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No Sh*t, Sherlock! – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,002
edited December 2022 in General
imageNo Sh*t, Sherlock! – politicalbetting.com

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” (Huxley)

Read the full story here

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Comments

  • Alistair said:

    MaxPB said:

    Musk attracted George Hotz, who then attracted TJ Evarts to solve a real problem on production (without source code access) without being hired.

    This is what hiring A players looks like.
    This is what interviewing should look like
    This is fun.

    https://twitter.com/codeanand/status/1595799776234471427

    That search function does look pretty slick, I wonder how it will work in the prod environment though rather than just in dev.
    It's just a slightly nicer interface to the current Twitter search.

    Twitter search is amazingly powerful.
    Other opinions are available...

    no way this dude come in and fixes twitters unusable broken search in a month while the thousands of people couldn't in years

    https://twitter.com/PlayboysJourney/status/1594886286447345665

    that’s what Elon told me my job was, and I will try my hardest to do it. I have 12 weeks. also trying to get rid of that nondismissable login pop up after you scroll a little bit ugh these things ruin the Internet

    https://twitter.com/realGeorgeHotz/status/1594906882027552773

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,162
    'The College of Policing has ... drawn up guidance on intimate searches which potentially breaches S. 55(7) of PACE (such searches can only be by an officer of the same sex as the person being searched. It says it has legal advice that its new approach is lawful but won’t share it.) This is not just a matter of who searches whom; if the law is broken any such search may, prima facie, be assault and anything found might not be usable in evidence.'

    Is the CoP also on the side of the criminal, then?! (Certainly not on the side of the cop, who is presumably personally liable for assault.)
  • I imagine they hire shits because nobody else wants the job. Sadly, a police force composed largely of shits outperforms no police force at all.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,267
    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

  • BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    After all the family share trading stuff and now FTX, you would think we might see a sort of MP expenses scandal blow up where the media really focuses on all the dodgy financial shit that has been going on....but instead we have the likes of the NYT doing soft soap pieces on SBF.

    I thought Dave Chappelles bit on SNL the other week was brilliant where he said about Trump being an "honest liar", coming out of the big house and telling everybody you know the games rigged, because I used it, and so did all of those people and their donors...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,162

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    People who have anything to do with children do have a criminal record check, I forget the term - DBS? This applies to even quite tangential posts such as, I think, interpreters in country houses and the like. It'd be a very unwise organization that omitted that, for liability and insurance reasons at least, I should think.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    I have to be honest - I haven't read the header. I don't always read above the line, and the title offers no clue what the story is about, just tells me that someone (probably Cyclefree) is annoyed.

    I think Cyclefree has the potential to be an excellent public servant, but I'd like her to add to her repertoire of being outraged at problems, an ability to point to more solutions - simple and effective solutions based on a knowledge of human beings.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,884
    I had a stroke somewhere around the 14th paragraph of densely impenetrable prose.
  • Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,162
    edited November 2022

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    I have to be honest - I haven't read the header. I don't always read above the line, and the title offers no clue what the story is about, just tells me that someone (probably Cyclefree) is annoyed.

    I think Cyclefree has the potential to be an excellent public servant, but I'd like her to add to her repertoire of being outraged at problems, an ability to point to more solutions - simple and effective solutions based on a knowledge of human beings.
    Hmm. But one has to identify a problem first and confirm that it exists. Which is actually the Met's problem here, it would seem, if that's not too metaanalytical.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865
    Yes, if the police get recruitment right we will in due course see a big improvement in culture and performance. It's the single most important thing to focus on, I'd have thought.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,964

    Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    Or else Covid gave the space to realise that many of these big band's concerts are really shite value for money.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,964

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    What is shocking is that means 3 of the 8 did it out of the goodness of their hearts....
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    Or else Covid gave the space to realise that many of these big band's concerts are really shite value for money.
    I think what's actually happened is a lot of venues / acts lost out over COVID, have price gouged and people had said nope too much money. I am not going to a couple of gigs in December because they are £50. I can afford it, but the same calibre of band was £30 pre-COVID.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633

    Carnyx said:

    pillsbury said:

    Pulpstar said:

    No 10 confirms a third complaint has been received against Raab

    How long before Raab stands down ?

    Braverman next out layers looking good now I think.
    I’ve got Gove as next out.

    The “the VIP Lane was not corruption, it was a government doing everything it could to save our people, save our NHS and the brilliant practitioners who work in it, and save economy and save country by acting as swiftly as we could” line just isn’t working is it.

    The Government corruption over covid contracts could become next years Partygate if Tories don’t smarten up their defences on this soon. The Conservative Party are clearly under attack by the civil service over this - the ministerial line of “everything was referred to through the proper channels” has already been breached by Civil Servants choosing to add VIP Lane to government records and accidentally on purpose not redacting FOI requests properly.

    The media are being nudged by civil service to play with this, a media pile on over this scandal could send Tory polling average into the teens.

    Sunak would be at the heart of it, is the bit that would have Starmer salivating through countless PMQs.
    The public in general don't care much about corruption allegations - they vaguely assume they're all at it, possibly excepting a few very austere figures like Corbyn and Skinner (and those are then regarded with suspicion for being zealots not like ordinary folk). Partygate was different as there was a direct comparison with personal experience of the impact of the same rules. Most of us don't get the chance to bid for PPE contracts, so whether company A or company B got them is a more remote affair.

    Backbenchers do care as they're closer to it. The probability of defections rises if a party starts to be seen as riddled with dodgy behaviour.
    It looks very much like the elephant in the Tory room. To me, "they're all at it" covers a couple of hundred grand a year dodgy expenses and consultancy claims, but if we look at the 100s of millions alleged to have been made by VIP PPE fraud, even a 1% introducer's fee gets you into the millions. Sunak is above suspicion for obvious reasons (as far as personal enrichment is concerned, but it may be that he constructed such a palpably defraudable scheme because he thought that nobody gets out of bed for a paltry couple of million). Nobody else is.
    I don't suspect Sunak; I don't think it's his style, but I wouldn't say being personally wealthy makes him above suspicion. It is after all mainly his wife's money.

    If there was widespread corruption, ow do we get this money back? Is there even a way? I think in principle, it has to be private bounty hunters that are at the basis of getting it back. There was a whole industry that developed around claims for PPI mis-selling, and arguably that's the only thing that will work here. People need to be hunting this money and getting a cut. Anything that goes back into the Government coffers is a bonus.
    I thought we had state bounty hunters called 'police' and 'SFO' and 'HMRC'.
    I don't think they're up to it. Best to work off the assumption that none of our state apparatus is, don't you think?
    No no no.

