Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
Few things in life fall into nice cleanly delineated compartments. The odd thing is that no common sense is being applied here. AIUI the existing trans legislation has provisions in it for exceptions and exclusions.
Alternatively If prisoners want to identify as women to go to female jails, put them in a segregated unit and offer either full hormone therapy (which would likely be equivalent to chemical castration) or gender surgery after which they can join the general female population.
Make the offer before they transfer - give them choices so they cannot say it was forced on them. Stay where they are in male prison, solitary in a female prison, hormones or gender surgery.
That is exactly what the choice should be , full transition operation before transfer, and you can guarantee there will be no takers.
Most men do seem to be very "attached" to their family jewels......
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
If Sturgeon's colossal unforced-error on this has made her personally less popular (and somewhat damaged the indy cause) then the question in the header can be addressed by asking: What will make a disenchanted ex-SNP voter change a Scottish man's, woman's, rapist's mind and "support" Sturgeon again
It is hard to see. Sturgeon cannot row back from her Woke position. She has already tried a bit of back-pedalling and it made everything worse. It made her look cranky and weird
So she is stuck with where she is. Her best bet is that it all blows over and people forget, but why should they? What has worked to her advantage before - the parochialism of Holyrood, the lack of MAJOR issues to focus on, so she can blat on about indy - now works against her. The focus will remain on Trans Rights in Scotland, in a way that isn't happening anywhere else in the world
I suspect she is permanently tarnished. Tho I readily confess I have predicted her demise several times in the past, and been proven quite wrong
I agree with @malcolmg on this. It is not the trans issue on its own, it is that combined with a lack of a clear way forward given the inevitable defeat in the Supreme Court for her referendum and the clear lack of enthusiasm for a "quasi referendum" at the next GE amongst her MPs at Westminster which undermined and removed her appointed nominee there. For the first time she looks a little lost and is allowing herself to be distracted from her main goal.
David , any idea why are we 18 months into investigation of the stolen £600K and yet it seems to have hardly made any progress. Hard to believe it took police that long to find what everyone knew , ie it was missing. Assume her chums will delay it even longer now it has been passed by police to CPS.
Why would any police officer want to touch that file? A political hot potato, which virtually guarantees that anyone handling it will be seen as the enemy. By some portion of the political class in Scotland.
I’d be doing by hair, washing the car etc to get away from that one.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obyvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
My advice is go on for as long as can, as much as you like. If you enjoy it, and you can do it, and it gives you purpose - and if it makes the world a better place (even in the tiniest way) - why stop?
I say this because you don't strike me as one of life's retirers. I've got medic friends who have told me tales of perfectly healthy older people who decide to retire, on bad advice, and when they don't need to - who then drop dead out of sheer purposelessness
Of course lots of other people LOVE retirement. Chacun a son gout
Edit to add: my own father is now 88, and really frail, and probably not long for the world. However two things keep him going - and even make him quite cheerful - one is booze (he loves wine and brandy) and the second is work: he still loves to do what he does (and sometimes can still do it very well). Without those he'd have fallen off the perch years ago
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
If Sturgeon's colossal unforced-error on this has made her personally less popular (and somewhat damaged the indy cause) then the question in the header can be addressed by asking: What will make a disenchanted ex-SNP voter change a Scottish man's, woman's, rapist's mind and "support" Sturgeon again
It is hard to see. Sturgeon cannot row back from her Woke position. She has already tried a bit of back-pedalling and it made everything worse. It made her look cranky and weird
So she is stuck with where she is. Her best bet is that it all blows over and people forget, but why should they? What has worked to her advantage before - the parochialism of Holyrood, the lack of MAJOR issues to focus on, so she can blat on about indy - now works against her. The focus will remain on Trans Rights in Scotland, in a way that isn't happening anywhere else in the world
I suspect she is permanently tarnished. Tho I readily confess I have predicted her demise several times in the past, and been proven quite wrong
I agree with @malcolmg on this. It is not the trans issue on its own, it is that combined with a lack of a clear way forward given the inevitable defeat in the Supreme Court for her referendum and the clear lack of enthusiasm for a "quasi referendum" at the next GE amongst her MPs at Westminster which undermined and removed her appointed nominee there. For the first time she looks a little lost and is allowing herself to be distracted from her main goal.
David , any idea why are we 18 months into investigation of the stolen £600K and yet it seems to have hardly made any progress. Hard to believe it took police that long to find what everyone knew , ie it was missing. Assume her chums will delay it even longer now it has been passed by police to CPS.
Nothing new to report Malcolm.
For me, the problem is going to be setting up the trust, and the consequential fiduciary obligation. I suspect that this promise that the money would be in a separate fund for a very poorly defined objective will not be sufficient. There are no obvious limits on the Trustee's discretion in determining what is for the greater good of independence and it is not as if the money has been pocketed. My expectation is no proceedings.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Congratulations.
On becoming more conservative - any tendencies to read baby roasting recipes?
On retirement - a company I worked for offered the following, years back. The gave people their final salary pension, on early retirement, as if they had gone to 65. They added in a lump sum. And a *contractual* 2 days a week of paid consultancy, advising their successors for 3 years, I think.
The idea was to transfer knowledge, provide a slope down from work to retirement, and for the workaholics, an introduction to part time management consultancy.
Apparently there is a big market for grey beards, in various sectors, to offer sage advice. Review/oversight and the like. Think “Don’t do that, in 1973 *that* nearly collapsed the company”…
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
There's an element of, "the straw that broke the camels back," about this, or perhaps displacement activity, it being easier to face a smaller simpler problems than a larger more difficult one.
We know, and have known, for a long time that there's a major problem with sexual violence against women and girls perpetrated by men, and our progress in tackling this problem has been very poor. Elevating the rights of erstwhile men, above those of women, to increase the risks to women, can very easily seem like the final straw.
It can also seem like an easier problem to tackle first, than the larger problem of the culture in our society that creates so much violence against women and makes it difficult to convict those responsible of that violence.
The case of Mason Greenwood has been troubling me over recent days. He's a young man over whom a large football club have had a strong influence for two-thirds of his life. And yet it's clear that he's adopted a culture that is deeply aggressively misogynistic. What's so wrong with our society that this is so normal?
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
Morning Bev, Totally agree but given the outcomes immediately after they said the public were talking rubbish and there was no evidence of dangers, up popped the rapist who Sturgeon swore was a woman and had ordered SPS to put in a woman's prison. The public outcry rattled her so much she created a new gender. All it has done is caused a huge public uproar about trans and done them great harm longer term.
The trans activists are not helping their own cause here. I think people should be freely allowed to transition to a different gender if that is truly how they feel and they should not have obstacles put in their way, but the process should not be so easy as to be utterly trivial.
In many ways it is a life changing decision even for those who do not go for hormones or surgery. Come out as trans and a lot of friends and family will simply reject you. I have known those to whom it happened and it wrecked their social support system. It also used to wreck careers but with the current legal frameworks that might be less common.
I think it would also help to actually define what "trans" means in terms of legal process. The actual word "Trans" seems to have come about from a contraction and blending of transvestite, transsexual and transgender all of which are very different but all of which begin with the word "trans", yet only one of those progresses to surgery and it seems to be a very small number. I did a bit of googling and there are only about three surgeons doing a couple of operations each per week. So let us say they do 4 per week per surgeon, that is 3x4x52 = 624 per year in a country of more than 60 million or around 0.001%
Hands up all those who’ve heard of Colleen Hoover ?
