I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Any and all suggestions welcome
Check out 'Bad People' on BBC sounds - more psychology, but links to experimental evidence too.
I started off enjoying Bad People and Julia Shaw was clearly favoured by god in the looks and brains she was given however it just started to descend into conversations where her podcast partner seemed to be more interested in Dr Shaw and her own lesbian/bisexual tendencies and lost its way.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
Someone who has actively chosen not to use public services is not someone I would trust to fund or manage those services effectively. You are free to be more trusting/gullible if you like.
Then your list of candidates for PM must be very short indeed, as I can't imagine there are many people that take full advantage of all the public services that the state provides.
That's not what I said. I'm not going to not vote for someone who hasn't used the probation service, for instance. But someone who has school aged kids and doesn't use state schools, or who has private health insurance so they don't rely on the NHS, do I believe they are fully invested in making those services as good as they can be? No, absolutely not. They're not getting my vote.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
Someone who has actively chosen not to use public services is not someone I would trust to fund or manage those services effectively. You are free to be more trusting/gullible if you like.
Then your list of candidates for PM must be very short indeed, as I can't imagine there are many people that take full advantage of all the public services that the state provides.
That's not what I said. I'm not going to not vote for someone who hasn't used the probation service, for instance. But someone who has school aged kids and doesn't use state schools, or who has private health insurance so they don't rely on the NHS, do I believe they are fully invested in making those services as good as they can be? No, absolutely not. They're not getting my vote.
But how can you be sure they are fully invested in making the justice system work, or the army?
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
Surely the ECML is fast enough already. The problem isn't the time, it is the capacity.
I know the section from Doncaster to Leeds isn't exactly full speed, but it isn't _that_ bad.
But it is DONCASTER.
Or Doncatraz as it is known locally due to all the prisons nearby.
I understood 'Doncatraz' to refer to the central prison as it is on an island in the River Don (sometimes literally when the access road floods). Admittedly there are a lot of facilities on the old RAF base at Lindholme but they are pretty rural and well out of the 'city'.
Doncaster station isn't quite as bad on that front as Wakefield station, which literally overlooks the prison (with its famous Mulberry 'Bush', now sadly cut down).
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
The NE Seabed disaster linked to dredging of the freeport has the potential to sink Sunak; not the original disaster but the apparent refusal to halt work whilst independent investigations are carried out and seemingly, deliberate misdirection from DEFRA.
Disaster? Is there a story we all missed?
1-2 centuries' accumulated toxins in Tees estuary sediment dredged up and dumped offshore - mass mortality of marine life. Fishing industry and conservationists and anglers very, very unhappy, ditto tourist industry.
Teesians looking enviously at other water systems that only have sewage to deal with.
Wait for the promised freeport developements to start elsewhere.
I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Any and all suggestions welcome
I’d recommend Sean Gabb’s videos on ancient history.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Not all fats are the same - how the body reacts to and deals with fats is important. How many unsaturated bonds? Are they cis or trans (stop sniggering at the back, Carmichael)? Are there other components added (colour molecules)?
Butter, derived from cows, is a superb food source. Turns baby calves into great big cows (or at least starts them off).
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
Someone who has actively chosen not to use public services is not someone I would trust to fund or manage those services effectively. You are free to be more trusting/gullible if you like.
Then your list of candidates for PM must be very short indeed, as I can't imagine there are many people that take full advantage of all the public services that the state provides.
That's not what I said. I'm not going to not vote for someone who hasn't used the probation service, for instance. But someone who has school aged kids and doesn't use state schools, or who has private health insurance so they don't rely on the NHS, do I believe they are fully invested in making those services as good as they can be? No, absolutely not. They're not getting my vote.
But how can you be sure they are fully invested in making the justice system work, or the army?
Well if it transpired that they had a bolthole on New Zealand they were planning to fly to in the event the UK were attacked I probably wouldn't trust them on the army either. Otherwise, they're as dependent on our forces as the rest of us are. At the end of the day, a politician who doesn't use public services thinks they're not good enough for them, but that they'll do for the rest of us, and rather than trying to improve them they're simply choosing to opt out. You might trust people like that, I don't.
Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre
For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary
Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc
Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”
Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.
Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.
I never had any doubt it would be huge. The British Royal Family is the most popular and widely watched real life soap opera in the world. It dwarfs anything else. It even has its own TV spin off, The Crown, which is itself probably the most watched TV programme in the world
““The Crown” Season 5 has taken the throne on this week’s Netflix Top 10’s English TV chart as the No. 1 show over the Nov. 7-13 viewing window. According to the streamer’s figures, the show’s fifth season was viewed for 107.39 million hours following its premiere on Nov. 9, and is in the Top 10 in 88 countries.