    The Serious Farce Office and HMRC are doing brilliantly.

    1) Prosecuting people is difficult and can fail
    2) Prosecuting people upsets them
    3) Prosecuting politicians would be very upsetting for Important People. Like, er, Politicians.

    So not finding corruption is brilliant, career wise for people at the SFO etc.

    It's not like they will lose their jobs for not finding corruption, is it?

    Everyone is happy, yes?
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    Just laid Senegal at a very short 1.21 thinking that by hook or by crook Qatar manage to avoid defeat.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    What is shocking is that means 3 of the 8 did it out of the goodness of their hearts....
    Well....or they got their kick-backs in a different form.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    Stocky said:

    Just laid Senegal at a very short 1.21 thinking that by hook or by crook Qatar manage to avoid defeat.

    Oh well. Senegal get a second. Qatar done now.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,522

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    Intriguing that it's four GOP and four Dems.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633
    Driver said:

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    Intriguing that it's four GOP and four Dems.
    Sound like the only intelligent thing that FTX did - spread the money around both parties.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    Labour will cut taxes for "working people" when the economy stabilises, The Labour leader also pledged not to try to seek a Swiss-style post-Brexit trading agreement with the European Union.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/25/labour-will-cut-taxes-working-people-vows-sir-keir-starmer/

    Always makes me chuckle when politicians talk about working people...as if richer people don't work....
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048
    ///

    Carnyx said:

    pillsbury said:

    Pulpstar said:

    No 10 confirms a third complaint has been received against Raab

    How long before Raab stands down ?

    Braverman next out layers looking good now I think.
    I’ve got Gove as next out.

    The “the VIP Lane was not corruption, it was a government doing everything it could to save our people, save our NHS and the brilliant practitioners who work in it, and save economy and save country by acting as swiftly as we could” line just isn’t working is it.

    The Government corruption over covid contracts could become next years Partygate if Tories don’t smarten up their defences on this soon. The Conservative Party are clearly under attack by the civil service over this - the ministerial line of “everything was referred to through the proper channels” has already been breached by Civil Servants choosing to add VIP Lane to government records and accidentally on purpose not redacting FOI requests properly.

    The media are being nudged by civil service to play with this, a media pile on over this scandal could send Tory polling average into the teens.

    Sunak would be at the heart of it, is the bit that would have Starmer salivating through countless PMQs.
    The public in general don't care much about corruption allegations - they vaguely assume they're all at it, possibly excepting a few very austere figures like Corbyn and Skinner (and those are then regarded with suspicion for being zealots not like ordinary folk). Partygate was different as there was a direct comparison with personal experience of the impact of the same rules. Most of us don't get the chance to bid for PPE contracts, so whether company A or company B got them is a more remote affair.

    Backbenchers do care as they're closer to it. The probability of defections rises if a party starts to be seen as riddled with dodgy behaviour.
    It looks very much like the elephant in the Tory room. To me, "they're all at it" covers a couple of hundred grand a year dodgy expenses and consultancy claims, but if we look at the 100s of millions alleged to have been made by VIP PPE fraud, even a 1% introducer's fee gets you into the millions. Sunak is above suspicion for obvious reasons (as far as personal enrichment is concerned, but it may be that he constructed such a palpably defraudable scheme because he thought that nobody gets out of bed for a paltry couple of million). Nobody else is.
    I don't suspect Sunak; I don't think it's his style, but I wouldn't say being personally wealthy makes him above suspicion. It is after all mainly his wife's money.

    If there was widespread corruption, ow do we get this money back? Is there even a way? I think in principle, it has to be private bounty hunters that are at the basis of getting it back. There was a whole industry that developed around claims for PPI mis-selling, and arguably that's the only thing that will work here. People need to be hunting this money and getting a cut. Anything that goes back into the Government coffers is a bonus.
    I thought we had state bounty hunters called 'police' and 'SFO' and 'HMRC'.
    I don't think they're up to it. Best to work off the assumption that none of our state apparatus is, don't you think?
    No no no.

    The Serious Farce Office and HMRC are doing brilliantly.

    1) Prosecuting people is difficult and can fail
    2) Prosecuting people upsets them
    3) Prosecuting politicians would be very upsetting for Important People. Like, er, Politicians.

    So not finding corruption is brilliant, career wise for people at the SFO etc.

    It's not like they will lose their jobs for not finding corruption, is it?

    Everyone is happy, yes?
    Quite.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
  • TresTres Posts: 2,165

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
  • Driver said:

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    Intriguing that it's four GOP and four Dems.
    From what I understand, SBF mainly splashed his other peoples money at Dems, there was another FTX guy who splashed at the GOP.
  • Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    The cost of attending live gigs - particularly 'big acts' - has soared well beyond inflation over the last few decades.

    As times get tighter there is only so much people will pay.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633

    ///

    Carnyx said:

    pillsbury said:

    Pulpstar said:

    No 10 confirms a third complaint has been received against Raab

    How long before Raab stands down ?

    Braverman next out layers looking good now I think.
    I’ve got Gove as next out.

    The “the VIP Lane was not corruption, it was a government doing everything it could to save our people, save our NHS and the brilliant practitioners who work in it, and save economy and save country by acting as swiftly as we could” line just isn’t working is it.

    The Government corruption over covid contracts could become next years Partygate if Tories don’t smarten up their defences on this soon. The Conservative Party are clearly under attack by the civil service over this - the ministerial line of “everything was referred to through the proper channels” has already been breached by Civil Servants choosing to add VIP Lane to government records and accidentally on purpose not redacting FOI requests properly.

    The media are being nudged by civil service to play with this, a media pile on over this scandal could send Tory polling average into the teens.

    Sunak would be at the heart of it, is the bit that would have Starmer salivating through countless PMQs.
    The public in general don't care much about corruption allegations - they vaguely assume they're all at it, possibly excepting a few very austere figures like Corbyn and Skinner (and those are then regarded with suspicion for being zealots not like ordinary folk). Partygate was different as there was a direct comparison with personal experience of the impact of the same rules. Most of us don't get the chance to bid for PPE contracts, so whether company A or company B got them is a more remote affair.

    Backbenchers do care as they're closer to it. The probability of defections rises if a party starts to be seen as riddled with dodgy behaviour.
    It looks very much like the elephant in the Tory room. To me, "they're all at it" covers a couple of hundred grand a year dodgy expenses and consultancy claims, but if we look at the 100s of millions alleged to have been made by VIP PPE fraud, even a 1% introducer's fee gets you into the millions. Sunak is above suspicion for obvious reasons (as far as personal enrichment is concerned, but it may be that he constructed such a palpably defraudable scheme because he thought that nobody gets out of bed for a paltry couple of million). Nobody else is.
    I don't suspect Sunak; I don't think it's his style, but I wouldn't say being personally wealthy makes him above suspicion. It is after all mainly his wife's money.

