The final TV debate was held in the evening yesterday, 28 Oct. Three more polls remain to come out today.
Betfair: Lula 1.47, Bolsonaro 3.1
Bolsonaro seems to be holding in there. Dunno how much of the polling was doing after the debate. Anecdata: intending Lula voters are highly motivated. More anecdata: hardly any Tebet voters will vote Bolsonaro. Not sure what Lula campaign is doing today on "social" media. Bolsonaro's "I hope I get elected to Congress" at the end of the TV debate looked terrible to me, but I'm not Brazilian.
☕️ Double espressos served in a flat-white-sized takeaway cup 🍾 A bottle of sauvignon blanc in the fridge of any overnight accommodation 🥪 Absolutely no mayonnaise on anything, ever
“Sauvignon Blanc” is such a wide category that I can only assume she’s a fan of chain pub style NZ Sauvignon. She probably claims she hates Chardonnay but doesn’t mind Pinot Grigio. Those are the 3 standards on the pub menu before you move up to . Plus a picpoul de pinet or an Albariño if they’re being a bit fancy.
It’s always annoying to be trapped in such places. I either go for the Albariño or the Chenin Blanc, they usually have one of either.
If you are in a pub then drink beer. The wine is never good.
This whole conversation is rather assinine. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've done my junior sommelier training and passed the exam, and the head of the Court of Master Sommeliers was quite clear during the course that due to the advent of the new world and the resultant competition, wine quality these days was generally very good, and though there were a fair amount of unspectacular wines, there were very few bad ones. Sadly there are still wine snobs who will pull stupid faces at 'the wine in pubs', which says rather more about them than the actual wine in actual pubs.
A remarkably cool post.
The pubs I go to these days are without exception really restaurants with pretty decent wine lists. I wouldn't dream of drinking wine in a proper pub pub.
The "very few bad wines" is spot on. I have had genuinely faulty wine (rather than just a bad bottle) only once: some shithole rural hotel in the west midlands (which shall remain nameless) charged £18 for a bottle of Spanish white which Google told me later cost £3.29 wholesale. I had them bring another bottle: same (oxidised, watery). Honestly they could have bought their wine in from Aldi at 50p more a bottle and it would have been fine. What was odd was that the food was decent and well-priced.
Even the Wetherspoons Californian stuff which comes out of a tap for £1.40 per small glass is tolerable.
I had some fairly nasty wine visiting an English vineyard on the Isle of Wight. A shame. The owners had clearly given up and were just going through the motions. Then visited another vineyard on the Island and faith was immediately restored.
I can beat that. Went to a Welsh vineyard where the vines weren't mature yet, so they were doing a tasting of "fruit wines" they had cooked up. This despite advertising entirely as if it were a genuine vineyard on the leaflets and so on. Absolute shysters.
appalling no doubt, but you got that 4 year no-income gap you gotta fill somehow.
Top tip: if you want to start a whisky distillery do gin too, because whisky has to be aged 3 years before you can legally sell it, gin does not.
I've been expecting the Gin bubble to burst for about fifteen years now, but no sign of it. Maybe it's bedded in for a generation.
It's not a bad fad as fads go, but I would like to get a double G&T in an ordinary glass in a pub without forking out £9 for a goblet and some overflavoured artisan wank.
By "overflavoured artisan" am REALLY hoping you do NOT mean Leon!
I see Hunt is going 50/50 spending cuts to tax rises to plug the fiscal hole, as compared with Osborn’s 80/20 ratio.
Still going to be rather unpleasant and possibly recessionary, though.
What fiscal hole? Before you expect me to believe there is one, explain to me where it came from.
Was it there when Boris was PM, so his budget had to plug it? Was it mentioned at all by any candidate during long months of Tory hustings? So where and when did a fiscal hole appear? You know what caused it and when?
It was always there, caused by over spending relative to tax take.
But it took Liz Truss to point this out to everyone
I do agree, I like that point - she inadvertently let the elephant in the room out the bag. Inadvertently. Through just being dumb. And now it’s out, you can’t get it back in again.
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
Can some nerd speculate on how the Russians hacked Jizzy Lizzy's phone when she was Foreign Sec.? Because it seems like kind of a big deal given she was responsible for MI6 at the time. Did they do that thing where they send you a text for a fake DHL delivery?
Can some nerd speculate on how the Russians hacked Jizzy Lizzy's phone when she was Foreign Sec.? Because it seems like kind of a big deal given she was responsible for MI6 at the time. Did they do that thing where they send you a text for a fake DHL delivery?
We await details. Seems it was her personal phone. Why are they even allowed personal phones at the highest office?
I've just got round to reading that Times article/hatchet job from Sunak's mob on Truss's trips when she was Trade Secretary. She sounds like a total psycho and a pain in the dick to deal with.
Can some nerd speculate on how the Russians hacked Jizzy Lizzy's phone when she was Foreign Sec.? Because it seems like kind of a big deal given she was responsible for MI6 at the time. Did they do that thing where they send you a text for a fake DHL delivery?
We await details. Seems it was her personal phone. Why are they even allowed personal phones at the highest office?
Because they do the allowing, and because they like to speak to their spouse/children etc
Good dodge by the Daily Show guy, saying he never said the whole UK was racist in his recent piece. No, but he was obviously implying a much bigger backlash existed than was the case, and thus that it was a much bigger deal. Why not just admit the obvious exaggeration, as it was done for comedic commentary after all?
The Russian defence ministry has accused "British specialists" of participating in the drone attack on Sevastopol. I couldn't find the actual statement at the defence ministry's website, but it has been reported in TASS.
What is a "specialist"? Obviously it means someone who has the specialist knowledge required, but the term could cover both serving personnel and mercenaries, right?
What is the likely response from Russia?
Probably a return golf match at Royal St. Marks.
This seems to be classic projection, with added anti-British paranoia. They’ve been hosting Iranians to help them work the drones, and it’s been all over the Western media, so the obvious counter is to imply the Brits (essentially the Western mirror image of Iran - a kind of anti-Iran) are at it too.
They obviously want to blame the West for internal messaging purposes but don't want to tug on Superman's cape by directly blaming the US.
Sounds very plausible. Should make all sides happy to boot.
The final TV debate was held in the evening yesterday, 28 Oct. Three more polls remain to come out today.
Betfair: Lula 1.47, Bolsonaro 3.1
Bolsonaro seems to be holding in there. Dunno how much of the polling was doing after the debate. Anecdata: intending Lula voters are highly motivated. More anecdata: hardly any Tebet voters will vote Bolsonaro. Not sure what Lula campaign is doing today on "social" media. Bolsonaro's "I hope I get elected to Congress" at the end of the TV debate looked terrible to me, but I'm not Brazilian.
I see Hunt is going 50/50 spending cuts to tax rises to plug the fiscal hole, as compared with Osborn’s 80/20 ratio.
Still going to be rather unpleasant and possibly recessionary, though.
