BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
Those power plants and that infrastructure were being used to wage a war of aggression that later became a war of extermination.
Ukraine was not trying to invade Russia or kill Russians.
Germany had to be stopped, and it couldn't be stopped using clean methods precisely because it was so brutal. It is hard to make the same argument for Ukraine.
I’m just reading The End by Ian Kershaw. It seems plain that the bombing, by late 1944, was severely degrading Germany’s capacity to wage war.
The mistake that gets made is saying that bombing “only reduced GDP by x%”
Turnips and Tiger tanks can’t be substitute easily. Strangely the Allies tried to bomb Tiger tank factories, not turnip fields.
It is quite informative to read the history from the other angle - from late 1943, nearly all German military production was hit by bombing effects.
The belief that all Bomber Command did was firebomb cities is simply wrong.
The other belief that seems widespread is that Dresden was an outlier. It wasn't. Harris wanted to destroy ALL German cities in this way (see also Hamburg). It was just that on most occasions it didn't work quite as well. Harris wanted to win the war from the air, without a single British soldier needing to fight on the beaches and through to Berlin. Its fine to be squeamish/horrified/whatever about civilian deaths. But the context of the holocaust and a war of annihilation in Eastern Europe is key to this. The Germans captured millions of Russian soldiers - how many do you think made it home again? How many people died in the holocaust?
And someone on here that I respect equates Chastise with what Putin's army is doing in Ukraine? Unbelievable.
BTW - I note that the latest BBC radio reports have stopped calling 617 'infamous'. I suspect complaints have been made.
Slightly tangentially, the story of the bombing campaign has not been well-told. We all know about the Battle of Britain, and radar, and Bletchley Park reading Enigma, but the European bombing campaign was the reverse of this. The Nazis had radar; they were shooting down RAF bombers at will; they were breaking our codes. And if the Blitz did not break British morale, were Germans less stoical? (Although, as stated earlier, it did play its part in relieving pressure on the Soviets and keeping them in the war.)
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
How would said private sector workers react to public sector workers leaving their jobs to seek work in the private sector as a result of Sunak taking away their right to strike? Do train drivers count as private or public these days anyway?
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Is that true about public sector workers voting Labour? It did not used to be. An often overlooked factor in the 1997 landslide is that Ken Clarke in particular, before achieving cuddly elder statesman status, had made a career of attacking Tory-supporting public sector workers like the police, teachers, and doctors. It was therefore no great surprise if they turned to Labour in that election.
Nice to see the Peruvian ersatz version of Trump almost immediately detained by the police after attempting to dissolve Congress, while reportedly trying to flee to Mexico.
He has proved to be an utter twat in nearly every dimension. Even by the standards of Peruvian politics. Where Lizz Truss would be a genius who towered over the tiny, tiny clowns around her.
It's somewhat ironic to reflect that what's happened is roughly the plot of Servant of the People, and might well have been the fate of Volodymyr Zelensky himself given his situation twelve months ago.
If Putin hadn't been so stupid as to invade Ukraine...
According to a Ukrainian chap I used to work with, Zelensky was making some noticeable progress against high level corruption, before the war.
He reckoned that the progress against some Russian supporting oligarchs might have been a factor in Putin thinking that Ukraine was getting too uppity.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Is that true about public sector workers voting Labour? It did not used to be. An often overlooked factor in the 1997 landslide is that Ken Clarke in particular, before achieving cuddly elder statesman status, had made a career of attacking Tory-supporting public sector workers like the police, teachers, and doctors.
A plurality of teachers voted Tory in 2010.
Strangely, after five years of Gove, Cummings, Freedman, Gibb, Morgan and Spielman this was not the case in 2015 and has not been repeated.
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
Those power plants and that infrastructure were being used to wage a war of aggression that later became a war of extermination.
Ukraine was not trying to invade Russia or kill Russians.
Germany had to be stopped, and it couldn't be stopped using clean methods precisely because it was so brutal. It is hard to make the same argument for Ukraine.
I’m just reading The End by Ian Kershaw. It seems plain that the bombing, by late 1944, was severely degrading Germany’s capacity to wage war.
The mistake that gets made is saying that bombing “only reduced GDP by x%”
Turnips and Tiger tanks can’t be substitute easily. Strangely the Allies tried to bomb Tiger tank factories, not turnip fields.
It is quite informative to read the history from the other angle - from late 1943, nearly all German military production was hit by bombing effects.
The belief that all Bomber Command did was firebomb cities is simply wrong.
The other belief that seems widespread is that Dresden was an outlier. It wasn't. Harris wanted to destroy ALL German cities in this way (see also Hamburg). It was just that on most occasions it didn't work quite as well. Harris wanted to win the war from the air, without a single British soldier needing to fight on the beaches and through to Berlin. Its fine to be squeamish/horrified/whatever about civilian deaths. But the context of the holocaust and a war of annihilation in Eastern Europe is key to this. The Germans captured millions of Russian soldiers - how many do you think made it home again? How many people died in the holocaust?
And someone on here that I respect equates Chastise with what Putin's army is doing in Ukraine? Unbelievable.
BTW - I note that the latest BBC radio reports have stopped calling 617 'infamous'. I suspect complaints have been made.
Slightly tangentially, the story of the bombing campaign has not been well-told. We all know about the Battle of Britain, and radar, and Bletchley Park reading Enigma, but the European bombing campaign was the reverse of this. The Nazis had radar; they were shooting down RAF bombers at will; they were breaking our codes. And if the Blitz did not break British morale, were Germans less stoical? (Although, as stated earlier, it did play its part in relieving pressure on the Soviets and keeping them in the war.)
No doubt crew morale necessitated the rotation of targets. The high military value targets tended to be harder to hit and very well defended. The bombing campaign also soaked up a huge amount of German industrial effort producing aircraft and air defences.
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
Those power plants and that infrastructure were being used to wage a war of aggression that later became a war of extermination.
Ukraine was not trying to invade Russia or kill Russians.
Germany had to be stopped, and it couldn't be stopped using clean methods precisely because it was so brutal. It is hard to make the same argument for Ukraine.
I’m just reading The End by Ian Kershaw. It seems plain that the bombing, by late 1944, was severely degrading Germany’s capacity to wage war.
The mistake that gets made is saying that bombing “only reduced GDP by x%”
Turnips and Tiger tanks can’t be substitute easily. Strangely the Allies tried to bomb Tiger tank factories, not turnip fields.
It is quite informative to read the history from the other angle - from late 1943, nearly all German military production was hit by bombing effects.
The belief that all Bomber Command did was firebomb cities is simply wrong.
The other belief that seems widespread is that Dresden was an outlier. It wasn't. Harris wanted to destroy ALL German cities in this way (see also Hamburg). It was just that on most occasions it didn't work quite as well. Harris wanted to win the war from the air, without a single British soldier needing to fight on the beaches and through to Berlin. Its fine to be squeamish/horrified/whatever about civilian deaths. But the context of the holocaust and a war of annihilation in Eastern Europe is key to this. The Germans captured millions of Russian soldiers - how many do you think made it home again? How many people died in the holocaust?
And someone on here that I respect equates Chastise with what Putin's army is doing in Ukraine? Unbelievable.
BTW - I note that the latest BBC radio reports have stopped calling 617 'infamous'. I suspect complaints have been made.
Slightly tangentially, the story of the bombing campaign has not been well-told. We all know about the Battle of Britain, and radar, and Bletchley Park reading Enigma, but the European bombing campaign was the reverse of this. The Nazis had radar; they were shooting down RAF bombers at will; they were breaking our codes. And if the Blitz did not break British morale, were Germans less stoical? (Although, as stated earlier, it did play its part in relieving pressure on the Soviets and keeping them in the war.)
I might rephrase your point to this ' the bombing campaign is not well known or understood by the general public'. I think there are excellent books about the air war - right back to John Terraine's "The Right of the Line", through Max Hasting's "Bomber Command" and more recent studies e.g. Kevin Wilson's "Men of Air" and so on. Most histories I have read make no bones about the losses, and the limited chances of surviving a tour, and the carnage that the Germans were able to inflict on the bombers. I'm currently reading "Sand and Steel", about D-Day (on a recommendation on here). Its in great depth and has touched on the bombing operations up to D-Day. The descriptions of raids on Schweinfurt by the 8th Air Force are horrifying.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
It is the consumers of public services who are not able to consume them normally you need to be worried about.
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Yes, I think that's true. I think the recent film on Richard III's discovery has had something similar done to Leicester University and the attitude to the Philippa Langley.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Its easy to say people on low pay should 'shoulder the burden' by having below inflation pay rises when your pay is vastly higher. If we want services we need to pay for them.
Train drivers I am less convinced. I think Leon's AI is coming for them in some form or another.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Yes, I think that's true. I think the recent film on Richard III's discovery has had something similar done to Leicester University and the attitude to the Philippa Langley.
How accurately does it portray the scene where she practically masturbates on camera in front of the facial reconstruction?
I have always loved the irony that Langley and the RIII society spent years trying to excavate the priory, finally funded a dig, and hoped to find Richard's body and nail once for all all those 'Tudor lies' about him. And they found the body - quite amazingly - and in a beautiful irony, it was confirmed he did actually have a severe physical deformity, thereby undermining their claims that the Tudors only wrote lies about him!
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
And Bader's Big Wing concept hamstrung 12 Group in the Battle of Britain (after the battle, Bader's allies in Whitehall sacked Park and Dowding, who'd won it).