    If there was widespread corruption, ow do we get this money back? Is there even a way? I think in principle, it has to be private bounty hunters that are at the basis of getting it back. There was a whole industry that developed around claims for PPI mis-selling, and arguably that's the only thing that will work here. People need to be hunting this money and getting a cut. Anything that goes back into the Government coffers is a bonus.
    I thought we had state bounty hunters called 'police' and 'SFO' and 'HMRC'.
    I don't think they're up to it. Best to work off the assumption that none of our state apparatus is, don't you think?
    No no no.

    The Serious Farce Office and HMRC are doing brilliantly.

    1) Prosecuting people is difficult and can fail
    2) Prosecuting people upsets them
    3) Prosecuting politicians would be very upsetting for Important People. Like, er, Politicians.

    So not finding corruption is brilliant, career wise for people at the SFO etc.

    It's not like they will lose their jobs for not finding corruption, is it?

    Everyone is happy, yes?
    Quite.
    Throw the hunting of corruption open to the world - on a 25% of recovered basis.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    Which is my point. There is a section of society at the bottom end up are driving around in 15-20 year old cars that they absolutely rely on, but they can't afford a newer one, or they have a diesel because they were told it was the right thing to do and its good on MPG and I presume diesel have next to no resale value now.

    Also, we are already seeing elsewhere, once in place, they quickly change the criteria e.g Bath already doing it after one year. So I imagine a particular your one man van businesses bought vehicles that met the criteria, now screwed.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633

    Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    The cost of attending live gigs - particularly 'big acts' - has soared well beyond inflation over the last few decades.

    As times get tighter there is only so much people will pay.
    I actually laughed at the prices I saw for Slayer - second rank 80s band - they wanted 3 figures for standing tickets.
  • Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    Or else Covid gave the space to realise that many of these big band's concerts are really shite value for money.
    I think what's actually happened is a lot of venues / acts lost out over COVID, have price gouged and people had said nope too much money. I am not going to a couple of gigs in December because they are £50. I can afford it, but the same calibre of band was £30 pre-COVID.
    Just checked out my local small town venue and find that among all the tribute acts, the real Lindisfarne are touring next year. £25 well spent, 12.50 each for fott and mmotc and anything else as a bonus.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    The cost of attending live gigs - particularly 'big acts' - has soared well beyond inflation over the last few decades.

    As times get tighter there is only so much people will pay.
    And now of course, "dynamic pricing" is starting to be rolled out. Easy win for a politician who wants to get on a campaign to regulate such practices in the way previously MPs have built profiles by campaigning against things like payday lenders.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865
    edited November 2022

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    Sorry but what this conjurs for me is Rod Steiger in the Heat of the Night. Which we don't want.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    edited November 2022
    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6 <£30 road tax diesel (less cough). Or electric.

    That looks as if about 30-40% of diesels and 70-80% of petrols are exempt. 40% of diesels are 6 years old or less; 80% of petrols are 13 years old or less. 2020 numbers, assuming similar age profiles.

    (https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-age-cars-great-britain#nogo)

    That will have a good and fairly rapid impact on toxic emissions, but it's going to become tighter quite rapidly, I'd say.

    My relatives are currently celebrating that they live half a mile outside Londinium.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 11,186

    Interesting...Ticketmaster have been spamming me the past few days with notice that pretty big bands have failed to sell out their upcoming concerts. These same bands pre-pandemic would never have struggled to sell out, or if there were a handful of tickets left, Ticketmaster definitely wasn't spamming out that news.

    Straw in the wind of general slow down.

    The cost of attending live gigs - particularly 'big acts' - has soared well beyond inflation over the last few decades.

    As times get tighter there is only so much people will pay.
    I actually laughed at the prices I saw for Slayer - second rank 80s band - they wanted 3 figures for standing tickets.
    Presumably, though, prices like these are what the market will bear. Or would until now, at any rate.
    Bands from the 80s can always price themselves a bit higher becauae their demographic has a bit more money.
    I sometimes think about the relative price of live music v recorded music. Back in the early 90s, a gig was about half the price of an album. Nowadays, it's about sux times the price of an album. I used to go to a gig most weekends when I was a student - you could get into the Leadmill for a fiver, see a couple of bands you'd heard of - Sleeper, Madder Rose, that sort of level - and get the indie disco afterwards for free.
    I could see every home Lancashire match of the T20 season for the price of a night watching a band at the Ritz.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048
    kinabalu said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    Sorry but what this conjurs for me is Rod Steiger in the Heat of the Night. Which we don't want.
    Meh. Hollywood always portrays sheriffs as thick racist yokels holding back the course of justice. The Hollywood world view tends to be very aligned with the US elite political world view, which probably sees sheriffs as an annoyance for the same reasons I think they could be good - an form of crime prevention and redress that is independent of big state agencies like the FBI and directly answerable to the hoi polloi.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865
    pillsbury said:

    I imagine they hire shits because nobody else wants the job. Sadly, a police force composed largely of shits outperforms no police force at all.

    As a smug and callow youth I used to drop the yossarian type line that "nobody should be accepted into the police if they want to join the police".

    But to develop this now as a rounded, self-aware, seasoned adult, I think the recruitment needs to identify 2 main strands of sentiment in applicants: wanting to protect the public and wanting to wield power over the public.

    You reject the 2nd group and hire the 1st.
  • Driver said:

    BREAKING: Congress members reportedly tried to stop the SEC’s inquiry into FTX, per the Prospect, with a March letter that questioned the SEC's authority to inquire about crypto & in part, FTX.

    5 of the 8 received campaign donations from FTX employees, from $2,900 to $11,600.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596130056329650177

    Intriguing that it's four GOP and four Dems.
    Who says bipartisanship is dead?
  • Five council by elections Wednesday and last night:

    Ashfield (Hucknall Central): Ashfield Independent Hold
    Bassetlaw (Sutton): Lab GAIN from Con
    Isle of Wight (Brighstone, Calbourne & Shalfleet): LDm GAIN from Con
    Sefton (Linacre): Lab Hold
    Warrington (Rixton & Woolston): Con Hold

    Good Week/Bad Week Index

    Lab +115
    LDm +81
    Grn -11
    Con -45

    Adjusted Seat Value

    Lab +1.9
    LDm +1.3
    Grn -0.2
    Con -0.8
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
    Elected PCCs have worked so well.

    (Mine is currently on a driving ban for 5 speeding offences, and has refused to step down.)
  • MattW said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
    Elected PCCs have worked so well.

