Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
As so often with Spiked one already knows what the thrust of the argument will be without having to read the article. Which does save time.
On this one he's correct, however, Where Just Stop Oil or similar are the subject, the Clarkson "Eco-Mentalist" jibe is appropriate.
One of the famous Insulate Britain "Daily Mail Four" lives a few miles from me, and turns out to have a very nice old farmhouse where she rents out poorly insulated holiday accommodation for many hundreds of £££ per week.
I am not watching the Supreme Court hearings, but my personal view is that even an advisory referendum on constitutional matters falls outside the Scottish government’s remit.
As would, for example, advertising in support of independence.
I think on balance I agree, although you end up at a thorny situation. In 19th century USA, I believe that the southern states had the right to secede from the union. Does Scotland have the right to do the same from the UK? I assume there was no article 50 in the act of Union?
You only have to read the words of the statute. 'Reserved' means reserved to the UK parliament and therefore not delegated.
"General reservations The Constitution 1 The following aspects of the constitution are reserved matters, that is—
(a) the Crown, including succession to the Crown and a regency,
(b) the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England......"
A referendum (whether binding or not) as to whether the balance of opinion in Scotland favours change in the constitutional matter of the union, and organised according to law (ie not a large opinion poll but a legislated matter) is so plainly a reserved matter that I would say the Scottish government's case has virtually Zero chance of success.
BTW by parity of reasoning if the Scottish government can do this, they can also hold a referendum on abolishing the monarchy for Scotland, and removing all armed forces.
I would put it as 66/1 the Scots to win this case.
Even the Lord Advocate clearly does not believe that this falls within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The SNP's own written submissions really failed to address the wording of the legislation which the SC has to apply, relying instead on inherent rights to self determination which in some way require the SC to ignore the law as it is and recognise some amorphous, overwhelming principle. It's an offer they have declined before and they will do so this time too.
I don't think that's what their written submission does at all.
Their written submissions seems to me to suggest
That the legislation could be interpreted broadly (anything even remotely connected to the reserved matter is reserved, even if it doesn't affect the law on reserved matters) or narrowly (only legal changes on reserved matters are reserved). This referendum being advisory only doesn't change any reserved matters, so would be legal under a narrow reading. That under international law Scotland should have a right to self-determination. UK law is normally interpreted where it can be to be consistent in both national and international law. Therefore the narrow interpretation should be used.
Seems to me to be a reasonable argument. Where is the flaw on that, how is a narrow reading of the legislation inappropriate?
If this from the BBC Coverage earlier is accurate then surely SC precedent would say that an advisory-only referendum is not reserved? Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain continues to cite case law in reference to whether provisions in legislation "relate to" reserved matters.
She speaks about the European Union (Continuity) Bill which was passed by the Scottish Parliament as a result of Brexit.
She says the Supreme Court placed considerable emphasis on the need for there to be some form of practical or legal effect on the law on the reserved matter.
The lord advocate says it is implicit in the reasoning of the Supreme Court when it dealt with the reference on the European Union (Continuity) Bill that it would be reasonable to suggest that holding an advisory referendum on an issue of international affairs would not relate to a reserved matter by the Scottish Parliament.
I can only speak as a layman, but as someone who thinks the government should grant a referendum as that is the will of the elected representatives of the Scottish nation, the UK government's case does seem pretty persuasive to me.
Whilst the draft of any bill is unlikely to change, as even a Justice pointed out, it seems as though it is the job of the Lord Advocate to take a view on the competence, and she is simply reluctant to do so. If she is not willing to offer a firm view that it is or is not, then surely it falls by default? Why is it the job of the court to provide an answer to a question she is not even willing to answer? (I know there's a whole bunch of arguments about when she is able to refer a matter and what on as well, but at its heart this seems to be her job is to take a view, and she is unwilling to offer one at the moment).
The BBC live text updates also then includes a lot of stuff about how this is important, and a festering sore, which are both true, but doesn't seem like it would overrule matters of legislative procedure and whether that has been followed properly - you see that sort of argument at much much lower levels with things like public sector equality duty, or duty of care, meaning (people argue) any other rules are not relevant. And its the sort of thing the government lost, when trying to argue Brexit was really important and thus little things like parliamentayr consent were not necessary.
I hope they go big. It's not as though going slimmed down will turn republicans into monarchists, and being over the top silly is part of the brand.
It will be a big event but not as big as the Queen's coronation was and given the cost of living.
The crowning of the King and Queen Consort will also take a slightly more informal tone, more in suits etc and reflect the modern age more while still keeping the key elements
Although... real UK GDP per capita today is roughly four times what it was in 1953 (even with the relative stagnation of the last 12 years of Tory incompetence).
Presumably they have the silverware already anyway. All you need to do is to polish it up and nip out for some sunflower oil from Lidl, no need to get a jug and spoon from Lakeland.
Trouble is, a cutprice coronation will look crap. But so will an upmarket, ermine vermin laden, one, for different reasons and to different people - or even with an overlap of the two sets. An interesting dilemma to navigate.
What is needed is a less stuffy but more lavish coronation. Also it would be good to make it in some way more inclusive for the nation as a whole. Something like the Olympic Torch progression around the country would be good.
In fact, which not have Coronation Torches from all corners of the nation being run by local heroes to congregate on Buckingham Palace...
... then burn the lot down in a massive republican bonfire?*.
(*For the avoidance of doubt, the last part is a joke.)
Hmm, that's a good point. Trouble is, it now occurs to me, the Brexiters and Tory Party would want it just like it was in 1953, when they sat at daddy's knee and watched it on TV. And as evewryone else "doesn't count" it will be interesting to see what happens.
