I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.
I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.
They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.
The Government and the BoE have a fairly sparsely equipped toolbox with which to attack inflation, specifically the hammer of interest rate hikes. What did John Major say? "If it's not hurting, it's not working". Anyway offset this with massive tax cuts for the wealthy a couple of months before the GE and you and the Tories will be fine.
Are tax cuts inflationary?
Not necessarily, if you focus tax cuts on the top quartile of society. Of course giving the unwashed greater spending power is an inflationary accident waiting to happen.
Someone saying 90 days is too much is using a real cop out. The issue is more was 10+ days justified, and thus the main conclusion justified.
Unless someone says they believe Boris to be titanically stupid - in which case he shouldn't be listened to anyway - then the Committee conclusion is solid on the 10+ bit. The rest was more in reaction to his whinging.
I mean Boris believes that its a process breach to disbelieve him, since he argues he said x how dare you disagree. That's so dumb I don't think it's cynicism.
A telling bit of that piece: he later faced criticism for failing to clamp down heavily enough on the City during the buildup to the crash of 2008. “At the time, people moaned about financial regulation being too tight and that I was judge and jury in my own court,” he says. “I was accused of being an overmighty regulator who was getting in the way of ‘animal spirits’. There was never any criticism in the other direction.”
You see this kind of thing on here. A few voices harshly criticising the actions of the BoE over recent years, nobody speaking in the other direction. Where are those voices? Can it really be that the only one who think what the BoE have done is right are the BoE themselves? If that's the case, how do you explain such a concentration of such a minority view? Coincidence? Malice?
Likelier, there are a range of views out there in the wild, but we aren't getting them here.
Both are interesting possibilities. And as Davies knows, it's consequential when you only hear one side of the argument. Very consequential.
Having Andrew Bailey a declared Brexiteer as governor of the BoE should have disqualified him from important decision making for life.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
A telling bit of that piece: he later faced criticism for failing to clamp down heavily enough on the City during the buildup to the crash of 2008. “At the time, people moaned about financial regulation being too tight and that I was judge and jury in my own court,” he says. “I was accused of being an overmighty regulator who was getting in the way of ‘animal spirits’. There was never any criticism in the other direction.”
You see this kind of thing on here. A few voices harshly criticising the actions of the BoE over recent years, nobody speaking in the other direction...
I defended them a couple of days ago, FWIW.
Once inflation becomes entrenched - and there are signs we've started down that road - there aren't good options for bringing it down, only painful ones. Deferring that just brings more pain.
The bank is going its job tolerably well. The faults in economic policy lie elsewhere.
It's also fair to note that a couple of the most significant shocks - Ukraine and the pandemic - are somewhat outside of the control of government. (Though I did point out a year ago that accelerating the supply of modern weapons might have ended the war rather more quickly, to everyone's benefit - but even then, that was more a US decision than ours.)
I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.
I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.
They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.
If the BoE was tasked with controlling housing costs as well as CPI then they might take a different approach.
As it is, if your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
Ultimately, HMG will be accountable for whether the BoE succeeds or fails and they are able to change its terms of reference.
They can't afford to get ideologically dogmatic about inflation in a monetarism mark two.
.@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson. Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.
Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.
Idiotic, if true.
Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
Frit, which is bad.
Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
Not really - they removed him as leader and a majority of MPs didn't want him back, even if 1/3 did. They seem more wearied by him even if not openly hostile.
Yes really.
This is like the GOP voting to acquit in the second Trump impeachment.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
Fingers crossed. It does seem true the Russians have, regrettably, started to learn some things (plus the general boost that comes with defending). Russian adaptation. “Russian armored columns, for instance, no longer rush into areas where they can be quickly damaged or destroyed. Troops are more often using drones and probing attacks … to find Ukrainian trenches before striking”...
Russian trenches have frequently proved better built than their Ukrainian counterparts, Ukrainian soldiers said. The March mission report said the bunkers were akin to “Vietnam-style spider holes” and “so deep as to be undetectable by drone.” https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1670069239640731648?cxt=HHwWgMC9sYDIo60uAAAA
The problem is that many people don’t self examine their beliefs of the moment. Which they change like socks, depending on Tik Tok.
Since everyone is the Hero of Their Own Tale, they must be Good.
One thing I’ve tried to teach my daughters is to compare their own views with history - very little is new.
My late uncle (a nice chap but a little eccentric) had strong religious views which he (gently) always tried to persuade the family about, saying mildly that he didn't want us to go to hell. The problem was that he changed his views every couple of years, and said with only slight embarrassment that God had shown him that his previous opinions X were mistaken and the correct view was Y, which we should now adopt to avoid damnation. It seemed a bit like trying to follow the party line under Stalin - you could be shot for having last month's opinion. Not believing in any of it was our strategy.
I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.
I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.
They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.
What else can they do - admit they have been utterly useless for 2 years and pray that a single 1% increase will solve the problem.
I’m sure I (and others on here) have pointed out at least 3 meetings where the decision made wasn’t enough and we are now seeing the consequences of that lack of action
I suspect the end result will be rates 1-1.5% higher than they should have been short term (because it needs to be that high to break the problem) and 0.5-0.75% higher than they should have been long term
Keep them where they are. Be patient.
The increases are more than enough to gradually squeeze inflation out of the system, but, it will take time because it needs to wait for people to progressively come off 2-3 year fixed rates.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
Please do it, Jezza - the prospect of a former party leader running against his party is fantastic. And if he has a following locally then it would be only right if they elected him.
.@bencsmoke "Jeremy, what's the future for Islington North?"
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
There’s a clever riddle dressed up as one of those maths puzzles involving either a “surgeon” or a “professor” and various sons and daughters and other relatives of the surgeon/professor.
It seems impossible to crack so you give up, and the answer is the surgeon is the patient’s/student’s mother. And you think shit, I really am unconsciously biased.
Keir Starmer should bring back WEAK WEAK WEAK next weak to the HoC. Weak Rishi should call a GE
I think Keir doesn't even need to call for a GE - others can do that. Just hammer home the weak line over and over, make some gibes about how the PM can stop getting hammered for being weak every week if he wants.
.@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson. Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.
House prices are 65 times higher now than in 1970, average wages are only 35 times higher. An interest rate of 10% in the 1970s is equivalent to one of just *2%* today.
People are borrowing far more relative to their incomes.
One difference from the 1970s is two-income households are far more common.
...and you have to ask yourself why that is. Life has gotten so hard that in order to raise a family both parents have to work longer and longer hours in order to afford smaller and smaller accommodation.
