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Kicking issues into the Long Grass – politicalbetting.com

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  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,870
    From "you're triggering my students" to "I'm going to chop you up with this machete":

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65692232

    Only in America...
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,713
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    The most logical solutions I can think of:

    (1) Make convenience food that's tasty and gives a "hit" but is also very natural and low cost (don't ask me how to square that equation) - "Cook" food do this well, but it's expensive.

    (2) Make exercise a part of everyday life and "lock it in" through walking/playing and working, not just the bleeding gym.

    And, generally, not spend too much time on smartphones. Even in social situations so often I see friends just in a pub with a drink staring at their phones and talking to each other, without making eye contact.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,706
    In the 70s people smoked a lot.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    The most logical solutions I can think of:

    (1) Make convenience food that's tasty and gives a "hit" but is also very natural and low cost (don't ask me how to square that equation) - "Cook" food do this well, but it's expensive.

    (2) Make exercise a part of everyday life and "lock it in" through walking/playing and working, not just the bleeding gym.

    And, generally, not spend too much time on smartphones. Even in social situations so often I see friends just in a pub with a drink staring at their phones and talking to each other, without making eye contact.
    Actually, this is one area where we can be optimistic. These new obesity drugs are properly revolutionary

    Nearly all fat people don’t want to be fat. Pop a daily pill. Sorted

    The pills will come down in price - and get even better
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,706

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,558
    Johnson is just absolute fucking poison. No morals or ideology, just all about him. He clearly gives as much of a shit about the Tories as he did the country as his ego is more important to the point where he is guaranteeing there is no chance of any Tory revival because he won’t behave and get his outriders to give up.

    He played toxic games to damage the Tories and country before he was PM, used Brexit for personal advancement rather than having any sort of belief or plan. Faffed around Covid, partied through Covid. Defended the indefensible with bad apples.

    Still he and those who support him cannot see that the problem isn’t “the blob”, Sunak, the world being wrong, the problem is 100% him. He’s unsuitable for public office and I wish to god Tories in the membership and the back benches would remove the scales from their eyes.

    He is political cancer and needs to be cut out with a rusty spoon.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,032
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    A now deceased friend of mine made a film about the return of the body of Robert F Kennedy from California to New York in 1968. The path of the train was lined with people showing their respects. A very large number of those doing so were black. Those on the train were moved by their attendance and took some films from the train which formed the base of the later film.

    What is astonishing, and really noteworthy, is that almost none of those by the tracks are overweight at all and none are what we would now call obese. Its like a different species, the one that occupied this planet for thousands of years before fast food became ubiquitous. The change has been rapid and profound. Is it any wonder that our health services are overwhelmed by the consequences?
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,774

    Inflation down to 8.7%

    Moonrabbit got it on the nail then yesterday

  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,126
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    Cicero said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
    Hmm


    “According to the results of a recent study, one fifth of adults in Estonia are obese, ranking the country third in the EU behind Malta and Latvia. Obesity has surpassed alcohol as a health risk in Estonia.”

    https://news.err.ee/1028540/obesity-epidemic-continues-in-estonia


    Any country that claims it doesn’t have an overweight problem is generally either lying, or Vietnam

    It’s a worldwide thing. It’s everywhere
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,558

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    When I lived in Switzerland I used to feel like some behemoth despite not being remotely fat. Everyone was whippet thin - even buying suits could be fun as they were all made for chaps shaped like JRM.

    I would be back in the UK a lot and agree that London wasn’t bad but when I went outside London I felt like some sort of supermodel. Everyone was fat. I remember walking along the high street in Worcester and a family of four walking side by side basically taking up the whole street.

    I’m guessing it’s a combination of diet and drinking - ready meals and takeaways weren’t common in Swiss shops and society, and the attitude to drinking is definitely more Calvinist - exercise (each village seemed to have sport facilities, weekly skiing for kids at school in season and I think having national service ensures people have to keep an element of fitness after they leave school) and there must be some genetic element too.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    There's certainly an element of that. My wife is blessed with a great metabolism like all her relatives on her father's side, and still wears the same size clothes as when I met her, almost thirty years and three children ago. I take after my family who have to work harder not to put on weight - and most of them don't work hard at it at all, and I don't work hard enough at it. But the population-wide changes we've seen in body mass in the last few decades are not driven by changes in metabolism but by changes in diet and lifestyle.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    I’m not going to suggest that giving out free cigarettes will solve the obesity epidemic. But I’m not not going to suggest it either.
  • ThomasNasheThomasNashe Posts: 5,331
    Leon said:

    Cicero said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
    Hmm


    “According to the results of a recent study, one fifth of adults in Estonia are obese, ranking the country third in the EU behind Malta and Latvia. Obesity has surpassed alcohol as a health risk in Estonia.”

    https://news.err.ee/1028540/obesity-epidemic-continues-in-estonia


    Any country that claims it doesn’t have an overweight problem is generally either lying, or Vietnam

    It’s a worldwide thing. It’s everywhere
    Japan minus the Sumo wrestlers?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    When I lived in Switzerland I used to feel like some behemoth despite not being remotely fat. Everyone was whippet thin - even buying suits could be fun as they were all made for chaps shaped like JRM.

    I would be back in the UK a lot and agree that London wasn’t bad but when I went outside London I felt like some sort of supermodel. Everyone was fat. I remember walking along the high street in Worcester and a family of four walking side by side basically taking up the whole street.

    I’m guessing it’s a combination of diet and drinking - ready meals and takeaways weren’t common in Swiss shops and society, and the attitude to drinking is definitely more Calvinist - exercise (each village seemed to have sport facilities, weekly skiing for kids at school in season and I think having national service ensures people have to keep an element of fitness after they leave school) and there must be some genetic element too.
    Switzerland is notably thin

    Cross the border into Italy and they immediately get chubbier, keep going south to Naples or Calabria and they are often as fat as Brits
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,032
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Thanks. I note that the past is a foreign country. But it is what it is and we are where we are.

    What I am unsure about in your post (and Cyclefree) is: Apart from existing systems being run competently, what changes would be helpful? And are they ones a HS can achieve, however gifted?

    The summary of the objectives of the report by the NSPCC are:
    "improve understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse
    prioritise the protection of children
    empower children and young people
    create a more protective environment for children
    improve identification and reporting of child sexual abuse
    improve the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse
    support people who were sexually abused in childhood
    make amends
    respond to evolving challenges."

    This agenda involves a huge amount of technical work and a significant change in priorities. It requires procedures for SW and the courts to be rethought. It requires a duty to report suspicions on those who deal with children. It requires coordination of the different bodies responsible so vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps. In the view of the report this requires a Children's Minister responsible for this collation and integration of material. There are certainly complicated issues regarding data protection to work through. Too often, at present, concerns are not shared.

    The body responsible for this report worked on these issues for years and came up with a lot of practical solutions. The response of the Home Office seems to be to put this on the too difficult pile. Again.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    boulay said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    When I lived in Switzerland I used to feel like some behemoth despite not being remotely fat. Everyone was whippet thin - even buying suits could be fun as they were all made for chaps shaped like JRM.