What fiscal hole? Before you expect me to believe there is one, explain to me where it came from.
Was it there when Boris was PM, so his budget had to plug it? Was it mentioned at all by any candidate during long months of Tory hustings? So where and when did a fiscal hole appear? You know what caused it and when?
It was always there, caused by over spending relative to tax take.
But it took Liz Truss to point this out to everyone
I do agree, I like that point - she inadvertently let the elephant in the room out the bag. Inadvertently. Through just being dumb. And now it’s out, you can’t get it back in again.
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
Whether you like it or not it is the impression the public seem to have accepted and as far as polls are concerned I am pleased with his progress and of course the Autumn statement is a big moment
Indeed I do not accept your accusation he caused it, as he saved millions of jobs with furlough and in the campaign v Truss his very public warning about her policies have been proved spot on and he is understandably received acknowledgement of that
I would just say to his opponents you underestimate him at your peril and as far as polls are concerned next Spring will be the time to assess just how well he has done
There is no doubt Starmer and labour have a very different opponent to face
The final TV debate was held in the evening yesterday, 28 Oct. Three more polls remain to come out today.
Betfair: Lula 1.47, Bolsonaro 3.1
Bolsonaro seems to be holding in there. Dunno how much of the polling was doing after the debate. Anecdata: intending Lula voters are highly motivated. More anecdata: hardly any Tebet voters will vote Bolsonaro. Not sure what Lula campaign is doing today on "social" media. Bolsonaro's "I hope I get elected to Congress" at the end of the TV debate looked terrible to me, but I'm not Brazilian.
"Truss's radiation terror: The final days of ex-premier's doomed regime were filled with fears of nuclear fallout as she 'obsessed over weather and wind forecasts' as Putin ramped up threats"
Modern one looks camp as fuck, and remind's me of Bowra's claim that buggery was invented to fill the gap between evensong and cocktails.
A friend of mine went to Wadham College Oxon where Bowra was warden. I visited and he showed me the Bowra statue there: [edit] I've never forgotten it.
He is of course the model for Samgrass in Brideshead Revisited.
Bowra was fun, whereas Samgrass was a twit.
During his tenure, Wadham was known locally as Sodom College (I've no idea why). I love this poem that he wrote about John Betjeman, fawning over Princess Margaret:
"Green with lust, and sick with shyness, Let me lick your lacquered toes. Gosh, oh gosh, your Royal Highness, Put your finger up my nose, Pin my teeth upon your dress, Plant my head with watercress. Only you can make me happy. Tuck me tight beneath your arm. Wrap me in a woollen nappy; Let me wet it till it's warm. In a plush and plated pram Wheel me round St James's, Ma'am. Let your sleek and soft galoshes Slide and slither on my skin. Swaddle me in mackintoshes Till I lose my sense of sin. Lightly plant your plimsolled heel Where my privy parts congeal"
The final TV debate was held in the evening yesterday, 28 Oct. Three more polls remain to come out today.
Betfair: Lula 1.47, Bolsonaro 3.1
Bolsonaro seems to be holding in there. Dunno how much of the polling was doing after the debate. Anecdata: intending Lula voters are highly motivated. More anecdata: hardly any Tebet voters will vote Bolsonaro. Not sure what Lula campaign is doing today on "social" media. Bolsonaro's "I hope I get elected to Congress" at the end of the TV debate looked terrible to me, but I'm not Brazilian.
If he does, I hope Betfair don't sit on my winnings for ages waiting for the loser's no-hope legal challenges to be exhausted as they did after Biden beat Trump in 2020.
"Truss's radiation terror: The final days of ex-premier's doomed regime were filled with fears of nuclear fallout as she 'obsessed over weather and wind forecasts' as Putin ramped up threats"
Think Brazil is destined to be 52-48. Followed by 2 reactions. Overwhelming will of the people. Only traitors disagree. Or. Stolen by lies, foreign money and interference, and must be overturned by the courts or a second vote.
Think Brazil is destined to be 52-48. Followed by 2 reactions. Overwhelming will of the people. Only traitors disagree. Or. Stolen by lies, foreign money and interference, and must be overturned by the courts or a second vote.
Lula should win but it would only take a slight change in turnout between his areas of strength and Bolsonaro's to make it 50/50.
Why do people keep using these stupid phones when they're so easy to hack into?
Because they are terribly convenient pieces of technology. There's a reason billions use them.
Homo Erectus: Why do people keep using this stupid 'fire' when it so easy to get burned by it?
Homo Habilis: Why do people keep using these stupid flint spears when it is so easy to get cut by them?
Junkie in the gutter: "Why do people keep asking me, 'Why shoot up smack all the time when it's bad for you?'? Feels great to me ........"
"There's a reason for X" is often said by those who haven't figured out what it is. But yes, these vile devices have been marketed as "convenient".
The positive to negative ratio for smartphones vs smack is not the same, and the very idea comes across as unhinged. If it was similar, not so many people would want smartphones, just as most people don't want to become junkies.
They aren't for everyone, but its just dumb to pretend they don't provide all manner of conveniences, and which are not comparable to the negatives of taking heroin or the like.
If people don't like smartphones, fine, I think people overuse devices in general, but the hatred some have for them crosses over into irrationality.
They could be excellent (I had some wonderful breakfasts with them).
Or else, bloody awful. I remember there was a Little Chef at Scotch Corner, which had newly-hatched bluebottles crawling out of a crack in the wall. Another, near Basingstoke, emptied the toilets into a neighbouring field.
Yes. So the actual figures they got for a normal poll were probably like Tory 25% or less and Labour around 50%. Remember - no matter what Boris done at any point this year, this methodology had him no further behind than 4 or 5%. In other words, despite Trussterfuck polling collapse, only teeny honeymoon uptick for Sunak. 😮
So far. As PB has worked out events take 14 days to move polls.
Rishi needs to earn the right to be heard. At the moment the Tories are not considered a serious party of government - think of the time it took Starmer to make some progress on that front
It sounds like you think that’s how politics works, a way where voters are always fair, Everyone gets consideration they deserve? then Think where Starmer would still be now if the Tories were still being listened to - because Starmer was just 5% ahead of Truss with tonight’s pollster, he actually went up, a lot, when the Tories went down for crashing economy is the truth. But they didn’t actually crash the economy, everyone had a mad fortnight treating everyday as black Wednesday, where was the fairness you think exists if the Starmergasm endures?
Do voters need to heed Sunak, or the Tories, again? that’s the point I’m making. To Start with the question is Truss month the new Black Wednesday, so voters have stopped listening to Tory’s, all of them. even after the swap out to Sunak. Or put another way, just how strong and stable is the Starmergasm?
In my opinion that’s the only thing to do with polling right now, start with the right questions before interrogating them, and I think these are the right questions.
You are asking the right questions but reaching the wrong conclusions.
Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed. My view is that the population aren’t listening at the moment - they may be doomed but may also recover in time. They don’t have that much time however
We are sort of on the same page, because you have summed up my view perfectly. “ Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed.” My view is we learn a lot about the next GE result in the next 6 weeks - a limp honeymoon, a sub 30% average for November does spell election trouble. My reasoning based on the historic precedent where fag end governments are not listened to, not fairly listened to as I think your view suggests, don’t get fair do’s for things like economy picking up. Limp Sunak honeymoon strong suggests fag end indifference from electorate.
The difference is that you think the electorate has written off Rishi & the Tories already. I think they will listen but he needs to make a splash - the key thing is no drama
Yes. So the actual figures they got for a normal poll were probably like Tory 25% or less and Labour around 50%. Remember - no matter what Boris done at any point this year, this methodology had him no further behind than 4 or 5%. In other words, despite Trussterfuck polling collapse, only teeny honeymoon uptick for Sunak. 😮
So far. As PB has worked out events take 14 days to move polls.
Rishi needs to earn the right to be heard. At the moment the Tories are not considered a serious party of government - think of the time it took Starmer to make some progress on that front
It sounds like you think that’s how politics works, a way where voters are always fair, Everyone gets consideration they deserve? then Think where Starmer would still be now if the Tories were still being listened to - because Starmer was just 5% ahead of Truss with tonight’s pollster, he actually went up, a lot, when the Tories went down for crashing economy is the truth. But they didn’t actually crash the economy, everyone had a mad fortnight treating everyday as black Wednesday, where was the fairness you think exists if the Starmergasm endures?
Do voters need to heed Sunak, or the Tories, again? that’s the point I’m making. To Start with the question is Truss month the new Black Wednesday, so voters have stopped listening to Tory’s, all of them. even after the swap out to Sunak. Or put another way, just how strong and stable is the Starmergasm?
In my opinion that’s the only thing to do with polling right now, start with the right questions before interrogating them, and I think these are the right questions.
You are asking the right questions but reaching the wrong conclusions.
Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed. My view is that the population aren’t listening at the moment - they may be doomed but may also recover in time. They don’t have that much time however
We are sort of on the same page, because you have summed up my view perfectly. “ Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed.” My view is we learn a lot about the next GE result in the next 6 weeks - a limp honeymoon, a sub 30% average for November does spell election trouble. My reasoning based on the historic precedent where fag end governments are not listened to, not fairly listened to as I think your view suggests, don’t get fair do’s for things like economy picking up. Limp Sunak honeymoon strong suggests fag end indifference from electorate.
The difference is that you think the electorate has written off Rishi & the Tories already. I think they will listen but he needs to make a splash - the key thing is no drama
I haven’t actually written him off.
If he doesn’t average 30% or higher in polls in six weeks time, at that point I’m writing him off.
The final TV debate was held in the evening yesterday, 28 Oct. Three more polls remain to come out today.
Betfair: Lula 1.47, Bolsonaro 3.1
Bolsonaro seems to be holding in there. Dunno how much of the polling was doing after the debate. Anecdata: intending Lula voters are highly motivated. More anecdata: hardly any Tebet voters will vote Bolsonaro. Not sure what Lula campaign is doing today on "social" media. Bolsonaro's "I hope I get elected to Congress" at the end of the TV debate looked terrible to me, but I'm not Brazilian.
Average of those 3 polls:
Lula 51.6% Bonsonaro 48.4%
If you were the lungs of the earth you wouldn’t be too happy at that. ☹️
How tainted by corruption is Lula’s Labour Party, as that’s what is surely behind Bolsano’s chance here? If Bolsano does win, can a new younger candidate beat him next time from the left?
Lettuce Liz is part of the reason we aren't like America. Gets to the point we burst and just mock. Daily Star deserves our thanks. We are world-beating at piss taking.
Yes. So the actual figures they got for a normal poll were probably like Tory 25% or less and Labour around 50%. Remember - no matter what Boris done at any point this year, this methodology had him no further behind than 4 or 5%. In other words, despite Trussterfuck polling collapse, only teeny honeymoon uptick for Sunak. 😮
So far. As PB has worked out events take 14 days to move polls.
Rishi needs to earn the right to be heard. At the moment the Tories are not considered a serious party of government - think of the time it took Starmer to make some progress on that front
It sounds like you think that’s how politics works, a way where voters are always fair, Everyone gets consideration they deserve? then Think where Starmer would still be now if the Tories were still being listened to - because Starmer was just 5% ahead of Truss with tonight’s pollster, he actually went up, a lot, when the Tories went down for crashing economy is the truth. But they didn’t actually crash the economy, everyone had a mad fortnight treating everyday as black Wednesday, where was the fairness you think exists if the Starmergasm endures?
Do voters need to heed Sunak, or the Tories, again? that’s the point I’m making. To Start with the question is Truss month the new Black Wednesday, so voters have stopped listening to Tory’s, all of them. even after the swap out to Sunak. Or put another way, just how strong and stable is the Starmergasm?
In my opinion that’s the only thing to do with polling right now, start with the right questions before interrogating them, and I think these are the right questions.
You are asking the right questions but reaching the wrong conclusions.
Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed. My view is that the population aren’t listening at the moment - they may be doomed but may also recover in time. They don’t have that much time however
We are sort of on the same page, because you have summed up my view perfectly. “ Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed.” My view is we learn a lot about the next GE result in the next 6 weeks - a limp honeymoon, a sub 30% average for November does spell election trouble. My reasoning based on the historic precedent where fag end governments are not listened to, not fairly listened to as I think your view suggests, don’t get fair do’s for things like economy picking up. Limp Sunak honeymoon strong suggests fag end indifference from electorate.
The difference is that you think the electorate has written off Rishi & the Tories already. I think they will listen but he needs to make a splash - the key thing is no drama
I haven’t actually written him off.
If he doesn’t average 30% or higher in polls in six weeks time, at that point I’m writing him off.
With 2 years to go nobody can say with any certainly what will happen in 2024, and write him off if you so wish but I am prepared for a much longer period to change attitudes and time will tell
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Well the phone can pinpoint exactly where you are in a way that a paper map or a guide book couldn't. Plus you can use it to translate menus and signs.
Why do people keep using these stupid phones when they're so easy to hack into?
Because they are terribly convenient pieces of technology. There's a reason billions use them.
Bad or correct for Boris & Case to suppress it? From an intelligence angle whilst fighting a war against the perpetrators, correct.
Indeed, why this moment has it come out and how? Ship of state only ship that leaks from the top, so Downing Street have put it out there in time and manner of their choosing? No I think. Because it instantly relates to the charge against Braverman, passing sensitive stuff to her personal phone - why would Sunak turn the heat up on himself and Mail turn heat up on Braverman?
we can ask the question should the Mail have published this, our intelligence services happy to see it published at this time, or does it only boost our enemy right now?
How was the hack discovered? If we know it was compromised, how do we know forsure it was the Russians?
It must also been excruciating for poor Liz to have surrendered it. Is there a message to Kwarzi “coming back from Moscow in hat, fur coat and boots, get the Polaroid ready.”
