Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
No wonder SNP trying to run a mile from this. Their claim the NHS/founding principles are under threat from the Tories has been a key argument for independence. Now it emerges their own NHS chiefs are discussing a "two-tier system where the people who can afford to" would pay…..
NHS Scotland bosses meeting minutes also suggest rift between them and SNP ministers, mentioning a "disconnect from the pressure that [regional NHS] boards are feeling and the message from SG [Scottish Government] that everything is still a priority and to be done within budget"
Glad people in the NHS are talking about this. No politician would dare. Reality is though that we can not afford for everything to be free to everyone. There are more people (people living longer) and far more types of treatment than when the NHS was created. This is only going to get worse. A new way has to be found.
NHS Trust accounts teams are absolutely, fantastically, crap at charging foreign users.
Means testing at the point of use would require a phenomenal degree of extra cost.
This is compared with, you know, charging the rich more in tax.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
I'm still trying to work out what the 3000 years meant. Is he a revisionist historian ?
‘No’ won the referendum 55:45. From the way that British Nationalists have conducted themselves ever since, you’d have thought that they had won 90:10. At no point have Unionists made even the vaguest attempt to reach out to defeated opponents and persuade them that they had a place in their vision of the future. Abraham Lincoln supposedly once said: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” This is not a thought that has ever crossed the mind of any Unionist.
Instead, British Nationalists have done the exact opposite.
On footballers' gestures, I confess I'm really confused. Can somebody help me to understand the difference between Woke virtue-signalling by spoilt multi-millionaires, and essential gestures that show solidarity with the oppressed?
When the football establishment is cheering them on, and they face no personal repercussions for their gesture - that’s virtue signalling.
When the protest is explicitly banned, and the players face consequences for their actions, that’s showing solidarity with the oppressed.
The counterfactual, could Con have won had Sunak been elected leader in September?
No Trusster-disaster, but it would have left Sunak the bearer of any fiscal bad news that would have happened anyway, and that fiscal bad news would have been pointed more directly back to his stint as CoTE.
The Tory position may have been better, but not that much better.
I personally don't think the Trusster disaster was that bad in terms of lasting impact. The damage was already there. The same needs to do something like what Hunt did would have happened. The same narrative of 12 years in power, why trust you lot to fix it?
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
I'm still trying to work out what the 3000 years meant. Is he a revisionist historian ?
Taking it from around the time of the Roman Kingdom?
Given the proximity and where the core of advanced civilization was, I tend to agree with the thesis that the core of The West in historic terms includes the middle east anyway, as a series of interrelated civilizations.
The counterfactual, could Con have won had Sunak been elected leader in September?
No Trusster-disaster, but it would have left Sunak the bearer of any fiscal bad news that would have happened anyway, and that fiscal bad news would have been pointed more directly back to his stint as CoTE.
The Tory position may have been better, but not that much better.
I personally don't think the Trusster disaster was that bad in terms of lasting impact. The damage was already there. The same needs to do something like what Hunt did would have happened. The same narrative of 12 years in power, why trust you lot to fix it?
Yes, but they were/are a long way ahead in seats, so as long as they didn't collapse they had a decent chance of retaining plenty of people despite that obvious narrative. The Truss Event seems to have blown away any remaining defences to that.
Time for y'all to pay attention to the polls. There is NO comeback from here for the tories. Forget it. Reset your minds.
The REAL question is just how much of a shellacking they are going to get. Just how big a majority will Labour get? That's the only remaining question at the next election.
Weren't Labour close to 60% in the polls several times in about 1995? And the Tories at about 24%.
The polls look like they were more scattery then. Kinda makes sense, since the technology of opinion polling ought to have improved.
The biggest gap on the Wikipedia Worm looks like it was about L56 C23. As we speak, it's L51 C24, or thereabouts.
Not quite as good for Labour (Scotland?), about as bad for the Conservatives as Major's nadir.
Stop making a false comparison please. It's misleading.
The truth is that this is psepholoically like 1997 but economically FAR WORSE.
Conservatives on here need to prepare for the Dark Night of the Soul.
I am not sure if you were around in 1992 but I was and I can assure you that the economic situation this far out from the election was far worse than it is today. In 1992 quite a number of the unemployed (which were multiple times more than we have right now) voted Tory as their best chance of getting a job.
The key difference is Starmer. I think he will be a dull, somewhat unimaginative PM with few ideas and no vision but he isn't scary and right now that is probably enough.
Stop making a false comparison please. It's misleading.
The truth is that this is psepholoically like 1997 but economically FAR WORSE.
Conservatives on here need to prepare for the Dark Night of the Soul.
Eternal damnation, hopefully.
There is a place for a right of centre party. Labour has its extreme wing too (see JC for example). Its just that the Tories have lurched too far to the right in some areas. I wish for the post war consensus to return in many ways - governments change but are broadly similar. We don't need either extreme.
On topic, I don't think comparisons with 1992 have much merit. Simply because of Kinnock. Kinnock was a windbag of limited intellectual ability and little vision. I can't imagine that he would have been a good Prime Minister; he had very little going for him other than the occasional rhetorical flourish.
Now if I, a solid Labour voter, thought that about Kinnock, it's not difficult to see why swing voters were unpersuaded. Starmer is a different kettle of fish entirely.
No wonder SNP trying to run a mile from this. Their claim the NHS/founding principles are under threat from the Tories has been a key argument for independence. Now it emerges their own NHS chiefs are discussing a "two-tier system where the people who can afford to" would pay…..
NHS Scotland bosses meeting minutes also suggest rift between them and SNP ministers, mentioning a "disconnect from the pressure that [regional NHS] boards are feeling and the message from SG [Scottish Government] that everything is still a priority and to be done within budget"
Glad people in the NHS are talking about this. No politician would dare. Reality is though that we can not afford for everything to be free to everyone. There are more people (people living longer) and far more types of treatment than when the NHS was created. This is only going to get worse. A new way has to be found.
NHS Trust accounts teams are absolutely, fantastically, crap at charging foreign users.
Means testing at the point of use would require a phenomenal degree of extra cost.
This is compared with, you know, charging the rich more in tax.
Not just foreign users. When my wife had our first child they had private rooms available. They were about £150 to £200 per night (can't remember exactly) and we said we would like to do this. When she left hospital I asked the staff how I could pay the bill (2 nights). They said not to worry as we would get sent an invoice. 13 years later we have never received anything. That was at least £300 the NHS missed out on. How many others did they just never do anything about!
My view as to why this happens is because almost everything is "free" there is no infrastructure for charging people.
Stop making a false comparison please. It's misleading.
The truth is that this is psepholoically like 1997 but economically FAR WORSE.
Conservatives on here need to prepare for the Dark Night of the Soul.
I am not sure if you were around in 1992 but I was and I can assure you that the economic situation this far out from the election was far worse than it is today. In 1992 quite a number of the unemployed (which were multiple times more than we have right now) voted Tory as their best chance of getting a job.
The key difference is Starmer. I think he will be a dull, somewhat unimaginative PM with few ideas and no vision but he isn't scary and right now that is probably enough.
