Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
“Under the last announced schedule, London-Manchester trains will start to run some time between 2035 and 2041, but that timescale could be pushed back yet further, potentially by another four years.”
So it’s gonna be working some time around THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY
By which point we will all be flitting about in self propelled AI autobots that also give blow jobs
What a facile waste of time and money
There is a vanishingly slim chance of it making it to Manchester now in any respect. Unless someone looks at it again in say 50 years time and decides it’s worth throwing some more money at it to try and eke out some marginal benefit. I doubt any of us will still be here to see it open though.
I think you’re all being pessimistic. We’ve now left it so long that the capacity argument alone will end up seeing it over the line, especially if the “red wall” and the Midlands remain a political battleground.
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
This video will be trotted out again and again if he wins. It’s not a great look for him
It's not a great look for the Scottish establishment either.
what that a country which is 96% white has nearly all the establishment being white as well? sure?
Amended to highlight the point Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) was making.
If he was right, it's not a good look for Scotland.
Mr Yousaf is deputy leader (at present). Mr Sarwar is leader of Slab. 6 Asian in 129 MSPs, doesn't seem too bad given the 100 -96 = 4. .
But he was complaining about ohter areas of public life as well.
The latest available census data for 2011 shows 8% of the population of Edinburgh identifying as non-White. That was up from 4% in 2001. We don't know what the most recent census will say. Scotland is changing. No bad thing.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
The best sandwiches in the world are (or were) at Bedales Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market.
Fantastic with a nice bottle of sauv and I'm a burgundy kind of guy.
But (for us in the UK) a bit early for a PB culinary diversion.
How will it play in Kircudbright?
Is it a cheese and ham sandwich? A really good cheese and ham sandwich on proper sourdough is hard to beat. Especially with a nice glass of dryish red wine, as you suggest
But honestly. That bahn mi today. It’s unearthly. The French bread alone is sensational
They sell so many the bread is nearly always warm from the oven next door - they produce thousands every day. It has that perfect soft yet crusty mmmness
Fuck knows what’s in it. Genius
Who hasn't gone to an (artisanal) bakery and walked out with far too many loaves for a, max, one slice a day bread habit just because the bread looks so amazing.
What is it about bread that it looks so must haveable.
The smell delivers the coup de grace. New baked bread - utterly insidious
It is an amazing smell. Supermarkets in America used to pump out a fake “just baked bread” smell simply to get people salivating and buying food
Edit: I see @topping claims this as an urban myth. He may be right. I shall away and google
We put our house on the market last year, just before Liz Truss shafted the property market. We had a few viewings, no real interest and were considering dropping the price. We bake our own bread and I hand grind my own coffee. We had another viewing, and as luck would have it, a loaf was just out out of the oven, I had just brewed a fresh pot of St Martin's Cacao Nib coffee and the log burner was going like a steam train. The women fell in love with the place, and put an offer in that we were happy with pretty much as soon as she got back to her car. I credit the bread and coffee aromas for sealing the deal!
Smell is so important and so underestimated as a human motivator
I believe smell is the first sense that evolved in our ancestors. It connects directly into the limbic system.
I think it was the sticky outside of early organisms used to sense their environment. It has evolved into the inside of our nose.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
I expect the net economic benefits of HS2 in my lifetime to be nil. Or worse.
If they'd built it 25 years ago rather than constantly delaying it, it would have paid for itself twice over by now, and have cost about what they've already spent.
I really do not know what to say about the DfT in particular. Is it possible for even civil servants to be this incompetent for this long?
This goes for almost all large scale infrastructure projects in this country. Between civil service, planners, and most significantly, dithering politicians, we have squandered huge opportunities to borrow and build at low cost over the last two decades.
I do wish I was on the same flight to Amsterdam that Johnson is on right now. Really would like to spend a bit of time with him. ps let’s guess why he is going. 1) a woman? 2) drugs? 3) paid speech? 4) meet a Russian? 5) A visit on behalf of his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat?
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
Think the palace has played the only sensible hand it could really play in that situation.
Refusing to grant the titles looks petty and vindictive and adds more to the grievance pile.
People can now make their own minds up about whether the parents have taken a slightly odd position requiring the titles given their previous statements.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
The 'birthright' bit makes me laugh. I'd never call any of them by titles, not even his old man. I thought he wanted to be a man of the people?
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
The best sandwiches in the world are (or were) at Bedales Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market.
Fantastic with a nice bottle of sauv and I'm a burgundy kind of guy.
But (for us in the UK) a bit early for a PB culinary diversion.
How will it play in Kircudbright?
Is it a cheese and ham sandwich? A really good cheese and ham sandwich on proper sourdough is hard to beat. Especially with a nice glass of dryish red wine, as you suggest
But honestly. That bahn mi today. It’s unearthly. The French bread alone is sensational
They sell so many the bread is nearly always warm from the oven next door - they produce thousands every day. It has that perfect soft yet crusty mmmness
Fuck knows what’s in it. Genius
Who hasn't gone to an (artisanal) bakery and walked out with far too many loaves for a, max, one slice a day bread habit just because the bread looks so amazing.
What is it about bread that it looks so must haveable.
The smell delivers the coup de grace. New baked bread - utterly insidious
It is an amazing smell. Supermarkets in America used to pump out a fake “just baked bread” smell simply to get people salivating and buying food
Edit: I see @topping claims this as an urban myth. He may be right. I shall away and google
We put our house on the market last year, just before Liz Truss shafted the property market. We had a few viewings, no real interest and were considering dropping the price. We bake our own bread and I hand grind my own coffee. We had another viewing, and as luck would have it, a loaf was just out out of the oven, I had just brewed a fresh pot of St Martin's Cacao Nib coffee and the log burner was going like a steam train. The women fell in love with the place, and put an offer in that we were happy with pretty much as soon as she got back to her car. I credit the bread and coffee aromas for sealing the deal!
Smell is so important and so underestimated as a human motivator
I believe smell is the first sense that evolved in our ancestors. It connects directly into the limbic system.
I think it was the sticky outside of early organisms used to sense their environment. It has evolved into the inside of our nose.
Or am I making this all up? I'm not sure.
Bacteria can smell (well, taste, but the same thing at that scale). And move accordingly. So, not making it up.
This video will be trotted out again and again if he wins. It’s not a great look for him
It's not a great look for the Scottish establishment either.
what that a country which is 96% white has nearly all the establishment being white as well? sure?
Amended to highlight the point Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) was making.
If he was right, it's not a good look for Scotland.
Mr Yousaf is deputy leader (at present). Mr Sarwar is leader of Slab. 6 Asian in 129 MSPs, doesn't seem too bad given the 100 -96 = 4. .
