Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
Come on. You're not even TRYING to be taken seriously.
£1m each. So 1000 would be £1bn or something like that. Hardly talking national bankruptcy are we.
Unless it’s a cover to protect other sources, why did it take the french and dutch police to catch him out, before the British police bought him to justice?
There should be fucking riots on the streets about this. The conservatives did this to us. How fucking dare they?
I enabled this man, with my Tory vote back in 2012. I won’t make the same mistake again.
The article says that it makes no suggestion his mother was aware of her son’s criminal activities. What is your reason for blaming the Tories for the failure of the police?
He's making the not unreasonable assumption that Mum is likely to have known something.
Not sure where the connection with the Tories comes from though. Seems to me the malaise in the Police Force goes back more than thirteen years and has structural origins that appear to be beyond all Parties.
He knows nothing about the situation between parent and child. They could be completely estranged for all we know.
Sure. But mostly parents have some inkling of what's going in their kids' lives, and we're not talking here about a very successful whelk stall the guy was running. Running a billion dollar international drug biz takes a bit of doing and is likely to leave a bit of a trail.
Mum may have been estranged: she may have been gullible: she may have been lots of things. She sure as hell can't be surprised though if one or two people raise an eyebrow and wonder whether she can really say 'Well I never!'
I would think the questions go wider than whether mum had a feeling her son had gone off the straight and narrow. Son was running an industrial scale drugs import business through his removal company. Presumably dozens of people within the company were involved. Did the police have a good inkling of what was going on? If not, why not? Did anyone within the police make the link with the Deputy Commissioner, his mum? Did she know that he was under suspicion?
If the police found out something, why would they care if there was a link to the deputy commissioner or not? Surely the first thing they would do is report it to the actual commissioner. You too are massively overestimating their clout and influence.
Would beg yet another question in that case. Son of one of our senior officials is a Mr Big Drug Baron, why should that bother us? No problem. Nothing to see here.
Hi Big G - I've been in your neck of the woods today - absolutely glorious day on the beach in Llandudno, highlight of which was seeing my thirteen year old daughter improbably reverse sweep my eleven year old in a game of beach cricket. Funished with a trip up the Orme to look at the view. Fairly sure we could see to the Lake District. Discussed our perceptions of how sunny it is in N Wales - largely because it's only somewhere we ever go when it's sunny. Probably there's a wider lesson in there.
The first time I took the wife to the lakes, it had been dry for months and was sunny.
She took away a very unrealistic idea of Lake District holidays…
Hi Big G - I've been in your neck of the woods today - absolutely glorious day on the beach in Llandudno, highlight of which was seeing my thirteen year old daughter improbably reverse sweep my eleven year old in a game of beach cricket. Funished with a trip up the Orme to look at the view. Fairly sure we could see to the Lake District. Discussed our perceptions of how sunny it is in N Wales - largely because it's only somewhere we ever go when it's sunny. Probably there's a wider lesson in there.
The first time I took the wife to the lakes, it had been dry for months and was sunny.
She took away a very unrealistic idea of Lake District holidays…
Subsequent visits have tended back to the mean.
I had a similar experience 60+ years ago in N Manchester. My girlfriend, later fiancée lived that area. I visited for odd weekends and so on for about 18 months, and the weather was excellent. Then when we both finished college I went to work in the area and it rained at least part of every day for a month!
I had the opposite experience when I met Mrs P whose family home was in Somerset. Every time we visited her parents it rained, so I dubbed it the Wet Country*.
Having lived down here for 15 years though I now recognise I was just unlucky all those years ago - we get pretty much the same amount of rain as most of England, indeed the climate is rather lovely overall.
(* Yes, I was pretty hilarious guy, even 45 years ago.)
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
I was expecting Geoff Marshall to be a first day poster, but he wasn't last time I checked. Some TrainTubers did upload: I'll see if I can find some links.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
A useful lesson - for now. For how much longer is an open question.
https://twitter.com/cwhowell123/status/1662501821133254656 So I followed @GaryMarcus's suggestion and had my undergrad class use ChatGPT for a critical assignment. I had them all generate an essay using a prompt I gave them, and then their job was to "grade" it--look for hallucinated info and critique its analysis. *All 63* essays had hallucinated information. Fake quotes, fake sources, or real sources misunderstood and mischaracterized. Every single assignment. I was stunned--I figured the rate would be high, but not that high.
