Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
There isn't 'no' controversy - there is a huge controversy over the US rightly banning GOF research in its own territory on safety grounds, and then choosing to continue that research covertly in foreign countries, without public knowledge and democratic accountability in those host countries, added to which, it chose to do so in countries like China, which was a deeply unsuitable partner for this sort of research, to put it mildly.
However, none of that is pertinent to this conversation, which is that a PBer tried to make a funny out of the very concept that there were US biolabs in Ukraine, when the presence of US biolabs in Ukraine is an admitted fact.
You were the one saying “bioweapons labs” - which makes you a genuine idiot.
Boris Johnson “squared up” to the future King after Charles privately branded the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme “appalling”, a key aide to the former prime minister has revealed.
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s director of communications in Downing Street, said the pair had a “showdown” at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kigali, after the King’s views on the Rwanda policy were reported in The Times.
“They did have a bit of a showdown,” Harri told LBC, “for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was an extremely popular [and] a very central government policy on the eve of the two of them going to the very place of the heart of the story: Rwanda.”
“It wasn’t a fight. But Boris rightly challenged the unelected royal at the time. What was it for him to sort of go calling a key government policy ‘appalling’?”
Harri said Charles appeared to deny making the remarks, leading Johnson to suggest that if the report was untrue, Buckingham Palace could have denied it — something it chose not to do.
“Prince Charles was busted,” Harri told the Daily Mail. “He had obviously expressed some criticism and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all’.”
The revelation is to appear in a new podcast about Harri’s time in Downing Street, called Unprecedented, which is due to be released on Thursday. It will also cover the prime minister’s views on the partygate investigator Sue Gray, who Harri says was dubbed “Psycho Sue” and Johnson perceived as biased against him.
The monarch is meant to be above politics, this is a short step from refusing give royal assent.
He wasn't king at the time of course (I've just twigged), so we've all wasted a lot of typing on a misapprehension.
And of course, expressing an opinion privately is nothing whatsoever like refusing to give royal assent. I very much doubt that the monarch has that power anyway these days - or has had it for several generations (or perhaps centuries).
No, he just gets the legislation bits changed in advance. See the Guardian, Slab attacks on SNP, etc. ad libitum in recent years.
I must confess, I do enjoy taking the piss out of nationalism, and let's face it, the biggest nationalism joke at the moment is the Scottish variety. I recognise it is somewhat dark humour because there isn't really much to joke about a philosophy that is based on who you are not, and by extension the dislike or hatred of "the others". I could, if you prefer (as I am half English) use the term "Scotch" because according to one very bitter poster on here that is what all English people refer to folk that are north of that somewhat artificial border.
The difference in the nationalisms, to me, is that Scottish Nationalism is largely about self determination. There are a few anti English elements among that. One used to post here. But it is mainly self determination.
English nationalism is a far uglier thing as it is the domain of the hard right. Maybe that is because the centre ground has ceded nationalism/patriotism to them apart from when there is a soccer competition
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
There isn't 'no' controversy - there is a huge controversy over the US rightly banning GOF research in its own territory on safety grounds, and then choosing to continue that research covertly in foreign countries, without public knowledge and democratic accountability in those host countries, added to which, it chose to do so in countries like China, which was a deeply unsuitable partner for this sort of research, to put it mildly.
However, none of that is pertinent to this conversation, which is that a PBer tried to make a funny out of the very concept that there were US biolabs in Ukraine, when the presence of US biolabs in Ukraine is an admitted fact.
You were the one saying “bioweapons labs” - which makes you a genuine idiot.
Somoene posting that could instead be a disingenuous non-idiot, to be fair.
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
"facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine"
And here's your issue. There are no such *facts*. There are biolabs, as I pointed out, but that does not equate to bioweapons labs.
Sadly, you are yet again spouting Russian lies. It was sick when you did it over MH17; you evidently are no less gullible than you were.
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
I think there's a fairly basic misunderstanding going on anyway. A bio research lab is not the same as a bioweapons research lab. He is using the terms interchangeably. The research in these and many other labs is into plant and animal diseases for the purposes of public health and agriculture.
Russia has quite cleverly seized on this apparent ambiguity to conflate the two, hence now we get right wing conspiracy theorists in the US and elsewhere just casually appending the word "weapons" to bio.
The last (pro-US) article posted here by someone about it referred very specifically to chemical and biological weapons being part of the programme, in the context of the US helping Ukraine look after its post-Soviet weapons haul.
There is really no confusion here. I haven't made any moral judgements about the Ukraine labs, I have simply restated the bare facts. It should be possible for anyone with intelligence to conclude both that Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine, and that the US may have been wrong to use Ukraine and other countries for dangerous research - the two views are not mutually exclusive.
I expect others have commented on the R+W poll already (I've been mostly offline for a couple of days), but the sample date of Sunday almost certainly reflects good news stories for the LibDems (local election breakthroughs in many areas) and Tories (Sunak and Mordaunt performing well at the coronation). I suspect an average lead of 15 points is more likely in the next few polls.
Well done by the way for the latest step on your political comeback. Next stop but one Downing Street.
I think I may now wind down chance of Greens beating Labour MPs in Bristols after what happened in Brighton.
I’ve been offline too. Went to the Coronation. It was history in the making, having anointing Kings for thousands of years, and this time I was part of it. It was brilliant.
Once you are 100% soaked it’s scientifically impossible to get any wetter, but you can get to feel lot colder, so when we got back we had hot bath together, but instead of sensibly going to bed I was so pumped up I watched it all on television, BBC and Sky. Sky was a million times better, in UHD and commentary. And then I was still watching the alarm I set went off Sunday because we had people coming to party in the flat and I had to go into kitchen and make stuff. And after all the drinking and dancing and days with no sleep I could hardly wake up yesterday, I was proper trashed.
Fabulous! Best weekend ever. 🥳
While we were waiting for the cozza to start there were republicans there turning up to protest and I did have a proper ding dong with some of them, not any of the faces now in papers. I don’t know what happened to mine they just disappeared. Went home to rethink why they got it so wrong they were nibbled into submission by a rabbit I suspect. Lols
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
Boris Johnson “squared up” to the future King after Charles privately branded the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme “appalling”, a key aide to the former prime minister has revealed.
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s director of communications in Downing Street, said the pair had a “showdown” at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kigali, after the King’s views on the Rwanda policy were reported in The Times.
“They did have a bit of a showdown,” Harri told LBC, “for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was an extremely popular [and] a very central government policy on the eve of the two of them going to the very place of the heart of the story: Rwanda.”
“It wasn’t a fight. But Boris rightly challenged the unelected royal at the time. What was it for him to sort of go calling a key government policy ‘appalling’?”
Harri said Charles appeared to deny making the remarks, leading Johnson to suggest that if the report was untrue, Buckingham Palace could have denied it — something it chose not to do.
“Prince Charles was busted,” Harri told the Daily Mail. “He had obviously expressed some criticism and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all’.”
The revelation is to appear in a new podcast about Harri’s time in Downing Street, called Unprecedented, which is due to be released on Thursday. It will also cover the prime minister’s views on the partygate investigator Sue Gray, who Harri says was dubbed “Psycho Sue” and Johnson perceived as biased against him.