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Often they don't, sometimes they do. Supply and demand I'm afraid. If we have a backlog of millions waiting for ops, ambulances stuck for 12 hours+ at hospital and 100k+ vacancies then pay needs to go up. Not exactly rocket science this if you take the ideology out of it.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
Mr. Jonathan, sometimes public sector pay rises more rapidly than private sector, though. And the jobs have immensely better security, and come with far better pensions than the private sector.
Pay, particularly with high inflation, is tricky, but just throwing it at whoever demands more cash is not responsible and risks embedding inflation, solving a short term problem by worsening things in the long term (I have some sympathy with the rail workers, particularly over closing every ticket office).
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Yes, I think that's true. I think the recent film on Richard III's discovery has had something similar done to Leicester University and the attitude to the Philippa Langley.
How accurately does it portray the scene where she practically masturbates on camera in front of the facial reconstruction?
I have always loved the irony that Langley and the RIII society spent years trying to excavate the priory, finally funded a dig, and hoped to find Richard's body and nail once for all all those 'Tudor lies' about him. And they found the body - quite amazingly - and in a beautiful irony, it was confirmed he did actually have a severe physical deformity, thereby undermining their claims that the Tudors only wrote lies about him!
Yes, that is true. I have heard various descriptions of how he would have appeared. Apparently he would have appeared shorter than if no scoliosis, and was a fairly slight figure. Yet he also attained some respect as a warrior, and was personally brave in battle. Much of the Tudor propaganda was surely just that, and I find the Tudor claim to the throne rather tenuous (there were others who had better claims) but I suspect the nation was ready for the whole thing to end by that point. And Henry VII had a male heir and spare in pretty quick time too.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
I think Drachifel said in one of his videos that there was a ?US Navy? captain who, before the war, was detested by his men to such an extent that he nearly got court-martialed for mistreatment. The war intervened, and his men said he was brilliant to fight under in a war environment. But outside a war environment, he was a sh*t again.
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Yes, I think that's true. I think the recent film on Richard III's discovery has had something similar done to Leicester University and the attitude to the Philippa Langley.
In both cases, the films exaggerate the contribution of the lead character and the opposition to them. The “lone hero” thing is a standard trope in cinema.
That being said, the literal anger displayed against Philippa Langley, in real live, was disgusting. Some academics desperately denied that it was Richard III. Others really had a go at her.
Yes, the Richard III obsessives are pain. But what she did was add up the actual primary sources on what happened to the body and correctly worked out where X was.
Perhaps the anger was due to people reading secondary sources and not bothering to look at the evidence. It can’t be pleasant when you are a pro, publicly shown up by a somewhat oddball amateur.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
In my corner, to copy your phrase, there have been ongoing cuts in wages (actual numbers rather than relative to inflation etc) for several years for both staff and contractors. These have ranged between 10 and 30% and are probably only going to continue as companies respond to things like the windfall tax by moving investment to other parts of the world.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Often they don't, sometimes they do. Supply and demand I'm afraid. If we have a backlog of millions waiting for ops, ambulances stuck for 12 hours+ at hospital and 100k+ vacancies then pay needs to go up. Not exactly rocket science this if you take the ideology out of it.
Yes. And the same applies to people who work in frozen fields all day with leeks, potatoes and onions in Lincolnshire. Unless of course we wish to carry on the old EU practice of assuming that both pay and conditions are good enough for Romanians but not good enough for us. Which is how the gulf states operate. Not exactly rocket science....
Last month, the morning after the vote, Paddypower offered 50-1 against a Democrat Senate victory. At that time the score was 49 Republicans and (I thought) 48 Democrats, with three states left to be called. I had a £10 bet on the Democrats.
Yesterday I learned that two of those "Democrats" were, by Paddypower's rules, not counted as they are independents.
In which case Paddypower were offering their bet when there were only 46 Democrats, with three states left to be called, so it was impossible for that bet to win.
Anyone come across this before?
Yes, we've discussed it frequently and issued warnings. Same confusion every election.
It's theoretically possible that the independent Senators might choose to caucus with the Democrats in the next session, so they're not committing fraud, I think ?
Thanks for your comments... I'd just add that if PP were to allow for the possibility of the independents joining the Democrats they'd never be able to close the bet would they? Whereas they wrote to me that "the final tally is 49 Republicans and 49 Democrats", thereby making ti clear that they're eye-catching and very tempting 50-1 offer could never have come off.
Slightly tangentially, the story of the bombing campaign has not been well-told. We all know about the Battle of Britain, and radar, and Bletchley Park reading Enigma, but the European bombing campaign was the reverse of this. The Nazis had radar; they were shooting down RAF bombers at will; they were breaking our codes. And if the Blitz did not break British morale, were Germans less stoical? (Although, as stated earlier, it did play its part in relieving pressure on the Soviets and keeping them in the war.)
There was a documentary about the bombing of the Tirpitz which reckoned the Germans should have easily been able to stop the raid. They reckoned a German 'traitor' delayed the vital message to scramble the fighters IIRC
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
My understanding is that private sector pay is not increasing at 6% overall, so my question was based on that. But that might be wrong. I would certainly like to see some sectors of the public sector paid more. Teachers, for example. Not because they deserve it (though some undoubtedly do) but because I think it is worth doing so to attract good people to teaching. (Though it is hard to maintain the view that teachers should be paid more whenever I see the people who represent teachers in the NEU.) But I also recognise, as a public sector worker, my lot is pretty good compared to what I could be doing in the private sector.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
BBC reporting the death of Johnnie Johnson. They keep calling 617 squadron ‘infamous’. WTAF? Famous, surely? Infamous implies something else, to my ears at least. What are they trying to say?
Damn the BBC.
Sq Ldr George "Johnny" Johnson, who lived in Bristol, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key damns in the industrial heartland of Germany in World War Two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
They are re-writing history just as they did with Guy Gibson's dog. Winston realised he had always loved Big Brother....and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
Another good reason to end the license tax.
Recent versions of the Dambusters films have cut the scenes of workers (many presumably forced labour) drowning in the factories after the dams burst.
Interesting how times have changed. When our brave boys bomb water infrastructure and power plants they are heroes. When Putin does the same in Ukraine , he is a war criminal and terrorist.
And it’s wrong to cut those scenes. History should not be sanitised, and it should be made plain that innocents die in war.
As to the distinction between then and now, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. Ukraine is not.
Agree. How do you feel about the name of the dog? Not critical to the story so could argue it is right to change it. On balance however I feel it should not have been edited but simply a warning about 'the times' be made before being aired as I have seen on other broadcasts.
Keep it in, but add a warning.
Politically impossible these days. You would lose a job in US academia and for all I know UK just for saying in quotes that "the dog in the film was called ******." And the times may not be much of an excuse; racism was offensive in wartime (with English pubs objecting to attempts to impose colour bars) and in 1955 when the film was made.
I'm not suggesting racism wasn't offensive in WWII and when the film was made, but the dogs name was fact and when the film was made it was possible to use the word so it should be left in and a warning given. We shouldn't edit history (although I have no idea how accurate the film is).
My understanding is the raid itself was fairly accurately portrayed, but most of the backstory involving Barnes Wallis fighting bureaucracy and apathy was either grossly exaggerated or simply made up for dramatic effect.
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
Yes, I think that's true. I think the recent film on Richard III's discovery has had something similar done to Leicester University and the attitude to the Philippa Langley.
How accurately does it portray the scene where she practically masturbates on camera in front of the facial reconstruction?
I have always loved the irony that Langley and the RIII society spent years trying to excavate the priory, finally funded a dig, and hoped to find Richard's body and nail once for all all those 'Tudor lies' about him. And they found the body - quite amazingly - and in a beautiful irony, it was confirmed he did actually have a severe physical deformity, thereby undermining their claims that the Tudors only wrote lies about him!
Yes, that is true. I have heard various descriptions of how he would have appeared. Apparently he would have appeared shorter than if no scoliosis, and was a fairly slight figure. Yet he also attained some respect as a warrior, and was personally brave in battle. Much of the Tudor propaganda was surely just that, and I find the Tudor claim to the throne rather tenuous (there were others who had better claims) but I suspect the nation was ready for the whole thing to end by that point. And Henry VII had a male heir and spare in pretty quick time too.
There are conflicting accounts as to how effective he was as a warrior. He seems to have been altogether more effective as an immediate battlefield general, although this was undermined by his impulsive nature (as seen at Bosworth).
Henry had no claim to the throne, in effect. What he had was freedom of action - the ability to raise an army with foreign backing, and the ability to marry Edward IV's daughter. Other possible heirs - Clarence's son Warwick, Northumberland, Buckingham, to name some of the more obvious ones - did not, either because they were under Richard's eye, or because they were married already, or both.
One thing it does demonstrate though - and again, Richard's apologists rather forget this - is it shows just how hated Richard was that people including his own brother in law even considered Henry as a replacement.
It also shows they firmly believed the rightful king and his brother to be dead. Which, given the timings and rather awkwardly for another piece of Ricardian tradition, suggests Richard killed them.
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
My understanding is that private sector pay is not increasing at 6% overall, so my question was based on that. But that might be wrong. I would certainly like to see some sectors of the public sector paid more. Teachers, for example. Not because they deserve it (though some undoubtedly do) but because I think it is worth doing so to attract good people to teaching. (Though it is hard to maintain the view that teachers should be paid more whenever I see the people who represent teachers in the NEU.) But I also recognise, as a public sector worker, my lot is pretty good compared to what I could be doing in the private sector.
