A twenty something friend of Fox Jr, a talented designer in a thriving industry, has just given notice and taken a job in Vancouver. Canada takes a different attitude to immigration. See here:
Canada is a fascinating place. A much closer UK/Canada alliance would be quite an interesting economic and military actor.
Our family has done its bit - our eldest son married a Canadian in 2015 and they live in Vancouver
A great city.
(Not completely unlike my hometown, Auckland).
I am serious about UK / Canada collaboration.
Imagine the worst happens: Trump wins again in 2024 and pulls support from Ukraine. He disengages from Europe. Democracy corrodes and the US sinks into a soft authoritarianism not unlike Orban’s Hungary.
Both the UK and Canada would face quite profound geopolitical questions over their relationship to the U.S. and their commitment to democracy.
That's a lot of money for a single plane. However, the An-225 was a real symbol of Ukraine's identity. It is clearly being done for the message that it sends.
Ukraine has started construction of the second An-225 Mriya model aircraft. It will replace the legendary board, which was destroyed by the Russian invaders in Gostomel at the beginning of the invasion. According to the newspaper Bild, the new "Mriya" is already 30% ready.
"The work is being done in a secret place. The second An-225 will be supplied with both new parts and parts of the damaged aircraft," said Yevhen Gavrilov, General Director of Antonov State Enterprise.
They have been looking at Games Workshop's pricing policy.
Just received my copy of the newly published book on the origins of Games Worksop. Of particular interest to me as I worked for Citadel (the miniatures arm of GW) back in the early days before they moved everything to Nottingham and am still friends with most of the people mentioned in the book. It is an impressive success story to go from one small shop in London and a workshop in Newark to a multi-billion pound company.
It's an amazing business. And unsung engineering heroes, too. I was an avid customer in the early days, and now, 40 years later, I'm sinking the GDP of a small country into minis since my nearly-9yo daughter discovered 40k for herself.
For all that I have great admiration for GW, there is a vast world of alternatives out there if you find 40K stuff too expensive. Depending on where you live, come to one of our shows at Newark next year and you can get some insight into depth of the hobby.
Also remember the legend is that you can't die until you paint your last mini. I have about 20,000 of them as insurance
That is ... impressive.
I painted a few minis back in my teenage years, back when everything was still cast in metal. Never made the shift to plastic.
My collection of “White Dwarf” back issues is sadly lost to time & entropy however.
My collection of White Dwarf back issues was thrown out by my parents while I was at uni.
I loved the early years when it used to cover more than just GW stuff but when it just became an in house magazine I lost interest.
I always preferred the more niche games than the main collecting an army ones. Started off with Hero Quest and Space Crusade in the 80s, then Blood Bowl and Warhammer Quest in the 90s. Utterly loved Blood Bowl and at one stage I think I had just about every team available.
This century I've sometimes collected miniatures, but its just for the hobby of painting them now not actually playing the games in person anymore.
I started a narrative game with my daughter at the weekend. It's a lot of fun playing with her.
I also like Blood Bowl - and we got Aeronautica last Xmas which is a great hex-based game (with tiny planes to paint)
What I love about PB is how a post mentioning the creation of a new An-225 can easily segue onto Games Workshop, Warhammer 40K and Blood Bowl in the blink of an eye. It really is a giant smorgasbord of geeks of all different inclinations.
It’s way over my head, it must be a 1980s zit faced boy thing 🤷♀️
I’ve never even owned a game console.
Around these parts, it is a non-zitty 9yo girl of the 2020s thing.
I’m rooting for her to find her inner Katy Perry and roar your soldiers down. 😁
A quick look at the Flatlands shows that most of the newly Tory constituency of Don Valley (including the airport) has moved in with Lincolnshire. Might stay blue? The rest is in with Doncaster Central.
Doncaster North looks more rural than before but given the current polling, Ed will stay.
A twenty something friend of Fox Jr, a talented designer in a thriving industry, has just given notice and taken a job in Vancouver. Canada takes a different attitude to immigration. See here:
Canada is a fascinating place. A much closer UK/Canada alliance would be quite an interesting economic and military actor.
Our family has done its bit - our eldest son married a Canadian in 2015 and they live in Vancouver
A great city.
(Not completely unlike my hometown, Auckland).
I am serious about UK / Canada collaboration.
Imagine the worst happens: Trump wins again in 2024 and pulls support from Ukraine. He disengages from Europe. Democracy corrodes and the US sinks into a soft authoritarianism not unlike Orban’s Hungary.
Both the UK and Canada would face quite profound geopolitical questions over their relationship to the U.S. and their commitment to democracy.
Preparation should start now.
You should write a thread header on this.
Ok. But I’ll wait to see how US midterms go first.