The biggest takeaway from this was that the students all learned that it isn't fully reliable. Before doing it, many of them were under the impression it was always right. Their feedback largely focused on how shocked they were that it could mislead them. Probably 50% of them were unaware it could do this. All of them expressed fears and concerns about mental atrophy and the possibility for misinformation/fake news. One student was worried that their neural pathways formed from critical thinking would start to degrade or weaken...
I flagged this up a couple of months ago IIRC, by pointing out how ChatGPT invented election result information. For example it said that George HW Bush carried D.C. in 1992 when in fact he won 9% of the vote.
Unless it’s a cover to protect other sources, why did it take the french and dutch police to catch him out, before the British police bought him to justice?
There should be fucking riots on the streets about this. The conservatives did this to us. How fucking dare they?
I enabled this man, with my Tory vote back in 2012. I won’t make the same mistake again.
The article says that it makes no suggestion his mother was aware of her son’s criminal activities. What is your reason for blaming the Tories for the failure of the police?
He's making the not unreasonable assumption that Mum is likely to have known something.
Not sure where the connection with the Tories comes from though. Seems to me the malaise in the Police Force goes back more than thirteen years and has structural origins that appear to be beyond all Parties.
He knows nothing about the situation between parent and child. They could be completely estranged for all we know.
Sure. But mostly parents have some inkling of what's going in their kids' lives, and we're not talking here about a very successful whelk stall the guy was running. Running a billion dollar international drug biz takes a bit of doing and is likely to leave a bit of a trail.
Mum may have been estranged: she may have been gullible: she may have been lots of things. She sure as hell can't be surprised though if one or two people raise an eyebrow and wonder whether she can really say 'Well I never!'
I would think the questions go wider than whether mum had a feeling her son had gone off the straight and narrow. Son was running an industrial scale drugs import business through his removal company. Presumably dozens of people within the company were involved. Did the police have a good inkling of what was going on? If not, why not? Did anyone within the police make the link with the Deputy Commissioner, his mum? Did she know that he was under suspicion?
If the police found out something, why would they care if there was a link to the deputy commissioner or not? Surely the first thing they would do is report it to the actual commissioner. You too are massively overestimating their clout and influence.
Would beg yet another question in that case. Son of one of our senior officials is a Mr Big Drug Baron, why should that bother us? No problem. Nothing to see here.
If the police were acting properly, and there is no evidence to suggest they weren’t, this is exactly the attitude they should take. Their investigations should have continued regardless of wether he was the son of a deputy commissioner or not.
The most likely scenario is that he simply wasn’t under suspicion, and that there wasn’t a conspiracy to not arrest him because of who his mother was.
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
We're giving them to warriors fighting a war of survival
A useful lesson - for now. For how much longer is an open question.
https://twitter.com/cwhowell123/status/1662501821133254656 So I followed @GaryMarcus's suggestion and had my undergrad class use ChatGPT for a critical assignment. I had them all generate an essay using a prompt I gave them, and then their job was to "grade" it--look for hallucinated info and critique its analysis. *All 63* essays had hallucinated information. Fake quotes, fake sources, or real sources misunderstood and mischaracterized. Every single assignment. I was stunned--I figured the rate would be high, but not that high.
The biggest takeaway from this was that the students all learned that it isn't fully reliable. Before doing it, many of them were under the impression it was always right. Their feedback largely focused on how shocked they were that it could mislead them. Probably 50% of them were unaware it could do this. All of them expressed fears and concerns about mental atrophy and the possibility for misinformation/fake news. One student was worried that their neural pathways formed from critical thinking would start to degrade or weaken...
I flagged this up a couple of months ago IIRC, by pointing out how ChatGPT invented election result information. For example it said that George HW Bush carried D.C. in 1992 when in fact he won 9% of the vote.
Yes. I flagged on here how I tried to do some research about the First vs Second Quartos of Romeo & Juliet and it got the basics wrong.
What is the only Tube line to cross the Thames by bridge?
The District
Which bridge?
Putney. Or Putney Bridge Station needs to be reported to trading standards.