In addition, the show also reached No. 1 in 37 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, and France
The Royal Family should not worry too much. With this sort of interest their future is assured for many decades
The time they need to worry is when The Crown has only 7 viewers and a book by a British Prince only reaches number 1,629 on the Amazon “memoirs by British toffs” sub list
And within 20 years, the beloved King William and Queen Catherine will be on the throne, although the adulterers in the rear view mirror.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Bizarre/stupid post.
"I have seen something change and therefore I will make up a reason based on nothing whatsoever."
I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Any and all suggestions welcome
I don't listen to podcasts but my wife does, and like you was obsessed with the Battersea Poltergeist. Her current favourite is You Must Remember This, which is about golden age Hollywood.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Not all fats are the same - how the body reacts to and deals with fats is important. How many unsaturated bonds? Are they cis or trans (stop sniggering at the back, Carmichael)? Are there other components added (colour molecules)?
Butter, derived from cows, is a superb food source. Turns baby calves into great big cows (or at least starts them off).
Vegetable oil is derived from vegetables, which animals including humans seem to eat with few ill effects. Margarine doesn't have hydrogenated and trans fats in them anymore as far as I know, or at least Flora doesn't. Weren't they the bad ones?
I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Any and all suggestions welcome
I’d recommend Sean Gabb’s videos on ancient history.
Seconded. Very good indeed.
Also for podcasts, Battleground Ukraine with Saul David and Patrick Bishop. Really interesting and well informed with lots of interesting guests.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Well, if the trains are on strike, you’d not want to spend six hours in a car doing the trip.
Trains on strike? Is Thomas the ringleader?
They tried that, over working conditions, in one of my kids' books, though I think it was James, Gordon and Henry (or maybe Edward). Edward (or maybe Henry) and Thomas and Percy were willing scabs and the Fat Controller broke the strike, leading the strikers to apologise and return to work with no improvement in working conditions.
The man (toff in a top hat) sticking it to the working man train in young children's books; lessons learned for life.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
Surely the ECML is fast enough already. The problem isn't the time, it is the capacity.
I know the section from Doncaster to Leeds isn't exactly full speed, but it isn't _that_ bad.
But it is DONCASTER.
Or Doncatraz as it is known locally due to all the prisons nearby.
I understood 'Doncatraz' to refer to the central prison as it is on an island in the River Don (sometimes literally when the access road floods). Admittedly there are a lot of facilities on the old RAF base at Lindholme but they are pretty rural and well out of the 'city'.
Doncaster station isn't quite as bad on that front as Wakefield station, which literally overlooks the prison (with its famous Mulberry 'Bush', now sadly cut down).
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Not all fats are the same - how the body reacts to and deals with fats is important. How many unsaturated bonds? Are they cis or trans (stop sniggering at the back, Carmichael)? Are there other components added (colour molecules)?
Butter, derived from cows, is a superb food source. Turns baby calves into great big cows (or at least starts them off).
Most sources of medical information on the internet seem to be in two minds on butter. On the one hand, it is a good source of various vitamins and nutrients; on the other hand its saturated fat content may contribute to heart disease.
As is often the case, a little of what you like, in moderation, seems to be the best idea.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
My wife is part of a long term study on cholesterol as her family has a genetic history of producing large amounts of it. One of the interesting points that the doctors running the study make is that there is very little evidence that dietary cholesterol plays much of a part in increasing risk factors for heart attacks and strokes and that it is primarily abnormal amounts of cholesterol produced naturally by the body which are the main issue.
I have no idea of the veracity of this, all I know is that these are the people running the study so I assume they have some evidence for this.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre
For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary
Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc
Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”
Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.
Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.
Oh don't talk twaddle. My own family have had all the things you mention and more - over generations. There are books and books which could be filled with all the tales we have to tell in our family. The fact that the RF is full of entitled spoilt brats, distant parents, emotional neglect and even cruelty - let alone drugs, sex and the rest - is something we've known about for ages, since at least the time of Victoria. Harry is just the latest iteration of it.
Though whining about not having a large enough room in one of the many Palaces your family own does have more than a whiff of Wilde's comment on the death of Little Nell about it.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Not all fats are the same - how the body reacts to and deals with fats is important. How many unsaturated bonds? Are they cis or trans (stop sniggering at the back, Carmichael)? Are there other components added (colour molecules)?
Butter, derived from cows, is a superb food source. Turns baby calves into great big cows (or at least starts them off).