    I would be back in the UK a lot and agree that London wasn’t bad but when I went outside London I felt like some sort of supermodel. Everyone was fat. I remember walking along the high street in Worcester and a family of four walking side by side basically taking up the whole street.

    I’m guessing it’s a combination of diet and drinking - ready meals and takeaways weren’t common in Swiss shops and society, and the attitude to drinking is definitely more Calvinist - exercise (each village seemed to have sport facilities, weekly skiing for kids at school in season and I think having national service ensures people have to keep an element of fitness after they leave school) and there must be some genetic element too.
    A big issue is the lack of healthy convenience food. If I go out to eat anywhere the food is always dangerously high in calories and saturated fats.

    I've put on four stone in 10 years (when I was last a 'healthy' weight). Even going to the gym four times a week doesn't do much to stop the downhill slide in to obesity.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,036
    edited May 2023
    Cicero said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
    Interesting that there’s a class angle to it. Where I am, in the Gulf, the class angle is inverse. It’s the upper middle classes of new rich, who can afford to give their kids McDonalds and KFC every night, travel everywhere by car. The working classes are on their feet all day.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,569

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    OK, let me speak as a representative (apparently the only one here) of the problem. I don't like walking except with a view to getting somewhere. I don't like spending time cooking food. And I don't perceive any immediate effects from eating "bad" food. So I basically live on an open sandwich for lunch and a 5-minute microwaved meal in the evening, giving me lots of time to do things that interest me more - work, politics, games, chatting to people. I'm resistant to people telling me I "should" go for nice long walks because they'll make me feel good (I've tried, and they're just boring), or I "should" eat nutritious broccoli and cabbage which I've lovingly prepared at leisure after studying cookbooks on healthy living.

    However, I'm only marginally overweight and I'm apparently healthy at 73, after 50 years living much as described. To some extent this is no doubt luck, but I've also had some habits that go with the lifestyle and are healthy - I never have snacks, I don't eat if I'm not hungry just because it's a mealtime, and if I do need to walk or go up stairs I do it quickly, typically taking stairs two at a time. I'm not offering myself as some sort of model, but public health campaigns should in my view include tips like that to suit the subset of people who don't naturally gravitate to exercise and healthy food but who ARE up for being healthy if they can and saving time for the things they like doing. Don't waste time telling people like me what we ought to like - food choice is not a subset of ethics and morality, apasrt from considerations of welfare when it comes to meat - but give us advice on how to stay reasonably healthy while broadly living as we prefer.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,036
    In perhaps the most unsurprising news story for months, Reuters investigation has discovered that crypto exchange Binance failed to separate funds for trading accounts and customer deposit accounts.

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/crypto-binance-money/
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,164

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    Make dog owning compulsory!
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,303
    Cicero said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
    The stats have Estonia at the fatter end of the scale.

    image
  • CorrectHorseBatCorrectHorseBat Posts: 1,761
    According to YouGov MRP, Labour to win 24 seats in Scotland
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,888
    edited May 2023
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Thanks. I note that the past is a foreign country. But it is what it is and we are where we are.

    What I am unsure about in your post (and Cyclefree) is: Apart from existing systems being run competently, what changes would be helpful? And are they ones a HS can achieve, however gifted?

    The summary of the objectives of the report by the NSPCC are:
    "improve understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse
    prioritise the protection of children
    empower children and young people
    create a more protective environment for children
    improve identification and reporting of child sexual abuse
    improve the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse
    support people who were sexually abused in childhood
    make amends
    respond to evolving challenges."

    This agenda involves a huge amount of technical work and a significant change in priorities. It requires procedures for SW and the courts to be rethought. It requires a duty to report suspicions on those who deal with children. It requires coordination of the different bodies responsible so vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps. In the view of the report this requires a Children's Minister responsible for this collation and integration of material. There are certainly complicated issues regarding data protection to work through. Too often, at present, concerns are not shared.

    The body responsible for this report worked on these issues for years and came up with a lot of practical solutions. The response of the Home Office seems to be to put this on the too difficult pile. Again.
    Thanks that's very helpful; and I agree with all of it.

    Two comments: It seems to me that existing systems running with competence and integrity would achieve quite a lot of this.

    The list contains a surprising number of generalisations and abstractions. It would be a hard task for this not just to be a wish list

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281
    Pro_Rata said:

    Nigelb said:

    This is an extreme case, but it does reflect a real social problem without simple answers.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65634100

    Ask any primary teacher about the problem children in their class, and what resources are available if they raise concerns about their home life.

    Thanks for that Nigel, a quite balanced and illustrative report. On the face of it a reasonable decision was reached, but the stripping out of the safeguards, a reduced transition plan and the fact that the actual front line social workers do not seem to have managed to follow up fully even on that reduced plan are what proved fatal for this poor baby.

    The honest truth is even an excellent social care system, which this certainly does not reflect, will not prevent all such deaths, although would work towards the day when that was a realistic aspiration, because it relies critically on best practice human judgements about humanity and will always have to take some account of the limitations
    of the state as a carer.

    But it is in that tough fact, that you almost certainly cannot prevent all, that provides easy cover for politicians to not try and prevent more. Politically, you will fail, so why bother? I am bristling now, writing and considering how this post has worked its way to that last sentence, it reflects a paucity of public discourse across so many areas, a paucity of discourse that we can see diminishes actual governance. Even if we fail in reaching the ultimate ideal, we all need to do better than this.
    There aren't any quick answers - but there's certainly a lack of resources, and government efforts.
    Part of the solution lies in education; that's a long term project, so all the more reason not to put off starting it.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    edited May 2023

    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    There's certainly an element of that. My wife is blessed with a great metabolism like all her relatives on her father's side, and still wears the same size clothes as when I met her, almost thirty years and three children ago. I take after my family who have to work harder not to put on weight - and most of them don't work hard at it at all, and I don't work hard enough at it. But the population-wide changes we've seen in body mass in the last few decades are not driven by changes in metabolism but by changes in diet and lifestyle.
    Yes, just watch TV footage of holidaymakers on British beaches in the hot summer of 1976. Everyone rake slim, particularly the children. Of course fast food outlets were to be a feature ( on the whole) of the future and there were but a few out of town hypermarkets selling aisle upon aisle of high salt, high sugar, high fat processed foods.

    A visit to McDonald's is often held out as a positive bribe for children's behaviour. If the child is good they get a happy meal, huzzah, a positive reinforcement of McDonald's for life. Whereas the reality should be, "if you are bad I will take you to McDonald's and force-feed you s***, and if you don't like it, eat the toy, it has a better nutritional value than the burger".
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903

    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    There's certainly an element of that. My wife is blessed with a great metabolism like all her relatives on her father's side, and still wears the same size clothes as when I met her, almost thirty years and three children ago. I take after my family who have to work harder not to put on weight - and most of them don't work hard at it at all, and I don't work hard enough at it. But the population-wide changes we've seen in body mass in the last few decades are not driven by changes in metabolism but by changes in diet and lifestyle.
    Yes, just watch TV footage of holidaymakers on British beaches in the hot summer of 1976. Everyone rake slim, particularly the children. Of course fast food outlets were to be a feature ( on the whole) of the future and there were but a few out of town hypermarkets selling aisle upon aisle of high salt, high sugar, high fat processed foods.