But he was complaining about ohter areas of public life as well.
The latest available census data for 2011 shows 8% of the population of Edinburgh identifying as non-White. That was up from 4% in 2001. We don't know what the most recent census will say. Scotland is changing. No bad thing.
Thanks - obviously will be different for Scotland as a whole.
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
My first wife was Indian and her mother used to make Jalfrezi for lunch on Sundays. I'd often rock up later and she'd make me a sandwich out of the leftovers. THAT was the best sandwich ever and it's not a debate. Without a shadow of a doubt it was.
Jalfrezi is the best of the curries, I make them a lot, and never thought about putting it in a sandwich. You have changed my life for the better.
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
The 'birthright' bit makes me laugh. I'd never call any of them by titles, not even his old man. I thought he wanted to be a man of the people?
The victor in the SNP leadership race is very difficult to call as it is using the single transferable vote system, and is therefore likely to be decided by whether the transfers to Forbes on the elimination of Regan, allow Forbes to overtake a Yousaf likely lead in the first round. The transfers will certainly narrow any gap.
My betting is limited to £10 on just under 6 to 1 on a Forbes win placed after the religion related controversy blew up.
I will be using my vote to support Kate Forbes who I believe is the only candidate who just might have the potential to prove a worthy political successor to Sturgeon in eventual popularity. The opposition parties have severely undermined Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) in the eyes of the general electorate, and I feel he is severely undermined by that. Forbes has endorsed that view which is a bold move coupled with her stance on religion. It certainly does not follow a standard political approach.
Either Kate Forbes will prove politically to be a strategic mastermind-or a naive fool :-)
If the SNP suffer a significant setback at the UK General Election, I doubt the SNP Leader would survive, and I would hope that Stephen Flynn would forego his self denying ordinance and then stand for the leadership. I hope that is unnecessary , but I certainly expect him to be leader at some point as he has many years ahead of him in politics, if he should so wish.
I do agree with you about Forbes. It appears to be her vs Yousaf and I can't see how continuity Sturgeon does them any good. A change of approach is needed, one that concentrates on governing first and then using that as justification for independence second. Not crap governance focus on anything but and blame Westminster for your own mess.
Her big problem won't be the church stuff, it will be the right on MPs and MSPs who within their bubble have condemned her and all she stands for. Getting her as their leader would be awkward at best...
Who would have thought we would see an election in which Nicola Sturgeon and Douglas Ross are hoping for the same winner?
FWIW I think Humza will edge it.
I'm a bit surprised by Kate Forbes's approach. After her campaign blew up early on - with MSPs withdrawing support - I thought her next move would be to reassure the doubters. Instead of that, we've seen the Exocet strike on Humza - easily the most memorable event of the campaign - which got all the wrong people cheering, ie, Unionists rather than SNP members. Along the way she has dissed her own Govts record. If Sturgeon et al had become deeply unpopular with their own members that might have made sense - but Nicola is still The Beloved. So I'm not sure that her attempted hostile takeover is really going to succeed.
By TBH,who knows? It's SNP members wer'e talking about here.
I see now further elements of HS2 are going to be delayed. Chances of the line getting itself to Manchester now have to be slim.
The way that the whole thing has been managed has been a national scandal and the government deserves much more flak for it than it gets.
They've already started building the section to Crewe, and completed quite a lot of the work. Delays would probably increase costs, not reduce them.
Are the DfT actually unaware of that? Or are we back to, they're trying to scrap it altogether to appease their paymasters because they prefer other modes of transport?
I think it is too far gone to scrap it altogether, now it’s just neutering it to the extent that any benefit will be marginal to nil.
Rules of big infrastructure projects 101 - build to plan (or as close as realistically achievable) or don’t build it at all. If you want a brilliant high speed rail network connecting the northern cities of the UK and Birmingham to London, great, build it. Don’t green light it and then cut pieces away here and there so as to make the whole thing a waste.
We had a binary decision to spend the money on the new capacity via HS2 or to try to spend it to improve capacity on existing lines (challenging in and of itself but at least worth consideration). That we have actually ended up with neither and just a lot of burning bank notes is absolutely scandalous.
Concorde is the only comparison I can think of. In terms of pitiful failure. At least we shared that with France and the plane itself was cutting-edge and magnificent - something to be proud of. Just a commercial failure
This fiasco is worse
Concorde was known to be a failure quite early in the program.
The original belief/idea was that at sufficiently high speed, the fuel consumption would be outweighed by getting there faster. This turned out to be not true - certainly for Mach 2. Mach 3 flight required too much advanced technology and maintenance.
In addition it was barely had enough for transatlantic flight, let alone longer routes.
Gorgeous machine though.
When I worked on the Heathrow flightpath, people would invariably pause to watch Concorde fly overhead, no matter how many times they must have seen it before. Spitfire and Concorde were perhaps the only planes with almost sensual curves.
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
The 'birthright' bit makes me laugh. I'd never call any of them by titles, not even his old man. I thought he wanted to be a man of the people?
It is a bit weird. Everything about his revelations and opinions about the institution and its impact on him would suggest to me he should be an out and out republican. Hed still be famous and rich as the prince who gave up a title.
I see now further elements of HS2 are going to be delayed. Chances of the line getting itself to Manchester now have to be slim.
The way that the whole thing has been managed has been a national scandal and the government deserves much more flak for it than it gets.
They've already started building the section to Crewe, and completed quite a lot of the work. Delays would probably increase costs, not reduce them.
Are the DfT actually unaware of that? Or are we back to, they're trying to scrap it altogether to appease their paymasters because they prefer other modes of transport?
I think it is too far gone to scrap it altogether, now it’s just neutering it to the extent that any benefit will be marginal to nil.
Rules of big infrastructure projects 101 - build to plan (or as close as realistically achievable) or don’t build it at all. If you want a brilliant high speed rail network connecting the northern cities of the UK and Birmingham to London, great, build it. Don’t green light it and then cut pieces away here and there so as to make the whole thing a waste.
We had a binary decision to spend the money on the new capacity via HS2 or to try to spend it to improve capacity on existing lines (challenging in and of itself but at least worth consideration). That we have actually ended up with neither and just a lot of burning bank notes is absolutely scandalous.
Concorde is the only comparison I can think of. In terms of pitiful failure. At least we shared that with France and the plane itself was cutting-edge and magnificent - something to be proud of. Just a commercial failure
This fiasco is worse
Concorde was known to be a failure quite early in the program.
The original belief/idea was that at sufficiently high speed, the fuel consumption would be outweighed by getting there faster. This turned out to be not true - certainly for Mach 2. Mach 3 flight required too much advanced technology and maintenance.