Most sources of medical information on the internet seem to be in two minds on butter. On the one hand, it is a good source of various vitamins and nutrients; on the other hand its saturated fat content may contribute to heart disease.
As is often the case, a little of what you like, in moderation, seems to be the best idea.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Because of the hydrogenation and presence of trans fats. It's a hydrocarbon. I'm not even sure it's a food.
I just love this long lecture on edible oils vs. traditional fats by Sally Fallon Morell from the Weston A Price Foundation - you may hate it, or sinply have no interest in it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
Surely the ECML is fast enough already. The problem isn't the time, it is the capacity.
I know the section from Doncaster to Leeds isn't exactly full speed, but it isn't _that_ bad.
But it is DONCASTER.
Or Doncatraz as it is known locally due to all the prisons nearby.
I understood 'Doncatraz' to refer to the central prison as it is on an island in the River Don (sometimes literally when the access road floods). Admittedly there are a lot of facilities on the old RAF base at Lindholme but they are pretty rural and well out of the 'city'.
Doncaster station isn't quite as bad on that front as Wakefield station, which literally overlooks the prison (with its famous Mulberry 'Bush', now sadly cut down).
A former girlfriend's granny lived in the shadow of the prison, in the 80's when we used to visit her. She came over to nurse in the Great War and stayed. In her 90's, she'd still scoot off to the local shop when we appeared, coming back with arms full of cakes and biscuits.
She came over from County Wicklow. Despite being surrounded by the broadest Yorkshire accents you could wish to find, her delightful Wicklow lilt had not altered one jot in 70 years.
Ah Doncaster, I used to visit occasionally on my trips up to Hull.
A place where dreams and spirits die.
It's better than it used to be. I grew up round there and the smell from the glue factory - "Prosper De Mulders" - when the wind blew strong from the East is in my pores to this day. They say smell is the most emotional of senses and they're not wrong.
I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Any and all suggestions welcome
There's a podcast on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork.
One aspect that might interest you in particular is that Sophie was said to have seen a ghost at Three Castle Head on the day before her death.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
I have to say, I don't find (current or former) Tory voters who regret ditching Boris.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
I have to say, I don't find (current or former) Tory voters who regret ditching Boris.
Well most of the 5 to 10% now voting RefUK voted Tory under Boris
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
When Boris was removed last June the Tories were polling higher than now
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Because of the hydrogenation and presence of trans fats. It's a hydrocarbon. I'm not even sure it's a food.
I just love this long lecture on edible oils vs. traditional fats by Sally Fallon Morell from the Weston A Price Foundation - you may hate it, or sinply have no interest in it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
Hmmm. Olive oil is a hydrocarbon, with a very little oxygen (but so does any other triglyceride). So that's not an argument.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
It's an hour from City to Leeds Bradford, and he's got the journey from the airport at the other end to deal with. 2h10 from KGX to Leeds (centre).
I don't really buy that ~1 hour *in which can happily be working on the train* is worth the money and the emissions.
Perhaps I watch too much TV, but, given the hostility towards politicians and this government at the moment, if I was in charge of the PM's security I'd be dammed unhappy about them taking a train.
I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open
Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese
No politics please, I get an ample share of that here
Where is George Gibney? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08njhrm is also good - less for the attempts to find the man - but more for listening to the voices of his victims.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Because of the hydrogenation and presence of trans fats. It's a hydrocarbon. I'm not even sure it's a food.
I just love this long lecture on edible oils vs. traditional fats by Sally Fallon Morell from the Weston A Price Foundation - you may hate it, or sinply have no interest in it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
Flora doesn't contain any hydrogenated oil/trans fats so is presumably okay?
Ah Doncaster, I used to visit occasionally on my trips up to Hull.
A place where dreams and spirits die.
It's better than it used to be. I grew up round there and the smell from the glue factory - "Prosper De Mulders" - when the wind blew strong from the East is in my pores to this day. They say smell is the most emotional of senses and they're not wrong.
De Mulders is still going, if now under the name of SARIA, although it didn't just make glue.
It also made BSE (allegedly) as it produces cattle feed from rendered meat and bones. The company had a near monopoly of that process.
NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️
Rishi is useless.
Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
It's an hour from City to Leeds Bradford, and he's got the journey from the airport at the other end to deal with. 2h10 from KGX to Leeds (centre).
I don't really buy that ~1 hour *in which can happily be working on the train* is worth the money and the emissions.
Perhaps I watch too much TV, but, given the hostility towards politicians and this government at the moment, if I was in charge of the PM's security I'd be dammed unhappy about them taking a train.