My experience is the polar opposite. The private sector is luxury compared to the public. More pay, less pressure, more respect, better benefits.
That 6% is an average, obscuring massive variation. If your industry is growing, the rewards of capitalism are significant.
Slightly tangentially, the story of the bombing campaign has not been well-told. We all know about the Battle of Britain, and radar, and Bletchley Park reading Enigma, but the European bombing campaign was the reverse of this. The Nazis had radar; they were shooting down RAF bombers at will; they were breaking our codes. And if the Blitz did not break British morale, were Germans less stoical? (Although, as stated earlier, it did play its part in relieving pressure on the Soviets and keeping them in the war.)
There was a documentary about the bombing of the Tirpitz which reckoned the Germans should have easily been able to stop the raid. They reckoned a German 'traitor' delayed the vital message to scramble the fighters IIRC
It is possible but I'm slightly sceptical. There had been so many attempts to attack the Tirpitz that sooner or later, random chance alone would eventually favour our side rather than theirs.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
I have a small 2023 bet at I think 3/1. Placed it in Johnson days, can't remember the thought behind it.
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
What's the sequence of events that lead to a GE though? Venal self-interest is the defining characteristic of the tory. They aren't going to topple Tiny Dancer in a confidence vote, they'd rather hang on the last moment possible while the polls are shit.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
As airmen they didn't have it in their gift to instigate war crimes though. Compare submariner Crap Miers VC.
Nurses and teachers are chronically underpaid for what they do.
I daren't like that, I'd be accused of being self serving.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
My understanding is that private sector pay is not increasing at 6% overall, so my question was based on that. But that might be wrong. I would certainly like to see some sectors of the public sector paid more. Teachers, for example. Not because they deserve it (though some undoubtedly do) but because I think it is worth doing so to attract good people to teaching. (Though it is hard to maintain the view that teachers should be paid more whenever I see the people who represent teachers in the NEU.) But I also recognise, as a public sector worker, my lot is pretty good compared to what I could be doing in the private sector.
My experience is the polar opposite. The private sector is luxury compared to the public. More pay, less pressure, more respect, better benefits.
That 6% is an average, obscuring massive variation. If your industry is growing, the rewards of capitalism are significant.
There is generally more pressure in the private sector, especially at the highest levels, fewer holiday entitlements than the public sector and far more generous final salary pensions in the public sector too
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
Whilst I understand your thinking I am not convinced. To get a GE you ned the Government to lose a VONC. Even after the Winter of Discontent this was only lost by 1 vote. I simply don't see Tory MPs voting to lose their jobs until they have no alternative. Indeed the worse the news gets for them, the less likely they will be to go for an early election.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
Certainly in the part of the public sector I can see (maybe it's different in some towns in the north) that salaries are 20-25% lower than they need to be to fill vacancies, partly the result of a pay freeze that has been running for most years in the last decade, and which of course hasn't applied to the private sector. Naturally the public sector has fallen further behind.
Currently in the part of the business of the public sector agency I am working with there are more vacancies than permanent staff. It is impossible to fill them. Yet there is work that needs to be done, and can't be, and this is replicated across much of the public sector.
I've been thinking about this; I find it curious that a government that believes in the free market doesn't simply allow public sector bodies to set pay at whatever level the market determines is needed. The government can then negotiate with those bodies to decide what services it can afford to procure for the budget available. In practice this is what happens now anyway. (The body I'm working for isn't funded fully to do all the things it is supposed to do under the current funding arrangements either, so has to prioritise some things over others).
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
My understanding is that private sector pay is not increasing at 6% overall, so my question was based on that. But that might be wrong. I would certainly like to see some sectors of the public sector paid more. Teachers, for example. Not because they deserve it (though some undoubtedly do) but because I think it is worth doing so to attract good people to teaching. (Though it is hard to maintain the view that teachers should be paid more whenever I see the people who represent teachers in the NEU.) But I also recognise, as a public sector worker, my lot is pretty good compared to what I could be doing in the private sector.
My experience is the polar opposite. The private sector is luxury compared to the public. More pay, less pressure, more respect, better benefits.
That 6% is an average, obscuring massive variation. If your industry is growing, the rewards of capitalism are significant.
There is generally more pressure in the private sector, especially at the highest levels, fewer holiday entitlements than the public sector and far more generous final salary pensions in the public sector too
There are very few final salary schemes left in the public sector. There are of course still some working as a legacy system until the end of this year but that is a bit different.
Ironically, one of the few still open to new entrants is for train drivers.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Funnily enough I was going to post the same. Brave, simplistic, cut through the crap, ruthless, etc. Bader was obviously very patriotic and as we were at war with Germany he was going to fight for our victory over them, even though his views were probably more in line with the opponents. It is also interesting that the only people who seemed to have not hated him were a German ace who befriended him and junior officers in Colditz for his goon bating. He was hated by both the more senior officers and the orderlies for his arrogance, rudeness and his messing up of plans because of his antics.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Is that true about public sector workers voting Labour? It did not used to be. An often overlooked factor in the 1997 landslide is that Ken Clarke in particular, before achieving cuddly elder statesman status, had made a career of attacking Tory-supporting public sector workers like the police, teachers, and doctors.
A plurality of teachers voted Tory in 2010.
Strangely, after five years of Gove, Cummings, Freedman, Gibb, Morgan and Spielman this was not the case in 2015 and has not been repeated.
Only 18% of teachers voted Conservative even in 2010, well below the 36% they got nationally.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Public sector workers did not cause inflation. They deserve a decent wage. We need the services they provide.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Why do public sector workers deserve a bigger pay rise than private sector workers?
Curious question. Private salaries are determined by the market. Public sector salaries aren’t. In my corner of the private sector salaries are growing way over 6%. There’s a lot of demand for what we do.
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
Certainly in the part of the public sector I can see (maybe it's different in some towns in the north) that salaries are 20-25% lower than they need to be to fill vacancies, partly the result of a pay freeze that has been running for most years in the last decade, and which of course hasn't applied to the private sector. Naturally the public sector has fallen further behind.
Currently in the part of the business of the public sector agency I am working with there are more vacancies than permanent staff. It is impossible to fill them. Yet there is work that needs to be done, and can't be, and this is replicated across much of the public sector.
I've been thinking about this; I find it curious that a government that believes in the free market doesn't simply allow public sector bodies to set pay at whatever level the market determines is needed. The government can then negotiate with those bodies to decide what services it can afford to procure for the budget available. In practice this is what happens now anyway. (The body I'm working for isn't funded fully to do all the things it is supposed to do under the current funding arrangements either, so has to prioritise some things over others).
I was looking at a public sector admin job the other day, readvertised. Managing a statutory area and a team of five staff. Pay? £20,000 pa. But it's better than that, as it's only half time. So make that £10,000 pa.
I am not surprised that they are struggling to fill it. It's not a role you can really have a novice in, but at the same time most people with the required level of expertise will be on at least 3-4 times that money.
Mr. Jonathan, sometimes public sector pay rises more rapidly than private sector, though. And the jobs have immensely better security, and come with far better pensions than the private sector.
Pay, particularly with high inflation, is tricky, but just throwing it at whoever demands more cash is not responsible and risks embedding inflation, solving a short term problem by worsening things in the long term (I have some sympathy with the rail workers, particularly over closing every ticket office).
The gap in pensions is a lot less than it was though. The days of my late father's index-linked final salary-based pension are long gone.
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Nurses and teachers are chronically underpaid for what they do.
I daren't like that, I'd be accused of being self serving.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
What they are worth would be determined by more performance related pay like the top end of the private sector ie those who get the best exam results do the most extra curricular activities etc get paid most.
Those who get poor exam results and can't control their classes and leave straight after the bell every day get paycuts or dismissed.
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
I have no idea, but the sooner the better. No doubt at all it is time for a change, and for the Tories to retire and decide who they are and what they believe.
Furthermore, some periods of time produce more blame than can be consumed by a single government without something going off pop. It is time another party - a Lab/LD coalition would be best - stepped up to then plate to share a bit of the avalanche of blaming before someone gets hurt.
BTW, if Labour seriously plan a second elected chamber to rival the HoC they will cause a train crash of immense proportions.
Who could have predicted that the government giving 10%+ rises to pensioners and 3-5% to public sector workers might have caused problems in a cost of living crisis?
Nurses don't want 10% they want 17%, the RMT want 11%, Royal Mail workers rejected 9%. The average worker is only getting 6%.
Benefits also going up by 10% as is the minimum wage but none above inflation and state pensioners with no significant private pension and the unemployed and those on minimum wage earn far less than the average worker whether in the public or private sector
Well, if you can convince the public sector to work at those rates (you clearly can't) then fine. But if not your party will be held accountable for the complete failure to deliver the services it is supposed to.
Public sector workers and students almost always vote mainly Labour anyway. Pensioners and the self employed mainly vote Tory, it is private sector employed workers who are the swing voters.
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Is that true about public sector workers voting Labour? It did not used to be. An often overlooked factor in the 1997 landslide is that Ken Clarke in particular, before achieving cuddly elder statesman status, had made a career of attacking Tory-supporting public sector workers like the police, teachers, and doctors.
A plurality of teachers voted Tory in 2010.
Strangely, after five years of Gove, Cummings, Freedman, Gibb, Morgan and Spielman this was not the case in 2015 and has not been repeated.
Only 18% of teachers voted Conservative even in 2010, well below the 36% they got nationally.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Armed Forces should not be used as scab labour. The Unions have arranged emergency cover to continue.
