I hate to say it - coz I 'ates FIFA and Qatar - but this World Cup is already absolutely compelling drama
The last four awful years have somehow made it more significant. This is a wounded world coming together, to share every nation's scars
Apart from Russia, but fuck them
I haven't got the slightest bit of interest in it, and haven't watched any of it.
That will get increasingly harder to sustain as England progress but, for now, I'm blissfully ignoring it.
For this to have significance (albeit significance on a minor betting forum in a far flung outpost of the world wide web) do you normally get very interested in football world cup tournaments? Are you the kind of fan who avidly watches every game normally?
Or is this just, for you, de rigueur?
No. I don't care for football, to be honest.
Alhough it did prompt an interesting conversation with my Iranian Uber driver yesterday (no really - he overheard me watching that clip posted on here asking England footballers to do the hair snip thing)
CBI demand more immigration. CEOs like Lord Wolfson demand more immigration. Economic forecasts demand more immigration. Both Labour & the Conservatives clearly want more immigration. It appears the only ppl who don't want more immigration are the British voters ... #PoliticsLive
Are we uniquely incapable of raising productivity?
What's the plan to boost automation to the level of our peers?
We are going to import these robots. Made by unskilled labour. Takes only nine months to build each one….
And 25 years to train them?
Edit: also, don’t know about you, but there is a degree of skill involved in doing it well…
It’s an old joke.
Having watched young men old before their with fucked up bodies from too much heavy lifting on building sites, it’s not very funny. They often drink heavily and take drugs to numb the pain.
You sort of start to understand why the middle-classes don't do manual labour.
Such jobs are physically exhausting - every day is hard, much harder than being in an office - and it wears you out. And, you don't get paid very much.
Salary is a separate question. There are a lot of blue collar workers earning more than their white collar peers, to use the old fashioned terms. Older PBers will recall this was addressed in the fly-on-the-wall documentary, Are You Being Served?
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
NickPalmer said: " Outside the jobs, I've not really developed any major cultural interests. Do I start taking up walking, theatre, music when I'm 80?"
Cross country skiing in the winter, Nick, to begin with. It's about as good an exercise as there is.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
The Tories have categorically denied a Swiss Brexit, much as as they were against tax rises a few weeks ago.
Have the Swiss actually compromised on immigration or is the deal still on the deep freezer?
Because the deal that the Swiss want but the EU are refusing to give (because they don’t believe that the votes of the Swiss people in a national wide referendum are a relevant consideration) is actually pretty good
Beginning to suspect I may have COVID again. Rather than a reaction to my booster. Still running a temperature after 36 hours.
I was ill for about 4 days after my booster this time. They had modified it to deal with Omicron and I got given my flu jab at the same time. Whatever it was I felt like I had Covid again for the 4 days with a cough, headaches, lassitude and a temperature. I have found that this is quite a common experience although I had no adverse effects from my 3 previous doses.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
You signed and reneged on a contract, and the other party was displeased? Fancy that.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
Beginning to suspect I may have COVID again. Rather than a reaction to my booster. Still running a temperature after 36 hours.
I was ill for about 4 days after my booster this time. They had modified it to deal with Omicron and I got given my flu jab at the same time. Whatever it was I felt like I had Covid again for the 4 days with a cough, headaches, lassitude and a temperature. I have found that this is quite a common experience although I had no adverse effects from my 3 previous doses.
Thanks for that. I'm much better this morning after 40 hours. I was strongly advised by the nurse not to have my flu jab at the same time.
Few people die regretting that they hadn’t spent more time at the office…
Bismark said it best. On his death bed he was asked if he had any regrets, what with the wars he had caused and the brutality associated with much of his domestic policy. Having given it a moment's thought he replied that he wished he had drank more champagne.
Beginning to suspect I may have COVID again. Rather than a reaction to my booster. Still running a temperature after 36 hours.
I was ill for about 4 days after my booster this time. They had modified it to deal with Omicron and I got given my flu jab at the same time. Whatever it was I felt like I had Covid again for the 4 days with a cough, headaches, lassitude and a temperature. I have found that this is quite a common experience although I had no adverse effects from my 3 previous doses.
Thanks for that. I'm much better this morning after 40 hours. I was strongly advised by the nurse not to have my flu jab at the same time.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
I was with you for the first four paragraphs.
There's a case to work in the Middle-East for a few years to earn a lot on a tax-free salary but I can't say it's ever appealed to me. I did one week in Jeddah and that was enough for me.
By contrast, I consistently hear good things about Oman.
I don't understand why, even under the circumstances reported. Sunak comes across as very able and a serious guy. It is particularly baffling after the last two clowns
Dragged down by association with Johnson and, especially, with the Conservative Party itself.
Few people die regretting that they hadn’t spent more time at the office…
Bismark said it best. On his death bed he was asked if he had any regrets, what with the wars he had caused and the brutality associated with much of his domestic policy. Having given it a moment's thought he replied that he wished he had drank more champagne.
Apparently (!) most people say they wish they'd had more sex.
Incidentally, an ex-colleague went to do a job at a major Samsung factory for a few weeks. Apparently he had to hand in his passport, and lived in a hotel within the factory. It seemed to be a rather odd experience for him.
On Qatar hypocrisy from us aside, they have come under the spotlight like never before with I think everyone, footie fan or not, realising that they have a human rights problem as far as Western liberal democracies are concerned. It must surely be in some small way uncomfortable for them.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
Incidentally, an ex-colleague went to do a job at a major Samsung factory for a few weeks. Apparently he had to hand in his passport, and lived in a hotel within the factory. It seemed to be a rather odd experience for him.