IIRC the security angle stuffs up nearly every attempt to use normal travel for politicians. So you get a convoy of vehicles surrounding politician x on his bike, for example - several European leaders end up in this situation.
Nixon was the last US president to try and travel on commercial air. Which caused hideous delays for everyone else.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
When Boris was removed last June the Tories were polling higher than now
"Boris" and the sycophantic clowns he surrounded himself with are the originating causation of the polling. He trashed the brand. It will take a significant period of opposition for that brand to be restored. You should stop trying to apologise for him, he was an utter long term disaster.
Ah Doncaster, I used to visit occasionally on my trips up to Hull.
A place where dreams and spirits die.
It's better than it used to be. I grew up round there and the smell from the glue factory - "Prosper De Mulders" - when the wind blew strong from the East is in my pores to this day. They say smell is the most emotional of senses and they're not wrong.
De Mulders is still going, if now under the name of SARIA, although it didn't just make glue.
It also made BSE (allegedly) as it produces cattle feed from rendered meat and bones. The company had a near monopoly of that process.
But not the stink I very much hope? Some modern Regs must surely have stopped that.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
When Boris was removed last June the Tories were polling higher than now
"Boris" and the sycophantic clowns he surrounded himself with are the originating causation of the polling. He trashed the brand. It will take a significant period of opposition for that brand to be restored. You should stop trying to apologise for him, he was an utter long term disaster.
And this one. Boris Johnson “earned” more in an HOUR from his non-MP speeches (while supposedly representing the good people of his constituency) than a nurse does in a whole YEAR https://twitter.com/nazirafzal/status/1612046468243750914
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
I have to say, I don't find (current or former) Tory voters who regret ditching Boris.
Well most of the 5 to 10% now voting RefUK voted Tory under Boris
REFUK would be a good name to describe what happens to the Tories if they are stupid enough to bring back The Clown.
I've already started looking at the prices for a boat to outrun customs....
Oh good. We can have a war on cigarettes to add to the pointless war on drugs.
Well, it would be very unfair on the drug dealers to leave them stuck after Mary Jane is legalised.
IIRC in a couple of American detective shows, the plot has centred on Big Tobacco swapping knowledge and crops with the cartels - the cartels are looking to tobacco as the future of illegal drugs and the Big Tobacco guys are swapping into weed.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
Why? It's just vegetable oil and water.
Because of the hydrogenation and presence of trans fats. It's a hydrocarbon. I'm not even sure it's a food.
I just love this long lecture on edible oils vs. traditional fats by Sally Fallon Morell from the Weston A Price Foundation - you may hate it, or sinply have no interest in it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
Flora doesn't contain any hydrogenated oil/trans fats so is presumably okay?
It's about 0.5% rather than zero is my understanding.
Ah Doncaster, I used to visit occasionally on my trips up to Hull.
A place where dreams and spirits die.
It's better than it used to be. I grew up round there and the smell from the glue factory - "Prosper De Mulders" - when the wind blew strong from the East is in my pores to this day. They say smell is the most emotional of senses and they're not wrong.
De Mulders is still going, if now under the name of SARIA, although it didn't just make glue.
It also made BSE (allegedly) as it produces cattle feed from rendered meat and bones. The company had a near monopoly of that process.
But not the stink I very much hope? Some modern Regs must surely have stopped that.
Maybe not as bad as it used to be, but it certainly isn't whiff free under the wrong conditions.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No. I'm one of the 35% who think the Tories were wrong to remove Boris (for strictly electoral reasons). But I'm not a potential Tory voter, Boris or no Boris. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Yes, in ditching the Bloviating Blob the Tories acted totally out of character by putting country above party. Sort of.
Statement of Support for Art Professor Fired from Hamline University https://www.mpac.org/statement/statement-of-support-for-art-professor-fired-from-hamline-university/ It is with great concern that the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) views the firing of an art professor, Erika López Prater, from Hamline University on the grounds of showing a fourteenth-century painting depicting the Prophet Muḥammad. We issue this statement of support for the professor and urge the university to reverse its decision and to take compensatory action to ameliorate the situation.
News sources report that the matter reached the university administration after a Muslim student complained to them about the professor showing the image in class. Subsequently, undergraduate students at the university received an email from the administration declaring the incident to be “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.” Because the professor was hired as an adjunct, her contract was not renewed and she was effectively fired.