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
It's a tool and it really depends on how you choose to use it. I've still managed to wander about new places without staring at my phone to check where I am, because I chose to do so.
But, with my wife suffering mobility issues in recent years, its been great to be able to send her photos of things that I see when I go off on a cycle trip. It means she doesn't feel so left out because she's not able to cycle very far.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Well the phone can pinpoint exactly where you are in a way that a paper map or a guide book couldn't. Plus you can use it to translate menus and signs.
Who needs or wants their position pinpointed on a screen to the nearest centimetre? Every location must seem pretty much the same to the person who's always holding a smartphone anyway. They're unlikely to be able to read a decent map and probably can't do joined-up writing either. They're a disgrace to the human race.
I was in a motorway service station toilet the other day and a guy was holding his penis in one hand and balancing his idiot-stick "smartphone" between his cheek and shoulder with the other. Was that to do with "convenience" (other than that we were in one)?
An increasing number of people eating in cafes are wearing headphones nowadays. Wouldn't surprise me if they get ear problems from that.
The notion that these types have intelligently chosen to control ever more aspects of their lives is, well, the opposite of accurate.
I'd vote for almost any party that addressed this degradation.
But we're so far away from that. Even in the House of Commons which is supposed to be the country's main national assembly, most of the schmucks are phone-picking for much of the time.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Well the phone can pinpoint exactly where you are in a way that a paper map or a guide book couldn't. Plus you can use it to translate menus and signs.
Who needs or wants their position pinpointed on a screen to the nearest centimetre? Every location must seem pretty much the same to the person who's always holding a smartphone anyway. They're unlikely to be able to read a decent map and probably can't do joined-up writing either. They're a disgrace to the human race.
I was in a motorway service station toilet the other day and a guy was holding his penis in one hand and balancing his idiot-stick "smartphone" between his cheek and shoulder with the other. Was that to do with "convenience" (other than that we were in one)?
An increasing number of people eating in cafes are wearing headphones nowadays. Wouldn't surprise me if they get ear problems from that.
The notion that these types have intelligently chosen to control ever more aspects of their lives is, well, the opposite of accurate.
I'd vote for almost any party that addressed this degradation.
I see Hunt is going 50/50 spending cuts to tax rises to plug the fiscal hole, as compared with Osborn’s 80/20 ratio.
Still going to be rather unpleasant and possibly recessionary, though.
What fiscal hole? Before you expect me to believe there is one, explain to me where it came from.
Was it there when Boris was PM, so his budget had to plug it? Was it mentioned at all by any candidate during long months of Tory hustings? So where and when did a fiscal hole appear? You know what caused it and when?
It was always there, caused by over spending relative to tax take.
But it took Liz Truss to point this out to everyone
I do agree, I like that point - she inadvertently let the elephant in the room out the bag. Inadvertently. Through just being dumb. And now it’s out, you can’t get it back in again.
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
Whether you like it or not it is the impression the public seem to have accepted and as far as polls are concerned I am pleased with his progress and of course the Autumn statement is a big moment
Indeed I do not accept your accusation he caused it, as he saved millions of jobs with furlough and in the campaign v Truss his very public warning about her policies have been proved spot on and he is understandably received acknowledgement of that
I would just say to his opponents you underestimate him at your peril and as far as polls are concerned next Spring will be the time to assess just how well he has done
There is no doubt Starmer and labour have a very different opponent to face
Never has a more complacent post accused someone else of complacency 😆
The irony here, Sunak is so right by telling Truss she was so wrong? When Liz Truss told Rishi control over interest rates and QE must be taken from the BoE who have failed the nation, it was Liz Truss who was right and Sunak wrong, Sunak rejects the necessary changes in UK Treasury orthodoxy Liz was right about - just look now Truss is gone the BoE, Treasury and Downing St all disastrously cosy again, it proves Sunak’s thinking is to continue that twenty year orthodoxy that has failed us - an insane housing market, negative real interest rates, double digit inflation, taxes at a 70 year high, exponential spending on the worst health service in Europe, £2.4 trillion of debt and lower wages than we had in 2008. Sunak proved to be an instinctive borrower and waster. His finger prints are all over this crisis.
His record as Chancellor does not survive scrutiny - he borrowed £375 billion throwing money at Covid in a splurge as though fiscal responsibility is a ‘political choice’. Furlough was not his idea, he copied it from abroad. It’s a good idea, but not in the hands of someone wasteful with money - Sunak sprayed £30bn of this furlough confetti straight into hands of gangsters and fraudsters. His own Pointless money-pits like Eat Out to Help Out only served to show that Sunak treated borrowed cash like confetti.
A lefty underestimating him? I’m dismantling him from the right of him. Why do you think he was soundly beaten by Truss. Sunak is in number 10 despite being an abysmal campaigner, Team Truss ran rings round him. And she then lost to a lettuce.
Yes. So the actual figures they got for a normal poll were probably like Tory 25% or less and Labour around 50%. Remember - no matter what Boris done at any point this year, this methodology had him no further behind than 4 or 5%. In other words, despite Trussterfuck polling collapse, only teeny honeymoon uptick for Sunak. 😮
So far. As PB has worked out events take 14 days to move polls.
Rishi needs to earn the right to be heard. At the moment the Tories are not considered a serious party of government - think of the time it took Starmer to make some progress on that front
It sounds like you think that’s how politics works, a way where voters are always fair, Everyone gets consideration they deserve? then Think where Starmer would still be now if the Tories were still being listened to - because Starmer was just 5% ahead of Truss with tonight’s pollster, he actually went up, a lot, when the Tories went down for crashing economy is the truth. But they didn’t actually crash the economy, everyone had a mad fortnight treating everyday as black Wednesday, where was the fairness you think exists if the Starmergasm endures?
Do voters need to heed Sunak, or the Tories, again? that’s the point I’m making. To Start with the question is Truss month the new Black Wednesday, so voters have stopped listening to Tory’s, all of them. even after the swap out to Sunak. Or put another way, just how strong and stable is the Starmergasm?
In my opinion that’s the only thing to do with polling right now, start with the right questions before interrogating them, and I think these are the right questions.
You are asking the right questions but reaching the wrong conclusions.
Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed. My view is that the population aren’t listening at the moment - they may be doomed but may also recover in time. They don’t have that much time however
We are sort of on the same page, because you have summed up my view perfectly. “ Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed.” My view is we learn a lot about the next GE result in the next 6 weeks - a limp honeymoon, a sub 30% average for November does spell election trouble. My reasoning based on the historic precedent where fag end governments are not listened to, not fairly listened to as I think your view suggests, don’t get fair do’s for things like economy picking up. Limp Sunak honeymoon strong suggests fag end indifference from electorate.
The difference is that you think the electorate has written off Rishi & the Tories already. I think they will listen but he needs to make a splash - the key thing is no drama
I haven’t actually written him off.