The publishing figures for 2022 were rather depressing. In a country of 332 million people, only 28 books out of ~300,000 titles sold more than 500,000 copies. Eight were by one author, Colleen Hoover, and no book of history or politics sold more than 295,000 copies. https://twitter.com/JasonColavito/status/1620151389363245057
Nope My wife came up with It ends with us and said there was a sequel (presumably It starts with us) but she hasn't actually read them. Presumably she had a decent back catalogue which she was able to reprint or get into print for the first time when It ends with us made a hit.
Hasn’t writing always been like that - a tiny number of best selling authors getting rich, and a long, long tail of people making barely minimum wage (if that) for the time they put in?
To be clear - am I to understand that the left wing economic establishment is everyone apart from Patrick Minford? Everyone who opposes unfunded tax cuts is now left wing?
In terms of bringing her reign to an emergency stop it never really mattered whether media commentators, the OBR or any individuals strongly disagreed with her. The real problem was that the global credit markets (which are not particularly staffed by left wingers) thought repayment was much higher risk and charged an appropriate premium, which was costing both the government and households tens of billions extra a year in interest payments.
Unsurprisingly the country did not think it was worth paying tens of billions extra per year to give Truss a fair go.
I can't believe the brass neck of Liz Truss or the media appetite for her nonsense. She shouldn't be given airtime for anything but a grovelling apology.
I always had her tagged as utterly self-absorbed and desiring power for the purposes of adoration. I regard her as nothing more than a glory-hound.
But this new crusade is jaw-droppingly unbelievable and the fact that she is even considering it is an example of why she is so utterly unsuited to be in govt.
OTOH, she might be perfect to be LOTO. She can spend years spouting her right-wing libertarian drivel without being able to achieve anything whilst the Tories clean their political Augean stables. Hopefully she will be running the 3rd or 4th largest party and a lot of the nutjobs will be ejected by the voters.
Apart from relief at her departure, of course there was always a nagging frustration that she didn't have the opportunity to destroy the Tory party completely - a mission that she might have been born to fulfil.
Perhaps the ideal solution would be for her to obliterate from the backbenches what little chance remains of the Tories remaining in government after the next election, and then to take up the reins of power (or chaos) again, in a position where the damage would be limited to her own party.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
Well I'm afraid I have.
Authored a major article on it and appeared live, twice, on television. Turned down several other opportunities because I don't like the male bear pit aggression.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Thermos kettles are a thing, I believe. Which combines the two things.
I would suspect that a fair bit of heat is lost in pouring the water into a cold thermos. A Thermos kettle solves that.
I think the problem is that there are a few people on here who find it difficult to comprehend that not everyone lives in the same lifestyle as themselves.
The pity of this is that is impoverishes pb.com. The place is much richer and more interesting when we are not monochromatic and listen to other perspectives, even when they challenge our own (presumably fragile) world views.
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
There's an element of, "the straw that broke the camels back," about this, or perhaps displacement activity, it being easier to face a smaller simpler problems than a larger more difficult one.
We know, and have known, for a long time that there's a major problem with sexual violence against women and girls perpetrated by men, and our progress in tackling this problem has been very poor. Elevating the rights of erstwhile men, above those of women, to increase the risks to women, can very easily seem like the final straw.
It can also seem like an easier problem to tackle first, than the larger problem of the culture in our society that creates so much violence against women and makes it difficult to convict those responsible of that violence.
The case of Mason Greenwood has been troubling me over recent days. He's a young man over whom a large football club have had a strong influence for two-thirds of his life. And yet it's clear that he's adopted a culture that is deeply aggressively misogynistic. What's so wrong with our society that this is so normal?
I will be very surprised if Mason Greenwood ever plays for Man United again. I suspect that a transfer abroad for several years is in everyone's interests. He is an immensely talented footballer but his baggage from this will be considerable.
The disparity of power between young women with little to offer but their looks and young, extremely fit, men who earn more every week than the girls could aspire to in many years is about as wide as can be imagined. It would take an exceptionally strong moral code not to become transactional about it.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Thermos kettles are a thing, I believe. Which combines the two things.
I would suspect that a fair bit of heat is lost in pouring the water into a cold thermos. A Thermos kettle solves that.
They sound like a good idea. Thanks for the tip. I shall investigate.
Hands up all those who’ve heard of Colleen Hoover ?
The publishing figures for 2022 were rather depressing. In a country of 332 million people, only 28 books out of ~300,000 titles sold more than 500,000 copies. Eight were by one author, Colleen Hoover, and no book of history or politics sold more than 295,000 copies. https://twitter.com/JasonColavito/status/1620151389363245057
Nope My wife came up with It ends with us and said there was a sequel (presumably It starts with us) but she hasn't actually read them. Presumably she had a decent back catalogue which she was able to reprint or get into print for the first time when It ends with us made a hit.
Hasn’t writing always been like that - a tiny number of best selling authors getting rich, and a long, long tail of people making barely minimum wage (if that) for the time they put in?
Yes, but to have 8 books in a single year in the top 25 is truly incredible and suggests a back catalogue to me. She surely didn't write them all this year? That would be Bob Dylan levels of productivity. If I am right she might have 1 in the top 25 next year, maybe.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
Who cares what a bunch of scrandies on the Internet choose to believe or not to believe about you? It's not like their opinion on any other subject is worth tuppence.
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
There's an element of, "the straw that broke the camels back," about this, or perhaps displacement activity, it being easier to face a smaller simpler problems than a larger more difficult one.
We know, and have known, for a long time that there's a major problem with sexual violence against women and girls perpetrated by men, and our progress in tackling this problem has been very poor. Elevating the rights of erstwhile men, above those of women, to increase the risks to women, can very easily seem like the final straw.
It can also seem like an easier problem to tackle first, than the larger problem of the culture in our society that creates so much violence against women and makes it difficult to convict those responsible of that violence.
The case of Mason Greenwood has been troubling me over recent days. He's a young man over whom a large football club have had a strong influence for two-thirds of his life. And yet it's clear that he's adopted a culture that is deeply aggressively misogynistic. What's so wrong with our society that this is so normal?
I will be very surprised if Mason Greenwood ever plays for Man United again. I suspect that a transfer abroad for several years is in everyone's interests. He is an immensely talented footballer but his baggage from this will be considerable.
The disparity of power between young women with little to offer but their looks and young, extremely fit, men who earn more every week than the girls could aspire to in many years is about as wide as can be imagined. It would take an exceptionally strong moral code not to become transactional about it.
When Title IX came in, in the US, it was assumed that the people caught would be snearing, evil, rich white guys. Like the Duke Lacrosse team.
The reality was inevitable given the structure of American college sports. And their racial makeup. And the racial structure of the rest of the student bodies.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Isn’t SNP support made up not only of independence supporters, but also of “more competent than the other lots”?
In which case they might have lost more support had the other lots (SLAB & LD) not also supported their poorly thought through bill. The problem they have is it’s their bill and they’re the ones being questioned about it, tying themselves in ludicrous knots. The Greens, understandably, have gone to ground, as they make even less sense than the SNP on the matter.
Not sure how Sturgeon gets out of this - a full u-turn will run into the (to borrow TUD’s phrase), spittle flecked fury of the TRAS who are notably unsympathetic to apostates. There is but one faith. There should be no debate.
Well, you’ve got a debate now.
I suspect it will be quietly dropped punted into the long grass like she did with the children’s rights issue two years ago.
I can't believe the brass neck of Liz Truss or the media appetite for her nonsense. She shouldn't be given airtime for anything but a grovelling apology.
I always had her tagged as utterly self-absorbed and desiring power for the purposes of adoration. I regard her as nothing more than a glory-hound.