CBI demand more immigration. CEOs like Lord Wolfson demand more immigration. Economic forecasts demand more immigration. Both Labour & the Conservatives clearly want more immigration. It appears the only ppl who don't want more immigration are the British voters ... #PoliticsLive
Are we uniquely incapable of raising productivity?
What's the plan to boost automation to the level of our peers?
We are by no means unique is facing a demographic crunch, or having business want more immigration. Or indeed in having a strain of xenophobia in our politics.
Incidentally, an ex-colleague went to do a job at a major Samsung factory for a few weeks. Apparently he had to hand in his passport, and lived in a hotel within the factory. It seemed to be a rather odd experience for him.
Heading out for work I find my weekly bus pass has gone up to £30. A 15% + increase. It's late as well. I'm late for work at least once a week. Folk may consider this is a serious drag on getting people into regular employment.
NickPalmer said: " Outside the jobs, I've not really developed any major cultural interests. Do I start taking up walking, theatre, music when I'm 80?"
Cross country skiing in the winter, Nick, to begin with. It's about as good an exercise as there is.
Sunak may start with bad numbers but he is still doing better than every recent PM ended up with and also better than Truss was rated when she resigned and he took over
Beginning to suspect I may have COVID again. Rather than a reaction to my booster. Still running a temperature after 36 hours.
I was ill for about 4 days after my booster this time. They had modified it to deal with Omicron and I got given my flu jab at the same time. Whatever it was I felt like I had Covid again for the 4 days with a cough, headaches, lassitude and a temperature. I have found that this is quite a common experience although I had no adverse effects from my 3 previous doses.
Thanks for that. I'm much better this morning after 40 hours. I was strongly advised by the nurse not to have my flu jab at the same time.
Interesting. I was advised the exact opposite!
You’re in Scotland. They want you to pay for being successful
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
I get the distinct feeling England have the same chance of winning this match as a Pizza Hut that serves only Hawaiians has of getting custom from @TSE .
My assessment of Sunak: Smart, personable and diligent. Lacks common sense and understanding of people's concerns. Poor leadership (Braverman and several other examples in his short time so far as PM). Definitely better than Johnson and Truss. His only answer to why his government is in power is that he will address some, but not most, of the mess it created under various other leaders.
“We want to make getting a Gender Recognition Certificate like changing your passport”
“This amendment will make getting a GRC like changing your passport”
“Vote it down! It’s against the principles of the bill!’
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is above all about legislating for a belief, in as purist a way as possible. It is still not clear how far the Scottish Government, Green Party members apart, understands that. Before that belief every other consideration must fall away, both for its most committed believers and, more surprisingly perhaps, for those trailing in their wake.
Surprised that Sunak hadn't proved more popular. Looks like whoever Con has as leader people have had enough of them and just want them gone at this point.
Heading out for work I find my weekly bus pass has gone up to £30. A 15% + increase. It's late as well. I'm late for work at least once a week. Folk may consider this is a serious drag on getting people into regular employment.
My 12 minute train to work - almost always delayed when it is not (frequently) cancelled- would cost me seven quid a day, though I will usually try and cycle. I deplore the congestion on the roads in Manchester; they're clogged with single-occupant vehicles, but I absolutely understand why people put up with the car commute - it's the least bad option for many.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
Incidentally, an ex-colleague went to do a job at a major Samsung factory for a few weeks. Apparently he had to hand in his passport, and lived in a hotel within the factory. It seemed to be a rather odd experience for him.
I wouldn't work for anyone anywhere where they demanded I hand my passport in.
I'm surprised people do. You need to be able to get out and leave at any time, if you need to.
I missed this. Coz I was getting drunk in the Groucho
One of the most eloquent and interesting comments I have ever read on PB. By @northern_monkey
"It would be a boring world if we were all the same…
FWIW I hate working. I’ve hated working since my first Saturday job. I’ve done shitty jobs and cushy jobs. I’ve worked at height on scaffolding through cold winters. I’ve worked in supermarkets, stacking shelves and on the tills. I’ve had public facing jobs and back office jobs. I’ve worked with dangerous chemicals. I’ve topped frozen pizzas. I made the metal plates that go in record presses and press the groove into vinyl records. I’ve sorted mail. I’ve worked with politicians. I’ve washed pots. I’ve led teams and had to do appraisals. I’ve worked in pubs. I signed people on for their dole and benefits. I’ve been in the public and private sector. I got some degrees and now I largely work from home, a couple of days a week in an office, in a job where I have to use my brain.
They’ve all been shit in different ways.
In shitty jobs you often work with nicer, funnier people.
In offices you often work with brittle. status obsessed wankers.
They’re all, in my inconsequential opinion, terrible ways of spending the limited time I have on this planet.
Bring on UBI! Or a nice inheritance. I have no kids. As soon as I can stop, I’m done.
I think the least worst job was working in the warehouse of an international drivetrain company, packing and dispatching gearbox parts around the globe. No one bothered me, i wasn’t responsible for anyone, I could listen to whatever music I liked, I was chatting to different people all day long, having a laugh. Great job. Shame the pay was shite."
Bravo, Bravo
It's a great post. But FWIW I have the opposite problem - I've had a series of enjoyable jobs, and have become so invested in them that I don't know how to stop. I'm 72, with three paid jobs (charity management, council executive, translation) and an unpaid joblet (CLP chair), all interesting and stimulating. I'm in good health and in principle could do them all for another 5-10 years. I feel they're worthwhile and they enable me to give away lots of money. But at some point they'll stop, I'll be in worse health, and what then? Outside the jobs, I've not really developed any major cultural interests. Do I start taking up walking, theatre, music when I'm 80?