The UK economic model is built on maximising economic utility of its population so that foreign investors can maximise their profits. This is done by working them harder and harder until they burn out, then replacing them (like fuses) with imported labour, then working them harder and harder until they burn out, and so on.
Here are the cures * Ban foreign ownership of residential property * Limit inward migration to ~150,000 per year, instead of the current ~1,000,000 * (Oh, and kill Help To Buy as well)
There y'go. Then you can stop f*****g around with interest rate rises which (as @LuckyGuy1983 and others have pointed out) don't work with an endogenous supply shock.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
The Ukrainians, since the beginning of the war have been knocking down the Russian attack helicopters in numbers. It was notable that China cancelled an order, apparently due to vulnerability to shoulder fired missiles.
Judging by past offensives by Ukraine, Ukraine is trying to get Russia to commit its main forces and reserves, pinning them in place and reducing their ability to manoeuvre.
It's ok though, because it was heat of the moment.
What a fine collection of people.
The Tory voters in 2019 should be utterly ashamed they ever voted this lot into office.
And this is the problem, they chose a winner over a man with any qualifications to lead or indeed act as a human being.
I will probably never vote Tory again after the latest party-gate revelations, I couldn't visit relatives who were dying yet Number 10 treated me with contempt and partied their way through.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I don't think the label of microaggression is helpful. There is a big difference between those things, but some are actually just, well, aggressions.
Looking for microaggressions just guarantees you'll find them, an ever increasing number of them in fact, and dilute focus on serious stuff - being a wide range makes it pointless.
We can still focus on people making an un-PC slip and saying 'That's an offensive term actually' 'oh, thanks bob, I'll remember that', and 'That's really not ok, asking to touch someone's hair is not on', rather than discerning ill motives from simple ignorance or interrogating body language.
For me, it's about being alive to the possibility of unintentionally offending, discriminating or prejudicing someone, which most of us could probably improve on, to be on the active hunt for someone to say the wrong thing, look at someone funny, and then get pilloried for it.
One is about supporting us to be more thoughtful and respectful, to be reflective, the other encourages an atmosphere of distrust and hostility, and enforcing control on others.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by serious-faced white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading or catching the killer lergy?
Of course they didn't. Or maybe an elderly dowager aristo of weak mind believed it somewhere in Worcestershire. Other than that, they all knew it was bullsh*t. Look at their actions.
That's the real question. "They partied while they told us not to" sounds good but it's spin. It's spin in the same sense that "cash for questions" (don't call it corruption) and "credit crunch" (don't call bankers leeches) were both spin.
@iainjwatson But @michaelgove doesn't advocate stripping Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallett (the latter is in the video) of their honours - saying the responsibility for that honours list was @BorisJohnson 's
The whole of British politics is not "how do I fix this problem" but instead "how do I blame somebody else for it"
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
A telling bit of that piece: he later faced criticism for failing to clamp down heavily enough on the City during the buildup to the crash of 2008. “At the time, people moaned about financial regulation being too tight and that I was judge and jury in my own court,” he says. “I was accused of being an overmighty regulator who was getting in the way of ‘animal spirits’. There was never any criticism in the other direction.”
You see this kind of thing on here. A few voices harshly criticising the actions of the BoE over recent years, nobody speaking in the other direction. Where are those voices? Can it really be that the only one who think what the BoE have done is right are the BoE themselves? If that's the case, how do you explain such a concentration of such a minority view? Coincidence? Malice?
Likelier, there are a range of views out there in the wild, but we aren't getting them here.
Both are interesting possibilities. And as Davies knows, it's consequential when you only hear one side of the argument. Very consequential.
Having Andrew Bailey a declared Brexiteer as governor of the BoE should have disqualified him from important decision making for life.
Okay I've had a look around and I can't find any evidence for Bailey supporting or voting for Brexit. I can't find any evidence he supported remain either.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I did laugh at the idea the Telegraph goes to interview these multi-millionaires who we are apparently supposed to feel sympathy for. It does rather explain their current position if this is what they think the country wants to hear.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
Surely the journalistic definition of middle class is 'fellow journalists'?
The ones who are not posturing as working class I suppose.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I don't know why you blame journalists. That's what the whole middle class thinks. (I will steer clear of definitional issues for the moment.) "It's always the people in the middle that get squeezed the most", etc. Whingeing c*nts.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
The Ukrainians, since the beginning of the war have been knocking down the Russian attack helicopters in numbers. It was notable that China cancelled an order, apparently due to vulnerability to shoulder fired missiles.
Every helicopter ever built is vulnerable to MANPAD.
The Chinese Navy deal for Ka-52K is still on but the PLAAF have cooled their interest due to progress on their Z-10 project.
They Egyptians like their Nile Crocodiles; so much that the US had to sell them AH-64 (over the objections of Israel) to stop them buying more. Ka-52 has been an export failure though, especially compared to the (deeply flawed) Hind that proceeded it.
Off topic but possibly to become relevant soon: the weather is about to do one of its phase changes.
We’ve had weeks of high pressure to the north and low pressure to the South. Settled weather with Easterlies, warm days and cool nights. Typical late spring pattern. Now we’re switching to the later summer Westerly regime, and the continent is about to heat up. Already a couple of weather models showing temperatures into the mid to high 30s in Southern England by the end of the month.
That kind of thing used to be exceptional. Now it’s almost an annual event.
Enjoy the thunderstorms in the meantime, as the pattern does its big shift.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
The Ukrainians, since the beginning of the war have been knocking down the Russian attack helicopters in numbers. It was notable that China cancelled an order, apparently due to vulnerability to shoulder fired missiles.
Every helicopter ever built is vulnerable to MANPAD.
The Chinese Navy deal for Ka-52K is still on but the PLAAF have cooled their interest due to progress on their Z-10 project.
They Egyptians like their Nile Crocodiles; so much that the US had to sell them AH-64 (over the objections of Israel) to stop them buying more. Ka-52 has been an export failure though, especially compared to the (deeply flawed) Hind that proceeded it.
Is Manpad military speak for 'dude with a missile'?
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I don't think the label of microaggression is helpful. There is a big difference between those things, but some are actually just, well, aggressions.
Looking for microaggressions just guarantees you'll find them, an ever increasing number of them in fact, and dilute focus on serious stuff - being a wide range makes it pointless.