    (Mine is currently on a driving ban for 5 speeding offences, and has refused to step down.)
    This is an issue with the idea of more local democracy....its often just means more dodgy and imcomponent people with sharp elbows getting some power.
  • MikeLMikeL Posts: 7,281
    edited November 2022


    Good Week/Bad Week Index

    Lab +115
    LDm +81
    Grn -11
    Con -45

    Adjusted Seat Value

    Lab +1.9
    LDm +1.3
    Grn -0.2
    Con -0.8

    Could you please explain what these numbers represent, what is the scale and how they are calculated?

    I see them here every week but have no idea what they mean (other than that positive must be good and negative bad!). I suspect I might not be alone.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865

    kinabalu said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    Sorry but what this conjurs for me is Rod Steiger in the Heat of the Night. Which we don't want.
    Meh. Hollywood always portrays sheriffs as thick racist yokels holding back the course of justice. The Hollywood world view tends to be very aligned with the US elite political world view, which probably sees sheriffs as an annoyance for the same reasons I think they could be good - an form of crime prevention and redress that is independent of big state agencies like the FBI and directly answerable to the hoi polloi.
    Risk of them getting too big for their boots. We've all seen this happen. Eg Rod Steiger in the Heat of the Night.

    Brando in The Chase was an impressive sheriff tbf but we're in 'exception that proves the rule' territory there imo.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,165
    Senegal could do with one more goal.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048
    edited November 2022
    MattW said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
    Elected PCCs have worked so well.

    (Mine is currently on a driving ban for 5 speeding offences, and has refused to step down.)
    They have zero powers, and have no role in day to day crime prevention/solving. We should end that programme and put the money into proper sheriffs.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Checking, said Vauxhall Corsa is between £1k and £5k.
  • Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    Which is my point. There is a section of society at the bottom end up are driving around in 15-20 year old cars that they absolutely rely on, but they can't afford a newer one, or they have a diesel because they were told it was the right thing to do and its good on MPG and I presume diesel have next to no resale value now.

    Also, we are already seeing elsewhere, once in place, they quickly change the criteria e.g Bath already doing it after one year. So I imagine a particular your one man van businesses bought vehicles that met the criteria, now screwed.
    Sad for them and Khan has put a scrappage scheme in place to help but the reality is these dirty cars are filling the air we breathe with poisons and getting rid of them is exactly what we have politicians for.
    And I say this as someone who had to buy a new car last year to comply.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100

    MattW said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
    Elected PCCs have worked so well.

    (Mine is currently on a driving ban for 5 speeding offences, and has refused to step down.)
    This is an issue with the idea of more local democracy....its often just means more dodgy and imcomponent people with sharp elbows getting some power.
    Most of whom are mainstream politicians !
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    When I become unDictator, she becomes the High Inquisitor. No bag limit.

    As to the police - Lessons Will Be Learned. Which means they never really bother to understand the problem. Just a superficial nod and on they go.
    Personally I think we need sheriffs, totally independent of the police, elected, with overlapping powers. People will be able to call their sheriff. It's an actual good thing we should (re)import from the US.

    Competing and overlapping agencies is a good thing. Make them compete for budgets. If the police do badly, the next year they lose millions in budgets to the sheriffs.
    {Sherif Arpaio has entered the chat and stolen it}
    Elected PCCs have worked so well.

    (Mine is currently on a driving ban for 5 speeding offences, and has refused to step down.)
    This is an issue with the idea of more local democracy....its often just means more dodgy and imcomponent people with sharp elbows getting some power.
    Most of whom are mainstream politicians !
    Well yes, particularly you kick'em out of being your local MP etc and they pop back up in one of these positions.

    Its a big objection I have to any voting systems where you aren't voting directly for one individual, it makes it much harder to flush the turds, as the greasy pole climbers will be ranked #1/#2 on any "list system" and can then get in by default.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,162
    edited November 2022
    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    [deleted - original postr edited]
  • OT Matt Hancock is second-favourite to win I'm A Celebrity. Jill Scott is odds-on; Owen used to be favourite but has drifted badly this week.
  • I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,633
    edited November 2022

    I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.

    Though the Met hasn't achieved the equal of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad.

    Which at one point was committing the majority of serious crimes in the West Midlands.

    Sir Harry Esson might have put it thus - “By God, this Squad is well-named!”

    EDIT: You point is well made - the current system is "too big to fail". Which always fails. And just like in banking, we need more failure. Lots of small banks that go out of business for being shit. And other to take their place. Smaller police forces, so every now and then we can send one to the knackers... Yard. Ha.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,048
    Cyclefree said:

    Another powerful Cyclefree broadside. It'd be great if she was appointed as one of the guardians of standards in public life, wouldn't it?

    Is the poor standard of vetting by the police a general problem or particular to the police? Politicians are subject to an army of amateur sleuths looking at everything they've said and done since they were children, but I'm not convinced that public institutions or companies bother to anything like the same extent.

    I have to be honest - I haven't read the header. I don't always read above the line, and the title offers no clue what the story is about, just tells me that someone (probably Cyclefree) is annoyed.

    I think Cyclefree has the potential to be an excellent public servant, but I'd like her to add to her repertoire of being outraged at problems, an ability to point to more solutions - simple and effective solutions based on a knowledge of human beings.
    Here you go.

    https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/02/11/what-should-the-met-do-now/

    I provided some answers back in February based on my experience of just this sort of culture change in the City and my understanding of why it is that people find themselves doing the wrong thing, even if they don't really mean to.

    If you came to any of my talks you would know that I focus far more on the human element than on just fiddling with processes and systems. The latter is needed but it is human behaviour - getting people to understand why this matters, making them want to change and making them unafraid to admit to mistakes and learn from them - which are really key.

    The police failings are very very similar to the failings which so disgraced the City.

    I did apply for a role on one of the police watchdogs because I felt that my perspective might be useful. But they didn't want it.

    I would love to share what I have learnt. I do not have the complete answers, of course. But I do have some answers and ideas. The problem is not that. It is whether those in charge are really willing to listen and learn and change. And the point of my header is that, if you have endless reports which are never actioned, you don't have that basic element, without which the rest cannot work.
    A creditable answer. However, you should still consider writing your pieces to capture the reader more immediately, lest they in their turn become ignored reports. This one is tough subject matter, but to have a go:

    Headline: Missing Not in action - 10% of the Met's personnel is being paid to stay off the beat

    Summary para: 3,600 of the Met's police officers are off work due to stress, injury or lack of ability (3000), suspended for alleged misconduct (500), or on restricted duties (100) because, in the words of Met Commissioner Mark Rowley 'frankly we don’t trust them to talk to members of the public'. Rowley's frankness is commendable, but his frustration - 'It’s completely mad that I have to employ people like that as police officers.' rings fairly hollow given the litany of reports on police conduct that have been ignored wholesale by the Met over the course of the last decade.