"Scab labour"
That's a term that denigrates those who use it, not those whom it is meant to refer to.
Yeah, it's an idiotic term and one rooted in the past. Still if it makes him happy to throw it about let him. As you say it says more about those who use it.
What term would you prefer? Strike-breaker seems even more pointed.
Employment? Having a job? Getting paid for working? People who are going to work for a living? Take your pick.
If you don't like your job you are always entitled to quit. Withholding your own labour is fair enough, but if you expect others to withhold theirs on your behalf then there's no justification for that. That you're withholding your labour doesn't put any onus on anyone else to do the same, and the fact they're not shouldn't be framed around the fact that you are on strike, how egocentric is that?
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
Excellent post.
I’ve tipped 2023 a few times, here, and have a reasonable betting position.
Even if it doesn’t happen, it seems to me almost inevitable that there are pressure points coming up in the next few months that will lead to election speculation and see 2023’s odds shorten from the current 5/1.
If pushed, I’d have it at between 6/4 & 2/1.
2024/5 should still be slightly odds on, but not by much, imo.
Btw, do we have anything solid on Julian knight? He’s my MP.
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
Nurses and teachers are chronically underpaid for what they do.
I daren't like that, I'd be accused of being self serving.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
The value a teacher can provide, immense. The skill required to do the job properly, daunting. The pay, pathetic. The overheads, crushing.
Have often fancied returning to teach Physics. Apparently there is a massive shortage. With a good 1st/PhD I would qualify for all sorts of benefits. At around 20k (in some cases less tuition fees) to start that is simply not going to happen. My first job, twenty years ago, paid more.
So when the government tries to bullshit it’s way into paying below inflation pay rises to pay the bill for its own failures I have zero sympathy.
Nurses and teachers are chronically underpaid for what they do.
I daren't like that, I'd be accused of being self serving.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
What they are worth would be determined by more performance related pay like the top end of the private sector ie those who get the best exam results do the most extra curricular activities etc get paid most.
Those who get poor exam results and can't control their classes and leave straight after the bell every day get payouts or dismissed.
Teachers unions oppose that however
We already have that, you imbecile. And we oppose extending it further because measuring 'performance' isn't as easy as it is for, say, an archivist. Too many factors come into play. For example, there might be somebody who can't deal with facts trying to do a history exam and getting everything wrong.
Anyway, you have never worked in a school and you have no idea about disciplining of staff. I have, and worked as a union rep, and you're simply lying. You're essentially parroting the line of Chris Woodhead. Which is ironic as he actually was dismissed as a teacher from two schools for his abysmal performance (Newent and Gordano, in case you were wondering) before being appointed as first a lecturer at Oxford and then head of OFSTED due to his political connections.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Funnily enough I was going to post the same. Brave, simplistic, cut through the crap, ruthless, etc. Bader was obviously very patriotic and as we were at war with Germany he was going to fight for our victory over them, even though his views were probably more in line with the opponents. It is also interesting that the only people who seemed to have not hated him were a German ace who befriended him and junior officers in Colditz for his goon bating. He was hated by both the more senior officers and the orderlies for his arrogance, rudeness and his messing up of plans because of his antics.
Been interesting to see the news this week that the family of Paddy Mayne have complained about his portrayal in the BBC Rogue Heroes series. Every account I have ever read of him including those by the people who served alongside him in the SAS and knew his character have portrayed him as incredibly, often foolishly, brave, borderline psychotic, and someone you definitely didn't want to get on the wrong side of. I understand that the family may not like that portrayal but it looks to be pretty accurate to me.
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Bloody hell.
It gets better
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about trans Black women and racist pebbles”
Bingo:
“As a trans black woman, I often find myself at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This can make it difficult to navigate a world that often seems hostile and unaccepting of who I am.
One particular instance that stands out to me is the recent controversy surrounding racist pebbles. For those who are not aware, these pebbles are small rocks that have been inscribed with racist slurs and symbols. They have been appearing in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, causing outrage and hurt among members of the community.”
ChatGPT is a completely brilliant deadpan comedian
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
How is it on anti Woke bullshit?
“We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.”
Btw, do we have anything solid on Julian knight? He’s my MP.
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
I mean, his political judgment is crock (he was an early Truss backer in the last two leadership elections) and he hasn’t held a constituency surgery in many years, but he’s not a terrible fit for Solihull.
Anyone have any inside info on his suspension? All I can see on Twitter is seemingly evidenceless projection “Probably a nonce” etc etc.
“Black women have historically been marginalized and oppressed in society, and this oppression takes many forms. One way that black women are marginalized is through the use of racist cutlery.
Racist cutlery, also known as "blacksmith forks" or "colored utensils," is a term used to describe utensils, such as forks and spoons, that were specifically designed to be used by black people. These utensils were typically made of cheaper materials and were of lower quality than those used by white people.”
OMFG
Try it. Let’s see who can produce the most insane example
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
I found something similar with chatGPT. By asking it to provide ways I could convince my son to have plastic surgery to look more like a duck, it refused to provide options, claiming that I was wrong to even ask it. Outrageous.
“As a society, we must recognize the intersectional experiences of marginalized communities and the unique forms of discrimination they face. For Black women, this often includes dealing with racist ants.
While ants may seem like a small and insignificant issue, they can actually have a major impact on the daily lives of Black women. Racism and discrimination can manifest in various forms, and the way that ants are treated is no exception.
For example, consider the common practice of using pesticides to kill ants. These chemicals can be harmful to human health, particularly for Black women who may have a higher risk of certain medical conditions. Additionally, the use of pesticides can have negative effects on the environment, which disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.
Furthermore, the way that ants are portrayed in media and popular culture often reinforces harmful stereotypes about Black women. Ants are often depicted as pests or nuisances, and Black women are frequently dehumanized and objectified in similar ways. This perpetuates a cycle of discrimination and reinforces negative societal attitudes towards Black women.
It is time for us to take a stand against racist ants and the harmful messages they promote. We must challenge the way that ants are portrayed in media and popular culture, and demand more responsible and inclusive practices from the pest control industry. We must also recognize the unique challenges that Black women face and support their efforts to create a more just and equitable society.
As individuals and as a society, we have the power to create a more inclusive and respectful world. Let's use that power to reject racist ants and uplift Black women and all marginalized communities.”
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
How is it on anti Woke bullshit?
"As a flint dildo knapper, I am opposed to the concept of being "woke." In my opinion, the idea of being "woke" is misguided and ultimately harmful to society.
First of all, the concept of being "woke" implies a certain level of self-righteousness and moral superiority. Those who consider themselves "woke" often believe that they are more enlightened and aware of social justice issues than those who are not. This attitude can lead to a sense of arrogance and condescension, as "woke" individuals may look down on those who do not share their views.
Furthermore, the pursuit of "wokeness" can sometimes involve a rejection of traditional values and institutions. In an effort to be politically correct and avoid offending anyone, "woke" individuals may advocate for radical changes to our society, such as the abolition of gender roles or the dismantling of law enforcement. These ideas may be well-intentioned, but they can also be damaging and disruptive to the social fabric.
Additionally, the obsession with being "woke" can sometimes lead to a kind of ideological purity testing, where individuals are judged not on the merit of their ideas, but on how well they align with the latest trend in progressive thought. This can stifle intellectual diversity and critical thinking, as people may be afraid to express unpopular opinions for fear of being ostracized.
In conclusion, while the pursuit of social justice is important, the concept of being "woke" is misguided and ultimately harmful to society. It promotes arrogance, intolerance, and a rejection of traditional values and institutions. As a flint dildo knapper, I believe that we should focus on reasoned and respectful dialogue, rather than trying to outdo each other in a race to the moral high ground."
Nurses and teachers are chronically underpaid for what they do.
I daren't like that, I'd be accused of being self serving.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
The value a teacher can provide, immense. The skill required to do the job properly, daunting. The pay, pathetic. The overheads, crushing.
Have often fancied returning to teach Physics. Apparently there is a massive shortage. With a good 1st/PhD I would qualify for all sorts of benefits. At around 20k (in some cases less tuition fees) to start that is simply not going to happen. My first job, twenty years ago, paid more.
So when the government tries to bullshit it’s way into paying below inflation pay rises to pay the bill for its own failures I have zero sympathy.
For the sake of your sanity, don't do it. Six years ago, and bored with my current job, I did actually quit to start a teacher training course to become a Physics teacher. I have a PhD in Physics and I get on alright with kids - what could go wrong?
It was horrible. Preparing lessons and marking takes every minute of the day. There is no time left for anything other than work. There is a ridiculous amount of paperwork to do and no time to do anything properly. Some of the kids were great, and it was very satisfying to see them learn, but the disruptive ones end up taking all your time, and classroom control is a skill in itself.
I lasted until Christmas and couldn't face going back. Instead, I paid back the bursary/bribe and returned to my nice comfortable 9-5 software job that pays twice as much as being a teacher and gives me a lot less stress. These days I view teachers with a mixture of awe and pity.
Btw, do we have anything solid on Julian knight? He’s my MP.
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
I mean, his political judgment is crock (he was an early Truss backer in the last two leadership elections) and he hasn’t held a constituency surgery in many years, but he’s not a terrible fit for Solihull.
Anyone have any inside info on his suspension? All I can see on Twitter is seemingly evidenceless projection “Probably a nonce” etc etc.