We can still focus on people making an un-PC slip and saying 'That's an offensive term actually' 'oh, thanks bob, I'll remember that', and 'That's really not ok, asking to touch someone's hair is not on', rather than discerning ill motives from simple ignorance or interrogating body language.
For me, it's about being alive to the possibility of unintentionally offending, discriminating or prejudicing someone, which most of us could probably improve on, to be on the active hunt for someone to say the wrong thing, look at someone funny, and then get pilloried for it.
One is about supporting us to be more thoughtful and respectful, to be reflective, the other encourages an atmosphere of distrust and hostility, and enforcing control on others.
Mmm. It's difficult. We've an issue at the moment with someone who makes remarks on an almost constant basis. It's difficult to pin down cos they are are very slight slights. (Mostly around he'd have done it better, assigning blame, interfering in tasks without being asked, and trying to take over, evading responsibility, undertone of misogyny). Each one is nothing that you can take to higher up with a straight face. But the cumulative drip drip all day, every day is wearing. Nobody wants to work with him, and he's making a happy workplace become one where people are wanting to quit. I'd class them as micro annoyances. But they are serious.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I don't know why you blame journalists. That's what the whole middle class thinks. (I will steer clear of definitional issues for the moment.) "It's always the people in the middle that get squeezed the most", etc. Whingeing c*nts.
The very fact the “middle class” in popular culture supposedly shop at Waitrose, holiday in Tuscany and call their kids Sebastian and Guinevere demonstrates this phenomenon clearly.
I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.
I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.
They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.
What else can they do - admit they have been utterly useless for 2 years and pray that a single 1% increase will solve the problem.
I’m sure I (and others on here) have pointed out at least 3 meetings where the decision made wasn’t enough and we are now seeing the consequences of that lack of action
I suspect the end result will be rates 1-1.5% higher than they should have been short term (because it needs to be that high to break the problem) and 0.5-0.75% higher than they should have been long term
Keep them where they are. Be patient.
The increases are more than enough to gradually squeeze inflation out of the system, but, it will take time because it needs to wait for people to progressively come off 2-3 year fixed rates.
Unfortunately keeping rates where they are isn't an option. If the BoE doesn't raise rates then sterling will tank and inflation will rise again. The markets have priced in another 0.5-0.75% of rate rises. That's pushed sterling up to $1.28 and €1.17 from $1.20 and €1.10, if this unwinds to any significant degree import price inflation will be absolutely killer and CPI hits 11% within a few months. If the BoE had done this sooner and pushed rates up faster than the Fed and ECB we'd have benefited from import price deflation for the better part of a year and CPI would already be under 5% and the BoE would be eyeing a rate cut mid-2024.
It's going to be tough out there for people with large mortgages coming to the end of fixed rate periods. Andrew Bailey is entirely to blame for this he's the governor and ultimately can push through higher rates and kick the idiot doves off the MPC and pack it with inflation hawks who will do whatever it takes to get back under 5% CPI. In the middle of last year the BoE was projecting a 2 year recession and used that as justification for keeping rates low. That recession never materialised and it turns out there was plenty of spare capacity in the economy to absorb bigger rate rises in 2022. The BoE bought into the IMF/OECD groupthink about Brexit Britain and completely fucked it. At least when the IMF project doom for the UK because they don't like Brexit it makes no difference except a few uncomfortable headlines, when the BoE buy into the narrative it results in awful policy making, which is what's happened. A steeper path to the same eventual 5.0-5.25% would already have inflation falling quite rapidly, instead we're going to have to hold 5.25% for a solid 12-18 months before we see it work and that's going to being misery for millions of households who will see their (our) disposable income eroded by mortgage interest.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
Quite obvious? Are you sure about that? Something in the news recently about how it saved "only" 1700 people. You might have been one of those people, or someone you know.
And before anyone comes at me with figures about the cost to the economy, please make sure we're talking about the same thing. The 1700 people was those saved over and above those saved by the voluntary behavioural changes. If you want to do a cost-benefit analysis, split the economic costs into similar categories of voluntary/mandatory so we don't mislead anyone, thanks.
I don't know whether lockdown was worth it or not, but I'm not going to be guided by the wankers in Tufton Street into casually dismissing the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people without a proper balanced analysis.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
Utter nonsense. Infections would have spiralled out of control, the NHS would have been completely overwhelmed and tens of thousands more would have died.
I don't know why you blame journalists. That's what the whole middle class thinks. (I will steer clear of definitional issues for the moment.) "It's always the people in the middle that get squeezed the most", etc. Whingeing c*nts.
There is a lot of truth in that. Probably because most people think they are normal and average, rather than exceptional, and because the people they mix with and live amongst look like them, so "this" must be the norm.
I still blame journalists because even the thickest of them ought to be able to quickly look up some data about income and household wealth and wonder "is this really middle class?"
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
Well yeah, obviously. Live and let live most of the time but deep pan gets you a padded cell.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
👍
For most of the population, though, I think the level of submissive obedience has risen. Yesterday I went on my morning run in a recreation ground (I'm away from home right now) and there was an organised run and they were going the other way around the park. Fine. Ample space for everyone. I made sure of course that I didn't get in the way of the other runners, but several of them kept telling me I was running in the wrong direction, apparently without it occurring to them that somebody might be running without taking part in their event. I never experienced that kind of thing before Covid. Also cyclists seem almost all to wear helmets nowadays. Without wanting to get into the helmet argument (I don't wear one but am not an extremist or bigot on the issue), I used to observe about 30% not wearing helmets, whereas now it's more like 1%. Something's changed and it's scary to think that the "new normal" is now the baseline for whatever shock comes next.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
The idea that you can protect the vulnerable while letting everyone else have high infection rates is a nonsense. The vulnerable need to interact with everyone else. The most vulnerable need everyone else to care for them.
With hindsight, lots of things could have been done better, but this is a non-starter.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
The Ukrainians, since the beginning of the war have been knocking down the Russian attack helicopters in numbers. It was notable that China cancelled an order, apparently due to vulnerability to shoulder fired missiles.
Every helicopter ever built is vulnerable to MANPAD.
The Chinese Navy deal for Ka-52K is still on but the PLAAF have cooled their interest due to progress on their Z-10 project.
They Egyptians like their Nile Crocodiles; so much that the US had to sell them AH-64 (over the objections of Israel) to stop them buying more. Ka-52 has been an export failure though, especially compared to the (deeply flawed) Hind that proceeded it.
Is Manpad military speak for 'dude with a missile'?
Yes, it's also a micraggression against women.