The monarch is meant to be above politics, this is a short step from refusing give royal assent.
He wasn't king at the time of course (I've just twigged), so we've all wasted a lot of typing on a misapprehension.
And of course, expressing an opinion privately is nothing whatsoever like refusing to give royal assent. I very much doubt that the monarch has that power anyway these days - or has had it for several generations (or perhaps centuries).
I’ve heard it said that the late Queen commented on a number of policies to various PMs in her weekly chats. The general line seemed to be that she had an eye for spotting the really bad ideas.
Imagine being the PM in recent years, and having someone with 60+ years experience of government and world affairs, with whom you could bounce ideas in total confidence on a regular basis.
Invaluable advice, from an irreplaceable individual.
And utterly squandered by a succession of completely useless PMs
The total capitalization of London-listed equities fell from a high of $4.3 trillion in 2007 to about $3 trillion in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the same period, the value of US stocks more than doubled to $43 trillion.
Someone will make a lot of money out of the transition to 'green' energy. Probably the Chinese and the US (especially Tesla).
"Like past technology shifts, it is a transformation, not merely a substitution. As RethinkX notes, this is not a brown caterpillar to a green caterpillar, but rather a caterpillar to a butterfly, which means different economics, geographies, winners, and energy carriers. Just like past technology shifts, the falling costs of the new render the old obsolete."
Battery manufacture is going to be a race to the bottom, largest, most well capitalised entity takes all market. It’s never going to employ all that many people or transform the UK economy.
This is like when the government tried to subsidise wind turbine manufacture in the NE & it turned into a total shitshow: it turns out that (surprise!) manufacturing large fibreglass tubes is not a high profit enterprise & the UK firms involved were rapidly outbid by larger more well capitalised entities from elsewhere in the world.
Our value add is in R+D, technological development & high value components. Why on earth are we subsidising the least profitable part of the entire green energy tech tree?
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
There isn't 'no' controversy - there is a huge controversy over the US rightly banning GOF research in its own territory on safety grounds, and then choosing to continue that research covertly in foreign countries, without public knowledge and democratic accountability in those host countries, added to which, it chose to do so in countries like China, which was a deeply unsuitable partner for this sort of research, to put it mildly.
However, none of that is pertinent to this conversation, which is that a PBer tried to make a funny out of the very concept that there were US biolabs in Ukraine, when the presence of US biolabs in Ukraine is an admitted fact.
You were the one saying “bioweapons labs” - which makes you a genuine idiot.
Would it be better to be a genuine idiot or an ingenuine idiot?
Boris Johnson “squared up” to the future King after Charles privately branded the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme “appalling”, a key aide to the former prime minister has revealed.
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s director of communications in Downing Street, said the pair had a “showdown” at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kigali, after the King’s views on the Rwanda policy were reported in The Times.
“They did have a bit of a showdown,” Harri told LBC, “for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was an extremely popular [and] a very central government policy on the eve of the two of them going to the very place of the heart of the story: Rwanda.”
“It wasn’t a fight. But Boris rightly challenged the unelected royal at the time. What was it for him to sort of go calling a key government policy ‘appalling’?”
Harri said Charles appeared to deny making the remarks, leading Johnson to suggest that if the report was untrue, Buckingham Palace could have denied it — something it chose not to do.
“Prince Charles was busted,” Harri told the Daily Mail. “He had obviously expressed some criticism and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all’.”
The revelation is to appear in a new podcast about Harri’s time in Downing Street, called Unprecedented, which is due to be released on Thursday. It will also cover the prime minister’s views on the partygate investigator Sue Gray, who Harri says was dubbed “Psycho Sue” and Johnson perceived as biased against him.
The monarch is meant to be above politics, this is a short step from refusing give royal assent.
He wasn't king at the time of course (I've just twigged), so we've all wasted a lot of typing on a misapprehension.
And of course, expressing an opinion privately is nothing whatsoever like refusing to give royal assent. I very much doubt that the monarch has that power anyway these days - or has had it for several generations (or perhaps centuries).
I’ve heard it said that the late Queen commented on a number of policies to various PMs in her weekly chats. The general line seemed to be that she had an eye for spotting the really bad ideas.
Imagine being the PM in recent years, and having someone with 60+ years experience of government and world affairs, with whom you could bounce ideas in total confidence on a regular basis.
Invaluable advice, from an irreplaceable individual.
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
I think there's a fairly basic misunderstanding going on anyway. A bio research lab is not the same as a bioweapons research lab. He is using the terms interchangeably. The research in these and many other labs is into plant and animal diseases for the purposes of public health and agriculture.
Russia has quite cleverly seized on this apparent ambiguity to conflate the two, hence now we get right wing conspiracy theorists in the US and elsewhere just casually appending the word "weapons" to bio.
Indeed. But sadly I don't think it is misunderstanding on Luckyguy's part. He knows exactly what he is doing and how disingenuous it is, just like all the other pro-Russian apologists.
Remarkable that something like The Hill, which has a pretty strong Republican editorial line, is more trusted by Democrats than Republicans. Basically the latter don't trust the media at all.
Boris Johnson “squared up” to the future King after Charles privately branded the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme “appalling”, a key aide to the former prime minister has revealed.
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s director of communications in Downing Street, said the pair had a “showdown” at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kigali, after the King’s views on the Rwanda policy were reported in The Times.
“They did have a bit of a showdown,” Harri told LBC, “for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was an extremely popular [and] a very central government policy on the eve of the two of them going to the very place of the heart of the story: Rwanda.”
“It wasn’t a fight. But Boris rightly challenged the unelected royal at the time. What was it for him to sort of go calling a key government policy ‘appalling’?”
Harri said Charles appeared to deny making the remarks, leading Johnson to suggest that if the report was untrue, Buckingham Palace could have denied it — something it chose not to do.
“Prince Charles was busted,” Harri told the Daily Mail. “He had obviously expressed some criticism and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all’.”
The revelation is to appear in a new podcast about Harri’s time in Downing Street, called Unprecedented, which is due to be released on Thursday. It will also cover the prime minister’s views on the partygate investigator Sue Gray, who Harri says was dubbed “Psycho Sue” and Johnson perceived as biased against him.
The monarch is meant to be above politics, this is a short step from refusing give royal assent.
He wasn't king at the time of course (I've just twigged), so we've all wasted a lot of typing on a misapprehension.
And of course, expressing an opinion privately is nothing whatsoever like refusing to give royal assent. I very much doubt that the monarch has that power anyway these days - or has had it for several generations (or perhaps centuries).
No, he just gets the legislation bits changed in advance. See the Guardian, Slab attacks on SNP, etc. ad libitum in recent years.
I must confess, I do enjoy taking the piss out of nationalism, and let's face it, the biggest nationalism joke at the moment is the Scottish variety. I recognise it is somewhat dark humour because there isn't really much to joke about a philosophy that is based on who you are not, and by extension the dislike or hatred of "the others". I could, if you prefer (as I am half English) use the term "Scotch" because according to one very bitter poster on here that is what all English people refer to folk that are north of that somewhat artificial border.