If he doesn’t average 30% or higher in polls in six weeks time, at that point I’m writing him off.
With 2 years to go nobody can say with any certainly what will happen in 2024, and write him off if you so wish but I am prepared for a much longer period to change attitudes and time will tell
Remember a week is a long time in politics
Yes. But at first you were ramping PM Liz Truss for at least three weeks, in much the same way you are now ramping Sunak. 🙂
Yes. So the actual figures they got for a normal poll were probably like Tory 25% or less and Labour around 50%. Remember - no matter what Boris done at any point this year, this methodology had him no further behind than 4 or 5%. In other words, despite Trussterfuck polling collapse, only teeny honeymoon uptick for Sunak. 😮
So far. As PB has worked out events take 14 days to move polls.
Rishi needs to earn the right to be heard. At the moment the Tories are not considered a serious party of government - think of the time it took Starmer to make some progress on that front
It sounds like you think that’s how politics works, a way where voters are always fair, Everyone gets consideration they deserve? then Think where Starmer would still be now if the Tories were still being listened to - because Starmer was just 5% ahead of Truss with tonight’s pollster, he actually went up, a lot, when the Tories went down for crashing economy is the truth. But they didn’t actually crash the economy, everyone had a mad fortnight treating everyday as black Wednesday, where was the fairness you think exists if the Starmergasm endures?
Do voters need to heed Sunak, or the Tories, again? that’s the point I’m making. To Start with the question is Truss month the new Black Wednesday, so voters have stopped listening to Tory’s, all of them. even after the swap out to Sunak. Or put another way, just how strong and stable is the Starmergasm?
In my opinion that’s the only thing to do with polling right now, start with the right questions before interrogating them, and I think these are the right questions.
You are asking the right questions but reaching the wrong conclusions.
Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed. My view is that the population aren’t listening at the moment - they may be doomed but may also recover in time. They don’t have that much time however
We are sort of on the same page, because you have summed up my view perfectly. “ Your view appears to be that Rishi is not making immediate progress and therefore the Tories are doomed.” My view is we learn a lot about the next GE result in the next 6 weeks - a limp honeymoon, a sub 30% average for November does spell election trouble. My reasoning based on the historic precedent where fag end governments are not listened to, not fairly listened to as I think your view suggests, don’t get fair do’s for things like economy picking up. Limp Sunak honeymoon strong suggests fag end indifference from electorate.
The difference is that you think the electorate has written off Rishi & the Tories already. I think they will listen but he needs to make a splash - the key thing is no drama
I haven’t actually written him off.
If he doesn’t average 30% or higher in polls in six weeks time, at that point I’m writing him off.
With 2 years to go nobody can say with any certainly what will happen in 2024, and write him off if you so wish but I am prepared for a much longer period to change attitudes and time will tell
Remember a week is a long time in politics
Yes. But at first you were ramping PM Liz Truss for at least three weeks, in much the same way you are now ramping Sunak. 🙂
Truss in the first three weeks was entirely untested due to the death of the Queen and what followed
I certainly condemned her budget as soon as it was announced and the rest is history
I am pleased to support our first Asian PM who seems to be cutting through as evidenced by tonight's poll though I have warned against reading too much into polls at present
You are entitled to your view but I am relaxed that at last we have a grown up PM and he will prove popular over time and certainly reduce any idea of a conservative wipe out in 24
I can forgive the government for the first couple of months, or so, of Covid. Lockdowns, Furlough and all.
They had to get the measure of it.
But the measures went on for far to long and cost the economy far too much.
“Control the virus” was an absurdly expensive, stupid slogan. A mindset which may have been appropriate for a novel Spanish flu, or a particularly nasty sars-type virus. But inappropriate for Covid.
I can forgive the government for the first couple of months, or so, of Covid. Lockdowns, Furlough and all.
They had to get the measure of it.
But the measures went on for far to long and cost the economy far too much.
“Control the virus” was an absurdly expensive, stupid slogan. A mindset which may have been appropriate for a novel Spanish flu, or a particularly nasty sars-type virus.
Could have gone on even longer of course - many were urging it and the public view would have supported it too.
I see Hunt is going 50/50 spending cuts to tax rises to plug the fiscal hole, as compared with Osborn’s 80/20 ratio.
Still going to be rather unpleasant and possibly recessionary, though.
What fiscal hole? Before you expect me to believe there is one, explain to me where it came from.
Was it there when Boris was PM, so his budget had to plug it? Was it mentioned at all by any candidate during long months of Tory hustings? So where and when did a fiscal hole appear? You know what caused it and when?
It was always there, caused by over spending relative to tax take.
But it took Liz Truss to point this out to everyone
I do agree, I like that point - she inadvertently let the elephant in the room out the bag. Inadvertently. Through just being dumb. And now it’s out, you can’t get it back in again.
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
Whether you like it or not it is the impression the public seem to have accepted and as far as polls are concerned I am pleased with his progress and of course the Autumn statement is a big moment
Indeed I do not accept your accusation he caused it, as he saved millions of jobs with furlough and in the campaign v Truss his very public warning about her policies have been proved spot on and he is understandably received acknowledgement of that
I would just say to his opponents you underestimate him at your peril and as far as polls are concerned next Spring will be the time to assess just how well he has done
There is no doubt Starmer and labour have a very different opponent to face
Never has a more complacent post accused someone else of complacency 😆
The irony here, Sunak is so right by telling Truss she was so wrong? When Liz Truss told Rishi control over interest rates and QE must be taken from the BoE who have failed the nation, it was Liz Truss who was right and Sunak wrong, Sunak rejects the necessary changes in UK Treasury orthodoxy Liz was right about - just look now Truss is gone the BoE, Treasury and Downing St all disastrously cosy again, it proves Sunak’s thinking is to continue that twenty year orthodoxy that has failed us - an insane housing market, negative real interest rates, double digit inflation, taxes at a 70 year high, exponential spending on the worst health service in Europe, £2.4 trillion of debt and lower wages than we had in 2008. Sunak proved to be an instinctive borrower and waster. His finger prints are all over this crisis.
His record as Chancellor does not survive scrutiny - he borrowed £375 billion throwing money at Covid in a splurge as though fiscal responsibility is a ‘political choice’. Furlough was not his idea, he copied it from abroad. It’s a good idea, but not in the hands of someone wasteful with money - Sunak sprayed £30bn of this furlough confetti straight into hands of gangsters and fraudsters. His own Pointless money-pits like Eat Out to Help Out only served to show that Sunak treated borrowed cash like confetti.
A lefty underestimating him? I’m dismantling him from the right of him. Why do you think he was soundly beaten by Truss. Sunak is in number 10 despite being an abysmal campaigner, Team Truss ran rings round him. And she then lost to a lettuce.
I see Hunt is going 50/50 spending cuts to tax rises to plug the fiscal hole, as compared with Osborn’s 80/20 ratio.
Still going to be rather unpleasant and possibly recessionary, though.
What fiscal hole? Before you expect me to believe there is one, explain to me where it came from.