Enjoying your work is a drug if you feel you're doing it well - every day you get another shot of endorphins. The obvious answer is to start cutting back and explore the non-work world, and I'm doing a bit of that. But it's honestly hard.
I think a lot depends on the sort of outfit employing you. I've worked for for decent folks and a few rather unpleasant types. The single best boss I had was as a teenager, when I had a spell shoveling bean cans into a bailing plant with a bobcat loading shovel. It was a miserable job, and he was a dodgy scrapman profiting from a scam involving the council council collecting all the recycling and giving him the profitable bits for free, but he was really decent reasonable bloke to work for, probably because he knew the job was dire.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
What a pile of nonsense. Nothing more than saying no one can ever criticise anyone else, in practice.That helps things improve how?
Its practically a parody of illogical histrionic whataboutery bullcrap.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Quite a specious passage. William Hague is such a shrivelled shell of his former self.
I've read it. I can't see what the problem is?
He's saying there's a few years to make it work and that should be a mixture of the UK using its new post Brexit powers to reform its regulatory framework, such as in agriculture, finance and medicines, and have a more practical and cooperative relationship with the EU where it suits both parties to do so, e.g. in Horizon, short-term business visits and closer foreign policy, security and defence cooperation on a sovereign basis.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Sunak inherits the legacy of his Tory predecessors in no. 10. Can he turn things around? That Sunak is running scared in the face of the ERG’s demands for a diamond-hard Brexit does not suggest he has either the leeway or the ability to plot a bold new course for the country. All he will do is oversee the managed decline of the Conservative vote share.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
Most people in Britain think that we are a nation in decline:
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
“We want to make getting a Gender Recognition Certificate like changing your passport”
“This amendment will make getting a GRC like changing your passport”
“Vote it down! It’s against the principles of the bill!’
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is above all about legislating for a belief, in as purist a way as possible. It is still not clear how far the Scottish Government, Green Party members apart, understands that. Before that belief every other consideration must fall away, both for its most committed believers and, more surprisingly perhaps, for those trailing in their wake.
Unfortunately there are a lot of unionists supporting it as well, crapness is not confined to SNP, they are in fact the talent in Scotland and the dumb unionists are following them through being thick as mince.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
On Qatar hypocrisy from us aside, they have come under the spotlight like never before with I think everyone, footie fan or not, realising that they have a human rights problem as far as Western liberal democracies are concerned. It must surely be in some small way uncomfortable for them.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
I don't hold out much hope for Qatar. The more important point is that 100s of millions of impressionable young people are watching this stuff in homophobic hellholes like most of Africa, and might draw some conclusions dron the likes of Harry Kane being OK with gay people.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
Most people in Britain think that we are a nation in decline:
We are a nation in decline right now. It doesn't have to be like this, but we've made a series of bad choices as a country and bad choices have consequences. Hopefully we can turn it around one day but it's not going to be easy.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
In my experience its fine for Revenue Protection to be aggressive to you but they have absolutely zero tolerance for anything back. I've had two or three incidents when it wasn't possible for me to buy a ticket (queue too long and machine out of order, and the guard couldn't dispense one either) and they've been very rude and itching to give me a penalty fare rather than buying one at the terminal gate.
Train companies seem to view their passengers as, at best, entirely incidental to the service they are providing and, at worst, suspicious and hectoring towards them.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
It's not about the 20 minutes, it's about freeing up capacity on the West Coast mainline to help give other parts of the country a better rail service. Of course it's not either/or anyway, the whole rail system needs upgrading and HS2 is just a (necessary) part of that.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
West Coast mainline down to London is a bag of wank as well, and trying to get up to me mam's in Galloway is a public transport Odyssey written by the world's shittest Homer (Circe's island being a pub in Carlisle).
On Qatar hypocrisy from us aside, they have come under the spotlight like never before with I think everyone, footie fan or not, realising that they have a human rights problem as far as Western liberal democracies are concerned. It must surely be in some small way uncomfortable for them.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
I don't hold out much hope for Qatar. The more important point is that 100s of millions of impressionable young people are watching this stuff in homophobic hellholes like most of Africa, and might draw some conclusions dron the likes of Harry Kane being OK with gay people.
The UK welcomes investment in its sports clubs from any and everywhere; our Premier League is stuffed with money from questionable regimes; the UK as a member of FIFA was part of the decision making which sees Qatar as the WC host; the FA sends a team to Qatar to participate; the government allows the FA to send a team to Qatar to participate.
And it is up to Harry Kane to set an example to the "100s of millions of impressionable young people in Africa"?
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
The main reason for HS2 is increasing capacity, not faster journeys. That increased capacity will benefit other train services in the region. Other regions, of course, also need investment.
On Qatar hypocrisy from us aside, they have come under the spotlight like never before with I think everyone, footie fan or not, realising that they have a human rights problem as far as Western liberal democracies are concerned. It must surely be in some small way uncomfortable for them.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
I don't hold out much hope for Qatar. The more important point is that 100s of millions of impressionable young people are watching this stuff in homophobic hellholes like most of Africa, and might draw some conclusions dron the likes of Harry Kane being OK with gay people.
The UK welcomes investment in its sports clubs from any and everywhere; our Premier League is stuffed with money from questionable regimes; the UK as a member of FIFA was part of the decision making which sees Qatar as the WC host; the FA sends a team to Qatar to participate; the government allows the FA to send a team to Qatar to participate.