The military should not be indulging in aggressions like this.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I don't think the label of microaggression is helpful. There is a big difference between those things, but some are actually just, well, aggressions.
Looking for microaggressions just guarantees you'll find them, an ever increasing number of them in fact, and dilute focus on serious stuff - being a wide range makes it pointless.
We can still focus on people making an un-PC slip and saying 'That's an offensive term actually' 'oh, thanks bob, I'll remember that', and 'That's really not ok, asking to touch someone's hair is not on', rather than discerning ill motives from simple ignorance or interrogating body language.
For me, it's about being alive to the possibility of unintentionally offending, discriminating or prejudicing someone, which most of us could probably improve on, to be on the active hunt for someone to say the wrong thing, look at someone funny, and then get pilloried for it.
One is about supporting us to be more thoughtful and respectful, to be reflective, the other encourages an atmosphere of distrust and hostility, and enforcing control on others.
Mmm. It's difficult. We've an issue at the moment with someone who makes remarks on an almost constant basis. It's difficult to pin down cos they are are very slight slights. (Mostly around he'd have done it better, assigning blame, interfering in tasks without being asked, and trying to take over, evading responsibility, undertone of misogyny). Each one is nothing that you can take to higher up with a straight face. But the cumulative drip drip all day, every day is wearing. Nobody wants to work with him, and he's making a happy workplace become one where people are wanting to quit. I'd class them as micro annoyances. But they are serious.
I'd probably class them as reasons they are a bad team member (even if, potentially, their individual work was good).
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism, and homophobia and transphobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
FTFY.
A big part of the problem is that EDI initiatives are all too often seen as a zero sum game in which extending rights, freedoms and privileges to one group means denying, taking away or impinging upon the rights, freedoms and privileges of others. The same is true for policy in other areas too.
Freedom of movement for overseas workers with much-needed skills? Attack on the white working class.
International Women’s Day? When’s International Men’s Day then? (19 November btw.)
Rainbow flag in your corporate logo to celebrate Pride Month? Woke virtue signalling. Why not celebrate the traditional family?
Trans women using female or gender-neutral bathrooms? SaVe ReAl WoMeN fRoM cHiCkS wItH dIcKs!!!!!!!1!
Triple-lock pension guarantee? Robbing the young to feed the blue rinse brigade!
All egged on by a political class and media commentariat encouraging such division by playing groups off against each other and not sufficiently moderating intolerance and bigotry in public life.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
Surely the journalistic definition of middle class is 'fellow journalists'?
The ones who are not posturing as working class I suppose.
Journalism is traditionally a working-class occupation, so the middle-class is perceived to be people better-off than those doing the writing - even if most senior hacks are on six figures these days, in the top decile of income. The guy with the £7m house is obviously in the top 1%, if not the top 0.1%.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
Utter nonsense. Infections would have spiralled out of control, the NHS would have been completely overwhelmed and tens of thousands more would have died.
The first lockdown was necessary and proportionate for the surging crisis. I don't think it would have worked without legal measures either, not to get the necessary level of compliance to prevent being overwhelmed. I don't think pre-vaccine we could have coped with loosened arrangements.
Could some other lockdowns have been avoided or ended sooner, or done on a more urged behaviour than legal threat basis? Possibly.
Whilst we need to look back on what we did, I do think there is a bit of lockdown remorse going on which is stretching too far from 'Some were not needed/should not have been so long or restrictive' to 'they were not necessary at any time'.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I don't know why you blame journalists. That's what the whole middle class thinks. (I will steer clear of definitional issues for the moment.) "It's always the people in the middle that get squeezed the most", etc. Whingeing c*nts.
The very fact the “middle class” in popular culture supposedly shop at Waitrose, holiday in Tuscany and call their kids Sebastian and Guinevere demonstrates this phenomenon clearly.
Class is on a logarithmic scale.
You have to be an order of magnitude wealthier to make it to the next level.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
That is total bollocks and the excess mortality figures show it.
Just because someone has another condition, it doesn't mean they are about to die.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
Poor woman, she had an "accident" with a three bar fire but that's ok 'cause she was old and she would've died anyway
I don't think Stokes likes feeling forced to drop someone. But he needs to make room for Foakes - Bairstow gets in as a batsmen, they can make room elsewhere.
How has GB News not been investigated by Ofcom yet?
Last night they had a Tory commentator from the Telegraph interviewing a Tory MP, with the commentator saying Keir Starmer broke the rules during lockdown and that Sue Gray broke Civil Service rules in becoming his chief of staff.
Both are completely untrue and made up, if I were Keir Starmer I would sue but surely Ofcom should step in too?
As one of the older posters I’ve rarely felt discriminated against here. By anyone who’s posts were worth anything, anyway.
OK Boomer.
I’m older than that.
...which would make you a minimum of 84. I think that makes you the PBer with the oldest known age, beating @Big_G_NorthWales by at least four years. Not unsurprising given remarks you've made in the past, but still impressive. Here's to many more.
I don't think Stokes likes feeling forced to drop someone. But he needs to make room for Foakes - Bairstow gets in as a batsmen, they can make room elsewhere.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
Yet more evidence that the human species is too stupid to survive.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."
Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.
It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.
It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
The Ukrainians, since the beginning of the war have been knocking down the Russian attack helicopters in numbers. It was notable that China cancelled an order, apparently due to vulnerability to shoulder fired missiles.
Every helicopter ever built is vulnerable to MANPAD.
The Chinese Navy deal for Ka-52K is still on but the PLAAF have cooled their interest due to progress on their Z-10 project.
They Egyptians like their Nile Crocodiles; so much that the US had to sell them AH-64 (over the objections of Israel) to stop them buying more. Ka-52 has been an export failure though, especially compared to the (deeply flawed) Hind that proceeded it.
Is Manpad military speak for 'dude with a missile'?
Yes, it's also a micraggression against women.
The military should not be indulging in aggressions like this.
How has GB News not been investigated by Ofcom yet?
Last night they had a Tory commentator from the Telegraph interviewing a Tory MP, with the commentator saying Keir Starmer broke the rules during lockdown and that Sue Gray broke Civil Service rules in becoming his chief of staff.
Both are completely untrue and made up, if I were Keir Starmer I would sue but surely Ofcom should step in too?
Nothing GBeebies would love more than to be sued by Starmer.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
You think only 1000 people died as a result of Covid, seriously? You think 100k+ other people were imminently about to die without Covid?