But this new crusade is jaw-droppingly unbelievable and the fact that she is even considering it is an example of why she is so utterly unsuited to be in govt.
OTOH, she might be perfect to be LOTO. She can spend years spouting her right-wing libertarian drivel without being able to achieve anything whilst the Tories clean their political Augean stables. Hopefully she will be running the 3rd or 4th largest party and a lot of the nutjobs will be ejected by the voters.
Apart from relief at her departure, of course there was always a nagging frustration that she didn't have the opportunity to destroy the Tory party completely - a mission that she might have been born to fulfil.
Perhaps the ideal solution would be for her to obliterate from the backbenches what little chance remains of the Tories remaining in government after the next election, and then to take up the reins of power (or chaos) again, in a position where the damage would be limited to her own party.
Parties do tend to tack to the extremes after they lose power and I cannot believe the Tories have a chance of winning the next election. If Ms Truss becomes leader, it will be immensely entertaining...
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
Morning Bev, Totally agree but given the outcomes immediately after they said the public were talking rubbish and there was no evidence of dangers, up popped the rapist who Sturgeon swore was a woman and had ordered SPS to put in a woman's prison. The public outcry rattled her so much she created a new gender. All it has done is caused a huge public uproar about trans and done them great harm longer term.
The trans activists are not helping their own cause here. I think people should be freely allowed to transition to a different gender if that is truly how they feel and they should not have obstacles put in their way, but the process should not be so easy as to be utterly trivial.
In many ways it is a life changing decision even for those who do not go for hormones or surgery. Come out as trans and a lot of friends and family will simply reject you. I have known those to whom it happened and it wrecked their social support system. It also used to wreck careers but with the current legal frameworks that might be less common.
I think it would also help to actually define what "trans" means in terms of legal process. The actual word "Trans" seems to have come about from a contraction and blending of transvestite, transsexual and transgender all of which are very different but all of which begin with the word "trans", yet only one of those progresses to surgery and it seems to be a very small number. I did a bit of googling and there are only about three surgeons doing a couple of operations each per week. So let us say they do 4 per week per surgeon, that is 3x4x52 = 624 per year in a country of more than 60 million or around 0.001%
Agree, it has become a vehicle for extremists to exploit the issue for their own ends.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Thermos kettles are a thing, I believe. Which combines the two things.
I would suspect that a fair bit of heat is lost in pouring the water into a cold thermos. A Thermos kettle solves that.
They sound like a good idea. Thanks for the tip. I shall investigate.
If you are so poor you need to save the dregs of a kettle of water then you will not be able to afford a thermos kettle which would take many many years to recover teh cost of the expense of the kettle. I still say you are a fake.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
So something a bit more nuanced than “Transwomen are women” and “No debate”?
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
Morning Bev, Totally agree but given the outcomes immediately after they said the public were talking rubbish and there was no evidence of dangers, up popped the rapist who Sturgeon swore was a woman and had ordered SPS to put in a woman's prison. The public outcry rattled her so much she created a new gender. All it has done is caused a huge public uproar about trans and done them great harm longer term.
The trans activists are not helping their own cause here. I think people should be freely allowed to transition to a different gender if that is truly how they feel and they should not have obstacles put in their way, but the process should not be so easy as to be utterly trivial.
In many ways it is a life changing decision even for those who do not go for hormones or surgery. Come out as trans and a lot of friends and family will simply reject you. I have known those to whom it happened and it wrecked their social support system. It also used to wreck careers but with the current legal frameworks that might be less common.
I think it would also help to actually define what "trans" means in terms of legal process. The actual word "Trans" seems to have come about from a contraction and blending of transvestite, transsexual and transgender all of which are very different but all of which begin with the word "trans", yet only one of those progresses to surgery and it seems to be a very small number. I did a bit of googling and there are only about three surgeons doing a couple of operations each per week. So let us say they do 4 per week per surgeon, that is 3x4x52 = 624 per year in a country of more than 60 million or around 0.001%
Agree, it has become a vehicle for extremists to exploit the issue for their own ends.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Council executive done properly should really be close to a full-time job in a council of any size. That and some party politics on the side should surely keep you busy?
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
Well I'm afraid I have.
Authored a major article on it and appeared live, twice, on television. Turned down several other opportunities because I don't like the male bear pit aggression.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
I agree, it does, however your approach is far from that. Certainly on here.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
So something a bit more nuanced than “Transwomen are women” and “No debate”?
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Thermos kettles are a thing, I believe. Which combines the two things.
I would suspect that a fair bit of heat is lost in pouring the water into a cold thermos. A Thermos kettle solves that.
They sound like a good idea. Thanks for the tip. I shall investigate.
If you are so poor you need to save the dregs of a kettle of water then you will not be able to afford a thermos kettle which would take many many years to recover teh cost of the expense of the kettle. I still say you are a fake.
I'm sure you do Malcolm.
I was going to point out that the cost of buying the thing would out-do the saving on the energy but thought that might detract from what was essentially a decent and good point. The kind of sensitivity that would perhaps pass you by Malcolm.
Anyway I shall leave you men to your arguments and obsessions about whether or not men or women or not-women have penises and whether or not they are bigger than your own.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
Congratulations. Enjoy the day. I retired from full-time work nearly 20 years ago, and from part-time 5 and a bit years later. I’d been busy and fully involved, so I decided I’d stay busy, although not as. I joined the local U3a and became involved in several of its activities, things which ‘I’d never had time to do before’. I also got involved with various short term local projects.
My wife and I also did some world travelling! Hope this helps!
Hands up all those who’ve heard of Colleen Hoover ?
The publishing figures for 2022 were rather depressing. In a country of 332 million people, only 28 books out of ~300,000 titles sold more than 500,000 copies. Eight were by one author, Colleen Hoover, and no book of history or politics sold more than 295,000 copies. https://twitter.com/JasonColavito/status/1620151389363245057
Nope My wife came up with It ends with us and said there was a sequel (presumably It starts with us) but she hasn't actually read them. Presumably she had a decent back catalogue which she was able to reprint or get into print for the first time when It ends with us made a hit.
Hasn’t writing always been like that - a tiny number of best selling authors getting rich, and a long, long tail of people making barely minimum wage (if that) for the time they put in?
Yes, but to have 8 books in a single year in the top 25 is truly incredible and suggests a back catalogue to me. She surely didn't write them all this year? That would be Bob Dylan levels of productivity. If I am right she might have 1 in the top 25 next year, maybe.
Series that has exploded in popularity? I recall that George Macdonald Fraser (Flashman) and Patrick O’Brian (Aubrey/Maturin) created this effect - people would by the latest book then buy the rest of the series in a binge…
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
As I am in my late fifties now I too beginning to think of what to do in retirement. There is only so much gardening and dogwalking possible!
I plan to keep going as long as I enjoy it, and still performing to the right sort of level, though at reduced hours. There is a need to keep mentally and intellectually as well as physically active.
One need is a wide circle of social contact, in person as well as PB, but I think my church and its associated campaigns can do that.
The other need is to do something time consuming and technical with my hands. A colleague with similar experience is taking a course in making musical interests. He reckons it will take him 2 years to make a violin, worth about £8k, so not economic really, but with the right requirement for meticulous absorption.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Better to boil exactly what you need. Not hard to do. Besides, boiling a kettle costs pennies. Hard to imagine a breadline so bad that saving a fraction of a penny each time makes a difference.