As a Muslim organization, we recognize the validity and ubiquity of an Islamic viewpoint that discourages or forbids any depictions of the Prophet, especially if done in a distasteful or disrespectful manner. However, we also recognize the historical reality that other viewpoints have existed and that there have been some Muslims, including and especially Shīʿī Muslims, who have felt no qualms in pictorially representing the Prophet (although often veiling his face out of respect). All this is a testament to the great internal diversity within the Islamic tradition, which should be celebrated.
This, it seems, was the exact point that Dr. Prater was trying to convey to her students. She empathetically prepared them in advance for the image, which was part of an optional exercise and prefaced with a content warning. “I am showing you this image for a reason,” stressed the professor:
There is this common thinking that Islam completely forbids, outright, any figurative depictions or any depictions of holy personages. While many Islamic cultures do strongly frown on this practice, I would like to remind you there is no one, monothetic Islamic culture.
The painting was not Islamophobic. In fact, it was commissioned by a fourteenth-century Muslim king in order to honor the Prophet, depicting the first Quranic revelation from the angel Gabriel.
Even if it is the case that many Muslims feel uncomfortable with such depictions, Dr. Prater was trying to emphasize a key principle of religious literacy: religions are not monolithic in nature, but rather, internally diverse. This principle should be appreciated in order to combat Islamophobia, which is often premised on flattening out Islam and viewing the Islamic tradition in an essentialist and reductionist manner. The professor should be thanked for her role in educating students, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, and for doing so in a critically empathetic manner...
Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre
For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary
Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc
Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”
Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.
Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.
Oh don't talk twaddle. My own family have had all the things you mention and more - over generations. There are books and books which could be filled with all the tales we have to tell in our family. The fact that the RF is full of entitled spoilt brats, distant parents, emotional neglect and even cruelty - let alone drugs, sex and the rest - is something we've known about for ages, since at least the time of Victoria. Harry is just the latest iteration of it.
Though whining about not having a large enough room in one of the many Palaces your family own does have more than a whiff of Wilde's comment on the death of Little Nell about it.
“Poor little rich kids” is my response to Harry and Meghan’s “woes.”
They lead lives of unimaginable privilege, compared to 99.99% of the rest of the world.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Absolutely no way that banning an addictive drug will lead to illegal activity, is there?
If we legalised and regulated drugs, we could defund some really extraordinary arseholes. Just for a start.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Statement of Support for Art Professor Fired from Hamline University https://www.mpac.org/statement/statement-of-support-for-art-professor-fired-from-hamline-university/ It is with great concern that the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) views the firing of an art professor, Erika López Prater, from Hamline University on the grounds of showing a fourteenth-century painting depicting the Prophet Muḥammad. We issue this statement of support for the professor and urge the university to reverse its decision and to take compensatory action to ameliorate the situation.
News sources report that the matter reached the university administration after a Muslim student complained to them about the professor showing the image in class. Subsequently, undergraduate students at the university received an email from the administration declaring the incident to be “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.” Because the professor was hired as an adjunct, her contract was not renewed and she was effectively fired.
As a Muslim organization, we recognize the validity and ubiquity of an Islamic viewpoint that discourages or forbids any depictions of the Prophet, especially if done in a distasteful or disrespectful manner. However, we also recognize the historical reality that other viewpoints have existed and that there have been some Muslims, including and especially Shīʿī Muslims, who have felt no qualms in pictorially representing the Prophet (although often veiling his face out of respect). All this is a testament to the great internal diversity within the Islamic tradition, which should be celebrated.
This, it seems, was the exact point that Dr. Prater was trying to convey to her students. She empathetically prepared them in advance for the image, which was part of an optional exercise and prefaced with a content warning. “I am showing you this image for a reason,” stressed the professor:
There is this common thinking that Islam completely forbids, outright, any figurative depictions or any depictions of holy personages. While many Islamic cultures do strongly frown on this practice, I would like to remind you there is no one, monothetic Islamic culture.
The painting was not Islamophobic. In fact, it was commissioned by a fourteenth-century Muslim king in order to honor the Prophet, depicting the first Quranic revelation from the angel Gabriel.
Even if it is the case that many Muslims feel uncomfortable with such depictions, Dr. Prater was trying to emphasize a key principle of religious literacy: religions are not monolithic in nature, but rather, internally diverse. This principle should be appreciated in order to combat Islamophobia, which is often premised on flattening out Islam and viewing the Islamic tradition in an essentialist and reductionist manner. The professor should be thanked for her role in educating students, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, and for doing so in a critically empathetic manner...
Yes.
I am reminded of the rather Byzantine styled triptych that someone I know bought at a little shop outside a major mosque in Tehran.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Incidentally, can I recommend Ken Burns' latest documentary "The US and the Holocaust" on BBC4.