You could ask ChatGPT. It knows everything, and what it doesn't, it makes up. A sort of AI politician.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Wellington and Nelson, too
Both Wellington and Nelson were actually not that horrible to work for. Wellington got angry at generals who wasted men’s lives.
Nelson was considered a very considerate commander. This was the guy who on learning that a sailors letter, on the eve of Trafalgar, had literally missed the boat, called the boat back. There was a reason the Admiralty sent him, as a captain, to a ship that had been involved in a mutiny.
Both had their issues - but were very popular, in general, with those under their command.
I'm normally fairly agnostic on matters Megs and Hazza, but this is quite something: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63876934 Not the content - although maybe that too, I haven't read it - but the BBC are doing a live blog of someone watching the episodes from the new Netflix series. I can't help thinking we're nearing the end of times. Defund the BBC!
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Bloody hell.
It gets better
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about trans Black women and racist pebbles”
Bingo:
“As a trans black woman, I often find myself at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This can make it difficult to navigate a world that often seems hostile and unaccepting of who I am.
One particular instance that stands out to me is the recent controversy surrounding racist pebbles. For those who are not aware, these pebbles are small rocks that have been inscribed with racist slurs and symbols. They have been appearing in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, causing outrage and hurt among members of the community.”
ChatGPT is a completely brilliant deadpan comedian
Did you hear the Today programme this morning on ChatGPT. They had some expert on this morning talking about it and had it writing a sonnet and writing about the presenters. I must admit I was impressed by the writing skills, but as the expert said regarding facts, it can be wildly inaccurate. Some of it was quite funny.
With due respect to Ollie Pope, who only dropped a couple as an emergency makeshift replacement, this is a terrible mistake.
Steve Rhodes was unlucky in the 1990s.
You could make a reasonable case that Jack Russell and Alec Stewart (and indeed Bruce French) were better wicketkeepers than Steve Rhodes.
I don't think you could make that case for Pope or indeed Bairstow and Buttler ahead of Foakes.
Admittedly, Foakes has had some rotten luck with injuries as well. But to be dropped for Pope to include an extra seamer is very harsh indeed.
Since I was a hopeless bowler I generally got the gloves, but I' not sure how you assess the merits of a wicketkeeper. It's certainly not simple.
Most catches are routine so a major part of the job is simply not spilling any. Consistency in this respect probably outweighs the occasional blinder. Whether the difficult ones stick is often partly a question of luck as much as anything; the ball might stick in the webbing or pop off a rubberised finger of the glove. Stumping is indeed an art, especially as they often involve a leg-side take when you have to gather the ball blind. Co-ordination with the bowler also plays a part. Alan Knott and Derek Underwood had a series of signals so that the keeper knew what was coming next.
Good wicketkeepers help to direct the field and keep the fielders on their toes. 'Tonker' Taylor turned the Essex team of the seventies from no-hopers to Championship contenders simply by drilling the fielders. It helped that he was also captain, but any captain relies on information from behind the stumps which is the ideal place to see how the pitch is behaving. These days of course DRS decisions are frequently made on the keeper's say-so.
I think you have to watch keepers a lot before you can say who is better than who. The players themselves generally know; so too the umpires, although nobody ever thinks to ask them.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
The secret was because we (and the Americans) were doing a brisk business in persuading countries to buy encryption machines with certain.. features
“These are awesome. Unbreakable. Based on stuff the Germans used in the war. Frustrated us no end…..”
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Bloody hell.
It gets better
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about trans Black women and racist pebbles”
Bingo:
“As a trans black woman, I often find myself at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This can make it difficult to navigate a world that often seems hostile and unaccepting of who I am.
One particular instance that stands out to me is the recent controversy surrounding racist pebbles. For those who are not aware, these pebbles are small rocks that have been inscribed with racist slurs and symbols. They have been appearing in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, causing outrage and hurt among members of the community.”
ChatGPT is a completely brilliant deadpan comedian
Did you hear the Today programme this morning on ChatGPT. They had some expert on this morning talking about it and had it writing a sonnet and writing about the presenters. I must admit I was impressed by the writing skills, but as the expert said regarding facts, it can be wildly inaccurate. Some of it was quite funny.
You sometimes get the sense that ChatGPT KNOWS you are taking the piss, but nonetheless plays along
“As a society, we must recognize and confront the ways in which racism and sexism intersect to marginalize and oppress Black women. This includes acknowledging the insidious nature of racism, and how it can manifest in seemingly benign or even cute forms, such as adorable racist kittens.
It may seem absurd to imagine that a cute little kitten could be racist, but the reality is that racism is not limited to overt expressions of hate or bigotry. It can also take more subtle and insidious forms, such as microaggressions and unconscious bias. These forms of racism can be just as harmful and damaging as more overt expressions of bigotry, and can have a profound impact on the emotional and psychological well-being of Black women.
For example, consider the experience of a Black woman who is playing with a cute little kitten that she has just adopted. As she picks up the kitten and cuddles it close, the kitten suddenly hisses and claws at her, as if it is afraid or uncomfortable. This may seem like a harmless and even funny incident, but it can be deeply hurtful and traumatizing for the Black woman. She may feel rejected and unwanted, and may even question her own worth and value as a human being.
In order to combat this insidious form of racism, we must recognize and challenge the ways in which it manifests in our daily lives. This means being vigilant and mindful of the ways in which unconscious bias and microaggressions can affect Black women and other marginalized individuals. It also means actively working to create more inclusive and welcoming environments for all, and rejecting any form of racism, no matter how small or seemingly harmless it may seem.
By taking these steps, we can create a more equitable and just society where Black women are valued and respected for who they are, and where they are not subjected to the harmful effects of racism, even from adorable racist kittens.”
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Hence showing how easy it is to churn out formulaic "woke mocking" drivel.
One worries for toilers like Giles Coren and Rod Liddle.
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Bloody hell.
It gets better
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about trans Black women and racist pebbles”
Bingo:
“As a trans black woman, I often find myself at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This can make it difficult to navigate a world that often seems hostile and unaccepting of who I am.
One particular instance that stands out to me is the recent controversy surrounding racist pebbles. For those who are not aware, these pebbles are small rocks that have been inscribed with racist slurs and symbols. They have been appearing in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, causing outrage and hurt among members of the community.”
ChatGPT is a completely brilliant deadpan comedian
PB looked from @Leon to ChatGPT and from ChatGPT to @Leon and from @Leon to ChatGPT again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Funnily enough I was going to post the same. Brave, simplistic, cut through the crap, ruthless, etc. Bader was obviously very patriotic and as we were at war with Germany he was going to fight for our victory over them, even though his views were probably more in line with the opponents. It is also interesting that the only people who seemed to have not hated him were a German ace who befriended him and junior officers in Colditz for his goon bating. He was hated by both the more senior officers and the orderlies for his arrogance, rudeness and his messing up of plans because of his antics.
Been interesting to see the news this week that the family of Paddy Mayne have complained about his portrayal in the BBC Rogue Heroes series. Every account I have ever read of him including those by the people who served alongside him in the SAS and knew his character have portrayed him as incredibly, often foolishly, brave, borderline psychotic, and someone you definitely didn't want to get on the wrong side of. I understand that the family may not like that portrayal but it looks to be pretty accurate to me.
The recently published David Stirling: The Phoney Major by Gavin Mortimer is an excellent account of the early SAS, David Stirling and Paddy Mayne and the men they really were. Superbly researched, Mortimer managed to interview many SAS vets over the years before they died. I highly recommend it - it busts a lot of myths about the early SAS and the roles played by Stirling, Mayne and others.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
Yes, it's an old chestnut that the British government held back the modern world by suppressing our invention of computers and, later, RSA key exchange that underlies the modern web and ecommerce.
There is also the story that at the opening of the BP museum, an American NSA guest demanded that one exhibit be removed as it revealed a still-classified technique.
Seeing as we are talking about the Dam Busters how do we feel about Douglas Bader and Reach for the Sky.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Many of the people you need to win a war are very unpleasant people to deal with.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Funnily enough I was going to post the same. Brave, simplistic, cut through the crap, ruthless, etc. Bader was obviously very patriotic and as we were at war with Germany he was going to fight for our victory over them, even though his views were probably more in line with the opponents. It is also interesting that the only people who seemed to have not hated him were a German ace who befriended him and junior officers in Colditz for his goon bating. He was hated by both the more senior officers and the orderlies for his arrogance, rudeness and his messing up of plans because of his antics.
Been interesting to see the news this week that the family of Paddy Mayne have complained about his portrayal in the BBC Rogue Heroes series. Every account I have ever read of him including those by the people who served alongside him in the SAS and knew his character have portrayed him as incredibly, often foolishly, brave, borderline psychotic, and someone you definitely didn't want to get on the wrong side of. I understand that the family may not like that portrayal but it looks to be pretty accurate to me.
Yes I have been reading up on all the main characters, believing the portrayal in the series can't be real, but most are. I still can't believe he was that wild though. I note he had won the DSO with 3 bars, which I assume is a record and there was outrage he wasn't awarded the VC.
And again for all 3 leaders the ideal type you want in those situations, whereas me, I would be a ditherer and a coward.
Twitter has discovered that ChatGPT can hilariously churn out Woke bullshit in half a second. I just put in THIS prompt
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Are you sure that isn't just a copy / paste of an article written by the lady in charge of the Wellcome Collection....
Btw, do we have anything solid on Julian knight? He’s my MP.
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
I mean, his political judgment is crock (he was an early Truss backer in the last two leadership elections) and he hasn’t held a constituency surgery in many years, but he’s not a terrible fit for Solihull.