Having read Truss's essay, nothing there really surprised me. For the most part, I agree with Liz's central thrust that her overall direction was the right one, but that her presentational skills and her failure to create an effective communications team/infrastructure did her in. Two things struck me as notable - there is an absence of specific regret for not offering thorough costings (and corresponding savings) to back up the mini-budget (which others have said was her original plan before taking office), and that she still seems to carry a big candle for Kwasi Kwarteng. Perhaps those two things are linked.
Concerning the debate surrounding the mini-budget, a lot of people, now including Liz and Tom Harwood, are pointing the finger at the energy package as far more responsible for the affect of the mini-budget on the markets than the tax cuts, which only contained £8bn in unexpected cuts. This is something @MoonRabbit rightly pointed out at the time. And it is of course the only part of the budget that there was complete political consensus on. It was a mistake to just go with Labour's idea and not try to minimise Government losses by staggering the package and rewarding thrifty users of energy greater subsidy. This would also have made the 45p look better, as the rich would have paid a lot more to heat their pools etc.
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
You cannot lose , that is a fantasist nutter there, the other week they could not boil a kettle as they were so poor.
I particularly enjoyed the fable of filling a thermos with the dregs of the boiled water from the kettle.
Someone at one of my former workplaces used to boil the kettle and fill a Thermos each evening before going home.
People have also been told off for using the office milk for their breakfast cereal rather than just for hot drinks.
I always fill my thermos from left overs in the kettle and then use that to reboil. My first partner was already doing this years ago.
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
Better to boil exactly what you need. Not hard to do. Besides, boiling a kettle costs pennies. Hard to imagine a breadline so bad that saving a fraction of a penny each time makes a difference.
An actual cost/benefit calculation would be interesting.
EDIT: there are various devices to find out where you are using your electricity over time. The answers are often surprising. A friend found that he was spending a fortune on an old router modem. Ran quite hot (many are ridiculously inefficient), 24/7
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
The government is failing in one of its most basic functions. It's bad enough that only a tiny proportion of violent crimes, particularly rape, result in conviction, but even worse that, when they do, those found guilty are able to go on to commit further serious offences.
There is a completely unwarranted belief in the restorative powers of sex offending courses that men have to attend and "pass" in prison. Once they have done so the system seems reluctant to accept that they still a risk, not least because of the huge pressure on the system caused by long term residents.
You cannot ‘cure’ pedophilia. No more than you can cure shortness
The only ‘solution’ is chemical castration and/or sentences so long they are a brutal deterrent and they keep the worst offenders inside until nature erodes the libido
IIRC the chemical thing actually led, in at least one instance, to a brutal and horrific murder committed by the subject. Frustration boiling over etc.
On a slightly related matter Ishm...er...Beinndearg seems to think you're a chap. Not to be too nosey but I'm sure you mentioned at some point in the past that you were an aunt, and I'd always assumed you were a woman without thinking too much about it. If it's too controversial in the current climate tell me to mind my own beeswax. but I'd hate to think of Beinny setting himself as a vigilante of the changing rooms accosting people who he thought were blokes if his gender antennae aren't working properly.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
Who cares what a bunch of scrandies on the Internet choose to believe or not to believe about you? It's not like their opinion on any other subject is worth tuppence.
Actually, my opinion is worth approximately £600 for 1000 words
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
As I am in my late fifties now I too beginning to think of what to do in retirement. There is only so much gardening and dogwalking possible!
I plan to keep going as long as I enjoy it, and still performing to the right sort of level, though at reduced hours. There is a need to keep mentally and intellectually as well as physically active.
One need is a wide circle of social contact, in person as well as PB, but I think my church and its associated campaigns can do that.
The other need is to do something time consuming and technical with my hands. A colleague with similar experience is taking a course in making musical interests. He reckons it will take him 2 years to make a violin, worth about £8k, so not economic really, but with the right requirement for meticulous absorption.
I got to know some of the engineers at the Society Of Model And Experimental Engineers.
Retired blokes who build steam trains on various scales, basically.
One told me that he was hassled by the wife for going to his back garden workshop. Then he finished his ride-on steam train. Got bored with it in about a week. Sold it for £30k. Took the wife on a top notch cruise.
After that, she hassled him to go back to the shed and build another one….
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obyvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
My advice is go on for as long as can, as much as you like. If you enjoy it, and you can do it, and it gives you purpose - and if it makes the world a better place (even in the tiniest way) - why stop?
I say this because you don't strike me as one of life's retirers. I've got medic friends who have told me tales of perfectly healthy older people who decide to retire, on bad advice, and when they don't need to - who then drop dead out of sheer purposelessness
Of course lots of other people LOVE retirement. Chacun a son gout
Edit to add: my own father is now 88, and really frail, and probably not long for the world. However two things keep him going - and even make him quite cheerful - one is booze (he loves wine and brandy) and the second is work: he still loves to do what he does (and sometimes can still do it very well). Without those he'd have fallen off the perch years ago
Guy I worked with for years retired early during lockdown times. Dropped dead just the other week. So I agree with Leon - if you're enjoying your time keep doing it while you can!
p.s. we call others 'fake' when we are threatened.
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
Or boil exactly what you need. That’s the scientific approach.
Is it very thrifty of me to make gravy from water I've boiled vegetables in? Or just a bit silly?
No, it's how my Mum does it. Vitamin C leaches out of the veggies as they cook, so it is saved by using it for the gravy (apparently - this has not undergone chemicla trials).
On the trans aspect of this it's a topic I don't like discussing online as there is so much hatred around and the complexities and nuances of gender identity too easily get lost in ignorance and raging venom. That's not avoidance: I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it.
All I want to say for now is that the right-wing here and in the US have weaponised culture wars and this 'anti-woke' agenda.
That's the biggest problem with Nicola. Not that she was wrong but that her timing was and in some ways that's even worse because it can damage a cause for years. Really astute politicians know when to make their move and when to bide their time.
Two or three years from now, whatever obfuscations are dribbling out of Sir Keir's mouth, the climate here in the UK will feel very different, as it did when Tony Blair's New Labour took over in 1997. The time to move forward with trans freedoms will come, regardless of whether the hateful oldies hate it, but that time is not yet.
Ideologues of all sorts often do this and Socialists are every bit as bad as the Right. They love to dictate and force their ideas on others because of course 'they know best'. Look at Sadiq with the Ulez.
Bored of this
"I've written about this in the national press and appeared on tv discussing it."
I bet you have not. £500, loser to pay Trussell Trust or red Cross Ukraine appeal, national press means proper ex Fleet Street titles, TV is BBC itv or c4, written excludes below the line, appeared excludes question from audience.
Well I'm afraid I have.
Authored a major article on it and appeared live, twice, on television. Turned down several other opportunities because I don't like the male bear pit aggression.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
So take the bet. Impoverish and humiliate me.
The subject is only nuanced and complex if you are what we psychologists call stupid. All possible support, encouragement and protection for the trans, safeguards against predatory fakers. The end. where's the complexity?
Do you think dear old Isla is a. Trans or b. not trans?
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
I guess the other thing worth considering is intergenerational fairness and succession planning?
Is there someone younger than you who could do the job of department head as well? When you do decide to retire, will the charity have someone competent ready to take over?
If these considerations do not apply, then of course continue as long as you wish.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obyvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
My advice is go on for as long as can, as much as you like. If you enjoy it, and you can do it, and it gives you purpose - and if it makes the world a better place (even in the tiniest way) - why stop?