Was it there when Boris was PM, so his budget had to plug it? Was it mentioned at all by any candidate during long months of Tory hustings? So where and when did a fiscal hole appear? You know what caused it and when?
It was always there, caused by over spending relative to tax take.
But it took Liz Truss to point this out to everyone
I do agree, I like that point - she inadvertently let the elephant in the room out the bag. Inadvertently. Through just being dumb. And now it’s out, you can’t get it back in again.
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
Whether you like it or not it is the impression the public seem to have accepted and as far as polls are concerned I am pleased with his progress and of course the Autumn statement is a big moment
Indeed I do not accept your accusation he caused it, as he saved millions of jobs with furlough and in the campaign v Truss his very public warning about her policies have been proved spot on and he is understandably received acknowledgement of that
I would just say to his opponents you underestimate him at your peril and as far as polls are concerned next Spring will be the time to assess just how well he has done
There is no doubt Starmer and labour have a very different opponent to face
Never has a more complacent post accused someone else of complacency 😆
The irony here, Sunak is so right by telling Truss she was so wrong? When Liz Truss told Rishi control over interest rates and QE must be taken from the BoE who have failed the nation, it was Liz Truss who was right and Sunak wrong, Sunak rejects the necessary changes in UK Treasury orthodoxy Liz was right about - just look now Truss is gone the BoE, Treasury and Downing St all disastrously cosy again, it proves Sunak’s thinking is to continue that twenty year orthodoxy that has failed us - an insane housing market, negative real interest rates, double digit inflation, taxes at a 70 year high, exponential spending on the worst health service in Europe, £2.4 trillion of debt and lower wages than we had in 2008. Sunak proved to be an instinctive borrower and waster. His finger prints are all over this crisis.
His record as Chancellor does not survive scrutiny - he borrowed £375 billion throwing money at Covid in a splurge as though fiscal responsibility is a ‘political choice’. Furlough was not his idea, he copied it from abroad. It’s a good idea, but not in the hands of someone wasteful with money - Sunak sprayed £30bn of this furlough confetti straight into hands of gangsters and fraudsters. His own Pointless money-pits like Eat Out to Help Out only served to show that Sunak treated borrowed cash like confetti.
A lefty underestimating him? I’m dismantling him from the right of him. Why do you think he was soundly beaten by Truss. Sunak is in number 10 despite being an abysmal campaigner, Team Truss ran rings round him. And she then lost to a lettuce.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Yes. Getting around in a foreign country is infinitely easier with a smartphone.
I can forgive the government for the first couple of months, or so, of Covid. Lockdowns, Furlough and all.
They had to get the measure of it.
But the measures went on for far to long and cost the economy far too much.
“Control the virus” was an absurdly expensive, stupid slogan. A mindset which may have been appropriate for a novel Spanish flu, or a particularly nasty sars-type virus. But inappropriate for Covid.
As Edmund kept on pointing out to us from Tokyo the government chose to do the wrong things to control the virus, consequently failed to do so, and therefore had to use the blunt instrument of not quite house arrest to do so instead, or see the health system collapse and deaths spiral.
Suppose the government had used quarantine for travellers returning from summer holidays in 2020, and not subsidised cross-household spread with eat out to help out - those two interventions alone would have delayed the onset of the autumn wave of infection in 2020.
It's not the government was wrong to want to restrict the spread of the virus. It's that they choose the wrong interventions to do so, and they failed.
Why do people keep using these stupid phones when they're so easy to hack into?
Because they are terribly convenient pieces of technology. There's a reason billions use them.
Bad or correct for Boris & Case to suppress it? From an intelligence angle whilst fighting a war against the perpetrators, correct.
Indeed, why this moment has it come out and how? Ship of state only ship that leaks from the top, so Downing Street have put it out there in time and manner of their choosing? No I think. Because it instantly relates to the charge against Braverman, passing sensitive stuff to her personal phone - why would Sunak turn the heat up on himself and Mail turn heat up on Braverman?
we can ask the question should the Mail have published this, our intelligence services happy to see it published at this time, or does it only boost our enemy right now?
How was the hack discovered? If we know it was compromised, how do we know forsure it was the Russians?
It must also been excruciating for poor Liz to have surrendered it. Is there a message to Kwarzi “coming back from Moscow in hat, fur coat and boots, get the Polaroid ready.”
Someone’s given this a like, but no one has replied with own thoughts, where this curved ball has raised lot of diverse questions.
I’ll have a go. Team Rishi leaked to friendly paper after clearance from intelligence, in order to bury bad news inherited from predecessors - probably fearing the “you sat on this for political reasons” damage further down the line.
How easily it reads across to Bravermans crimes, Number 10 too slow to realise when leaking it.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Well the phone can pinpoint exactly where you are in a way that a paper map or a guide book couldn't. Plus you can use it to translate menus and signs.
And the 'problem' Andy identifies is not a problem at all, it's just a grumpy dislike of people holding smartphones.
I don't get it, why judge people for what devices they own, or do not own?
Lettuce Liz is part of the reason we aren't like America. Gets to the point we burst and just mock. Daily Star deserves our thanks. We are world-beating at piss taking.
Steady on - the Ukrainians might well be a match for us!
Why do the trolls always end up on COVID conspiracy theories? Vaccines are dangerous, masks are bad, it came from a lab leak… on and on.
Because people like you associate two ludicrous claims (vaccines are dangerous and masks are bad) with a plausible theory (lab leak).
I still can’t work out the psychology of this. Lab Leak is, circumstantially, very highly plausible. And the evidence grows over time, rather than the opposite
Yet apparently sane people are desperate to deny it. To the extent of vapid lunacy
Why? Because blaming the Chinese labs is racist? It’s not like “OMG they eat bats” is LESS racist
I can understand why some scientists might fear the hypothesis. For the rest it must be a simple fear of anything Trump claimed turning out to be true?
I am open to other suggestions
The lab leak is circumstantially very highly plausible.
But the evidence for it is exactly the same as it's always been: that the outbreak started very close to a place where bat viruses were being studied. There's no new evidence, and unless a lab worker came out and said something (which is unlikely given China's government), then the situation is likely to remain the same in perpetuity.
The other piece of evidence (what would it be called? It’s not really circumstantial) is that they’ve failed to prove the animal transmission chain. They have absolutely been looking and testing and trying… once you exclude the alternatives whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth…
That's an excellent point: but it is worth remembering that they've never found the animal host for Ebola or HIV/AIDS, and it took several years to get it for MERS.
It's also worth noting that finding the host does not mean it wasn't a lab leak.
HIV I think they are pretty sure it’s chimps (and probably Ebola as well)
Great apes may have been the route into humans in recent Ebola outbreaks, but they’re not thought to be the natural reservoir for the disease. Our best theory there is bats, probably fruit bats, and some earlier Ebola outbreaks seem to have come via bats. But we’ve not pinned down the details here.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Not sure, but people enjoy it. One may as well ask whether wearing clothes is progress.
