Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
It took me a while to understand your post. At first sight I didn't. And you can surely see how that's a bad thing.
I can see that it'd be a bad thing if participants to this site hadn't kept up with UK culture well enough to know that David Baddiel had written that book
Well I wasn't hitherto aware of it.
I'm glad to have brought you more up to date
And I'm rather surprised that you haven't heard of it; it's garnered quite a lot of attention in the two and a bit years since it was published
Sooner or later someone will try Singapore-style policies in a major Western city.
Not much opportunity for middle class flight from social problems in Singapore so they had an incentive to sort them.
That’s a good point. Maybe these cities are doomed then and people who want something different will have to start again somewhere else.
That is very much the American way. In part it is why the USA has such a dynamic economy. For every Detroit there is a Phoenix. There is nothing more American than a ghost town, and a boom town in another place. Being on the wrong end of that economy is tough, but there are also fortunes to be made.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Yes I did. It always had a sketchy area in downtown (the Tenderloin) and a harbourside rawness in other areas, but generally it was a handsome, affluent city in a magnificent location
I haven’t been in 20 years but everyone I know who has been recently says the decline is very real and quite horrific
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
This. There’s nothing wrong with Rishi. It’s the rabble he leads and the Tory brand that have meant they have next to 0 chance next year
The parliamentary Tory party has consisted almost exclusively of obnoxious baying c***s, poshos, a few selfmade men who almost everybody likes to despise, and the occasional barrow boy with a funny haircut, ever since I can remember. We've gone from hug a hoodie to levelling up. That's how out of touch they are, for all their expenditure on focus groups. Almost all of them have complete contempt for the majority of the electorate. But they keep winning elections. I think they'll win the next one too. Immigration.
No they aren't. In 1997 most Tory MPs had been to private school and Oxbridge, now most Tory MPs have been to state school and non Oxbridge universities.
The Tory Parliamentary Party is much less posh than it was. Labour on the other hand has gone the other way. The number of Labour working class MPs who worked on the shop or factory floor or down the mines is a fraction of what it was 50-100 years ago. While the vast majority of Labour MPs are now middle class and went to university
In large part down to the decline in the numbers of people working down mines or or in factories any more, so hard to recruit as potential MPs. There are some who have been on working class service industry jobs, such as Rayner.
I think we need to end the rather comfy benefits MPs continue to enjoy once they're out of office. It attracts a certain class, and that class is precisely who we don't want in our government.
Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
It took me a while to understand your post. At first sight I didn't. And you can surely see how that's a bad thing.
I can see that it'd be a bad thing if participants to this site hadn't kept up with UK culture well enough to know that David Baddiel had written that book
Well I wasn't hitherto aware of it.
I'm glad to have brought you more up to date
And I'm rather surprised that you haven't heard of it; it's garnered quite a lot of attention in the two and a bit years since it was published
I'm pretty unlikely to read a review of a book, and far less likely to buy one by Baddiel. I've nothing against him, but can see little merit in his thoughts. Football Innit?
Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
@omnium is being an idiot. It’s obvious you were citing a well known book, published recently
Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
@omnium is being an idiot. It’s obvious you were citing a well known book, published recently
I'm not being an idiot - I simply wasn't aware of the book. Assuming you take my word for that then you can see why I might have found the post a little untoward.
Sooner or later someone will try Singapore-style policies in a major Western city.
Not much opportunity for middle class flight from social problems in Singapore so they had an incentive to sort them.
That’s a good point. Maybe these cities are doomed then and people who want something different will have to start again somewhere else.
That is very much the American way. In part it is why the USA has such a dynamic economy. For every Detroit there is a Phoenix. There is nothing more American than a ghost town, and a boom town in another place. Being on the wrong end of that economy is tough, but there are also fortunes to be made.
That was true, and it is definitely the American way. It’s why they are happy to trash places and move on. There is this national feeling that there will always be new frontiers, you go west, you start again, you make a new state out of wilderness
The trouble is they’ve run out of Wild West frontier land, and they are now destroying their great cities - with no new cities to replace them. These latest problems are extreme and brutal
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
Out of touch, or simply demented?
Here’s a word cloud of modern Britain, published today.
I’m not surprised. The constant barrage of negativity from the media ensures that.
Note that I am not implying all is rosy here, but the media have been in full on disaster mode since June 2016.
Ah, the classic "blame the media" defence, which rather ignores the Brexit cheerleading of most of our press.
BTW Foxy, thanks for the Leicester tip and commiserations. My best man is a Leicester fan, and I always consider them as ‘my’ second or third side (with Saints), after my beloved Swindon.
Even so £753 is a huge difference between those who have to pay and those who no longer do so.
Will he other figure it says was that the average mortgage is £193,000 which looking at he Halifax will cost you £1083 at least at the moment.
As an aside - my 'middle' neighbours (each floor of the building had 2 big flats originally, then a 3rd was squeezed out of some space taken from the originals) moved out the other week. As they were leaving they mentioned that their rent was £750/month. Which for a one-room flat in a 'vibrant' area of the city (as defined by The Guardian) is really quite something. Not even an oven - just a landlord-provided camping stove.
Given the landlord has very clearly paid the mortgage off - it really struck me how much money is being extracted on a next-to-zero-maintenance property.
In a bit of research which I'm sure will shock everyone, googling the landlord reveals endless legal issues. And also that they are related to a local councillor who happens to be in charge of landlord enforcement issues.
Though very unfair and partly unfree, Turkey just had a meaningful election. It may be the last for a while. In his victory speech, Erdoğan vows to keep ruling for life."
Sooner or later someone will try Singapore-style policies in a major Western city.
I remember the first casual chat I had with a Singaporean student here. He was bemoaning the drug use & junkies he kept seeing. I vaguely nodded and agreed it was a bit of a problem.
Sooner or later someone will try Singapore-style policies in a major Western city.
I remember the first casual chat I had with a Singaporean student here. He was bemoaning the drug use & junkies he kept seeing. I vaguely nodded and agreed it was a bit of a problem.
He just said "You should execute them all."
So their solution to those with too many shots is to shoot them?
Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
@omnium is being an idiot. It’s obvious you were citing a well known book, published recently
I'm not being an idiot - I simply wasn't aware of the book. Assuming you take my word for that then you can see why I might have found the post a little untoward.
I hope you can see now that I wasn’t being at all provocative with my post
Sooner or later someone will try Singapore-style policies in a major Western city.
I remember the first casual chat I had with a Singaporean student here. He was bemoaning the drug use & junkies he kept seeing. I vaguely nodded and agreed it was a bit of a problem.
He just said "You should execute them all."
So their solution to those with too many shots is to shoot them?
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
Out of touch, or simply demented?
Here’s a word cloud of modern Britain, published today.
I’m not surprised. The constant barrage of negativity from the media ensures that.
Note that I am not implying all is rosy here, but the media have been in full on disaster mode since June 2016.