I say this because you don't strike me as one of life's retirers. I've got medic friends who have told me tales of perfectly healthy older people who decide to retire, on bad advice, and when they don't need to - who then drop dead out of sheer purposelessness
Of course lots of other people LOVE retirement. Chacun a son gout
Edit to add: my own father is now 88, and really frail, and probably not long for the world. However two things keep him going - and even make him quite cheerful - one is booze (he loves wine and brandy) and the second is work: he still loves to do what he does (and sometimes can still do it very well). Without those he'd have fallen off the perch years ago
Guy I worked with for years retired early during lockdown times. Dropped dead just the other week. So I agree with Leon - if you're enjoying your time keep doing it while you can!
Never been busier since I retired. Love it. Keep going Nick.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
If I have @Heathener 's real world identity right, I have both read the articles and watched the interviews.
As usual, the pile on this morning was based on "I disagree with what you are saying, so you must be lying" guffery from Beinndearg.
We really would be better without this playground "no you didn't" and"I know you are you said you are but what am I". Won't be long before "your mum" starts being touted as a response to people's real world arguments...
p.s. we call others 'fake' when we are threatened.
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
Or boil exactly what you need. That’s the scientific approach.
Is it very thrifty of me to make gravy from water I've boiled vegetables in? Or just a bit silly?
No, it's how my Mum does it. Vitamin C leaches out of the veggies as they cook, so it is saved by using it for the gravy (apparently - this has not undergone chemicla trials).
It's how I've always done it. It's easily the best way.
First of all, Happy Birthday to @NickPalmer, @Gallowgate and anyone else with their birthdays. Enjoy the day.
Second, on the header. @TSE says this is temporary and he may be right but, OTOH, I don't see how this issue goes away. It has a strong momentum of its own. In the States, it's been running as a major topic for nearly a decade and still isn't running out of steam. Both sides are entrenched and both have very strongly opinionated and loud advocates. There is an argument for saying it actually accelerates as the generation of teenagers now coming through start to question their identities and that exacerbates the worries of parents who think their children are being indoctrinated.
Re the independence issue, again I'm not sure this is temporary. As we saw with Brexit, people can't deal with the complexities but they decide based on broad, easy to use narratives. "Get independence and you'll have trans predators in your prisons and probably in your schools and safe spaces thereafter". Crude yes but people can easily think that of someone like Sturgeon who is quite inflexible.
Personally, I think Sturgeon has gifted the Unionists a subconscious narrative that she is willing to going beyond the norm if Scotland becomes independent, which for many people will not be comfortable.
The government is failing in one of its most basic functions. It's bad enough that only a tiny proportion of violent crimes, particularly rape, result in conviction, but even worse that, when they do, those found guilty are able to go on to commit further serious offences.
There is a completely unwarranted belief in the restorative powers of sex offending courses that men have to attend and "pass" in prison. Once they have done so the system seems reluctant to accept that they still a risk, not least because of the huge pressure on the system caused by long term residents.
You cannot ‘cure’ pedophilia. No more than you can cure shortness
The only ‘solution’ is chemical castration and/or sentences so long they are a brutal deterrent and they keep the worst offenders inside until nature erodes the libido
IIRC the chemical thing actually led, in at least one instance, to a brutal and horrific murder committed by the subject. Frustration boiling over etc.
And the suicide of Alan Turing.
I think Andrew Hodges sympathetic & well-researched biography of Turing concluded that it was most likely accidental poisoning.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
I guess the other thing worth considering is intergenerational fairness and succession planning?
Is there someone younger than you who could do the job of department head as well? When you do decide to retire, will the charity have someone competent ready to take over?
If these considerations do not apply, then of course continue as long as you wish.
One thing about retiring - and this is not intended specifically at Nick: sometimes one continues to be involved with the organization one used to work for (e.g. as a contractor, trustee, volunteer, etc.). But one needs to detach oneself sufficiently from one's previous job to let the new person do things their way - partly because people differ, because the change is often used as an opportunity to review and reassess, and because the way things are done changes with time anyway. It's very easy to make the mistake of being intrusive and unwelcome. One does sometimes need to bite one's lips and develop a certain detachment.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
If I have @Heathener 's real world identity right, I have both read the articles and watched the interviews.
As usual, the pile on this morning was based on "I disagree with what you are saying, so you must be lying" guffery from Beinndearg.
We really would be better without this playground "no you didn't" and"I know you are you said you are but what am I". Won't be long before "your mum" starts being touted as a response to people's real world arguments...
"I've been on telly so I am right" is pretty playground, don't you think?
Looking forward to your usual exceptionally amusing "lady cock" gag about Isla. In my world view people are pretty clearly divided into those who find the thought of women being raped amusing, and those who feel, at the very least, slightly uneasy about it.
Truss says she assumed her mandate would be accepted and respected. There's the conceptual problem, right there. She didn't have a mandate. Her appointment was constitutionally legitimate, but the circumstances were odd and required her to be careful and build trust. She didn't.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
I guess the other thing worth considering is intergenerational fairness and succession planning?
Is there someone younger than you who could do the job of department head as well? When you do decide to retire, will the charity have someone competent ready to take over?
If these considerations do not apply, then of course continue as long as you wish.
One thing about retiring - and this is not intended specifically at Nick: sometimes one continues to be involved with the organization one used to work for (e.g. as a contractor, trustee, volunteer, etc.). But one needs to detach oneself sufficiently from one's previous job to let the new person do things their way - partly because people differ, because the change is often used as an opportunity to review and reassess, and because the way things are done changes with time anyway. It's very easy to make the mistake of being intrusive and unwelcome. One does sometimes need to bite one's lips and develop a certain detachment.
Sir Alex Ferguson springs to mind.
The moment I heard he was remaining at Manchester United, I knew they were in for a dismal few years and I felt great sympathy for his successor.
Not that I know or care about football but I knew straightaway that would never work.
p.s. we call others 'fake' when we are threatened.
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
Or boil exactly what you need. That’s the scientific approach.
Is it very thrifty of me to make gravy from water I've boiled vegetables in? Or just a bit silly?
No, it's how my Mum does it. Vitamin C leaches out of the veggies as they cook, so it is saved by using it for the gravy (apparently - this has not undergone chemicla trials).
Vit C is actually destroyed by boiling, and I'm not sure how much survives in the water . Flavour, though, is another reason to reuse the water, effectively as dilute stock.
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
If Sturgeon's colossal unforced-error on this has made her personally less popular (and somewhat damaged the indy cause) then the question in the header can be addressed by asking: What will make a disenchanted ex-SNP voter change a Scottish man's, woman's, rapist's mind and "support" Sturgeon again
It is hard to see. Sturgeon cannot row back from her Woke position. She has already tried a bit of back-pedalling and it made everything worse. It made her look cranky and weird
So she is stuck with where she is. Her best bet is that it all blows over and people forget, but why should they? What has worked to her advantage before - the parochialism of Holyrood, the lack of MAJOR issues to focus on, so she can blat on about indy - now works against her. The focus will remain on Trans Rights in Scotland, in a way that isn't happening anywhere else in the world
I suspect she is permanently tarnished. Tho I readily confess I have predicted her demise several times in the past, and been proven quite wrong
The lack of any sane alternative to SNP is her lucky charm , most will hold their nose and stick with SNP. The London parties are truly rubbish and not interested in Scotland other than the gravy train and baubles.
I think that's the point I just made. Being fed up with nippie is not the same as suddenly deciding to vote for unionism. If only there was another independence party that people actually thought they could vote for. Salmond surely isn't so thick as to not recognise that he is totally toxic? What could Alba led by someone else do to the SNP?