The difference in the nationalisms, to me, is that Scottish Nationalism is largely about self determination. There are a few anti English elements among that. One used to post here. But it is mainly self determination.
English nationalism is a far uglier thing as it is the domain of the hard right. Maybe that is because the centre ground has ceded nationalism/patriotism to them apart from when there is a soccer competition
Would the world have been a better place, had nationalism never taken off, after the French revolution?
On the one hand, a lot of wars based upon nationalism would not have taken place. On the other, democracy would never have taken root. The world would still be ruled by multi-national dynasties and great empires.
Nationalism and democracy are just two sides of the same coin.
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
I expect others have commented on the R+W poll already (I've been mostly offline for a couple of days), but the sample date of Sunday almost certainly reflects good news stories for the LibDems (local election breakthroughs in many areas) and Tories (Sunak and Mordaunt performing well at the coronation). I suspect an average lead of 15 points is more likely in the next few polls.
Well done by the way for the latest step on your political comeback. Next stop but one Downing Street.
I think I may now wind down chance of Greens beating Labour MPs in Bristols after what happened in Brighton.
I’ve been offline too. Went to the Coronation. It was history in the making, having anointing Kings for thousands of years, and this time I was part of it. It was brilliant.
Once you are 100% soaked it’s scientifically impossible to get any wetter, but you can get to feel lot colder, so when we got back we had hot bath together, but instead of sensibly going to bed I was so pumped up I watched it all on television, BBC and Sky. Sky was a million times better, in UHD and commentary. And then I was still watching the alarm I set went off Sunday because we had people coming to party in the flat and I had to go into kitchen and make stuff. And after all the drinking and dancing and days with no sleep I could hardly wake up yesterday, I was proper trashed.
Fabulous! Best weekend ever. 🥳
While we were waiting for the cozza to start there were republicans there turning up to protest and I did have a proper ding dong with some of them, not any of the faces now in papers. I don’t know what happened to mine they just disappeared. Went home to rethink why they got it so wrong they were nibbled into submission by a rabbit I suspect. Lols
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
I stayed at home, so you wouldn't have smoked me out anyway
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
In the context of conspiracy bullshit about Ukrainian biological laboratories, note that anthrax (for example) is an endemic disease in the country, and has been since before it escaped the Soviet empire..
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
Note Lab+LD almost exactly the same as the locals projections.
They haven’t given us the green so we can’t do our LLG. But as you pointed out this morning with the 12% Labour lead, the LLG was no different to last time, in fact even higher than the time before that.
What’s completely clear now, from here to the election, and on topic by the way, the Lab v Tory lead isn’t so important anymore. Tories need to go up and LLG, currently in early sixties, down, for Tories to get anywhere close to 200 seats next year. As TSE has been explaining all week, Labour can now do majority with just 7% lead, last week should convince us all of that.
But, it can be argued, the NEV said hung parliament. But Thrasher self confessed at least 3 times before dawn it has no updated data for wales or Scotland, it can only go with what it has, things could have changed there over last year to date the dataset. Also of course the NEV had no tactical voting built in, because that would also be speculation, not science.
As Heathener said, PLEASE can the psephologists, media, Tory Party KEEP flagging up Labour will fall short all the way up till after GE voting. That’s exactly what Labour needs voters to hear to get the vote out.
The total capitalization of London-listed equities fell from a high of $4.3 trillion in 2007 to about $3 trillion in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the same period, the value of US stocks more than doubled to $43 trillion.
Someone will make a lot of money out of the transition to 'green' energy. Probably the Chinese and the US (especially Tesla).
"Like past technology shifts, it is a transformation, not merely a substitution. As RethinkX notes, this is not a brown caterpillar to a green caterpillar, but rather a caterpillar to a butterfly, which means different economics, geographies, winners, and energy carriers. Just like past technology shifts, the falling costs of the new render the old obsolete."
Battery manufacture is going to be a race to the bottom, largest, most well capitalised entity takes all market. It’s never going to employ all that many people or transform the UK economy.
This is like when the government tried to subsidise wind turbine manufacture in the NE & it turned into a total shitshow: it turns out that (surprise!) manufacturing large fibreglass tubes is not a high profit enterprise & the UK firms involved were rapidly outbid by larger more well capitalised entities from elsewhere in the world.
Our value add is in R+D, technological development & high value components. Why on earth are we subsidising the least profitable part of the entire green energy tech tree?
Actually, you know what /really/ ticks me off about this? It’s that we are crying out for commercial lab space in the research triangle & it seems to be impossible to get planning permission to build it. You’d think the rates currently being paid for lab space would be prompting an orgy of building, but no, nothing of the kind is happening.
Instead of fixing this the government faffs about subsidising things we are absolutely terrible at instead. Insanity.
We have had no real GDP growth for /15/ years. At least one of the reasons for that has been a lack of investment in the capital investment required for that GDP growth to happen & the planning system is at the root of that. /Nothing/ is more important than fixing this, because GDP growth gives you the capacity to fix everything else.
Remarkable that something like The Hill, which has a pretty strong Republican editorial line, is more trusted by Democrats than Republicans. Basically the latter don't trust the media at all.
That’s really interesting.
IMHO, the older Republicans are still on Fox News, even though they’ve lost a load of their audience from firing Tucker. The younger Reps, and increasingly centrists, have moved to the online platforms.
I think a similar position exists on the other side, basically the total cable news audience is falling rapidly as online people get away from it.
The Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro et al, right wing) has close to a million monthly subscriptions, and Breaking Points (Krystal and Saagar, bipartisan centrists, formerly of The Hill) has more subscribers that the cable news outlets get ‘key demo’ viewers. Tim Pool (centrist, libertarian) has 50k live viewers on his YouTube nightly show, and a couple of million views per day from various content.
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
I expect others have commented on the R+W poll already (I've been mostly offline for a couple of days), but the sample date of Sunday almost certainly reflects good news stories for the LibDems (local election breakthroughs in many areas) and Tories (Sunak and Mordaunt performing well at the coronation). I suspect an average lead of 15 points is more likely in the next few polls.
Well done by the way for the latest step on your political comeback. Next stop but one Downing Street.
I think I may now wind down chance of Greens beating Labour MPs in Bristols after what happened in Brighton.
I’ve been offline too. Went to the Coronation. It was history in the making, having anointing Kings for thousands of years, and this time I was part of it. It was brilliant.
Once you are 100% soaked it’s scientifically impossible to get any wetter, but you can get to feel lot colder, so when we got back we had hot bath together, but instead of sensibly going to bed I was so pumped up I watched it all on television, BBC and Sky. Sky was a million times better, in UHD and commentary. And then I was still watching the alarm I set went off Sunday because we had people coming to party in the flat and I had to go into kitchen and make stuff. And after all the drinking and dancing and days with no sleep I could hardly wake up yesterday, I was proper trashed.