Enough to win the election, yes. Not enough to be effective enough in office to avoid being turfed out at the first opportunity, perhaps.
On footballers' gestures, I confess I'm really confused. Can somebody help me to understand the difference between Woke virtue-signalling by spoilt multi-millionaires, and essential gestures that show solidarity with the oppressed?
When the football establishment is cheering them on, and they face no personal repercussions for their gesture - that’s virtue signalling.
When the protest is explicitly banned, and the players face consequences for their actions, that’s showing solidarity with the oppressed.
Thanks. Though I suspect in truth that woke virtue-signalling is when there are gestures that people don't agree with.
The 'NHS Leak' story being pushed by BBC Scotland today is a virtual carbon copy of an anti-SNP smear the broadcaster ran two days before the 2014 Indyref. Here's the news report from 2014 followed by today's story. It's literally the same tactic, even down to the wording.
Scotland abandoning universal health care? That's a big story that came out of the blue.
BBC universally abandoning journalistic integrity. That’s the big turd in Scottish public life.
Unfair, surely BBC Scotland is continually covering policies, performance and kite flying in England’s public life (which after all has much more consequence for Scots than the reverse does for the English)?
On topic, I don't think comparisons with 1992 have much merit. Simply because of Kinnock. Kinnock was a windbag of limited intellectual ability and little vision. I can't imagine that he would have been a good Prime Minister; he had very little going for him other than the occasional rhetorical flourish.
Now if I, a solid Labour voter, thought that about Kinnock, it's not difficult to see why swing voters were unpersuaded. Starmer is a different kettle of fish entirely.
Off topic, just looking at Gridwatch this morning - we are running a coal-fired unit so that we can export the power to France.
Doesn't sound too green to me.
French nuclear output is creeping back up, nearly 32 GW today, but it's still well down on the 40+ GW they produced last winter.
So it's a case of needs must on exporting coal-fired electricity to France at the moment. It's a shame the government haven't pulled out all the stops on alternatives.
Have Labour said anything interesting on energy policy?
Edit: Interestingly gridwatch has France producing more wind energy than Britain at the moment, which seems unusual. They must have installed quite a lot of capacity fairly recently.
Unusually windy over continental land, I'd say.
France has about the same installed amount of onshore wind as we have offshore. (Just under 20 GW), and we have far more onshore wind than they do offshore.
The link I posted the other included ramping back up of coal in France as interim Plan C until nuclear is back, so some coal being brought on line here when wind is low would fit the price hierarchy algorithm.
Recovery mode - In the last 10 days it has been my birthday, my wife's birthday, my son's birthday, my daughter's birthday, our wedding anniversary. My son's girlfriend has put in a poor showing by having her birthday a whole 10 days earlier. 5 celebrations in 10 days, 6 in 20 days
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
I'm still trying to work out what the 3000 years meant. Is he a revisionist historian ?
Taking it from around the time of the Roman Kingdom?
Given the proximity and where the core of advanced civilization was, I tend to agree with the thesis that the core of The West in historic terms includes the middle east anyway, as a series of interrelated civilizations.
I assume history not his strong point, and he meant 300 years.
I find it hard to have any sympathy at all with FIFA. Their position isn't really "keep the politics out of sport", it seems to be "we'll support the politics of whoever pays us the most". Awarding the hosting of the World Cup to Qatar was in itself one of the most extreme political decisions in sport.
And hasn't this armband already been worn by players in international matches without any issues? Banning it hours before a match is a very deliberate "fuck you" to inclusion in football.
Screw FIFA, if European countries had any self-respect they would just leave the organisation.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
I'm still trying to work out what the 3000 years meant. Is he a revisionist historian ?
Taking it from around the time of the Roman Kingdom?
Given the proximity and where the core of advanced civilization was, I tend to agree with the thesis that the core of The West in historic terms includes the middle east anyway, as a series of interrelated civilizations.
I assume history not his strong point, and he meant 300 years.
I find it hard to have any sympathy at all with FIFA. Their position isn't really "keep the politics out of sport", it seems to be "we'll support the politics of whoever pays us the most". Awarding the hosting of the World Cup to Qatar was in itself one of the most extreme political decisions in sport.
And hasn't this armband already been worn by players in international matches without any issues? Banning it hours before a match is a very deliberate "fuck you" to inclusion in football.
Screw FIFA, if European countries had any self-respect they would just leave the organisation.
Cue English footballers trawling the archives for Argentinian, Nigerian and Australian grannies.
On footballers' gestures, I confess I'm really confused. Can somebody help me to understand the difference between Woke virtue-signalling by spoilt multi-millionaires, and essential gestures that show solidarity with the oppressed?
When the football establishment is cheering them on, and they face no personal repercussions for their gesture - that’s virtue signalling.
When the protest is explicitly banned, and the players face consequences for their actions, that’s showing solidarity with the oppressed.
Thanks. Though I suspect in truth that woke virtue-signalling is when there are gestures that people don't agree with.
But where they don't have the courage to stand up for their own prejudices.
If they really think it's fine to imprison people for being gay, I don't understand why they don't just say so, and forget all the diversionary tripe about "woke" and "virtue". None of them posts under his/her real name anyway.
The 'NHS Leak' story being pushed by BBC Scotland today is a virtual carbon copy of an anti-SNP smear the broadcaster ran two days before the 2014 Indyref. Here's the news report from 2014 followed by today's story. It's literally the same tactic, even down to the wording.
Winter has come to Estonia. The first dusting of snow is making the pencil sharp roofs of the medieval towers of Tallinn´s walls, and the filigree spires of its churches gleam. It is not yet deep winter, when a metre of snow rests like a blanket over the country, but at seven below freezing it is cold enough to scatter your breath, and without warm clothes the chill soon enters your body.
In Kyiv it retains the damp cold that we had here a week ago, but a temperature just above freezing chills even further. Several friends have come back from Ukraine after delivering supplies and they report that the ZSU are now well provisioned for the cold. Better to be in houses in Kherson than in frozen fox holes in the mud on the other side of the Dnipro. The Russian Mobiniks are cold and miserable and the treatment of their own army by the Russian high command pretty much amounts to a war crime itself, let alone the torture, rape and murder that they have unleashed on the Ukrainians.
The discussions here have focused on what happens if the Russians launch a "stray" missile in our direction, but the High Command seem relatively relaxed believing that the Russians themselves were slightly shocked by the strength of the NATO reaction to the strike in Poland, and relieved that Biden let them off the hook for direct targeting of Poland. Meanwhile a GRU agent exchanged for an arrested Estonian businessman four years ago has returned to Estonia and claimed political asylum. He said that he had been better treated as an adversary in Estonia than as an operative in Russia, and the impact of the war was destroying all aspects of Russian life.
We hear that the situation across the border is close to paralysis. So although the economic situation here is not easy, there is a certain grim satisfaction that in Russia it is far, far worse. We wait, but there is a growing sense that Russia faces a critical crisis sometime next year. The spring may be very hard indeed in Moscow.