That's a lot of money for a single plane. However, the An-225 was a real symbol of Ukraine's identity. It is clearly being done for the message that it sends.
Ukraine has started construction of the second An-225 Mriya model aircraft. It will replace the legendary board, which was destroyed by the Russian invaders in Gostomel at the beginning of the invasion. According to the newspaper Bild, the new "Mriya" is already 30% ready.
"The work is being done in a secret place. The second An-225 will be supplied with both new parts and parts of the damaged aircraft," said Yevhen Gavrilov, General Director of Antonov State Enterprise.
They have been looking at Games Workshop's pricing policy.
Just received my copy of the newly published book on the origins of Games Worksop. Of particular interest to me as I worked for Citadel (the miniatures arm of GW) back in the early days before they moved everything to Nottingham and am still friends with most of the people mentioned in the book. It is an impressive success story to go from one small shop in London and a workshop in Newark to a multi-billion pound company.
It's an amazing business. And unsung engineering heroes, too. I was an avid customer in the early days, and now, 40 years later, I'm sinking the GDP of a small country into minis since my nearly-9yo daughter discovered 40k for herself.
For all that I have great admiration for GW, there is a vast world of alternatives out there if you find 40K stuff too expensive. Depending on where you live, come to one of our shows at Newark next year and you can get some insight into depth of the hobby.
Also remember the legend is that you can't die until you paint your last mini. I have about 20,000 of them as insurance
That is ... impressive.
I painted a few minis back in my teenage years, back when everything was still cast in metal. Never made the shift to plastic.
My collection of “White Dwarf” back issues is sadly lost to time & entropy however.
My collection of White Dwarf back issues was thrown out by my parents while I was at uni.
I loved the early years when it used to cover more than just GW stuff but when it just became an in house magazine I lost interest.
I always preferred the more niche games than the main collecting an army ones. Started off with Hero Quest and Space Crusade in the 80s, then Blood Bowl and Warhammer Quest in the 90s. Utterly loved Blood Bowl and at one stage I think I had just about every team available.
This century I've sometimes collected miniatures, but its just for the hobby of painting them now not actually playing the games in person anymore.
I started a narrative game with my daughter at the weekend. It's a lot of fun playing with her.
I also like Blood Bowl - and we got Aeronautica last Xmas which is a great hex-based game (with tiny planes to paint)
What I love about PB is how a post mentioning the creation of a new An-225 can easily segue onto Games Workshop, Warhammer 40K and Blood Bowl in the blink of an eye. It really is a giant smorgasbord of geeks of all different inclinations.
It’s way over my head, it must be a 1980s zit faced boy thing 🤷♀️
I’ve never even owned a game console.
Around these parts, it is a non-zitty 9yo girl of the 2020s thing.
I’m rooting for her to find her inner Katy Perry and roar your soldiers down. 😁
Don't worry. Her Plague Marines and Poxwalkers regularly infest my Battle Nuns with their pestilent bounty.
That's a lot of money for a single plane. However, the An-225 was a real symbol of Ukraine's identity. It is clearly being done for the message that it sends.
Ukraine has started construction of the second An-225 Mriya model aircraft. It will replace the legendary board, which was destroyed by the Russian invaders in Gostomel at the beginning of the invasion. According to the newspaper Bild, the new "Mriya" is already 30% ready.
"The work is being done in a secret place. The second An-225 will be supplied with both new parts and parts of the damaged aircraft," said Yevhen Gavrilov, General Director of Antonov State Enterprise.
They have been looking at Games Workshop's pricing policy.
Just received my copy of the newly published book on the origins of Games Worksop. Of particular interest to me as I worked for Citadel (the miniatures arm of GW) back in the early days before they moved everything to Nottingham and am still friends with most of the people mentioned in the book. It is an impressive success story to go from one small shop in London and a workshop in Newark to a multi-billion pound company.
It's an amazing business. And unsung engineering heroes, too. I was an avid customer in the early days, and now, 40 years later, I'm sinking the GDP of a small country into minis since my nearly-9yo daughter discovered 40k for herself.
For all that I have great admiration for GW, there is a vast world of alternatives out there if you find 40K stuff too expensive. Depending on where you live, come to one of our shows at Newark next year and you can get some insight into depth of the hobby.
Also remember the legend is that you can't die until you paint your last mini. I have about 20,000 of them as insurance
That is ... impressive.
I painted a few minis back in my teenage years, back when everything was still cast in metal. Never made the shift to plastic.
My collection of “White Dwarf” back issues is sadly lost to time & entropy however.
My collection of White Dwarf back issues was thrown out by my parents while I was at uni.
I loved the early years when it used to cover more than just GW stuff but when it just became an in house magazine I lost interest.