Ah, the classic "blame the media" defence, which rather ignores the Brexit cheerleading of most of our press.
BTW Foxy, thanks for the Leicester tip and commiserations. My best man is a Leicester fan, and I always consider them as ‘my’ second or third side (with Saints), after my beloved Swindon.
Yes, I think the bookies (like our board) thought us "too good to go down" for far longer than was justified. I greened out when Rodgers was sacked, but my winnings come to £750, so pay for my season ticket for next year (£595 this next season).
It's been a wild ride for the last decade, and the most successful spell in our long history. The Championship has 20 teams in it that played in the Premier League, so a lot of interesting rivals. Now Wednesday too.
Of the relegated teams, I think Saints most likely to bounce back, as they have a core of solid Championship players and some talented youngsters. Leicester has a lot of players out of contract, or a year left, and will lose most of our real talent when Maddison and Barnes get bought. Not much obvious in our Acadamy too. Our two best youngsters (Braybrooke and Alves) both got bad knee injuries this spring so will be out for some time.
Though very unfair and partly unfree, Turkey just had a meaningful election. It may be the last for a while. In his victory speech, Erdoğan vows to keep ruling for life."
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
No, I think I was last in the States a decade ago. I don't have much desire to rush back, though have been tempted by Seattle, which has an interesting medical conference next year that I may try to make. After Covid I am rather enjoying face to face meetings again.
Even voters who consider stopping unfortunates on boats a necessity doesn't stop them disliking the insensitivity of politicians promoting it. When Michael Howard asked voters to admit to having the same prejudices against gypsies he had they told him where to go. The campaign bombed and so did he.
This is where Sunak finds himself
If Sunak finds himself in the same position as Michael Howard, no doubt we can expect Labour to run racist posters against him.
Point of order: the Fagin ones were antisemitic rather than racist.
Come on - antisemetism is racist.
Jews Don't Count
The quoting of book titles isn't always acceptable.
I'm unsure whether you're making a general point, or saying that I've crossed that line
If the latter, I'm not at all sure how
I imagined that Robert, as a very sensible chap, was making the same point as me but with sarcasm
@omnium is being an idiot. It’s obvious you were citing a well known book, published recently
I'm not being an idiot - I simply wasn't aware of the book. Assuming you take my word for that then you can see why I might have found the post a little untoward.
I hope you can see now that I wasn’t being at all provocative with my post
And that Robert was a bit with his!
I feel ill used in this entire affair. I plan to write a book with a title I can unexpectedly spring upon you and thus claim words don't matter.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
I enjoyed SF in the 1990s. It was a vibrant, cosmopolitan place that was a great place to hang out and to work.
Last visit just pre-pandemic was a nightmarish hellscape where people would bump into you to avoid looking at the human shit strewn on the pavements and the victims of drugs and crime strewn beside them.
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
Out of touch, or simply demented?
Here’s a word cloud of modern Britain, published today.
I’m not surprised. The constant barrage of negativity from the media ensures that.
Note that I am not implying all is rosy here, but the media have been in full on disaster mode since June 2016.
Ah, the classic "blame the media" defence, which rather ignores the Brexit cheerleading of most of our press.
BTW Foxy, thanks for the Leicester tip and commiserations. My best man is a Leicester fan, and I always consider them as ‘my’ second or third side (with Saints), after my beloved Swindon.
Yes, I think the bookies (like our board) thought us "too good to go down" for far longer than was justified. I greened out when Rodgers was sacked, but my winnings come to £750, so pay for my season ticket for next year (£595 this next season).
It's been a wild ride for the last decade, and the most successful spell in our long history. The Championship has 20 teams in it that played in the Premier League, so a lot of interesting rivals. Now Wednesday too.
Of the relegated teams, I think Saints most likely to bounce back, as they have a core of solid Championship players and some talented youngsters. Leicester has a lot of players out of contract, or a year left, and will lose most of our real talent when Maddison and Barnes get bought. Not much obvious in our Acadamy too. Our two best youngsters (Braybrooke and Alves) both got bad knee injuries this spring so will be out for some time.
The championship is going to be interesting next season. A lot of well-supported clubs with big traditions.
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
My rent isn't rising because I don't rent.
My mortgage isn't rising because its been paid off.
My pay rise is more than covering price rises.
So is the interest I'm getting on my savings.
While the supermarkets have near continuous 25% off wine offers
And there are many millions of oldies and GenXers similar to me.
As for affordable housing then that is very location dependent.
And full employment gives opportunities for those teenagers who prefer to get a job or training rather than go to university.
Now are there many millions of others who are struggling ?
Of course there are - young southerners with graduate debt especially so.
What we're seeing is a widening difference between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling with little hope.
Which is what I said in my initial comment.
We've likely seen such differences previously but, for example, whereas the 1980s were much easier for the southern middle class compared with the northern working class the opposite situation is now happening. Both surprising and ironic.
Spot on and pretty much what I saw on my Easter trip to the NE. The whinge crew on here who whine on about Brexit, c.o.l crisis, Brexit , immigration, Brexit.... really need to get out more.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
I enjoyed SF in the 1990s. It was a vibrant, cosmopolitan place that was a great place to hang out and to work.
Last visit just pre-pandemic was a nightmarish hellscape where people would bump into you to avoid looking at the human shit strewn on the pavements and the victims of drugs and crime strewn beside them.
And apparently it’s declined even further since Covid. The entire downtown is largely deserted
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
My rent isn't rising because I don't rent.
My mortgage isn't rising because its been paid off.
My pay rise is more than covering price rises.
So is the interest I'm getting on my savings.
While the supermarkets have near continuous 25% off wine offers
And there are many millions of oldies and GenXers similar to me.
As for affordable housing then that is very location dependent.
And full employment gives opportunities for those teenagers who prefer to get a job or training rather than go to university.
Now are there many millions of others who are struggling ?
Of course there are - young southerners with graduate debt especially so.
What we're seeing is a widening difference between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling with little hope.
Which is what I said in my initial comment.
We've likely seen such differences previously but, for example, whereas the 1980s were much easier for the southern middle class compared with the northern working class the opposite situation is now happening. Both surprising and ironic.
Spot on and pretty much what I saw on my Easter trip to the NE. The whinge crew on here who whine on about Brexit, c.o.l crisis, Brexit , immigration, Brexit.... really need to get out more.
I was in Scotland last week, and both Aberdeen and Dundee looked very run down. Edinburgh rather better, but I was only in the touristy bits there.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
No, I think I was last in the States a decade ago. I don't have much desire to rush back, though have been tempted by Seattle, which has an interesting medical conference next year that I may try to make. After Covid I am rather enjoying face to face meetings again.
Foxy, please let yours truly (and Jim Miller) know if you make it to Seattle in 2024.
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
My rent isn't rising because I don't rent.