    Then I'd have listed the reports thus:
    -Report name & context 'The XX report commissioned after the XX scandal'
    -Key findings and recommendations
    -Action taken following the report - 'none'

    Then some vaguely hopeful concluding para 'If Mark Rowley is to improve the current 'completely mad' situation, he must match words with deeds - dusting down these reports and implementing a version of their recommendations would not be a bad start.

    As I've said, you are a good writer with an excellent command of the language but format is key. The headline needs to say everything and grab attention, then a bit more, then a bit more, then more, etc.

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.


    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)
  • I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.

    Though the Met hasn't achieved the equal of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad.

    Which at one point was committing the majority of serious crimes in the West Midlands.

    Sir Harry Esson might have put it thus - “By God, this Squad is well-named!”

    EDIT: You point is well made - the current system is "too big to fail". Which always fails. And just like in banking, we need more failure. Lots of small banks that go out of business for being shit. And other to take their place. Smaller police forces, so every now and then we can send one to the knackers... Yard. Ha.
    South Yorkshire, West Midlands, it's not just the Met. Breaking up the Metropolitan Police as suggested would just produce a lot of inconvenient boundaries between forces as roads run from one borough into another. North and south of the river might be more practical.
  • Teachers across Scotland will strike for a further 16 days in a dispute over pay, a union has confirmed.

    The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said the consecutive days of action - split across every council in the country - would take place in January and February next year.
  • I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.

    Though the Met hasn't achieved the equal of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad.

    Which at one point was committing the majority of serious crimes in the West Midlands.

    Sir Harry Esson might have put it thus - “By God, this Squad is well-named!”

    EDIT: You point is well made - the current system is "too big to fail". Which always fails. And just like in banking, we need more failure. Lots of small banks that go out of business for being shit. And other to take their place. Smaller police forces, so every now and then we can send one to the knackers... Yard. Ha.
    South Yorkshire, West Midlands, it's not just the Met. Breaking up the Metropolitan Police as suggested would just produce a lot of inconvenient boundaries between forces as roads run from one borough into another. North and south of the river might be more practical.
    Those would still be far too big to be effectively manageable. Yes, there'd be boundary issues - but there are currently anyway.
  • Teachers across Scotland will strike for a further 16 days in a dispute over pay, a union has confirmed.

    The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said the consecutive days of action - split across every council in the country - would take place in January and February next year.

    Is it more complicated than that? The phrase "split across every council in the country" seems to imply no teachers are striking for 16 days.
  • glwglw Posts: 9,535

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.


    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    So he's basically bringing back the verification he did away with.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Alistair said:

    MaxPB said:

    Musk attracted George Hotz, who then attracted TJ Evarts to solve a real problem on production (without source code access) without being hired.

    This is what hiring A players looks like.
    This is what interviewing should look like
    This is fun.

    https://twitter.com/codeanand/status/1595799776234471427

    That search function does look pretty slick, I wonder how it will work in the prod environment though rather than just in dev.
    It's just a slightly nicer interface to the current Twitter search.

    Twitter search is amazingly powerful.
    Other opinions are available...

    no way this dude come in and fixes twitters unusable broken search in a month while the thousands of people couldn't in years

    https://twitter.com/PlayboysJourney/status/1594886286447345665

    that’s what Elon told me my job was, and I will try my hardest to do it. I have 12 weeks. also trying to get rid of that nondismissable login pop up after you scroll a little bit ugh these things ruin the Internet

    https://twitter.com/realGeorgeHotz/status/1594906882027552773


    What has he done to "fix" search though? I feel like I'm going mad.

    He pops up search metadata token when you start typing. That's it. All those metadata fields are available already - no extra power has been added to the search functionality. There was even a nice "advanced search for dummies" popup you can access already ( https://twitter.com/search-advanced ).
  • I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.

    Though the Met hasn't achieved the equal of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad.

    Which at one point was committing the majority of serious crimes in the West Midlands.

    Sir Harry Esson might have put it thus - “By God, this Squad is well-named!”

    EDIT: You point is well made - the current system is "too big to fail". Which always fails. And just like in banking, we need more failure. Lots of small banks that go out of business for being shit. And other to take their place. Smaller police forces, so every now and then we can send one to the knackers... Yard. Ha.
    South Yorkshire, West Midlands, it's not just the Met. Breaking up the Metropolitan Police as suggested would just produce a lot of inconvenient boundaries between forces as roads run from one borough into another. North and south of the river might be more practical.
    Those would still be far too big to be effectively manageable. Yes, there'd be boundary issues - but there are currently anyway.
    After decades working for companies larger than the Metropolitan Police, I am not persuaded by your assertions that the Met is too big to fail or needs to be broken up. If it does need to be broken up, then the close geography of London presents real boundary problem.

    Rather than size, I'd say one problem the Met has is that, as a corollary of building central, specialist units, there is a dearth of expertise at the local level, which is the most common police/public/crime interface. And that is without wading through the reports Cyclefree enumerates in the header.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    edited November 2022
    Carnyx said:

    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    [deleted - original postr edited]
    Tx.

    I decided it was a bit close to the bone, and not strictly necessary to be that pointed in the post.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    Alistair said:


    What has he done to "fix" search though? I feel like I'm going mad.

    He pops up search metadata token when you start typing. That's it. All those metadata fields are available already - no extra power has been added to the search functionality. There was even a nice "advanced search for dummies" popup you can access already ( https://twitter.com/search-advanced ).

    I think you are confusing two different things.

    George Hotz is tasked with "fixing search" / making it more powerful, which he isn't claiming he has done yet (but Elon, Hotz and others say it doesn't work properly).

    He then also asked the community for people to come up with ideas to improve the front end experience when it comes to searching, which is what this other dev has prototyped.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 11,186

    On the no-shit-Sherlock front

    What will Eddie Izzard's pronouns be when she's acting as Sherlock?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11467379/Trans-star-Eddie-Izzard-lands-Sherlock-role-don-famous-sleuths-cape-new-drama-series.html

    Eddie Izzard's pronouns will be 'the tedious pillock/the tedious pillock'.
  • MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
  • Teachers across Scotland will strike for a further 16 days in a dispute over pay, a union has confirmed.

    The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said the consecutive days of action - split across every council in the country - would take place in January and February next year.