Maybe we will see the return of the King's Champion to the ceremony? He's still being appointed, he might as well do something in return.
Trot forward Sir Gavin Williamson?
Not unless he gets a very big surprise when he sees his birth certificate.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
Not sure that explains the gristle, bap and Branston’s regularly served up on my cross-country travels in the 2000s.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I really like this idea. I even like food on planes, but I think that's to do with the anticipation, the ritual.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
Not sure that explains the gristle, bap and Branston’s regularly served up on my cross-country travels in the 2000s.
Just think how bad it'd taste if the train was broken down and not moving...!
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
The ferry had fabulous food last time I was on it
DFDS Dover Calais are currently offering free hot food - they hand out vouchers at check in. The plate of chicken & chips I had was pretty good. Insane queues for the food though, because it's free.
I have been able to access a portal today which gives me sight of the current situation in respect of the pension fund of which I am a trustee. At our last official valuation, after some pretty cautious assumptions, we had 105% of the funding required. By the time of the Kamikwase budget that had gone up to 110%. Today it is at 140%. This is because although the value of our investments have fallen sharply the value of our liabilities, based upon gilt rates, have fallen much more quickly still.
Basically, the death of our DB pension system came from artificially low interest rates over very long periods of time which multiplied the capital required to pay those pensions when they became due. Increased government gilt yields will have massively (because they are so highly geared) increased pension solvency.
We have lived with a deeply distorted economy since 2008. We have encouraged debt by making it cheap, we have inflated asset prices benefiting the better off and companies which frankly should have gone to the wall have continued a zombie existence using up assets that could have been put to better use. We absolutely need to get interest rates back to something like normal, that is roughly 2% above inflation. Doing this is going to be very painful for those who borrowed large sums for mortgages on the basis that borrowing was cheap. But not doing this has increased inequality, pulled up the rungs of the housing market for our youth and completely distorted our tax system, increasing the burden on earnings but allowing massive gains to effectively go untaxed.
Yep.
We should have done an Iceland in 2008.
14 stupid, wasted years of financial repression with huge consequences for the young.
As someone who graduated in July 2008, into the great financial crisis, I feel really sorry for my contemporaries - those in their late 20’s and 30’s who have had to swim against an incredible tide, for the last decade and a half and have had to load themselves up with massive mortgages, just to get some kind of stability and raise a family.
They’re now left holding the can.
Political choices have made life very unfair for my generation.
It all could have been so different.
Personally I think the entire generation under 50 have been sacrificed.
You either can’t afford to buy a house, or you’ve bought with heavy leverage and even then are unlikely to have been able to afford a standard of accommodation accessible to the generation before you.
Even QCs now live in Archway, not Hampstead. And so on, all the way down the ladder.
The only winners are those who’ve inherited or been gifted by their parents.
Also if you are the beneficiary of house price inflation. Some people who bought houses around 2010 will have seen the prices triple. So if you bought at £200k terraced house in parts of the south east it is now worth £600k, etc. Wealth is either going to come through via inheritance/gifts or house price inflation, or a combination of both. There are lots of people under 50 who are 'winners'.
But not enough attention is paid to the fact that life is close to impossible for a large number of people. If you are in debt and only get offered precarious 30 hour a week 'part time' work, you are just never going to get on the ladder to anywhere and will be dependent on the state for the whole of your life. There just seem to be millions of people in this position. I would say that many of the families in my son's school class are in this position. Who exactly in the government is looking out for these people and trying to solve this problem? I don't think anyone is.
I agree strongly about those at the very bottom (or near bottom), but I don’t think even those who got on the property market in 2010 are really winners.
They tended to buy already over-valued properties, and as I said, had to over-leverage themselves to do so. House price inflation of course has flattered them..until they need to move house…
Hence my main argument; the entire under 50s have been blighted, even if the bad fortune is unevenly distributed.
Are you suggesting that people shouldn't have gone in to the property market in 2010 and rented for the last 13 years instead? We bought a flat because we didn't want the uncertainty of renting, and with no expectation of prices rising. But the valuation has doubled. With our current earnings and low fixed rates we could pay most of the mortgage off in the next 5 years. Even if the forthcoming crash halves the value of the flat, we could sell it and afford almost any house we want instead, assuming they also halve in value, whereas we can't afford them now due to the amount of borrowing we'd need to do. How are we not winning? It just seems to me like we are winning in every scenario, and I know many people well under 50 in a similar position. This is not to boast but to point out the problem is that the situation is deeply uneven.
Certainly not.
You see some arguing on here that mortgage holders should not have borrowed and I hold that idea in contempt.
My belief though is that, as well as you’ve done, you are probably not living in the same “style” the previous generation did.
For one thing, you’ve been in your place 12 years already and a previous generation would have moved “up” already. People can’t afford to move as often as those over 50 did.
I don't disagree with you completely. But in the end, the world is what it is and you have to make the most of the opportunities you have. If I had 'stayed still' and not been thinking strategically about my career and job choices I would now be earning something close to what I earned in 2010, the pay rises would be far lower than inflation. But actually I have pursued new opportunities as they came up and have pretty much trebled my income. There are lots of companies that have been built up within this time based around harnessing the potential of technological change creating massive fortunes for people under 50. Again this isn't to try and boast about my own situation but just to point out that it is massively difficult to generalise about it.
Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, says that the emergency intervention in the bond markets WILL come to an end on Friday
He tells pension funds, which are heavily invested in UK debt: 'You've only got three days left now. You've got to get this done'
Whoever is doing the BOE's PR needs a massive pay-rise. They caused this shit with their ridiculously poorly-timed bond sell-off, and now they are claiming their modest resumption of the bond-buying they've been doing for the last 10 years is them helping us all with an 'emergency intervention'. It's really too good. Next week, BOE to steal your lunch money and give you back 10p as an 'emergency grant'.
Obviously I don’t agree with you on anything.
But I do agree that, from afar at least, the BoE’s communications have been…sub-optimal.
So suboptimal we can suspect it's deliberate. But definitely - wow.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya I addressed President Zelenskyy today & proposed to build an alliance between Ukraine & democratic Belarus. To establish political & diplomatic relations. Because the fates of our nations are intertwined. We are ready for cooperation & we #StandWithUkraine🇺🇦
Belarus has long felt like the solution to the Ukraine war. A revolution and a new anti-Russian leadership, domino effect on Russia and its republics, and in due course another newly prosperous EU-facing country. If and when Russia does implode it should be fairly easy for Moldova to kick the soldiers out of transnistria too.
Before the invasion, one theory was that Putin was massing his troops in Belarus as a precursor to annexing it and that threatening Ukraine was just a sideshow. It would be ironic if Belarus instead ended up being the first domino to fall.
It must be tottering on the brink. In 2020 many thought Lukaschenko managed to hold on because of the fear Russian intervention could follow any fall of the government.
Russia currently has no means to hold back the tide in Belarus. It is focussed on Ukraine.
OK I am lost now. Tsikhanouskaya is the PM, yes?
There's this wonderful resource called Wikipedia which can sometimes help in such moments of confusion. You should try it.
Fuck me, that is so devastating I am going to flounce for the evening and watch the Argento cut of Dawn of the Dead.
The question behind my question was, is she just a figurehead, and Lukashenko calls the shots? Not much help from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/is Sviatlana_Tsikhanouskaya just a figurehead, and Lukashenko calls the shots?
You should try to get a greater allowance of non-violent programming in your daily viewing habits. You'll rot your brain.
Railway Children up next.
Emotional violence. Utterly so, especially the last scene. Worse than The Finishing Line.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I really like this idea. I even like food on planes, but I think that's to do with the anticipation, the ritual.
Same here. I like plane food, particularly long haul. Something just in the novelty of it all.
On topic. It’s not a surprise that three members of the BOE are seeking to blame the govt. The Bank was not only asleep at the wheel at its prudential responsibilities but was incontinent with its actions since 2020 and far far too slow to pivot to tightening. That they didn’t match the Fed (and ECB) the week of the fiscal statement is incredulous, until you look at the voting record and past statements and mediocre cvs of some of the individuals.
This is not to absolve the government from blame. They should of course have announced the tax cuts at the same time as fiscal cuts and supply side reform in a proper budget with appropriate oversight, as you say. Not in a period when we were already seeing the QE and rock bottom yields experiment unwinding on both sides of the Atlantic.
The comi-tragedy is that in broad strokes Truss is right. High tax has no doubt impeded growth and low interest rates have been among the most ruinous policies for wealth equality of the last century (special mention to 1990s Russia privatisation process). The Labour Party should have been screaming blue murder for a decade that it must end but perhaps it found it hard because a) it started on their watch, b) they didn’t want to make the hard choices either.
We seem now to be stuck in a loop where spending can’t be cut, tax rises aren’t going to increase the take much, and the bank doesn’t dare raising rates or unwinding QE (in part because of the liquidity crisis it has overseen with DB pensions).
The reckoning from 2008 is almost upon the world and a lot of people are going to be substantially poorer as a result. The only quibble now is how that pain is shared and to make sure boneheaded politicians and officials don’t make it worse than it needs to be.
QT absolutely was the BoE policy and they would have sold bonds that week if the Government hadn't crashed the market requiring the Bank to step in to prevent further catastrrophe in complete contradiction to its policy. The only incredulous thing is the galactic negligence of our so called government.
We can argue whether QT is the right policy, but we can't argue that the Bank's policy is indeed QT, as it is for almost all its much more sensibly run peer countries. The BoE doesn't deserve this shower of incompetents. Neither do we.
Complete nonsense.
Your argument is odd, are you saying that their policy isn't a problem because it is their policy?
Yes it's their policy and the turmoil in the markets began within 24 hours of that policy being announced.
You say "more sensibly run peer countries" are also doing QT, who are those peer countries?
USA isn't a peer country, its the global reserve currency with its own unique circumstances. So which peer countries are you talking about?
The Bank of Japan aren't, nor is the European Central Bank, so I'm very curious who you mean or if you're mistaken?
Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, says that the emergency intervention in the bond markets WILL come to an end on Friday
He tells pension funds, which are heavily invested in UK debt: 'You've only got three days left now. You've got to get this done'
Whoever is doing the BOE's PR needs a massive pay-rise. They caused this shit with their ridiculously poorly-timed bond sell-off, and now they are claiming their modest resumption of the bond-buying they've been doing for the last 10 years is them helping us all with an 'emergency intervention'. It's really too good. Next week, BOE to steal your lunch money and give you back 10p as an 'emergency grant'.
Obviously I don’t agree with you on anything.
But I do agree that, from afar at least, the BoE’s communications have been…sub-optimal.
On the contrary, their communications have been brilliant. They're delivering a sadistically unecessary shit sandwich, and the media and assorted tits are going after Truss and Kwasi for it.
Truss and Kwasi are more to blame. Their “performance” is zero out of ten. Bailey more of a “solid 3”. But I agree, they are successfully playing a game of deflection.
