brown lead adviser on that project
https://twitter.com/KieranPAndrews/status/1334915143843647488?s=20&t=IhwQnaJEBZK8D3-BzTOwVA
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18958316.keir-starmer-warn-uks-future-risk-without-real-devolution/
I had a picnic with some friends last night (and blissful it was). One of them is an old lefty - not extreme, quite centrist - but his withering contempt for Starmer was a spectacle. Starmer irritates people quite deeply
Going to type this every time you say he will (if I spot it and my keyboard is working).
Manchester United...
ETA took 20/1. Current 12/1 less tempting.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/wnf9ol/ukrainian_mig29_protecting_the_skies_above_ukraine/
It's a great video, and the MIG-29 is the most beautiful aircraft ever built.
As an aside, at about 1min11s in, he does a roll, and the camera remains static. How's that done, or am I missing something obvious?
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/08/salman-rushdie-freedom-expression-attack/671134/
...Maybe the most jolting immediate reaction was from PEN America: “We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil.” And it’s true: What other societies have given us murdered authors? Stalin’s Soviet Union is the one that comes quickest to my mind. Osip Mandelstam dying in a prison camp. Isaac Babel executed. The Yiddish poets and writers whom the dictator ordered shot in the basement of the Lubyanka prison. Rushdie has not been targeted by his own state, of course—after living in hiding for years in London, he has lived openly in New York for the past two decades. Again, we still don’t know why he was singled out for this brutality. But just as the mind recoils at the sight of a single book burned, the spilled blood of an author inspires revulsion....
It is not entirely historically accurate, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Parish_Lovejoy
Who wants to offer me odds?
Post-vaccination, I've never supported lockdown. I've consistently argued that it was unnecessary post-vaccination, even during the rapid rise of Omicron.
Alaska Survey Research, July 20-25, n = 1,219 likely voters. 2.9% margin of error (full sample)
Special Election for US House - Ranked Choice Voting
Mary Sattler Peltola (Democrat) 41%
Nick Begich (Republican) 30%
Sarah Palin (Republican) 29%
So appears that Peltola will make the final round, facing either Begich or Palin.
Based on above, appears that difference between 2nd and 3rd might be exceeding small, but decisive to final outcome.
Because ultimate winner of special election will depend on the flow of transfers - AND number of untransferable votes - from the eliminated candidate.
Also note that on the same ballot as US House special election, will be the REGULAR primary for US House as well as US Senate and other offices.
And in the regular primary - from which the top four votegetters will advance to the November general election - there are 21 candidates on the ballot for US House, including Palin, Begich and Peltola.
My guess is that they will all make the general election Top Four, along with one other; note that after the primary candidates may drop out, as did special US House primary top 4 finisher Al Gross after the special primary.
The one thing I don't get is that he says that he went to MIT, who deny it.
Surely he would have some records of his time at MIT to disprove that with written correspondence (ie a degree certificate, admissions certificate, receipt for payment of fees etc)
Why would MIT deny that he went there when he could so easily disprove it?
Something doesn't quite add up there.
(I was expecting her to win, narrowly, and have a 50/50 chance in the general election, since she was leading from election day, until a few days ago. I was expecting her to pull it out, since most of the votes remaining to be counted were from Clark County, the most urban part of the district. What I think I missed was that the votes were being counted in the order that they came in, and Trumpistas were, on the average, voting later.)
Manchester United = Stepmom
However there is this:
https://twitter.com/MichaelLCrick/status/1558384760979947520?s=20&t=BXBTQCr5BWp_yRjw_f8m_g
To be fair to Corbyn he got in there earlier.
Tech is amazing.
For all gullible idiots like to chunder on about aliens, the tech we live with every day is damned-near miraculous.
Then again I was there last season.
As for Sarah Palin, only IF she could turn said aliens into a profit center. (As with Trump & nuke secrets.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_Isles
However, it is a novel idea. Undoubtedly attractive to many old Scottish Liberals, Home Rulers, (Proper) Scottish Tories and Radical Socialists. Shame they’re a’ deid!
Although a touch of the showbiz is necessary in politics, a bit of salesmanship. Especially if you want to lead public opinion, rather than follow it.
It links to the eurothing as well- almost by definition, the EEC/EU system favours boring spods. And some flamboyant people hate that.
I worry that Starmer won't win, when push comes to shove. But whilst his worldview isn't mine, and I won't agree with everything he does, he's probably the PM the country nerds needs in 2024.
[Revealing typo left in]
Note that as a general rule of thumb in WA State, ballots that arrive earliest get processed AND counted soonest.
BTW, here is take of JHB's hometown newspaper;
https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/aug/11/in-our-view-herrera-beutler-graceful-in-face-of-defeat/
Strong contrast with words and behavior of Joe Kent, who day after primary was on Steve Bannon's scumcast or whatever it is, spreading usual guff about how fact he was behind in the count was ipso facto proof of fraud.
Wonder IF he thinks that HIS narrow lead is also proof positive of hanky-panky?
Of course not! Seeing as how he's yet another Putinist punk politico.