In my youth, 50 yrs ago I used to get off there and there was a lovely bakers where I could by fabulous rum baba's. I had one locally recently and it tasted vile, nothing like my original one.
What is the only Tube line to cross the Thames by bridge?
The District
Which bridge?
Putney. Or Putney Bridge Station needs to be reported to trading standards.
In my youth, 50 yrs ago I used to get off there and there was a lovely bakers where I could by fabulous rum baba's. I had one locally recently and it tasted vile, nothing like my original one.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
This quote from that article is hilarious:
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
I hope the suggestion was not to chuck the missiles at them.
Silly hyperbole anyway. We could easily send a couple of hundred without compromising anything.
I was expecting Geoff Marshall to be a first day poster, but he wasn't last time I checked. Some TrainTubers did upload: I'll see if I can find some links.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
This quote from that article is hilarious:
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
The weird thing is, Liberal defense attorneys are absolutely happy to cite IQ - as in "low IQ" - when it might help get an acquittal for their clients
"While they did not dispute that their client fired the shot that killed Mr French, defense attorneys argued that, at the time of the killing, Ms Decuir was in a “sickle cell crisis” and suffering from opiate painkiller withdrawal.
They added that Ms Decuir had a low IQ, a “lack of adaptive functioning” and suffers from stress and anxiety. As a consequence, they said, she did not act “consciously” when firing the gun.
She was “unaware of what is going on,” attorney Mark Iverson told the jury, “She is moving, but without conscious thought.”"
So, which is it, guys? Is IQ a thing or not? And if IQ is relevant in criminal matters, why is it not relevant elsewhere? If being a dumb low-IQ fuck can get you a lesser sentence in a murder trial, why should an entire nation not seek to import higher IQ people that won't do this?
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
They do say excessive gin lowers your IQ by around 20 points. This too is science.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
They do say excessive gin lowers your IQ by around 20 points. This too is science.
It's good that you have given up. You were a week away from unreadability
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
I thought it was Russia that was demilitarising itself by chucking stuff at the Ukrainians?
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
No city which contains the officials of the Departments for Education, Tranpsort, and Health along with OFSTED, OFQUAL, RHUL and QMUL could hope to have a high average IQ or indeed an average IQ in triple digits unless every other individual there was a latter day Socrates.
Not forgetting they can't even do basic arithmetic, apparently, so can't make cash purchases.
That said, I am reminded the SLC is in Glasgow. That's got to be deleterious to Scotland.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
They do say excessive gin lowers your IQ by around 20 points. This too is science.
It's good that you have given up. You were a week away from unreadability
Crunching last night's Opinium poll numbers for England, Labour have 44%, Conservatives 29.5%, Liberal Democrats 10% so that would be a 13.75% swing from Conservative to Labour and a 7.75% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat.
Sunak's integrity "problem" isn't Sunak - I consider him a decent man albeit uninspiring and well out of his depth. Nonetheless, his managerialism is a significant improvement on his two immediate predecessors and if anything he reminds me more of a Conservative Gordon Brown with a significant flair for detail and micro-management.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
I am amazed Richard Lynn (a man I have chatted with) is still allowed to do this kind of IQ research. It is so UnWoke
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
No city which contains the officials of the Departments for Education, Tranpsort, and Health along with OFSTED, OFQUAL, RHUL and QMUL could hope to have a high average IQ or indeed an average IQ in triple digits unless every other individual there was a latter day Socrates.
Not forgetting they can't even do basic arithmetic, apparently, so can't make cash purchases.
That said, I am reminded the SLC is in Glasgow. That's got to be deleterious to Scotland.
Feel /fear for Darlington then - we have the English Office of the SLC (and believe me the pay is dire), a long standing DoE department and now various parts of the Treasury and other departments who want close access to the Treasury officers located here.
Results coming in from the Spanish local and regional elections.
As I mentioned last evening, A Coruna has seen the Marea Party wiped out with PP up three to 12 but PSOE up two to 11 and the Galician Nationalists up two to four so perhaps PSOE and the Nationalists will lead a new council.