In addition it was barely had enough for transatlantic flight, let alone longer routes.
I was on its inaugural flight to Barbados and back. Press trip for the Gazette. Superb experience. Cramped, but superb
I used to see it fly in past my house in Barbados on a Saturday morning. I'd hear it first, obviously. Always a beautiful sight.
We were taken out of our junior school classroom to watch a Concorde test flight.
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I see now further elements of HS2 are going to be delayed. Chances of the line getting itself to Manchester now have to be slim.
The way that the whole thing has been managed has been a national scandal and the government deserves much more flak for it than it gets.
They've already started building the section to Crewe, and completed quite a lot of the work. Delays would probably increase costs, not reduce them.
Are the DfT actually unaware of that? Or are we back to, they're trying to scrap it altogether to appease their paymasters because they prefer other modes of transport?
I think it is too far gone to scrap it altogether, now it’s just neutering it to the extent that any benefit will be marginal to nil.
Rules of big infrastructure projects 101 - build to plan (or as close as realistically achievable) or don’t build it at all. If you want a brilliant high speed rail network connecting the northern cities of the UK and Birmingham to London, great, build it. Don’t green light it and then cut pieces away here and there so as to make the whole thing a waste.
We had a binary decision to spend the money on the new capacity via HS2 or to try to spend it to improve capacity on existing lines (challenging in and of itself but at least worth consideration). That we have actually ended up with neither and just a lot of burning bank notes is absolutely scandalous.
Concorde is the only comparison I can think of. In terms of pitiful failure. At least we shared that with France and the plane itself was cutting-edge and magnificent - something to be proud of. Just a commercial failure
This fiasco is worse
Concorde was known to be a failure quite early in the program.
The original belief/idea was that at sufficiently high speed, the fuel consumption would be outweighed by getting there faster. This turned out to be not true - certainly for Mach 2. Mach 3 flight required too much advanced technology and maintenance.
In addition it was barely had enough for transatlantic flight, let alone longer routes.
Gorgeous machine though.
When I worked on the Heathrow flightpath, people would invariably pause to watch Concorde fly overhead, no matter how many times they must have seen it before. Spitfire and Concorde were perhaps the only planes with almost sensual curves.
My father was involved in the production of the Olympus 593 engines for Concorde. He was offered a flight in Concorde but turned it down "because he knew how it was made".
The victor in the SNP leadership race is very difficult to call as it is using the single transferable vote system, and is therefore likely to be decided by whether the transfers to Forbes on the elimination of Regan, allow Forbes to overtake a Yousaf likely lead in the first round. The transfers will certainly narrow any gap.
My betting is limited to £10 on just under 6 to 1 on a Forbes win placed after the religion related controversy blew up.
I will be using my vote to support Kate Forbes who I believe is the only candidate who just might have the potential to prove a worthy political successor to Sturgeon in eventual popularity. The opposition parties have severely undermined Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) in the eyes of the general electorate, and I feel he is severely undermined by that. Forbes has endorsed that view which is a bold move coupled with her stance on religion. It certainly does not follow a standard political approach.
Either Kate Forbes will prove politically to be a strategic mastermind-or a naive fool :-)
If the SNP suffer a significant setback at the UK General Election, I doubt the SNP Leader would survive, and I would hope that Stephen Flynn would forego his self denying ordinance and then stand for the leadership. I hope that is unnecessary , but I certainly expect him to be leader at some point as he has many years ahead of him in politics, if he should so wish.
Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it.
Even if SNP do badly overall he may hold on due to split Unionist vote. Up til 2015 it was held by Labour. 2017-19 it was Tory. You may well see SNP candidates returned in seats like that with vote shares down in the 30s, while losing other constituencies in a straight fight with Labour with more than 40%.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
Aberdeen South is very middle-class so I think you may be right in this instance, with Tory vote declining more than SNP. In the more rural Aberdeenshire seats not sure that will be the case.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Dunno who Mr McG is, myself, I must admit
Did they spell Yes or No wrong?
Spelling 'Yousef' is pretty poor - as is using 'transgenderism' rtather than, say, Gender Recognition Act.
In other words sloppy shit and as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
My first wife was Indian and her mother used to make Jalfrezi for lunch on Sundays. I'd often rock up later and she'd make me a sandwich out of the leftovers. THAT was the best sandwich ever and it's not a debate. Without a shadow of a doubt it was.
Jalfrezi is the best of the curries, I make them a lot, and never thought about putting it in a sandwich. You have changed my life for the better.
PB you've done it again you magnificent madhouse.
For those unable to stomach either chilli or coriander (me), sadly there's no such thing as a best curry. (Substitute cinnamon, allspice and cloves for something that's pretty good.)
“Under the last announced schedule, London-Manchester trains will start to run some time between 2035 and 2041, but that timescale could be pushed back yet further, potentially by another four years.”
So it’s gonna be working some time around THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY
By which point we will all be flitting about in self propelled AI autobots that also give blow jobs
What a facile waste of time and money
I fear what these two Treasury/DfT projects are. One is scrapping OOC - Euston. There's been enough mutterings about that already and they haven't started to dig the tunnels. The other?
Watch them do something totally mental like scrap the connection to the WCML. Which means opening HS2 which runs from a new station in Birmingham to somewhere west of London and literally nothing else. They will scrimp on trains for good measure and order something like the Javelin trains that do 140mph on the 186mph HS1 route.
By the time you connect to a Liz line train it will be slower than the existing route from Birmingham. And ONLY serve Birmingham with no onward connections.
To make it even worse. This is apparently for HS2
I love the plane trees in London - one thing the city does really well compared with Edinburgh.
I can't complain though - we've got Holyrood Park etc.
“Under the last announced schedule, London-Manchester trains will start to run some time between 2035 and 2041, but that timescale could be pushed back yet further, potentially by another four years.”
So it’s gonna be working some time around THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY
By which point we will all be flitting about in self propelled AI autobots that also give blow jobs
What a facile waste of time and money
There is a vanishingly slim chance of it making it to Manchester now in any respect. Unless someone looks at it again in say 50 years time and decides it’s worth throwing some more money at it to try and eke out some marginal benefit. I doubt any of us will still be here to see it open though.
Labour have committed to it and are expected to form the next government in about 18 months' time.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
Aberdeen South is very middle-class so I think you may be right in this instance, with Tory vote declining more than SNP. In the more rural Aberdeenshire seats not sure that will be the case.
Aberdeen South was held by Labour from 1997 to 2015
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I wonder if there's something in the Anglosphere psyche that struggles with projects done for the collective good. Projects like HS2 inevitably mean that some people will be disadvantaged, even though you get a net advantage for the population as a whole. Perhaps Brits and Americans are less tolerant of personal disadvantage for the common good, and so great and expensive effort has to be made not to disadvantage anybody.