Fabulous! Best weekend ever. 🥳
While we were waiting for the cozza to start there were republicans there turning up to protest and I did have a proper ding dong with some of them, not any of the faces now in papers. I don’t know what happened to mine they just disappeared. Went home to rethink why they got it so wrong they were nibbled into submission by a rabbit I suspect. Lols
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
I stayed at home, so you wouldn't have smoked me out anyway
You done exactly the right thing. Of course you did, we expect nothing else from you.
The whole concept of protesters there was utterly stupid and I explained that to them. Would they go to a Liverpool match at anfield, stand on the cop with a “Liverpool not my team” tee on and boo the highlights and sing God Save The King? Would they use civil liberties and rights go to a house party with a placard pronouncing “not my house party” and try to disrupt it? Protestors had no rights at all being at the Coronation. Yes every right to organise their own get together somewhere else, but no right to boo and disrupt, that is merely childish and they need to grow up.
They did see my point as they just looked at me and couldn’t say anything.
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
I expect others have commented on the R+W poll already (I've been mostly offline for a couple of days), but the sample date of Sunday almost certainly reflects good news stories for the LibDems (local election breakthroughs in many areas) and Tories (Sunak and Mordaunt performing well at the coronation). I suspect an average lead of 15 points is more likely in the next few polls.
Well done by the way for the latest step on your political comeback. Next stop but one Downing Street.
I think I may now wind down chance of Greens beating Labour MPs in Bristols after what happened in Brighton.
I’ve been offline too. Went to the Coronation. It was history in the making, having anointing Kings for thousands of years, and this time I was part of it. It was brilliant.
Once you are 100% soaked it’s scientifically impossible to get any wetter, but you can get to feel lot colder, so when we got back we had hot bath together, but instead of sensibly going to bed I was so pumped up I watched it all on television, BBC and Sky. Sky was a million times better, in UHD and commentary. And then I was still watching the alarm I set went off Sunday because we had people coming to party in the flat and I had to go into kitchen and make stuff. And after all the drinking and dancing and days with no sleep I could hardly wake up yesterday, I was proper trashed.
Fabulous! Best weekend ever. 🥳
While we were waiting for the cozza to start there were republicans there turning up to protest and I did have a proper ding dong with some of them, not any of the faces now in papers. I don’t know what happened to mine they just disappeared. Went home to rethink why they got it so wrong they were nibbled into submission by a rabbit I suspect. Lols
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
I stayed at home, so you wouldn't have smoked me out anyway
You done exactly the right thing. Of course you did, we expect nothing else from you.
The whole concept of protesters there was utterly stupid and I explained that to them. Would they go to a Liverpool match at anfield, stand on the cop with a “Liverpool not my team” tee on and boo the highlights and sing God Save The King? Would they use civil liberties and rights go to a house party with a placard pronouncing “not my house party” and try to disrupt it? Protestors had no rights at all being at the Coronation. Yes every right to organise their own get together somewhere else, but no right to boo and disrupt, that is merely childish and they need to grow up.
They did see my point as they just looked at me and couldn’t say anything.
The key difference with your examples is that, as taxpayers, they paid for Saturday's Damp Sermon.
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
Note Lab+LD almost exactly the same as the locals projections.
They haven’t given us the green so we can’t do our LLG. But as you pointed out this morning with the 12% Labour lead, the LLG was no different to last time, in fact even higher than the time before that.
What’s completely clear now, from here to the election, and on topic by the way, the Lab v Tory lead isn’t so important anymore. Tories need to go up and LLG, currently in early sixties, down, for Tories to get anywhere close to 200 seats next year. As TSE has been explaining all week, Labour can now do majority with just 7% lead, last week should convince us all of that.
But, it can be argued, the NEV said hung parliament. But Thrasher self confessed at least 3 times before dawn it has no updated data for wales or Scotland, it can only go with what it has, things could have changed there over last year to date the dataset. Also of course the NEV had no tactical voting built in, because that would also be speculation, not science.
As Heathener said, PLEASE can the psephologists, media, Tory Party KEEP flagging up Labour will fall short all the way up till after GE voting. That’s exactly what Labour needs voters to hear to get the vote out.
It is possible that SKS fans will explain that they are heading for a thumping majority in the style of Theresa May.....
Two clubs have gone bust. One has been allowed back into the Championship despite having no players or ground. The other. Who have no players but do have a ground to play at have been barred, for mysterious reasons, and currently have no league to play in. The solution? The former to move into the latter"s home, so they can poach their fanbase. This is Wimbledon/MK Dons turned up to 11.
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
Agreed. Also Westminster Abbey was stunning. I must visit next time I'm in London.
I finally caught up with the Coronation yesterday. It doesn't really work as highlights. I think you have to invest in the whole show.
I do think Charles and Camilla looked utterly ludicrous in their crowns. They may be seventeenth century historical artefacts but they need a redesign.
I expect others have commented on the R+W poll already (I've been mostly offline for a couple of days), but the sample date of Sunday almost certainly reflects good news stories for the LibDems (local election breakthroughs in many areas) and Tories (Sunak and Mordaunt performing well at the coronation). I suspect an average lead of 15 points is more likely in the next few polls.
Well done by the way for the latest step on your political comeback. Next stop but one Downing Street.
I think I may now wind down chance of Greens beating Labour MPs in Bristols after what happened in Brighton.
I’ve been offline too. Went to the Coronation. It was history in the making, having anointing Kings for thousands of years, and this time I was part of it. It was brilliant.
Once you are 100% soaked it’s scientifically impossible to get any wetter, but you can get to feel lot colder, so when we got back we had hot bath together, but instead of sensibly going to bed I was so pumped up I watched it all on television, BBC and Sky. Sky was a million times better, in UHD and commentary. And then I was still watching the alarm I set went off Sunday because we had people coming to party in the flat and I had to go into kitchen and make stuff. And after all the drinking and dancing and days with no sleep I could hardly wake up yesterday, I was proper trashed.
Fabulous! Best weekend ever. 🥳
While we were waiting for the cozza to start there were republicans there turning up to protest and I did have a proper ding dong with some of them, not any of the faces now in papers. I don’t know what happened to mine they just disappeared. Went home to rethink why they got it so wrong they were nibbled into submission by a rabbit I suspect. Lols
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
I stayed at home, so you wouldn't have smoked me out anyway
You done exactly the right thing. Of course you did, we expect nothing else from you.
The whole concept of protesters there was utterly stupid and I explained that to them. Would they go to a Liverpool match at anfield, stand on the cop with a “Liverpool not my team” tee on and boo the highlights and sing God Save The King? Would they use civil liberties and rights go to a house party with a placard pronouncing “not my house party” and try to disrupt it? Protestors had no rights at all being at the Coronation. Yes every right to organise their own get together somewhere else, but no right to boo and disrupt, that is merely childish and they need to grow up.
They did see my point as they just looked at me and couldn’t say anything.
Did you see the pics of the fly-past I took from my bedroom window in Ilford North? Zoomed in through the rain, but FWIW:
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
Agreed. Also Westminster Abbey was stunning. I must visit next time I'm in London.
I finally caught up with the Coronation yesterday. It doesn't really work as highlights. I think you have to invest in the whole show.