And it is up to Harry Kane to set an example to the "100s of millions of impressionable young people in Africa"?
Seriously?
It is not "up to him," but who is better placed to do it, and what harm can it do?
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
I agree, and not just stadiums, but all the supporting infrastructure in hotels etc. Spreading the groups across other Gulf States would have been a better option.
One problem is that World Cups and Olympic games have become such oversized monsters that few countries can afford to host, and in practice the only MENA countries that can afford it are the Gulf States. The same problem goes for the Americas, where the only country that can afford to host is the USA, which has little football heritage. I am not convinced that anywhere in Africa or Latin America can now afford the tournament, despite great footballing heritage.
I would favour a slimmed down WC and Olympics, but with beefed up qualifying rounds, that become regional tournaments in their own right. In effect I would make the group stages a preliminary tournament.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
I'll say this though - it's very easy to waste an hour or two in The Draughtsman pub on platform 3 in Donny station.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
Most people in Britain think that we are a nation in decline:
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
I agree, and not just stadiums, but all the supporting infrastructure in hotels etc. Spreading the groups across other Gulf States would have been a better option.
One problem is that World Cups and Olympic games have become such oversized monsters that few countries can afford to host, and in practice the only MENA countries that can afford it are the Gulf States. The same problem goes for the Americas, where the only country that can afford to host is the USA, which has little football heritage.
I would favour a slimmed down WC and Olympics, but with beefed up qualifying rounds, that become regional tournaments in their own right. In effect I would make the group stages a preliminary tournament.
AIUI, relations between the Gulf states aren’t great, which rather stymies the idea of spreading the competition around them.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
As we all tend to report problems rather than routimne performance, I'd add for balance that SWR are basically fine - I rely on them to get to London meetings and sometimes go the other way south towards Portsmouth. They are generally very punctual, the staff are friendly, the trains are busy but rarely overcrowded.
What's the reason for the dramatic difference? More investment in the SE (the London-Portsmouth line is certainly a main commuter route)? Neglect of the north? Differences in management?
On Qatar hypocrisy from us aside, they have come under the spotlight like never before with I think everyone, footie fan or not, realising that they have a human rights problem as far as Western liberal democracies are concerned. It must surely be in some small way uncomfortable for them.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
I don't hold out much hope for Qatar. The more important point is that 100s of millions of impressionable young people are watching this stuff in homophobic hellholes like most of Africa, and might draw some conclusions dron the likes of Harry Kane being OK with gay people.
The UK welcomes investment in its sports clubs from any and everywhere; our Premier League is stuffed with money from questionable regimes; the UK as a member of FIFA was part of the decision making which sees Qatar as the WC host; the FA sends a team to Qatar to participate; the government allows the FA to send a team to Qatar to participate.
And it is up to Harry Kane to set an example to the "100s of millions of impressionable young people in Africa"?
Seriously?
It is not "up to him," but who is better placed to do it, and what harm can it do?
Perhaps he thinks that engagement is the best way to effect change rather than confrontation; perhaps he was told not to wear the armband by his employer; perhaps there are negotiations ongoing behind the scenes between the FCO and the Qataris. Perhaps...perhaps...
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yet they waste £100 billion to save 20 mins London to Birmingham rather than give the rest of the country a decent rail service.
Except that is misunderstanding the point of HS2 - its mainly to remove trains from other lines to massively increase capacity. I really wish proponents wouldn't push the few minutes saved on journeys - that's a side benefit.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Hmmm
A new doctrine. The @Heathener Daily Mail Mantra (HDMM)
If the Daily Mail has spoken on a subject, it has spoken for the country. We are all guilty and are hypocrites if we go against The Word of The Mail. It doesn't matter if we personally oppose ever single word of it. The Heil Has Spoken. All Heil!
This applies to the author of this mantra, of course.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
Yep. A train service on its knees and a government happy to let it continue as it will blame the unions.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
Yes it does.
A remorseful Brexit buyer confirming he was hoodwinked by cheats and liars is a more compelling signal than moaning Remainers like me claiming we were right all along.
Brexit's single function was to facilitate Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mission accomplished, move on!
What does Brexit working mean? If you believe it means being in a state of existence, then it is working. If you believe it means delivering tangible benefits that outweigh those delivered by EU membership, then it is probably not working. Getting from point one to point two means removing the ERG’s veto over government policy. So there is really only one way to do it!
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
My main problem with the world cup in Qatar is that it was peak FIFA bribery. An absurd decision that everyone saw straight through. I honestly hope the tournament collapses into some kind of massive scandal as it would be the only way to stop FIFA from doing the same again in future.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
OK. You said it was in jeopardy. I asked how. You say "shrill histronics."
How - specifically - is the act of Britain leaving the European Union in jeopardy?
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
I agree, and not just stadiums, but all the supporting infrastructure in hotels etc. Spreading the groups across other Gulf States would have been a better option.
One problem is that World Cups and Olympic games have become such oversized monsters that few countries can afford to host, and in practice the only MENA countries that can afford it are the Gulf States. The same problem goes for the Americas, where the only country that can afford to host is the USA, which has little football heritage.
I would favour a slimmed down WC and Olympics, but with beefed up qualifying rounds, that become regional tournaments in their own right. In effect I would make the group stages a preliminary tournament.
AIUI, relations between the Gulf states aren’t great, which rather stymies the idea of spreading the competition around them.
Sure, there is that.
I watched part of the AFCON tournament from Cameroon recently. There were a number of issues with venue changes, but it was a great spectacle of football.