It is more wide-ranging than the title suggests, starting with attitudes to immigration in the 19th and early 20th century and how they changed, the influence of eugenics - a harmful pseudo science that nonetheless captured the attention of many influential people - and much else besides. The echoes in our time are unmistakeable.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Absolutely no way that banning an addictive drug will lead to illegal activity, is there?
If we legalised and regulated drugs, we could defund some really extraordinary arseholes. Just for a start.
Yes. Two things seem obvious to me. It's best that illegal drugs are legalised, so that their content can be regulated, they can be taxed and the drugs gangs are defunded, and that as few people take the drugs as possible, to reduce the harmful health effects.
This also implies that if we could develop similar drugs with fewer harmful side effects then we'd be on to a winner, but there seems to be a puritanical reluctance for such research.
35% of voters is more than the less than 30% now voting Tory
But non-Tory voters might have all sorts of reasons for their response, and are hardly likely to switch to the Tories now if they didn't back them in 2019.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
The key statistic is that under Boris the Tories were polling higher in June 2019 than they are now under Sunak and were under Truss.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
No, because the world has changed since June 2019:
- the abject s**tshow and melodrama that the Conservatives have inflicted upon us since;
- the growing realisation that Brexit is snake oil that was sold to us on a package of lies;
- the economic catastrophe that has since then crept up on so many ordinary people's lives.
If you think that voters could ever return to the mindset of June 2019, should your hero the lying discredited clown return to the big chair, then you are even more stupid than most PB'ers already think.
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Wait until they realise how much tax revenue they’ll lose, when cars with engines are banned.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
My wife is part of a long term study on cholesterol as her family has a genetic history of producing large amounts of it. One of the interesting points that the doctors running the study make is that there is very little evidence that dietary cholesterol plays much of a part in increasing risk factors for heart attacks and strokes and that it is primarily abnormal amounts of cholesterol produced naturally by the body which are the main issue.
I have no idea of the veracity of this, all I know is that these are the people running the study so I assume they have some evidence for this.
Many many moons ago I had a medical and found cholesterol level was 11.8, statins brought it to normal levels and various consultants have said that no change of diet could fix levels like that.
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Wait until they realise how much tax revenue they’ll lose, when cars with engines are banned.
They will just tax electric cars , for charging , using road and any other thing they can make up so they get the same amount of cash.
Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.
So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:
- The resurgence in the popularity of butter - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Like everything in health, its complicated.
My wife is part of a long term study on cholesterol as her family has a genetic history of producing large amounts of it. One of the interesting points that the doctors running the study make is that there is very little evidence that dietary cholesterol plays much of a part in increasing risk factors for heart attacks and strokes and that it is primarily abnormal amounts of cholesterol produced naturally by the body which are the main issue.
I have no idea of the veracity of this, all I know is that these are the people running the study so I assume they have some evidence for this.
Many many moons ago I had a medical and found cholesterol level was 11.8, statins brought it to normal levels and various consultants have said that no change of diet could fix levels like that.
Much to my annoyance I have a reverse problem. I have yearly medicals for working offshore and general health checkups and this year my Q score (chance of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years) has just slipped over 10. This is the boundary at which they say they want to put me on Statins. But my cholesterol is nice and healthy and normal and the reason I have gone over 10 is my weight and my age - both of which feed into the score. So putting me on statins is pointless. I have an aversion to taking unnecessary medicines but it now means I keep getting letters from the GPs saying they want me to start them.
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Wait until they realise how much tax revenue they’ll lose, when cars with engines are banned.
They will just tax electric cars , for charging , using road and any other thing they can make up so they get the same amount of cash.
Why would they tax pensioners ability to move around in their new cars when they could simply increase National Insurance on young workers instead?
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Wait until they realise how much tax revenue they’ll lose, when cars with engines are banned.
They will just tax electric cars , for charging , using road and any other thing they can make up so they get the same amount of cash.
They are way ahead of you. VED was already announced for electric vehicles by Hunt in the last budget.
Yep. Tick from me. Only way I'll kick the wretched addiction. And if not a total ban I like the NZ age ratchet. Either way JFDI. There is zero downside.
Prohibition waves hello.
I view it as abolishing slavery. Just super good all round.
Incidentally, can I recommend Ken Burns' latest documentary "The US and the Holocaust" on BBC4.
It is more wide-ranging than the title suggests, starting with attitudes to immigration in the 19th and early 20th century and how they changed, the influence of eugenics - a harmful pseudo science that nonetheless captured the attention of many influential people - and much else besides. The echoes in our time are unmistakeable.