    A visit to McDonald's is often held out as a positive bribe for children's behaviour. If the child is good they get a happy meal, huzzah, a positive reinforcement of McDonald's for life, whereas the reality should be, "if you are bad I will take you to McDonald's and force-feed you s***, and if you don't like it, eat the toy, it has a better nutritional value than the burger".
    Yeah I don't want to be too snobby about this because I know for some people it is an affordable luxury but I have never taken my kids to McDonald's and I am glad I haven't.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981
    edited May 2023

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies, I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,888
    Sandpit said:

    Cicero said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Processed food and junk takeaways. Fewer people actually cook dinner any more.
    I am currently visiting the UK and I could not help noticing the entire aisles of crisps, biscuits and sweeties in Sainsburys, Compared to supermarkets in Tallinn the contrast was really marked. Sure, the Brits don´t exercise or play sports as much as the Estonians, but the primary problem is clear: an awful diet. I may add that in the last 20 years the average Estonian has grown more overweight, but it is still very rare to see the morbid obesity that is so shockingly common in Britain. Even in the States weight has become a class thing, and rich people are on average much slimmer in the US- to the point that while the massively obese you find in the States are still rare in the UK, the average in Britain is probably higher even than the States and much higher than the EU.
    Interesting that there’s a class angle to it. Where I am, in the Gulf, the class angle is inverse. It’s the upper middle classes of new rich, who can afford to give their kids McDonalds and KFC every night, travel everywhere by car. The working classes are on their feet all day.
    There is I think a different socio/class angle in the UK. Have a look at group photos of all the members of an Oxbridge college right now. They have a marked tendency not to be substantially overweight. Other examples abound.

  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,354

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,168
    edited May 2023

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    It also suggests that Lab taking the seats of Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey would be part of ‘gains (all from SNP)’, not exactly faith building.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Thanks. I note that the past is a foreign country. But it is what it is and we are where we are.

    What I am unsure about in your post (and Cyclefree) is: Apart from existing systems being run competently, what changes would be helpful? And are they ones a HS can achieve, however gifted?

    The summary of the objectives of the report by the NSPCC are:
    "improve understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse
    prioritise the protection of children
    empower children and young people
    create a more protective environment for children
    improve identification and reporting of child sexual abuse
    improve the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse
    support people who were sexually abused in childhood
    make amends
    respond to evolving challenges."

    This agenda involves a huge amount of technical work and a significant change in priorities. It requires procedures for SW and the courts to be rethought. It requires a duty to report suspicions on those who deal with children. It requires coordination of the different bodies responsible so vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps. In the view of the report this requires a Children's Minister responsible for this collation and integration of material. There are certainly complicated issues regarding data protection to work through. Too often, at present, concerns are not shared.

    The body responsible for this report worked on these issues for years and came up with a lot of practical solutions. The response of the Home Office seems to be to put this on the too difficult pile. Again.
    I think they will be innately suspicious of funding and expanding a child protection bureaucracy.
    Obviously the flipside of all this is that there are also cases where there is excessively precautious intervention by the authorities leading to other types of harm and trauma.
    The cost of funding social services to the level required is also an issue, as is the cost of taking more children in to care.
    I'd guess this is ultimately probably the reason, the cost. How much would it cost and how would it be funded?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    It also suggests that Lab taking the seats of Kenny MacAskill and Neal Hanvey would be part of ‘gains (all from SNP)’, not exactly faith building.
    No, the Times are quite clear the changes are with the last election not how things currently stand.

    It’s a consistent approach we’ve seen for decades.

    It is why at GE2015 Rochester & Strood was classed as a Tory hold.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,032

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    The SNP gains seem surprising. At the moment they are looking at their share of the vote falling by something like 15% whilst the Tory vote might fall by 10%. That should produce a net swing in favour of the Conservatives. I can only presume that there is a much greater reluctance of fellow unionists to back the Tories when they are the lead unionist.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,929

    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    There's certainly an element of that. My wife is blessed with a great metabolism like all her relatives on her father's side, and still wears the same size clothes as when I met her, almost thirty years and three children ago. I take after my family who have to work harder not to put on weight - and most of them don't work hard at it at all, and I don't work hard enough at it. But the population-wide changes we've seen in body mass in the last few decades are not driven by changes in metabolism but by changes in diet and lifestyle.
    Yes, just watch TV footage of holidaymakers on British beaches in the hot summer of 1976. Everyone rake slim, particularly the children. Of course fast food outlets were to be a feature ( on the whole) of the future and there were but a few out of town hypermarkets selling aisle upon aisle of high salt, high sugar, high fat processed foods.

    A visit to McDonald's is often held out as a positive bribe for children's behaviour. If the child is good they get a happy meal, huzzah, a positive reinforcement of McDonald's for life, whereas the reality should be, "if you are bad I will take you to McDonald's and force-feed you s***, and if you don't like it, eat the toy, it has a better nutritional value than the burger".
    Yeah I don't want to be too snobby about this because I know for some people it is an affordable luxury but I have never taken my kids to McDonald's and I am glad I haven't.
    I don't see it as a huge deal if it's a rarity. The last time I was there I thought it had improved a little on what I remember from my youth. What parents give their kids day to day is what matters.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,168

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    It also suggests that Lab taking the seats of Kenny MacAskill and Neal Hanvey would be part of ‘gains (all from SNP)’, not exactly faith building.
    No, the Times are quite clear the changes are with the last election not how things currently stand.

    It’s a consistent approach we’ve seen for decades.

    It is why at GE2015 Rochester & Strood was classed as a Tory hold.
    Thanks.
    As you previously demonstrated these polls and their approach are easy to misunderstand.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    There's nothing middle class about breastfeeding, it is simply providing your young with the correct nutrition in the same way that all other mammals have evolved to do. Breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months is so rare in this country that it's fairly safe to assume that most people aren't doing it.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981
    DavidL said:

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    The SNP gains seem surprising. At the moment they are looking at their share of the vote falling by something like 15% whilst the Tory vote might fall by 10%. That should produce a net swing in favour of the Conservatives. I can only presume that there is a much greater reluctance of fellow unionists to back the Tories when they are the lead unionist.
    Bring back Ruthie.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,424
    Sad, although hardly surprising

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65692302
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    Make dog owning compulsory!
    Are they considered a lean meat?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    No my point was even as the SNP freefall they can still take two seats from SCon.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 28,443

    Inflation today will either be up a bit, down a bit, or the same.

    Could you be a bit more specific please
    In any event the inflation figure is bullshine as inflation is different for every one of us. It all depends on what we buy.
    Energy and fuel is basically now OK.

    It's food that's still a bit FUBAR. And bleeding interest rates ratcheting housing & mortgage costs up, which of course is linked and also deflates growth a bit too.

    I'm really not sure how high interest rates are supposed to control high food prices - people buy less food and from less posh supermarkets and therefore suppress demand? - but I don't pretend to be an economist.
    Poor people buy less petrol and spend more of their money on food and rent. My advice is try not to be poor.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,929
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    A now deceased friend of mine made a film about the return of the body of Robert F Kennedy from California to New York in 1968. The path of the train was lined with people showing their respects. A very large number of those doing so were black. Those on the train were moved by their attendance and took some films from the train which formed the base of the later film.