This video will be trotted out again and again if he wins. It’s not a great look for him
It's not a great look for the Scottish establishment either.
what that a country which is 96% white has nearly all the establishment being white as well? sure?
Amended to highlight the point Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) was making.
If he was right, it's not a good look for Scotland.
Mr Yousaf is deputy leader (at present). Mr Sarwar is leader of Slab. 6 Asian in 129 MSPs, doesn't seem too bad given the 100 -96 = 4. .
But he was complaining about ohter areas of public life as well.
The latest available census data for 2011 shows 8% of the population of Edinburgh identifying as non-White. That was up from 4% in 2001. We don't know what the most recent census will say. Scotland is changing. No bad thing.
I agree with this decision actually. Archie and Lilibet are 6th and 7th in line to the throne and grandchildren of the King so should be Prince and Princess (even if Princess Anne refused titles for her children when their grandmother was Queen, Harry and Meghan clearly want titles for their children).
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
The 'birthright' bit makes me laugh. I'd never call any of them by titles, not even his old man. I thought he wanted to be a man of the people?
Bunch of parasites, would not even piss on any of them if they were on fire
The latest survey, commissioned by Channel 4 News ahead of its leadership debate on Thursday night, puts Yousaf on 33% and Forbes on 32% when SNP voters were asked who would make the best first minister. Regan is on 10%.
I imagine SNP members will be rather more liberal/left than SNP voters. That should benefit Humza.
The victor in the SNP leadership race is very difficult to call as it is using the single transferable vote system, and is therefore likely to be decided by whether the transfers to Forbes on the elimination of Regan, allow Forbes to overtake a Yousaf likely lead in the first round. The transfers will certainly narrow any gap.
My betting is limited to £10 on just under 6 to 1 on a Forbes win placed after the religion related controversy blew up.
I will be using my vote to support Kate Forbes who I believe is the only candidate who just might have the potential to prove a worthy political successor to Sturgeon in eventual popularity. The opposition parties have severely undermined Yousaf (rightly or wrongly) in the eyes of the general electorate, and I feel he is severely undermined by that. Forbes has endorsed that view which is a bold move coupled with her stance on religion. It certainly does not follow a standard political approach.
Either Kate Forbes will prove politically to be a strategic mastermind-or a naive fool :-)
If the SNP suffer a significant setback at the UK General Election, I doubt the SNP Leader would survive, and I would hope that Stephen Flynn would forego his self denying ordinance and then stand for the leadership. I hope that is unnecessary , but I certainly expect him to be leader at some point as he has many years ahead of him in politics, if he should so wish.
I do agree with you about Forbes. It appears to be her vs Yousaf and I can't see how continuity Sturgeon does them any good. A change of approach is needed, one that concentrates on governing first and then using that as justification for independence second. Not crap governance focus on anything but and blame Westminster for your own mess.
Her big problem won't be the church stuff, it will be the right on MPs and MSPs who within their bubble have condemned her and all she stands for. Getting her as their leader would be awkward at best...
The right on MPs and MSPs could always defect to the Greens …
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Dunno who Mr McG is, myself, I must admit
Did they spell Yes or No wrong?
Spelling 'Yousef' is pretty poor - as is using 'transgenderism' rtather than, say, Gender Recognition Act.
In other words sloppy shit and as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
I’m afraid a few typos don’t render the polling results invalid
The latest survey, commissioned by Channel 4 News ahead of its leadership debate on Thursday night, puts Yousaf on 33% and Forbes on 32% when SNP voters were asked who would make the best first minister. Regan is on 10%.
I imagine SNP members will be rather more liberal/left than SNP voters. That should benefit Humza.
They should hope so, otherwise on those numbers Forbes will win with Regan preferences and become SNP leader and FM despite the overwhelming majority of SNP MSPs and MPs backing Yousaf.
The SNP will thus have their own Liz Truss with Yousaf their Sunak but no provision for MSPs to overturn the members vote later on and topple her
At times like this only Gerard Manley Hopkins can provide solace
Binsey Poplars Gerard Manley Hopkins - 1844-1889
felled 1879
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled, Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun, All felled, felled, are all felled; Of a fresh and following folded rank Not spared, not one That dandled a sandalled Shadow that swam or sank On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank. O if we but knew what we do When we delve or hew— Hack and rack the growing green! Since country is so tender To touch, her being só slender, That, like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye at all, Where we, even where we mean To mend her we end her, When we hew or delve: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been. Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve Strokes of havoc únselve The sweet especial scene, Rural scene, a rural scene, Sweet especial rural scene.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
Aberdeen South is very middle-class so I think you may be right in this instance, with Tory vote declining more than SNP. In the more rural Aberdeenshire seats not sure that will be the case.
If Forbes wins, I would expect a swing away from the SNP to Labour and the Greens in central Scotland. However, the previous swing from the SNP to the Tories in areas such the highlands could be reversed as the SNP moves away from the left and back to the centre. I would expect Alba and the Tories to want a Yousaf win, but Labour to want a Forbes win.
The problem for the poor old SNP is that it's a single issue party that can't deliver on the single issue. The mass membership wants independence yesterday and has no united position on anything else, save for varying degrees of hatred for Unionists, Tories and other such enemies.
In this context, Kate Forbes' complete trashing of her own Government makes sense. Sturgeon has failed so there's real mileage to be made in repudiating her entire platform - along with censoring Yousaf as the continuity candidate. If enough SNP members can be convinced that social and fiscal conservatism might deliver independence, where an era of metropolitan liberalism has failed to budge the Scottish electorate a single inch closer to the Union's exit door than it was in 2014, then they'll drop opposition to drilling for oil, letting anyone who wants to change legal sex do so because they feel like it, and any and everything else that the outgoing First Minister argued for, at the drop of a hat.
There are no good options for the Nats from here. Regan has no chance and she’s mad. Yousaf will alienate moderate/right voters and WHITE PEOPLE
Forbes (surely the best candidate overall) will alienate her own activists and MPs and the Wokerati
I can foresee a split - especially as Indy drifts into the far distance and the Indy-now fundamentalists peel away in anger
Anyone who writes WHITE PEOPLE in ALL CAPS deserves to be alienated.
From what little I know, I hope Regan wins. Purely based on the fact Yousaf seems very left-wing, and Forbes seems mad as a box of frogs, and I know absolutely nothing about Regan so simply have her as a none of the above option.
Your mileage may vary, but I did not find that funny at all.