Yes, I started watching that last night. A real eye opener.
Cigarettes are both amazingly price inelastic and completely uneccessary from a wider PoV. So the current solution of taxing them through the nose is correct. A ban would lose lots of tax revenue.
Wait until they realise how much tax revenue they’ll lose, when cars with engines are banned.
They will just tax electric cars , for charging , using road and any other thing they can make up so they get the same amount of cash.
Why would they tax pensioners ability to move around in their new cars when they could simply increase National Insurance on young workers instead?
Comments
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64189824.amp
it was just driving examiners yesterday.
2h10 from KGX to Leeds (centre).
I don't really buy that ~1 hour *in which can happily be working on the train* is worth the money and the emissions.
They broke the NHS, and won't admit if he skips the queues.
They’re out of touch, and out of time.
https://twitter.com/LouHaigh/status/1612799219827351552
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1612786109288939520?s=20&t=5-gAmB4NCBAfNt-FNRbQ_A
Right 51% (+4)
Wrong 35% (-2)
Don't know 14% (-2)
Changes +/- 21 Oct (when Truss was PM)
55% of 2019 Conservative voters believe it was the wrong decision. https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1612798969565814786/photo/1
Doncaster station isn't quite as bad on that front as Wakefield station, which literally overlooks the prison (with its famous Mulberry 'Bush', now sadly cut down).
I’d recommend Sean Gabb’s videos on ancient history.
Butter, derived from cows, is a superb food source. Turns baby calves into great big cows (or at least starts them off).
At the end of the day, a politician who doesn't use public services thinks they're not good enough for them, but that they'll do for the rest of us, and rather than trying to improve them they're simply choosing to opt out. You might trust people like that, I don't.
"I have seen something change and therefore I will make up a reason based on nothing whatsoever."
As cranky as the conspiracy theorists.
A place where dreams and spirits die.
The key statistic is that only just over half of former Tory voters think it was the wrong decision, and that the number is falling - i.e. absence isn't making them fonder
Also for podcasts, Battleground Ukraine with Saul David and Patrick Bishop. Really interesting and well informed with lots of interesting guests.
The man (toff in a top hat) sticking it to the working man train in young children's books; lessons learned for life.
ETA: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Fat_Controller.html?id=ggCsHwAACAAJ
https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/people/a-mulberry-bush-said-to-have-inspired-a-famous-childrens-rhyme-is-replanted-in-wakefield-prison-3427745
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol
As is often the case, a little of what you like, in moderation, seems to be the best idea.
"My constituent died waiting for an ambulance and that was not on a strike day"
https://twitter.com/politicshome/status/1612807351832133639/video/1
I have no idea of the veracity of this, all I know is that these are the people running the study so I assume they have some evidence for this.
Though whining about not having a large enough room in one of the many Palaces your family own does have more than a whiff of Wilde's comment on the death of Little Nell about it.
Through fact 35% still think it was wrong to remove him gives 35% potential Tory voteshare too so until Sunak gets the Tories back over 30% he remains at risk of a Boris comeback
I just love this long lecture on edible oils vs. traditional fats by Sally Fallon Morell from the Weston A Price Foundation - you may hate it, or sinply have no interest in it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKdYUCUca8
She came over from County Wicklow. Despite being surrounded by the broadest Yorkshire accents you could wish to find, her delightful Wicklow lilt had not altered one jot in 70 years.
One aspect that might interest you in particular is that Sophie was said to have seen a ghost at Three Castle Head on the day before her death.
https://www.westcorkpodcast.com/
Boris Johnson erased from Grant Shapps spaceport picture
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1612745565527314437?s=20&t=PMOU8DjBcXc41AC0J7TxJA
Where is George Gibney? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08njhrm is also good - less for the attempts to find the man - but more for listening to the voices of his victims.
GUBU - about Irish murderer Malcolm MacArthur in the 1970's is a weird and fascinating story - https://shows.acast.com/gubu/episodes.
Powerplay: The House of Sep Blatter is interesting on football and corruption.
I've already started looking at the prices for a boat to outrun customs....
It also made BSE (allegedly) as it produces cattle feed from rendered meat and bones. The company had a near monopoly of that process.
Nixon was the last US president to try and travel on commercial air. Which caused hideous delays for everyone else.
Though mainly for variations of this story:
I fully support airbrushing Boris Johnson out of as much of public life as possible.
https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1612776715478077441
And this one.