    What is astonishing, and really noteworthy, is that almost none of those by the tracks are overweight at all and none are what we would now call obese. Its like a different species, the one that occupied this planet for thousands of years before fast food became ubiquitous. The change has been rapid and profound. Is it any wonder that our health services are overwhelmed by the consequences?
    I don't know about the fast food bit. My grandfather told a story of how in his mining village people would have tea/dinner at 6pm and then go for fish and chips at 10pm. A lot more physical labour back then!
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,424
    edited May 2023
    DavidL said:

    The SNP gains seem surprising. At the moment they are looking at their share of the vote falling by something like 15% whilst the Tory vote might fall by 10%. That should produce a net swing in favour of the Conservatives.

    Hopefully unstupid question. If a third party X is the recipient of the swings from SNP and from the Conservatives, then does this differential swing imply an increase or decrease in Conservative seats?

  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,806

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    With respect, you're confusing your absolutes with your relatives.

    SNP are so much more toxic in Scotland than the Tories that they end up with 27 seats to the Tories 4 seats.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,354
    DavidL said:

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    The SNP gains seem surprising. At the moment they are looking at their share of the vote falling by something like 15% whilst the Tory vote might fall by 10%. That should produce a net swing in favour of the Conservatives. I can only presume that there is a much greater reluctance of fellow unionists to back the Tories when they are the lead unionist.
    Perhaps a limitation of UNS.

    Tory average in Scotland is lower because there are lots of seats where it has a very low vote share, sometimes where there isn't 10% of a Tory vote to lose.

    Which means they are dropping a lot more than 10% in places where they do have the votes to lose.

    SNP vote is much more even, but even then there will be some bumps and they may benefit from tactical anti Tory voting in some places, which you'd hope an MRP would pick up.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981
    edited May 2023

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    With respect, you're confusing your absolutes with your relatives.

    SNP are so much more toxic in Scotland than the Tories that they end up with 27 seats to the Tories 4 seats.
    I think the smilie was a subtle hint I was joking.

    Once again I am too damn subtle for PBers.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,354

    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    There's nothing middle class about breastfeeding, it is simply providing your young with the correct nutrition in the same way that all other mammals have evolved to do. Breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months is so rare in this country that it's fairly safe to assume that most people aren't doing it.
    It is the competitive absolutism, rather than the breastfeeding itself, that is middle class.

    In particular in my anecdotes, the unhealthy competitiveness of going way beyond 6 months.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,156


    My apologies, I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    "Apology accepted, Captain Needa!"
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,690
    DavidL said:

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    The SNP gains seem surprising. At the moment they are looking at their share of the vote falling by something like 15% whilst the Tory vote might fall by 10%. That should produce a net swing in favour of the Conservatives. I can only presume that there is a much greater reluctance of fellow unionists to back the Tories when they are the lead unionist.
    To be honest I am genuinely suprised to see the Tories keep any seats in Scotland. I was under the impression they were headed for complete wipe out up there. When you consider they had no seats after the 1997 election and only 1 between 2001 and 2017 it is very strange that with the scale of the predicted vote loss they would retain any seats.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,929
    DavidL said:

    Inflation down to 8.7%, once again higher than most estimates, mainly because of food. Its a big psychological difference but the failure of the MPC to foresee 19% food inflation is palpable. There seems little interest in reviewing or learning from their mistakes. One can only hope that the reasons that the forecasts were so far off are subject to more detailed examination internally. Such incompetence needs to be acknowledged and addressed, not swept under the carpet.

    I think Bailey flagged the issue of food prices immediately after the renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. Harry's farm was bemoaning the collapse in the price of rapeseed oil over the last year. We're very reliant on natural gas in the UK. One almost wonders whether there was much point in us not relying on Russian gas. The price of said gas keeps falling. We'll get there eventually.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,036
    darkage said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Thanks. I note that the past is a foreign country. But it is what it is and we are where we are.

    What I am unsure about in your post (and Cyclefree) is: Apart from existing systems being run competently, what changes would be helpful? And are they ones a HS can achieve, however gifted?

    The summary of the objectives of the report by the NSPCC are:
    "improve understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse
    prioritise the protection of children
    empower children and young people
    create a more protective environment for children
    improve identification and reporting of child sexual abuse
    improve the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse
    support people who were sexually abused in childhood
    make amends
    respond to evolving challenges."

    This agenda involves a huge amount of technical work and a significant change in priorities. It requires procedures for SW and the courts to be rethought. It requires a duty to report suspicions on those who deal with children. It requires coordination of the different bodies responsible so vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps. In the view of the report this requires a Children's Minister responsible for this collation and integration of material. There are certainly complicated issues regarding data protection to work through. Too often, at present, concerns are not shared.

    The body responsible for this report worked on these issues for years and came up with a lot of practical solutions. The response of the Home Office seems to be to put this on the too difficult pile. Again.
    I think they will be innately suspicious of funding and expanding a child protection bureaucracy.
    Obviously the flipside of all this is that there are also cases where there is excessively precautious intervention by the authorities leading to other types of harm and trauma.
    The cost of funding social services to the level required is also an issue, as is the cost of taking more children in to care.
    I'd guess this is ultimately probably the reason, the cost. How much would it cost and how would it be funded?
    Do we have any data as to the outcomes of children who grow up in what’s euphemistically called ‘care’? There have to be cases where supervising them within the family is better for the child, even in quite disfunctional families?
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,067
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Thanks. I note that the past is a foreign country. But it is what it is and we are where we are.

    What I am unsure about in your post (and Cyclefree) is: Apart from existing systems being run competently, what changes would be helpful? And are they ones a HS can achieve, however gifted?

    The summary of the objectives of the report by the NSPCC are:
    "improve understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse
    prioritise the protection of children
    empower children and young people
    create a more protective environment for children
    improve identification and reporting of child sexual abuse
    improve the criminal justice response to child sexual abuse
    support people who were sexually abused in childhood
    make amends
    respond to evolving challenges."

    This agenda involves a huge amount of technical work and a significant change in priorities. It requires procedures for SW and the courts to be rethought. It requires a duty to report suspicions on those who deal with children. It requires coordination of the different bodies responsible so vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps. In the view of the report this requires a Children's Minister responsible for this collation and integration of material. There are certainly complicated issues regarding data protection to work through. Too often, at present, concerns are not shared.

    The body responsible for this report worked on these issues for years and came up with a lot of practical solutions. The response of the Home Office seems to be to put this on the too difficult pile. Again.
    @DavidL Do you think the Childrens Hearings System is better or worse than the system in the rest of the UK for protecting children?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 28,443
    DavidL said:

    Braverman's response to this report and the work that went into it is much better evidence of her unfitness for office than asking officials about a speeding awareness course. This is the day job and she has fluffed it.

    I have had a couple of trials recently when children have been describing the abuse of them by step fathers (typically, I have one with an actual father at the moment). They tend to give their evidence by what is called a joint investigative interview, which is a recorded interview with a police officer and a social worker known to them. I find the evidence really distressing and find it hard to control my anger against the perpetrator. This is not easy work.