I don't think they are more to blame. The £80bn bond sell off started the day before the energency budget fiasco.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I really like this idea. I even like food on planes, but I think that's to do with the anticipation, the ritual.
The dining on the Western line might be worth looking into, as is the one from Cardiff to Holyhead and back - but those are specific services I believe. I'm happy enough with GNER myself, but hanker backj to the old days of first and second sittings and silver service behind a then spanking new Deltic diesel ca 1965-70. And boiled eggs and toast for brekkers on Rannoch Muir.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I really like this idea. I even like food on planes, but I think that's to do with the anticipation, the ritual.
Same here. I like plane food, particularly long haul. Something just in the novelty of it all.
When BA give you three choices and it feels like an existential decision.
Yes, I'd like another G&T. Blunts the trauma of the lost bags
And you know what? Russia might still gain Ukraine (I cannot really see it as a 'win' for them, given the amount of treasure they would have spent getting it). The paths to that 'victory' are getting fewer, although I fear the effect that Belarussia joining in might have on Ukraine. It's routine to laugh at Belarussia and Putin's Puppet who runs the country, but a second major front could really cause Ukraine hassle.
Doesn't Lukashenko need his army at home? They're keeping him in power.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, says that the emergency intervention in the bond markets WILL come to an end on Friday
He tells pension funds, which are heavily invested in UK debt: 'You've only got three days left now. You've got to get this done'
Whoever is doing the BOE's PR needs a massive pay-rise. They caused this shit with their ridiculously poorly-timed bond sell-off, and now they are claiming their modest resumption of the bond-buying they've been doing for the last 10 years is them helping us all with an 'emergency intervention'. It's really too good. Next week, BOE to steal your lunch money and give you back 10p as an 'emergency grant'.
Obviously I don’t agree with you on anything.
But I do agree that, from afar at least, the BoE’s communications have been…sub-optimal.
On the contrary, their communications have been brilliant. They're delivering a sadistically unecessary shit sandwich, and the media and assorted tits are going after Truss and Kwasi for it.
Truss and Kwasi are more to blame. Their “performance” is zero out of ten. Bailey more of a “solid 3”. But I agree, they are successfully playing a game of deflection.
I don't think they are more to blame. The £80bn bond sell off started the day before the energency budget fiasco.
Yes, but the sell off became an avalanche after the mini-budget.
Mostly about labour strikes and staff shortages, but this was new to me:
"During the course of the conference, Schiphol was hit with yet another hurdle when the Dutch parliament announced that it seeks to further limit the airport's yearly maximum number of flight moments from 500,000 to 440,000 to reduce emissions and noise pollution."
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
On topic. It’s not a surprise that three members of the BOE are seeking to blame the govt. The Bank was not only asleep at the wheel at its prudential responsibilities but was incontinent with its actions since 2020 and far far too slow to pivot to tightening. That they didn’t match the Fed (and ECB) the week of the fiscal statement is incredulous, until you look at the voting record and past statements and mediocre cvs of some of the individuals.
This is not to absolve the government from blame. They should of course have announced the tax cuts at the same time as fiscal cuts and supply side reform in a proper budget with appropriate oversight, as you say. Not in a period when we were already seeing the QE and rock bottom yields experiment unwinding on both sides of the Atlantic.
The comi-tragedy is that in broad strokes Truss is right. High tax has no doubt impeded growth and low interest rates have been among the most ruinous policies for wealth equality of the last century (special mention to 1990s Russia privatisation process). The Labour Party should have been screaming blue murder for a decade that it must end but perhaps it found it hard because a) it started on their watch, b) they didn’t want to make the hard choices either.
We seem now to be stuck in a loop where spending can’t be cut, tax rises aren’t going to increase the take much, and the bank doesn’t dare raising rates or unwinding QE (in part because of the liquidity crisis it has overseen with DB pensions).
The reckoning from 2008 is almost upon the world and a lot of people are going to be substantially poorer as a result. The only quibble now is how that pain is shared and to make sure boneheaded politicians and officials don’t make it worse than it needs to be.
QT absolutely was the BoE policy and they would have sold bonds that week if the Government hadn't crashed the market requiring the Bank to step in to prevent further catastrrophe in complete contradiction to its policy. The only incredulous thing is the galactic negligence of our so called government.
We can argue whether QT is the right policy, but we can't argue that the Bank's policy is indeed QT, as it is for almost all its much more sensibly run peer countries. The BoE doesn't deserve this shower of incompetents. Neither do we.
Complete nonsense.
Your argument is odd, are you saying that their policy isn't a problem because it is their policy?
Yes it's their policy and the turmoil in the markets began within 24 hours of that policy being announced.
You say "more sensibly run peer countries" are also doing QT, who are those peer countries?
USA isn't a peer country, its the global reserve currency with its own unique circumstances. So which peer countries are you talking about?
The Bank of Japan aren't, nor is the European Central Bank, so I'm very curious who you mean or if you're mistaken?
ECB is doing QT by letting its bonds mature and not buying more. Whether you actually need to sell depends on the maturity of your portfolio, I think.
Also I don't have a position on whether it's a good policy. I am stating that QT actually is their policy. This is evidenced very emphatically by Bailey's speech of a few minutes ago. Clearly they are infuriated to be forced into buying bonds by the Trussterfuck event.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
In murder she wrote, the protagonist, rather like miss Marple, is involved in rather too many murders for coincidence to explain. The real story is that both female sleuths, in fact, are mass murderers. Midsomer murders represents some of the finest chill tv out there, and is utterly preposterous. The case reveal at the end of each story dir3ctly contravenes PACE and would result in DCI barnaby being drummed out of the force. Great escapism.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
Correct, but in general I find it easier to overlook kitsch from a foreign culture than my own, so that might explain it. I will watch all sorts of American tat, but wouldn't watch the British equivalents. Maybe Americans have the inverse experience.