If I had a mild case of cancer which was non-threatening, and then got Covid and died, you'd say Covid had nothing to do with it?
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism, and homophobia and transphobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
FTFY.
A big part of the problem is that EDI initiatives are all too often seen as a zero sum game in which extending rights, freedoms and privileges to one group means denying, taking away or impinging upon the rights, freedoms and privileges of others. The same is true for policy in other areas too.
Freedom of movement for overseas workers with much-needed skills? Attack on the white working class.
International Women’s Day? When’s International Men’s Day then? (19 November btw.)
Rainbow flag in your corporate logo to celebrate Pride Month? Woke virtue signalling. Why not celebrate the traditional family?
Trans women using female or gender-neutral bathrooms? SaVe ReAl WoMeN fRoM cHiCkS wItH dIcKs!!!!!!!1!
Triple-lock pension guarantee? Robbing the young to feed the blue rinse brigade!
All egged on by a political class and media commentariat encouraging such division by playing groups off against each other and not sufficiently moderating intolerance and bigotry in public life.
Hang on, the triple lock isn't in the same category as women's equality.
More to the point, this glib assessment is missing that valid disagreements DO exist in democracies, and the way we manage them can't be to blame shadowy conspiratorial forces in government or media.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I don't think any country anywhere managed to pull off "protect the vulnerable and elderly". Basically if everyone else is getting it, the vulnerable and elderly are going to get it.
Until there were vaccines the options were, everybody gets it, the hospitals are overwhelmed and lots of old people die, or various unusual society-wide things to stop the spread. (Generally the slower you were about doing this, the more disruptive it was when you finally did.) You can say the first option would have been better if you like but don't kid yourself about what the outcome would have been.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
You think only 1000 people died as a result of Covid, seriously? You think 100k+ other people were imminently about to die without Covid?
If I had a mild case of cancer which was non-threatening, and then got Covid and died, you'd say Covid had nothing to do with it?
It's utter nonsense. Andy_JS is one step away from "crisis actors" levels of disinformation. Arrant bollocks and completely reprehensible.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I did laugh at the idea the Telegraph goes to interview these multi-millionaires who we are apparently supposed to feel sympathy for. It does rather explain their current position if this is what they think the country wants to hear.
Won't no one think of the mega-rich, in desperate need of tax cuts in order to pay £45 000 per year school fees?
Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.
A cynic might suggest Sunak wants to avoid drawing attention and scrutiny to his enabling of Johnson’s rise (and fall), misbehaviour and corruption, as well as his own participation in the Bacchanalian shenanigans in Downing Street during lockdown.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
If you have a piece a pizza in Pisa, you have no reason to expect authenticity. Everyone knows pizza is an American invention and the pineapple version is Canadian. Possibly the only Canadian national dish.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I did laugh at the idea the Telegraph goes to interview these multi-millionaires who we are apparently supposed to feel sympathy for. It does rather explain their current position if this is what they think the country wants to hear.
Won't no one think of the mega-rich, in desperate need of tax cuts in order to pay £45 000 per year school fees?
At that point I genuinely could have seen it in the Onion. What an absolute prat lol
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
Surely the journalistic definition of middle class is 'fellow journalists'?
The ones who are not posturing as working class I suppose.
Journalism is traditionally a working-class occupation, so the middle-class is perceived to be people better-off than those doing the writing - even if most senior hacks are on six figures these days, in the top decile of income. The guy with the £7m house is obviously in the top 1%, if not the top 0.1%.
Only about 1 in 2,000 houses sold in England 2022 was in that range. So he could easily be in the top 0.01%. No such transactions occured in Scotland or Wales in 2022 to give you an idea of how rare such a sale is.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
I did laugh at the idea the Telegraph goes to interview these multi-millionaires who we are apparently supposed to feel sympathy for. It does rather explain their current position if this is what they think the country wants to hear.
Won't no one think of the mega-rich, in desperate need of tax cuts in order to pay £45 000 per year school fees?
I recall a US commentator arguing in a debate that 250k per year in New York was close to poverty. Those poor people.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
Utter nonsense. Infections would have spiralled out of control, the NHS would have been completely overwhelmed and tens of thousands more would have died.
The first lockdown was necessary and proportionate for the surging crisis. I don't think it would have worked without legal measures either, not to get the necessary level of compliance to prevent being overwhelmed. I don't think pre-vaccine we could have coped with loosened arrangements.
Could some other lockdowns have been avoided or ended sooner, or done on a more urged behaviour than legal threat basis? Possibly.
Whilst we need to look back on what we did, I do think there is a bit of lockdown remorse going on which is stretching too far from 'Some were not needed/should not have been so long or restrictive' to 'they were not necessary at any time'.
The first lockdown worked. Infection levels were way down. And then Sunak had his bright idea of Eat Out to Catch Covid and back into lockdown we went.
Then you had the nonsense tier system with the pubs in Leeds shut and the pubs in York open. Thereby encouraging more travel and more spread.
There was lots wrong in the government's response to Covid. However, blanket lockdown was the one policy that they got right.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
You think only 1000 people died as a result of Covid, seriously? You think 100k+ other people were imminently about to die without Covid?
If I had a mild case of cancer which was non-threatening, and then got Covid and died, you'd say Covid had nothing to do with it?
My only immediate friend who died of covid was a 75 year old who had survived breast cancer a decade before, and was in rude health otherwise. She was perfectly independent and looking forward to at least a decade enjoying her grandchildren.
To imply her life wasn't worthwhile or over is pretty offensive.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
That is total bollocks and the excess mortality figures show it.
Just because someone has another condition, it doesn't mean they are about to die.
The secondary condition of consuming Spiked, Unherd and GB News uncritically certainly has a drastic effect on not being a gullible tit.
I have to confess that I thought even the most stringent of Covid deniers would have put UK deaths at least at 10% of the official total, not less than 1%.
First thing I read in the Sunday Times: "Labour are forecast to win a majority of Scottish seats by returning 26 MPs". I don't think 26 seats would be a majority, even after boundary changes. Maybe by majority they mean more seats than anyone else.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
If you have a piece a pizza in Pisa, you have no reason to expect authenticity. Everyone knows pizza is an American invention and the pineapple version is Canadian. Possibly the only Canadian national dish.
I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.
The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain
The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.
Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”
If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
Journalists routintely talk about a middle-class that by any normal definition is usually the upper quintile. This has been the case for as long as I can recall. The very people who journalists think need help are the group that basically needs no help at all and ought to be paying more tax.