I get that its mocking Peter as much if not more than Humza, but mocking a Muslim candidate with a fake terrorist/hostage video joke just isn't funny at all to me.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
The station has an utterly charmless little open air 'cider bar' between the Euston Rd and the bus depot. I found myself sat there alone with a tepid flat pint (of cider) one overcast October day in that dead hour between mid afternoon and early evening. The table was shaky, my stool was rather uncomfortable, and there was a chill wind blowing. When we debate 'free will vs determinism' on PB I often think of this.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
The best sandwiches in the world are (or were) at Bedales Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market.
Fantastic with a nice bottle of sauv and I'm a burgundy kind of guy.
But (for us in the UK) a bit early for a PB culinary diversion.
How will it play in Kircudbright?
Is it a cheese and ham sandwich? A really good cheese and ham sandwich on proper sourdough is hard to beat. Especially with a nice glass of dryish red wine, as you suggest
But honestly. That bahn mi today. It’s unearthly. The French bread alone is sensational
They sell so many the bread is nearly always warm from the oven next door - they produce thousands every day. It has that perfect soft yet crusty mmmness
Fuck knows what’s in it. Genius
Who hasn't gone to an (artisanal) bakery and walked out with far too many loaves for a, max, one slice a day bread habit just because the bread looks so amazing.
What is it about bread that it looks so must haveable.
The smell delivers the coup de grace. New baked bread - utterly insidious
Is it an urban myth that they pipe the smell of freshly baked bread in the entrances to supermarkets so that customers are enticed in.
Not an urban myth that it is the best way to sell your house, though - to have the smell of newly baked bread greet your intended purchaser....
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
I know this constituency well as I lived there for many years, but even with new boundary changes I still believe that Stephen Flynn would struggle to hold on to the seat in the event that the SNP did suffer a significant setback at the next GE. Angus Robertson was the then SNP Westminster Leader when he lost his Moray seat to Douglas Ross in 2017, and he had an arguable much higher profile than Flynn does now as the current Westminster Leader. Part of the reason he won the seat was due to anti Boris/Brexit tactical voting at a time when Jeremy Corybyn was Labour leader.
There is also a risk that the next GE might see some voters using it as a midterm report on the current SNP/SGreen coalition at Holyrood with a new FM tackling a intray of growing scandals, and that also depends on the current coalition surviving a SNP leader and FM. Add to that the new SNP/SLibdem city council are facing a lot of anger with the cuts they are imposing right now.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
The station has an utterly charmless little open air 'cider bar' between the Euston Rd and the bus depot. I found myself sat there alone with a tepid flat pint (of cider) one overcast October day in that dead hour between mid afternoon and early evening. The table was shaky, my stool was rather uncomfortable, and there was a chill wind blowing. When we debate 'free will vs determinism' on PB I often think of this.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
The station has an utterly charmless little open air 'cider bar' between the Euston Rd and the bus depot. I found myself sat there alone with a tepid flat pint (of cider) one overcast October day in that dead hour between mid afternoon and early evening. The table was shaky, my stool was rather uncomfortable, and there was a chill wind blowing. When we debate 'free will vs determinism' on PB I often think of this.
Yes everything about the modern Euston is catastrophic. The stumpy towers. The stupid arrangement of platforms. The bleak little piazzas. The taxi rank system. The way it doesn’t actually connect with Euston Square station. The shitty bus routes. Everything
The one good thing was the noble plane trees. Now felled for HS2
Honestly, Londoners don’t deserve London. A magnificent world city which we seem determined to ruin
Emmanuel Macron will reject any demands from Britain for a returns agreement for cross-Channel migrants amid mounting tensions over mass migration in the EU.
Rishi Sunak will travel to Paris tomorrow for a summit with the French president where they will discuss small boats, Brexit and defence.
Britain hopes to secure a long-term deal with the EU to return illegal immigrants who cross the English Channel. In exchange the UK would accept refugees from the EU.
However, government sources have played down the likelihood of any agreement during the Paris summit amid concerns because it would require EU-wide agreement.
I see now further elements of HS2 are going to be delayed. Chances of the line getting itself to Manchester now have to be slim.
The way that the whole thing has been managed has been a national scandal and the government deserves much more flak for it than it gets.
They've already started building the section to Crewe, and completed quite a lot of the work. Delays would probably increase costs, not reduce them.
Are the DfT actually unaware of that? Or are we back to, they're trying to scrap it altogether to appease their paymasters because they prefer other modes of transport?
I think it is too far gone to scrap it altogether, now it’s just neutering it to the extent that any benefit will be marginal to nil.
Rules of big infrastructure projects 101 - build to plan (or as close as realistically achievable) or don’t build it at all. If you want a brilliant high speed rail network connecting the northern cities of the UK and Birmingham to London, great, build it. Don’t green light it and then cut pieces away here and there so as to make the whole thing a waste.
We had a binary decision to spend the money on the new capacity via HS2 or to try to spend it to improve capacity on existing lines (challenging in and of itself but at least worth consideration). That we have actually ended up with neither and just a lot of burning bank notes is absolutely scandalous.
Concorde is the only comparison I can think of. In terms of pitiful failure. At least we shared that with France and the plane itself was cutting-edge and magnificent - something to be proud of. Just a commercial failure
This fiasco is worse
Concorde was known to be a failure quite early in the program.
The original belief/idea was that at sufficiently high speed, the fuel consumption would be outweighed by getting there faster. This turned out to be not true - certainly for Mach 2. Mach 3 flight required too much advanced technology and maintenance.
In addition it was barely had enough for transatlantic flight, let alone longer routes.
Gorgeous machine though.
One of the kids I went to school with, had this interesting back story.
Dad as a very young engineer at Farnborough wrote a paper outlining the problems (above). Instead he suggested that UK and France collaborate on building a huge subsonic airliner - 500 seat IIRC - for mass air travel.
The paper caused a bit of a stir inside the system. It was suppressed and he was black balled as a trouble maker by a senior civil servant working for a certain pipe smoking politician. He ended up going to the US and working for NASA.
A few years later, the civil servant in question tried to get a job in the US. The engineer at NASA got a visit from the FBI - clearance stuff, since he had worked with him.
He took a great deal of delight in explaining the "left wing views" of said civil servant and his bestie, the pipe smoking minister.
And you believed him?…
His dad had a conversation with my dad -social thing.
It started with a discussion of life in America - my dad was an emigre to and from there, and was wondering why a British engineer had spent a chunk of his working life over there.
Your mileage may vary, but I did not find that funny at all.
I get that its mocking Peter as much if not more than Humza, but mocking a Muslim candidate with a fake terrorist/hostage video joke just isn't funny at all to me.
The problem with that guy is that he’s just not funny. I’ve seen some of his other videos. Cringe
And it’s not like he lacks for material in Scottish politics.