Best to skip the theatre-themed episodes though. Especially the ones with Jessica's "cockney cousin". The Murder She Wrote / Magnum PI crossover episodes are a trip.
Fun fact: they made some TV movies too. The last one, Celtic Riddle, premiered as late as 2003.
Interesting thread on the (non)availability of air defence systems.
https://mobile.twitter.com/GresselGustav/status/1579416337809829888 1/ As 🇷🇺 missiles rain down on civilian targets all over 🇺🇦, I get questions what to do now. Some thoughts as a former air defence officer on this. But beware, information about the attacks is limited, and I would not say it is over yet. Air alarms are still ongoing
Basically, unless western armed forces take some systems out of active service (which I think we should nonetheless consider, FWIW), we don’t really have very much to send very quickly.
That's interesting, if a bit dispiriting. The main thing I'd be interested in seeing added to it was some analysis of the potential for more pre-emptive air defence - e.g. by targeting Iskander launchers and other systems so that the missiles, etc, are destroyed on the ground, before they are fired towards Ukraine.
I'm guessing this would require quite a significant upgrade to Ukraine's fixed-wing aircraft force, as well as the longer-range missiles for HIMARS.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
Quite true. End of discussion!
My fav episode of MSW was one set in New York City, that features a character, a show-boating but bull-shit district attorney, who bore a remarkable resemblance, physical & otherwise, to Rudy Giuliani. Who at the time the show was aired, was in fact the showboating US District Attorney for Southern District of New York.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
Correct, but in general I find it easier to overlook kitsch from a foreign culture than my own, so that might explain it. I will watch all sorts of American tat, but wouldn't watch the British equivalents. Maybe Americans have the inverse experience.
Best to skip the theatre-themed episodes though. Especially the ones with Jessica's "cockney cousin". The Murder She Wrote / Magnum PI crossover episodes are a trip.
Fun fact: they made some TV movies too. The last one, Celtic Riddle, premiered as late as 2003.
I'd have taken the crossover concept a lot further. Lansbury heading up the sleuthing Justice League. Her, Magnum PI, Monk, Columbo, Ironside, the guy from Diagnosis Murder etcetera, etcetera. They all go round in a van solving things, just because.
Murdered? At one time pretty much everyone she ever met on telly got murdered. Surprised anyone would go anywhere near here, the fatality rate being as high as it was...
Well, it rather looks as if the Anti-Growth Coalition (AGC) is winning the battle of ideas, and Truss and Kwarteng are even more bewildered than Putin is in pinning down the enemy.
The AGC is an elusive beast - who'd have thought they'd have the Governor of the BoE as a sleeper agent, and quite a few Tory MPs in their ranks? No wonder KT look lost.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Bergerac, Morse, Rockliffe, Sherlock Holmes and Taggart would be good starters.
And you know what? Russia might still gain Ukraine (I cannot really see it as a 'win' for them, given the amount of treasure they would have spent getting it). The paths to that 'victory' are getting fewer, although I fear the effect that Belarussia joining in might have on Ukraine. It's routine to laugh at Belarussia and Putin's Puppet who runs the country, but a second major front could really cause Ukraine hassle.
Doesn't Lukashenko need his army at home? They're keeping him in power.
There was talk of formal merger as the constitutional wheeze to justify keeping Putin in power. Is there any sense in thinking Russia could formally absorb Belorus, dump Lukashenko and rejig army and security between their own "volunteers" and trained soldiers.
Perhaps that just releases the beast in Belorus and destabilises Russia, but that won't necessarily be a blocker on having a cunning plan to control that land and have more control over their encirclement of Ukraine.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I have had some superb food on ships - planes not. I think it comes down to numbers; lots of passengers but relatively more crew. I also sleep better on ships (a Viking DNA?).
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
Correct, but in general I find it easier to overlook kitsch from a foreign culture than my own, so that might explain it. I will watch all sorts of American tat, but wouldn't watch the British equivalents. Maybe Americans have the inverse experience.
Best to skip the theatre-themed episodes though. Especially the ones with Jessica's "cockney cousin". The Murder She Wrote / Magnum PI crossover episodes are a trip.
Fun fact: they made some TV movies too. The last one, Celtic Riddle, premiered as late as 2003.
I'd have taken the crossover concept a lot further. Lansbury heading up the sleuthing Justice League. Her, Magnum PI, Monk, Columbo, Ironside, the guy from Diagnosis Murder etcetera, etcetera. They all go round in a van solving things, just because.
He really should be fired tomorrow, except that would probably cause even more chaos. It’s almost as if he wants to destabilise things.
I thought people were paraphrasing above but he actually said it!
"And my message to the funds involved and all the firms involved managing those funds: You've got three days left now. You've got to get this done"
When did people become allergic to straight talking? I'd rather have that from a central banker than obfuscatory bureaucratese.
It’s just that when they’re used to hearing the obfuscatory bureaucratese, straight talking goes down like an F-word on morning television.
You cannot switch directly from one to another without causing major mental disconnect.
If you're established as a plain talker, sudden mealy mouthed caveating is suspicious.
If you communicate in bureaucratic cliches, suddenly saying 'Let's f*cking do this' might be plainer, but it'll make people think you have a screw loose.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Murdered? At one time pretty much everyone she ever met on telly got murdered. Surprised anyone would go anywhere near here, the fatality rate being as high as it was...
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Bergerac, Morse, Rockliffe, Sherlock Holmes and Taggart would be good starters.