    What I would say is that there have been significant improvements both in the means of investigation and the inclination to believe children claiming of such abuse. But there is a long way to go and many of the recommendations of this report would and should help. There is often a historic element to these cases, going back a decade or so. The record keeping, interest, and diligence of those responsible a decade ago is usually terrible. Typically, it is even difficult for kids who had qualified for social work interventions to work out what house they were in or who the step father of the season was. For children who were not the recipients of such attention it can be impossible.

    We so need a Home Secretary up to the task. Its been a long time and there is a lot of catching up to do.

    Decades ago we were told abuse was by the natural mother or the unnatural father. Of course, in those days it was mainly physical rather than sexual abuse.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281
    Three companies to buy most Virgin Orbit assets
    https://spacenews.com/three-companies-to-buy-most-virgin-orbit-assets/
    ...Rocket Lab bid $16.1 million for the lease on Virgin Orbit’s main production facility in Long Beach, California, along with machinery and equipment there. Rocket Lab has its headquarters and a production facility just a couple blocks away in Long Beach.

    Launcher, a launch vehicle company acquired by space station developer Vast in February, bid $2.7 million for Virgin Orbit’s lease on a test site in Mojave, California, along with machinery, equipment and inventory there. While Launcher discontinued plans to build a launch vehicle after the acquisition, it said it would continue work on the E-2 rocket engine it had been developing for it, planning to offer it to other customers.

    The bankruptcy auction also accepted the $17 million “stalking horse” bid from Stratolaunch for Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 and related equipment. That bid, announced May 16, served as a minimum for the value of the overall auction. Stratolaunch currently operates its custom-designed Roc aircraft that it uses as a launch platform for hypersonic vehicles it is developing...

    ...The auction results rule out any attempt to keep the company intact and bring it out of bankruptcy under new ownership...

  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,067

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    With respect, you're confusing your absolutes with your relatives.

    SNP are so much more toxic in Scotland than the Tories that they end up with 27 seats to the Tories 4 seats.
    I think the smilie was a subtle hint I was joking.

    Once again I am too damn subtle for PBers.
    Having seen your shoes, we don’t expect subtlety from you!
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,694
    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    Everyone is different. My wife is currently breastfeeding our boy, mixed with some formula at night as she can't keep up. She has lost most of the weight gain.

    However - my wife is never hungry when tired, and she is currently exhausted.

    Other people eat more when tired. That may well lead them to gain weight when breastfeeding a newborn.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,424
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    A now deceased friend of mine made a film about the return of the body of Robert F Kennedy from California to New York in 1968. The path of the train was lined with people showing their respects. A very large number of those doing so were black. Those on the train were moved by their attendance and took some films from the train which formed the base of the later film.

    What is astonishing, and really noteworthy, is that almost none of those by the tracks are overweight at all and none are what we would now call obese. Its like a different species, the one that occupied this planet for thousands of years before fast food became ubiquitous. The change has been rapid and profound. Is it any wonder that our health services are overwhelmed by the consequences?
    If you want a look at the changes in British society, look at newsreel or similar footage over time of things like the Tube, motorway openings, football matches, public celebrations, Wakes weeks, beach footage, even strikes, the list goes on... The British at play, at work, at rest, at unrest. Look at their faces, their clothing, the way they move. Things change, and keep on changing. It's unsettling. And yes, you are right: we got fat.

    And don't get me started on the teeth.


  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,972
    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    Pro_Rata said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    There's nothing middle class about breastfeeding, it is simply providing your young with the correct nutrition in the same way that all other mammals have evolved to do. Breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months is so rare in this country that it's fairly safe to assume that most people aren't doing it.
    It is the competitive absolutism, rather than the breastfeeding itself, that is middle class.

    In particular in my anecdotes, the unhealthy competitiveness of going way beyond 6 months.
    There is such a weird discourse on breastfeeding. Evolution/God has provided an ideal, cheap, nutritious and safe food source for nurturing and growing our young from birth until they are weaned, for humans as for other mammals. It is also an activity with proven health benefits for the mother and psychological benefits for mother and child alike. It shouldn't be difficult for the vast majority of people. And yet most mothers in this country give it up because they find it too hard, or society creates too many barriers, or they think it is weird or middle class. And people complain about seeing it in public - wtf? I put it down in an increasingly long list of things about modern society that just seem mad and toxic to me.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    @benrileysmith
    46s
    🚨Exclusive

    Suella Braverman will remain Home Sec after Rishi Sunak decided not to sack her over speeding fine row.

    Also no formal inquiry expected as PM’s ministerial interests adviser has been involved in recent days.

    Exchange of letters due today.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281
    HOME OFFICE RESPONSE TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE INQUIRY ‘WILL NOT PROTECT CHILDREN’, REVIEW CHAIR WARNS

    https://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/article/home-office-response-to-child-sexual-abuse-inquiry-will-not-protect-children-review-chair-warns

    ...Jay, who was appointed chair of the review in 2015, said: “We are deeply disappointed that the government has not accepted the full package of recommendations made in the final report. In some instances, the government has stated that a number of them will be subject to consultations, despite the extensive research and evidence-taking which the Inquiry carried out over seven years.

    “The package announced by the government today will not provide the protection from sexual abuse that our children deserve. We ask the government to reconsider and accept and enact all our recommendations in full.”

    Mark Russell, chief executive of the Children’s Society, added: “It is disappointing that a significant number of the cross-sector recommendations that could have led to real change have been curbed by the government, which is either narrowing them down or assuming that existing mechanisms already address the need."..

  • eekeek Posts: 28,592

    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880

    Rishi should just call an election and watch them all disappear out of Parliament never to be seen again

    Now I know he won't do that but he does need to somehow remove the insane part of the party before they end up being out of power for decades.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,424
    Nigelb said:

    Three companies to buy most Virgin Orbit assets
    https://spacenews.com/three-companies-to-buy-most-virgin-orbit-assets/
    ...Rocket Lab bid $16.1 million for the lease on Virgin Orbit’s main production facility in Long Beach, California, along with machinery and equipment there. Rocket Lab has its headquarters and a production facility just a couple blocks away in Long Beach.

    Launcher, a launch vehicle company acquired by space station developer Vast in February, bid $2.7 million for Virgin Orbit’s lease on a test site in Mojave, California, along with machinery, equipment and inventory there. While Launcher discontinued plans to build a launch vehicle after the acquisition, it said it would continue work on the E-2 rocket engine it had been developing for it, planning to offer it to other customers.

    The bankruptcy auction also accepted the $17 million “stalking horse” bid from Stratolaunch for Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 and related equipment. That bid, announced May 16, served as a minimum for the value of the overall auction. Stratolaunch currently operates its custom-designed Roc aircraft that it uses as a launch platform for hypersonic vehicles it is developing...

    ...The auction results rule out any attempt to keep the company intact and bring it out of bankruptcy under new ownership...

    So Stratolaunch - a vanity project that did nothing even when its sugar daddy was alive - has bought a 747 with one (1) launch pylon, to do...what? Keep it in the hanger to stop Roc feeling lonely?