I don't get the sense of big PSOE losses but PP and VOX both doing well and as with the national polls the sense the two parties together are close to taking control of a number of regions and local councils.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
I didn't say it was a good idea but I suspect there was a significant vote "for Boris" last time which wouldn't have translated to another Conservative Prime Minister. This time we'll no doubt see the Conservatives pushing a vote "for Rishi" as they try to separate him from the party and portray him as an overarching national figure around whom we can all rally as the best man for the job - apparently.
I also suspect, were he to be defeated, Sunak will, pace Major, quickly exit the stage as others fight for the soul of the party.
With 90% of the media in his corner it was always an uphill struggle for the opposition. Unless Erdogan can get a change to the constitution then this will be his last term .
Of course he'll change the constitution in order to run again.
It is the standard tactic. You don't even need to remove term limits officially, just get a court to declare that a change in constitution resets the terms, though why leaders don't at that point just remove them I don't know - authoritarian or democratic if you want to be able to go on and on no need for pretence.
Supreme Election Council declares Erdogan the winner but no word yet from Kilicdaroglu.
Didn't one of the potential opposition candidates get disqualified on bogus grounds? Would a different one have managed just that few percent more need perhaps?
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Good strategy - you'll have the great ones which stood the test of time, and the ones which are approaching the key period of nostalgia and so seeing a revival of interest.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
With 90% of the media in his corner it was always an uphill struggle for the opposition. Unless Erdogan can get a change to the constitution then this will be his last term .
Of course he'll change the constitution in order to run again.
It is the standard tactic. You don't even need to remove term limits officially, just get a court to declare that a change in constitution resets the terms, though why leaders don't at that point just remove them I don't know - authoritarian or democratic if you want to be able to go on and on no need for pretence.
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
I hope the suggestion was not to chuck the missiles at them.
Silly hyperbole anyway. We could easily send a couple of hundred without compromising anything.
Not that soon in fairness - especially since the estimate is from 2 years ago, and so can be expected to have added a further couple of years probably.
On 18 February 2022, an agreement and associated contracts signed by the head of the DGA, his British counterpart and the CEO of MBDA confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the FC/ASW...In July 2021, then Secretary of State for Defence Jeremy Quin, responded to a question on the in-service date for FC/ASW, stating: "The planning assumption for service entry for Future Cruise /Anti-Ship Weapon on the Type 26 Frigate and Typhoon aircraft is 2028 and 2030 respectively".
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Dave in 2010-2015, but yes... that feels as current and as relevant as the Roman Empire.
With 90% of the media in his corner it was always an uphill struggle for the opposition. Unless Erdogan can get a change to the constitution then this will be his last term .
Of course he'll change the constitution in order to run again.
It is the standard tactic. You don't even need to remove term limits officially, just get a court to declare that a change in constitution resets the terms, though why leaders don't at that point just remove them I don't know - authoritarian or democratic if you want to be able to go on and on no need for pretence.
Less administrative hassle ?
It might well be more, since if you do last out the new term limits you have to go through changing the constitution again in however significant a way is needed to justify a reset, and you probably have to get a court system to agree, rather than just do it.
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Yes, I'm limbering up for Mad Men. Then I'm thinking about Frazier.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Dave 2010-2015.
Ah, Dave... a Remainer, pro-gay rights, wanted to do something about climate change, so would struggle to even get picked as a candidate in today's Conservative Party, let alone become leader.
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Yes, I'm limbering up for Mad Men. Then I'm thinking about Frazier.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Dave in 2010-2015, but yes... that feels as current and as relevant as the Roman Empire.
It really does seem the distant past. It's like Brexit and Johnson and Covid have punched a hole in space time. A seven year glitch.
Erdogan wins the Turkish presidential election by 52% to 48%. The golden ratio.
So close, Turkish opposition - might be the last chance they get, if Erdogan has been spooked.
He's not immortal.
Mugabe was dictatoring into his late 80s, I'm sure authoritarians can keep it up quite a long time. Or just lock things down for successors who really do give up pretence, like Maduro.
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Yes, I'm limbering up for Mad Men. Then I'm thinking about Frazier.
Can I recommend Blake's 7 and The Prisoner?
Yes ok. Once I've finished Bonanza. If they're good enough age is no barrier.
Supreme Election Council declares Erdogan the winner but no word yet from Kilicdaroglu.
Didn't one of the potential opposition candidates get disqualified on bogus grounds? Would a different one have managed just that few percent more need perhaps?