Recovery mode - In the last 10 days it has been my birthday, my wife's birthday, my son's birthday, my daughter's birthday, our wedding anniversary. My son's girlfriend has put in a poor showing by having her birthday a whole 10 days earlier. 5 celebrations in 10 days, 6 in 20 days
The 'NHS Leak' story being pushed by BBC Scotland today is a virtual carbon copy of an anti-SNP smear the broadcaster ran two days before the 2014 Indyref. Here's the news report from 2014 followed by today's story. It's literally the same tactic, even down to the wording.
Across the centuries, prejudice and bigotry has been overcome because people have taken a courageous stand against it. But even Martin Luther King didn’t go as far as risking an early booking that could be carried into the 1st knockout stage, so let’s not be unfair to England.
I think my position is that we keep political gestures out of the playing arena. That goes for political gestures whose intentions I agree with as well as political gestures whose politics I oppose. There are dozens of reasons for this, and another one has just become apparent: that we end up looking silly when we are pressured to remove our political gesture.
There are people employed to do the politics, and it shouldn’t be the players jobs.
To be clear, I’m not sure who I view as the main villains of the piece here, Fifa or the state of Qatar; but it’s certainly not Harry Kane or England or Denmark or Europe or even Gareth Southgate, pain in the arse though I find him.
Also, we should have withdrawn from fifa about a decade ago when the scale of its corruption became unignorable.
1992 shows it is possible. At that time the Tories had a leader who was broadly liked and thought competent who took over after a long period in power. He was opposed by Neil Kinnock who could give a great speech but who did not inspire economic competence. Even a recession (and Sunak is having to cope with this too) did not persuade people that the Tories were a part of the problem or that Labour had any meaningful answers.
SKS has nothing like Kinnock's oratory skills but he does come across as a safer pair of hands. Hunt strikes me as a much smarter and smoother operator than Norman Lamont was. Reeves I remain unsure of.
Is it likely? Hell no.
I agree with you here David. I am far, far from convinced that Labour have 2024 in the bag. And those talking of sub 200 seats for the Conservatives are really not thinking ahead.
We have two years to the next GE. It'll probably be October 2024. A lot can happen, and a lot can swing back. Everyone hates the Tories, of course, except on General Election Day. [1]
If there really where a GE on Thursday (there isn't, hence I wouldn't look at the polls) I'd still say the Conservatives, even this week, could get anywhere between 260 and 330 seats. I don't think a 1997 style wipeout is on the cards at all.
[1] I've never been able to find it since, but Stewart Lee had a great quote about the Conservatives in the 1980s: "In the 80's, everyone hated the Tories. The miners hated the Tories, the nurses hated the Tories, the teachers hated the Tories.... EVERYONE hated the Tories...... (pause) which is why they consistently won election after election during the 1980s."
Recovery mode - In the last 10 days it has been my birthday, my wife's birthday, my son's birthday, my daughter's birthday, our wedding anniversary. My son's girlfriend has put in a poor showing by having her birthday a whole 10 days earlier. 5 celebrations in 10 days, 6 in 20 days
Well, your children's birthdays were down to you. Ditto your wedding anniversary. So was this all planned?
My Mum picked her wedding date to be between my Dad's Mum's birthday and her Mum's birthday so that he would never forget it. He just forgot all 3...
Winter has come to Estonia. The first dusting of snow is making the pencil sharp roofs of the medieval towers of Tallinn´s walls, and the filigree spires of its churches gleam. It is not yet deep winter, when a metre of snow rests like a blanket over the country, but at seven below freezing it is cold enough to scatter your breath, and without warm clothes the chill soon enters your body.
In Kyiv it retains the damp cold that we had here a week ago, but a temperature above freezing chills even further. Several friends have come back from Ukraine after delivering supplies and they report that the ZSU are now well provisioned for the cold. Better to be in houses in Kherson than in frozen fox holes in the mud on the other side of the Dnipro. The Russian Mobiniks are cold and miserable and the treatment of their own army by the Russian high command pretty much amounts to a war crime itself, let alone the torture, rape and murder that they have unleashed on the Ukrainians.
The discussions here have focused on what happens if the Russians launch a "stray" missile in our direction, but the High Command seem relatively relaxed believing that the Russians themselves were slightly shocked by the strength of the NATO reaction to the strike in Poland, and relieved that Biden let them off the hook for direct targeting of Poland. Meanwhile a GRU agent exchanged for an arrested Estonian businessman four years ago has returned to Estonia and claimed political asylum. He said that he had been better treated as an adversary in Estonia than as an operative in Russia, and the impact of the war was destroying all aspects of Russian life.
We hear that the situation across the border is close to paralysis. So although the economic situation here is not easy, there is a certain grim satisfaction that in Russia it is far, far worse. We wait, but there is a growing sense that Russia faces a critical crisis sometime next year. The spring may be very hard indeed in Moscow.
Indeed. Friends in Ukraine are reporting rolling power cuts, 4 hours on and 4 hours off. That’s liveable, especialy when most of the apartment blocks have central oil-fired heating. They’re well aware that the war is for their survival as a nation, and the hardship they face is a price worth paying. They’re also continually grateful for those sending arms and supplies for the army.
The Russian army, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be there, is suffering from morale issues, equipment failures, lack of winter clothes, and is short of ammo. They’re digging trenches across Crimea, which is obviously where they envision their front line to be, a few weeks down the line.
I think my position is that we keep political gestures out of the playing arena. That goes for political gestures whose intentions I agree with as well as political gestures whose politics I oppose. There are dozens of reasons for this, and another one has just become apparent: that we end up looking silly when we are pressured to remove our political gesture.
There are people employed to do the politics, and it shouldn’t be the players jobs.
To be clear, I’m not sure who I view as the main villains of the piece here, Fifa or the state of Qatar; but it’s certainly not Harry Kane or England or Denmark or Europe or even Gareth Southgate, pain in the arse though I find him.
Also, we should have withdrawn from fifa about a decade ago when the scale of its corruption became unignorable.
But none of this is the players’ job to carry.
Footballers should not be put under pressure to be activists, I agree.
The 'NHS Leak' story being pushed by BBC Scotland today is a virtual carbon copy of an anti-SNP smear the broadcaster ran two days before the 2014 Indyref. Here's the news report from 2014 followed by today's story. It's literally the same tactic, even down to the wording.
Winter has come to Estonia. The first dusting of snow is making the pencil sharp roofs of the medieval towers of Tallinn´s walls, and the filigree spires of its churches gleam. It is not yet deep winter, when a metre of snow rests like a blanket over the country, but at seven below freezing it is cold enough to scatter your breath, and without warm clothes the chill soon enters your body.
In Kyiv it retains the damp cold that we had here a week ago, but a temperature just above freezing chills even further. Several friends have come back from Ukraine after delivering supplies and they report that the ZSU are now well provisioned for the cold. Better to be in houses in Kherson than in frozen fox holes in the mud on the other side of the Dnipro. The Russian Mobiniks are cold and miserable and the treatment of their own army by the Russian high command pretty much amounts to a war crime itself, let alone the torture, rape and murder that they have unleashed on the Ukrainians.