My mortgage isn't rising because its been paid off.
My pay rise is more than covering price rises.
So is the interest I'm getting on my savings.
While the supermarkets have near continuous 25% off wine offers
And there are many millions of oldies and GenXers similar to me.
As for affordable housing then that is very location dependent.
And full employment gives opportunities for those teenagers who prefer to get a job or training rather than go to university.
Now are there many millions of others who are struggling ?
Of course there are - young southerners with graduate debt especially so.
What we're seeing is a widening difference between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling with little hope.
Which is what I said in my initial comment.
We've likely seen such differences previously but, for example, whereas the 1980s were much easier for the southern middle class compared with the northern working class the opposite situation is now happening. Both surprising and ironic.
Spot on and pretty much what I saw on my Easter trip to the NE. The whinge crew on here who whine on about Brexit, c.o.l crisis, Brexit , immigration, Brexit.... really need to get out more.
I was in Scotland last week, and both Aberdeen and Dundee looked very run down. Edinburgh rather better, but I was only in the touristy bits there.
I was in Inverness recently and thought it looked quite prosperous and charming
Hasn’t Dundee always been a bit of a toilet? I apologise to Dundonians if I have unfairly maligned the Verona of Scotland
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
My rent isn't rising because I don't rent.
My mortgage isn't rising because its been paid off.
My pay rise is more than covering price rises.
So is the interest I'm getting on my savings.
While the supermarkets have near continuous 25% off wine offers
And there are many millions of oldies and GenXers similar to me.
As for affordable housing then that is very location dependent.
And full employment gives opportunities for those teenagers who prefer to get a job or training rather than go to university.
Now are there many millions of others who are struggling ?
Of course there are - young southerners with graduate debt especially so.
What we're seeing is a widening difference between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling with little hope.
Which is what I said in my initial comment.
We've likely seen such differences previously but, for example, whereas the 1980s were much easier for the southern middle class compared with the northern working class the opposite situation is now happening. Both surprising and ironic.
Spot on and pretty much what I saw on my Easter trip to the NE. The whinge crew on here who whine on about Brexit, c.o.l crisis, Brexit , immigration, Brexit.... really need to get out more.
You live in Spain, and you think you know more about what goes on here than people who live here? Ok.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
No, I think I was last in the States a decade ago. I don't have much desire to rush back, though have been tempted by Seattle, which has an interesting medical conference next year that I may try to make. After Covid I am rather enjoying face to face meetings again.
Foxy, please let yours truly (and Jim Miller) know if you make it to Seattle in 2024.
Might need some free medical advice!
Might take you up on that if I get there.
I find the jet lag tolerable for East Coast conferences, but a challenge to staying awake enough to follow complex research talks on the West Coast. I will probably try to fly a couple of days early if I do, in order to acclimatise. I was wanting to get to the San Juan Islands, as I do like my wildlife.
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
He’s crap. He’s sub-Major, let’s be honest.
It’s only in comparison with the deranged Truss and the flamboyant larceny of Johnson that he seems “fine”.
John Major seems to come out better with every year that passes after his humiliating defeat in 1997.
In fact 26 years since he left office, Major is still the longest serving Conservative PM since Thatcher and still won the most votes for any PM in history in his surprise 1992 re election victory. He left a growing economy and balanced budget for New Labour and low inflation, secured an opt out from the Euro while keeping the UK in the EU, won the Gulf War with Bush 41 and set the way for peace in Northern Ireland.
Very interesting talk and Q and A by Sir John at the Oxford Union in March here
I would say this, but I think Major rather spoiled his capacity to be a respected uniter in the party as he has veered ever further into angry europhilia. He is of course entitled to his opinion, and should be free to express it, but he speaks about European issues with the same dull-witted sarcastic barbs (fondly self-imagined to be the height of wit) as all angry remainers do. It makes me question how fiercely really he negotiated Maastricht on our behalf.
What is Rishi offering the country? I asked this yesterday and received no answer.
He's offering not Truss and not Johnson. But as we saw with the polling, most people consider this Tory Party's period in Government a failure.
Honestly except gay marriage, what have they honestly achieved? They couldn't even overhaul the planning laws to get more masts built!
But don't underestimate how many people are doing very well.
Its the personalities of Conservative politicians which will bring them defeat not their policies.
The reason I got the Brexit vote right was that I listened to the kind of people who were disenfranchised by the Metropolitan elite, who were as tone deaf to the problems ordinary people were facing as you have appeared to be in your post. That's not meant to be offensive, I seriously mean it: you are totally out of touch.
Things are bloody hard right now with eye-watering price increases in the supermarkets and horrendous utility bills. And 'affordable housing'? You are having a total laugh, right? Rental prices have rocketed and there's a terrible scarcity. Mortgage costs have been steadily rising and there's a shaky undercurrent at the moment in the lending market. I know people who have lost mortgage deals in just the last week.
No, most people are NOT doing very well. It's really, really, tough.
My rent isn't rising because I don't rent.
My mortgage isn't rising because its been paid off.
My pay rise is more than covering price rises.
So is the interest I'm getting on my savings.
While the supermarkets have near continuous 25% off wine offers
And there are many millions of oldies and GenXers similar to me.
As for affordable housing then that is very location dependent.
And full employment gives opportunities for those teenagers who prefer to get a job or training rather than go to university.
Now are there many millions of others who are struggling ?
Of course there are - young southerners with graduate debt especially so.
What we're seeing is a widening difference between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling with little hope.
Which is what I said in my initial comment.
We've likely seen such differences previously but, for example, whereas the 1980s were much easier for the southern middle class compared with the northern working class the opposite situation is now happening. Both surprising and ironic.
Spot on and pretty much what I saw on my Easter trip to the NE. The whinge crew on here who whine on about Brexit, c.o.l crisis, Brexit , immigration, Brexit.... really need to get out more.
You live in Spain, and you think you know more about what goes on here than people who live here? Ok.
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
New York in the late 70s / early 80s was incredibly creative despite all the problems it was experiencing.
I was last in NYC in 2001, and mostly it was OK, but one day I walked a couple of blocks to the west from my hotel, rather than into midtown. After those 2 blocks I was stepping over drunks/addicts passed out on the sidewalk. A lot of cities are like that if you go the wrong way.
On the whole though I don't like American towns and cities much. The great bits there are the wild places. I love the National parks out West.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
New York in the late 70s / early 80s was incredibly creative despite all the problems it was experiencing.
Good point. And NYC WAS creative back then. Breeding great art and fine music
That feeling is absent now. It’s just straight up urban decay with no punky upside. So far
Cheap and nasty urban areas can encourage the creative types.
Expensive and nasty don't.
Hoxton before it changed…
I went to a gallery opening there, years ago.
The street was on the dodgy edge of Hoxton hipsterdum. Two large doorman shoved the homeless back from the door.