Can you imagine the parking outside her house - all sorts of quirky cars.
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Personally I think Truss and Kwarteng should go in two-footed.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Should send in McCloud, Columbo, McMillan AND Wife to find out what's what.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Bergerac, Morse, Rockliffe, Sherlock Holmes and Taggart would be good starters.
Can you imagine the parking outside her house - all sorts of quirky cars.
Oh. That’s a shame. Ms Lansbury was a bit of a legend chez Gardenwalker.
The good news is that Chief Inspector Barnaby is holidaying in Cabot Cove at present and so we will find out if it was from natural causes or was the work of the mild mannered local dentist.
Murder She Wrote was superb. Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
Correct, but in general I find it easier to overlook kitsch from a foreign culture than my own, so that might explain it. I will watch all sorts of American tat, but wouldn't watch the British equivalents. Maybe Americans have the inverse experience.
Best to skip the theatre-themed episodes though. Especially the ones with Jessica's "cockney cousin". The Murder She Wrote / Magnum PI crossover episodes are a trip.
Fun fact: they made some TV movies too. The last one, Celtic Riddle, premiered as late as 2003.
I'd have taken the crossover concept a lot further. Lansbury heading up the sleuthing Justice League. Her, Magnum PI, Monk, Columbo, Ironside, the guy from Diagnosis Murder etcetera, etcetera. They all go round in a van solving things, just because.
Am personally thinking of updated, hipper, brainer "A-Team"
Though would need to get a MOVING van to accommodate Ironside AND the rest of the cast.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Also a weird, but interesting time-loop film starring Melissa George.
Why do ferries have such brilliant food? Calmac too
There is a lot of research on airline food. The particular atmospheric conditions on a plane have a really bad effect on taste.
Perhaps being at sea has the opposite effect.
Does food taste better on the beach?
My reckoning is food tastes better when you're moving - preferably with a window and good scenery to look out on. So food on trains, boats etc. just works.
I really like this idea. I even like food on planes, but I think that's to do with the anticipation, the ritual.
Same here. I like plane food, particularly long haul. Something just in the novelty of it all.
Try the Asian vegetarian option. It's generally excellent.
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Personally I think Truss and Kwarteng should go in two-footed.
The independence of the Bank of England is supposed to be a key principle now, but how does that work when the Bank is doing something ridiculous?
But the problem is that Truss and Kwarteng don't really have the credibility or moral authority now to do that. Kwarteng unnecessarily went in two footed with the 45p tax cut, which was only a £2bn change and was within 24 hours of Bailey's £80bn change, but as a result Kwarteng is on a yellow card now and has got all the attention on him.
He's not able to make another two footed challenge now. He's pretty fucked and so is Truss, and Bailey has done more than Starmer or anyone else to ensure a Labour majority next time.
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Well, yes. You might notice a rather big hole in the picture below. That's all Kwarteng's. The Bailey contribution is at the far right. So far, just a fraction. If the pound stays around there, he'll be all right, I think. If it collapses he won't be.
I strongly suspect this intervention is deliberate, that Bailey wants to give out a very clear message and got it agreed within the Bank before going ahead. Whether it's wise I have no idea.
There are people on this site who come from all sorts of professional backgrounds, so can I please ask for your collective help in explaining, in simple terms, the concept of 'growth', by which I understand to mean (and I am happy to be corrected) the change in GDP over time. Growth, in the economic sense, appears to be universally held to be a good thing.
Suppose someone decides to walk to work each day rather than go by bus. This saves him £20 per week, and deprives the bus company of £20 per week, so there has been (in a minute sense) a decline in economic activity, and a reduction in GDP. He uses the £20 saved each week to pay off a credit card debt, so his bank makes less profit, and GDP again falls a tiny amount.
So at the end of a year GDP has declined, but the individual is better off, spending less of his money on servicing his debt, and being a stone lighter because he walks (he has cancelled his gym membership as well, and given up his pre-work Starbucks). He is fitter and happier.
So GDP has declined, but in what sense are we worse off
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Well, yes. You might notice a rather big hole in the picture below. That's all Kwarteng's. The Bailey contribution is at the far right. So far, just a fraction. If the punds stays around there, he'll be all right, I think. If it collapses he won't be.
I strongly suspect this intervention is deliberate, that Bailey wants to give out a very clear message and got it agreed within the Bank before going ahead. Whether it's wise I have no idea.
But it's not all Kwarteng's, that hole began before Kwarteng got up to speak. After the Bank's £80bn came to light. And it continued to fall in the days to come, as these things tend to do as news gets digested, but people act like the clock stopped on Bailey's announcement affecting the market because of what happened in the same 24 hour period, while weeks of instability is supposedly entirely Kwarteng's fault and not remotely Bailey's announcement the day before.
I would argue a significant chunk of what happened was the responsibility of Bailey's announcement, not Kwarteng's, even though the media went on what KK did.
On the subject of food on ferries, the best in my experience are the 'all you can eat' buffets served on the ferries that go between Sweden and Finland. They are either the peak of civilisation or the peak of decadence, I am undecided as to which.
Murdered? At one time pretty much everyone she ever met on telly got murdered. Surprised anyone would go anywhere near here, the fatality rate being as high as it was...
Her Grandfather was a Labour leader.
Yes, George Lansbury. An interesting figure - the Corbyn of his time in many respects, and a great campaigner for women's rights - unusual for a male politician in the 1920s/30s.
Just checked him out, and interested to see that Penny Mordaunt is, apparently, distantly related to the Lansbury clan. Mind you, both George and his father had so many children (10 and 12 respectively, I think), maybe that's not too surprising.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Personally I think Truss and Kwarteng should go in two-footed.