Our global elite broadcasters and their camp followers would find it a shock hosting a WC in Cameroon, and it would be tricky for travelling supporters. It might be good for football though.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Hmmm
A new doctrine. The @Heathener Daily Mail Mantra (HDMM)
If the Daily Mail has spoken on a subject, it has spoken for the country. We are all guilty and are hypocrites if we go against The Word of The Mail. It doesn't matter if we personally oppose ever single word of it. The Heil Has Spoken. All Heil!
This applies to the author of this mantra, of course.
And not just the Daily Mail - PB gets in on the act too! Or rather a few posters on an obscure politics/betting blog... In her mind that equates to a nation state enforcing laws against homosexuality, virtual if not actual slavery of migrant workers and even more outre, reneging on their word about the alcohol at stadia. Imagine that, signing up to something and then reneging. Wow.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
Yes it does.
A remorseful Brexit buyer confirming he was hoodwinked by cheats and liars is a more compelling signal than moaning Remainers like me claiming we were right all along.
Brexit's single function was to facilitate Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mission accomplished, move on!
There's no merit in flipping round and hurling clichés and exclamations at those who stand by their vote, or have suggestions for a more practical way forward.
Of course, I can't stop him - and he'll become a totem for Remainers who believe they were right all along to champion - but everyone else will ignore it.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
OK. You said it was in jeopardy. I asked how. You say "shrill histronics."
How - specifically - is the act of Britain leaving the European Union in jeopardy?
I am not engaging with you on this subject.
There is no profit to be had from it, and it would be a complete waste of my time.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
As we all tend to report problems rather than routimne performance, I'd add for balance that SWR are basically fine - I rely on them to get to London meetings and sometimes go the other way south towards Portsmouth. They are generally very punctual, the staff are friendly, the trains are busy but rarely overcrowded.
What's the reason for the dramatic difference? More investment in the SE (the London-Portsmouth line is certainly a main commuter route)? Neglect of the north? Differences in management?
Trans-Pennine in particular are running a terrible service. Apparently their service over the Hope Valley line - the Manchester to Sheffield artery - was recently running at 74% cancellation rate (I saw this on the cover of one of the rail mags in WH Smith, funnily enough while I was kicking my heels waiting for the next train across that very route).
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Hmmm
A new doctrine. The @Heathener Daily Mail Mantra (HDMM)
If the Daily Mail has spoken on a subject, it has spoken for the country. We are all guilty and are hypocrites if we go against The Word of The Mail. It doesn't matter if we personally oppose ever single word of it. The Heil Has Spoken. All Heil!
This applies to the author of this mantra, of course.
And not just the Daily Mail - PB gets in on the act too! Or rather a few posters on an obscure politics/betting blog... In her mind that equates to a nation state enforcing laws against homosexuality, virtual if not actual slavery of migrant workers and even more outre, reneging on their word about the alcohol at stadia. Imagine that, signing up to something and then reneging. Wow.
You can't criticise. The Daily Mail advocated all of the above - including breaking international agreements. So you have to keep quiet.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
I agree, and not just stadiums, but all the supporting infrastructure in hotels etc. Spreading the groups across other Gulf States would have been a better option.
One problem is that World Cups and Olympic games have become such oversized monsters that few countries can afford to host, and in practice the only MENA countries that can afford it are the Gulf States. The same problem goes for the Americas, where the only country that can afford to host is the USA, which has little football heritage.
I would favour a slimmed down WC and Olympics, but with beefed up qualifying rounds, that become regional tournaments in their own right. In effect I would make the group stages a preliminary tournament.
AIUI, relations between the Gulf states aren’t great, which rather stymies the idea of spreading the competition around them.
Sure, there is that.
I watched part of the AFCON tournament from Cameroon recently. There were a number of issues with venue changes, but it was a great spectacle of football.
Our global elite broadcasters and their camp followers would find it a shock hosting a WC in Cameroon, and it would be tricky for travelling supporters. It might be good for football though.
The tidal wave of corrupt money to build stadia etc would hammer Cameroon's polity though. And being so much bigger, proportionally, to their economy, would do a vast amount of damage.
Without the money - well, it's a nice dream. Bit like putting up a a permanent athletics stadium at Olypmpia in Greece and having all the Olympics there.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
Yes it does.
A remorseful Brexit buyer confirming he was hoodwinked by cheats and liars is a more compelling signal than moaning Remainers like me claiming we were right all along.
Brexit's single function was to facilitate Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mission accomplished, move on!
There's no merit in flipping round and hurling clichés and exclamations at those who stand by their vote, or have suggestions for a more practical way forward.
Of course, I can't stop him - and he'll become a totem for Remainers who believe they were right all along to champion - but everyone else will ignore it.
"Everyone else" appears to be a rapidly shrinking group.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
As we all tend to report problems rather than routimne performance, I'd add for balance that SWR are basically fine - I rely on them to get to London meetings and sometimes go the other way south towards Portsmouth. They are generally very punctual, the staff are friendly, the trains are busy but rarely overcrowded.
What's the reason for the dramatic difference? More investment in the SE (the London-Portsmouth line is certainly a main commuter route)? Neglect of the north? Differences in management?
This fella: https://unherd.com/2022/11/the-medias-manchester-snobbery/ tells a sort-of-convincing story which boils down to all the nation's news media being in the south. Which is true for newspapers (there is an amusing aside about all the stories of newspapers casually assuming their readers live somewhere in the orbit of London) but I don't think holds quite so true now quite a lot of the BBC is in Salford. But it is certainly the case that if Southern Railways are terrible we get to hear about it in Manchester; it doesn't really cross the minds of those in the south how bad Northern and Transpennine are.