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I wonder if there's something in the Anglosphere psyche that struggles with projects done for the collective good. Projects like HS2 inevitably mean that some people will be disadvantaged, even though you get a net advantage for the population as a whole. Perhaps Brits and Americans are less tolerant of personal disadvantage for the common good, and so great and expensive effort has to be made not to disadvantage anybody.
Or maybe our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals?
It's a bit too close to 'national character' musing for me though.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
The station has an utterly charmless little open air 'cider bar' between the Euston Rd and the bus depot. I found myself sat there alone with a tepid flat pint (of cider) one overcast October day in that dead hour between mid afternoon and early evening. The table was shaky, my stool was rather uncomfortable, and there was a chill wind blowing. When we debate 'free will vs determinism' on PB I often think of this.
I love the plane trees in London - one thing the city does really well compared with Edinburgh.
I can't complain though - we've got Holyrood Park etc.
Princes Street Gardens.
Where they cut down all the trees...
Though speaking to a friend who works for Museums Scotland, the real scandal was the destruction of the Georgian masonry and landscaping.
At least HS2 is a big national investment, and the Plane Trees will one day come back. Princes Street gardens was wrecked for the Christmas market.
"all the trees" is also a considerable exaggeration. If you are talking about PSG as a whole. Not the bit high up between the Mound and the Scott Monument.
Edit: not that I am impressed, either - far from it.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Dunno who Mr McG is, myself, I must admit
Did they spell Yes or No wrong?
Spelling 'Yousef' is pretty poor - as is using 'transgenderism' rtather than, say, Gender Recognition Act.
In other words sloppy shit and as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
I’m afraid a few typos don’t render the polling results invalid
Well without knowing the wording , if they are that sloppy I would expect teh questions are just as sloppy.
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
The station has an utterly charmless little open air 'cider bar' between the Euston Rd and the bus depot. I found myself sat there alone with a tepid flat pint (of cider) one overcast October day in that dead hour between mid afternoon and early evening. The table was shaky, my stool was rather uncomfortable, and there was a chill wind blowing. When we debate 'free will vs determinism' on PB I often think of this.
Yes everything about the modern Euston is catastrophic. The stumpy towers. The stupid arrangement of platforms. The bleak little piazzas. The taxi rank system. The way it doesn’t actually connect with Euston Square station. The shitty bus routes. Everything
The one good thing was the noble plane trees. Now felled for HS2
Honestly, Londoners don’t deserve London. A magnificent world city which we seem determined to ruin
Plus to cap it all lots of people hanging about on the concourse in pretty bad shape - and I don't mean because their train is delayed. Still, it's part of a great city to have its blemishes.
For lunch today I had a sandwich. But it wasn’t just any old sandwich. The sandwich I had has been claimed by some to be “the best sandwich in the world”
Not just “tasty”. Or “really nice sarnie”. Or “a damn good sandwich if you’re in the area”
No. The actual BEST SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
It was the mixed bahn mi from here. Bahn Mi Phuong, Hoi An
And you know what? They might be right. It is incredible
The best sandwiches in the world are (or were) at Bedales Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market.
Fantastic with a nice bottle of sauv and I'm a burgundy kind of guy.
But (for us in the UK) a bit early for a PB culinary diversion.
How will it play in Kircudbright?
Is it a cheese and ham sandwich? A really good cheese and ham sandwich on proper sourdough is hard to beat. Especially with a nice glass of dryish red wine, as you suggest
But honestly. That bahn mi today. It’s unearthly. The French bread alone is sensational
They sell so many the bread is nearly always warm from the oven next door - they produce thousands every day. It has that perfect soft yet crusty mmmness
Fuck knows what’s in it. Genius
Who hasn't gone to an (artisanal) bakery and walked out with far too many loaves for a, max, one slice a day bread habit just because the bread looks so amazing.
What is it about bread that it looks so must haveable.
The smell delivers the coup de grace. New baked bread - utterly insidious
It is an amazing smell. Supermarkets in America used to pump out a fake “just baked bread” smell simply to get people salivating and buying food
Edit: I see @topping claims this as an urban myth. He may be right. I shall away and google
We put our house on the market last year, just before Liz Truss shafted the property market. We had a few viewings, no real interest and were considering dropping the price. We bake our own bread and I hand grind my own coffee. We had another viewing, and as luck would have it, a loaf was just out out of the oven, I had just brewed a fresh pot of St Martin's Cacao Nib coffee and the log burner was going like a steam train. The women fell in love with the place, and put an offer in that we were happy with pretty much as soon as she got back to her car. I credit the bread and coffee aromas for sealing the deal!
Smell is so important and so underestimated as a human motivator
I believe smell is the first sense that evolved in our ancestors. It connects directly into the limbic system.
I think it was the sticky outside of early organisms used to sense their environment. It has evolved into the inside of our nose.
Or am I making this all up? I'm not sure.
Probably hard to prove, but plausible. Going back to the first fossilised life, we surely have the tiniest scrap of the diversity of life that was present, as it depends on what, by chance, fossilised. And even with things like the Burgess Shales and other such lagerstatte we see impressions of the tissues, but who knows what senses were available to the creatures. As all were water based, smell is the obvious choice.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
Aberdeen South is very middle-class so I think you may be right in this instance, with Tory vote declining more than SNP. In the more rural Aberdeenshire seats not sure that will be the case.
If Forbes wins, I would expect a swing away from the SNP to Labour and the Greens in central Scotland. However, the previous swing from the SNP to the Tories in areas such the highlands could be reversed as the SNP moves away from the left and back to the centre. I would expect Alba and the Tories to want a Yousaf win, but Labour to want a Forbes win.
Agreed, hence the pitch that Kate Forbes has been making in SNP leadership hustings and her promise to ditch some very unpopular current SNP/SGreen policies that Humza Yousaf is vowing to continue.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
"I know this constituency well as I lived there for many years, but even with new boundary changes I still believe that Stephen Flynn would struggle to hold on to the seat in the event that the SNP did suffer a significant setback at the next GE. Angus Robertson was the then SNP Westminster Leader when he lost his Moray seat to Douglas Ross in 2017, and he had an arguable much higher profile than Flynn does now as the current Westminster Leader. Part of the reason he won the seat was due to anti Boris/Brexit tactical voting at a time when Jeremy Corybyn was Labour leader.
There is also a risk that the next GE might see some voters using it as a midterm report on the current SNP/SGreen coalition at Holyrood with a new FM tackling a intray of growing scandals, and that also depends on the current coalition surviving a SNP leader and FM. Add to that the new SNP/SLibdem city council are facing a lot of anger with the cuts they are imposing right now."