The discussions here have focused on what happens if the Russians launch a "stray" missile in our direction, but the High Command seem relatively relaxed believing that the Russians themselves were slightly shocked by the strength of the NATO reaction to the strike in Poland, and relieved that Biden let them off the hook for direct targeting of Poland. Meanwhile a GRU agent exchanged for an arrested Estonian businessman four years ago has returned to Estonia and claimed political asylum. He said that he had been better treated as an adversary in Estonia than as an operative in Russia, and the impact of the war was destroying all aspects of Russian life.
We hear that the situation across the border is close to paralysis. So although the economic situation here is not easy, there is a certain grim satisfaction that in Russia it is far, far worse. We wait, but there is a growing sense that Russia faces a critical crisis sometime next year. The spring may be very hard indeed in Moscow.
Good luck. Our hopes and prayers are with you. And, things have turned out far better than I expected, back in June.
On topic, I don't think comparisons with 1992 have much merit. Simply because of Kinnock. Kinnock was a windbag of limited intellectual ability and little vision. I can't imagine that he would have been a good Prime Minister; he had very little going for him other than the occasional rhetorical flourish.
Now if I, a solid Labour voter, thought that about Kinnock, it's not difficult to see why swing voters were unpersuaded. Starmer is a different kettle of fish entirely.
The 'NHS Leak' story being pushed by BBC Scotland today is a virtual carbon copy of an anti-SNP smear the broadcaster ran two days before the 2014 Indyref. Here's the news report from 2014 followed by today's story. It's literally the same tactic, even down to the wording.
The meeting wasn’t even the Scottish government. It is just plain fabrication.
How do you know? And the BBC report today only mentions the Scottish Government as denying the story. What are you claiming is fabricated?
I'd be alarmed if health chiefs nationwide were not talking about ALL options. Sometimes extreme ideas need to be told. A while ago someone on here recommended 'Sand and Steel - A new history of D-Day', I'm about a sixth of the way through, but one bit stood out. After the issues trying to capture a port (Canadians at Dieppe) at a planning meeting someone suggested 'bringing their own harbours to France, to general laughter, but someone muttered 'Well why not?'. In the end the Mulberry harbours were of immense value until the capture and repair of Cherbourg allowed that port to be opened.
Sometimes thinking the unthinkable can be the right thing to do.
An example - when I was treated for leukemia I was in hospital for 5 weeks. The food was terrible. I was on full sick pay from work, and then for the next few months I was an out-patient, also on sick pay. I saved a lot of money not working. I would have been in the position of being able to afford far better food if charged. So maybe hospitals should look to charge for food where approprate?
Time will tell, if he sticks to boring, competent governing then I think he will win enough back to prevent a 1997 style loss, it will be more like 2005. If the stars align he could pull off a 2010 victory.
You think he's governing, um, competently?
You can get a 5Y mortgage at under 5% and a 2Y mortgage at 5.1%, those rates were 5.79% and 6.39% under Liz Truss so yes, I think he is.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
The, already looking poor, tournament is turning into a shit show isn't it?
Stop making a false comparison please. It's misleading.
The truth is that this is psepholoically like 1997 but economically FAR WORSE.
Conservatives on here need to prepare for the Dark Night of the Soul.
I am not sure if you were around in 1992 but I was and I can assure you that the economic situation this far out from the election was far worse than it is today. In 1992 quite a number of the unemployed (which were multiple times more than we have right now) voted Tory as their best chance of getting a job.
The key difference is Starmer. I think he will be a dull, somewhat unimaginative PM with few ideas and no vision but he isn't scary and right now that is probably enough.
Not to mention, interest rates were at 14% or so, and house prices were cratering.
1992 shows it is possible. At that time the Tories had a leader who was broadly liked and thought competent who took over after a long period in power. He was opposed by Neil Kinnock who could give a great speech but who did not inspire economic competence. Even a recession (and Sunak is having to cope with this too) did not persuade people that the Tories were a part of the problem or that Labour had any meaningful answers.
SKS has nothing like Kinnock's oratory skills but he does come across as a safer pair of hands. Hunt strikes me as a much smarter and smoother operator than Norman Lamont was. Reeves I remain unsure of.
Is it likely? Hell no.
Major won in 1992 mainly to keep Kinnock out, despite over 10 years of Tory government. As soon as Labour had a more plausible leader in Blair then Major lost heavily in 1997.
Starmer does not attract the sane negativity amongst swing voters Kinnock did and certainly much less than Corbyn did
Which is why I think it is extremely unlikely. But, not impossible.
How unlikely? 10% chance, or 1%? Where would you put it?
I'm of the view that the Tories are well-past the electoral event horizon now, and heading for a crushing defeat, so I'd put the odds of the situation being turned around as very long. 1%, perhaps.
Yes. A Tory victory is now a black swan. It is THAT unlikely
Time will tell, if he sticks to boring, competent governing then I think he will win enough back to prevent a 1997 style loss, it will be more like 2005. If the stars align he could pull off a 2010 victory.
You think he's governing, um, competently?
You can get a 5Y mortgage at under 5% and a 2Y mortgage at 5.1%, those rates were 5.79% and 6.39% under Liz Truss so yes, I think he is.
Our remortgage (and loan to finance an extension) finally completed on friday. Ten year fix at 2.87%. Already below the old rate we were paying on our variable rate previous mortgage.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Trouble is, if we should boycott Qatar, should we not also refuse to play Iran for killing girls and gay people? Meanwhile, Formula 1 and (some) golfers are happy to sportswash those cuddly Saudis who, in shock news that will surprise no-one, have resumed executions at record pace.
Saudi Arabia has executed 12 people in 10 days for drug offences after a two-year hiatus, according to a human rights organisation.
That tangentially shows how Rwanda for channel crossers is doomed to failure. If people carry on taking drugs under threat of decapitation, they will continue crossing the channel under the much remoter threat of deporation. Deterrence don't deter.
OTOH, South East Asian governments have been pretty successful with their zero-tolerance policy on drug trafficking.
Another issue on which Westerners should be very careful about lecturing foreigners. These people have very bad memories of Europeans claiming exemption from local laws.
I guess Thatch attending the Scottish cup final in 1988 might qualify. That she received boos & catcalls, and both sets of supporters waved red cards at her (to her relish no doubt) probably made the Tories crap themselves ever since when it comes to Scotland.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
The, already looking poor, tournament is turning into a shit show isn't it?
In Russia in quieted down once things got going. Perhaps there'll be a bit more complaint this time, and there really should be - it's not like Fifa or Qatar have not already won, the tournament is here and happening, so they may as well get stick for it throughout, as it seems to really irritate them.
Three thousand years ago predates Rome, even as a kingdom.
Ancient Egypt.
A Kingdom/dynasty that was more than 3,000 years old at the time.
Yes, but I doubt Fifa meant to lambast them for past failings.