    Is it more complicated than that? The phrase "split across every council in the country" seems to imply no teachers are striking for 16 days.
    Just copied and pasted from BBC report. It is certainly poorly written.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
  • I think it's fairly obvious that, when it comes to issues of corruption, incompetence, illegality and discrimination, the Met leads all the other police forces. They set the pace, much to the chagrin of many of the shire forces, who find themselves stained by association.

    And one of the main problems with solving this, and improving the Met, is that the latter is 'too big to fail', and therefore too big to fix.



    Based on govt stats from September 2020, the total staffing (FTE) of the police forces in red on the above map is 32,218.

    The forces in green total slightly more: 32,343.

    The forces in yellow slightly more again: 33,919.

    And the forces in blue - the Met and City of London - even more than that: 33,988.

    Bringing in any one individual, even any top group - hell, even the entire management of any other police force - to fix things is never going to be able to shift the culture, how ever long they are allowed: they wouldn't have the experience and reach to achieve any significant change. It would, in very real terms, be like a massive urban secondary school going in to special measures and deciding to ask the management team from a single-class entry rural village school to sort it out.

    The Met needs to be broken up, not only to break the networks of problem officers, but also to make it into units that can have new management teams imposed with a degree of ease that is currently not possible.

    Firstly, the national functions should be taken away from the Met. Then, the geographic policing could be split down into say five areas.
    It's difficult to say exactly how big this would be without a deeper dive into the staffing numbers, but based on the most recent reporting of how the Met breaks down its subunits, each of these six forces would rank in the top 10 forces, alongside Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Thames Valley. Leaving aside any issues with those forces (and boy, are there issues there too), it would more importantly give five geographic forces in London each between 1.5 and 2 times the size of the larger shire forces. - a much more manageable transfer in the event of 'special measures' being required. And it would also mean that, should it be necessary, each of those five London forces would border on two or three of the others, allowing management responsibility for parts of a problem force to be shifted 'next door' without over-impacting their own responsibilities.

    Though the Met hasn't achieved the equal of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad.

    Which at one point was committing the majority of serious crimes in the West Midlands.

    Sir Harry Esson might have put it thus - “By God, this Squad is well-named!”

    EDIT: You point is well made - the current system is "too big to fail". Which always fails. And just like in banking, we need more failure. Lots of small banks that go out of business for being shit. And other to take their place. Smaller police forces, so every now and then we can send one to the knackers... Yard. Ha.
    South Yorkshire, West Midlands, it's not just the Met. Breaking up the Metropolitan Police as suggested would just produce a lot of inconvenient boundaries between forces as roads run from one borough into another. North and south of the river might be more practical.
    Those would still be far too big to be effectively manageable. Yes, there'd be boundary issues - but there are currently anyway.
    After decades working for companies larger than the Metropolitan Police, I am not persuaded by your assertions that the Met is too big to fail or needs to be broken up. If it does need to be broken up, then the close geography of London presents real boundary problem.

    Rather than size, I'd say one problem the Met has is that, as a corollary of building central, specialist units, there is a dearth of expertise at the local level, which is the most common police/public/crime interface. And that is without wading through the reports Cyclefree enumerates in the header.
    About 80% of the Met (excluding the national functions) is 'front line' policing. There may be a dearth of expertise, but not because there's no one doing the job - they're just not very good at it.

    I should also say that my wife was a police officer for thirty years, in Sussex Police. Sussex, like a lot of forces around the south east, gets raided periodically by the met for officers, offering them sizeable bonuses to transfer over. I have known quite a few over the years who have gone, and whether or not they come back they uniformly report how bad the Met is in comparison to what they've known.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    kinabalu said:

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
    I think its pretty simple on the verification side. Twitter loses money, if he can get I believe 3% of users to buy their verification he will instantly overturn the loses.

    Remember way way back in the day this was really WhatsApp play, they had a small dedicated dev team and you paid 99c for access. They had revenue for $350m with 20 devs.

    Now obviously twitter isn't a start-up, etc etc etc, but this is my guess in terms of pay your $8 for verification approach. Get away from total dependence on advertisers, start to nudge people to subbing for "premium" tier goodies. However, its much harder to go from free to paid, than starting your app from scratch with micro-payments.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865

    OT Matt Hancock is second-favourite to win I'm A Celebrity. Jill Scott is odds-on; Owen used to be favourite but has drifted badly this week.

    He's doing great apparently. And through gritted teeth you have to say it's a genuine achievement.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865

    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
    Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
  • Neymar has been ruled out of Brazil’s game against Switzerland due to an ankle injury.

    Controversial opinion, Brazil are better without his over-inflated ego, poor work rate and take willingness to play as a cog in the machine.
  • Heathrow being in the ULEZ....there is going to be a lot of holiday makers getting a nasty shock when they drive to the airport.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,865
    edited November 2022

    kinabalu said:

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
    I think its pretty simple on the verification side. Twitter loses money, if he can get I believe 3% of users to buy their verification he will instantly overturn the loses.

    Remember way way back in the day this was really WhatsApp play, they had a small dedicated dev team and you paid 99c for access. They had revenue for $350m with 20 devs.

    Now obviously twitter isn't a start-up, etc etc etc, but this is my guess in terms of pay your $8 for verification approach. Get away from total dependence on advertisers, start to nudge people to subbing for "premium" tier goodies. However, its much harder to go from free to paid, than starting your app from scratch with micro-payments.
    Well maybe he'll manage that. However my impression is he's bought it on a whim rather than being driven by a business plan.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    ...
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
    I think its pretty simple on the verification side. Twitter loses money, if he can get I believe 3% of users to buy their verification he will instantly overturn the loses.

    Remember way way back in the day this was really WhatsApp play, they had a small dedicated dev team and you paid 99c for access. They had revenue for $350m with 20 devs.

    Now obviously twitter isn't a start-up, etc etc etc, but this is my guess in terms of pay your $8 for verification approach. Get away from total dependence on advertisers, start to nudge people to subbing for "premium" tier goodies. However, its much harder to go from free to paid, than starting your app from scratch with micro-payments.
    Well maybe he'll manage that. However my impression is he's bought it on a whim rather than being driven by much of a business plan.
    Yes, I don't know if he got goaded into it with the whole free speech thing or there is some bigger vision where he saw a bloated company not fulfilling potential (that he thought he could drive the price down with claims of bots etc).

    It might well be a bit of both. However, he definitely massively overpaid either way. Its certainly going to be a Netflix series in the future of the crazy billionaire buying a social media company and all the insanity that followed.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,550
    Life in Kyiv with intermittent water and electricity:

    https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1596050892327129090
  • PhilPhil Posts: 1,919
    edited November 2022

    kinabalu said:

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
    I think its pretty simple on the verification side. Twitter loses money, if he can get I believe 3% of users to buy their verification he will instantly overturn the loses.