Inside I was given a brochure. Printer on the kind of paper that requires not merely deforesting the Amazon, but also the slaughter of at least one indigenous tribe, it was a sub-Marxist rant about the evils of Capitalism and environmental degradation
On the back, there was a note from the printer, saying that the brochure was non recyclable.
I drank some more of the vintage champagne on offer, and perused “A Constant State Of Revolution”
Someone had taken the famous Che picture, photoshopped it into the Wahol colour style. Then put it in a very plastic, fake 18th cent picture frame. The eyes had been cut out, and behind them a couple of swirly patterns were revolved by an electric motor.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
Massive irony being, of course, that the area illegally occupied by Russia (including territory of Georgia and Moldova, not just Ukraine!) is far in excess of the area illegally occupied by Israel!
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
One of the reasons I am not a member. Sadly, in local issues, the union reps I have dealt with do a good job, and HR and managers tread carefully when the union rep is present. But bollox like this turn me off.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Some of us actually live in the US. It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
I’ve spent several months of the last two years traveling around America. And I’m back again next week
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
He’s crap. He’s sub-Major, let’s be honest.
It’s only in comparison with the deranged Truss and the flamboyant larceny of Johnson that he seems “fine”.
John Major seems to come out better with every year that passes after his humiliating defeat in 1997.
In fact 26 years since he left office, Major is still the longest serving Conservative PM since Thatcher and still won the most votes for any PM in history in his surprise 1992 re election victory. He left a growing economy and balanced budget for New Labour and low inflation, secured an opt out from the Euro while keeping the UK in the EU, won the Gulf War with Bush 41 and set the way for peace in Northern Ireland.
Very interesting talk and Q and A by Sir John at the Oxford Union in March here
I would say this, but I think Major rather spoiled his capacity to be a respected uniter in the party as he has veered ever further into angry europhilia. He is of course entitled to his opinion, and should be free to express it, but he speaks about European issues with the same dull-witted sarcastic barbs (fondly self-imagined to be the height of wit) as all angry remainers do. It makes me question how fiercely really he negotiated Maastricht on our behalf.
He got everything he wanted out of his Maastricht negotiations as far as I can see. Perhaps that's why he's angry - idiots throwing all that good work away just to bolster the career of Boris Johnson.
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Sounds like Spice. A lot of our homeless are on it, particularly ex-prisoners.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Some of us actually live in the US. It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
I’ve spent several months of the last two years traveling around America. And I’m back again next week
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
America has such a disparity in income that you get astonishing scenes of deprivation.
Britain is next in the income disparity stakes. You should do two months in your own country. There’s no New Orleans, but there’s also a kind of entrenched post-industrial squalor that is hard to find in other places too.
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Sounds like Spice. A lot of our homeless are on it, particularly ex-prisoners.
The original Spice (when it was legal) was quite mild, like a weakish spliff. But then they banned it and these much more strong versions came out. Oh well.
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
He’s crap. He’s sub-Major, let’s be honest.
It’s only in comparison with the deranged Truss and the flamboyant larceny of Johnson that he seems “fine”.
John Major seems to come out better with every year that passes after his humiliating defeat in 1997.
In fact 26 years since he left office, Major is still the longest serving Conservative PM since Thatcher and still won the most votes for any PM in history in his surprise 1992 re election victory. He left a growing economy and balanced budget for New Labour and low inflation, secured an opt out from the Euro while keeping the UK in the EU, won the Gulf War with Bush 41 and set the way for peace in Northern Ireland.
Very interesting talk and Q and A by Sir John at the Oxford Union in March here
I would say this, but I think Major rather spoiled his capacity to be a respected uniter in the party as he has veered ever further into angry europhilia. He is of course entitled to his opinion, and should be free to express it, but he speaks about European issues with the same dull-witted sarcastic barbs (fondly self-imagined to be the height of wit) as all angry remainers do. It makes me question how fiercely really he negotiated Maastricht on our behalf.
He got everything he wanted out of his Maastricht negotiations as far as I can see. Perhaps that's why he's angry - idiots throwing all that good work away just to bolster the career of Boris Johnson.
Not just Major's view, either. A Telegraph hack called Boris Johnson (made up name, surely?) described Maastricht as a "copybook triumph";
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
Hilarious for the sheer temerity ... or tiotallack of self-awareness.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
One of the reasons I am not a member. Sadly, in local issues, the union reps I have dealt with do a good job, and HR and managers tread carefully when the union rep is present. But bollox like this turn me off.
I'm gratified to hear good things of a UCU union rep.
The only thing the one in Aber thought about was how he could shaft his members to get a personal promotion.
Yet people were still stupid enough to re-elect him.
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I’m not ranting. I’ve admitted several times that Britain has significant problems, from debt to inflation to our shambolic public services
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Some of us actually live in the US. It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
I’ve spent several months of the last two years traveling around America. And I’m back again next week
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
America has such a disparity in income that you get astonishing scenes of deprivation.
Britain is next in the income disparity stakes. You should do two months in your own country. There’s no New Orleans, but there’s also a kind of entrenched post-industrial squalor that is hard to find in other places too.
There's nowhere in the UK I would be afraid to walk around in the middle of the night. That's how safe it is. London has had just 4 gun deaths this year, with a population of more than 9 million.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Yeah, heap of shit was fair, but I like to make my own mind up about these things and I had my doubts it was that bad. Doubts are now gone.
It was also an awesome and subtle pun on the word 'motion.'
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
He’s crap. He’s sub-Major, let’s be honest.
It’s only in comparison with the deranged Truss and the flamboyant larceny of Johnson that he seems “fine”.
John Major seems to come out better with every year that passes after his humiliating defeat in 1997.
In fact 26 years since he left office, Major is still the longest serving Conservative PM since Thatcher and still won the most votes for any PM in history in his surprise 1992 re election victory. He left a growing economy and balanced budget for New Labour and low inflation, secured an opt out from the Euro while keeping the UK in the EU, won the Gulf War with Bush 41 and set the way for peace in Northern Ireland.
Very interesting talk and Q and A by Sir John at the Oxford Union in March here
I would say this, but I think Major rather spoiled his capacity to be a respected uniter in the party as he has veered ever further into angry europhilia. He is of course entitled to his opinion, and should be free to express it, but he speaks about European issues with the same dull-witted sarcastic barbs (fondly self-imagined to be the height of wit) as all angry remainers do. It makes me question how fiercely really he negotiated Maastricht on our behalf.
He got everything he wanted out of his Maastricht negotiations as far as I can see. Perhaps that's why he's angry - idiots throwing all that good work away just to bolster the career of Boris Johnson.
If he got such a great deal he should have put it to a referendum, and been confident of victory. Thus avoiding Brexit
Rishi is pretty awful. An extremely wealthy nonentity who is out of his depth. He comes across as a schoolboy.