It's also true that the last 100 years of railway investment have been focused on getting to London, and if that isn't part of your plan it's left you with fairly creaky infrastructure. The main Manchester-Leeds route, for example, is a heavily congested two-track section with a complex mix of fast and slow trains and crossing movements which spell trouble for any railway. (This is essentially the problem Northern Powerhouse Rail was meant to solve - separate the fast and slow trains).
“We want to make getting a Gender Recognition Certificate like changing your passport”
“This amendment will make getting a GRC like changing your passport”
“Vote it down! It’s against the principles of the bill!’
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is above all about legislating for a belief, in as purist a way as possible. It is still not clear how far the Scottish Government, Green Party members apart, understands that. Before that belief every other consideration must fall away, both for its most committed believers and, more surprisingly perhaps, for those trailing in their wake.
Unfortunately there are a lot of unionists supporting it as well, crapness is not confined to SNP, they are in fact the talent in Scotland and the dumb unionists are following them through being thick as mince.
SLAB have been largely complicit in passing the thing - only SCON have been resisting - but some SLAM MSPs are now tabling amendments which is exposing the bill for the omnishambles it is. It’s a strange hill for Sturgeon to die on.
... so I know Qatar has issues. I've known it for years and I think I've said so on here. But it would be complete hypocrisy of me to make a stand now when I am a HUGE fan of Qatar Airways. Simply outstanding and in my view the best in the world. They are a marvellous airline for the passenger. Less so for the crew.
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Don’t make the good the enemy of the perfect
It felt really good to get that off my sizeable chest!
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
I posted similar sentiments yesterday. 2 of our top 4 Premier League clubs are owned by Gulf petro-states with human rights as bad as Qatar, and a third has a sponsorship deal worth £40 million a year with a petro-state. Why is that OK while a World Cup is not?
What on earth makes you think that critics of FIFA think that is OK? It stinks too.
Textbook whataboutery.
We don't see calls for boycots of games involving those teams though.
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
My main problem with the World Cup being in Qatar is that it seems pretty dumb to build eight stadiums in such a small area. If they were going to have it out there, at least spread the games around a bit.
My main problem with the world cup in Qatar is that it was peak FIFA bribery. An absurd decision that everyone saw straight through. I honestly hope the tournament collapses into some kind of massive scandal as it would be the only way to stop FIFA from doing the same again in future.
I would like to see the final between two teams from countries sufficiently enlightened to instruct the teams to wear controversial (to some) arm bands on all team members. Refuse to remove them and see the final cancelled as the match officials, FIFA (in view of the honesty of the organisation over the years should that be 'Thiefer'?) and participants can not reach a compromise acceptable to the hosts of the competition and the organiser of the competition. In advance the two teams should agree to play the match at another venue in the near future, with or without any recognition from the governing body.
Incidentally, an ex-colleague went to do a job at a major Samsung factory for a few weeks. Apparently he had to hand in his passport, and lived in a hotel within the factory. It seemed to be a rather odd experience for him.
I wouldn't work for anyone anywhere where they demanded I hand my passport in.
I'm surprised people do. You need to be able to get out and leave at any time, if you need to.
The physical (dark blue!) document is irrelevant. Once you've entered the country they've got biometrics and the passport number. If your employer doesn’t want you to leave you aren't going anywhere.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
We're much too insular. We spend out time worrying about the wrong things. I'm in the South of France about 10 miles from an open border with Italy. Italy is still distinctly Italy. as is France. Let people come and go as they please.Rejoin the EU but join Schengen at the same time. Share the best that each country has to offer. We can still keep our identity. Even the languages haven't got mangled. Share a currency too. The UK are going to be left behind. Jobsworths on every street corner.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
OK. You said it was in jeopardy. I asked how. You say "shrill histronics."
How - specifically - is the act of Britain leaving the European Union in jeopardy?
I am not engaging with you on this subject.
There is no profit to be had from it, and it would be a complete waste of my time.
Fine. You make sweeping statements and then "a complete waste of my time" when challenged. Brexit is leaving the EU. We left. It is not in any way in jeopardy as you claimed.
My missus started a new job last week. She now has a three mile commute. She doesn't drive so is using buses. To say the service is patchy in the extreme is generous. More than once she's been stood an hour waiting as bus after bus simply doesn't turn up.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
My dad is unwell at the moment so I'm making regular trips over the Pennines. The train service is just abominable. Beyond the joke. I have a list of tedious examples which I'll spare you, but they're exacerbated by having to travel with a couple of young kids as well, when you have to explain why we need to wait for another hour, and then why we have to sit on our cases instead of seats etc etc
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
As we all tend to report problems rather than routimne performance, I'd add for balance that SWR are basically fine - I rely on them to get to London meetings and sometimes go the other way south towards Portsmouth. They are generally very punctual, the staff are friendly, the trains are busy but rarely overcrowded.
What's the reason for the dramatic difference? More investment in the SE (the London-Portsmouth line is certainly a main commuter route)? Neglect of the north? Differences in management?
Trans-Pennine in particular are running a terrible service. Apparently their service over the Hope Valley line - the Manchester to Sheffield artery - was recently running at 74% cancellation rate (I saw this on the cover of one of the rail mags in WH Smith, funnily enough while I was kicking my heels waiting for the next train across that very route).
Avanti I believe also had the worst quarter for any train company since records began for punctuality and cancellations.
Northern I actually don't find as bad FWIW - but these are my main comparators.