I always preferred the more niche games than the main collecting an army ones. Started off with Hero Quest and Space Crusade in the 80s, then Blood Bowl and Warhammer Quest in the 90s. Utterly loved Blood Bowl and at one stage I think I had just about every team available.
This century I've sometimes collected miniatures, but its just for the hobby of painting them now not actually playing the games in person anymore.
I started a narrative game with my daughter at the weekend. It's a lot of fun playing with her.
I also like Blood Bowl - and we got Aeronautica last Xmas which is a great hex-based game (with tiny planes to paint)
What I love about PB is how a post mentioning the creation of a new An-225 can easily segue onto Games Workshop, Warhammer 40K and Blood Bowl in the blink of an eye. It really is a giant smorgasbord of geeks of all different inclinations.
It’s way over my head, it must be a 1980s zit faced boy thing 🤷♀️
I’ve never even owned a game console.
Around these parts, it is a non-zitty 9yo girl of the 2020s thing.
I’m rooting for her to find her inner Katy Perry and roar your soldiers down. 😁
Don't worry. Her Plague Marines and Poxwalkers regularly infest my Battle Nuns with their pestilent bounty.
That’s the way to do it. Regular infestations of pestilence.
BREAKING: The plan to build a £250 million 'national flagship has been officially scrapped. It was going to be named after the late Prince Philip. Defence Sec Ben Wallace told MPs he was prioritising the procurement of the multi-role ocean surveillance ship (MROSS) instead.
I know this is an unpopular view, probably because people view it as the Royals living the life of riley at public expense (I don't agree), but this is one thing that I think would have generated a clear return on investment for UK plc.
I'd have gone for it.
Disagree. What Royal yacht enthusiasts always seem to forget is that the thing would need a frigate-grade RN warship always escorting it, for security reasons. And add to that the positioning transit times involved, even if the PM or HM are not on the HMY. (That is what used to happen with the Britannia. Unless they devoted an entire warship to the tour, at huge cost in terms of temproary modifications, vide: Vanguard.)
Yet another large chunk out of a shrinking pie of fleet and crewing stats.
Then, we dedicate a frigate. Just as we do to counter narcotics, or for anti-piracy, or to demonstrate a "presence" in the South China Sea.
Worth it.
You may think so as an earnest Royalist, but it's a huge waste oif effort, money and above all in terms of the message it sends to the Navy and to the wider public.
Have a look at the stats for how many destroyers and frigates the Navy had when Britannia was reguilarly in use, and today. Thge ratio is about ten to one for 1960 to today (and a lot more if I went back a bit).
No, I don't think so at all.
It almost certainly does more work in promoting our soft power and "brand" that sending an aircraft carrier around on tour, which is also far more expensive.
I agree the Royal Navy is undersized with escorts. I'd expand numbers of those too.
In two weeks time, Jeremy Hunt is set to announce 20 billion of spending cuts, 20 billion of tax rises, plus a bit.
There really, really isn't any money left.
250 million for HMG is fuck all mate. And it's business case would make HS2 look like burning every fiver in the country.
You just don't want the yacht.
In Modmathics, maybe, but more likely 1bn in real pounds, as (I think) DA pointed out the last time there was a discussion of RMY. ,
And the warship. And the recurrent running costs, and the staffing, and the maintenance, and all the opportunity costs for an already understaffed RN.
And the public example it sets at a time of climate crisis and public spending cuts. "Here I am! Playing at being a ricvh bastard at your expense!"
Except not at your expense, because it generates a net return for UK plc and enhances our soft power. We all benefit.
Emotion on this issue (all about class, of course) utterly clouds judgement.
It is at my expense, as it creates moneyt for shareholders often in foreign lands. UK plc has been sold off long ago.
We're not in the 1960s any more.
Are businesses really convinced to sign on the dotted line by a glass of English Fizz on the quarter deck? Or by the cold facts of the bottom line? A bit more attention to the latter is what is needed.
It’s about network building and “filling the funnel”. Anecdotally I have been told that the sort of people who would never turn up to a drinks party at an embassy would be excited to accept and invite to Britannia.
Comments
America's finest living cartoonist has a a different idea: https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/michael-ramirez-31116/
(He hasn't changed his opinion since he drew that cartoon.)
Does that qualify me for PBs Gamebooks, Boards & Dungeons Club?
Actually, perhaps drop Dungeons from the title, it might make it all sound much more interesting than it actually is ☺️
Get Red has a better ring than Get Balls 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NazGwNJoAvY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLpqQEPp3GU
More on the song. It’s definitely spiritual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayfaring_Stranger_(song)
They don’t like it up em - those battle nuns.
Think about it as a branded trade embassy