Lettuce Liz is part of the reason we aren't like America. Gets to the point we burst and just mock. Daily Star deserves our thanks. We are world-beating at piss taking.
And it's a long and noble tradition. Today's lot are getting off very lightly compared to their Georgian and Regency predecessors - absolutely no holds barred.
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Yes. Getting around in a foreign country is infinitely easier with a smartphone.
True. But there is a pleasant halfway-house. Use your smartphone to work out where you are. Then explore aimlessly, or with paper map, sans smartphone. Then re-engage smartphone to work out how to get back home.
I can forgive the government for the first couple of months, or so, of Covid. Lockdowns, Furlough and all.
They had to get the measure of it.
But the measures went on for far to long and cost the economy far too much.
“Control the virus” was an absurdly expensive, stupid slogan. A mindset which may have been appropriate for a novel Spanish flu, or a particularly nasty sars-type virus. But inappropriate for Covid.
As Germany, Korea etc showed, the idea there was a tradeoff between the economy and saving lives was a myth.
Why do people keep using these stupid phones when they're so easy to hack into?
Because they are terribly convenient pieces of technology. There's a reason billions use them.
Bad or correct for Boris & Case to suppress it? From an intelligence angle whilst fighting a war against the perpetrators, correct.
Indeed, why this moment has it come out and how? Ship of state only ship that leaks from the top, so Downing Street have put it out there in time and manner of their choosing? No I think. Because it instantly relates to the charge against Braverman, passing sensitive stuff to her personal phone - why would Sunak turn the heat up on himself and Mail turn heat up on Braverman?
we can ask the question should the Mail have published this, our intelligence services happy to see it published at this time, or does it only boost our enemy right now?
How was the hack discovered? If we know it was compromised, how do we know forsure it was the Russians?
It must also been excruciating for poor Liz to have surrendered it. Is there a message to Kwarzi “coming back from Moscow in hat, fur coat and boots, get the Polaroid ready.”
Someone’s given this a like, but no one has replied with own thoughts, where this curved ball has raised lot of diverse questions.
I’ll have a go. Team Rishi leaked to friendly paper after clearance from intelligence, in order to bury bad news inherited from predecessors - probably fearing the “you sat on this for political reasons” damage further down the line.
How easily it reads across to Bravermans crimes, Number 10 too slow to realise when leaking it.
When Liz ‘SMERSH on speed-dial’ Truss was sacking her Home Secretary for mishap of personal phone, how much did Home Secretary Braverman know about Truss mishap with personal phone?
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Well the phone can pinpoint exactly where you are in a way that a paper map or a guide book couldn't. Plus you can use it to translate menus and signs.
Who needs or wants their position pinpointed on a screen to the nearest centimetre? Every location must seem pretty much the same to the person who's always holding a smartphone anyway. They're unlikely to be able to read a decent map and probably can't do joined-up writing either. They're a disgrace to the human race.
I was in a motorway service station toilet the other day and a guy was holding his penis in one hand and balancing his idiot-stick "smartphone" between his cheek and shoulder with the other. Was that to do with "convenience" (other than that we were in one)?
An increasing number of people eating in cafes are wearing headphones nowadays. Wouldn't surprise me if they get ear problems from that.
The notion that these types have intelligently chosen to control ever more aspects of their lives is, well, the opposite of accurate.
I'd vote for almost any party that addressed this degradation.
But we're so far away from that. Even in the House of Commons which is supposed to be the country's main national assembly, most of the schmucks are phone-picking for much of the time.
Look I hate smartphones with a passion I have one but it never leaves my desk. When I go out it never goes with me. However I would never deny they have uses
Minimum wage should mean minimum wage. Not some formula or algorithm paying people pro rata for the time they’re actually delivering and other such nonsense.
The tories basically don’t care. Government gaslighting;
In a statement to the BBC, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The government has a strong track record in protecting and enhancing workers' rights across the UK.
"We are committed to building a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work. This includes ensuring workers' rights are robustly protected while also fostering a dynamic and flexible labour market."
Minimum wage should mean minimum wage. Not some formula or algorithm paying people pro rata for the time they’re actually delivering and other such nonsense.
The tories basically don’t care. Government gaslighting;
In a statement to the BBC, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The government has a strong track record in protecting and enhancing workers' rights across the UK.
"We are committed to building a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work. This includes ensuring workers' rights are robustly protected while also fostering a dynamic and flexible labour market."
There is a broader issue with the gig economy - but it’s complicated to fix as we saw with zero hour contracts. Knee jerk blaming the government is neither accurate or constructive
Comments
Lula 51.6%
Bonsonaro 48.4%
If he hadn’t been sacked, at what point would Boris have said Black Hole? Austerity?
If Sunak had told the truth during the long election months it firstly wouldn’t have been what membership wanted to hear, secondly would have raised questions about the Chancellor of most the last 3 years.
Gardenwalker liked my question, I liked when he said part of the black hole is funding the next six months of energy freeze. But there’s also £400bn of covid spending under Dishy Rishy yet to be picked over for value for money at play in this crisis too. Sure there needed to be some money spent fighting covid, but not with the frame of mind £400bn can be borrowed on UK credit and sprayed around like confetti, because interest rates will always be low, BoE always printing money.
All that “Rishi is right guy for this moment of economic crisis” grates with me. In my mind he’s the villain who created it.
https://www.foodheavenmag.com/recipes/cake-recipes/coffee-cakes/coffee-and-walnut-sponge
Datafolha, 28-29 Oct
8308 sample
Lula 52.1 (-0.6)
Bolsonaro 47.9 (+0.6)
Genial/Quaest, 27-29 Oct
2000 sample
Lula 51.7 (-1.6)
Bolsonaro 48.3 (+1.6)
Ipec, 28-29 Oct
4272 sample
Lula 53.8 (+0)
Bolsonaro 46.2 (+0)
Average of all 6 polls reported today:
Lula 52.1%
Bolsonaro 47.9%
Homo Habilis: Why do people keep using these stupid flint spears when it is so easy to get cut by them?
Indeed I do not accept your accusation he caused it, as he saved millions of jobs with furlough and in the campaign v Truss his very public warning about her policies have been proved spot on and he is understandably received acknowledgement of that
I would just say to his opponents you underestimate him at your peril and as far as polls are concerned next Spring will be the time to assess just how well he has done
There is no doubt Starmer and labour have a very different opponent to face
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11369041/The-final-days-ex-premiers-doomed-regime-filled-fears-nuclear-fallout.html
Trudging round in the rain to find a terrible cafe for a photo op is quite different.
"There's a reason for X" is often said by those who haven't figured out what it is. But yes, these vile devices have been marketed as "convenient".
During his tenure, Wadham was known locally as Sodom College (I've no idea why). I love this poem that he wrote about John Betjeman, fawning over Princess Margaret:
"Green with lust, and sick with shyness,
Let me lick your lacquered toes.