In the last week we have seen more chaotic manoeuvring from Suella, an absolute shambles on immigration, and a quite extraordinary announcement about price capping, and there's a disturbing undercurrent in the mortgage / lending market. They are managing the singularly impressive feat of appealing to nobody.
The tories are toast. Everybody knows it. I doubt whether opinion polls will change much right up to the day of the General Election.
Rishi is fine. He's just not good enough to undo 13 years of failure
He’s crap. He’s sub-Major, let’s be honest.
It’s only in comparison with the deranged Truss and the flamboyant larceny of Johnson that he seems “fine”.
John Major seems to come out better with every year that passes after his humiliating defeat in 1997.
In fact 26 years since he left office, Major is still the longest serving Conservative PM since Thatcher and still won the most votes for any PM in history in his surprise 1992 re election victory. He left a growing economy and balanced budget for New Labour and low inflation, secured an opt out from the Euro while keeping the UK in the EU, won the Gulf War with Bush 41 and set the way for peace in Northern Ireland.
Very interesting talk and Q and A by Sir John at the Oxford Union in March here
I would say this, but I think Major rather spoiled his capacity to be a respected uniter in the party as he has veered ever further into angry europhilia. He is of course entitled to his opinion, and should be free to express it, but he speaks about European issues with the same dull-witted sarcastic barbs (fondly self-imagined to be the height of wit) as all angry remainers do. It makes me question how fiercely really he negotiated Maastricht on our behalf.
He got everything he wanted out of his Maastricht negotiations as far as I can see. Perhaps that's why he's angry - idiots throwing all that good work away just to bolster the career of Boris Johnson.
If he got such a great deal he should have put it to a referendum, and been confident of victory. Thus avoiding Brexit
I see you've started referring to Brexit as something to be avoided.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Some of us actually live in the US. It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
I’ve spent several months of the last two years traveling around America. And I’m back again next week
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
America has such a disparity in income that you get astonishing scenes of deprivation.
Britain is next in the income disparity stakes. You should do two months in your own country. There’s no New Orleans, but there’s also a kind of entrenched post-industrial squalor that is hard to find in other places too.
Sigh
I have been to Luton, West Brom, Blackpool, east Glasgow, the Welsh valleys, Boro, the far burbs of South London, rough Cardiff, etc etc etc
I know the dreariness and desperation of post industrial Britain. It can be truly grim. But they don’t have the guns, the fentanyl, the homelessness and the incipient race war which makes bad urban America way more dystopian (despite the nicer weather)
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Sounds like Spice. A lot of our homeless are on it, particularly ex-prisoners.
The original Spice (when it was legal) was quite mild, like a weakish spliff. But then they banned it and these much more strong versions came out. Oh well.
I work with a colleague who has access to lots of seized drugs for analysis. My favourite ‘discovery’ in recent weeks was a prison sample on paper. The paper yielded two very clean drug samples. Ibuprofen and paracetamol. Not much chance of a high on those…
I don't understand the Spanish PM's decision to respond to bad local election results by calling a snap general election.
Two possibilities I can think of.
One is that it's downhill from here, and going early saves more of the furniture. But that's how provincial science masters think, not politicians.
The other is to do with the shuffling blocks in Spanish politics. For a while, there were roughly five, plus various flavours of regionist/nationalist. From right to left,
Vox (think Reform, only without the charm) People's Party (main centre-right group) Citizens (centrist liberals) Socialists (centre-left) Podemos (left left)
As of now, PP have basically swallowed Citizens up whole, which puts them ahead of the Socialists but still quite a long way from a majority. Calling an election allows Pedro Sanchez to ask three questions.
To the PP: Are you really going to go into government on the back of Vox votes? (Probably answer: yes, and what of it?) To the lefties: Do you really want to let the PP in, or are you going to back me? (Who knows?) To the centrists: Do you really want to back a PP who will depend on the support of the hard right? (Who knows?)
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Student politics. With bald patches. At UCL, every now and then the nutters would pass a resolution voting to give money to the IRA or something.
And then several hundred students would turn up and vote all their crap out. While they snivelled about it not being fair.
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I’m not ranting. I’ve admitted several times that Britain has significant problems, from debt to inflation to our shambolic public services
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
This is exactly what i have been saying. We had serious problems in the EU: a horrendous trade deficit, excessive consumption and poor productivity. Funnily enough these problems persist but now they are being blamed on Brexit. It is absurd. What is disappointing is how small the steps that have been taken to address any of these. Covid and Ukraine have undoubtedly made this more difficult but I would like a better sense of purpose and direction.
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
Even New York during the crack epidemic was not as bad as Fentanyl is now - in multiple cities
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Some of us actually live in the US. It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
I’ve spent several months of the last two years traveling around America. And I’m back again next week
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
America has such a disparity in income that you get astonishing scenes of deprivation.
Britain is next in the income disparity stakes. You should do two months in your own country. There’s no New Orleans, but there’s also a kind of entrenched post-industrial squalor that is hard to find in other places too.
There's nowhere in the UK I would be afraid to walk around in the middle of the night. That's how safe it is. London has had just 4 gun deaths this year, with a population of more than 9 million.
Being shot is not the mode of death in U.K. cities, though, is it. It’s knife crime. Now most knife deaths will be among toe-rags in the drug gangs etc, but there are still some places that your average citizen might feel slightly wary of visiting at night.
I don't know what drug it was, but a few year back I was waiting at King's Lynn bus station (your employers should really send you there...) when a man spent a few minutes trying to get into the toilets. The time was spent with him repeatedly walking into the wall beside the door, even as people passed him to go into the loos. His expression and mannerisms were very zombie like.
Sounds like Spice. A lot of our homeless are on it, particularly ex-prisoners.
The original Spice (when it was legal) was quite mild, like a weakish spliff. But then they banned it and these much more strong versions came out. Oh well.
I don't see quite so much of it round the Leicester homeless as it seemed a few years ago.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Yeah, heap of shit was fair, but I like to make my own mind up about these things and I had my doubts it was that bad. Doubts are now gone.
It was also an awesome and subtle pun on the word 'motion.'
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
The subtlety was on a par with the legendary modesty and quietness of dress of a certain site mod.
Is this “motion” an attempt to
1) Make the DfE look good? 2) Apply for roles as OFSTED inspectors? 3) Make Dominic Cummings look like an education reform genius?
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
New York in the late 70s / early 80s was incredibly creative despite all the problems it was experiencing.
Good point. And NYC WAS creative back then. Breeding great art and fine music
That feeling is absent now. It’s just straight up urban decay with no punky upside. So far
Cheap and nasty urban areas can encourage the creative types.
Expensive and nasty don't.
Hoxton before it changed…
I went to a gallery opening there, years ago.
The street was on the dodgy edge of Hoxton hipsterdum. Two large doorman shoved the homeless back from the door.