It wouldn't be an entirely uncharacteristic sudden change of focus from Fifa. "You cannot blame Qatar for using slave labour to build the stadia; that was how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and you all go and visit those."
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Trouble is, if we should boycott Qatar, should we not also refuse to play Iran for killing girls and gay people? Meanwhile, Formula 1 and (some) golfers are happy to sportswash those cuddly Saudis who, in shock news that will surprise no-one, have resumed executions at record pace.
Saudi Arabia has executed 12 people in 10 days for drug offences after a two-year hiatus, according to a human rights organisation.
That tangentially shows how Rwanda for channel crossers is doomed to failure. If people carry on taking drugs under threat of decapitation, they will continue crossing the channel under the much remoter threat of deporation. Deterrence don't deter.
OTOH, South East Asian governments have been pretty successful with their zero-tolerance policy on drug trafficking.
Another issue on which Westerners should be very careful about lecturing foreigners. These people have very bad memories of Europeans claiming exemption from local laws.
drugs still get trafficked into SE Asia, its just that the poor, uneducated idiots/victims (often coerced into it) end up hanged for their efforts
Winter has come to Estonia. The first dusting of snow is making the pencil sharp roofs of the medieval towers of Tallinn´s walls, and the filigree spires of its churches gleam. It is not yet deep winter, when a metre of snow rests like a blanket over the country, but at seven below freezing it is cold enough to scatter your breath, and without warm clothes the chill soon enters your body.
In Kyiv it retains the damp cold that we had here a week ago, but a temperature just above freezing chills even further. Several friends have come back from Ukraine after delivering supplies and they report that the ZSU are now well provisioned for the cold. Better to be in houses in Kherson than in frozen fox holes in the mud on the other side of the Dnipro. The Russian Mobiniks are cold and miserable and the treatment of their own army by the Russian high command pretty much amounts to a war crime itself, let alone the torture, rape and murder that they have unleashed on the Ukrainians.
The discussions here have focused on what happens if the Russians launch a "stray" missile in our direction, but the High Command seem relatively relaxed believing that the Russians themselves were slightly shocked by the strength of the NATO reaction to the strike in Poland, and relieved that Biden let them off the hook for direct targeting of Poland. Meanwhile a GRU agent exchanged for an arrested Estonian businessman four years ago has returned to Estonia and claimed political asylum. He said that he had been better treated as an adversary in Estonia than as an operative in Russia, and the impact of the war was destroying all aspects of Russian life.
We hear that the situation across the border is close to paralysis. So although the economic situation here is not easy, there is a certain grim satisfaction that in Russia it is far, far worse. We wait, but there is a growing sense that Russia faces a critical crisis sometime next year. The spring may be very hard indeed in Moscow.
Good luck. Our hopes and prayers are with you. And, things have turned out far better than I expected, back in June.
Yes, good luck to the Baltics this winter. And you're right. Back when this kicked off, I remember thinking if Ukraine could last two weeks it would be doing well, and that every extra day of herooc resistance would buy more time for the Baltics and Moldova. I thimk I was far from alone. The extent to which Ukraine has surpassed expectations is astonishing.
‘No’ won the referendum 55:45. From the way that British Nationalists have conducted themselves ever since, you’d have thought that they had won 90:10. At no point have Unionists made even the vaguest attempt to reach out to defeated opponents and persuade them that they had a place in their vision of the future. Abraham Lincoln supposedly once said: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” This is not a thought that has ever crossed the mind of any Unionist.
Instead, British Nationalists have done the exact opposite.
Scottish Nationalists rejected the No result as soon as it came in. At no time have they or the SNP ever shown a willingness to accept the result, even before Brexit and after the Scotland Act 2016 gave Holyrood more powers .
So of course Unionists in turn have to take a harder line to respect that once in a generation vote
Stop making a false comparison please. It's misleading.
The truth is that this is psepholoically like 1997 but economically FAR WORSE.
Conservatives on here need to prepare for the Dark Night of the Soul.
Look at the local by-election results to see how many Tories still vote for the Party today.
Look at the 2019 locals for a Tory voter strike when they are pissed off. Look at the 2019 general months later for an 80 seat majority when they come back.
I would suggest you have no idea what makes Tory voters withhold their vote - and return to giving it.
The Dark Night of the Soul could yet belong to you and those who think a Labour majority "nailed on". 1992 says hello.
Are there other uses of Budweiser? Perhaps toilet cleaning?
You can use any old beer to make beer bread - one 440ml can of beer not worth drinking, 18oz flour, 1tbsp sugar, 1tbsp baking powder, stick it in a greased bread tin at 180C for about an hour.
PB took a lot of interest in September’s Swedish general election (although weirdly ignored the subsequent Danish one). Thought you might like a little update.
The new centre-right minority government is struggling, as I predicted. The Liberals and the C&S party the Sweden Democrats are already ripping out each other’s throats. The Liberals in particular are in full panic mode, having fallen below threshold.
Anyhoo, now the polls look worrying for the government. There was zilch honeymoon. Latest numbers (September GE in brackets):
Min centre-right govt coalition: 29% (nc) Moderates 20% (+1) Christian Democrats 5% (nc) Liberals 4% (-1)
Anti-immigration C&S party: Sweden Democrats 18% (-3)
Centre-left opposition: 52% (+3) Social Democrats 33% (+3) Left Party 8% (+1) Centre Party 6% (-1) Greens 5% (nc)
The big risk is that the Liberals walk off in a huff. I’d say that is a 50:50 risk within the first 12 months of the new government.
That the Turks are immensely enjoying gaslighting the Swedes and Finns over NATO membership is not helping.
Regardless no government is going to be that popular in the current economic climate.
Sweden remains the only western European nation other than Italy however with a far right party in government or a government dependent on confidence and supply from a far right party to stay in power
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
The whole story is of course repulsive, but a UK government trying to make it the problem of a random third country (Bangladesh I think) is a further repellent feature. Time for the courts to tell the government to grow up.
The real issue is that she is a self confessed war criminal and should have been tried as such.
I guess Thatch attending the Scottish cup final in 1988 might qualify. That she received boos & catcalls, and both sets of supporters waved red cards at her (to her relish no doubt) probably made the Tories crap themselves ever since when it comes to Scotland.
Wrong department. I have lived in England all my life and have never knowingly been within a mile/egg throwing distance of a top politician. Good. That sort of mingling is royalty's job, and I have on several occasion been in seeing/meeting/mingling situations with a number of them. They, not politicians, embody the nation so that Mr Trump lookalikes don't.
We had a PM recently who thought that sort of stuff was his job. Can't remember his name. Went to Hartlepool. Didn't turn out well.
Time will tell, if he sticks to boring, competent governing then I think he will win enough back to prevent a 1997 style loss, it will be more like 2005. If the stars align he could pull off a 2010 victory.
You think he's governing, um, competently?
You can get a 5Y mortgage at under 5% and a 2Y mortgage at 5.1%, those rates were 5.79% and 6.39% under Liz Truss so yes, I think he is.