Gosh, oh gosh, your Royal Highness,
Put your finger up my nose,
Pin my teeth upon your dress,
Plant my head with watercress.
Only you can make me happy.
Tuck me tight beneath your arm.
Wrap me in a woollen nappy;
Let me wet it till it's warm.
In a plush and plated pram
Wheel me round St James's, Ma'am.
Let your sleek and soft galoshes
Slide and slither on my skin.
Swaddle me in mackintoshes
Till I lose my sense of sin.
Lightly plant your plimsolled heel
Where my privy parts congeal"
Followed by 2 reactions.
Overwhelming will of the people. Only traitors disagree.
Or. Stolen by lies, foreign money and interference, and must be overturned by the courts or a second vote.
They aren't for everyone, but its just dumb to pretend they don't provide all manner of conveniences, and which are not comparable to the negatives of taking heroin or the like.
If people don't like smartphones, fine, I think people overuse devices in general, but the hatred some have for them crosses over into irrationality.
Or else, bloody awful. I remember there was a Little Chef at Scotch Corner, which had newly-hatched bluebottles crawling out of a crack in the wall. Another, near Basingstoke, emptied the toilets into a neighbouring field.
Jacob Rees Mogg would ask why you need a laptop when pen and paper exists, or a manual typewriter.
If he doesn’t average 30% or higher in polls in six weeks time, at that point I’m writing him off.
Said David Mellor to Antonia de Sanchez
We’re never going back to life without them, but we do need to establish better norms for their use.
How tainted by corruption is Lula’s Labour Party, as that’s what is surely behind Bolsano’s chance here? If Bolsano does win, can a new younger candidate beat him next time from the left?
Gets to the point we burst and just mock.
Daily Star deserves our thanks.
We are world-beating at piss taking.
Hope he wasn't badly hurt.
Remember a week is a long time in politics
Wonder if Klopp will have one
Before smartphones many people were confident enough to walk around the backstreets of foreign cities like Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, etc, with nothing more than a paper map or a guide book.
Today many of the same kind of people can't even walk down the street outside their own home without clutching a smartphone.
Is that progress?
Indeed, why this moment has it come out and how? Ship of state only ship that leaks from the top, so Downing Street have put it out there in time and manner of their choosing? No I think. Because it instantly relates to the charge against Braverman, passing sensitive stuff to her personal phone - why would Sunak turn the heat up on himself and Mail turn heat up on Braverman?
we can ask the question should the Mail have published this, our intelligence services happy to see it published at this time, or does it only boost our enemy right now?
How was the hack discovered? If we know it was compromised, how do we know forsure it was the Russians?
It must also been excruciating for poor Liz to have surrendered it. Is there a message to Kwarzi “coming back from Moscow in hat, fur coat and boots, get the Polaroid ready.”
But, with my wife suffering mobility issues in recent years, its been great to be able to send her photos of things that I see when I go off on a cycle trip. It means she doesn't feel so left out because she's not able to cycle very far.
I was in a motorway service station toilet the other day and a guy was holding his penis in one hand and balancing his idiot-stick "smartphone" between his cheek and shoulder with the other. Was that to do with "convenience" (other than that we were in one)?
An increasing number of people eating in cafes are wearing headphones nowadays. Wouldn't surprise me if they get ear problems from that.
The notion that these types have intelligently chosen to control ever more aspects of their lives is, well, the opposite of accurate.
I'd vote for almost any party that addressed this degradation.
But we're so far away from that. Even in the House of Commons which is supposed to be the country's main national assembly, most of the schmucks are phone-picking for much of the time.
The irony here, Sunak is so right by telling Truss she was so wrong? When Liz Truss told Rishi control over interest rates and QE must be taken from the BoE who have failed the nation, it was Liz Truss who was right and Sunak wrong, Sunak rejects the necessary changes in UK Treasury orthodoxy Liz was right about - just look now Truss is gone the BoE, Treasury and Downing St all disastrously cosy again, it proves Sunak’s thinking is to continue that twenty year orthodoxy that has failed us - an insane housing market, negative real interest rates, double digit inflation, taxes at a 70 year high, exponential spending on the worst health service in Europe, £2.4 trillion of debt and lower wages than we had in 2008. Sunak proved to be an instinctive borrower and waster. His finger prints are all over this crisis.
His record as Chancellor does not survive scrutiny - he borrowed £375 billion throwing money at Covid in a splurge as though fiscal responsibility is a ‘political choice’. Furlough was not his idea, he copied it from abroad. It’s a good idea, but not in the hands of someone wasteful with money - Sunak sprayed £30bn of this furlough confetti straight into hands of gangsters and fraudsters. His own Pointless money-pits like Eat Out to Help Out only served to show that Sunak treated borrowed cash like confetti.
A lefty underestimating him? I’m dismantling him from the right of him. Why do you think he was soundly beaten by Truss. Sunak is in number 10 despite being an abysmal campaigner, Team Truss ran rings round him. And she then lost to a lettuce.
So I googled it.
Was there really a Ministry for Fun?
I certainly condemned her budget as soon as it was announced and the rest is history
I am pleased to support our first Asian PM who seems to be cutting through as evidenced by tonight's poll though I have warned against reading too much into polls at present
You are entitled to your view but I am relaxed that at last we have a grown up PM and he will prove popular over time and certainly reduce any idea of a conservative wipe out in 24
They had to get the measure of it.
But the measures went on for far to long and cost the economy far too much.
“Control the virus” was an absurdly expensive, stupid slogan. A mindset which may have been appropriate for a novel Spanish flu, or a particularly nasty sars-type virus. But inappropriate for Covid.
I expect you are going to be very disappointed
Suppose the government had used quarantine for travellers returning from summer holidays in 2020, and not subsidised cross-household spread with eat out to help out - those two interventions alone would have delayed the onset of the autumn wave of infection in 2020.
It's not the government was wrong to want to restrict the spread of the virus. It's that they choose the wrong interventions to do so, and they failed.
I’ll have a go. Team Rishi leaked to friendly paper after clearance from intelligence, in order to bury bad news inherited from predecessors - probably fearing the “you sat on this for political reasons” damage further down the line.
How easily it reads across to Bravermans crimes, Number 10 too slow to realise when leaking it.
https://www.anpost.com/Post-Parcels/Sending/Digital-Stamp
I don't get it, why judge people for what devices they own, or do not own?
Not exactly Dura, Ace of Spies are you 🌂
I sometimes forget how young you are!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
It’s funny what people don’t forget isn’t it! 😮
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly
. .
Minimum wage should mean minimum wage. Not some formula or algorithm paying people pro rata for the time they’re actually delivering and other such nonsense.
The tories basically don’t care. Government gaslighting;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63391400
In a statement to the BBC, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The government has a strong track record in protecting and enhancing workers' rights across the UK.
"We are committed to building a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy that delivers on our ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work. This includes ensuring workers' rights are robustly protected while also fostering a dynamic and flexible labour market."