I do think Charles and Camilla looked utterly ludicrous in their crowns. They may be seventeenth century historical artefacts but they need a redesign.
Indeed and the crowns not only looked ludicrous but also very likely to fall off !!!!
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
Note Lab+LD almost exactly the same as the locals projections.
They haven’t given us the green so we can’t do our LLG. But as you pointed out this morning with the 12% Labour lead, the LLG was no different to last time, in fact even higher than the time before that.
What’s completely clear now, from here to the election, and on topic by the way, the Lab v Tory lead isn’t so important anymore. Tories need to go up and LLG, currently in early sixties, down, for Tories to get anywhere close to 200 seats next year. As TSE has been explaining all week, Labour can now do majority with just 7% lead, last week should convince us all of that.
But, it can be argued, the NEV said hung parliament. But Thrasher self confessed at least 3 times before dawn it has no updated data for wales or Scotland, it can only go with what it has, things could have changed there over last year to date the dataset. Also of course the NEV had no tactical voting built in, because that would also be speculation, not science.
As Heathener said, PLEASE can the psephologists, media, Tory Party KEEP flagging up Labour will fall short all the way up till after GE voting. That’s exactly what Labour needs voters to hear to get the vote out.
If the Labour vote in the GE is efficient (and there's some evidence from the local elections that it was) plus gains in Scotland and some tactical voting in England between Lab & LDs, then there's a plausible case Labour only need a lead of c.7%
It's probably too much to hope for but one hopes the experience of Budweiser will become a salutary lesson for corporations to stick to their product and stay out of politics.
“Protesters posing as stewards planned to disrupt the Coronation by throwing bottles of white paint at the procession, Sir Mark Rowley has revealed.
“The Met Commissioner said his officers had worked around the clock to identify and arrest the criminal network that planned to attack the event and compromise the safety of those taking part.
“He said just hours before the Coronation took place, police had received intelligence that people intended to vandalise monuments, throw paint at the procession and invade the route.
“If the disruption had not been stopped, Sir Mark said, it could have resulted in multiple serious injuries for those taking part in the mounted procession.
“In a strongly worded defence of the Met’s handling of the historic event, Sir Mark said: “By Friday evening, only twelve hours from the Coronation, we had become extremely concerned by a rapidly developing intelligence picture suggesting the Coronation could suffer.
“ “This included people intent on using rape alarms and loud hailers as part of their protest which would have caused distress to military horses.
“ “We also had intelligence that people intended to extensively vandalise monuments, throw paint at the procession, and incur on to the route.” ”
Two clubs have gone bust. One has been allowed back into the Championship despite having no players or ground. The other. Who have no players but do have a ground to play at have been barred, for mysterious reasons, and currently have no league to play in. The solution? The former to move into the latter"s home, so they can poach their fanbase. This is Wimbledon/MK Dons turned up to 11.
Call it a merger. Worcester Wasps is at least alliterative.
It's all got a bit much. We had the Jubilee followed by the Funeral followed by the Coronation in the space of a year. I think there's some fatigue setting in on top of the comparative unpopularity of our Chuck.
From earlier on thread, fighting over who gets what resources (through redistribution or otherwise) is setting us on a hiding to nothing, IMHO - it isn't going to lead to a peaceful or stable society, and in fact is more likely to lead to regression.
Growth has to return, I'm afraid, and then we need to ensure the proceeds are fairly shared and used to enhance our quality of life.
That is perfectly possibly with falling costs of renewable energy (lower input costs) and AI (more efficient delivery) and we just need to make sure we debate the right social and economic model to go with it.
It's possible that previous ones won't quite work in the same way.
Actually, Taiwan ought to be supported, like Ukraine.
Who is paying for this trip ? Taiwan ? The UK taxpayer ? Liz Truss personally (Hah, right...) ?
Is it part of government strategy ?
If we think it's a good idea, why isn't Cleverly or Goldsmith doing this ?
The situation with defending Taiwan from mainland Chinese aggression is complicated by the legal situation, where Taiwan is legally recognised as part of China.
An ex-PM might play a useful role in adjusting the diplomatic parameters one bit at a time.
Not just a former PM either, but also a former foreign secretary and a former trade secretary. She’s well known to the Taiwanese and the Chinese.
There’s no chance this isn’t sanctioned by the foreign office, sending someone who’s just far enough removed from the current government to be able to say what a serving minister can’t.
Yes, it is possible that she's being used by the FO in some sort of kite-flying exercise, but why chose Britain's shortest serving PM, who was humiliatingly ejected from office after almost bringing about economic collapse? Truss is so discredited that her pontificating on behalf of Taiwan can only give a kind of validation to the Chinese. There must be some serious 19D chess going on here.
There’s no chess being played here. This is Truss, playing tiddlywinks, against herself.
Truss is/was actually right, but we're still JOLLY CROSS with her D'YOU HEAR???
Sunak is/was actually shit, but no doubt he has his very clever reasons, good work Sunak.
PB dim bulb standard consensus.
Truss was not right. How can you believe that?
Oh, it’s the PBer who believes in US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Fair enough.
Given that the existence of the labs has been acknowledged by the US, that the US sponsorship of them has been acknowledged by the US, that their housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons is has been acknowledged by the US, it would be interesting to know what part of the statement above you're struggling to believe.
I'm unsurprised you've swallowed this particular pill, given you swallowed and regurgitated all Russia's dribblings over the MH17 shootdown.
Yes, Ukraine has biological research labs. Most countries do; especially if they've got a heavy agricultural base, as Ukraine does. Yes, larger countries often invest in the facilities of smaller countries, often because cooperation in this area is vital for world food production.
None of this is unusual or unsurprising.
Where your argument becomes hilarious is the line: "housing of chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons". If you are researching potential new zoonotic diseases, housing samples is rather vital.
I haven't said anything isn't vital, or that most countries don't have them, or spoken about any of the other rubbish you've spouted. I have merely stated that the facts show that there are (were) US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, for good or ill. So Bondezgo's attempted piss take is rather stupid.
If you say that there were bio labs in Ukraine, as there are bio labs in most countries, and the Americans fund a lot of bio labs all over the world, then there’s no controversy.
It’s not specifically a Ukraine issue.
I think there's a fairly basic misunderstanding going on anyway. A bio research lab is not the same as a bioweapons research lab. He is using the terms interchangeably. The research in these and many other labs is into plant and animal diseases for the purposes of public health and agriculture.
Russia has quite cleverly seized on this apparent ambiguity to conflate the two, hence now we get right wing conspiracy theorists in the US and elsewhere just casually appending the word "weapons" to bio.
Indeed. But sadly I don't think it is misunderstanding on Luckyguy's part. He knows exactly what he is doing and how disingenuous it is, just like all the other pro-Russian apologists.
Being a pro-Russian/Putin apologist puts an individual in touching distance of a holocaust denier IMO . Anyone that can make excuses for that murderous regime is beneath contempt as far as I am concerned
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
Agreed. Also Westminster Abbey was stunning. I must visit next time I'm in London.
I finally caught up with the Coronation yesterday. It doesn't really work as highlights. I think you have to invest in the whole show.