Our remortgage (and loan to finance an extension) finally completed on friday. Ten year fix at 2.87%. Already below the old rate we were paying on our variable rate previous mortgage.
I think that 2 year discounted variables may be the best option for many for the next period.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
The, already looking poor, tournament is turning into a shit show isn't it?
In Russia in quieted down once things got going. Perhaps there'll be a bit more complaint this time, and there really should be - it's not like Fifa or Qatar have not already won, the tournament is here and happening, so they may as well get stick for it throughout, as it seems to really irritate them.
Yes, Russia 2018 was dominated in the run up by stories about football thugs, oppressive governments and the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings, but was great fun when it started. My boys and I had a great time sightseeing between games. Both St Petersberg and Moscow were lovely cities, and the atmosphere between the fans very positive.
Should Qatar have got the WC? Of course not. Now that it is there we should enjoy the spectacle. Plenty of the pearl clutches about human rights are happy enough for people to travel to holiday or do business in equally bad Gulf States, or the many other countries that ban homosexuality etc, or even sell then weapons etc.
The whole story is of course repulsive, but a UK government trying to make it the problem of a random third country (Bangladesh I think) is a further repellent feature. Time for the courts to tell the government to grow up.
The real issue is that she is a self confessed war criminal and should have been tried as such.
I think my position is that we keep political gestures out of the playing arena. That goes for political gestures whose intentions I agree with as well as political gestures whose politics I oppose. There are dozens of reasons for this, and another one has just become apparent: that we end up looking silly when we are pressured to remove our political gesture.
There are people employed to do the politics, and it shouldn’t be the players jobs.
To be clear, I’m not sure who I view as the main villains of the piece here, Fifa or the state of Qatar; but it’s certainly not Harry Kane or England or Denmark or Europe or even Gareth Southgate, pain in the arse though I find him.
Also, we should have withdrawn from fifa about a decade ago when the scale of its corruption became unignorable.
But none of this is the players’ job to carry.
Footballers should not be put under pressure to be activists, I agree.
I'm inclined to agree with that.
I'd suggest the wrong turn was in allowing BLM to further politicise sport, and to introducing 'bending the knee' and being arsy about it.
Countries get to world cups
a - Because they are countries. b - Because they are good at football.
World cups are one channel for contact with many different countries; to approach it like a witchfinder general seems to me to be unwise.
And that leaves aside the issue of personal hypocrisy for so many taking the filthy lucre.
1992 shows it is possible. At that time the Tories had a leader who was broadly liked and thought competent who took over after a long period in power. He was opposed by Neil Kinnock who could give a great speech but who did not inspire economic competence. Even a recession (and Sunak is having to cope with this too) did not persuade people that the Tories were a part of the problem or that Labour had any meaningful answers.
SKS has nothing like Kinnock's oratory skills but he does come across as a safer pair of hands. Hunt strikes me as a much smarter and smoother operator than Norman Lamont was. Reeves I remain unsure of.
Is it likely? Hell no.
Major won in 1992 mainly to keep Kinnock out, despite over 10 years of Tory government. As soon as Labour had a more plausible leader in Blair then Major lost heavily in 1997.
Starmer does not attract the sane negativity amongst swing voters Kinnock did and certainly much less than Corbyn did
Which is why I think it is extremely unlikely. But, not impossible.
How unlikely? 10% chance, or 1%? Where would you put it?
I'm of the view that the Tories are well-past the electoral event horizon now, and heading for a crushing defeat, so I'd put the odds of the situation being turned around as very long. 1%, perhaps.
Yes. A Tory victory is now a black swan. It is THAT unlikely
Mr William Hill put it at about a 28% chance. Free money backing Labour if the pundits are right.
Look back 2 and a bit years in the polls and see what the result was looking like...Personally I think the chance is more than minimal,. and less than 28%. 15-20%?
The whole story is of course repulsive, but a UK government trying to make it the problem of a random third country (Bangladesh I think) is a further repellent feature. Time for the courts to tell the government to grow up.
The real issue is that she is a self confessed war criminal and should have been tried as such.
what `war crimes' did she commit?
Participating, actively, in the enslavement of civilians (Yazidi women). Participating actively in forcing them to go along with being raped by their “owners”.
EDIT: since the enslavement and rape of the Yazidi women was part of a campaign by ISIS to destroy them as a people, she was also a participant in attempted genocide.
Time will tell, if he sticks to boring, competent governing then I think he will win enough back to prevent a 1997 style loss, it will be more like 2005. If the stars align he could pull off a 2010 victory.
You think he's governing, um, competently?
You can get a 5Y mortgage at under 5% and a 2Y mortgage at 5.1%, those rates were 5.79% and 6.39% under Liz Truss so yes, I think he is.
Our remortgage (and loan to finance an extension) finally completed on friday. Ten year fix at 2.87%. Already below the old rate we were paying on our variable rate previous mortgage.
I think that 2 year discounted variables may be the best option for many for the next period.
I am back up for renewal in September. Thank God the rates have come down a notch. Hopefully they will fall further.
On the other side of the ledger, I am hearing that rents are going up sharply due to falling supply. Is that your experience?
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Don't think you and your fellow reactionaries thought it was worthless virtue signalling at the time, more giving into the forces of Woke and leading to statchoo desecration and other such horrors as I recall?
Time will tell, if he sticks to boring, competent governing then I think he will win enough back to prevent a 1997 style loss, it will be more like 2005. If the stars align he could pull off a 2010 victory.
You think he's governing, um, competently?
You can get a 5Y mortgage at under 5% and a 2Y mortgage at 5.1%, those rates were 5.79% and 6.39% under Liz Truss so yes, I think he is.
Our remortgage (and loan to finance an extension) finally completed on friday. Ten year fix at 2.87%. Already below the old rate we were paying on our variable rate previous mortgage.
I think that 2 year discounted variables may be the best option for many for the next period.
We chose the longer term certainty back in the summer - we know what the rate will be for 10 years, and I doubt the base rate will get much below 2 % for the foreseeable future. We are hoping to overpay significantly to reduce the outstanding over the 10 years.
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Don't think you and your fellow reactionaries thought it was worthless virtue signalling at the time, more giving into the forces of Woke and leading to statchoo desecration and other such horrors as I recall?
No, I disliked it for precisely this reason. Because I strongly suspected it was worthless virtue signalling and a big pile of Cringe. And, as we now see, I was right
For context, this is also one of my objections to Wokeness in general. So much of it is exhibitionist moral narcissism
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Just be content - from your point of view - that they've caved on to homophobia. Don't expect a bonus in the form of them caving in to every prejudice in your pathetic little mind.
Really all the modern countries should have just boycotted the tournament.
I wonder what would have happened if the ref (Brazilian) refused to book players for wearing the armband?
Even better, left Fifa and set up their own equivalent.
I do however have some sympathy for Fifa on the particular issue of armbands. If my position is to keep politics out, I don't change my position just because I happen to agree with the issuein question (i.e. not persecuting gay people). And that position isn't dependent on Harry Kane wearing an armband or not.