Inside I was given a brochure. Printer on the kind of paper that requires not merely deforesting the Amazon, but also the slaughter of at least one indigenous tribe, it was a sub-Marxist rant about the evils of Capitalism and environmental degradation
On the back, there was a note from the printer, saying that the brochure was non recyclable.
I drank some more of the vintage champagne on offer, and perused “A Constant State Of Revolution”
Someone had taken the famous Che picture, photoshopped it into the Wahol colour style. Then put it in a very plastic, fake 18th cent picture frame. The eyes had been cut out, and behind them a couple of swirly patterns were revolved by an electric motor.
Yours for only £30k
Slightly tangential but, on the surface, the lack of Guardianista outrage at the Police's arrest of TikToker Mizzy was a bit of a mystery considering he was a young Black man who was criticised for his pranks...
...until you realised that the sort of stuff he did - taking people's dogs and walking into houses unannounced etc - is the unstated nightmare of the Guardianistas who move into such neighbourhoods for its edginess i.e. they come face to face with some of the locals.
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I’m not ranting. I’ve admitted several times that Britain has significant problems, from debt to inflation to our shambolic public services
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
This is exactly what i have been saying. We had serious problems in the EU: a horrendous trade deficit, excessive consumption and poor productivity. Funnily enough these problems persist but now they are being blamed on Brexit. It is absurd. What is disappointing is how small the steps that have been taken to address any of these. Covid and Ukraine have undoubtedly made this more difficult but I would like a better sense of purpose and direction.
Yes, the really dismaying thing about the UK is the pitiful inertia of our politicians. Our problems are difficult but not intractable. We also have good things going for us. Someone please get a grip
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Yeah, heap of shit was fair, but I like to make my own mind up about these things and I had my doubts it was that bad. Doubts are now gone.
It was also an awesome and subtle pun on the word 'motion.'
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
I'm flushed with shame that I missed the pun.
I wouldn't worry too much. @Leon and @BlancheLivermore would have you up by the goolies if you missed a literary allusion.
Skimming the R&W data, the England sub sample gives Labour 43%, Conservatives 29%, Liberal Democrats 12%, Greens 8%, Reform 6% but there are some amusing numbers within that - Conservatives 39% in London and 6% in the East Midlands so a bucket of the usual salt required.
As for Sunak, I don't know. He may find the same vein of popularity John Major managed in 1992 (aided and abetted by an awful Labour campaign) but he doesn't convince as an individual who has much empathy with the everyday concerns of the majority. He comes across as awkward and clumsy in social situations - I'm sure he's great company in his own circle - and seems more like a caricature of a Conservative Prime Minister talking the talk without walking the walk.
I don't have a strong sense of what he believes or really thinks nor do I have any sense of a greater vision - why vote Conservative next time and what can the Conservatives point to after 13 years of leading the Government apart from their longevity (again aided and abetted by Labour electing Jeremy Corbyn)?
Perversely, I think losing the election could be the making of him as a political figure and his influence will increase rather than diminish as the Conservatives go into Opposition.
Looking at the Spanish local election results, a good night for PP and VOX, disappointing but not awful for PSOE and disastrous for the smaller left-leaning parties.
It's looking possible PP and VOX combined will get a tiny majority in the next Corts while PSOE retains much of its parliamentary strength. The question is whether there will be a formal PP-VOX coalition or whether, pace the Sweden Democrats, VOX will simply support a minority centre-right administration (I suspect the local experiences will inform the national strategies).
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Yeah, heap of shit was fair, but I like to make my own mind up about these things and I had my doubts it was that bad. Doubts are now gone.
It was also an awesome and subtle pun on the word 'motion.'
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
I'm flushed with shame that I missed the pun.
I wouldn't worry too much. @Leon and @BlancheLivermore would have you up by the goolies if you missed a literary allusion.
If this was American PB.com, everywhere here would live in Omaha, Nebraska or Raleigh, North Carolina, in 4000 sq ft houses with neighbours who say “Howdy!” and bake cookies for the school lacrosse team.
I've just been having a look through some UCU and their local affiliates' twitter accounts
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
What precisely is this Ukraine motion?
A heap of shit?
Is that the full text of the motion?
My question was genuine.
Congress notes:
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism. Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion' we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved. Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Yeah, heap of shit was fair, but I like to make my own mind up about these things and I had my doubts it was that bad. Doubts are now gone.
It was also an awesome and subtle pun on the word 'motion.'
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
The subtlety was on a par with the legendary modesty and quietness of dress of a certain site mod.
Is this “motion” an attempt to
1) Make the DfE look good? 2) Apply for roles as OFSTED inspectors? 3) Make Dominic Cummings look like an education reform genius?
There is no way in this space time continuum anyone could achieve 1 or 3.
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I’m not ranting. I’ve admitted several times that Britain has significant problems, from debt to inflation to our shambolic public services
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
This is exactly what i have been saying. We had serious problems in the EU: a horrendous trade deficit, excessive consumption and poor productivity. Funnily enough these problems persist but now they are being blamed on Brexit. It is absurd. What is disappointing is how small the steps that have been taken to address any of these. Covid and Ukraine have undoubtedly made this more difficult but I would like a better sense of purpose and direction.
Yes, the really dismaying thing about the UK is the pitiful inertia of our politicians. Our problems are difficult but not intractable. We also have good things going for us. Someone please get a grip
You have to explain why there appears to be nobody who can. Something structural. Blob-like, even,
Did you visit San Francisco in the 1990s? I'd be interested to know what it was like at that time compared to now.
Or New York in the Seventies, Los Angeles or Chicago in the Eighties. There has always been a dark side to American cities.
New York in the late 70s / early 80s was incredibly creative despite all the problems it was experiencing.
Good point. And NYC WAS creative back then. Breeding great art and fine music
That feeling is absent now. It’s just straight up urban decay with no punky upside. So far
Cheap and nasty urban areas can encourage the creative types.
Expensive and nasty don't.
Hoxton before it changed…
I went to a gallery opening there, years ago.
The street was on the dodgy edge of Hoxton hipsterdum. Two large doorman shoved the homeless back from the door.
Inside I was given a brochure. Printer on the kind of paper that requires not merely deforesting the Amazon, but also the slaughter of at least one indigenous tribe, it was a sub-Marxist rant about the evils of Capitalism and environmental degradation
On the back, there was a note from the printer, saying that the brochure was non recyclable.
I drank some more of the vintage champagne on offer, and perused “A Constant State Of Revolution”
Someone had taken the famous Che picture, photoshopped it into the Wahol colour style. Then put it in a very plastic, fake 18th cent picture frame. The eyes had been cut out, and behind them a couple of swirly patterns were revolved by an electric motor.
Yours for only £30k
Slightly tangential but, on the surface, the lack of Guardianista outrage at the Police's arrest of TikToker Mizzy was a bit of a mystery considering he was a young Black man who was criticised for his pranks...