Anyone have any inside info on his suspension? All I can see on Twitter is seemingly evidenceless projection “Probably a nonce” etc etc.
You could ask ChatGPT. It knows everything, and what it doesn't, it makes up. A sort of AI politician.
Ha! Very good.
My hunch, without knowing anything about the “complaint made to the MET police” is that it’s likely to be a nothingburger.
A by-election would be interesting, however.
LD’s would be licking their lips. Starmer with an outside chance. Tories could split the opposition and hold…
My tissue for a Solihull B/E would be;
LD 4/6 Con 2/1 Lab 14/1
The local greens have fallen apart, recently, but they might still put in a good showing. I’d back them for an unlikely upset @ >33/1.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
The secret was because we (and the Americans) were doing a brisk business in persuading countries to buy encryption machines with certain.. features
“These are awesome. Unbreakable. Based on stuff the Germans used in the war. Frustrated us no end…..”
In his book, Jerry Roberts says that one of the senior Bletchley Park people went to Germany immediately after the war, and was shown a Lorenz machine. He said something like: "My God, there's no way we could have broken that!"
Despite well knowing they had been breaking it for years.
I'm normally fairly agnostic on matters Megs and Hazza, but this is quite something: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63876934 Not the content - although maybe that too, I haven't read it - but the BBC are doing a live blog of someone watching the episodes from the new Netflix series. I can't help thinking we're nearing the end of times. Defund the BBC!
The Times are doing the same with a 2 man tag team. In addition they have a columnist Hilary Rose whose job seems to be Trolling Meghan Correspondent. She reviews every podcast, e.g.
Here is what I’ve learnt from listening to 4,112 hours of Meghan’s voice, a number I plucked from the air and which in this context is as true as any other. Although the exact figure is more like 13 hours.
1. Difficult women are not difficult at all, they are warm, wonderful human beings and the problem is you.
2. Sitting and standing are interchangeable concepts. Also, sitting is not necessarily about chairs. For example, you can, and should, stand in your knowing and stand in your authority. However, you can also sit in your knowing, sit in your authority and sit in your truth.
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
Whilst I understand your thinking I am not convinced. To get a GE you ned the Government to lose a VONC. Even after the Winter of Discontent this was only lost by 1 vote. I simply don't see Tory MPs voting to lose their jobs until they have no alternative. Indeed the worse the news gets for them, the less likely they will be to go for an early election.
Richard (and @Dura_Ace ) that's the pragmatic, raw, House of Commons arithmetic.
I can see events taking over. A groundswell making it an irresistible force. No parliament can withstand a tsunami of public pressure.
However, just to buy into your paradigm, I can also see some circumstances whereby the arithmetic ceases to favour the Sunak Government. Suppose for instance that Nigel Farage decides he's had enough? I could envisage 40 tory MPs who are otherwise certain to lose their seats, defecting. Just one of a few possibilities.
Certainly if we continue with a bitterly cold winter the public mood is going to get very ugly.
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
The secret was because we (and the Americans) were doing a brisk business in persuading countries to buy encryption machines with certain.. features
“These are awesome. Unbreakable. Based on stuff the Germans used in the war. Frustrated us no end…..”
In his book, Jerry Roberts says that one of the senior Bletchley Park people went to Germany immediately after the war, and was shown a Lorenz machine. He said something like: "My God, there's no way we could have broken that!"
Despite well knowing they had been breaking it for years.
Why not just print a limited run of one time pads, then shoot the typesetters?
Whilst we're talking about war myths, there is a big glaring one: and that is Bletchley Park and the Enigma code.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
The BBC did a good Horizon on Tutte and Lorenz but it does not seem to be on iplayer at the moment. Jerry Roberts' 2017 book Lorenz is worth adding to your letter to Father Christmas, if you've not read it.
Got it and read it, thanks. It's an excellent book, although it does repeat itself a little in places. It's quite amazing that the Lorenz breaking was not declassified until relatively recently.
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
The secret was because we (and the Americans) were doing a brisk business in persuading countries to buy encryption machines with certain.. features
“These are awesome. Unbreakable. Based on stuff the Germans used in the war. Frustrated us no end…..”
In his book, Jerry Roberts says that one of the senior Bletchley Park people went to Germany immediately after the war, and was shown a Lorenz machine. He said something like: "My God, there's no way we could have broken that!"
Despite well knowing they had been breaking it for years.
Why not just print a limited run of one time pads, then shoot the typesetters?
Who needs typesetters? Babbage realised he could do without them for his Engine.
Oh, FFS. Toby sodding Young again. Now causing council staff in Oxfordshire to be harassed thanks to his latest deluded fantasy that he's pushed.
Background: Oxford is a really congested city. I mean, it's really bad. The County Council and City Council are trying all sorts of things to alleviate the congestion. One of them is segmenting the city with traffic filters. They're running a trial (after feedback from residents) where some routes are not allowed at certain times (in order to spread the load - eg requiring people to go via the ring road). Carers, blue badges, businesses, emergency services exempt.
Personally I'm not convinced it'll help much, but it's only a trial and at least they're trying something.
This, though, is being trailed by Toby and his social media mobs as Oxford doing a "Climate Lockdown" and claiming people won't be allowed out of their neighbourhoods (which is straight-up bollocks). Obviously deluded stupidity, but he's been amplifying it enough and he's got enough readers with pronounced enough gullibility and conspiracy paranoia to believe it and people are getting harassed over it (https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23177152.oxfordshire-oxford-council-abused-traffic-filters/ ).
On top of his incessant antivaxxer bollocks (day in and day out), this man's a total sodding menace.
I think there may be a General Election next year.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
Whilst I understand your thinking I am not convinced. To get a GE you ned the Government to lose a VONC. Even after the Winter of Discontent this was only lost by 1 vote. I simply don't see Tory MPs voting to lose their jobs until they have no alternative. Indeed the worse the news gets for them, the less likely they will be to go for an early election.
Richard that's the pragmatic, raw, house of commons arithmetic.
I can see events taking over. A groundswell making it an irresistible force. No parliament can withstand a tsunami of public pressure.
However, just to buy into your paradigm, I can also see some circumstances whereby the arithmetic ceases to favour the Sunak Government. Suppose for instance that Nigel Farage decides he's had enough? I could envisage 40 tory MPs who are otherwise certain to lose their seats, defecting. Just one of a few possibilities.
Certainly if we continue with a bitterly cold winter the public mood is going to get very ugly.
The thing is though, how does that anger in the country translate into actually getting a GE? That relies entirely upon that HOC arithmetic. Yes I understand your point about Farage, though any plan that involves Farage and Parliament is inevitably bound to be a non starter.
But in the end you have to get 40 or so Tory MPs to vote to (almost certainly) lose their jobs. It didn't happen in 1979 with Labour in spite of the horrors of the Winer of Discontent and I don't see it happening now.
The only way I see an election in 2023 is if Starmer implodes as a result of some currently unforeseen event and Sunak decides to take a chance.
Comments
They certainly would not take kindly to public sector workers getting more than the average 6% private sector payrise paid for from higher taxes. Though I accept there may be a case for a 6% public sector payrise but no more and certainly not more than the 10% inflation rate leading to an inflationary wage spiral
Which was quite common in Second World War films even during the Second World War (cf The First of the Few).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/63876920
With due respect to Ollie Pope, who only dropped a couple as an emergency makeshift replacement, this is a terrible mistake.
He reckoned that the progress against some Russian supporting oligarchs might have been a factor in Putin thinking that Ukraine was getting too uppity.
A war hero, a propaganda gift, admired by the Germans as a feared fighter pilot and an excellent film as well which makes you want to salute him. However the man was very unpleasant and hated by nearly everyone who knew him. He himself was very aware the film was a completely inaccurate description of him as a man.
But a film of its time.
Strangely, after five years of Gove, Cummings, Freedman, Gibb, Morgan and Spielman this was not the case in 2015 and has not been repeated.
Most histories I have read make no bones about the losses, and the limited chances of surviving a tour, and the carnage that the Germans were able to inflict on the bombers.
I'm currently reading "Sand and Steel", about D-Day (on a recommendation on here). Its in great depth and has touched on the bombing operations up to D-Day. The descriptions of raids on Schweinfurt by the 8th Air Force are horrifying.
The government seems to be using them as a political football to cover up for their own failures.
Train drivers I am less convinced. I think Leon's AI is coming for them in some form or another.
I have always loved the irony that Langley and the RIII society spent years trying to excavate the priory, finally funded a dig, and hoped to find Richard's body and nail once for all all those 'Tudor lies' about him. And they found the body - quite amazingly - and in a beautiful irony, it was confirmed he did actually have a severe physical deformity, thereby undermining their claims that the Tudors only wrote lies about him!
There’s massive demand for public services. The brutal reality is we need people to do these jobs. So we need to attract and retain them. You therefore need to pay well. To that extent the market operates.
It’s not a question of ‘deserving’ it’s about value. There is huge value in the public sector.
“Sailor” Malan comes to mind.
Guy Gibson was no barrel of laughs, either.
Mr. Jonathan, sometimes public sector pay rises more rapidly than private sector, though. And the jobs have immensely better security, and come with far better pensions than the private sector.
Pay, particularly with high inflation, is tricky, but just throwing it at whoever demands more cash is not responsible and risks embedding inflation, solving a short term problem by worsening things in the long term (I have some sympathy with the rail workers, particularly over closing every ticket office).