Surely the journalistic definition of middle class is 'fellow journalists'?
The ones who are not posturing as working class I suppose.
Journalism is traditionally a working-class occupation, so the middle-class is perceived to be people better-off than those doing the writing - even if most senior hacks are on six figures these days, in the top decile of income. The guy with the £7m house is obviously in the top 1%, if not the top 0.1%.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
Poor woman, she had an "accident" with a three bar fire but that's ok 'cause she was old and she would've died anyway
Have we had any PBers suggesting recycling the over-70s Soylent Green and Judge Dredd Resyk style?
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
People with conditions are still PEOPLE. They wouldn’t have died were it not for COVID.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism, and homophobia and transphobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
FTFY.
A big part of the problem is that EDI initiatives are all too often seen as a zero sum game in which extending rights, freedoms and privileges to one group means denying, taking away or impinging upon the rights, freedoms and privileges of others. The same is true for policy in other areas too.
Freedom of movement for overseas workers with much-needed skills? Attack on the white working class.
International Women’s Day? When’s International Men’s Day then? (19 November btw.)
Rainbow flag in your corporate logo to celebrate Pride Month? Woke virtue signalling. Why not celebrate the traditional family?
Trans women using female or gender-neutral bathrooms? SaVe ReAl WoMeN fRoM cHiCkS wItH dIcKs!!!!!!!1!
Triple-lock pension guarantee? Robbing the young to feed the blue rinse brigade!
All egged on by a political class and media commentariat encouraging such division by playing groups off against each other and not sufficiently moderating intolerance and bigotry in public life.
Hang on, the triple lock isn't in the same category as women's equality.
More to the point, this glib assessment is missing that valid disagreements DO exist in democracies, and the way we manage them can't be to blame shadowy conspiratorial forces in government or media.
I’m not blaming shadowy conspiratorial forces. The intolerance, the bigotry, the deliberate encouragement of us versus them mentalities, the rabble rousing etc is in full (and noisy) public view. That’s the problem.
And I mentioned the triple lock as an example of how one group can often be portrayed as receiving entitled treatment to the detriment of other groups. The same arguments are made wrt women’s equality. So, in this case, they are very much in the same category.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
If you have a piece a pizza in Pisa, you have no reason to expect authenticity. Everyone knows pizza is an American invention and the pineapple version is Canadian. Possibly the only Canadian national dish.
Poutine. Bannock.
I think bannock is Scottish in origin, my Angus granny and great aunties certainly baked them and named them as such.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
People with conditions are still PEOPLE. They wouldn’t have died were it not for COVID.
They would have died, but the question is when (and if you're making policy, with what intermediate quality of life). Excess deaths stats prove that the answer was not "at or near the same time" for almost everyone.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
If you have a piece a pizza in Pisa, you have no reason to expect authenticity. Everyone knows pizza is an American invention and the pineapple version is Canadian. Possibly the only Canadian national dish.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
I was saying this right from the beginning, and throughout the entire period of the lockdowns. 1,000 people died directly from Covid-19 in the UK, the rest were people who already had conditions. Closing schools was going to do more damage than the virus itself.
People with conditions are still PEOPLE. They wouldn’t have died were it not for COVID.
Obvs the wrong sort of people.
Mind, I remember the discussions back in 2020. There was a particularly ripe specimen of statisticcal shite floating about in the pool of the discussion: that if average life expectancy (for everyone) is x years then someone who is y years old can only expect to live another (x-y) years. I suspect that this has continued to colour thinking on covid.
I don't know why you blame journalists. That's what the whole middle class thinks. (I will steer clear of definitional issues for the moment.) "It's always the people in the middle that get squeezed the most", etc. Whingeing c*nts.
There is a lot of truth in that. Probably because most people think they are normal and average, rather than exceptional, and because the people they mix with and live amongst look like them, so "this" must be the norm.
I still blame journalists because even the thickest of them ought to be able to quickly look up some data about income and household wealth and wonder "is this really middle class?"
Setting any sympathy aside, in terms of the economic effect (and this effectiveness) of the interest rate rises, that on middle class home owners is pretty significant. Which is the point of them, rather than an argument against them.
In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.
“I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”
“Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.
The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.
I’m Gen X.
Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.
But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.
I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.
Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.
Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.
It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
Sadly, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
I think unconscious bias is definitely a thing, as you say it might be around instinctively picturing something, and you probably would not act any differently were that instinct incorrect.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
This is where nuance is important. Micro aggressions cross a wide spectrum. There’s a big difference between “so you’re Italian, bet you get cross when people put pineapple on pizza” and “calm down dear” or “let me feel your fuzzy hair”.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
I eat pineapple on pizza and if some Italian tries to stop me you won't see a microaggression from me, I will make war on the whole country. Tanks on the Piazza di Siena. Internment camps, war crimes THE WORKS.
I had pizza with pineapple in Pisa. And very nice it was too.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
If you have a piece a pizza in Pisa, you have no reason to expect authenticity. Everyone knows pizza is an American invention and the pineapple version is Canadian. Possibly the only Canadian national dish.
Poutine. Bannock.
I think bannock is Scottish in origin, my Angus granny and great aunties certainly baked them and named them as such.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Has anyone ever denied that Michael Gove is a complete twat?
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading the killer lergy?
Seems quite obvious now that lockdown was a complete and utter waste of time, we should have protected the vulnerable and elderly with proper care and attention as they rightfully deserve and then let the rest of society get on with our lives. I am so angry that I put my life on hold for two years when the Government didn't care.
Now that's a damascene conversion to match any on PB - you spent two years demanding more, longer and harder lockdowns.
Actually the first lockdown was necessary.
But the subsequent two could have been avoided if the government had restricted foreign holidays for a year.
It's ok though, because it was heat of the moment.
Huh? I suspect few on here have ever assaulted anyone in that way. If I tried that, I would expect to be both subsequently eating through a straw and summoned for an appointment with a magistrate.
Comments
Unless someone says they believe Boris to be titanically stupid - in which case he shouldn't be listened to anyway - then the Committee conclusion is solid on the 10+ bit. The rest was more in reaction to his whinging.
I mean Boris believes that its a process breach to disbelieve him, since he argues he said x how dare you disagree. That's so dumb I don't think it's cynicism.
Once inflation becomes entrenched - and there are signs we've started down that road - there aren't good options for bringing it down, only painful ones. Deferring that just brings more pain.
The bank is going its job tolerably well. The faults in economic policy lie elsewhere.