I do think Charles and Camilla looked utterly ludicrous in their crowns. They may be seventeenth century historical artefacts but they need a redesign.
The whole point of the Coronation is that it goes back hundreds of years as do the traditions. The spoon is 12th century. The rest of the artefacts were replaced after Scumbag Cromwell had done his worst.
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll. Con 28% (-1) Lab 47% (+3) Lib Dem 9% (-2) Other 16% (-) Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023 Sample: 1,550 GB adults (Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
Note Lab+LD almost exactly the same as the locals projections.
They haven’t given us the green so we can’t do our LLG. But as you pointed out this morning with the 12% Labour lead, the LLG was no different to last time, in fact even higher than the time before that.
What’s completely clear now, from here to the election, and on topic by the way, the Lab v Tory lead isn’t so important anymore. Tories need to go up and LLG, currently in early sixties, down, for Tories to get anywhere close to 200 seats next year. As TSE has been explaining all week, Labour can now do majority with just 7% lead, last week should convince us all of that.
But, it can be argued, the NEV said hung parliament. But Thrasher self confessed at least 3 times before dawn it has no updated data for wales or Scotland, it can only go with what it has, things could have changed there over last year to date the dataset. Also of course the NEV had no tactical voting built in, because that would also be speculation, not science.
As Heathener said, PLEASE can the psephologists, media, Tory Party KEEP flagging up Labour will fall short all the way up till after GE voting. That’s exactly what Labour needs voters to hear to get the vote out.
It is possible that SKS fans will explain that they are heading for a thumping majority in the style of Theresa May.....
It is possible this is like Brown slumping in 2008 and not getting out of the 20s.
Labour are going to start to lose a few votes to the LD if they start to equivocate on these civil liberties issues, such as today with the repressive new laws, and the ludicrous Met claim that the protestors were going to lock-on to a horse-drawn and bayonets military parade with luggage tags.
If there's more where that came from, despite having a few Labour contacts and connections and broadly having some sympathy for Starmer, personally I may vote LD for the first time, since the late New Labour period.
The total capitalization of London-listed equities fell from a high of $4.3 trillion in 2007 to about $3 trillion in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the same period, the value of US stocks more than doubled to $43 trillion.
Someone will make a lot of money out of the transition to 'green' energy. Probably the Chinese and the US (especially Tesla).
"Like past technology shifts, it is a transformation, not merely a substitution. As RethinkX notes, this is not a brown caterpillar to a green caterpillar, but rather a caterpillar to a butterfly, which means different economics, geographies, winners, and energy carriers. Just like past technology shifts, the falling costs of the new render the old obsolete."
Battery manufacture is going to be a race to the bottom, largest, most well capitalised entity takes all market. It’s never going to employ all that many people or transform the UK economy.
This is like when the government tried to subsidise wind turbine manufacture in the NE & it turned into a total shitshow: it turns out that (surprise!) manufacturing large fibreglass tubes is not a high profit enterprise & the UK firms involved were rapidly outbid by larger more well capitalised entities from elsewhere in the world.
Our value add is in R+D, technological development & high value components. Why on earth are we subsidising the least profitable part of the entire green energy tech tree?
Actually, you know what /really/ ticks me off about this? It’s that we are crying out for commercial lab space in the research triangle & it seems to be impossible to get planning permission to build it. You’d think the rates currently being paid for lab space would be prompting an orgy of building, but no, nothing of the kind is happening.
Instead of fixing this the government faffs about subsidising things we are absolutely terrible at instead. Insanity.
We have had no real GDP growth for /15/ years. At least one of the reasons for that has been a lack of investment in the capital investment required for that GDP growth to happen & the planning system is at the root of that. /Nothing/ is more important than fixing this, because GDP growth gives you the capacity to fix everything else.
Infuriating.
One of the people I knew in Wiltshire used to whine about the lack of British growth and jobs etc.
A little after I left he popped up as proudly being involved in the campaign to stop expansion of a factory just outside Malmesbury.
One day, if I make enough money, I will go back and build a Thermal Depolymerisation Plant next to his home. The fucking up of the emissions filters, I will do personally.
If that's correctly calculated that still represents over 12 million people, and some might define it differently as well - attending a community event /big lunch but not classifying it as such.
I can certainly say virtually my whole village was there on Sunday. And I bet that included people who weren't ardent royalists as well.
For me, most impressive element of Coronation of King Charles III was NOT the sword-bearing of Right Hon. Penny Mordaunt MP RN (though she WAS an international star) but instead the St Augustine Gospels:
Agreed. Also Westminster Abbey was stunning. I must visit next time I'm in London.
I finally caught up with the Coronation yesterday. It doesn't really work as highlights. I think you have to invest in the whole show.
I do think Charles and Camilla looked utterly ludicrous in their crowns. They may be seventeenth century historical artefacts but they need a redesign.
The whole point of the Coronation is that it goes back hundreds of years as do the traditions. The spoon is 12th century. The rest of the artefacts were replaced after Scumbag Cromwell had done his worst.
I think the phial holding the ointment is the oldest artefact. Or perhaps the recipe for the ointment itself.
From earlier on thread, fighting over who gets what resources (through redistribution or otherwise) is setting us on a hiding to nothing, IMHO - it isn't going to lead to a peaceful or stable society, and in fact is more likely to lead to regression.
Growth has to return, I'm afraid, and then we need to ensure the proceeds are fairly shared and used to enhance our quality of life.
That is perfectly possibly with falling costs of renewable energy (lower input costs) and AI (more efficient delivery) and we just need to make sure we debate the right social and economic model to go with it.
It's possible that previous ones won't quite work in the same way.
We don’t even need AI ( so called) - modern software can replace 90 % of the bullshit process paperwork with actual process.
This will mean the ability to massively reduce the number of people in dull, dead end paper shuffling jobs. Which will free them up to do something better.
I see we've still not decided whether to mock 20m viewers as a piddling amount or accept it is a significant number but decide that doesn't count because other numbers are bigger or it was raining or whatever.
The total capitalization of London-listed equities fell from a high of $4.3 trillion in 2007 to about $3 trillion in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the same period, the value of US stocks more than doubled to $43 trillion.
Someone will make a lot of money out of the transition to 'green' energy. Probably the Chinese and the US (especially Tesla).
"Like past technology shifts, it is a transformation, not merely a substitution. As RethinkX notes, this is not a brown caterpillar to a green caterpillar, but rather a caterpillar to a butterfly, which means different economics, geographies, winners, and energy carriers. Just like past technology shifts, the falling costs of the new render the old obsolete."
Battery manufacture is going to be a race to the bottom, largest, most well capitalised entity takes all market. It’s never going to employ all that many people or transform the UK economy.
This is like when the government tried to subsidise wind turbine manufacture in the NE & it turned into a total shitshow: it turns out that (surprise!) manufacturing large fibreglass tubes is not a high profit enterprise & the UK firms involved were rapidly outbid by larger more well capitalised entities from elsewhere in the world.
Our value add is in R+D, technological development & high value components. Why on earth are we subsidising the least profitable part of the entire green energy tech tree?