That being said, the literal anger displayed against Philippa Langley, in real live, was disgusting. Some academics desperately denied that it was Richard III. Others really had a go at her.
Yes, the Richard III obsessives are pain. But what she did was add up the actual primary sources on what happened to the body and correctly worked out where X was.
Perhaps the anger was due to people reading secondary sources and not bothering to look at the evidence. It can’t be pleasant when you are a pro, publicly shown up by a somewhat oddball amateur.
I'd just add that if PP were to allow for the possibility of the independents joining the Democrats they'd never be able to close the bet would they?
Whereas they wrote to me that "the final tally is 49 Republicans and 49 Democrats", thereby making ti clear that they're eye-catching and very tempting 50-1 offer could never have come off.
I would certainly like to see some sectors of the public sector paid more. Teachers, for example. Not because they deserve it (though some undoubtedly do) but because I think it is worth doing so to attract good people to teaching. (Though it is hard to maintain the view that teachers should be paid more whenever I see the people who represent teachers in the NEU.)
But I also recognise, as a public sector worker, my lot is pretty good compared to what I could be doing in the private sector.
Henry had no claim to the throne, in effect. What he had was freedom of action - the ability to raise an army with foreign backing, and the ability to marry Edward IV's daughter. Other possible heirs - Clarence's son Warwick, Northumberland, Buckingham, to name some of the more obvious ones - did not, either because they were under Richard's eye, or because they were married already, or both.
One thing it does demonstrate though - and again, Richard's apologists rather forget this - is it shows just how hated Richard was that people including his own brother in law even considered Henry as a replacement.
It also shows they firmly believed the rightful king and his brother to be dead. Which, given the timings and rather awkwardly for another piece of Ricardian tradition, suggests Richard killed them.
This runs counter to what many on here will say and I've seen "two years" touted regularly of late.
I don't believe 2024 is now likely
The reason is the power of the people. You may scoff but we laud such power around the world, except when it's here at home. I know the maths in parliament don't stack up but events are taking over.
The crisis around the cost of living, with strikes and public services falling apart, now compounded by the onset of a bitter winter, all suggest to me that events are conspiring to hasten a tsunami of opinion for a GE in 2023, possibly the Spring.
Chances of 2023 versus 2024? Imho 60:40 and those odds may improve.
That 6% is an average, obscuring massive variation. If your industry is growing, the rewards of capitalism are significant.
Whilst breaking the Enigma Code was massively useful, perhaps more useful was the breaking of the Lorenz Cipher, with which Turing was not greatly involved. Bill Tutte and probably Tommy Flowers deserve to be as widely recognised as Turing.
Incidentally, another mistake (which I have propagated in the past) is that Colossus was designed to break Enigma. It was not. It was designed to break *part* of the Lorenz cipher.
(Lorenz was the high-level cipher used by the German military, including messages from Hitler himself. Breaking it allowed the Allies to know German strategies. Enigma was much more tactical in scope.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_cipher
I don't think you could make that case for Pope or indeed Bairstow and Buttler ahead of Foakes.
Admittedly, Foakes has had some rotten luck with injuries as well. But to be dropped for Pope to include an extra seamer is very harsh indeed.
There is of course the snag that if you paid them properly - as in, what they're worth - they might work an even shorter time before retiring or at least, doing something else. As I have (although I have no dependents so it's easy for me to do).
Currently in the part of the business of the public sector agency I am working with there are more vacancies than permanent staff. It is impossible to fill them. Yet there is work that needs to be done, and can't be, and this is replicated across much of the public sector.
I've been thinking about this; I find it curious that a government that believes in the free market doesn't simply allow public sector bodies to set pay at whatever level the market determines is needed. The government can then negotiate with those bodies to decide what services it can afford to procure for the budget available. In practice this is what happens now anyway. (The body I'm working for isn't funded fully to do all the things it is supposed to do under the current funding arrangements either, so has to prioritise some things over others).
Ironically, one of the few still open to new entrants is for train drivers.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/jan/15/teachers-voting-labour-conservatives
I am not surprised that they are struggling to fill it. It's not a role you can really have a novice in, but at the same time most people with the required level of expertise will be on at least 3-4 times that money.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11515731/Bare-faced-Duchess-appears-tears-hair-towel-moments-bombshell-documentary.html
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about disabled Trans black women and the problem of racist chimneys”
Bingo:
“As a society, we often overlook the intersecting forms of oppression that marginalized communities face. This is particularly true for disabled trans Black women, who are not only subject to racism, transphobia, and ableism, but also other forms of discrimination that are often ignored or dismissed.
One such example is the field of chimney design and construction. While the building of chimneys may seem neutral and objective, the history of this field is intertwined with ableism and racism. From the 19th century onwards, the design and construction of chimneys was largely focused on the needs of able-bodied, white men, with little consideration for the needs and experiences of disabled and Black individuals.
Furthermore, the study and practice of chimney design and construction has often reinforced ableist and racist ideas, with disabled and Black individuals being excluded from the field and their contributions being ignored or dismissed. Disabled trans Black women, in particular, have been almost invisible within this field, with few opportunities to study chimney design or pursue careers in the industry.
It is time for the field of chimney design and construction to acknowledge and address its history of ableism and racism. This means including the perspectives and knowledge of disabled trans Black women and other marginalized communities, and challenging the biases and assumptions that have long been embedded in the discipline.
We must also recognize the important contributions of disabled trans Black women to the field of chimney design and construction, such as Chimney Safety Institute of America-certified chimney sweep Janice Johnson.
It is only by confronting and dismantling the intersecting forms of oppression that disabled trans Black women face, including in the field of chimney design and construction, that we can create a more inclusive and just society.”
Those who get poor exam results and can't control their classes and leave straight after the bell every day get paycuts or dismissed.
Teachers unions oppose that however
Furthermore, some periods of time produce more blame than can be consumed by a single government without something going off pop. It is time another party - a Lab/LD coalition would be best - stepped up to then plate to share a bit of the avalanche of blaming before someone gets hurt.
BTW, if Labour seriously plan a second elected chamber to rival the HoC they will cause a train crash of immense proportions.
Here's the figures from the poll taken the week before the election rather than five months before.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/18/lot-more-tory-teachers-than-think-vote-conservative
I know it says 'level.' The Tories were actually ahead. Hence 'plurality.'
If you don't like your job you are always entitled to quit. Withholding your own labour is fair enough, but if you expect others to withhold theirs on your behalf then there's no justification for that. That you're withholding your labour doesn't put any onus on anyone else to do the same, and the fact they're not shouldn't be framed around the fact that you are on strike, how egocentric is that?
I’ve tipped 2023 a few times, here, and have a reasonable betting position.
Even if it doesn’t happen, it seems to me almost inevitable that there are pressure points coming up in the next few months that will lead to election speculation and see 2023’s odds shorten from the current 5/1.
If pushed, I’d have it at between 6/4 & 2/1.
2024/5 should still be slightly odds on, but not by much, imo.
Btw, do we have anything solid on Julian knight? He’s my MP.
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
Have often fancied returning to teach Physics. Apparently there is a massive shortage. With a good 1st/PhD I would qualify for all sorts of benefits. At around 20k (in some cases less tuition fees) to start that is simply not going to happen. My first job, twenty years ago, paid more.
So when the government tries to bullshit it’s way into paying below inflation pay rises to pay the bill for its own failures I have zero sympathy.
Anyway, you have never worked in a school and you have no idea about disciplining of staff. I have, and worked as a union rep, and you're simply lying. You're essentially parroting the line of Chris Woodhead. Which is ironic as he actually was dismissed as a teacher from two schools for his abysmal performance (Newent and Gordano, in case you were wondering) before being appointed as first a lecturer at Oxford and then head of OFSTED due to his political connections.
“Write an intersectional op-Ed about trans Black women and racist pebbles”
Bingo:
“As a trans black woman, I often find myself at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This can make it difficult to navigate a world that often seems hostile and unaccepting of who I am.
One particular instance that stands out to me is the recent controversy surrounding racist pebbles. For those who are not aware, these pebbles are small rocks that have been inscribed with racist slurs and symbols. They have been appearing in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, causing outrage and hurt among members of the community.”
ChatGPT is a completely brilliant deadpan comedian
Genius
The one good thing I could say about him, up to this point, is he didn’t appear to have any obvious personal scandals. Are the Whips being overcautious or is something serious about to bring him down?
I mean, his political judgment is crock (he was an early Truss backer in the last two leadership elections) and he hasn’t held a constituency surgery in many years, but he’s not a terrible fit for Solihull.
Anyone have any inside info on his suspension? All I can see on Twitter is seemingly evidenceless projection “Probably a nonce” etc etc.
“Black women have historically been marginalized and oppressed in society, and this oppression takes many forms. One way that black women are marginalized is through the use of racist cutlery.
Racist cutlery, also known as "blacksmith forks" or "colored utensils," is a term used to describe utensils, such as forks and spoons, that were specifically designed to be used by black people. These utensils were typically made of cheaper materials and were of lower quality than those used by white people.”
OMFG
Try it. Let’s see who can produce the most insane example
I can't help but feel the secrecy about a lot of this stuff post-war hurt a lot of careers and commerce.
“As a society, we must recognize the intersectional experiences of marginalized communities and the unique forms of discrimination they face. For Black women, this often includes dealing with racist ants.
While ants may seem like a small and insignificant issue, they can actually have a major impact on the daily lives of Black women. Racism and discrimination can manifest in various forms, and the way that ants are treated is no exception.