Boris Johnson “earned” more in an HOUR from his non-MP speeches (while supposedly representing the good people of his constituency) than a nurse does in a whole YEAR
https://twitter.com/nazirafzal/status/1612046468243750914
IIRC in a couple of American detective shows, the plot has centred on Big Tobacco swapping knowledge and crops with the cartels - the cartels are looking to tobacco as the future of illegal drugs and the Big Tobacco guys are swapping into weed.
Personally I'd also avoid anything with plant sterols: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/toxins-on-your-toast/#gsc.tab=0
Probably not specific to Stoke, which has a population of 1/4 of a million - likely happening all over Britain's provincial towns & cities...
The vats of 'stuff' still aren't all covered...
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5324069,-1.1387075,103m/data=!3m1!1e3
They are netted I think (not visible in Google's image) but the seagulls still circle.
The BSE link was brought up in parliament (as part of a lobbying link between an MP and the company) but somehow they escaped explicit blame.
Statement of Support for Art Professor Fired from Hamline University
https://www.mpac.org/statement/statement-of-support-for-art-professor-fired-from-hamline-university/
It is with great concern that the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) views the firing of an art professor, Erika López Prater, from Hamline University on the grounds of showing a fourteenth-century painting depicting the Prophet Muḥammad. We issue this statement of support for the professor and urge the university to reverse its decision and to take compensatory action to ameliorate the situation.
News sources report that the matter reached the university administration after a Muslim student complained to them about the professor showing the image in class. Subsequently, undergraduate students at the university received an email from the administration declaring the incident to be “undeniably inconsiderate, disrespectful and Islamophobic.” Because the professor was hired as an adjunct, her contract was not renewed and she was effectively fired.
As a Muslim organization, we recognize the validity and ubiquity of an Islamic viewpoint that discourages or forbids any depictions of the Prophet, especially if done in a distasteful or disrespectful manner. However, we also recognize the historical reality that other viewpoints have existed and that there have been some Muslims, including and especially Shīʿī Muslims, who have felt no qualms in pictorially representing the Prophet (although often veiling his face out of respect). All this is a testament to the great internal diversity within the Islamic tradition, which should be celebrated.
This, it seems, was the exact point that Dr. Prater was trying to convey to her students. She empathetically prepared them in advance for the image, which was part of an optional exercise and prefaced with a content warning. “I am showing you this image for a reason,” stressed the professor:
There is this common thinking that Islam completely forbids, outright, any figurative depictions or any depictions of holy personages. While many Islamic cultures do strongly frown on this practice, I would like to remind you there is no one, monothetic Islamic culture.
The painting was not Islamophobic. In fact, it was commissioned by a fourteenth-century Muslim king in order to honor the Prophet, depicting the first Quranic revelation from the angel Gabriel.
Even if it is the case that many Muslims feel uncomfortable with such depictions, Dr. Prater was trying to emphasize a key principle of religious literacy: religions are not monolithic in nature, but rather, internally diverse. This principle should be appreciated in order to combat Islamophobia, which is often premised on flattening out Islam and viewing the Islamic tradition in an essentialist and reductionist manner. The professor should be thanked for her role in educating students, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, and for doing so in a critically empathetic manner...
They lead lives of unimaginable privilege, compared to 99.99% of the rest of the world.
If we legalised and regulated drugs, we could defund some really extraordinary arseholes. Just for a start.
I am reminded of the rather Byzantine styled triptych that someone I know bought at a little shop outside a major mosque in Tehran.
It is more wide-ranging than the title suggests, starting with attitudes to immigration in the 19th and early 20th century and how they changed, the influence of eugenics - a harmful pseudo science that nonetheless captured the attention of many influential people - and much else besides. The echoes in our time are unmistakeable.
This also implies that if we could develop similar drugs with fewer harmful side effects then we'd be on to a winner, but there seems to be a puritanical reluctance for such research.
- the abject s**tshow and melodrama that the Conservatives have inflicted upon us since;
- the growing realisation that Brexit is snake oil that was sold to us on a package of lies;
- the economic catastrophe that has since then crept up on so many ordinary people's lives.
If you think that voters could ever return to the mindset of June 2019, should your hero the lying discredited clown return to the big chair, then you are even more stupid than most PB'ers already think.
This thread is no longer fit for human consumption
Story by @nedsimons
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/shameful-shameful-shameful-tory-mp-slams-rishi-sunaks-new-anti-strike-law_uk_63bd7240e4b0d6f0b9fe8eda
Now instead of resolving them, the government are trying to force through anti-worker legislation to fire nurses and teachers.
The Tories need to negotiate not legislate. If passed, my government will repeal this law.
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1612823753792143361
https://enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/1bd58de9-e29c-4f99-ad84-a443eef4f3a5