...until you realised that the sort of stuff he did - taking people's dogs and walking into houses unannounced etc - is the unstated nightmare of the Guardianistas who move into such neighbourhoods for its edginess i.e. they come face to face with some of the locals.
During the famous LA riots, in a very liberal, very rich neighbourhood, someone I met later was staying with her parents.
She was serving in the military - home on leave. She was horrified to discover that a neighbour, in the film business, had gone to the armoury of the prop company he ran and got actual automatic weapons out. Which he had distributed to his friends.
They were a large number of miles from the riots.
As she put it, she confiscated the machine guns from the scared white men, before they shot a pizza delivery chap or something.
A lot (all?) of the ranting about other countries is a form of copium espoused by Brexiters who can’t bear to think of their country being unflatteringly compared to others.
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
I’m not ranting. I’ve admitted several times that Britain has significant problems, from debt to inflation to our shambolic public services
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
This is exactly what i have been saying. We had serious problems in the EU: a horrendous trade deficit, excessive consumption and poor productivity. Funnily enough these problems persist but now they are being blamed on Brexit. It is absurd. What is disappointing is how small the steps that have been taken to address any of these. Covid and Ukraine have undoubtedly made this more difficult but I would like a better sense of purpose and direction.
Yes, the really dismaying thing about the UK is the pitiful inertia of our politicians. Our problems are difficult but not intractable. We also have good things going for us. Someone please get a grip
You have to explain why there appears to be nobody who can. Something structural. Blob-like, even,
All of us are too busy punning on PB so we have to leave the running of the country to lesser mortals.
Comments
And I'm rather surprised that you haven't heard of it; it's garnered quite a lot of attention in the two and a bit years since it was published
I haven’t been in 20 years but everyone I know who has been recently says the decline is very real and quite horrific
Its a lot and with presumably half being higher if that's the average.
Does the average mortgage number refer to the initial value of the mortgage or the remaining outstanding value ?
The trouble is they’ve run out of Wild West frontier land, and they are now destroying their great cities - with no new cities to replace them. These latest problems are extreme and brutal
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-maid-assisted-suicide-homeless/wcm/5745d9d0-cdd1-41e9-a33f-787ee070ff53/
“One third of Canadians fine with prescribing assisted suicide for homelessness“
I get the sense you haven’t been to urban America recently. I have. This shit is new and bad
Given the landlord has very clearly paid the mortgage off - it really struck me how much money is being extracted on a next-to-zero-maintenance property.
In a bit of research which I'm sure will shock everyone, googling the landlord reveals endless legal issues. And also that they are related to a local councillor who happens to be in charge of landlord enforcement issues.
@timurkuran
Though very unfair and partly unfree, Turkey just had a meaningful election. It may be the last for a while. In his victory speech, Erdoğan vows to keep ruling for life."
https://twitter.com/timurkuran/status/1662905599238066176
He just said "You should execute them all."
And that Robert was a bit with his!
It's been a wild ride for the last decade, and the most successful spell in our long history. The Championship has 20 teams in it that played in the Premier League, so a lot of interesting rivals. Now Wednesday too.
Of the relegated teams, I think Saints most likely to bounce back, as they have a core of solid Championship players and some talented youngsters. Leicester has a lot of players out of contract, or a year left, and will lose most of our real talent when Maddison and Barnes get bought. Not much obvious in our Acadamy too. Our two best youngsters (Braybrooke and Alves) both got bad knee injuries this spring so will be out for some time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil
Last visit just pre-pandemic was a nightmarish hellscape where people would bump into you to avoid looking at the human shit strewn on the pavements and the victims of drugs and crime strewn beside them.
Might need some free medical advice!
Hasn’t Dundee always been a bit of a toilet? I apologise to Dundonians if I have unfairly maligned the Verona of Scotland
That feeling is absent now. It’s just straight up urban decay with no punky upside. So far
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is re-elected as Turkey’s president
The best chance in a decade to repair its democracy is lost"
https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/05/28/recep-tayyip-erdogan-is-re-elected-as-turkeys-president
I find the jet lag tolerable for East Coast conferences, but a challenge to staying awake enough to follow complex research talks on the West Coast. I will probably try to fly a couple of days early if I do, in order to acclimatise. I was wanting to get to the San Juan Islands, as I do like my wildlife.
Is this the drug ‘tranq’ which is forcing people to amputate limbs?
https://twitter.com/FT/status/1663243222594748419
Expensive and nasty don't.
Tranq is apparently fentanyl plus Xylazine. America is fucked
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12131455/Inside-Philadelphias-zombie-land-Tranq-addicts-crowd-sidewalks-shoot-broad-daylight.html
They're in the middle of a huge pay dispute with their employers, but they're mostly going on about Palestine and Trans
And they've just passed a motion condemning our support of Ukraine
Why the fuck aren't aren't they focussed on education?
It is not quite the hell-scape you pretend it is.
On the whole though I don't like American towns and cities much. The great bits there are the wild places. I love the National parks out West.
The final Norwegian P-3 mission is planned for June 30th, ending a 54 year long era.
This is also Major Leif Otterholms (62) last flight before retirement. He has flown P-3s since 1985, the last 20 years as TACCO, logging over 11 400 flight-hours.
https://twitter.com/The_Lookout_N/status/1663235877353537543
I went to a gallery opening there, years ago.
The street was on the dodgy edge of Hoxton hipsterdum. Two large doorman shoved the homeless back from the door.
Inside I was given a brochure. Printer on the kind of paper that requires not merely deforesting the Amazon, but also the slaughter of at least one indigenous tribe, it was a sub-Marxist rant about the evils of Capitalism and environmental degradation
On the back, there was a note from the printer, saying that the brochure was non recyclable.
I drank some more of the vintage champagne on offer, and perused “A Constant State Of Revolution”
Someone had taken the famous Che picture, photoshopped it into the Wahol colour style. Then put it in a very plastic, fake 18th cent picture frame. The eyes had been cut out, and behind them a couple of swirly patterns were revolved by an electric motor.
Yours for only £30k
Someone - probably SeanF - will be along soon to claim that the UK must be the best country in the world given the number of immigrants it receives.
Most of these posters have never left Rochdale (or the equivalent), so perhaps can be excused the passive aggressive parochialism.
I’m not sure what Leon’s excuse is, although I note that he never actually seems to be in the UK, and nor does he actually have the kind of job that exposes much you to everyday reality. As he never ceases to tell us.
https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/ucu-congress-saturday/
@habibi_uk
·
May 27
A hideous scene from UCU Congress earlier today.
A Ukrainian victory would mean "subjugation and oppression" by "American imperialism".
"The main enemy is at home!"
The UCU backs the "Stop the War Coalition". It wants Ukraine to be left defenceless.