I suspect that Alex Salmond is wanting to stay and clear his name. However, if Alba appointed someone less divisive, it would help their cause. If they were to choose someone like Eva Comrie, who is their Equalities Convenor, is disabled, and has a Family Law Practice, it would put more pressure on the SNP.
p.s. we call others 'fake' when we are threatened.
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
Or boil exactly what you need. That’s the scientific approach.
Is it very thrifty of me to make gravy from water I've boiled vegetables in? Or just a bit silly?
No, it's how my Mum does it. Vitamin C leaches out of the veggies as they cook, so it is saved by using it for the gravy (apparently - this has not undergone chemicla trials).
It's how I've always done it. It's easily the best way.
Not sure about the vitamins situation (boiling water is hot enough for vit C to start to break down), but veg water is certainly more interesting as a gravy base than plain.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
If I have @Heathener 's real world identity right, I have both read the articles and watched the interviews.
As usual, the pile on this morning was based on "I disagree with what you are saying, so you must be lying" guffery from Beinndearg.
We really would be better without this playground "no you didn't" and"I know you are you said you are but what am I". Won't be long before "your mum" starts being touted as a response to people's real world arguments...
"I've been on telly so I am right" is pretty playground, don't you think?
Looking forward to your usual exceptionally amusing "lady cock" gag about Isla. In my world view people are pretty clearly divided into those who find the thought of women being raped amusing, and those who feel, at the very least, slightly uneasy about it.
Where did Heathener say I've been on telly so that means I'm right? She said she'd been in telly and you said she hadn't. On that she is right and you are wrong.
As for the rest of your foaming it's literally the problem - stupid absolutism. Having posted repeatedly that the trans threat is a massive distraction from the vast majority of men who rape and assualt women whilst dressed as men, it's a leap even for you to assert that I am on the "rape is funny" side of the argument.
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
What my Dad has done, since retiring abruptly from a senior technical civil service job, is to plays a lot of bridge, spend a lot of time with his grandchildren, and keep on walking (in places he can get to by train).
The bridge at least keeps his mind active, it's also social, as is seeing the grandchildren, and the walking keeps him physically active. That seems like a pretty decent mix.
Some low-key volunteering might be one way to create such a mix, particularly if you don't have family you can be useful to, and in a way where you don't have to commit full-time.
One thing my Grandad said was that he might have been a bit more ambitious if he'd realised he was going to live into and be active well into his nineties. You have the chance to think of a project that might take 10-15 years to pursue, but that you have the resources to commit your time to. What might that be?
Tunred 73 today and idly wondering when I'm going to start being more conservative.
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
And as regards your council duties ... my opinion is Waverley Borough Council are lucky to have you.
The general standard of Councillors is in my opinion so low, that we should support and encourage competent people -- almost irrespective of party label.
A good councillor is a good councillor. They need support.
Isn't Sturgeon's fervour for the gender matter just because it's another wedge between Scotland and the UK, trying to make it Us versus Them?
Given her predelections it is personal rather than UK, other than it does help make UK the fall guy for her pathetic Bill.
Good morning Malcolm.
The problem is that if, as often posited on PB, the public does not overly care about trans issues, then it must be true that the voting public will not care about this trans bill falling. So as a wedge issue it is a poor one to pick. temporary blip stuff.
Temperatures falling and wages falling are way higher up most people's lists.
FWIW I agree but I think that there is a lot more fear and anger about this, particularly amongst women, than the actual risk warrants. I know a number of very politically correct women who are very unhappy about this. They are uncomfortable being opposed to the sort of things they have promoted and supported their entire adult lives but they are also angry that their own rights are being compromised.
If Sturgeon's colossal unforced-error on this has made her personally less popular (and somewhat damaged the indy cause) then the question in the header can be addressed by asking: What will make a disenchanted ex-SNP voter change a Scottish man's, woman's, rapist's mind and "support" Sturgeon again
It is hard to see. Sturgeon cannot row back from her Woke position. She has already tried a bit of back-pedalling and it made everything worse. It made her look cranky and weird
So she is stuck with where she is. Her best bet is that it all blows over and people forget, but why should they? What has worked to her advantage before - the parochialism of Holyrood, the lack of MAJOR issues to focus on, so she can blat on about indy - now works against her. The focus will remain on Trans Rights in Scotland, in a way that isn't happening anywhere else in the world
I suspect she is permanently tarnished. Tho I readily confess I have predicted her demise several times in the past, and been proven quite wrong
The lack of any sane alternative to SNP is her lucky charm , most will hold their nose and stick with SNP. The London parties are truly rubbish and not interested in Scotland other than the gravy train and baubles.
I think that's the point I just made. Being fed up with nippie is not the same as suddenly deciding to vote for unionism. If only there was another independence party that people actually thought they could vote for. Salmond surely isn't so thick as to not recognise that he is totally toxic? What could Alba led by someone else do to the SNP?
I suspect that Alex Salmond is wanting to stay and clear his name. However, if Alba appointed someone less divisive, it would help their cause. If they were to choose someone like Eva Comrie, who is their Equalities Convenor, is disabled, and has a Family Law Practice, it would put more pressure on the SNP.
I don't necessarily disagree with the point you're making - but the flipside of Alba is it seems to have failed to make much dent in the public consciousness through lack of the oxygen of publicity, and Salmond is one of the few elements that delivers any of that oxygen at all.
Without Salmond Alba don't really look any much more of an SNP alternative than the other fringe indy party (is it ISP? are they still going?).
Well, I saved money by buying a ham - £4.50 in Asda - and cooking it overnight in a slow cooker. It has made the most magnificent ham sandwiches for lunch and I have plenty left over so I am putting some in the fridge and giving the rest to a friend of mine.
Far better than spending £3.00 on grey supermarket sliced hammy pap.
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
Truss says she assumed her mandate would be accepted and respected. There's the conceptual problem, right there. She didn't have a mandate. Her appointment was constitutionally legitimate, but the circumstances were odd and required her to be careful and build trust. She didn't.
Yes, Truss's arrogance was breath taking. She thought she could rip up the economic rulebook and the world would go along with it simply because she was so marvellous. I don't think any British PM, not even Boris, has had such a frightening level of self regard. The nation dodged a massive bullet by flinging her out.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
I have no idea what you are talking about
I think @heathener has mistaken you for @beinndearg and has demonstrated to her satisfaction that she is telling the truth, by no other means than by assertion. Rather weak and pathetic.
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
If I have @Heathener 's real world identity right, I have both read the articles and watched the interviews.
As usual, the pile on this morning was based on "I disagree with what you are saying, so you must be lying" guffery from Beinndearg.
We really would be better without this playground "no you didn't" and"I know you are you said you are but what am I". Won't be long before "your mum" starts being touted as a response to people's real world arguments...
"I've been on telly so I am right" is pretty playground, don't you think?
Looking forward to your usual exceptionally amusing "lady cock" gag about Isla. In my world view people are pretty clearly divided into those who find the thought of women being raped amusing, and those who feel, at the very least, slightly uneasy about it.
Where did Heathener say I've been on telly so that means I'm right? She said she'd been in telly and you said she hadn't. On that she is right and you are wrong.
As for the rest of your foaming it's literally the problem - stupid absolutism. Having posted repeatedly that the trans threat is a massive distraction from the vast majority of men who rape and assualt women whilst dressed as men, it's a leap even for you to assert that I am on the "rape is funny" side of the argument.
Truly a "your mum" response.