Kilicdaroglu was probably the obvious unity candidate. One of the mayors - Imamoglu or Yavas - might have had a better chance of winning but they'll be young enough next time to have a go.
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
I hope the suggestion was not to chuck the missiles at them.
Silly hyperbole anyway. We could easily send a couple of hundred without compromising anything.
Not that soon in fairness - especially since the estimate is from 2 years ago, and so can be expected to have added a further couple of years probably.
On 18 February 2022, an agreement and associated contracts signed by the head of the DGA, his British counterpart and the CEO of MBDA confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the FC/ASW...In July 2021, then Secretary of State for Defence Jeremy Quin, responded to a question on the in-service date for FC/ASW, stating: "The planning assumption for service entry for Future Cruise /Anti-Ship Weapon on the Type 26 Frigate and Typhoon aircraft is 2028 and 2030 respectively".
Quin was not Secretary of State for Defence (thank God) but Minister of State for Defence Procurement (hazardous enough in itself). Unfortunately I can't edit Wikipedia because they've blocked my IP address for no reason whatsoever. In return I have blocked my monthly sub.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
This quote from that article is hilarious:
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
The weird thing is, Liberal defense attorneys are absolutely happy to cite IQ - as in "low IQ" - when it might help get an acquittal for their clients
"While they did not dispute that their client fired the shot that killed Mr French, defense attorneys argued that, at the time of the killing, Ms Decuir was in a “sickle cell crisis” and suffering from opiate painkiller withdrawal.
They added that Ms Decuir had a low IQ, a “lack of adaptive functioning” and suffers from stress and anxiety. As a consequence, they said, she did not act “consciously” when firing the gun.
She was “unaware of what is going on,” attorney Mark Iverson told the jury, “She is moving, but without conscious thought.”"
So, which is it, guys? Is IQ a thing or not? And if IQ is relevant in criminal matters, why is it not relevant elsewhere? If being a dumb low-IQ fuck can get you a lesser sentence in a murder trial, why should an entire nation not seek to import higher IQ people that won't do this?
You appear to be very sure of Mr Iverson’s political leanings and/or are unable to understand an advocate’s responsibility to place his client’s interests over his own political views at trial. I’ve put forward plenty of legally sound arguments based on laws that I would personally wish to see repealed. It’s what the job involves.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Dave in 2010-2015, but yes... that feels as current and as relevant as the Roman Empire.
It really does seem the distant past. It's like Brexit and Johnson and Covid have punched a hole in space time. A seven year glitch.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
The problem with the idea that you should vote for the Prime Minister rather than for the Conservative Party is that... well, when was the last time that a Conservative PM elected at a general election made it to the next general election?
Dave 2010-2015.
Ah, Dave... a Remainer, pro-gay rights, wanted to do something about climate change, so would struggle to even get picked as a candidate in today's Conservative Party, let alone become leader.
David Cameron is more than 4 years younger than Sir Keir Starmer.
Sunak joined Lula and Biden and Scholz and tweeted congratulations, 'Congratulations to @RTErdogan. I look forward to continuing the strong collaboration between our countries, from growing trade to tackling security threats as NATO allies.'
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
This quote from that article is hilarious:
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
The weird thing is, Liberal defense attorneys are absolutely happy to cite IQ - as in "low IQ" - when it might help get an acquittal for their clients
"While they did not dispute that their client fired the shot that killed Mr French, defense attorneys argued that, at the time of the killing, Ms Decuir was in a “sickle cell crisis” and suffering from opiate painkiller withdrawal.
They added that Ms Decuir had a low IQ, a “lack of adaptive functioning” and suffers from stress and anxiety. As a consequence, they said, she did not act “consciously” when firing the gun.
She was “unaware of what is going on,” attorney Mark Iverson told the jury, “She is moving, but without conscious thought.”"
So, which is it, guys? Is IQ a thing or not? And if IQ is relevant in criminal matters, why is it not relevant elsewhere? If being a dumb low-IQ fuck can get you a lesser sentence in a murder trial, why should an entire nation not seek to import higher IQ people that won't do this?
You appear to be very sure of Mr Iverson’s political leanings and/or are unable to understand an advocate’s responsibility to place his client’s interests over his own political views at trial. I’ve put forward plenty of legally sound arguments based on laws that I would personally wish to see repealed. It’s what the job involves.