One thing I would accept about Aberdeen South (boundary changes many of course) is that it can be an extraordinary difficult seat to predict. I remember an old school friend of mine, Gerry Malone, won the seat for the Tories in 1983 after the sitting Tory, Ian Sproat, thought he could not hold it and moved to Roxburgh etc. where he was defeated :-)
That said, Angus Robertson lost the most Brexity seat in Scotland, Moray. Aberdeen South is not like that. I cannot imagine that council or even Holyrood situation will dominate GE issues. I expect the bookies will support my view nearer the time that the likely result here is an SNP hold.
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
Considering who is on the board of the BBC, it would have been comedy gold to watch Robin Gibb, Tim Davie and Richard Sharp fire Lineker for being political. Which rather renders these Tory hack appointees useless, doesn't it?
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
Considering who is on the board of the BBC, it would have been comedy gold to watch Robin Gibb, Tim Davie and Richard Sharp fire Lineker for being political. Which rather renders these Tory hack appointees useless, doesn't it?
It's Dick Dastardly / Sylvester Sneekly levels of incompetent evil.
I'm loathe to restart the cycling fracas we had a few days ago, but the sentencing remarks have been published in relation to the pedestrian v elderly cyclist thing:
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I wonder if there's something in the Anglosphere psyche that struggles with projects done for the collective good. Projects like HS2 inevitably mean that some people will be disadvantaged, even though you get a net advantage for the population as a whole. Perhaps Brits and Americans are less tolerant of personal disadvantage for the common good, and so great and expensive effort has to be made not to disadvantage anybody.
Or maybe our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals?
It's a bit too close to 'national character' musing for me though.
Would you say our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals is part of our national character? No, Feersum is exactly right. If you don't want to call it national character, call it political culture, because it's certainly the case that the Anglosphere is amongst the most individualistic political cultures in the world.
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
5'9" apparently. Which isn't very tall but not tiny. Maybe he was further away from you than you realised?
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
177.2cm, Google tells me. The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
1950-60s urban planners and 1950-60s architects, you will be amazed to hear
On the upside the grotesque destruction of Euston Arch (ordained by then PM Harold Macmillan, I believe) was so egregious and contentious it birthed the Preservation movements, which in turn led to Covent Garden being saved, and Whitehall, etc
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
A party leader backed by the party's members but not its representatives in Parliament
Difference is that Ms Truss was not at all popular with the actual voters.
She was doing OK for her first fortnight, as might Forbes
You mean during the period between the death of the Queen and her funeral when she was saying and doing nothing
A successful and popular approach many PMs would do well to follow at other times too.
Although Sunak keeps getting criticized for doing this.
Fair point, though saving himself up for two big themes can be jarring when one is 'let's work together for a better future' and the other is 'f*ck the law, stop them boats! '
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
Rejoice in that news! The BBC will not be sacking a sports reporter for criticizing the government on his own time.
Best for the Tories to move on, I think. What will their next cunning PR plan be, after the nurses and Gary Lineker? Why not pick a fight with David Attenborough?
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I wonder if there's something in the Anglosphere psyche that struggles with projects done for the collective good. Projects like HS2 inevitably mean that some people will be disadvantaged, even though you get a net advantage for the population as a whole. Perhaps Brits and Americans are less tolerant of personal disadvantage for the common good, and so great and expensive effort has to be made not to disadvantage anybody.
Or maybe our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals?
It's a bit too close to 'national character' musing for me though.
Would you say our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals is part of our national character? No, Feersum is exactly right. If you don't want to call it national character, call it political culture, because it's certainly the case that the Anglosphere is amongst the most individualistic political cultures in the world.
On a 'collectivist to individualist' spectrum is our socio-political culture here in 2023 further to the latter than most? Probably so. I wouldn't have too much of a problem with a statement like that.
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
5'9" apparently. Which isn't very tall but not tiny. Maybe he was further away from you than you realised?
Maybe he just projects an image of tinyness, hence his success in the six yard box, evading big defenders
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
1950-60s urban planners and 1950-60s architects, you will be amazed to hear
On the upside the grotesque destruction of Euston Arch (ordained by then PM Harold Macmillan, I believe) was so egregious and contentious it birthed the Preservation movements, which in turn led to Covent Garden being saved, and Whitehall, etc
We're going to make ourselves a laughing stock. Build high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere that isn't high speed. At a gargantuan cost which France / Spain / Germany etc would have done at a fraction of the cost in half the time.
Global Britain at its finest!
The LA / SF high sped rail is still the global leader for total and utter f##k ups. The funding was even tied to the ability to run trains at speeds that aren't possible and that's before a whole load of totally pointless rerouting to go through towns that various vested interested demanded (but only slowed the main point of the line).
I wonder if there's something in the Anglosphere psyche that struggles with projects done for the collective good. Projects like HS2 inevitably mean that some people will be disadvantaged, even though you get a net advantage for the population as a whole. Perhaps Brits and Americans are less tolerant of personal disadvantage for the common good, and so great and expensive effort has to be made not to disadvantage anybody.
Or maybe our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals?
It's a bit too close to 'national character' musing for me though.
Would you say our attraction to bumbling amateurs over bloodless professionals is part of our national character? No, Feersum is exactly right. If you don't want to call it national character, call it political culture, because it's certainly the case that the Anglosphere is amongst the most individualistic political cultures in the world.
On a 'collectivist to individualist' spectrum is our socio-political culture here in 2023 further to the latter than most? Probably so. I wouldn't have too much of a problem with a statement like that.
Here in 2023, but also, I would also say that was true at any point in history over at least the last 400 years. Though I have put, what, three minutes thought into this so if you have counterexamples I will be interested to consider them.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
Every bit as easy as "Cholmondley," "Slaithwaite," or "Worcestershire".
Comments
However correctly the Palace still doesn't add HRH to their titles of Prince and Princess as their parents are not working royals
I think it was the sticky outside of early organisms used to sense their environment. It has evolved into the inside of our nose.
Or am I making this all up? I'm not sure.
We can ask the el salvadoreans to build the jail. They’re good at it
Between civil service, planners, and most significantly, dithering politicians, we have squandered huge opportunities to borrow and build at low cost over the last two decades.
I do wish I was on the same flight to Amsterdam that Johnson is on right now. Really would like to spend a bit of time with him. ps let’s guess why he is going. 1) a woman? 2) drugs? 3) paid speech? 4) meet a Russian? 5) A visit on behalf of his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat?
https://twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1633805053562695680
Refusing to grant the titles looks petty and vindictive and adds more to the grievance pile.
People can now make their own minds up about whether the parents have taken a slightly odd position requiring the titles given their previous statements.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC94809/
PB you've done it again you magnificent madhouse.