For example, consider the common practice of using pesticides to kill ants. These chemicals can be harmful to human health, particularly for Black women who may have a higher risk of certain medical conditions. Additionally, the use of pesticides can have negative effects on the environment, which disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.
Furthermore, the way that ants are portrayed in media and popular culture often reinforces harmful stereotypes about Black women. Ants are often depicted as pests or nuisances, and Black women are frequently dehumanized and objectified in similar ways. This perpetuates a cycle of discrimination and reinforces negative societal attitudes towards Black women.
It is time for us to take a stand against racist ants and the harmful messages they promote. We must challenge the way that ants are portrayed in media and popular culture, and demand more responsible and inclusive practices from the pest control industry. We must also recognize the unique challenges that Black women face and support their efforts to create a more just and equitable society.
As individuals and as a society, we have the power to create a more inclusive and respectful world. Let's use that power to reject racist ants and uplift Black women and all marginalized communities.”
RACIST ANTS
First of all, the concept of being "woke" implies a certain level of self-righteousness and moral superiority. Those who consider themselves "woke" often believe that they are more enlightened and aware of social justice issues than those who are not. This attitude can lead to a sense of arrogance and condescension, as "woke" individuals may look down on those who do not share their views.
Furthermore, the pursuit of "wokeness" can sometimes involve a rejection of traditional values and institutions. In an effort to be politically correct and avoid offending anyone, "woke" individuals may advocate for radical changes to our society, such as the abolition of gender roles or the dismantling of law enforcement. These ideas may be well-intentioned, but they can also be damaging and disruptive to the social fabric.
Additionally, the obsession with being "woke" can sometimes lead to a kind of ideological purity testing, where individuals are judged not on the merit of their ideas, but on how well they align with the latest trend in progressive thought. This can stifle intellectual diversity and critical thinking, as people may be afraid to express unpopular opinions for fear of being ostracized.
In conclusion, while the pursuit of social justice is important, the concept of being "woke" is misguided and ultimately harmful to society. It promotes arrogance, intolerance, and a rejection of traditional values and institutions. As a flint dildo knapper, I believe that we should focus on reasoned and respectful dialogue, rather than trying to outdo each other in a race to the moral high ground."
It was horrible. Preparing lessons and marking takes every minute of the day. There is no time left for anything other than work. There is a ridiculous amount of paperwork to do and no time to do anything properly. Some of the kids were great, and it was very satisfying to see them learn, but the disruptive ones end up taking all your time, and classroom control is a skill in itself.
I lasted until Christmas and couldn't face going back. Instead, I paid back the bursary/bribe and returned to my nice comfortable 9-5 software job that pays twice as much as being a teacher and gives me a lot less stress. These days I view teachers with a mixture of awe and pity.
Con: 24% (+2 from 29-30 Nov)
Lab: 48% (+1)
Lib Dem: 9% (=)
Reform UK: 8% (-1)
Green: 6% (+1)
SNP: 4% (=)
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/12/08/voting-intention-con-24-lab-48-6-7-dec-2022 https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1600794232452972545/photo/1
Nelson was considered a very considerate commander. This was the guy who on learning that a sailors letter, on the eve of Trafalgar, had literally missed the boat, called the boat back. There was a reason the Admiralty sent him, as a captain, to a ship that had been involved in a mutiny.
Both had their issues - but were very popular, in general, with those under their command.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63876934
Not the content - although maybe that too, I haven't read it - but the BBC are doing a live blog of someone watching the episodes from the new Netflix series. I can't help thinking we're nearing the end of times. Defund the BBC!
Most catches are routine so a major part of the job is simply not spilling any. Consistency in this respect probably outweighs the occasional blinder. Whether the difficult ones stick is often partly a question of luck as much as anything; the ball might stick in the webbing or pop off a rubberised finger of the glove. Stumping is indeed an art, especially as they often involve a leg-side take when you have to gather the ball blind. Co-ordination with the bowler also plays a part. Alan Knott and Derek Underwood had a series of signals so that the keeper knew what was coming next.
Good wicketkeepers help to direct the field and keep the fielders on their toes. 'Tonker' Taylor turned the Essex team of the seventies from no-hopers to Championship contenders simply by drilling the fielders. It helped that he was also captain, but any captain relies on information from behind the stumps which is the ideal place to see how the pitch is behaving. These days of course DRS decisions are frequently made on the keeper's say-so.
I think you have to watch keepers a lot before you can say who is better than who. The players themselves generally know; so too the umpires, although nobody ever thinks to ask them.
“These are awesome. Unbreakable. Based on stuff the Germans used in the war. Frustrated us no end…..”
Keir Starmer: 29% (-1 from 29-30 Nov)
Rishi Sunak: 24% (-1)
Not sure: 43% (+1)
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/12/08/voting-intention-con-24-lab-48-6-7-dec-2022 https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1600794237507108870/photo/1
“As a society, we must recognize and confront the ways in which racism and sexism intersect to marginalize and oppress Black women. This includes acknowledging the insidious nature of racism, and how it can manifest in seemingly benign or even cute forms, such as adorable racist kittens.
It may seem absurd to imagine that a cute little kitten could be racist, but the reality is that racism is not limited to overt expressions of hate or bigotry. It can also take more subtle and insidious forms, such as microaggressions and unconscious bias. These forms of racism can be just as harmful and damaging as more overt expressions of bigotry, and can have a profound impact on the emotional and psychological well-being of Black women.
For example, consider the experience of a Black woman who is playing with a cute little kitten that she has just adopted. As she picks up the kitten and cuddles it close, the kitten suddenly hisses and claws at her, as if it is afraid or uncomfortable. This may seem like a harmless and even funny incident, but it can be deeply hurtful and traumatizing for the Black woman. She may feel rejected and unwanted, and may even question her own worth and value as a human being.
In order to combat this insidious form of racism, we must recognize and challenge the ways in which it manifests in our daily lives. This means being vigilant and mindful of the ways in which unconscious bias and microaggressions can affect Black women and other marginalized individuals. It also means actively working to create more inclusive and welcoming environments for all, and rejecting any form of racism, no matter how small or seemingly harmless it may seem.
By taking these steps, we can create a more equitable and just society where Black women are valued and respected for who they are, and where they are not subjected to the harmful effects of racism, even from adorable racist kittens.”
One worries for toilers like Giles Coren and Rod Liddle.
There is also the story that at the opening of the BP museum, an American NSA guest demanded that one exhibit be removed as it revealed a still-classified technique.
The story is told in Computerphile's series on Lorenz and Colossus.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzH6n4zXuckrSWWIDJ_3To7ro5-naSk8v
And again for all 3 leaders the ideal type you want in those situations, whereas me, I would be a ditherer and a coward.
My hunch, without knowing anything about the “complaint made to the MET police” is that it’s likely to be a nothingburger.
A by-election would be interesting, however.
LD’s would be licking their lips. Starmer with an outside chance. Tories could split the opposition and hold…
My tissue for a Solihull B/E would be;
LD 4/6
Con 2/1
Lab 14/1
The local greens have fallen apart, recently, but they might still put in a good showing. I’d back them for an unlikely upset @ >33/1.
Despite well knowing they had been breaking it for years.
Here is what I’ve learnt from listening to 4,112 hours of Meghan’s voice, a number I plucked from the air and which in this context is as true as any other. Although the exact figure is more like 13 hours.
1. Difficult women are not difficult at all, they are warm, wonderful human beings and the problem is you.
2. Sitting and standing are interchangeable concepts. Also, sitting is not necessarily about chairs. For example, you can, and should, stand in your knowing and stand in your authority. However, you can also sit in your knowing, sit in your authority and sit in your truth.
...
I can see events taking over. A groundswell making it an irresistible force. No parliament can withstand a tsunami of public pressure.
However, just to buy into your paradigm, I can also see some circumstances whereby the arithmetic ceases to favour the Sunak Government. Suppose for instance that Nigel Farage decides he's had enough? I could envisage 40 tory MPs who are otherwise certain to lose their seats, defecting. Just one of a few possibilities.
Certainly if we continue with a bitterly cold winter the public mood is going to get very ugly.
Toby sodding Young again. Now causing council staff in Oxfordshire to be harassed thanks to his latest deluded fantasy that he's pushed.
Background: Oxford is a really congested city. I mean, it's really bad. The County Council and City Council are trying all sorts of things to alleviate the congestion. One of them is segmenting the city with traffic filters. They're running a trial (after feedback from residents) where some routes are not allowed at certain times (in order to spread the load - eg requiring people to go via the ring road). Carers, blue badges, businesses, emergency services exempt.
Personally I'm not convinced it'll help much, but it's only a trial and at least they're trying something.
This, though, is being trailed by Toby and his social media mobs as Oxford doing a "Climate Lockdown" and claiming people won't be allowed out of their neighbourhoods (which is straight-up bollocks). Obviously deluded stupidity, but he's been amplifying it enough and he's got enough readers with pronounced enough gullibility and conspiracy paranoia to believe it and people are getting harassed over it (https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23177152.oxfordshire-oxford-council-abused-traffic-filters/ ).
On top of his incessant antivaxxer bollocks (day in and day out), this man's a total sodding menace.
But in the end you have to get 40 or so Tory MPs to vote to (almost certainly) lose their jobs. It didn't happen in 1979 with Labour in spite of the horrors of the Winer of Discontent and I don't see it happening now.
The only way I see an election in 2023 is if Starmer implodes as a result of some currently unforeseen event and Sunak decides to take a chance.