It's the same as "Lefty teachers indoctrinating impressionable kids." Rather than delivering a restrictive centrally imposed curriculum dictated by the government of the day.
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
Do you treat all arms exports as a form of demilitarisation?
I am sure that question has a point - by all means proceed with making it.
Michael Clarke was suggesting we give the Ukrainians all of the Storm Shadow missiles and who am I to disagree with him? Do we have one thousand in total?
Demilitarising the UK to chuck stuff at Ukraine is disgracefully reckless.
We're giving them to warriors fighting a war of survival
Better that than them rotting in a warehouse here
And they seem to be working well enough that if we need to buy some more we know they'll be effective if we need to use them.
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Yes, I'm limbering up for Mad Men. Then I'm thinking about Frazier.
Unless it’s a cover to protect other sources, why did it take the french and dutch police to catch him out, before the British police bought him to justice?
There should be fucking riots on the streets about this. The conservatives did this to us. How fucking dare they?
I enabled this man, with my Tory vote back in 2012. I won’t make the same mistake again.
The article says that it makes no suggestion his mother was aware of her son’s criminal activities. What is your reason for blaming the Tories for the failure of the police?
He's making the not unreasonable assumption that Mum is likely to have known something.
Not sure where the connection with the Tories comes from though. Seems to me the malaise in the Police Force goes back more than thirteen years and has structural origins that appear to be beyond all Parties.
Without evidence that’s quite close to accusing her of criminal neglect in demonstrating favouritism. She is is responsible for the police in her area.
Evidence?
The report gives ample evidence of the kind of lifestyle that is unlikely to have been funded by a successful furniture removal business. That's not proof, of course, but a reasonable suspicion that Mum might have had her suspicions? That's not exactly stretching it.
The problem is she is part of the law enforcement hierarchy. She has a duty to report suspicions. Failure to do so would be criminal neglect - what @ping is implicitly accusing her of
Suspecting, not accusing. It's not an unreasonable thought in the circumstances.
Not where libel is concerned
Who's been libelled? Where?
Listen, if any of my kids had been living that kind of lifestyle without any obvious means of supporting it, I'd have been asking a few question - and I'm not especially suspicious, nor in a sensitive public role. Of course she may have been oblivious, but she couldn't be surprised if others wondered.
Some of @ping ’s posts were pretty close to the line. I’m always cautious where my learned friends are involved
Sad story - no doubt they have lots of practice at doing this sort of thing.
Two years ago, Raman Pratasevich, a young Belarusian dissident blogger, was white-knuckled, begging a Ryanair flight crew not to make an emergency landing at Minsk airport.
He said: “Don’t do this, they will kill me, I am a refugee,” according to a fellow passenger. The plane, escorted by a Belarusian Mig-29 fighter jet sent to force it down, landed anyway. Pratasevich was promptly arrested.
Last week he emerged from custody. The activist and blogger, accused of more than 1,586 crimes, was charged on 10 counts including conspiracy to seize power. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and then promptly pardoned, his reward from Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko for becoming a full-throated mouthpiece of the regime...
The breaking of Pratasevich, who weeks before his arrest compared Lukashenko’s repressions to Hitler’s, has been a macabre display of the dictator’s power and desire for revenge.
Av IQ in Scotland is supposedly 5 points below av for London and SE England. ROFL!
This quote from that article is hilarious:
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
I’m glad the article was from 2006!
I had a moment wondering just how old they were when they dated our favourite Lib Dem
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Yes, I'm limbering up for Mad Men. Then I'm thinking about Frazier.
Can I recommend Blake's 7 and The Prisoner?
Yes ok. Once I've finished Bonanza. If they're good enough age is no barrier.
The Manson Family lived on the Bonanza film set before going on their killing spree. I'd stick with Blakes 7 if I were you. The Prisoner set has the risk of suffocation-by-bouncy-ball and also very expensive pottery, so best avoided.
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
I like your faith that we will survive the AI robo-apocalypse...
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
Every council area in Scotland voted Remain. All of them. Rural or urban. All.