I'm a bit worried about the cultural appropriation by this railway. How dare they use the 'Trans' prefix in this thoughtless and hurtful way insulting and stigmatising Trans people across the world?
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Surely Brexit was leaving the European Union. As it said on the ballot paper. We did that, we're not going back. So how is it in jeopardy? Oh yeah - because BREXIT is whatever unicorn people want to believe in. Thats all in jeopardy because unicorns aren't real.
Which you voted for.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
Yes it does.
A remorseful Brexit buyer confirming he was hoodwinked by cheats and liars is a more compelling signal than moaning Remainers like me claiming we were right all along.
Brexit's single function was to facilitate Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mission accomplished, move on!
There's no merit in flipping round and hurling clichés and exclamations at those who stand by their vote, or have suggestions for a more practical way forward.
Of course, I can't stop him - and he'll become a totem for Remainers who believe they were right all along to champion - but everyone else will ignore it.
Again, I come back to your very specific claim - that Brexit is in jeopardy. It is not, if you use the definition of Brexit that actually has definition - the act of leaving the EU. Whilst I regret my vote because of what we have done since, leaving the EU itself is not the cause of our woes. We could have done a Norway or a Switzerland after Brexit and we would be fine.
Feel free to ignore me. Its that attitude which further accelerates the swing towards "Brexit was a mistake" being such a popular opinion to hold.
Comments
Alhough it did prompt an interesting conversation with my Iranian Uber driver yesterday (no really - he overheard me watching that clip posted on here asking England footballers to do the hair snip thing)
I had a contract to work in Qatar and I pulled out after signing but before the contract came into effect. Wow did I see a vicious side of the Qataris with whom I dealt! I don't totally blame them but I had done some digging around and found out some things which made me very uneasy about taking up the post.
I mean, I've seen for instance the reports about migrant workers having their passports confiscated on arrival. But this is the norm for ALL expat workers. Your passport is confiscated on arrival so you are held in the country. Someone I know escaped across the desert at night into the UAE.
When I breached contract someone came after me: told me they would ruin me and that I would never again work in the west. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do also see why Qataris are getting irritated, even irate, at some of the western grandstanding. The time for criticising Qatar's human rights was TWELVE YEARS AGO not twelve hours before the tournament.
And whilst I am a huge advocate of gay rights the west is staggeringly hypocritical. The hatred towards trans people spewing forth from the Daily Mail and from several posters on here renders any criticism of Qatar UTTER hypocrisy.
And we have soaked up dodgy Middle Eastern, and Russian, and Chinese, money when it suited us. Look at the top Premier League clubs awash with iffy money. Oh suddenly we're getting all moralistic.
And we live drunken and debauched and sleazy and corrupt and twisted lives and yet lecture another country on their ethics? We rape the earth, rip out the rainforests, plunder other countries, enslave and subjugate and then suddenly we are the ones to take the moral high ground?
What a load of shit.
Get your own house in order Britain before you dare start lecturing Qatar.
Although I’ve just realised I muddled up @Jim_Miller with @SeaShantyIrish2
Not sure who I should apologise to…
First, and only, time I've made any comment on the rights and wrongs of this world cup. I've kept silent even to friends but I might show them that post if they press. Many of them know of my saga with the Qatar contract.
Forget the Swiss, just show us Brexit benefits
Purist Brexiteers should ignore talk of closer ties with the EU and focus on making the project work before it’s too late
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/forget-the-swiss-just-show-us-brexit-benefits-wpk9l9mrx (£££)
Textbook whataboutery.
Because the deal that the Swiss want but the EU are refusing to give (because they don’t believe that the votes of the Swiss people in a national wide referendum are a relevant consideration) is actually pretty good
The Premier League is the most lucrative one in the world, and a highly successful part of the UK economy because of its amoral position on money. Not exclusive to sport though, as many other British businesses earn there, and are happy to turn a blind eye to oppression, provided the money is good.
Sure, the Qatar World Cup is riddled with corruption and human rights abuses. That is part and parcel of dealing with that part of the world. Indeed "Yes Minister" had a whole episode on it 40 years ago. Nothing changes much:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0751821/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
There's a case to work in the Middle-East for a few years to earn a lot on a tax-free salary but I can't say it's ever appealed to me. I did one week in Jeddah and that was enough for me.
By contrast, I consistently hear good things about Oman.
I'd say Brexit is in jeopardy on current trends and the ERG aren't smart enough to see round the corner.
Well done Tories/SNP/Labour/Lib Dems. Your politically motivated and exceptionally clumsy implemented “windfall” tax bites.
I warned last week about the impact of the reduction in the investment allowance from 80% to 29%, missed by this article. Hunt and Sunak are moronic.
This may bring them to the conclusion that it would be any easier international path if they addressed some of those problems.
Or not of course but I don't think people who are homosexual, migrant workers, etc in Qatar would get a better deal if the world ignored the place.
Or indeed in having a strain of xenophobia in our politics.
Folk may consider this is a serious drag on getting people into regular employment.
One a Republican, the other a Democrat, they both seem decent people.
“This amendment will make getting a GRC like changing your passport”
“Vote it down! It’s against the principles of the bill!’
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is above all about legislating for a belief, in as purist a way as possible. It is still not clear how far the Scottish Government, Green Party members apart, understands that. Before that belief every other consideration must fall away, both for its most committed believers and, more surprisingly perhaps, for those trailing in their wake.
https://murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2022/11/19/passport-control-checking-the-argument-for-self-declared-gender-recognition-certificates/
Good morning PB.
When I was in my late teens I used the buses round here regularly and they were excellent. Regular, punctual, great coverage. Still LA-owned for some time after deregulation, I think.