    Remember way way back in the day this was really WhatsApp play, they had a small dedicated dev team and you paid 99c for access. They had revenue for $350m with 20 devs.

    Now obviously twitter isn't a start-up, etc etc etc, but this is my guess in terms of pay your $8 for verification approach. Get away from total dependence on advertisers, start to nudge people to subbing for "premium" tier goodies. However, its much harder to go from free to paid, than starting your app from scratch with micro-payments.
    WhatsApp’s costs were very low however - they deliberately capped group size in order to avoid the kind of problems Twitter has with the power law of follower counts extending up to individuals with over 100million followers.

    The distributed graph update problems that Twitter has are much harder than WhatsApp’s. WA could just shard servers across client groups & add more individual servers as necessary - for them load increased basically in linearly with user numbers & that per user load was low to start with. Twitter can’t do that.

    This is not to say that Twitter is necessarily well structured, or maximally efficient, just that you can’t extrapolate WhatsApp’s cost structure to Twitter because WhatsApp was solving a much easier problem. Twitter’s issues are algorithmically much more difficult & & require more complex solutions.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    Phil said:

    kinabalu said:

    Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

    'Gold check for companies, grey check for governments, blue for individuals (celebrities or not). Painful, but necessary,' Musk said in a tweet.

    All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before the check is activated, Musk said.

    -----

    How long before you get platinum, black and red ticks for only many $100s a month :-)

    What on earth is he up to with Twitter? I don't get it.
    I think its pretty simple on the verification side. Twitter loses money, if he can get I believe 3% of users to buy their verification he will instantly overturn the loses.

    Remember way way back in the day this was really WhatsApp play, they had a small dedicated dev team and you paid 99c for access. They had revenue for $350m with 20 devs.

    Now obviously twitter isn't a start-up, etc etc etc, but this is my guess in terms of pay your $8 for verification approach. Get away from total dependence on advertisers, start to nudge people to subbing for "premium" tier goodies. However, its much harder to go from free to paid, than starting your app from scratch with micro-payments.
    WhatsApp’s server costs were very low however - they deliberately capped group size in order to avoid the kind of problems Twitter has with the power law of follower counts extending up to individuals with over 100million followers.

    The distributed graph update problems that Twitter has are much harder than WhatsApp’s. WA could just shard servers across client groups & add more individual servers as necessary - for them load increased basically in linearly with user numbers & that per user load was low to start with. Twitter can’t do that.

    This is not to say that Twitter is necessarily well structured, or maximally efficient, just that you can’t extrapolate WhatsApp’s cost structure to Twitter because WhatsApp was solving a much easier problem. Twitter’s issues are algorithmically much more difficult & & require more complex solutions.
    No no, that's not what I am saying. I am saying that the business model of Whatsapp was to pay for a small amount for a communication app and people were willing to do so.

    I think what Elon is trying to repeat the trick here and diversify the income streams and softening everybody with pay to play for people who make money off being on the platform...there is a certain amount of "strong arming" here in terms of no company will want to not have their blue checkmark.

    I am certainly not saying that twitter is going to turn into Whatsapp with 10s of employees and $8 / month blue checkmarks will keep the lights on.

    But as I said, it is much harder to go from something you always paid for then the costs increase e.g. Netflix compared to it was free, now give us some money.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    edited November 2022

    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
    I think that pass was lost on this one when SPECS average speed cameras (first used in late 1990s), and whatever the traffic monitoring service was (cannot remember the name), came in and various cameras were directly linked to the PNC.

    We don't have general and constant individual vehicle monitoring yet (as far as I know :-) ), which seems to me to be the next big jump.

    I think mayor Sadiq has got the politics of expansion of the ULEZ badly wrong, as I don't see how a flat charge which equates those driving around in Z1/2 all day with those who drive from a mile inside the London boundary in Neasden or Wembley to Watford is defensible, due to the vastly different contributions they make to emissions in London.

    The analogue would be the whole of the London area being Zone 6 for fare purposes.

    To something graduated for Z2 / North-South Circular / London boundary at £15 / £10 / £5 would be far more rational.

    I'm getting a sense of resentment about 'rule for Inner London by Sadiq' about the Ulez from those ourside the N/S circular who never go into Inner London. I'm not clear whether there will be a political impact.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    Dehenna Davison (Tory MP for Bishop Auckland) is standing down at the next election

    Not that she had any likelihood of winning the seat.
  • ChrisChris Posts: 11,010
    Unfortunately people who want to police their fellow citizens are often not the best suited to do it. Though not to the same extent as people who want to rule them (aspiring politicians).
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    MikeL said:


    Good Week/Bad Week Index

    Lab +115
    LDm +81
    Grn -11
    Con -45

    Adjusted Seat Value

    Lab +1.9
    LDm +1.3
    Grn -0.2
    Con -0.8

    Could you please explain what these numbers represent, what is the scale and how they are calculated?

    I see them here every week but have no idea what they mean (other than that positive must be good and negative bad!). I suspect I might not be alone.
    But just hearing results alone tells us nothing, having an index taking into account if it’s great hold of something in enemy territory, or seizing something never held before, or how actual voting snapshots nationwide every week match or don’t match current polling, that we can have every week for trends, is very helpful for us Psephoflogygists.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    Dehenna Davison, the Red Wall poster girl of the 2019 campaign, becomes the sixth Tory MP to announce she's standing down from parliament. At 29, she's the youngest to date, following Will Wragg (34) and Chloe Smith (40) in recent days.

    NEW: And a younger Tory MP still standing down- Dehenna Davison, only elected in 2019 says she won't stand again. Feels symbolically important. Elected in Bishop Auckland, first ever Tory in the seat.

    https://twitter.com/TomSheldrickITV/status/1596171999197671425?s=20&t=svuAeCV8craJFp6h7Qxwww
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    eek said:

    Dehenna Davison (Tory MP for Bishop Auckland) is standing down at the next election

    Not that she had any likelihood of winning the seat.

    Nooooooooooooooooooooo 😖
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
    I think that pass was lost on this one when SPECS average speed cameras (first used in late 1990s), and whatever the traffic monitoring service was (cannot remember the name), came in and various cameras were directly linked to the PNC.

    We don't have general and constant individual vehicle monitoring yet (as far as I know :-) ), which seems to me to be the next big jump.

    I think mayor Sadiq has got the politics of expansion of the ULEZ badly wrong, as I don't see how a flat charge which equates those driving around in Z1/2 all day with those who drive from a mile inside the London boundary in Neasden or Wembley to Watford is defensible, due to the vastly different contributions they make to emissions in London.