    [Incidentally, can a 747 hold two launch pylons? I know they come with a fifth set of holes to carry spare engines to other countries, but do they have a sixth on the other wing for symmetry?]
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281
    IICSA chair and abuse survivors dismayed by Government’s response
    https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/26-may/news/uk/iicsa-chair-and-abuse-survivors-dismayed-by-government-s-response
    THE Government’s formal response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has been criticised as “deeply disappointing”, “weak”, and “vague” by charities, survivors, survivor advocates — and the Inquiry’s chair...
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,806

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    I empathise on the weight front - similar story here.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,177
    Nigelb said:

    Three companies to buy most Virgin Orbit assets
    https://spacenews.com/three-companies-to-buy-most-virgin-orbit-assets/
    ...Rocket Lab bid $16.1 million for the lease on Virgin Orbit’s main production facility in Long Beach, California, along with machinery and equipment there. Rocket Lab has its headquarters and a production facility just a couple blocks away in Long Beach.

    Launcher, a launch vehicle company acquired by space station developer Vast in February, bid $2.7 million for Virgin Orbit’s lease on a test site in Mojave, California, along with machinery, equipment and inventory there. While Launcher discontinued plans to build a launch vehicle after the acquisition, it said it would continue work on the E-2 rocket engine it had been developing for it, planning to offer it to other customers.

    The bankruptcy auction also accepted the $17 million “stalking horse” bid from Stratolaunch for Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 and related equipment. That bid, announced May 16, served as a minimum for the value of the overall auction. Stratolaunch currently operates its custom-designed Roc aircraft that it uses as a launch platform for hypersonic vehicles it is developing...

    ...The auction results rule out any attempt to keep the company intact and bring it out of bankruptcy under new ownership...

    Stratolaunch will be chopping the 747 up for parts - their Roc aircraft is built from large chunks of 747s
  • ThomasNasheThomasNashe Posts: 5,331

    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880

    Impotent bluster.

    Johnson, your time has long been up.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,806

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    With respect, you're confusing your absolutes with your relatives.

    SNP are so much more toxic in Scotland than the Tories that they end up with 27 seats to the Tories 4 seats.
    I think the smilie was a subtle hint I was joking.

    Once again I am too damn subtle for PBers.
    Yes, fair point.

    (Too subtle for me is not a high bar though.)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,177

    ...

    Thistle do very nicely for Starmer, sleazy broken SNP on the slide.

    Scottish Labour is predicted to take 23 Westminster seats from the SNP with Humza Yousaf’s party set for its worst general election performance in almost a decade, a new poll has found.

    If the forecast is accurate then Labour is on course for its best result in Scotland for more than 15 years while the Nationalists would drop to 27 MPs, compared with the 48 they returned in 2019.

    Mhairi Black, the SNP’s outspoken deputy Westminster leader, would be one of the casualties.

    The in-depth constituency modelling by YouGov suggests the SNP would remain the largest party in Scotland, but will be a huge boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he seeks a majority government at Westminster.

    The new projections were made using a statistical technique called MRP — the same method YouGov used successfully to forecast the 2017 and 2019 UK general elections — to model the responses of 3,586 Scottish adults from April 10 to May 21...

    ...According to the research, Labour is on course to sweep greater Glasgow and claw back its former heartlands that turned to the SNP after the 2014 independence referendum.

    As well as every seat in Scotland’s largest city changing, its surrounding towns would turn too. This would include the Paisley & Renfrewshire South constituency held by Black, the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, who defeated Douglas Alexander, the former Labour cabinet minister, in 2015.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-labour-would-win-23-seats-snp-general-election-poll-finds-6gtwbmf58

    LD remain on 4 seats, whilst the Tories lose two seats to Labour.

    I'm not sure about this. Tories losing two seats to Labour in Scotland is simply not going to happen. All their seats are SNP facing with Labour nowhere. Makes me wonder what else is wrong with this survey.
    My apologies I misunderstood the write up in the Times.

    The two Tory losses are SNP gains.


    Wow, so the Tories are so toxic in Scotland they out-toxic the toxic SNP. Surely not.
    ::HYUFD mode::

    I think you need a maths lesson.

    The Tories are just losing two seats, whilst the SNP are losing 23 seats.

    Ergo the SNP are more toxic.

    😁
    With respect, you're confusing your absolutes with your relatives.

    SNP are so much more toxic in Scotland than the Tories that they end up with 27 seats to the Tories 4 seats.
    I think the smilie was a subtle hint I was joking.

    Once again I am too damn subtle for PBers.
    Having seen your shoes, we don’t expect subtlety from you!
    TSE’s subtly is on a par with his legendary modesty, and his quiet choices in apparel.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,558
    eek said:

    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880

    Rishi should just call an election and watch them all disappear out of Parliament never to be seen again

    Now I know he won't do that but he does need to somehow remove the insane part of the party before they end up being out of power for decades.
    Problem with an election now is that it’s likely the insane wing will be the ones who keep their seats. The only hope for the Tory party is for Sunak to guide them to an acceptable loss so in the post mortem the remaining MPs see that a lurch to the right isn’t the long term answer and so sitting in the centre hoping Starmer screws up and only lasts a term is the way forward.

    This however requires sense not greatly in evidence amongst a rump of Tories.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,168

    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880

    I'm shocked at seeing the words "Boris" and "organising" in the same story.
    Though ironically it appears organising piss ups anywhere (including presumably breweries) is his forte.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    A recent brush with high blood pressure made me realise just how much salt is in processed food - and particularly food flavourings, which means even 'healthy' food you cook for yourself isn't necessarily do.
    Sadly, the miso paste has had to go in the bin.

    If you can deal with the utter boredom of eating it, tofu is something of a wonder food health wise.
    Zero salt and fat, high protein, next to no calories - and very filling.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,706

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    Sounds familiar. Could eat anything until I caught glandular fever, but then only had to look at a sausage roll to put on weight. The human body is a complex system.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 22,415
    edited May 2023

    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    There's certainly an element of that. My wife is blessed with a great metabolism like all her relatives on her father's side, and still wears the same size clothes as when I met her, almost thirty years and three children ago. I take after my family who have to work harder not to put on weight - and most of them don't work hard at it at all, and I don't work hard enough at it. But the population-wide changes we've seen in body mass in the last few decades are not driven by changes in metabolism but by changes in diet and lifestyle.
    Yes, just watch TV footage of holidaymakers on British beaches in the hot summer of 1976. Everyone rake slim, particularly the children. Of course fast food outlets were to be a feature ( on the whole) of the future and there were but a few out of town hypermarkets selling aisle upon aisle of high salt, high sugar, high fat processed foods.

    A visit to McDonald's is often held out as a positive bribe for children's behaviour. If the child is good they get a happy meal, huzzah, a positive reinforcement of McDonald's for life, whereas the reality should be, "if you are bad I will take you to McDonald's and force-feed you s***, and if you don't like it, eat the toy, it has a better nutritional value than the burger".
    Yeah I don't want to be too snobby about this because I know for some people it is an affordable luxury but I have never taken my kids to McDonald's and I am glad I haven't.
    Glad you acknowledge the snobby issue because to be honest there's absolutely nothing wrong with McDonald's so long as you make reasonable choices, such as drinking sugar free.