Perhaps, except that Fifa rolling over on issues agreed before the tournament and they would normally be firm about (beer) and engaging in utterly absurd whataboutery about 3000 years of Western guilt to distract from criticism, does give the impression they are completely desperate to suck up to the Qataris, and they could have addressed all these things long before the tournament started.
The, already looking poor, tournament is turning into a shit show isn't it?
In Russia in quieted down once things got going. Perhaps there'll be a bit more complaint this time, and there really should be - it's not like Fifa or Qatar have not already won, the tournament is here and happening, so they may as well get stick for it throughout, as it seems to really irritate them.
Yes, Russia 2018 was dominated in the run up by stories about football thugs, oppressive governments and the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings, but was great fun when it started. My boys and I had a great time sightseeing between games. Both St Petersberg and Moscow were lovely cities, and the atmosphere between the fans very positive.
Should Qatar have got the WC? Of course not. Now that it is there we should enjoy the spectacle. Plenty of the pearl clutches about human rights are happy enough for people to travel to holiday or do business in equally bad Gulf States, or the many other countries that ban homosexuality etc, or even sell then weapons etc.
Surely there must be a few people who are critical of this World Cup who are also against selling weapons to dictatorships? Of course I understand you don't want to feel judged for your support of Putin's world cup in 2018, but your comment is kind of ridiculous.
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Don't think you and your fellow reactionaries thought it was worthless virtue signalling at the time, more giving into the forces of Woke and leading to statchoo desecration and other such horrors as I recall?
No, I disliked it for precisely this reason. Because I strongly suspected it was worthless virtue signalling and a big pile of Cringe. And, as we now see, I was right
As is often the case, knowing Leonadamus was right is frequently the view of only one somewhat biased individual.
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Don't think you and your fellow reactionaries thought it was worthless virtue signalling at the time, more giving into the forces of Woke and leading to statchoo desecration and other such horrors as I recall?
Woke is, in large part, worthless virtue signalling.
This is why Taking the Knee for game after game was such a stupid idea. Many suspected it was worthless virtue signalling by the England team. Now we KNOW it was worthless virtue signalling. Because as soon as a gesture comes with a price - when it is worth something - they stop. They look like craven cowards.
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
Just be content - from your point of view - that they've caved on to homophobia. Don't expect a bonus in the form of them caving in to every prejudice in your pathetic little mind.
Are you going to have a small self satisfied anti-racist wank when they take the knee today? I imagine you will, at least, be tumescent
Whats the point in Southgate going to watch premiership games when he picks players who are completely out of form.
Presumably cos he's got a team in mind and feels they'll play differently as a unit? There are a few odd selections though in my amateur opinion.
One thing he's done quite impressively vs every England manager since Venables(?) is to foster a genuinely strong sense of team identity, rather than a bunch of disinterested millionaires who would rather be elsewhere.
On footballers' gestures, I confess I'm really confused. Can somebody help me to understand the difference between Woke virtue-signalling by spoilt multi-millionaires, and essential gestures that show solidarity with the oppressed?
When the football establishment is cheering them on, and they face no personal repercussions for their gesture - that’s virtue signalling.
When the protest is explicitly banned, and the players face consequences for their actions, that’s showing solidarity with the oppressed.
Thanks. Though I suspect in truth that woke virtue-signalling is when there are gestures that people don't agree with.
But where they don't have the courage to stand up for their own prejudices.
If they really think it's fine to imprison people for being gay, I don't understand why they don't just say so, and forget all the diversionary tripe about "woke" and "virtue". None of them posts under his/her real name anyway.
The problem, as I understand it, is a coalition of gay people, poor economic migrants and first world footballers oppressing the Qataris.
Whats the point in Southgate going to watch premiership games when he picks players who are completely out of form.
Presumably cos he's got a team in mind and feels they'll play differently as a unit? There are a few odd selections though in my amateur opinion.
One thing he's done quite impressively vs every England manager since Venables(?) is to foster a genuinely strong sense of team identity, rather than a bunch of disinterested millionaires who would rather be elsewhere.
Sterling and Maquire are as out of form as possible.
@shoe0nhead the brand "Balenciaga" just did a uh..... interesting... photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'
Comments
Wonder if Sunak will extol Baby Jake?
Means testing at the point of use would require a phenomenal degree of extra cost.
This is compared with, you know, charging the rich more in tax.
Is he a revisionist historian ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvWtNx3VOUA
Instead, British Nationalists have done the exact opposite.
When the protest is explicitly banned, and the players face consequences for their actions, that’s showing solidarity with the oppressed.
Given the proximity and where the core of advanced civilization was, I tend to agree with the thesis that the core of The West in historic terms includes the middle east anyway, as a series of interrelated civilizations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63659754
The biggest gap on the Wikipedia Worm looks like it was about L56 C23. As we speak, it's L51 C24, or thereabouts.
Not quite as good for Labour (Scotland?), about as bad for the Conservatives as Major's nadir.
The key difference is Starmer. I think he will be a dull, somewhat unimaginative PM with few ideas and no vision but he isn't scary and right now that is probably enough.
FYI - I have a piece coming up looking at why a redux of 1992 is possible.
Now if I, a solid Labour voter, thought that about Kinnock, it's not difficult to see why swing voters were unpersuaded. Starmer is a different kettle of fish entirely.
"Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?"
(and the answer was NO!)
My view as to why this happens is because almost everything is "free" there is no infrastructure for charging people.
Budweiser will give the winning country all the beer prepared for the #QatarWorldCup2022 worth of €75 million.
It is also expected that the company will sue FIFA for breach of contract - the sale of beer was banned a few days before the start of the championship.
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1594641973880684549
https://twitter.com/msm_monitor/status/1594627568925347843?s=46&t=V_kILBHgIn7t2VB2Vi-D9w
It was majestic. And of course his speech against Militant was both majestic and brave.
France has about the same installed amount of onshore wind as we have offshore. (Just under 20 GW), and we have far more onshore wind than they do offshore.
The link I posted the other included ramping back up of coal in France as interim Plan C until nuclear is back, so some coal being brought on line here when wind is low would fit the price hierarchy algorithm.
I find it hard to have any sympathy at all with FIFA. Their position isn't really "keep the politics out of sport", it seems to be "we'll support the politics of whoever pays us the most". Awarding the hosting of the World Cup to Qatar was in itself one of the most extreme political decisions in sport.
And hasn't this armband already been worn by players in international matches without any issues? Banning it hours before a match is a very deliberate "fuck you" to inclusion in football.
Screw FIFA, if European countries had any self-respect they would just leave the organisation.
Miramax perhaps.
If they really think it's fine to imprison people for being gay, I don't understand why they don't just say so, and forget all the diversionary tripe about "woke" and "virtue". None of them posts under his/her real name anyway.