Actually, you know what /really/ ticks me off about this? It’s that we are crying out for commercial lab space in the research triangle & it seems to be impossible to get planning permission to build it. You’d think the rates currently being paid for lab space would be prompting an orgy of building, but no, nothing of the kind is happening.
Instead of fixing this the government faffs about subsidising things we are absolutely terrible at instead. Insanity.
We have had no real GDP growth for /15/ years. At least one of the reasons for that has been a lack of investment in the capital investment required for that GDP growth to happen & the planning system is at the root of that. /Nothing/ is more important than fixing this, because GDP growth gives you the capacity to fix everything else.
Infuriating.
One of the people I knew in Wiltshire used to whine about the lack of British growth and jobs etc.
A little after I left he popped up as proudly being involved in the campaign to stop expansion of a factory just outside Malmesbury.
One day, if I make enough money, I will go back and build a Thermal Depolymerisation Plant next to his home. The fucking up of the emissions filters, I will do personally.
I get people moaning about new houses, I really do. I understand politicians giving in to it even. But I don't get why they give in to NIMBYs for things like commercial lab space, since the longer term benefits clearly outweigh your bog standard 'save my green fields' rubbish.
From earlier on thread, fighting over who gets what resources (through redistribution or otherwise) is setting us on a hiding to nothing, IMHO - it isn't going to lead to a peaceful or stable society, and in fact is more likely to lead to regression.
Growth has to return, I'm afraid, and then we need to ensure the proceeds are fairly shared and used to enhance our quality of life.
That is perfectly possibly with falling costs of renewable energy (lower input costs) and AI (more efficient delivery) and we just need to make sure we debate the right social and economic model to go with it.
It's possible that previous ones won't quite work in the same way.
We don’t even need AI ( so called) - modern software can replace 90 % of the bullshit process paperwork with actual process.
This will mean the ability to massively reduce the number of people in dull, dead end paper shuffling jobs. Which will free them up to do something better.
I'm not an SKS fan, not because SKS is not Jeremy Corbyn.
I'm not an SKS Labour fan because SKS is an apartheid-denying, Socialist hating, establishment-protecting, plege-breaking, bigot-baiting, racist-pandering, union-failing, flag-shagging, member-bullying, hierarchy of racism supporting career charlatan and Tory fraud.
Remarkable that something like The Hill, which has a pretty strong Republican editorial line, is more trusted by Democrats than Republicans. Basically the latter don't trust the media at all.
That’s really interesting.
IMHO, the older Republicans are still on Fox News, even though they’ve lost a load of their audience from firing Tucker. The younger Reps, and increasingly centrists, have moved to the online platforms.
I think a similar position exists on the other side, basically the total cable news audience is falling rapidly as online people get away from it.
The Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro et al, right wing) has close to a million monthly subscriptions, and Breaking Points (Krystal and Saagar, bipartisan centrists, formerly of The Hill) has more subscribers that the cable news outlets get ‘key demo’ viewers. Tim Pool (centrist, libertarian) has 50k live viewers on his YouTube nightly show, and a couple of million views per day from various content.
I think you can get about £20 for each thousand views, excluding Patreon et al, so that's £1000 per night. Holy Grift, Batman.
The Scottish Nasty Party really does plumb the depths. I guess he knew there was a good chance that if SNP expelled him he could expect a good chance of standing for Alba:
Boris Johnson “squared up” to the future King after Charles privately branded the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme “appalling”, a key aide to the former prime minister has revealed.
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s director of communications in Downing Street, said the pair had a “showdown” at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Kigali, after the King’s views on the Rwanda policy were reported in The Times.
“They did have a bit of a showdown,” Harri told LBC, “for the reason that the man who is now King criticised what was an extremely popular [and] a very central government policy on the eve of the two of them going to the very place of the heart of the story: Rwanda.”
“It wasn’t a fight. But Boris rightly challenged the unelected royal at the time. What was it for him to sort of go calling a key government policy ‘appalling’?”
Harri said Charles appeared to deny making the remarks, leading Johnson to suggest that if the report was untrue, Buckingham Palace could have denied it — something it chose not to do.
“Prince Charles was busted,” Harri told the Daily Mail. “He had obviously expressed some criticism and though he tried to play it down, Boris pointed out the obvious, [saying]: ‘If you didn’t say it, we both know your people could ring the newspapers and kill the story. The fact they haven’t done that says it all’.”
The revelation is to appear in a new podcast about Harri’s time in Downing Street, called Unprecedented, which is due to be released on Thursday. It will also cover the prime minister’s views on the partygate investigator Sue Gray, who Harri says was dubbed “Psycho Sue” and Johnson perceived as biased against him.
The monarch is meant to be above politics, this is a short step from refusing give royal assent.
He wasn't king at the time of course (I've just twigged), so we've all wasted a lot of typing on a misapprehension.
And of course, expressing an opinion privately is nothing whatsoever like refusing to give royal assent. I very much doubt that the monarch has that power anyway these days - or has had it for several generations (or perhaps centuries).
No, he just gets the legislation bits changed in advance. See the Guardian, Slab attacks on SNP, etc. ad libitum in recent years.
I must confess, I do enjoy taking the piss out of nationalism, and let's face it, the biggest nationalism joke at the moment is the Scottish variety. I recognise it is somewhat dark humour because there isn't really much to joke about a philosophy that is based on who you are not, and by extension the dislike or hatred of "the others". I could, if you prefer (as I am half English) use the term "Scotch" because according to one very bitter poster on here that is what all English people refer to folk that are north of that somewhat artificial border.
The difference in the nationalisms, to me, is that Scottish Nationalism is largely about self determination. There are a few anti English elements among that. One used to post here. But it is mainly self determination.
English nationalism is a far uglier thing as it is the domain of the hard right. Maybe that is because the centre ground has ceded nationalism/patriotism to them apart from when there is a soccer competition
Foremain is a nasty piece of work , to be pitied as a vile creep. He fits your description to a tee, beyond redemption. @Taz
Comments
English nationalism is a far uglier thing as it is the domain of the hard right. Maybe that is because the centre ground has ceded nationalism/patriotism to them apart from when there is a soccer competition
And here's your issue. There are no such *facts*. There are biolabs, as I pointed out, but that does not equate to bioweapons labs.
Sadly, you are yet again spouting Russian lies. It was sick when you did it over MH17; you evidently are no less gullible than you were.
There is really no confusion here. I haven't made any moral judgements about the Ukraine labs, I have simply restated the bare facts. It should be possible for anyone with intelligence to conclude both that Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine, and that the US may have been wrong to use Ukraine and other countries for dangerous research - the two views are not mutually exclusive.
There were also people I clocked, on their own, standing back and watching, disappearing then coming back to watch again I wonder now if they were security spotters. If so I wish I had smoked out a few more republicans for them 😈
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3995419-trump-expands-lead-over-gop-to-largest-yet-poll/
Blue Wall Voting Intention (7 May):
Labour 36% (+2)
Conservative 32% (–)
Liberal Democrat 23% (-1)
Reform UK 5% (–)
Green 2% (-3)
Other 1% (–)
Changes +/- 23 April
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1655965858684960768
This is like when the government tried to subsidise wind turbine manufacture in the NE & it turned into a total shitshow: it turns out that (surprise!) manufacturing large fibreglass tubes is not a high profit enterprise & the UK firms involved were rapidly outbid by larger more well capitalised entities from elsewhere in the world.