As I said Banff and Buchan, a constituency of over 50,000 people and predominantly rural and coastal fishing ports, voted 54% Leave so your statement Remain won in every part of Scotland was wrong
Another desperate headline grabbing policy implodes on contact with reality ! Sunaks man of the people fix the price of some supermarket staples blows up ! He really is beginning to look completely out of his depth and the next GE can’t come soon enough to rid the country of this clueless government.
I usually end up watching top TV shows about 20 years after they first come out. For instance I watched the original Twin Peaks series from 1990 in about 2012. So I'll probably be watching Succession in about 2038.
Have a look out for Battlestar Galactica. They've done a reimagined series and it's coming out 19 years ago.
If you can't wait that long, in a few months (19.5 years ago) a show called Peep Show will be launching. Coupe of British guys you won't have heard of, but it's really well done. Unusual camera work throughout.
Another desperate headline grabbing policy implodes on contact with reality ! Sunaks man of the people fix the price of some supermarket staples blows up ! He really is beginning to look completely out of his depth and the next GE can’t come soon enough to rid the country of this clueless government.
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
Every council area in Scotland voted Remain. All of them. Rural or urban. All.
As I said Banff and Buchan, a constituency of over 50,000 people and predominantly rural and coastal fishing ports, voted 54% Leave so your statement Remain won in every part of Scotland was wrong
He's won everywhere which isn't Istanbul, Ankara, Mediterranean Coast or Kurdish east. Country is very divided geographically.
Looks very much like the Brexit vote or US 2016 election yes, Remain and Hillary won the big cities comfortably but Leave and Trump won everywhere else
Every council area in Scotland voted Remain. All of them. Rural or urban. All.
As I said Banff and Buchan, a constituency of over 50,000 people and predominantly rural and coastal fishing ports, voted 54% Leave so your statement Remain won in every part of Scotland was wrong
Every single council area, HYUFD. All of them.
NOT every single part of Scotland though which is what you said
Comments
£1m each. So 1000 would be £1bn or something like that. Hardly talking national bankruptcy are we.
Having lived down here for 15 years though I now recognise I was just unlucky all those years ago - we get pretty much the same amount of rain as most of England, indeed the climate is rather lovely overall.
(* Yes, I was pretty hilarious guy, even 45 years ago.)
He is probably right about Scotland. The Empire has surely led to a degradation of local IQs, then Nationalism and the midges and the rain have drained it further, and Scotland is not - like some other parts of the UK - being replenished by immigration from high IQ countries
London likely has the highest IQ in Europe
The most likely scenario is that he simply wasn’t under suspicion, and that there wasn’t a conspiracy to not arrest him because of who his mother was.
Better that than them rotting in a warehouse here
Ah, my coat.
Gabriela and Monica Irimia, 23, the Romanian pop twins the Cheeky Girls, who live in Britain, said their homeland's poor ranking was an insult. Gabriela said: "Our father is head of the ambulance service in Romania. He's a doctor of medicine and extremely intelligent."
We could easily send a couple of hundred without compromising anything.
And they’re to be replaced relatively soon, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Cruise/Anti-Ship_Weapon
"While they did not dispute that their client fired the shot that killed Mr French, defense attorneys argued that, at the time of the killing, Ms Decuir was in a “sickle cell crisis” and suffering from opiate painkiller withdrawal.
They added that Ms Decuir had a low IQ, a “lack of adaptive functioning” and suffers from stress and anxiety. As a consequence, they said, she did not act “consciously” when firing the gun.
She was “unaware of what is going on,” attorney Mark Iverson told the jury, “She is moving, but without conscious thought.”"
https://sfpublicsafety.news/mistrial-family-of-slain-twin-peaks-photographer-lament-jury-deadlock/?fbclid=IwAR2txPt2sSElpXVGaGIG32lpIDP9jSZXtipkRMCgDNtYQ_jLwceJO7FkxTk
So, which is it, guys? Is IQ a thing or not? And if IQ is relevant in criminal matters, why is it not relevant elsewhere? If being a dumb low-IQ fuck can get you a lesser sentence in a murder trial, why should an entire nation not seek to import higher IQ people that won't do this?