The independence of the Bank of England is supposed to be a key principle now, but how does that work when the Bank is doing something ridiculous?
But the problem is that Truss and Kwarteng don't really have the credibility or moral authority now to do that. Kwarteng unnecessarily went in two footed with the 45p tax cut, which was only a £2bn change and was within 24 hours of Bailey's £80bn change, but as a result Kwarteng is on a yellow card now and has got all the attention on him.
He's not able to make another two footed challenge now. He's pretty fucked and so is Truss, and Bailey has done more than Starmer or anyone else to ensure a Labour majority next time.
They need to put the spotlight back where it belongs. I don't see what is to be lost in calling publicly for the Bank's bond selling programme to be shelved. There is a very clear timeline of evidence now to indicate what has been causing the market disturbance. The people trying to claim this is because 'the markets STILL don't like the emergency budget' are looking ridiculous.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
I loved the Esbjerg-Newcastle route at its height (and I remember a classic trip at the equinox which was pretty much as much as you describe) - lots of keen tourists and cheerful Danes. Towards the end they tried to jazz it up with fruit machines and market it as a booze cruise, which was all wrong for the long trip.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Good grief, I'd forgotten about that. It was much mocked if I recall.
The grey North Sea wasn't ever going to be a glamorous backdrop, was it?
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Personally I think Truss and Kwarteng should go in two-footed.
If we edit out the last couple of words we have a very sound post indeed here.
There are people on this site who come from all sorts of professional backgrounds, so can I please ask for your collective help in explaining, in simple terms, the concept of 'growth', by which I understand to mean (and I am happy to be corrected) the change in GDP over time. Growth, in the economic sense, appears to be universally held to be a good thing.
Suppose someone decides to walk to work each day rather than go by bus. This saves him £20 per week, and deprives the bus company of £20 per week, so there has been (in a minute sense) a decline in economic activity, and a reduction in GDP. He uses the £20 saved each week to pay off a credit card debt, so his bank makes less profit, and GDP again falls a tiny amount.
So at the end of a year GDP has declined, but the individual is better off, spending less of his money on servicing his debt, and being a stone lighter because he walks (he has cancelled his gym membership as well, and given up his pre-work Starbucks). He is fitter and happier.
So GDP has declined, but in what sense are we worse off
You make a good point, and its certainly swings and roundabouts on an individual basis.
But there is a distinction in economics between microeconomics and macroeconomics. The actions of an individual fall under microeconomics, so aren't typically analysed with regards to GDP. GDP is the preserve of macroeconomics, the study of the economy or country as a whole and on average, in aggregate, GDP going up would normally be more good than bad.
But certainly any sensible discussion of the state of the economy would involve more than just GDP. Debt or savings ratios are also factors looked at, and your individual being in less debt would show up there so that should be considered a positive there.
Unfortunately a lot of media discussion on economics is very dumbed down and tends to run on only a few metrics, or just one, rather than a balanced overview.
Need some restaurant recommendations for a long romantic weekend.
You can probably get an OK meal on the DFDS ferry to Holland or on the train to Edinburgh.
Assuming the North Sea does not intervene.
My mum's ferry-going career ended very abruptly after a North Sea storm on an overnight DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in the 1980s. The washbowls throughout the ship overflowed with the sea-sick from the 90% of passengers who were affected.
At the time she was in her mid-40s, and never went on another ferry. The most ambitious it was after that was European river cruises.
I do wish you all the best, however. But I wouldn't overindulge heroically until on dry land - just in case.
I did Bergen to Newcastle about 30 years ago in a Force 8 - which by the standards of the North Sea isn't too much to write home about, but did provide a decent swell.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
If i recall there was a TV series, Triangle, set on a north sea ferry...
Evening all. I'm thinking of trademarking a new parlour game for Christmas and the winter 'guess the blackout and market', where you guess how long the rolling blackout will last and what level Sterling and the 100 will be when it ends. The winner recieves a toke on Therese Coffey's cigar. We so fucked
Though as I pointed out, and others seem to be catching up on, the fall in the pound began that week before Kwasi even got up to speak, after the Bank's policy meeting.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
Personally I think Truss and Kwarteng should go in two-footed.
If we edit out the last couple of words we have a very sound post indeed here.
Comments
One of the famous Insulate Britain "Daily Mail Four" lives a few miles from me, and turns out to have a very nice old farmhouse where she rents out poorly insulated holiday accommodation for many hundreds of £££ per week.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Champion
We’re gonna have to get a plus size guillotine.
We live in exciting times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGqwCbeFD8
Now - who took the decision to make Bailey the Governor of the Bank of England and why?
Oh.
Yes it's their policy and the turmoil in the markets began within 24 hours of that policy being announced.
You say "more sensibly run peer countries" are also doing QT, who are those peer countries?
USA isn't a peer country, its the global reserve currency with its own unique circumstances. So which peer countries are you talking about?
The Bank of Japan aren't, nor is the European Central Bank, so I'm very curious who you mean or if you're mistaken?
He really should be fired tomorrow, except that would probably cause even more chaos. It’s almost as if he wants to destabilise things.
Yes, I'd like another G&T. Blunts the trauma of the lost bags
"And my message to the funds involved and all the firms involved managing those funds: You've got three days left now. You've got to get this done"
Fortunately, her fans in US can watch an episode of her TV hit "Murder She Wrote" every day on El Cheapo (free broadcast) TV.
Less fortunately, these re-runs air at 6am Eastern / 3am Pacific.