Then Arriva came on the scene. I didn't realise how everything has degraded bus-wise until last week, I very rarely use them anymore. It's atrocious. Huge swathes of formerly busy routes have simply been dumped. I know Covid can't have helped, but still.
If we want to help people get to work, and encourage them to do that via public transport to help cut congestion and emissions, in West Yorkshire they are going about it in precisely the wrong way.
And don't get me started on the trains. I was escorted from the platform by a police officer in Leeds station the other week for telling the Northern Rail guy their level of service is 'a fucking disgrace'. I won't bore you with the litany of terrible service that led me to voice that opinion. Suffice to say I wasn't being aggressive, loud, noisy, or threatening anyone, but simply because I dropped the f-bomb in conversation I had violated some railway bylaw about foul language or something, so off I went. The copper who escorted me away was bemused, to say the least.
It feels like everything in this country is falling apart.
I'm surprised people do. You need to be able to get out and leave at any time, if you need to.
Its practically a parody of illogical histrionic whataboutery bullcrap.
Cancellations are routine; it's essentially a permanent 2/3 timetable. I've given up on trying to get to our Nottingham office (usually went over once a month from Manchester) because the service is so unreliable. It's never been as bad in all my adult life.
He's saying there's a few years to make it work and that should be a mixture of the UK using its new post Brexit powers to reform its regulatory framework, such as in agriculture, finance and medicines, and have a more practical and cooperative relationship with the EU where it suits both parties to do so, e.g. in Horizon, short-term business visits and closer foreign policy, security and defence cooperation on a sovereign basis.
I can't say any of that worries me.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/7-10-britons-agree-uk-decline
https://twitter.com/MattHighton/status/1594808055962673185
And it frightened my son.
Routine 2:0 win for Denmark over Tunisia
Poland - Mexico looks like a textbook 'one for the purists' 1:1 draw.
France should batter Australia, but I wonder if they're fully operating as a team. 3:1.
Train companies seem to view their passengers as, at best, entirely incidental to the service they are providing and, at worst, suspicious and hectoring towards them.
Your shrill histrionic posts add absolutely nothing to the debate.
And it is up to Harry Kane to set an example to the "100s of millions of impressionable young people in Africa"?
Seriously?
One problem is that World Cups and Olympic games have become such oversized monsters that few countries can afford to host, and in practice the only MENA countries that can afford it are the Gulf States. The same problem goes for the Americas, where the only country that can afford to host is the USA, which has little football heritage. I am not convinced that anywhere in Africa or Latin America can now afford the tournament, despite great footballing heritage.
I would favour a slimmed down WC and Olympics, but with beefed up qualifying rounds, that become regional tournaments in their own right. In effect I would make the group stages a preliminary tournament.
What's the reason for the dramatic difference? More investment in the SE (the London-Portsmouth line is certainly a main commuter route)? Neglect of the north? Differences in management?
A new doctrine. The @Heathener Daily Mail Mantra (HDMM)
If the Daily Mail has spoken on a subject, it has spoken for the country. We are all guilty and are hypocrites if we go against The Word of The Mail. It doesn't matter if we personally oppose ever single word of it. The Heil Has Spoken. All Heil!
This applies to the author of this mantra, of course.
A remorseful Brexit buyer confirming he was hoodwinked by cheats and liars is a more compelling signal than moaning Remainers like me claiming we were right all along.
Brexit's single function was to facilitate Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mission accomplished, move on!
How - specifically - is the act of Britain leaving the European Union in jeopardy?
I watched part of the AFCON tournament from Cameroon recently. There were a number of issues with venue changes, but it was a great spectacle of football.
Our global elite broadcasters and their camp followers would find it a shock hosting a WC in Cameroon, and it would be tricky for travelling supporters. It might be good for football though.
Of course, I can't stop him - and he'll become a totem for Remainers who believe they were right all along to champion - but everyone else will ignore it.
There is no profit to be had from it, and it would be a complete waste of my time.
Also: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/train-transpennine-express-northwest-cancellations-b2207665.html
Avanti I believe also had the worst quarter for any train company since records began for punctuality and cancellations.
Northern I actually don't find as bad FWIW - but these are my main comparators.
Without the money - well, it's a nice dream. Bit like putting up a a permanent athletics stadium at Olypmpia in Greece and having all the Olympics there.
https://unherd.com/2022/11/the-medias-manchester-snobbery/
tells a sort-of-convincing story which boils down to all the nation's news media being in the south. Which is true for newspapers (there is an amusing aside about all the stories of newspapers casually assuming their readers live somewhere in the orbit of London) but I don't think holds quite so true now quite a lot of the BBC is in Salford. But it is certainly the case that if Southern Railways are terrible we get to hear about it in Manchester; it doesn't really cross the minds of those in the south how bad Northern and Transpennine are.
It's also true that the last 100 years of railway investment have been focused on getting to London, and if that isn't part of your plan it's left you with fairly creaky infrastructure. The main Manchester-Leeds route, for example, is a heavily congested two-track section with a complex mix of fast and slow trains and crossing movements which spell trouble for any railway. (This is essentially the problem Northern Powerhouse Rail was meant to solve - separate the fast and slow trains).
In advance the two teams should agree to play the match at another venue in the near future, with or without any recognition from the governing body.
How dare they use the 'Trans' prefix in this thoughtless and hurtful way insulting and stigmatising Trans people across the world?
Feel free to ignore me. Its that attitude which further accelerates the swing towards "Brexit was a mistake" being such a popular opinion to hold.