    A cheeseburger is under 300 calories and a Big Mac has 493 calories, that's really not that excessive for a main meal.

    The days of Supersize Fries have long gone, and ordering a Big Mac with a Diet Coke isn't something to laugh at its a sensible choice.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,916
    Jonathan said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    Too much driving, not enough time.
    People definitely underestimate the role of driving in this. Fewer fat people in London where more people walk.
    Plus takeaways like people say - which are pushed very hard via advertising for delivery platforms.
    If you walk regularly and cook your own food it's hard to get really fat.
    It really depends on your personal metabolism. It’s not just about calories and exercise. Some poor souls are fad by design, some lucky folks can abuse their bodies and stay slim. Life is a lottery.
    That's certainly a factor when looking at an individual, but it doesn't explain the population level changes that have happened.

    The way in which manufactured food interacts with the gut and the metabolism seems to be pretty complicated and has some sub-optimal consequences.

    Food manufacturing is one of the more successful sectors in the British economy, but that and building towns around cars seem to be the main causes of the obesity crisis.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281

    WHAT???. Both of them?

    BREAKING

    Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’

    They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising


    https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1661267658396794880

    Impotent bluster.

    Johnson, your time has long been up.
    Any utility he had, even in the narrowest interests of a faction of the Tory party, is utterly dissipated.
    As is he.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832

    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    Everyone is different. My wife is currently breastfeeding our boy, mixed with some formula at night as she can't keep up. She has lost most of the weight gain.

    However - my wife is never hungry when tired, and she is currently exhausted.

    Other people eat more when tired. That may well lead them to gain weight when breastfeeding a newborn.
    Yep. Breastfeeding -> more calories out. Whether it helps with weight loss depends on calories in, which is related to a number of things, including tiredness, mood etc.

    (My wife has breastfed all three; none have ever had any formula. It's worked well, it's cheaper, has the well documented benefits and she likes doing it, but it doesn't work for everyone and we were open to the possibility of formula feeding. Number three is challenging sleep-wise at the moment and we're both eating a bit more, I think, seeking energy due to tiredness. If* formula would induce more sleep then perhaps we'd eat less.

    * sleep problems due to teething rather than hunger, I think - he's almost one and has little milk in the day now and doesn't have a great deal at night, either.)
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,424

    Pro_Rata said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    There's nothing middle class about breastfeeding, it is simply providing your young with the correct nutrition in the same way that all other mammals have evolved to do. Breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months is so rare in this country that it's fairly safe to assume that most people aren't doing it.
    It is the competitive absolutism, rather than the breastfeeding itself, that is middle class.

    In particular in my anecdotes, the unhealthy competitiveness of going way beyond 6 months.
    There is such a weird discourse on breastfeeding. Evolution/God has provided an ideal, cheap, nutritious and safe food source for nurturing and growing our young from birth until they are weaned, for humans as for other mammals. It is also an activity with proven health benefits for the mother and psychological benefits for mother and child alike. It shouldn't be difficult for the vast majority of people. And yet most mothers in this country give it up because they find it too hard, or society creates too many barriers, or they think it is weird or middle class. And people complain about seeing it in public - wtf? I put it down in an increasingly long list of things about modern society that just seem mad and toxic to me.
    It is also physically painful for many women who, when faced with a small screaming lump of flesh that screams incessantly and produces nauseating poo of quite a strange colour and consistency at inconvenient intervals that demands to interact in an oddly painful - ouch, ouch! - manner, and social workers who talk like three year olds and mention things like lettuce leaves as if that's sane, just decide to f*** this s*** and stick premixed bottles in the fridge in order to get some goshdarned sleep.

    My experience of life is not as wide as it should be, but I think the first rule of parenting is that do the best you can and if at 18 months they are still alive, not diseased or malnourished, at the proper weight and height and unscarred, then they're probably OK.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,947

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    I empathise on the weight front - similar story here.
    Me too. I have found that having a motivation works. I needed to get under 90kg for my Pitts Special flight and did it. Similarly I am doing the same for my next French cycle ride (although that is now in doubt and at least is really more complicated thanks to Brexit and the transporting of my bike issue, which I only found out about having organised 90% of it - sorry still can't stop ranting about this - Bastards!!).

    Having said that I find losing weight easy. I am a foodie and eat and drink huge amounts so cutting it out causes me to lose weight very fast.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,168
    Seems completely sane.


  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,281

    Seems completely sane.


    Let him who is without sin cast the first....
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,328
    Nigelb said:

    IICSA chair and abuse survivors dismayed by Government’s response
    https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/26-may/news/uk/iicsa-chair-and-abuse-survivors-dismayed-by-government-s-response
    THE Government’s formal response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has been criticised as “deeply disappointing”, “weak”, and “vague” by charities, survivors, survivor advocates — and the Inquiry’s chair...

    Yes - that is why I wrote the header.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    Nigelb said:

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    A recent brush with high blood pressure made me realise just how much salt is in processed food - and particularly food flavourings, which means even 'healthy' food you cook for yourself isn't necessarily do.
    Sadly, the miso paste has had to go in the bin.

    If you can deal with the utter boredom of eating it, tofu is something of a wonder food health wise.
    Zero salt and fat, high protein, next to no calories - and very filling.
    Even in quite apparently innocuous things like 'healthy' breakfast cereals. Interestingly(?) there is often a difference there between the branded and supermarkets' own and not in the way you might expect - e.g. All Bran is quite a bit higher salt than the 'high bran' or whatever own brand alternative. Perhaps because the supermarkets tend to embrace the traffic light nutrition symbols on the front (and so adjust to get the green colours) while the branded ones don't, so much.

    The other thing with salt is that tastes adjust. If you cut down, you find you become more sensitive to the taste and need less.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,981

    Seems completely sane.


    You know you’ve hit rock bottom when you’re too much for Piers Morgan.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    kjh said:

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    I empathise on the weight front - similar story here.
    Me too. I have found that having a motivation works. I needed to get under 90kg for my Pitts Special flight and did it. Similarly I am doing the same for my next French cycle ride (although that is now in doubt and at least is really more complicated thanks to Brexit and the transporting of my bike issue, which I only found out about having organised 90% of it - sorry still can't stop ranting about this - Bastards!!).

    Having said that I find losing weight easy. I am a foodie and eat and drink huge amounts so cutting it out causes me to lose weight very fast.
    Rail, Ferry and rail, it will only add a few hours or so and add to the experience.
  • Selebian said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    A cause of obesity among women with young children specifically is formula feeding. One of the less important of the many benefits of breastfeeding is loss of excess weight for the mother.
    So it is said. In my experience, although weight loss is an advertised benefit of breastfeeding, it is not linearly true.

    Mrs Rata breast fed all her children to slightly different degrees, but I'll tell of the one where she tried to breast feed the most, our third. She did none of the bedtime formula feed which worked a dream but was frowned upon, none of the usual scepticism to the recommendation to hold off any solid food to 6 months (advice that had changed from 4 months between kids), that's where she put on the most weight. She spent a lot of that
    period absolutely ravenous, and by ceasing breastfeeding she was 15kg above her pre-pregnancy weight. In fact, after 6 months of breastfeeding she weighed more than she did pre-birth. Happily, she got back to her fighting weight over the following 3-4 years.