I blame Brexit.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/amsterdam-schiphol-airport-chaos/index.html
Mostly about labour strikes and staff shortages, but this was new to me:
"During the course of the conference, Schiphol was hit with yet another hurdle when the Dutch parliament announced that it seeks to further limit the airport's yearly maximum number of flight moments from 500,000 to 440,000 to reduce emissions and noise pollution."
Midsomer Murders is utter crap.
Discuss.
And I’m hardly at the bloody sharp end of their idiocy.
Also I don't have a position on whether it's a good policy. I am stating that QT actually is their policy. This is evidenced very emphatically by Bailey's speech of a few minutes ago. Clearly they are infuriated to be forced into buying bonds by the Trussterfuck event.
The on board cinema was full for the start of the new Bond film, but there were only 4 of us left in there at the end credits.
The rest were presumably hanging over the railings.
It probably didn't help that it was right in the bow.
Shame they stopped that route, though.
PLUS sleuths from the UK of course, just don't know the appropriate ones from 80s British television.
Midsomer murders represents some of the finest chill tv out there, and is utterly preposterous. The case reveal at the end of each story dir3ctly contravenes PACE and would result in DCI barnaby being drummed out of the force.
Great escapism.
"Angela Lans-bury!!!!" she shouted.
She was a darling - mostly because she was surprised a small child knew who she was!
Especially for TSE.
Best to skip the theatre-themed episodes though. Especially the ones with Jessica's "cockney cousin". The Murder She Wrote / Magnum PI crossover episodes are a trip.
Fun fact: they made some TV movies too. The last one, Celtic Riddle, premiered as late as 2003.
I'm guessing this would require quite a significant upgrade to Ukraine's fixed-wing aircraft force, as well as the longer-range missiles for HIMARS.
My fav episode of MSW was one set in New York City, that features a character, a show-boating but bull-shit district attorney, who bore a remarkable resemblance, physical & otherwise, to Rudy Giuliani. Who at the time the show was aired, was in fact the showboating US District Attorney for Southern District of New York.
The AGC is an elusive beast - who'd have thought they'd have the Governor of the BoE as a sleeper agent, and quite a few Tory MPs in their ranks? No wonder KT look lost.
Perhaps that just releases the beast in Belorus and destabilises Russia, but that won't necessarily be a blocker on having a cunning plan to control that land and have more control over their encirclement of Ukraine.
And now Bailey has done it again.
The Bank have spent the past 15 years buying Treasury gilts, claiming they're not funding the deficit, now all of a sudden they're not just ceasing to buy gilts they're actively planning on selling them putting £80bn extra onto the gilt borrowing that needs to be paid for by the market this year - more than the entire cost of furlough added to borrowing effectively ...
... but sure, its all Kwarteng's fault!
Bailey is incompetent, but that's not news. Kwarteng and Truss will take the fall, because the buck stops there, but the Bank have royally fucked over the economy with their messing around here.
If you're established as a plain talker, sudden mealy mouthed caveating is suspicious.
If you communicate in bureaucratic cliches, suddenly saying 'Let's f*cking do this' might be plainer, but it'll make people think you have a screw loose.
Though would need to get a MOVING van to accommodate Ironside AND the rest of the cast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JWKXI8nEOQ&feature=share&si=ELPmzJkDCLju2KnD5oyZMQ
But the problem is that Truss and Kwarteng don't really have the credibility or moral authority now to do that. Kwarteng unnecessarily went in two footed with the 45p tax cut, which was only a £2bn change and was within 24 hours of Bailey's £80bn change, but as a result Kwarteng is on a yellow card now and has got all the attention on him.
He's not able to make another two footed challenge now. He's pretty fucked and so is Truss, and Bailey has done more than Starmer or anyone else to ensure a Labour majority next time.
I strongly suspect this intervention is deliberate, that Bailey wants to give out a very clear message and got it agreed within the Bank before going ahead. Whether it's wise I have no idea.
Suppose someone decides to walk to work each day rather than go by bus. This saves him £20 per week, and deprives the bus company of £20 per week, so there has been (in a minute sense) a decline in economic activity, and a reduction in GDP.
He uses the £20 saved each week to pay off a credit card debt, so his bank makes less profit, and GDP again falls a tiny amount.
So at the end of a year GDP has declined, but the individual is better off, spending less of his money on servicing his debt, and being a stone lighter because he walks (he has cancelled his gym membership as well, and given up his pre-work Starbucks). He is fitter and happier.
So GDP has declined, but in what sense are we worse off
I would argue a significant chunk of what happened was the responsibility of Bailey's announcement, not Kwarteng's, even though the media went on what KK did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A93OUS_6fJ0
Just checked him out, and interested to see that Penny Mordaunt is, apparently, distantly related to the Lansbury clan. Mind you, both George and his father had so many children (10 and 12 respectively, I think), maybe that's not too surprising.
The grey North Sea wasn't ever going to be a glamorous backdrop, was it?
But there is a distinction in economics between microeconomics and macroeconomics. The actions of an individual fall under microeconomics, so aren't typically analysed with regards to GDP. GDP is the preserve of macroeconomics, the study of the economy or country as a whole and on average, in aggregate, GDP going up would normally be more good than bad.
But certainly any sensible discussion of the state of the economy would involve more than just GDP. Debt or savings ratios are also factors looked at, and your individual being in less debt would show up there so that should be considered a positive there.
Unfortunately a lot of media discussion on economics is very dumbed down and tends to run on only a few metrics, or just one, rather than a balanced overview.
https://twitter.com/faytuks/status/1579889785904451585
The winner recieves a toke on Therese Coffey's cigar.
We so fucked