This too is science.
https://twitter.com/europeelects/status/1662912807933730823
Spain (Madrid local election):
Provisional results, 33.79% counted
PP-EPP: 41%
MM/VQ-G/EFA: 20%
PSOE-S&D: 19%
VOX-ECR: 9%
Podemos/IU/AV-LEFT: 5%
CS-RE: 3%
Comedian Zelensky making a joke about Erdogan (whilst wearing a Fez)
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1662893784890241024?s=20
Not sure it translates too well.
Not forgetting they can't even do basic arithmetic, apparently, so can't make cash purchases.
That said, I am reminded the SLC is in Glasgow. That's got to be deleterious to Scotland.
Crunching last night's Opinium poll numbers for England, Labour have 44%, Conservatives 29.5%, Liberal Democrats 10% so that would be a 13.75% swing from Conservative to Labour and a 7.75% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat.
Sunak's integrity "problem" isn't Sunak - I consider him a decent man albeit uninspiring and well out of his depth. Nonetheless, his managerialism is a significant improvement on his two immediate predecessors and if anything he reminds me more of a Conservative Gordon Brown with a significant flair for detail and micro-management.
The best hope the Conservatives have is to try to persuade people to vote for the Prime Minister more than for the Conservative Party but that's pretty thin gruel after more than 13 years leading the government and five different Prime Ministers.
Why should anyone vote Conservative on the basis of their past record? What reason is there to vote Conservative in terms of future plans and policies?
As I mentioned last evening, A Coruna has seen the Marea Party wiped out with PP up three to 12 but PSOE up two to 11 and the Galician Nationalists up two to four so perhaps PSOE and the Nationalists will lead a new council.
I don't get the sense of big PSOE losses but PP and VOX both doing well and as with the national polls the sense the two parties together are close to taking control of a number of regions and local councils.
I also suspect, were he to be defeated, Sunak will, pace Major, quickly exit the stage as others fight for the soul of the party.
Germany 107
Netherlands 107
Poland 106
Sweden 104
Italy 102
Austria 101
Switzerland 101
UK 100
https://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland-lags-europe-in-iq-league-2470181
On 18 February 2022, an agreement and associated contracts signed by the head of the DGA, his British counterpart and the CEO of MBDA confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the FC/ASW...In July 2021, then Secretary of State for Defence Jeremy Quin, responded to a question on the in-service date for FC/ASW, stating: "The planning assumption for service entry for Future Cruise /Anti-Ship Weapon on the Type 26 Frigate and Typhoon aircraft is 2028 and 2030 respectively".
Sunak joined Lula and Biden and Scholz and tweeted congratulations,
'Congratulations to @RTErdogan. I look forward to continuing the strong collaboration between our countries, from growing trade to tackling security threats as NATO allies.'
https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1662922299559870465?s=20
Rather than delivering a restrictive centrally imposed curriculum dictated by the government of the day.
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1662813190193836032?s=20
Should you? Hmmm...
(incidentally and coincidentally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B2NXFtM_YA )
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2023/may/28/turkey-election-results-presidential-vote-round-two
Country is very divided geographically.
Two years ago, Raman Pratasevich, a young Belarusian dissident blogger, was white-knuckled, begging a Ryanair flight crew not to make an emergency landing at Minsk airport.
He said: “Don’t do this, they will kill me, I am a refugee,” according to a fellow passenger. The plane, escorted by a Belarusian Mig-29 fighter jet sent to force it down, landed anyway. Pratasevich was promptly arrested.
Last week he emerged from custody. The activist and blogger, accused of more than 1,586 crimes, was charged on 10 counts including conspiracy to seize power. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and then promptly pardoned, his reward from Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko for becoming a full-throated mouthpiece of the regime...
The breaking of Pratasevich, who weeks before his arrest compared Lukashenko’s repressions to Hitler’s, has been a macabre display of the dictator’s power and desire for revenge.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/27/belarus-dissident-arrested-collaborator-raman-pratasevich
I had a moment wondering just how old they were when they dated our favourite Lib Dem
https://www.instagram.com/stories/rishisunakmp/3112747067000323211/
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-constituency-of-banff-and-buchan-voted-for-brexit-1462018
https://racebest.com/results/gu8ce
If you can't wait that long, in a few months (19.5 years ago) a show called Peep Show will be launching. Coupe of British guys you won't have heard of, but it's really well done. Unusual camera work throughout.