It's also fair to note that a couple of the most significant shocks - Ukraine and the pandemic - are somewhat outside of the control of government. (Though I did point out a year ago that accelerating the supply of modern weapons might have ended the war rather more quickly, to everyone's benefit - but even then, that was more a US decision than ours.)
They can't afford to get ideologically dogmatic about inflation in a monetarism mark two.
Some people react with horrified fury at the idea of unconscious bias and if they can be persuaded to take those little tests that purport to identify them, reject them wholeheartedly.
The issue, I think, is the stigma admitting bias. But if we can get past that and be comfortable with seeing our own biases, it's not the end of the world and it can save us from making embarrassing mistakes.
One of my biases is around around gender. I suspect it's very common. If I hear certain genderless job names, like "doctor" or "nurse", I have a tendency to picture one gender or the other. Now that I know I do this, I can consciously remember not to carry that assumption forward into saying something stupid. (Of course, I still say many other stupid things).
I don't blame myself for having those early-learned gendered ideas, and I don't think anyone else should either. But a lot of people are terrified of being seen as having biases and so will avoid doing something about them.
Russian adaptation. “Russian armored columns, for instance, no longer rush into areas where they can be quickly damaged or destroyed. Troops are more often using drones and probing attacks … to find Ukrainian trenches before striking”...
Russian trenches have frequently proved better built than their Ukrainian counterparts, Ukrainian soldiers said. The March mission report said the bunkers were akin to “Vietnam-style spider holes” and “so deep as to be undetectable by drone.”
https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1670069239640731648?cxt=HHwWgMC9sYDIo60uAAAA
The increases are more than enough to gradually squeeze inflation out of the system, but, it will take time because it needs to wait for people to progressively come off 2-3 year fixed rates.
I do think that the impact of it can be vastly overstated, and there have been some comical examples of advice and training on the subject which seems to me to be likely to have the opposite effect - like the one about not making enough eye contact with some people, which seemed likely to result in people making too much eye contact at people of a specific race, etc, in an effort to overcome it.
I do think microaggressions are utter bullshit though- far too open to abuse to condemn people for something both slight and unintentional (if even real), and to make people hyper aware and sensitive to see slights where there are none.
.@bencsmoke "Jeremy, what's the future for Islington North?"
@jeremycorbyn "I've been the MP for Islington North for 40 years, so if the people of Islington North want me, I will be available for service"
https://twitter.com/BrizTransformed/status/1670057739505000450
It seems impossible to crack so you give up, and the answer is the surgeon is the patient’s/student’s mother. And you think shit,
I really am unconsciously biased.
The UK economic model is built on maximising economic utility of its population so that foreign investors can maximise their profits. This is done by working them harder and harder until they burn out, then replacing them (like fuses) with imported labour, then working them harder and harder until they burn out, and so on.
Here are the cures
* Ban foreign ownership of residential property
* Limit inward migration to ~150,000 per year, instead of the current ~1,000,000
* (Oh, and kill Help To Buy as well)
There y'go. Then you can stop f*****g around with interest rate rises which (as @LuckyGuy1983 and others have pointed out) don't work with an endogenous supply shock.
@Guto_Harri reveals on his @LBC podcast @BorisJohnson's private verdict last year on allegations of sexual harassment by MPs:
"As he put it in the heat of the moment: ‘If we took away the whip from everyone here, who's pinched someone's bottom, we'll lose our majority.’"
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1669239719249559552
It's ok though, because it was heat of the moment.
I had a someone at work complain to me that a senior colleague had described him (a Mexican) as South American. On the basis this level of geographical ignorance was borderline racist. I couldn’t get excited by that when most Americans think we live in a country called England and half the world thinks it’s always foggy in London.
Michael Gove says sorry over Tory lockdown party video
What an absolute bunch of twats.
Judging by past offensives by Ukraine, Ukraine is trying to get Russia to commit its main forces and reserves, pinning them in place and reducing their ability to manoeuvre.
And this is the problem, they chose a winner over a man with any qualifications to lead or indeed act as a human being.
I will probably never vote Tory again after the latest party-gate revelations, I couldn't visit relatives who were dying yet Number 10 treated me with contempt and partied their way through.
Looking for microaggressions just guarantees you'll find them, an ever increasing number of them in fact, and dilute focus on serious stuff - being a wide range makes it pointless.
We can still focus on people making an un-PC slip and saying 'That's an offensive term actually' 'oh, thanks bob, I'll remember that', and 'That's really not ok, asking to touch someone's hair is not on', rather than discerning ill motives from simple ignorance or interrogating body language.
For me, it's about being alive to the possibility of unintentionally offending, discriminating or prejudicing someone, which most of us could probably improve on, to be on the active hunt for someone to say the wrong thing, look at someone funny, and then get pilloried for it.
One is about supporting us to be more thoughtful and respectful, to be reflective, the other encourages an atmosphere of distrust and hostility, and enforcing control on others.
More to the point, did anyone at elite level in ANY part of British society BELIEVE all the government crap, served up for the proles and middle groups by serious-faced white-coated scientists, advising people who WEREN'T chronically ill or in small high-risk groups that they should stay 2 metres away from everyone, and only leave the house to go shopping, and walk around wearing masks, in order to reduce the ever so high risk of spreading or catching the killer lergy?
Of course they didn't. Or maybe an elderly dowager aristo of weak mind believed it somewhere in Worcestershire. Other than that, they all knew it was bullsh*t. Look at their actions.
That's the real question. "They partied while they told us not to" sounds good but it's spin. It's spin in the same sense that "cash for questions" (don't call it corruption) and "credit crunch" (don't call bankers leeches) were both spin.
The ones who are not posturing as working class I suppose.
The Chinese Navy deal for Ka-52K is still on but the PLAAF have cooled their interest due to progress on their Z-10 project.
They Egyptians like their Nile Crocodiles; so much that the US had to sell them AH-64 (over the objections of Israel) to stop them buying more. Ka-52 has been an export failure though, especially compared to the (deeply flawed) Hind that proceeded it.
We’ve had weeks of high pressure to the north and low pressure to the South. Settled weather with Easterlies, warm days and cool nights. Typical late spring pattern. Now we’re switching to the later summer Westerly regime, and the continent is about to heat up. Already a couple of weather models showing temperatures into the mid to high 30s in Southern England by the end of the month.
That kind of thing used to be exceptional. Now it’s almost an annual event.
Enjoy the thunderstorms in the meantime, as the pattern does its big shift.