Our value add is in R+D, technological development & high value components. Why on earth are we subsidising the least profitable part of the entire green energy tech tree?
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/05/08/2023-trust-in-media-what-news-outlets-trust-poll
Remarkable that something like The Hill, which has a pretty strong Republican editorial line, is more trusted by Democrats than Republicans.
Basically the latter don't trust the media at all.
On the one hand, a lot of wars based upon nationalism would not have taken place. On the other, democracy would never have taken root. The world would still be ruled by multi-national dynasties and great empires.
Nationalism and democracy are just two sides of the same coin.
Labour 2,675 (+537)
Tories 2,296 (-1063)
LibDems 1,628 (+407)
Inds 865 (-89)
Green 481 (+241)
Residents' Assocs 99 (-13)
Labour lead is nineteen points in latest results from Deltapoll.
Con 28% (-1)
Lab 47% (+3)
Lib Dem 9% (-2)
Other 16% (-)
Fieldwork: 5th - 9th May 2023
Sample: 1,550 GB adults
(Changes from 28th April - 2nd May 2023)
https://twitter.com/DeltapollUK/status/1655963785360994304
Note Lab+LD almost exactly the same as the locals projections.
https://corpus-christi-college.shorthandstories.com/a2f9d2ef-d0e0-43f8-850b-0bd1807f2650/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Augustine_Gospels
What’s completely clear now, from here to the election, and on topic by the way, the Lab v Tory lead isn’t so important anymore. Tories need to go up and LLG, currently in early sixties, down, for Tories to get anywhere close to 200 seats next year. As TSE has been explaining all week, Labour can now do majority with just 7% lead, last week should convince us all of that.
But, it can be argued, the NEV said hung parliament. But Thrasher self confessed at least 3 times before dawn it has no updated data for wales or Scotland, it can only go with what it has, things could have changed there over last year to date the dataset. Also of course the NEV had no tactical voting built in, because that would also be speculation, not science.
As Heathener said, PLEASE can the psephologists, media, Tory Party KEEP flagging up Labour will fall short all the way up till after GE voting. That’s exactly what Labour needs voters to hear to get the vote out.
Instead of fixing this the government faffs about subsidising things we are absolutely terrible at instead. Insanity.
We have had no real GDP growth for /15/ years. At least one of the reasons for that has been a lack of investment in the capital investment required for that GDP growth to happen & the planning system is at the root of that. /Nothing/ is more important than fixing this, because GDP growth gives you the capacity to fix everything else.
Infuriating.
IMHO, the older Republicans are still on Fox News, even though they’ve lost a load of their audience from firing Tucker. The younger Reps, and increasingly centrists, have moved to the online platforms.
I think a similar position exists on the other side, basically the total cable news audience is falling rapidly as online people get away from it.
The Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro et al, right wing) has close to a million monthly subscriptions, and Breaking Points (Krystal and Saagar, bipartisan centrists, formerly of The Hill) has more subscribers that the cable news outlets get ‘key demo’ viewers. Tim Pool (centrist, libertarian) has 50k live viewers on his YouTube nightly show, and a couple of million views per day from various content.
The whole concept of protesters there was utterly stupid and I explained that to them. Would they go to a Liverpool match at anfield, stand on the cop with a “Liverpool not my team” tee on and boo the highlights and sing God Save The King? Would they use civil liberties and rights go to a house party with a placard pronouncing “not my house party” and try to disrupt it? Protestors had no rights at all being at the Coronation. Yes every right to organise their own get together somewhere else, but no right to boo and disrupt, that is merely childish and they need to grow up.
They did see my point as they just looked at me and couldn’t say anything.
Just 18% of Britons attended a coronation celebration event this weekend
Really low but I am not surprised
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1655941579474104328?t=_U87yh7Uxa_9mVDxLz_btw&s=19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65533658
Two clubs have gone bust. One has been allowed back into the Championship despite having no players or ground. The other. Who have no players but do have a ground to play at have been barred, for mysterious reasons, and currently have no league to play in.
The solution? The former to move into the latter"s home, so they can poach their fanbase.
This is Wimbledon/MK Dons turned up to 11.
I finally caught up with the Coronation yesterday. It doesn't really work as highlights. I think you have to invest in the whole show.
I do think Charles and Camilla looked utterly ludicrous in their crowns. They may be seventeenth century historical artefacts but they need a redesign.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4394652#Comment_4394652
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/09/sir-mark-rowley-defends-coronation-met-policing-arrests/
(No paywall)
“Protesters posing as stewards planned to disrupt the Coronation by throwing bottles of white paint at the procession, Sir Mark Rowley has revealed.
“The Met Commissioner said his officers had worked around the clock to identify and arrest the criminal network that planned to attack the event and compromise the safety of those taking part.
“He said just hours before the Coronation took place, police had received intelligence that people intended to vandalise monuments, throw paint at the procession and invade the route.
“If the disruption had not been stopped, Sir Mark said, it could have resulted in multiple serious injuries for those taking part in the mounted procession.
“In a strongly worded defence of the Met’s handling of the historic event, Sir Mark said: “By Friday evening, only twelve hours from the Coronation, we had become extremely concerned by a rapidly developing intelligence picture suggesting the Coronation could suffer.
“ “This included people intent on using rape alarms and loud hailers as part of their protest which would have caused distress to military horses.
“ “We also had intelligence that people intended to extensively vandalise monuments, throw paint at the procession, and incur on to the route.” ”
(with apologies to Jeremy Clarkson).
Growth has to return, I'm afraid, and then we need to ensure the proceeds are fairly shared and used to enhance our quality of life.
That is perfectly possibly with falling costs of renewable energy (lower input costs) and AI (more efficient delivery) and we just need to make sure we debate the right social and economic model to go with it.
It's possible that previous ones won't quite work in the same way.
Live on BBC1 from 8pm!
If there's more where that came from, despite having a few Labour contacts and connections and broadly having some sympathy for Starmer, personally I may vote LD for the first time, since the late New Labour period.
A little after I left he popped up as proudly being involved in the campaign to stop expansion of a factory just outside Malmesbury.
One day, if I make enough money, I will go back and build a Thermal Depolymerisation Plant next to his home. The fucking up of the emissions filters, I will do personally.
New thread
I can certainly say virtually my whole village was there on Sunday. And I bet that included people who weren't ardent royalists as well.
This will mean the ability to massively reduce the number of people in dull, dead end paper shuffling jobs. Which will free them up to do something better.
I'm not an SKS Labour fan because SKS is an apartheid-denying, Socialist hating, establishment-protecting, plege-breaking, bigot-baiting, racist-pandering, union-failing, flag-shagging, member-bullying, hierarchy of racism supporting career charlatan and Tory fraud.
Put me down as a maybe!
@Taz