FWIW I think Humza will edge it.
I'm a bit surprised by Kate Forbes's approach. After her campaign blew up early on - with MSPs withdrawing support - I thought her next move would be to reassure the doubters. Instead of that, we've seen the Exocet strike on Humza - easily the most memorable event of the campaign - which got all the wrong people cheering, ie, Unionists rather than SNP members. Along the way she has dissed her own Govts record. If Sturgeon et al had become deeply unpopular with their own members that might have made sense - but Nicola is still The Beloved. So I'm not sure that her attempted hostile takeover is really going to succeed.
By TBH,who knows? It's SNP members wer'e talking about here.
Next, the novice agility competition.
"Stephen Flynn's Aberdeen South seat has changed hands at ever GE in the last thirteen years, if the SNP do suffer a significant setback at the next UK GE I think he will would struggle to hold it."
It is true that Flynn has a majority of 3990 but that majority is over the Conservatives, a party whose support in Scotland looks more vulnerable than that of the SNP, I would strongly suggest. Even a major swing to Labour (4th with 3,834 votes v SNP 20,388) is unlikely to be sufficient to defeat Flynn.
Given his current ne position as Westminster Leader, and his well regarded performance in that role, I do not anticipate a Flynn defeat in the next General Election.
https://twitter.com/Seveerity/status/1633546192834396160
(Substitute cinnamon, allspice and cloves for something that's pretty good.)
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
I can't complain though - we've got Holyrood Park etc.
Mark McGeoghegan | My Journey from #NoToYes.
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
FFS - I thought the journey was meant to be quicker? Even I could walk it in four years.
Where they cut down all the trees...
The SNP will thus have their own Liz Truss with Yousaf their Sunak but no provision for MSPs to overturn the members vote later on and topple her
Binsey Poplars
Gerard Manley Hopkins - 1844-1889
felled 1879
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew—
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc únselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
😢😢
Worth a look - just make sure you don't have a hot beverage in hand.
https://twitter.com/shiny02/status/1633514788071383055
In this context, Kate Forbes' complete trashing of her own Government makes sense. Sturgeon has failed so there's real mileage to be made in repudiating her entire platform - along with censoring Yousaf as the continuity candidate. If enough SNP members can be convinced that social and fiscal conservatism might deliver independence, where an era of metropolitan liberalism has failed to budge the Scottish electorate a single inch closer to the Union's exit door than it was in 2014, then they'll drop opposition to drilling for oil, letting anyone who wants to change legal sex do so because they feel like it, and any and everything else that the outgoing First Minister argued for, at the drop of a hat.
But stays in the lead for only minutes, Skidaddle taking the prize as the final Medium competitor
From what little I know, I hope Regan wins. Purely based on the fact Yousaf seems very left-wing, and Forbes seems mad as a box of frogs, and I know absolutely nothing about Regan so simply have her as a none of the above option.
I get that its mocking Peter as much if not more than Humza, but mocking a Muslim candidate with a fake terrorist/hostage video joke just isn't funny at all to me.
There is also a risk that the next GE might see some voters using it as a midterm report on the current SNP/SGreen coalition at Holyrood with a new FM tackling a intray of growing scandals, and that also depends on the current coalition surviving a SNP leader and FM. Add to that the new SNP/SLibdem city council are facing a lot of anger with the cuts they are imposing right now.
https://twitter.com/Seveerity/status/1633546192834396160 Also, gin vs gym.
Though a Gin Gym might be a fine thing.
The one good thing was the noble plane trees. Now felled for HS2
Honestly, Londoners don’t deserve London. A magnificent world city which we seem determined to ruin
Rishi Sunak will travel to Paris tomorrow for a summit with the French president where they will discuss small boats, Brexit and defence.
Britain hopes to secure a long-term deal with the EU to return illegal immigrants who cross the English Channel. In exchange the UK would accept refugees from the EU.
However, government sources have played down the likelihood of any agreement during the Paris summit amid concerns because it would require EU-wide agreement.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/macron-payments-france-uk-small-boats-crisis-2023-wxmt98zjb
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It started with a discussion of life in America - my dad was an emigre to and from there, and was wondering why a British engineer had spent a chunk of his working life over there.
And it’s not like he lacks for material in Scottish politics.
It's a bit too close to 'national character' musing for me though.
At least HS2 is a big national investment, and the Plane Trees will one day come back. Princes Street gardens was wrecked for the Christmas market.
Edit: not that I am impressed, either - far from it.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
NEW: The BBC has BACKED Gary Lineker over tweets comparing the government's new anti-small boats plan to 1930s Germany. He won't be fired or face disciplinary action
https://twitter.com/hoffman_noa/status/1633795360664453124
But Conservative MPs feel they haven't shot themselves in the foot enough...
https://twitter.com/hoffman_noa/status/1633810685154021376
"I know this constituency well as I lived there for many years, but even with new boundary changes I still believe that Stephen Flynn would struggle to hold on to the seat in the event that the SNP did suffer a significant setback at the next GE. Angus Robertson was the then SNP Westminster Leader when he lost his Moray seat to Douglas Ross in 2017, and he had an arguable much higher profile than Flynn does now as the current Westminster Leader. Part of the reason he won the seat was due to anti Boris/Brexit tactical voting at a time when Jeremy Corybyn was Labour leader.
There is also a risk that the next GE might see some voters using it as a midterm report on the current SNP/SGreen coalition at Holyrood with a new FM tackling a intray of growing scandals, and that also depends on the current coalition surviving a SNP leader and FM. Add to that the new SNP/SLibdem city council are facing a lot of anger with the cuts they are imposing right now."
One thing I would accept about Aberdeen South (boundary changes many of course) is that it can be an extraordinary difficult seat to predict. I remember an old school friend of mine, Gerry Malone, won the seat for the Tories in 1983 after the sitting Tory, Ian Sproat, thought he could not hold it and moved to Roxburgh etc. where he was defeated :-)
That said, Angus Robertson lost the most Brexity seat in Scotland, Moray. Aberdeen South is not like that. I cannot imagine that council or even Holyrood situation will dominate GE issues. I expect the bookies will support my view nearer the time that the likely result here is an SNP hold.
https://rozenberg.substack.com/p/why-grey-got-three-years
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
No, Feersum is exactly right. If you don't want to call it national character, call it political culture, because it's certainly the case that the Anglosphere is amongst the most individualistic political cultures in the world.
The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
On the upside the grotesque destruction of Euston Arch (ordained by then PM Harold Macmillan, I believe) was so egregious and contentious it birthed the Preservation movements, which in turn led to Covent Garden being saved, and Whitehall, etc