Pizza condemnation should be reserved for those where the base is several inches thick and resembles a stottie cake.
It's difficult. We've an issue at the moment with someone who makes remarks on an almost constant basis. It's difficult to pin down cos they are are very slight slights. (Mostly around he'd have done it better, assigning blame, interfering in tasks without being asked, and trying to take over, evading responsibility, undertone of misogyny).
Each one is nothing that you can take to higher up with a straight face. But the cumulative drip drip all day, every day is wearing.
Nobody wants to work with him, and he's making a happy workplace become one where people are wanting to quit.
I'd class them as micro annoyances.
But they are serious.
It's going to be tough out there for people with large mortgages coming to the end of fixed rate periods. Andrew Bailey is entirely to blame for this he's the governor and ultimately can push through higher rates and kick the idiot doves off the MPC and pack it with inflation hawks who will do whatever it takes to get back under 5% CPI. In the middle of last year the BoE was projecting a 2 year recession and used that as justification for keeping rates low. That recession never materialised and it turns out there was plenty of spare capacity in the economy to absorb bigger rate rises in 2022. The BoE bought into the IMF/OECD groupthink about Brexit Britain and completely fucked it. At least when the IMF project doom for the UK because they don't like Brexit it makes no difference except a few uncomfortable headlines, when the BoE buy into the narrative it results in awful policy making, which is what's happened. A steeper path to the same eventual 5.0-5.25% would already have inflation falling quite rapidly, instead we're going to have to hold 5.25% for a solid 12-18 months before we see it work and that's going to being misery for millions of households who will see their (our) disposable income eroded by mortgage interest.
Something in the news recently about how it saved "only" 1700 people. You might have been one of those people, or someone you know.
And before anyone comes at me with figures about the cost to the economy, please make sure we're talking about the same thing. The 1700 people was those saved over and above those saved by the voluntary behavioural changes. If you want to do a cost-benefit analysis, split the economic costs into similar categories of voluntary/mandatory so we don't mislead anyone, thanks.
I don't know whether lockdown was worth it or not, but I'm not going to be guided by the wankers in Tufton Street into casually dismissing the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people without a proper balanced analysis.
I still blame journalists because even the thickest of them ought to be able to quickly look up some data about income and household wealth and wonder "is this really middle class?"
For most of the population, though, I think the level of submissive obedience has risen. Yesterday I went on my morning run in a recreation ground (I'm away from home right now) and there was an organised run and they were going the other way around the park. Fine. Ample space for everyone. I made sure of course that I didn't get in the way of the other runners, but several of them kept telling me I was running in the wrong direction, apparently without it occurring to them that somebody might be running without taking part in their event. I never experienced that kind of thing before Covid. Also cyclists seem almost all to wear helmets nowadays. Without wanting to get into the helmet argument (I don't wear one but am not an extremist or bigot on the issue), I used to observe about 30% not wearing helmets, whereas now it's more like 1%. Something's changed and it's scary to think that the "new normal" is now the baseline for whatever shock comes next.
With hindsight, lots of things could have been done better, but this is a non-starter.
The military should not be indulging in aggressions like this.
Not easy to deal with, to be sure.
A big part of the problem is that EDI initiatives are all too often seen as a zero sum game in which extending rights, freedoms and privileges to one group means denying, taking away or impinging upon the rights, freedoms and privileges of others. The same is true for policy in other areas too.
Freedom of movement for overseas workers with much-needed skills? Attack on the white working class.
International Women’s Day? When’s International Men’s Day then? (19 November btw.)
Rainbow flag in your corporate logo to celebrate Pride Month? Woke virtue signalling. Why not celebrate the traditional family?
Trans women using female or gender-neutral bathrooms? SaVe ReAl WoMeN fRoM cHiCkS wItH dIcKs!!!!!!!1!
Triple-lock pension guarantee? Robbing the young to feed the blue rinse brigade!
All egged on by a political class and media commentariat encouraging such division by playing groups off against each other and not sufficiently moderating intolerance and bigotry in public life.
Could some other lockdowns have been avoided or ended sooner, or done on a more urged behaviour than legal threat basis? Possibly.
Whilst we need to look back on what we did, I do think there is a bit of lockdown remorse going on which is stretching too far from 'Some were not needed/should not have been so long or restrictive' to 'they were not necessary at any time'.
You have to be an order of magnitude wealthier to make it to the next level.
Just because someone has another condition, it doesn't mean they are about to die.
'cause she was old and she would've died anyway
Last night they had a Tory commentator from the Telegraph interviewing a Tory MP, with the commentator saying Keir Starmer broke the rules during lockdown and that Sue Gray broke Civil Service rules in becoming his chief of staff.
Both are completely untrue and made up, if I were Keir Starmer I would sue but surely Ofcom should step in too?
If I had a mild case of cancer which was non-threatening, and then got Covid and died, you'd say Covid had nothing to do with it?
More to the point, this glib assessment is missing that valid disagreements DO exist in democracies, and the way we manage them can't be to blame shadowy conspiratorial forces in government or media.
Until there were vaccines the options were, everybody gets it, the hospitals are overwhelmed and lots of old people die, or various unusual society-wide things to stop the spread. (Generally the slower you were about doing this, the more disruptive it was when you finally did.) You can say the first option would have been better if you like but don't kid yourself about what the outcome would have been.
Then you had the nonsense tier system with the pubs in Leeds shut and the pubs in York open. Thereby encouraging more travel and more spread.
There was lots wrong in the government's response to Covid. However, blanket lockdown was the one policy that they got right.
To imply her life wasn't worthwhile or over is pretty offensive.
And I mentioned the triple lock as an example of how one group can often be portrayed as receiving entitled treatment to the detriment of other groups. The same arguments are made wrt women’s equality. So, in this case, they are very much in the same category.
Mind, I remember the discussions back in 2020. There was a particularly ripe specimen of statisticcal shite floating about in the pool of the discussion: that if average life expectancy (for everyone) is x years then someone who is y years old can only expect to live another (x-y) years. I suspect that this has continued to colour thinking on covid.
https://www.foodful.co.uk/shop/baked-goods/bannock/selkirk-bannock-450g/
https://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/orkney-blog/orkney-bere-bannock-recipe/ (routinely available in Orkney and Shetland bakers, perhaps Caithness too for all I know)
(but would not be surprised to find it in Northumberland etc)
Actually the first lockdown was necessary.
But the subsequent two could have been avoided if the government had restricted foreign holidays for a year.