Foul.
https://twitter.com/habibi_uk/status/1662504649813905409
I’ve been to the West Coast, the desert states, Florida, the Deep South and the Rockies, etc
It is fucked in a way I have not seen before. There is still phenomenal wealth and power - but the urban problems are palpable. New Orleans is the 8th most murderous city on the planet, the first 7 are all Mexican cities sunk in the drug wars
one year after the brutal invasion, Ukraine has become a battleground for Russian and US imperialism
it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and 200,000 Russian soldiers have died since invasion
Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons and unleashed war crimes
the 2022 NATO summit committed to a US military base in Poland, a brigade in Romania, air missile systems in Italy and Germany and two additional F-35 squadrons in Britain
Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel'—an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism.
Congress believes:
wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another
we should say, 'Russian troops out, no to NATO escalation and expansion'
we should stand in solidarity with ordinary Ukrainians and demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops
NATO is not a progressive force: escalation risks widening war in the region
only through a peaceful resolution can lives be saved.
Resolves:
UCU to call upon Russian to withdraw its troops and for government to stop arming Ukraine
UCU to call for a peaceful resolution to the war
Congress resolves to support protests called by Stop The War, CND and other anti-war organisations.
But I think 'a heap of shit' was pithier, and summed up the general thrust of it.
Here's a full list of resolutions.
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/12945/Business-of-the-strategy-and-finance-committee-open-session
On a serious note, the UCU is anxious to avoid talking about employment matters because they would have to admit (a) they spend much of their time making cosy deals with the management and (b) they don't give a fuck about their members and never have since it was formed back in I think 2006.
It's been an utter disaster for universities and their staff, vice chancellors apart, that the AUT and NATFHE merged. Although it has benefitted the Union bosses, most of whom make McCluskey look honest, to an enormous degree.
Long may NASUWT hold out against the Nutters forcing something similar in school education.
Britain is next in the income disparity stakes.
You should do two months in your own country. There’s no New Orleans, but there’s also a kind of entrenched post-industrial squalor that is hard to find in other places too.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1240178/brexit-news-boris-johnson-eu-uk-integration-maastricht-treaty-copybook-triumph-spt
The only thing the one in Aber thought about was how he could shaft his members to get a personal promotion.
Yet people were still stupid enough to re-elect him.
However, I’m also pointing out that I travel extremely widely around the world (and within the UK, even if you don’t believe me) and that gives me a perspective that maybe others here don’t get. I just see more and I can compare
Many nations are troubled, just like the UK. The globe has recently gone through a calamitous plague, so it’s not surprising. Quite a few have problems which make ours look relatively minor
Brexit is neither here nor there in this wider scheme
But given the awesomeness and subtlety of it I'll forgive you for not noticing that.
He's been impressively consistent in his support of Ukraine since
But who knows how Slalom Sir Keir will respond next?
Well done, small steps...
I have been to Luton, West Brom, Blackpool, east Glasgow, the Welsh valleys, Boro, the far burbs of South London, rough Cardiff, etc etc etc
I know the dreariness and desperation of post industrial Britain. It can be truly grim. But they don’t have the guns, the fentanyl, the homelessness and the incipient race war which makes bad urban America way more dystopian (despite the nicer weather)
The Australian air force had a pilot who was still a QFI at age 66 and had winged 500 student Hawk pilots. A legend in the Hawk community.
My favourite ‘discovery’ in recent weeks was a prison sample on paper. The paper yielded two very clean drug samples. Ibuprofen and paracetamol.
Not much chance of a high on those…
One is that it's downhill from here, and going early saves more of the furniture. But that's how provincial science masters think, not politicians.
The other is to do with the shuffling blocks in Spanish politics. For a while, there were roughly five, plus various flavours of regionist/nationalist. From right to left,
Vox (think Reform, only without the charm)
People's Party (main centre-right group)
Citizens (centrist liberals)
Socialists (centre-left)
Podemos (left left)
As of now, PP have basically swallowed Citizens up whole, which puts them ahead of the Socialists but still quite a long way from a majority. Calling an election allows Pedro Sanchez to ask three questions.
To the PP: Are you really going to go into government on the back of Vox votes? (Probably answer: yes, and what of it?)
To the lefties: Do you really want to let the PP in, or are you going to back me? (Who knows?)
To the centrists: Do you really want to back a PP who will depend on the support of the hard right? (Who knows?)
It's a gamble, to be sure.
And then several hundred students would turn up and vote all their crap out. While they snivelled about it not being fair.
Is this “motion” an attempt to
1) Make the DfE look good?
2) Apply for roles as OFSTED inspectors?
3) Make Dominic Cummings look like an education reform genius?
...until you realised that the sort of stuff he did - taking people's dogs and walking into houses unannounced etc - is the unstated nightmare of the Guardianistas who move into such neighbourhoods for its edginess i.e. they come face to face with some of the locals.
If not, how did he express any opinion about the Russian invasion of Ukraine whilst a member of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet?
For example, here (£):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/israel-debate-inflamed-by-web-link-to-racist-site/403423.article
Her excuse for those who can't gain access was that despite being a Ku Klux Klan article it was essentially truthful about Jews.
Skimming the R&W data, the England sub sample gives Labour 43%, Conservatives 29%, Liberal Democrats 12%, Greens 8%, Reform 6% but there are some amusing numbers within that - Conservatives 39% in London and 6% in the East Midlands so a bucket of the usual salt required.
As for Sunak, I don't know. He may find the same vein of popularity John Major managed in 1992 (aided and abetted by an awful Labour campaign) but he doesn't convince as an individual who has much empathy with the everyday concerns of the majority. He comes across as awkward and clumsy in social situations - I'm sure he's great company in his own circle - and seems more like a caricature of a Conservative Prime Minister talking the talk without walking the walk.
I don't have a strong sense of what he believes or really thinks nor do I have any sense of a greater vision - why vote Conservative next time and what can the Conservatives point to after 13 years of leading the Government apart from their longevity (again aided and abetted by Labour electing Jeremy Corbyn)?
Perversely, I think losing the election could be the making of him as a political figure and his influence will increase rather than diminish as the Conservatives go into Opposition.
Looking at the Spanish local election results, a good night for PP and VOX, disappointing but not awful for PSOE and disastrous for the smaller left-leaning parties.
It's looking possible PP and VOX combined will get a tiny majority in the next Corts while PSOE retains much of its parliamentary strength. The question is whether there will be a formal PP-VOX coalition or whether, pace the Sweden Democrats, VOX will simply support a minority centre-right administration (I suspect the local experiences will inform the national strategies).
It’s really three or four different countries.
She was serving in the military - home on leave. She was horrified to discover that a neighbour, in the film business, had gone to the armoury of the prop company he ran and got actual automatic weapons out. Which he had distributed to his friends.
They were a large number of miles from the riots.
As she put it, she confiscated the machine guns from the scared white men, before they shot a pizza delivery chap or something.