    We have a London in-law also following these middle class ideals. Breastfeeding was maintained in full for the requisite health visitor mandated times ,and then continued to some degree well, well beyond 6 months. She has suffered similarly to my wife and not yet recovered.

    It may be the opposite to what you think, so press pause on your 'bad parent' assumptions.
    Everyone is different. My wife is currently breastfeeding our boy, mixed with some formula at night as she can't keep up. She has lost most of the weight gain.

    However - my wife is never hungry when tired, and she is currently exhausted.

    Other people eat more when tired. That may well lead them to gain weight when breastfeeding a newborn.
    Yep. Breastfeeding -> more calories out. Whether it helps with weight loss depends on calories in, which is related to a number of things, including tiredness, mood etc.

    (My wife has breastfed all three; none have ever had any formula. It's worked well, it's cheaper, has the well documented benefits and she likes doing it, but it doesn't work for everyone and we were open to the possibility of formula feeding. Number three is challenging sleep-wise at the moment and we're both eating a bit more, I think, seeking energy due to tiredness. If* formula would induce more sleep then perhaps we'd eat less.

    * sleep problems due to teething rather than hunger, I think - he's almost one and has little milk in the day now and doesn't have a great deal at night, either.)
    I'm happy your wife was able to and you mention the issue that not everyone can, that's an attitude the NHS absolutely can and should learn from.

    When we had ours we absolutely had the "breast is best" line drummed into us and my wife had always intended to breastfeed, but she was unable to do so despite trying her best. Which is the case for a lot of new mothers.

    We ended up using formula not as a choice, but because a fed child is healthier than a hungry child. My wife and our eldest daughter got admitted to Hospital for a few nights when she was just a few days old partially due to this and partially due to an ear infection and she was advised by the head of the unit eventually to switch to formula - but even afterwards and with our second child multiple healthcare workers were very judgmental about the fact we were formula feeding.

    Post partum and parenting a newborn is a stressful time at the best of times for new mothers, but when feeding isn't going 'to plan' a lot more sensitivity than 'breast is best' absolute dogmatism would be appreciated.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,916

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    If food inflation is 70 trillion percent, Brits should learn to eat less. Let’s face it, this is advice that would benefit the majority of these wobbling lard arses

    The government should put it on posters, with a picture of a grim faced Therese Coffey exhorting British voters:

    “Just cut back on the pies and stop whining, you stupid fat fucks”

    I think it could be a piece of Cummings-esque electoral genius like the NHS bus thingy

    I work in Town but live in Hampshire.

    One thing I notice is, generally, how fat and overweight women are with young children in my local town - one assumes all between about 20-35 - and in London where far fewer are.

    Cooking in general seems to be a rarity - and rather time-consuming and generating lots of mess - so I imagine most people only do it once or twice a week and rely on convenience food the rest of the time.

    In London dietary choices and culture for convenience foods are broader and also a tad more expensive than pizza 'n chips.

    There are at least five takeaway pizza places in my home town and I get a leaflet shoved through the door about it most weeks.
    It’s also such a recent thing. Look at photos of Brits and Yanks in the 70s and they are nearly all slim
    Now they are blobs

    It is also a growing global phenomenon. Continental kids are getting fatter, Thais are fatter, Arabs, Israelis, Aussies: everyone

    A now deceased friend of mine made a film about the return of the body of Robert F Kennedy from California to New York in 1968. The path of the train was lined with people showing their respects. A very large number of those doing so were black. Those on the train were moved by their attendance and took some films from the train which formed the base of the later film.

    What is astonishing, and really noteworthy, is that almost none of those by the tracks are overweight at all and none are what we would now call obese. Its like a different species, the one that occupied this planet for thousands of years before fast food became ubiquitous. The change has been rapid and profound. Is it any wonder that our health services are overwhelmed by the consequences?
    I don't know about the fast food bit. My grandfather told a story of how in his mining village people would have tea/dinner at 6pm and then go for fish and chips at 10pm. A lot more physical labour back then!
    One of the surprising things in the early days of the pandemic was the difficulties the supermarkets faced with the shutdown in restaurants/takeaways, which meant the supermarkets had to increase their supply of food by something like a third to make up the difference. This indicates the large proportion of food that is eaten outside the home.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,947
    edited May 2023
    Jeff Beck tribute concert last night at the Albert Hall was excellent. 10 of the best guitarist on show (plus Johnny Depp, but we don't think they plugged his guitar in because we never heard him actually play).

    We met a couple in the bar beforehand who had flown over from Florida just to see the concert, and the couple sitting next to me had flown over from Seattle just to see the concert. I was gobsmacked. When I asked why they said 'Legends that we may never see again'.

    Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Eric Clapton played the last few songs. I am not a fan of Rod Stewart, but then he wasn't singing his stuff and what really came over was he is one hell of a showman really working the audience. He actually sat in the audience during one guitar solo.

    We had a great view, looking down on the stage from only a few metres away. Cost a bloody fortune.
  • Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    On food and diet - I am comfortably overweight. Not grossly so, but definitely have "dad bod". Since puberty I have struggled to keep my weight under control, so having a load of fat is normal. I have had spells of being able to moderate this through exercise - twice in the last 10 years I have burned off the best part of 20kgs - and then out it back on again.

    I have noticed a marked change in my metabolism post-covid. This could be mid-40s malaise, but it timed in neatly with my mental health falling off the cliff summer 2020 and ending up on the happy pills.

    I decided to wean myself off the skag when I moved up here 2+ years ago. My mental health has (mostly) managed without the pills, but my metabolism is completely different to what it was.

    What I need to do is more exercise. And eat less. But food improves my mood when I am low, and with a heavy workload I really struggle to consistently get out into the fresh air and run / walk / cycle.

    A recent brush with high blood pressure made me realise just how much salt is in processed food - and particularly food flavourings, which means even 'healthy' food you cook for yourself isn't necessarily do.
    Sadly, the miso paste has had to go in the bin.

    If you can deal with the utter boredom of eating it, tofu is something of a wonder food health wise.
    Zero salt and fat, high protein, next to no calories - and very filling.
    Even in quite apparently innocuous things like 'healthy' breakfast cereals. Interestingly(?) there is often a difference there between the branded and supermarkets' own and not in the way you might expect - e.g. All Bran is quite a bit higher salt than the 'high bran' or whatever own brand alternative. Perhaps because the supermarkets tend to embrace the traffic light nutrition symbols on the front (and so adjust to get the green colours) while the branded ones don't, so much.

    The other thing with salt is that tastes adjust. If you cut down, you find you become more sensitive to the taste and need less.
    The one thing that is noticeable though is how totally different all our cereals are in this country compared to America.

    Try American Fruit Loops or Captain Crunch etc and you might as well be eating pure sugar.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,713
    Another begging letter from CCO.

    How tone-deaf are these muppets?

    I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my membership.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,803

    Another begging letter from CCO.

    How tone-deaf are these muppets?

    I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my membership.

    Why don't they ask Truss, Boris, May, Cameron and all the others who are being paid fortunes for 'giving speeches' ?
This discussion has been closed.