In Kyiv it retains the damp cold that we had here a week ago, but a temperature just above freezing chills even further. Several friends have come back from Ukraine after delivering supplies and they report that the ZSU are now well provisioned for the cold. Better to be in houses in Kherson than in frozen fox holes in the mud on the other side of the Dnipro. The Russian Mobiniks are cold and miserable and the treatment of their own army by the Russian high command pretty much amounts to a war crime itself, let alone the torture, rape and murder that they have unleashed on the Ukrainians.
The discussions here have focused on what happens if the Russians launch a "stray" missile in our direction, but the High Command seem relatively relaxed believing that the Russians themselves were slightly shocked by the strength of the NATO reaction to the strike in Poland, and relieved that Biden let them off the hook for direct targeting of Poland. Meanwhile a GRU agent exchanged for an arrested Estonian businessman four years ago has returned to Estonia and claimed political asylum. He said that he had been better treated as an adversary in Estonia than as an operative in Russia, and the impact of the war was destroying all aspects of Russian life.
We hear that the situation across the border is close to paralysis. So although the economic situation here is not easy, there is a certain grim satisfaction that in Russia it is far, far worse. We wait, but there is a growing sense that Russia faces a critical crisis sometime next year. The spring may be very hard indeed in Moscow.
A Kingdom/dynasty that was more than 3,000 years old at the time.
https://twitter.com/mrmarksteel/status/1594637003873812480?s=46&t=V_kILBHgIn7t2VB2Vi-D9w
There are people employed to do the politics, and it shouldn’t be the players jobs.
To be clear, I’m not sure who I view as the main villains of the piece here, Fifa or the state of Qatar; but it’s certainly not Harry Kane or England or Denmark or Europe or even Gareth Southgate, pain in the arse though I find him.
Also, we should have withdrawn from fifa about a decade ago when the scale of its corruption became unignorable.
But none of this is the players’ job to carry.
I am far, far from convinced that Labour have 2024 in the bag. And those talking of sub 200 seats for the Conservatives are really not thinking ahead.
We have two years to the next GE. It'll probably be October 2024. A lot can happen, and a lot can swing back.
Everyone hates the Tories, of course, except on General Election Day. [1]
If there really where a GE on Thursday (there isn't, hence I wouldn't look at the polls) I'd still say the Conservatives, even this week, could get anywhere between 260 and 330 seats.
I don't think a 1997 style wipeout is on the cards at all.
[1] I've never been able to find it since, but Stewart Lee had a great quote about the Conservatives in the 1980s:
"In the 80's, everyone hated the Tories. The miners hated the Tories, the nurses hated the Tories, the teachers hated the Tories.... EVERYONE hated the Tories...... (pause) which is why they consistently won election after election during the 1980s."
My Mum picked her wedding date to be between my Dad's Mum's birthday and her Mum's birthday so that he would never forget it. He just forgot all 3...
The Russian army, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be there, is suffering from morale issues, equipment failures, lack of winter clothes, and is short of ammo. They’re digging trenches across Crimea, which is obviously where they envision their front line to be, a few weeks down the line.
https://twitter.com/bigscrab/status/1594633638175555584?s=46&t=V_kILBHgIn7t2VB2Vi-D9w
The 1970s.
I'd be alarmed if health chiefs nationwide were not talking about ALL options. Sometimes extreme ideas need to be told. A while ago someone on here recommended 'Sand and Steel - A new history of D-Day', I'm about a sixth of the way through, but one bit stood out. After the issues trying to capture a port (Canadians at Dieppe) at a planning meeting someone suggested 'bringing their own harbours to France, to general laughter, but someone muttered 'Well why not?'. In the end the Mulberry harbours were of immense value until the capture and repair of Cherbourg allowed that port to be opened.
Sometimes thinking the unthinkable can be the right thing to do.
An example - when I was treated for leukemia I was in hospital for 5 weeks. The food was terrible. I was on full sick pay from work, and then for the next few months I was an out-patient, also on sick pay. I saved a lot of money not working. I would have been in the position of being able to afford far better food if charged. So maybe hospitals should look to charge for food where approprate?
https://gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/prime-minister-gordon-brown-takes-a-tour-of-bvt-shipyard-in-news-photo/85998885#:~:text=Gordon%20Brown%20Visits%20Govan%20Shipyard%20INVERNESS%2C%20SCOTLAND%20-,cabinet%20meeting%20in%20Scotland%20for%20almost%2090%20years.
Another issue on which Westerners should be very careful about lecturing foreigners. These people have very bad memories of Europeans claiming exemption from local laws.
"You cannot blame Qatar for using slave labour to build the stadia; that was how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and you all go and visit those."
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-overpays-box-cod-19574824
And you're right. Back when this kicked off, I remember thinking if Ukraine could last two weeks it would be doing well, and that every extra day of herooc resistance would buy more time for the Baltics and Moldova. I thimk I was far from alone. The extent to which Ukraine has surpassed expectations is astonishing.
So of course Unionists in turn have to take a harder line to respect that once
in a generation vote
Look at the local by-election results to see how many Tories still vote for the Party today.
Look at the 2019 locals for a Tory voter strike when they are pissed off. Look at the 2019 general months later for an 80 seat majority when they come back.
I would suggest you have no idea what makes Tory voters withhold their vote - and return to giving it.
The Dark Night of the Soul could yet belong to you and those who think a Labour majority "nailed on". 1992 says hello.
Sweden remains the only western European nation other than Italy however with a far right party in government or a government dependent on confidence and supply from a far right party to
stay in power
If they do the Knee today it will be excruciating. What will it say? “We’re against racism but homophobia is OK”
We had a PM recently who thought that sort of stuff was his job. Can't remember his name. Went to Hartlepool. Didn't turn out well.
Should Qatar have got the WC? Of course not. Now that it is there we should enjoy the spectacle. Plenty of the pearl clutches about human rights are happy enough for people to travel to holiday or do business in equally bad Gulf States, or the many other countries that ban homosexuality etc, or even sell then weapons etc.
I'd suggest the wrong turn was in allowing BLM to further politicise sport, and to introducing 'bending the knee' and being arsy about it.
Countries get to world cups
a - Because they are countries.
b - Because they are good at football.
World cups are one channel for contact with many different countries; to approach it like a witchfinder general seems to me to be unwise.
And that leaves aside the issue of personal hypocrisy for so many taking the filthy lucre.
Look back 2 and a bit years in the polls and see what the result was looking like...Personally I think the chance is more than minimal,. and less than 28%. 15-20%?
EDIT: since the enslavement and rape of the Yazidi women was part of a campaign by ISIS to destroy them as a people, she was also a participant in attempted genocide.
Thank God the rates have come down a notch. Hopefully they will fall further.
On the other side of the ledger, I am hearing that rents are going up sharply due to falling supply. Is that your experience?
For context, this is also one of my objections to Wokeness in general. So much of it is exhibitionist moral narcissism
One thing he's done quite impressively vs every England manager since Venables(?) is to foster a genuinely strong sense of team identity, rather than a bunch of disinterested millionaires who would rather be elsewhere.
@shoe0nhead
the brand "Balenciaga" just did a uh..... interesting... photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'
normal stuff
https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1594532715126202368