    The analogue would be the whole of the London area being Zone 6 for fare purposes.

    To something graduated for Z2 / North-South Circular / London boundary at £15 / £10 / £5 would be far more rational.

    I'm getting a sense of resentment about 'rule for Inner London by Sadiq' about the Ulez from those ourside the N/S circular who never go into Inner London. I'm not clear whether there will be a political impact.
    I think he is simply working on the principle that London is a Labour city and even doing something like this that will piss off the outer ring won't endanger his own position. How much it adds to cost of living, cost of doing business etc, like a lot of these things, your big companies can often easily absorb them / mitigate them, but your man in a van type ones it can be a big hit.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005
    Damian Green was stitched up by Bob Quick was he not? I don't remember any action being taken against Mr Quick as a result. There need to be major repercussions i.e prison sentences for police officers who abuse their powers. I still don't feel enough of the general public is on board with this though. Those living in unsafe areas undoubtedly look to the police for protection.

    On the Sarah Everard policing being unlawful, from what I read this is due to the right to free speech and assembly. However when the government imposed their lockdowns (rightly or wrongly) I don't remember them pointing this out? And neither do I remember many rights enthusiasts defending Piers Corbyn when he got a £10,000 fine.

    This is the problem with our approach to the enormous plethora of rights nowadays. Clearly there are so many of them that they can't be treated as absolute. And so you have to weigh up the balance. But all that generally does is allow people to find excuses for why the things they support should be permitted and the things they don't should not be. The whole point about rights is you are supposed to support them for people you don't agree with.

  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100

    Heathrow being in the ULEZ....there is going to be a lot of holiday makers getting a nasty shock when they drive to the airport.

    Potentially (very potentially!) y% * 80 million a year * £12.50 :smile: .

    Good for Manchester International.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,162

    Teachers across Scotland will strike for a further 16 days in a dispute over pay, a union has confirmed.

    The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said the consecutive days of action - split across every council in the country - would take place in January and February next year.

    Is it more complicated than that? The phrase "split across every council in the country" seems to imply no teachers are striking for 16 days.
    Just copied and pasted from BBC report. It is certainly poorly written.
    Indeed. This seems clear.

    https://twitter.com/EISUnion/status/1596168682803183623?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1596168682803183623|twgr^6e8e2d2b23843193d6aec311c034199ad918557e|twcon^s1_&amp;ref_url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/23150563.teachers-scotland-announce-major-16-day-strike-2023/
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,922
    Chris said:

    Unfortunately people who want to police their fellow citizens are often not the best suited to do it. Though not to the same extent as people who want to rule them (aspiring politicians).

    The same could be said for the people who were constantly calling for everyone to be imprisoned in their homes during the covid overreactions. Luckily they cried wolf too often, and were eventually ignored.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    edited November 2022

    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    Tres said:

    two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.

    ....

    Whole of London to be hit by new Ulez expansion ordered by Sadiq Khan
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/25/whole-london-hit-ulez-expansion-ordered-sadiq-khan/

    Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.

    any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
    So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
    Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
    I think that pass was lost on this one when SPECS average speed cameras (first used in late 1990s), and whatever the traffic monitoring service was (cannot remember the name), came in and various cameras were directly linked to the PNC.

    We don't have general and constant individual vehicle monitoring yet (as far as I know :-) ), which seems to me to be the next big jump.

    I think mayor Sadiq has got the politics of expansion of the ULEZ badly wrong, as I don't see how a flat charge which equates those driving around in Z1/2 all day with those who drive from a mile inside the London boundary in Neasden or Wembley to Watford is defensible, due to the vastly different contributions they make to emissions in London.

    The analogue would be the whole of the London area being Zone 6 for fare purposes.

    To something graduated for Z2 / North-South Circular / London boundary at £15 / £10 / £5 would be far more rational.

    I'm getting a sense of resentment about 'rule for Inner London by Sadiq' about the Ulez from those ourside the N/S circular who never go into Inner London. I'm not clear whether there will be a political impact.
    I think he is simply working on the principle that London is a Labour city and even doing something like this that will piss off the outer ring won't endanger his own position. How much it adds to cost of living, cost of doing business etc, like a lot of these things, your big companies can often easily absorb them / mitigate them, but your man in a van type ones it can be a big hit.
    The numbers for the first expansion were that it caught 1.9m journeys a month in toto, so £15-20m a month in revenue approx, but that a lot of vehicles are removed from the road so the spondulicks presumably shrink quite rapidly.

    That was an initial 5-6 fold or so increase over the revenue from the previous zone.

    https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2022/10/tfls-income-increased-by-100m-from-the-expansion-of-londons-ulez/#:~:text=TfL's income increased by £100m from the expansion of London's Ulez,-By E&T editorial&amp;text=The move to make the,drivers, according to official figures.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,287
    Scott_xP said:

    Dehenna Davison, the Red Wall poster girl of the 2019 campaign, becomes the sixth Tory MP to announce she's standing down from parliament. At 29, she's the youngest to date, following Will Wragg (34) and Chloe Smith (40) in recent days.

    NEW: And a younger Tory MP still standing down- Dehenna Davison, only elected in 2019 says she won't stand again. Feels symbolically important. Elected in Bishop Auckland, first ever Tory in the seat.

    https://twitter.com/TomSheldrickITV/status/1596171999197671425?s=20&t=svuAeCV8craJFp6h7Qxwww

    Has she said why? Maybe she prefers being a TV presenter on GB News.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    Andy_JS said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Dehenna Davison, the Red Wall poster girl of the 2019 campaign, becomes the sixth Tory MP to announce she's standing down from parliament. At 29, she's the youngest to date, following Will Wragg (34) and Chloe Smith (40) in recent days.

    NEW: And a younger Tory MP still standing down- Dehenna Davison, only elected in 2019 says she won't stand again. Feels symbolically important. Elected in Bishop Auckland, first ever Tory in the seat.

    https://twitter.com/TomSheldrickITV/status/1596171999197671425?s=20&t=svuAeCV8craJFp6h7Qxwww

    Has she said why? Maybe she prefers being a TV presenter on GB News.
    Dehenna Davison says: "now the time feels right for me to devote more of my attention to life outside politics - mainly to my family, and helping support them as they’ve helped support me"

    Full statement here... https://twitter.com/TomSheldrickITV/status/1596171999197671425/photo/1
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,964

    Heathrow being in the ULEZ....there is going to be a lot of holiday makers getting a nasty shock when they drive to the airport.

    The bigger shock will be when they come back from their holibobs and find an £80 fine on their doormats....
This discussion has been closed.