What an embarrassingly infantile argument, pure whataboutery and drunk driver fallacy. If I say that a UK tax change unfairly impacts those on £25,000-35,000 a year, do you think it is a useful response to say yebbut that's a massive distraction from the billions of people living on less than $2 per day? Here in grown up land, we can think about more than one thing at once, and here on PB we tend to discuss current political issues. The GRA makes this rather a current political issue in a way that rape in general, or the even wider issue of Eeevul In General, are not.
I don't think regarding individual cases of the rape of women as a "massive distraction" is an improvement on thinking them funny. And please deconstruct the "lady cock" hilarity so as to make it plain to stupid people like me how it is not a "rape is funny" joke.
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
I thought you supported Wales for class/Cornish brotherhood reasons? Leaving aside your celtic name.
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
I thought you supported Wales for class/Cornish brotherhood reasons? Leaving aside your celtic name.
Absolutely not. England!
But I am objective enough to say that England are now an objectively poor team. Or, at best, mediocre
It’s not the coaching. It’s the players. They ain’t very good
Truss says she assumed her mandate would be accepted and respected. There's the conceptual problem, right there. She didn't have a mandate. Her appointment was constitutionally legitimate, but the circumstances were odd and required her to be careful and build trust. She didn't.
Certainly didn't help, but the bottom line is that her plans would have meant borrowing large amounts more money. Not just for one year, but until a combination of spending cuts and economic growth closed the gap again.
And the money people weren't prepared to do that at a price the government could pay. A huge electoral mandate wouldn't have changed that dynamic.
p.s. we call others 'fake' when we are threatened.
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
Or boil exactly what you need. That’s the scientific approach.
Is it very thrifty of me to make gravy from water I've boiled vegetables in? Or just a bit silly?
No, it's how my Mum does it. Vitamin C leaches out of the veggies as they cook, so it is saved by using it for the gravy (apparently - this has not undergone chemicla trials).
Vit C is actually destroyed by boiling, and I'm not sure how much survives in the water . Flavour, though, is another reason to reuse the water, effectively as dilute stock.
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
Bring back Eddie!
Borthwick is so obviously another Stuart Lancaster. He will steer England through a period of dull, quite disappointing averageness. A terrible choice of coach
This summed it up for me:
“Steve Borthwick using wisdom of Gareth Southgate to help shape his England team”
Truss says she assumed her mandate would be accepted and respected. There's the conceptual problem, right there. She didn't have a mandate. Her appointment was constitutionally legitimate, but the circumstances were odd and required her to be careful and build trust. She didn't.
Yes, Truss's arrogance was breath taking. She thought she could rip up the economic rulebook and the world would go along with it simply because she was so marvellous. I don't think any British PM, not even Boris, has had such a frightening level of self regard. The nation dodged a massive bullet by flinging her out.
What rulebook was she ripping up exactly? The orthodox rulebook afaik still says if you overtax, the economy will shrink, as the current Government is demonstrating.
Comments
More practically, how do people handle the retirement thing? I've still got three jobs (charity department head, council executive, translation), none of which are essential to my modest living style. It's nice to be able to give money away, but I'm not sure that's the only meaning of life. But what would I do all day if I stopped? There's a limit to how much time you can spend posting on PB, socialising and playing games.
The obvious answer is to cut back gradually, but a lot of jobs aren't geared for that. Either I'm a department head or I'm not, either I'm charing council committees or I'm not. My general plan is to keep going for another 5 years and then msaybe call it a day. How have other people found the transition?
What a gift for Labour!
I’d be doing by hair, washing the car etc to get away from that one.
I say this because you don't strike me as one of life's retirers. I've got medic friends who have told me tales of perfectly healthy older people who decide to retire, on bad advice, and when they don't need to - who then drop dead out of sheer purposelessness
Of course lots of other people LOVE retirement. Chacun a son gout
Edit to add: my own father is now 88, and really frail, and probably not long for the world. However two things keep him going - and even make him quite cheerful - one is booze (he loves wine and brandy) and the second is work: he still loves to do what he does (and sometimes can still do it very well). Without those he'd have fallen off the perch years ago
For me, the problem is going to be setting up the trust, and the consequential fiduciary obligation. I suspect that this promise that the money would be in a separate fund for a very poorly defined objective will not be sufficient. There are no obvious limits on the Trustee's discretion in determining what is for the greater good of independence and it is not as if the money has been pocketed. My expectation is no proceedings.
On becoming more conservative - any tendencies to read baby roasting recipes?
On retirement - a company I worked for offered the following, years back. The gave people their final salary pension, on early retirement, as if they had gone to 65. They added in a lump sum. And a *contractual* 2 days a week of paid consultancy, advising their successors for 3 years, I think.
The idea was to transfer knowledge, provide a slope down from work to retirement, and for the workaholics, an introduction to part time management consultancy.
Apparently there is a big market for grey beards, in various sectors, to offer sage advice. Review/oversight and the like. Think “Don’t do that, in 1973 *that* nearly collapsed the company”…
We know, and have known, for a long time that there's a major problem with sexual violence against women and girls perpetrated by men, and our progress in tackling this problem has been very poor. Elevating the rights of erstwhile men, above those of women, to increase the risks to women, can very easily seem like the final straw.
It can also seem like an easier problem to tackle first, than the larger problem of the culture in our society that creates so much violence against women and makes it difficult to convict those responsible of that violence.
The case of Mason Greenwood has been troubling me over recent days. He's a young man over whom a large football club have had a strong influence for two-thirds of his life. And yet it's clear that he's adopted a culture that is deeply aggressively misogynistic. What's so wrong with our society that this is so normal?
Not sure why someone would find this difficult to get their head around or describe it as a fable, but there you go. For those of us who a) believe in protecting the environment and b) saving money it's a no brainer.
In many ways it is a life changing decision even for those who do not go for hormones or surgery. Come out as trans and a lot of friends and family will simply reject you. I have known those to whom it happened and it wrecked their social support system. It also used to wreck careers but with the current legal frameworks that might be less common.
I think it would also help to actually define what "trans" means in terms of legal process. The actual word "Trans" seems to have come about from a contraction and blending of transvestite, transsexual and transgender all of which are very different but all of which begin with the word "trans", yet only one of those progresses to surgery and it seems to be a very small number. I did a bit of googling and there are only about three surgeons doing a couple of operations each per week. So let us say they do 4 per week per surgeon, that is 3x4x52 = 624 per year in a country of more than 60 million or around 0.001%
Unsurprisingly the country did not think it was worth paying tens of billions extra per year to give Truss a fair go.
Perhaps the ideal solution would be for her to obliterate from the backbenches what little chance remains of the Tories remaining in government after the next election, and then to take up the reins of power (or chaos) again, in a position where the damage would be limited to her own party.
Authored a major article on it and appeared live, twice, on television. Turned down several other opportunities because I don't like the male bear pit aggression.
It's a nuanced and complex topic and needs to be treated as such.
I would suspect that a fair bit of heat is lost in pouring the water into a cold thermos. A Thermos kettle solves that.
The pity of this is that is impoverishes pb.com. The place is much richer and more interesting when we are not monochromatic and listen to other perspectives, even when they challenge our own (presumably fragile) world views.
The disparity of power between young women with little to offer but their looks and young, extremely fit, men who earn more every week than the girls could aspire to in many years is about as wide as can be imagined. It would take an exceptionally strong moral code not to become transactional about it.
I could send you the links but I don't wish to break my (VPN remember?) anonymity. Ta.
The reality was inevitable given the structure of American college sports. And their racial makeup. And the racial structure of the rest of the student bodies.
In which case they might have lost more support had the other lots (SLAB & LD) not also supported their poorly thought through bill. The problem they have is it’s their bill and they’re the ones being questioned about it, tying themselves in ludicrous knots. The Greens, understandably, have gone to ground, as they make even less sense than the SNP on the matter.
Not sure how Sturgeon gets out of this - a full u-turn will run into the (to borrow TUD’s phrase), spittle flecked fury of the TRAS who are notably unsympathetic to apostates. There is but one faith. There should be no debate.
Well, you’ve got a debate now.
I suspect it will be quietly dropped punted into the long grass like she did with the children’s rights issue two years ago.
Later peeps!
Saw the first three letters and my female brain made the jump.
I was going to point out that the cost of buying the thing would out-do the saving on the energy but thought that might detract from what was essentially a decent and good point. The kind of sensitivity that would perhaps pass you by Malcolm.
Anyway I shall leave you men to your arguments and obsessions about whether or not men or women or not-women have penises and whether or not they are bigger than your own.
Ciao ciao
xx
I retired from full-time work nearly 20 years ago, and from part-time 5 and a bit years later. I’d been busy and fully involved, so I decided I’d stay busy, although not as. I joined the local U3a and became involved in several of its activities, things which ‘I’d never had time to do before’.
I also got involved with various short term local projects.
My wife and I also did some world travelling!
Hope this helps!
Fill a thermos and help save the planet. It'll make you feel good too. And when you're on a pre-payment meter it's especially satisfying.
xx
As I am in my late fifties now I too beginning to think of what to do in retirement. There is only so much gardening and dogwalking possible!
I plan to keep going as long as I enjoy it, and still performing to the right sort of level, though at reduced hours. There is a need to keep mentally and intellectually as well as physically active.
One need is a wide circle of social contact, in person as well as PB, but I think my church and its associated campaigns can do that.
The other need is to do something time consuming and technical with my hands. A colleague with similar experience is taking a course in making musical interests. He reckons it will take him 2 years to make a violin, worth about £8k, so not economic really, but with the right requirement for meticulous absorption.
Does this mean we should have mandatory fox hunting from the age of 8, and animal torture to match? And cancel HS2?
Concerning the debate surrounding the mini-budget, a lot of people, now including Liz and Tom Harwood, are pointing the finger at the energy package as far more responsible for the affect of the mini-budget on the markets than the tax cuts, which only contained £8bn in unexpected cuts. This is something @MoonRabbit rightly pointed out at the time. And it is of course the only part of the budget that there was complete political consensus on. It was a mistake to just go with Labour's idea and not try to minimise Government losses by staggering the package and rewarding thrifty users of energy greater subsidy. This would also have made the 45p look better, as the rich would have paid a lot more to heat their pools etc.
EDIT: there are various devices to find out where you are using your electricity over time. The answers are often surprising. A friend found that he was spending a fortune on an old router modem. Ran quite hot (many are ridiculously inefficient), 24/7
Last week I flew to the moon. I really did. I’m not posting links to prove it ‘cos reasons.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/reality-bites-sturgeon-for-the-crime-of-woke-transgression/news-story
Retired blokes who build steam trains on various scales, basically.
One told me that he was hassled by the wife for going to his back garden workshop. Then he finished his ride-on steam train. Got bored with it in about a week. Sold it for £30k. Took the wife on a top notch cruise.
After that, she hassled him to go back to the shed and build another one….
The subject is only nuanced and complex if you are what we psychologists call stupid. All possible support, encouragement and protection for the trans, safeguards against predatory fakers. The end. where's the complexity?
Do you think dear old Isla is a. Trans or b. not trans?
Is there someone younger than you who could do the job of department head as well? When you do decide to retire, will the charity have someone competent ready to take over?
If these considerations do not apply, then of course continue as long as you wish.
As usual, the pile on this morning was based on "I disagree with what you are saying, so you must be lying" guffery from Beinndearg.
We really would be better without this playground "no you didn't" and"I know you are you said you are but what am I". Won't be long before "your mum" starts being touted as a response to people's real world arguments...
Second, on the header. @TSE says this is temporary and he may be right but, OTOH, I don't see how this issue goes away. It has a strong momentum of its own. In the States, it's been running as a major topic for nearly a decade and still isn't running out of steam. Both sides are entrenched and both have very strongly opinionated and loud advocates. There is an argument for saying it actually accelerates as the generation of teenagers now coming through start to question their identities and that exacerbates the worries of parents who think their children are being indoctrinated.
Re the independence issue, again I'm not sure this is temporary. As we saw with Brexit, people can't deal with the complexities but they decide based on broad, easy to use narratives. "Get independence and you'll have trans predators in your prisons and probably in your schools and safe spaces thereafter". Crude yes but people can easily think that of someone like Sturgeon who is quite inflexible.
Personally, I think Sturgeon has gifted the Unionists a subconscious narrative
that she is willing to going beyond the norm if Scotland becomes independent, which for many people will not be comfortable.
Looking forward to your usual exceptionally amusing "lady cock" gag about Isla. In my world view people are pretty clearly divided into those who find the thought of women being raped amusing, and those who feel, at the very least, slightly uneasy about it.
Smaller is better
https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1622205715468230656
The moment I heard he was remaining at Manchester United, I knew they were in for a dismal few years and I felt great sympathy for his successor.
Not that I know or care about football but I knew straightaway that would never work.
These chaps recommend steaming or nuking anyway:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6049644/
As for the rest of your foaming it's literally the problem - stupid absolutism. Having posted repeatedly that the trans threat is a massive distraction from the vast majority of men who rape and assualt women whilst dressed as men, it's a leap even for you to assert that I am on the "rape is funny" side of the argument.
Truly a "your mum" response.
The resultant liquid is ambrosial. It is also the basis of a remarkable laksa, if you are so inclined
Chinese balloon after being shot down.
"It looks like a giant Wang..."
The bridge at least keeps his mind active, it's also social, as is seeing the grandchildren, and the walking keeps him physically active. That seems like a pretty decent mix.
Some low-key volunteering might be one way to create such a mix, particularly if you don't have family you can be useful to, and in a way where you don't have to commit full-time.
One thing my Grandad said was that he might have been a bit more ambitious if he'd realised he was going to live into and be active well into his nineties. You have the chance to think of a project that might take 10-15 years to pursue, but that you have the resources to commit your time to. What might that be?
The general standard of Councillors is in my opinion so low, that we should support and encourage competent people -- almost irrespective of party label.
A good councillor is a good councillor. They need support.
Without Salmond Alba don't really look any much more of an SNP alternative than the other fringe indy party (is it ISP? are they still going?).
Far better than spending £3.00 on grey supermarket sliced hammy pap.
I wonder if this is the rugby season that England finally lose to Italy. England are at home to Italy next week, and would normally expect to romp to victory
But this England team looks even worse, and more incoherent, than last year. Nervous and weak. Italy are getting better
I am trying to find odds (and failing) - can anyone help?
I don't think regarding individual cases of the rape of women as a "massive distraction" is an improvement on thinking them funny. And please deconstruct the "lady cock" hilarity so as to make it plain to stupid people like me how it is not a "rape is funny" joke.
But I am objective enough to say that England are now an objectively poor team. Or, at best, mediocre
It’s not the coaching. It’s the players. They ain’t very good
And the money people weren't prepared to do that at a price the government could pay. A huge electoral mandate wouldn't have changed that dynamic.
This summed it up for me:
“Steve Borthwick using wisdom of Gareth Southgate to help shape his England team”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/borthwick-southgate-england-six-nations-29077528
Great. The wisdom of a perennial fucking Loser, with an L for Loser on his Losery forehead which is so large it can be seen from Losertown, Louisiana